Yee Haw

Last night I went to my first rodeo in Helena. I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I really thought it was going to be lame but I had a blast! I was hooked from the begining with what they call mutton busting a.k.a little kids riding sheep.....sheer (no pun intended) AWESOME-ness!

After that they started the real cowboy stuff and awww mannn I always said I wasn't into cowboys,  but I've definitely changed my tune. That's all I'll say about that. Rodeo's rock!

Today I'll be going on a boat tour of Gates of the Mountain. Pictures to come!

Love,
Becky

Success!

I GOT MY FOOD STAMPS! FINALLY!!!!!!!

Livingston Farmers Market

My roommate Kelsey and I went to the Livingston Farmers Market today. Now I've been to my fair share of farmers markets and I must say this was one of the best. Maybe it was because of all the cool jewelry I saw. Maybe it was the fact that all the vendors were super friendly. Maybe it was the mountains in the background. Or maybe it was the hottie that sold me salsa. Or maybe it was just all of it combined. Anyways, I had a great time.

However while I had a great time at the farmers market I have not been having a good time when it comes to getting food stamps. My case worker (who I'm pretty sure screwed everything up) has not been in her office the past two days AND she was supposed to call me this afternoon and didn't. Little does the woman know she can run but she can't hide. I'm getting my full food stamp benefits even if I have to be a bitch to do so.

I'll keep you updated.

Love,
Becky

My First Day.....

Yesterday was my first day of work and overall it went well. My supervisor Todd set me up with an office, E-mail, and all that good stuff. The rest of the day I was left on my own to get settled in. I did some brainstorming as to what projects I'd like to tackle. The first being finding a local slaughterhouse and meat processor to process the cattle, chicken, and pigs we plan to own so that kids will be able to eat local, hormone-free, meat. This is a serious upgrade from what they usually eat. Meat products in this country are a commodity food. So basically schools can get meat products for free. Great for school budgets, however kids are eating the worst cuts of meat possible. Hopefully by raising, slaughtering, and processing our own meat locally we will be able to pay little and stay within budget constraints. I'm meeting with the nutritional director at local hospital today who did the same thing we want to do at the school at the hospital. Hopefully she has some good insight and advice!

On a more sour note, my case worker for food stamps might have messed all my paperwork up which means I might not get the full amount I was suppose to AND I have to wait even longer to get them. I'm pretty livid. She's not in the office today, but tomorrow I'm going in there and get everything fixed even if I have to be not so nice about it. Errrrr!

I leave you with a pic of me chilling in my office!

Love,
Becky

Sunday Funday

Today my roommate Kelsey and I decided to go on a hike. I don't know the exact name of the trail, but it was about 10 miles south of downtown Livingston and it was beautiful! I've done my fair of hiking in the metroparks in northeast Ohio, but WOW, it isn't even close to the trail we hiked today. I can't even put into words how beautiful it was, so instead I just have a bunch of pictures.

Can't wait to hit the trails again!

Love,
Becky

PSO

For those of you who weren't aware or haven't read my posts from the last couple days, from Wednesday till yesterday I was PSO a.k.a AmeriCorps Pre-Service Orientation. Going into PSO I was not too optimistic. I had heard it was boring and repetitive and honestly I'm not one who can sit in a room for hours upon hours. But, I made it through and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Yes, all the meetings and lectures were fairly boring and somewhat repetitive. Luckily, the lady running them, Kathy, was a 4'11" little fireball from Texas and kept things as interesting as she possiblely could.

While the actual PSO was pretty lame, the time outside of PSO was great. To backtrack a little, PSO took place in the capital of Montana, Helena. I just want to say that Helena kinda rocks! It has tons of culture, artwork, a great brewery called Blackfoot Brewery, and I even found an awesome Thai restaurant! I can't wait to go back.

I also made some great friends at PSO, which I needed desperately. It's nice to know that now I have friends around the state to visit and see the sights of Montana with. The only bad thing is because the cities of Montana are so spread apart no one is super close. I guess I'll be making a lot of weekend trips (and go way over on my milage on my Subaru....oh well).

Here's a pic of me in Helena. I have more pictures on my Facebook and Picasa if you're interested.



That's all for now.

Love,
Becky

Tom

So last night we went out in Helena again and met this major in the army named Tom. Can I just say this guy totally shattered my perceptions of some people in the military.

Here's a little backround on Tom. He was from a farm in West Virginia. Right out of high school he went into the military. He toured Iraq twice. And he was in Montana working on an investigation.

So Tom and I got talking which led into talking politics. I found out that Tom is a democrat, voted for Obama, supports gay rights and the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. So contrary to popular believe not all military men are super conservative.

What I found really sweet about Tom (besides for buying all my drinks) was the fact that multiple times he thanked me for serving in AmeriCorps which I thought was silly. Yes I'm volunteering to make the country better, but what I'm doing is so minimal to what he's done.

I'm so glad I met Tom last night. He was a great guy and American.

Love,
Becky

Alive at 5

Every Wednesday Helena has this festival called a Alive at 5. I went with some VISTAs after our training today. It was one of the coolest things I've seen since I've been in Montana. There was a bunch of locals selling crafts, jewelry, etc. There was live music and a bunch of people dancing. Total hippie fest......definitely my scene.

The best part was there was a girl there doing feather hair extensions. I've wanted those for a couple of months now so of course I got them put in.

I'm really liking Helena and I'll be sad to leave here on Friday. Luckily if I ever want to return it's only two hours away which to Montanians is nothing.

Time for bed! Got to be up at 7 tomorrow. Until next time.....

Love,
Becky

So last night.....

After spending two days doing my FoodCorps training, last night myself and the other FoodCorps girls took a much needed trip to a brewery in Helena where we're staying for PSO. The beer was delicious. In Montana there is a 3 beer max which kinda stunk, but it was probably for the best.

Probably the coolest thing about the brewery was that I met my VISTA leader. He's been all over the state and will be a great resource when I'm looking for fun things to do.

Things are looking up I've made some good friends and already have plans to do some traveling.

Welp PSO calls......

Love,
Becky

So I met my boss.....

Met my boss today. His name is Todd and he's the curriculum director for Livingston schools. He seems like a really cool guy. He's planning a meeting for Monday where he's introducing me to about 12-15 people that might be able to help me in coordinating this Farm To School project I'll be working on. A little intimidating yes, but I know it'll be a good thing.

Todd also let me know that he was a fishing guide for 20 years and is a avid hunter. He even extended the invitation to join him and his family for a wild game dinner one night. I'm not going to lie I'm curious. I might just be down abandoning my vegetarianism for meat I know is hormone free and didn't come from agribusiness. We'll see...I'll keep you updated on that!

Well it's off to FoodCorps training for me!

Love,
Becky

Bozeman City Co-op

So while shopping in Bozeman today I stumbled upon the greatest thing ever.....the Community Food Co-op! It's a huge place with tons of local, organic produce, fresh meat and fish, and great groceries. It's like a Whole Foods but on a smaller scale. I found tons of gluten free stuff and they had my beloved Kombuchas for only $2.69 a piece (they're normally around $4.00)!

What makes the co-op even better is they have a cafe as well as a deli and salad bar. I was even able to order a sandwich on gluten free bread....SCORE!

I know I'm a dork for getting really excited about this, but for those that know me best you know what a strange eater I am (even though I don't think eating fresh, organic, and local foods shouldn't be strange....it should be the norm!).

I'll get off my little soapbox right now. Tomorrow I start FoodCorps training in Boulder then it's off to my dreaded PSO (Americorps Pre-Service Orientation). I'll be back with updates. Till then adios!

Love,
Becky

Posted some Pics

Hey Everyone!

I created some albums in Picasa. I'm not sure how to share the link on here, but if you go to the Picasa site and the search my full name, Rebecca Naab, you should be able to find them. Let me know if you can't. I promise I'll try to get more savvy with this.....bear with me.

Also I recorded a video tour of my place on my phone earlier today, I just have to figure out how to get it to my computer. Look for that in the next couple days.

For now I'll leave you picture of Leroy passed out.



Love,
Becky

Howdy!

Hey Everyone!

As I promised, here's my blog! I'm going to try to keep this as updated as possible but I'm giving everyone a warning that my history with keeping up with my blogs has been less the stellar. However, I know how important it is to everyone to know what I'm up to so I'm really going to try with this one! (**Also sorry for the lame title, I'm going to try to think of something better but for right now this will have to do).

First and foremost, Montana is one of the most beautiful places in the country. I don't even think I can describe it in words. Once I get a better camera I'll share pictures to give everyone a better idea. Driving in I thought I was going to swerve off the road a couple times because I was too distracted looking at the mountains. I think everyone once in their lives should travel out here. There's no other place like it.

Currently I'm writing this while I sit in one of Livingston's many coffee shops. This one happens to be owned by my landlord. Here's the view from my seat.



As you can see it's pretty cool and so is the rest of the city. I've had a couple days to explore and so far I really like what I see. There are tons of cute shops, thrift stores, and a variety of restaurants here. All independently owned (which I'm a big fan of). Everything is in walking/biking distance which is great. Livingston's definitely a small city, but there seems to be enough to do here that I won't get completely bored out of my mind. The city of Bozeman is not to far away from here and it has a Target, Gap, World Market, Petsmart, and all the other good stuff when I need some bigger city love.

That's all I got for now. Next post I plan on putting up a video tour of the place I'm staying for all of you that are interested.

Even though I like it here a lot I still miss Cleveland dearly and all my friends and family. I can't wait till I can come visit, but for now phone, E-mail, Twitter, Skype, ect. will have to do. As my grandma says, "Give Me A Buzz!"

Love,
Becky