Harley's Graduation

Today my little sister graduated high school! 👩‍🎓With 3.5 GPA. Graduated UBTech. Got her CNA. Second at State in a Nursing competition. Ashley credits. Nursing Pathway. And published poet in the Image (school magazine) 🎉

Congratulations Small's! We are SO proud of you! You're gonna do big things

The Jenkin's Cabin

Yesterday we were able to stay in a secluded cabin near Star Valley WY.
It was so nice to be able to escape to the woods for a while and just disconnect.
This 3 story, 3 bed, 2 bath cabin is so close to Jackson Hole WI, but still isolated enough to feel like real camping with all the comfort of a real house. Hot water, full kitchen, and wifi.

It was great to have some quality family time with Michael's family. We drove to Jackson Hole, had lunch by a stream, and went for a hike around the cabin.
The dogs loved being out in nature and be able to run around freely. Its the first time Radar or Rufus had ever been camping.

Leaving ND

Today we left North Dakota.

We moved out here in September of 2015, and expected to be coming back home within a year.

4.5 years later, we finally decided it had been long enough. So we packed up our apartment into a storage unit, loaded our car with everything we needed to live for the next few months, and headed South.

 We are going first to Idaho to see Michael's family, then to Utah to mine. And then at the end of this month, we will travel down to Texas to look at opportunities out there.

We have several prospects, and a couple interviews set up for once we get there.

Ideally, we would like to find a rotation job with a man camp so that Michael can go back and forth and have several days off in a row where we can travel and spend time doing things we want. And that way we can get a place and our home base will be close to family.

We've already missed so much and wasted so much time. 

We're finally going Home.

Woofta

Today was my last day at the Pet Shop.

I started here around the end of Feb 2018 and spent a little over a year here.

The Store Mascot was a little Chihuahua named Chico. He was 14 years old and had cancer.

Someone brought him in Christmas Eve 2017 with his toenails grown out all the way around into his paw pads, and he had massive tumors you could see on his neck and belly. They surrendered him to the rescue and Woofta didn't think that he would live very long so they didn't put him up for adoption. Over a year later he was still running about bossing everyone around and peeing on things just for fun. He got really attached to our head groomer who would take him home every night and to this day he still thinks he belongs to her.

They ran an animal rescue called Bakken Paws out of the store. They would take in dogs and cats, and sometimes rabbits as we had space. Kitten season was horrible and at one point we had 30 some cats in the store at once! They would do fundraisers and take donations to have all these animals vetted and placed in foster homes until they were adopted. The kitten below was one of the dozens that came through when I was there. I named him Cinnamon and he was a single orphan kitten they had found. We got another orphan kitten in just weeks later and they became buddies and eventually were adopted out together as brothers.

The majority of my job outside of caring for and cleaning the animals was freight.

Giant orders that had to be scanned in, put away, and reorganized over and over. This was just 1 delivery.

There were lots of crazy issues that would pop up. Like trying to figure out how this lizard got itself into this situation... and how to get him out. 

When I left my coworkers all got me treats. They know my addiction to Reese's.

I am really going to miss this place and the friends I made here.

Its not very often you have a job you enjoy with people you are all friends with.

Lost & Found

Around the beginning of last year when we moved from Minot across the state to Dickinson, the band to my wedding ring went missing.

I was devasted, assuming that it had fallen somewhere during the move and been lost forever.

Tonight while we were packing up our place here in Dickinson I was going through some old boxes in storage that we had never unpacked from our old place. There was a box that the bottom was full of old change and bullet casings. I thought about just dumping it in the trash, but decided to just take a minute and pick out all the change. In the very bottom under the box flap, I saw a sparkle and to my disbelief, I found the band!!

After all the packing and moving, and being a second from dumping the box in the trash, somehow I found it again!!

 The Very Next Day I drove down to the jeweler and had the rings united and resized. 

 The rings we originally bought as a size 6. I had to have them taken down to a 4.75, which is just big enough the fit over my knuckle but is still a bit lose on my finger.

So after being married almost 5 years, I finally have my wedding rings resized where I can wear them!

Moving Again

We are moving this week. Leaving our place at Lincoln Meadows in North Dakota, so I thought it would be a good time to post our memories here since I always get sentimental about moving.

 We moved in February of 2018. A 3 bed 2 bath apartment on the 3rd floor. Our unit was the top corner unit on the right pictured above. That window was to our bedroom and had the best view off all the apartments.

 There were 2 ponds outside in the field. One large one that stretched along the whole front and one side of the lot like a mote. And a second small pond tucked behind it where all the ducks and muskrats lived.

The Dogs loved to go to the edge and look into the water to bark at any little critters that would pop up.

 The Sunsets were phenomenal! We would go out for walks after work and let the dogs run in the field while we watched the sunset reflect on the water.

We spent a lot of time going for walks in that field.

 I am really going to miss this place. It was one of my favorite places to live. 

There is another post linked below with pictures of the inside of our apartment all set up.

https://mikeandmeambermarie.blogspot.com/2018/05/new-house-tour.html