Goodbye WYO

It's time for another chapter in our lives...time to say "goodbye Wyoming" and "hello again Oklahoma".

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. From the time we went "home" for harvest until now, things have been a little crazy. Crazier than usual even. We've always know we wanted our girls to grow up near family. Even though we're far away, we probably spend more time going "home" than the average family who lives near their family. Oklahoma has always had ahold of us.

Chris was offered a position that, not only is a wonderful career opportunity for him, but also takes us close to family. We've taken the long way around, but we're finally going "home".

As I sit under the tree in the backyard, bootlegging internet from the neighbors (thank you neighbors, whoever you are), watching the movers go back and forth loading everything we own onto a Mayflower truck, there's little for me to do but reflect on the last two years we've spent in Wyoming. Some people refer to us as "gypsies". While it's true we've moved quite a bit, we don't regret any of those moves, and we've always believed we were following where we were led. Each new place has given us opportunities and experiences I wouldn't have missed for the world.

So, as excited as I am to begin this new adventure in our lives, right now I'm thinking of the time we spent here, and the things we will most certainly miss...the memories we will carry with us.

The mountains...they give me a high I can't even put into words. They bring tears to my eyes while making me smile with the excitement of just being near them.



The patiently awaited first blooms of spring (although it's really more like summer since spring doesn't actually exist in Wyoming).



The thrills (just do what I do and pretend this is me):



The snow (in Nov-Feb...not so much in April, May, June...):



The wildlife:





The beautiful fall weather:





And one of my very favorite things...going on our Christmas Tree hunt:



We will miss you, Wyoming, but we'd like to think we made the most of what you had to offer.

Not so random thought for the day...

Don't you just hate it when the crawdads eat all your bait!

Wheat Harvest

They say you can never go home again, but I'm not so sure that's the case. To me, "home" will always be "home". Maybe it's because we've moved so many times and lived in so many different places, but it just always feels like we're going home when we go back to the place where I grew up, and where most of my family still lives...Oklahoma.

Every June we spend about 10 days helping with harvest. Over the last 20 years, my city-boy husband has become quite the farmer. He looks forward to it, and I THINK they actually count on him. It's a family event, and although my girls have been many places, and experienced many different things, I think this might just be the most wholesome wonderful thing out of them all.

Every kid should get to experience country life...at least for a moment.

There's nothing like some good old-fashioned dirt-diggin' kind of fun!

Remember "Parachute Men"? They make for some cheap and great entertainment. :)

I love that my kids can get a small taste of how I grew up. I come from a hard-working family with good strong values, and, although there were times during my teenage years that I didn't want any part of it, I'm very proud that those are my roots. I can only hope that I can be the kind of example to my children that I was shown throughout my life...that of my family.

Tornadoes, Mother-In-Laws, sad pet news, and the end of school

I've been a little MIA lately. I'll be back to my regular postings soon, and I'll expand, but all of the above is true. My mother-in-law actually came in the midst of the tornadoes, which, of course, don't happen in Wyoming....or so we were TOLD (WRONG!). One of the ones that hit here was close enough that I could hear it, and so could my kids who were on lock down at their schools. It totaled cars in Paityn's school parking lot, took down fences and garage doors in our neighborhood, and put the football bleachers on top of Cassidy's school. So I guess you could say we were in the thick of things. BUT...we were all okay, and that's what important. My mother-in-law played "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" to get here. After getting as far as Denver,her flight to here was canceled, so she took a shuttle part way, and then some kind strangers that she'd ridden the shuttle with brought her the rest of the way. By then, we'd already lost power...for two days. And then came the snow. She had quite a "vacation", I'm sure.

On a very sad note, Paityn's parakeet, Sky, passed away last Thursday. She's still pretty heartbroken. I got her a new parakeet, whose name is "Cloud", but I'm afraid it's not the same. Time will tell.

And...on a much brighter note (it IS a bright note, right?)...SCHOOL IS OUT, as of today!!! It was time. It's an adjustment for all of us. For me, it's about finding the balance between being a good mom, making sure we all have fun, and still managing my work. I'm sure we'll find it though. :)

Look what we found!

BABY FOXES!!!!

or is it baby fox?? Is the plural of fox FOX, or FOXES?? Whatever...there were SEVERAL of them.

...and aren't they CUTE!!!

They're living right in front of Paityn's school.

I WANT ONE!!

It's better than CHICKENS!!!

You may remember last spring when Paityn visited a farm with a friend. She came home and put 2 goose eggs and 6 chicken eggs in the fridge. What we DIDN'T know was that the other half of the dozen was in her room...wrapped in blankets...on the baseboard heater..."hatching". Of course when we realized she'd turned her room into an incubator, we explained that we couldn't burn the house down, and that THAT kind of heat would cook the eggs anyway, etc., etc., etc.

So then she was devastated. She'd "killed" the chickens. She was SO sad, and there were lots of tears. Now...I need to add here...we normally just let the tears flow. I mean...tears don't usually work around here. There are two female children in the house (one being a teenager), so we've seen lots of 'em, and we're pretty much immune. But this was serious heartbreak. So we went online and ordered an incubator. I doubted that the eggs had even been fertilized, and even if they had, surely she'd cooked them on that heater. Besides...even if they were fertile, and even if they weren't cooked, chicken eggs are only viable for about 2 weeks, and that's how long it took to get the incubator.

This kid researched all there was to know about raising chickens. She was a walking encyclopedia of chicken facts and coop building. And would you believe...one little chick did develop. When it was time to hatch, we had to leave town. She held that incubator, plugged in, the entire 8 hour trip there and the 8 hour trip back. But the poor thing never hatched. :( So then we ordered fertilized eggs. Unfortunately, the post office scrambled them. Kudos to the seller...the eggs never broke, even though the box was destroyed and had to be replaced en route. But, nonetheless, they didn't develop into baby chicks.

Somewhere in the midst of all the heartbreak, apparently we promised that THIS spring we'd get live chicks. I use the word "we" rather loosely...I really don't recall there being any "we" to it. Regardless..."we" were playing the odds...the odds that by this spring, she wouldn't give a flip about chickens. WRONG! We've been able to put her off so far, due to the weather.

A few weeks ago, she asked for a bird. She's had one on her Christmas list for several years. So I offered her a deal. She could get a bird INSTEAD of chickens. (There's no chance of ME trudging through 2 feet of snow at 20 below to feed a parakeet) She declined. It had to be chicks. Until Saturday, when there was a change of heart. We were taking the dog to be groomed, and there were BIRDS. I'm sure she was starting to think it was never going to stop snowing and she would NEVER get her chicks. The birds were within reach. So she gave a little speech about how she'd realized what a huge responsibility it would be to raise chickens, and how it would be a big job with the bad weather, yada, yada, yada. She could have saved the sales pitch...I was SOLD! I'll take a parakeet over chickens any day!

So now she has a parakeet named "Sky".



I can't believe how quickly they've bonded.



The two have spent HOURS together.



I think it's love. :)

So I'm CHEAP!!

Last May, for Mother's Day and my birthday, I wanted to make our yard look nice. So we made a BIG trip to Home Depot, spent a LOT of money, and then made our muscles ache by digging, raking, planting, etc. We were careful to choose plants that worked for our zone...the ARCTIC ZONE. Those poor plants struggled all summer long. They looked pretty much dead at one point. We slowly nursed them back to life...if you want to call it that. Each plant sprouted at least one new leaf on their dead brown stickly bodies, so we called them "live".

Well...it's sort of spring again, or at least the calendar says it is. Let's just forget the blizzard we had on Friday. Those plants were officially dead. We were looking at our receipts, and in a few days, it would be a year since we bought them. And hey...they were guaranteed for a year. THEY WERE!!!!! So yesterday morning, when the snow had mostly melted, I sent Chris out to dig up the dead plants. We made another BIG trip to Home Depot. This time, we carted in 6 very dead plants. As we got near the "RETURNS" counter, Chris and the kids started to walk the other direction. Yours truly was, of course, pushing the cart with the dead plants. I turned to Chris and said, "OH NO YOU DON'T! YOU GET OVER HERE!" There was no way I was going to keep that embarrassment all to myself. But as I got busy explaining myself to the guy at the register, my family quietly slinked away. The young register guy with grommets for earrings was NOT amused! But how could he argue...the guarantee was for a full year, and the year wouldn't be up until later this week.

As I walked away with my $127 gift card, a man in line even complimented me on my gardening skills. I thought that was nice.

We didn't leave empty handed. I mean...what a deal! If the plants die, we'll just get fresh ones again next year.

We got some Honeysuckle (mmmmmm....it smells SO nice),



a couple of Lilacs,



and some Sand Cherries.



We even had some survivors (Lilies) from last year.



Yep...you might say we're quite the gardeners.