Sharing….

Let’s just jump past the first part of this week and get into the last part. Flooding, daycare ending, family and life has just all ganged up on me to see what I can handle and after a couple of days of feeling like the sky was falling I have finally got a grip and will continue on. It was horrible leaving Wyoming and for the first 20 miles I really was just going to go back and the heck with daycare and what not, I didn’t want to leave Mike. However, he is doing terrific, school is great and his grades and attendance are totally awesome, he has a great friend, he’s learned to take care of himself and his home and I think I wore him out doing all the stuff I wanted to in the little time we had together. So for 80 miles I cried my heart out and came to terms this is what it is and will just enjoy the time I have here or there with Mike and see what life has to offer in-between. Which brings me to the next hard thing. My daycare is coming to a close and I didn’t get to pick the ending time. I didn’t get to shut the doors when I wanted too. My last full time family is ending July 27th and when school starts in September I will be finished. No more kids to take care of. No more kids to love, hold, enjoy, be part of. I am NOT ready for this but I knew that one day it would happen but I thought I’d get to pick that time. Guess not. I really wouldn’t be so bad if I knew I had a full time job when this was over but I haven’t a clue and it’s just extra hard. And this flooding, well it flooded my mom and dad’s basement with lots of water and in that basement is 40+ years of goodness they have saved, used, shared, wanted, stored and more and it is now all very wet and the thing that gets me, their insurance doesn’t cover any of this. This really isn’t flooding like a home in the low lands, this house is built 50’ up a hill with no chance of flood water what the flooding is from is water coming in because the ground can no hold another drop. I haven’t been much help with the lifting because I hurt myself while rock climbing and am just about healed from that but starting in the next day or two we’ll be working on my mama’s sewing room and storage. The rest they have done really well with because it’s used all the time so things were up… well except my dads gun room but he took care of that with mama’s help. Anyways, a mess there too.

I will admit I have failed at my challenges this past week and a half but I am going to get this stuff handled this week and come Monday get back into them too. I will make up for the miles lost this week and I will work on all the rules of the challenge too.

So to share now. Flooding first. I don’t know if any of you are watching what happened here last week while I was gone but we had 12” of rain in a few hours and then another 12” or more the next day. Add all that up with all the water we already have in this wonderful land of ours and we have way to much to handle. Jim took pictures for me so I will share a few with you.

This is our field and pond that now goes straight to the lake.

 

This is the road on both sides of us. They closed the deeper one for a couple of days so going to town took a lot longer then normal. It really was a good thing I didn’t have daycare because it would of been hard getting here and once here hard to figure out what to do for 4 days in the house and then getting home again while the water kept coming.

 

This is Jim taking the boat out the back gate into the rest of the field. He was able to go from our house, to my parents, to the lake, across the road, to the next lake and back without have to take the same route. This is our dozer, lots of work coming up to get it useable again. Under this water is all 3 lawn mowers, a golf cart, a winter fish house, a wood trailer and more.

 

This is the crap that is floating around, it isn’t even our crap. This next picture is town, the is a garden center that won’t be needing to water any of it’s plants or trees for a while.

Now since I got home I haven’t gone anywhere’s, none at all, so I don’t know what the rest of the world up here looks like but I’ve been told and read that it’s terrible everywhere. So please pray for everyone that is dealing with this water and also, while I was in Wyoming I could see the fire in Colorado and I felt so sorry for all of them people losing their homes while we had all the water.

So those are the not so pretty pictures but a huge part of our lives right now. But I have tons of pretty pictures of my trip and will end this post with them. I hope you all are doing wonderful and I’ll be back next week for onward and upwards on my challenges. First the video of the dogs greeting Mike.

And now just some more pictures of Mike and I, the trip and extras.

 

Snow Ridge mountains. They are so beautiful. We went there three times to play, hike and watch a sunset. Hey, did you know while in the mountains you can not see a sunset? It never dawned on me that you couldn’t.

  

This is what a sunset looks like in the mountains. The sun goes down. No big color display or anything.

 

Look out ridge. You know what was really cool? When Mike and I go site seeing we really get into it. There was this older couple on the look out point taking pictures of Mike and I while we looked, pointed out stuff and just enjoyed ourselves. I didn’t notice him until we were getting up there and the man said in all his travels he has never seen a couple of people enjoy each other so much and enjoy what is out there to share with each other and asked if he could keep the pictures he had taken. He would delete them if it bothered us any but him and his wife had more fun watching Mike and I then they did looking around. We didn’t mind and it was fun to hear that someone saw us enjoying Gods creations.

 

His wife took our picture. It was cool the dogs and us were all looking at the same time. We usually took the dogs with us but once in awhile there would be other animals not on leashes and instead of having the dogs bug people they’d wait patiently for us.

  

I love these pictures I got of Mike and Scout. Mike wants me to frame them for him so I’ll be doing that soon.

Orange moss. It was pretty cool to feel. Not soft but not hard and crunchy either.

 

Mike’s friend John. He spent a couple of days with us. It really was a great time getting to know him and to see the way both of them called/talked and took care of each other. Wilbur and Mike had to have a nap in the middle of the day. Just so tired.

Lincoln Memorial highway and a tribute to the man. It was really pretty cool. Also the highest spot on I-80.

We went geo-caching, well we were going to, but the water called our names so we played in that instead. It was 70* on Wednesday and by time I left on Saturday 100*.

 

First my view of the boys. Can you see, on the very very top of the first picture, two guys? Look for the green shirt in front of a rock and a tiny black speck off to the right. Then on the second picture the two guys giving the victory sign a ways down the climb. The next two pictures are from Mike camera and the view he took from up high. The dogs and I climbed about 1/2 way up but it was so hard for Wilburn and we were afraid Scout would fall in a crevice so I took them back down while the boys climbed higher. The dogs and I hiked and hiked for miles around the mountain trails.

So there you have it. Not nearly 1/4 of all the pictures but enough for you to see just how awesome things were. I could show you pictures of Mike’s room but a college room looks like most bedrooms and the apartment itself is a bit sparse but they are happy.

Life is good. A really big speed bump right now with the flooding and career changes but it will all work out. It has to, it’s my life and I have a great one.

Blessings my friends!!