Seeing Pretty

Before I went to Montana the end of September, there was a conversation that went something like this.  I don't care at all what we do, I just want to be able to see pretty and take pictures of pretty.  I haven't had a chance to do that in a long while and I'm ready to do some noticing of all things - small and large and everything in between. 

No worries on that wish.  I was more than soul filled with beautiful and was able to do the things I love to do.  Like stand in the rain while a waterfall crashes next to me and lay down in the middle of a highway in Yellowstone.  Yep, like that.  Although, really, it was the first time I've ever stood next to a waterfall in the pouring rain.  I just imagine that it was added to the list of things I do before I even knew it.  As for lying in the middle of the road?  This was not my first time on that one.     

One of the Days

Yesterday, I sat in a brown leather chair, a blue paid wool blanket wrapped around my legs, a hot cup of tea sat on the side table next to me, the mountains looked at me from the window, the first snow of this winter scattered on the ground in all its white fluffy grandiose, and he was working in the next room.  

It's winter.  

The changing of the season and for the first time in a very long time, I don't have the chest squeezing anxiety about the long and dark of it all.  Maybe it's because this fall was the fall of all falls.  Maybe it's because of where I am personally and professionally.  Maybe it's because I had my first taste of snow this year in the mountains and that tainted my reality of the bitter North Dakota cold.  Maybe it's because there's so many exciting adventures coming up.  Maybe it's just because when life is good, it doesn't matter what season it is.  Winter, spring, summer, or fall.  Good is good.  

Fall will always be my favorite and like I said, this one gave me so many chapters in my book which will forever remain written, if not on actual pages, in my heart.  

Driving to a campsite at night and hearing the rushing water when I fell asleep, knowing the spot had been carefully selected.  Waking up the next morning and literally becoming nearly unglued from the view.  Drinking coffee on a rock by that river.  Eating a breakfast while sitting across from the person who cooked.  Hiking up and up and up and up until we came upon a lake that made me become even more unglued.  Eating almonds by that lake.  Talking about the important things.  Laughing at the non-important things.  Squeeze hugging all yellow leaved trees.  Jumping for the unicorns that must live within those rocks.  Realizing even more that being outside, with my face in the fresh air, will always get me and having someone who shares in that sentiment is a bonus.    

It was a Saturday in September.  

Just one of the days in the fall of all falls.   

Quirking it Up

I tend to prefer things to be rather neat and tidy as evidenced by my shiny floors.  However, I don't ever fold kitchen towels and dishrags.  Ever.  It's silly to me.  A waste of time really.  I just jam those babies in the drawer and pull one out when I need a fresh one.  I figure it doesn't really matter if a dishrag is wrinkly so yep, I don't fold them.  All this to say, I guess nothing is ever cut and dry.  A neat freak kind of gal who doesn't believe in having a drawer full of nicely folded linens in their kitchen.  A neat freak who would never imagine doing that same thing in bathroom - there the towels have to be folded.  Makes sense right?  Nothing makes sense and yet, everything makes sense.

And that might be my favorite part of this world.

Quirks.

Quirks like when it's National Coffee Day I will make us cheers our cups together while driving in the rain and try to capture the moment but totally miss the cups.  Like when it's fall and I will want to take a picture of every yellow tree there is, especially when water reflections and white bark are a part of the equation because at that point, it's pretty much game over to pull the car over.  Every single time.  Quirks like when I hand my camera to a stranger to have them take a picture and then proceed to boss them around - yeah that is a quirk I'm working on.  Nobody likes a bossy stranger, pointing the finger at me.  

And finally, quirks like singing in the car to girl songs (i.e. artists I can not mention here because they are too embarrassing) real loud followed shortly by a Mumford and Sons number to take it to the finale of anything Sister Hazel.   

On the Radio and in Real Life Too

On Saturday I sat next to my mom in the combine for a spell.  Side note, I like the saying sit a spell.  Another side note, I didn't get to sit in the seat the entire time.  I spent some time curled up on the floor leaned up against the glass because this little one is something sometimes and she wasn't having sharing that seat.  No she wasn't. 

 

 

One last side note, I did the same thing to this one later in the evening.  It only seemed fair.   

 

 

Back to the start of it - Momma Debi and I in the combine with dried up sunflowers as our view.  We visited about the mom and daughter life happenings and I tried to listen to the Bison football game at the same time on the radio.  But if I'm being absolutely honest, here's how it went.  Volume up, catch a bit.  Volume down, visit with mom.  Volume up, catch a bit.  Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. 

 

Which means at one point I sent a text that went like this, "Touchdown!  High five.  Shimmy shake." 

 

"Wrong team." 

 

Yep, I am that great at following along and paying attention.  It's a lucky thing he's spent some time with me at the actual games this fall.  As in, he has physically sat next to me as I ping on this and pong on that and don't have the ability to focus on...well...much.  Therefore, my getting the team wrong while listening on the radio?  Didn't faze him a bit.   

 

"There's my blonde moment for the week." 

 

"Is this the beginning or the end?" 

 

Touché. 

 

 

He embraces the ridiculousness, adds to it really.  And I sure do enjoy the Bison games more than I ever thought I would.  It might be partly due to theme outfits.  You know how I feel about those. 

 

 

Or it mostly is probably, if I'm being absolutely honest again, due to the company I get to keep during them.  His friends are gold I tell you, pure gold.  I guess he isn't too shabby either.  High five.  Shimmy shake. 

Acting Not My Age

Last Saturday I was home, in my house.  That seems obvious and redundant all at the same time but I have really taken on the belief that home is kinda wherever you and your people are.  Maybe I've actually adopted a traveler's heart.  Or I'm just mildly crazy.  Or both.  It's hard to tell really.  

I woke up in my house on a Saturday morning for the first time in ages.  I stood in my kitchen with a coffee cup in hand and weighed my options.  A cycling class?  Running outside?  

A text went to Karen that read something like this...let's drink slow coffee and do nothing.   

Then I found myself sitting on her couch with a coffee in hand and nothing in the air other than visits and sunlight streaming in.

  

Then, with more caffeine than would sufficiently fuel a giraffe, we proceeded to have an Amy and Karen Saturday reminscient of summer style.  There was boot shopping and kitchen dance party-ing to Taylor Swift's shake it song and homemade pizza on the grill and two batches of pumpkin dark chocolate chip cookies and sunshine on our faces. 

 

Her girls made us water complete with fruit garnishes.  Made us water.  That sounds funny but that's really what I would call it, they were so cute and proud.   

 

Then, we went to go for a walk and after a quarter of a mile I said, "Let's drive out to see Summer."  Karen said, "Okay."  So off we went to see Sil and the kids which led to me getting this idea stuck in my head that I had to learn how to do the sideways jump click your heels off to the side thing that looks like oh so much fun.  Karen could do it right away and I had to work on it.  But work I did and soon was clicking right along.  

And then?  Then I pulled a classic acting not like my age stunt and started wrestling the kids.  After a sneaky leaf tickle move in which I felt rather helpless, I took a kick to the face and stood up with, "I think my lip is bleeding."  That's what I get for acting my not age and I wouldn't have it any other way.  

Once back in town, we walked.  Got our lungs moving while the sun went down, which was how I orignally planned on starting the day.  I'm sure glad all that happened in the in-between happened first though.  The in-betweens tend to be where it's at.   

Friday Afternoon in October

"Kiss the sky!"  And then her little yet mighty voice gave a best ever muah as her hair whipped in the air and our laughter filled in the moment.  

There are things I hope to pass along and kissing the sky is definitely one of them.  On the list, it's right in between there are no rules about wearing too much jewelry and there's no such thing as hugging too often.    

Yes I Am that Girl

I've had more rainbows show up in my life in the past month or so than ever before and I think it's no coincidence.  You know me, I believe in those sorts of things. 

 

Life has been full of these kind of moments...the ones that make me tear up from good or make me laugh out loud or make me give myself an oh hell yes. 

 

I'm not sure I really understood the gravity of the choices I was making starting last February.  I just knew they had to be made.  There was something strong, real strong, pushing me to throw my entire life into the air to have it come back down.  To come back down differently in all areas.  I knew it needed changing. 

 

I also knew those choices made were going to create months of feeling uncertainty and feeling change and feeling like oh crap I want to be on the other side. 

 

 

And I kept telling myself, I just want it to be next fall.  It will all make sense next fall. 

 

Now here I am and it's fall. 

 

It makes more sense than ever. 

 

 

I love my new job and am finding my groove in it - even quoting unicorns while presenting about data.  If that's not a groove I don't know what is.  An administrator walked up to me the other day at the state principal conference and said, "Are you the unicorn and glitter girl who can help me with my teachers and data?  I've been hearing you can shake things up a bit." 

 

Why yes.  Yes, I am the unicorn and glitter girl.

 

 

I also have had the best time getting to know this guy.  The guy who gave me a glimpse years ago of something that could have been and who now is my reality.  The guy who makes me literally spit water across the table in Jackson, Wyoming with his humor.  The guy who drove me there from Red Lodge because he knew - he knew I would come unglued over the view. 

 

When the clouds and rain lifted and a rainbow showed up right as we were pulling into town, you better believe I jumped out of the pickup and ran.  Ran with droplets of rain falling on my face.   

 

 

Ran to where I could capture it without a fence between it and me.  Ran to where it started.  Ran to that rainbow as fast as I could, knowing it was there as yet another sign of the choices made being right. 

 

 

When I turned back around and started walking, he was sitting there looking at me with a quiet smile across his face.  When I climbed back in, I didn't even have to say anything. 

 

It was an oh hell yes.

 

 

Then he made me spit water across the table in a restaurant in town and I tried oysters for the first time - straight up with no lemon and liked them.