Exciting News!

Wow, it is already May 20. This year is going way to fast. We have had a few days of nice weather scattered about. Today we woke up to a mixture of rain and snow, which just happens to be the forecast for the rest week and then some.

So as a few of you know Rick has been wanting to go back to school for a while now. He has been working on the application process for a while. Just did the entrance exam Tuesday evening and we have heard back that he has been accepted to Western Governors University. He will be studying Information Technology with an emphasis in security. We are working on the financial aspect now, but once that is all taken care of he can start at any time. This on-line university works a little different than some as he can start at any time. He is extremely excited and cannot wait to get going with it all.

In June we will be driving to Deadwood, SD for a business trip Rick is attending. I will be vacationing at the hotel and going site seeing while he is busy in seminars. We plan on seeing Mount Rushmore, as Rick has never been there before as well as some of the other sites around the area. May be camping some as well.

Rick has been busy lately with church and now he is on the school board as well. Butte is starting Highland View Christian School in the fall of this year. So far God has really been leading and opening doors and so we really feel it is his will to have this school in Butte. We have already hired a teacher from Ronan, MT.

Maggie had a hysterectomy on Thursday of last week and has had a quick recovery which we have prayed for, because there is no keeping her energy tamed. She figured out how to get her cone of shame off last night while she was in her crate. This morning Rick was sitting in the living room and Maggie brought it out to him looking very proud of herself for destroying the monster. She is doing well with her obedience classes and is slowly warming up to the other puppies in the class. We are also learning great ideas on how to better train both her and Charlie.

As for myself, I have been busy with work and trying to keep the house maintained. During the warmer weather I was able to get some of the flower beds dug out so that we can plant flowers here shortly. Now that is is warming up my Dad and I have been able to enjoy our morning walks once again. On my days off I have been reading a series of books that I started back in April during TV turn off week. I forgot how much I loved to read as life seemed to be getting in the way and I had not been reading as much as I used to. The series is titled Abram's Daughters by Beverly Lewis. I have never read this many books in this short amount of time. I was awaiting the last book to come from Amazon as I could not find it anywhere here in Butte and it finally arrived this week. My mom has been reading them and is one book behind me and now Brooke wants to start reading them.

Hope all is well with everyone and you are enjoying lovely spring weather. We love you all!

Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Hope you all are well and able to be with family today. I have to work. Rick is going to go to Easter dinner at my parents house, then he plans on bringing me a plate for dinner here at work. Easter Sabbath was very nice. After sabbath we went bowling with some people from work as well as some folks from church. It was a lot of fun. Rick's bowling ball got eaten by the little machine that rolls the ball back to you. He has to go back to the bowling alley today to talk to the manager about it.

We went to see Alice and Wonderland on Tuesday of this last week. Very good movie. Tuesdays here they have one dollar popcorn and soda, so it makes it a little more worth while going. Plus you don't have all the children that you would on the weekend as it seems parents like to send there kids off to the movies unattended and it makes for not fun theatre going.

Rick and I are ready for the warmer weather so we can get out and do more things around here, like hiking, camping, etc. Still calling for snow most of this week. The ground has warmed up though and so the snow doesn't stick for very long, if it even sticks at all.

Maggie is getting huge, we are pretty sure she is going to be a little bit bigger than Charlie. Rick thinks she has some spaniel in her, as she likes to nudge everything. My mom thinks she has some hound in her the way she barks at times. She is a very lovey puppy, and loves to meet new people and have them pet her, unlike her big brother Charlie who is very suspicious of everyone. We hope she stays that way and maybe rubs off on Charlie a little bit in that aspect. Both of them want to be outside constantly and we can't wait for the warmer weather when we can leave the door opened for them to just be able to run in and out as they please. We plan on taking them on a camping trip this spring when things warm up a little more.

We hope all is well with everyone, we love and miss you all.

Utah Vacation

Well we are back from vacation, it was wonderful. We left Tuesday March 16th and drove from Butte down to Moab, UT. We left our house at about 0415 in the morning. We had packed up the car the night before. Rick drove the entire way down. We stopped in Salt Lake City for some much missed Cracker Barrel goodness and then only one other stop for gas on the way. We made it to Moab at around 4 in the afternoon, maybe a little earlier. We stayed in Moab so that we could walk around the town in the evenings when we were done at the national parks. We stayed at a campground where we tent camped.

Wednesday March 17, we visited Arches National Park. Rick was very hopeful to see some big horn sheep, but no such luck here. After driving into the park we stopped at the first pull off for a lovely hike through the red rocks. Got quite a few good pictures. From there we drove over to balancing rock and then had a picnic lunch. Went on another hike after that to delicate arch. And then up to the devils playground where there are a few more arches to see. There was some snow on the ground, but nothing we couldn't hike through. Ate at the Moab brewery for dinner, very yummy food!

Thursday March 18, we drove to Dead Horse Point state park where it looks almost like the grand canyon, spent a little time there walking around and then headed to Canyonlands as rick likes to call Candy land. In Canyonlands there is a hike up to the top of the plateau which I had to push myself to do as at some points you are right on the edge of the cliff and as I get older I do not care for being high up in the sky very much. But it was definitely worth going to the top. The view was spectacular.

The ride back to Moab was beautiful. You have to watch out for cattle as you drive through their land. They are just out in the middle of the road and so on. Very interesting. We enjoyed very yummy Mexican food in town that night and then wandered around the town as we would be packing up and leaving Friday morning. There was a very interesting little antique shop with all sorts of old interesting stuff. Spent most of our time here and if we had tons of money to spend, would had probably done so.

It rained Thursday night while we were sleeping in our tent and so Friday when we got up we went to breakfast first to try and give the tent a little more time to dry. It was a very nice little cafe where they made homemade bagels, haven't had one in quite some time and really enjoyed it. Rick talked to the owner who served us about starting up a cafe and got a few good tips. When we went back to the campsite the tent was still damp so we took it down anyway and threw it in trash bags, which worked well.

After loading up the car we headed out for Capitol Reef National Park. When we first were planning the trip to the national parks we didn't plan on going here, but it was actually on the way to Bryce Canyon National Park and so we thought we would give it a try as it had been recommended to us by one of the church members.

We were quite glad for the recommendation. It was gorgeous there and probably one of our favorites. It has a lot of history in the park and a little town called Fruita. Very interesting. There are all kinds of fruit orchards throughout the park and during harvest time you are allowed to pay a small fee and go in and take what you want from the trees. They had one of the old houses that you could go in and see with fresh baked fruit pies and all kinds of goodies. We decided to camp here the night and make our way to Bryce in the morning. Capitol Reef is at a higher elevation and so this was probably the coldest place we camped. They also have old uranium mines in the park which are gated now, but interesting to walk up to and see. We had a nice campfire that night and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner.

Saturday morning we packed up the tent and headed down to Bryce. In Bryce none of the campgrounds were open due to the seven -eight feet of snow that was still on the ground. The roads were opened, but no places to hike and so we just drove around to the look out points, took a few pictures and then left for Zion National Park.

Zion was by far our most favorite of all the parks. Absolutely breathtaking views. Words and pictures do not do justice and we highly recommend this park, but be in good shape because to see a lot of the great views you had to hike. When we came in to the park about 2 miles in we had to go through the longest tunnel I have ever been through. Then after the tunnel you have to go down this road that winds back and forth down the mountain. Would never want to drive a motor home and trailer through that part. When we got to the bottom I was able to see a big horn sheep (2 actually) on the side of the mountain. We were able to find a campsite here and stayed for the next three nights.

Springdale it right outside of Zion on the east side and it is a cute little artsy town. Walked around there and had some great food one day. Did some laundry there as well.

Tuesday we left for St George to go to the spa. We stopped at In-N-Out burger on the way....oh so good....best fast food burger and fries ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The spa was excellent. Would recommend that as well. From there we left and went to Capriotti's. Rick had been going on about them and so we got subs to go. I was very sad after trying Ricks sub (the bobby) it is like a thanksgiving day sub, I wished we had gotten a bigger one or that I had gotten that kind. Didn't realize how great it was going to be.

We drove from there to Provo, UT where we stayed at the Hines Mansion Bed and Breakfast for two nights. Never stayed at a B & B, but it was great. Had a two person hot tub in the room. Breakfast was amazing! On Wednesday the 24th we drove up to Park City and did some outlet shopping. Have been missing shopping at the outlets. Had dinner at Carrabba's, yum!.

Thursday morning we packed up and drove home. Took us about 6 hours to get home from Provo, not a bad drive. We had to get the puppies that night because we missed them. They were happy to be home, us...not so much. All in all it was a much needed, excellent vacation. And we can't wait to be on holiday again! We love ya'll. Miss ya'll. Take care.

12 days to go

12 days until vacation. Rick and I are counting down with much anticipation. We have already started a huge pile of things to go with us in our guest room. We plan leave early Tuesday morning and hopefully make it to Moab, UT by the end of the first day. We don't have any plans set in stone, we just want to go, relax and enjoy the entire trip. We are going to camp. We are praying for decent weather in hopes that it isn't freezing cold. The highs for that time average in the 60's but we are praying for 70 degree weather.

While in Moab we will go to Arches national park definitely and from there we may take a little drive to the four corners, monument valley or maybe canyonlands. After we are finished with that region we will drive over to Zion national park area and camp there. We were going to camp in Bryce canyon national park, but heard that it is way to cold to camp there even in the summer due to the elevation. So our plan is to drive there one of the days and hike around. We will go to St. George while we are there and probably go to the spa one day. On our way back from the parks we will stay at a bed and breakfast in Provo, UT and then on our last day stop in Park City, UT to do some much missed outlet shopping. All in all we are excited and can't wait to get out on the road.

Maggie and Charlie have been getting along well. Maggie chases Charlie from the living room into the dining room and kitchen. All the while growling and barking at him. They think it is the funnest game. They do this 2-4 times a day generally. They love snuggling together and get upset with each other when they don't quite feel up to playing. They have bonded well. Maggie had her first vet visit with us and are doing well. We are planning on taking Charlie to obedience school when we get back to vacation just to help socialize him in hopes that he can become more relaxed around new dogs and people. We are going to give it a shot anyway.

Rick will be attending a training seminar in June in Deadwood, SD. We are hoping that I will get to go as I only work one day during the period he will be away and so would be a nice little get away.

We are getting excited about Jen, Jeremy and the boys coming to visit in July. We are already saving up for time off and thinking of all the fun things we can show them out here. We are thinking of coming back east late summer/early fall. Will see how that goes.

Nothing else too exciting happening in this neck of the woods. Hope all is well with everyone else. We love ya'll.

The Kids

Charlie split open his paw, so we had to bandage him up. He did not enjoy walking on the bandage, Maggie did enjoy chewing on it though.

Been a while...

So people keep informing me that Rick and I have not updated in quite a while. Since October to be exact. Life has been a bit busy. Time has flown really. January and February always seem to be the longest months of the year to me, and so it is hard for me to believe we are already half way through February. So here we go, I will try to catch you all up on the last couple of months.

November:

Thanksgiving was nice, we celebrated at mom and dad's house. I had to work Thanksgiving day and so we celebrated our Thanksgiving the Sunday after. As usual we had more than enough food and a pie for each of us. And as is tradition in the Flower family we had to watch Christmas Vacation after dinner.

Charlie had been out of his crate at night, but found himself back in after a night of eating three pillows and a blanket from the living room.

December:

We were able to get a Christmas tree this year as Charlie is a bit bigger, although still likes to eat the plant life. We just figured we would not be able to leave Charlie alone in the living room with the tree. He tried to enjoy the tree water as most dogs do, but we let him know that he had his own water even though it might not be as tasty. Rick and I had a nice Christmas together with a few nice gifts. We kept with Rick's family tradition of having cinnamon buns with orange icing made in the shape of a Christmas tree. We had Mom, Dad, the girls and dogs over for Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts at that time. December kept us pretty busy and seemed to fly by more quickly than anticipated.

January:

I don't think I even remember January it went so fast. I had a new grad orientee start with me at work. She is still with me and will be for the next few weeks. We started talking about future plans again and buying a house. We just feel like so much time last year was devoted to trying to buy a house that we did not want to "waste" as much time on that this year, worrying, saving, going to the bank, etc.

I did get to go skiing with a co-worker. It had been about 5-6 years since the last time I was able to go, and the slopes here are quite a bit more difficult than back east so it was an interesting experience. But very fun and I can't wait to get back out. I keep trying to get Rick to go, maybe someday.

Rick was dying to see Avatar, me not so much. But we finally went to see it after it had been out quite a while and both thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Much better than I thought it was going to be. Enjoyed the 3-D as well.

February:

We now have a new addition to the family. Maggie, a border collie. Charlie needed a friend because the fact is that we may not always live near my parents and so Charlie will not always have Lola around. Maggie definitely wears Charlie out. Charlie is now out of the crate again we have baby gates up in the kitchen and he stays with Maggie in there while she is in the crate. Maggie is a little terror at times. A lot more mouthy than Charlie was. We are constantly fussing with her to stop chewing on anything and everything. But she has her moments and can be very affectionate as well. We have had her for almost three weeks and she has already doubled in size. We are pretty sure she is going to be a little bit bigger than Charlie. She is almost the opposite of Charlie in every way at this point. Charlie is mostly black with some white, Maggie is mostly white with black. While Charlie is afraid of quite a bit, she seems fearless. It will be interesting to see how she develops into an adult and how her character changes.

Rick is still in the search of a better career. He plans to fill out has FAFSA information with this tax return and hopefully will be able to start back to school this year. He has been working extra hours and the Sundays that I work so we can go on our vacation in March to southern Utah. We are both ready for a vacation. We plan on camping down in Arches, seeing Canyonlands, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. We are going to spend a day in St. George and go to the spa, on the way back we will stay at a bed and breakfast in Provo, UT and then do some outlet shopping, something we both have missed since moving here.

Work is going well for me. For the most part I enjoy my job, I enjoy my co-workers. I do charge nurse about one weekend a month, sometimes more if they need me too and am orienting my second nurse. Work has been giving me more responsibility and I enjoy it. Doing charge nurse is a nice change every once in a while from being on the floor.

The weather here has not been too bad. More cold than anything. We have had a few good bouts of snow from time to time, but nothing that really sticks for a long time. Not like back east. Although the snow is totally different here than back east, it is a powder like snow here.

Well between church, work and home life we have been pretty busy. Hope you all have had a wonderful start to the new year. We miss all of you and will try our best to keep you up to date on life here in the big sky country.