A Few Weeks Until I See My Baby!!!

I booked my ticket!  I will be returning to the D.R. on October 22--only a little more than two weeks from now!  I'm going to be staying there until December 6.  I do have some things to get ready before then...

I have been out of the blog world for the last few weeks.  Sometime in that time, Mom and I celebrated Dawn and Ro's new house in Missoula while Dad received an iron infusion.

Dana, Alli and I also had a fabulous day with Alli's high school classmate and one of his best friends, Kristal Glass (yes, her name is Kristal Glass, how cool is that?).  Kristal is a determined and loyal person.  She is not afraid to stand up for who or what she believes in--because of that she has earned the nickname, "Kick-Ass Kristal Glass." She wears it well!

We made it to the village of Bigfork.  It's a lovely little town on Flathead Lake.  Dana led us to a McMansion that is being divided into condos....ugh!

This is only about one half of the house...it's quite a place.  I don't know if the picture shows it well enough, but the roof is like something out of Harry Potter.  It has all of these amazing curves and waves!

After ogling the house from outside the fancy gates, we made our way to the Swan River Inn and Dinner House.  It is a magical place founded by a wonderful and sassy Swiss lady.  The atmosphere that she has created is divine and the food is delicious!

This is us before dinner, but after several bottles of wine and appetizers on the deck.

This is on our way out of the restaurant.  We spent about 7 hours there total!!!   It was really a nice time!

I have been spending quite a lot of time involved in my classes, both teaching and as a student.  I'm enjoying teaching for Clark College.  The courses that I have been taking from The University of Montana-Missoula and The University of Montana-Western have been quite challenging, not in content but in expectations and flexibility.  I did not receive much or in-depth advising.  I may have to take an incomplete in the one course since the instructor will not give me the assignments ahead of time for when I will be in the D.R.  They expect a lot of time to be spent in local school libraries even though the courses are online.  Apparently the program is designed more for people who are already working in libraries or schools, though I was not informed of that beforehand.   I have decided that I am just going to go with it and do the best that I can :)

I made a bulletin board for Banned Books Week!  Celebrate your freedom to read what you choose!!

For about a week, I was spending a lot of time at Alli's house getting it ready for renters; he is renting a three bedroom section of his house.  In that week we (I say we, but I mostly painted) put in carpeting in a bedroom, put up trim boards and a ceiling board, finished a wall between the two spaces, painted trim and ceiling and windows, installed a kitchen sink(the plumber did that), completed wiring of outlets and light switches and a stove (Dana), installed a bedroom door, renovated a coffee table, built a half-wall, changed out door locks, and emptied out the living room that was full of lumber!  At the end of that long sweaty week, we were all happy with the final product!  Alli's house is looking really good!

This is the wall that Allison built between the two spaces.  Please notice the trim work around the upper section of brick.  You cannot even see all of the trim pieces in this photo.

This is the lower part of that wall.  And, the hardwood floor that Alli put in by himself.






This is the wall to the entry way.  Allison built this to save on heating bills; he's so smart!

It is not a great picture, but I wanted to show the glass divider that Alli built between the living room and the new kitchen.

Allison is a little bit, I mean a lot addicted to trim boards.  And another view of the new hardwood flooring.

Some more of the trim boards.  I should point out that they are not all decorative.  Some of them do serve a function of covering seams or other issues; some of them just look really good!

Allison is all about recycling.  He purchased this old hardwood flooring at Home ReSource in Missoula.  He decided to make a small wall next to the stove between the kitchen and the living room.

 This is the finished product after I painted it.  I think it turned out well!

This is another recycling project that Allison created.  He took an old ratty coffee table and asked me to paint it.  Then Allison added some extra flooring from Mom's house as the new tabletop and sides of the storage box.

The table also turned out beautifully!

We are in the midst of getting ready for the Safe Harbor Benefit Art Auction.  Safe Harbor is the local domestic violence shelter where Mom is a board member, and, as of late, Dana is the Development Officer.  Mom is chairing the auction this year!  It is on October 16 at the Ronan Community Center.  The theme is 'Under the Sea'.  We have been designing aquarium windows, seahorses, and live goldfish centerpieces.  I'll post pictures after the event!

Mom and I had some fun today making jelly.  We made two batches of plum peach jam-jel.  Jam-jel is the word that we came up with since it was sort of plum jelly with pieces of peaches (jam) in it.  It turned out to be a tasty combination.  Tomorrow we are going to make huckleberry jam and cherry-currant jelly.  I wanted to juice the cherries and currants tonight, so Mom pulled out my Grandma Dorothy's antique sieve.  I love it!

I love the shape of it!  I love the pestle!  I love the way the legs come off for easier storage!  I pretty much love it all!!!

Here is another view of the juicer!  It really is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets!