Tied to Glendive, Montana

This week I gave my siblings the following assignment:

Think about one of the places you lived in the 1980's, and write about how you are still tied to that place.

I live four different places in the 1980's.

I lived in Kellogg, Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, San Bernardino, California and Glendive, Montana.

I am going to write about how I am still tied to Glendive, Montana.

Glendive is where I moved to after I graduated from college in 1985.  I was hired as the Director of Admissions and Public Relations at Dawson Community College.

I moved into my first apartment, lived there a year on my own, then married PKR over the summer, and he came and joined me there in the summer of 1986.

The Princess was born in Glendive in 1990, and the experience of being pregnant and having you first child in a location always ties you to that place because of the memories of that incredible experience.

I still keep in touch with many of the people I knew in Glendive.  Each year I receive Christmas cards from a variety of people I either worked with or went to church with, keeping up on their lives and their families.

Through Facebook, I have reconnected with many of the kids we had in youth group while we were youth group leaders at our church.

Many of the lessons we learned in church from our Pastor have strengthened our faith in God, and have stayed with us throughout the years.

The work I did at the college helps me in my current position, helping students and parents prepare early to attend college.

I'm tied to the spirit of Glendive.  The people in eastern Montana had a certain way of looking at life, and dealing with life that has always stayed with me.  They never gave up, even when they were dry land farming throughout years of drought.  Even though the oil slowly dried up, and the railroad slowly quit stopping as often.  They had a spirit I admired.

I loved my time in Glendive, and I'm glad PKR and I were able to start our married life there, and I will always have ties to that wonderful town, and the wonderful people who live there.

First Stop...Dillon, Montana...PKR Relives College Days Gone By

This past weekend, PKR and I had a weekend getaway to Sun Valley, Idaho. I had a conference there, so we took off last Thursday night, and stayed in Dillon, Montana, where PKR had attended college at Western Montana College. We met up with one of his friends who lives there, and had dinner. PKR attended WMC in the late 1970's and early 1980's. He ran track and cross country for the school.



I realized the last time I was in Dillon was in 1990, when I was pregnant with The Princess. I couldn't believe it had been that long.



We woke up Friday morning morning to snow....surprise, surprise.



After scraping off the car windows, we drove over to the college campus, which now has a new name, The University of Montana Western.



It not only has a new name, but a new way of teaching students. This college is now an Experience One, or X1 college.


Experience One is a more practical way to learn. Experience One (or X1 for short) is an innovative approach to learning in which students take only one class at a time. Working closely with their professor and classmates, they concentrate on a single subject area then move onto the next course.X1 promotes real-world, hands-on learning.



Montana Western emphasizes the student’s total participation in their education. With X1’s emphasis on learning by doing, each student has an opportunity to experience what professionals encounter working in their field. And the bottom line is that they’ll have a leg up in entering the workforce or graduate school.


Here’s how it works. During a semester, Montana Western students take one class at a time, three hours each day for 18 days. In between they enjoy a four-day break to relax and recharge. Then move on to the next class. Taking four classes or blocks during the semester, students earn the same amount of credit they’d earn under traditional multi-class systems.


That’s where the comparison ends. X1 offers a wide range of benefits: Less talk, more action. With less lecture time, students participate in authentic workforce activities including project planning, research, collaboration and presentation thus learning by doing.

Here is the dorm where PKR lived while at student at the college.

PKR wanted me to take this picture so we could prove it was May when this picture was taken.

PKR said it stirred up many memories staying there, and it was interesting to see the ways Dillon has changed, and the ways it had remained the same.

At the end is the FINISH line

Today my daughter Z2 had her first cross country meet of the season. I drove with my friend NR today about 3 1/2 hours so we could watch our daughters participate in the meet in Libby, Montana.

Since Z2 is in eighth grade and in middle school, the length of her course is usually 1.5 miles. Today, since this was a new venue for the race, the length of this race was about 1.6 miles.

Z2 ran a very respectable time of 12.42.1. As she started the race at beautiful J. Neils park in Libby, her goal was to run until she crossed the FINISH line, then her race would end.

As she crossed the FINISH line, she ended the race in third place.

Way to go Z2. A very good time for her first race, and to get third place was awesome.

Kellogg hosts their home meet on Thursday.

I look forward to the season, and watching my beautiful Z2 "run like the wind"!!

And, as an ending to this post, here are some pictures of the beautiful Cabinet Mountains we could see from the course today.

Where The Deer and Antelope Play

As summer ends, and life gets busier with school, new jobs and other activities, we decided to head to Big Sky Country.

We drove to Hot Springs, Montana, and stayed at the Symes Hotel and Hot Springs. It has some natural mineral hot springs to relax and soak in and a pool. It is a wonderful mix of retro old hotel, new age hippie types, antiques, gourmet food in the dining room, and a friendly, relaxed atmosphere.
There is Cabin 5 where we stayed, with our green van in front. Saturday night we were treated to live music in the dining room from Spokane singer/songwriter Cheryl Branz. Find more about her and her music here.Today we drove to the National Bison Range in Moiese, Montana. It is a two hour drive that lets you drive and see all kinds of wildlife. In the parking lot of the visitor's center, there is this diplay of different kinds of antlers.
We saw a few buffalo. The girls broke out into their own version of "Home on the Range". It did feel like we were where the deer and the antelope play.
Here are a mother mule deer and her little one. We missed seeing a mama bear and her cub by just a few minutes.

Here are a couple of Bighorn Sheep. Below is one of three antelopes that were grazing on the side of the road. We also saw some elk down by Mission Creek, and below is one of them. We also saw lots of golden eagles flying overhead.



Our day ended driving to Plains, Montana and having lunch at Benji's, then driving back to the Silver Valley through Thompson Falls, and over Thompson Pass. Above and below are views from the top of Thompson Pass. This was a wonderful adventure, and not far away. There are many other things to see in this area, including the St. Ignatius Mission, also built by the Jesuits, who built the Cataldo Mission here in the Silver Valley. The Mission Valley isn't really touristy and the accomadations are very reasonably priced. I'd highly recommend the area for a great weekend get away.

So would The Princess, Kiki Aru and Z2.

The Princess Turns 17 Today

The birth of The Princess was quite memorable. PKR and I had decided to start a family, and found out in December of 1989 that we were expecting a baby.

We were both very excited, and one of our favorite things to do was take our big cat Lynx and dress him up in baby clothes and wheel him around in the stroller. He was around 20 pounds, so he was a good substitute!!

Lamaze class was also fun and interesting. I have very ticklish feet, and I swore PKR would never be able to massage my feet as they suggested. But it really didn't feel that bad. The lower back massages were definately my favorite.

As July approached and the temperature went up, the swelling in my ankles also increased. My doctor advised bed rest because of the preeclampsia I was experiencing. So I was now expected to stay off my feet.

I remember I had three places in our house that I rested. One was the couch in the living room. One was the hide a bed in the TV room, where I could watch TV. And the other was the bed in the downstairs basement where our computer was located. It was also very cool in the basement.

As the first of August approached, my doctor started talking about inducing me with Pitocin so I could go into labor. On August 6, PKR and I went to Glendive Medical Center, I was hooked up to the Pitocin, and nothing happened. No contractions. No nothing. So we went home.

Day Two, same routine. They hooked me up to the Pitocin. No Contractions. No nothing. So we went home.

Day Three, my due date. Mentally, I was thinking this is the day this baby needs to come out of my body. So they hooked me up to the machine. No contractions. No nothing...but wait. The monitor on the baby shows the heartrate is decelerating. They monitored it for a bit, then, around 9 pm that evening, after spending most of the day in that hospital bed, my doctor said the baby's heartbeat was decelerating, and we had better get it out, so we'd like to do a C-Section.

Here I am in surgery having a C-Section. PKR had front row seats.

At this point, any way of getting the baby out of my body was just fine with me. So I was prepped for surgery, and wheeled into the operating room, and at 10:10 p.m. our beautiful 8 pound 8 ounce baby princess was born into this world in Glendive, Montana.

PKR telling my dad "You have a new granddaughter."

I still remember laying in bed and having the nurse hand her to me, and seeing that beautiful face for the first time, those eyes looking up at me.

Gazing into my beautiful daughter's eyes

The Princess had an interesting first few months. She had a high red blood count when born, so they put her in an incubator for a while to stablize this. Then she got jaundice, and I remember it seemed like her poor heels were poked so many times in the first few weeks of her life.

The Princess in the incubator after she is born.

Then one day, when she was about 2 weeks old I think, I had her on the changing table and all of a sudden she stiffened up and rolled over. Well, even though I was new at this, I knew this was way too young for a baby to be rolling over on her own.

No, she was having a seizure.

I had been warned about this. But The Princesses episode happened a bit different than mine as a baby, or my brother. I remember that first day when the seizures began, holding her in my lap as her body stiffen for about 45 seconds, and then she would cry because it would frighten her so much.

We got her to her pediatrician, who put her on phenobarbital, which helps stop the seizures. I was on this medication the first year of my life as well.

The Princess had an EEG after having seizures.

Even though this condition was well known on my dad's side of the family, we never knew there was a name for it. Because of the imerging access to the Internet at the time, she was able to access medical data bases, and put a name on this condition, Benign Familial Neonatal Convulsions. It was one of the scariest times, those days of having a seizing baby, but with medication and time, the seizures went away and she was fine.

I can't believe 17 years have passed from our time as a young family in Glendive. The Princess hasn't had an easy time with life for the past five or six years, but I look at her now and what she has done, and she amazes me every day. Despite her problems with depression, ADHD, and other anxiety disorders, she has come a long way as she approaches her senior year in high school, planning on attending North Idaho College in a year and pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a performer.

She amazed me this summer as we worked together during the melodrama production. It was fun seeing her develop the character of Kacey the singing Irish lass, and the songs she sang in the review. And to see her face as she would come behind stage because she nailed the song just right, or made the audience laugh was priceless.

She amazed me as she sat and had us rolling on the floor in laughter as she told priceless stories from her week at church camp.

Happy Birthday, Princess. My prayer for you this year is that the beautiful princess both God, me and your dad see each day will look back at you in the mirror every morning, because you are truly a special and beautiful girl, our precious gift from God.

Christmas Cookie Exchange

The following post is a writing I gave to members of my Huckleberry Book Club with our cookies from our Christmas Cookie Exchange last Christmas.

Tonight has been one of those precious Christmas moments. I had an evening home, and I was able to spend it in the kitchen baking treats for five very special ladies and their families. I mixed, and patted, and stirred and melted and dipped, all while listening to the “24-hour all-Christmas Music” radio station and singing along with Alvin and the Chipmunks singing “Christmas Won’t Be Late”, Michael Bolton’s version of “The Christmas Song”, and “Silver Bells”, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and “White Christmas”. To top the evening off, I got to sing a duet with James Taylor singing “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”.

The two goodies I am sharing with you come from two parts of my life. The first is the Graham Cracker Toffee Bars. This recipe comes from a cookbook I received while living in Glendive, Montana. Glendive represented a simpler time in my life. In many aspects, my life was built on the foundation started in Glendive. I drove my first car to live in my first apartment and work at my first career in Glendive. The first years of my marriage were spent in Glendive. My first child was born in Glendive. In many aspects, many of my personal beliefs in my Christian faith were formed in Glendive.

This recipe is simple. It has only five ingredients, and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare. But the results are very delicious. Please enjoy.


Graham Cracker Toffee Bars

15 to 20 whole graham crackers
1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
1 ½ cups butter
½ cup pecans or walnuts
1 12 oz. pkg. chocolate chips

Line cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with crackers. Combine butter, sugar and nuts in sauce pan. Cook over high heat until mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat and stir constantly for 5 minutes. Pour over crackers. Place chocolate pieces in double boiler and melt over boiling water. Spread evenly over toffee mixture. Cool and cut into bars.

The second recipe is a bit more complicated. There are more ingredients and more steps involved, and the ingredients cost more. I discovered this recipe while visiting my sister this fall, and watching with her one of her favorite cooking shows, “The Barefoot Contessa”. She made this recipe on her show that day, and it looked so good I tracked down the recipe on the Internet and am sharing it with you today.

Just like the recipe, my life is more complicated these days. There are more ingredients, and life costs more, and there are more steps involved. I am on my fourth car now. I am living in my sixth home since being married. This house is bigger, and full of a lot more stuff. I am now on career number seven or so since my first career move in Glendive. I have now spent 20 years with Paul as husband and wife. We now have three children. I am thankful for the things I learned in Glendive regarding my Christian faith, because I often have to lean on those Truths as I wrestle with answers to life’s complicated questions that can often shake my faith.

But often Christmas brings all that is important back into focus. How God sent His Son to be born in a simple manger, to a young, scared girl who realized she was giving birth to the Savior of the world. One of my favorite parts of the Christmas story is after Mary is informed by the angel Gabriel that she is giving birth to God’s son, and Mary is so accepting of what is ahead of her, with her response, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."

When seemingly impossible or seemingly insurmountable circumstances come my way, I want my response to be like Mary’s, accepting of what life is bringing me, and moving on, realizing the hard times will birth something even greater in the future.

So the Pecan Squares (actually for you they are “Walnut Squares”) are representative of the now, the more complicated life I now lead, with the many aspects and layers I deal with every day. I hope this recipe also brings enjoyment to you and your family this holiday season.

Pecan Squares

Crust: 1 1/4 pounds unsalted butter, room temperature 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3 extra-large eggs 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt
Topping: 1 pound unsalted butter 1 cup good honey 3 cups light brown sugar, packed 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest 1 teaspoon grated orange zest 1/4 cup heavy cream 2 pounds pecans, coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

For the crust, beat the butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, until light, approximately 3 minutes. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients into the batter with the mixer on low speed until just combined. Press the dough evenly into an ungreased 18 by 12 by 1-inch baking sheet, making an edge around the outside. It will be very sticky; sprinkle the dough and your hands lightly with flour. Bake for 15 minutes, until the crust is set but not browned. Allow to cool.

For the topping, combine the butter, honey, brown sugar, and zests in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over low heat until the butter is melted, using a wooden spoon to stir. Raise the heat and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the heavy cream and pecans. Pour over the crust, trying not to get the filling between the crust and the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the filling is set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold. Cut into bars and serve.

I’ve enjoyed our book selection this month, “Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. In the spirit of this book, I’d like to make my own entry into my own encyclopedia.

Huckleberries Book Club

This is a group of women I meet with once a month to discuss a book we have read during the previous month. It started out with SD, JR, VG and myself. Later MV was added. VG left us in the spring of 2006, and MG joined us in the fall of 2006. We gather together each month sharing a potpourri of gourmet delights, accompanied by either a glass of red or white wine, coffee or tea. We are lucky if we spend 10 or 15 minutes on the book discussion. The other 1 hour and 50 minutes of our time together is spent solving the world’s problems. I so appreciate these women in my life. We belong to a special tribe….one comprised of readers, thinkers, lovers, friends….each month we provide a shoulder for each other to lean on and share ourselves from the heart. We draw from one anothers lives.


Thanks to all of you for the special part you play in my life. Merry Christmas!!!