Falling into a new routine

The leaves are changing and the kids are back in school... 

9/27/14 - headed to a Griz game

M and EW had a great time fishin' over in Forks, bringing home some fish for the freezer. I just used some of it to make a baked Salmon cake recipe I found in one of my Taste of Home magazines, courtesy of Barb Bader! 


I sent M back up to the 907 on 9/29...man that was a long day!  M had to be at MSO airport by 6a.m., which means we have to leave Hamilton by 4:45a at the latest.  Add to that, I start work at 10 a.m., so there was no use in me coming back down to Hamilton only to literally turn right back around and head back up to Missoula.  That would have been a 250 mile day when all was said and done.  So I went to my favorite Sbux and hung out for a while reading and sipping a hot chocolate.  However, by the last two hours of my work day, I was fried.  I barely remember my drive home.  In his defense, when he had made these plans, I wasn't working yet, so we didn't have any idea of what the day would hold by then.  Hopefully M has planned better departure times now that we know my schedule.  

I am getting into my own groove here with the 10-6 schedule.  I have learned that I do not like to eat so late when I get home, so I have been packing a sandwich for the drive home.  So far it has been working out.  The only thing I am falling down on the job on is getting back into the gym, or finding a program that will work for me.  Maggie and I have been walking on the weekends, but I need to do something else during the week days.  I am anxious to see what daylight savings times brings this way in regards to morning light, see if I can get some walks in the in the a.m.  If not, there is a gym in Hamilton that I was going to check out.

There is a Griz game this weekend, and I have invited my friend Tracy that I used to work with at FMCC in Bellevue.  She is attending the University and has been for a few years, getting a BA and now working on her Master's, yet she has never been to a Griz Football game yet!  So I will gladly take on this challenge.  I am going to board the babies just over night, dropping them off on my way up to ZooTown, do the game - spending the night at Tracy's, then pick them back up on my way home Sunday.

That is all the news I can think of to share...it has been kinda quiet this month.  For which I am happy about. Have to send out the email to the McGroup about Turkey weekend.  As of last Thanksgiving's Proclamation, when the McKitchen was under construction and the Avarlaughlin's offered to host, it was decreed that Thanksgiving was going to be a rotational occasion, and it was going to be held in the 406 next AND it was hosts/hostesses choice for the meal options.  I said great, we'll have pizza!  I have NEVER wanted to host Thanksgiving, just because of the pressure one gets under to cook the perfect turkey and make the perfect stuffing, but Mom makes hers with...and it has to be this way because that's the way your father wants it etc...  Please believe me when I say, I love the Thanksgiving Holiday, and I love getting together with family....I just don't do well under pressure in the kitchen. 

Ok peeps!  Don't eat too many treats before Halloween.... TTFN!
 

The Leaves are a changin'

So much to catch up on.  

First the big news, for those that are not on Eff Book....I am EMPLOYED!!!! I had a busy August with quite a few interviews and one day spent observing at one location.  I was really happy to have had some interview experience.  I was even invited for a second interview at the University, to meet with the coach and rest of the staff as a sort of meet and greet. 

Without re-living every detail of my exciting week with three job offers...I decided to accept an offer as an Administrative Aide for a company in Missoula.  Mark and I were hoping that I could find something locally in Hamilton, but it just didn't happen that way.  I started at Missoula Correctional Services on 8/26.  Everyone here keeps asking me how I am liking the hour commute, and I just tell them I would take a 50mile drive going 70 mph over a 50 mile drive on I405 in Washington any day!

We have attended our first Griz football game of the 2014 season with the Triple J's.

As per the usual, it was a good time with good friends.  We sat in our new seats, still in the North End Zone, but closer towards the cannon that goes off with every touchdown. 

The next day, M and I decided to take a road trip to parts South and ended up having lunch in Challis, ID.  It was such a beautiful day for a drive down and then back up the Salmon river.  We even took a little time to see the booming metropolis (NOT) of Shoup.  Definitely out of the way, and the only reason you would go up there is to float the river.  But all the same, it was a good day with my hunny. 

 

 That's just some of what we have been doing while M has been home this month.  We are going to miss the Roberts' Sibling Fishing Weekend in Forks this year, so M and EW are heading there tomorrow for a few days to slay some salmon.  Keep your fingers crossed for them! 

Long overdue update!

OMG!  So much to share and update on.
We made our official move to the 406 on April 2nd and then I dropped M off at the airport on April 6th.  So I spent most of April unpacking boxes and getting services established.  When M came home in May, we unpacked more boxes and organized more rooms and hung some pictures.  We also managed to wing our way to Lost Wages for a couple days to celebrate our 10yr wedding Anniversary a little early, since M would be on his AK rotation for all three of our June/July celebrations until his return on July 7th. (His bday, our Anniv. and my bday).  That was a nice little get away for us that didn't have anything to do with selling/packing/moving a house.  

Included in June was Daddy-O's 70th bday... in which we celebrated that with throwing him a surprise party.  Good news...we pulled it off!  He had no idea.  

We had quite a busy last half of July.  My parents came over with GJAB and my Aunt and Uncle followed them over.  We showed them some of Montana that even I hadn’t seen yet.  It was a lot of fun.  Then Mark talked me into going camping with his sisters and their husbands.  They are really into Gold Panning and stuff…but I just enjoyed the sun and relaxing.  We took the dogs with us as well.  I was really nervous about doing that since we were going to be staying in a fifth wheel with one sister-in-law and her hubby and the whole sleeping situation.  But Maggie and Stella were really good and we didn’t have any problems with them or the two other dogs there either. Once we got home (7/28) the girls crashed from having so much free room to roam for three days.  We made it back in time for my friend JAZ and her two boys to come stay with us for a few days.  Grayson really wanted to love on Stella, but she wasn’t quite sure about him.  I felt a little bad because we don’t really have a fun yard that we could’ve sent them out to play in.  However, I was told they had fun anyway.  To continue with the Roberts’ B&B reservations, we had the Oregon Hoffman's here for one night while our two nieces and their families from Oregon blew into town and needed a place to crash for one night until their vacation rental house was ready.  When all was said and done, we only had two nights alone before I sent M back up to Alaska on Sunday August 3^rd

Then I hit the job hunting pavement again.  The good news there is I have had five interviews in the last three weeks.  Three of them would be state and/or city jobs.  One was here in Hamilton and the rest were in Missoula.  I feel I've had some really good interview last Friday and Monday.  One was for the Dept. of Public Health and Human Services, then Missoula Correctional Services.  At least I am getting some great interviewing experience, which I really needed.  The one I am most excited about though?  I had a phone interview for an administrative aide at the University of Montana Football Athletic Dept.!!!!!! Today I got a call inviting me to come for an on-campus interview, to meet the coach and do a walk thru of the campus.  Eeeeeekkkkkkk!!!!  (Insert clapping hands here).  All the most recent interviews indicated that they would be making a decision soon, possibly by end of this week or early next.   

OK…that’s about all the scoop I have for ya!

6/28/14 - McChicks in disguise

5/29/14 Early 10 yr Anniversary celebration at Hugo's Cellar in LV

7/27/14 - Maggie wanted lap time

7/28/14 Grayson & Stella