POST RETIREMENT...PART ONE

Exactly one month ago today, Dave retired. As you can probably imagine, it's been a busy time and we have yet to establish a real routine. On Dave's last day of work, I picked him up at noon, we came home and finished packing the last of our stuff and loaded up the VUE. We turned over the keys to the new owners and we had a sweet time of prayer and praise. The response was just automatic since we know God is good and He has shown favor and faithfulness to their family and to ours.

That evening we grabbed a bite to eat and drove the 30 miles west to Decatur, Texas and spent the night at the Hampton Inn. It was a leisurely evening and morning before we headed out, bound for Trinidad, Colorado. We had decided to break up the drive and stay there, bringing back memories from long ago when we lived there and our kids were so young. We had our last good Mexican meal at Tequila's and then went and saw "Hacksaw Ridge" at the theater. The next morning we headed north on I 25 and stopped in Pueblo for breakfast at IHOP. Afterwards we hit a couple of antique stores in Denver, picked up a cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and stopped at our good friends Stewart and Dot's house where we went to dinner and spent the night. The next day we had a fun time visiting with the other "Milk Duds" at Stewart and Jan's house, sharing a meal and good company. The next morning we were on the road, bound for Montana by 4:15 AM!

The drive went smoothly, albeit a long one, over 1000 miles that day. We arrived to our Sweet Montana Home and were greeted with the front porch light on and some balloons and a card from Randy and Chris, what a surprise!

A couple of days later, we had Thanksgiving dinner at their house over off the Flathead River...

Dave was very surprised to walk in and see that Peggy and I had decorated the house for Christmas back in September. I am so glad we did that since we've been trying to get all settled in and knowing me, I would have been stressing out over decorating!A couple of pictures, more to come later...

To be continued...

ANOTHER GOODBYE

Back in 1984, right before I met Dave, he bought a brand new 1984 Dodge Conversion Van, mainly for the long fishing trips to Canada that he took every June. After we married, it became an ideal family vacation vehicle and we made many a long trips with the kids, in comfort. Traveling to the Black Hills of South Dakota, National Parks such as Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Zion, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Capital Reef, Mesa Verde and all over Colorado, there were a lot of family memories that were made during those 17 years.

Back in the day with it's swivel Captain's chairs and tables it was pretty stylish but over time, age and the elements began to take its toll and it was affectionately named, "The War Wagon". In 1985, Dave's Dad fell asleep behind the wheel on one of their long haul fishing trips to Canada and took out a highway exit sign. Besides ripping off the passenger side view mirror and doing major damage to the body and ruining a canoe, they were fortunate that it wasn't much worse. Afterwards, the van could never hold the paint job and it would flake off and rust. The War Wagon did more than just go on family vacations, it hauled kids to Awana meetings, Wednesday night Youth Group and Youth trips back when Dave and I were Youth leaders. There came a day however when we traded it in and bought a brand new FORD Conversion Van to carry on where the War Wagon had left off. (Unfortunately any War Wagon pictures I have are already in Montana).

The new FORD van was pretty cool with its built in TV and VHS player, "party lights" in the roof and the bench seat which folded down into a bed; it was even more comfortable than the War Wagon. It immediately assumed the same role and before long was nicknamed, "The Mothership" by Charlie because of all the kids I was always transporting. The Mothership had a good run for a few years but as our children grew up, began driving, the van got used less and less. Still, there were a lot of great memories as well. Banff, Jasper, Grand Canyon and the Southwest, Colorado and Sioux Narrows, Ontario vacations, family camp outs with our best friends, all fun times.

Campout with the Roseland Family outside of Austin,2001

A Colorado family vacation! 2001

Yellowstone 2004

Laura's Graduation trip to the Southwest in 2006

One of the most memorable moments ever was on our 2007 trip of Yellowstone, Glacier, Banff and Jasper when Dave took a drink of chocolate milk that had soured and spewed it out the window, covering the side of the van! Charlie and I laughed ourselves silly!

Aly and Ashley's first trip to the Motlong's cabin in Sioux Narrows, Ontario.

Jacey used to call it the "Gigi Van". Here she is tuckered out on the 2009 Yellowstone vacation.

After the 2009 Yellowstone vacation, we stopped in Cody, WY where we took possession of our custom made coffee table made by our friend Rich Holstein from reclaimed wood out of the Old Faithful Inn.

Since buying the Mountainview Hideaway in 2012 and all of the kids are now grown, "The Mothership" has been relegated to April trips to Montana where I have loaded it to overflowing bringing up some of our stuff.

We also let Charlie drive it up to the Mountainview Hideaway with friends over their Spring Break.

All of this is leading up to today. One last look...

Dave and I believe that we are called to be good stewards of the blessings God has generously given us; whether it is our finances, our abilities, our time or our possessions, they all come from Him. We made the decision a couple of months ago that we would donate "The Mothership" for someone else to use. Our church, Cross Timbers Community Church is in partnership with different ministries which made it easier for us to decide, whom to consider. My prayer is that The Mothership continue to be used as a tool to further the Kingdom just as it did all those years ago when it was the official youth group taxi. We've had a good run and now it's time to pay it forward...

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!

OVERWHELMED MUCH?

Anyone who knows me well, knows that Beth Moore is hands down, my favorite Bible Teacher ever. One of the things I heard her say that has stuck with me goes like this...

"Lord, can we just be whelmed, do we have to be OVERwhelmed?"

I love that! I have to keep reminding myself that He has got this upcoming move firmly in His hands and I just need to do my part and let Him take care of the rest. Sometimes that is easier said than done though!

One week from today, we pick up the U Haul truck and begin loading the remainder of our household, minus those bare bones items we will need in the last few weeks after we get back from Montana. This past weekend Dave took apart our log bed and prepped it for the move. We are still able to sleep on the mattress, we just have it sitting on top of the underbed drawer units.

It's hard to believe that we have had this four years now. We've never regretted getting this bed and I am excited to see how it looks up in the Master bedroom!

Our room seems much larger without the headboard, footboard and side rails!

I have been doing a final sweep through the house and boxing up those essential things that I thought I'd leave out for our last few weeks but have now changed my mind about. Today I am picking up some new king sized down pillows to take up there and we will be packing up the comforter. This weekend we will take apart the computer desk and set up the computer on a card table. Wow, this time next week we will be loading the truck! Just be whelmed...just be whelmed...just be whelmed.