hopeful

Hi everyone, this is Finn! In this post I will be writing down my thoughts about Helena, Montana! I love the nature and that I can go outside and hear the soft sounds of the birds and look around and realize how lucky I am to be here and realizing '' Oh my gosh! A month ago I was stuck in my house packing all my childhood memories and packing up and moving to Montana'' I really also miss Champaign. 

Pros and cons:

Pro: nature, new friends on the block, mountain biking, grandparents

Con:missing my friends and family😨 

Next week is my tenth birthday. Woohoo! I am going to have some friends go to the hibachi steak restaurant with me and have a sleepover. I can't believe I am going to be ten.

My life has changed so much. If you know Finn Morrison, you know I ALWAYS have more to say (especially you Ms. Anderson!) That was just the beginning of me running my mouth.😜        
Finn OUT!

In a manner of a few hours I've completely changed the previous appearance of this blog and created a new look. I like it. There are a few things driving me crazy (how do I get rid of that blue menu bar? I can't find it in the code) and a few things I wish I could change (I don't honestly think anyone reading this blog needs to tweet my photos but can't figure out how to make those buttons go away), but I'll keep messing with it.

I also revamped the blog description at the top. I'm really digging on the word "hopeful" lately and wanted to play with the language there. 

What do you think? I'd love some feedback...

Over the years I've seen articles floating around the interwebs about how childhood today differs from the childhood we parents remember from the 1980s. When we moved to Helena, the strangest thing happened; it feels like we're living in a throwback. And it is awesome. Things are simpler, there are fewer rules, kids are outside more, weather isn't scary, kids come and go, and Finn and Emmett are thriving. Following are a few observations on how our boys are experiencing an 80s childhood:

• The neighborhood kids walk to school in a big bunch. I feel like I'm watching a scene from The Goonies every time they disappear around the hill. Oh, and they have to walk around a big hill and it's hard and they complain but that is what they do. It's the same hill Sean walked around with his crowd of Goonies 30+ years ago. It's a good hill.

• When they get home from school, they are back and forth between our house and the neighbor kids' house. They get a snack in one place or the other, or perhaps both, and when it's time for dinner a parent shouts down the block. We do not call this a playdate. We don't call it anything. The same neighbor kids might show up on Saturday morning when you are still in your pajamas to see if the boys want to play. They will join you for pancakes.

• You can bring homemade cupcakes on your birthday. Finn and Emmett are reeling from this one.

• The kids get three recesses a day. This is not as time allows or dependent upon sunshine. The whole school goes out for morning recess, for lunch recess, and for afternoon recess. Even in the rain. And the cold weather cutoff is 10 degrees. That's 10 degrees colder than the cutoff was in Illinois. That means so many more minutes of outdoor recreation during the winter months.

I don't know how or why it is so different, but I know that I love it. My kids are so much more active, are spending so much more time in the fresh air (well, once the smoke passed), and just seem more relaxed. Because I'm not working, I'm able to be relaxed with them, to get to know their friends, to be involved in their lives. It is good here.

When we talked about moving to Montana, driving in the winter was always high on my list of concerns. I can drive in winter weather - I learned to drive in Chicago, for goodness sake - but I really, really hate it. With that in mind, it makes absolutely no sense that I went searching for snow last Friday.

Last Friday. September 15th. After weeks of absolutely no precipitation and wildfires raging across thousands of acres of land, Montana got rain. The thing about mountains that we flatlanders don't understand, however, is that what is rain in town (elevation 3875 ft.) is snow on the pass (elevation 6312 ft.) and that you can get from point A to point B in about thirty minutes. From my rainy vantage point in front of my in-laws house, I could see snow in the mountains surrounding us, and I wanted to see it better. So with a little convincing, I got Sherry to join me for a drive to the other side of MacDonald Pass. She had been meaning to get to a quilt/antique shop in those parts to buy more fabric, so she was easily coaxed to join me. So, with camera bag and Subaru keys in hand, we ventured out.



We stopped at the top to take a few photos; there were four or five inches of snow on the ground, and the air temperature was in the low 30s. It was beautiful and frigid and weird and wonderful.

Once over the pass, we reached our destination - Birdseye Mercantile in the little town of Avon, Montana. Housed in an historic stone building constructed in 1887, Birdseye sells a funky assortment of antiques and fabric. There was a fire raging in the cast iron stove in the middle of the room, the shop was full of cats, and it was altogether the coziest place to spend a snowy September day.

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Over the weekend, Finn had the opportunity to Facetime with his very good friend from back in Champaign. It was adorable; they laughed and told stories and Finn walked all around the house showing her where he has been staying. She filled him in on Nutcracker auditions which had happened the day before, and he asked dozens of questions about life at his former school.

Somehow Finn remembered that the Nutcracker cast list was going to be posted online on Wednesday night, and when he woke up this morning, he immediately asked if he could look at it. He spent the next twenty minutes poring over the six page PDF, commenting on friends who had moved into bigger roles, looking for friends he remembers from previous productions. I watched him as I toasted waffles and poured juice, wondering what was going on in that head of his. While Finn had a love/hate relationship with attending ballet class, he loved being a part of The Nutcracker these last three years, and I know that leaving that has been on his mind.



Finally I asked, "You okay?"

"I'm excited for my friends. But I'm a little sad that I can't be in it this year."

Not ten seconds later, he asked me if he could practice the monologue for his audition at Grandstreet this weekend, and for the next twenty minutes he did just that.

I could learn a lot from this kid. In the face of sadness and a feeling of loss, he turned his attention to something new, something exciting, and moved forward. If he is successful at his audition, he will have the opportunity to be a part of a musical here in Helena, to meet new friends, to perform on stage in a different way than he did as a ballet dancer. He will take with him all that he learned; focus, poise, determination, strength. One experience does not replace the other, but I'm pretty proud of his resiliency and willingness to try something new. I can't wait to see him shine.

On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend The Prairie Sisters Vintage Market in Missoula, Montana. There actually are two real sisters behind this event - Laura and Jami - and they hold five vintage markets throughout the state every year. Appropriately enough, I attended with a trio of sisters - Sean's wonderful cousins Ami, Christy, and Katy, among others - and we had a blast exploring the nooks and crannies of the super cool stalls.



Seeing as I am currently between homes, I figured it probably wasn't wise to purchase a bunch of things to decorate an imaginary house. While I did not escape empty handed (hello, super cool vintage butterfly botanical poster), I focused more on the visual splendor of the market as seen through my camera lens. It really was such a feast for the eye. Enjoy!

This is a recap of the "20 Things I Love about CU" posts I shared on Facebook during our last 20 days in Champaign-Urbana. I'm including it here mostly for my archival pleasure, but feel free to scroll through. Those of you in CU can hopefully join me in confirming many of my choices; those of you who wonder why the heck we spent fifteen years in CU can hopefully gain some insight on what a special place it is.


#20 - Sakanaya - The best sushi joint in CU.



#19 - The Virginia Theater...and so many memories of enjoying performances and movies with good friends and family at my side.


#18 - Meadowbrook Park. I know I'm about to move somewhere stunningly beautiful, but there is something about the prairie. I will always love and remember the late summer wildflowers and bike rides and deer sightings.



#17 - GSLiS / the iSchool / the library school / whatever you call it. It's the reason we came here in the first place (for two years - tops!) and led to everything else that has happened, including my job at King and, indirectly, Sean's internship at Westview.

Pretty lucky that I had the opportunity to stay in the town where my mentors are for so long. Very lucky that the Bulletin welcomed me as a reviewer all those years.



#16 - Black Dog. Every.single.time. I think my dad will miss it too.


#15 - Sunsets. I've always thought it strange that Montana gets to be Big Sky country when in fact us flatlanders get a whole lot more sky to enjoy without those pesky mountains getting in the way.

Photo taken last August when my big sister Annie and I went sunset chasing west of town.


#14 - The Urbana Farmers Market. This one gets a whole collage of photos because I love it so very much. I remember walking there from our first house in east Urbana, practically living there during our year on Race Street, and happily wearing babies/pulling wagons/holding hands there these last ten years. I will miss it.


#13 - St. Patricks. We picked it from among several parishes just a few weeks after arriving here in 2002...and we are really picky in our brand of Catholicism. It has been a wonderful church home for our family, and we've made lots of great friends there.


#12 - CU Ballet / Champaign Ballet Academy. Finn auditioned for The Nutcracker for the first time in Kindergarten. He wasn't cast that year, and when he brought home the flyer in 1st grade and said he wanted to try again, I was admittedly a little nervous. He had now performed in three Nutcrackers and studied ballet for three years. It had been so good for him: his focus, his attention to precision, his friendships. Last year, Sean and Emmett joined him on stage and my heart pretty much exploded the entire run. How I will miss it.


#11 - King School. As my Urbana colleagues head to UMS for Opening Day, I gotta say it's feeling pretty weird not to be among them. Sending love and strength to you all!


 #10 - The King School Library. Twelve years (well, twelve minus two) is a long time to sink your heart and soul into a place. I'm pretty darn proud of what I accomplished during my tenure, and I'd like to think there are King kids with great memories of time spent there.


#9 - West Side Park. I love that we can walk there, that my kiddos got to hang out there so frequently while at FUMCCC, that the route from our house to downtown goes right through it. I love that when I was nursing E and chasing F and I sent the park district a letter about the need for a bench near the playground they installed one the next week. I love that it's the first place my boys ventured to independently.
 

 #8 - So this entry is a little specific, but I love the Huevos Rancheros Stack at Destihl so much that I've written to Bon Appetit magazine on multiple occasions asking them to track down the recipe for me. It is so crazy good.    


 #7 - My King School family. Tonight I'm ugly crying as I read your kind words and remember all the good times. You are in my heart.




#6 - Proximity to Chicago. Being 128 miles away from my childhood has its benefits.




#5 - Spark Play Cafe. So this one is a late entry but this fantastic cafe/bar/coffee shop/children's museum is the very kind of place I have always dreamed of opening. Maybe I'll do it in Helena...

 #4 -  Champaign Public Library. Stopped in today to turn in our reading program cards and get free books. The place is abuzz with eclipse madness, but even on a regular day, there's always an energy here. The staff is top notch, the collection unmatched, and the memories abundant. Oh, and the lobby decor is always the best.


#3 - My People. No photos. No names. But I have a wonderful tribe here and am so filled with gratitude and love on this, my last night on Union Street. ❤️

A special shout-out to those who have helped me get through these last few weeks...taking the boys, feeding me, packing my ENTIRE kitchen. I hope that on the flip side it is what I'll remember about this crazy transition.

#2 - Finn & Emmett. Born in Urbana, raised in Champaign. Products of this quirky microurban community and so much more. They are handling this transition incredibly, in no small part because of the aforementioned tribe that surrounds us.

Thanks, CU, for loving my kiddos. MT, fasten your seatbelt...here they come!


 #1 - Champaign Urbana. Fifteen years of memories. We came here as a newly engaged couple just a year home from Mongolia. We leave with three masters degrees, a dozen years of professional experience, fourteen years of marriage, and two great kids [see #2]. It has been a wild ride, and leaving is bittersweet. We're pretty excited about our new chapter, however, and I can't wait to share 20 things I love about Helena down the road.









Thanks to all who have been a part of our CU story.

❤️ Hope