Updates

Ugh...I wanted to take Summer and Adam out to dinner tonight because Ali is at work and I just didn't want to spend another night alone making some boring dinner. After much deliberation with a 5 and 8 year old I decided to go to Weebees- this cute, hip restaurant right down the street (they also have a kids menu in addition to some healthy creative food). I can't stand restaurant chains! Soooo we drove over there walked in and of course she asked me if I had a reservation (excuse me a reservation on a Wed. night in Bozeman Mt?) I said no and she said its a 10 minute wait. No thanks! So off we went with Summer pleading to go to Old Chicago (ughh a chain) so I tried to convince otherwise to no avail. I ate an oriental chicken salad. I just checked the nutritional value online- 900 calories, 31 grams of fat, and get this 3300 grams of SODIUM!!! Are you even serious???? so I better get ready to be a giant over stuffed sausage tomorrow ready to pop. It'll take a day or two to deflate from that.

We had a very nice Christmas although we missed everyone. I was the "lady" of the house among a bunch of testosterone. Ali's friend came over along with my cuz Al. The big deal of the day was the Wii. It is so much fun. I take back all the bad things I said about video games. I really like it! I am going to have to post a video of Adam playing the boxing game by himself. It is hilarious!

Still working on my business idea. Hopefully I will get more things set in stone with it by the end of Jan and I will be ready to reveal... OOOOOOHHHHH... I know you can't sleep at night just wondering what it is! LOL

My New Favorite Song

I have really been trying to make an effort to listen to music that has some value and meaning... but it's still fun to listen to nonsense once in a while. I never get tired of this song. I think we have all been "laying face down on the floor" at least once in our lives. (Mom at this point you press "play" the triangle in the middle :O)

New Brownie and Pagent News

Hi All,

Here is Summer right after her "investiture" ceremony (investawhat?). She is now officially a Brownie! I had a tear in my eye thinking about when I was a brownie too and how my little girl is growing. Don't get me started about how I started crying when she showed me her school pictures. She looks like a preteen!

Remember the Church I was telling you about? Well, they had a children's Christmas pageant and we participated this last Sunday. Adam was the centurion and summer was my cute little sheep. It was wonderful seeing them participate. As the pastor said, it gets the story "in their bones".

Happy little centurions!!

Laundry Fun!

Let me tell you how much fun I have been having doing laundry here! First off, only my mom knows (and possibly my sister) my "dirty" little secret: when I was living in OH I used to have piles upon piles of laundry sitting in my basement at a time. I am talking 5-10 loads at a time. Who would know right- out of sight out of mind. I was so busy I would do the laundry, fold it (sort of) and put in these bins- one for each of us. If I needed something I would dig through the bin. Many mornings at 6:30am I spent digging for matching socks or tights or whatever. The point being most of it never got to a drawer. Well, here I don't have a basement and the laundry room is right off the kitchen. So no more little secrets! All of my dirty laundry is out in the open for the world to see! The dryer does not dry and it takes about 1 hour to dry one load. So, today I go to open the washing machine to put it in the dryer and guess what my eyes see- about 100 dryer sheets floating around in my clothes along with about a million teeny tiny bits of cardboard. What the ???? so here is what I deduced- my box of 120 dryer sheets that I just bought fell into the wash at some point- because I am so aware of what is going on. So now my clothes smell REALLY good. :0)

Deep Thoughts by ...Jen

I have to post this today. I heard this on the radio this morning:

"In the end I would rather be disliked for who I am, then liked for who I am not."

LOVE LOVE LOVE that! It's so hard in this world to be who you truly are. What God has made you to be. Often feeling like you need to conform to what is expected of you or what the "norm" is doing, saying, wearing, or acting like. How wonderful to know that God made us- he made as individuals. I feel that I have spent an awful big part of my life trying to "fit in" and conform to standards - who set those standards??? Honesty: my whole life I have tried hard to do and say the right things, but yet be tough. You know what- I am a nice person! There is nothing wrong with just being nice. What ever happened to that? I mean just being nice! This past year or two many walls have been torn down to reveal what is truly meaningful to me and my family. God tore us down to build us back up.

OK was that too deep? I just get tired of seeing so many women (especially in the city- sorry) with their head up high just because they dress, look, and act a certain way. Being here has made me realize how wonderful it is to strip yourself of what is only appearence and truly be who you are. I have met some amazing women here and they are who they are! Beautiful, unique, healthy, and smart. I love it.

OK more honesty- we as women tend to judge others, compare, and judge ourselves. I don't know if that's natural or what but its the truth. I spent time looking at other women and thinking why can't I be like that? skinny, strong, funny, smart, fashionable whatever. Recently I have taken a long look at myself and realized this is how God made me! Can improve upon it? Yes! Will I have bad hair and body image days? Yes, but unless plastic surgery is performed and bones are removed I will not ever be a size 2 or good at math. Does that mean I need to give up, be fat and lazy, and never try to figure how much a tip will be? No, but I need to just accept me and learn how I can improve that. OK sorry for all the deepness!

Adam's reenactment video

Explanation: OK so you know the scene in Christmas Story when Ralphie daydreams that he came back home blind and it was because of soap poisoning?

Further explanation: this is a video. You have to press play (sorry mom).

New Pix

This morning at Summer's Holiday Peformance. Let's just say Summer was in love with the dress :) You work it girl!!

Bein Silly (our $10 tree)

At the Holiday Stroll Brrrrrr..... It's Cold!

Good News

Just thought I would you let you know what happened to me Sunday. If you have been reading my postings you know that I have been unsuccessfully searching for a new church here. I don't know about you but God gives me signs sometimes. All last week I got all of these hints here and there to KEEP ON LOOKING. I felt really motivated to go on Sunday. The past month or two I guess I had given up. I did not want to go another Sunday by myself to a church that I knew no one and that I didn't feel comfortable in. Well, I got up and told the kids that WE were going. They must know that tone in my voice (you know the one- like OK she really means business we are not going to waste our energy on fighting we will go) because they got dressed without too much drama, Ali went to work out and we were off in 0 degree weather to church. I turned back to what I knew- the United Methodist Church. If you are looking for a place to go just remember this: there is no perfect church! You will not find EVERYTHING you are looking for. But, if there are nice people and good programs for what you are interested in than just give it a chance. So we went (now I have been there I think twice before with no one coming up to me and talking to me). As soon as I walked in a lady with a big smile on her face greeted me and I started to ask her about the childrens program. She told me who to talk to so then we sat down. Then, out of no where this really nice lady came over, introduced herself (she was head of the children's ministry) and gave us a 20 minute tour of the classrooms and an explanation of what they do. WOW! Summer and Adam of course were shy and apprehensive so they did not want to go in that day- but it looked encouraging for next week. Then when we sat down Summer told me she wanted to go!! That was music to my ears. Not only that they have a women's bible study program starting in January! Have I finally found what I've been looking for? Sometimes if we let go of trying so hard to find what we want God will present it to you. It's amazing. Pray and be patient my friends.

So, Ali's friend has been here all week from OH and my cousin Al came up yesterday. They will be working on the ranch with him. I hope it all works out. You can't get a more beautiful and stress free place to work. It's just sooooo remote for them and so cold. It will be -39 tomorrow!! I feel like the mother hen worried about them. Well, they have no one else here except us!

Summer has her holiday program Wed that she is really excited about. She is in love with the dress she is wearing. I will post pictures. Oh ya and I bought a little used tree for 10 bucks. It's just right for us. I love the simple life!

What up here...

The view driving up to the Bridger mountains. I told Ali "Stop the Car! I have to take a picture!"

My life is not perfect but this is as good as its ever been. I get to wake up everyday and chose what I want "us" to do. Today I got a free pass to the gym so I took Adam and I worked out while he played in their kids area. It has a huge climber with slides, balls to play in, etc so he loved it. Then, we went swimming together and let me tell you that was NICE. There was only one other person there and we sat in the hot tub and just had fun. Thinking about joining the family there.

I am still thinking about this business in my mind. I just haven't taken any steps to start it. I am honest- I am scared. Scared that I will start it , put all the effort heart and soul and then fail. So then I was watching the Biggest Loser Tues and the trainer said something that struck me- what if everyone went around saying I can't do it. Of course there are millions of reasons why we cant lose weight, go back to school, skydive, whatever, but what if everyone thought that way? There would be new business, no creativity, nothing new! I think my other problem I guess is that I am trying to live my life with God's will for me. I still struggle with this because its not like God is gonna come out of the sky and say "Yes, Jen you should start this business. I think its an excellent idea". Noway! I just think about my intentions: hopefully to help some people who can come and help me, to bring something to this town that it does not have, to get people to try something new and healthy. My intention is truly not to be a millionare, I just want to start something that will pay some bills. If it grows great, but I am not looking to do this to be rich. I also try to read God's word but I have to admit I have not been doing that everyday either. That helps me to get an idea of HOW I should be living.

OK well I am sure you are wondering what this business is. Not ready to reveal it yet. Not sure if I am ready to even seriously think about it. Not sure if this is what I want to do! In the meantime- it is really cold here... 0 degrees to the teens. It really beautiful though!