Radios & Avalanches

Yesterday was one of those amazing road trippin' kind of days. The sun was shining and I had the whole road to myself.

Sure, my 'road trip' was only 15 miles long, but it was a great one anyway. And, if I'm being totally honest, I found myself a nice little dirt road detour so that my 15 minute drive home suddenly turned into an hour long solo road trip. It was fabulous.

I knew there were dishes that needed washing and clothes that needed folding but I couldn't manage to drive myself home. My fellow music lovers will understand me when I say: The radio was playing really great music. Every song that came on forced me to turn the volume up another notch and sing a little louder.

Do you do that? I'm not sure you'll all agree that the music was "just so good" --- but for me, these were definite sing-along songs:

Jason Aldean ... because how could you NOT love this song?

This song always reminds me of my sweet friend, Angie. When we were younger than we are now ... before husbands and babies, before time and distance took their toll ... we drove thousands of miles on dirt roads blaring the country music. This was always a fun one.

Like the last song, this takes me back to my high school years. And, oddly enough, reminds me of another friend named Angie. We used to drive around in her grandparents blue Buick and listen to mixed tapes. Yea, mixed TAPES. Haha. One of my favorite memories is the time we decided it was in our best interest to skip track practice. We hopped into the car (My car this time .. a 1987 VW Fox ... wagon. Her name was Gertie & she was ... um, 'unique'.)  & headed up Beartooth Pass with two wine collers and a cigar.

Real classy, I know.

The Pass was closed .... but the barricade was a total joke. We drove around the side of it & headed up yonder. We found a place to stop & climbed out to sit on the rocks. Billie Meyers blaring out the windows, we sat & talked about ... who knows what.

When it was time to leave a fantastically scary thing happened.

We got hit by an avalanche.

No shit.

Picture this, if you will:

GErtie is be-bopping down the road at a top speed of maybe 20 miles an hour. 20 yards ahead we Chris McKittrick's  green Bravada headed our way.

Then suddenly I hear Ang --- laughing hysterically --- shriek:

"AAAAAAAVAAAALAAAANCHEEEE!"

I can still see her frantically rolling her window up as the rocks and ice pushed my car into the other lane.

Chris slammed on his brakes and I gunned it!

Seriously, if we had waited ten more seconds to leave we (along with my little car) would have been stuck up there.

I don't even want to think about the trouble we would have been in.

Anyhow, thats what Kiss The Rain reminds me of.

And I relived it all last night when it came on the radio. Ha.

There were several other songs that kept me happy on my jaunt last night. But I'm drawing a total blank now that I want to tell you about them.  However, I'm pleased to tell you, today is another great music day. I'm working @ the salon. When I hit 'play' on the CD player, I expected to hear Allison Krauss whisk me away. But, on the contrary, Karla has clearly been imbibing in an ecclectic jam session this week. I've heard everything from Janet Jackson to Johnny Cash. It's safe to say that Karla's curling irons have been used as microphones this morning. But really, can you blame me? There's a big-ass mirror right next to the irons ... they were begging to be sang into.

Ladies, see what I mean? How can you NOT sing to that?

And now, let me tell you, I will be surfing Janet Jackson's YouTube channel until my next appointment shows up. Because, I freaking love her.

Anyhow, that's that.

Have a lovely Saturday, ya'll. 

Thank Goodness For You

Dear Son,

You're incredible.

I wasn't sure how I felt about the age gap between you & your sister. I always said if I hadn't given you a sibling by the time you turned 5, you would forever remain an only child.

God laughed at my 'plan' & 3 months ago you become a big brother.

I couldn't be more proud of you.

Yes, sometimes I am amazed by the crazy level of silliness and immaturity you display ... but, you are an 8 year old boy, so I suppose those things are to be expected. :)

But, mostly I sit back and watch you in complete awe.

You are kind and gentle with your little sister. You are patient and helpful. It makes my heart happy to watch you tickle her toes & kiss her chubby little cheeks. I am grateful that when I am struggling to find a balance between being a mom and keeping the house running, you step in and offer to rock your sister. You feed her a bottle like a pro and you seem to know just how to make her smile.

I was wrong about the age gap. It's perfect. You are an amazing helper and I love you for that.

Thank you for being charming, handsome, wonderful you.

I love you.
Mom

Hey Keith Urban - Thanks for singing our song!

"Along comes a baby girl
 And suddenly my little world
Just got a whole lot bigger, yes it did
And people that I barely knew
Love me cause I'm part of you
Man, it's tough to figure."

The Way Things Are

Every morning, like clockwork, I wake up at 6:10.

The alarm hasn't gone off yet. The baby is still sleeping. The puppy hasn't started barking to go outside. Both boys are still enjoying the company of their pillows. This time of year I am able to take in the sound of the creek rushing, brids singing, and the sunshine peaking in through our window. I get a solid 20 minutes of snuggling my sleeping baby and not having to do ANYTHING.

It's sheer bliss.

Today is Saturday. This means that I left Josh and the baby at home while I came to work. Ike is hanging out with Grandma Sue. Saturday's are quiet at the salon --- which is evident by the fact that I'm writing on this blog rather than spray painting customers. :)

When I walked in this morning I couldn't help but take notice of Karla's shampoos and other hair products. They are lined up so nice & neat. Of course they are --- it's a salon.

But what gets me ... is how all the pumps work.

You know what I'm talking about, right? These kind of pump bottles:

It makes me feel incredibly stupid when I see other people using these types of bottles without any issues. Our household has a serious pump bottle problem. At least 3 out of 5 pump bottles in our house have never worked. Not even once. Seriously --- never dispensed so much as a drop of whatever product the pump belongs to. Instead of being able to quickly get a squirt or two of lotion I have to pull the whole thing out of the bottle and wipe the lotion off the tube that runs into the bottle. Baby shampoo, lotion, my shampoo. These things are broken in our house at the moment. The two that happen to work properly? The hand sanitizer and the ketchup. Lame. Maybe someday we'll figure it out.

Speaking of 'figuring it out' ... Let me share some of my recent learnings with you.

1. If your nephew's basketball team makes it to state and you decide to paint your windows with his jersey number (and a big orange "GO HUSKIES!") .... be sure you don't use acrylic paint. It will take you 4 months and no less than 3 gallons of mineral spirits to get it off. Even then, you will find flakes of orange in your truck for the rest of your life.

2. If you call the appointment desk at Billings Clinic, they wil likely tell you that the doctor you need an appointment with is booked out several weeks. However, if you call and ask to speak to a nurse in the office of the doctor you are trying to get in to see ... and if you are extremely nice to her .... she will likely be able to squeeze you in much, much sooner. :)

And finally ...

3. If you run a Google image search for: "love nurse" & then spend several minutes looking at the results ... the word nurse will start to look very strange. You will likely try saying it outloud only to find out it sounds even stranger by the 15th or 20th time you say it. Emphasizing the sounds and making your mouth big really only makes it worse.

Yea, clearly Saturdays are slow here. Ha. I think I'll go home & kick Father's Day of early. Since I have the computer and I know there is no danger of Josh seeing this post until at least Monday, I will let you all in on a little secret. Isaac got a new bike for Christmas so ... I'm using Father's Day as an excuse to surprise him (and me!) with new bikes too.



And of course, thanks to The Ronning Family:



There appears to be a little bit of sunshine today --- I hope you all have a chance to get out in it! Happy Father's day! 

A little update on the fam

A little update for our family and friends in far away places:

Yes, we ARE as tired as we look.

 But we're loving every second of it.

Anna-Kate has become a very real part of our family & although we sometimes feel like we're flailing, we are all very much in love with her.

AK still spends most of her time sleeping but when she is awake she love to be in the water. Baths, showers... even the rainstorm we got caught in last week made her grin. She's a big fan of anything outdoors. When my baby cries the easiest way to calm her is to step out on the deck. Something about being outside instantly calms her --- thank  goodness its summer!

We have been lucky with her night time routine --- she has been sleeping through the night since about 4 weeks. Currently she sleeps from about 9 pm until 7 am.

This has been her M.O. for a few weeks now --- hooray for a good night's sleep!

Isaac is settling into summer just fine. He started golf lessons this morning and has been in Vacation Bible School all this week. When the weather is nice you can usually find him fishing, riding his bike, or jumping on the trampoline.

His little heart is still hurting a bit over the loss of his friend, Oliver.

But, always a suvivor, Ike is moving forward with the help of his new friend: Daisy.

Josh is still working away at the insurance agency. He allegedly has football obligations twice a week ... hopefully we have finally gotten a grip on life-with-a-newborn so he can start committing to it again.

I have been leaning on him pretty heavily the last few weeks but I think we're finally at a point where we both can start being involved in things outside out home life again!

I took a hiatus from spray tanning for a few weeks after the baby but am back to it full swing. The shop is open (201 S Broadway Suite B -- Red Lodge) & business is boomning. I'm helping out with Vacation Bible School this week but other than that, I plan to spend as much time with my babies as possible this summer.

There ya' have it --- our life in a nutshell.

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog a bit. But now that things are settling down for us, perhaps I'll manage to come back and post from time to time.

In the meantime -- I hope all is well in your world's! Be well!

Day 1/30

Ok ... I wasn't sure if I was going to hop on the 30 Day Blogging bandwagon or not. But after seeing this post I decided I was definitely going to give it a whirl. There's something about Sara's lipgloss collection that makes ,my heart go pitter-patter. Now, the only problem is that I need to make sure my lip gloss collection is up to par by the time I get to that post! ;]

Anyhow. Here we go.

Day 1: A picture of yourself with 15 facts.

1. I'm hopelessly addicted to making mixed tapes ... errrr, I mean CD's. I really like making them for other people too, but I'm too embarrassed to do it anymore because I think most people are into things like iPod playlists. (I'm too far behind the times --- I don't even know if that's the right terminology for it!) Ha.

2. I have purchased tickets to see Bob Schneider in concert FOUR times. Each of those times I have traveled across several states to get to the show. And every time the show was cancelled. I refuse to give into fate. Seeing Bob in concert is still a bucket list item.

3. I ease myself into waking up. Before I met Josh I kept 4 alarms ... that went off in 30 minute intervals; thus taking me 2 hours to actually get out of bed. By the last alarm, it actually WAS easier for me to get out of bed. Josh hated this about me so I don't set any alarms anymore. It's now his job to get me out of bed in the moring. It's fair to say that we rubbed off on eachother. Because although we don't set several alarms anymore, we do set the alarm a half an hour early so we can listen to The Flakes for 30 minutes before we get out of bed. :)

4. Once I make it out of bed, I love to be awake and alone in the mornings. After the boys leave at 8 a.m. I spend a solid hour --- sometimes two --- just soaking up the day. Sometimes it's the internet, sometimes it's the hot tub, sometimes its TV, or aq book, or a walk. Sometimes I take a drive and/or take pictures. Whatever it is I do with my time, it's fair to say that I cash in on ME TIME before anything productive happens around the house.  This is especially true on the weekends when the boys sleep in.

5. I have a really hard time keeping in touch with people who don't use the internet or, at the bare minimum, use text messaging. I rarely check my voicemail and there are very few people I enjoy talking on the phone with.

6. My worst/ugliest/most hideous character flaw is my jealous streak. I'm jealous of everything and everyone. I'm probably jealous of you for something. I have a hard time hiding it & I've probably made more than a handful of people uncomfortable because of it.

7. My best character trait is that I love deeply. Usually I love people too soon --- and I often get burned by this --- but it's worth it when I wake up one morning and realize that someone I love, loves me back. Often people probably think that love is fake. It's not.

8. I love quotes & use them whenever I can. I'm particularly fond of Winnie-The-Pooh quotes. I think they are the sweetest things ever. Like, EVER ever.

9. I lose countless hours of sleep "building" my dream home. Everything from the architecture to the decor in every room. I have a sketch pad that I've had for over 10 years where I draw ideas and paste pictures in I find in magazines. Someday ... someday. :)

10. I kept a similar sketchpad from ages 12-18 of my dream wedding. It wasn't until I met the man I was going to marry that I realized a big wedding scared the hell out of me. I HATE being the center of attention & the thought of a room full of people staring at me makes me pee my pants a little. I don't even cross busy streets as a pedestrian for the fear of people in the cars staring at me. I'm definitely a courthouse wedding type of gal. On a Wednesday. With no witnesses. And no big announcement. Luckily, Josh is made from the same cloth as me when it comes to that. ;]

11. It took me 29 years to feel comfortable saying, "I'm sorry."

12. I force myself to buy locally whenever it's possible --- even when I'd rather not do business with a particular person. I figure, supporting the local economy is more important than being bitchy to someone I don't really like.

13. I love, love, LOVE fruit and vegetables. My favorite meal is white bean soup and a veggie sandwich with provolone on some sort of multi-grain or wheat bread. My favorite dessert is orange slices dipped in caramel.

14. I wake up every morning and go to bed every night feeling like the most loved woman on the planet. I pray daily that I am able to make my boys feel as loved as they make me feel.

15. I feel lucky & make wishes when the clock says 12:34 or 11:11. I feel unlucky & hold my breath when the clock says 10:31.