Moving On

It's official.  The Pierson family is leaving Montana. I realize that we tried this a couple of years ago, to no avail. This time it's for real.  I promise. Jay got a new job near Katy, TX and we'll be heading down there at the end of this month.  It's happened so quickly that we are in a bit of a daze and a teeeeeny bit overwhelmed, but doing well nonetheless. We asked God to go before us and make a way if this was His will for our family and I can't even begin to tell you the amazing things He has done. I shall save that for a future post.

As I sit here typing this, we are in the throes of a nasty spring storm full of rain/sleet/snow.  It certainly makes the leaving a bit easier for me, I have to admit. I will not miss 9 months of winter.  Nope...not at all. I look forward to not having cold feet.  It will be a new and lovely thing to live in a place where one can actually have a winter garden!  I'm quite stoked to learn all about gardening in South Texas and have already contacted several CSA's, Farmer's Markets, and organic farms. Priorities, don't you know. ;)

Montana is a beautiful, rugged place to live.  We will miss our amazing views of the Spanish Peaks and the Bridger Mountains.  We'll miss the spring and summer hiking. Montana summers can be a most wonderful thing. Most of all, of course, we will miss the people we love.  In the past 19 years we've been blessed with amazing friends who have become our family and it hurts my heart to have to say goodbye.  For now, however, I'm not going to think about that. I choose to pull a Scarlett O'Hara and think about that tomorrow.

Now it's time to get back to cleaning out, sorting, and packing.

Love to you all!

Thawing Out

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fan of winter.  I would be happy if winter only hung around for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  There is something about Christmas and snow, we all know that.  Once the holidays are over, however, bring on the sun and spring!  One problem, though...I live in Montana. My solution?  Head on down to South Texas to visit the family.

Last year we went down for my brother's wedding and ended up staying for 5 weeks. It was a wonderful break from the cold and gloom of a Montana winter. I decided that it was a must-do for this winter as well and called up my Aunt Sherrie to see if the little white house on their property was empty.  It was, so the girls and I stayed down there from February to April. We were blessed...lots of sunshine, big Texas thunderstorms and absolutely amazing weather.  It was lovely!

Not only was the weather lovely, but we had a wonderful time with my family.  Beebo and Pappa, aunts, uncles, and cousins...we spent time with them all. I am so thankful to have been able to make the trip.  Here are pics from our time there. (Thanks to Kyra for taking so many beautiful photos of our trip.  I love you, my talented girl! Any not so great pics were taken by me, probably on my phone.)

   My daddy...in his 60's and still  handsome.

My mamma...so pretty inside and out.  We spent almost every single day with her.

My brother, Mike.  Shelby is working with him, learning welding/fabrication.

Maddy and I.  Love my girl. :-)

Jay and Shelby at a riding area called Mud Buddies.

We were lucky to be able to enjoy the amazing Texas wildflowers during our stay.  So, so beautiful!
Rubber boots are a must around there.  Lotsa snakes and other creepy crawlies.

Riding the property with Wayne and Sherrie

Uncle Wayne's milk cow. (Ok, maybe not...)

One of our day trips was to Blessing and Port Lavaca. The pic with that sweet little lady is from the Blessing Hotel where she has cooked and served good ole Southern home cookin' for several decades. We enjoyed seeing the hotel and having lunch. Fun little piece of history.  After leaving Blessing, we went to Port Lavaca to go to a quilt shop and to the beach for a while. 

Another day trip, this one to Galveston where we met Uncle Bill, Aunt Jo and Naomi.  We had a yummy lunch downtown, shopped a while and spent some time at the beach.

Kyra's favorite movie is "Hope Floats" so we took a day to visit Smithville, where the movie was filmed.

Misc pics of the family

A few pictures from our little home-away-from-home.
My mamaw and papaw are buried in this little cemetery on the property.

Jay turned 40 while we were away so we had a party for him when he got down to Texas in April. We had amazing BBQ courtesy of Wayne, complete with all the usual trimmings--potato salad, beans, cornbread and pie. Kyra made Jay a chocolate beet cake, which is our new favorite. We were glad we had a chance to celebrate with him.

We are so blessed to have been able to spend this time with family. Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to make our stay so fantastic, always making us feel so loved and welcome.

Ain't Nothin' Certain but Change

My how quickly life can change.  Just a few days ago we were packing up our house and getting prepared for the 1600 mile move to Texas.  Now we are sitting in our house looking at all of the boxes and wondering what in the world we are to do. Do we leave things packed and wait and see what happens?  Do we unpack so that nobody (that would be me) goes insane living in a mess? We truly have been in shock with this latest turn of events.

So just in case you haven't seen or heard...Texas is on fire.  The biggest fire down there right now is in Bastrop County. As of this morning, the fire has burned around 40,000 acres and the confirmed count of burned homes is up to 1,386.  It is absolutely horrifying and completely devastating to thousands of people. There are many other fires burning in the area, basically all around Austin.  The house we rented is directly in the line of the Union Chapel fire, but we did hear this morning that fire is at 90% containment this morning. The Bastrop fire is only at 30%.   Here are a few pics...



View of a smoke-filled Austin

Near Bastrop

Bastrop County

When Jay and I first went to Bastrop, we fell in love with the quaint little town and decided it was where we would choose to live.  The area is so beautiful and tree covered, the people friendly and open-hearted.  It breaks our hearts to see the devastation caused by these fires. Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone down there. Lord, please send rain.

From Hot to Not

Jay and I returned home a couple of days ago from a visit to Austin. Wow!  It is beyond hot down there.  The Central Texas area is just burning up.  Green grass is nowhere to be seen.  Lake Travis is alarmingly low. Such a terrible drought.  We are praying that fall brings healing rain to the poor, sun-scorched state.

This is a sight we saw often on a drive from Austin to Edna to see my folks. The poor cattle all gather under any available tree. The area around where my parents live is usually green and lush. You can tell by this pic how brown everything is right now. So sad.

So now we are back in Montana where the high today is 67 degrees and it feels a lot like fall.  From one extreme to the other.  While it is nice to be cooler after melting in the Texas heat, I will be glad to be heading out of here before the long, cold winter sets in.  No more will I have to deal with 9 months of gray skies, freezing temperatures and snow covered ground. My freezing feet will be so thankful to finally thaw out after 17 years in Bozeman.  :-)