Address Change!

While I'm technically keeping the same blog, I'll be changing the address in the next week or so, to reflect the new name.  The new address will be: http://livinginthelandoflincoln.blogspot.com/ 

Thanks! 

Big Sky to the Land of Lincoln

Since I'm not longer in Big Sky Country I figured I should change the name of my blog....so welcome to Living in the Land of Lincoln.  I'll use this space to capture all of the wonderful aspects of living in the great state of Illinois.  Okay, I don't really know if it's a great state yet but I hope to find out soon.  In the meantime, I'll share my adventures (most of them at least) as I learn to navigate yet another new community. 

I've been in Evanston for one month.  In many ways it seems so much longer, I think mostly because I love it here.  I do!  I love the diversity; the 'downtown' (not really a downtown compared to Chicago I suppose but 'downtown' enough for me); the many, many restaurants, the fabulous Brothers K Coffee shop just around the corner from my apartment; the fact that I have a coffee shop (two actually), a dry cleaner, a salon, a chocolatier, four restaurants, two boutiques, and an eyeglass shop all just around the corner; the lake is only 4 blocks; I should clarify, the lake that looks like an OCEAN, is only four blocks; and there's a convenient bike trail straight to campus..... I love it.

Minus one parking ticket (who knew you had to register your car in Illinois AND Evanston....you do.  I'm contesting it), one pretty good fall on the sidewalk (apparently my foot failed to make contact with the curb), and my complete lack of remembering how to parallel park (pathetic really),  my adjustment so far has been good.  Shelby and I have gotten used to the sights, smells, and sounds associated with living in an apartment (an apartment very close to the next apartment building, which is close to the next, etc.)  She loves all the other dogs in the area and especially the dog park.   Although I'm sure winter will be here soon enough we're enjoying fall while we have it.  The changing leaves are beautiful and the cooler temperatures wonderful, especially since I don't have AC!

Here's a picture of my apartment from the website:

 

My Montana Year Comes to an End

I wouldn't say my blogging experience was an epic fail but I would say it left something to be desired, like more posts, more often!  I'm sorry!  I pride myself (in the most humble of ways of course) in leading a relatively simple life.  Somehow though, it's still not simple enough for me to find 5 minutes to blog about it. 

Because I'm using this blog as a virtual memory book of sort I do hope to add a few more posts from my fabulous Montana experience.  I'd like to have it wrapped up nicely (can we say unrealistic expectations?)  But, I wanted to go ahead and provide a quick update.  I've moved!  Two and a half weeks ago (that's it?!?) I arrived in my new home in Evanston.  I can already tell you - I love it.  It's definitely different than Montana (of course) but it's great.  It's diverse, has fun restaurants and coffee shops, I can still ride my bike everywhere but there's also tons of public transportation (like the free shuttle to and from school), I'm 4 blocks from beautiful Lake Michigan, and of course the nerd in me loves that I'm back in school.  School!?!?  Crazy, challenging, and surprisingly....fun!

So, I'm still dealing with some Internet challenges (like not having it) but I hope to get back on the Blogger bandwagon.  I'll be starting a new blog (or just changing the name on this one) and I hope all of my followers (thanks Mom :) ) will stick with me.  I'm also thinking about starting a separate blog to share all the great things I learn while here.  (Go big or go home right.  I'll shell out the dough, you can learn for free.) But I since I'm probably the only one (and maybe a few of my fabulous ladies back in Valdosta) that's interested in this I don't expect a huge following.  We'll see though.

In the meantime, maintain peace, make joy, and share laughter.  AM

Journey of Faith continues....

When I first started this blog I said my time in Montana would be a journey of faith....has it ever.  As I read back on my early posts knowing what I know now it's a bit surreal.  No one ever would have guessed that my dad would pass away five months after my move here.  And yet, in a way, that explains the sense of urgency I had in moving.  Sure, there were several moments of anxiety about the big decision I was making but it was always outweighed by the feeling that I needed to come to Montana.  And now I know why.  Now we all know why. 

In nine days it will be the one year anniversary of my dad's death.  In some ways it seems so much longer than a year; in most though, it seems like it only just happened.  Certainly my faith has grown through trial and testing as I walk through my father's death and all that comes along with that. 

My faith has also grown as I found myself without the same support group of friends I had back home, without my church, my routine, my 'circle of comfort'.  At times during this journey it seemed my faith was a foreign object.  I felt I was standing alone with no one and nothing to anchor me.  But, knowing this isn't true, my faith reminded me that God is always with us, always for us. 

And now, my journey of faith continues as I once again move to a new community.  Once again I will depend on God to open up doors of opportunities, to build new relationships, to reveal His plan for my life in His timing.   Without faith I would not have survived my journey this far.  Without faith I'd have no courage to continue.  But with faith....all things are possible!

My apologies.....30 days left.

Wow - am I a slacker or what? It's been almost 6 months since I last posted. Amazing how time flies. My apologies to all the people who wait with baited breath to read about my Montana adventures - sorry mom. :)

Now that I only have 30 days left here in Montana I feel the need to quickly capture all that happened in the last 6 months. Over the next several days I'll be playing catch up, all in an effort to have a digital chronicle of my time here in this amazing, beautiful Big Sky Country before I begin my next adventure.  I'm going to try and date the posts when (or near when) the event actually occurred....so you'll be reading back in time a bit.  Weird huh....

Adventures in Chinese Food

I'm a big fan of the Chinese restaurant we have here.  I consider us very lucky to have such a good Chinese restaurant in such a small town.  (In spite of that one time that there wasn't a fortune in my cookie I still really like them.) 

I'm picky about my Chinese food - I like real chicken, no fillers, and preferably white meat.  The Chinese restaurant here meets that requirement. 

I eat there fairly often.  Often enough that they smile big when I come in and know that I like lemon with my water.  They also love my dog (outside of the restaurant of course.) 

Every once in a while I splurge and get the Sweet and Sour Chicken, although I'm sure it's just as bad for me as all of the other Chinese dishes I get when I'm not "splurging"....okay, let's be honest...eating almost any type of Americanized Chinese food should probably be considered splurging.  Anyways, one evening I got Chinese Take Out....for some reason I enjoy getting Chinese Take Out more than other types of take out.   Always have....probably always will.    Here's a picture of one of my pieces of chicken.  It's a snail!  Haha....I just thought this was fun.  I love eating food that's fun to eat, this qualifies!  (Yes, I just spent precious minutes of my life posting a blog about a piece of snail-looking-fried-Chinese-chicken.....did I mention the pace of life in Red Lodge is a lot slower. I have lots of extra time on my hand...LOTS.)

Why did the ducks cross the road?

The last time I was in Billings I saw something in person I'd never seen before.  You know the email forward that goes around showing the 'crazy pictures' and you always wonder how someone just happened to have a camera.  One of the pictures is of a momma duck and her ducklings crossing a scary busy road.  Well that's what I saw!  No kidding....and even crazier I saw it twice.  Two different groups of ducklings I'm sure since I saw them on different sides of town.  The first was right by Target and the second was near the on-ramp to the interstate.  Crazy!   I know! 

I happened to have my camera and was able to snatch a picture of the first group once I pulled safely into the Target parking lot (not that I was going to Target to shop....).  I almost ran over the little ducks as they were walking down the side of the road....how they managed to cross over four lanes of traffic....whew, God obviously was watching over His special creatures. I couldn't get a picture of the second group because the traffic was too heavy but, it's the sweetest thing watching cars stop to let a line of ducklings pass.  Shows there's still some humanity left in all of us. 

So, why did the ducks cross the road?  To get to the park of course!

Mom's Visit

My mom came to visit in July.  I wanted her to experience Independence Day in what I consider 'small town America'.  We had a great visit which included a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Grand Tetons National Park.  We also hit the rodeos in Cody and Red Lodge....I've probably seen enough rodeos for a while.  We wrapped the Fourth of July up with a seafood boil party and a BEAUTIFUL double rainbow (see pictures below for proof!).

We of course hit up the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.

A little odd but they have four of these arches, one at each entrance into the main square downtown. The antlers are collected by Boy Scouts (I think) from the National Elk Refuge just outside Jackson Hole.(Where the Elk spend winter.)

Grand Tetons....they aren't called Grand for nothing!

I could have sat there for hours just soaking it all in.

This guy was great, posing for the camera!

A Reindeer!  Or maybe an elk.  :)

A Moose!  We saw him just as we were leaving the park. 
He was great!

Cody Rodeo - They raised the flag onto a firetruck ladder.  Beautiful.

Double Rainbow!  The colors were soooo vibrant!

Ahhh yesss, Independence Day done right.

Grease Ball

Each year the Beartooth Hospital hosts a fund raising ball. Last year the theme was M.A.S.H (see last year's blog post). This year the theme was Grease! (the movie....one of my favs!) I volunteered again, this year as a ticket taker - what a parade of costumes!  For most of the folks, attending the ball was probably just like attending a high school reunion - they certainly dressed the part. There was a Sandy and Danny look-alike contest and even a drag race.

Joyce, Me, and Jeanne - the best volunteer gigs include wine!

One of the drag racers

Drag race - getting ready

On your mark!

And they're off...notice the beautiful background scenery

The original Pink Ladies....

Coming back....watch out!

1500 Miles....

My friend Sheri from Valdosta came to visit. (Thank you Sheri for making the trip I know it wasn't easy getting here or getting home!)  After much deliberation we decided to do a whirlwind tour of Montana.  I had yet to see Glacier National Park and Sheri had never been to Big Sky Country and wanted to see as much as possible.....that we did.  Here's a shortened version of our itinerary:

Leave Red Lodge, Yellowstone National Park, Bozeman, Missoula, Glacier National Park, Helena, Chico Hot Springs, back to Red Lodge....all of this was accomplished in 5 days and 1500 miles. (Love my Subaru)

Here's a link to all 367 pictures if you're interested.  If not, what follows is an extreme Cliff Notes version.

Our trip started in Yellowstone.....the baby bison were so cute I wanted to take them home with me.
Baby's Big Momma said no.  

Sheri and I in front of one the many beautiful falls in Yellowstone...it was cold that day!

After a quick dash through Yellowstone, including a stop at the Old Faithful site although we missed the actual eruption (Sheri said she could imagine it, I'm sure you can YouTube it), we headed to Bozeman.  We started with yummy drinks at Plonk and then had a great dinner at Dave's Sushi.  We did Sake Bombs in honor of my dad - he would have been proud.  :)

We stopped at the Museum of the Rockies on the way out of Bozeman the next day.  GREAT museum.
The largest dinosaur exhibit this side of the Rockies (or something like that....it was big folks...lots of fossils.)

Lucky us they had a special frog exhibit.  Really, I was super excited.  I thought these little guys looked like Yoda.

They also have a 'living museum', very neat.  People 'living' as if in the old days....it was lunch time and it smelled goooood.

 After Bozeman we scooted up to Missoula for the night before heading to Glacier National Park.  Missoula seems like a great town, home to the University of Montana.

I had never seen this before....talk about strong guys, the current was moving!

We had a FABULOUS meal at Scotty's Table.

Found this sign on the street and thought I'd give it a try.
  Hope the people before and after me had better luck.

Beautiful Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park. 
A stunning place....pictures don't do it justice.

Sheri and I took a boat ride on Lake McDonald.  I drove!

Majestic!

Although the weather didn't cooperate with us, we had a great time.

We finally got to see a bear up close as we were leaving the park.

Montana State Capitol in Helena.

Although Sheri didn't get to go over the Beartooth Pass since it was still closed due to the obscene amounts of snow we received late in the season, we did take a partial drive the night before she left.  (Wow, longest run-on sentence ever.)

Flat Stanley

My 7 year old nephew, Aidan (aka Sweetest Boy Ever), had to send Flat Stanley to someone for a week-long visit.  I was honored when he picked his Tia Am!  (me).  Here's a brief chronicle of my adventures with Flat Stanley.  (Aidan said he was really Flat Aidan.)  It's probably somewhat sad (aka pathetic) that I had such a fun time!  Thanks to my sweet nephew for letting Flat Stanley visit. 

Flat Stanley helped Chef Eric in the kitchen.  Watch out!  Paper and fire don't mix!

Flat Stanley helping me tell the specials to one of our regular customers.

Flat Stanley is a big supporter of eating your fruits and veggies!

No, no to candy says Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley says pick the healthy cereal....always on the top shelf it seems.

Although there's still plenty of snow at the play ground Flat Stanley was ready to go. 
Unfortunately, me on one end and him on the other just didn't work out too well. 

The slide was more up Flan Stanley's alley.

Flat Stanley and his snowman (person)

Flat Stanley agrees that recycling is important.  He'll surely end up here one day!

The recycling guys loved Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley helping me make cupcakes

After the frosting adventure.

After all that baking Flat Stanley was a true gentleman and helped with the dishes.

A visit isn't complete without some quality time with Shelby.

He's a ladies man!  Helping with the laundry.

Not the most flattering picture of me but look at how thin Flat Stanley is looking.