WHERE DID OCTOBER GO?

Wow, today is Halloween and I can't for the life of me figure out what happened to the month of October! I knew the time would pass quickly once I got back from Montana and it has! We're on the "GOODBYE TOUR" as I like to call it. Our church, Cross Timbers honored us with an open house send off. I was amazed at how many people made time to be a part of that! There was tons of food including a gorgeous cake our friend Charli had ordered with a picture of the Mountainview Hideaway on it! The picture was taken from our friend Fabrizzio's artwork that he did for us; Dave had made note cards for me with his picture on it and I had sent one to her earlier this year. Charli and her husband Conley put a lot of love and effort into making this special for us!!

Charlie and I, she's a native Montana gal!

Dave and Conley, the "King of the Grill"!

Our sweet friend Martha and I...

Jerry, Martha's hubby is quite a character!

We've had a final get together with our Life Group which was hard for me. We are 4 couples that have been "Doing Life" together for over 12 years and we have seen lots of changes during that time; all of us have lost loved ones, celebrated marriages and promotions as well as shared in life's trials and Dave's cancer journey. This is a group that is as close as any family and whenever there is a need, they are right there to roll up their sleeves...I will miss these wonderful people so very much!

We've also gone out to dinner, lunch and brunch with many people and have a few more on the calendar. Tomorrow and Wednesday the BNSF will honor Dave as well.

I spent some time back in St Charles this month as well. I enjoyed a good visit with my father and stepmother with some of my siblings one Saturday...

Some people say I look like him but I don't know about that.

I took Pop to the country where we spent the afternoon with our life long friends Dennis and Lois. I enjoyed seeing our oldest daughter Jennifer and her family several times, including our grand-daughter Alyson's musical with Pop and a movie and lunch one day of their Fall Break.

I always make time to visit my Mutti's grave at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, as I pulled up, the chapel bells were playing the National Anthem.

I spent the day with my best friend Brenda where we celebrated her birthday in Kimmswick, MO.

Of course I HAD to spend time with my Peggy....

I always make my Pop a priority; we spent a lot of time together just chatting, watching World War 2 documentaries as well as his favorite, "Sanford & Son". I enjoyed his cooking for us (memories from my childhood came flooding back) and I listened to him share memories, all the while giving thanks I still have him in my life... I am incredibly blessed!

UNLOADING AND SET UP

We woke up early the next morning and after a fire, coffee and daybreak, we began to unload the truck. We had labeled everything as we packed the boxes so it was easy enough to organize but we ran out of room inside the house and had to start stacking boxes on the porch. Our contractor Randy had agreed to help Dave with the heavy furniture but he didn't want Randy to feel obligated to unload boxes too. In Dave's loading diagram, the heavy furniture items were loaded in first and in the middle which meant we had lots of other stuff to move out of the way before they could get to them. Dave and I got a lot unloaded and once Randy arrived, they began moving the really heavy stuff out of the truck and upstairs. We were pleased that we had managed to get the truck completely unloaded and still had plenty of time to get our bed set up.

Our bedroom is not finished by any stretch of the imagination; there are boxes still all over the place since I was unable to get my closet put together. Randy is putting in rods and shelves for me and that will be my first post-retirement project. It was great being able to sleep on our own bed again!

I had put on a pot of Taco Soup when we had gotten up that morning so dinner was quick and done by day's end!

After a sound night's sleep, we awoke to our usual routine of coffee and a fire in the kitchen woodstove. I made us a nice breakfast of Southwest Omelettes with Bacon and then we went into Whitefish to pick up our new Subaru Forester. It took a while since they cover "everything you need to know and then you promptly forget afterwards" but we got squared away and then we went into Kalispell and returned the U Haul truck.

After we got back I worked on putting together the little bistro table I had found down here. I had been hoping to work on my project of making my posts with outdoor lighting attached that I had mentioned last month but unfortunately, the outside outlet is incorrect and I will have to have it redone. Probably for the best though since we only used the table and chairs a couple of times before I stored it for the Winter.

To be continued...

ANOTHER U HAUL MOVE

I can hardly believe it but we have survived the last U Haul move and we still like each other! Seriously, moving across the country is very stressful in and of itself but throw in purging and down-sizing thirty years of marriage and it gets a little crazy! Dave once again created a loading diagram for the truck and realized that unlike our April trip, we needed to upgrade from a 20 foot truck to a 26 foot one. Midst all of the packing and protecting furniture, I condensed down my every day household items into three categories: Take to Montana, Donate and Trash. Whatever is left and is going to Montana HAS to fit in the car when we make the final drive in November.

Dismantling the log bed and emptying out our bedroom!

Taking apart the roll top computer desk and setting up the computer on a card table, our decorating style is beginning to resemble "Poor college student"!

Dave quickly determined that, while there were some differences in the way the two different sized trucks handled, it wasn't that much more difficult driving the larger truck. The truck held everything we had planned to take and with room left over, we were able to fit in those items we had been uncertain about.

We left at 3:50 AM on Saturday September 3rd. Dave wanted to make it to Buffalo, Wyoming that first day. To say I was less than thrilled to be on the road for 22 hours would be the understatement of all time, especially when we lost our air conditioning coming through Texas and the floorboard on the passenger side got so hot that it melted my deodorant in my overnight bag! I was miserable! There was also the stress of mountain passes to navigate. As we descended Raton Pass crossing over from New Mexico to Colorado, we pulled over to check the load and discovered that the brakes were smoking! I wondered what that burning smell was!!?

We checked into our room and were in bed by 1 AM and slept for a few hours and were back on the road at 6 AM, bound for Montana! The outside temperatures were much more pleasant and even though we had rain off and on, the second day was better than the first. I convinced Dave to stop at the state line for a picture.

About an hour south of Billings we had an idiot light come on in the dashboard panel. With no manual in the glove box to determine what it meant, I began looking up U Haul businesses in Billings hoping we would make it there. Of course worst case scenarios start playing our in your head thinking of ALL the stuff we had loaded up in the truck and what a nightmare it would be to transload everything into another truck! I managed to view the digital manual on my smart phone and determined that the light was an indicator that it needed an oil change. Dodged a bullet!

The Mission Mountains north of Missoula welcoming us home...

After a brief stop in Polson for some groceries, we pulled into the Mountainview Hideaway before dark, thankful to be out of that truck. Unloading would commence at day break!

WEEKEND WORK

This was our last weekend to wrap up some of the prep work before we pick up the truck Thursday morning. I helped Dave take apart the computer desk on Saturday which took a lot longer than we thought it would. This is the very reason for doing the prep work so that we aren't slowed down loading the truck! We've had the computer desk for maybe ten years now and with all of it's pigeon holes, I've been able to cram a lot of junk in there!

I have used the top to display family photos and at Christmas, it's a great place to set up my Nativity pieces.

A few weeks ago, I sorted and purged through everything, getting rid of pens that didn't work, outdated paperwork, etc. To my surprise, Dave started going through the desk pitching stuff (some of it mine!) His plan was for the drawers to be virtually empty but I didn't know that; yes, I was fishing through the trash and squirreling stuff away!! I guess we had a "failure to communicate" but knowing that he's feeling stressed, it was just easier to rescue my supplies and save my warrior attitude for more important things! For the record, as much as we are anticipating retirement and living in Montana, this whole down-sizing your cr*p and moving across the country is very stressful!

As you can see, we have spared no expense in our computer set up, we like the card table and crate look. This will have to make do until November and then once we get my creative studio over the garage finished, I will use this computer for my Genealogy project and we will upgrade our family computer

I am looking forward to actually having a home office rather than using our "former dining room" like we've been doing all these years. We plan to use the small room off the master bedroom (where the stained glass moose hangs in the window) and keep everything all contained and set up the tall filing cabinets.

This time next week Lord willing, we should be unloading the truck!