A Shoot Out

Several weeks ago, I attended a photo shoot out in the Black Hills of SD. It is impressively gorgeous in the fall and one of the very few places within a 3 hour drive that has the presence and comfort of mountains and pine trees. Oh the joy!! I drank it all in. Literally. It was so awesome.

I learned a lot. For anyone who has an interest in cameras and improving photos, I would recommend The BlackHills Photo Shoot Out for a cost effective and well rounded seminar. I was totally lost most of the time, but everyone feels that way who isn't a pro. The pros that are there, well they love to teach and don't make you feel stupid. They love their art and can't talk enough about it. It was a great experience. It's Friday- Sunday with two classes each being on Saturday and Sunday for about $175.

These photos were taken in a Macro Class and a Waterfall Class.

Fall

My belly is steadily growing and "proceeds me" everywhere. I guess it's time to get used to the idea that this little monkey, whoever he or she is will be the star of the show here soon. So, we decided that before it gets too uncomfortable to travel we would go home for a few days. And yes. It's getting pretty uncomfortable to travel 720 miles each way in under five days.... oh the surprises yet in store.....

Ahhh HOME!! Nothing like it. I wanted to crawl into 'it' and never come out again. I cannot explain how immediately I calm down when I see the mountains, trees, running water!! It is my element, and hubby is not at all against it either. It was lovely to get a last before baby visit home and soak up the last of summer.

 Whitefish. Mom and I went shopping for a little bit, but mostly I wanted a crepe. Amazing Crepes in Whitefish is sooo soo yum! I thought it perfect that a dog came downtown and went to sleep under his owners chair. Such a sweetheart. Another love was finding this mosaic bistro set in front of a shop. I wish I knew how to do this because I have a really big table that needs it.

Dad has a guy breaking some colts from the many horses we have accumulated. He had halter broke this 7 month old a couple days before. Breaking it to load was another matter and one that took effort and considerable messing with. When the door could shut, everyone jumped to make sure it stayed shut!

 Last of the waterski. And probably the last of fishing in t-shirts. It was a perfect day, very smoky from all the fires, but perfect.

As one of my aunts said while watching us on the motorbike:

"Doug did not have daughters. He had 4 boys. Three, came with high heels."

Happy ONE year Anniversary to Us + a baby

We had a few photos yesterday for our anniversary. Dustin turned to me and said, "did you think you would ever be basically met, married, and a kid within a year?" I answered him "No way!" Marriage wasn't something that I thought would ever happen much less the surprise of becoming a parent. It's been a happy wonderful year. I have much to be thankful for!

Camping & Fishing with One Tree

My in-laws went camping up at Nelson Creek a couple weeks ago. We tagged along later in the weekend and stayed overnight in our newly bought tent! I must say I was not prepared to awaken at 130am with thunder and lightening crashing all around and the wind so strong that the sides of the tent were to armpits and the top of the tent came to our noses. Quite a feat for a 6 man tent you can stand up in.

We escaped to a camper and camped on the couch. I felt like we totally failed Camping 101 and definitely failed childhood camping experiences with my brothers. Amazingly enough, the tent didn't have any damage at all! We were prepared to be picking it up off sage brush a mile away. 

It was a very different experience for me, not because I view camping as being on the 5th floor of the Sheraton, but because there was ONE tree. Just ONE! That's never happened before.

I love endless wheat fields though. They are beautiful. We see these gumbo nobs everywhere. Every bit of them are layers of red (scoria) and black (coal) The other photos was the first glimpse of the 'lake' of which I was totally relieved because on first sight, it is a creek all of 15 inches wide.

This is of us on the boat. I'm not sure what it means that my mouth is always open but I say it just goes to show what a good orthodontist and a couple years does.  Plus, I was plain happy! We don't get to leave Wibaux too often just to go play for a weekend so this was big doings. The other, I had the biggest catch of the day! But I'm sure that northern had teeth all the way to its tail. Grandpa would be disgusted.

And my nephew who is a stylin' kid anyway. He's just started talking and he loves his Aunt Carmyn. I am SO proud!!  "Carm, Come!" On and on until I follow wherever he goes. His favorite game is, On your mark, get set, GO! I guess this is what another Aunt taught him but he's hilarious as he winds up to go and then just spins for a minute before shooting off. He has also started to say "G'ma" so I'm forgiven :)

Selling Buicks

Well guess what. We've obtained a Buick. But not the normal kind with four wheels.

The news is out, but the story not told. We are going to be parents! The doctor says there is one and one only. I'm holding her to it. January will be a very busy month for us as the baby is due January 3rd and I graduate from the University of Phoenix with a BA in Business Management on January 14th.

We're happy, I'm just now starting to get a little enthused of the whole idea because I've been sick for what seems like years and I don't think I'm over the whole thing yet. As my second Pa Reubin says, I'm not sick, I'm Selling Buicks. This stems to when Orin was a little guy and his mom was expecting little Emery. Orin would get worried asking his dad what was wrong with mom while she was hugging the toilet. Reubin would tell him "Mom's just selling Buicks." Buick is the word for the sound you make when you're loosing your lunch for the third time in the day. When I told Mom & Dad Englishbee we were expecting, the "Buick Bucket" landed on my door step along with a little care package of teas :) I love all my mom's and dad's. How on earth would I have managed to grow up without them?!

This little parasite (that's what the doc called it) seems to be getting back at me for all I did to my own mother.  From the sass I dished out to her, to every dramatic rolling of the eyes, all the chores I was asked to do but couldn't be bothered.... yeah this little thing is getting back at me in spades. I'm positive it's a girl.

I even had to go home for awhile for TLC from mom as mom is the only one who understands and sympathizes and pushes and brings more crackers, more water, and so on.... :)

It is an overwhelming responsibility to be a parent and I don't think you can ever be prepared for such a thing but here we are embarking on a journey that will never make our lives the same but we are reassured there is nothing more rewarding or sweeter.

Button down the hatches, hunker down, and adapt!

Wind.
Sigh.

It just is. There is nothing I can do about it. I can't change it, I can't like it, and therefore we're at odds. But, before you loose all religion, one must adapt which is something I've done a lot of doing these past months. None so much as adapting to the wind.

It was a peach of a day, a wonderful Sunday meeting, a free afternoon and a new grill from Mom and Dad Frasch!! It's our Birthday presents, Easter present, Happy Administrative Day present, Happy Monday- Sunday present. You get the idea. We love it. And I was determined to have a picnic.

Which started out beautifully. I took photos of our gorgeous apple tree blossoms and the bee that was busy making honey. It was delightful.

And then we woke up to another world. This is just to give you an idea of the wind. It was nearly 70 mph and even the "buttoning down of the hatches" didn't make it. Rather, my plastic bird bath didn't make it.....10 lbs of rock blowing from the East was like feathers and never to be seen again. I saw it go and chased after it but it went to never-to-be-found-land in less than 20 seconds and I crawled back to the house out of breath.  Perhaps it really is in Newfoundland... that wind would have gone around the globe twice.

And neither did my poor beautiful apple tree make it.

Anyway, on the bright side of adapting, one can never have enough time for too many projects and as our internet service is contingent on the weather, no computer time was to be had.

And creative I went, for two solid days. Here are just a couple projects.













Happy days defying the wind!

Home on Prairie

We've have some insanely beautiful days of 80 degree weather and have tried to make the most of it. As soon as I say this of course, it is currently gusting 60 mph and anything not nailed down and snapped shut is probably in Eastern Canada by now.

It started off such a calm day. And by evening it was another story. It's a fascinating country we live in and always something to discover. 

I cannot get over the sky here (which I do know is incredible because of the wind) how much it changes, how many colors there are in it- it's quite a sight.

I had to take this photo of these sheets- it is NOT often you see them hanging straight down!

Kitchen love

I love this kitchen. Oh yeah I could easily adapt to one 3 times its' size with granite counter tops, a huge
island and walnut cabinets. But. Some dream house some day may find me in it.
The arch is sweet and the kitchen table has the BEST view of the whole house because it gets the early morning sun. It's my favorite place in the morning.

And of course the sign! It's helped me through many a morning on sense of humor alone :)

Happy Engagement Anniversary

This is a little late, but I've not been too timely the last couple weeks. Coming home to my husband after two weeks away made me remember how we did NOT like dating 720 miles apart and for four days at a time every 3 1/2 weeks. We saw each other 9 times before we got engaged. And 18 times total before we were married. That may seem wary to some folks, but we knew we were going to get married within 10 days of knowing each other. Our first official date happened a month after we met- and we picked out a ring. It took a looooooong 6 months to know if I'd ever see that ring, but I finally did. February 14th, 2011!

We were heading into town to pick out snowshoes for him.
Dustin says, "I'm so happy you're my Pre-Finance." He'd been calling me this for some time.
I asked, "When am I going to be your Real Fiance?
"When do you want to be?"
"Right now." At this point we were driving 65mph up Kila Hill which is the last hill going into town.
"Right now? Are you sure?"
"Yes." We had crested the top of the hill, he whipped into some random driveway, jammed it into park, raced his way around the hood yanking open the passenger door and asked,
"Carmyn will you marry me?"
I shrieked. Blubbered. Laughed and bawled. Blubbered and cried again.
"YES!" .....as the traffic screamed by and we noticed we were standing in the remnants of a mud puddle.

We are so not the roses, weeping violins and fine china dining type! (although it has it's place I keep telling him!)  Give us happy and simple any day :)

Happy Anniversary Dustin! Thank you for the best year ever!

Home, Friends, Chocolate = Fun Times

  My cousin just moved back to Ashley Lake from Virginia with his adorable wife and 2 and 1/2 kids. We are so happy they are here, but I WISH they had gotten this idea about a year or more ago and then I could be hanging out all the time. I went to visit for lunch and this is what the schedule was. Auntie Laura this is for you who really DOES have the cutest nieces in the whole world! :)

We played games and terrorized the cat because we could, who promptly left and proceeded to ignore us.

Then we played ni-night:

And of COURSE we went shopping because Ummm.... we caught them trying to give the cat a haircut. Guilty little parties aren't they?! But they found their purses of which Madison pointed out she didn't have any money. I asked why and she said that Emma must have it. I asked Emma if she had any money and she said no, but pulled out a pencil instead. Both of them agreed this was acceptable to go shopping! We drove to the mall on the bikes. Blankets included, purses forgotten.



























Somewhere along the line we met up with a lime. And we couldn't part with it to go shopping, but we did find a rabbit which was tried on as a scarf, then we went up to eat lunch. It was so fun to be with these cuties! I didn't get any photos, but Tess and I in the meantime rearranged the living room! (See Elizabeth?! It's not personal!) It is great now we think.



Then, I met up in town with my mom and sisters and a few friends to attend the Chocolat Affaire which is so cool! On Main Street in Downtown Kalispell the businesses get together and host a caterer who makes extrodinary chocolate somethings for Valentine's Day weekend. Everyone hits the streets, jabbers, chatters, and in general keeps in holiday cheer.  :) Even though I didn't get much chocolate pieces photos, we can attest that ALL was well and if you did make it to all 28 shops, your stomach would probably reject you over that much chocolate.

Yes, even my stomach would have....

What a fabulous way to go though right?!

The hats were awesome! I wish we could wear them all the time.

We met Lily and Jen with her girls. We found a great old telephone that doesn't work to call to we found out. Instead it calls the front desk. oops. Such a disappointment! The old clawfoot was interesting done in a mosaic.

                                                     The Leaning Tower of Tea Cups.

What a day. and it wasn't over. For we got home and gave gifts. This was for mom -a cute sponge holder and another bike for her collection. Dad got a huge popcorn bowl and when you get to the bottom it says, That's All Folks! It's great. Plus, he got a hat which is a pretty neat hat I think. His pride and joy though still stands in his calculators. He got these at thrifts stores of all places! One here, and two in Washington. We don't understand except he says he needs them and likes to see the numbers. HAHA only my dad. I miss them all when I'm not around!