Say a Prayer

My mom just called me and told me that one of my cousins and her two children were in a car accident last night. She is in Bozeman with a broken neck, broken collar bone, broken ribs, broken pelvic bone and punctured lungs. She went into surgery today on her neck. She was thrown from the vehicle. Her 12 year old son was not injured but he was the one who had to call 911. Kids can be so brave when they need to be. Her youngest was also injured and is at the hospital in Bozeman. So please keep her and her family in your prayers today and in your thoughts.

MISS YOU MICCA

I am SOOOO sad that my new virtual friend who I can't wait to meet when she comes to visit Brooke deleted her page. BOOOOOO! ;(

B-Bar

We went xc skiing at the B-Bar Ranch on Saturday. It was tons of fun. So far I have only skied in the fields so I was a little nervous. But SO glad that we went. B-Bar is way south of town up Tom Miner Basin. Grif actually did a whole bunch of work up there one season when he was working with a design/build firm while still in school so it was really fun for him to see everything that they had done up there and show it all to me. We spent the morning on the easiest trail up there. I only fell about four times. Grif even filmed me going down into and back out of a creek bottom thinking that I would fall at some point but........I didn't!! He didn't catch any of my falls on the camera this time.

I'm coming slowly but surely....... I tend to trail pretty far behind so G has to stop and wait for me a lot.

G taking a rest in the Anderson Cabin. We saw HUGE animal trail going up the hillside behind.... bear maybe??

What a cute little cabin. The snow was up past my knees outside the door.

So the B-Bar has these amazing work horses that they use all over the ranch. I keep forgetting what they are called but I know that they have the work punch in the name so I will call them punches. They are incredibly thick with huge hoofs. They remind me of some sort of prehistoric lizard with their thick necks and smaller heads. We spent a lot of time checking them out.

After skiing we decided to check out a sand bar on the river off of the bridge. One that we have never been to. We found lots of great rocks and even crossed paths with another old rock hound out there. Fun day.

And what did my bro do this weekend???.........................Fished of course. No sure why he looks so angry. Looks like a pretty good day to me.

Weekend Fun

I had a 3 day weekend full for things that I usually don't get to do. Saturday I spent the afternoon volunteering at the Livingston soup kitchen Loaves and Fishes with my Manaia group. We served 58 plates of yummy hot Sloppy Joes to some hungry and very nice people. Then I went to my cousin Alishas house. My other cuz Ruby and her bf Derrik were in town from Missoula. (Ruby and my little sis live together) Derrik brought his guitar hero game and I AM REALLY GOOD!!!!! Add guitar hero and whatever other game thing it is that you need to play guitar hero to my list of things that I want. Sunday was the Big Brothers Big Sisters 'Winter FUn Day' at Mountain Sky Guest Ranch up Big Creek in Paradise Valley. My tiny and I enjoyed snowshoeing and coloring and of course food and had a great time. The snow up there was a couple of feet deep at least and it was quite comical to watch the little kids try to tredge through it. Everyone had a really great time. I also did a couple of rund down the drift and back on my xc skiis. Grif went to Point of Rocks on Sunday to look for rocks. (We just got a vibrating flat lap polisher.....tell you about that later, very exciting) Then we had a nice dinner at Rib and Chop after we both got home. I did not work on Monday. (Presidents Day) Grif of course did work. He had to go on a site visit to a project up the west boulder so I went with him to check it out. It is a beautiful little guest cabin (900-1,000 sq/ft) near a main house that sits RIGHT on the river. So we had a nice afternoon drive in the company truck and got to check out all the places back there and talk. Now back to work today and off to do tobacco compliance checks all throughout Madison County. Long drive but beautiful country.

VISION

In Manaia we all write vision statements for ourselves. This gives us an opportunity to really think about where it is that we would like our lives to take us and what path will get us to that place. This is mine.
I am a dependable fortress of love for myself and others. My Search for truth and passionate hope guide me in life.
As I am faced with challenges in life as well as simple choices and decisions I am able to think about my vision statement and choose the road that I feel is most in line with what my vision of who I am and what I want my life to look like is.

Love My Valentine

I really had the BEST Valentines Day ever yesterday. First of all, Grif is really great every day. But yesterday I woke up to roses and new boots!! What girl doesn't LOVE a new pair of boots right? These are no ordinary boots either. Not the kind of boots that I have ever really owned. But I really LOVE them!! They are beautiful. And not to mention perfect for practicing our dance moves. Now that dance class is over we really need to keep practicing or we are going to forget all the we learned. Check them out.....................................

I surprised Grif with new subscriptions to his favorite magazines (Rock & Gem and Dwell) and a new Sake set that is supposed to be romantic because the three pieces fit snugly together like they love eachother. Very Cute.I thought that we should just stay home and I would cook us dinner but Grif was insistant that we go out and I not have to cook because I always cook dinner. So we went down the road to Pine Creek where there was live music (we thought we were going to be able to bust out our dance moves there but the music was more lounge like...very nice but not good for dancing). We will have to find some music this weekend to dance to...I have to try out my new dancing boots! We had a perfect dinner and went home and practiced our dance moves in the livingroom like we always do. So much fun. Grif is the greatest!

Happy Valenitnes Day friends

grrrrrr

In my attempt to be a better person I am working on trying to forgive people and let some things go. I am finding it really hard and even annoying. I still just think that some things are pretty unforgivable and not easily forgotten. And why do I have to always be the bigger person? Sometimes I just don't feel like being that big. And sometimes it feels like such a waste of time anyway.

LISTS....baahahaha

All this talk about lists. I do not make lists. Not because I don't like them. Mostly because I like to believe that I have a great memory (which I do) and for me making lists would make my memory somehow less amazing..... I do from time to time make small lists while meeting with my boss because sometimes I feel like if I'm not writing things down he may feel like I am not listening. But I am listening and I rarely refer back to the lists later. Even when I make grocery lists I do not follow them. So why do I make grocery lists....so that Grif feels like we have a plan when going into the grocery store and that I am not just wandering aimlessly throwing random shit into our cart. (Which I think he does more than I do but whatever)
Or maybe I don't write lists because I don't want to think of extra things to do and then feel obligated to do them all because I wrote them down once. That could be it too. My old roomate used to write to do lists every day and update and alter them all day long. I tired it once. It didn't last a day.
So I am happy to say that I am not a lister.

YES WE CAN

I stole this from Brooke. But I have to admit that when I watched it this morning it brought a sense of lightness to my heart. Everyday I spend my time pouring my own heart into those of young people whose lives are full of sadness, despair, anger, hurt, abuse and poverty rather than being full of happiness and hope. The two things that should fill every childs life. I often find myself feeling heavy hearted at the end of the day but also hopeful that tomorrow, or next week, or someday things will be different for my young friends and that they too will find hope in this world. Sometimes hope is all that we have to hold onto, luckily most of the time it is all that we really need. So thanks Brooke.

TAG

TAG!
Micca has tagged me to answer these questions:

5 weird or random facts about yourself:

1. I LOVE living on the ranch. (even when I am complaining about it) And would L-O-V-E love to have my own. (as long as I had someone there to take care of the ranchie things...not good at most of them)
2. If you looked at my desk you would never believe that I know where everything is on it. But I do. It is a ploy so that no one can find anything but me. :)
3. I really enjoy all the projects and programs that I am a part of right now but I have no long term career goals...is that bad? I feel like maybe I should get one but I'm not sure where to find it.
4. I hated PE more than anything else we had to do in school.
5. I am an online shopaholic.......we don't have much for shopping here so I have to turn to the internet. I often find myself shopping online and think; what am I even looking for....nothing.

5 places I would like to travel:

1. Vegas and NYC every couple of months to see my besties (Ashley and Heather) and throw Denver in that mix to see Alicia too
2. Kentucky (where Grif is from) and Alabama (where his family farm is)
3. Figi
4. Europe
5. New Zealand

I am tagging anyone who reads this.

OOOOOOOOOKLAHOMA

While searching through my Tshirts last week looking or something to wear to the gym I came across this. Look familiar Brooke? Many years ago when Brooke and I worked together at MSU she brought me this wonderful shirt back after one of her trips home. It made me smile when I found it so I wanted to share it with you. A tribute to all you Okies out there from your MT friend. I believe that Oklahoma has an instate rivalry much like we have here in MT. Sooooo, here's to OSU (hope thats the right one) and MSU!!

Js weekend wrap up.

After spending all last week struggling day and night just to get to town and back up to the house being able to sleep in a little Saturday morning with no worries of how I would make it to work came as a great relief. Grif spent most of the weekend in a front end loader on snow relocation duty which left me to getting the house back to normal. I had ignored all of the things I do throughout the week (dishes, vaccuming, laundry) because all of my time and energy was wasted on snow. I was glad to be able to get some things done that had been driving me CRAZY!

Between my cleaning and Gs snow moving we were able to have our friends Will and Suzie up for a wonderful homemade dinner (who needs the Bistro...right Will?) After dinner the four of us ventured down the road to enjoy a friendly girls vs. guys shuffle board match. Sadly the guys won 4/5 games. The must have been cheating!!

We did miss the Super Bowl party at Matts but had a nice Sunday evening and........back to work.

Happy Bday Clem!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALICIA (yesterday Feb. 3). Alicia is my girl from college. We were roomies in Bozo until she decided to leave me and move to Denver last spring. I sure do miss you Alicia. Hope you can make it up here in a few weeks!! Love you roomie!