First Wyoming Christmas and Welcoming in 2015!

What a year we have had!!  This last week, Scott and I have been reminiscing about the year we’ve had.  Today it is cold (currently a high of 1* with a low of about -10!!) and it reminded me of our first weekend we were here in Wyoming! It was in May, the wind was blowing so hard that our trailer was rocking and it really truly did scare me!  The temperatures got down into the 20s at night and inside our solid metal trailer it was in the mid thirties!  I remember clearly just how cold it was!  We were cuddled under mounds of heavy blankets, sleeping in our long johns and multiple layers of clothing, all while all 4 cats cuddled with us either under the covers or sitting on top of us to try and stay warm! 

Living in our house now, most people probably think we are nuts (it’s ok because sometimes I think we are too!! I mean we have to be a little nuts to try to take on this adventure right?!?).  We still do not have running water; however we fill 12-14 5-gallon buckets every week at our neighbors house that way we have enough water to do the dishes, flush the toilet, and even take ‘showers’.  We only have 1 extension cord of electricity that extents 300’ from out house to the plug in!! But we are managing just fine – no complaints here!  We don’t have television channels or cable/satellite (not in the budget) but we’ve been utilizing the library and our friends have been so kind to send us movies to occupy our time too.  And we haven’t even begun to finish out the inside of our house yet – still living on plywood floors, no walls up (just a blanket hanging for the tiniest bit of privacy when we use the toilet), but we feel right at home here!

Just imagining all the work that went into this place so far… all the long hours forming up the concrete, building the walls and putting them up, getting the trusses set, and the never ending foam insulation (for which we are so thankful for now!). 

The best part for me is knowing that we did it, we did it together, we built it all ourselves, and we can now call this home.

To think that we started the year with nothing, just a cargo trailer, some tools, 4 cats and a HUGE dream, and now, we are ending the year, in our wonderfully perfect home, 4 cats and baby Adkins on the way! Wow! 2014 has been a monumental year for us and we are so very excited for everything to come out way in 2015!!

I was hoping to add pictures of our Wyoming adventure throughout the entire summer, but alas, but internet is way too slow to upload them, so I will do that next time I get to town.  But I did want to give a few updates from our first Wyoming Christmas, baby progress, etc.

We had a wonderful Christmas!!  The weekend before Christmas, our neighbors Joe and Helen had a neighbor get-together.  It was just perfect! Helen really outdid herself as their log cabin was decorated from top to bottom with the most beautiful Christmas decorations! Even Joe’s mounted Caribou had his Christmas hat on! 

On Christmas Day, Scott and I slept in and watched several episodes from the first season of the A-Team.  In the afternoon, I was antsy to do something, so we headed into Cody to have a late afternoon lunch at the Irma Hotel.    It was delicious!  They had carved ham, stuffed pork loin, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn casserole, a full salad bar, and all sorts of deserts.  It was really nice to get to have a wonderful meal together.  Because we are trying really hard to pay down our bills and try to prepare ourselves for the August arrival of Baby Adkins, we didn’t actually buy each other gifts.  But spending all day together was the perfect way to spend Christmas!

We did have one minor negative from these last few weeks – I haven’t been feeling very well.  Aside from the baby stuff (slight nausea, tired all the time, etc), I have had this horrible cough that has actually made me get sick.  Today, after much insistence from Scott and our neighbor, I went to the Express Care in Powell.  Luckily I do not have Pneumonia!!  I’ve had it before and I was afraid of getting it again.  But they didn’t tell me for sure what I have or even suggest I get any further testing… However, I do have an appointment with my family doctor/OB at the end of January where I’m going to insist they do some sort of testing to see what I have exactly (especially if it doesn’t get any better!).  Today they said I may have something that’s related to my heart burn, but I refuse to take my heart burn medicine while I’m pregnant – Baby Daryl comes first and I don’t want to take any risks in hurting the baby.  So fingers crossed whatever I have doesn’t get any worse!

Scott’s still working and loving his job!  Today I had lunch with him and I told him I still feel so weird seeing all the green where he works. 

We have some really amazing friends to brag about too!!!  They have us spoiled with some really amazing surprised this last week!  First, my friend Shannon surprised me with some little baby clothes and a pacifier with a frog on the end of it.  I think it has a special name, but off the top of my head I can’t think of what it’s called.  Also, my friend Jessica surprised us with a little Case IH outfit!  How funny would it be if after we have the baby, we go to surprise Scott at work wearing his Case IH outfit!! When I do that I’ll let you know what happens!!  Ladies, I can’t thank you enough for your generosity!!  It means so much to Scott and I both!

And a funny story for you – a few nights ago at around 2am, I get this text message from our friend Jack, “Get ready for some weirdness….”  Well he got lucky I was up for my nightly bathroom break, so I asked Why?  Jack works for the Post Office in Dayton and he works on the mail machines when they get jammed up.  He said, ‘Pulled a jam at work, 0415… never seen one so bad so I took a pic.’  Then he told me it was all my Christmas post cards that caused the jam!!!  He took a picture of the post cards that made the infamous mail jam and included cards to: Jack and his wife, The Browns, Scott’s mom, Don and Charlotte, and my Aunt Jone!!  How crazy is that! He said the see millions of pieces of mail each day and that it was crazy that not only did my mail cause the jam, but there was a letter in there to Jack too!

Well, I need to go stoke the fire and start working on our large mound of dirty dishes before Scott gets home, then get back to some of my sewing projects too.

I hope you all had a very MERRY Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

And I want to give one piece of advice for everyone entering into the New Year – Stay Positive!!  If it wasn’t for our positive outlook on our situation here in Wyoming, there is no way we would have made it through the year.  It’s easy to think that grass is greener on the other side, or to feel sorry for yourself and have a bad attitude about it, but when you seriously try to make the best out of every situation you are presented with, even the bad ones, it really makes for a more pleasant year.  It would be easy to look at our situation now and our situation all summer and complain about every little thing, but instead we enjoyed it and really had a great summer all because of our positive outlook on life!

So here’s to a positive, and amazing 2015 for everyone!!

Baby Update/Wyoming Update

Baby Update/Wyoming Update:

All is well here!  Over the weekend we went to Costco and purchased our first box of diapers!  We talked and every time we go to town, we’ll get something for baby Adkins so it won’t be a huge financial blow come August!

We officially have a pre-birth name for our baby! We were talking about it because we wanted to silly and come up with a fun name.  Scott came up with Daryl.  And if we happen to have twins they will be Daryl and his other brother Daryl! Haha!!  I guess this comes from The Bob Newhart Show (I’ve never heard of it, but it’s something Scott remembers).

We’ve made some big adjustments to our eating.  We are both eating lots more fruits and veggies each day plus I’ve completely given up Dt. Soda and all Soda for that matter. 

I’m starting to really feel pregnant!  I’m not showing yet, but I’m feeling a little bloated, I’m peeing a lot, and parts of me are sore.  Also, I’m so happy that I find I cry a lot from being happy!  So far I’m not having morning sickness, but I do find that I feel slightly nauseous at different times throughout the day.  Fingers crossed it stays that way!

We also were surprised this last week with gifts from our neighbors!! Joe and Helen surprised us with a little stuffed animal cat and their betting I have a little girl.  Our other neighbors, Jackie and Rich, gave us flowers!  We have the absolute best support system with so many amazing neighbors and friends that are excited for us and said they’d be there if we ever needed anything!

This week I’ll be picking my doctor and setting my first appointment.  I’ll keep you all posted!

On the home front – there isn’t much new.  We won’t be making any more improvements to the house until spring time.  But we do have a MUST-DO list of things that will be accomplished before Daryl arrives. 

Must: have electricity to the house (not just a single extension cord), have our water/well hooked up to the house, have the shower stall completed, and purchase a refrigerator and freezer (that way I can prep food in advance).

On a completely different note, last week, we had a few days of the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets!!  I had a chance to snap some pictures and here are my favorites. 

Have a great week everyone!

Let the Adventure Continue!!

Well our excitement continues!  If you read my blogs, remember a few weeks ago I mentioned there was some really exciting news? Well, we thought we had sold our house.  We had accepted an offer on it, but the buyer didn’t come through with the necessary pre-approval paper work, so unfortunately it’s still on the market.   But I guess you can say we still have some exciting news to share!!! And Christmas came a little early this year!

I’M PREGNANT!

Last month Scott started his new job and with that came health insurance.  Some of you may not know this but I’m 29 and Scott is 39, so we wanted to start trying for a family.  I honestly thought, and have believed for quite some time, that it would take me months if not years to get pregnant.  Now I feel like a walking billboard that it only takes once!

All joking aside, we are through the roof excited!!!   I think it’s still sinking in with Scott, but he sent me a text from work yesterday and said, ‘Yes MOM!’  That really made my day! I still am in disbelief that I’m going to be a mom!!

On Tuesday, December 9th, when Scott got home from work, I was overly anxious.  I told him that I couldn't wait till the weekend to head to town to find out if my premonition was true or not.  So without hesitation, we headed for Cody.  We stopped to eat first and our waitress happened to be 5 months pregnant! She asked why we were in town and I was completely honest with her - to buy a pregnancy test.  And she told me to wait till the morning to take it because of something to do with my hormones.  So I did just that... I didn't want to! I couldn't sleep all night!  And as soon as 6am rolled around when Scott's alarm went off, I rolled over and said, 'You better not have to pee because I can't wait anymore!'  Within just a few minutes I discovered the news.  I then handed Scott the pregnancy test and he was all smiles!!

I will be meeting with potential doctors here in the next week or two, then having my first appointment.  Our hospital here in Powell puts on free classes for expecting moms and I think I’ll take them up on it!

We told all our family and close friends, who were all happy for us!  One of the best responses I got was from my brother Ty – I sent him a photo of the pregnancy test and his response, ‘Did you fail a drug test??’ HAHA!  Scott’s mom almost didn’t believe me when I called her.  This will be her first grandchild and I think she was so shocked it didn’t really sink in!  And when I told Scott’s brother he was going to be an Uncle, he was very excited!  We shared the news with the rest of our family and close friends too!

I’ve had several people ask how I’m feeling.  Technically I’m only 2.5 weeks along, but I think how they track it I would be 4.5 weeks along (they start it from the end of my last period, which is 2 weeks before conception).  I don’t have a definite due date, but based on my calculations, it will be sometime in August 2015!

I’m feeling good so far! I’ve noticed I get very tired quickly.  I’m taking it easy and being very careful of what I do and what I eat.  I’ve completely quit drinking Dt. Soda which is my dirty habit.  I don’t drink or smoke, so that isn’t an issue.   I’ve been taking pre-natal vitamins for several weeks now.  And, Scott is on official, full-time, kitty litter duty! (Trust me, I’m so thankful for that!)

I honestly still can’t believe it!! I can’t believe we are going to have a baby! We are so happy and so very excited to start our family!  I hope you all can share in our excitement with the continuation of our Wyoming adventure!

Our First Wyoming Christmas Tree!

Our First Wyoming Christmas Tree!!

Growing up, I have never had a real tree before (Scott said he has though), so this is a completely new experience for me!  Unfortunately, I haven’t felt well all week so Scott and I didn’t go to cut down our tree.  However, we have the most amazing neighbors!!  The Brian and his parents went to cut down theirs and they got us a permit and go one for us too! That was the nicest thing and we are so thankful for their generosity. 

Here you can get a permit ($8) to go into the national forest and cut down your own Christmas tree.  There are some pictures that Jackie took of Brian and his dad cutting down the trees. 

They dropped the tree off to us, then Scott chopped off the bottom limbs and brought it in the house.  We put it in the stand, filled it with water and there you go! We have a Christmas tree!  The cats were fascinated with it!  Our Princess (small short haired orange cat) just kept sniffing the air while the other ones were up close and personal with it.

So far, they haven’t climbed it, but I’ll keep you all updated!

Also, this week we received our first Christmas card!!  Thank you Kristin and Chad!!  I’m going to be saving them all and creating a ‘book’ out of them.  I found something on Pinterest where you take an old book, cut out all the inside pages, then us the hard cover to form the cover for all your Christmas cards for the year.  It will be fun to collect them all and remember this first Wyoming Christmas for many years to come!! 

I'll upload pictures soon....  they won't upload from my phone on here :(

A Week of Surprises!!

My goodness it’s been an exciting week for us!!

First, we received a very special surprise gift in the mail!  A friend of mine that I met on Facebook, Kathryn Krouse, has been following our adventure here in Wyoming and surprised us with a chocolate tower!!  And let me tell you it is good!  There are a series of 6 boxes and all are filled with wonderful chocolates/candy!  Kathryn, if you are reading this, thank you so very much!!!  This surprise was absolutely wonderful and we can’t thank you enough. 

We also had another wonderful surprise this week too!

Scott’s cousin, Ken, flew into Billings for work and called me yesterday afternoon that he wanted to come down and see us!  I didn’t tell Scott so that it would be a surprise, and later we joked that it probably isn’t a good idea to surprise an Army Ranger! But it worked out perfectly! Ken had a gorgeous drive down through Red Lodge and then into Wyoming to our place.  I think he was completely mesmerized by the scenery.  I tell everyone, my pictures do absolutely no justice.  Out here it is a world of its own, our own little piece of heaven on Earth!

Anyhow, Ken arrived to the house just before Scott got home from work.  It was so much fun watching his expressions when he saw our house.  He loved it here and we loved showing him everything!  When Scott arrived, he walked in the door and if I remember correctly I think Ken said ‘Don’t shoot!’ haha.  I said, ‘Scott look who came to surprise us!’ and then it was all smiles and hugs!

Ken also treated us to dinner at our favorite hole-in-the-wall burger joint.  We had a blast! The best way to explain it is: Great food, Great friendship, Great memories!  I still am on cloud nine from his visit!  Most of you reading probably don’t know Ken, and I just met him on our trip back to OH when we got our stuff to bring to WY, but he is the nicest man with two of the best kids I’ve ever met!  We didn’t get a chance to see his wife, but I know she has to be pretty amazing too to have raised their kids.  All I know is when we have kids I hope the turn out like theirs! That’s how amazing they are!

Ken, if you are reading this, THANK YOU! You made us so happy with your surprise visit! I hope you enjoyed seeing our place and we can’t wait to see you again! And bring any of the family with you anytime:)

Here is a group picture when we had dinner (if this picture doesn't show up, I'll repost it on Friday):

I saw a BUCK in our coulee!!! And here are the pictures!!

Yesterday, I was on the phone with a potential customer when our signal went in and out.  I walked to the front doors to get better reception and to my shock, there, about 20 yards in front of the house in our coulee (it's what they call natural land draws here), was this beautiful buck!!!  We've spotted lots of deer tracks, but we have only witnessed the deer on a few occasions on our land.  But this was the first time I've seen a buck on our land! Scott unfortunately was at work, but I snapped the first few pictures from our front window and the last ones are when I was outside.  I literally got off the phone, (mind you I was in a pink t-shirt!!) and ran outside to get his picture.  As soon as he spotted me, he took off in the other direction.  I guess I really don't blame you... having some crazed person in a not-so-camouflaged pink shirt running at you with an unknown object pointed directly at you, I think I'd run away too!!

Well here you go!  Like I mentioned, the first 2 pictures are from inside the house.  The others from outside. And I have to say, I think the last picture is my favorite!! 

If you click on the first picture you can scroll through them all.  Enjoy!!

Our FIRST Wyoming Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone!  Well today is a new day and a start to a new week, specifically Thanksgiving week.  This will be our first Thanksgiving in Wyoming!!  And boy do we have so much to be thankful for! 

First some updates from the last week or so.  We are very warm and cozy here!  It finally warmed up a bit here and was in the 30s and 40s over the weekend.  Saturday we didn’t even start our wood stove up till about 4pm!!  And the only reason we did that was because we wanted to cook dinner and heat water up to wash some dishes.  We somehow managed to misplace our temperature gauge (or maybe I can blame this one on the cats!! Haha), so I don’t know exactly what the temperature was inside, but I’d guess about mid 60s which was very comfortable for us!  The insulation is doing so well!!  We couldn’t be more pleased with the investment we made in it. 

Last week was Scott’s first of work!  He really enjoys it.  He works in the parts department at our local John Deere dealership.  He said most of his day is stocking the shelves with new products, filling orders for farmers and for their mechanics/repair guys too. They also worked on inventory and sending out parts as well.  The best part to me is that when he comes home from work he isn’t exhausted tired like he was working concrete.  Before, he would come home, have just enough energy to eat dinner, then he’d go straight to bed.  That’s why I got in a funky routine of staying up so late because he’d be asleep really early (like 6pm sometimes!).  I guess that’s one thing I’m thankful for this week – Scott having a job that he enjoys and that isn’t so taxing on his body. 

And his work place has been so nice to him.  The store manager came in and told him one day that he needed to wear a John Deere hat to work (he was wearing a DeKalb (not sure if that’s the correct spelling) hat that my dad gave him).  So they told him to go pick out any hat from the store!!  Then, as they were doing inventory, they had left over 2013 John Deere collectible ornaments left and they also gave him one of those.  Also, I guess with employment, each year each of the employees gets a $200 allowance for purchasing company clothing that they where to work.  They said their budget allows for Scott to get $200 for 2014 and come January he’ll get another $200 allowance!  They sell anything from polo shirts, button down shirts, fleece jackets, durable vests, and even coats too.  And they are allowed to wear jeans and work boots to work too.  Scott’s been wearing jeans and he’s taken over my Danner work boots! (Yes! I have huge feet and he and I are the same size… I have to say it’s been nice because we can share shoes most of the time!)

Last week was a major change of pace for me!  It was the first week in a year that Scott was away working and not at home with me!  It was a nice change of pace though because I feel like I get way more accomplished on my own time.  When he’s here (and we aren’t building on the house), it’s easier just to relax, to hang out together, and lately that means curling up on the couch with a nice fire going watching Little House on the Prairie! But now I’m in a new routine.  In an effort to keep our house clean and organized (more so than I did in OH!!), I vacuum every other day, and on the off days I do the dishes (a chore all in itself!!).  Then each day I straighten up, and keep things pretty well organized. 

I’m also thrilled to have more time to sew!!  Last week I listed 3 new horsemanship shirts and a new vest.  One of the horsemanship shirts sold yesterday (yeah!!) and I’m working on some beautiful custom pieces over the next couple of months. 

If any of you follow the blog and want to see my latest creations, please check out my Pinterest board at this link

Or my KLS Designs photo albums here.  The photo album puts the latest pictures at the very bottom, so if you use Pinterest, that’s the best way to look as the most recent creations are at the top.

Also, another update for you –last week/weekend we received the new ‘topper’ for our wood stove.  It honestly looks like something from a UFO but it works wonders!!  Basically it’s a series of partial tubes, one smaller one inside a larger one.  This prevents too much air flow into the pipe which is the main cause of why we were smoked out a few times.  It works so well, that even today, when it’s quite windy out, I had no issues at all lighting the fire.

On Sunday we went into Cody to run some errands and we drove the Bronco!! If you didn’t read about it before, our neighbor boy sold his ’92 Ford Bronco to us.  Our main purpose is to have a backup vehicle with 4 wheel drive for Scott to drive to work.  We now have 3 vehicles  - the Chevy Impala, the Bronco, and Scott’s ’66 Ford Truck.  However I can’t drive his Ford truck – there are some ‘quirks’ to it and I’d just rather have Scott drive it.  So having the Bronco is also a backup for me so I have something to drive to town or to the mailbox. (Our mailbox is 2 miles from the house.  I may walk it come spring time, but right now I’d rather drive!)  Well, anyhow, it drove great for us!  But it’s got a rather large gas tank on it, which is good and bad, but boy was it expensive to fill up!! Gas here, yesterday, was $2.96/gallon when paying cash.

With it being Thanksgiving week I’d like to share some things that I’m especially thankful for!  This is our first Thanksgiving here in Wyoming and although we will miss our typical OH family Thanksgivings, we are excited to start new traditions here!  We have been invited to our neighbors for Thanksgiving!!  And I’d like to say that no matter where we’ve lived we’ve been so thankful for neighbors – and I have to say quite lucky because we’ve always had the best!!  Back in OH as I was growing up we had the best neighbors you could ask for – Ted and Mary Hickman!!!  Then when I lived with Scott, on either side of us we have wonderful neighbors – the Willis’s and the Reeds!! Now out here in WY, even though neighbors are scattered further apart, we still have so many we are thankful for – Gordy and Lori, Fred and Lisa, Joe and Helen, and Rich, Jackie, and Brian. 

We have something else we are particularly thankful for right now.  In a month or so, I’ll elaborate more, but it’s VERY exciting news.  I just don’t want to get ahead of myself yet, but I promise I’ll share with you all very soon!

I want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!!  We wish we could see our friends and family back in Ohio, but know that we will be spending it with our new family in Wyoming and we couldn’t be more thankful this year!

House Update - How it's holding up to the cold!

We are in full blown winter here in Clark, Wyoming!  It’s crazy because last week it was in the 50s and 60s here and now with this cold front, we have had a low of -18 and no higher than 9 degrees!  I admit, I didn’t know what we were getting into, winter wise, when we moved out here, but this huge drop in temperatures is not what I expected! 

But I want to give you all an update on inside temperatures and how our insulation is holding up.  Like I said above, the temperatures this week have ranged from -18 to 9 degrees but mostly closer to 0 for a high on a few days.  We do have some snow, but it’s just a slight coverage, nothing much really. 

Our house has done really well for us!  The lowest it has gotten overnight when the wood stove isn’t being used is 55 degrees.  Yeah, we wake up, all cozy and cuddly under the covers and I admit, 55 is chilly!  But if that’s the low, that’s doable!  During the day we have had to use the wood stove anywhere from 2 to 3 times using no more than 1 full pack of 6 wood bricks plus our kindling.  In the mornings, it takes just 10 min or less and we are warmed up to 60 degrees.  Now it takes about 30 minutes to an hour for the whole house to be warmed up.  Last night we were in shorts and t-shirts in here while in our bare feet because it was 77 degrees!!

We are very comfortable and have no worries!  I don’t remember if I wrote this before, but we cut up a bunch of our wood pallets to use at kindling. The pallets were free and we wanted to be sure we had something to get us started!  We also have a bunch of left over 1x4’s (16’ long) that if we have to, we will use those to keep us warm too.  And, we still have the bracing on the walls from when we first put the walls up.  Again, if we have to, we’ll use those to burn too!  Sometimes you do what you have to do.

The last 2 days, while it has been the coldest, we ventured out to stock up on essentials.  We got a Costco membership (the greatest place on Earth as Nate would say!!) and stocked up on things like bottled water, paper towels, toilet paper, some food for Scott to pack in his lunch, 2 large cast iron skillets, 2 small cast iron skillets that came with cookie mixes….. and more!  Then yesterday we had to go to Cody to get the title transferred over on the Bronco so we went to Walmart and stocked up on cat supplies – 3 tubs of kitty litter, 4 bags of cat food, lots of cat treats and even some catnip!  Plus since I didn’t get a lot of canned goods at Costco, I got a bunch of canned chili, some fruit and vegetables, plus what I really wanted was a box of powdered milk!  That may sound weird, but powdered milk works great for baking, things like pancakes.  Well milk (and eggs as I have found out the last few days) freezes all too well in these cold temperatures so I needed an alternative.  For the eggs, we’re going to freeze bottles of water then bring in the small cooler inside to keep the eggs cold. 

The good thing about the cold weather is all the rest of my food stays perfectly cold (and frozen) just outside the door in the cooler!!  That means fewer trips to the neighbors to use their refrigerator.

We’ve had several phone calls and texts this week of our friends and family checking on us to be sure we’re ok!  I guess the news showed that Billings was something crazy like -28 degrees!!!  I think it’s because of the dry air, but even if it was that cold here, it really didn’t feel like it.  It wasn’t difficult to breather out in the cold and I hate to admit this, but even when Scott and I ventured out, neither of us wore a winter coat!!  He wore a flannel shirt with a fleece lined vest over top while I wore a sweatshirt with a light jacket and a fuzzy lined bomber hat and gloves.  Neither of us have been good at wearing winter coats, but I guess we’ll have to start!!

Even with everything, we have so much to be thankful for!  Just past our house (2 properties past us) there are 3 campers and lots of vehicles, plus now an outhouse.  They have no electricity at all and we don’t even think they have a generator!  I don’t know how they are doing it but it appears they are trying to live in their campers even in this cold!!  It just makes me so thankful that we are not in the cargo trailer right now!  That first month that we lived in the cargo trailer, there was a few days where we had snow and it was really cold (I think in early May).  I remember that it got down in the 20s and we had absolutely no heat source then!!  I’m just so thankful to be in our house, I’m thankful for our wood stove, and I’m so thankful for our wonderful neighbors who have been looking out for us too!  Our neighbor boy Brian even brought us some wood that he cut up because he and his family wanted to be sure we were plenty warm!

On a completely different subject, Scott’s big day, his first day of work, is now Monday (instead of Friday). They just called and said his boss isn’t working on Friday after all so he won’t go in till Monday (no problem!).  We are both getting excited for him to start work! He’s getting excited to start earning a paycheck again and getting the opportunity to work in a new industry (agriculture and tractor/parts sales).  I, on the other hand, and looking forward to getting him out of the house!!!  Yes, I have very much enjoyed our time together, day in and day out, but I have to admit, I get a lot more work done when he’s not here!! 

I hope you all stay warm this week!!  Have a great weekend!

Baby it's cold outside!

Baby it’s cold outside!!  Just last week we had the most perfect fall days, and as of this morning it feels like winter already!!  This morning we woke up and it was 55 degrees in the house (just a little chilly!) but that didn’t compare to the 14 degrees it was outside, plus the windchill!!  And when we woke up this morning, there was a little snow on the ground!  Our first snow of the season!

There are no complaints here! I actually love this time of the year, the beautiful snow, cuddling up in bed every night, and knowing that Christmas is right around the corner.  The best part! We still don’t have any ‘normal’ kitchen appliances (just a propane camp cook stove) but with the cold weather, now we don’t need to worry about a refrigerator!! See, there is always a silver lining!!

Yesterday, in preparations for this cold snap, we did a lot of preparing!  We had lots of wood pallets and we were running low on kindling.  Scott cut up the wood pallets and brought all the pieces into the house.  While he was doing that, I was working inside – vacuuming, using up all our water to fill up our ‘faucet bucket’, wash all our dishes, fill up the toilet tank and clean the toilet, and even clean a little too.  Since we knew it was going to get cold, we wanted to have all our buckets full, so yesterday afternoon we filled them all up!  Scott even found a few extra buckets so now we have 10 total to fill with water. 

I’m perfectly happy not having full electric, not having running water and not having a kitchen, but honestly I’m not exactly looking forward to filling up the water buckets this winter… it’s going to be cold!!  But we’ll be so thankful someday soon when we finally have running water.

You may be wondering why we don’t have running water yet or electricity – well it’s because of several things.  Basically it comes down to money….  We spent everything we had on getting under roof.  Now we could easily go into debt to get the things we need, but the whole point of us moving out here was to not have a mortgage and not owe any money for anything  (still working on this as we have a few bills to pay on, but we have made big progress toward this goal!!).  Because of this, we don’t want to go further into debt for our water and electric.  But no need to worry about us! We have so much to be thankful for – the little bit of electricity we do have, a nice warm wood stove to keep us cozy all winter, and each other!! 

We also haven’t sold our house yet in OH.  There has been an increase of interest lately, but no more offers.  This is something we are really praying about as it would be a really wonderful blessing to have our OH house sell.  Right now we are just waiting on that right person to come along and fall in love with it just as we have!

I hope you all have a warmer week than we are having!!  But I’ll keep you posted on how much wood we use, how often we need to us out wood stove, and how cold it gets inside and outside.  So far our insulation is really helping!!

Scott got a job and now works for _______!!!

For the last month he's been looking up places to work, newspaper ads, online ads, etc.  There were 2 that interested him.  The first is with Georgia Pacific in Lovell (an hour and 15 min drive, one way in good weather!).  He had an interview with them and they have some really crazy hours - 12 hr days, one week of days, one week of nights, working 7 days a week and then every so often there is a full week off.  To say that he wasn't thrilled about this is an understatement!  Luckily they chose not to hire him for this position.

Shortly after he applied at GP he also applied at Park County Implement in Powell, WY which is our closest town to us at about a 30 min drive.  I helped with his resume and cover letter, we submitted them, but never heard back.  The same day he had his GP interview, I told him to stop in, introduce himself, and just ask to follow up on his application.  They then gave him a paper application to fill out.  After his GP interview, we stopped back at Park County Implement for him to turn in his application.  I was sitting in the car waiting on him and an hour later he comes out!! They gave him an impromptu interview!!  The Store Manager and the Parts Manager interviewed him. 

Scott said they told him in the interview that he would get a second interview! 2 days later they called and had him scheduled for his second interview the very next day (Thursday).  I went along with him but had him drop me off next door at a store (kind of like a mini Walmart store - they had a little of everything but not much of anything).  About 45 min later he comes in and won't give me direct eye contact and his cheeks are red.... I'm thinking the worst that he doesn't want to tell me in public that they didn't want to hire him.  But he says, Let's walk around, I've never been in here before.  So we start walking and I'm trying to figure out how it went while he's stonewalling me!! 

Finally we get to the kitchen appliances area and he wants to look at coffee makers.  He finds one he likes all while I'm thinking, we don't have the money for it!!  But he finally looks at me and says, 'I'll need this for my new JOB!!!'

I let out a scream of joy and couldn't stop hugging him!!

Here are the 2 best parts of this job.  First, in our area (very rural, country farm area), I told him not to wear typical business attire - no Dockers, no Tie, no dress shoes.  Instead I had him wear a nice plaid button down shirt, tucked into khaki colored jeans, a brown belt and his pair of brown cowboy boots.

The next best part is that the Park County Implement store is actually a John Deere dealer!!! Yes, I can't believe I'm admitting it, but Scott works for a John Deere dealer!!  If you don't know me that well, you should know that I come from a farming family - strictly a Case IH or red tractor family.  In his interview, they asked him why he would want to work for John Deere.  His response was something along the lines of, '(chuckle) Well, my father-in-law is a farmer and is only a Case IH/red tractor guy. Let's just say it would be interesting to tell him I work for John Deere!!'  And both of the guys interviewing him started to laugh!! 

We are still waiting to hear his start date, but they said it should be in the next week or so.  He has to fill out his pre-employment paperwork and get his John Deere work shirts.  But I'm so excited for him and so very proud of him!!!  I have been telling him for years all he needed to do is meet face-to-face with the hiring manager and they'd like him. 

And for any of you wondering, I have called my dad and have broke the news to him!  I can tell he's really excited for Scott too (no that's not sarcasm) but to be sure dad's friends could joke about it, I had to call Ron Fritz and tell him too:)  Ron is a good friend of my dads and he is a John Deere man.  Now he and his other John Deere friend George can poke fun with my dad about it!!

I just can't explain to you all just how proud I am of Scott!!!

Current News....

We have been busy!!  I've been working hard to sew new things up for sale on my FB page.  Plus I have been making and altering curtains for our neighbors too.  Scott has been helping out our neighbor Gordy with some of his construction projects all while working on finishing our loft in the house. 

The loft is nearly completed.  Once we are moved up there, Scott will be putting up our breaker box and wiring in outlets and lights (even though we can't hook them up yet - we still don't have full electric).  However, this will at least give him something to do inside as the weather has started to cool down.

The weather out here has been amazing!!  Just this last week it has cooled to about 50-60s during the day and 20-30s at night for a low.  No snow yet, but we've had some crazy winds lately! 

And an update on the foam... it has been doing wonderful! One night this past week it was down to 18 degrees.  We didn't have the wood stove on over night (just use it once a day to cook on is all), and when we got up in the morning it was 63 in the house! Which is a perfect comfortable temperature for us.

OH! I don't have a picture, but we just bought a '92 Ford Bronco (sorry Dad!! It's a Ford!!) - We needed something that is a 4x4 in case of getting snowed in this winter, especially if Scott's working!  The best part, the top comes off of it so this next summer Scott said we can cruise in our basically convertible SUV:)  Gotta have fun somehow!!

Not a lot more to report....

I'll post more pictures of the house, inside and out, here soon!

More pictures from the past few months... including OH pictures

This is all pictures that I've been meaning to post....

Some explanations of the pictures...

Scott's 'girlfriend' sitting on his lap while he reads! This was before we got our stuff from OH.  Princess is her name and she is attached to Scott so I joke that he has a girlfriend.

After we got the temporary basin for our 'shower' area, Tiger decided it was his!

The next series of pictures were taken on our way back to OH - we drove through the oil fields of ND and through lots of windmills in MN.

All along the way you will notice Scott's crazy beard!!

Once we made it to OH, I tried so hard to get a picture of the sign... but rather I got: 'Welcome to (fill in the blank)' which is what I texted to Scott's Uncle Guy who kept me entertained the entire time we were driving home!!  We miss you Uncle Guy and Aunt Carol!!

And our first lunch in OH was of course El Toro!!  By the way we had Mexican for lunch and dinner that Monday then again for lunch on Tuesday with our wonderful OH neighbors:)  We can never get enough Mexican food!!

The next pictures are of our storage unit.... Then there is a couple of our house.  This is what our house looked like when we left for OH.

Next is a picture of the eagle Uncle Guy gave us - we named him Dougie:)  Long story, but our OH neighbor, Charlotte, called me one day to tell me that a pot belly pig had come into their yard and then our back yard!! Come to find out he belonged to the new neighbors and his name was Dougie.  So just for fun, that's what we named him.  He is our watch eagle right now sitting in the kitchen window.

And I had to get some pictures of 'kitty'!!  Kitty belongs to Don and Charlotte and would come over to visit me every day!

And unfortunately, we had to leave OH to come back to WY.  But on the way we had some fun and decided to shave Scott!!  First he shaved off his mustache to look Amish, then he proceeded to only shave parts off.  When he was all done and completely clean shaven, he looked weird to me!! It had been almost 4 months since I'd seen him like that.  Since this was done, it's grown back out to about 1/3 to 1/2" long.  I have to admit I like the beard!

We had some of the most beautiful weather on the drive back to WY!!  And that continued on through our drive to Utah to drop off the rental truck (another 8 hr drive one way).  On this drive we went through Yellowstone, down through Idaho, and into UT.  Once there, we found an El Toro near our hotel!! And we were in heaven as it was very similar to El Toro in OH!

On the way home we drove a different way, down through UT, into WY and went to the Tetons.  There was a GORGEOUS lake that we drove around just before getting into WY.  I wish I had pictures of it, but it's on our bucket list of places to visit again.  Driving by the Tetons has always been a dream of mine and boy was it pretty! I didn't get a ton of pictures because I was busy looking out the window, but we'll be back there sometime and I'll get lots of them.

And finally we arrived home and started to unpack!!  I had some helpers too:)  I found, in all my stuff, a Christmas ornament that I have treasured for so long!  When Ty and I were younger, we used to exchange gifts with each other on Christmas Eve.  One year he got me this glass ornament and I bring it out every year!  Since we don't have any decorations yet, I decided to put up all my Christmas decorations earlier this month.  I also found the card that Ty and Jenna gave us just before we moved out here!! 

And finally, along with more cat pictures, there are pictures of our wood burning stove and cutting a hole in the wall for the piping! That was a very nerve wracking day for me.... cutting a HOLE in the side of the house!!  But we just love our wood stove!  I've been cooking on it, heating up water to do the dishes and to take a sponge bath.  And we have the best neighbors Gordy and Lori... they have given us all their scrap wood (they don't have a wood stove), that way we have extra kindling.

Remember, click on the first picture then you can scroll through them all with ease!