This afternoon I booked my flight to come home for the holidays. I'll be back in Cleveland Decemeber 14th-January 2nd. I can't wait! As much as I love it here I miss all my family and friends dearly.
See everyone the 14th!
Love,
Becky
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Buddhas, Orphans, and Cats
Hello All!
It's been a quick minute since I posted last, I was traveling all last week.
I had to mentally prepare myself for this post. It's going to be a long one.....hope you're ready.
So last week I was on the road doing some cool stuff and some lame stuff as well. I've decided I'm going to separate this post into those two categories: COOL and LAME. I'll start with the lame.
THE LAME:
1. The Mobilizing Rural Communities Conference: Wednesday and Thursday us FoodCorps gals went to Great Fall for this conference. I'm not a big fan of sitting indoors all day so I already wasn't really looking forward to it. The conference itself was super boring. Myself and some my FoodCorps buddies couldn't muster up the patience to sit through some of the talks, so we played a little hooky. No big. Overall the conference gets a big, fat "L" for lame.
2. The Orphanage: Okay so I wasn't at a real orphanage, but close. While in Great Falls we went to the Mobilizing Rural Communities Conference Wednesday and Thursday. After that we had a FoodCorps training part of Thursday and Friday. So in total we staying in Great Falls for three days. During those days we stayed in a place called the Ursuline Center, which I believe is a Catholic boarding school. All nine of us got to sleep in one room "Annie" style. Check it out:
To make matter worse, there were pictures of Jesus glaring down at us all over the walls. Nothing against the guy, just kind of creepy.
THE COOL:
1. Missoula: I know I already posted quickly on this topic, but I just want to reiterate how much I love Missoula. Here are some pics:
(Yeah I really like this place)
2. The Peace Festival at the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas: Over September 11th weekend all VISTAs were required to do a service project of their choice. My friend Jared invited me to volunteer at this Peace Festival with him and some other VISTAs since he knew how much I was into Buddhism. We drove up north to Arlee on Friday where the garden is located. Saturday was the festival. I got put in charge of helping a Tibetan nun cook a bunch of Tibetan food for the festival. Which worked out great for me because I love cooking. Here are some of the things we cooked:
Mo-Mo's traditional Tibetan dumplings.
Veggies with a bunch of Tibetan spices.
Dal, a yellow lentil soup.
Helping out at the Peace Festival was great, but let me also give you a little background on the Garden of 1,00 Buddhas where the festival was at. The garden was started by a Tibetan lama who had a premonition that this place was holy ground. He came to Montana and started this garden. The garden includes a sculpture of Yum Chenmo, a female manifestation of the perfect of wisdom. Here's a picture of Yum Chenmo:
The reason the garden is call the Garden of 1,00 Buddhas is because the garden will not be complete until 1,000 ceramic Buddha statues are completed. Currently there are around 800. They are hanging out in the "Buddha Barn" right now.
Once 1,000 Buddhas are completed, the Dalai Lama is going to come to Montana to bless the Buddhas and the garden! I really hope I'm around for that!
Just for fun here's a picture of me being a little Buddha and one of me doing some trampoline jumping in front of the monks' house.
3. Cats: With Leroy gone I miss having a cat around. Luckily this week I had the chance to hangout with two cool kitties. Shimmy was the house cat at the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas. The other cat I hung out with was Twiggy. Twiggy was the cat at an organic lentil farmer's house I spent the night at. Twiggy had only one eye like Leroy! She lost it getting in a fight with a raccoon.
Shimmy
Twiggy
So those were the highlights and low lights of my week on the road. Overall I had a good time and I got to see and do things I've never done before. Definitely a lot of memorable moments.
Back to work tomorrow for me.
Love,
Becky
It's been a quick minute since I posted last, I was traveling all last week.
I had to mentally prepare myself for this post. It's going to be a long one.....hope you're ready.
So last week I was on the road doing some cool stuff and some lame stuff as well. I've decided I'm going to separate this post into those two categories: COOL and LAME. I'll start with the lame.
THE LAME:
1. The Mobilizing Rural Communities Conference: Wednesday and Thursday us FoodCorps gals went to Great Fall for this conference. I'm not a big fan of sitting indoors all day so I already wasn't really looking forward to it. The conference itself was super boring. Myself and some my FoodCorps buddies couldn't muster up the patience to sit through some of the talks, so we played a little hooky. No big. Overall the conference gets a big, fat "L" for lame.
2. The Orphanage: Okay so I wasn't at a real orphanage, but close. While in Great Falls we went to the Mobilizing Rural Communities Conference Wednesday and Thursday. After that we had a FoodCorps training part of Thursday and Friday. So in total we staying in Great Falls for three days. During those days we stayed in a place called the Ursuline Center, which I believe is a Catholic boarding school. All nine of us got to sleep in one room "Annie" style. Check it out:
To make matter worse, there were pictures of Jesus glaring down at us all over the walls. Nothing against the guy, just kind of creepy.
THE COOL:
1. Missoula: I know I already posted quickly on this topic, but I just want to reiterate how much I love Missoula. Here are some pics:
(Yeah I really like this place)
2. The Peace Festival at the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas: Over September 11th weekend all VISTAs were required to do a service project of their choice. My friend Jared invited me to volunteer at this Peace Festival with him and some other VISTAs since he knew how much I was into Buddhism. We drove up north to Arlee on Friday where the garden is located. Saturday was the festival. I got put in charge of helping a Tibetan nun cook a bunch of Tibetan food for the festival. Which worked out great for me because I love cooking. Here are some of the things we cooked:
Mo-Mo's traditional Tibetan dumplings.
Veggies with a bunch of Tibetan spices.
Dal, a yellow lentil soup.
Helping out at the Peace Festival was great, but let me also give you a little background on the Garden of 1,00 Buddhas where the festival was at. The garden was started by a Tibetan lama who had a premonition that this place was holy ground. He came to Montana and started this garden. The garden includes a sculpture of Yum Chenmo, a female manifestation of the perfect of wisdom. Here's a picture of Yum Chenmo:
The reason the garden is call the Garden of 1,00 Buddhas is because the garden will not be complete until 1,000 ceramic Buddha statues are completed. Currently there are around 800. They are hanging out in the "Buddha Barn" right now.
Once 1,000 Buddhas are completed, the Dalai Lama is going to come to Montana to bless the Buddhas and the garden! I really hope I'm around for that!
Just for fun here's a picture of me being a little Buddha and one of me doing some trampoline jumping in front of the monks' house.
3. Cats: With Leroy gone I miss having a cat around. Luckily this week I had the chance to hangout with two cool kitties. Shimmy was the house cat at the Garden of 1,000 Buddhas. The other cat I hung out with was Twiggy. Twiggy was the cat at an organic lentil farmer's house I spent the night at. Twiggy had only one eye like Leroy! She lost it getting in a fight with a raccoon.
Shimmy
Twiggy
So those were the highlights and low lights of my week on the road. Overall I had a good time and I got to see and do things I've never done before. Definitely a lot of memorable moments.
Back to work tomorrow for me.
Love,
Becky
Monday, September 12, 2011
I'm in Love Again
Just a quick post. Since I'm traveling all week I don't have time to write a huge post, but I am going to write more about my awesome weekend when I get back to Livingston. But for now can I just say...
I LOVE MISSOULA!!! It's one of the coolest cities in the country. I want to move there.
That's all for now. Check ya later.
Love,
Becky
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
My Claim to Fame
If any of you were curious about my newspaper article, I finally got a PDF copy of it. Check it out at my Farm-to-School Webpage for Livingston Public Schools.
http://www.livingston.k12.mt.us/13931092134128787/FileLib/browse.asp?A=374&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55743
(Sorry I couldn't get this to link so you'll have to copy and paste, my bad)
I am going to try my best to keep my Farm-To-School page updated as much as possible with what I'm doing, so feel free to check it out as much as you'd like!
Wednesdays are my busy day so I must get back to work!!! Adios amigos!
Love,
Becky
http://www.livingston.k12.mt.us/13931092134128787/FileLib/browse.asp?A=374&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=55743
(Sorry I couldn't get this to link so you'll have to copy and paste, my bad)
I am going to try my best to keep my Farm-To-School page updated as much as possible with what I'm doing, so feel free to check it out as much as you'd like!
Wednesdays are my busy day so I must get back to work!!! Adios amigos!
Love,
Becky
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Thanks
This is just a quick post. It's been a little over a week since Leroy passed away and I just wanted to thank everyone for all the kind E-mails, Facebook messages, cards, and phone calls. They were really comforting and have helped me cope tremendously. Thanks again. Love you all!
Love,
Becky
Love,
Becky
Monday, September 5, 2011
Cowgirls and Quesadillas
Yesterday I hungout with one of my few friends here, Maggie. I think I mentioned her in an earlier post, but not to any extent. Maggie grew up on a ranch here in Livingston. She is a senior at Montana State University in Bozeman. While she lives in Bozeman, she still comes back to Livingston regularly to hang out with her family since Bozeman and Livingston are only about 20 minutes from each other. We met because she's helping me out with some Farm-to-School stuff as an internship for school.
Anyways, I got a call from Maggie yesterday to go out to her family's ranch and ride horses, which I definitely did not turn down. It was so much fun to ride again. I've gotten to ride a handful of times in my life. Horses are such beautiful and great animals. I really connected with horses from a young age when we had horses still around at my family's farm. To this day there's a video of me at 3 years old brushing my favorite horse, Buck, with my mom.
Here's some pictures of Maggie and me on the horses. (I'm riding Blue and she's riding Snowy)
Pretty cool eh? The best part was that I even "loped" which is between a trot and a gallop. Kinda scary, but kinda awesome too. I can't wait to ride again and become an expert cowgirl!
After riding Maggie and I made dinner for her mom, step dad, and uncle who was in town for Seattle. We went with quesadillas.
I must say it was great being around a family atmosphere since my family is all back in Cleveland. They really made me feel welcomed and I appreciated it so much. I now have an open invitation to stop over whenever I'd like!
Well that's about the coolest thing that happened this weekend. Now it's a four day work week then I'm off to Helena, Arlee, Great Falls, and hopefully Missoula from the 9th-16th. I'm sure I'll have a couple of good posts from my travels!
Till then....Yeehaw!
Love,
Becky
Anyways, I got a call from Maggie yesterday to go out to her family's ranch and ride horses, which I definitely did not turn down. It was so much fun to ride again. I've gotten to ride a handful of times in my life. Horses are such beautiful and great animals. I really connected with horses from a young age when we had horses still around at my family's farm. To this day there's a video of me at 3 years old brushing my favorite horse, Buck, with my mom.
Here's some pictures of Maggie and me on the horses. (I'm riding Blue and she's riding Snowy)
Pretty cool eh? The best part was that I even "loped" which is between a trot and a gallop. Kinda scary, but kinda awesome too. I can't wait to ride again and become an expert cowgirl!
After riding Maggie and I made dinner for her mom, step dad, and uncle who was in town for Seattle. We went with quesadillas.
I must say it was great being around a family atmosphere since my family is all back in Cleveland. They really made me feel welcomed and I appreciated it so much. I now have an open invitation to stop over whenever I'd like!
Well that's about the coolest thing that happened this weekend. Now it's a four day work week then I'm off to Helena, Arlee, Great Falls, and hopefully Missoula from the 9th-16th. I'm sure I'll have a couple of good posts from my travels!
Till then....Yeehaw!
Love,
Becky
Thursday, September 1, 2011
I'm a Busy Bee
Wow! What a week it has been.
School started this week which has been very exciting. I've been in second grade classrooms everyday this week teaching half hour Farm-To-School lessons. The lessons are about seeds. The kids have been planting there own seed that they will observe and watch grow. Ultimately in the next couple weeks I hope to arrange a field trip to a local farm I help out at. I really want the students to see planting on a large scale. Getting kids on a farm is Farm-To-School at its essence....well more like School-To-Farm.
Today I also did my first observation of lunchtime at the elementary school. What was on the menu? Pizza, salad, canned fruit, and a granola bar with a choice of chocolate or regular milk. Not nutritious at all (with the exception of the salad). A few observations:
1. About 90% of the kids picked the sugary chocolate milk over the regular.
2. Most kids didn't even touch their salads.
3. More kids than I thought didn't finish their pizza, probably because it was old, frozen, piece of shit pizza.
4. More ranch was used on pizza than salad.
The whole thing was frustrating to watch, but it was necessary for me to do. Now I have a real idea of what kids are eating, and I'm more motivated than ever to improve school lunches. Children deserve more than the crap we give them for school lunch. And anyone that says kids won't eat healthy food is completely wrong, it just requires creative cooking and more education about food.
Also I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I was interviewed by the local paper a couple weeks ago. My article finally was published this Tuesday (on the front page!). I really didn't think it was a huge deal, but I've been recognized everywhere I go, from the schools, to the farmer's market, to the restaurant I was at last night. I didn't realize that when you live in a small town like Livingston, news travels fast. It's kind of cool getting noticed, but what's even better is that people that recognize me are totally on board for the Farm-To-School. I'm having a lot of people willing to help in anyway they can. Community involvement is key to make this Farm-To-School program sustainable, so I'm very optimistic that Farm-To-School will be a success in Livingston!
Finally, I've started helping out at the middle school with 7th and 8th grade volleyball. Volleyball has been a part of my life since I was 13, so I really wanted to get involved out here. It's been great. The girls are super sweet and it's just fun to share my love of the game with such eager learners.
So that's been my week...pretty busy, but super exciting.
Hope everyone has a great Labor Day. If only I was super rich and could come home for this long weekend. Oh well, I'll just have to wait till December.
Love,
Becky
School started this week which has been very exciting. I've been in second grade classrooms everyday this week teaching half hour Farm-To-School lessons. The lessons are about seeds. The kids have been planting there own seed that they will observe and watch grow. Ultimately in the next couple weeks I hope to arrange a field trip to a local farm I help out at. I really want the students to see planting on a large scale. Getting kids on a farm is Farm-To-School at its essence....well more like School-To-Farm.
Today I also did my first observation of lunchtime at the elementary school. What was on the menu? Pizza, salad, canned fruit, and a granola bar with a choice of chocolate or regular milk. Not nutritious at all (with the exception of the salad). A few observations:
1. About 90% of the kids picked the sugary chocolate milk over the regular.
2. Most kids didn't even touch their salads.
3. More kids than I thought didn't finish their pizza, probably because it was old, frozen, piece of shit pizza.
4. More ranch was used on pizza than salad.
The whole thing was frustrating to watch, but it was necessary for me to do. Now I have a real idea of what kids are eating, and I'm more motivated than ever to improve school lunches. Children deserve more than the crap we give them for school lunch. And anyone that says kids won't eat healthy food is completely wrong, it just requires creative cooking and more education about food.
Also I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I was interviewed by the local paper a couple weeks ago. My article finally was published this Tuesday (on the front page!). I really didn't think it was a huge deal, but I've been recognized everywhere I go, from the schools, to the farmer's market, to the restaurant I was at last night. I didn't realize that when you live in a small town like Livingston, news travels fast. It's kind of cool getting noticed, but what's even better is that people that recognize me are totally on board for the Farm-To-School. I'm having a lot of people willing to help in anyway they can. Community involvement is key to make this Farm-To-School program sustainable, so I'm very optimistic that Farm-To-School will be a success in Livingston!
Finally, I've started helping out at the middle school with 7th and 8th grade volleyball. Volleyball has been a part of my life since I was 13, so I really wanted to get involved out here. It's been great. The girls are super sweet and it's just fun to share my love of the game with such eager learners.
So that's been my week...pretty busy, but super exciting.
Hope everyone has a great Labor Day. If only I was super rich and could come home for this long weekend. Oh well, I'll just have to wait till December.
Love,
Becky
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