Say Good Bye to July!

As the summer flies by!!

The grandkids still have a few weeks to enjoy summer.  

They have a big trip to Missouri with their dad and other grandparents!  Their great grandma will be celebrating her 90th birthday!

It's been a hot weekend as we count down the dog days of summer.  Curtis went out to the fair in all the heat to sit with his fellow members of the camera club.  It is fairly cool in their building.  

I played in my scrapbook room.  

I took some photos of some flowers in the backyard the other morning.

Oh, yes, I have an almost ripe tomato!  They seem to have done well in the pots this year!  And thus far, the critters that got them ladt year haven't ventured near them!

Oh, yes, a layout!  Been short on those lately.  

 The Sydney harbour bridge.  

Deck Staining!

We have 3 good sized deck out back!  And boy did they need restaining!  Over the 4th weekend we went and bought the stain.  A couple of weeks ago I got the two smaller ones don.  And between weather and working and having Curtis available  the remainder didn'thappen.  I decided this week it was going to happen.  So while I was out mowing yesterday morning Curtis got out there and cleaned and power sprayed it down.  So, I was out there early this morning before it gets too hot!

All finished for another couple of years!  One project I can check off the to do list!  

Yesterday went out for lunch with a couple of great friends and it was nice to catch up!

I was out snapping some flower shots the other morning!

No time in my life for scrapping right now!  Makes me sad!  Days just aren't long enough!

One Scary Afternoon in Great Falls!

I was suppose to work yesterday!  But after I was up, showered, dressed and enjoying a coffee the infamous phone call came in.  They had to fly a baby out and I was just on call!  At least they reached me before I got up to the unit.  But there was no going back to sleep.

I managed to fill up my morning and after lunch I went out to the fair with Curtis to observe the judging of the digital photos for the fair.

We had seen this weird cloud on the way to the fair grounds.

Pyrocumulus clouds form over wildfires due to intense heat rising into the sky.

At the time we didn't know what it was!  But there had been a grass fire north of town started by a spark from farm machinery! It is currently harvest time.  It is so dry here from the heat of summer and it was very hot yesterday.

Curtis and I came  home and got dinner started.  He went out to start the BBQ and a few minutes later when he went out to put the meat on, it was so, so smokey!  You could see the smoke plume.

The firefighters thought the grass fire was out and had sent firemen away.  At this time we also had a storm front moving through and the winds were blowing 30-40mph.  Can you see where I am going with all this!  Pretty soon that fire had restarted itself and was fanned by those wind gusts and soon out of control!

These next photos are from local people, not me.  I stayed home, not like the many gawkers that were impeding the work of police and firemen.  The fire was just on the north side of town and soon they were asking people from a certain neighborhood to evacuate!  I personally know of 3 familes that had to leave their homes!  

Scary, right!  I am a friend of a lady whose 2 sons were battling this blaze and work with the wife of the city's fire chief!  So thankful they were able to get this under control, no homes were destroyed and no lives lost! And we did get some rain and unfortunately lots of lightening strikes.

So onto a new day.  Had Curtis up to the airport for 7am for a shuttle drive.  Got my walk in!  Maybe some srapping later.  Have my NZ photos almost complete and my Australia photos just arrived in the mail the other day!

Hopefully not so much excitement for today!

 

Monday Musings!

It's been a busy Monday, after a quiet weekend.  

Kirsten was over with the kids a couple of times today and inbetween I was able to get my cleaning accomplished and a quick trip to Target.  Nic doesn't like the noise of thevacuum and I didn't want to be mopping floors ith kids running in and out!  It's bad enough getting them to keep the back door closedbwith the AC on. 

The temps soared over 90 and the kids enjoyd the slip and slide.

Saturday was pretty quiet around here.  Curtis had gone up to see his dad and also his sister was visiting from British Columbia.  I was actually cancelled from work and headed downstairs to sew.  

I finished sewing the top of this one.  Need to add some applique now.

And started another project.

Hope everyone has had a good start to their week.  Curtis was out to the fairgrounds to aid in judging photos for the fair.  Will see how I fared tomorrow!

I head into work tomorrow.  This morning they didn't need me, but by 2 pm they did!  We shall see!

 

Thursday is a Goner!

These days keep whizzing right by!!!  Not sure where my days go, but there are never enough hours in my day.

Got Curtis off on the motorcycle up to visit family in the Flathead.

I headed out to pay off some bills.  The plumber that put in the new hot water would give a discount if you paid cash.  I thought a check would be as good as cash.  On, no!  It got returned!  So I headed to the bank for some cash and ran to their office.  A discount is a few $$$ in my pocket.  

Kirsten's kids had their well checks today and she asked me to go with her to keep them all in tow. Cooper wouldn't get on the scale or let them take his blood pressure.  And Nic went into orbit when they tried to take a build up of wax out of his ear.  We all survived!  And headed off for an ice cream treat.  

Cleaned up the scrap room so I can tackle a new project.

No more deck staining as yet this week.  After working Tuesday and finishing up with swim lessons.  I can only hope to be more productive next week!  Maybe the weather will co-operate too!

Look at this lovely who visited my garden.  I saw two out back when deck staining ladt week. 

A layout of the full moon during our down under cruise.

Out and About in Big Sky Country

That was our day, today!  

A visit to the quilt store in Seeley Lake, Deer County Quilts.

It was a gorgeous day out!

First some lunch with a delicious huckleberry shake.  These are seasonal and I havn't had one yet this summer.

Some pretty wild flowers along the way!

Look at the colour of the lake water

An osprey on its nest

The skies of Big Sky country.  You got to love the open spaces and beautiful big blue skies here!

Tuesday Tidbits!

Here we are in a new week.  This is suppose to be my week off of work, but covering a couple of afternoons for a gal do she can take her itty bitties to swim lessons.  And work called last evening for me to work too, as their census had climbed to 12.  Maybe an extra shift later this week?  We shall see?  Could use the extra bucks since we had to shell out the $$$ for a new hot water heater!

Swim lessons are in full swing with the grandkids.  Nic wouldn't go off the diving board yesterday!  He has done it in previous years!

Yesterday it was a rainy grey day!  We needed the moisture and got almost an inch.  Needless to say the temps barely made it into the 60's.

Nic had a good birthday celebration on Sunday. He gobbled down the raviolis I cooked, and came back for more!  His birthday cake with kit kats and M&M's.

Tried to order my Australia photos until a bunch of them decided to go in the cart and put the bill to $237!!!!!  That won't be happening!  Will have to rectify that today!

Did do a couple of layouts over the weekend.

Celebrating #8

Today is the big birthday celebration for our Nic!  He turns 8 today!

And he certainly has turned our world upside down since the day he arrived!

He was suppose to be a Emma, not a Nicholas!  

And he lives every day with ADHD and SPD.  

He can be challenging, frustrating, and loveable all within one minute.

This kid loves computers.  He loves Legos and Mind Craft.

He loves pizza.  And blueberries.  And watermelon.

And has enjoyed riding his new bike.  I think it is the pedaling that helps him.

How he loved his swing!

Happy Birthday,Nic and have a super duper day!