A very happy day!

Will update tomorrow hopefully!!  We made it to Billings and are having a blast swimming (or being drown by someone else's boy who needs some attention!) and being together...with pizza and a beer...for mom. :)  Took lots of great pics today and I can't wait to show everyone!!

Today's errands..

We are off to our local supermarket...Albertson's.  We are going to pick up snacks, anything that will help keep the kids happy on our trek Tuesday, and ingredients for a crock pot of chili.  Luke has requested my homemade chili, which is pretty nummy, and a beer.  There isn't much time for beer drinking for him these days.  For those who know him, that's a good thing.  So, we are headed into town...in the snow and wind.  Two days ago I was literally sun tanning on our deck...I even got freckles on my nose.. But, of coarse, as moving day approaches, the snow flies!!!  And the wind....living in the valley is wonderful.  Mild temps, mountains on every side, but when the wind blows..you better be prepared.  When it's gusting outside I always find myself looking up to the sky expecting to see Mary Poppins sailing down with her black umbrella. :)  I am still a kid at heart.

Moving day is almost here!

So, it's Sunday just before 8:00am and tonight Luke and mom and dad will be here!  After today I no longer will be lonely for anyone over 7!  It's been almost 3 months since Luke left for North Dakota.  In that time, knowing no one in Helena, it's been the kids and me, "Mom!" all day long!  I can't say I know no one, really.  I have gotten to know our neighbors.
They are a wonderful retired couple who have been in Helena for about 30 years.  One evening there was a knock at the door.  I went to open it wearing my workout clothes and wow, I looked great!!  Not.  I had just finished punching and kicking to Turbo Jam in hopes of shedding some of the softness I've developed thanks to my experimenting with Mastering the Art of French Cooking!  Tom and Bev were standing outside the door with a plate of the stickiest, gooeyist (don't know if that's a word) cinnamon rolls I've ever eaten.  Of coarse, I had to try them later while still wearing my sports bra and leggings....sad.  They just came down the road to say hello and introduce themselves.  I almost cried after they left because it had been my first conversation with an adult outside the grocery store or gas station in quite a while.  I realized in that moment how much I do love people.  After our initial meeting the kids and I would walk down every so often to their ranch and bring cookies or a cake I once made that the kids wouldn't eat.  I liked it.  But I didn't need to eat the whole thing myself!  Tom stops by regularly after morning coffee to check on us and helps me bring our trash to the city dump.  I truly will miss them and have every intention of staying in touch.
So, tomorrow morning we head to town to get the Uhaul.  It shouldn't take more than a couple hours to load up.  Tom has been kind enough to round up two guys to help us.  So nice of him.  Then early Tuesday morning we will be off!!  With loads of little sandwiches and bags full of toys and God's greatest invention for mothers....a portable DVD player!!  When on a road trip, the secret is to not pull it out of your bag of tricks until the very last possible second before you want to jump out of the car or strap the kids to the top!!  Otherwise, if you bring it out right away they get bored of that too!!
It should take about 10-12 hours to get to Minot from Helena.  It's a pretty straight shot on 94 to Bismarck then up 83 to Minot.  It's the long way, but with ice and snow and hauling a trailer it will be much safer.  Once we get to Minot our plans are to be residents of the Minot Super 8 for one if not 2 nights, possibly 3.  We have rented a 4 bedroom turn of the century home in the northwest part of town.  We have never seen it!!!!  Luke has not been able to drive by to check it out since he is rarely in Minot before midnight after a day's work.  So, clever girl that I am, I have spent considerable time staring at Google Earth....hoping the houses I see when I punch in our "maybe" address include ours!

You can see for yourself..punch in 100 6th St. NW, Minot, ND.  I think it's the white one!

The house is quiet...

I just got off the phone with Luke a bit ago and he sounds tired.  These days he is really lucky if he gets four hours of sleep in.  I think his last pay period was clocked out at around 120 hours a week!!!....One week!!!  How many hours are there in a week?  168? That means he had 48 hours in 7 days for brushing his teeth, shaving (which he doesn't do anymore...he seriously looks like Grizzly Adams, but I like it) sleeping and eating.  That's not a lot of time.  There have been a few nights I have stayed up on the phone, talking him awake while he tries to keep the truck on the right side of the line on his way home.  You may ask why is he working so many hours?  It's a good question.  The answer is money; the money involved in the oil industry is mind-blowing!!  I will be learning more and more about the industry and how it all works....but for anyone looking for a job....you could walk into town, Minot, Williston, or Dickinson, to name a few, and be hired immediately.  You have to not mind 40 below, gusting, freezing winds that glue your eyelashes together, and getting really, really, extremely, dirty.  Hell, I think I could handle it!  Not!  But my honey is Superman and he's incredible, and happy to boot...I'm here to take care of him and I love him.   

The house is packed!

What I'm reading now...

I browse my Kindle often to see what book descriptions fit my mood at the moment (it does change frequently) and I usually get on a kick.  My latest kick has been murder/crime scene investigation types...

Just finished:

Fatal Instinct by Robert Walker..the second in The Instinct Thrillers series.  A great story w/ love and guts, but mild guts.
Killer Instinct... the first in the series...was so good I read the second!

Recently:

Resistance: A Novel by Anita Shreve...The wife of a resistance worker in a Nazi-occupied Belgian village falls in love with the wounded American bomber pilot she is caring for.  **** 4 stars!!!

Clothes are coming out of my ears!!

I know we want our children to have everything.  We want them to have the things they dream about (which change several times a day I might add!) and we want them to fit in with their peers.  This includes their clothing.  We don't want them to look like we did when our mothers dressed us against our will for every school picture!!  But, come on!  I could clothe an entire country in Europe with what I'm finding in the closet as I pack for our move!!  We will definately be frequent contributors to the several Goodwill locations in Minot!

What Is To Come

So, now that I've spent the entire morning creating my blog page I need to get doing what I'm supposed to be doing!  Packing...cleaning...and more cleaning.  See, Luke has bee in Minot since just before Thanksgiving.  Yes, we had to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas apart this year.  It was terrible.  While he has been there the kids and I have been in Helena, MT in a rented four bedroom farmhouse just north of town.  We came to Helena in September in search of a new beginning.  (Why were we searching for a new beginning? Later.) But we didn't find it here.  Luke stayed home for two months with no job while I worked at Macy's part time while trying to build a clientele in a beautiful salon..that didn't go so well, unfortunately.  He was home until.....YES!! He landed a job with an electrical company out of Utah that was working on the oil rigs on the  Bakken.  Anyway...more of this story later....I need to be cleaning and packing!  My parents and Luke will be here in Helena tomorrow night.  We will pick up our 26' Uhaul truck early Mon. morning and will proceed to pack all of our worldly belongings into it's rear end.  We have considerably less than we used to, thank God, since before coming to Helena we had 6 days of garage sales!!! $$$$ too!! It's all gone, now, though.  Two months is a long time to have no income and lots of 'outcome'!  Yeah, the savings is gone..but not for long! FINANCES...that will be another page shortly where I'll warn you of what NOT to do with $.
  Ok...I need to go clean and pack!! Talk later. xoxo

My First Post

Hi!  I am 30.  I am a new housewife (I am very excited about this..really!) and I have three beautiful and naughty children with Luke.  Luke has been in my life for 11 years now and our story is a long one...that will come later.  But, he has recently taken a job as an electrician in the oil fields of North Dakota.  He works ungodly hours and gets very, very dirty.  The upside is that those ungodly hours (and lack of sleep) have allowed me to not work outside the home.  What do you do with all this time when you're used to going to work every day??  That's easy!  All the things I couldn't do before.  Well, I thought it would be easy....Realistically I have had a hard time channeling my energy and feeling like there is structure to my new life and that of my children.  But, I have an answer.  I am going to take all of the wonderful interests of mine and take advantage of time to share, write, photograph, and ponder aloud my life.  Here.  On this blog.  So....here we go!  I hope you come along for the ride with me!