Kellys Corner

It is a beautiful day here in Birmingham. How's it going Internet? Yeah, it has been a while scince I have been here, so I thought I would drop by and share. Brandon and I were a Groomsman and Brides Maid in our friends Ernie and Allisons wedding the weekend after we got back from Montana. And what a beautiful wedding it was. On the day of the wedding I spent it with Allison getting our hair, nails, toes and make-up done and just keeping her from stressing. I have to say the day went by without a hitch and it seemed to just flow for us gals. Allison has been a good friend and so has Ernie and to be a part of their special day was, well, special. Brandon and I also got to walk down the isle together, he in his tux and me in my snazzy brides maid dress ( I am so glad they have good taste!). After being together for eight years and wondering if I will ever get "My" wedding, this was a thrill because it satisfied some small need inside of me. We were standing on a gazebo during the wedding, brides maids flanked the steps on one side and groomsman flanked the steps on the other side. Brandon and I were on the top steps so after the ones from the lower steps walked it was our turn. We each had to walk down the steps from our sides then around the front of the gazebo where we met in the center, then I wraped my arm around his and we walked down the isle together. The funny thing is as Brandon and I made eye contact walking to the front of the gazebo to meet, it was hard for us both not to giggle. We had this smile holding back laughter that said to each other "I know, I know." We also danced for a whole song, in actual public, on a dance floor for the first time. I love to dance, however Brandon does not and it shows. We danced to Patsy Clines' Crazy wich was more than appropriate seeing as how I sing that song in the shower and well, alot of people might say that I am crazy. Yeah so that was fun. Big congratulations go out to the Newly Weds!!!!

Lets see. After that my mom had some troubles with her heart that ultimatly led us to the hospital this past Friday were they went in to put stints in due to blockages in her heart. The thing is once they got up there they said the blockages werent bad enough to put stints in because they are only 50% blocked. I have tried to reason the logic in that, but I cant. So I have chalked it up to me not being a Doctor therefore what the hell do I know? My Aunt came in from Florida and I spent Friday through Monday with my mom to take care of her. So now we will go back this Friday and they are going to sonogram her neck to check for blockages because she deffinatly has a problem. But she is still here and maybe not the healthiest (far from it) person on the planet but shes not too bad off, so thank God for that.

Other than the above it has been the usual reteric of cleaning and cooking and laundry and work. I looked at houses on-line in Montana. I was shocked to see that we could actually afford to buy one, a pretty nice one at that. I look at the pictures from our vacation at least once a week and I wonder if you really can fall in love with a place, because I truly feel that I did. I miss those mountains and those towns and that sky. I cant think about moving without thinking of my family, my mom going through a divorce and when its over being by herself, my sister and her family that contains my favorite thing in the world, my nephew. I wonder how selfish it would be to leave and to want to do it as badly as I do. Over this winter we are going to put new floors in the house and paint the inside. I suppose when it is ready and we have to decide wether we want to sell it to move to Montana or not, thats when I will have to decide.
I also wonder if a place can make you want to be a better person and try harder at doing so, because I also feel that it did.

Ever scince we have been back I have tried a little harder at pretty much every thing I have done. My house is cleaner and stays that way, the laundry is staying done (one load a day instead of letting it all pile up until we had nothing to wear and washing it all), I have done alot more things for myslef instead of nagging Brandon to do them (which I know he is loving) and just a whole lot of other things. I guess there could be many reasons for this but I would like to thank Big Sky Country for it.

Posted by Kelly at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

So it's been a minute internet and I have much to share. I waited a while to talk about our vacation because I really found it hard to describe. Wonderful, beautiful, amazing, relaxing, awe inspiring and just down right glorious are all words I can use to describe it (and probabaly will) but they do it no justice. In a world where words are so overused that they begin not to bear much meaning I find it hard to write whats in my mind about it. But I will, if for no other reason than to document it for myself. So there.

We got ready for this trip down to the last minute and I worried about alot of things, alot. But after we got to the airport at 5:30am on Sunday August the 20th and we made it past the point-of-no-return (airport security) I began to calm and really get excited. We first landed in Denver, Colorado for a five hour layover. These people are smart because the only places you can smoke are in these bars---"The Aviators Club"---which also happens to have a one drink minimum. It never dawned on us that the drink didnt have to be alcoholic so we preceeded to get pretty lit. Well, as lit as you can be for shooting Jager at 10:30am on a Sunday in an airport bar. Upon finally leaving the airport bar I immediatly got heartburn, bad, inturn causing us to spend like $5 on a little tiny package that had one Tums in it. It worked though so at least theres that.

Our next plane touched down in Missoula, Montana. We made it. We were alive. And sobbered up. After a little mishap with our luggage (that almost caused me to have a massive heart attack) Brandons mom and step-dad picked us up and we were on our way, with luggage in hand. We went out for bar-b-que for dinner, stopped by the cutest grocery store for some goodies and went back to the house for a nice evening before our big trip.

Monday we woke up early got the vehicle packed up and we were on our way. That day we drove from Missoula to the North Entrance of Yellowstone. I cant tell you how it made me feel to go through that park entrance. This was something I only dreamed of and there I was. We spent that entire day in Yellowstone stopping at various points and just takeing it in and ended up in Cody, Wyoming late that night. Tired. The next day was spent around Cody going to the Buffalo Bill museum and eating out and touring the town. We spent another night in Cody and then woke up and headed back into Yellowstone. On this day we went through the other half of Yellowstone and entered into the Grand Teton National Park.

Yellowstone was amazing; at two stops in particular I was reduced to tears. First time, as we are driving along I look out and in this valley there was a small creek winding through it and I noticed a large brown thing, I called out what I saw and we pulled over. It was so far away from us that David had to get out his binnoculars. I looked through them and there I was, it was like I was right down there standing beside this Bison. He was huge and it was beautiful and I began to cry. I dont feel silly admitting it but that was the first time I had seen such a thing in its own enviroment, such a breathtaking place and that moment moved me. Second time, we stopped at a waterfall to take pictures; as everyone is walking to the fall I turn around and across the road was a meadow. A glorious meadow, the creek, the flowers, the mountains in the background, the almost heavenly blue sky dotted with the fluffiest clouds I have ever seen and the sounds of the waterfall behind me gave me goose bumps. As I stood there taking pictures of this meadow tears began to stream down my face. Tears of gratitude. Gratitude for being alive to see this, for getting me here, for allowing me to see what I saw and feel it, thanks to God for all he is and all he has given us.

Onto the Tetons. This one you just have to go see for yourself one day. As I stood there at the bank of Jenny Lake, a little lake nestled at the base of the Teton mountain range, taking it all in again I cried. Again they were tears of gratitude. I stood there and wondered why we cant protect all of the land and cherish it like these places were. Why we as a society have to over populate, over talk, over acheive and over, over, over. Why cant we just stop and be thankful and peaceful and quiet and soak it in. I know there are no answers to these questions but these are the things I wondered, all the same. I guess some people might of looked at what I saw and thought that gawking over a rock formation pushed to the sky from the ground wasnt such a big deal, those same people would have probabaly rather been in an airconditioned room of some sort with fifty hundred technological devices hooked up and going to town. To those people I would have to say I am sorry. I saw a small slice of the beauty this planet has to offer us on this particular day, I was reminded what I was given, how small I am and how grateful I should be.

That evening we rolled into Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Very adorable town. We went to the Cowboy Bar where we sat on saddles and had drinks, we watched a shoot out in the street at the corner of the town square and we ate and shopped. After going back to the hotel and seeing how early it still was Brandon and I decided to go back out on our own. We walked that entire town almost and ended up sitting on a park bench in the Town Square. The sun was setting just behind the mountains and lit the town up in a pinkish blue like none I have ever seen. It seemed so close, like I could almost reach up and pluck it from the sky. I laid my head in Brandons lap and we sat there quiet, listening, watching and memorizing that moment for everything that it was.

On this next day of our whirl wind tour of the West we ate breakfast in Jackson Hole at this little place that had been there scince like 1800-something? and we got back on the road leaving Wyoming and making our way through Idaho back to Missoula by nightfall. That left us Friday and Saturday to relax and knock around the house and Missoula and we hopped back on a plane that Sunday morning headed back home.

After unpacking our bags and straightening up the house from the terror that is, eight cats alone in a home for a week, we hooked up the camcorder to the tv and watched the tape. I dont think Brandon or I realized how much of that trip got blurred together because it was so much so fast until we watched it. We both laughed and cried and then it was over. We had no choice but to come back to the real world and get our heads out of the clouds, no pun intended. I dont know if we will ever be able to repay or thank Brandons parents enough for that trip and I can only hope that seeing what Brandon and I took from it and how much it meant to us suffices in some small way.

Now, when my day starts off shitty or things just dont seem to be going my way, or even the right for that matter, I can escape in my mind to that mountain or that meadow or that quaint little town where everything seemed right, if only for a moment, and God smiled down on us all.

Posted by Kelly at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments