Good thing we have friendly neighbors!

Our first night in the house we actually own wasn’t much different. A man came to set up the internet, but his PC crashed while he was here and he couldn’t finish the install. He has sheep that are ‘lambing’ right now, so if everything is going well with the sheep he will be back on Thursday to set us up. With the internet I’ll be updating the blog more often, and we’re planning to get a Vonage home phone. All very exciting.

When we got home yesterday we realized that the 40 mile per hour wind had picked up some of the walls of the former chicken coop and flipped them into the neighbor’s yard. The walls, made of dense wood with metal poles tying it together, were almost too heavy for Stephan and I to flip over. The wind did it in seconds. The bags of garbage we’d packed Monday with stuff from the inside of the coop had opened up and were basically just gone. Stephan ran around the town trying to pick up the garbage, but I think Canada will be the owner of some trash in a day or so.

The fun news from this morning was that Stephan had left the keys in the cars last night, and the battery was dead this morning. Stephan hitched a ride from another nurse, and if you’re reading this, it means that I found someone to jump the car so I could get into town. That’s what I’m hoping for!

Where the Deer and the Antelope...

I'm a little stunned. Apparently we bought our house today.

We stopped at the Credit Union to check on our application, and ended up signing all the paperwork, taking half of it over to the lawyer's place, where he handed us a small check for the difference between the loan and the closing costs, and sent us on our way. We were still really confused, so I asked, "Okay, what do we do now?"

His answer was, "get insurance."

So we own the house! We're still not sure what the correct street address is. I'll have to check back on the paperwork. But we're in town for a few minutes, just getting more plaster to repair the walls, checking on bills and doing a load of laundry. Stephan had yesterday and today off. We're trying really hard to make the living room livable before we leave for Chicago next Tuesday night. There's a lot of sanding left, and a fair amount of painting, but Stephan has Thursday AND Friday off- so woo hoo!

Wow. We own a house. Crazy.

Overheard: In the Bedroom

Me: Why does Besa eat poop?

Him: I don't know. She's your dog.

Me: What?!

Him: Red is my dog and Besa is your dog.

Me: You know that's not true.

Him: Yes it is.

Me: How do you figure?

Him: Your dog eats poop.

4-Ever

I think it’s a hunting club.

Have I talked recently about the radio stations here? Since I’ve been painting an average of 6-8 hours a day for the last two weeks, I’ve been able to listen intently to the radio. On FM, we only get one station, 100.5. It plays Classic Rock. That’s all it plays, 24 hours a day. There are breaks for banter, news, weather, etc. But all the music is Classic Rock.

The weather? They actually report the weather for the entire state of Montana. From Baker to Kallispel, to Billings, all the way through North Dakota, Fargo and Bismark, and South Dakota. It would be like getting the weather report for Green Bay, St. Louis and Detroit every 30 minutes in Chicago.

I just heard there’s another station, on AM, that plays country music. And that, folks, is it for the radio. I’m actually excited to find the country station, since I’m about done with carrying on, since I’m not a wayward son.

Our big night out

Stephan got his first night totally off in a long time Tuesday night. He was in a training class that morning, so he was finished at about 12:30. He figured we'd go back and work on the house that afternoon, but when I picked him up, the bags were packed, tarp, cooler, dogs, firewood, etc. We drove South out of town and spent the day hiking Medicine Rocks with the girls. He was so surprised and excited to be going camping that he set the car alarm off in the supermarket and didn't realize he had the car keys. I don't think I'd ever seen him so giddy.

So we drove out there, set up camp in a nice little spot (for photos please see the Flickr site), and set off to hike the park. I'd packed the new boots I'd bought Stephan for Valentine's Day 2006. Since school ended he hadn't had a chance to wear them. Finally, we got our boots dirty! We didn't find any artifacts this trip. Most of the area we were hiking was very well travelled. We scoped out where we want to camp next time a bit away from the picnic areas. The girls LOVED the trip. Look for the photo of Stephan literally pulling Besa up a steep part of the trek. They ran and ran and ran. Even when they were exhausted, they wouldn't sit still.

We got back to camp and made a good fire, cooked brats, ate chips, drank... um... stuff. Watched the sunset from the top of one of the rock formations (there are photos of this too), called family that we hadn't talked to in a while, and fell asleep watching the stars slide down the sky.

The next morning we drove down to Ekalaka for breakfast. Stephan did wash the trucks yesterday, and we didn't get any house work done really, but who really cares? It'll be there later. We had an amazine day together. Yet another day when I can't believe we actually live here. Medicine rocks is a 30 minute drive away from Plevna- so when you look at the photos, remember that's 30 minutes away from us.

Nuts.

Volunteers

This is Stephan wearing his nursing uniform AND the helmet they gave him last night at the Plevna Volunteer Firefighters meeting. So, they voted him in and his training begins any time he can answer one of the calls over the radio. They got him all geared up right on the spot, and he offered to powerwash all the trucks tomorrow (on his one day off of work this week). It all happened very quickly, so I didn't get any photos of all the trucks or other cool gear. I had always just imagined a Volunteer fire department as a truck and a few buckets, but here, the fire department is the biggest thing in town. Way bigger than the school. They have three or four buildings, a few garages, and I think about 12 trucks. I'll confirm that later.

They asked if I wanted to join and I told them not yet. Here are a list of reasons why I don't think I'll be joining the fire department:

-I don't know how to clean my fingernails with a 4" knife
-I didn't wear a ball cap to the meeting
-I don't know any dirty Anna Nicole Smith jokes
-I don't have a mustache

I offered to help Karla cook the meals and organize supplies and help out with fund raising. But I don't know if I EVER want to attend a meeting completely 'organized' by men ever again.

Poll: Which do you like better?

These are the two doors in our bedroom. One is painted the same orange that's going to be in the living room, the other is painted the green color of the rest of the room. I can't decide which I like better. What do you think? Red door or green door?