Gettin' Back on the Horse, Bull--errr I mean blog!

Wyoming--it is a completely different world! I haven't totally made up my mind as to whether or not I really like it, but I can say that it would make the majority of my "country friends" look ridiculous. You go to a restaurant, the grocery store, gas station, (hell even church) and you are surrounded by men with guns in holsters on their hips. A lot of the men here wear a cowboy hat everyday as part of their casual attire--but don't you worry they have a nice one for the dressier occasions. We went into this metal works store and the guy was telling us this story of how when he was a highway patrolmen years ago he was summoned into court. He was on the road and didn't have anything more than a blazer to throw on over his jeans and button-up, so when he went into the court room the first thing he did was apologize for his appearance and the judge gave him a once over and said, 'not sure what you're  for, you're wearing the Wyoming tux.' I can't even explain how much of a "city dweller" I look like around most of the locals. Of course you have your regular Joes who aren't hat bearing, boot wearing, belt-buckle enthusiasts and no they aren't any different, but they are not the majority that's for sure. 

We've been here for 3 months and a few days now and it has gone from 100 degree days (with no humidity) to nights in the 30's. Apparently this is the longest summer they have had in years, but we have been warned that this probably means we are in for a vicious winter! YIKES! 4th of July, I was outside in a sweatshirt, sweatpants and a blanket... I'm going to die a slow, frozen death here! I mean for Christ's sake the forecast for the rest of the week is ridiculous. It was 80 degrees here today and by tomorrow night we could have snow! I thought the saying in NC "if you don't like the weather here, wait an hour and it'll change" was crazy but, this is outrageous. 

     Since we settled we have had some visitors from the east;  Kimber and Trent (two of our closest friends) were in Colorado for a portion of the summer for Kimber's internship. Julie, Derek, and Thomas (Jonathan's parent's and brother) and Bryan (another of my closest friends) came out to see us.

We have done a fair amount of venturing out and about and have made a lot of new friends. The zoo in Denver is really cool, and the wildlife here never ceases to amaze me. We have seen elk, antelope, chipmunks, prairie dogs, moose and buffalo. Jonathan got his certification to go hunting, and his first ambition is an elk. He and the neighbor across the street are such nerds always planning and chatting up their plans. It's actually funny how invested they are. All of our neighbors are great and the people with whom Jonathan work couldn't be nicer (except for that one guy who is totally creepy but that's a whole other story). We stayed busy for the summer exploring and getting comfortable with the area and then once school started we literally hit the ground running. Between cub scouts, my new job, faith formation classes, and Jonathan's (and my) commitment to the Navy we haven't even slowed down for a minute! It's been amazing but it's starting to slow down and become a smooth routine which as most of you know is still VERY hectic for us!

 The boys love their new school, the classes are small with about 15-20 per class and the school itself is tiny. It's a K-3 2 section school--which means only 2 classes per grade. The whole school is the size of the Kindergarten and half of the 1st grade at Bellamy. Their teachers are amazing, and I was surprised to find that the school requirements were higher here than in NC. The teachers here are not impressed with the Common Core because it will lower the expectations, which from what I understood is the other way around in New Hanover County. Granted I'm no teacher but as a parent that's the impression that I'm getting. Mrs. Cook is Parker's teacher and he couldn't have been luckier to have her. She is on par with Mrs. Olson and Mrs. Morton (Parker's Pre-K teachers) with her experience and completely perfect methods. Parker was most impressed with the fact that if no one "moves their stick"(gets in trouble) she does a hand stand for them. Every morning they all walk around the class singing "Welcome to school today, welcome to school today, we're so glad you're here" and they all give her high-fives and hugs as they pass her. It's so stinkin' cute that I tear up nearly every time I see it.

 Nick's teacher is also a slam dunk. She's a younger no-nonsense teacher who demands respect and responsibility. It is so amazing to see kids performing at such a high level from the start in 2nd grade. These kids really take her seriously. She is patient but at the same time she really has them in line. Nick strives to do well because he wants her to be proud, something that I really enjoy seeing. 

I started working for a law-firm about 6 weeks ago doing their filing and other organizing tasks and office work. I completely make my own hours and they are super flexible. It is an amazing job. It's absolutely perfect for the OCD freak of nature in me. The people with whom I work could not be more amazing. The paralegal, Christen is awesome. She does roller-derby (which scares the hell out of me) and is smarter than the majority of people I know. Abbi and her dad Pat are the lawyers and they are incredible. The majority of cases that we have are what I call "good cause cases." I love that the people that I work for have such kind hearts. Jonathan--well his stuff is the same old boring stuff that he's always been doing :)  LOL.. except not really! For once he has a regular job!! The kind where he can come home and enjoy home and work at the same time! We have added two new members Grace and Gruffalo, our two kitties and they are both absolutely insane! I think they were both dogs in their former lives~right down to the drinking out of the toilet. (I will add pictures on the next post... I had a hard time getting these ones to do what I want) 

Don't be a Square, Wyoming

After the housing office told us that they could probably get us into a house by August first we went with HOUSE #1! These are some pictures from the day we moved in.

  






























We spent the first day cleaning trying to get ready for our stuff to come. We called the truck company to deliver the next day (Friday) early in the morning. So, of course they didn’t show up until about 4pm. It was hot, according to the people in our neighborhood it hasn’t been this hot here in 10 years easily! Once the truck finally arrived we opened the back up and were ready to go only to find that our stuff had shifted and bowed out the bulkhead. To most people that doesn’t make a lot of sense, so I’ll explain. There’s this piece of wood that you slip into these notches in the back of the truck to hold your stuff still but if the stuff isn’t packed correctly it will move. Basically our stuff was wider at the bottom and so the stuff on the top fell forward pushing the wood out in the middle and causing the metal bars to buckle. So after about 30 minutes of hee-ing and haw-ing to try and force it back Jonathan decided to Ninja jump over the wood and start handing me stuff over the top. It was a mess and after balancing with one hand on one side of the truck and a leg on the other to hold his weight up and throwing over random things we managed to release enough of the tension that we were able to fight the bulkhead out. It was terrible. About the time we got the wood out our help for that day arrived. We managed to get half the truck unloaded but had to stop because the mattress had folded over the stuff against them and were at 45 degree angle holding the rest of our stuff (dishes, pictures.. basically everything breakable) from careening over onto us. We decided we would wait until Saturday when we would have help from the reservists at Jonathan’s work. We just relaxed the rest of the night in preparation for the big unload day. 


The next morning we got up and started unpacking some of the boxes and shifting them around so that we could bring the rest of the stuff in. Once a few of the people came to help we created a wall of people holding the mattresses up and then Jonathan got the ladder and started handing the stuff down. After about an hour of unloading the strangest thing happened. A Subaru pulled up that I didn’t recognize and out got the CO of the office, Commander Tidwell. He got out and took off his blouse (uniform top) and then went into the back of the truck and started unloading our boxes. BLEW MY MIND. I was completely speechless (a feat in itself I know). We finished about 30 minutes later and everyone left. That afternoon in town there was this big festival called “Super Day” that was at the park only about a mile away. Once we were done we got changed and walked with the neighbors up to the park. 

There were free bouncy castles and all kinds of vendors and different activities. The energy company had their bucket trucks out and they were taking the kids up in the buckets. 

There were air bubbles that the kids could get in and run them around like hampsters, which was hilarious because one of the kids would take off and all the  would fall down. 

There were racecars that the kids could climb in and act like they were driving.  was a cover band playing Journey, which is always a win, and there was a bow and arrow target practice area set up. The kids got to shoot the bow and arrows at foam animals. Nick took the shot and hit the bear in the neck on the first try. He immediately looked over at me and said “Papa is gonna be so happy,” and after that he was strutting his stuff for the remainder of the day. When we got home it was hot out and the neighbor invited us over to have lemon slushies with them which quickly turned into a grill out and some much needed relaxation. 


The next day (Sunday) we worked extra hard getting stuff unpacked, getting the kids beds unpacked and the bathroom setup. Once those things are done we can work hard to make sure the boys get into a routine and feel settled sooner. With us moving a  we have learned that the first thing we have to do every time we move is get them settled in first. Then we make sure that the common areas get done second so that they can feel at home. It’s important to me that they don’t feel displaced any longer than necessary. They adapt well but I still try as hard as I can to make sure that they don’t have lasting homesickness issues.  After we worked super hard all day on Sunday we went to dinner (all our stuff was still packed up) at this Taco place that we had heard good things about called Taco John’s. Okay on the real—What the hell! Who decided that putting hash browns inside of freaking tacos was a great idea, and also when you get the combo it comes with hash browns as a side—except they call them ole’s—because if you get it some Spanish sounding name it will be acceptable to eat with Taco’s and nacho cheese…NOT! None of us ate hardly anything and then went next door to the overpriced grocery store to get some peanut butter and bread so we could go home and eat sandwiches. Needless to say our first outing to eat and shop was disappointing. We came home, ate our sandwiches and crashed. I learned the hard way the previous nights that just laying down and going to sleep doesn't guarantee that you're going to get a full nights sleep because the sun comes up at 5:00am. So now my bedtime mask is a running joke, because of how ridiculous I look. 

 On Tuesday night while we were unpacking the kids came running in to tell us that they found a baby bird in the yard. We went out looking to see what exactly was going on and found it on the patio. We looked for a nest, but then the kids said that there were two other babies dead in the grass. We figured that the storm from a couple days before had blown them down. At first we were going to just dispose of it, but after a little research Jonathan decided he could probably save it. He had to feed it meal worms every 15 minutes from dawn until dusk. We had meal worms (thats what our fire-bellied toads eat), so that night he fed it every 15 minutes from 6ish until midnight. I had tried to give him an out and suggested we put it in an empty nest and that way we could tell the boys that we did what we could but they wouldn't have to see a dead bird in the morning, but Jonathan said he missed medicine and so he was committed. The next morning we woke up and the bird was still alive but couldn't swallow anymore. We found an animal rescue clinic and took it there. We will call them and find out about it in another week or so.
                                         
We worked super hard on the house and got a lot done overall. A couple of days we took it easy and went to the park with the kids or just sat outside and chatted up the neighbors. Within walking distance there are a couple of cool parks and gardens for the kids. It has a creek/pond that the kids can wade in and there are all kinds of water activities to teach them about water and how it acts in different ways.
  

 There are teepee's with drums for them to play in, and an area for them to make their own puppet shows.

 

The Cheyenne Children's Park is one of them and it is by far one of the coolest interactive outdoor parks I've ever been too. 

We spent an hour to an hour and a half their easily and didn't even come close to doing everything they had. Over the next week we worked really hard to get our stuff unpacked because on July 2^nd Jonathan had to go back to work and I didn’t want to be left overwhelmed. He went into work one day and they issued him his new favorite uniform accessory.

By Friday we were set to go pick up a living room suite we found on craigslist to put in the living room because our sectional didn’t fit and had to go in the sunroom.  With some help from our awesome neighbors we were able to go get the furniture and put in the house in a little over an hour. Once it was here Jonathan decided he didn’t really like how it smelled so off to the store I went to get upholstery cleaner so I could scrub it down and make him feel more comfortable with it. It didn’t smell bad it just didn’t smell like our stuff so he was weirded out. Saturday we had planned on going to Fort Collins, but I really wanted to get some stuff done so instead we worked hard on the pictures and shelves in the living room. By the end of the day Saturday we managed to have the living room completely hung and the bookcases done. After we made dinner we were able to turn in so we could get up for church the next morning. Sunday we got up went to church, which was a bit of an adventure in itself. Mass was different than I’m use to. I’m not sure what was different but it was. We came back home and I had to lay down because of my allergies. Between the smoke from all the wildfires, and the incredibly dry air I am a mess. My eyes are always puffy, nose running, and my head aches every day. After a Benadryl induced nap I got up and Jonathan and I put the kids playroom together. I am super proud of it and more importantly they love it. All the neighborhood kids come and play all day. I will do whatever’s necessary to keep my kids wanting to play at home because then I don’t have to go looking for them. If they aren’t on their bikes they are 9 times of out 10 in our basement now.