I’ve had a fairly productive weekend. Saturday I was able to clean the kitchen (which really needed it), do the photo shoot of Misty’s family and the shoot for Poet Sky. I hadn’t done laundry since before my trip to Montana so I caught up on that. Today after church and a much needed nap, I cleaned my bathroom and organized the pictures from the photo shoots so that I can give them the best shots. I still need to clean my room and decorate for Christmas but I figure that can be done little by little during the week. I am still not 100% which is part of the reason I desperately needed a nap, I felt I was overdoing it a bit.
Alliance Christmas Potluck - Tomorrow we’re having the Alliance Christmas Potluck. We opted out of a Christmas party this year since we were told it meant more money on our bonus checks if we didn’t. I will make sure to take pictures. The office was decorated last week and it looks really nice. If I don’t get any decorations up at my place I won’t feel bad cause I have plenty of twinkle lights at the office to make up for the lack at home. And pretty much I spend more time at the office then I do at my own place!
Montana - Man I want to share about my trip to Montana but I’m just not sure I have the energy to go into an obnoxiously long post. I’ll do my best to sum up. I wrote about getting to my Cousin Joey’s place in Colorado at about 2am Tuesday night (or I should say Wednesday morning).
11.21.07 - The next morning we woke up at 7 to get back on the road. We got on the road at about 9am and got up to my grandparents place around 6:30pm. There was one section of road that was pretty icy. I was with my cousin Joey and her girls and my sister was driving the truck with my brother and her kids. She lost control and spun out. It was pretty freaky and amazing that no damage was done! They turned completely three times and ended up on the outer bank of the frontage road facing the correct direction and were able to just start driving again. The amazing thing is within a couple of miles my cousin and I saw (no exaggeration!) 15-20 cars unable to recover from their loss of control on the ice! God was definitely watching over Heidi.
It was quite the site to walk into my grandparents place and see all the great grandkids running around playing. It was the epitome of chaos but it was awesome! (The once-in-a-lifetime kind of chaos) I was so thankful to see Shawn and his family there. After our hellos and hanging out for a bit we were assigned the locations we were going to be staying. Brian and I were going to be staying with my cousin Clint, Joey and her kids were joining us. Heidi and the kids were staying with my cousin Kerri. Shawn and his family already claimed my Aunt Darlene’s place. And my parents were going to be staying with my grandparents.
11.22.07 – Thanksgiving Day – My cousin Joey had arranged for she and I to volunteer at a soup kitchen but they had enough volunteers for serving food but needed people to deliver meals, so she and I went as planned but Kerri and Heidi joined us to keep us company and because Kerri knew the location better then Joey. It was quite an interesting experience and if I felt like it I would go into our experiences at a couple of the drops. We made 9 stops and were back to Clint’s place in perfect timing for dinner.
Clint’s place was the only place big enough to fit all the family and I know he wanted to show the place off! Rightfully so, he has a great place! I was thoroughly impressed he was able to decorate himself! It’s not the typical bachelor pad at all! We had great food. Even had snowball fights. Brenda pointed out that Shawn seems to enjoy picking on me. He got me pretty good.
When everyone started to head out, the girls were planning how to tackle the shopping the next morning. I’ve never been one to do the day-after Thanksgiving shopping but it’s a tradition for them so I tag along for the ride. Either way we were going through the paper and all the different specials and planned our route. I didn’t get to bed till midnight but Joey and I were told to be up and ready by 4:45 am!
11.23.07 – Day after thanksgiving shopping – It was Kerri, Heidi, Brenda, Joey and myself all packed into my grandpa’s Jimmy as we took off for our first stop. Even being there when it opened wasn’t enough. The main item on our list was already sold out. But without boring you all with details our shopping didn’t take as long as we expected! The lines were reasonable and the stores organized. The longest wait was at Target. We were done with our shopping by about 10 or 11am! We decided to stop and get brunch.
Sam’s Call - After brunch I was shocked to see Sam on my caller id. He called to tell me he had proposed to Sara. I was immediately thankful he called me! In one of our chats I had asked him to tell me so I wouldn’t find out by someone else. He told me the details of how he proposed. I was genuinely happy for him! I knew it was a matter of time and they seem like a great fit. The call was pleasant and I kept feeling so grateful that our friendship has stayed intact to this level.
It wasn’t till I went back to the table and told my sister I could use a hug that emotions started to arise. I wasn’t sure where they were coming from. I got teary eyed. I know I gave a part of my heart to Sam, and I believe that part was mourning. I didn’t have time to address the emotions because we were on the way back out. I expected that I stuffed the emotions and would have to revisit them later. When I took the time revisit them, I was surprised that I wasn’t emotional. And if I think about it, 4 hours of sleep and a hectic morning might have been the only reason tears of any kind were shed! I mean even now I am so very happy for him.
Heidi’s job - After we got back from shopping we had no time to relax and catch up on much needed sleep. Heidi was set to do everyone’s hair at Darlene’s place. The house was full and busy but it was good. I got my second wind and had a fairly decent night.
11.24.07 - Portraits - I was able to sleep till a normal time this day. I took my time getting ready since we had to be dressy for the family portrait. Clint, Brian and I just had to be down at the coop by noon for pictures and the surprise party was immediately afterwards. I helped my aunt finish up some of the last minute stuff for the party when I got there. A couple family members were late so the pictures didn’t start on time. The photographer noticed my camera and apparently I had a better model then he had! Hehe He seemed impressed and even asked to take pictures with my camera as well as his. He said my camera was the Cadillac of cameras and his was a cheaper model. I can’t remember which car he referred to his as, something like a dodge neon. So we got a family portrait. 36 of us total! Crazy!
Grandpa’s Surprise 90th birthday party – The party was a John Deere theme of course. It was setup where we took our pictures so all my grandpa thought was that he was going to the coop for pictures but once he got there he saw the setup. Because of the late start with the pictures people were arriving before we were done. The party was a success and I could tell my grandpa felt special.
After the party and the cleanup we went back to my grandparent’s farm to watch him open his presents. The sun hadn’t completely set so I rushed around to get some shots of the farm. My grandparents have been talking about moving into an assisted living place for the last couple of years and we’re not sure how much longer they are going to be at the farm.
Once we got through the gifts we realized grandpa needed some rest and it was our last night there so we decided to go to the movies. The kids all wanted to see “Enchanted” and I can’t lie, I actually thought it would be interesting to see. Joey, Nate and Bailey chose to go see Fred Claus but the rest of us went to Enchanted. It was cute. Again I got to bed at midnight and had to be packed and on the road by 4:30 am!
11.25.07 - Brian and I were on the road by 4:30! I was impressed. We had to drive over to Kerri’s place to pick up Heidi and the kids. We were 1 mile from our exit when a deer jumped out from the left and we hit it! I remember it feeling like both sets of tires ran over it. It happened so fast! I could hear something dragging and I was afraid to find out it was part of the deer. So we pulled over and Brian went to check it out and I stayed just in case it was a bloody mess… Brian’s mouth dropped open when he looked at the damage and told me to come out. I tried to open the door but it was jammed shut!
We weren’t sure what to do so we drove the couple miles to my cousin’s place to come up with a game plan. I crawled through the driver’s side and saw that the wheel well was what was dragging as we drove. The whole front right side was totaled! And no sign of blood but a tiny little bit of hair. We got inside and Brian decided to try to get in touch with his insurance company and also the highway patrol so they could write up a report for insurance purposes. We weren’t sure if we were going to be able to drive it home or what! My cousin Joey and her family stopped by on their way back to Colorado and said they couldn’t see a deer anywhere on the side of the road. Nate is a mechanic so he checked out the truck and said it looked drivable. We slept on and off waiting for call backs from the police and insurance people. The police ended up not coming because we left the scene. Brian’s insurance wasn’t available since it was Sunday. So my dad, grandpa, and Uncle Tom stopped by to help clean up and make it drivable. Before we knew it, it was noon!
At about 2:30 we decided to go visit our grandparents. Brian and I were talking and decided that it might be best to leave that night. Our only concern was that with only one headlight we would be more likely to get pulled over. Brian not having a valid driver’s license meant I would have to pull off the night driving. I’ve been on long road trips but not usually behind the wheel. I felt confident so I agreed to do it. We got on the road at about 7:30pm. I was a little panicked for the first 3 hours of the drive because we were in prime deer area and I kept reliving the deer that morning jumping out with no time to react. I only had one headlight but the sky was clear and there was a full moon. I could actually see the deer grazing which helped in some ways, in others it just made me more paranoid of them jumping out at me! Hehe Apparently hitting the deer impacted me because I started to see things after a while. But in the prime deer spots I would just pray in my tongue the whole time. I had a bit of tense driving through Yellowstone. The temp got as low as 5 degrees and the roads were icy in spots.
I got pulled over twice. After I explained the situation they were cool. One guy in Idaho said I was also speeding, going 73 in a 65 zone. Luckily he was cool and didn’t give me a ticket. I drove straight through till 2:30am and then asked Heidi if she could take over for a little bit so I could rest my eyes. She was only able to pull 2 hours before she had to have me take over again. So I got back on the road at 4:30 till about 6:30 when the sun was coming up and Brian took over and I slept. Heidi took over from Vegas on and we got home about 1pm!
There you have it… Our adventures to, from and in Montana!
It’s late. I have more to write but I really need to get to sleep, and besides this is already a long post. Night!
Labels: Colorado, Parties, Rambling, Thanksgiving, Travel
posted by Charity at 12/03/2007 12:07:00 AM 
