Goodbye 2010

Wow, I can't believe that the year is over already. It was an interesting year for us. 2010 brought a lot of changes for our life. It also brought a lot of growth and strength for us. Jon McLaughlin released a Christmas song this year that says something about thinking back about what a crazy year it's been, and every time I hear the song I can't help but think how fitting that line is for us. We are looking forward to the new year and the changes and adventure that it will bring us as we remember all that 2010 brought. I just hope that 2011 can be a little easier on us. Here are some highlights of our year.

• Enjoying skiing several times at our favorite ski resort in Montana, knowing all along that it would be our last season to be able to drive just a few hours to such incredible skiing.


• Tough times at PH. Lots of tears, frustration, and prayer, all while strengthening friendships that will last a lifetime because of the common bond we all share. We are so thankful for friends who shared that time with us.


• A month of goodbyes in June: Saying goodbye to the life in Montana that we had grown to love so much. What a wonderful place. Saying goodbye to kids that we had grown to love, many we had seen grow up over the last four years. Saying goodbye to those friends we had made and grown so close to over the years. Saying goodbye to a wonderful cycling group in Polson that is completely unique that we miss greatly.

• A fun drive from Montana to Indiana. We got to visit Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore again.
  

• Struggling to find jobs in Bloomington, where we moved in with my parents while we figure out what we are going to do with our lives now. We both did find jobs relatively quickly, and John found a job that was a better fit for his education background and hopefully a better foot in the door at the school corporation that he just started after Christmas. It took a little soul searching, but we've both decided to stick it out with education and do what it takes to find teaching jobs. We're looking forward to giving it another chance. Since deciding to become teachers in college, we have both felt strongly that there is a great need for Christian teachers in the public schools, and hopefully we will be used in that way.

• House hunting has been a new experience for us this fall/winter. We looked at many many houses, and we think we have found one. We are in the process of making an offer, so hopefully good news about that will follow soon.

• Building connections and friendships in our new community and reconnecting with family.

• Finding a new church that we love.

We've definitely come a long way this year, in more ways than one. In many ways it has been a year of turbulence, and we are looking forward to some calm and rest in 2011.

Be Still and Know That I Am God

This needs to be a theme verse for this time in our lives right now. This picture is one of our favorites and we have it hanging in our bedroom. It is a good reminder to be at rest and trust that God knows what he is doing in our lives right now. We are still without a home to call our own, living on the wonderful generosity of my parents. They have been great to us, and I know they don't mind us staying, but we are just missing our own place, our own stuff, our own life. We both still feel that we are in transition with our jobs, hoping for something better to come along soon. Still we feel very blessed that God is providing for every need, even if it is in a different way than we would have chosen ourselves. We are definitely growing a lot during this time and learning to be patient and have faith. I'm not saying that it is always easy, just that we are appreciating all that God is doing in our lives right now. Our new church is wonderful as is the small group we have joined. They have been a huge support to us in this time of waiting. Even as we are waiting, God is showing us ways he is moving. John has a renewed passion for teaching and is hoping to get his license renewed so he can start looking for a teaching job in the area next fall. He is going to be starting a new part-time job as a site coordinator for an after school program (same thing I do) after Christmas. He's excited about that opportunity, but will be quitting a full time job to take something part time, so we are praying that he will get this other job through the school system that he is interviewing for on Thursday. We continue to look for a house and have narrowed down our search criteria considerably. It is such a huge decision to make, and we don't want to rush into a purchase just because we are ready to have a house. This will continue to be a time of change and transitioning for us, but we will press on toward the goal, and continue to seek his guidance for each step we take.

The Move Back To Indiana

What an adventure it was moving back to Indiana. We rented a Uhaul Trailer to tow behind our Xterra, and then we were going to drive our car separately. Luckily, Heather's sister Amber and her husband decided to fly out to Montana and help us drive back. This was great because it meant we didn't have to drive each of the vehicles alone, and we were able to share the load of the 1900 mile drive.

With the help of several other staff members at the ranch we were able to load up the trailer and both of our vehicles. The trailer was a 6 x 12 foot trailer, and we used every square foot of that trailer. When you opened the door it was completely packed. Heather and I pretty much shut down during the loading process because we were so overwhelmed and we knew we were not going to be able to fit everything. We loaded what we could, and then helped our friends Tim and Lisa, who also worked for the ranch, load there 26 foot truck because they were also leaving. They ended up having quite a bit of extra space, so we didn't have to leave behind much of anything. Tim and Lisa took our grill and our dog's 400lb. dog house (not small items!) and several other things which was a relief to us.

We left on Monday to head to Bozeman, MT to pick up Amber and Shawn. They knew I was really stressed when we got to the airport because the drive to the airport took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take. This was mainly because the trailer was swerving all over the road and it seemed quite dangerous. I knew something was wrong, and I figured it was with the weight distribution in the trailer. After Shawn pulled the trailer for a few miles, he concluded the same thing. There was only one thing to do...repack the trailer.

We planned on dropping off the trailer in Livingston, MT and then driving into Yellowstone for a few days. We stopped at the Uhaul facility in Livingston, and began to repack the trailer by taking almost everything out. The whole process took only about an hour and a half, and we even ended up with a little bit more room than we had the first time. I told everyone during the repacking that I was kind of having fun doing it, and it was a challenge to see if we could make everything fit. After a test drive to test out or new arrangement, we left the trailer and headed to Yellowstone. We spent the rest of Monday evening and most of Tuesday in the park. We saw a total of 5 grizzlies, which was certainly the highlight of that trip for all of us. We talked about going white water rafting, but that was going to make for a cold, wet, and early morning that we weren't really feeling up to. We left the park Tuesday evening and made it that night to Billings, MT. The next day we drove to Mount Rushmore. The weather was getting pretty bad and there were actually tornado warnings, so when we were done at the monument and had dinner we headed to Wall, South Dakota, which is right next to the badlands. We saw a lot of lightning, but we made it safe.

The next morning Shawn and Amber took our car and went through the Badlands. We waited for them at the end of the loop because we didn't want to pull the trailer through the national park. We drove a lot that day and made it all the way to Moliene, Illinois (almost home!). The humidity was not a welcome site, and we had to use the air conditioning the further east we went. We arrived in Indiana on that Friday. We made pretty good time considering the sites that we saw, all the stops for gas, and the repacking of the trailer. It was good to stop and not have to drive a lot the next day. I had a few extra days with the trailer so I took it to Greencastle, Indiana were Tim and Lisa left our stuff with Heather's other sister. It is all now at Heather's parents house and waiting for our next home. Thanks for your prayers and all of you that helped with the loading, unloading, or reloading (lol). I will post some more scenic pictures of our trip soon. It has been 2 months since the move and I am just now getting around to this.

Weekend of Training In Wallace

Well, I haven't blogged forever and a lot has changed so I am doing a few posts all at once to say what we have been doing over the last couple of months. At the end of May, I had a great opportunity to meet with fellow cyclists and triathletes in Wallace, Idaho for a training weekend. Heather was occupied at the ladies' retreat that our ranch hosts, so I decided to attend the training weekend. I knew I had to be prepared for it because it was going to be several days of intense workouts. It takes forever for the weather to warm up here in the Spring so my training over the last couple of weeks before the weekend had been lacking. I did get in an 80 mile ride the week before around Flathead Lake, which was a cool experience. I had tried to get in 200 miles of biking each week for the last two weeks but I probably only got around 150 miles each week.

The weekend consisted of a 12 mile time trial on Friday where we each raced against the clock up a canyon right outside of town. It was a hard climb out but a fast ride back into town. I finished about halfway down in the pack, which considering the group of people that I was with I was happy with that.

On Saturday we ate a big breakfast and then spent most of the day on the bike. About twenty of us rode 130 miles. It was a ride I had done once before, and it is such a cool route going across a large section of the panhandle of Idaho. I often battle stomach problems on these kinds of rides just because it is such a long, physical day without regular meals. I am constantly eating nutrition bars, using gels, and drinking sports drinks because although physical conditioning is important, nutrition is just as critical. I have suffered at times because I have made mistakes. We did have one crash at one point, but luckily despite a few scrapes, a lot of dirt, and a pretty trashed wheel we were able to make it back to Wallace. It took about 8 hours total with some stops along the way. After the ride I ran a couple of miles. The transition from biking to running is often very difficult in a triathlon, so it is the kind of thing you need to prepare for. After the run, I went and soaked my legs in the icy waters of a stream near the house where we were staying. Sounds crazy but it really helps relieve soreness. After a nice dinner, we stat down to discuss the next day....a day I was rather worried about.

Sunday was a day for triathletes. Many of the people with us were seasoned triathletes having competed in multiple ironman events. In fact, we had three current pros and one retired pro with us. That may have been the coolest thing about the weekend. These people were amazing. Some of them have sponsors that provide them with fancy bikes, nutritional bars, and top-notch clothing. Linsey Corbin was with us that weekend, and she just won Ironman Coeur d' Alene this past weekend. Now that we are living back in Indiana, I hope I can continue to train with athletes like this because it can only make me better. We spent the day riding the actual course of Ironman Coeur d' Alene. We did 56 miles on the bike (or half of the course) and then half of the run course (13 miles). It took 3 hours to do the bike portion, and it was hard because there are a lot of turns and since it isn't race day, the roads are not blocked off or labeled. I got stopped at a number of lights and made a couple of wrong turns, so I am pretty sure doing this in under 3 hours is possible. The run was very hilly and I didn't take water with me, so I started to get dehydrated the last half of the run. It was a great experience, and if I can afford it. I would like to do Ironman Coeur d' Alene in June of 2011. I don't have any pictures but you can see some at Linsey's blog and you can see the perspective of someone just "a little" faster than me. www.linseycorbin.com/node/499

Roundup

Thursday we had our annual cattle roundup, and it was probably the best weather we've had in the four years we've been here. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day to be out having fun. They start out the day with the seniors and some of the older kids riding the horses out in the field to bring in the cows. The funny thing this year was that the cows were all up over a ridge pretty close to where they wanted to bring them, so they sent some kids on foot to drive the cattle out to the people on horses, so that they could then drive them into the corral. No one was thrown off the horse and injured this year, fortunately (that has been a problem in past years). After they brought in the cows, they sorted them out and we ate lunch. After lunch, the fun began. The kids go out in small groups of 4-6 and they send in one calf that they have to wrestle to the ground so that it can be vaccinated and branded. Usually the staff don't participate, but John and I both thought it would be fun to give it a try this year, so I went out with the girls from my class and John did it with the boys from his class. It was fun! The idea is for one person to get the head and the others pull on the legs to knock it down. After chasing the poor little calf around the corral for a few minutes I managed to get it around the neck and the girls knocked it down. We managed to do it without anyone getting kicked, squashed, or pooped on, so I'd say we were pretty successful. The rest of the afternoon, they take the kids on horseback rides, we eat some more, and just hang out. It was a great day, and even better since it is a day we don't have to go to school. It even counts as a school day because it is an educational experience. Its kind of like a field trip to the farm, only we live on the farm.

John's Awesome Bike Video

It's Been Awhile

Well, I'm not going to lie. We've had a tough year. I haven't gotten on here to post anything recently because I haven't really had much to post. Things are starting to look up though. We have only 5 weeks of school left and we are so looking forward to that. The weather is getting warmer, the sun is shining more, and we are enjoying getting outside and doing some of the things we love so much.

• We both competed in the Grizzly Triathlon this April. It was a lot of fun.
• John has raced in 2 bike races this spring, including a 53 mile race with a lot of gravel.
• I've been working on my homemade yogurt, and I pretty much have it down.
• We took the youth group kids to a youth rally in Havre and they had a great time.
• We went skiing a few weekends ago on the last day of the season and got to see a pond skimming contest. The water was probably barely over 32 degrees.
• Did I mention we are ready for school to be over and it is only 5 more weeks!
• John has been making a video for a contest on Bicycling magazine to win a new bike. I'll post it on here soon. It's really pretty good.

Homemade Yogurt Experiment

I read on the internet the other day something about making yogurt at home. Since we have an abundance of free milk here at the ranch, I decided I would give it a try and I was surprisingly successful! It seemed a little intimidating as I was reading all of the directions, but it wasn't too bad. Basically you heat milk to 185 degrees, then you cool it down to 110, at which time you add some store bought yogurt for the live cultures and some nonfat dry milk to help it thicken. You pour it into your containers and then you have to keep it at 110 degrees for 4-6 hours. I put the containers in a cooler with water heated to 110 and just left it there when went over to a friend's house for a few hours. I checked it when we got back and added some more hot water, left it a few more hours and in 5 hours we had homemade plain yogurt. I wish I would have sweetened half of it with honey or something while it was still hot. I think that would have worked better than trying to sweeten the individual servings as you eat it. So far we've just used it in smoothies and flavored it with vanilla and had it with fruit. I'm hoping to try using it as a substitute for sour cream in some recipes and maybe using it as a dip with some seasonings in it. John is making fun of me by claiming that I am becoming Amish, but I thought it was fun.

Skiing!

We got to spend Christmas (or really the days following Christmas) with my family this year here in Montana. After spending all day in Missoula on Saturday waiting for flights to arrive, we got home and had "Christmas dinner" and opened presents. We went up to Whitefish to ski on Monday night and then skied Tuesday and Wednesday as well. That was the first time that we didn't have to drive home after skiing and it was great! It was so nice to just drive about 10 minutes to the house we were staying at and have a nice warm dinner waiting for us. We also played lots of Settlers of Catan which I loved!

Now we are back to school and back to the normal routine. Last weekend we found out that they were having free night skiing at Whitefish, so we took the youth group kids up. They had a great time. They are a fun group of kids to hang out with.

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.