It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

We LOVE decorating for Christmas. We really enjoy having our house all warm and cozy and Christmasy this time of year. This year we got our Christmas lights hung outside, even though it was 9 degrees when we were doing it. I had to keep going inside to get my hands warmed up so that I could keep going.



We are even more excited this year about Christmas because we have family coming to visit. This will be the first time we've hosted Christmas in this apartment and only the second time my sisters and brothers-in-law have been out to visit us in Montana. We are going to Whitefish for a few days for some awesome skiing and we are all pumped about that. We have a cute little house rented in downtown Whitefish so that we can ski 2 or 3 days without having to drive back up there.

Christmas is a busy season here at the ranch. Sunday was the Christmas play which John and I fortunately did not have anything to with this year. No organizing a band, or playing Mary and Joseph- we just simply got to show up Sunday night and enjoy watching the show. The kids did a great job and had a fun time with it. We also have PH Christmas- when all of the staff go to all of the houses (6 this year) all on the same day, eat way too much food and watch the kids open their presents. That will be happening later this week, beginning at 7:30 am with breakfast and ending about 12 hours later with dinner. At some point we will be having a Christmas party at school, as well as a Christmas party with the youth group Sunday night, Caroling in the community on Wednesday, a staff Christmas party and Christmas Eve service at the church. Oh yeah, and another whole school Christmas party next week. After thinking about all of that, I'm kind of glad that my family isn't showing up until the 25th and 26th... Its going to be a busy and FUN few weeks.

Turkey Trot

We had a wonderful, much needed Thanksgiving break this year. It was great to have a 4 1/2 day weekend, and we were able to get a lot done and get caught up on some stuff. Thanksgiving morning, we went up to Polson with our friend Dave Moe who is a house dad at the ranch, and his daughter Katie and ran a 5K in some crazy dense fog. It was unbelievable how foggy it was because there was barely a cloud in the sky in St. Ignatius (about 40 minutes away). I was actually excited when I got up because it was about 47 degrees and clear skies, but when we got right outside of Polson it was like driving into a wall of fog. Anyway, the race was fun. There were lots of people we knew from the bike club running and it was fun to have friends from the ranch running with us. John finished in 20:30, somewhere around 5th or 6th place we think. There were probably over 100 participants. I finished in 25:45, which isn't great for me, but I was pretty happy considering I had basically stopped running in August until about 2 weeks ago. I am determined to do a better job training this winter.

John and Brande crossing the finish line- Brande almost caught him.

It was REALLY foggy!

Dave and Katie goofing off before the race.

The rest of Thanksgiving we spent hanging out at a couple of the houses. John played Wii and I played Monopoly with the kids. Friday we went shopping of course. We did get some Christmas presents, and we also got some great deals for stuff we needed, like a printer, new wireless mouse, and a coffee pot. Saturday we started putting up Christmas lights outside and decorating inside. We'll probably get a tree next weekend. Its been nice to relax and not have a ton of work to do all the time this weekend. Its a relief to know that Christmas break is only about 3 1/2 weeks away and those weeks usually fly by with all of the stuff going on.

Some Favorites from the Bison Range

The National Bison Range is one of our favorite places to go around here. Its about 20 minutes away and you almost always see lots of wildlife. I was just looking through pictures on the computer tonight and came across some of these pictures from various trips we've taken to the Bison Range.

Survival Mode

Lately things have just been incredibly busy around here and we have gone into survival mode. The end of the school quarter is always a really busy time (though not as busy as the end of the semester fortunately) and since our quarter ended today we've been busy finalizing grades and getting the dreaded book reports all graded. John is in the other room grading the last of his geography class assignments right now. I always look forward to the first week of a new quarter before there is any of this stuff to do, and then after about a week, book reports start being handed in and then there are papers to grade again and it goes on like that for the next 8 weeks. This time we have Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to interrupting the monotony of the school year. We are very excited that my family is coming to visit (and SKI!) at Christmas time, and John's parents are hopefully going to be here in a few weeks for Thanksgiving.

Last Wednesday night we were in charge of putting together the Harvest Party for our church again this year. We made caramel apples (ALL afternoon with some of the ranch girls) and spiced apple cider, and planned some fun activities in the gym. No bobbing for apples of course- we wouldn't want anyone to get the swine flu. :) It was fun and chaotic. The kids always have a good time. Its good to see all of them laughing and playing and just being kids. I didn't even take my camera, so I have no pictures. I haven't taken any pictures recently, so I don't have anything to share.

We are both hoping that the rest of the school year goes a little better than this first quarter did. The kids have not been doing very well in school, and at this rate, it looks like more than half of the students will be going to summer school. Not good! Usually first quarter is the best and then they start slacking after that, so maybe (hopefully!) they have started out slow, but they are going to finish strong. I guess we'll see. Anyway, we would appreciate your prayers for us, and especially for the kids and the rest of the staff here.

First Snow

It got cold here last week. We're not talking cold for October, like 40's, we're talking 14 degrees cold. It also snowed probably 4-5 inches and it stuck around for several days. I think we got the snow on Thursday night last week and it actually just melted today when it finally got above freezing and it rained all day. They're saying it is supposed to be 65 on Saturday so we are planning a big bike ride while we still can. I do love the winters here and really enjoy the snow, but I am definitely not ready for winter to come to stay yet.

Quick Recap of our Busy Summer

I have been a terrible blogger the last 2 months and haven't updated at all, even though we've been incredibly busy around here. We had a great summer and I won't bore you with all the details, I'll just post some fun pictures of the highlights of our summer.

Backpacking trip in Idaho/Montana August 2009

We both ran our first half marathons this summer.

We took a trip to Glacier National Park and hiked to Grinnell Glacier.

Our Latest Cycling Adventures

In May this year we went to Glacier National Park for our anniversary and we rode our bikes up Going to the Sun Road (the main road that goes up the mountains and through the park) while we were there. It was great cycling- complete with many miles of steep climbing. We did this before the road was open to cars this spring, so it was nice to not have to watch for traffic. We rode almost all the way to the top before I gave up. Someone had told us that the snow was still on the road at the Weeping Wall (an awesome place along the road where the water just pours out the rocks) and when we got there the road curved and we couldn't really see how much further we would be able to go. I was pretty exhausted by that point because we hadn't though to bring any food with us, since we had read that the road was only open to bikers about 5 miles past the vehicle closure. It was definitely open a lot further and there was nowhere to stop and even get more water. We decided to turn around at that point but were pretty happy with the accomplishment and had a great time doing it.




We also did our first triathlon of the season June 21st in Kalispell. It was pretty fun, but we were both a little disappointed with how we did. The course was a lot hillier than we had anticipated, which wasn't too bad for the bike but was hard on me in the run. It was our first triathlon with an open water swim in the lake, so we got to wear our cool new triathlon wetsuits. John finished in 1h23m and I finished in 1h32m. It was an 800 meter swim, a 12.7 mile hilly bike, and a 3.1 mile hilly run. We are planning to do at least 1 more Labor Day weekend, and possibly another sprint the weekend before that in Missoula.

And finally, on July 4th we went to Idaho to ride on our favorite trail, the Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes. John had ridden it earlier this summer with some guys from the cycling club in Polson. They did 125 miles in one day. He said it was the most physically exhausting thing he's ever done because they rode it FAST and they also rode off of the nice flat trail quite a bit and rode over some mountain passes. We rode 100 miles on Saturday. We stayed on the flat trail because I wanted to be sure that I could finish. It was really not as hard as I expected. We, of course didn't ride as hard as the guys did, but we rode at a pretty good pace. We stopped at a little town on the lake and bought some lunch and rested a little bit, then headed back the same direction. On the way back we saw a cow moose with 2 calves in a little creek beside the trail. We finished 7 hours after we started, but figured only 6 of it was riding, and the rest was stops. We hurried back to St. Ignatius for a 4th of July picnic and fireworks. We were so exhausted we took our lounge chairs to the picnic so we could lay down for the fireworks!

Glacier

This summer, since I am 25 I am old enough to drive the ranch vehicles. That meant I got to drive a van to Glacier National Park this week while almost everyone else went to camp to get things set up there (which is a day I do not look forward to at all). I was a little scared about driving a 15 passenger van on that narrow, windy, steep mountain road, but it wasn't as bad as I expected. John's van did break down pretty much in the middle of the road. His group got out and pushed it enough that they got it off the road so people could at least get past it. They waited with it for about an hour and it finally started again. It was a great day at the park- beautiful weather and as always, beautiful scenery. We saw some very cute baby mountain goats, one running all over the place and calling for its mama. The summer is flying by and I can't believe camp starts in a little over a week. After camp, we are going on vacation to Indiana for 2 weeks and school starts almost immediately after we get back. I definitely haven't accomplished all that I wanted to this summer and now I only have 1 more week at home. Oh well, I guess I will still survive.

Big Sky Country

We were out on a bike ride last night around 8:00 and I just looked around and said to John "I love being outside at this time of night in the summer!" It is just so beautiful the way the sun shines on the mountains and lights up the sky, and it is almost always nice and cool in the evenings. We really do live in a great place and we never get tired of seeing the beauty of God's creation around us. I just wanted to share some of that beauty with you.

This is the area where we often ride our bikes

Lake McDonald at Glacier National Park

Running Eagle Falls at Glacier



Flathead River

What It's All About

Lately, especially the last month or so of school, we've been feeling very frustrated and stressed with everything that is going on. Being a part of this ministry is not always easy. Actually, it is almost never easy. We see so many kids fail to "get it" while they are here, or they do well here and fall on their faces when they leave. God has been reminding me recently why I am here and what this ministry is all about. That doesn't mean it gets any easier, but helps me to remember why I am here. We had our graduation ceremony May 31st and we had 10 graduates- 7 Pinehaven students and 3 staff kids. That is a lot for our school. Some of the students were able to stand up and speak and share how their lives have changed. John led the whole graduating class in singing "Walk by Faith" during the ceremony. It sounded awesome, and that is exactly what our prayer is for these kids and for us as staff- that we would remember to walk by faith everyday. Its not always easy, and sometimes we don't feel like doing it, but we have to remember to give God control and let him be the one in charge. Pray for these 10 students as they are back with they are entering the "real world" that they would remember that. They are going to face more challenges than they can imagine.
Another huge success we have had recently was a young boy who just finished his freshman year of high school here, was able to return home to his family to finish school there because this program has worked for him, and everyone felt he was ready to go back home! This is truly why we are here and what this ministry is all about. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the success and only focus on the failures.

Lately...

Several weeks ago, the bike club in Polson hosted a bike race. I wasn't brave enough to ride, but John and I did some volunteering and took some pictures. It was a tough 50 mile, very intense, hilly course. We've been out training for our triathlon, but it has been hard to get on the bike this season for some reason. John finally went up to ride with the club tonight, and we both went for a ride yesterday. We have been doing the Friday Night Time Trial faithfully this spring and are having a blast. Its a race against the clock, on a 12.1 mile loop. We went the first week after a winter of riding a handful of times on the trainer and not really doing much other physical activity. We have only been improving since, needless to say. We've both dropped over 5 minutes off of our first times over the past 4 weeks, but there are still plenty of people there WAY out in front of us (especially me). One night we got to finish in the sleet. This picture is me finishing that night- cold, wet, and tired. The other picture is the same night. I love the light.
Gardening has also been on our t0-do list lately. We've been buying flowers and plants for our new yard. We didn't really get a chance to do anything last summer because we moved in so late in the spring and then we had only a yard of mud. This year we've bought some plants to line the sidewalk and the area in front of the driveway. We're kind of holding out on planting until the weather looks a little safer. You never really know in Montana.

And last, we had to break down and give Scout a bath yesterday. He smelled awful- like he rolled in something dead. He hates baths, but he is really pretty good. Once he tries to get away once and realizes he can't, he just stands there shaking with his tail between his legs, but at least he lets us do it. Unfortunately, this bath didn't really do the job and he still stinks. I'm not really sure what to do about it.Look at that poor puppy face. He looks so sad.

Triathlon Training

We've started to work on training for another triathlon this summer. It has been hard to get motivated because of the cold weather. We did a pretty good job of swimming weekly throughout the winter, but the running and biking have been sadly neglected. The cycling club in Polson has a time trial every other Friday night, and the first one was a few weeks ago. We didn't go at all last year, but thought we'd give it a try this year. Its a 12 mile loop ride with some hills. It has been really cold both times we've gone and we are seriously out of shape, but its still fun. We waned to do a sprint triathlon in Missoula this spring but registration filled up too fast, and now I'm glad we aren't doing it. We have 6 inches of snow today and who knows what the weather will be like in 2 weeks, the day of the triathlon. We definitely aren't ready yet. Now we are trying to find a training schedule that we can stick with throughout the rest of the spring and summer so that we will be ready to do another sprint triathlon in June and hopefully an Olympic length in September. We even bought wetsuits for swimming in the cold lakes! So, starting this week we are going to try to stick with this plan of swimming, biking, and running twice a week each. That will be difficult to fit into our "live at the school" schedule, but maybe it will help us get our work done faster so that we can get out of there.

Friday Fun

Friday afternoon was kind of a fun day for the kids at school. I took my class outside for some pictures, and then they got to go upstairs to see a cow's heart and lungs dissected. They had a blast (most of them) feeling the different parts.

What a bunch of goofballs.

Kaatje showing the kids the heart and lungs.

When I showed this boy this picture he said, "I was just so astonished!"

So Cute...

Bad News/Good News

We had an interesting day last week. We had been looking into getting a new vehicle and had found one in Kalispell that we wanted to go look at. On Thursday we finally convinced ourselves to go look at it, so we took some friends after school and went up to check it out. On the way there, we saw tons of deer standing around in fields and some crossing the road behind us. All of a sudden, there was a deer coming straight at us, and John swerved a little, but still hit it. It was pretty small, so it didn't do as much damage as it could have. The deer got up and ran away, but I'm pretty sure it still died.

Anyway, we continued to Kalispell and ended up buying the new car we were looking at. Its a 2006 Nissan Xterra. We're pretty excited about it. And now we have something to drive while the car gets fixed. We're already talking about some of the places we want to go now that we have a vehicle that we can drive places our car can't go. There are so many hiking trails in the mountains that are hard to get to. Even getting home when it is snowy is a challenge in our car, so we're glad to finally have 4 wheel drive.

Youth Group Ski Trip

John and I help out with the youth group for our church, which basically is for the houseparents kids from the ranch, the ministers kids, and a few foreign exchange students who live with a member of our church. We thought it would be fun to take them skiing this winter, since many of them had never gone. They had a blast! Almost all of them caught on right away and were doing several blue runs by the end of the day. There were only a couple who didn't really get it, but they still had a good time. It also gave John and I the chance to work on teaching people how to ski... That was a challenge!