In Limbo

Now begins the limbo: we have one foot still here and one foot edging towards there. Half of our stuff is in boxes, the other half is haphazardly strewn about our temporary rental house in an attempt to live with two small children for six weeks. Thus far, I would give the children about a four on an adjustment scale. Jonathan has behaved less than superbly, and Caleb is sleeping much less than he needs.

Moving day was sunny, nice, the movers were great, and the children were not great. All together I would rank that day as "as good as it could have been... all things considered". Especially because our church was granted a special use permit to lease a space for a Sunday morning meeting time (that made the day quite good).

Closing day was sunny, nice, the buyers were not great, the children were not great, but dinner at Dennys' for "kids eat free" was great.

And so we roll... into limbo until the holidays.

Eyebrows

I have a thick unibrow if I neglect to pluck or wax the lovely items above my eyes. I have an "at-home" waxing solution and I use it regularly. Usually I do it when the boys are sleeping because it isn't altogether fun and I need to focus so that I don't end up with "no-brow".

Yesterday was an exception as my hours without the children awake are spent packing. Jonathan didn't nap, and came out of his room from quiet time just as I was ready to apply the goo. He stared, then got a rather pained expression on his face. After I ripped off one larger section of wax, he said (with the same pained expression), "how about if we don't do mine next?"

To which I responded, "No worries. Boys don't wax their eyebrows, just girls."

With a very relieved look, "YEAH!! And, I'm a boy so I won't do that!!!!"

Yellowstone

We were about an hour from Yellowstone, so we made the short trip on a beautiful day. I imagined that we would see beautiful national park lands... I had no idea that we would see countless geysers, hot springs, and natural thermal features. It exceeded any expectations that we had and we already have plans to return when the boys are older!

Splash!

It doesn't take great things to amuse us... we spent 30 minutes throwing rocks into this creek...

The Land of Moose and Bears

Watching for wildlife takes on whole new meaning when it means hiking with an eye out for Grizzlies. This awareness was new territory for me, and I read a book called "Bear Aware" upon arriving at our destination. I need not have feared... we didn't see any Grizzlies or Black Bears. Maybe it was the singing we did to warn them of our presence on the trails. Or maybe I was just a little hyper-sensitive to the possibility.

Bears or the possibility of bears could not put a damper on our delight at the hours spent hiking and playing in Big Sky country. We had a wonderful respite and couldn't have asked for more pristine hikes.

Ousel Falls was one of the hikes listed as "must do" by the owners of the condo. Their recommendation was well deserved... we hiked Ousel Falls several times. The last day we spend in Montana we hiked there and Jonathan hiked 1.5 miles up and down hills with no carrying except the last 100 yards uphill. We're priming him early for lots outdoor adventures.

17 days

Deep breathing... calm thoughts... we have out be out of this house in 17 days. We have packed nothing. We just returned from a glorious 8 day vacation to Montana (photos soon to follow) that allowed us to avoid all things moving related. The avoiding must end. I must move into a gear I don't particularly like: high.

Montana photos will come when at least a few things have found their way into boxes.