Friends and Finally, Some Pictures

I must be feeling better because here I am writing instead of hanging my head in the toilet which is what I usually do at this time of night. A wonderful friend came over this morning and cleaned my whole house so it has actually been a very relaxing day. I played and read stories with the kids today and I was able to put everyone to bed peacefully. Thank you Charity for the boost. Side note: I have a new friend here in Missoula. She and her family are here from Ireland staying at the Ronald McDonald House while her six year old daughter sees a world famous neuro-feedback guy in Missoula, Montana of all places. What amazes me is that she has a daughter with demanding disabilities and instead of hitting the town or taking a nap while her kids are in school, she comes over to my house to clean up my messes. I realize I'm pretty self absorbed at times and I hope I can be more like her. The name, Charity, is quite appropriate for her.

I have to say though, I am blessed with amazing friends some who live close and others who are now far away. I will never be able to repay the selflessness they've shown me but I'm trying to do the same for others to show my gratitude.

I really wasn't planning on posting anything more than pictures but a Thank you and God bless you all is probably long overdue.

Anyway, here are some pictures taken over the summer.

James' first day of kindergarten. I took him the first day but Doug and James leave the house together every other day. James likes to be just like his dad riding to work. He even puts on his "biking gloves" (Sponge Bob garden gloves) just like Doug. One of these days Doug is going to have a real rival for speed.

Happy kids after a refreshing float down the Bitterroot River. The rivers here are awesome!

I should have named her Eve.
But does anything get more natural than this?

It has been a lot of work to upkeep but having a big, shady yard has been wonderful. The kids spent the summer out here especially in the irrigation ditch.



Our back yard is like a park. Our garden was enormous, not for variety of vegetables but for literal size of the plants. It gave copious amounts of veggies, particulary zuccini and crook necks. After a gazillion hours of weeding we finally started hauling our grass clippings to the garden to fend off the radically proliferating weeds. We discovered that irrigation water coming straight from the river and though miles of neighborhood irrigation ditches spreads weed seeds so efficiently it was nearly impossible to keep up.