"Uh, Where Does the Time Go?"

Well, this is where:

Josh and Peter had one final week in archery camp. It was great. They then packed things out, made sure camp was safe for the month until Pete goes in again in late October.

They had a ball and became really good buddies. Micca and I are thrilled about this as you can imagine!

Nana Jo has been able to spend lots of time with her two beautiful grandkids. Yay for family!

Cash turned ONE on September 16th!

Peter and I celebrated our SECOND Anniversary on October 5th. He bought me this very beautiful, vintage handmade saddle by Otto Eaton. It fits like a glove. Matine approves too.


We said goodbye to Josh. He was here in Montana working with Pete and hanging out for an entire month! Micca was ready for her hubby to be home, but we really hope they BOTH come back to stay next year.

Pete has loved being able to spend time with Matine. He gets the entire winter (less a few days here and there for making some money) to soak in all of his beautiful daughter he can.


Matine has been growing like a weed! Most of the growth has gone into her cheeks. She LOVES her Johnny Jumper and most mornings you can hear her talking at the top of her lungs, non stop, as she bounces and spins. She may be growing some John Howell cheeks, but this child has the lungs of a Cottongim. When the room and conversation gets loud, she gets louder, and she has LOTS to say about everything (with a big smile at all times of course :)).

The fish are still alive, minus a few. Pete had Brad Cox over to help him change out the water and do a bit of "fish maintenance."

Laurie came along too - any excuse to hold a baby girl.

I have been trying to crank out hours on my medical transcription certification. Yikes! I am a fast learner, but there just aren't enough hours in a day! I HAVE to be done by January 1, so it looks like I will be behaving like a college student again and pulling some all-nighters!

I continue to live in a state of pure "awe" at how perfect and amazing our little girl is. She is amazing and she has made my life more than I ever dreamed it could be. She is still the most beautiful being - inside and out. There isn't a bad day with her around. She is 5 months old now!

Nona Kerri and Jim-Pa are the most amazing grandparents! They adore every second of being here with Matine (and even me too). They have been working on their house, painting, doing little fix-ups. Mom makes an appearance at our super cool community thrift store -every single day - and manages to find some pretty amazing stuff each day. They drop in to pick up a tool here and there (a ploy to see Matine), invite us over for dinner (a ploy to see Matine), and have managed to find any excuse to include us in their lives. What a gift. To me, Pete and the baby.

Matine has been able to see (even if briefly) her friends and boyfriends. Sully gets cuter by the day and is now a strawberry blond, sitting up 7 month old!

Not pictured are William, Ruben and Audrey - who we have been having play dates with too.

Blogger readers, I promise to be updating more often! It's always a whirlwind this time of year. We are adjusting to the change in seasons (we have had snow for a week straight now), Pete gets home after being gone and we do lots of getting re-acquainted, life happens, and we are just busy people darn it!

One Year Anniversary!

Today is Peter and I's ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

A year ago today, we were with 30 of our family and friends in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. We had spent the week leading up to the "wedding day" playing in the ocean, swimming in the pool, and generally relaxing and laughing at out beach house on the ocean. It was heaven. All of our friends and family from all over got along like they had known each other since childhood and by the end of the week there were countless memories already made.

The ongoing joke of the week was of course, the weather. We hit the area during what has been described as "100 Year Storm." Never in the memory of locals had an early October been SO rainy! Most days we spent 1/2 the day inside (still having a blast), but not quite the beach tanning bikini weather of our dreams. This unfortunately resulted in some pretty bad "white boy" dance marathons and heavier drinking.

We had no real agenda for the "wedding day." The entire week had no real plan, we just wanted to "be married" towards the end of the week. We picked Friday, so people could plan their flights and such, not knowing how the weather was going to be. We are talking about an area that has an annual temperature fluctuation of about 15 degrees. Christmas, Labor Day and 4th of July you can pretty much count on sun, no rain, and nice weather.

Little did we know that the entire week would be known as the FLOOD week! Yes, our beach house actually flooded. The swimming pool overflowed and came into the house, we had to practically tie down some of our lawn furniture at times. The day of the actual "outdoor beach ceremony" was the worst of it!

Of course, we were laughing at this the entire week. We did NOT care... We were happy as clams with our best friends, family, and thanks to the local Publix - lots of Corona beer! We mock joked all week about having to have the "beach wedding" INSIDE of one of the 2 Las Vegas themed beach houses we were staying in. Let's see - one smelled like mold and had yellow wicker everywhere, the other was floor to ceiling pink, peach and MIRRORS! I was voting for the Golden Girls mirrored house with teal carpet personally. I thought it would go well with my dress.

So, 6:00 approaches. We had months before chose 6:07 as the time to get married... According to NOAA that was going to be "sunset" on October 5, 2007 (FYI - don't count on those stats for anything important, say a shuttle launch - they were not even close!). I got dressed. We drank champagne... Giggled with my girlfriends and we took some silly pictures. The Orum flower girls were decked out in their beach dresses, braided hair, and any of the extra jewelry I had brought with me. We stared out the wet windows waiting for the slightest "break" in the monsoon.

Sure enough at 6:00pm sharp someone runs into the bedroom screaming "The rain has stopped!" NO WAY!! I had already figured some cool ways and special effects for taking our wedding pictures in the mirrored house!

So, with barely a drizzle, we RUN out to the beach - thinking if it has stopped surely it can't last long.

The skies cleared, the wind even calmed, and at 6:07, our dear friend, the newly Reverended (word?) Woff walked Peter and I through the most beautiful vows in front of our favorite people, on a perfectly calm, beach with deep blue skies and huge thunder heads that didn't drop an ounce of rain.

As we kissed a DOUBLE rainbow appeared in the sky. We could see the pot of gold at both ends of this one.

The wives tale that rain on your wedding day brings good luck - well, I think we are well covered on the luck area for the rest of our marriage . . . and our kids marriages.

Check out our old wedding blog and pics from one year ago -- if you have more time than I these days.

Pete... you know there aren't any words . . . . I love you.