Saturday in Montana

Madeleine and I had a delightful time going to and exploring the various downtown markets this morning. She shared my cinnamon roll, which by the way, was bigger than my face! We perused the various vendors and finally bought a bag of dried local apples. They have become a favorite treat of mine as they are easy to carry around in the car and on hikes, not to mention they are a healthy alternative to granola bars and other sweet stuff.

Justin had a great day fishing even though he didn't reel anything in (hence no pictures). He says he got one on his line but it got off before he could pull it out of the water. We all enjoyed the mild temps and sunshine regardless of where our time was spent!

Goodbye snow...hello sunshine!

We've waited a long time for seasonal temperatures but they finally arrived today! We're expecting highs in the low to mid 70s for at least a whole week. Of course we celebrated by going for another hike today (yes I did find more wildflowers I may eventually share with you) and I went out for milkshakes with my friend Beth.

Earlier this week, even though it was cold and rainy, we let Madeleine experience Dairy Queen for the first time. She was rather dubious about the baby cone they gave us but she quickly warmed up to sharing my blizzard. Maggie was the fortunate beneficiary of the unwanted baby cone. Maggie also licked up the remnants of ice cream Madeleine wore on her face.

Justin is going out fishing all day tomorrow with a friend and they're taking the Subaru (the vehicle of ours that gets the best gas mileage) which leaves me with the Jeep and Madeleine. While we've discovered she enjoys taking quick trips around town in her car seat in the Jeep, I'm not thrilled to have it as my only option so I think we'll go to the Farmer's Market on foot tomorrow. It should be a beautiful day for it anyway.

June snow. No, it's not the name of a flower

Yes, it's June 10th and we're expecting 2 to 4 inches of snow tonight! It snowed earlier today and stuck for a little while but melted quickly. And wouldn't you know it's supposed to be in the 70s by the end of the week! I guess I'd rather be in our situation than enduring the heat so many of you are getting back East. It's ironic though that we're busy running our heat while you have the AC on full blast. Our neighbor across the street just had his central air unit installed yesterday and today. We made sure to make fun of him :)

Photo update

Madeleine took quite the tumble on Monday morning. I didn't think a little trip into the back of a chair leg would result in a bright purple bruise and bump but it did. You can kind of see it over her right eye. It became a huge welt immediately and Justin had to read her some stories to calm her down and help her stop crying. Oreo came to Madeleine's aid as well. I think the cat was born outside of a rather lousy karaoke bar because she always come running whenever Madeleine screams/cries, I whistle or sing, and when Justin plays his harmonica. It's not a compliment any way you cut it but it's kind of endearing. I just wish she'd quit drooling whenever she purrs that much!

This one is a good example of Madeleine's crazy morning hair.

Maggie and Madeleine love each other.

Per Carol's request, Justin finally took new pictures of me and my growing belly. I said goodbye to my feet a few weeks ago.

Out of our hands

Justin mailed off his application for the Missoula Vet Center job this afternoon. The job closes on the 12th and we don't expect to hear anything right away so we're trying to decide how to keep ourselves distracted in the meantime.

Tomorrow we have an appointment to see a few homes in the area with our realtor; that should give us something to think about and at least takes up one of our afternoons. In case we end up staying in our current place I've been thinking through ways to personalize it to better fit our needs and growing family. I just hope I don't come up with any creative ideas at 1:30 in the morning!

Please continue to pray that God fills us with peace (and that we stay sane) during this process. And, as always, I'll keep you posted.

Late at night

I'm still up and it's after 12:30. I should be sleeping but I can't stop my brain right now so I thought I'd let you in on my thoughts. Earlier this afternoon Justin and I went and spoke with a mortgage broker who helped us think through some financial options for buying a house. After having already gone through our budget at home, we were shown some numbers that humbled us. Even though Justin is anticipating a salary far beyond that of what the "traditional" social worker makes, it doesn't seem like enough to help us buy the type of home we'd want in our area.

That leaves us with a few decisions to make: do we continue to rent where we are or find some new temporary place? do we change our expectations? do we continue to pinch and stretch our budget to get something that we probably can't quite afford but hope Justin would get raises over the years to make it more manageable?

Of course, we still have to wait on hearing back on the job here in Missoula before we do anything beyond going and looking at houses with our realtor just to get an idea of what's available in Missoula in a spectrum of prices. Ultimately, we are continuing to trust in God's sovereignty. He has provided for us amazingly, despite not having any income since February, and we are not about to forget that now.

You would think that the peace we have received would help me get to sleep tonight but I don't think Junior got the memo that it's time to settle down. That's one of the reasons I couldn't get comfortable long enough in bed. Another reason is our dog Maggie continues to sneakily creep up on my side of the bed instead of staying at the bottom of it. I know, I know...the easy fix is to kick her off but you don't have those brown eyes turned toward you begging for mercy like I do every day. And so she stays on the bed, asleep, dreaming even, while I sit her typing.

That's enough babbling for now. I'm hoping a few games of solitaire might make my lids droopy.

Celebration feast and lots of beauty!

Tonight we went out to dinner at our favorite local restaurant Heraldo's down in Lolo to celebrate the posting of the position at the Missoula Vet Center that Justin's applying for. I haven't kept this too up-to-date regarding Justin's job situation so here's the latest. It turned out that he wasn't qualified for the position he applied for in March at the Vet Center because he didn't have his Master's degree yet. Fortunately, they didn't hire anyone at that time and instead decided to re-post the position at a lower level which makes Justin even more qualified this time around. Plus, he's graduated and now has his MSW. The job closes on June 12 and they are looking to hire within 30 days of the closing date. We're praying things work out this time around and that they would find Justin to be the most qualified person for the position. I'll be sure to keep you updated on the latest as we find things out.

In the meantime, Justin's been enjoying his time off fishing and bike riding (when he hasn't been helping watch Madeleine while I've worked in the garden). He's even found a way to join the two activities by mountain biking 5 miles up a trail where he can then go fly fishing. It's a lot closer to home than his traditional fishing spot which makes it a lot easier to encourage and support.

When he's not spending time outside, he's been reading up on more theory and practice pertaining to trauma. I've also gotten him to start reading "Pontoon" by Garrison Keillor as a lighter before bed option. I have been reading a book called "The Highly Sensitive Child" which our pediatrician recommended based on her assessment of Madeleine's personality. Apparently 15-20% of the population can be categorized as "highly sensitive" which generally means they have a heightened nervous system that tends to influence how they perceive the world. These people tend to be more cautious, self-reflective, and reserved in unfamiliar situations or around unfamiliar people. In general, for those of you who have known me a long time, you could consider me a highly sensitive person. I'm fascinated by everything the author has said and how much of it is true for Madeleine, even with her being this young. The author gives good tips and helpful insights into how to help parent a child like this by nurturing their instincts without trying to change them. I'm even learning more about myself by reading it. I'm glad to get started early on this because it will take lots of practice for me to become consistent in the ways I parent Madeleine. And because this characteristic is genetic, there's a chance Junior might also fall into this category which means I'd be even more prepared to notice these characteristics in him.

I don't have any pertinent pictures to post with all of this text so I might as well show you some pictures I took on my hike yesterday with Madeleine. The local wildflowers are out in force and with every turn I found something new that took my breath away! Whether it was the pair of red-tail hawks that flew a few hundred feet from us calling to each other, the bees buzzing in the lupine, or the bald eagle that soared overhead, I finished the hike once again completely in love with Missoula. I'm glad we still have the opportunity to continue our family adventure here.

(The names of the flowers are as accurate as I can identify according to my guidebook.)

(Arrowleaf balsamroot and silvery lupine)

(Silvery lupine)

(Arrowleaf balsamroot)

(Cushion buckwheat)

(Bessey's crazyweed)

(Fuzzytongue penstemon)

(Leafy spurge)

(Meadow death camas)

(Silverleaf phacelia)

(Silvery groundsel)

(Western Gromwell)

(Wild hyacinth)

(Wilcox's penstemon)