The sixth of the sixth

I'm doing Heather's tag....so above is the sixth picture from the sixth album in my picture files.

This is Claudius, my Dad's guide dog, playing tug with my Dad and Hunt. If you can tell by the look on Hunter's face, this is an all time favorite activity at my parent's house. For starters, it's one of the few occasions that The Claudster gets to act like a real dog and not a guide dog. His "ring" is one of the few toys Claud can have so we all really enjoy it...not gonna lie either, Claudius wins everytime. He's 85 lbs of pure muscle.

Ok, this is a hard post...there is so much I want to share about my Dad and Claudius and guide dogs in general. I'm going to have a hard time of organizing my thoughts so bare with me.

One day I'll explain how my Dad became blind, but for now I'll just say that it was THE most life altering change in my family's life...moreso than Hunter being born or anything you could even think of. It's been about 2-1/2 years now but for someone to go from full sight to no sight in a matter of days is more than most can comprehend. So last February when my Dad went to California for "dog camp" (as we like to call it...) and came home a month later with Claudius it was the greatest gift we could have hoped for. Claudius gives my Dad some freedom to do things on his own and not be dependant on us.

Since Claud is "working" most of the time, he doesn't get to do normal dog things...like play fetch or chase squirls. He doesn't get normal dog treats...but my Dad and the kids make him "dog-sicles" which is a piece of his regular dry food frozen into the center of an ice cube. Lord have mercy does Claud ever love those...if you open the freezer at my parent's house he assumes it's to get him a treat, so you better have one ready. We can't stand to disappoint The Claudster.

Little guide dog trivia for yall...there is only one guide dog of a particular name at a time, so there's only one trained dog named Claudius...on the off chance my Dad and him are out and cross paths with another guide dog, we'd hate for there to be any confusion. In my mind, when Claudius retires, his name will go back into the eligable dog name databse (which may or may not be a real thing...it's just how I understand it). And by "retire" I mean, retire from work as a guide dog, not retire in the final sense of the word.

Isn't Claudius the best dog name EVER though? It's so Spartan. You can't beat Spartan in my house. It's the ultimate compliment you can bestow upon a person.

From the day she was born, Claudius has had a slight aversion to Ryland. We think he's jealous. He LOVES Hunter and Cierra, he'll always be my Dad's dog first (he's been trained to be loyal to my Dad first and foremost...it's like the guide dog creed or something, I don't know) but Hunt is a very close second in Claud's world. As she does with all dogs, Cierra has a tendancy to "over-love" Claudius, but he's a trooper. Anyways, he'll love on the big kids, cuddle with them, let them use him as a pillow...whatever they want, but Ryland...he literally turns his nose up at her. When my Dad holds her, The Claudster full on pouts. I think he was ok with our family as it was when he met us...but then this new baby comes along and steals all his attention, and he's not havin it!

I need to dig up some more pics of Claud so yall can see how beautiful this dog is...he's the most gorgeous things there ever was.

I apologize for the non-flow-ed-ness of this blog but my baby girl has a cold and is refusing to nap and my big girl has asked me if we can go trick or treating every ten minutes...so my usual blog time has been compromised today!

So yall go do it now too...find the sixth picture in the sixth file in your pictures and blog about it! And do it now, before the sugar coma that comes along with this evening's activities sets in :)

My Baseball Boy

I love this picture

She Moves!!!!!!

Today, on her six month birthday...we finally have forward movement! Just as I thought it would happen too, Cierra had something Ryland wanted so she crawled after her to get it. Of course the only shots I got were before and after the big event.

Guess what I found?

The Camera Cord!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here are some of the pictures mising from previous posts!

These first few are from one of our Sunday drives...this is the kind of stuff we literally stumble upon. I always want to "drive up a mountain" so Kevin finds random roads and this is what we see:

Daddy and his girls...I can't believe they're all looking at the camera!

CC LOVES to wash the dishes, she asks me to do it every day...and what kind of Mother would I be if I didn't let her explore her domestic intrests...haha

The best purchase EVER...Ry loves this thing:

REALLY trying to crawl:

My beautiful birthday presents (Trev & Sophia sent me some awesome presents too and I loved the paper but I didn't get a picture...bad Erin) from my parents and Hunt, tulips from CeCe and a card from Sabrina.

The infamous chocolate cake...this was RIGHT after I took it out of the oven. I think I was pulling it out with one hand and taking my first bites with the other. I'm not even kidding.

Trying really hard to get a picture of the snow on my birthday

I look kind of crazy in this picture...maybe it's because I'm 28 now. We were trying to get the snow again.

Our drive last weekend...Kevin pulled off the side of the road so Cierra and I could feel if the water was cold or not. It was. But can yall believe that this is what's off the side of the road here? I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it is. On this particular drive I was asking Kevin why more people don't live in Montana...it's breathtaking. You can read my post from yesterday to find out the reason why I think more people don't live here. haha

Ok, this is the best...so we're heading down the road and there's a sign that says "Garnet Ghost Town" and there's an arrow pointing to this small road...so what else do you do when you happen upon a ghost town? Well you check it out of course!!!!!!!! It was 11 miles up a winding mountain road so it took about 30 min to get to it. This house was on the way up...there was a historical marker thing explaining that this used to be a mining area (Garnet Mountain) and they built a small cabin in this area for the fire watcher to sit for look out and check for forest fires. They've since made a newer cabin and it's used as a refuge for snowmobilers who run into bad weather. The cabin has fire wood, matches and a wood burning stove. So I guess if you like to ride snow mobiles in the woods I'd suggest you do it in relative proximity to this cabin...just in case.

The most amazing view in the history of views. They called this a "scenic point"...understatement of the century.

Cierra checking out the ghost town.

This is on the drive back down the mountain...amazing.

Trouble in paradise...

The other day I ran to the store for some ice cream for my man and I nearly lost my mind. I stood in the frozen isle, DUMBFOUNDED, for like 15 minutes (no exaggeration) because I couldn't find the Blue Bell...then I remembered that they don't sell Blue Bell in Montana. Cracker Barrel (which I always call Crate & Barrel on accident) claims to serve Blue Bell with their pie, but I bet if I pressed the waiter he'd cave and admit it's just some dumb ol Northern brand of non Blue Bell ice cream.

They also show commercials for Chick-Fil-A here. But there is no Chick-Fil-A...so you get to see all the deliciousness on TV but don't even think about working up a craving for that insanely perfect chicken sandwich or the worlds greatest lemonade...don't even THINK about thinking about their Ice Dreams...Amanda, you feel me on this one sister. Don't even think about it yall, because there is no Chick-Fil-A to be found in my neck of the woods.

Last week I honestly drooled over a Sonic commercial for an extra long chili dog with tots and a Cherry Limeaide. You know what? There's no Sonic here either. Amanda said Sonic had failed her previously, so I kept telling myself not to miss Sonic. Sonic hasn't been living up to it's full potential so I'm not missing out right? RIGHT? can you hear the panic in my voice? I mean, can you read the panic in my words? Maybe I'll just walk to Arby's an order a Route 44 Diet Coke to prevent the shakes from coming on.

Why do they advertise food you can't get? Don't they know what that could do to a person? Especially a person who's addicted to food and very easily influenced by commercials.

I spent too many days craving the food I couldn't get here, so I decided to do something about it. I wasn't even going to attempt to replicate Chick-Fil-A...I mean who are we kidding here? I'm only one woman.

So I made chili...and we turned the left overs into chili dogs. They were pretty good too.

So the moral of my ridiculous little story is that if you are blessed enough to live in a city with Chick-Fil-A or Sonic...or Blue Bell...or queso...GO. Get off your computer and go eat, go eat it NOW. All of it. And send me what's left :)

I need an intervention

Save me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This chocolate cake is ruining my life.

I made it for myself for my birthday last weekend and unfortunately (or fortunately I guess, depending on how you look at it) there are only three mouths in my house capable of helping me eat this ginormous chocolate indulgence.

It's ALMOST gone which means my life is ALMOST back to normal, no more waking up in the middle of the night because the cake is beckoning to me from the kitchen. No more rushing home to eat a bite, or a plate full. No more explaining to Cierra that chocolate cake is not an option for breakfast.

But oh, how I'll miss the cake.

Next time I complain about this last chunk of baby weight that's hanging around...remind me of my love affair with said chocolate cake.

Erin One

About three years ago I went to a wedding with my parents. During the reception I was introduced to someone I "should know"...apparently we'd gone to high school together, we had boys the same age, we shared the same name...and we were literally, the only two chicks at the wedding without dates. Well, I had a date, but he was three at the time.

Anyways, Erin O and I became instant friends...so did our boys. We spent countless days at their house, enough that her neighbors started calling us Erin One and Erin Two, I became the "wanna be neighbor", we coined the phrase, "Best Tuesday Night EVER", we re-named her street Debauchery Lane and we laughed, a LOT.

About a year after we met, EO told me that this hot guy was moving back to her street...he used to live on "Debauchery" but when he moved away he kept his house as a rental property. Circumstances brought him back to Houston, so of course he moved back into his house on the same street as my new friend. The only thing she told me about him was that he was a single Dad and he used to play pro-football. Sounds interesting, no?

So one Monday I invited myself and Hunt over after work (nothing new) but I beat Erin home, so I walked down the street to talk to Sid and there's this little girl in his driveway! Cutest thing, she has curly hair, big hazel eyes and her ears are pierced. That was when Sidney introduced me to Cierra. Obviously I'd noticed her Dad by now, but I got all dumb and shy and I didn't even introduce myself, so he stuck out his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Kevin"...and I fainted, I kid.

A lot has changed since Erin and I first met... actually, that sentence doesn't even do justice to the amount of change that has occurred since we met. I look at life much differently than I did three years ago, but I still think Erin is one of the funniest people I've ever met. She's a GOOD friend, loyal and she'll tell you what you need to hear - even if it's not what you want to hear.

So what's with this little walk down memory lane? Erin started a blog today...woo hoo. Happy reading, sister will make you laugh FOR SURE.

Kevin and Sidney:

Our boys, instant BFF:

Erin One, Erin Two, Erin One, Erin Two:

She moves!!!!!!!!!!

Kevin and I have been saying, for months, that Ryland is sooooo about to crawl (she's not even six months old yet, we may have jumped the gun a tad)...she's been holding herself up on her arms and rocking a lot, but just as she was doing the up on all fours and about to make a move she figured out how to pull herself along on the blanket she plays on...so she had no need to crawl. Hunt did the same thing. Homeboy went from rolling everywhere to walking, he then began crawling after he learned how to walk, but still...if they figure out a way to become mobile that comes easier than crawling...why crawl? Resourceful little ones, my kids.

Well lately Cierra has been a little too interested in Ryland's toys...it makes Ryland so mad too, she looks at CC and just screams at her...hilarious. And the sibling rivalry begins. Anyways, so Cierra had moved some of Ryland's favorite toys out of her reach today and after screaming at her sister, Ryland rolled off her Boppy and on to her tummy spun around into position and crawled BACKWARDS to get her toys.

She was so proud of herself too, she looked over at me with that huge gummy grin and started cracking up. She spent the rest of the afternoon crawling backwards (does that make it more of a scoot than a crawl? whatev) all over the place and actually got stuck half way under the couch a few times...

Oh...also forgot to mention that she's already trying to break out of her crib...more times than not, when I go get her in the mornings there is an appendage hanging out from between the slats. Usually she just pushes her arm under the bumper pad and then out the crib, but one morning she had both legs all the way out too. Here's hoping Walmart made a crib sturdy enough to hold my baby girl :)

28

Ah, yesterday I turned 28...that is a number dangerously close to 30.

This is the first birthday in 28 years I haven't spent with my Mommy! But as she put it, we were lucky to have 28 together...she moved away from her Mom when she was 21, so she knows what she's talking about!

I had a great birthday though, CeCe and Chris sent me some beautiful tulips in a very hip square vase and I got a sweet card from Sabrina...not to mention tons of texts messages and e-mails from my awesome girlfriends.

My parents and Hunt sent a box full of presents wrapped in the prettiest paper...I have pictures of all of this but the camera cord is officially lost, so I need to figure something out!

My most favorite thing I got though, is my new embroidery kit!!!!!!!!!! I saw a link on Pinkcoffee Photoart and I've been obsessing over everything on the website ever since...I have visions of embroidering everything in site with skulls, cherries and dancing spoons...but we'll see how well I actually do at it!

On Saturday we took a drive into the mountains....hands down, my favorite thing to do in Montana, but something I feel like Kevin's about to get sick of, he thinks we've seen it all...we're going to have to work out a compromise, something along the lines of...we still take drives every weekend and Kevin learns to love it. I'll keep you posted. Anyways, so on Saturday we drove up to Lolo Hotsprings and it was BEAUTIFUL...the road was at the base of two mountains and it was one of those super curvy roads that would make you car sick if the view wasn't so spectacular. At one point Cierra and I had to get out and admire a tiny patch of snow, it was the first of the season so we were very, very excited.

THEN...on the way back...get ready for the drama here...yall, we saw a bear! Kevin pulled off the side of the road and we sat there and watched a massive grizzly walk along the ridge of the mountain. It was crazy. He (the bear) would stop[ and just look at our car...and can you believe it? We didn't have a camera with us. But we saw a bear...who else can say that's what they did on Saturday? Later when we were telling my parents all about our adventure CC told my Dad that you can't go get by the bear because it'll tackle you and hurt your ear. (she's still recovering from an ear infection....so in her world, everything hurts your ear)

Sunday morning...my actual birthday...I took a bath, which was fun....taking a bath for once instead of just giving them all the time, and when I got out of the bath. IT WAS SNOWING!!!!! It snowed on my birthday :) Cierra and I tried to get pictures but snowflakes don't photograph so well. Once I figure out a solution to the lost camera cord, I'll share what we were able to capture of our first snow fall.

And just one more thing I need to mention, for sake of preserving the memory...as I type this there is a ginormous mound of CC's things in our entry way. The girls share a room and space is tight, so I'm kind of on her all the time to keep her babies and puzzles picked up. Well, today she wasn't havin' it. Today she told me that instead of picking up her things, she'd rather just throw them away. Of course I had to call her on it, so I said it was a great idea...we could give all her toys to other little girls who don't have anything...well, she took all her toys...ALL of them, even her brand new pink "pump pumps" from Grandma (pom poms...she's obsessed with all things "cheerly girl" at the moment). Her backpacks, puzzles, babies, baby accessories, her SHOES...everything is piled up in front of the door ready to be packed up in the boxes Kevin's bringing home after work. Any motherly advice on how to handle this?????? Because we all know she's going to change her mind in a day or two...so then what? Seriously...help a sister out with this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright...hopefully I'll solve the camera dilemma soon and update this post with some pictures, but in the mean time I'm off to iron my Mom jeans and find some seasonal sweater vests...you know, things almost 30 year olds do. I kid, I kid.

Marriage

"The View" has struck again.

I don't know what it is with me and that show, I hate it, yet I watch it...it's my own personal car accident that I allow my brain to become grid locked at every morning.

This morning Kevin took Cierra to the doctor so instead of flipping between that and Higgly Town Heroes I just left The View on in the background whilst Ryland and I battled it out over her morning applesauce (I was out of bananas...a mistake I won't make twice). Thankfully the Hot Topics wasn't all Republican bashing, instead my nemesis, Whoopi, brought up an article or something she'd seen about how to "encourage" your boyfriend to marry you.

What not to do: withhold sex, beg him, force him, cry about it, bring it up non-stop, have emotional outbursts at weddings, etc

What to do: be around happily married couples to show him it's not all bad....and I'm sure a bunch of other super use full advice like that *insert sarcasm here*

I didn't think much about it...as usual, I lot interest about 15 min into the show and went off to pick up CC's room. While sorting babies from puzzles from play food I was listening to the christian radio station here...honestly I didn't even realize that's what I was listening to right away. Instinctively I turned the radio on because I'm a sucker for background noise (ie The View) and after a while I realized that Cierra must have changed the station since last time we were in her room playing cowgirls. A song came on that caught my attention...it was about how, slowly, black and white fades to gray...at the end it said, "families don't crumble in a day" and a child recited, "be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear". I literally got chills.

Families don't crumble in a day.

And then that silly segment from The View popped into my head...how to "encourage" your boyfriend to marry you.

There was a time, wow...nine years ago now, that I was all for "encouraging" someone to marry me. I met this guy, he was older than me, stable, from a great family...and I was 19, struggling through college, I had a horrible relationship with my Dad at the time, and was really just floundering. It wasn't a month after I met him that I withdrew from college and moved back to Houston...we became super close super fast and I immediately began talking about getting engaged. He was 25 after all, that's like SUPER grown up right? And I was 19, I knew what I was doing. I was ready. I wanted the big fancy wedding and a house and a stable man in my life...that's what a marriage is about right? So I encouraged. And it worked. In my stocking that Christmas I had an engagement ring.

We'd been dating for about 8 months, I had just turned 20 and I was ready to get married. I didn't think for a SECOND about what it meant to pledge myself to him for the rest of my life. I thought about the wedding and how fun it would be to be a a grown up and be married and show off a diamond ring to every guy I'd known in my past.

Well, we all know how well that turned out since I'm divorced now. My ex has since re-married and from what I can tell, they seem to "fit" sooooo much better than he and I did. Plus he had one failed marriage to look back on as what not to do...we can say I primed him. I'm kidding here.

Nine years, one divorce and three kids after I met my ex-husband, I obviously look at marriage much differently. I think that, besides having kids, it's the biggest decision you can make in your life and the last thing you should feel the need to "encourage" someone to do. If you don't go into a marriage with your whole heart and your BEST intentions you're not giving yourself or your partner what they deserve. Personally, I don't want someone to marry me because my "encouragements" worked...I want someone to marry me because that's what's in their heart. I don't want to get divorced again. I don't want to battle through another failing marriage because I nudged someone along who wasn't all the way there yet.

DUH right? It all sounds so obvious when you write it out like that.

With that being said...my ex and I didn't wake up one day and say, oh enough of this marriage nonsense, let's get divorced! Our family didn't crumble in a day. Years of neglect on both parts creeped up on us.

My previous marriage has been on my mind soooo much lately and when I watched that lovely show this morning and then heard those song lyrics it all clicked together for me. I let my last marriage crumble because, in part, I had put no REAL thought into the commitment I was making. I got married for all the wrong reasons and did nothing to ensure it would last. Kevin and I may not be legally officially by the powers vested in me by the state of Texas or Montana or wherever, husband and wife but that doesn't mean I love him any less or am any less committed to him than I would be if we were married. And I'm going to do EVERYTHING in my power to make sure it lasts...and Lord knows I ain't "encouraging" him to pop the question before he's gooooooooooooooood and ready. (If yall know Kevin you know that the quickest way to make him NOT do something is to try and force him TO do something...so my encouragements would have a severely adverse reaction anyways).

Since families don't crumble in a day (a saying I will repeat over and over and over if need be, just so that it becomes permanently engraved in my subconscious) I am going to wake up every morning and make the decision to not EVER let my family crumble. I am going to be the best Scheidt Pesak Household Manager that I can be (yall like my new title? I'm thinking about getting a name plate for over the kitchen sink...)

I'm having a hard time finishing this the way I want to...my thoughts are getting all jumbly in my mind (my brother calls that "attention deficit, oh, something shiny" or "ADOSS" CC and I both suffer from it, keeps things exciting...poor Kevin).

Ok, what I'm trying to say is...if you're not careful, if you don't have your priorities straight and if you don't make the decision to make it work...how will you ever give yourself or your partner a shot at a lasting marriage? And call me crazy, but "encouraging" someone to marry you doesn't sound like the right first step...Amen?

This post had such good intentions...sometimes I just can't make it all come together on here as good as it sounds in my head, ya know?

Real Quick...

It was 26 degrees this morning...and the forecast for this weekend is snow.

that's all I have to say about that.

What Makes Me Happy

Heather writes one of my fav blogs...and whilst catching up on my reading tonight I came across her post about what makes her happy and I just had to share my list as well!!!!!

So here is my list of 25 random things that make me happy.

1. Watching Hunter and Cierra watch a dancing show and dancing along with the dancers in front of the TV. (sorry for the over usage of the words dancing and watching)
2. Cooking for my parents.
3. Tweaking a recipe and making it better than the original.
4. Ryland's smile...she smiles with her whole face and she looks just like me as a baby.
5. Walking out my front door to see mountains.
6. When I tell Kevin I want to drive up a mountain and he finds a road.
7. Having spent the last year attending a church that I miss.
8. Listening to music with Hunter. He always surprises me at how many lyrics he knows.
9. Trees with leaves that have changed to fall colors.
10. Cierra's curly hair.
11. A new season of Survivor.
12. Burts Bees chapstick.
13. Watching Ryland smile at her brother and sister.
14. Seeing how proud Hunter and Cierra are to be a big brother and sister.
15. Having the relationship with my parents that I've always wanted.
16. Wine.
17. Being proud of the person that I am...even though I'm not at all who I thought I'd be.
18. Good hair days.
19. Festivals.
20. Grocery shopping.
21. Re-runs of Will & Grace. I forgot how hilarious Jack & Karen were.
22. Memories of summers with my grandparents on their farm in North Dakota and knowing that my brother has all the same memories.
23. Being in the same room with Kevin and all three of my kids . Since it happens so rarely it's something I've grown to REALLY appreciate. I hope everyone who has the ability to be with their whole family at the same time can appreciate what a gift that is.
24. Girlfriends.
25. My bed. There's nothing like your own bed!

Your turn!!!!!

Food Stuff

When I grow up I want to be The Pioneer Woman.

I have been waiting for the right time to try this recipe and I finally made is last week. Holy mother of pearl. It's gooooooood yall. I'd never made anything with cabbage before but I trust P Dub when she says something's good...her food is RIDICULOUS. She's right when she says that this recipe makes enough to feed a small army....Kevin ate on it for days and it stayed good. If yall need to make something for a pot luck or whatever....make this. You'll impress, I swear.

From a link off the PW website I found this recipe for won ton soup. It kind of takes...um, FOREVER to make all the won tons, but it was super good. I didn't add the bok choy or noodles...just the won tons in broth, but it made me feel fancy so I thought I'd share. I LOVE cooking Asian food so there's a lot more on this site I'm excited to make!

This weekend Ryland decided that she likes baby food...fruit only, but it's a start. She went from only taking a few bites at a time to eating the whole jar, so that's fun. Well it was fun until this morning when she ate a whole jar of bananas (yelling at me between each bite because I couldn't feed her fast enough) and a full 8oz bottle...she started falling asleep at the end of her bottle and choked a little bit...the choking induced a coughing fit that ended with the entire jar of bananas and the full bottle all over my clothes. I called my Mom and asked if that meant I had to feed Ryland again.

And now CC and I are off to Cold Stone...there's one within walking distance to us and a kid's cup is only $1.50 (no sales tax in MT) and it makes for great bribery. "CC, if you let Mommy sleep for five more minutes we can go get ice cream today"....works every time!

Keepin it real

I wouldn't be me if I didn't through a little randomness in the mix.

First of all, thank you for all the kind words after my last post! I was kind of nervous to put it all out there about Hunt...maybe because if you'd asked me five months ago if I would have made this decision I would have said, not no, but HELL-O NO (a nine year old taught me that)...and I probably would have thought a Mother was sub-human for making the same decision I ended up making. Apparently I needed a little life lesson on judgement right? Anyways, thank you for the prayers and support.

Talking about leaving Houston on my last post has kind of opened the flood gates...I'm a super emotional person and when I feel a rush coming on I try to divert it. I'm not ready for a good cry yet...mainly because I know that when I do let it out I won't have my Mom or my good friends right there if I need them. Well all this bottling it up is starting to get to me. My friend Amanda (yall know her, yall read her blog) just posted about Sonic not really being up to par...the thought of not being able to go run out for a Junior Burger and Route 44 Diet Coke just made tears well up! Are you kidding me? Over SONIC? This just after I listened to a Christmas song my friend Crystal recorded...if I knew how to put it on here I would. She is AMAZING. I'm coming to the realization that if I don't let it out soon I'm going to end up losing it over a commercial or something ridiculous like that!

Cierra just asked me if "cheese the wheels" was a bad word...she was going for "jeez louise"

Speaking of fast food...when I go back to Houston in November for Hunt's sixth birthday and Thanksgiving I plan on eating the following: my weight in mexican food, Jack-in-the-Box (you don't want it until it's not there), Chick-Fil-A, Sonic, What-a-Burger (what's with Texas fast food having all the hyphenation?), sushi - and lots of it, sea food, something cajun, chorizo and eggs from a taco stand....my mouth is watering. I love Montana, but food is not their forte...bless their hearts, they try on mexican food and sushi....but when you're that far from Mexico and the coast, you really just shouldn't go there.


My Mom just called...they're finally picking up the pile of debris from their yard this morning and it's inmates doing the labor! She said they're wearing orange and white jumpsuits and it says County Jail on the back! Crazy!!!!

I'm boycotting The View. I hate how they have poor Elisabeth there as the token Republican. Dumb ol Joy and Whoopi don't even let her get a word in...she could be in the middle of a very valid and well researched point and they cut her off. I think Sarah Palin could single handedly save the economy and they still wouldn't give her enough credit...not saying that she could single handedly save the economy, I was just making a point. Anywho, it gets my blood boiling...so I'm not going there anymore.

Do yall have one of those friends who you call right before you're about to freak out so she can tell you if you have reason to lose it or if you're just being hormonal? I do. Her name is CeCe. She's saved me from LOTS of ridiculous outbursts. Anyways, last night we had a date to watch Grey's Anatomy, drink wine, and text eachother during the show with lots of "oh no she didn't"s...well the debates interrupted out date. I was so mad I didn't watch them...and I normally would have. If yall don't have a CeCe....go get one!!!!!!

Ryland has very significant feelings towards her food. She will NOT, under any circumstances, eat Rice Cereal out of a bowl. If she's in the mood, she'll take pears from a spoon...but those times are few and far between. I'm not going to start panicking over her spoon hatred until she's six months old...that's my own personal timeline. Also, when you try to give her the bottle and she doesn't want it she arches her back, kicks her legs out, squeezes the mouth tight and her whole face is bright red...if she doesn't want to eat, sister isn't eating. And when she's drinking her bottle and she decides she's done she just spits what ever' in her mouth out....and with force. But when she's happy about eating she smiles at her bottle and talks to it when she's done. I think I'm in for it with this one!

Ry's favorite toys right now are her toes and her Daddy's empty water bottles. She'll play with her soft books and babies if you give them to her, but she usually just rolls away from them after about five minutes and sticks her toes in her mouth instead.

Anyways, I could go on...rambling is what I do best...but I need to cut it short and go wash the dishes...not that what I just wrote was short by any means, so I guess I should have said short-ER....I'm going to cut it short-er. Whatever.

October 1st

So today is the first day of October. September is officially behind us, a month that encompassed more change in my life than I could have ever imagined!



In this last month I packed all our belongings and said goodbye to our Texas house. A house that I'll always remember as the first home Kevin and I shared together...the house where our separate lives became one family, where Hunter and Cierra became brother and sister. For the last time I cleaned the kitchen that we stood in when we found out we'd be having a baby together. I swept the floor in the garage where we made the plans to open our coffee shop. So many memories in that house...hard times and sad goodbye when Kevin was leaving for Montana and the anticipation when he was coming home. I'll never forget pulling into that driveway with Ryland for the first time...big Welcome Home Ryland banner on the garage. Leaving that house was so bittersweet. On one hand it meant we were on our way to live with Kevin in Montana but it also meant so many goodbyes. That house will always hold a special place in my heart. At least it's still in the family...my brother and his girlfriend moved in! haha



I had to make the hardest decision of my life in September. A few months prior we learned that Hunter was more than likely not going to be able to move to Montana with us. The State of Texas believes that, regardless of the circumstances, it's in the best interest of the child to live in the same (or contiguous) county as both parents...so even if the "primary parent" moves out of state (or even city for that matter), the other parent can have the court impose geographical boundaries that prevent the child from being able to move. Days after we brought Ryland home from the hospital my ex-husband had me served with paperwork letting me know that he was going to pursue the geographical boundaries...so this has been on our hearts and minds every second of the last few months. To say that this decision has been all consuming is an understatement. On one hand I have Kevin, who is committed to working in Montana for at least the next two years and on the other hand I have my baby. My son. My first born. The love of my life. How on EARTH am I going to make this decision?????



I finally came to the heart wrenching decision that it was in the best interest of ALL of my children for the girls and I to move to Montana with Kevin and to let Hunter go to school with his Daddy. Four and a half years ago I made the selfish decision to leave my marriage and cause Hunter to be raised separately of his two parents...and if I can avoid that for my girls, I need to do that for them. Hunt and his Dad are SUPER close and he's ecstatic to be living with him. My ex is remarried to a woman that Hunter adores so he'll have the benefit of two parents raising him everyday and he'll spend all his holidays and summer vacation with us here in Montana. I pray constantly that he'll thrive in his new situation. If we ever cross your mind, please pray for my boy...pray that he doesn't feel like I chose Kevin or the girls over him. Pray for his heart and mind to be nurtured daily.



I need to add that I chose to share the pain of this decision for two reasons...one, because I'm using this as a journal/scrapbook of sorts and I want to remember everything about what's going on in these crazy times of my life right now. Also, if my choices can, in any way, help someone else going through a similar situation, it's worth it for me to put it out there. Most people I've talked to about this have a hard time understanding my decision...and I hope no one reading this has to ever "understand" the pain of making a decision like this. Thankfully, 99% of my friends with kids won't ever be faced with a decision of this magnitude...so they can't relate and I'm grateful for that. As weird as that sounds.

Anyways...moving on.

September also brought me my first real hurricane. It was so ironic that after all the years of living in Houston, I actually experience a hurricane for the first time just days before moving out of state...and out of "the cone of uncertainty" for that matter. I don't even know if Ike made the news in Missoula. So much has been said about the devastation and loss that came with that storm. I don't mean to take away from that in ANY way, but my storm story was a lot less dramatic. Thursday morning my ex let me know what we were able to go get Hunter out of school. He lives in Pearland now, and his zip code was literally across the street from a mandatory evacuation zip code...so I grabed the girls, jumped in the car and spent the next four hours fighting traffic to go get my boy out of harm's way. Friday morning as we watched the storm surge overtake the sea wall even before the hurricane hit, my Mom and I realized, that like so many others, we hadn't taken the necessary precautions. Our idea of hurricane food was a fresh block of Havarti with dill and some black pepper crackers...oh, and I made a Texas Sheet Cake. Unfortunately we were a little late as the grocery stores were sold out of all the PRACTICAL hurricane food. Luckily the neighbors had a generator and a stocked pantry! That night my Mom and the 't kids and I took pictures outside every hour so we could chronicle the changes in the wind...it was so surreal when a big gust came through, if the wind hadn't been a sign of such devastation it would have been awesome. That night we lost power and I sat up all night watching my parent's windows vibrate from the strength of the wind. My parents live in NORTH Houston too so I can't even imagine what was going on at my ex's house in SOUTH Houston. Saturday morning we woke up to see my parent's yard absolutely demolished! They have...or I should say, HAD, a ton of mature trees in their backyard...and they live on the golf course so there's no back fence, there's also a bayou back so we expected a lot of limbs to be down...but it was just insanity. The neighbor across the street, Mr. Mike, and I spent all morning in the rain removing the debris from the gutters on our street and the ones around ours...we like to think that we single handedly saved the neighborhood...haha. Later that afternoon we found out that my townhouse had power so even though we'd moved out already and there was no furniture...my folks, the kids and I spent the rest of the weekend enjoying electricity and cable. Monday morning we woke up and left Ike behind as we got on the plane for Montana! It was such a change, the farther we got from Texas, the farther we got from hurricane talk...it was all anyone talked about at the airport in Houston, Ike got a little buzz in Denver, but was no where to be found in Missoula.

Saying goodbye to my parents was so hard. I'ven seen them EVERY day for the last few years and they were such a help to me when Kev was in Montana. My Mom and I cried at the airport and not a day has passed that Cierra hasn't asked to go to their house. I don't think you ever outgrow needing your parents. Right now I have a cold and I want my Mom's chicken & dumplings. I know how to make them too, and Kevin's pretty hand in the kitchen as well...but I want my MOMMY to make them. And watching Glenn Beck isn't the same without my Dad right there with me. I'm so lucky to have parents that I MISS.

Once we finally made it to "Big Sky Country" we spent the last half of September enjoying a REAL Fall. We drove through the mountains, I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season, we went to the University of Montana Homecoming parade...it was like in the movies. A small town parade in the fall..are you kidding me? We went to a potluck with all the ol peeps...CC made a ton of new friends that live around us. They're the "Hannah Montana Crew". Ryland is now sitting up and has her first tooth (top right). We got a ton of veggies at the farmer's market and have made the best roast chicken and beef stew with them. We sleep with the windows open at night to let the cool air in and we enjoy being together as a family again.

I miss Hunter more than I can ever explain but I'm overwhelmed with joy everytime I see Ryland smile at her Daddy. I still look at Montana as just a chapter in our lives. I could have never imagined us being here so I'm not even going to try to imagine where we'll be after this. September was a mix of emotions and I can't wait to see what October holds for my family!