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MontanaMama

MontanaMama's Journal
MontanaMama's Journal
April 9, 2024

Animal cruelty trigger warning. PLEASE consider signing this petition.

I’m sick to death of wolf haters. This man tortured a wolf pup in public before killing it. Wyoming apparently needs their hands forced to charge this poor excuse of s human with animal cruelty. His wife is an elected official in Daniel, WY.

https://www.change.org/p/wolf-tormenter-cody-roberts-must-face-a-harsher-punishment

https://www.instagram.com/lolysmenchaka/p/C5cIXClPlZf/?img_index=1

On Edit: the Governor of WY needs a phone call. His number is in this link:

https://www.change.org/p/protect-our-wildlife-cody-roberts-must-face-harsher-punishment

https://twitter.com/actionxander/status/1777184605717586314


February 11, 2024

My kiddo and I didn't make it home to our family Super Bowl watch party.

We’re 49er fans through and through. He and I are watching in a hotel room near the Denver airport. The boy and I were down in Colorado Springs so that he could take his admissions flight at ATP Flight School. We flew down on Friday and he was supposed to fly yesterday but CO Springs got a bunch of snow and visibility was zero the whole day. This morning, the sky was clear, the air was cold and he did his admissions flight with a stunning view of Pike’s Peak in the background. We will fly home tomorrow. Sad to not be home tonight but feel fortunate anyway.

Cheers!

February 9, 2024

Thank you so much for the hearts! I've not been around as much lately which pains me.

But, I check in here on our beloved DU as often as I can.

Going through big changes in my personal life. My husband and I have been in the process of closing one family business and we were fortunate enough to sell our second business in December. I am now semi retired, which is glorious, and I work part time for the new owners of the business that we sold to get them up and running. It has been quite a transition to go from owning and managing two businesses to working part time for one of them.

Tomorrow, I take my 18-year-old son, who got his private pilots license last fall, down to Colorado Springs for his admissions flight test flight at an aviation school. Big changes for sure.

I bought Valentine hearts in the hope of having a little more time to pass them out with love and appreciation for Democratic Underground. I love you all.

❤️

December 17, 2023

On being self insured: My health insurance does nothing to insure my health.

It is only insurance against bankruptcy, at best. I just opened an email from our health insurance agent. I shouldn’t have because I knew it would ruin my Sunday…but it’s time to start planning my finances for the new year. The silver plan through Pacific Source that we purchase for my family of three is going up from $1925 to $2100 PER MONTH. This shake down of a “plan” has a $7500 per person deductible.

We’re the owners of two small businesses. Job creators. We pay a living wage and provide a wide variety of benefits our employees can choose from depending on their wants and needs. Because we are self employed, we have to purchase our own insurance and there no competition for small business in my state. There are two companies and a health care co-op to choose from. Blue Cross Blue Shield of MT prices their plans higher than what I’m paying because they don’t want to deal with the individual market. The health care co-op doesn't have providers that we need to see so we’re stuck with $2100 per month.

I guess I should be grateful that I make just above the threshold for getting any kind of tax break or subsidy for insurance on the healthcare marketplace. This is highway robbery. I’ve written to all my congress critters for years. Jon Tester at least replies and says there’s nothing he can do and the rethugs ignore it.

November 7, 2023

Who has a kiddo voting for the first time in this election?

I see a few of you here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218433907

My son voted for the first time today. We voted for city council and mayor. Our mayoral race is going to be tight. One of our choices is funded by the National Organization of Realtors and that’s something that has young people in our city paying attention. Housing is unaffordable here. With single family homes selling for over $700k on average, it is possible that my son will never be able to buy a home in the city he was born and raised. That along with our ever increasing homeless population were the issues my kiddo was focused on.

What were the issues/policies/ideas that your kids were voting for/against?

October 29, 2023

Best birthday gift! I turn 59 tomorrow.

My 18 year old kiddo got his private pilot’s license last week. For my birthday, he said he would take me for a flight…wherever I wanted to go. FYI, his training plane is a Cessna 152. A very tiny plane so we stayed somewhat close to home. I asked him to take me north of where we live to the Mission Mountains…the gateway to Flathead Lake and Glacier National Park.

Our little plane had to get a jumpstart because it was so cold this morning…but it got better from there.

Here’s a little of what we saw…and yes, it’s winter here already:























It was such a good day.














October 26, 2023

My 18 year old son is now a certified pilot!

I know the news is as bad as it has ever been and I’m feeling the weight of it as I’m sure you all are. But, I wanted to share with you that my kiddo, Owen, passed his flight test with the examiner and I’m just thrilled for him. He took a gap year from college to sort through lots of things but he’s been working on this goal since last January, the middle of his senior year in high school. He had hit a rough patch and was feeling pretty down when a friend of ours asked if Owen would want to take a plane ride. It was a school day but the child needed a break and we encouraged him to go. From that day, Owen decided he would learn to fly a plane. He found his own instructor and asked if we would pay to get him going.

For the past 4 months, every time I wandered into his room to visit for a minute, fully expecting to be gaming with his pals online he wasn’t…he was looking at charts and figures and flight plans and doing this work on his own. In July, he came to me and said he wanted to pay for his instructor on his own and asked if I would be willing to keep paying for the plane rental, which, of course, I was.

Owen passed the written exam in August and we were finally able to get a Designated Pilot Examiner up here to Missoula to flight test him. It took about 4 hours. Owen didn’t want us to come to the airport so we respected that. But I’m not gonna lie, I had his location pinged on my phone and watched as he drove from the airport to our shop where we were anxiously waiting in the parking lot and he told us that he had passed!

It was just the best day. It is a complete joy to watch your kiddo doing what they love. Owen will begin working in his instrument rating next.

Thanks for reading.








October 4, 2023

Funiest thing I've seen all day! Imagine HRC in the courtroom...

Image credit to Vic Sepulveda (instagram)

August 16, 2023

The evening sprinkler play with Maybee and Nova.

It’s HOT here in western Montana. Not Phoenix hot but 100 degrees is hot for us northerners. Three plays a day keeps my border collie from losing her mind. We usually hike but it’s too hot for me to get very far and Maybee needs movement. Her tongue is epic, btw.





















Profile Information

Gender: Female
Hometown: Montana
Home country: USA
Member since: Mon Oct 31, 2016, 02:23 PM
Number of posts: 23,307
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