News...news...

Sorry for the radio silence...also, there will be no pictures with this post because my internet is down on my phone (which is also my camera).  Oh well, you'll have to wait for all the fun pictures.  Thanks to everyone who keeps up with our blog and encourages us...your support is so important to us.

A lot has happened since my honey posted his entry (which I was quite impressed with, BTW)!  I had my first yoga class last night and am looking forward to the next one.  There was only one other person in the class besides me!  Apparently yoga is not very big in South Dakota (go figure:).  When I arrived for the class I couldn't get into the gym because apparently you have to have a key card for after hours...so I stood outside the door looking quite sheepish, until this very tall, strong, tan man with tattoos came and kindly let my poor self in.  He was very nice but I didn't stick around to chat with him:) 

Also, I started my orientation for volunteering at the gift shop yesterday and enjoyed talking to the gift shop manager...people are very nice here.  Today, at 1pm, I am going to go "shadow" the volunteer at the shop today to start to learn the job.  The only hard part is that I have to wear closed toe shoes and I am having a difficult time finding fashionable ones here.  I may have to wait until we go to Minneapolis next week.  Thank goodness, I do not have to wear the smock that volunteers wear since I am in the gift shop!!!  You have no idea how relieved I was to hear that...now the only thing messing up my fashionableness is the shoes:)!

It was nice to go to church on Sunday...so wonderful to have the opportunity to go every Sunday instead of every other Sunday like we did back home!  We ate at a Chinese Buffet after church...I know, pretty daring of us.  People told us it was good food as long as we didn't look around and didn't go to the restrooms!!  It turned out to be enjoyable...except that they didn't except credit cards...yikes!  So, one of us sat at the restaurant while the other one ran home to get the checkbook...good thing everything is so close here!  This cash/check only thing has gotten us on several occasions; some places its cash only...who carries cash?  Not us!

I took a walk this morning and saw two prairie dogs running in the grass...so cute!

I sent in my South Dakota nursing license application yesterday after thinking it over again...maybe it will get here sooner than I think.  It was such a relief to get it all finished and sent off.  I had to go to the county jail here and get finger printed...I was not excited about going to the Aberdeen jail, let me just tell you.  I got out of there as fast as I could, after trying to wash all the ink off my fingers (since I was wearing a white sweater)!  It all turned out fine but the stress of it all gave me a headache!  So we will see how long it takes to get a temporary license to work here...I'm praying it will be soon.

Oh, another strange thing about Aberdeen is that people do not use directional words like "left" or "right", instead that only use "compass terms" like north, east, west or south.  This is something that my honey and I have found challenging since neither of us brought our compasses and have never had to to think this way!  If you ask for directions, be prepared to be told to "go east on some street, then west, etc".  Last night in yoga, a lady in the class was trying to figure out which way her body was supposed to be facing in a certain pose, so she asked "am I supposed to be facing west?"!  What in the world!!!  I must admit we feel pretty lame and uneducated when we have to tell folks that we don't know which way they are meaning.

OK, that is about it for know...the kitties are doing well.  Mr. Winston continues to get fatter from his anti-anxiety medication.  I've never seen a cat get fat in the face like you do when you're on steroids, but he looks like a chubby-cheeked chipmunk!!  We love him anyway and might just have to get him a little treadmill to help with the extra pounds!

Talk to you all later!

Safe at home with my honey...Amanda