Sweet Home in Montana!

Everybody join me!!  "Sweet home in Montana......where the 'Big Sky' is so blue......Sweet home in Montana......the Lord says I'm coming home to you!!"  What?  You think that's weird that I made that up?  ; )  Well, I've got some news.....being weird is more fun!!

Our poor van was stuffed!!

The kids were crammed in!

Julia didn't know what to think!

So let's see, we had quite the trip.  We left on Tuesday the 15th, spent the night in St. Cloud and arrived in Montana about 3:30 on the 16th.  The drive was stressful, but not for the reasons that one may think.  Somehow the title work on our property did not make it to our lawyer until the day we were leaving and there was a problem.  A BIG problem!  There was a "covenant" that he was unclear about and wanted to do some additional investigating before we closed.  By Wednesday morning, it was found that the covenant was actually a restriction against ANY livestock on the property.  This was odd since the previous owners had horses.  To save a lot of boring details, there was a lot of scrambling around on the realtor's end as they went around and gathered the necessary signatures to have the covenant (that was established over 40 years ago) released!  Big sigh of relief!!  Obviously, we wouldn't have purchased a country home with a barn and everything else without that matter taken care of!

There were a few other glitches, but God was faithful and worked everything out so that we could close on time.  Actually throughout this whole "finishing up" process, we had a total of 4 closings!!  And every single one occurred exactly on the date it was originally set up for.  To me that shows that God's hand was over this.  Every one looked as if it might need to be delayed and just at the last minute would work out as a go!

On second thought.....

The amount of screaming in our van
was loud as we crossed the border and even louder when we saw the house for the first time with the kids!  We had our walk-through Wednesday after we arrived and the kids were just plain nutty running around after being cooped up in the car for 2 days.  I think the previous owners wanted to lock them in the iguana cage.....  FYI:  Case is being removed!!


So, the house itself.  I have posted tons of pictures on Facebook, but for those that aren't on, here are a few to appease your curiosity.

Front is enclosed by courtyard.  Barn is back to the left.

 

Family room with view of door to master bedroom.
Door opposite master is to Julia's room.

Family room 

Stone fireplace.  Looking towards dining room and kitchen. 

Dining room with wagon wheel light.

Mural on dining room wall that matches border.

View into kitchen.

Joel's office.

West side of deck.

East side of deck.

School room/sun room.

Entryway.

  

New appliances. 

Cooking area of kitchen.  

Large basement room with 2 bedrooms off right wall.
To be finished soon!!

Bathroom to left.  Storage area to right.

We celebrated Joel's birthday in Montana by closing on our new home (and then shampooing the carpets. : )  We stayed 2 nights at Merv & Barb Johnson's.  They graciously hosted us, fed us many meals, and watched our kids so we could get stuff done.

Our family --  March 17, 2011

Friday, the 18th, the church hosted a pizza party meet-n-greet for us.  It was a great time!  Earlier that day, Josie was invited to a birthday party for her new friend Alexis.  And following the party got to participate in the homeschool choir practice which is held at our church.  The boys' got to spend the afternoon playing at another church family's home.  That night was also our first night in our new home!

First night.  The kids camped out by the fireplace!

First night in our new home!

Saturday was a HUGE cleaning day!  We also got our new appliances installed.  And at 8:00 that night, our new friends that helped, the Peterson's, drove the front tire of their Suburban off of our retaining wall!  Quite the deal!!  They hung out until 9:00 for the tow truck to come and rescue their poor vehicle.  Thankfully, it was not damaged.

Sunday was a wonderful day at church, followed by some more cleaning, followed by me taking a nap, followed by Joel and the kids leaving to hike the badlands in our backyard, followed by Julia and me waking up and going in search of Joel and the kids, followed by Julia and me falling down the basement stairs in our search, followed by me crying a lot and Julia being quite calm, but surprised, followed by Joel and the kids getting back and the kids being good for a WHOLE 10 minutes because they pitied me!  (All good things come to an end right!?!)

Monday, we FINALLY finished cleaning everything on my list.  Joel said it best, "Well, the good news is that this house hides dirt really well!!  The bad news is that this house hides dirt really well!!"  Then we headed to town where we got our carpet for the basement picked out and ordered and did some other exploring.

It was late Monday afternoon when things started to get interesting.  We got word that a spring snowstorm was headed for us and North Dakota typically closes down the interstate when the weather gets bad.  Following advice, we decided to NOT leave the next morning, but rather wait it out for a couple days.  So we stocked up on groceries and spent an extra 2 days in Montana!  It was very relaxing and enjoyable!

 It was the right decision!  North Dakota DID indeed close down the interstate, but 2 days later it was not only open, but clear and dry!

Not exactly what you hope to see on the 2nd day of spring!

Please come visit us!  Our doors will always be open!
(Not literally, but you know...oh, never mind!)

We are up to 5 guys from church (including Joel) that are headed back out in less then 2 weeks!  The hope is to finish the basement (minus the carpet), remove the iguana house, move the laundry back upstairs, and some other misc. items!  Think they can do it?  We'll see....  I'm sending the camera with Joel for progress and finished pics, but you know how most men take (or don't take) pictures!  Hopefully, I'll have some to post when they get back!

If you have made it this far, I congratulate you!!  This was a long post!!  And now I need to do some cleaning and try to get some packing done!!

Until next time,
Jessica