You may have been wondering why I haven't been posting as much on my blog lately.  Or .... maybe you haven't wondered at all... lol... but the fact remains, this poor blog has been sadly neglected for the past few months.

It all started back on September 3rd, to be exact.  Three big, major events took place that day.

First, it was our children's first day back to school, and my daughter's last day of the first day of school... because she is going to graduate this year!  I can't believe how fast the years have flown by and here we are at 12th grade, the last, first day of school for her!  Oh my.

The second big event of the day was that my sister, her husband and sweet little baby girl left us to go back  home after a wonderful vacation with us.  We were all so very sad to see them go!


We had had such a wonderful and special time together while they were here, but the time went by way too fast, and before we knew it, we had arrived at the airport to wave goodbye to them!

And then, the third major event of the day was quite catastrophic.  I received a call from my husband that was broken up and hard to understand late that afternoon.  As I tried to make sense of what he was saying, with the bad connection, I finally was able to understand clearly what I knew I really did not want to hear.

The motor on the 18-wheeler had blown a piston while going down a mountain pass in Montana.  He had very little service there, and then the service we did have, dropped.  So, here I was with this information that the motor had blown on the truck, and now, I couldn't get through to my DH.

One of the first things I knew would be a problem was the load he was carrying, and to try and figure out how to get it off the truck, and back to the shipper.

One piece of the puzzle made things easier, as my husband finally got back in touch with me through the cell phone of the caretaker of the rest area that he had been able to coast into.  He was able to leave the trailer there with the load on because there was a caretaker who lived at the rest area.  That brought a big sigh of relief.  Because tow trucks in this state are not allowed to haul trucks with a trailer, we had to leave the loaded trailer behind.




The tow company hauled "Big Blue" home, and then we had to work on renting a truck out of Spokane to go back to the rest area in Montana, and haul the trailer, and load back to the shipper.  Then we had to bring the trailer home, and then take the rental truck back to Spokane.


Needless to say, all this was a big upset for us, trying to make all this happen.

My husband and I went for a drive together to just kind of work through some of the things we had going on the next day, and as we drove, I was so thankful I had brought my camera with me, because the most beautiful scenery unfolded in front of us, as the day drew to a close.  I never tire of the sunsets here in Idaho, each one is unique, and beautiful in its own way.







As we watched the beautiful sunset fade off in the distance, it was a beautiful reminder to us both, that no matter what the day holds, there is always beauty to find in it somewhere, and even at the close of the day, as we watched the sun set, we knew that all was well.  We weren't sure how it was going to be, but we just felt that calm, reassurance and rest in the Lord, that it was.

And it is!

I have more to tell.... will be posting quite a few updates hopefully over the next few days, Lord willing!

While my sister and her family were here, back in the hot month of August, we rode up to Metaline Falls to ride the Lions Train Ride from Metaline Falls to Ione, and then back.  When we got there, the train was already packed full, and we were the last passengers to get on.  We had underestimated the amount of time it took to get to Metaline Falls from where we lived.  


But luckily we were able to get on board with just minutes to spare, and were off on the adventure!



Maycee was quite enthralled with the wheel on the caboose that we were riding in, and provided quite the entertainment for the ride for us!  


The train passed over the Metaline Falls Dam, and .... stopped!  We were standing outside the caboose on the little porch area, and looking down at the dam like this was a bit breathtaking and nerve wracking all at once!




Then the train pulled into Ione, and lo and behold... there were some "robbers" waiting for us!


They were characters from a local theater group who "held up" the train.  The lady above arrived in our caboose saying "HO everyone, this is a stick up"... she was holding up a long stick... they were really cute, and there was a smile on everyone's face as they walked through the train taking up a collection for their local theater group.


In Ione, the train had to turn around and come back the way we came.  They simply unhooked the engine from one end and moved it to the front.  So, the view for us in the "caboose" literally was much better, because we didn't have the train engine blocking the view.  So the ride back to Metalline Falls was much more interesting as we were at the very end of the train, and could see behind us, without the engine blocking our view.

Below are some pictures I was able to capture as we stood outside on the porch of the caboose.  It was such a beautiful day, but very hot!



 This is a view of the train as we get ready to pass over the dam again. Do you realize the "danger" I put myself in to get this picture... I had to lean waaaay out of the train window to grab this shot!





There were several tunnels the train went through, and on the way back, I was able to get some pretty neat shots of our travel through the tunnels!







This was a really cool tunnel, it literally was carved out of the rock almost like a cavern!




And then ... we were back at the station... the train ride lasted about an hour or so, and was a beautiful ride.

Poor Maycee though, she was teething, and the heat of the day without air conditioning was a bit much for her, and the ride back was less than happy for her! In fact, we were all glad to see the station in Ione appear so that we could embark and find the poor little thing some ice.  We had not thought to bring ice with us on the ride, which would have made a huge difference for her.  As soon as we got off the train, we found her some ice and it helped to soothe her teething misery.

I think I would like to take the train ride again to see the beautiful fall colors in the area.  The train runs until the end of October on the weekends, and right now with the fall colors abounding, I imagine it would simply be gorgeous to see!

It's been a while since I've had a chance to blog, but I plan on posting more updates soon on some more recent adventures we have had... so stay tuned :)

I've been missing in action! Some of you have wondered where I've been, and what I've been doing since my last post.  It has been an exciting past month around here as we have had the pleasure of lots of company!  Seems like some of that company might have been coming my way due to a recent birthday milestone in my life... so needless to say... my time has been otherwise occupied spending valuable and precious time with the family members who have come to visit us here in North Idaho... all of them for the first time!

Before all the company came, there was one thing on my to-do list that I hadn't gotten around to doing... and that was making strawberry jam... so the night before my sister, her husband and precious baby girl arrived, I got busy making strawberry jam. 


I use the same recipe my mother used growing up as kids.  Mom always made her jam with Certo pectin, and I've always had outstanding results using the Certo brand of pectin for my jam.


 Here is the result of my jam making evening!  I made two batches of the jam, and the whole house smelled like a strawberry factory when I got through!

And if getting ready for a round of company wasn't enough going on, our family made the decision to buy 10 acres of property in the very same town we live in now, yet out close to a beautiful mountain lake.  We were driving around, as we love to do here... just driving down different roads, and exploring, when we saw a small sign reading "For Sale by Owner".  We called and talked to the owner, and he met us out at the property the next day.  By that time, we had already fallen in love with the place.  It has a large number of big trees on it, and is for the most part heavily forested.  This place also had a septic on it as well.  It sits just next to a valley that overlooks part of the Selkirk mountain range.  There is not much of a view yet on the property to these mountains, because the place hasn't been logged in at least the last 50 years.  We plan on keeping as many trees as possible, but there are a few that have to go, and eventually we hope to have a lovely mountain view.

Here are a couple of pictures that I've taken just around the 10 acres...



You can see how huge some of these trees are.  There are a lot of lodgepole pine, but also some huge Ponderosa Pines and Douglas fir.





As you can see there are a lot of trees, with a few clearings here and there throughout the 10 acres.


From the very back of the acreage, this is the view that can be seen.


So, we have certainly had our fair of excitement over the past month!  Finding and buying a beautiful piece of land, and within a few days the round of company began, and what an exciting time it has been!


And then! Our company began!  My sister, her husband and baby girl arrived to spend ten days with us.  It went by waaay too fast!  We had so much fun catching up, visiting, and just getting out and exploring the area with them.

One thing we had to take in consideration with all our planning was the fact that our sweet baby girl was teething three top teeth the whole time she was here.  She was so miserable though as her teeth tried to push through her top gums, and we all felt so bad for her.  Despite the pain she was in, she managed to entertain all of us, and what a joy she was!


The one thing that kept her entertained the longest was a bowl of ice.  She absolutely loved sticking her fingers into the ice and pulling out a cube and just sucking on it until it melted.  Her little hands would turn purple from the cold, but she never seemed to tire of playing in the ice and putting it in her mouth.

My sister and her husband were able to get away for a night and two days while they were here, something they hadn't had a chance to do since our sweet little girl was born.  So, my kids and I got to play being auntie and cousin and oh what fun we had!

We discovered some things so easily forgotten once your kids get grown up... things like... it doesn't matter what you put on in the morning, as soon as breakfast is over, everyone will know what you had for breakfast!  I never ceased being amazed at how food ended up in the funniest places!  After we got done with a meal, no one would even want to take a guess at what was served up!

But the clean up part wasn't so bad... we just called in the dogs! 



And I forgot how quickly little tykes can crawl! She was so quick, she could just about outcrawl us, and laugh... oh how she'd laugh when she knew she was ahead.  We had put up a gate so that she wouldn't fall down the stairs.  That made her so angry that we would do such a thing.  So, one day, I let her crawl to the top of the stairs, and I sat on the stair below.  She sat there for a few minutes and scoped it all out...  and then decided it wasn't such a big deal after all.  After that, we had no problem with her scooting for the gate.  She had decided it wasn't such a game after all.  Whew!

We discovered that the best toys in the world hold no match to a cardboard box! She had more fun with some cardboard boxes we had lying around, and discovered how much fun it is to scoot around on a hardwood floor in a cardboard box... we all got our exercise from this fun adventure! 







And last but not least, we discovered the love our of baby girl's life... ice cream! Any kind... any flavor... it didn't matter... as long as it was cold and sweet... she'd eat it up.  I made her some homemade ice cream, and it didn't get to stay around very long... with the weather being so warm up in the 90s most days... ice cream was such a welcome treat not just for her but for all of us!


So needless to say, our sweet baby girl was the center of attention while they were here for ten days, and when it was time for them to leave, my arms felt so empty!  It was so hard for me to see them go.  I miss my sister and her husband too... and we had such an amazing wonderful time with them... time spent each night around the dinner table just visiting... but I miss my baby girl the most!  There is something about sweet little ones that just steal your heartstrings, and run away!

The story is still not over yet...but I'll leave you with this much to start... and hopefully I'll be back in the next day or two to bring you the ... rest of the story!