With love, from Montana

Spring two thousand ten

2011-01-18T18:32:00.000-08:00

Christmas in a Jar

2010-12-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

Dear Sweet family,

I hate to be away and miss Christmas Eve. Mostly I will miss seeing all the "little ones" and mostly giving them kisses and hugs. I was thinking of them all this morning and how much of a blessing it is to be the oldest cousin. What an honor and priviledge it is and has been to see my "baby" cousins grow and have babies. {insert my sister and brother too and their 3 loves } And the most beautiful babies. EVER. Miss you much!

PS a little christmas in a jar for the "sweet ones" we are gifting.

Giving credit where credit is do : City Cradle design

Dear Shrimp

2010-12-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

A short poem

I love you shrimp.
If I eat you raw I will die.
OoOooo butter you are so good.

Jt talking to the shrimp

8 shrimp go into the water.
8 shrimp come out of the water.
Boy really hungry.
Boy fries 'em up.
Boy eats them.

Nothing Fancy

2010-10-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

Hello Friday!

My boys , you know the ones! They L O V E the show American Pickers. Words like vintage, junk, treasure. They get it. I am going to show you their room, which is mostly decorated American Pickers style. And I must add is a work in progress. Luckily this is my department of "nesting" if it were up to the Mr. I have a feeling that lovely hula girl lamp would arrive on the dresser. No thanks!
The old tractor....montana picked.

Montana picked-Field and Stream and Outdoor life. OK, pretty much describes their life in a nutshell, living on a ranch nutshell. Magazines circa '89 and '90.(This is vintage to them, 1972 the year I was born, is really old!) Now I might add those are dollar frames from stuff-mart. Gar hung those himself and I think he did a great job, level, ruler and all. Now if you are a perfectionist you might be bothered, I am not.

F- this would normally stand for something very bad. F on a paper, cringe. The beloved "f" word, which by the way was F A R T in our house. Those days are gone. They know That F stands for...our .... last name.

Montana Picked. What can I say. Those two treasure trunks filled with picked off items. You don't even want to look inside those trunks. They are kinda like the black hole. In fact that fan came out of one of the trunks, just kidding.

Let's take a closer look at that trunk photo. Ok you can say Montana pickers, right out of our garden, are you sensing a theme here? Gooseneck Gourds, grown by the big kid.

On.
The best for last! Montana Mama, picked this in a junk shop, vintage lamp shade,$5. No kidding! I had seen lampshades working this way across the blog world. I never imagined I, Montana Mama would come across a vintage shade- check. With a masculine feel-check. It works! Yeah, me~clapping!

Off.

Have a great weekend, goodnight.

It's Fall Y'all

2010-10-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

Hi Ya peeps!

It is windy today, but I am not complaining, I tell ya. Not going to do it. It has been glorious here in Montana! Mr. Man was talking the other day about Fall. You can move places where it's Summer year around, and Winter year around. There is no place that you can move where it is Fall year around. OK so maybe the temps, but not the colors. Chartreuse green, rusty red, bright orange. Beauty!

We went to a pumpkin patch a couple of Sundays ago, word of the day, say it with me....Beauty! Agape guys picked out pumpkins, I picked out the most Beauty-full Hubbard squash. That squash sat calling my name, yet ever so gently telling me to wait for the right day to prepare him. Today was the day, and let me tell you. He resisted the knife some, I had to put some effort into it, divide and conquer.

( promise it was tasty)
Recipe Please....
Autumn Squash Soup
1/4 cup Olive oil
4 medium-sized onions
2 teaspoon thyme leaves]
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 pound rutabagas, peeled and diced ( these loves not available to me so I added more 'tatoes)
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cubed
16 cups (whew!) peeled and rough chopped Hubbard squash or banana, acorn, Golden acorn,pumpkin, pick your fav.
3 1/2 quarts chicken stock
Simply put....
Saute onions, thyme, nutmeg in olive oil for 15 minutes
Add rutabagas, potatoes, and squash stirring occasionally for 30 minutes. Watch these bad boys, make sure they don't get out of hand.
Pour stock bring to boil then simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
Grab your hand-dandy hand held blender, whirl until your most loved consistency.
Serve with love.

source: Sunset Fresh Produce circa 1987

Yosemite

2010-10-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

Dear ones,

We loved Yosemite. Why didn't we take you there sooner?

With love, from Montana

South Dakota

2010-10-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

Let's just say I recommend it, South Dakota that is. The Black Hills are really black, and it would take a smart person like Scott to explain why. Here's my feeble attempt..... It's a trick on your eyes, It has to do with the light and the trees. I think it's magical and I love it.

Pictures do not do Mount Rushmore justice. You. Must. See. It. In. Person. Just breathtaking.

Lunch in Broadus Montana
Cashway Cafe homemade Trucker/Diner food (first attemp reuben, good very homemade taste)(recommended by a friend whose honey has a ranch in the area)

We stayed in Keystone.
Ate very bad Mexican food there. blah!
Bought a 7.00 sweatshirt. (For an 11yr old who packed himself)
Walked the boardwalk~ everything was closed for the season. (fine with me)
Except the taffy store, jalapeno taffy, no thank you.
Lot's of pool time at the hotel, we were there for 3 days, Garrett called the Hot tub the "meet and greet" which Scott fully avoided, but you know me.
Mount Rushmore (go now!)

Rapid City
Firehouse Brewery (I am on a mission to find the best Reuben sandwich. They had the best secret sauce ever, of course I inquired and was told it's the secret sauce, 'nuff said)
Downtown on Main, all Presidents in Bronze (boys seize the photo-op)
BeauJo's Pizza
Window shopping

Spearfish Canyon ( an aww inspiring drive)
Deadwood ( The graves of Buffalo Bill Cody and Calamity Jane)

Wyoming
Devil's Tower (Jt wants to climb someday, shudder)
America's first National Monument

A drive home that took us through parts of Wyoming and Montana we had not yet seen. I love the wide open spaces, it's a beautiful country!

Take care you.

With Love, from Montana

PS Pictures soon!

Montana Goodness

2010-09-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

I love the fall and I love Montana!
Montana is more than a place.
View from a front door.
View from the back deck, I love you horsies! JT loves you more!
#30 coming home from work on Friday, with some fresh veggies for me. We all love you and your hat. ( I decided to give our guys numbers, to help with anonymity)

December 2, 2009 was the last time I was here. Not having Internet access is, well interesting. I found myself telling people, you know professional people, "I don't have Internet, I am sorry I can't look that health insurance information up." Imagine, silence, oh just for a few seconds. "OK then, let me send you the info you need through the mail."gasp! Fast forward, September15 2010, time to just do it. And I did, do it. It's not like we live in the boon docks. (Although it does cost a bloody fortune. Does Al tel have stock?) Our computer took a dive, that was a major part of the issue. But some really nice friends came for a visit, and brought us one, how nice! So here I am 9:54pm, with my own rules set for my get sucked into the computer self. Only at night. After I am cozy and ready for bed-check. Warm cup of green tea with pomegranate- check. Dishes done, kitchen closed- check. The children nestled with sugar plums dancing in their head- check (OK not really, but they are working on it) Did I go for a walk today? Did I spend time with Jesus? How is Scott doing? You know very important to prioritize. You know the computer is good, a great way to keep in touch with those I love. And I do love you!

Ok so this is for you~ my two blog followers.

With love, from Montana

Hello there!

2009-12-02T13:34:00.000-08:00

School time

Summer time

Too bad you can't eat carp

Montana is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace......

With love,

Theresa

Birthdays

2009-10-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

Dearest Family and Friends,

I thought I would start with Birthdays. I think that is what we miss the most about Nevada, Birthdays of the Month. I love you family. Thanks for embracing Garrett and JT this summer. They sure felt loved.

Garrett turned 12. What a wonderful human being. So smart. Books, he loves them. Sensitive. Contagious Laughter.

JT turned 10. Amazing. Energized. Cuddly. Loves animals. Naturalist. Hands on. Digs his disection class.

Ok so that's the short version or the blog version. They love Montana. They were skunked a couple of weeks ago. I can't even begin to list all the animals they have been priveleged to play with and observe. Montana is boy country~ all the way!

Thanks agian for all the birthday wishes, it was hard at those times to be away.

With Love,

From Montana

PS I am looking for a cool signature line, any ideas? Also if you want me to post your business send me your link, pretty please do send me the link.

So many photos, so little time

2009-10-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Dearest family and friends,

I miss you! You are all very special to me. Montana is home, now. September 1st was our 1 year anniversary and I don't think I have to tell you how much we love it here. We love our work here at Special K Ranch and so glad we were brought to this place.

I wish I had more time to post and in the future I hope to. I want to show you how wonderful it is for us to be here. I admit I am not much of a writer (my good friend is editing this in her mind as she reads this, you know who you are. I am making mistakes just for you) I prefer photo journaling.

I am off to fix dinner for 8 wonderful people whom I am blessed to serve.

With love,

From Montana