Like a wolf...no like a coyote!

On my drive to church on Sunday morning around 9am I ran across a furry creature I have yet to see in the city, a calm little coyote. While I am quite used to seeing a much larger version at my parents house in Lake Forest, almost daily, this was a new citing in the city. The coyote, who shall be named School, ran across the intersection of Hoyne and School and then ran down the street towards my car and right alongside my driver’s side. She seemed perfectly at home and not at all concerned with the people walking around on the sidewalks. She was beautiful, but what was she doing in the city? And yes I’ve decided she was a girl, just because!

So of course, I started looking into anything coyote related in Chicago and this is what I’ve found…
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/12/08/131876027/60-wild-coyotes-patrol-chicago-and-occasionally-stop-at-convenience-stores

Lessons Learned from Traffic Safety School

In case you haven't had to go to traffic safety school recently...here are a few of the lessons they tried to teach me...some are actually quite funny!

You need to be conscious to drive
Sunglasses are a must have
Rolling stop signs is dangerous
This safety school is often contradictory
ooh I got a 96% on my pre test for traffic safety and a 100% on my assessment…I learned something!
What used to be a 2 second rule is now a 4 second rule – do you know how many cars are going to cut in there?!?
You CAN get a DUI for being tired – WAH?!?
Speeding may only save you a couple of minutes over the course of a trip, is that really worth it? YES You’ve learned that the risks of speeding outweigh the benefits! OH DID I?
Don't hit bicyclists
Use headlights when it is dark outside
Speed Kills, Click it or Ticket!
They want me to stay calm, if I really have to follow all of the rules in these 4 hours there is no chance I’ll stay calm. I don’t think God provided this many laws to Moses!
Avoid congestion, listen to relaxing music and remember driving is not a competition …unless you are Mario Andretti!!!

Love this...what Victory!

This song has been stuck in my head on replay. I wake up singing it and fall to sleep with it playing through my mind. It is such an amazing anthem of victory and brings me such joy. I hope that it does the same for you! It is such sweet truth to repeat, we no longer need to be held down by the weight of sin and this world. We are forgiven, made whole and saved by Christ alone – God has defeated death and lives! Why should we not rise and proclaim that victory daily!



(note: pause the blog music on the bottom right)

6 years ago today marks the last time I heard Matt's voice. He always made my birthday something special...always loved and never forgotten Matty!

2LT Matthew Scott Coutu
KIA Baghdad, Iraq 27 June 2005

Oh Mario...I love the way you drive!

This should probably be started off by saying that my family has a long history of attending traffic safety school, or high performance driving school as we like to call it. When I first attended I was 16 and I think I actually got into a debate with the instructor because he informed me that there were no small rear wheel drive cars….so not true! How could I trust him to teach me sound high performance driving skills if he believed this…I drive one! Well, I have landed myself back in high performance driving school, and have only avoided it so far by getting tickets in a plethora of other states…tee hee heee! So this time, it’s the online version for me, no instructor to fight with and no stinky classroom to suffer in for 8 hours.

But the real question is how did I get this way…I blame the man you see to the right Mario Andretti. That look in his eyes, it just screams, drive fast turn sharp ahhhh!!! And maybe my dad, I don’t “blame” my dad, I celebrate the way my dad taught me how to drive. I am aggressive yet in control…and I tend to ignore my speedometer, but who uses that thing anyway? He convinced me that it is at least 5 miles over and that has probably lead to a few tickets, because I then reasoned that if it was off by 5 miles at 30mph it was probably off by even more the faster you go. In reality I don’t think my speedometer is wrong at all, but I’ll use that excuse if anyone asks!!! What makes me kinda sad is that Mario isn’t teaching high performance driving school…

B is for Bonding & Blizzard

As the day started yesterday I gazed down at my street from my apartment…a street that was knee deep in snow and dotted with buried cars. I sat in my apartment longing for a snow plow to remove the 20 inches of snow that coated Hamilton Ave 2 days prior but alas…nothing. At around 1:00 I heard a great rumble jumped up with a bit of a shreak , saw a yellow caterpillar plow thingy and thought about dancing a jig! FREEDOM!

Krista and I had discussed digging out Tabitha’s car since she was out of town…but Krista’s back was really hurting from all of the shoveling the day before. So in my somewhat motherly ways, I forced her to stay on the couch and wandered outside to start the work…this went on for about 40 minutes and I had to jump on a call during this time I met Justin #1…almost every car had someone shoveling it was really a cool scene. In for a bit and then back out I went. Tab’s car was free and I met Justin #2, attempting to shovel a place to put his car. So I moved down the street to work on Krista’s car…there I saw Justin #1 again, we chatted about the fun, as he was digging out the car behind me. We made a plan and joined forces. The united forces were now enjoying the shoveling fun…next up his girlfriend Jamie’s car, poor thing had the flu so she was our overseer. On our way down the street, we met Sara, who was lounging making sure that Justin #2’s spot didn’t get stolen while he grabbed his car…once he was parked we all moved down the street to conquer Sara and Jamie’s cars. All the while laughing, joking and getting to know each other. We all live within a 2 house radius and this was the first time we had met…after those cars were free, another guy came out…whose name I missed…bagh! We worked on his car and then moved on to help Evan. At this point Krista realized she was missing the fun as the group of us wandered down the street from car to car digging our way free and she emerged…we helped, no name guy some more and decided to free up a vacant spot.

When all was said and done, I made 6 new friends and shoveled out 7 cars. And of course made plans to get together when the weather turned around! Who knew a blizzard could be so much fun and could bring together so many neighbors!