Cruising the Creekwalk 5K

 Saturday we ran our January 5K in downtown Prattville.  It was a fundraiser for the Autauga County youth leadership program.  The race went along the creek (hence the name) but only for a little bit then cut through town and up into the Prattville cemetery (which had plenty of hills) before circling back to the starting line by the high school stadium.  Perfect temps and the rain held off until after the food and awards.  Speaking of food....what is the thinking behind having pizza, donuts and mini Chick-Fil-A's at the finish line?  Yeah, there were bananas and oranges as well but the others sort of seems to defeat the purpose of having just run 3.2 miles!

I always seem to be the one reading this woman's shirt during the races!

 Tom has been doing a boot camp MWF from 5-6 AM so his group decided to run this race together.  For some it was their first race but they all did well.

We also ran into my friend Erin from my Prattville book group.  She and her husband brought their boys Nate and Ben over to run.  Nate (in red) was very happy when he passed me by and not at all ashamed to show it!

Bachelorette Party

One of Tom's classmates got married over Christmas so the "guys" all decided to go out to dinner Friday night to celebrate.  While they went to Montgomery for Thai food I had the spouses over to my place so we could meet Vanessa, Geoff's new bride.  They met in Italy when he was stationed there and he stayed in her bed and breakfast for a month.  One of those crazy meet, fall in love in Europe and 7 months later get married in Vegas over the Christmas break stories!

Olga and new bride Vanessa

 New mom Danielle came over as well as Bonnie who is expecting next month.  We all loved holding darling baby Ariana!

 Because it was all last minute I put the tiny white lights up along with some heart decorations in the apartment. Fortunately because of Valentine's Day there were plenty of "love" trinkets to be had.  I made a pot of chicken noodle soup, some rolls, stuffed puff appetizers from Costco, cheese & fruit platter and cupcakes.  I set up some crafts for us to work on.....painting clothespins to use for hanging all the new baby and wedding photos they all have and some beads and hemp to make some jewelry.  We mostly just laughed, talked and grazed on the food all night.  Vanessa was darling and happy to meet the other wives.  She lives just around the corner from me in the same complex so I'm sure I'll see more of her.

The boys doing the town!  New groom Geoff is in the center in the grey sweater.

Happy Birthday to Me!

 So my birthday was last week and I decided to spend the day doing something I love.  First had a meeting with a radio station about using some studio space for voice overs then headed to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.  I love going to museums and galleries alone so I can dash through the sections that don't appeal to me (most modern art) and lounge in the areas that I love.  The museum is located in a park along with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.  It's a gorgeous setting and a beautiful building.

Even the windows look framed and look out onto more art.

One huge glass wall was full of this stained glass that had been commissioned & produced in Germany then shipped over here.

 The museum store was full of local artist's work which I loved so I browsed casually there for some time and then I had lunch in the cafe.  Yummy quiche and lobster bisque at a quiet table with white linens that looked out over the lake surrounding the museum.

There was also a whole area called Art Works which is supposedly for kids but I had the whole place to myself and loved it.  It had many sections showing how art is produced including a large oil painting with the initial sketch, then the added layers showing more depth and then the final layer of varnish to enhance the colors.  There was also a big quilt with the center covered in velcro so you could take their whole stack of quilt blocks and build the design in the quilt just as you wanted.  Another layered stamp project, a puppet theatre based on one of the paintings in the gallery and just all kinds of fun things!  I will definitely be going back there.

This made me laugh as it reminded me of my water aerobics class back home in Farmington.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

 Tom didn't have school on Monday because of the holiday so we decided to go to the Prattville parade in the morning.  There were very few people out to actually see the parade where we were and as we were parked right on the street (we could have just sat in the car and watched) we got a WHOLE lotta candy tossed our way!  A CHANGE IS GONNA COME was playing over the speakers and the little ones were singing "Happy Birthday Dr. King!" and it was pretty joyous all around.

 After the parade we decided to go try out Prattville's oldest (same age as me) family owned Jim's Restaurant for breakfast.  It was pretty average but we were glad we had given it a go.

 We went back to the apartment for some reading but needed a break early afternoon so opted to head into Montgomery for their parade.  It too was pretty quiet but we parked by the Rose Parks Musem then had time to walk up the street toward the capitol to just look around.  There were bigger crowds up near the capitol with Dr. King's speeches being played over loud speakers and bbq grills cookin' up goodies along the sidewalk.

 This main street is called Dexter Ave. and has some great architecture but is pretty vacant except for a few businesses here and there.  Hopefully it's on the upswing with some new upgrading going on.  Lots of history though including the bus stop where Rosa Parks got on that bus, the area where they conducted the slave trade and the Dexter Ave Baptist Church where MLK was minister.  Being here in the South has found a new place in my heart for this holiday.

Montgomery Zoo

 Sunday afternoon was lovely so we decided to check out the zoo in Montgomery.  Love going to the zoo when it's cool out as opposed to the swelter of summer as it's not nearly as crowded and the animals are much more alert.

It was very quiet and most the animals were up and about.  Felt like we had the place to ourselves a lot of the time.

 This little sanctuary area was surrounded by the big cats cages.  Seemed a little cruel to have the tigers and jaguars having to stare all day through glass/cage at something they were probably dying to eat.  There was only one lion that we thought was female as it had no mane.  The zookeeper said they had fixed it when it was young because they had another male in the cage and when they do that they don't grow a mane, AND they grow twice as big.  Who knew?

 Of course we spent half an hour watching the monkeys.  This was the only baby and was a total tease.  Bugged the bigger ones then would run and hide behind mom when they got annoyed and came after him.  Could spend the whole day just watching them.

 I didn't include the photo Tom had to take of the elephant relieving himself.  For some reason he found that compelling enough to document. Several times.

 This guy was hilarious.  When we had gone by his area earlier in the day he was lying peacefully over in the sun against a far wall.  Around 4:30 when we came back his way he was pacing back and forth in front of this door.  He would even go up and knock against it as he was ready to eat and ready to go in for the night.  Very funny.

There was also a museum with all kinds of life sized mounted animals.  I got ahead of Tom and it was kind of dark in there.  It was a little creepy to come around corners by myself and have huge bears up on their hind legs looking ready to pounce!  It was a great day though and I'm pretty sure that's the first time we've been to a zoo sans children.  Relaxing and very enjoyable!

Babies!

 I mentioned in an earlier post about all the babies that were expected this school year in Tom's class.  One couple had their baby (Ariana) in November but there are 4 more coming in the next 6 weeks.  Today's baby shower was for Alma who is actually a classmate of Tom's (the rest of the expectant mom's are wives of classmates) and is expecting twins.  The doctor just put her on bed rest until the babies come in mid-Feb which means she will be doing her school work from home.  Her husband is on active duty in Afghanistan but she has a very supportive mom and mom-in-law who are here to help until he arrives on Feb. 14th.  These are all first babies so there is a lot of excitement and this baby shower was darling!  Yes, her nursery has an animal theme!

clip on name tags

Mama Kauzue who will deliver tomorrow if nothing happens before then and Mama Alma who is carrying the twins!

New Year's Eve Guests

    Mauricio, T-n-T, Kauzue & Andy, Olga & Patricia  (Mauricio's wife & sister)
                                       Nicolas, Juanita and Nicole.

Finally wrapped up the holidays with an Open House on New Year's Eve from 4-7.  Invited all Tom's classmates, my bible study and book group friends and a couple of international friends.  It turns out many stayed out of town until New Year's Day and I had some last minute apologies due to sickness so we had a small turnout but it ended up being a great night anyway.  Andy (who is Southern) and Kauzue (who is Japanese) brought a lovely dish with ingredients symbolic of all good things & wishes for the new year.  Mauricio and Olga came and brought their children and his sister and niece who were visiting.  They're all from Colombia and later in the evening were telling us about the customary soup they were going to eat later that night as part of their traditions.  Next thing I knew they ran down to their apartment (they live a few buildings away) and came back with the soup (a yummy 3 potato recipe) for all of us to share!  They all ended up staying much later than the 7PM open house had stated but we had a great time and lots of interesting sharing of our different cultures.

You know you're living in the Bible Belt when television commercials have not so subtle messages like a huge tapestry cross behind the spokesperson, you drive past businesses like Trinity Dry Cleaning, and there are murals like this along the road.

Exploring

One thing I love about being in a new place (and having a GPS) is the ability to just hop in the car and go for a ride.  There are plenty of back roads here with a small cafe or bbq every few miles, a plethora of single wide trailers and lots of trees and open fields.  More than once we've just decided to check out a new area we're unfamiliar with.  Our last excursion a couple of days ago drove our GPS mad as we went out of our way to avoid the one toll road that crosses the river to get back home.  It's only $1.50 but it was the principle of the thing.  We kept going on and on assuming we were driving alongside the river and eventually we would have to find an alternative crossover.  We ended up in Wetumpka (about 30 minutes away) and happened upon the CreekCasino which looked like a big blow-up building or some kind of temporary tent-like contraption.  We had to check it out so walked inside.  It was a brief visit that included a rest room stop, a free soda at the fix it yourself beverage area, a peek at the buffet and a walk through the casino.  No tables, only one armed bandits.  Didn't even see any video games but I tell you the place was SO smokey that we reeked by the time we walked outside.  Eventually found an alternative way home and immediately tossed our smelly clothes in the washer.  Can't imagine how people spend hours in there!

Holiday Wrap-Up

Nice when you have fresh greenery to cut right outside your door!

 Thought I would hit the highlights of December that I missed along the way.  The Holiday Ball for all the students was held the 9th in downtown Montgomery at the gorgeous Renaissance Hotel & Convention Center.  Tom helped with registration while I checked out the silent auction items.  I sang with a band made up of one other female spouse and two students who played guitar and bass along with some backup comical percussion from the MC.  We had ONE rehearsal the night before but sounded pretty darned good for being thrown together so quickly.  We were the entertainment for the night but there was so much going on I'm not sure we were heard very well.  Our camera battery also died so of course there are no pix other than this of our table and the lovely lobby decorations.

 Went with minimal decor at the apartment.  The only thing we brought was the "deployment tree" which is the tree Tom bought when he was in DC for a year.  It has little fiber optic ends that change colors and yes, it was lopsided all the time. I've also kept cute Christmas cards I've received over the years and cut them up to use as tags on gifts.  This year I cut them up and used them as ornaments on our tree.  I did buy a couple of strings of white lights for the veranda but everything else was adapted from All A Dollar or sent to me from my mom or my friend Linda.  Both were afraid I'd miss my Santa collection so sent me a couple of St. Nick's to help with the holiday spirit.  Loved being able to take it all down in half an hour!