Fun no matter what is our family motto, especially when things don't go as planned! And because so much of life is unplanned, we often find ourselves repeating this catch phrase to one another. We started this blog to help friends and family who are far away to keep up with what's going on in our daily lives.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Finally, finals are over.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
We have new names
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thank goodness
For Jessica I will make yams with marshmallows. For me I will make pumpkin pie. And for all of us, I will make good gravy. (Good grief!)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Give Thanks
Tomorrow I will attempt to cook my first ever turkey (by myself). Sure I've watched/helped my mom do it a million times, and I was pretty confident a month ago when I offered, but now I'm nervous. This thought now consumes me, "What if I totally mess it up?!"
You might think I'm neurotic, especially if you know me well. And that's OK. I accept that this label sometimes fits me (better than my pants after the Thanksgiving meal!). But before you pass judgment, let me at least explain the reasons for my neurosis.
1. I agreed to cook a vaguely "large" turkey. I was thinking in the neighborhood of 15-18 pounds--I'm pretty sure I mentioned this. The turkey I was given to cook is 22 pounds. HOLY COW (or should I say turkey?)...that's bigger than Liam.
2. I was planning to cook this turkey the way my mom does, in the oven. But my oven is terrible, it doesn't heat evenly, which is sort of important when it comes to cooking meat. So I'm cooking it in an electric roaster, which I have never before used.
3. This turkey is "pre-basted" I have no idea what that means. I will google it shortly because I'm not sure if I should still add a rub or not?
4. The buyer of said turkey did not realize that it needs to defrost 5lbs per day in the fridge and did not deliver it until Monday--frozen--it's been in my fridge ever since. So now I'm going to have to do the cold water bath for the last part, and pray that it stays cold enough, but not too cold, so that it defrosts but doesn't give the whole group food poisoning.
Did I mention 22 pounds!?
So here's where I do some deep breathing, remember the family motto, and tell myself the truth about the situation.
1. This is Adventist Thanksgiving, so if the turkey isn't good, there will be a vegetarian roast to eat.
2. I have cooked things before for the first time, and they were fine.
3. The internet and my mother are no match for any new kitchen obstacle. By their powers combined I can conquer the huge turkey in my fridge. (Mom, if you are reading this, send me tips or I will call you having a meltdown tomorrow. Consider yourself warned)
4. It's just a turkey.
5. I have a meat thermometer (proud aren't you dad?) so as long as I get it to 168 degrees, people will not be sick.
I will post an update once the bird is cooked and let you know if I have conquered the turkey or if it has conquered me!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
"Play date"
But let me back up for a second.
Has anyone who does not have children ever heard of a play date? OK, maybe you've heard this term on a TV show or something. But seriously, there are a LOT of terms that I had never heard before I got pregnant with Liam. And most of them, I am convinced, were created recently by magazines like Parenting and websites like Babycenter.
Here are some examples. If you don't have children, or haven't had them recently, I bet you don't know what some of them are!
Co-sleeping: Sleeping with your baby in your bed. Highly controversial. Doctors say never do it. But many families do it anyway.
Baby wearing: This cracks me up. Like they are an accessory. It means people who use slings or front packs almost all the time when their children infants. They say it promotes bonding. I say it stunts development. (I do love my front pack, but let's be reasonable.)
MOPS: Mothers of preschoolers. A mom's group that meets to do mom things while someone watches their children. AKA sanity for stay-at-home moms.
LLLI: Le Leche League. The breastfeeding zealots! They have good resources and will send out a lactation support person to your house if you need help.
Cruising: This one I just learned. It's a term to define the time when your baby isn't walking, but is holding onto furniture and getting around the room from one piece to the next.
Tummy Time: Otherwise know as torture, at least Liam thought so when he was under four months old. Putting your baby to play on their stomach so that they can earn to lift their head and push up, and eventually crawl.
Attachment parenting: Dr. Sears method of parenting. He basically says that children form strong bonds when they are babies with their parents, and during this sensitive period need to feel emotionally and physically safe. It often includes things like natural childbirth, not letting your child cry, and altered shot schedules.
Cry it out (CIO): The opposite of attachment parenting. (Ha Ha.) I have been attacked by numerous people for letting Liam CIO--which really translates to fuss it out--when learning to put himself to sleep. But I'm a better mother and Ryan is a better father because Liam learned--in two days--to sleep through the night at three months old. He is a happy, healthy baby and I don't think we have damaged him by letting him fuss to sleep. That's the thing about parenting, everyone gets to do it their own way. And this was our way.
Extended nursing: Breastfeeding until your child is older than 3yrs. I will not be participating, thank you.
Demand feeding: Breastfeeding anytime your chid cries or looks remotely interested in nursing. Works for some people. I did this for Liam when he needed to gain weight in the beginning. It is hard.
And don't even get me started on acronyms used on baby websites and boards!
Here are a couple common ones. Can you guess what they mean?
DH
SO
SAHM/WAHM
DD
DS
BFP
BF
LO
SSTN
EBF
CD
You need a resource guide just to learn all this stuff! As if we mothers don't have enough to do.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
Car update
Moral: Don't drive in the dark in the MidWest.
The food wasn’t ready for us. And Liam was ready for his bedtime snack. So Ryan waited inside for the food and I sat in the backseat of the car and nursed Liam. He wasn’t quite finished when we were ready to go, so we ate our semosas in the car and let him finish up.
On the road again, now it’s dark and rainy. Liam, full from his meal is sleeping peacefully in the backseat. We get to the toll gate for the freeway (they charge tolls in
On the road again, Liam is sleeping, we are having a great discussion and all is well. And then I see a semi-truck parked on the shoulder with its hazard lights on and another car pulled over as well. Ryan changes lanes to the left lane to give them more room. And then I see blood in a big streak on the pavement. And so does Ryan. I say out loud, “what the?” and we hit an animal. It was already dead. It was in the middle of the freeway lane. The truck must have hit it and the police hadn’t cleared it yet. I thought it was a pig, but Ryan says it was a deer.(The truck had pigs in it, we saw it at the toll gate.)
So we pull over. A little shaken that we hit ANOTHER deer in this car. (I mean seriously!) But OK. Ryan gets out and tries to look under the car. It is dark and we don’t have a good flashlight. Turns out his iphone doesn’t work very well in that capacity after all. We need to put a flashlight back in the car!
Then, THUMP another car hits the dead deer. And pulls over behind us. A woman was driving this car alone and is a little freaked out. She has a flashlight. Ryan checks her car (which is fine) and then ours (which is leaking something). Liam wakes up and starts crying because it’s dark and he’s not in his bed and is scared (I assume). I calm him down.
We drive home very carefully. The car is making a weird noise.
This morning, Ryan called the insurance agency and explained the situation. They sent a tow truck. Ryan is going to get the rental car at 1pm today. After the last bout with the deer, we decided to opt for the rental car insurance. (
Fun No Matter What!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The fallen leaves that jewel the ground...
And I'm told that winter will last until April. Still I have my new, bright green, puffy, down coat. If that coat can't brighten the winter then nothing can! I look like a giant granny smith apple in it, but I don't care. It's SO warm and it was a fabulous price--probably because people are generally not excited about looking like a giant apple. But I don't mind it. I love green and I hate being cold so it's the perfect coat for me.
But enough about my coat. Sheesh. I haven't blogged for a long time and I spend the first two paragraphs waxing poetic about the season and then writing an ode to the granny smith apple coat. You all want to know about what is happening here!
Well Liam--always the star of this blog--is doing well but still not crawling yet. I hope he gets motivated soon. Not that I am really excited about him being mobile, but he's almost 9 months old and just does not seem interested in crawling at all, so I'm a little worried. Instead, he has this cute rolling technic going. He scoots and rolls himself over to his toys and then is happy. Or he just sits up and plays with them and is happy. No ambition to go places! Perfectly content to stay in one spot and look cute. It's not a bad thing, I'm just wondering why he's not even interested?!
He does have two teeth now though and is biting on everything he can. But I must say, he hasn't been too fussy about the teething thing. A few days have been tough, but teething tablets and Tylenol have solved those days with one or two doses. It is very cute to see his little white teeth sticking up when he smiles. I'll try to get a photo.
For those who care, he is onto the third section of Your Baby Can Read series, and enjoying it. Of course, he can't read yet, but it's good language development--at this stage he's mostly just learning that things have names and that we use letters to represent those names. He really enjoys it and that's what counts. I want him to love reading like Ryan and I do.
Ryan is doing well with classes, studying a lot of course, and liking the majority of his classes. He had a big presentation yesterday that went well and has done well on the midterms he took. He still has a lot of projects and papers to finish up before the end of the semester.
I am enjoying work. It's been very busy the last couple of weeks and I expect to be busy now until the beginning of December as we head into finals and have some big accreditation meetings for the Seminary that I'll be helping the dean prepare for. I wish that I could spend all my time at home with Liam, but the few hours a day that I am gone give Ryan time to bond with him. And I like my job, I have a really great boss and my schedule is very flexible--which is great because sometimes I need time off if Ryan has a school project or something going on.
OK, well that's it for now. I'll try to post some photos of the cute baby soon.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Soft sheets and other morning musings.
Allow me to tell you about these sheets. They are soft. They are warm. They don't come off of the mattress. And they were included in a wonderful care package from my grandma that I received yesterday. Apparently they are made from beech wood...crazy!
OK--enough about the sheets. I can tell that you are bored. But seriously. LOVE them!
Liam didn't sleep well last night, he woke at midnight and wanted to nurse for an hour. So that could also have contributed to the difficulty I had getting up this morning. Poor little guy is teething big time, two teeth are poking up through his gums on the bottom and he's chewing on everything he can get his little hands on. Including, sometimes, me. I've been giving him teething tablets and Tylenol when it gets really bad. I hope he's good today in church.
Today we are going to visit another new church. This one is a church plant in Edwardsburg. I hope we really like it because I hate being the "visitor" and want to find a good place to stay. So far I haven't been able to see us as part of any of the communities we've visited.
For now I'm going to sit back and enjoy my hot beverage (decaf soy latte, thanks Ryan!) and do some devotional reading before I get dressed and get Liam up from his nap and ready for church.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Update-heat
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Liam at Church
DIY Pancake Syrup
1C white sugar
1 1/2 C brown sugar
2tsp maple flavoring (in the spice isle, with the vanilla)
1C water
1tsp butter
Bring to a full boil and keep it there, stirring often, for 10-15 minutes or until it's the desired thickness. Done! This is enough for 4-6 people for breakfast--about 16 pancakes depending on how much you use. Also very tasty on french toast and waffles.
Put the rest in the fridge and warm it back up in the microwave for next time. Double or triple the recipe and keep it in an old syrup bottle or other squeeze bottle in the fridge!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Cloudy with a side of rain
Today Liam is wearing long underwear, jeans, a onsie, knee socks, and a sweatshirt. Yes he is inside. It's that cold. I felt terrible because I had to give him a bath today. Really. I had to. He was stinky. But he cried as soon as I took him out and was all shivering! So now he is bundled.
I wanted to take a video and send it to the gas company to make them feel bad for taking so long to come out and turn on our gas. But then I remembered what the people I have talked with are like and realized that they do not have feelings. At least not for customers--though techicially I am not a customer I suppose because they have not actually sold me any of their product yet. I'm a little frustrated.
Still, not ruining my day. FUN NO MATTER WHAT!
I really wanted to eat chocolate and watch Chocolate last night. But they don't have it for rent on itunes and there are no video stores in Berrien. So we watched an episode of Heros instead. And then I had super weird dreams. Note to self: Lindt and Heros = weird dreams.
I realize that this is a totally random post. Sorry about that. It's a random day. And although I am at work right now, there isn't actually any work to do. But I have to stay because I need the money and also someone might call me and then there will be work to do.
I will post some cute pictures of Liam later today. Keep an eye out.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
To write with a broken pencil is pointless, and other puns.
1. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
2. I wondered why the baseball was getting bigger. Then it hit me.
3. A bicycle can't stand on its own because it is two-tired.
4. Atheism is a non-profit organization.
5. When William joined the army, he disliked the phrase, "Fire at Will."
6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it's still stationery.
7. Opening a new funeral parlor can be quite an undertaking.
8. The magician got so mad he pulled his hare out.
Hope these put a smile on your face!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
The doer of the undoable
First, Psalm 103, then my Psalm.
Ps. 103:1-5
Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Praise the Lord, my soul;
Everything that I am, praise his name forever.
Praise the God of heaven,
for his glory is never extinguished.
He is the God of forgiven debts and cleansed hearts.
He is the Lord of healed wounds.
He is the God of those he creates;
the Father of those he recreates.
He is the Lord of those he calls,
the enabler of those he sends.
He is the God who does the undoable;
who restores the unrestorable,
and buys back the worthless.
His passion has redeemed me
and his tenderness has won my heart.
He is the God of unlimited mercies
and his glory reigns forever
Praise the Lord.
Praise his holy name.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
In sickness and in health
Needless to say, Ryan is sick. And today I am feeling sick as well. Liam seems to be OK--but he is probably fighting something also (he seems very tired).
Monday, September 21, 2009
I live in BS
Liam now eats spinach, it's his latest food. He likes it a lot, plain or with apple. He's also eatting carrots now and loving them. Also his thrush is gone so that's wonderful. We ended up having to medicate. It never got really bad, but it wouldn't go away on its own either. He is getting more and more interactive and really enjoys playing with his toys while on a blanket or in his highchair. He also likes to sit in his highchair and watch me cook and do dishes. He has dimples now, just like Jessica and Sean. They are cute, but hard to photograph since they only show up when he smiles really big. :)
Ryan is trying to keep up with homework while also fitting in time with Liam, Jenn and let's not forget disc golf! He's been playing DG with the neighbors once a week or so at the new course on AU campus. He also just finished editing a wedding video for our friend Leanne who got married last summer. Busy guy.
Jenn is trying to keep up with life! Work is busy, home is busy. In my spare moments I've been designing some cards for baby announcments (Cas and Becky) and also for a ministry thing for our friend Dan. I'm also fighting a sore throat, maybe allergies? My throat has been sore for a couple weeks now, but it never gets really bad--I think it's pollen and lack of sleep. I hope I don't get sick!
Thanks for your emails, phone calls and prayers!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Romanian Apple Cake
(For Cas and Adina)
- 5 apples, peeled and cored
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan or use a small spring form. Cut the apples into 1 inch wedges. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until blended. Mix in the baking soda, oil, cinnamon and vanilla. Stir in the flour, just until incorporated. Fold in the apples.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, it takes about 10 minutes longer in a spring form pan to cook in the center. Allow to cool slightly. May be served warm or at room temperature.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
More pees please!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Michigan Update
A huge mosquito was squished dead after taking up residence in the Kilgore home sometime late last night or early this morning. "I hunted it down," Jenn Kilgore says, "and found it in the corner of our bedroom." At first she thought it was a spider or other typically larger insect, but upon close inspection, she realized that this was the object of her hunt and squashed it with a Kleenex against the wall. A lot of blood was on the tissue.
Before the kill, seven-month-old Liam Kilgore was bitten in the face by the winged creature. Jenn, his mother, is beside herself about this casualty, "I feel terrible because I can tell it's itching and the topical Benadryl doesn't seem to help," she says. Jenn is also suffering from a larger, welt-like bite on her forearm--likely from the same source.
In other news:
The Kilgore's car is still not functioning properly. It would not start on Tuesday morning, causing Jenn Kilgore to reschedule Liam's doctor appointment (again) for next week. "He will get his shots at some point!" she says.
After testing and replacing a bad battery, Ryan Kilgore thought that the problem was solved, but by the end of the day the car was once again dead. It was towed this morning to the local mechanic for repair. The Mechanic told the Kilgores that the problem was the alternator, an expensive, but simple fix. They should have their car back early tomorrow.
Jessica Kilgore will be joining her brother, sister-in-law and nephew for a visit next week. This is Jessica's first home leave weekend and she is choosing to drive to Michigan to visit before the weather gets bad. All are very excited about the reunion.
Jenn Kilgore made tomato sauce from scratch last night to use with manicotti. Judy and Bruce Wright gave them the tomatoes from a friend's garden. The sauce was rich and flavorful! They also enjoyed fresh green beans, steamed with butter. Cafe Ladro coffee and sorbet were for desert.
Stay tuned for more updates from Michigan!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Indian curries: Korma and Masala
Thursday, September 3, 2009
The difference an hour can make
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Happy Family
Our schedules are weird. The Seminary operates essentially on a 3-day week (Tues-Thurs), so it has been an exercise in creativity to cram all 16 hours of class and still have time for Jenn to work in the afternoons. Who has ever heard of a 3-day school week? I do have one class on Mondays, Spiritual Formation, from 8:30 to 11:20. It's a required class for new students that is only offered on Mondays in the fall semester. Tuesday through Thursday at 8:30 I have Development of SDA Theology. The 9:30 period I have free. The 10:30 period is reserved for chapel on Tuesdays and other committees and special meetings. At 11:30 I have Issues in New Testament Theology: Matthew. At 12:30, Inspiration, Revelation and Hermeneutics. On Tuesdays from 1:30-3:20 is Issues in Origins. On Thursdays in the same two hour slot is Doctrine of the Sanctuary. So Tuesday and Thursday I have no lunch break. Jenn makes me a lunch and I chow down before my 12:30 class starts.
I am enjoying my classes so far. Many of the lectures and discussions are interesteding, but a lot of it seems to be review of material I already know. Many things I learned in my undergraduate program. Thank you Walla Walla for preparing me well. Now I'm bored in class. I keep wondering, Can't we move on already? This was not something I was suspecting in a graduate level program. I suspect that it will lessen as we get farther into the semester.
Back to the family. I've been enjoying spending my afternoons with Liam, even if it means I can't really get any studying done. Liam has been eating solid food regularly now with most meals except early in the morning and just before bedtime. He's getting the hang of it and it's fun to watch his reactions to new flavors. When he gets too crabby and won't take his naps, we end up going on long walks around campus.
Jenn has been cooking more often recently. It's been really nice to have good breakfast every morning. And good lunch. And good dinner. I think during the past couple weeks she has made every meal except for maybe one or two. We've had things like stew with fresh corn on the cob, vegetable fajitas, pancakes, sandwiches, all kinds of fresh fruit, waffles, mandarin tofu, and pureed peas. (The peas are my personal favorite.) Jenn is pretty much awesome. Liam and I sing her praises when we eat the good things she's left for us in the fridge. Good food makes for a happy family.
But what makes for an even happier family is God's presence. And we've been having a lot of that lately.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Today is a day to chant (warning, a little gross)
Monday, August 24, 2009
A good morning
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Into the Seminary
The orientation program continued at the seminary Thursday morning and afternoon. There was a Hebrew exam Thursday morning which I did not take. I'm planning to take that next year. On Friday morning I took the Bible Knowledge Entrance Exam, which I also passed, and then went to more orientation meetings for the rest of the morning. All this time, Jenn has been working around my schedule at her new job as the Executive Assistant to the Dean. Thanks to Dr. Fortin for his understanding and flexibility!
So while I've been at school, Jenn has been taking care of Liam, and I've been watching him while she has been at work. Liam and I had fun on Thursday afternoon memorizing scripture together while pacing back and forth through the living room (not many paces). It's tough to study while taking care of Liam, but I think if I plan right, I will be able to make some use of our time together in the coming months. Perhaps some of the time we'll be able to go on walks together while doing some studying or reviewing of material, but most of my reading and writing will have to be done while he's napping, or while Jenn is watching him.
Friday evening we all had an enjoyable time at the welcome banquet for new seminary students and their families, which was hosted in two of the large conference rooms at the cafeteria. There are well over 100 new MDiv students beginning their studies here this semester. Add to that all of their families and all of the faculty and staff and their families, and you have a pretty good sized group. I was somewhat surprised to learn that including the extension campuses and distance learning programs, Andrews University has one of the larger seminaries in North America, with close to a thousand students.
Dinner was very good, and we got to meet another family who has recently moved here to Berrien Springs in pursuit of the same degree. I spent a lot of time walking Liam around until he finally went to sleep. Unfortunately, he soon woke up, and we had to leave halfway through the vespers service so that we could put him to bed.
Classes begin Monday, and we'll soon get settled into a regular routine: me going to class mostly in the morning, Jenn working mostly in the afternoon. We will say a brief hello to each other as we hand over Liam and exchange places. I'll probably be spending most evenings as well as Fridays (when I don't have any classes), reading, writing, and doing other classwork. So the busyness of this week has probably been a good warmup for the routine of seminary life we're about to experience. I hope that the sense of community we have been finding here this weekend will also prove to be predictive of the things to come.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Greek genuis
Update: Ryan passed his test with flying colors. I never doubted him--he's a smarty pants. We went to dinner to celebrate the fact that he does not have to take any Greek classes at AU. Liam sat in a highchair for the first time! That's his front pack stuffed behind him for support. So handy that Ergo pack! He enjoyed some cold watermelon in his teething/feeding mesh thingy while we ate dinner.
Working: Better than expected
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tournament Recap
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Disc Golf and the beach
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Life goes on
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Getting Ready for Classes
Ikea has been conquered, now for the living room
Monday, August 10, 2009
Photos as promised
Getting settled
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Not feeling like home yet
So close and yet...
We are on our way to Berrien now, just had breakfast at the Country Kitchen restaurant, which was actually the best breakfast we’ve had for the whole trip. They had really good pancakes. I got blueberry, which reminded me of my mom since that’s her favorite. Ryan had plain with an over-easy egg and turkey sausage. Liam was crabby, so we didn’t linger over our meals, but the food was tasty all the same. I’m feeling mixed feelings about going to our new place. On the one hand, it will be SO great to not be traveling anymore. On the other, it means that things are final, that we are actually doing this crazy thing--moving to Michigan. And it’s that second hand that makes me want to delay getting there. My heart hurts because I miss my friends and family so much. I can’t believe that we have actually moved so far from them--and the distance is painfully obvious when you make the drive. It’s taken us almost a full week to get here.
Almost there
Well, we called our landlords about an hour and a half away from Berrien and they said that they can’t meet us until tomorrow. So we stopped driving and took refuge at the Comfort Inn, which actually seems pretty comfortable. Tomorrow we’ll pack up and get to our new home, I hope! I’m so tired of driving every day. But this will be nice because since the movers already put all of our things in the apartment, we can get started tomorrow with putting stuff away instead of getting there late tonight and having to set up our beds. I really hope that the landlords are nice. Going to watch the Daily Show with Ryan now (using headphones and a laptop), Liam’s asleep in his crib. I hope he stays that way.
Deer in the headlights
Michigan Bound
July 28
We’re on our way to Michigan after a very tearful goodbye to our friends in Walla Walla. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to our friends yesterday, but we got through it and now we are driving across the country on I-90 to Michigan where we will start over again. At least that’s how it always feels to me when we make one of these moves. Starting over isn’t all bad, but it’s always difficult because it makes us step outside what’s comfortable.
I have a job interview with the seminary dean to be his executive assistant a week from tomorrow. I’m not sure if that job will work out or not, but it might be a good thing if it does. I’m hoping that it would help me to feel more connected to the faculty and to Ryan’s friends in the program--I’m sure it would mean that I would have a better idea about what is going on and maybe I’d feel less awkward than I did participating in events when Ryan was at Walla Walla.
Right now we are going through the continental divide in Montana (the Rocky Mountains). It’s over a mile high here. The Rockies are weird looking, it just looks like piles of big rocks with trees growing out of them. Not the type of mountains I’m used to seeing. I’m sitting in the backseat with Liam who is trying not to fall asleep much to my disappointment. He has a cloth book that he’s looking at and we are playing very soothing music, which I think is making us more relaxed than him! He was is so tired, but he’s also so tired of being in his carseat. I hate to think what the rest of the week is going to be like, this is only day two of our five day drive.