Tornado!

Hey, check out the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone Avenue.  On Sunday afternoon a big storm hit with hail, thunder, lightning and even a tornado in Billings.  It took the roof off our stadium, the Metra.

http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/image_8594edc5-97f3-54e7-8172-2daade956eac.html

We're all ok.  Just thought you might want some visuals. 

Back In The Saddle

I’m not sure where to start in recapping the last six months.  Is spite of the house burning and our relocation to a temporary apartment, and in spite of the extra workload coaching the Speech team while taking an online university class, it hasn’t been too bad. 

In August when the weather was still warm and the Yellowstone River was wide and slow, Kelly and I took our dinky little inflatable raft and floated the river one afternoon.  It was a lovely, slow time and Kelly was able to do a spot of fishing. We only took an easy section to start with, but now we have a decent inflatable kayak and an idea that we might camp overnight on one of the islands in the river or one of the campgrounds alongside. 

Kelly on his river.

Mum definitely got her wish for a White Christmas.  She joined the gym for the month she was here, and  braved the elements to walk up to aquarobics three times a week, looking like a little Michelin-man granny with her many layers of clothing.  After her first excursion she told me with great surprise that her fingers froze right through her gloves!  I felt guilty that I hadn’t thought to buy her real winter gloves – she was only sporting decorative Aussie ones.  On Boxing Day (which for Americans is just the day after Christmas), we went out sledding again at Blue Creek.  Happily, Sinead was home for Christmas and we all had a jolly old time.  Hot chocolate tastes so good after rolling around in the snow.

Mum with her real gloves on.  

Casey

I really enjoyed coaching the Speech Team this year, with such great fellow coaches.  Aubree treated me to a big chocolate cake, decorated with the Australian flag on my birthday (we were at the State Tournament).  I was serenaded by a school cafeteria full of kids in suits :) The speech and debate students are so talented and lovable.  Next year I am hoping to get more involved with mentoring the American Indian students, similar to the work I did at ASHS and Centralian College.  I greatly enjoyed the college course I took on Social Issues for Native Americans.  On American Indian Heritage Day I went up to the college to meet my professor and watch our students perform at the pow wow.  The sound of the drumming circle stirs the soul. I learned that the girls outfits are decorated with precious elk's teeth made of ivory.  I'm hoping to go to Crow Fair this year which is the real deal for pow wows around Billings.  

Aren't they beautiful?

If you want to hear the drumming circle for yourself and see more of the pow wow, click the link 

Heritage Day

I am in the process of the organizing the talent show again this year, which I initiated last year at our Freshman academy.  It was a great success, and fairly simply put together.  The music program in schools here is very strong, but the kids don't have many opportunities to play their own choice of music.    Here is a short selection of highlights from last year's show which I edited as advertising for this year's crew.  Check it out if you are curious about the kids I teach. 

Academy's Got Talent

The improvements to the house are such a delight to us.  It's still just a cute little house but we love it more than ever after being away for 6 months.  The kitchen and bathrooms have had quite an upgrade with tiling etc.  We also put in a bay window.  Have a look at the icicles clinging outside it a week ago. 

It seems like spring is in the air now.  Over the last week most of the accumulated snow has melted, creating vast puddles in car parks and soggy alleys.  Kelly says the apple tree is already budding, and my blood is definitely stirring in anticipation of warmer days.  

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our beloved friends and family!

The business of rebuilding after the fire has taken a lot of time since August.  I am incredibly busy with the Speech Team, and Kelly is doing great things at the bank.  Mum arrived on November 23rd, just in time for her birthday.  All of the above has kept me from blogging, but I'm hoping to return to normal soon, especially as our house is close to being finished :)  I have a week's break from school for Christmas, so we will start moving furniture and 'stuff' back in.

Here is a quick clip of Mizzi, especially for Zac, Jordi, Mia and Emma. xxx

Mizzi in Snow

Fire

At midnight on Friday the 7th August, Casey called Kelly while we were at his parents' place having a lovely time with the family; Lori and George were visiting. Our house was on fire. Casey heard the smoke alarm upstairs but thought it was a car alarm somewhere in the neighbourhood. Sinead eventually went up to check it out but only got as far as the stairwell before she realised how bad things were. She told Casey, who went upstairs and tried to turn the light on. He thought the globe was out, but really the whole upstairs was filled with thick, black smoke and extremely hot. He went back down and kicked out the flywire on the basement window. Then he helped Sinead and her cat escape before climbing out to safety and calling 911. We rushed home and waited on the lawn till 3 am when the firemen and the fre marshall finished putting out the smoke. The kids went to Christina's house and we went to visit Kelly's parents. Understandably, this horrible incident brought up a lot of awful memories for Terry whose parents both died in a house fire when the kids were little. Then we tried to find a hotel room but ended up sleeping at Blue Creek. The current estimates are that we will be out of our house for 6 - 8 weeks and it will cost $100,000 to repair our home and replace things. The fire seems to have started near the tv cabinet when all the furninture was stacked in the dining room as I was finishing the hard wood floors. Thank God I put the lids on the highly flamable floor stain properly.

We are still pretty shaken up and daunted by the propsect of putting our home back together. Of course the main thing is that Sinead and Casey are safe. It is also a great comfort that we have good insurance and will not be out of pocket. But the little things that upset me are the time and effort I put into painting the house and handmaking the drapes. Even worse will be if the home movies are ruined, or paintings by dear friends. Apparently anything made of plastic or leather can't be salvaged, and I hate shopping for shoes. Everything is covered in a greasy petro chemical soot that Kelly and I have come to loathe as the smell of danger and destruction.

But we'll be ok. Everyone has been so kind and supportive. We are well insured and we have each other. It will just be inconvenient and tiring, with a few traumatic flashbacks from time to time.

So check your smoke detectors.
With much love
Glennie


This is where it most likely started, around the tv cabinet

Painting

What do you think of my yellow and orange? Cheerful? A little bit Zen? That's what I was going for.


Now I want to pull up the carpet and re-finish the hard wood floors.

Crystal Lake

Last weekend Kelly and I hoped to go camping at West Rosebud, a popular spot not far from Billings where a river runs into a lake, so there is fishing and swimming. Our friend Kenny went up ahead of us to claim a spot, but was rained out and returned to Billings at midnight the evening before we were due to head up. A last minute plan was hatched with Mom and Dad to find Crystal Lake out of Lewistown, over two hours away. Casey and his friend Hank came too, so we headed off in a three car convoy. I enjoyed quizzing Kelly along the way and got lots of information about Montana, his family's farming history, and summer jobs he had as a teenager ... like the time he got a summer job with Robbie Clark in Roundup climbing up poles to salvage telegraph lines. Robbie was dating a local girl who broke her curfew one night, and the boys had to exit hastily in their pick up truck while the girl's mom unloaded a shot gun in their direction! Anyway, a much more serene setting was waiting for us at Crystal Lake.


I got to cross off an item from my wish list for this holiday because I camped by water and woke up to the smell of a pine forest. I even took my yoga mat and did sun salutations amongst the beautiful trees. We had the forethought to buy a little inflatable raft. Casey and Hank floated across the lake as we walked around it, loving the views and the wild flowers. Then we swapped.

A national forest volunteer came by to warn us that a bear had been spotted in the park the previous night, so we were careful to pack up all our food before we went to bed. Kelly had his 357 pistol by his side in our tent. I don't think any bears came by, although the boys had trouble sleeping because of various noises in the night. We did have a doe and fawn hanging around before dinner, and they were very happy with potato chips. Mike said it would be the salt they craved.

It was such an incredibly beautiful place to camp. On Sunday morning we did a little hike to the top of one of the hills and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the lake.


This camping area is only open for a few months in summer. In winter it is snowed in, and a popular spot for snow mobiles and cross sountry skiing. The lake itself is actually spring fed. There are a couple of spots along the side of the lake where you can see and hear the spring water bubbling up through the stones. The water there is freezing cold, oozing out of the mountains as the winter snow pack thaws and feeds the lake. We filled our water bottles here.

On the way home I had to take a couple more pictures. These are a few of my favourite things - Montana's abandonned farm houses / ghost towns, and the ribbons of gold formed by road side sunflowers.

Home Sweet Home?

When school broke up in early June, Kelly and I only waited a weekend before jumping on a plane and heading 'home' to Oz. He stayed for two weeks and I stayed four. We packed it in on our first return visit: Melbourne, Mornington Peninsula, Adelaide/Aldinga and Alice Springs. Then Kelly had to get back to work, but I pushed on with Freemantle to catch up with Cathy et al, Adelaide again, Sydney and Gosford. I wasn't very systematic or organised with photography, but here is a selection.



Assorted Murphies in Rye



Vic and I squinting into the winter sun


Kelly on one of our wonderful beach walks at Aldinga



My country


Lhere Mbantua - my beautiful river



Mia (right) sitting in the 'star' at her pre-school graduation


Emma cons Mizzi out of another ride on the merry go round


playing with Emma's new ABC puzzle


BFFs on the ferry in Sydney

I saw as many people as we could fit in, I followed the nasal twang of Kath n Kim around supermarkets just to revel in the accent, I ate Arnott's bisuits and fish n chips, watched SBS and the ABC, wallowed in the love of family and life long friends ... I enjoyed the homeness of home. Still, when Kelly had to come back to Montana, I missed him, and returning to our little place on Yellowstone Avenue was just as exciting as landing in Australia. So I guess this trip really reinforced that we are blessed to have two homes, but mainly that home is Kelly.