Sometimes I think you never really know anyone...

I've posted the above picture before; it's my son's senior picture. His dog Spotters was his best friend. When my son went to college and I moved to Billings, we thought long and hard about her well-being. After much deliberation and heartache we agreed to let her stay with my ex-boyfriend, who we had stayed very close to. He lived and worked out at Cooney Reservoir and was able to take her with him to work nearly everyday. In the 8 years we had known him he had proven that he loved her as much as we did. He promised that we could see her anytime we wanted to.

At first, all went well...we got to see her several times a month. When he needed to travel for work; she stayed with us. After awhile, we had to call to arrange to see her. Finally the visits (even though we called frequently and begged to see her) stopped. His girlfriend "did not think it was healthy for him to see us". We were devastated, but still thought she was in the best place because he loved her so much and could give her a better quality of life.

I'll never forget the day my son called. He was crying so hard he could barely speak. He had gotten an email (yes a friggen' email--the girlfriend wouldn't "allow" him to call) from the ex, telling him that his beloved dog had died. We were heart broken. My son, who considered this man to be his dad, was hurt beyond belief. I doubt he will ever get over it. To make things even worse; the ex hadn't even been with Spotters when she died. She had been staying with the girlfriend.

Even when they wouldn't let us see her, we felt that we had done the right thing by letting Dave keep her. In the end, we were proven wrong. I guess you never really know anyone.

See you at the fair.....

It's county fair week and as always it is a busy time. For the most part, I put together our fair booth from 160 miles away, and amazingly enough it turned out alright! Much thanks to my intern Christine who did the leg work for me. Here are pictures of the booth itself...

The coloring contest was even more popular this year than last. We had nearly 300 entrants that ranged in age from 2 to 65.

I think this is a cute shot.

Night time at the fair.

Shoe Fetish?

'M' and 'W' can often be found lounging on our shoes. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but they sure seem to like them.....

And each other!

Aren't they beautiful?

Well you can see some blue in the sky today...

and that's a nice change of pace! As you can see, it has been rather smokey lately.

In other non-fire news, I had a wonderful time in Absarokee last week. Shasta took me to Itch-ke-pe Park in Columbus and we had a great time playing on the shore and in the water.

She really seemed to enjoy herself, in fact when it was time to head back, she seemed rather hesitant.

Once I coaxed her into the car though, life was good again.

I knew it was hot.....

And still more fire!

I think all of eastern Montana is ablaze. Here are more pictures. This fire is on Moon Creek, near Hathaway. These pictures were taken right after it started. Lightening from the rain storm (on the left) caused the fire. Too bad it didn't put it out.

Fire, fire!

Driving home from Absarokee today I encountered more fires. There must have been 6 or more between Billings and Forsyth. Here are some pictures I took.

Fire!

Driving to dad's yesterday was an interesting journey. When I was passing Huntley, my brother called and told me there was a fairly large fire burning in the hills outside of Columbus. As I came over the Yellowstone Bridge on I-90, I could see that the city was really hazy and figured it might be smoke from the fire. I was right. Not only could you smell it, you could taste it INSIDE Costco! It was too smokey to take pictures in Billings, so I finished my shopping and headed west on I-90 toward Columbus. I stopped (illegally I suppose) on the freeway and took a couple of pictures with my cell phone, but didn't want to take a chance and get the digital out of the trunk (there were lots of police on the road). When I got to the offramp in Columbus I pulled over (in a safe place) got the digital and took this picture.


The picture above was taken in downtown Columbus at around 6:30 pm July 10. It wasn't very smokey in town, but it was dark and forbidding and I was glad to get the pictures taken and head out of town. There are a lot of people living in the fire danger area so please send thoughts and prayers their direction. The Billings Gazette had some horrific pictures in their online edition if you haven't seen them already.


Once I got to the Columbus-Absarokee road, there was a whole lot of traffic, in addition to the road construction. I didn't stop to take any pictures because I felt it would be dangerous to do so. After I got to Absarokee I spent time doting on my dad and then we watched the movie "Murphy's Romance". It's an older movie, but a classic in my opinion. During the movie, we heard a huge clap of thunder and I looked outside. Much to my surprise there was a double rainbow on the horizon. I took a picture, and although it was pretty dark outside, I still think it is neat.

The cinnamon rolls that ate Absarokee

It has been awhile since I posted anything. There have been some family things going on and I just haven't had the time. I have been at my dad's since Saturday and came back to Forsyth to catch up on some work that I couldn't handle from 160 miles away. While I was with my dad I did quite a lot of cooking. Some things turned out better than others. This is one of the things that didn't.

I guess the recommended "rise" time isn't just a suggestion after all. Anyway, these are cinnamon rolls and apparently they were edible--at least no one had to call 911 (this time). I sent this picture to my office and they got a good chuckle out of it. I told them I was going to open up a cinnamon roll stand outside of my dad's house in Absarokee. They told me not to quit my day job.

My brother's dog and I have had quite a few adventures lately. Here she is after a walk at Butcher Creek. You can't tell from the picture, but she's very wet; but only from the back down. She's a wader, not a swimmer.

Quite a view, eh? This was taken on Butcher Creek. I'm not sure what the shrubbery is, but it might be a noxious weed of some sort. I need to take my weed i.d. book with me next time I go out there.

This is a picture of our "mama" cat. She is the only one of our six that go outside. She was outside partying all night and came in to catch up on her rest. As you can tell, she wasn't too thrilled when I woke her up to take this picture.

Back to the mountains for me!

It's been awhile since I posted, but it's not for lack of things to talk about. I have been busier than a one-legged gal in a butt kicking contest. Anyway, I am at my dad's house for awhile, so hopefully, I will get a chance to blog a bit.


Last weekend I was also in Absarokee. My brother and I got quite a lot accomplished, if I do say so myself. We cleaned up the mess from the basement flood (a yearly event lately), finally got the pump for the well running (which will hopefully help to alleviate the aforementioned flood), did a bunch of cooking and visited up a storm. All in all it was a very good weekend! As you can see (above), there is plenty of pressure from the pump; we were running two sprinklers at the time.


My mom sure would be happy to see the yard greening up. Before she got sick it was a real showplace. The bench in the picture above was mom's. It hasn't been used for a long time, as you can tell by the foliage.


Shasta (the disasta) had a great time too. She looks a bit demonic in this picture; she was waiting for her man (my brother) to come back into the yard.

On the road again--or should I say still

Well I spend the last couple of days in Lewistown, Mt at the Yogo Inn. I think I would have slept better in the rescue mission, if they had one. I think I am becoming a mattress snob, because I can't sleep well on anything that has coils sticking through it, LOL! Anyway, the motel did not live up to our expectations in any way other than the staff and they were awesome! I'd rather sleep in my car though, than sleep on one of their beds again.
I guess I should just stay home--NOT!

Blah-gging

I have felt rather blah about blogging lately. I think it is because we are doing a revamp on the work website and I have spent a whole lot of time staring at a computer screen lately. I have also been on the road again, so blog-time has been pretty scarce.

My recent work adventures took me to beautiful Livingston, MT for a workshop. I had a very good time at the training but stayed in the motel from h*ll! The bed was hard as a rock, the wireless internet didn't work and the television only had 12 channels and most of them resembled Lifetime Network--ack! On a positive note, the lady at the front desk was very nice. All in all though, I am VERY sure I will never be staying at the "Worst Western" in Livingston again.After the training I spent some time with my family in Absarokee. As always it was a blast. I didn't take many pictures with my digital camera; I was too busy playing with my new cell phone. It is pretty nifty; now all I have to do is figure out how to put pictures from it onto my blog (I am obviously Norwegian--I don't read directions unless I HAVE to). Anyway, it has a 1.3 mega pixel camera, with video and an MP3 Player! What I really like about it is that when my son calls, his picture pops up. Life IS good.

Flickr

KarbonKountyMoos has turned me on to Flickr and I have to admit it, I'm an addict. She says there isn't a 12 step program for it, so I'm doomed. I have spent countless hours uploading my pictures and haven't made much time for blogging. Add that to working about 60 hours a week, and it doesn't leave much time for anything, but life is good!

I took this picture of the weird weather today:

Below is a picture of the Yellowstone River. It is pretty high right now. The ripply part is the irrigation diversion dam. You can usually walk on it. I don't think I'd try it now.

I also took this picture of a squirrel at the park. It didn't seem at all concerned that the Yellowstone was flooding.

Design on a dime

I just returned from helping my son move into his new apartment. He had been sharing an apartment with a very nice couple, but it was time to get his own space. He spent many days looking at apartments near the area where he works and for a variety of reasons, chose the Sandalwood Apartments in Broomfield, CO. The price was right, the neighborhood was nice, and the manager was a sweetheart. All together a win-win! I posted the picture above because that is where I ended up when I tried to follow map quest to my son's new address. I found myself at the Jefferson County (aka Jeff-co) Airport, which has been renamed the Mom-co Airport (LOL).

The building is older, but very well maintained. The people in the building seem really nice and very friendly, which is always a good thing. The laundry room is nice and clean and the dryers run forever on a dollar which will be very good on laundry day!

The kitchen is small but cute and has all new appliances including a disposal. We got some real bargains on small applicances at Target and the thrift shops in the area. We stocked his huge pantry with items from Costco and Kings Super. He will have enough food to last him for quite awhile and all at his fingertips! It's good to be the mom!

We found this cool dining room table in Boulder, added a set of placemats from Ross and a candelabra we picked up at an arc store and voila', he's ready to invite his friends over for a meal.

We purchased the blue couch in Boulder for a very fair price, but he still needed more seating for his weekly card game. We looked all over for something to fill the space and hadn't found anything by the time we took the U-Haul back. We figured it would have to wait for another time. Then I happened to be hauling garbage out and noticed a nice, extremely clean loveseat by the dumpster. Of course my son was thrilled, so we lugged it up the steps and it fit like a glove. I guess one person's trash truly is another person's treasure! Thank you, whoever left it there for us!

We got the bedroom mostly put together and Nels took a break. The closet doors are mirrored, so it really makes the room look big! He sure looks happy doesn't he?

We found this shelving unit and one just like it at a church rummage sale. We also bought 2 lamps and a plant there. Total bill=$26.00! The people that sold it were so nice! They offered to haul it over to the apartment for us! Even though Broomfield is in the big city, it really has a small town feel to it. We bought the grill at Costco. It's an electric George Foreman grill, and it works great!


A man and his castle! I took this picture the morning I left to come back home. Sure is good to see my son relaxing in his new space.

This is for you son!

My son recently commented that I need to post to my blog more often, so here's two in one day, just for you Nels!

Shasta, ever vigilant, waiting for the guests to arrive for dinner.

Uncle John and my dad dishing up. I couldn't make it home for Easter to cook for them, so we had a late celebration.

Neighbor and dear friend Lois joined us for dinner and we had a very nice visit afterward.

It's tough being a hostess! Even dogs need a little relaxation after putting on a big feast.