Life with out Diet Pop.

Well I am on day 4 of my new life without drinking pop. I was seriously addicted to my diet Pepsi or diet coke depending which was on sale when I bought it. Over the last couple months I have been reading about how bad drinking diet pop is for you. I am not sure what triggered me giving it up. But last Saturday night (August 5th) my husband and I were walking through the walmart grocery section getting snacks to take out to the races in Dickinson. We were talking about getting a 12 pack of pop to take with us and I was telling him about how bad it was from the research I have done. I am not sure what made me decide at that time to give it up cold turkey, but I did. Maybe it was saying it out loud to him and knowing I was the one so addicted. He was normal in drinking 1 or 2 cans a day, but I could easily drink a 6 pack a day. I had to have one first thing in the morning when I got to work, than kept on drinking them throughout the day while I sat at work. I was okay in the evenings once I got home, but I need my pop at work.

Well I just swore off pop that night and it has been amazing how easy it has been to just give it up. I had a headache terrible on Monday morning, but nothing some advil couldn't handle for a couple hours. I have been drinking a lot more water and ice tea. I am going to try to cut out sugar next, but I really want to get a good month of no pop under my belt first. I am finally on a track to a healthier lifestyle.

Lewis & Clark

This past week Sam, Jerad and myself took a little vacation. We combined a bunch of fun things into one trip and had the time of our lives. Last year I had won a stay at a condo at Big Sky and we decided to use it up. So on Wednesday we drove to the resort and got into the condo and set up our home for the next 2 nights. It was awesome to have our own little place to just lay around watch some tv and play lots of games.

Thursday we drove to West Yellowstone and than took a drive over to Hebgen Lake. This was such an amazing place. Hebgen Lake was hit by a 7.5 earthquake in August 1959. There were 28 people killed and 19 of them were never found again. The earthquake litterally caused a mountain to fall. There are 3000 ton rocks that went from the side of one mountain down and ended up on the side of another mountain across the valley. The destruction here was totally awe inspiring to see. It really made me appreciate life to know that people were just innocently camping in a campground one summer night to wake to an earthquake of such a magnitude as this one.

After spending a couple nights at the condo and hanging out in the Big Sky area, we drove to Red Lodge and went up the Beartooth Highway. We wanted to see all the repairs that had been made since the road was closed last summer because of a series of mudslides that tore out most of the road. Of course we had to get out and walk in the snow and have a snow ball fight in the middle of summer. Our trip was great.

It just hit me

A true "Ahhhaa" moment for me. I have been working hard this last week to get my internship set up. I have been worrying for the last couple months on how to do the internship for my Masters degree. The panic was over the fact that I had to fit 600 hours of internship into a semester. This basically meant giving up my full-time job to do it. Just not able to happen for me as I need to work!! So in discussing it with my professor, we worked it out that I would start this fall (September 6th) and complete the first 300 hours of my internship by the end of December and than do the other 300 hours in the spring semester.

Anyway it just hit me that all this hard work is really paying off because I will be graduating in May of next spring with my Masters degree. Oh my god this has been a dream of mine forever and now I am so close to it actually happening. Graduation next spring!!!! Than I will need to worry about finding a real job!!

Meeting Chelle

On Tuesday, July 11th, I got to go meet a great online friend. She lives in Arizona and just had her son Asher last fall. I have known Chelle for at lest three or four years now since we were posting together on Un-scrappable and we have been on several boards together. Chelle, her husband Jeff and Asher were in Lemon, South Dakota visiting her family this last week and they drove up to Dickinson, North Dakota so I could drive over and have dinner with them. If there is ever a person that you just know you will bond with, she was the one. I have always known if we lived close we would get along so well because we are so much alike in a lot of ways. I am so glad that I finally got to meet her and her family. I am sure in the years to come we will get to meet each other again. Thanks for a great evening Chelle.

The Champs!!

This past weekend my son, Jerad, played some awesome baseball. He really made me so proud to call him my son. They played very well this season in the regular baseball season with 10-3 record. The team went into the city league tourney in first place. The first game they played on Thursday night was one that would put my son to the test in terms of team spirit and commitment. I have to say he made proud.

The top of the first inning he was playing his usual position of 2nd base. A ball was hit off to his left side and he dove to stop it. Breaking his hand. He stayed out on the field and played the inning out catching a pop fly to end the inning. Once in the dugout we knew the hand was broken because it doubled in size and turned black and blue immediately. He was determined to finish out the game, knowing that without him they would be short one man. (The extra player went on vacation over the tourney, so they had just enough players.) He finished out the game that night. As we talked about what to do with his hand after the game, he was determined not to let his team down. Winning the tourney was very important to them all.

His dad and I decided we would wait till the next day and see how his hand was. He iced it and took advil to keep the swelling down. Friday night he went out and played an awesome game, but they lost 8 to 7 agaist a team that had beat them twice during the regular season. They knew they would be up against them later in the tourney. Jerad was even more determined to stick out the rest of the tourney. While I worried about his hand, I also knew the break was in the palm area and wasn't a break that would be life threating or anything more serious.

Saturday afternoon, they went out and played their hearts out in the looser out game and came out on top. They now faced the team they had lost to earlier in the tourney for the championship game. They knew they had an uphill battle because they had to beat them twice to take the championship. The first game they trailed them up till the bottom of the 7th inning they were always one point behind them in the entire game. The bottom of the 7th inning they came up with three runs to win the game. After a short break and a lot of determination they started the 2nd game. The attitude of the team was awesome. You could see the determination in all their eyes, there was no way they were going to loose that game. They played the best game of the season and won it all 13 to 2. Within an hour of winning the championship, Jerad was ready to go to the ER and get xrays. Sure enough it was broke and now he gets to wear the cast with honor. While as his mother it is hard to watch him play baseball, knowing he is in pain. It also makes me so proud to know he is committed to all the players on his team and was determined to finish out the tourney with them all. He has always given everything he does 110%, and than some.

Siblings

This is a layout I worked on today. I came across this picture from when my kids were much younger. It reminded me of how connected they are to each other and will be for their entire life. The stitching of the layout isn't the best. I really need to work on that.

Mildred Montana

Have you ever heard of this place? I hadn't and I had lived in MT most of my life, heck it wasn't even that far away from Glendive. A couple weeks ago Sam and I took a drive out to an auction in Ismay, Montana (it was Joe Montana for a big celebration one year). Driving down this dirt road we came to a little old ghost town named Mildred. We had to stop and check out the old jail in the town. It was awesome, I can't image what it was like to be in jail back in the old days. The last prisoner was in this jail in the 1960's. It was just a little 2 cell jail, but it was great we got to stop and take some pictures. I guess I have to go out exploring the backroads of Montana more often.

Opps

Guess I haven't updated in a couple weeks. I really need to download my camera and post some pictures too. Stormy the kitten is growing like a weed. He has really ventured out and started discovering the house. He use to keep to the living room only, but now has ventured out to the whole main level of the house. He hasn't learned to go up/down the stairs yet but I am sure it won't be long. He isn't going to like me later this week because he will get his first set of shots on Friday.

Storm thinks he is so big and tough. He loves playing with this empty water bottle. He bats it all around the room. The little attack kitty. Hard to believe we have had him over 2 weeks now. He has grown so much.

Storm is in the house!!!

This is storm!! He came to live with us tonight when we found him laying in the middle of the street. I jumped out of the car because I thought he was going to get ran over by the car coming the opposite direction. Thank god the other car was a police man and he saw the kitten. He is tiny, guessed to be about 5 weeks old if that. He doesn't know how to eat or drink on his own yet. I went out and bought an eye dropper and gave him milk. Tomorrow we will figure out how to feed him when he goes to the vet.

He has taken to my golden retriever as him mom, but my sheltie isn't too keen on having him around. He is so tiny and cute now that we cleaned him up. He is really thin, but I am hoping he puts on some weight now.

Here is shane meeting the kitten, Storm. (He got his name because we were on our way home from a baseball game for DS, when it was cancelled because of a big thunder storm we are having.

Summer

Baseball and taco's in a bag. What more does one need? Summer is here. The kids last day of school is Friday. My baby is graduating from 8th grade. I can't believe I am old enough to have kids in high school, heck I even have one in her 2nd year of college already. This is just wrong!!!!!

Sam and I are getting excited to take a drive up the Beartooth highway next week. I am really hoping that my camera will be back in time so I can get some great pictures.

I love this time of year the grass is green, the flowers I have planted around the yard are growing and flowering. The smell of the last lilacs are still in the air. Humm I love the smell of spring/summer before it gets too hot.