"Rickstrew Ranch..."

It has a nice ring to it.... When we chose the name of this blog, I had this farm in mind...this grassy place in Texas. Thought one day we'd make it our home, at least for a time, and here we are...our blog is living up to its name!

We have been very busy. Our little home needed some serious repair...cosmetic mostly, but all of it is easier to do when it is empty rather than full of furniture. We painted our bedroom...i LOVE the color...Atmospheric from Pottery Barn (for those of you who are familiar). SO...airy, open, blue, and cozy. We moved our bed in last night and a few pieces of furniture. We are quickly realizing how small 800 sq. feet is. I should say...small for our things that had 1600 sq. feet to live in as well as a 2 car garage. But what we have lost in interiors, we have gained outside. Our backyard reaches up and over a rolling hill and down the other side. We have a pond, lots of oak trees, a large hay barn, lots of tractors and equipment to play with, a semi for delivering hay, three trucks to take us all over San Antonio, four dogs, one cat, two wells, and a lovely front porch to watch the day away. I've become the resident cook...with Linda working full time and Big Tom not adept at such things...I've been happy to meet the need for home cooked meals.

We've been busy with usual daily stuff that comes up on the farm (A day in the life-type posting is soon to come) and trying to get our home ready to move into. We got cell phones though!!! Very happy indeed. I even got the new 3G iphone...so I have somewhat high speed internet through that at home. Loving that.... I had an old, run of the mill, Nokia for 4 years..never broke it, never needed a new one. So, it's somewhat of a treat to have this high tech phone in my hands. I could rant about all of it's cool features, but I don't want to make you feel bad =)

OK, I am going to try to post a few pictures of our drive out here and our stops along the way.

Big Tom got to stop in Bakersfield before coming to Humboldt to see his daughter and grandkids.

Riley did a lot of this in the car. And I did a lot of the below.

The windmills between Bakersfield and Lancaster...where my brother and sister-in-law live.

Riley got to spend the evening in Lancaster with his three cousins...Emma, Ruby,
and Payten Deehan. From here Riley and I flew on to Colorado to see my mom and Gene and the men drove on. They made excellent time, two days from Ontario, CA.

The trailer arrived safe and sound.

Our barn. We live in the right side...the rest is for tools, equipment, a shop, etc. Today, this space under the awning is full of our boxes and unpacked stuff.

The other half of the barn. And the monster truck that accomplished this feat with ease.

A view of Big Tom and Linda's house...right across the driveway. We are staying here for now.

The inside of the barn that leads to our back door.

Texas Bound

We are packed up and ready to fly out in the morning. Goodbye Colorado and Hello Texas. I've checked around everywhere and we are unfortunately not able to get DSL where we'll be living....too rural I guess. Major bummer. Guess it will be like living in Niger all over again....we'll have to take weekly "email runs" to town, only instead of driving 2 hours, we'll only have to drive 30 minutes.

Can't wait to see my beau tomorrow...

I will post pics when I can of the packed trailer and the journey out here...AND of our tiny abode and our huge backyard. (Heard form Tommy today that Naya is apparently in heaven out there....running around like she owns the place, exploring every square acre with the other doggies there. Tommy said he's never seen her so worn out and tired...) Something tells me my little boy will be the same on that farm.

Rocky Mountain High

I'm without a camera, but words are better than nothing. When I arrive in Texas, I'll be able to use a camera, BUT it'll be dial-up nightmare on the farm...so hang in there, and give a week or two for some serious pictures and updates. One of my first items on the "Move In To Do List" is to get high speed internet. Tommy and I spoke on the phone yesterday (he's already there and Riles and I are in Colorado for a few more days) and he said it was maddening...ridiculously painful to check email. Five minutes after clicking on internet explorer, a screen came up, another five minutes and gmail appeared. Yet another five minutes and one message could be read. Augh....we are so spoiled that waiting for slow internet is not an option for our generation. It's takes "I want what I want when I want it" to a whole new level. And I'm just warning you now...I won't subject myself to such madness...so if I'm not blogging, it's only because we don't have manageable internet yet. Enough about that.

Today we are going to the Zoo in Colorado Springs. It's supposed to be better than the one in Denver...so we'll see. Been eating really good food, enjoying excellent shopping, and taking in the mountain views. My folks life right in what is called the Front Range of the Rockies...not quite "in" the Rockies, but in the smaller mountain range at it's base. We had a few inches of snow the other day. Riley wanted to build a snowman. I had to explain to him that we needed A LOT more snow to do that. He understood when he picked up a handful and it practically melted in his hand. What is it with kids and eating snow?

The babe is doing well...from what I can tell. I felt it's first kicks two weeks ago...actually at my baby shower. At the end of the shower, everyone had left except for Lisa T. and Sherry M. and I. Lisa decided to wash my feet and give an excellent foot massage...all the while bathing my spirit in prayer and songs of praise. At that time, the baby started going wild inside of me...as if it was praising the Lord as well. Every time she would mention Jesus, the baby would kick. It was a sweet time... Early too, in my humble opinion, at 15 weeks. But I couldn't think of a better way than for this child to make it's presence known (and I mean in a pleasant way-- not all that nausea and vomiting) than by mentioning the name of the King of Life.

So, I'm 4.5 months now and obviously with child. I remember random people on the street saying something about the growing belly with Riley inside at around 6 months. This babe isn't waiting for that...s/he's made me pregnant, round, and soft even now. A good friend of mine tells me there is nothing more beautiful than an expecting woman. It is the height of femininity...for me. I should get to being thankful for these curves.

Tommy is doing well in Texas. Unloading the trailer, unpacking the boxes I won't want to unpack (that is my favorite part about moving....a total clean slate...e.g. "THIS can go anywhere..." oh the possibilities!), fixing a leaky faucet, cleaning, and getting ready for us to arrive in a couple of days. They made the drive in record time...two days from Ontario, where I flew out. He sounds happy to be there, content for the change, and excited for the Lord's plans for our lives. There is so much we are expecting right now!

I've written enough, I presume. Pictures are always better. I'll do what I can when I get "home". We miss you in Humboldt...saw on the weather channel that it's been raining a lot. Thinking of you.