Spring is Here

So, I know the last time I posted I talked about how green everything was becoming and the possibility that Spring might be here. Now there is solid evidence of Spring (even though the calendar officially says we are well on our way toward summer.) So what are these solid proofs? 1. The Farmers' Market! There weren't many vendors there yet but it opened last weekend adn the weather was georgous. 2. No nylons!! I work at a bank and from October through April we have to wear nylons with everything - skirts, capri pants, regular pants. No ankles seems to be the rule. But from May through September it is foot freedom :) Open-toed shoes and forget about the nylons! So tonight I painted my toe-nails a beautiful bubblegum pink for their debut tomorrow. Never mind that it's supposed to go back down into the 60s the second half of this week :(

Picture test...

Hey, Saturday morning I went to the mountains east of town to pattern my shotgun for turkey season and also to take the puppy on a hike. I was driving up Avalanche Gulch when I saw these mountain goats on the side of the hill. I was able to get fairly close, within about 50 yards, and got some decent pics. I wanted to try adding some pics to the blog so I figured I would start with these.

Who Knew?

So, while we were on vacation in North Carolina I just kept thinking about how green everything was! Green trees, green grass, green everywhere and all I could remember from home was brown. When we got back to Montana it was just as brown as I remembered :( Then, then night we got back, it started to rain. It rained all night and most of the morning. Then, in the late morning the rain turned to snow! We got a whopping .57 inches of precipitation!! But the next day - everything was green!!! Who knew 1/2 inch of rain could turn your whole world green? And now everywhere seems green. We're supposed to get up to 82 on Saturday and we had more rain today. I think Spring might have come. YEAH :)

We're back

We're back from our NC vacation and we had a wonderful time visiting all of our friends. Our travel experience was also very smooth - good weather for driving and flying. It was good to have down time to just hang out with our friends, catch up and see what God is doing in their lives. We bounced around from house to house sleeping on a different bed every night and squeezing in as many friends as possible. It was great! I was reminded again how much I love being round people who know my history. There's just something about not having explain yourself or wonder what the other person is thinking - you've known eachother long enough to understand. It's a blessing.

It was also a different kind of blessing to be reminded how lax I have been in praying for my friends. I know a lot of history for them, but I was missing out on a lot of recent happenings and opportunities to lift them up to the Father. I've decided to go back to a practice I was doing a while back - filling up a small photo album with pictures of people to pray for. When I traveled I used to take one with me but I think I will go back to my photo album as a remender to be more diligent in my prayers for my friends and family. So if there are any friends out there who we haven't seen and there are things that we could be praying about for you, we'd love to know.

Happy Easter!

"For I passed on to you the most important points of what I received: Christ died for our sins in keeping with the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day in keeping with the Scriptures - and is still risen! (1 Corinthians 15:3-4, ISV) What a simple, yet complete statement of the Gospel and the reason for which we celebrate Easter! It is my hope and prayer that we will continue to celebrate the resurrection every day of our lives, not just once a year in the spring.

This week is Spring Break for all of the Helena schools as well as the school in MT City, so I am not substitute teaching this week. The school in Clancy, MT is having school today (Tuesday) but I didn't get a call from them this morning. We are actually preparing to go on vacation - or "vaca" as my wife now calls it - later this week. We are going to North Carolina for 5 days to visit friends from seminary. More about that later.

I called both MSU-Billings and UGF (Univ. of Great Falls) this morning and am waiting to hear back from the education departments. I was on UGF's web site and saw something interesting. They offer a Master of Arts in Teaching degree that is completely online classes. The site says that it is for people who have a "teachable" undergraduate degree and desire to change careers to teaching. It is 42 hours of credits, but all of the classes are offered through the web so I could do all the work here at home while I am still working. It sounds very interesting but I am waiting on more info. Please keep praying that we would see where God is leading and that we would have the faith to follow.

Since turkey hunting fell through, I went fishing yesterday instead. I drove to Melrose, MT (about 100 miles...not very far by MT standards) and fished the Big Hole River. Whe I arrived, it was raining/snowing, the wind was blowing about 10-15 mph and it was about 38-40º. Yesterday was really my only day to go so I decided to stay and tuff it out. The weather stayed about the same for about 1 1/2 hours, then it was like God opened the shades of a small window in the sky and let the sun shine through. For the rest of the afternoon there was sunshine, 55º, and a slight breeze while in the mountains all around the valley it continued raining/snowing. It was pretty amazing. All of that by itself made the trip worth it...the fact that I caught four trout (2 browns, 2 rainbows) was just icing on the cake. What a great day!

Bummer...

Well, I went to my interview At Carroll with the dean of the education department last Tuesday. Things didn't quite come out as I hoped. After comparing my transcripts and their requirements, she told me that I would have to take 77 credit hours to be able to get my certificate...wow! That would be like getting another degree. That kinda frustrated me a little bit. But I talked to some friends and they suggested that I contact a couple of other schools, University of Great Falls and Montana State-Billings, and see what they had to say. They told me that those schools would probably accept more of my previous credits and might knock the number of hours necessary down to a manageable number. So keep praying, I am going to try to contact them this coming week.

Other frustrating news...I planned on going turkey hunting on Monday with a friend and his son but none of the places we called worked out. Some of the landowners have really restricted access for hunting turkeys and some don't allow it at all. There is some public land near, but we're not sure we want to drive all the way over there (200 miles) to see if there are turkeys. We have one other possibility and my friend is working on that, but it doesn't look good for this weekend. I did hear that the Big Hole River is fishing really well right now so don't feel too bad for me... :)