Monday, December 29, 2008

Some pictures

These are a few pictures from our wedding from my friend Jenelle that I just got this weekend and I wanted to share them with you. Thanks Jenelle!

Here is a picture of me going down to meet Dan at the alter.


Here is a picture of the Young's and I after the highland games in Enumclaw.


I love this picture of Dan and I, Thanks Nell.


This is a great one also.


I love this picture, because it has my parents, Dan's family and us in it.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Ginger Bread Houses

The back yard of Andrea's Ginger Bread House.

I was very brave this year and decided to make gingerbread houses. Well actually it was Dan's idea, he really wanted to make one. And me being who I am i decided to go all out and make them from scratch. It went way better than I thought it would, I just ended up making way to much dough and icing (I wanted to be sure we had enough.

Before I made the dough we had to make a rough out line of what we wanted our houses to be. Well as you can see Dan is not the traditional type. he wanted something rough and rugged looking so a castle fell into that category. And for me I wanted to do a house, but a normal square house would not do. So I added another room to my house to give it more depth :)


Dan's castle model


Andrea's house model.

Then came the baking, now this took me some time. After I made the dough I had to cut the pattern out, chill the dough and then bake it. And with how big we both wanted to make our houses it took about 4 hours of baking, cooling, cutting and rolling. I have a new respect for bakers. With the left over dough I decided to make a few cookies also.

After the pieces cooled over night, we then put them together today. It took both of us to get Dan's to stand up at first, but the frosting worked better that I thought it would. And mine went up with out any trouble, with the help of some soup cans.


Using canned food to hold up the sides while it dried :)

After we got them all together the fun part started, the decorating. It took me about an hour to do mine, Dan's was a bit shorter :) I got a little carred away with the candy, bit I baught all of it so I was going to use it. Here are our finishe ginger bread houses.


Andrea's ginger bread house


Dan's ginger bread castle

Dan's ginger bread Man who is guarding his castle, with his Neco shield, mint pillow armor, and candy cane sword.

I loved doing it and Dan had a blast too. I think I will make it a tradition to make them every Christmas.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Throwing, weather, birthday :)

I competed in a meet this Saturdays here at MSU. It was our inter squad meet for the track team and I threw as an exhibition competitor (that means that it did not count how far I threw for a place, I was doing it for fun). It was a blast and I did not do half bad. I threw the shot 44'1" (gliding) and the weight 56'3"(two turn), better than I thought I was going to do.

Also on Saturday we had a huge snow storm, we got about 6 inches of snow, which is not that bad, except for the freezing temperatures. Yesterday it was a high of -10 and today is a high of -5 degrees. My biggest worry was if our cars would start so Dan and I could get to work. Luckily they did and it was about -20 this morning. Now at work, it is cold in the weight room also, it is about 50 degrees inside, not the greatest insulation.

I also celebrated my 30th birthday yesterday, I cannot believe I am 30 already, I don't feel 30, well on some days I feel 90, but not all the time. Looking back I think I have done a lot in 30 years from learning to walk and talk :), to graduating College, going to the Olympic trials, getting a great job and finding the man of my dreams. In my 30 years I have met a ton of amazing people and made many great friends, but the thing that I think is most valuable that I have learned in my 30 years is that I do not know everything and I never will. I just have to keep using the common sense my parents gave me and do the best I can in life :)

Anyway, I had a great day at home with Dan snuggling on the couch watching movies and trying to stay warm. I ate way to much junk, which was fun, and I got a lot of well wishes from my friends and family, Thank you all.

Well I will try and post more pictures and maybe even video of me throwing later when I am not at work.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Update

OK so as you all know I am the worst with blogging. I have had a hard time just getting up to go to work every day, working 12 hours then rushing home to change and come back to work to lift with dan, then come back stuff my face and fall into bed to do it all over again.

So I had a few minutes this morning so I decided to post a few pictures I have been wanting to post for awhile. Here are is one.



These are the roses Dan gave me about a month after we got married. He told me to keep them in my office to think of him when I am at work. I love them so much and I still have them. I am actually going to re-pot it today, it is growing huge!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Hey all!

Hey it's me, Thor!

Just kidding, it's Dan. I'm too lazy to start my own blog so I'll use Thor's password and post on hers.

I have a head cold, my throat feels like fire and my head feels like a clogged shower drain. To top it off, my head is gigantic so it just tips to the side and hangs there. I'm constantly having to look up and to the left to see where I'm going.

I hope Thor doesn't get mad when she sees I'm writing on her blog.

(in case she does, I'll change her password and teach her a lesson!)

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Crazy Weather

Ok, you all might think I will be talking about a big snow storm this time of year, but it is the exact opposite. Today it is sunny and 73 degrees, with a little wind. I feel like it is September not the middle of November. The weather has been crazy mild for this time of year, I hope that does not mean that we will have a winter that will last into the end of June. ( last year it snowed on June 3rd) We will see, snow is expected for this weekend, our big football game against our state rivals University of Montana Grizzles is this weekend also. Go Cats!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Tagged by Kerri

A-Z Tag
A- Attached Or Single: Attached
B- Best Friend(s): Dan, Kerri, Anna, Molly, Deb, Potter
C- Cake Or Pie: Cake
D- Day Of Choice: Any day I have off
E- Essential Item: food
F- Favorite Color: periwinkle, blue
G- Greatest Accomplishment: Graduating College, Competing in the '04' Olympic trials, Marrying Dan
H- Hometown: Shelton, WA
I- Indulgences: chocolate, Popcorn, pop
J- January Or July: July, Wedding anniversary
K- Kids: Some time soon (after we get a house)
L- Life is Incomplete without: Dan, my best friend and Husband
M- Marriage Date: 7/26/08
N- Number of Siblings: 3 (Jennifer, David, Jeffery)
O- Oranges or Apples: Apples
P- Phobias or Fears: Small spaces
Q- Quotes: "What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog." Dwight D. Eisenhower
R- Reason to Smile: Life
S- Season: Fall
T- Tag five friends: Any one who has a free few minutes like I did.
U- Unknown Fact about Me: I would love to be a stay at home mom.
V- Very favorite store: Costco, it has every thing I need (food)
W- Worst Habit: Keeping things bottled up.
X- X-ray or Ultra sound: X-Ray
Y- Your Favorite Food: Mexican
Z- Your Zodiac sign: Sagittarius

Friday, October 10, 2008

First Snow



Well today is our first day of snow, of what I feel will be a long winter (even though it is fall). It just started this morning, and looks as though it wont stop anytime soon. It is supposed to snow all weekend, and we have a home football game tomorrow. Now that will be fun to stand around in all afternoon. Time to take out all the winter jackets.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Driving License

Dan got his drivers license today and I am so proud of him. I am so happy, it is going to give him so much freedom, but most of all he can find another job now that he likes better, but most of all pays better.

He passed with flying colors, which I knew he would, he is a great driver. The written test even shut off early because he had gotten so many right.

Great job Dan! I love you!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Date Night

Well Dan and I decided to go out on a date this weekend. This was the first and last 2 day weekend I had until Thanksgiving, so we took advantage of it. We went to the Museum of the Rockies on Saturday afternoon. It was really fun, Dan and I are into all that dorky stuff. There were a lot of dinosaur fossils, and other Montana history stuff. We had a great time, I will post some pictures later this week.

We also went to our MSU bobcats volleyball game at night. That was fun telling Dan about all the rules, and all my girls, since I am there strength coach. But most of all it was good just getting to spent time together. It was fun having a Date day, we are going to try and do this more often.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

School

Well school is in full swing here and things are picking up for me. Yesterday was the first day all the teams were lifting so things got crazy. I always hate the first few weeks of school. I never feel like I have enough time with my athletes to teach them things. I always feel like I am a bad coach for not seeing everyone lift every rep. Which is impossible to do, I will learn some day.

This year is much better than last year at this time though. All the returners know what to do and I can spend my time with the freshman teaching them new things. The hours are still long, but the athletes make it worth it, watching them succeed in athletics and life. Well I will try and keep you all updated when I can.

Monday, August 18, 2008

More Wedding Pictures


Dan and I at Ocean Shores for our honeymoon!



Our wedding rings, Thank you M.


Goofy honeymoon pic.


The Happy Couple!


Dan with his sister and Mom.


My family minus my sister Jen who could not make it.


Our funny picture

If you would like to see more pictures of the wedding, just email me and I will send you a link to my photo albums on line with Snapfish and you can order prints also from this site. I think you might have to join Snapfish to see the pictures, but it does not cost you anything.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Married

Andrea & Daniel Montague


Well as most of you know I got married just about 2 weeks ago on July 26th 2008. Dan and I could not have asked for a better day or a more beautiful place to get married.

We got to my parents house on the Wednesday before and there was some work to be finished. I was so surprised thought how much my family had gotten done in the last few months. I almost did not recognize my house. I am so happy for my parents that they will have a new patio, bathroom, decks, grass, freshly painted house, and much more for years to come. That night we went to our friends Pat Willis and picked up all the flowers she was going to let us borrow for the wedding. She spent the last few months growing them just for our wedding. They were of course all gorgeous, with Pat's green thumb you cant go wrong. All the flowers made the back yard just breath taking. Thanks Pat!

The next day, Thursday, my mom and I went to get our hair cut and then we went shopping for food, flowers and other last minute things. I was so excited to get my hair cut. It was the first time I have ever gotten a cut/style professionally before. My mom said the lady was good so I just said I want to keep the length, but give me some layers. She did a great job and I love my hair. As my mom and I were shopping and getting our hair done, Dan was at home with my Dad and brother David finishing up things on the house. Dan did such a great job being thrown into whirlwind of construction with my Dad and brother.

Friday was a day of last minute organization/decorating and finishing painting the house. Our friends of the family the Jazuk's came to help and they did a great job. I was so happy for all there help. Dan and I spent most the morning planting heather by the pond in front of all the big rocks and barking the whole area. You can see our handy work in our kissing picture. Then the rest of the day was again just setting up more things and then my other brother Jeff came from work and finished the other bathroom, which I might say he did a fantastic job. Great job Jeff!

Now the day of the wedding came Dan and I were so excited, I could not sleep well the night before. We finished up in the morning with decorating and putting out chairs and the last of Pat's flowers. the house looked great! My mom and my Aunt Barb started on food stuff and people started showing up around 11am (the wedding was at 2pm). As the hour got closer time got slower, I could not wait to marry the man of my dreams. The judge showed up about 15 minutes before the ceremony and talked with Dan and I about our vows and where we wanted to put them. He was a great guy, Judge Sawyer, perfect man to marry us. We filled in all the paper work to make it official and then we had our witness sign, Kerri Conger and Jim McDonald. Then is was off to get married. Well it took a few minutes, people kept filing in and saying hi and poor Dan was sitting down on the platform waiting.


The two greatest people in the world walked me down the isle.

Well I finally got down to the isle and with my amazing parents Bill and Donelle we walked down the isle together. As I walked down I was handed flowers from everyone who came to form my bouquet. Once I saw Dan I forgot about every one else and I did not hear one work the Judge said until we had to say our vows and even then it felt surreal. We exchanged the rings, which were given to us by Dan's Godmother Marilyn Diduca. There very special to Dan and I and we are very grateful that Marilyn would give them to us to start our lives together. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts!

It was the happiest moment of my life and I got to share it with many of my family and friends. The rest of the day was a blur of talking, picture taking and food. Dan and I were overwhelmed on how much everyone loved the wedding and how comfortable everyone was with each other. Everyone also loved the food, thanks to Dave Ellis and Rocky for doing that for us and taking days before to prepare it all. There were a few people Dan and I missed that could not make it to the wedding. My sister Jen, her husband Andy and there 5 kids, Dan' s Godmother Marilyn, my friend and mentor, Debra Farwell and her husband George and my friend Molly. We miss you and love you all and we will send you video and pictures of the wedding.


How cute!

That night Dan and I were talking and decided that that was the most perfect day in the world and we could not have asked for anything better. It could not have happened if it were not for my amazing Family and Friends and all the hard work they put in for months before. I am the luckiest woman it the world and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone.


Nice tattoo!

Oh! The next day I competed in the Enumclaw Highland Games. That was a blast and the first time I had ever competed as a Montague. My Aunt and Uncle, Vicky and Dan came to watch and my cousins, Chris and Kyle, My high school throws coach and basketball coach, John and Kathy, one of my best friends, Jenelle, her husband Andy and there 2 kids. My dad and my brother Jeff and of course my HUSBAND, Daniel! It was great to have such a support base it the crowd. Thanks for your support. Oh, I got second. Next year I will take the title back!

Our honey moon was great the next 2 1/2 days. My parents got Dan and I a hotel room out at Ocean Shores at this Victorian house and it was the honey moon sweet. It was amazing, thanks again Mom and Dad. Well I will be posting more pictures as I get them, and when I find time. Again thank you to everyone who helped out Dan and I at the wedding and for every one who traveled to come see us. It means a lot to us, thank you. And thank you to Becky Potter for the great pictures.


Becky and I

Monday, July 21, 2008

I CANT WAIT !




I cannot wait for our wedding. It will be in 5 days now. We will be leaving for Spokane tomorrow to stay at Kerri's house then on Wednesday we will drive to my parents house. We decided to split the trip up so we wont be dying in the car and so we can both work tomorrow.

I finished up all the stuff I needed to here and packed it all up last night. All of the wedding programs, and candies wrapped in netting. That was all fun to put together. Now all I have to do is pack tonight and try and not to forget anything. Oh! We go our wedding rings from Dan's God Mother Marylin and they are great, more than we could ever ask for.

Well I should get back to work. I will try and keep updating everyone on how things are going. I am really bad at this unlike My sister, Jen the best blogger in the world with 5 kids.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Wedding

Well as most of you know I am getting married in only 13 days. It has come up fast. Last night I sat down and wrote out my wedding vows and that made it all really real. I cannot bealive that I am getting married, at one point in my life I felt like I never would.

Now I have the best man in the whole world and all I had to do was open my eyes and he was right there in front of me.

Things have been crazy at work and getting things done for the wedding. We are hiring some one new in the weight room so that has been stressful and I have had to get all my programs for my kids done early because of the wedding. It will be so great to have over a week off.

I also cannot wait for 3 days at Ocean Shores relaxing. Thanks Mom and Dad for the honey moon.

Well I need to get back to work I will update you all more when I have a second.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Olympic Trials


Have any of you been following the Olympic trials?

Well you should try and watch some tonight. I have a few friends and an athlete competing in them. Ellie Rudy is a pole vaulter here at MSU and will be doing her best to get a shot on the Olympic team. My friends Ian Waltz (Mens Disc) and Mckenzie Garburg (womans hammer), will also be competing tonight.

There are a few more people I have met and used to know back in the day that you should also watch, Matt Lamb(mens disc), Russ Winger (mens disc), Stacy Dragila (womans pole vault), Jillian Camarena (womans shot), Bernard Lagat (15oom, who has a chance to win it all in this and the 5000m). Aritha Thurmund (Hill) won the womans disc with a toss of 213-11, she used to throw at UW and now her and her husband coach there.

I love Olympics and I cannot wait to see how all my friends do, please watch and cheer them on.

To keep up on what is going on and how everyone is doing check out the USA Track and Field web site.


http://www.usatf.org/events/2008/OlympicTrials-TF/schedule.asp

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

June Snow


Yep it is snowing again. Not much, but it is about high 30's and it was just raining but then it just turned to snow. This morning it was sunny and warm about 60+ degrees, we had the doors of the weight room open and everything. Then a huge thunder storm moved in and rained buckets, now the snow. The weather is weird in Montana. Where is summer? :(

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Fire Fighter Testing


On thursday some of my female athletes and I were asked to run through a fire fighter testing course that was being held in Shroyer Gym. Now they asked us to go through this because they wanted to know if trained females could finish the course and pass the test. They had 3 days of testing and over 260 people took it. Of all the woman who took the it only 50% past it. As competitive women we all said we would do it. Now if you all know me, I looked at the test and asked what the best time for a woman was and I set my goal to beat that time, it was about 1 min and 30 sec.

Now the test was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, I under estimated how tired I would be. I dont do cardio, all I do is lift and throw, so my lungs are what really got to me during the test.
The test consists of 8 stations and it must be completed with in a time of 10 min and 20 sec. Through out the whole test you have to wear a 55 lb weighted vest (to simulate all the gear they wear), a helmet and gloves.
1)The first station was a 3 min and 20 second walk on a stair stepper. Now you had the weighted vest on, but also an extra 20 lbs on your shoulders, so a total of 75 lbs walking on the stair stepper. This was the hardest for me, my legs were fine, but about a minute in I was breathing heavy.
2) After the long 3 min climb,I had to walk, not run, to the next station. This station consisted of a hose carry. I had to grab a hose, throw it over my shoulder run with it around a barrel get to a designated area, kneel and pull the hose in to a curtain point.

3) Next was a tool carry. Which was the easiest, we had to grab 2 saws off a shelf @ 30 lbs a piece, set them down, pick them up and walk a distance of 70 feet and put them back on the shelf. The whole time you have a proctor following you telling you what to do and where to go, but if you did something out of order or wrong you failed. So it is not just physical, but mental as well.

4) The latter was next, I had to lift a latter hand over hand from the ground up so it is resting on the wall. Then right to the next ladder which I had to raise up and lower hand over hand with a rope.

5) This one is a pressure plate which I had to use a 10 lb sledge hammer to hit it in about 5 inches and a buzzer goes off. This would not have been so bad, but my arms we so tired from all the other stuff I had just done.

6) After that I had to go into a "U" shaped box that was pitch black. I had to crawl on my hand and knees and find my way out while going under and over things I could not see. I was not fond of the part where I had to crawl on my belly to fit through. It was a little tight.

7) The second to last station was a dummy carry. I had to drag a 170lb dummy with shoulder straps 35 feet, around a barrel and then back 35 feet to the finish line. By this point I was just hanging on and leaning backwards to get it done. I was breathing so hard.

8) The last station was one to simulate ripping down a sealing. You had to use a hook and push up on a pad for 3 reps making sure it hit each rep, then move the hook on to a lever and pull down for 5 reps, I had to repeat this 4 times. Then I was done.

I was exhausted and I was breathing so hard. I had no idea what I had gotten my self into. My time was one of the best time for the women at 1 min and 5 seconds left. I was proud of my self and my athletes. None of them finished in time (under the aloted time), but they all finish and were really close to the time (about 20-40 seconds over). If you want to know what it all entails with some videos and more pictures you should look on this web site.

http://uwfitness.uwaterloo.ca/firefighter/cpat_orient.html

This was a great experience to see what fire fighters have to go through.

This is a picture of some of the first women volunteers fire fighters. Pretty cool.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Great Weather


Here is a close up of some of the flowers and they smell so good!

I hope I am not jinxing my self, but the weather has been nice the last couple days. All the flowers are finally in bloom. These are a few pictures of the trees and stream in my parking lot, it is beautiful outside. I also threw the heavy weight for distance today for the first time since worlds. I am going to compete in 2 meets this year for sure, one in Billings at the end of June and one in Enumclaw at the end of July. I cant wait!

This is the stream running in the back of my parking lot.

Here is one of the trees.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Hot springs


Dan and I went to the Bozeman hot springs just down the road, it was great. There are about 6 small pools that are hot (104 degrees) or cold (54 degrees), a pool inside and a pool outside. They are all hot spring water so it smells like sulfur which was weird at first. They also have a dry and wet sauna, we went int he wet one and it was humid.
Anyone who visits we will have to go, it feels great and is only $7.50 a person, money well spent.

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Victoria Rose Woods


Here is a picture of my new niece Victoria or Tori is what we will call her. She is so cute and I cant wait to see her in person.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Auntie again

My Sister Jennifer just had her 5th child today. Victoria Rose Woods, yep anther girl. That makes 4 girls and a boy. I cannot wait to see pictures and I will try and post a picture as soon as I get one. All is well and healthy.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

More Pictures from Nashville


Here is a picture from the stage at the Grand Ol' Opry.


Down the main aisle at the Opry.


The back side of the Opry house. It is a beautiful building.


The batman building with a cool painting on the side of the Hard Rock Cafe.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Nashville Tennessee


This last week I spent 3 days in Nashville Tennessee for a Strength Training Convention. It was held in down town Nashville close to a ton of bars all with live music. We were also a minutes walk to the country music hall of fame. The picture above is of the Batman tower, or the At&t building, but it looks like bat man. Also just across the street from where we were staying was the original Grand Ol' Opry, the Ryman Auditorium. My co-worker Josh and I decided to get the whole experiance and took the tour. I got some good pictures and it was a beautiful building.


Here is a picture of me and Mini Pearl and a man I forgot his name.


Here I am making my opening debut at the Grand Ol' Opry. (I did play a little, strum, sturm)


I thought this was a cool picture of the stage.


Here is the Hard Rock Cafe we ate there on Friday night and I was great.

On Friday after the conference we decided to look around town to see some other attractions. The number one thing to do in Nashville (as an online site said to do) is to see the Parthenon. Yep there is an actual size Parthenon in Centennial park. We could not pass this up. In side there is a small art museum and then a 44 foot statue of the Greek god Athena. It would have been an amazing sight to see back in the day when the real one was built, I am sure everyone was in awe.



Here is a full picture of the Parthenon, beautiful.


Here I am at the Parthenon ( I will post more pictures so that you can see the real scale of it)


Here is the statue of Athena, this was what was in the original Parthenon also. I had to get a picture of some one in front of it so you could get an idea of how big it really is.

I was a great trip and I am glad I got to see the things I did. We will be going next year also for our convention and I want to see the Country Music hall of fame and go to some of the music bars down town. I will post some more pictures later so you guys can see more of Tennessee.