The River Wild

Ok, I just have to have this little confession here. As it was happening I was swearing that I'd never tell a soul what happened, but here I am posting it on the world wide web. The other day we had this great idea to go down to the river and let the kids and dog play in the water. We get down there and of course other people are there too. I am holding Jake and holding Jessica's hand. Stan had Rebecca's hand and had the dog on a make-shift leash (she's not leash trained, by the way, and was not liking life at the moment).

So we step into the water...it's pretty shallow and we decided to walk out to the sandbar (technically it was a rock bar...all the sand gets washed away). We get going and at that particular place the current is stronger than we anticipated. Halfway there, Jessica looses her footing and so I'm trying to hold Jake in one arm and lift her up to get her footing again with the other arm. She starts freaking out and wont put her feet down. At the same time Stan is trying to get the puppy across and Rebecca (who had decided she could cross without holding Stan's hand) looses her footing and she gets carried away by the river. With Stan's "cat-like reflexes" he quickly gets (throws?) the dog to the little island and he jumps out and grabs Rebecca, who had stopped freaking out and I think was actually liking it...for a split second.

Mackenzie gets across (amazingly) successfully and I'm still dragging Jessica who's feet were now floating down river and all I have ahold of is her hand and I'm thinking that any moment my foot is going to slip too and the three of us will be floating down river together (we dont have swiming suits on either...just our regular clothes). So, I'm yelling at Jessica to put her feet down, she's crying and still freaking out. I holler at Mackenzie to grab Jessica's other hand and between the two of us we got her up there. But not before she looses her shoe. Stan has just gotten Rebecca on dry ground and once again with his "cat-like reflexes" he jumps back out in the river and saves it. The other people who were sitting there watching this whole scene...start clapping.

I was mortified and thoroughly embarrassed and ready to go crawl under a rock. I know we looked like complete idiots out there. But I guess at least we were entertainment for those people. I'm sure they are still laughing about it. Life lesson number 58 - humility. Sorry, no pictures were taken of this event....at least not that I'm aware of.

Wow! Two posts in one day...guess I'm making up for lost time.

The End of Summer

Well, it's happening. Summer is coming to an end and here in Montana we covet our short summers and try to make the most of them. I cant help but feel a little cheated this year, though. This was a bad year for fires and as I posted earlier, with the air quality poor we were limited in what we could do. We have enjoyed this past week of clear skies, but unfortuneately the smoke is back again like it was before. Hey, Idaho! Get yer fires under control already! Also, July went on record as the hottest month in Montana...ever! Thankfully we got to miss most of that since we went down south. While it was up to 107 here, we were enjoying a cool 86 degrees down south. That's just mind boggling!

But, all in all it was a good summer, despite the smoke. We really, really enjoyed our trip south and it was SO good to see everyone! The girls got to take swimming lessons. They also went to VBS (Rebecca and Jessica) and basketball camp (Mackenzie) while Jake and I went hiking on some trails. As a family we only got to go hiking once and you can see pictures of that in the May/June 2007 slideshow. It was also a real treat to see our friends from New Mexico as they traveled up on their way to Washington.

Now, school starts on Tuesday and I guess you could say I have mixed feelings on it. It's going to be hard sending sweet Rebecca off to Kindergarten but I'm glad she has older sister with her. I remember how hard it was sending my dear Mackenzie off all by herself. However, I think the girls are trying to soften the blow for me because they've been fussing and fighting a lot lately! By God's grace I wont kick them out the door as I drive by. (I'm kidding. Of course I'll stop the car first.) Also, Jake has been working on cutting 4...yes four...teeth at the same time! It's not easy to catch a look at them (just imagine trying to hold onto a fish out of water) but from what I can tell, I believe the last one has finally broken through so hopefully the bear that has taken over will leave and I'll have my sweet, happy little boy back again!

And now for the best news I've heard in a while...drum roll, please...Beth Moore is coming to Billings!!!!!!!! Doin' the happy dance! Ok, so it's not until next September, as in 2008, but still. I can celebrate now, cant I? Yes, I'm a Beth Moore fanatic. Admittance is the first step, right? Hey, I'm just thrilled that I can get excited about things other than the tooth fairy actually remembering to come on the correct night, Hannah Montana marathons, and successfully changing a poopy diaper without getting it everywhere because the boy will just not be still for a second.

And while I'm on the tooth fairy topic...I never knew that monitoring the tooth fairy could be so stressful. Right, Jenni?! LOL! (I'm glad I'm not alone!) It's just another one of those things I never really put any thought into 10 years ago.

So there you have it. Our summer in a nutshell.

Did you know...

...that if you accidentally step on a tube of Balmex that it explodes out the bottom?

Just thought I'd pass that along. *sigh*

Blue Skies Again!

Some of you may know that this part of the country has been dealing with lots and lots of fires for several weeks now. Praise God that there aren't any around where we live, and not too many that have affected the railroad. In some areas people have been evacuated off and on, but there has been minimal house losses even though the fires have swept through peoples' properties. God has been with the firefighters!

Since we live in this valley the smoke comes in and settles but wont leave and we're getting smoke from fires from the north and the south. Last week was the worst of it and we've been in "Unhealthy" and "Very Unhealthy" air alerts which for our family means that either the kids cant be outside or they cant be outside for very long. This is how things looked all last week:

So of course we've been dealing with cabin fever and an irritable mommy in the house. I've been in desperate need of some relief...and feeling very selfish for that since we're not actually having to deal with the fires. So this past Sunday while our family was resting and taking it easy we notice the sky is orange. Come to find out, since a front was pushing in it was pushing smoke and we were told it was going to get worse before it got better. Here's the worse:

Then Monday we woke up to the better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you, LORD!!! It's been SO nice to *see* beyond a mile and to *breathe* clean air again!!! Here's a picture I took just a while ago from the same spot the previous two pictures were taken...out of our back door:

Meet Coffee

Yep. Coffee. That's her name. She's the newest member of our family and so far seems to know who she's supposed to impress (not like that last dog we brought home who walked right up and "marked" my coat that was hanging on the back of a chair...he went directly back where he came from after that...did not pass Go, did not collect $200).

Coffee is a Lab/Newfoundland mix and she's about 5 months old or so. She is real sweet, smart, and is great with the kids. Jake is not so sure about sharing the lime-light and I think he's gotten more swats/scoldings than she has, but she's really patient with him and wants to be his friend...even though he just yells at her and pulls her hair. (Oh and she especially loves him right after he's eaten...I guess he tastes yummy!) She's mostly an outside dog but we let her in for a while each day. So far she's behaved and has let us know when she needs to go out...good girl!

We just got her Friday and has been adapting really well...or should I say that "I've" been adapting really well since it's no secret that I'm the only stick in the mud who didnt really want a pet right now. So, we'll see...

Birthday Boy!

Since Jake's 1st birthday was the most recent exciting thing that has happened here, that's where I'll start. I cant believe our little boy is one year old now! He had the most fun chewing on the bags/paper that the gifts came in...why do we bother with gifts at all? He had a great time!

We made little star-shaped cupcakes...I think it was a hit.

After we got him all cleaned up and ready for bed I got a shot of him bear-crawling around, which he does when the floor starts hurting his knees.

Blogging???

Ok, so I'm not really a blogger. Admittance is the first step, right? While I'm being upfront and honest here, I really just wanted a place to post our pictures so friends and family could see them easily...withOUT tons of pop-ups and unwanted ads. And also my other website I was using was kind of a pain to keep updated. It took too long to update it and with 4 kids I just couldnt hack it. I tried looking for other trustworthy website or online album hosts but got a huge headache trying to weed through all the junk sites looking for a decent one. I visit other trusted bloggers' sites here sometimes so I figured it was a safe enough place to come. So here I am.

The whole idea of blogging...just typing my random thoughts into thin air, knowing that anyone in the world can and will read them...is a little intimidating to me. But at this stage of my life, my thoughts dont go much deeper than poopy diapers, tattle taling, and Hannah Montana. So if you dont know me and are just reading a random blog...dont expect anything earth-shattering! But you can expect lots of pictures of CUTE (if I say so myself) kids.

For those of you that do know us, sorry to jump sites on you but I am sure you were tired of the ads and pop-ups too. I hope you like this site better and that it's easy to use. If not let me know and I'll try...well...something. Also, our other website is still up and going if you want to see any pictures there.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough. Here's my blog. Hope you like it. If you dont then "too bad so sad" as I tell my kids. :o)