I'm finding it very difficult to update this blog when we don't have internet access at home. I'd love to put some photos up, but I don't want to upload all the photos and such here at the coffee shop where I check my e-mail.

Jeff and I spent a few days at the Boone and Crockett Ranch for the annual meeting. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed being away from the mosquitoes for a while. Except there's grasshoppers everywhere! This year we have the largest population of mosquitoes that Montana has had in 20 years. Some farmers are suffering damage to their crops. I just get tired of them landing on me and making Jeff get them out of the truck before we leave the house :)

I had another prenatal appointment last week. Everything is fine on the ultrasound that I had and the baby is doing well. My uterus is bigger than to be expected at my gestational age, but that just means the baby is growing fast. I'm getting excited to go shopping for the baby and to get the rest of our stuff out of storage in Missoula. We were supposed to go this week, but I think we're going to go the first week of September instead. I'm hoping to find a nice used changing table at a garage sale or on Craigslist and then get all the little things like burp cloths and a bottle scrubber, etc while we are in Missoula. I also have some baby stuff in our storage unit that we got at garage sales before we moved. Jeff is just hoping that his mounted duck in storage hasn't been eaten by bugs and is ok :)

So, pray for Jeff's duck :)

Time in STL

I haven't updated recently since most of the people that read this I have been seeing. I am having a good time in St. Louis/Kirksville/Muskogee visiting friends and family. I flew in on the 22nd of July and then took off for a few days in Kirksville. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted too, but I had limited time. Jeff and I will have to catch up with everyone else when we are home over Christmas. The trip up there really made me remember how much I miss Kirksville and all the people in it. It's just a perfect sized town for Jeff and I...not a city, but not too tiny either. The youngin's had a goo representation at the Franklin Street Reunion too...go 2000's!

Then I spent a few days with Jeff's family catching up with them. Toni and I went to get mani-pedi's so that was nice... I won't have to paint my toes for a while now! Good thing too because bending over is becoming more and more difficult.

Andrea and Maddie came in last Wednesday, so I've been hanging out with them and my family since then. We had the baby shower on the 1st of August and it was really fun. It was quite tiring though! We did a brunch baby shower, so we had Panera bagels, fruit, danishes, egg casseroles, and yummy cake. Toni made the cake and it turned out beautifully and tested amazing too. My mom got tons of my favorite fruits, so I've still been snacking on the lefovers.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Muskogee to take Andrea and Maddie home. We're going to stop and see my Grandpa Dahlberg in Rolla on the way and then spend 2 nights in Muskogee to see her church and her new house.

Jeff is excited since Joe and Alban flew in yesterday and they will be heading to Glacier National Park tomorrow. Joe and Lindsey also sent a bunch of baby stuff too!

I will be sad to leave here next Wednesday, but I miss Jeff a lot and I'm excited to start putting the nursery together. I'll post more about the trip when I get home.

I leave for St. Louis in 2 days! I'm very excited to spend some time in Kirksville and St. Louis with family and friends!

I think the best way to describe things with the Wrights these days is"overwhelming". There's a lot of change happening at the same time and it gets tiring and frustrating sometimes. I've decided I really am a city girl...or at least a larger town girl. Jeff and I are getting tired of having to drive for over an hour to get anything. We had to drive to Glasgow (70 miles) to get a UHaul to move the rest of our stuff into the house and we ended up driving to Havre (90 miles) to get a push mower to cut the jungle of a yard we had. I also like some of the anonymity involved in places with more people. When I go for a walk here, people slow down and look at me. We had a guy drive by our house super slow this weekend while Jeff was working on the yard. I know they are just trying to figure out who we are, but I miss just going into a grocery store getting the stuff I need, having a business transaction with the cashier and going home...not having to say who I am, where we are from, how long we will be in Malta, why we are here, and how far along I am. I also miss the cheaper prices of discount stores...like Target. Oh, and I also miss community theatre and electric guitars in church.

I'm excited to go home because some of the akwardness that I experience here at church and everwhere we go will not be there for three weeks! I'm tired of trying to make friends and I'm ready to be around people who already know me and love me.

In other news, I think we've officially decided to go to the Community Church in town. It's not really the style that Jeff and I prefer (see the electric guitar comment above), but it's the youngest church with people closest to our age and young families that I can relate too. The people have also been very nice to us so far. We visited another church in town, but there was nobody our age and while the people we met were really nice, I have a hard time really experiencing community with older people who are mostly ranchers. I don't know how I will survive for three years without being a part of a band at a church, so hopefully I can find some people who maybe want to get together and play music. Sometimes when I think about living here for three years (this far away from family and friends and this far away from a city) I get sad. I just keep praying tha Jeff will finish on time.

Jeff is down at the trailer right now working on stuff. He's coming up tomorrow evening to take me to Billings on Wednesday to fly out. Please pray that while I am gone, he is able to get a lot of work done. I know that this project is hard for him because I like being with him and he likes being home so that cuts into time he could be working, so it will be good that I'm gone for a while so he can catch up.

Well, I will try to update while I'm in STL...or at least talk Jeff into updating.

I apologize for our tardiness in updating the blog. Our internet at the trailer has been very spotty and we don't have internet at our house in town yet. So, I'm sitting in our coffee shop here in Malta so I can check my e-mail and update.

We closed on our house a week ago today. It's nice not to have to be at the trailer...although I miss Jeff a lot when he's down there. The house is beautiful though! I will post pictures once we've moved all of our stuff in. We're moving in slowly. Since Jeff had to go to Indiana for his grandpa's funeral last week, we didn't get as much done, but I was glad he could go and see his family.

I leave for St. Louis next Wednesday. I've been looking forward to it all summer and I can't believe it's this close! I am worried about missing Jeff while I'm home for three weeks, but I'm sure I'll keep busy and he will be able to get a lot of work done.

If you're praying for our family, please pray for God's provision - or rather that we would trust in his provision. He has provided so much for us already, but I still have regular freak outs, mostly about money. I don't think the pregnancy hormones help much either. :)

And, if you haven't heard from facebook or a phone call, we found out we are mostly likely having a boy. The ultrasound was cool because the technician really took time and showed us the different parts of our baby. We are very excited to bring David Joseph to the midwest to meet his family this Christmas.

Craziness and Canoing

Things have been crazy around the trailer and the American Prairie Refuge this week. We've got some people camping in our front yard here. They are from the Montana Conservation Corps and they are taking down some of the internal fences that are still in the Bison Range. Wednesday night, we went over to the Yurt Camp (a camp with these circular permanent tents for the donors to APR and WWF) where they were just finishing up a safari. The safaris are like mini camps for the high dollar donors and potential donors. The WWF and APR staff drive the guests all around the Refuge to see the bison and different wildlife and they wine and dine them with delicious food and drinks. They asked us to come over for the last dinner so people could meet Jeff and ask any questions they had. We didn't get tons of questions, but we had a good time (and good food).

The next day, Jeff's advisor, Dr. Paul Krauseman, came out from Missoula to see the study site and to see what Jeff and Mike had been doing. Jeff, Kyran (the project director), and Dr. Krauseman, drove ALL over the huge property on Thursday looking for bison, checking the fence that Jeff had built and seeing the land. It was kind of neat to see the whole thing, but I was REALLY sick of being in the truck on bumpy little two-track roads.

Yesterday, Jeff worked some in the morning and early afternoon, but came home early so we could actually see each other for a while. It's nice right now being the only people that are in the trailer. Mike is in Helena getting married until next Sunday, so Jeff and I got to cuddle on the couch and spend some time alone. Although, the trailer is not conducive to spending time together. We probably killed 10+ moths, some flies, and found a dead mouse during our lovely alone time together. I will be very VERY glad when we are not living here anymore. We did go canoing on Forchette Bay yesterday evening . Forchette Bay is a little piece of Fort Peck Lake that comes in about 20 miles from the trailer. The Missouri River actually makes Fort Peck Lake, and as you drive down to in, the landscape changes dramatically. It goes from flat sagebrush prairie to very hilly country with different vegetation. In some places there are big cliffs that go down to the lake. It's called "the Breaks". Here are some pictures from out canoing trip yesterday.

This is the view of the cliffs across the bay from the top of the road

These are the cliffs from the water...very far away.

We saw the biggest spider either of us had ever seen, but I wouldn't stay near it long enough to take a picture. We also saw huge things in the water. We're not sure if they were giant fish...there's walleye and some other big fish in the lake, or if it was a mammal of some sort.

This is what the landscape looks like most of the time. Off in the distance, you can faintly see the Little Rocky Mountain Range.

Jeff is doing well. His helper isn't here this week or next week. That slows things down and I know Jeff doesn't like that. I can't go out and put up fence all day...I can't even lift a fence post. He's been working on a lot of computer stuff and getting locations for bison and moving some wood to places he needs it to be, but I think he wishes he could keep going on the exclosures he needs to get put up.

I'm feeling fine. I felt the baby move this week and I'm positive it's the baby. I've never felt anything like it before and it is VERY reassuring. My tummy is also starting to look more like a pregnant tummy too. We're hoping to hear back about insurance and assistance stuff soon so I can go to the Dr. for a check up and hopefully find out what the gender is soon! We've got names picked out for both a boy and a girl, so we are just chomping at the bit to know what it is!

Well, Jeff has really gotten started on his project this week. He and Mike have been out a lot putting up fence and collaring cows from different ranches in he area. He got burnt really badly the first day he went out with Mike to fence despite my harping at him to wear sunblock. So, I put the sunblock in the truck. He's remembered to wear it since. I went to town every day this week (except Monday when I was sick) to help with VBS at church. I decided that VBS is awesome, but it is the ultimate energy drain :) I came home yesterday and napped for three hours I was so beat.

It was nice being in town so much this week because I got to see a lot of people and get to know people in the church more, but it got really old driving an hour to town and an hour back everyday (not to mention pricey). I also did a lot of things we needed to in town this week like license the truck, look at houses, talk to the WIC people, etc. On Monday I have my appointment with the WIC people to see if I qualify for the program. Hopefully I'll also get to take Jeff to town next week to see the house that I liked in town.

I'm counting down the days until I get to go home for a little while. I think I'm going to be home for about three weeks. I'm kind of sad because it's the longest Jeff and I have been apart since we've been married, but I am excited to see friends and family that I haven't seen in a while. I also have various St. Louis/Kirksville things I would like to do - get coffee from Java Co, eat at Imo's and Panera and Longhorn, go to the Zoo, and others.

Supposedly, this week, there are supposed to be a lot of people coming in and out of the trailer here. I think there's someone coming today. Although the last time they told us two big shots from WWF were coming to stay here, they never showed up, so who knows?!

Anyway, this morning I was watching some music videos while I ate my breakfast and the lyrics from this song really struck me.

How He Loves Us - Jesus Culture

He is jealous for me
Love's like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
and I realize just how beautiful You are and how great your affections are for me.
Oh, how He loves us so
Oh, how He loves us
How He loves us so.

Yeah, He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves.

So we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean we're all sinking
So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way

That he loves us,
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves us
Oh, how He loves

I love this song and you can watch the video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoC1ec-lYps

In sickness and in health...

We've got some illness going around the trailer. Jeff's dad came up to help us move and caught a cold on the way up here, Jeff got it, and now I have it. I've spent all morning sleeping trying to get rid of it as soon as possible. It makes me nervous being sick while I'm pregnant, but at least I have the time to take care of myself while we're out here.

I really don't want to be sick tomorrow. A couple from the church we went to on Sunday invited us to their ranch for cattle branding, dinner, and bible study. Jeff is very excited about the cattle branding part. When we went to church last Sunday, people were super super nice. We're going to go to the church picnic this Sunday, so I'm excited to get to know people.

Jeff and I are looking for a place in Malta. We're not really sure where to start. We know where to look to buy houses and there a quite a few for sale, but we're not sure where to start looking for rentals. There's no website or listings in the paper, so we mentioned it at church and people said they knew some people they could hook us up with.

I think going to church is going to help Jeff with his project too. For his project to be successful, he needs the cooperation of a lot of people who disagree with the organization (American Prairie Foundation) whose land Jeff is working on. Jeff really has a neat ability to see both sides of every story and really sees why the ranchers and area folks could be offended by the APF. He also sees ranching as an important and valuable part of life out here, which some people he works with fail to recognize. I think the relationships that we build in the community will really help Jeff understand the policies and people he's working with.

Well, Jeff and Mike are back home from the field, so it's lunch time.