Saturday in the Park

Montgomery started their Second Saturday Riverfront Festival this past weekend.  Because they are trying to revitalize the downtown area they are introducing all kinds of new activities to draw people into the city.  From 5-8 pm there is live music, food and drink booths, a few artists and lots of great people watching.  Local band playing R & B, light jazz and classic rock.

Sooooo enjoyable just sitting, watching and listening.

You know you're living in AL when there are father/daughter matching mohawks.

We've decided that one of the many things we love about AL is the fact that we're a 15 minute drive from downtown, parking is close and easy, there aren't huge crowds at events but enough to make them interesting.  We feel perfectly comfortable leaving our chairs unattended while walking around to grab hotdogs and ice cream.  People are incredibly nice and friendly. This event was very family friendly with kids everywhere.

The fountain was a clear kid favorite along with the blow up rides.

8 pm sharp, the lights went off and the fireworks went off literally above our heads!  I'm not a big pyrotechnic gal but these were very cool, fast, close and a great end to a relaxing date night.

Just Another Day in Alabama

Have I mentioned how lucky I am to be here?  There are days that I start freaking out over having not worked during our time here......then I remember that this will soon come to an end, I'll have plenty of time to work, and because I have this freedom right now I am able to spend days like this. Count your blessings I say!

First, Tom and I were up bright and early to go to a hot yoga class (room is 85 degrees), then off to the base gym for showers then he to class and me to my wonderful Bible study group.  We are doing a study on the book of James that has really spoken to us.  It is 2 hours that I so look forward to weekly (even the homework through the week) and something I am going to miss when we leave here.

When we finished I headed to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts.  There are some new exhibits that opened in the past few weeks so I got to spend a leisurely 90 minutes wandering through this gorgeous place!

Oil painting of old Montgomery

I could just sit and look at this window all day.

These especially caught my attention today.  Guess I was in the mood for color!

My friend Brenda Van der Wiel from Salt Lake has been in town designing costumes for The Merry Wives of Windsor the for Alabama Shakespeare Festival.  She teaches design at the University of Utah and designs for several theaters in SLC where I've worked and we've known each other for years. She finally got a break before she heads back to Utah to be able to meet for lunch.  Met at Cafe M in the museum and had a lovely catch up session to accompany our lobster bisque and spinach salads.  Doesn't that just sound like something you should eat a a museum cafe?  Anyway, it was lovely to see a friendly face from home.

Hurried back to the apartment since I forget we now have a dog that needs to be let out (yikes) and received a text that the book group gals wanted to go see The Hunger Games @ 7:15.  So picked up Tom from school, ran him to his chiropractor for a quick adjustment, made a speedy dinner omelet then headed across the street to meet the gals.  Eight of us showed up (apparently last minute plans can lead to good turn  outs! ) including someone who signed up to be in the group but has never been able to actually attend!  We basically had the theatre to ourselves so enjoyed the film and a little post show discussion (we read the book a few months ago).  Went with thumbs up which is a rarity with book to film adaptations but overall we felt they did a good job.  Anyway, it was a busy but lovely day doing just about all my favorite things.  And yes, I am a lucky girl.

Relaxing

Oysters

 After a stressful few weeks Tom wrapped up the last of some important homework on Friday leaving the weekend free for some relaxation.  We spent it at the pool, his training for an upcoming half ironman, watching movies then just enjoying some good food and wandering through downtown Montgomery.

Yummy fish tacos!

The Break Room

So each of the students has a responsibility for his flight and Tom's happens to be keeping the break room stocked.  I don't know if its because we have the Costco membership or because they know he's very thorough, but several times throughout the school year we've made the 30 minute trek to the warehouse and loaded up on goodies.

 What they didn't realize was that Tom would feel compelled to offer an assortment of options....not just the usual candy/chip variety.  So yes, he has introduced the cheeseburger sliders, the vienna sausages, the sugar free canned fruit and the Chef Boyardee pretend pasta into the mix...just to name a few.  Yes, this is how we spend a riveting Saturday afternoon.

Easter

There are crosses everywhere here and through the season of lent, many have been draped with purple cloth up until Maundy Thursday or Holy Thursday, marking the day of the Last Supper. On Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion it is draped in black. 

 This particular cross is up on a hill by our apartment and though we walk by it frequently we had never actually been up on the hill.  We rode up to take a look and it offered a gorgeous view of the area.

Montgomery off in the distance

The Robert Trent Golf Course.  That's where I run.

The Spring wildflowers

 Since it's just Tom and I we decided to do something different and got up to go to a 6 AM sunrise service offered by Centerpoint Church on that same hill.  It was a little brisk, but we took our lawn chairs and a blanket and just took in the morning.  Some lovely music with simple guitar and a sermon on the resurrection.  This church is very much about evangelism and reaching out to the unchurched so the hope is at Easter you might say something that speaks to that person who has left church or has never been involved in a church but just happens to have attended on this particular day.

John 11:25

King James Version (KJV)

 ²⁵Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

 I love Biblegateway.com where you can look up specific Bible scriptures, or just put in a word or story and the scriptures will come up.  I also love that you can look at different translations of the Bible and choose the drop down you want.  I have found that reading several different versions of the same scripture sometimes opens my eyes to something I've not heard before.

The morning sunrise was gorgeous

 Finally on Sunday, the cross is draped with white.....Hallelujah!  Christ is Risen!  I hope everyone had a blessed Easter.

Floyd

Apparently we will be foster parents to Nic's dog Floyd (as in Pink) for the time being.  Trying to figure out how to travel with a dog in a plane was a whole new subset of info we were never really interested in having but there you go. 

 Floyd was one of three chihuahua mix dogs Nic had with a former girlfriend.  Ringo, Zeppelin & Floyd.  Yes, there is a definite leaning toward classic rock.
Fortunately Floyd is smart and well-behaved though not perfectly trained.  Hence, off to classes we go. Because he is small, they had us put him in a beginning class with puppies so the big dogs wouldn't freak him out.  Unfortunately ALL dogs seem to freak him out.

Covering sit, watch me, and touch.

 Discovered a lovely winding road that leads to Cooters Pond and a big ol' dog park (which is really just a fenced area with dry grass....hoping this improves) where he can run off leash and play with other dogs.  If there were ever any other dogs there.  And if he actually liked other dogs.  That little speck about mid photo is Floyd running crazily through the open space.  We took a little picnic and had our dinner there the other night as it is really a beautiful area and about 5 minutes from our place.

We also discovered a use for the tub that is rarely utilized due to the inability to fill it with more than 3 inches of water before it runs cold.  It suits Floyd just fine.

 

No, we weren't really interested in having another dog and no, we don't really don't know how this story plays out, but for the present .....one man's best friend is hanging at our place.

Saturday Doings

 So it's Spring break but what we were hoping would turn into a 3 day getaway has turned into a stay here while Tom gets caught up on work, a major paper and updating his resume.  And I would be serving as his assistant, editor and food maker.  Hoping I get an assistant Master's degree out of it.

He is training for a half triathlon however which included a 58 mile bike ride this morning.  So I settled in to listen to conference and do a little crafting.  A while back a friend posted on Facebook about offering to make something hand made for anyone who commented on her post.  In return you had to re-post and hand make something for those who commented on yours.  I had 4 friends join in and here are three of the four projects I will be sending off.  The fourth was a cross-stitch project I already sent.  These are just
decopauged canvases I put together with paint, antique stamps, specialty paper and anything else I've collected that worked with each of the themes.  They were fun!

Then I'm posting this just because it's gorgeous, it makes me happy, and if we WERE on vacation....this is where I'd like to be.    Photograph by Daniel Montero.