Last days in Spokane & a trip to Montana

The remainder of our time in Spokane was filled with fun outdoor activities, relaxing at the Schlafmann house and time with family & friends. Unfortunately, all of the travel/change finally caught up to Luke and he started waking up during the night and stopped taking his daytime nap. Boo! I felt pretty exhausted all the time, but it was a good reminder to be {really} thankful for the days when we have a baby who sleeps.

Just before we made our move to Moscow, we drove over to Kalispell, Montana to visit my friend Gail (who I've been friends with now for nearly 25 years!). She and her husband made the move to Montana from California this past year and it was great to see their new home and explore their new town -- the gateway to the incredible Glacier National Park.

An afternoon at the beautiful Ashley Lake, just a few miles from their house --

Found a version of my very first car (the 1976 Mustang!) and had to stop for a picture --  mine was darker, metallic brown and a year older, but to me this looked identical.

Gail and I couldn't pass up a loaded Serviceberry patch alongside the road --

Glamping in North Idaho

Our temporary housing in Moscow is unfurnished and we've essentially been using our camping gear while we're staying here. This has made us feel like we're doing some version of glamping (glamour+camping). We've got heaps of space, an indoor bathroom, fully-equipped kitchen and laundry machines, plus a card table and chairs from our kind landlady, but not much else.  It's odd, but fun and we're fully enjoying every luxury we have.

Fancy breakfast on our camping plates --

Luke's room -- we've tried to put a few familiar things around for him. He's also gotten REALLY into owls since staying a room with a large, stuffed white owl at Jason's parents, so I was excited to find this one at Ross for his room.

Our room and the bathroom, complete with this amazing thing called a bathtub -- haven't had one of those since we lived in NYC seven years ago. Bathroom also has awesome embossed wallpaper that's been painted over and is now peeling off revealing other awesome wallpaper beneath it.

Kitchen and extra living room with second fireplace and deck.

The main living/dining room where we spend most of our time (which is close to twice as big as our Guatemala apartment!). Has the best views -- Jason works in the tall brick building on the right (10 stories with 45 dorm rooms each floor - ay yi yi!)

The not-so glamourous part of our stay --
Floors that have only been swiftered for I don't know how long -- this is my advert for Pinesol & a scrub brush! The previous tenants had pets, so we've also been trying our best to de-fur the place. Ick!! It feels like the more I clean, the more fur I find.

On a funny side note -- we'd been encouraging Luke to play in one of our empty plastic storage bins (looks fun, right?) when he stuffed something into his mouth and ran into the other room. When I'd retrieved the object, I laughed out loud. We're great parents, aren't we??!?

The next adventure -- Moscow!

Moscow, Idaho that is! While Moscow, Russia would be completely amazing, it seems we're sticking stateside for now.

Jason was scheduled to start work at University of Idaho on Wednesday, so we drove the 90 minutes from Spokane to Moscow on Tuesday afternoon with our car loaded to the max. Our destination? A site-unseen duplex which was to serve as our temporary home until our scheduled rental was available toward the end of the month.

We were so thankful to God for providing a space for us during the interim period -- we only got it arranged three days before we needed to move. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? Short-term options in Moscow are incredibly limited and we thought we were going to be spending 2-3 weeks in a low-end motel, so a two-bedroom duplex walking distance to the school (for cheaper than a hotel) sounded incredible.

When we drove past this however we did pause for a moment --























After pulling in and making introductions with our new landlord, we got to peak inside and immediately had our breath taken away --

On the other side of the front door is this incredible room! It felt like we walked into a tree house or something - it was gorgeous! Between the leaves there are lovely views of the U of I campus which is only a 5 minute walk away. Perfect for getting to know our new home city. How lucky are we??!!?

The details of what we're doing -
- Jason will be attending U of I this Fall as a Forestry student
- In order to get free schooling, he'll be working as a custodian for the school (you know your husband's serious about a career change when he's willing to clean toilets to make it happen)
- I'll continue to stay home with Luke for now, but this is always up for changing
- Our more permanent home in Moscow is a fully-furnished, garage apartment (or carriage house as the landlord describes it) located 5 miles out of town on 25 wooded acres

Please keep us in your prayers as we make this transition back to US life and all the changes that come with it!

Finding dirt roads again -- Stevens Lake, Idaho

The past week or so, we've gotten to drive on a few dirt roads which reminds us a lot of our life in Vermont and makes me happy. We've also gotten to do a lot of hiking (my foot is finally feeling semi-normal -- yay!) which has been awesome! The best hike by far was to Stevens Lake in Idaho. The road getting there had a few rough spots, the hike strenuous but not too long (only 2.5 miles in) and the destination utterly spectacular. Added bonus, we got to go with Derek, Jenna and their little girl Paige.

Eating raspberries by the handful

One of my most favorite things about visiting Jason's parents is the abundance of garden-fresh produce that always seems to be on hand. Most especially, their raspberries!!! There are always so so many growing on their plants and I find my day has many raspberry breaks -- stopping by the vines to pick handfuls fresh, using handfuls in my cereal bowl and adding handfuls to ice cream. YUMMY!

Exotic ....... Idaho???!!?!

We may be moving to Idaho! (Yes - the home-state of Napoleon Dynamite)

Jason has been offered a job on the U of I campus -- which is a school that offers a certified Forestry program and is accepting post-baccalaureate students. Working on-campus would allow him to get some of his classes for free which would be a huge bonus (the out-of-state tuition is CRAZY!).

We're heading there there tomorrow to see if we can find a place to live and would appreciate your prayers with our search.

Idaho has some pretty spectacular mountains, lakes & rivers --

Images from here

Unfortunately, we won't be living in the midst of those :-)
Here's some pictures from our visit to UofI last week ... still pretty, just not quite so dramatic:

And, life changes in a moment

The past few weeks have been filled with a lot of wonderful time with family & friends, but also with some great heartache and a lot of stress. I have been reminded again and again of how difficult life can be ... and how it can change in the blink of an eye.

- a long-long-time family friend never recovered from an emergency gall bladder surgery, leaving behind his wife of 66 years
- my cousin's sweet baby boy lost his battle against health issues he'd had since birth - he was only a few months older than Luke
- a friend who's younger than me shared her recent diagnosis of MS, noting that the damage is so extensive that her doctor estimates she's had the disease for 10+ years
- one of our favorite Vermonters breaks his hip and ends up in assisted living - his wife is left having to sell the house he built with his own hands just to cover the costs
- several friends have husbands struggling with serious depression, addictions and more

... and it feels like the list goes on. Life is just so hard sometimes. I am overwhelmed by it.

While our personal struggles have been nothing compared with the above, we have had a few things come up that have caught us off guard and left us feeling a bit like we're on some sort of scavenger hunt to figure out our future. Each clue being more confusing and seeming to send us off in a completely different direction.

When we returned from Guatemala, our ideal hope was to find a caretaking job on the West Coast, giving us a year to get state residency so that Jason could attend one of the university's offering the Forestry program the following year. After we were into somewhat serious talks with both the position in Sonoma County and also on Eliza Island, Jason found out that none of the West Coast schools accept students working toward a second bachelor's degree. Ugh :-(

In the meantime, the Sonoma position told us we were their first pick and Eliza island gave us a formal job offer (contingent on a two year commitment). We should have felt so happy about both of these offers, but knowing that Jason couldn't go to school in either state made us hesitate. We really, really wanted to make the Eliza island position work. It would have given us a bunch of new skills, housing and a salary. It really seemed like the right thing to do. But two years (and a variety of other issues) ... we just couldn't do it.

So ... we still do not know what we're doing and it's beginning to really wear us down. Jason's been researching schools in Idaho, Montana and Arizona (who DO accept post-baccalaureate students) and looking for jobs in/around those locations. We'll see what turns up.

We did have a bit of fun on Monday. Our friends Derek & Jenna invited out to the Coeur d'Alene lake and rented a couple of the stand-up paddle boards for the afternoon. It was a perfectly warm and beautiful day. And, Luke got to hang out with his {older & beautiful} girlfriend, Paige.