Promised Update

I know there are a handful of family members that check this blog religiously so...you're all in for a treat! I promised an update nearly a month ago and finally felt inspired enough to write something.

In the last month I have worked hard keeping myself busy. Substitute teaching in Bozeman has been an awesome experience in that I get consistent work Monday through Friday every week. Through this job I have met quite a few really good people to befriend and spend time with.

Because both Jay and I will be spending most of the summer in Wisconsin I thought it best to find a subletter for our apartment among my new friends. Luckly, we were able to find a great gal named Crystal to watch our humble abode and be my roommate until I decide to make the journey back to my beloved land of cheese. I have faith that she will be an awesome addition to life in Bozeman in the next couple of weeks. As an added bonus, she will be paying some of the rent too :).

For reasons I can't really explain right now, I decided to get a second job working for the Target Co. It was a brief stint, only about a month, in which I worked long hours, unhappily, as a cashier. After two weeks of waking up around 7am to substitute teach until 4pm and occasionally making it to bed around 12am after spending the rest of my day at Target, I thought it best for my sanity to quit. I put in my two-week notice and got out of there and haven't regretted it once. Overall, it was a heartbreaking and ultimately, lifechanging experience for me. After seeing how many plastic bags are wasted by consumers utter laziness (i.e. wanting a bag for their 24oz. soda...Honestly! What do you need a bag for?) I began carrying a my large Mexican tote bag with me whenever I enter a store. This has helped me with two things: 1. not using any more plastic bags (I already have a whole drawer full that I could RE-USE) and 2. only buying as much as I can carry. On a recent trip to a grocery store I overheard a spanish-speaking family talking about my bag. The daughter leaned over to her mom and said, in spanish, "Hmph. Look, they think those bags are fashionable here." It made me smile. Hopefully it becomes more fashionable to use your own/old bags so that we're all doing our part to conserve the environment.

Jay recently visited for the weekend and as usual conversation centered on the question, "What are we going to do next?" For those of you that know us well, that is a loaded question. It referred to the weekend, as well as where we will be planning our "next great adventure". Hopefully you didn't think we would stop after that amateurish surfing trip to Mexico. We have developed a love for the ocean and surfing so, another trip south is not out of the question. However, Jay has a dream...a dream of seeing the frozen tundra. I told him that a trip to Green Bay and Lambeau Field could easily remedy that dream. He was thinking a little bit farther north, and of travelling there in a canoe. While the thought of canoeing up to the Artic Circle sends me running for my down comforter, booties and a cup of hot chocolate, I looked into those big, sparkling blue eyes and said, "lets do it!". I do have some reservations: one of them being that I have very little experience with wilderness safety or canoeing. So, Jay hopped over to the laptop and started searching for Wilderness First Responder (WFR) courses. I made some calls and am now enrolled in an 8-day WFR course at Montana State University right here in Bozeman. My class starts on Saturday and I am getting geared up for it by reading some of Jay's "saving lives in the middle of freaking nowhere" manuals and dreaming of the enormous fish I'll be able to catch up in northern Canada. After all, I am a fisherwoman at heart.

There are only three weeks left of school here. The reason I know this is because kids tend to get a crazy look in their eyes at the end of the school year. It could be the heat (it hit 88 degrees today) but more likely it is the prospect of spending every day out with their friends getting grass-stained knees, biking around, fishing, getting into trouble, rucking around in the mountains, swimming at Bogart Park and taking those highly anticipated family vacations. I have always loved the first and last days of school because there is an energy among the students and teachers that I haven't found anywhere else.

When school ends in a few weeks I will be hanging up my substitute teacher "grab bag" and strapping on my "nanny bag". I was offered a position looking after two little girls for the summer and decided that playing outside sounded like a great fit for me. While I will miss Coon's terribly, I am turning the page in that book and starting a new one. Once I get everything in order in Bozeman such as, getting my wedding dress fitted, making sure my apartment is secure, touching up the rest of the wedding planning and having a great summer, I will make my way East sometime before my sister's July wedding. After that event, it is up to northern Wisconsin to visit Jay and enjoy some Trout Lake sunsets.

The wedding is approaching...only 4 months from today! I can't wait!

March in Montana

It has been a long time since the last written post. I apologize. Mostly this is because Brooke and I got ourselves into a weekly schedule and writing blog entries wasn't a integral part of that schedule. I have been checking my brother's blog, www.downunderben.blogspot.com, daily and I understand that even a week without a post can seem like a long time. (You can't tell me that someone in Australia doesn't have enough going on to write at least every other day) I will now redirect my focus to our lives.

Brooke has been getting steady work as a substitute teacher. The nasty flu that has been going around Bozeman is bad for most people, but positive for substitute teachers(that avoid sickness). I wasn't as fortunate as Brooke in avoiding sickness. I caught the flu and was out for most of a week. I'm almost recovered fully from that boute of over three weeks ago. Brooke is getting more and more familiar with the Bozeman School Distict and is looking at getting a full time job in the district for next school year. I'm crossing my fingers that she will get the softball assistant coach position that she applied for this spring.

I joined the masters swim team that meets Tuesday and Thursday night. Brooke signed up for a guitar class that met at the same time as my swim practice on Tuesday nights. Once a month Brooke meets a bunch of young women for a book club. It seems like a great chance to meet a lot of people and occasionally talk about books.

For the most part we have been up to Bridger Bowl every weekend. It is a great little mountain and Brooke and I are getting to know it quite well. Brooke is getting good enough that occasionly I catch her gazing up at the hike-to unpatrolled expert only terrain. Maybe next season if we purchase the avalanche beacon, shovel and probes required to access the hike we'll be up on the ridge.

I recently accepted a position at Camp Manito-wish for this summer. I will be the Outpost Director. The Outpost program sends canoeing, backpacking and sea kayaking trips throughout Canada, Montana, Wyoming and Minnesota for anywhere from 9-34 days. I'll be in charge of all the logistics for the trips, training the staff and supervision throughout the summer. It's not the perfect position in that Brooke will not be with me, but I'll be flying back in May to visit for a weekend and Brooke will visit me at the end of July and hopefully in August.

Brooke arrived safely in Wisconsin today. She is home for the spring break. She will be wedding dress shopping, looking at details for the wedding, probably running errands with her Mom and hanging out with her family. I already miss her.

Bundled up.

Going out on the town with my sister Meg.

Our Christmas Tree