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.