Wyatt is a frog hunter

Video of Jackson fording the river (that one's for Kelda, Amy and Alyson) and Wyatt doing the death shake on a poor bullfrog while on our walk on Blue Mountain yesterday. We passed this really creepy house with hundreds of little angel statues everywhere. I would have taken photos of it, but I didn't want the owners to come running out with shotguns. Enjoy!

I'm a Cougar in Missoula

So this last Friday was Paige’s 27th birthday. We had a big BBQ at Paige and Justin’s (where the mosquitoes were quite literally attacking us) and then headed downtown. We went to three bars: The Rhino, Red’s and Stockman’s. At all three bars, Paige would tell people it was her birthday and they would inevitably ask how old she was. She would answer that she was 27. We got the exact same reaction wherever we went: shock and mild disgust. “Oh… really? I’m 23 (24, 25, etc.).” Then they would slowly turn and try to get the attention of one of their friends so they could sneakily stop chatting with us. Having been 27 for almost nine months now, I was especially offended by this obvious and ridiculous agism. In Portland (and anywhere NORMAL AND NOT A COLLEGE TOWN) 27 is not old. 27 is established, attractive, professional, etc. but definitely not old. But the one thing that was made glaringly clear to me in the last three days is that, in Missoula, I am officially a Cougar.

For those of you who don’t know – a Cougar is an old woman who preys on younger men. This is easy to do here because the University students are inevitably at the same bars as us and have most likely been drinking large quantities of alcohol. If I actually WAS a Cougar and wanted to take advantage of the situation, it would be like taking candy from a baby (literally). I think the situation infuriated me even more because our friend Tom (who actually calls himself T. Rex), is 42, has never been married, is very successful and is quite the catch. But he is CONSTANTLY surrounded by 21 year olds and has even dated women younger than that. So fine. If T. Rex can do it and not be called ridiculous names or be looked on as a dangerous predator, so can I. If the normal aged men think I’m OLD (gets more ridiculous the more I say it), I’m going to start dating 18 year olds. No one older than 20. I’ve decided to just embrace whatever Cougar vibe I’m putting out there and see where it takes me. The way I see it, there are actually quite a few pros that could come from this situation:

1. 18 year old men have not yet developed beer bellies or started balding
2. 18 year old men have plenty of time to spend with you because THEY’RE STILL IN SCHOOL
3. 18 year old men are still being supported by their parents (I realize this could be a con, but I really enjoyed it when I was still supported by MY parents)
4. 18 year old men can’t come to the bars with you, which means I can go out an have a good time with my friends WITHOUT the guilt of not spending time with my significant other

Now, there are also plenty of cons to this plan. I’ve dated a younger man so I know it might not be for me. Some of the other cons include:

1. The possibility of several roommates (or, let’s be clear, a FRATERNITY HOUSE full of roommates)
2. An 18 year old body, which would bring me back to the days of 2 times a day workouts and a generally fat free diet just to feel like we were on equal footing
3. The internal shame of dating someone younger than my brother
4. The embarrassment that would come from reading about his first DUI in the Sunday Missoulian
5. The fact that he might still be carrying his photo from prom in his wallet
6. Dealing with the drama of sorority girls AGAIN
7. Long nights helping him edit his English papers

Now I’m kind of second guessing my decision. Thoughts from all of you? Younger? Older? Or maybe I’ll just become Justin’s second wife and be done with this whole thing…

Finally some sun!

Happy Monday! We finally got some nice weather here and spent a lot of time outdoors, which made Jackson very happy. Yesterday, Paige, Justin and I drove to Rock Creek (or Rock Crick as someone told me on Friday night) so Justin could do some fishing and Paige and I could take the dogs for a hike. Apparently it's salmon fly season, which is huge for fishermen and brings people from all over the place to fish the Montana rivers. It is also the season for Morel Mushroom hunting. People came out in droves all weekend to hunt for them at all the burn sites by Rock Creek. Since neither Paige or I like mushrooms, we stuck to the hiking.

As everyone knows, I am very protective of Jackson. Maybe too protective. So Paige forced me to let Jackson do all the things I normally never would have let him do. For example, we crossed two bridges that I typically would have carried him over. This makes total sense to me because the rivers are RAGING right now from all the rain we've been getting and, God forbid, if he were to fall in, there would be nothing we could do. But I let him do it himself and he made it across just fine. There were also times I would have carried him over logs, down rough terrain, and through streams, but he did it all himself and had a great time. My baby is growing up and as a mom I have to let go... :) So now for two of my favorite dog pictures EVER. We got to a place in the creek where the water wasn't running too quickly and we were throwing sticks for the dogs so they could cool down in the water. For those of you who haven't seen Jackson swim, it's pretty hilarious. Jackson would swim as hard as he could to get to the stick, but Wyatt just bounded over him and happily took it away. Needless to say, both of them were soaking wet, which led to the following:

I honestly feel like framing these, they amuse me so much. Anyway, a few hours later, we met back up with Justin (who didn't catch anything, but had a good time trying), had some lunch and headed home.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend and enjoyed the nice weather! And Happy Late Father's Day, Dad :)

Just call me Super Model

So I posted this picture on Facebook and people seem to be very confused, so I thought here was a good a place as any to explain what's going on. First Security Bank, one of our clients at Spiker had a model cancel last minute for a photo shoot and they asked me if I could fill in. But I was wearing a skirt, turtle neck, nylons and heels, so they mande me go home and change so I looked more "Montana" :). The photo is for an ad around "free checking, free stuff" and here I'm holding all the free stuff you could get if you opened an account with First Security:


Yes, that's an oversized thermometer and yes, that is an American flag. We are very patriotic here. And I ended up choosing the baking sheets because Montana has domesticated me. Or just because I love brownies...

Snow in June

It is June 10th and it is snowing in Missoula. I'm looking out my window right now at huge flakes pouring down. I can only hope this means there won't be too many 100+ degree days later this summer.

I hope the weather in other parts of the country (Gena? Snowing in Houston?) is better than this...

Springtime in Missoula

I know it’s almost the middle of June and I should be writing about all the beautiful sunny weather we’re having, but it’s been pretty dark and rainy here lately. This past Sunday I was house sitting at the Brown house on Blue Mountain and the sun broke through in the afternoon. Their property is GORGEOUS and I thought I’d share some pics of the beautiful scenery. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Billy NOOOOOO!

I guess it could have been me: http://perezhilton.com/2008-06-02-bill-clinton-has-another-affair.

And yes, I posted the link to the Perez Hilton article instead of the Vanity Fair one. Perez is like my CNN.

I MET BILL CLINTON

So I’m pretty sure that anyone who reads this knows that I have an unnatural and undying love for Bill Clinton. Go ahead, judge me if you like, but I LOVE HIM. I think he’s so amazing and was pretty much rooting for Hillary because Bill would have been involved in the presidency again (there were other reasons, but still). So Saturday night I was out with some friends headed to a bar called Red’s and we walked by the Mo Club (where I did all the Irish Car Bombs) and it was unusually packed. I take another look and everyone inside has their cell phones out and they’re taking pictures of something. Ever the curious (and star-struck) person, we go in to check it out.

It takes me about 30 seconds to realize that the person eating a burger at the back of the bar is BILL CLINTON. I immediately (and audibly) squealed and unceremoniously pushed my way through the locals and hoochie college girls to be up in front by him. Perfect timing because as soon as I did, he stood up to go to the bar. And I met him. And shook his hand. And had a drink. And when I shook his hand, in typical uncool fashion, I said “It’s nice to meet you. Ohmygodthisissoinsane…” He laughed and everyone got a drink and he just chatted with everyone and was so amazing. He has very, very white hair, is kind of pudgy and looks very old. I left the bar visibly shaking. This would be on the same level as me meeting Piercy (Pierce Brosnan for those of you who couldn't decipher that) or Justin Timberlake. JT PEOPLE! I almost threw myself off a balcony at his concert just so he'd feel bad and come visit me in the hospital. Same level. I might even give Bill the edge since he was THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. But I still want to marry Justin Timberlake. Or maybe just press up against him for a bit. Truly a life goal realized and I still can’t believe it happened.

And that is the worst picture of me EVER, taken with a camera phone pic when we were leaving and I don't even care that I'm sharing it. Bask in the glory that is Bill and Lizzie.

The number one question I’ve gotten so far is, “did he hit on you.” No people, he did not. But if he had, well, let’s not go there :)… Here’s the link to the article in The Missoulian about it:

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/06/02/news/local/news02.txt.

The rest of the weekend was full of beautiful weather, hikes with the dogs, a birthday BBQ and lawn work. As if anything else from the weekend even matters.