Mountain Lions, Bobcats, and Bears, Oh my!

Last year, our son Michael ran into a young mountain lion on the trail around our house.

Two weeks ago, we had a bobcat on our back porch.

This week we found bear tracks underneath our bedroom window!

What is there possibly left for us to see?!  

It truly is wild and wonderful living out here.  

Thank you, God, for your continuous gifts!!!  

(We sure don't deserve them, but we accept them gladly) :)

WILD weekend!

What a WILD weekend we had...

It started with an unexpected snow storm that accumulated over a foot of snow!  It looked like Christmas in September!  It was gorgeous, but it did have some unexpected side effects, including many trees breaking on our property from the weight of the snow on the leaf-laden branches and also the loss of electricity for 10 hours from trees hitting the power lines in our area.  Thankfully though, God provided me with a "prepper" husband who had everything we needed to survive for months and also a wood burning fireplace to keep us warm :)  The boys had a blast making snowmen and having snowball fights.  All in all, it turned out to be a fun and beautiful adventure.  And the biggest blessing is that all the snow and rain in our area put out most of the wildfires that had been raging for the past month! God is good, all the time!

See how the aspen trees are bending way over?

Sadly we lost quite a few despite our efforts to brush the snow off of them during the storm.

This photo really shows the accumulation of snow.

Hard to believe this happened in September!

Then, the next day as our boys were watching baseball in the basement, Michael glanced out the window and said, "Hey look, a kitty-cat."  Joseph, looked and said, "That's no kitty, that's a bobcat!"  They ran upstairs to tell us and Michael ran for his camera.  By the time they got upstairs the bobcat was on our back porch, 10 feet from the door!  It ran off when Michael tried to get a picture, but we were able to watch it from our dining room window as it meandered off our property.  Michael was able to sneak outside to snap a quick photo before it was gone.  How wild was that!?  What will we see next on this amazing gift of land that God has given us?  We will keep you posted :)

Didn't Michael get an awesome picture?  

I wonder if he will be a wildlife photographer when he grows up :)

Happy Birthday Mother Mary

Today, September 8th, the Catholic Church celebrates the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is exactly 9 months after the celebration of her Immaculate Conception.  What a joyous day!  Personally, I wish it was celebrated by the whole world with as much joy as Christmas (or at least with as much enthusiasm as St. Patrick's day); after all, Mary had (and continues to have) such an important role in the history of salvation.  But there I go being a crazy Catholic again! :} Anyway, it is on feast days like today that I just love being Catholic because I am reminded of the blessings God continues to give us through the saints---especially His Blessed Mother who intercedes for us constantly, loves us unconditionally, and longs to guide us closer to her Son so that all will be saved.  How I wish the whole world knew how much she loves us!  I am reminded of one of Mary's messages in Medjugorje when she said:  "If you knew how much I, your mother, love you, you would cry for joy."  And this message was confirmed in my heart when I was able to watch the visionary Mirijana have her apparition in Medjugorje a few summers ago...  As soon as the Blessed Mother appeared, Mirajana's whole countenance changed.  She was completely overcome with pure joy and tears silently slipped down her cheeks as she gazed at Our Lady and conversed with her.  Just seeing Mirijana's joy made me start to cry for joy!  How blessed we are to be loved so much by God our Father and Mary our heavenly Mother!  I pray for the grace to be able to love them back as much as my little heart is capable of!

The visionary Mirjana is 4th in from the right wearing a coral/pink shirt. 

Our tour group was blessed to have a private meeting with her to hear her testimony and ask her questions.  She seemed so full of peace and joy.  I recently read her autobiography called "My Heart with Triumph", which describes the history of the apparitions in Medjugorje and how they affected her personally. It was very inspiring and I highly recommend it!

Here is the latest message from Our Lady to Mirjana on September 2nd, 2017:

"Dear children, who could speak to you about the love and the pain of my Son better than I? I lived with Him; I suffered with Him. Living the earthly life I felt pain because I was a mother. My Son loved the thoughts and the works of the Heavenly Father, the true God. And, as He said to me, He came to redeem you. I hid my pain through love, but you, my children, you have numerous questions. You do not comprehend pain. You do not comprehend that through the love of God you need to accept pain and endure it. Every human being will experience it to a lesser or greater measure. But with peace in the soul and in a state of grace, hope exists; this is my Son, God, born of God. His words are the seed of eternal life. Sown in good souls it brings numerous fruits. My Son bore the pain because He took your sins upon Himself. Therefore, you, my children, apostles of my love, you who suffer, know that your pain will become light and glory. My children, while you are enduring pain, while you are suffering, Heaven enters in you and you give a piece of Heaven and much hope to all those around you. Thank you."​

Here is a fun recipe to make for this special Marian Feast day:  Rose-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls.  I have heard that every time we pray the rosary (which comes from the word "rosarium" which means rose garden or garland of roses) we are giving Mary a beautiful garland of roses.  Our family loves these rolls, and I hope yours does too!  They do take a bit of time and work, but they are SO worth it!  You could even pray a rosary while you do it, and then you'd be giving a gift to Our Lady AND your family :)

Sweet Roll Dough

1 pkg. dry yeast
½ c. warm water
1/2 c. lukewarm milk (scalded then cooled)
1/3 c. butter, margarine or shortening
1/3 c. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
3 ½ to 4 c. flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk sugar, butter, salt, egg, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, about 1 ½ hours.

Cinnamon Filling
2 T. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. cinnamon 

Mix until all sugar and cinnamon is moistened. 

Make 4 small balls (golf ball size) of dough and roll them out into 3 1/2 inch diameter circles. Overlap dough circles as shown. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon sugar mixture across middle, leaving curved edges clear. 

Roll circles up into rolls as shown. You should end up with rolled dough with both ends fluted. Cut roll in half. 

Place dough in greased muffin tins. Cut/flat end should be down and the pretty, fluted/curved end up. 

Let rise until double (30-40 minutes). Bake in 350 degree oven 12-15 minutes. 

I found this recipe at the Catholic Cuisine website:  http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2015/07/st-elizabeth-rose-bread.html

Feelin' Beachy?

Well, I never thought I'd call myself a beach-girl, but my recent trip to Pensacola Beach might have changed that.  I was born in Montana, lived most of my life in the flat Dakotas, and then moved back to the mountains of Montana where I thought I had found a piece of paradise and would live happily ever after.  But I have now discovered the aqua ocean and white sands of Florida.  Another piece of paradise exists on this earth?! Who knew? :) So I guess I'm happy to be a mountain-girl most of the time, but it sure is nice to be a beach-girl whenever the opportunity allows :)

Paul and I were so blessed to have such an opportunity this summer; we went to Pensacola to visit some dear friends from our Navy days.  My friend Jenny has been my kindred spirit ever since we were neighbors on a California Navy base nearly 16 years ago.  We had our first babies within a month of each other and our husbands were Navy pilots together, so we became fast friends who encouraged each other on the crazy rollercoaster ride of parenting and Navy life.  When we learned that Jenny's husband Ken was officially retiring from the Navy, we decided that attending his retirement ceremony would be the perfect excuse for visiting them and also a romantic get-away for the two of us.  It was all that we had hoped for...and more!  But I'll let the pictures tell the story...

The view from the Bozeman airport as we started our journey.

How blessed we are to be surrounded by these majestic mountains.

I was excited to go on this trip, but also happy knowing these mountains would greet me on my return, along with hugs from my 5 little men :)

This church, the Basicila of St. Michael's, was one of the highlights of our trip.

We were able to go to daily Mass a couple of the days on our trip, and I am so happy this is the church that we found!  Why?  Read on...

They had Eucharistic adoration an hour before Mass, as well as the opportunity to go to Confession.  What a gift!

Spending time with Jesus, my husband, and my best friend Jenny

---all in one trip---

it doesn't get much better than that!  :)

And here is our sweet, beachy condo that we found.

It was right on the beach, 

and "just right" in every way!

This made me smile and think of my dad who loves to fish (and loves a good "red beer")

How strange it was to not have all our kids around the table and to not have to cut anyone's food into small bites for a few days!  :)

This picture that was in our condo is one that I'd like to buy and put on my wall somewhere...

It reminds me of the carefree timelessness and peace that I felt at the beach with my husband.

Me---chillaxin'  :)

Paul---snorkeling.

He was a pro.

I was not.  

I had never snorkeled before and it took me almost an hour to get over this strange phobia of putting my face in the water and breathing.  But once I got over my fear, it was AWESOME!!!  

Truly, I could have snorkeled all day!

Maria in her happy place.  

I sincerely felt like a giddy little girl, 

filled with wonder at every sea shell I found, 

every fish that I saw, every step in the white sands...

I hope to go back someday with my whole family, 

or with a group of my best girlfriends, 

or a couple's getaway with some of our favorite couples...it all sounds lovely.  

I can dream, can't I?

Paul looking at a shell or crab that he found.  

It was so fun to watch fish, crabs, and even jellyfish swim right in front of our face.

Paul even saw a ray that he startled from its hiding spot under the sand!

One of the many crabs we caught.

It was so fun to watch them get washed up by the waves and then quickly bury themselves under the sand.  Then we would try to dig them up and they would start pinching like crazy.  

I screamed more than once :) 

My friend Jenny told us about this beach, which hardly had any people at it!  

We felt like we were on a tropical island all to ourselves--so incredible!

Even the afternoon thunderstorms were gorgeous.

...and the sunsets too.

This is the view from our condo balcony.

God is quite the master-painter.

The Pensacola Beach Pier.

View of the beach from the pier. 

We avoided this beach---too crowded.

But we tried about every single restaurant on the beach.

We recommend them ALL!  :)

A Spanish mackerel that a fisherman caught on the pier.

We also saw a guy hook a tarpon that jumped out of the water and got away.

Some rays we spotted off the pier.

A sea turtle swimming near the pier.

Ken giving a speech at his retirement ceremony.

He beautifully gave honor and glory to God,

and highlighted the many sacrifices Jenny and their 7 kids have made during his Naval career.

They are the most amazing family I have ever met, and we are blessed to be their friends.

May God abundantly bless their new adventure flying for the airlines!

Me and my sweet, Southern friend, Jenny!

Who knew that a Catholic and a Protestant could be so close?! :)

Despite our slight theological differences, I think we have succeeded in bringing each other closer to Christ and keeping each other sane and encouraged during life's ups and downs.

What a sweet friendship it has been and will continue to be until we are sipping a bushwacker together in heaven someday :)

Dom the Bomb's Big Month

The month of July was filled with big excitement for Dominic.  The first big event was his birthday.  The big double ones---11 years old!  On his actual birthday we took him to his favorite restaurant--Chile's--where the birthday boy gets a free slice of cheesecake, his favorite dessert of all time.  Then a week later, we had a party for him.  All he wanted were a few of his favorite friends to come out to play games, and especially to try out the new zip line he got for his birthday...
 

Waterballoons, pizza, cheesecake, friends, ziplining, and LEGOs...

doesn't get much better than that!

Dominic's next big July event was attending his first ever church camp away from home!  He was excited but nervous to go.  I was nervous about him being homesick.  Six days away from home for the first time seems like a long time to me.  But my worrying was for naught. When I picked him up, he was all smiles and said, "This was the best week of my life!  I wish I could stay!"  So much for being homesick.  I kinda wished he missed me just a little bit  :}  But perhaps it's because I give him too many chores...  I asked him to do some chores the day he got back home, and he said he wished he could go back to Legendary Lodge.  Oh well, I guess I'm just training him that you can't stay on the mountain-top forever...  After the Transfiguration, Jesus and his disciples had to come back down because there was work to be done for the Kingdom.  And so it was for Dominic...  Now he faces daily routine, chores and trying to get along with his siblings again...all for the greater glory of God and to further the Kingdom!  :)

Happy Birthday,  delightful Dominic!

You are our fun-loving son with a sensitive heart,

a super-smart brain, a gift for music,

and the ability to build anything out of LEGOs!

You are growing into a brave and holy young man,

and I am so eager to see what God is calling you to be as you grow up!

I hope you know that my love for you is zippier than a zip-line,

sweeter than cheesecake,

and stronger than a superglued LEGO set!

Love, 

Mommy

Summer in SoDak (that's slang for South Dakota) :)

Every year for the 4th of July we head to South Dakota to spend time with my side of the family.  All my siblings find a way to make it back to Aberdeen for a few days, and it's usually the highlight of our summer (despite the humidity and pesky mosquitoes).  This year, since our kids have become such great travelers in the car, we added on a side trip to Minnesota to see Paul's brother Dann and his family.  It was well worth the extra 12 hours in the car!  One discovery that has helped our road trips go so well these past few years is bringing along a great book on tape.  This year we found a gem called, "The Shadow of His Wings:  the true story of Fr. Gereon Goldman."  This book profoundly moved my heart and increased my faith.  Paul and the boys loved it too.  It was action-packed with war scenes, miracles, and the power of prayer.  I highly recommend it.

But I digress...  On to pictures!

My oldest brother Mike, his wife Shawna, daughter Elizabeth, and dog Drake.

My brother Steve, his wife Kristin, and boys Matthew, Daniel, and Ryan

My brother Jon, his wife Debbie, son Evan, and daughter Gwyneth

My awesome parents, Theresa and Pat

Another family shot.  

I remembered to bring my tri-pod this year and hardly had to use Photoshop at all!

I'm getting better at doing family photo shoots, but I don't think I have the makings of a professional photographer.  Too stressful.  But I am pleased with how the photo turned out this year.

Natey and Isaiah on the jet-ski with cousin Gwyneth...so cute!

Dominic learned how to water ski this year!!!

Great job, Dom!

Cousin Elizabeth was his coach---great job, Elizabeth!

Gwyneth mesmerized by her sparkler :)

Isaiah celebrating the 4th of July!

Having fun on the Storybook Land rollercoaster!

Coming to Aberdeen to visit family is like finding the gold at the end of the rainbow! :)

But you better watch out for giants coming down beanstalks!

More fun at the lake!

Paul and the little ones loved the jet ski!

Michael and Joseph with a big, nasty carp!

Michael spent the entire time at the lake fishing instead of swimming or skiing.

He is a die-hard fisherman like his grandpa Pat.

The little ones aren't sure what to think about the huge carp.

Michael helped Natey catch a walleye.

I got to visit with some treasured friends while I was back in my hometown,

which was a highlight for me.  This is my friend Cherie,

a dear friend and my high school religion teacher.

Summer fun in the sun is tiring :)

Uncle Jon took Isaiah and Gwyneth for a ride...

It was thumbs-up-awesome.

In Minnesota we got to stay with our other cousins and their new puppies!

Double prizes!

This is sweet cousin Kennedy.

Not sure who is cuter :)

Kennedy taking care of momma who is taking care of her puppies :)

Cousin Rowan surrounded by sweet, adorable puppies.

It's a good thing all the puppies were already spoken for, 

or I might have brought one back to Montana!

Even our cool teenager couldn't resist the cute canines :)

Isaiah with cousin Hollis at the pool.

Precious.

Paul and Aunt Rachel chillaxin' at the pool :)

Uncle Dan showing off his diving skills :)

A fun game of "war" in the water:)

Fun summer memories.

God is so good...

summer and every season of the year.