Germanns

Well, it was a "warm" welcome to say the least. We had beautiful weather for the move in and as soon as we got somewhat settled we went from 68 degrees one day to 30 with a blizzard. I haven't ever been in a blizzard like that. We were snowed in after 24 hours in a town that is prepared for yucky weather. The whole town shut down which was pretty crazy. We managed to get dug out to go and feed our goats by noon. I felt horrible, but it all worked out. God took good care of them by giving us wonderful neighbors that offered their barn for our cute creatures. They have been comfy, and somewhat cozy in there for several days. Tomorrow they finally get to come out. Let the pictures tell the rest.

Today we finally finished putting the apartment together now that we could get back into the storage facility. It feels nice and we are getting organized. I actually don't mind the snow at all or being snowed in, but it just came at a tough time and caused some stress and kinks in the "getting our feet on the ground" piece. Oh well, all is better now and we loving being here. I even greatly enjoy the apartment (smaller space). So much less to take care of and easy to get to things.

I started my job this week and am thrilled. I got to meet lots of people and get the run down on how things work. It really seems like a great place. I got a good dose of the "politics" of the unit very quickly and feel like I will fit in well. Employee health doesn't seem to like me because I don't want to have to get the flu shot. She said I would be in good company though because many people on my unit have the same philosphies as me and Employee health doesn't have control over our unit. Yeah!!!!

Kevin is getting things rolling with his new business and now has his office set up. There are lots of things to sort through and he is learning about how his business is going to fit into this community.

Not so ready to go out in the blizzard

Running to the car with Kaelyn in tow. It was hard to see and the wind was very fierce.

Cars were buried

windows almost covered

very deep drifts. This one is about 6 feet deep.

Gary's tractor is poking out of the top of the snow. Lots of work ahead to dig it out inorder to dig everything else out.

They have started

It's free

Staying very occupied in the snow

Cheese

Daddy help you, I stuck

stuck daddy, stuck

We are here in wonderful Wyoming getting settled in and living in a whirlwind at the moment. Hoping to take a good breather in a few days. It was an adventursome trip, not because of problems, but just because of how we had to get up here. Let's see if I can recap:

We went to bed on Friday night the 13th about 9:30 with the plan of getting up around 6 and leaving at 6:30. Well, with all of the hustle and bustle I somehow forgot to put a diaper on Kaelyn before putting her to bed. She woke at 3 am soaked to the bone. Silly mommy. Well, she came and cuddled in bed with us and fell right back to sleep. Kevin and I on the other hand could not sleep. There was so much racing through our minds and we were just ready to get on the road. We finally talked ourselves into getting out of bed at 4:30 to get ready to go. Kaelyn fortunately stayed asleep in our bed until we left. Good thing we got up when we did because we still didn't make it out the door with goats in the back until 6:15. We still left things undone, but thankfully we have good renters who don't seem to mind.

So, we got off at 6:15, Kevin driving the Sequoia with the goats in the back seat (Poor pregnant Babe) and the trailer packed full. I followed behind in the Civic with Kaelyn. We drove for 15 hours on the first day arriving in Cheyenne, Wyoming where we stayed the night. The drive was pretty uneventful once we woke up enough to realize we could make it (about 10am). We did make one rest area stop to let the goats out for a walk and that was pretty funny. We got lots of looks and a few people came over to pet them. One lady asked if she could take their picture because she was such a city girl and had never seen anything like this before. It made me laugh because I have never done anything like this before either (didn't tell her that I am a city girl too). We all slept in one bed at the hotel and woke up around 6 and got on the road around 7:30. We were glad to find Babe with her babies still in her belly. We got to Gillette around noon just in time for some burgers at Kevin's parents. Yum yum. Kaelyn was such a trooper on the trip. It wasn't until the last stretch that she even got the least bit cranky. It was such a blessing considering the fact that there wasn't a second pair of hands in the car to attend to any needs she had.

We were a little packed in. Kaelyn read for hours. It was great. Bible Stories are her favorite.

Uh oh, I gave her a granola bar with chocolate chunks and no free hands to clean her up

My view on the way up. The big brown butt.

Kaelyn playing in the dirt at the rest stop.

getting some attention from passers by

After getting there we put Kaelyn to bed and then Kevin and I went to Home Depot to get some lumber to make a box to protect our goats from the elements. Ya, no stopping yet. Kevin did a fabulous job and even got his brother Alex to help out. I got to stand back and watch and go and take my Seqouia to the car wash to clean out the back from the goats. Amazingly, nothing got on the carpet (praise God). We then got some good rest and started off busy again the next day with setting up electric and gas accounts so we could get into our apartment. Got our apartment and started moving in. Kaelyn was perfectly content to watch seasame street podcasts on the computer while we brought everything up to our third floor apartment. I about killed my hubby carrying our king size mattress up there. It took enough to talk him into letting us take it up there. He wanted us to just take up the ancient sunken twin mattresses up there and push them together. That wasn't going to cut it for me. We moved about half of the stuff on the first day, then took a lot to storage and finished the rest the following day.

Kevin and Alex being very handy

Babe was testing it out.

The finished product.

Kaelyn chasing deer. They kind of blend in, but are in just beyond the fence.

Our park at the apartment

Our building

Sorry, very long post. On Monday, Babe had her precious baby girls. They were so tiny this time, but in good health. We named them Sugar and Spice (Spicy as Kaelyn calls her). We are having a lot of fun with them. We couldn't have asked for better timing. We now are getting fresh milk again and couldn't be more grateful for such a good milk making goat. Her milk hardly tastes any different than cows milk which is not the same for all goats milk.

The new babies Sugar and Spice

Sugar

Spice

Look at that good momma

Spice, isn't she sweet

The rest of the week was full of spending tons of money at Wal-mart restocking a kitchen, appointments for jobs (I finally got my official job offer), and setting up the apartment. We are still looking for things, but oh well. On Thursday, we drove up to Sheridan for Kevin's Mom's 50th B-Day. It was a lot of fun and good to see them too. We played at the park, went B-Day shopping with Aunt Theresa (Kaelyn really likes her Aunt T), and had dinner with Jody at a good Chinese resturant. We hung out a bit at the house and got caught up while Kaelyn chased the kitties for forever. She was so tired that she wouldn't stop and sit down, just kept chasing. It was cute. Happy B-Day Jody. Kevin has been doing a trade show this weekend to get his business up and running and we are working on getting permits to start building our house. It has been crazy and fortunatley Kaelyn has handled it all very well. The first couple of nights she was up in the middle of the night, but now she is sleeping through the night and even sometimes sleeping until after 7am. Kevin is doing a great job making some connections for his work and I start my job this week. All in all things are going very smoothly, but we are a bit worn and ready to be settled into somewhat of a routine. God is taking good care of us though and we are trusting that He will continue piecing everything together for us. We are so glad to be here and can't wait to see what God has in store.