September 2019

September in Montana is a mournful good-bye to the long days of summer. Less parties for the teenagers, no more boating on the river until the sun goes down, no more s'mores by the campfire at midnight....so sad!!

 Ally heading to the first day of school! Gwen and Ally are waiting at the bus stop together this year. I'm happy about Ally having a buddy in the mornings. Ally is heading into 8th grade. Only one more year until high school. Heaven help us!!! 

The start of school is also the start of comp soccer. Ally had a few tournaments in September. We found a salamander while walking the yard at a bed and breakfast we stayed in. Ally was thrilled with the find. She really wanted to go out and hunt for frogs but the salamander was infinitely cooler.

Tyler is playing in the marching band and is having fun playing at the Glacier Football games! He looks so handsome in his uniform!

Master Gardeners get together. I finished up my level two Master Gardening class work and test this fall. It was a fun class. I still need to do thirty hours of volunteer work for finish off the certification but the test part is done. I got 104% and earned all the available points. My kids were hoping I wouldn't do so well as I give them a hard time when they don't ace their tests. Sorry kids, nailed it!

This doesn't accurately show the dedication and hard working nature of our missionary. It is pretty funny though so it's going in the book. I guess they can't work all day!

Between Byron and my gardens this year we grew a lot of peppers. There were more than we could keep up with so I canned a Peck of Pickled Peppers!!! Actually, I don't know what a peck is. The peppers though are great. We are loving them on sandwiches.

Byron had some cancer removed off his chin this month. I'm glad he keeps up with the dermatologist and stays on top of it.

 This was a real highlight for the month. We had a Home Show tour and the HGTV Whitefish Dreamhome was on the tour. I got to go tour through it and experience my favorite Cable Channel in person. Next trip to Dallas I'm dragging people to Waco with me to see Magnolia Furniture Store. For now though this was awesome. 

So this GEEZER coffin goes back...way back. When Jason was first dating Amber they got a fish at a white elephant game. They kept it alive for a year so they could regift it the next year at the same white elephant party. Jason was so proud of keeping a fish alive and even happier to be rid of it. Jason's birthday happens to be in January so when his birthday rolled around Ally bought him another fish since she was sure he would be missing the fish they regifted. It was a really great practical joke gift and Jason gave Ally props for being so devious and sly. He kept threatening to put the fish in our pond, or leaving it at our house. Geezer, the new fish even came to Montana on a road trip once when Jason and Amber came for a visit. They did take it back with them to Utah though when they left. Geezer moved to Texas when they did and was Connor's first pet when he was born. He lived a long and happy fish life. When we got this black box in the mail I really thought Jason had mailed the dead fish to us at it's passing. Instead they cleverly included a few boxes of swedish fish and informed us of Geezer's passing. It was so funny and a perfect ending to the Saga of a fish named Geezer.

Tyler working on his broken phone....phones are hard!

Tyler and I went to Seattle again for the drug trial study. They have finished the trial and we found out that he did not actually get the drug but the placebo. I could not have been more surprised! He continues to do well though and they want to keep studying Ty because his body is doing something that the other kids aren't doing. Most of them have now been diagnosed with Type I diabetes but Tyler hasn't yet. We hope they can get answers soon and will continue to go and get bloodwork done and hopefully they can get more answers.

The garden has had a great year! It is fun to see it settling in and the fruit is taking off. The grapes and berries are spectacular. I can't wait to eat breakfast with my berries and frosted mini wheats. It's amazing!! 

Our boating days are nearly over for the summer. The fish in the photo was found already deceased in the river and went for a ride on the tube with Tyler and Chad. Byron threw it at them and it stayed on the tube as they zipped around. We were all surprised at how well the fish held on. It kept going and going!                                                                 

Byron and Tyler on a tube ride. You can tell by how Tyler is sitting on the top of the tube that it was a take it easy and don't throw my back out kind of a ride!

Penny thinks she needs to be playing whenever the kids are out on the tubes. It's pretty funny to watch her jump on and off the water toys.