Laramie, WY

Last Thursday we moved to Laramie, WY, about an hour drive from Cheyenne. It's about half the size of Cheyenne, but the University of Wyoming is here which means good food and coffee :) I love how college towns always have a unique culture to them. Other than that life's been pretty slow. Billy has been working a lot the past few days but they're getting a couple of new guys this week which should lighten the load. But he does have tomorrow off! Which I'm REALLY looking forward too :) We'll probably just go to church and relax, but I'll let you know if we end up doing something more exciting!

A New 'Hotel Kitchen' Gadget!

Look what I got yesterday:

It's a blender!!!

For those of you that don't know, I am a smoothie addict, as in I drink one everyday when I have an accessible blender. So you can imagine how excited I was to get this little one for $15 and find out that it works wonderfully! I love it! And now I can make Billy this: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/09/09/no-bake-peanut-butter-pie/ for his birthday next month!

And I got some treats at the natural food store today :)

They were both so yummy!

As you can see, the tart is almost gone and it was DELICIOUS. Just chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate. Billy even liked it and I think he's usually pretty suspicious about anything with 'vegan' or 'gluten free' on the label. And while he didn't try the chai/coffee (since it has caffeine) I can attest to it's wonderful taste. Much more gingery than I would usually go for, but it surprisingly works well with all the other flavors going on. I was impressed :)

And one last picture that Billy requested I post: 

He was pretty excited about it :)

Black Bean Brownies

I forgot to write about this last week, but on Thursday, the sweetest lady I met at church had me over to her house so I could do laundry and bake! It was wonderful! I made these black bean brownies: http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2012/09/06/no-flour-black-bean-brownies/ and they turned out amazing! I used peanut butter instead of oil and doubled the cocoa, and I'm pretty sure they were the best brownies I've ever had.

What was left of them :)

Billy liked them and I left some over at the house that I baked at, and it sounds like the kids devoured them too! I can't wait to make them again -- they'll probably be the only kind of brownies I  ever make from now on!

Yesterday I went to church in the morning alone because Billy had to work but he got off early enough to make the evening service which was an unexpected, but wonderful surprise! We had a great time together at that and stayed for the dinner afterword (I brought a yummy kale, quinoa and lentil salad). Tonight we're going over to the pastor's house for dinner which we're really excited for!

It sounds like we're moving to Laramie on Thursday which I'm looking forward to. Although Laramie is smaller then Cheyenne, it's a college town so I'm hoping it has more of a unique, artsy kind of culture, I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Microwaved Eggplant

Dinner last night:

I made sausage and beans for Billy and cooked myself an eggplant in the microwave and cut it up with some olive oil and herbs, it was so yummy!

Botanic Gardens

I went to the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens today, They we're so beautiful and peaceful!

The perfect place to hang out with a good book... which is exactly what I did :)

There were all these pillars with beautiful quotes, these were my favorites.

Potluck Salad

My salad I brought last night... yummmm :) And it was a good thing I did, because there were no other non-dairy/meat dishes there! I guess people out here aren't exactly known for loving their veggies, but Billy's having a good time hitting up all the steakhouses!

I'm starting to love quinoa. Not just because it tastes so good, and has so many wonderful nutrients, but I've decided it's the perfect food to make in a hotel room! You can just microwave it (no stove required, unlike pasta) and it stays fresh in the fridge for as long as I've kept it in there, and it's so easy to add to salads and steamed veggies! Definitely a vegan lifesaver out here :)

Billy's day off! :)

Billy has today off!! Yay!!!! We started the day out by going to church and then out to lunch and now we're hanging out and just relaxing and reading :) The church we went to this morning has an evening service and potluck dinner so we're also planning on going to that. I'm excited to put together a creative quinoa salad for it, since that's about the only thing I can manage in the hotel room.

The past couple days have been pretty standard, Billy keeps taking me out to dinner to all these yummy restaurants, but other than that it's been pretty normal. Although it is worth noting that I found my all-time favorite Mexican restaurant here! It's called Guadalajara and it's amazing! They have such an incredible menu! I was just telling Billy that my judgement on restaurants has changed drastically since becoming a vegan since now I judge the food based on what I can eat, and those options are usually the most lacking on the menu. But this place had incredible salads, so needless to say I was impressed :)

I did get some big news a couple days ago... I got into the Masters program I applied for! It's through San Jose State and it's their Masters of Library and Information Science. I'm still debating about whether it's something I really want to commit myself to, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of being a librarian.

Anyhow, Billy's first week as foreman was a success, and next week will be his first time while the railroad guys are here, but I'm sure that will go well too. He only has 3 more weeks of his trial period!

Bad News from Denver

Well we've had a busy couple of days. Monday we moved to Cheyenne, WY which is a much appreciated change of scenery. We got all moved in to the Oak Tree Inn and went to this really yummy sushi place for dinner :)

Yesterday I decided to go check out Denver to look around and went to a mall with all of my favorite stores (Madewell, J.Crew and Anthropologie!) and went to Whole Foods to stock up on some staples (nutritional yeast, organic canned soups and beans) and eat lunch. All was going well until I realized I did not have my phone. I thought I had left it on the table where I ate lunch, and maybe 5 minutes later when I went back to check, it was gone. Then I became frantic. And by frantic I mean I started crying. I don't know what it is but as soon as I get overwhelmed and stressed out, the tears start to flow. A worker inside Whole Foods looked up the nearest Verizon store for me and when I got there, sure enough they could track it and see that it had been taken to some apartment complex. Unfortunately there's nothing I could really do to get it back other than ask the police for an assist, but even then I wouldn't have known which apartment it was actually in. The Verizon workers were also able to tell me how to get back to Cheyenne since I'm so used to relying on my phone for all of my GPS/mapping needs.

So the good news is, even though I took the insurance off LAST WEEK (I can't believe the irony), I can get it put back on October 1st and if they're willing to work with me they might give me a new phone then. If not, I'll have to wait 30 days, which is their policy for filing claims after enrolling for insurance.
So for now I'll be sharing Billy's phone since he now has a work phone for his new important foreman position :)

So even though I came back with one less phone, at least I had some yummy food, a cute skirt and a new cloche hat (that makes me feel very French) and scarf to show for my day :)

We're Starting a Blog!

Even though we're 9 months into this gypsy lifestyle of moving around every 1-2 weeks I figured now is as good a time as any to start a blog for family and friends to let people know what we're up to, and how we manage to stay sane living from one hotel to the next!

As of today we are in the teeny, tiny town of Sidney, NE (about 7,000 people) but tomorrow we are finally LEAVING Nebraska! Yay!!! And onto Cheyenne Wyoming, seemingly gigantic from the small towns we're used to. 

But even more exciting... drum roll please... Billy starts his forman position today!!! We could not be more excited :)

I  will try to update (with pictures) as often as I can, and am looking forward to sharing this experience with anyone who stops by!