Winter in the Flathead Valley

We flew back to Montana early on Wednesday morning. It was a 50 degree temperature drop from San Diego, where we were sporting our winter tans. We hit the ground running. We had doctors appointments and zoom meetings and dentist appointments and fire department training. No cavities…praise God! I have been spoiled to have gone to the same dentist in Bellevue, Nebraska for 12 years. For an Army brat and Air Force spouse, that is a rarity. I continued driving 30 minutes to see her when we moved to Omaha because I just didn’t want someone new. This new office was great. Everyone was friendly. My hygienist (a guy) was a Marine for 10 years. The dentist was in the Air Force for many years and is still in the reserves. I had a big appointment at the hospital in Kalispell for labs, an appointment with the oncology nurse practitioner (who is a former Army nurse – I hadn’t met her before this), a lupron shot (big, big needle) and a zometa infusion (done every 3 months to seal my bones from more tumor growth). It ended up being a 3 hour affair. It began snowing during my time at the hospital on Thursday and just kinda continued on. It is snowing now. I think the valley has gotten maybe 2-3 inches but the mountains are getting feet of snow…which is good as the ski season starts Thursday up here.

We had training outside popping doors off of a junked car and using the extrication tools (jaws of life – type stuff) for our fire hall training on Thursday night. I was plenty toasty in my bunker gear in the snow. I was the person taking care of the dummy in the car (or under the car) depending on the scenario. I told the training officer that I knew I was not strong enough to handle and carry those machines. I would do cribbing or take care of Rescue Randy. It was a lot of fun for 3 hours out in the dark and the snow. The next night we came to the hall early and decorated the trucks with lights and then drove through the Night of Lights parade. I had no idea what a big deal this parade was! It was snowing like crazy and cold…and all 5000 people from Columbia Falls were out in full force for the parade.

We had a good time. We spent the weekend decorating our house. Here are a couple of photos of our new house decorated for Christmas.