summer homecoming...(warning--long post)

week one of montana time  -- really, only one week -- it seems like it has been longer than that...maybe...
i kind of took the week off...so let's recap

last tuesday-
- wake up at 3:45am, load up last of the bags & lulu, pick up sister, kaitlin -- off we go
- 7:00 - traditional huckleberry's stop for breakfast food and walk lulu
- 10:00 - missoula - and the last starbucks i'll see for awhile -- i love love iced soy carmel macchiatos

- drive along listening to "pride and prejudice"

- happy happy til, oh we're in montana now-- tut tut it looks like rain
- stop in butte for gas and to check on the my tarped load after i remember that the only thing in didn't wrap in plastic was lulu's 3 bags of dog food -- visions of wet, moldy food dance in my head -- enter my favorite item ever: duck tape -- you are amazing!

- drive off in the t-storm and go over butte pass - truck shudders every time i use the brakes - which would be often, when driving down a 6% grade and passing semi trucks in the torrential downpour - lovely
- traditional stop at wheat, montana for a sandwich - check the dog food, duck tape duck tape, potty break for lulu, answer grandma's call, phone husband to complain about stupid montana weather always greeting me with a storm...

-billings= husband+costco+olive garden

made it - wind blown and rained on -- hooray for duck tape and bungees 

-last leg of the trip -surrounded by giant thunderstorm (look straight ahead, now turn your head all the way to the right --that's the span of lightening coverage we were getting every 2 minutes -- oh and then look to your left -- see the lightening over there too)  - dislike dislike dislike -- did i mention that the road we are traveling on is in the middle of nowhere...
-arrive at summer home just as the rain does - unload truck -- dog food is safe -- hooray!

wednesday - wake up to utter chaos.  take deep breathes.  stop and stare while trying to choose first step to restoring order.  night comes - along with t-storms and tornado watch.

thursday - hello windy weather - hello storms - hello tornado watch and severe thunder storms.  wake to no power--doesn't come on until after noon.

friday - 40mph wind all day long - 50mph gusts -- read about tornados that were north of us thursday night.

saturday - sleep. pancakes. camp meeting via internet. hulu--catch up on the entire current season of the bachelorette. sunshine until the evening --then t-storms, imagine that...

sunday - fathers day.  call father.  clean trailer top to bottom.  cook.  take mattress topper off of bed and hope for a good nights sleep on a not-so-soft bed. enter tornado watch&flash flood watch. severe t-storms arrive at our door around 7:00pm... 9:30 - look at news and watch you tube video of tornado in billings (3 hours away) that afternoon. sign up for weather warning text messages in hopes that it will wake me up if there is a tornado warning at 3am.

monday - wake to sunshine and lovely sky.  talk with friend who called to see if we were swept away in the tornado.  have a lovely morning til noon.  tornado watch. flash flood watch. severe t-storms.  look at weather radar and practice deep breathing and meditation.  continually and obsessively check weather for rest of the afternoon in hopes that storm will cease or change direction.  6:00 - husband leaves to move bees to a different location 7:40 - ominous clouds are here -- looking around me and watching giant cloud to ground lightening headed my way.  two tornados on radar south west of us and heading our way.  make a "tornado escape" plan.  7:45 call husband to see if he is alive - yes, alive and traveling home in a lightening storm -- sweet.  listen to local weather station and check radar while ignoring  brother and sister who happen to still love storms.  storm arrives -- popcorn with your lightening show anyone?  look at radar. say thank you prayer to god for my area being in the narrow gap between two horrible storm cells for the second day in a row...

taken after the storm passed us on sunday night - wanted to document how large it was

tuesday - sunshine.  all day.  cook. clean.  go to the library and come back with 9 books.  i must say that one of my favorite things about this town is their library...it's like christmas for summer reading.  shelves of westerns. mystery. romance. christian.  almost every series you can think of... labeled too.  amazing.  oh, of course there is non fiction and classics too, of which 3 of my books were chosen...  talk with local ladies at the library about stormy weather and tornado watches in 5th wheel trailers.  begin novel.

wednesday (today) - not gonna lie, basically all i did today was read.  finish novel.  watch movie based on book -- horrific, especially with novel fresh in my mind.  clean. cook.  curse weevils eating away at precious alfalfa.  husband goes to move bees.  blog.

whew.

so that is the last week.  if you made it through this far...

i think i am ready to blog more regularly again.  this spring has been crazy and i just needed a break...  i will try and post some "catch up" pics from this spring soon