BOO!

Happy Halloween to everyone! This is not normally my favorite holiday. It seems strange to dress up in a costume and go door-to-door begging for candy...just to end up eating more junk than normal or throwing away someone's good money that they spent on buying the candy. HOWEVER, when you have two beautiful, fun-loving little ghouls like I do...it does make it fun!

As a family we discussed some really great costume ideas that we eventually decided to put off until next year. I just couldn't stress and stretch myself as I am normally apt to do when attempting to do something creative and homemade for my babies. SO, yes, we actually spent money on costumes this year.













Samantha was a "Princess Vampira." I have to admit that she fell right into the role and creeped me out more than once. She loved her make-up and the knee-high black boots that we got her to wear with the outfit. My girl is rockin'!




Riley was "just a regular princess" (if you were to ask Samantha). I think Riley looked especially beautiful. She was really good while getting her nails painted, her hair done (gel, blowdry, bobby pins, hairspray), and then her make-up.












Samantha was famished since we had yet to eat dinner, so she tried to treat herself to an appetizer of Princess Riley. EEK!!

They sure drew a lot of attention while dining at the local Applebee's. Our waiter was a Whoopee Cushion, complete with sound effects. COOL!!

Where, you may ask, did we go trick-or-treating? To our new neighborhood, of course! We were hoping that the current homeowners would be home so that we could introduce ourselves and then demand that they put candy in our children's buckets. But no such luck...they weren't home. It just so happens that tonight was the night of a big high school football game and I think one or both of their sons play on one of the teams.

The evening was going well and they began to work together taking turns ringing the doorbells. The absolute funniest part was Riley stating that each house was "open for business" for her after she retrieved her goodies and retreated from the doors. She also invited passing treaters to look in her bucket at her stash. What a gal!

After a good scrubbing and hair-washing in the tub, they both went to sleep fairly quickly with chocolate coarsing through their veins.

Love to all on this Happy Halloween!

Adventure to Helena, Montana

Saturday was a beautiful day, so we decided to jump in the car after lunch for a road trip to Helena. It was nice just to get out of the hotel and not be stepping on each other all day.

Ben and I didn't realize how much we missed the mountains until we moved to this gloriously beautiful state. I could look at the mountains all day long and be thrilled to pieces. Maybe we are just humbled by their size and feeling how small we are in the universe. OK... maybe too deep... they are just purdy to look at!



Here is the view from a scenic outlook not too far outside Great Falls. It was extremely windy climbing the steps up to the platform. You'll see the Missouri River running through the Big Belt Mountains. We also caught sight of a bald eagle flying overhead, but were not close enough to catch a picture. Unfortunately, the only other wildlife we saw the entire day was a quail of some sort. I was kind of hoping for a bear or a big horn sheep.


My gorgeous girl at the landing halfway up to the lookout point. I think she has watched Project Runway with me a few too many times. You should see her runway walk!!!




In downtown Helena, we went to the town center that houses The Great Northern Carousel and the Great Northern Ice Cream parlor. The menagerie of the carousel was great...bighorn sheep, otters (you ride on their bellies), pronghorn antelope, bison, bobcat, wolf, rainbow trout, hippocampus (horse/seahorse combination), grizzly bear, triceratops, and traditional horses.

The girls had fun riding the carousel two times each (Ben rode, too, the second time) and then enjoyed a scoop of the cold stuff before heading back out. Now it just seems like we made the three-hour roundtrip just for a ride and ice cream, but the kids had fun and so did we.

Samantha wouldn't take off her new hat since I told her she was "rockin!" She even got a compliment from the young waitress at Applebee's tonight. I'm sure that won't inflate her ego any more! She does look pretty darn cute...


On the trip back to Great Falls, Ben and I stopped off to see one more sight. The girls missed the entire thing since they crashed before we even hit the highway. We wanted to see what is called the Gates of the Mountains. This is yet another historic location for the journey of Lewis & Clark. There are boat tours in the spring and summer season that will take you through the area. The rock walls tower up to 1200 feet above the water. As the water twists and turns through the rock, it looks as though the way will be obstructed but then opens like "gates." STUNNING!

That's it from Montana.
Love to all!

Hallelujah for SCHOOL!

I know I haven't posted for a week, but who can blame me when the same old thing happens every single day here because of our "hotel life." However, the highlight of the last week did happen to be Ben's return to Great Falls from his business trip to Louisville. He said one of the weird/cool things was chatting with someone from the Weather Channel (Jim Cantore...you know, the guy who seems to be the first out in a hurricane every time?). If I'm not mistaken, he's a pretty short guy and Ben felt like he towered over him a little. I think Ben is really enjoying his new position and will be a fabulous WCM... I'M PROUD OF YOU, HONEY!!

Last Wednesday the girls and I visited the elementary school in our neighborhood. I took care of getting her registered to start this past Monday. My not-so-little girl actually told me on Sunday evening that she was getting nervous. I melted...she has always been such a brave person. I told her about my own personal experiences (having been to 16 different schools myself) and she seemed to feel a little better. Riley and I walked her to her new classroom Monday morning. Her teacher, Mrs. Rittel, is so kind and seems so involved with her classroom kids. They were all excited to have another girl...she was the 6th one in the class. Apparently, the ratio of boys to girls around this age is pretty high. She may have her "pick of the litter" later on...watch out fellas!! After school she seemed pretty happy...enough so that I told her I could walk her in every day this week if she wanted. Her response was, "That's OK Mom. You can just drop me off from now on." How quickly I was cast aside! I'm proud of her and she has fit right in according to her teacher. She is definitely much happier this week!!!

By the way, I am so happy to have her at her school (Meadow Lark Elementary) here in Great Falls. The school was recently awarded the Blue Ribbon Award by the U.S. Department of Education. It has to do with the No Child Left Behind initiative. Only 320 schools in the entire nation were recognized for their accomplishments. Meadow Lark was the only school in the entire state of Montana to receive this award. Score for Mom and Dad...one good decision in moving to this town and choosing the right neighborhood!

Riley and I are going to visit a daycare/preschool tomorrow morning. This center is so good that there is quite a waiting list. I will find out after our tour just how long of a list...I can't really start a job until I figure out where best to place that little booger. She is craving the social interaction so much that every time we visit McDonald's to play (OK, and eat), she "makes friends" with every single child no matter their age. Samantha is just left in Riley's dust at that point. It is too funny to watch!

The other thing happening tomorrow (Thursday) is the inspection of our home. I am anxious to see if it passes with flying colors or if there will be a laundry list of things to fix before closing. We already made a killer deal getting the house...I don't want to lose it because of repairs needed. We'll wait and see and I'll keep you posted.

Ben has taken the girls down to the pool while I go get dinner. I'd better place the order and get moving. Hope everyone reading this is well. We are desperately missing our family and friends already!

Love to all!

Tuesday is not much better...

I was optimistic that the girls and I would have a better day today. Boy, was I wrong. I started out by doing at least 6 loads of laundry. In between loads I managed to get clean clothes put away, fix lunch of PB&J (made in our room) with (expired) Sun Chips from the hotel "commissary," and take a shower.

It was after 3:00pm when we left our room to get some fresh air. I took the remainder of the loaf of bread with us to feed to any geese and/or gulls we happened upon. I stopped at the post office downtown to check our mailbox and then we headed toward River Drive to find some fowl to feed. Samantha asked if we could find a park so she could play.

Luckily, we found both birds and play equipment at our disposal. The girls fed the bread to apparently starving geese (they were stealing it out of Riley's hands before she could even tear and throw pieces). They were anxious to play, so they ran ahead while I finished the loaf with the gulls. By the time I reached the playground, I noticed Riley's jeans were awfully dark on her inner legs... yup, you guessed it...she wet her pants. I was out of my mind!! She wet her pants at a store this past weekend, so I wasn't too thrilled with this second accident. She screamed and threw a fit all the way back to the car. Oh...she had sat on Samantha's lap to ride down a slide, so Samantha had wet pants thanks to her little sister.

After returning to the hotel for clean clothes, we went out for dinner. Chili's was the restaurant of choice this evening. They both behaved really well and we entertained ourselves by playing "Hangman" while waiting for our food. There was one potty trip before our food came and we made a pit stop on the way out of the restaurant since Riley drank her entire cup of Sprite during the meal.

We returned to the hotel once more... we stopped in the Business Center of the hotel (just a few doors down from our room). The girls wanted me to print off some coloring pages from the PBS Kids website. Riley appeared to be doing a "potty dance." I asked her repeatedly if she needed to go to the bathroom. Each time she adamantly stated, "No." I trusted her word... WRONG THING TO DO! She proceeded to pee her pants right there on the carpet of the business center room. OH MY GOSH!! I just might have a stroke tonight after all!!!!!!

I shouldn't go into details about the ensuing "conversations," but since the kids have gone to bed... I did yet another load of laundry and ate a pint of cookie dough ice cream from the hotel commissary. Ahhh...ice cream therapy!

I feel better now that I've vented here on this blog. It is therapeutic, I think, to let others into the little details of everyday life. If someone didn't know it before, they surely know now... I go NUTS when being with the kids all by myself.

Here's the sad part, though. Riley has asked three times now if we can go "home." How heartbreaking is that? The poor kid is craving her old life and routine. I keep telling myself that they are as out of sorts as I am. I am not the only one dealing with the situation. We are going to visit the school tomorrow and see what I need to do to get Samantha registered to hopefully start next Monday. Maybe once Samantha starts getting into a routine, she will be a little bit happier. Once Samantha is gone during the day, Riley and I can get back into a little routine as well. I need to start "pounding the pavement" and get a job. I also need to start looking and asking around about daycare/preschool for Riley. She needs other kids right now...not just her big sister and crazy mother.

Has anyone noticed how much I love to use quotation marks and the three-periods thing... just wondering?! Anyway...here's hoping for a FABULOUS WEDNESDAY!!! Love to all!



This picture below is especially for my "old new neighbor" Carrie... we surely would have been great friends had I stuck around long enough!

Monday...and already losing my mind!

OK...maybe I am being a little dramatic, but I am already SO tired of being cooped up in a hotel. We've been here just about two weeks. But, hey, the good news is that we only have one whole month left to endure it! Sarcasm just comes naturally, get used to it.

I feel bad for the girls. I keep trying to get out at least once each day to do something for them in the form of exercise. The staff at the local McDonald's is starting to recognize us since we utilize the Playland area every other day. It is also "sad" that the Papa John's delivery person last night said the following when I answered the door, "Well, hello AGAIN!" I am tired of being in the hotel. I am tired of eating out. I am tired of having to put the cats in their cages for housekeeping to enter the room. I am tired of having laundry pile up until I am ready to haul it down the hallway to use the $1.50/load washer and $1.25/load dryer (which always requires a second $1.25 to finish drying). I AM JUST PLAIN TIRED OF THIS ALREADY!

On to something good...the 4 inches of snow we got yesterday melted today in our almost-50-degree sunny weather. It is beautiful outside once again and will probably reach the mid-60's by Friday. Can anyone say "KOOKY?"

Riley is calling to kick my butt at UNO once more.
Ta Ta for now.

Schott Family's New House

The biggest news of the day is that we have finally decided on a home and have been notified (after much negotiation) that our offer was accepted by the Sellers. The house is HUGE...having 5 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms. Needless to say, folks, there will be lots of room for visitors should anyone decide to venture West. The house is only about one block from the elementary school that Samantha will attend. I certainly hope Riley will attend as well, but we all know that Ben will probably decide to move us again just when we start to like the place (ha, ha, ha!!). I'm just giving him a hard time...someone has got to do it...and it just happens to be one of the perks of my position as his "ball and chain."

If you want to see pics of the new place until the listing is removed from the internet, you can do the following:

Go to www.gtfar.com
Click on Find a Home
Scroll down the page under the Advanced Options and enter the number 08-2053

If you'd like a Word document e-mailed to you with the pictures, please just post a comment and let me know.

I need to get some sleep now...Ben leaves town again tomorrow. The girls and I will be taking him to the airport for his 2pm flight to Louisville. Single-parenting once more!

Love to all!

Sightseeing Around Town

Ben is away in Billings, Montana this week for a big conference. The girls miss him already. He is a very busy man these days with starting the new job and two back-to-back conferences. He will fly out to Louisville, Kentucky next week...back to our old stomping grounds. We lived there for four years and I continue to miss it every day. I loved my job at Southern Indiana Rehab Hospital (SIRH). I loved being close to my best friend (Jake) and her family. I loved having new friends (Michelle). I loved the kids' daycare (Discovery Time). I LOVED IT!

On to the new...

The girls and I managed to get out of bed just in time for breakfast here at the hotel (9:00 am). I have started spending the late evenings on the computer searching for our next home, so sleeping in can be good sometimes. After breakfast and some morning computer time, we got dressed and headed out for a little fresh air.

Our first stop was the boat launch area near the hotel. We have been waiting to catch a group of geese close enough or accessible enough to feed. The gulls got in on the action, especially with the brisk wind, and were catching pieces of bread in mid-air. I was having more fun than the girls, I think. It reminded me of a time that my family was in Corpus Christi, Texas staying in an upper-floor condo on the beach. We threw the majority of a box of Froot Loops up into the air and watched as the gulls caught most of them before they hit the ground!

The geese weren't too shy since they decided it was safe enough to accept bread straight from the girls' hands. We had so much fun that we went back to the hotel room for a little more bread and returned for Round 2...for which I brought the camera.













After torturing the girls with neighborhood cruising (driving past houses I want to see with our Realtor), we had lunch at my new favorite restaurant, the Macaroni Grill. This was our third visit and we were lucky enough to have the same waitress as our first visit...Breezy. Breezy is an adorable twenty-something that dotes on the girls and who also has an amazing voice. We overheard her singing Happy Birthday in Italian, I think, during our first visit. Samantha and Riley enjoy eating there since the tables are covered with paper to color on and because ice cream is included with their kid's meals. Note: Samantha learned to play Hangman during our first visit and did amazingly well at guessing my word "camel."

Post-lunch touring took us up to Giant Springs State Park on the North side of Great Falls. The park boasts one of the largest freshwater springs in the world...flowing at 156 million gallons of water per day. It is BEAUTIFUL to say the least. There is a fish hatchery on the same site where you can feed the trout (?) with pellets you can buy for a mere nickel. We gathered all of our nickels (probably $0.75 worth) and headed there first. We all had fun watching the fish jump and fight for the food. Some of those guys are HUGE and the albino one is especially interesting.

After feeding the fish we walked across a concrete bridge going over part of the spring's falls. I saw movement in the vegetation in the water and spotted a couple of cute furry guys hiding out. Samantha thought maybe they were beavers and I thought they were river otters. After researching on the state's website, I believe they were muskrats. The description seems to fit their general size, shape, and eating habits. We watched them for a while until the wind got the better of us and we had to move on. Our poor cheeks and noses were red and chilly for quite a while after that! Samantha got to tell Daddy on the phone about the "otters." He said he was jealous...we certainly would've loved to share it with him.















On the way back to the hotel, I stopped at one of the vantage points along the way to take a picture of Black Eagle Falls. I'm sure it would look even more incredible with even more water traveling through the dam.














I cooked our first meal in the hotel room tonight. Samantha requested tacos, which to her just means a tortilla with meat and cheese. Tacos to Riley means lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and maybe some chips. I really should just learn to split everything between them since they seem to be such opposites at mealtimes.

Tomorrow is going to be the day I unpack winter clothes from the boxes we shipped to ourselves at Ben's office. Snow is apparently on its way...Billings is going to get it bad enough that Ben and his group are heading back one day early.....GREAT, just what I love...snow (not!!!).

It's off to dreamland for me.
Love to all!
Missy

Greetings from Big Sky Country

As most of you know, we recently made our journey West to our new home state of Montana. The 24-hour (driving) trip took 3 days and was basically uneventful. The girls handled the time in the van very well and the cats didn't whine too much, either. Amazingly enough, Ben and I didn't even argue ONCE that I can recall. We both knew how stressful the trip would be if we didn't get ourselves into the right mindset.

That being said, I rather enjoyed the drive. I found Wisconsin to be especially beautiful with its rolling hills and gorgeous green fields. I have never seen so many cows in all my life! On the morning of day three we had a wonderful visitor during one of our pit stops. A real BISON!! I know that many people assume that they are called buffalo, but they are truly bison.

We stopped at an area called "Painted Canyon" just before leaving North Dakota and heading into Montana. I laughed a little at the sign near the entrance showing a picture of a bison and stating "CAUTION...Do Not Approach Wildlife." We spent a little time at the overlook and then Riley asked about something in the grass...bison droppings! After a potty break, we all headed back to the vehicles. On our way, we spotted a very LARGE male bison heading in our direction. He was just taking his sweet time grazing along the way. Samantha and Riley were both a little scared, even though he was a good bazillion yards away (you can tell I'm good at judging distances, right?). I couldn't resist driving the van around to get a closer look at this magnificent animal. He was enormous and seemed so gentle. I'm sure if someone made this 2,000-lb animal angry, he wouldn't seem so gentle.

The rest of that day was pretty tame...Riley spotted a herd of bison next to the highway about 25 miles outside of Great Falls. She was very proud of herself. And speaking of being PROUD... Riley's potty training (or lack of training) has been a great source of worry for me, especially. As several of our family members know, Riley finally decided to start wearing big girl panties just one week before we departed Indiana. I think we owe a lot of thanks to her babysitter, Stephanie, who really got her going on a regular basis. Well, Riley made it all the way from Indiana to Montana with no accidents!! Hooray, we are diaper/pull-up free!! (other than at night, of course)

For right now, I am off to take the girls to the hotel pool. I will continue this adventure later with more details of our new home.

Love to all!!