~and we stuck together~

I've got a few back roads to take in order to get from home to school this year.  They wind around the countryside as they take me past several little hamlets along the way.  The country cemeteries, fruits stands, the creeks and rivers, and road signage have become landmarks now to show me the direction that I need to follow in order to not get lost.  So far, so good.  

The view is going to be quite different than it was last year as I drove each day from Montrose to Olathe for school.  No more will I look out the driver's side window and see the beautiful Black Canyon or the Grand Mesa up ahead of me. The San Juans will not rise up to greet me on my journey home after a long day at school.   For two years though, it was my morning time gift from God to see such grand places as those were.  I took many pictures of them during my stay there and even though I am very happy to be living here in Texas, I sometimes miss their grandeur and beauty.

They were snow covered and stately in appearance the day I took this photo.  Even though I am not a fan of winter, the truth will always be that I loved the way they looked frosted over with lots of white stuff.  (the San Juan mountain range and the view out of our kitchen window back in Montrose, Colorado)

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison was in our backyard, literally.  Every day as I drove over to school in Olathe, I could catch a glimpse of it.  I especially loved this picture and the clouds that seemed to just stay hovering over it all day long.  

I have made several trips over to Petrolia in the weeks that have passed by this summer.  Yesterday morning I decided to go to school for a while to get a few things done.  The drive over there is longer than those I have been used to before but I'm getting accustomed to it.  It's a good time for thinking and planning for the day ahead.  About 14 miles into the 26 mile drive, I happened to gaze out of the driver's side window and noticed how different the sky was looking.  The sun was making its journey through some cloud cover that had begun to move in and the brilliance that emanated from it was beyond compare.  I was so taken by the sight that I pulled over to the shoulder to take a picture of it.

I can remember when I was just a little girl that every time I saw the clouds and sun in such an array that I believed it was what Heaven must look like.  Yesterday after I took the picture I felt a lot of peace in the journey that I am now making.  Life in Texas is very different than it was in Colorado.  It was not meant to be the same.  Even though I miss the sights (and somehow I can't imagine that I would be saying that especially given my extreme case of homesickness when I was first arrived there in 2013) God has provided me with a new place to call my home and together Mike and I are doing a pretty good job of figuring it all out.  

It's been a good summer here with only a few minor glitches along the way.  I still maintain that 99.9% of what has happened to us here has been very good.  There will be challenges along the way but I feel up to them.  We are now close enough to see folks back in the Midwest more often and we are not so far away that some day we shall return to say hello and visit with our "mountain family" once again.

So from this place along the plains of northern Texas I send you greetings and to say that I hope all of you are doing just fine.  Mike and I are alive and well here.  We are surviving and even thriving here.  One thing is for sure.

We will always be remembering of you all.

The very first picture that Mike and I took together from now 2 1/2 years ago.  I made a very long drive that evening after school to make it the 611 miles from my front door in Hutchinson, Kansas to his first door in Montrose, Colorado.  We stuck together :)