Life

Well things have been crazy as always here in Bozeman over they last 4 months. Dan is doing well in his engineering classes and he really likes them. He is known to all of his teachers as the one who is always in the study center and a hard worker. That is a great thing for your teachers know you for :)

Work for me is still work, not much change in hours or work load. Working 10 to 12 hour days and busy for all of those hours. I am really hoping for things to change, but I am not holding my breath. We just really need a 3rd person and to restructure the teams, then we could have a reasonable work load and we might be able to have a life outside of work.

I took some gardening classes over the last month and I have learned a lot for the garden I am going to start. Living in family graduate housing lets us be able to rent plots of land for a garden in the spring through the fall. I got a 20x20 plot to plant what ever I want! I am so excited to learn how to grow stuff and to have our own vegetables fresh from the garden. I have also been reading lots of books and learning that the growing season is so short here you have to buy specific short season crops (as I am typing it has been snowing for over 24 hours and will snow through the night and it is April). I am also starting all my plants from seed in the house under grow lights, I hope I don't mess things up too much, this being my first garden.

We went home to Washington for Christmas this year, the first time in 3 years I have been home for Christmas. We had a great time seeing family and relaxing for a whole week. The Thornton's Christmas was great as always, with a poker game that got out of control with a huge money pot with Dan dealing and the latest motion gaming system to watch everyone make a fool of themselves. It was also Dans first Christmas with my family and he did great with everyone there.
Dan also finished his first semester back in school I think on the deans list (or something like that for smart people)for good grades. I am so proud of him for going back to school for such a hard degree and working so hard.
Well that is all I can think about right now with an update, I will try and do better with summer coming and having a little more time. I wish had my sisters blogging skills, she is amazing.

Thanksgiving

Dan and I had a great Thanksgiving at our new home this year. Well it is new to us, but it is a 1960's military type of house, 2 bed rooms and only 580 square feet :) Small, but comfy!

We had Turkey and all the trimmings, and I ate way too much just like every year, but it felt good to have some comfort food :)

I also got a few days off work, which is rare now days. I got to sit on the couch, sew, read a book, cook, clean my house, play video games, and I loved every second of it! Dan did homework every day, but rested up with me too. He is such a good student and is working so hard to get good grades. I am so proud of him and his work ethic.

There is only 3 weeks now until we will be headed to Washington for Christmas. We cannot wait and are so excited to see family and friends. We also cant wait to sit and do nothing for a while and not worry about anything. I am excited to bake cookies with my Mother in law and play with my parents new puppy! It should be a great trip :)

Moved In

Well we are moved in and I say that in the most lax of ways. We just got all of the stuff we own in our new house, but it is in multiple piles around the house :) I am at work now, but after work Dan and I are going to have to clean the old apartment and have it ready to be inspected by tomorrow at 10:30am. I am glad we did not live there long and we wont have much to clean.

Dan and I already love our new place, even though it is a mess right now. We are also looking in to getting a shed tonight. We will put it in the back of our house and be able to store a ton of things that are usually in our living room or under our bed! We cant wait :)

I will have to take some pictures tonight, it has so much more natural light, but that means I have to buy a lot of curtains! It is just going to be a million times better that the Communist style cement apartment we were in before. We can actually put pictures on the walls!!!!!

New House

Dan and I got the house we wanted on campus :) We got the keys yesterday and I already have moved one load. We will be getting our washer and dryer out of storage tonight and move the rest of our stuff in tomorrow. A long day of moving, we have until monday to get all of our stuff out and to clean the old apartment and I only have one day off in the 4 we have. It will be a mad dash, but Dan and I will do it :)
I will try and post pictures if I have time ;) More to come soon!

Starting up!

Today is the first day of school for Montana State University and for Dan :) This means that I will be crazy busy starting on Wednesday, after everyone gets all the paper work done they need.

Dan cant wait to learn and do well in school. I know he is going to do amazing and have fun while doing it.

With school starting I have to figure out when to work out again. I think that is the most frustrating thing for me is to find one hour to work out and focus on myself. I am sure I will be able to find time, it is just the first 2 weeks trying to get the schedule figured out that I always feel like I am not working out enough.

Well back to work, I have to finish some programs for my athletes next week.

Back to school

Well I am not going back to school, but all the kids are coming back. It is still a few weeks away, before everyone gets in town and school actually starts, but Football and Volleyball have started for me so, it has started :) and summer is over :(
Now I may not be going back to school, but Dan is! He will be starting his first full semester after taking a few years off. This summer he go an "A" in both is classes, so starting out the semester with a 4.0 is pretty good :) I am so proud of him and I know he will do well in engineering.
Dan and I will get some time to get away this weekend (the last) for my little brother's wedding back home in Shelton. It will be great to see family again and just to be away from work and with my husband :)

Highest "M" Hikes :)

The last 2 weeks I have hiked the "M" twice and each time I have gotten higher than the last. This picture is of me the first time I went up to a rocky out crop, which let me see on the other side of the mountain. I got up there in 59 min, which I was really happy about. It is almost straight up for 3/4 of the way.

This was the view of the first hike on the other side of the mountain. It was a beautiful day, but boy was it hot!

Here I am on my second hike which I did this morning at 7 am. I was trying to beat the heat and I did. It was a beautiful morning and the temp was cool on the mountain. I also decided to wear my cowboy hat I bought about 3 years ago and never worn, it was great to keep the sun off my head :) I got to the rocky out crop in 51 min so I took 8 min off my time from last week!

This is part of the trail farther up from the rocky out crop. I went to the second highest point on the ridge today so the trail was new to me. And some of it was scary in spots if you tripped. It was a straight drop down! Needless to say I watched my step very carefully.

Here is just one of the beautify hill sides I saw this morning.

Now this is a picture of the mountain tops I am trying to get to. The one in the center of the picture is called Baldy, because there are no trees up there. This is the highest point on the ridge and it is what my goal is to get by the end of the summer. Now the mountain top to the far left of the picture, behind a dead tree, is the one I got to today.

And this is the view from the top. Now I had to go off trail to take this picture, because the trail looped around this rock and went back down to go to Baldy. I made it in 1 hour and 34 min. I am really proud of my time and I cant wait to go farther. Our Associate Athletic director made it to Baldy in 1 hour and 59min. Crazy! I don't think I could ever make it in that time, but I just want to make it :) Soon!