'Tis the Season

Wowzer, how’s that for falling off of the blogging wagon? Nearly two weeks! Unfortunately, I have only lame excuses. Throwing two holiday parties back to back, a serious case of the Chest Crud (cough, hack, belck), and a doubly serious case of procrastination. The chest cold is clearing up (literally, into my sinuses) but I think the procrastination is going to be around for a while.


So, now it’s The Week Before Christmas, and I’m trying to keep my shit together while picking up a few shifts at the gift store, catching up after being out of work at the end of last week, and preparing for being out of work all next week. Lots of lists going on over here.

I’ve gotten the outside Christmas lights up, as well as the rest of the house decorated… Like the lights?

I’ve gotten all my Christmas shopping done; except for gifts for my grandmothers. What, exactly, do you get the two women you’ve come to appreciate more and more every year?

Have I ever mentioned that Christmas is my favorite time of year? I love trying to give memorable gifts. I love the lights. I love looking forward to seeing my family. I love cookies.

And although we’re beginning the between the family rotation, I’m so excited to show DJ what a Colton Christmas is. A lot of people, presents, candy, schnitzers, laughter, and even more lights.

Finding the Silver Lining

Whew, what a hectic last 10 days. Lecture and Cemetery tour with the Preservation Board, moving, Preservation Awards last night. It’s fun to put on events like that, but darn, they really suck all of your attention. I actually came into work this morning kind of at a loss as for where to start!

This weekend includes a stint at Gift Corral on Saturday during their open house, which will be kind of fun and festive. I’ve barely worked there this fall, but asked them to keep me in mind for their bigger days. Truthfully, I wanted to totally quit in September, but I just couldn’t desert them going into the holiday season. I’ll work a handful of shifts through Christmas, and then I’m donezo.

This weekend’s primary focus is to finish moving into our house and put stuff away. Generally do some nesting, and be able to park both vehicles in the garage by Sunday. I also intend to cook and bake, a LOT. Gotta break that kitchen in. DJ’s been in Helena for an Engineering Conference (dude, you thought my History conferences were dorky?), and he’ll be back tonight. I’m trying to decide what delicious home-cooked thing to make for dinner… Cornish game hens, maybe?

Sunday evening also begins the actual wedding-planning. Finally my mind isn’t cluttered with paint colors, trim accents, and any other number of housebuilding-related things! Now to clutter it with Blessed Event-related things.

As we start to get settled in, I can’t help but think of my parents and how much I miss having my family in Bozeman. Last weekend both of them mentioned considering moving back to Bozeman some day in the next three to five years, which we’d both love. We both sometimes struggle with living so far away from our families in Washington, and have had lengthy discussions about moving further west to be nearer them. I’m no fool; grandma’s eight and twelve hours away with small children certainly makes things hard.

Maybe it’s something about fall in Montana, the way the light changes and the atmosphere or something, but I get a little melancholy this time of year. Especially when I think of my parents and the upheaval that has been their life for the last two and a half years. I could rave on and on for days about how I really feel about the athletic director that fired my dad. Posts full of vitriol and bitterness, but really, who wants to read that? I do have pieces of it written down somewhere; often I just need to get it out before I verbally vomit all over DJ and sour a nice evening with the acidic feelings I have towards certain people in the athletic department and president’s office.

I think I want what everyone wants; for their parents to feel safe, financially secure, and happy together. My mom and dad are a good team. And in their mid-50’s, they’re starting over again for the third time in their life. The second and third times they’ve started over have been due to a firing by MSU.

Undoubtedly, none of us thought they’d be in this position ten years ago this week when dad’s EWU team played MSU in Bozeman. After that trip, MSU began courting dad to become their coach, and the rest is a lengthy, now-painful history for me to discuss. Suffice to say, I miss my mom and dad, I miss the life they and we had here, and I miss the excitement of it. Mostly though, I want to be done with this bitterness towards MSU. I want to let go of the chip on my shoulder. And I want my parents to be back on SOME track. Any track at this point.

Maybe there will be resolution this winter. Maybe it will be after the January trial. But do not mistake me, they’d give any amount of money back to just be back where we were on May 15, 2007.

In the meantime, I have to find the silver lining. Since he wasn’t coaching, dad was able to be here this weekend and install all of the drawer hardware in our house. Every time I open the kitchen drawers, I think of him.

Tones of Yellow

I met my friend Erin at our house last night, before going and having a fun Monday night dinner with her. Erin is a friend I’ve made through Montana Gift Corral (they hire such great people), who has also agreed to be the Day of Coordinator for our wedding. I have three priorities for our wedding:

1. Excellent Photography
2. Open Bar
3. I’m not in charge (nor is my mom)

Thus Erin comes into the picture.

We met at the house so I could show it to her and do my daily check of progress. They’d framed up the deck and painted a color sample of the single stain and the siding paint. LOVE the shingle stained grey. It looks good.

They yellow however… just screamed “HI! I’m YELLOW!” which is to say it was way too bright. I’m looking for more of a creamy golden yellow, that says something like “oh, if you glance over here you’ll notice I’m an unobtrusive yellow.”

So, we started with Golden Trumpet (too bright),

BRIGHT! Like looks like a taillight bright. Looks like those yellow flowers on the bushes we don't like bright. Like maybe glows in the dark bright.

And this evening we’ll paint on testers of Jonquil and Big Bus.

Shocker, the Jonquil color comes from Columbia Paint's "Historic Paints" folder.

Yes, I might have our house painted like a big bus.

I probably never told you that I backed into a bus in the Bozeman High School Parking lot?

June 9 Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday:
1. I continue to moonlight at Montana Gift Corral, mostly closing the Main Street store at night by myself. I really enjoy being there in the quiet of the night, winding down the day and drinking coffee. But in the past two weeks they’ve had me training new hires to close. I know that it’s necessary for the company, but my job satisfaction has gone WAY down. I hate making small talk and playing the “get to know you” game. I’d really rather close by myself. Selfish, huh?

2. We’ve had some promising clouds, but no actual thunder and lightning storms yet. I’m ready for a real storm!

3. The plants went back into the garage last night, but only after I did some photography. Hopefully DJ will take good care of them while I’m in Butte Wednesday night through Saturday evening.

4. Yes, I’m spending the end of this week in Butte, and really looking forward to it! I’ll be at the Vernacular Architecture Forum geeking out over old buildings. Deal with it!

5. The VAF team made the guidebooks available via PDF on the web… which is awesome, except that it means everyone has to print off their own 200 page guidebook. Sorry City of Bozeman… I printed double sided and in grey, and AB and I are sharing it…

6. I’ve been picking cilantro leaves off of one of my cilantro plants for about two months now. I’d pick them off at the stem, and within a couple of days they’d totally grow back and replenish themselves. When the jalepeno plant DJ tried to grow didn’t sprout, I planted another pot of cilantro, so that when the original one goes I’ll have a backup. I think that’s happening now. The tops of the leaves are getting skinnier and skinnier. Look at the comparison!

7. Every night when I get home I check the snap peas, which have been growing like crazy, and branching out to curl around each other and their support stakes. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I’ve found myself “helping” them wind themselves around stakes and other branches. Duuudeee these things are creepy looking:
8. Clearly I need a little tripod for my camera, huh? (sorry for the blurry photos).
9. DJ and I worked through the scheduling issues with this summer. I’m really excited that over the 4th of July we are going to do a Montana camping road trip! Maybe I can talk him into staying somewhere with a 4th of July street dance or something!

10. I haven’t even thought about what to pack for Butte. I’d make a list while during the quiet time at Gift Corral tonight… oh wait, I have to make small talk for 2.5 hours. Damn. I wish I had the manager authority to send people home when we were slow!!!

Happy Tuesday!