His 12th Wish

MATTHEW JOSEPH is only about 3 in this picture. This is a boy who is serious about life, even play time. He is very organized, hard-working and motivated. It's been a total joy to be his mother!

When did he get to be 12? I'm sure I was there to witness it all, but the time has just flown by.
Here we are celebrating his birthday. He requested this cake. Wylie and Reed, two of his many friends, stayed overnight. They are inspecting the cake, which in the minds of young boys, is one of the most important parts of any party.

Now begins the debate over what to wish for when the candles are blown out.....

Victor lights the 12 candles....

And while the homefires are burning, Matthew, with a little help from his friends, makes his 12 year old wish. I wonder what it was........He won't tell!!!

Good Bye Tourists

Many businesses, here in my small town, depend upon the money they make during the summer tourist season, to survive the rest of the year. We can't avoid it, it is a necessary part of life living so close to Yellowstone National Park. We enjoy watching the tourists as they oooh and ahhh at the local scenery and "wild-livestock" (deer, moose, bison, wolves, etc...) that we have in abundance here. We see, through their eyes, what we get to take for granted.

Some of the tourists get so enthralled that they pack up and move here from their various Suburbias! Gasp!! But alas, they don't stay long, as our mild and beautiful summer turns into a nasty, harsh, dangerous and brutal winter --- that lasts 9 long months. My husband says that "our weather here, keeps the riff-raff out." Some of our tourists buy a summer home and stay for just the summer.

The tourists are so funny. They take pictures of the craziest things. I once saw a tour bus full of Japanese, get out, line up and everyone took pictures of the McDonald's semi-truck unloading hamburgers and drink cups into the back of a McDonalds.

These are tourists taking pictures of a moose....

It is the typical scene on the road sides all through Yellowstone Park. The tourists get out, clog up the roads, and get extremely close to the wildlife. The Park Rangers try to direct traffic and yell at picture-snapping nuts who want to touch the bison. check out the link.This area really is a wonderful playground for fishing, boating, water skiing, hiking, geocaching, camping, and river-rafting. We are selling our boat this week and will be looking for a river-raft to buy instead. The rivers here are closer to us than the lakes. Victor took two of his kids on a two day float trip this past weekend. They fished and relaxed and found a small island to camp on over night. They had a blast!

This is a picture of the Yellowstone River as it runs through the Paradise Valley 5 miles from my home.

Other visitors to our fair town are Harley Davidson riders who come from all over the country to attend their annual convention in Sturgis, North Dakota. I'm not sure what goes on there, but many ride right through our town. They come singly, in pairs or in convoys! I have found them to be respectful and loud!

I'll tell you what I won't miss, is the endless parade of campers and mobile homes. Our town is small; we only have 3 stop lights and most of the year we don't need them. The campers/mohos clog up the streets and they get lost all the time.

Soon, my blog will begin complaining about the wind, snow and frigid temperatures and I will be reminiscing about the wonderful summer months. But for now.... I am looking forward to September, when most of the tourists will be home and we can enjoy the land we live in --- by ourselves. Am I wrong to not want to share?

Breast Cancer

August has been a hard month. My sister, Shawnae, was a good girl and went in for her first mammogram. After some toe-curling biopsies, she was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. We don't have any cancer in our family so it was a huge shock. Shawnae has been amazingly strong and really taken charge of her health. I have seen her experience the 5 Stages of Grief beautifully:

• Denial - "this can't be happening to me"


• Anger - "why me?"


• Bargaining


• Depression - overwhelming feelings of hopelessness, frustration or bitterness


• Acceptance

One of the ways she has chosen to cope with her disease is to start a blog. I have a link on the right side of my blog where you can click to visit her blog. She has been an inspiration to me. I hope and pray that her surgery this Thursday will be successful and her lymph nodes will be clear of any cancer. I don't know if I can get off work that day to be at the hospital. I will try. I sure want to be there.