Second Semester: Complete

Matt completed his second semester of college at the beginning of this month. He ended the semester with two A's and a B. He did very well with his Psychology class all semester long and the final project was a breeze. Databases was a little tougher but I think that was mostly because he wasn't interested in the subject matter. Networking went a little more smoothly but the final was a doozy. He has worked so hard this semester and I am very proud of him and how well he has done so far.
Last week he started taking a summer class (computer repair and maintenance.) He has to take it during the summer because next semester the class falls right into his work schedule. There was another summer class he had signed up for but the college cancelled it because of low enrollment.
Even though he has class I'm still hoping we'll be able to do a summer vacation or two. We've talked about going to Coeur d'alene, Idaho/ Spokane, Washington again and I would really love to do that this summer.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wow! I cannot believe all the wonderful presents I got from Matt this year for Valentine's Day. First he surprised me when I got off work on Sunday afternoon with some beautiful red roses and white daisies. We were going to have dinner that night at the Windbag Saloon (we figured it would be less crowded than going on Tuesday night). Unfortunately they were closed. Monday he gave me a big box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates and he bought me some chocolates from the Parrot. Too much candy but oh so good!
Shopko put out the Valentine's Day stuff the day after Christmas. There was a stuffed monkey on display that I fell in love with. Of course, so did everyone else and they sold out right away. Or so I thought. Matt remembered the monkey and bought it weeks ago! I was so surprised that he even remembered that I liked it and even more surprising is that he remembered to buy one before they got sold out completely. I have named my monkey "Flea" and I adore him. What a wonderful Valentine's Day!

KitchenAid Mixer

This year for Christmas I was very blessed and got a gift I have been wanting for years. A KitchenAid mixer. I could not believe it! I even got to go to the store and pick out which color I wanted. It was a tricky decision; I liked the black one but I was worried it would show dust, I liked the white one but the accent color (the knobs) was an icky grayish color, so I decided on the light pink one. I told my mom I was going to put Hello Kitty stickers all over it. (I was hoping to get a little bit of a rise out of her but all she said was, "Okay.") I have been so busy with work and trying to get caught up on projects I'm behind on I haven't gotten a chance to test her out. Until tonight that is! I made one of my all time favorite cookies. They are called, "Butterscotch Scotties." I first had them when my old room mate Shannon made some a few years back. They have butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips and some oatmeal. I can't wait to make more things and try out some new recipes.

Some of the yummy cookies!

More delicious cookies!

My pretty pink mixer!

First Semester is Over!

Matt finished his very first semester of college this month. I am so proud of him and how hard he has worked the last few months with work and school. He took 14 credits on his first semester! On top of that he challenged the Introduction to Microsoft Office at the beginning of the semester and passed so he also gets credit for that class. He took an algebra class, programming, webpages, and a college writing class. He struggled with programming all semester and I was really worried that he would have to retake it but he managed to get a C. I couldn't believe he passed seeing how much trouble he had trying to get the assignments to work. I think it was mostly syntax errors and the teacher took that into consideration, thank goodness. He also got an A in webpages and an A in his writing class. He was late getting into the webpages class (because he was in the Intro. to Microsoft Office) so I was pleasantly surprised when he got an A. I hope he does this well in the semesters to follow!

Bret Detar and Nick 13 Show

As many of you know, a few weeks ago Matt and I made a very short trip to Salt Lake City. The lead singer of one of my favorite bands recently came out with a solo album was touring, Salt Lake being one of the stops on the tour. Matt had class and I couldn't afford to miss much work so we drove down on a Friday, went to the concert on Saturday and drove home Sunday to be back at work and school on Monday. I think it was worth it to spend some time with my family and see one of the best performers out there, but three days is just not enough time.
I had never heard of Bret Detar before and I didn't really know what to expect. All the times in the past that I've seen Nick 13 he has been with his band Tiger Army (which is darker and more punk than his solo stuff which is a little more country). They've always played with bands like: Rancid, 12 Step Rebels, The Business, etc. I don't think he could how found a more perfect musician to open for him. Bret Detar came on stage and said his style was "sad bastard music" and he didn't lie about that. I thought to myself that I would not want to be the act before Nick 13 but I think Bret really held his own.
Seeing Nick with a new, country band was definitely different than seeing Tiger Army but it was still a wonderful show. He played my favorite Tiger Army song, "In The Orchard" and my favorite song off his new album, "All Alone". Did I mention my mom came to the show with us? She got to see for herself what I've been talking about for years (without putting up with punk kids and mosh pits). I still love my Tiger Army but I think Nick did a pretty damn good job on his own. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us next.

Our Apartment

We have been living at our "new" apartment for a little over 7 months now and I still love it! After living at the place on Broadway for about a year and a half and then moving here, I don't know why we stayed there for so long. There wasn't much winter left when we moved into the new place so I hope the winters here are better than the last place. The radiators in the bathroom and bedroom at the old place didn't work and despite informing the landlady about it, they never got fixed. And, to be fair, it is a pretty old building so I guess it can't be expected to hold too much heat.
Our new landlord/lady are pretty awesome. They mow the lawns themselves or when they are out of town they hire someone to make sure it gets done. The other day the landlady came over and vacuumed the entryway. It's a nice change of pace to have owners that actually care about the property.
Our last neighbors had a five year old son and we could hear him all the time. For hours at a time jumping around and yelling. Matt and I joked that they must have collected bowling balls and were rearranging them. That's how loud they were. They tried to use his age as an excuse for him to be loud but I think they just didn't want to discipline him. Our new downstairs neighbor also has a young son, probably about five. I have heard him once! And I'm pretty sure he was crying because he got hurt. That I can understand. I would cry too.
I'm glad every day that we found this new apartment to live in and I hope we're happy here for many more months!

The Reverend Horton Heat

After waiting years to be old enough, I finally got to see The Reverend Horton Heat. We had to drive to Missoula right after I got off work and drive home right after the show ended so I could go to work this morning and Matt could go to class. We ended up getting home at 1:30 and Matt had class at 9:00. It was so worth it! I was a little bummed that they didn't play my song, "The Girl In Blue." However, they played "Galaxy 500" for Matt and another one of my favorite songs "Bad Reputation." I think the best song they played was a cover of Johnny Cash's song "Folsom Prison Blues."
The Rev had on a black work shirt (that you could buy at the merch. booth with the band name and "25 years" printed on it to celebrate the band's anniversary) with black slacks that were embellished with light pink flames on the sides and black shoes with white and red pinstriping. They played a few songs from their new LP, one of them being "Ain't No Saguaro in Texas" about a cactus that people think grow in Texas but actually grow in Arizona. The bass player, Jimbo made up a "dance" move to go with the song. Basically you just hold your arms in the air to resemble a cactus and move side to side. It is ridiculous but the whole crowd, including myself, followed along. It was so funny to watch.
Towards the end of the show they decided to play a few requests from the crowd, which was pretty sweet. Since they had played at least one song from every album they decided it was only fair to play at least one from the Christmas album too. So they played "Run Rudolph Run" (in September) but Jimbo and The Rev switched instruments for this one!
I cannot wait to see these guys again. Who knows, maybe next time they'll play my song. :)