Spring!

It's beautiful, warm, vibrant spring in Montana, and this will be my last post before Kelly and I come 'home' to Australia for a visit. Easter makes so much more sense in the northern hemisphere. Just to prove it, check out Kelly's new buddy who lives in our back yard.

People get really excited about being outside and planting. All around the neighbourhood there are splashes of colour and happy gardeners out on weekends and the ever lengthening evenings. Seasonal gardening shops reopen for the spring. Just in the last week, all the trees have sprouted their green canopy in perfect syncronicty with the warm days.


Kelly started his veggie garden as a 'grow operation' under lights and warmed by a heater overnight in the garage. That way his seeds could get a head start during late winter and early spring. Otherwise the little plants are too vulnerable to the late freezes.

All transplants are doing well, and the swiss chard (silverbeet) just grew back where it was planted last year.

Anzac Day 09

At dawn, here on our hill at Blue Creek out of Billings Montana, we remembered the fallen and prayed for peace. We were joined by PC, a mate of Kelly's who served for 28 years in the US Navy, including Vietnam. Lest we forget.

Calgary and Ice Hockey

For Kelly's birthday, we met up with Sam and Justin in Calgary, Alberta Canada, to watch a game of ice hockey. Kelly's predictions of a great atmoshphere were proved right as we joined 20,000 Calgary Flames fans cheering their boys to a victory over the Minnesota Wild.

Kelly and Justin represented the Alice Springs Fighting Frillnecks with pride. This was a team that played in inline roller skates on the concrete rink behind the Alice Springs Youth Centre. Starting off with just a few guys from the base, it turned into quite a good scratch match most weeks, and a whole lot of fun. Their brighly coloured Aussie jerseys made is easy for me to pick them out of the crowd as they made their way back to our seats in the top of the dome with more beer :)



Calgary was great. They have a cool downtown area where you can walk around in these walkways over the streets, protected from the cold weather. You end up walking all over the city, shopping through malls, looking out on the streets without having to go outside. We checked out the museum which had great information about the First Nation people known as the Blackfeet, as well as fur trappers, mounties and much more. Canada felt like a cross between the US and Australia, with Queen Liz on the money, temperature measured in Celsius, a familiar flavour of multiculturalism and a cheeky sense of humour. Next year we might go and watch a hockey game in Montreal so I can speak French and we can go to see some Cirque du Soleil at home.

Almost Spring

A busy school term has flown by, and Patrick’s Day is fast upon us. January was very cold with more snow and icy roads. I helped organize the Montana State Speech and Debate Tournament here in Billings, and after that my coaching responsibilities wound down, thankfully. Here are a few of the kids ready to make our last big road trip to Bozeman in January.



In February, I cashed in my Christmas present which was a spoily weekend with Kelly at Chiko Hot Springs. Nestled in mountains out of Livingston Montana, Chico makes use of geothermic hot spring water. There is an Olympic size swimming pool through which they pump the wonderfully hot water. It ends up being totally flushed every 8 hours. The hot water is then fed through a system of pipes and used to heat the accommodation. Kelly and I booked massages on the Saturday, followed by a long soak. Did I mention the poolside bar and my margarita? Amazing!





On Sunday we stopped in Immigrant for breakfast at the old saloon. I enjoyed a sensational American breakfast under the watchful gaze of no less than 10 mounted animal heads, mostly deer and elk.



Last night we celebrated the feast of St Patrick a few days early … we are too old to go to work with hangovers. It was wonderful fun. We over-catered of course. Plenty of corned beef and cabbage, beef and Guinness pie, smashed taters, and Sinead’s chocolate Guinness cupcakes.




Brothers Mick and Kelly




Sinead, Tera and Megan



Casey, Grandma and Evan



Fireside Chats

Now that I have finished some online study as well as Debate coaching, I have enrolled in quilting classes. My plan is to make a story quilt for our bed with Australian boomerang themed material and an American print to show our homes and hearts are entwined in two beautiful countries.

Thanksgiving and Christmas

As the year comes to an end, I am enjoying a 12 day break from school. I have been very busy as the new assistant debate coach, doing my best to learn the particularities of USA debate format and be helpful to the team. We go to tournaments around the state which eat in to my weekends considerably, hence the lack of activity on the blog. The last trip we made was to Missoula in temperatures of 30 below zero. We were snowed in and unable to travel home on the Saturday evening, but eventually made it home on Sunday afternoon.

I am surprised and impressed at how well I am coping with the cold. Locals say that they have not had these cold temperatures and amounts of snow for ten years. I have new tyres and an engine block heater for my car now, so I am well equipped. Some mornings I have been driving to work in the dark, all rugged up, creeping along the slick, icy streets. With my thick gloves on it is very difficult to actually pinch myself and realise that I am living in North America, a world away from my red Australian desert. On the weekend people were getting bogged on the neighbourhood streets in the soft snow. It is like 4 wheel driving on a beach.


Casey heading out to shovel the front steps and driveway

At the end of November we celebrated Thanksgiving, my favourite American holiday, especially as I met Kelly on Thanksgiving at Dee and Tony’s house seven years ago. We had three days off for that too. I was allocated the green bean casserole to make, and had to laugh at the traditional Americana recipe starting with a can of soup and finishing with something called French fried onions. These are found in a tin and made from fat and salt. I have to admit, they taste alarmingly good. I also made a good ole fashioned cherry pie. I was pretty proud of that and have decided to pursue a career in pie.






Mick and his turkey


Kelly exercising the carver's privilege


Sister Tera, niece Kristen and the amazing spread of food.

We celebrated Christmas the week before as Sinead was home from Missoula. It was low fuss and lovely, with a slap-up mid week feast and presents. We have had a tree up since the first of December because I was so excited to have a real tree for the first time since my childhood in Perth. There were pine trees on sale in car parks all over the place. On the actual day of Christmas, all we had to do was turn up at Mike and Terry’s for dinner, which was a great meal and a great gathering.


Kelly and his kids at Christmas.

On the weekend we made the most of the snow and warmer temperatures (it is now up to 0 degrees!) and headed out to Blue Creek for some sledding. Mick brought the four wheelers and his snow plough to make sure we would be able to get back up the hill. The shed served as a respite from the cold where we could enjoy hot chocolate, coffee and snacks. Blue Creek was so beautiful in spring and summer, but I had not thought about how much fun it could be in winter. Well, it was.

Homecoming and Halloween

The winter wonderland featured in my last blog only lasted for that one weekend, and we all went to work slowly on Monday. By the end of the week the snow had all thawed, turned into grubby slush and drained away. We are now back to regular fall weather, with mild, sunny, pleasant days and the last of the golden leaves falling. Some days, when I am driving to school or the shop, it seems like God is emptying a shaker of golden fairy dust on the streets.



The holiday season has started with Halloween. Next comes Thanksgiving and then Christmas, of course. It makes for a festive atmosphere as the weather cools down and life gradually withdraws inside homes and other heated dwellings. It feels good. Even before Halloween there was Homecoming. Now I know Kellie Mac, Julisa and other devotees of Grease, Degrassi and various North American dramas based in high school will be reading attentively, because we have always heard about Homecoming and the Homecoming king and queen, without ever really knowing what it meant. I have heard a few different explanations, but my current understanding is that Homecoming is a time when many alumni return to their high schools and especially colleges (universities) for festivities and catch ups. There is always a football game and a dance. We had a half day of school followed by a pep rally and activities. I know! It's so 'Grease'. All afternoon I felt like I was going to bump into the Pink Ladies or maybe see Danny and Sandy sail over my head in their chittly chitty bang bang style car!

Real live cheerleaders and 'extreme orange' students. The cheerleaders in white are 'varsity' or the top level, typically the seniors. Some of my freshman students are in black, behind.




Some of the activities or stalls included dunking the dean (in a vat of cold water) and sumo wrestling.




The whole week of homecoming is called Spirit Week (meaning school spirit) and there is a dress up theme for each day. As you can imagine, I was loving it. Monday was decade day so I did the Flashdance 80s thing, along with many of my students. Tuesday was surfer day, Wednesday was cowboy day, Thursday was nerd day and Friday was EXTERME orange and balck day. Why orange and black? They are the school colours of Billings Senior High School, home of the broncs! ... I am becoming quite indoctrinated...


On Nerd Day, the great joke is to ask people in costume why they did not dress up, and then tell those in normal clothes that their costume is fantastic. Blurry photo courtesy of one of my students


Seriously though, the dressing up is enjoyed by most students and the festivities provide a carnival atmoshpere that seems all the more important as the timetable and curriculum are so traditional and fixed. Kelly and I went to the Homecoming football game at the school stadium on Friday night. The school band (about 80 musicians) performed from the stands when there was a touchdown, just the riff from 'We Will Rock You' and then they played a set on the field at half time, after the Homecoming royalty paraded on and the king and queen were announced. (Students all had the opportunity to vote for the king and queen at lunch times during the week.) In addition, the cheerleaders and dance team were out in force. Between all of them and the athletes, it felt like most of the school were celebrating together. Many more students were socialising in the stands, and it seemed like many of them had no more idea what was happening in the game than I did. It is a safe and enjoyable way for teens to spend their Friday night.



A little bit of detail about the fixed curriculum and timetable for my teacher friends and others interested... I teach Freshman English (year 9) and as the new girl, I don't have any Honours Classes. I am fine with that. I teach five lessons a day of the same thing, and see the same kids in the same time slot each day. For example, my sixth period class comes to me from 2 till 3 pm every day for English. Third period (10 - 11am) is my preparation. Truancy laws are enforced and students seem better trained. They get there regularly and on time, but overall they seem less engaged to me. I do feel rather sorry for my students at the moment, as we are finishing off 'The Odyssey' before we head in to 'Romeo and Juliet'. Grammar and vocabulary are tested often too. I have no choice over the texts that are taught. I love the classics but I understand that not all of my fifteen year old students do. It seems like many of the more energetic teachers take second jobs such as teaching on line or selling tickets at the school football games to supplement their incomes rather than put more into their teaching. I can't work out yet whether I am better or worse off than I was teaching in Alice, once you take into consideration lower taxes here and the fact that my employer in paying for my health insurance.

Our neighbourhood was totally involved in Halloween. Some of the bigger, historic houses at the top of the street set themselves up as haunted houses and give out thousands of lollies on Halloween. A number of the drama club members I have got to know work in haunted houses and corn mazes, dressed up in scary outfits to jump out at children. They are all complaining of extreme muscle pain from springing up to terrify children every minute over an eight hour shift.

Kelly carved our pumpkin, and Aiden and Evan, aka Dracula and Batman, (Tera and Dan's boys) came trick or treating.

Living in an Igloo

The snow has continued to fall since Thursday night so today the authorities are telling people not to leave their houses unless they really have to. Don't worry Mum; I am not going to church and brunch has been cancelled because we didn't want Nana out in this weather. It is possible that there will be a snow day tomorrow, which means no school. Although the forecast is for this to stop by 6 am tomorrow morning, there will be so much snow bank that it may be unsafe if the roads haven't been cleared. If I do go to school, I will get a lift with Kelly. Road crews and the power company are out today clearing snow and restoring power to homes where it has been cut off by trees falling on power lines.





We decided to measure the depth of the snow with this 30 cm (12 inch) ruler.



Where did it go?



Once again, it has been Kelly to the rescue, shovelling snow so we can get in and out of our igloo as needed.





It still isn't too cold to walk around outside; it feels squishy and soft as you sink into it, and it is still a thing of beauty!
love, Glennie