Out with the Old, In with the New

This is Evan tearing out part of the door frame in the house. My anxiety went up that week. I came home to plastic everywhere and lots of drywall dust. Not to mention stories of almost cutting live wires while re-routing the electrical.

My favorite moment in retrospect, but least favorite moment at the time was holding up drywall for Evan while insulation fell on me. The house I had just bought with the majority of my savings was falling on me. I was so excited to go to work that day and escape the drywall dust.


The wall is gone now. And the house is much more open. It was worth the growing pains.

While he was busy tearing things out, I spent my time planting new things in the yard. Note the missing fence behind me. He dug out the old posts and put in new ones, as well as a gate! And if you look to the right of the bags of concrete you can see Reggie sitting in the yard, untethered like a good boy. Maybe it was because he got shocked earlier for not playing nice with his dog-friend Kona...




With all this rain we have had recently, I have barely had to water my tomato plants. Keep thinking of the positives. The soil at the house is also great. Lots of worms. Some are a little too big for my taste, but I know they are working hard.

Embracing Chaos

Embracing chaos. This has been the theme of the last two weeks. We have a house full of boxes and projects. After about three days of packing, and two of unpacking I had my fill of pizza, pizza rolls, sandwiches, and pre-made food from the deli counter at both grocery stores. I was desperate for a real meal. There is definitely a part of my and Evan's relationship that revolves around cooking. The guy loves to eat and we both love to cook. I prefer recipes, and he shoots from the hip.

On my way home from work on Sunday, I went to Yokes, the "fresh market" here in Sandpoint. I bought a lot of vegetables that were bright and appealing, and salmon, chorizo and spicy Italian sausage from the meat counter. I did not know what my plan was, or how I planned on cooking in my mess of a kitchen still filled with boxes, but I was going to make it happen. I wanted a meal.

Evan was elbow deep in kitchen and bathroom sink drains when I got home. I had a feeling I was on my own. I pulled out the salmon, sifted through some boxes until I found spices, and somehow chopped some garlic with the little counter space I had. I let the fish sit and when to Starbucks to use the internet to post our extra appliances on craigslist.

Believe it or not, I came home and baked my salmon. I also roasted some herbed potatoes, chopped fresh veggies, and made rice. My cooking slowly enticed Evan to come out from under the bathroom sink. I cleared off the end our table and squeezed in two plates and our feast. It was all makeshift, but it was us, eating good food in our new home.

And if you are wondering about the chorizo. It and the Italian sausage went into a great bolognese sauce two days later to share with our friend Jon after assisting Evan with getting the washer and dryer running. It included re-wiring the circuit box during which they both saw white light. I figured I owed him a good meal...

Reggie Turns Two!

My little puppy is growing up. Not really. He is still a puppy, and with the wheaten disposition, I do not see that changing anytime soon. We got him a can of wet food for his birthday and put a candle in it. He knew something was up as soon as the can opened. He walked around in circles with his nose in the air.

Before Reggie eats he must sit, lie down and then wait. He has been doing this since he was just a pup. The books said repetition was the best way to ingrain behavior, so he sits, lies down, and waits for my command twice a day. The unfortunate part is that he still gets confused with "Ok!" and sometimes continues to wait after I say it. I never said he was bright. If you look closely in this picture you can see that he is slightly raised off the ground, only his forearms and back legs are touching the ground. He was just a little excited. Later that day we came home from a walk and he went back to his empty bowl and continued to lick it.

Even though he likes the wet food, I think the better birthday present was the awesome yard he received three days later filled with sticks with his name on them. He really likes to watch squirrels. His bed is by a patio door and he just sits there watching the squirrels chase each other.

I bought a house!

Well, for those of you who were thinking I was coming back to Michigan soon, sorry to burst your bubble, but I will be here for awhile. Well, at least that is the plan.

I am hoping to add some posts to this blog more often as we make some drastic changes to the house. I officially closed on Monday, although I paid for the house and signed papers on Friday. The closing process has been very long. I think close to a month. First the appraiser made several errors on his appraisal and they had to be adjusted before we could sign. Second, the seller (the bank) would not sign the paperwork because in February the county sent a letter to them letting them know that the address of the house would change sometime in the next year to adjust for 911 standards and the bank just changed the address without waiting for the notification. As a result, they would not sign paperwork on a house at 1419 Spruce because they thought they owned 1611 Spruce. In the midst of all this I have my not so normal work schedule, working in middle of nowhere Montana so that I could not just come in to sign during my lunch hour, and I traveled to Chicago, and the plane ride led to a perforated eardrum. It has been a long couple of weeks.

The good part is. The house is mine. And Reggie LOVES his yard. Every time we go over there he bolts for the gate that leads into the backyard. And I think Evan loves his list of projects. The first one being knocking out a wall and framing it for french doors to open up the living room. He did this yesterday while I was at work. I decided not to watch. He has taken many "before" pictures I hope to post soon.

My Buddy Buck

Earlier this week I was repeatedly feeling like I was forgetting something. I could not seem to figure out what it was. I kept expecting to arrive at school and realized something that I had forgotten, but it never happened.

Every Wednesday night at school I run the circle-up at 5:50 p.m. It is a time for us all to meet up, make announcements, and prepare for the evening. I run the circle-up and share a quotation from my sparkly blue book that houses all my quotations, pictures, and memories. It is also a time for me to share a little bit about my life with the kids. I started sharing about Buck and showed the kids these two pictures. I told them about the tiny little apartment I lived in because it was the only one I could find that allowed dogs, and how he went to the grocery store with me and waited in the car. I told them how he was my best friend, and my only friend here when I first moved here. I told them about how he went for a hike and never came back. All the emotions started to return, and I surprised myself with tears.

I told them about the dreaded drive home and how I would cry just thinking about the empty little house. I told them about the night I was driving home and almost had to pull over I was crying so hard and started thinking about all the good times, the hikes, the way he followed me and asked myself if I would give it up, give it all up to not feel the pain, the anguish I was feeling in that moment and how I answered "no." I told the kids how I realized that Buck tricked me, how I was ready to give up on love and settle for a dog. I told them how I was ready to give up on some of my dreams, but I did not because I was tricked by a dog. I did not plan to fall in love, to get hurt again, but I did. And I shared with them the quotation that is written on the page next to Buck's pictures:

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams.There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

The next day I was in yoga class, once again with that nagging feeling that I was forgetting something. As I lay against the wall in an inverted shavasana, trying to clear my mind but stuck with the sense that I was forgetting, I started to repeat the date in my head. November 19th, November 19th....Then it was almost impossible to stop the tears from dripping out of the corners of my eyes onto my mat. It was two years ago that I lost Buck and I still needed to mourn my friend, and remember and appreciate the lesson he taught me. "Though the body moves, the soul may stay behind: I miss you." Another quotation, another memory. It felt as if in the yoga class my body was finally able to connect with my mind, my soul and allow the pain that still lingers to seep out. All I had forotten was to slow down, and allow the hole he had left my heart to heal over a little.

Reggie in the Snow

Reggie loved the snow this winter. He loved burying his face in the snow, rolling in the snow, chasing snow, hiding in the snow, laying in the snow, licking snow, and eating snow. He loves snow. Evan and I got some great footage of him playing in some fresh snow, and I just got it off of Evan's camera. You can hear me laughing throughout the video...Reggie brought a lot of laughter to a long winter.

Skiing with Evan @ Schweitzer

Well, the good news is that Evan and I are still dating. If you are confused why I am mentioning this as an introduction to a post about skiing, read my entry about skiing with my dad from early winter last year. When alpine skiing, I can turn into an eight year old in a very short period of time. For instance, instead of calmly mentioning that I am starting to get cold, I pronounce with a whiny edge, "I'm cold!" As if I want the person I am speaking to fix the situation. Thankfully, this did not happen with Evan, well maybe it just a little bit.

It was a great day, with a gorgeous blue bird sky, and perfect visibility (which does not happen often at Schweitzer). We started the day out with him taking me through fresh powder for the first time! I was on my roommate Julie's shaped skis (so much better than my old school skinny skis!), and he was tele-skiing. It was definitely different. I can see how it would be fun, but at the moment I was a little overwhelmed how different the snow reacted beneath me. He took me on all the lifts I had never been on before at Schweitzer (I tend to stick to the same three because I know what to expect.). I was particularly happy with learning how to actually use my poles. After learning to ski at such a young age my body knew how to ski better than my mind, and at some point my body decided to stop using my poles. So my mind decided to just use them when I wanted to slow down. They work much more effective as a tool to assist one in turning. I loved practicing my turns and working on leaning into my boots more.

We took a break at lunch and let Reggie out of the car to relieve himself. We kept throwing snowballs up the snow berms with fresh powder on them. He had a blast, and was very tired by the end. We went back up for a couple of runs. I knew instantly when I was done. Suddenly, every run looked "really steep" and I was having trouble simply turning. I would go across the mountain in these long arcs before coming off the groomer into powder mounds that made turning even more difficult. At the start of our last run, while Evan stopped ahead of me to wait, I called down to him, "I think I am done skiing now." He gently reminded me that I would need to ski down the mountain before I could be done. I hate it when he is right.

I made it down, and apparently looked good doing it according to Evan. I am incredibly thankful he is so patient.