Well, I thought I would write a short update of what's been going on the last couple weeks. I spent some time in Couer d'Alene, ID for a Conference for work. The Women's Club belongs to an association of clubs called FitLife and they sponsor a retreat for owners and managers of participating clubs in the Northwest. It was a great time. I went with four other awesome women from work and I had a blast. The conference was good - we had workshops on how to cut your expenses and how to use social media as a marketing strategy along with meetings for the actual FitLife organization. The accommodations were wonderful...we stayed at the swanky Couer d'Alene resort http://www.cdaresort.com Most of all I had a great time with the ladies I went with and enjoyed getting to know them better. Jeff spent some time in Kalispell, MT for a while, but has mostly been going to class and working on his proposal and writing grants for funding.

I've been Twittering lately... if you don't know what that is, check it out at www.twitter.com The club may want to use it for marketing purposes so I thought I should familiarize myself with it. Not gonna lie... I kinda like it.

This weekend we drove up to Blodgett canyon (a hiking trail area south of Missoula in the Bitterroot Mtn Range) and when we got to the top of the icy snowy road that we shouldn't have been driving on, there was a girl who was stuck in the snow. And I don't mean "one good push" stuck. We - and several other people - were up there for about 1.5 hours trying to get her out of there. I think all of the cars of people there made it down safely. It certainly was an adventure.

Next post I am going to share some pictures that we have taken since we moved here. I need to edit them and then I can post them. Some places here are so beautiful that a picture doesn't do it justice, but I can try.

additions to the "You know you're a Missoulian when..." list.

• You have a dog..or several dogs
• You take your dogs everywhere with you
  

Salute to Jiffy Lube

I went for my first "marathon training" run yesterday. It sucked. It was the hardest 3 miles ever - which is weird because my long run right now is at 7 so it's not like I can't run it. I've built up this whole marathon thing in my head. Today's run was better. IT was longer and easier. I feel better.

Jeff is currently in Kalispell, MT (further north) for the Montana Wildlife Society meeting. I told him to take the blue Scion since we have a leak in in the radiator of the truck. I drove the truck to work this morning since I have to be somewhere right after work and as I was in the drive up line for a Double split shot sugar free mocha with soy (I had a free coupon!!) at The Loose Caboose - best coffee in Missoula that I am hooked on thanks to my coworker Abbey - I looked out my windshield and I couldn't see out because of the billowing smoke underneath the hood of the truck. Luckily, next door was a Jiffy Lube and a really nice guy opened the hood, look at the radiator, replaced some fluids and sent me off without making me pay. He said I should be fine today, but the car may smoke a little bit. Awesome. So, I just have to make it to my church (5 blocks away), back to work (5 blocks) and then home (about a mile or so).

Jiffy Lube saved the day for me. I got in the truck this morning feeling really tough and awesome because I can drive an old truck with a manual trasmission and then by the time I got to work - after pulling the "I'm a female" card at Jiffy Lube and totally missing the place they asked me to pull into and having to back up and try again - I was pulled back down to earth.

Jeff got to Kalispell ok without any trouble. I'm assuming he's been in seminars all day and then this evening he will be "networking" over free food. I have a retreat next week for an organization called FitLife and I'm excited to do some "networking" over free food. My free food will be served on a dinner cruise on a lake. That's my kind of business.

Well, today is my first "official" day of my marathon training. I have decided I'm going to keep a training journal where I detail my weight, what I eat, how far I run, and how I feel that day both physically and emotionally. I really do feel like God is calling me to run this marathon. I don't really think I can do it and I'm really reluctant, but I believe I am supposed to.

I don't actually have a run today as Monday is a rest day on my schedule, but I'm going to hop on the elliptical and do a little cardio exercise just to get things started. I wrote all of the training in my planner last night and it was really scary writing "Long Run 22 miles".

Jeff and I had a good weekend. On Saturday we went out to Frenchtown - just a little bit west of Missoula - and we hiked through some ice and snow in search of a black-backed woodpecker. We saw 1 black-backed along with some Pilliated woodpeckers, white breated nuthatches and about 1 billion hairy woodpeckers. I have come to the conclusion that I need some ankle height snow boots if I'm going to do things like that because, even though I was wearing waterproof shoes, my feet got soooo wet because the snow entered the top of my shoe. Sunday, we went to church in the morning, I hung out with my friend Camille to plan our Tuesday night Bible Study, and then we went grocery shopping. We also got a LAMP!! We've been wanting to get a lamp for our room since we moved here (we didn't have room in the car to bring Jeff's prized moose lamp when we moved here so it's living at my parents' house) and we finally did!

Hooray for accent lighting!

Change of plans

Well, we've had a slight change in our original plans. Jeff was accepted as a PhD student at U of M with the intention of doing research at the Boone & Crockett Memorial Ranch (http://www.boone-crockett.org/conservation/conservation_trmr.asp?area=conservation) which worked out well because it is close enough to Missoula that I could stay here and work part time and still see him on a regular basis. However, because of some funding changes, Jeff will be doing a different project. He will be doing bison research on a ranch near Malta, MT...aka...the middle of nowhere. And by "near Malta" I mean "50 miles south of Malta on a gravel road."

So...I'm kind of sad about this. I will have to leave my job at The Women's Club (www.thewomensclub.com), that I really like. I told them a few days ago and it's just been kinda sad to be at work. So, right now I'm busy asking God why he opened this amazing opportunity and I feel like its been taken away so soon. His response through many of my close family and friends has been "because there's something else that you need to learn on a ranch in Malta."

Jeff and I are both kind of scared. I'm not exactly sure what I will do out there. I'd like to teach exercise classes and do some training in Malta, but I don't know how that would work out. I want a guitar because I will finally have the time to practice. I think Jeff's excited about the project, but I think he's also nervous about starting his research so soon (May).

In the meantime, I'll just finish strong at the Women's Club, run a marathon (I start my preliminary training tomorrow) and keep serving at church.

Speaking of church, our 20-somethings group had our first weekly bible study meeting this past Tuesday and it was really great! We're studying John. I really like John chapter 1. I never quite understood the whole "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God" when I was a kid reading it. But in those words is a whole chunk of theology. The deity of Christ, the Trinity, the pre-existence of Christ...all packed in one sentence. Love it!

Yet another reason why I am sad to be moving yet again. But I will just keep praying that Jeff and I will learn what we are supposed to.

6 months after the move...our first blog!

Hello friends and family! So, we're finally starting our family blog...we'll I'm starting our family blog. We'll see how much Jeff actually writes on this thing. While we were home for Christmas, we realized how much we miss everyone and how much happens in such a short period of time, so we're (I'm) committing to updating you guys on what's going on in our lives.

Jeff and I moved out here to Missoula, Montana about 6 months ago (early August) so Jeff could pursue a Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology at the University of Montana. Before we moved out here, I was blessed to interview and secure a job as the Fitness Director (and personal trainer and group exercise instructor) at The Women's Club Health and Fitness Center. We're living in a basement apartment that comes with two bonus dogs and cats (the lady that owns the house and lives there has pets!).

Jeff did very well in his first semester on school and I'm still learning about my job, but I think I've got the hang of it. Since we got back from our vacation in St. Louis over Christmas, Jeff has started classes again - he is now really working on putting stuff together to begin his research project this summer. I've gone back to work and have a new intern who is working with me this semester and just finished a seminar on Running your first 5K - hopefully to blossom into a 5K training program here at the club.

We go to a church called River City Church. You can see their website at www.rccmissoula.org I've been leading worship for the church occasionally and our "20's" group is starting a study on John this week. We've been blessed to meet some really great people at River City and we're just glad to have some friends outside of work and school who share our love of Jesus.

Right now we've got some big stuff starting to happen, but I'll blog about those later when things are more concrete.

Instead, I will leave you with the beginning of a list I would like to call "You know you're a Missoulian when..."

• You drive a Subaru
• Your spouse has one as well
• You are not originally from Missoula - you're from CA or AZ or PA...or something
  
• Montanans from other towns do not like you
• You think a red light means speed up and get through the intersection.
• You and everyone else you know voted for Barack Obama
• You assume everyone in the room voted for Barack Obama
  

...to be continued