Little Friends

AJ made a little friend at the park on Sunday.  The park is awesome…huge, landscaped, complete with lake and creek and wonderful bridges and things to climb on.  The sun finally came out after a long, long, extra long winter here in Montana and suddenly the park was packed with families.  AJ was a little intimidated by all the new kids, but in a short time he was venturing onto the slides.  He didn’t latch on to any kids, instead playing with ‘Mac’ his imaginary friend. 

Soon a mommy sat next to me and we both had babies with us.  Babies are a great way for moms to start talking to each other.  There are endless questions such as “How old?” and “Is he/she sleeping?”  Her baby and my baby were born only three days apart, as it turns out.  And then she said she had a 3 1/2 year old running around on the rocks.  How convenient!  So did I!  So we introduced the kiddos and they spent the next two hours throwing grass into the creek, racing around the playground, building houses for ants, and making the very last pile of snow in the park into snowballs.  I was very happy to see AJ having so much fun with another little kid finally.  Bonus:  I got the mom’s phone number so we can meet at the park again. 

 

Greenhouse

I bought myself a greenhouse, what with this being the year of living dangerously and all.  Greenhouses are not just for old people.  Or perhaps I am becoming old people.  Either way, I am so excited about this that I may barely be able to contain myself during the 2-4 weeks that it will take to ship!  It’s a good sized 8′6″ x 20′ 9″ greenhouse.  One thing that I really missed living in Colorado was gardening.  I am NOT a gardener by nature.  I do not have houseplants, because I will kill them.  I like to grow food though, that is one thing that I can do okay.  I am hoping that this endeavor will really help me hone my skills in this department.  If not, then I will have a really big building to store snow tires and lawnmowers in.  Ha!

I couldn’t grow anything at 9200 feet in Colorado.  It was too high, too cold, too windy, and the dirt was basically decomposed granite.  I have big plans…BIG PLANS for this summer and I will document their success (or catastrophic failure) here from time to time. 

The greenhouse will mainly be a home for delicate tomatoes and some peppers.  These are hard to grow in the unpredictable weather in Montana.  I plan to try a couple of types of eggplant.  Jesse made me promise to try some cilantro.  And I’ll attempt basil and chives.  The greenhouse will be a great way to start plants early before transplanting them out into the big gardens.  The hardier stuff…potatoes, corn, carrots and onions…those go right into the garden.  It’s been known to freeze at night even in June some years, so this greenhouse will be really SUPER for the more delicate plants.  

 

News on the Job Front

So I have a job.  This is a good thing!  I’m very excited to start new job.  I have not had a “new job” in eight years so the newness is very exciting.  And it’s not even as a gas station attendant, like my dad said it would be.  I start on Monday. 

 

Pizza Delivery

It’s probably not a big deal to the vast majority of you out there, but I have to say we ordered pizza last night and it came right to the door.  Amazing. 

We moved (very spur of the moment, by the way, for a move with two kids) from Divide, Colorado.  Divide was a great place to live, if you are going to live near Colorado Springs.  We liked the idyllic outdoor setting, the rural expansiveness, the huge pine trees, the Pikes Peak views.  Colorado Springs was getting too big for both of us and we decided we should raise the nuggets in a less populated place.  There were many factors that played into the timing of the move so we did it.  And we had pizza last night, delivered right to the door.

See, when you move to a rural area you give up such luxuries.  Instead of pizza and a movie, you sit on the porch and shoot ground squirrels.  When you call a place and ask if they deliver to Divide, it’s hard to understand the answer through all of the laughter on the other end.  Instead of a backyard barbeque, you have a fire pit in your yard.  Shoveling snow requires a plow of some type, preferably one with lots of horsepower.  Checking the mail often requires a vehicle.  But I didn’t realize how much I missed the convenience of delivery services!  I am going to see if I can get Chinese delivered tonight. 

I am also thrilled to be in a neighborhood with tons of kids running around.  Some of the strange things we are getting used to: the sound of car doors slamming, the street lights, the frequent neighbors talking and laughing on the porch.  The trash truck is strange.  I got stuck behind a street sweeper.  I can’t remember the last time I saw a street sweeper.  I’m excited about my < two mile commute.  Jesse is excited to be within an hour’s drive of five major mountain ranges.  AJ is excited about the park down the street.  Macy is excited…well, she’s excited to eat and poop and that’s about it, but we assume she will like the park soon.  AJ’s new preschool is amazing…it has “Nigerian dwarf goats, chickens, a woodworking shop for kids, and the most beautiful setting one could imagine for a preschool.  Yet it’s just down the road from us. 

So I guess you could say our new town is not too big, not too small…but just riiiiiiight. 

Hopefully this means we are done moving.  I’m ready to stay put for a while.  I think. 

 

Evel Knievel

It seems that Evel Knievel has died.  It’s a sad day for Butte, Montana…

 

Butte Rat

A friend sent me this…I’ve seen it before but thought it might make a good post.  Butte Rats are people who grew up in–or officially adopted as their hometown–Butte, Montana.  

Butte, Montana   

•  Home of the world’s largest body of contaminated water (the world’s largest Superfund site)
•  Lots of people would generally be embarassed by having the largest body of contaminated water in the world, but not those Butte folks, they set up a veiwing stand.
• A 90 foot lighted statue of the Virgin Mary atop the Continental Divide
• A brothel that closed in 1991
• It’s Pasty not pastry
• How’s she go?” is proper English
• You learned how to make beer in sophomore Montana history class
• St. Patrick’s Day is the biggest holiday of the year
• The bouncers at the bars are high school teachers
• When the M&M closed we all cried
• Driving is better in the winter because potholes are filled with snow
• A high of -10 is a little chilly
• Our sheriff failed his firearm test
• Stop signs optional
• Even our principals belong to a union
• High schoolers hang out at a bar at lunch
• The highest concentration of radon in the valley happens to be the same place as the high school
• Hell Roarin’ Gulch is THE elementary school fieldtrip
• The Columbia Gardens hold childhood memories, even if you were born after 1979
• You could see the Travona, Mountain Con and Anselmo head frames from your math class
• Every July we spend a week celebrating hometown daredevil Evel Kneivel (who robbed convenience stores when growing up in Butte)
• Every state politician running for election shows up for Butte’s Fourth of July parade…not Billings, not Missoula…not even Helena
• No open container law
• We’re the most economically depressed city in the state ranked 50th in the nation economically yet we raised $150,000 in a week to save our fireworks display on Big Butte
• Driving cars down the main drag is a universal high school experience.
• School is almost empty during the time of state sporting events.
• High school students consider “chillin’ at wal*mart” a normal thing to do.
• You get passed while you are driving 75 mph.
• Butte High School still has a senior skip day.
• North Dakota jokes are heard daily
• If you see a fight, you stop– to watch and cheer the people on…never to break them up.
• In this hell of town, everyone knows someone named Murph, if you don’t know a Murph, you know a Mac, and finally if you don’t know a Mac, then you must know a Sully.
• Citizens consider swearing in public perfectly acceptable.
• Kids under the age of 17 can get into any R rated movie at the Plaza 6.
• The high school cheering section shouts out profanities, and the parents think its hilarious and join in.
• Tap ‘er Light!