October Already?

I don't know where this year has gone, and to think that Christmas is only 3 months away. Don't even want to think about that yet.


So this is the framing project that has my husband driving back and forth to Bozeman, Montana every week for the past 2 months. I think it's about 3600 sq ft, three levels including the walk out basement. For now they are just doing the framing, but hopefully, maybe, there will be work for them to do on it this winter, cause we REALLY need it. Jason stays with our friend, Red, who is starting to make furniture and is quite the craftsman. Together, they have worked on a few projects that Red didn't have time for all by himself. One project was a swing, which they antiqued it to make it look old.

This last Sunday we had our friends the Millers over after church. Their kids Grey and Emma love "Baby Katelyn" as they affectionately call her. Katelyn slept most of the time they were here, so they occupied themselves with a neighbor girl, which was great. They rode their bikes and played with sidewalk chalk. When K did get up, we found the shovels and they dug in the empty garden.
Emma also gave "Baby Katelyn" her trike, because she was too small for it, so she passed it on to us, which we love. For being 4, Emma is sometimes very willing to give away some of her toys, which I know her mom loves.
Katelyn doesn't get the part about pushing herself just yet, but loves to sit on it and get on and off. Or she'll put up her feet so you can push her around, much to her delight. She is growing up so fast! We are loving this Indian Summer we're having. We turned the A/C back on because the house was warming up to almost 80 some days. Hence, the skirts and t-shirts on the last weekend of September!

Yesterday, we had a pool date with Darlene and Emma in Cody. The pool was warm and we had the wading pool all to ourselves. Thank goodness for the kids in school. Katelyn didn't like having to wear a life jacket, but she wore it for the good part of an hour and then we took it off and she was much happier for us to hold her and float her around. I didn't know how she'd like getting splashed or her face in the water, but she did really well. We were in the pool for 1 1/2 hrs! Then we went to McDonald's and she ate a whole cheeseburger!

As we speak, Jason is in the mountains near Meeteetse hunting with 2 friends for elk. Today is the opening day of rifle season, so hopefully he can bag an elk for the freezer. They took 7 horses and packed in food and big wall tent. The local deputy sheriff said they recorded seeing 63 grizzly bears in that mountain range. That's A LOT of Bears! I'm sure we'll hear stories of bear sightings. Jason brought the video camera and planned to film the other two guys archery hunting. So we'll see what comes back on the camera. Hopefully the camera makes it back in one piece.

Well, the babes is sleeping and I should finish cleaning before we go to Cody to help decorate the church for fall this evening.

The end of Summer

Fall has arrived or so it seems according to the thermometer. Today is definitely a soup or stew and a movie kind of day. I figured I would get a quick post in while K is working on her 2 1/2 hr nap. Yay for naps!

We closed out the summer by playing in the home pool for the last time. We finally got K some sand/water toys after playing with cups and spoons all summer. Gotta love those going out of summer sales.

I took K to the nearby park and only got one picture before the tears rolled. You could have handed me the "Worst mother of the Year" award after she went down the slide. I was taking a video of her and she jumped off by herself, but the slide was too high and instead of her feet hitting the ground, she kind of landed on her face. Oh yeah, I felt great about myself. We got a couple of small bruises from the stones and a cut lip, but she did recover. Thankfully kids heal fast. Note to self: Yeah, won't be video taping on that slide.

Since Jason has been gone working in Bozeman, Montana the past 2 months, the weekends are family time. One weekend we ran some errands, grabbed some Burger King and headed to the park.
I don't know who had more fun, Daddy or Katelyn?

Nothing New

Since it has officially been a month since I've posted anything new, there really isn't anything new to post about.

Jason has been working in Bozeman, Montana, framing a house with a friend for the past couple of months. He should be done early October. This has meant 4 days at home alone with Katelyn, which isn't bad and Jason comes home on the weekends, which end up being busy and go by too fast. I've also gone up to stay with Jason for a couple of weeks as well. I get out and can actually go shopping by myself and still make it back to make dinner. So I've been out on the town too.

I've been freezing corn and making salsa this last week, preparing for the long winter ahead of us. I don't know where summer went, but fall is slowly approaching. There has been snow in the mountains around Bozeman and plenty of rain here as well.

Katelyn is growing up so quickly too. Had to buy her a few things like shoes and jeans for the fall. Have to get geared up for this winter too for the first time.

I got my hair cut yesterday by a friend I met when she was 13 yrs old and now she's married and 22. I needed something desperately new. I decided to take the plunge and add some color to my hair. So for the first time in my life, I added some subtle highlights. Nothing drastic since I probably won't get another haircut for a year, but something new for me. Jason kept Katelyn and watched the whole process and chatted. Katelyn even had her hair trimmed so it could stay out of her eyes. She gave me a deal, which I probably would have never done it knowing how much it would all have cost me.

Well, it is lunch time and I must feed my girl

Black and White memory

I remember a black and white picture of my mom, my Auntie Marilyn and Auntie Connie in their teens. They were hot and looking for a way to cool off from the hot Manitoba summer. They were innovative and used what they had for a swimming pool, an old 50 gallon oil barrel. If only I had the picture to show, but imagine 3 teenage girls, stuffed into a barrel with only their heads and shoulders sticking out the top. There was probably more girl than water in that barrel but they cooled off. So when I saw Katelyn assume a similar position, that picture came to mind.
She totes this empty pail around the yard and picks up sticks and stones. Put a little water in it and it adds another level of fun. Hence, the no clothes. Water soaked her dress, so it was hanging on the line and we ran around in our diaper. The freedom of a child!

Swimming, Swimming

Yesterday, Jason was headed to Meeteetse so we packed up the kid and went for a ride. Jason was busy having a meeting and I went over to my friend Heidi's and had a pool party with the boys. Her son JD loves Katelyn and plays quite well with her. Heidi got the pool blown up and filled up and we were all set.
Working the "pail purse".

JD was pouring water down Katelyn's back, which made her laugh.
We went from the pool to the trampoline, back to the pool. Heidi and I didn't get to sit down much but it was fun to see the kids play together.

Katelyn loves this little chair. She can climb onto it herself, which makes it all that much more fun. And she is so super cute in it. This girl will smile on command. She loves getting her picture taken. What a ham.
I was just happy she kept her sunglasses and hat on the whole time. She was distracted so she didn't think about taking off her sunglasses. In the afternoon while we were trying to get the kids to sleep, we were warned that there were a few bears roaming the river very close to the CWAM base. A couple minutes later, Jason calls me and says there is a bear roaming the bank. Sure enough, it looked like a young grizzly bear, walking on the property but kept walking back to the river. That was exciting, but also a little nerve wracking knowing that those things can pop out anywhere.

It has been extremely hot lately, so Sunday while we were in Walmart, I found a small pool $6.50! So that went into the cart and we may blow that up this afternoon and repeatedly this week just to try and beat the heat outside. It is fair week here in Powell, which means it's going to be HOT!

Sewing Creation

I had the urge to sew something last week and the thought came into my head that I should make a dress for Katelyn. I haven't sewn a garment since high school, but thought I would give it a go. Went to the fabric store and looked through the patterns and came upon an Very Easy pattern, which I thought was really cute. Looked through the somewhat limited selection of material and settled on this ultra cute, pink paisley cotton. I got to sewing that day for a couple of hours and then next day a couple of hours and then some hand sewing and this is what came out of those hours.

It is a size two and quite big on her. It should be taken in on the sides but after all the work I did, I'd rather just pin it. And it is super long on her, but I think next year it will fit just right. I was so proud of myself for actually figuring out the pattern instructions and getting everything right. It may not be perfect, but I did it to the best of my ability. What more could I ask for? Not bad for $23. Funny how it's more to sew your own than to buy them. I probably wouldn't have paid $23 for a dress like this in the store, just because I'm cheap, but it was fun to make it myself.

Last week! whoa!

Last week was a crazy busy week for us. We "hosted" around 50 people from Tennessee who rolled in to town on the Rolling Thunder tour. Jason has become friends with Scott Macleod who has a ministry called Thunder School in Nashville. Thunder School is a 3 month school that is based on the arts and media and using it for ministry. So these were some of the past graduates of last fall's school. They planned a trip out west last summer, to do ministry at different places and just to be out west. Last year they could only stay a two days but this year they were here for four days. We housed them at the Cowboys with A Mission base in Meeteetse and they called that home base while they were here. They rolled in Tuesday and left Saturday morning.

Jason has wanted to see them do something in the Cody Band shell in the park that is somewhat centrally located and along the main strip. This year we rented it and got a local band to come a play a little bit with all these guys. A lot of these young people play and write music, poetry or are wonderful artists. A few gave their testimonies which were powerful and some did skits. We were hoping for a better turn out of people, but those that needed to hear the message did. Someone even said that their boss could here it on her front porch so her and her neighbors listened from home. We just wanted to praise God and take back this city for Christ! The enemy was not happy though. At 9pm, we were still going. The police came and checked out our permit and looked for a time frame, which there wasn't any. They said that they were getting complaints about the music being too loud, so we had to shut it down by 9:15pm. We respected the authority over us, but we know that God's kingdom was advanced!!!! Some pretty cool things happened.


Katelyn enjoying a snack in the park. It was a hot afternoon.

Gotta check everything out

Praising Jesus during the music. She loves to clap and puts her hands in the air when music is playing. I love it. The freedom of a child.


Some students drawing. "These Fallen Walls" the local band jamming out. The lead singer is a retired bull fighter and a friend of Jason's.
This was Wednesday night.

Thursday morning, we packed up 5 trucks and 2 suburbans and made a long slow trek up to the deserted town of Kirwin. We thought these guys would like it because it is something they will have never seen before. We saw a cow moose on the way in which proved there was wild life out there. The thing with taking a bunch of city kids into the mountains is we had to let them know about ALL the dangers. Bears, wild life, old mine shafts, hypothermia etc. We did forget to tell them NOT to drink the water. Some did but then were warned. So far, no cases of "beaver fever". You just don't want to get it.
They had an awesome time. Our friend Quin brought 106 burgers and cooked them ALL on the open fire and they were ALL gone. Something some of them have probably never had before. It was uplifting for our spirits to see everyone enjoying themselves in something we sometimes take for-granted. There were a bunch of them playing in the river, exploring and even loving the dusty ride in the back of a pick-up. These guys were so much fun. Later that night, after everyone had showered the day's dust off of them, we had an impromptu worship session around the fire. Some prophetic words were given to Jason and others which was so exciting for us. You get around these guys you can't help but get energized again, and I think this part of the trip was a refreshing for many of them as well.

Friday was a fun day for them. Jason took some fishing and even had to play surgeon on one guy who got a hook stuck deep in his finger. He survived the ordeal and has a war story now :) The afternoon they went into town for white water rafting, shopping and the evening was spent at the rodeo watching one of their own get on his 2nd bull in his life. It was crazy. And he didn't get hurt Praise the Lord!

It was hard to see these guys go, but hopefully we will get down there to see them sometime soon. They'll be back!