Making Montana Home

I received a wonderful “welcome to your new home” card in the mail and I wanted to share a Bible verse that was in it. By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures. (Proverbs 24:3-4) I just thought that was such a wonderful verse to read and then share. Lily, Rich, and Tallinn have joined me and I think they are loving the house. The hummingbirds have moved on, although I have seen one straggler since our return. We hung up a regular bird feeder in some high grass near our front porch. I saw a few birds but mostly I am feeding a very fat squirrel and several deer. The squirrels are a deep, dark gray with smaller bodies and tails than those in Nebraska. They are loud! Tallinn chased after one in the yard and it leapt up a tree easily and started just chattering very loudly at him….he gave Tallinn the what have you for a good 2-3 minutes.

This afternoon I looked up and there were three adult deer with four fawns in our front yard. That was a first and a real treat.

Tallinn is getting used to the house. He has his bed in my office and he sleeps there at night. He doesn’t let me far from his sight. He literally runs into me if I stop suddenly. The first morning I woke up and opened the bedroom door, he was there waiting for me. He can hear me get up and is at the door in a flash. He could not, however, figure out the way to the door to the back yard. He was trying to lead the way and looked like a mouse in a maze, trying each door and each direction. He has it all figured out now. He enjoys the big kitchen as he always lays in the middle of the kitchen when I am in there. This kitchen is big enough that I can work around him. I have included a photo of him begging for cheese from Lily. She is not a sharer of things…especially food…and especially with the dog. He always is hopeful though. He has already spent several hours on the front porch with me. The area where our rockers are is always shaded, so it is a nice place to sit and relax.

We got a lot done this week in getting settled. We moved Lily’s furniture to the guest room and then the bigger furniture Rich decided at the last minute to bring to Montana into her room. I went to wake her up the next morning and even though she was sleeping in a king-sized bed, she had managed to wrap herself up in the quilt like a burrito. I don’t know how she does it. She was 5 years old before she could even keep covers on her at night. We had a very long and wide gravel driveway….it is now paved with asphalt . That will be nice in the winter when we need to plow the driveway. I am thinking that if we want Tim to ever visit, we should get a basketball hoop.

We also spent an inordinate amount of time getting license plates for the vehicles, motorcycles, trailers, etc. I managed to get in on a fluke I now know, to get my driver’s license. Lily has a quick turnaround though. She had to get her driver’s license and license plates done in a 2.5 week period of time before she leaves for college. I took her 30 minutes away to the nearest driver’s license place. They turned us away and said come back the next morning at 8 a.m. So we did, and were turned away again. By this time, I was not happy. I was told to get an appointment. The next available appointment was October 23rd. We hopped in the car and drove an hour south to Polson, MT and walked right in and got it done there. My license will most likely outlast me at 12 years. Lily will renew hers at age 21 in 2.5 years. Either way, hopefully it can all be done online. The DMV for the license plates was also challenging. No appointments are given. You show up, take a number and then scan a QR code which tells you the number they are on and then leave. The first time I went, I was turned away because I needed Rich’s signature on a document. I came back and arrived before it even opened. There were already dozens of people in line around the building. We all filed in at 8 a.m. when they opened and took a number. They only have 3 out of 6 windows open. They service 20 people an hour on average. Remember when I said we arrived before they opened? Well, we waited 5 hours to be seen. We also found out we could only do 2 items at a time. We have two vehicles, a motorcycle, Lily’s car, an enclosed trailer, and a motorcycle trailer. All of them needed to be licensed. This meant we had to go to this place at least 3 times. There is no going to a smaller location because the taxes you pay on your title is county specific. So they open at 8 a.m. By 9 a.m., there is a sign on the ticket dispenser…..

I think I could make a lot of money if I had a food truck outside of this building. I actually said to the woman working there the last time I went in, “I think all of you are really nice people but I would much rather see you socially than here in this building. This has been crazy.” Anyhow, all good for now. Renewal can be done online or you can walk right up to a window without a number. Sigh. This will seriously make me think twice about getting a new vehicle. I know it will happen come winter though, because my 10 year old Altima isn’t good in the snow and ice.

We have had very warm weather for here over the last few weeks. Mid-90’s to even 100 degrees. We have very low humidity though, so that is helpful for being outside…especially if you are in the shade. However, it has been bad for the forest fires here in Montana. Every day seems different. It was really smokey the last several days, but today was mostly overcast and 25 degrees cooler, and I couldn’t smell the smoke at all. We have a chance of rain the next couple of days, so hopefully that will help as well. I went out yesterday as the sun was coming up to take some photos. It was smokey at that point, but I got a couple of good photos. These are my phone photos, so hopefully my good camera will give me some good ones as well.

We also took a quick trip about 45 minutes south to pick some cherries. Cherries and huckleberries are very popular here. Huckleberries are expensive because they grow wild…you can’t just plant them. I think Rich and Lily have eaten their weight in cherries in the last two weeks!

Google decided to let me know how much I travelled in the month of July. I am tired looking at it. We have one more trip to make….and it is coming up in about a week. It is time to take Miss Lily to college!

I was able to get my medical care almost completely squared away this week. That was a huge load off my shoulders. My new oncologist seems very knowledgeable and kind. He listened to my heart and actually touched me. I was a human patient and not a terminal disease sitting in front of him. I had a social worker call me that afternoon to get me plugged into the cancer support system in Montana. I also had a nurse navigator call me and she helped me figure out how to get a general practitioner lined up near to me, get a referral for the palliative medicine department, and let me know she is my advocate and I can call her about anything. I was overwhelmed with how thorough they were and how caring. I will likely be seeing my oncologist monthly along with my treatments. I hadn’t seen my oncologist in Omaha in person in over 2 years. I am cautiously optimistic. I have forgotten what it is like to live in a small town where everyone knows and takes care of others.

Finally I want to mention my Joe. He left this earth 17 months ago today and I still miss him as much as I did then. I spent a lot of time prior to that date facing death with my stage IV cancer diagnosis. I thought that would be the toughest thing I ever went through….was dying from cancer. Instead, it was facing LIFE….learning to live without one of my cherished children. That was my profound thought for the week….I thought facing DEATH would be my biggest challenge, but facing LIFE is. I was so very worried that moving to a new place without any memories of Joe would be hard. It is, but I have to have faith that he lives in my heart….no matter where I am. It doesn’t allow me to miss him less though. In one moment, I feel like he just died yesterday…another moment, it seems like forever since I have seen his face and heard his voice. Other times, the total disbelief that Joe has died hits me like a shovel over the head. Today was a dull ache of missing him with lots of tears. It is so hard to believe he has been gone this long already. Out of our three children, we thought Joe would love this spot in Montana the most. It is hard to know we will never share it with him. I also miss his wife and dogs, and his many friends. He left such a vast hole in my life and heart. Learning to live without them…and my support system I left behind in Omaha has been a bit of a challenge. Hopefully when we return to Montana after moving Lily to Kansas City, Rich and I can start to meet some more people and get involved in the community.