Sunday, April 29, 2012

It's crunch time!

     Well just five short days after deciding to list their house for sale, Kelli's parents have sold their house in Glendive and will be moving over to the western half of the state!  They've been talking about it for a while now, trying to find the right time to make the move, and Dan definitely picked the right time!  They sold the house to the first people who looked at it, a young local family looking for an upgrade, and they didn't even have a for sale sign in the ground!  This couple looked at the house through word of mouth.  This is just more evidence of just how greatly the recent oil boom has effected our small hometown!
     As I read the paper this morning, surveying the 125 open houses in the Missoula area, no thats not a typo, I can't help but notice the severe differences across our state.  In Glendive if you even think about selling your house it seems as though someone will be knocking on your door making an offer, here in Missoula some of these open houses have been on the market for over a year!  I know some of these homes have to be for sale here because of the families being forced to move over there for work, which seems crazy unless you live in our economically sluggish community.  It's funny how in one part of the state employers can't find workers fast enough and on the other side employees can't find work!  All of Montana has always been a cyclical economic state so I guess if you've lived here all your life you're used to it.  
     You have to roll with the cycles and strike while the irons hot.  Much like Dad starting up his own drill collar testing service in the 80's during the original boom, Dan and Donna sold their house when house prices in Glendive are higher than they have ever been due to the current boom.  Taking action at the right time is proving to be lucrative for the Dobsons just like it was for my Dad.  I think Dan and Donnas timing is perfect because as the 80's proved to Dad, you never know when the booms going to stop and when it does it comes to a screeching halt!
     So now with a signed contract requiring them to be moved out by the 22nd of May, the Dobsons are in crunch mode to find a house.  They are coming up for a visit next weekend and already have a list of houses to look at.  I bet the Honzels, the realtors they have been using here, are looking forward to this visit!  Being a Gannon I think I feel the crunch more than anyone because we just aren't used to things falling into place so easily.  Kelli keeps telling me not to worry, her parents will find the perfect house this trip and probably even get it at a deal that is unheard of. This is an unfamiliar concept for me but I look forward to them moving up here in hopes that I can attempt to sponge off of their good luck!  
     All kidding aside we are both very excited they are moving closer to us as the 8 hour trip to visit was a bit much.  It will be nice to have them close enough to see them more than the few times a year we do now.  I'm already looking forward to starting our own version of their Thursday night dinner outing, fishing with easily the best fisherman I know, and having our personal seamstress in the same town:)  Now if I could just land a job in Missoula those fishing trips could happen more frequently!  


Remember, timing is not everything but it sure does help:)

Friday, April 27, 2012

A great day to be a Cowboy!!

     I was driving home from work last night while the NFL draft was taking place at Radio City in New York.  I knew that the Cowboys had a late pick in the first round so I wasn't expecting much but I hopped on the team website anyway.  I was shocked to find that everybody's favorite owner, Jerry Jones, had traded up to the sixth overall pick and drafted Morris Claiborne!  Every year the Jones's surprise me during the offseason with all of the changes they pull of but this one is easily the biggest move that I can remember them making in my lifetime.
     For those of you who don't know who Morris Claiborne is allow me to fill you in, he is easily the highest ranked defensive player in the draft in my opinion.  What he lacks in size for a cornerback, he's only 5'11" 188lbs, he makes up for with speed and an uncanny nose for the football.  Nicknamed the honey badger for his quickness and aggressiveness, he really doesn't give a s*#t!  I've watched him play a few games and seen a bunch of tape on him and he tracks the ball better than most veteran corners.  
     If you've talked to me during the football season any one of the last few years you have likely heard me complaining about our secondary.  We have had a weak secondary for a very long time!  SO naturally this draft is a very exciting one for all Cowboys fans!!  Every big game we lost this year was blamed on the offense by the media, clearly they didn't notice that almost every loss this year came form a lead our defense gave up!  
     I know there will be lots of people who don't think this draft will make us a better team but as a true blue die hard I'm already planning my trip to New Orleans!  I've always wanted to check out the gulf coast, what better way to do so than to watch my Cowboys win number six!!  It truly is a great day to be a Cowboy!!


Remember, keep your hopes and dreams alive, never stop believing!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Summertime!

Kelli and I spent last weekend over in Spokane helping mom and dad move into their new house. It was a perfectly blended weekend of fun and work as we spent saturday moving and Sunday walked in the breast cancer awareness walk. With mother being a survivor this was a pretty special day! We even found time for a hot tub date with our favorite little 3 year old T-bug!
On the way home Sunday we kept talking about all of the summer plans we have and our weekends began to fill up rather quickly! Between Curt and Jens remodel, golf tourneys, camping trips, weddings, and our own never ending house projects, it seems as though summer is already booked! I'm sure there's a free weekend or two in there somwhere but I can't find them!
Even though we have been blessed with some early summer weather as of late I'm sure this summer will be like the rest of them and blow right by. I don't know if it's because we continue to get busier each year, but every summer seems to be shorter than I would like! If you'd of asked me ten years ago I would have told you summer lasted about four months, now I'm more inclined to lean towards four weeks!
Either way this is clearly my most enjoyable time of year. For those of us who live in parts of the country where winters sometimes seem to override spring and fall, we cherish those preshous days of summer more than ever! We make the most of each and every one because we know that the next snowfall is just around the corner!
So make an effort to get out there and enjoy your summertime, wether it's four weeks or four months long doesn't matter, all that does is making the most of it! I know I'm going to!

Remember, Enjoy each day to the fullest, rain or shine!:)

Friday, April 20, 2012

Oh how we grow!

     I drove Kelli to work this morning so I can pick her up when she's done and we can head straight over to Spokane to help Mom and Dad finish moving into their new place.  Should be a fun weekend filled with just the right amount of work mixed with relaxation.  I called Action on the way back to the house and like always our conversation quickly turned to golf, shocker I know:)  I had to make sure that the second Scotty Cameron putter he recently purchased was still available for a trial in my hands!  
     He told me that my cousin Luke recently played in a local tournament for his high school team.  Dad said Luke didn't play as well as he had hoped to, shooting an 88, but his team collectively played well and they took second overall.  Of course regardless of what he shot Luke is the big man on campus right now having just returned from the hallowed grounds of Augusta National!  I told Dad Luke shouldn't worry about it, tournament golf is far different from casual golf and he will get better once he has more experience in those kinds of tourneys.  
     This reminded me of how my own golf game progressed as I grew older and wiser, and still continues to!  I know stories that start like this are a bit cliche but I don't care.  When I was Luke's age our golf team played a round the week before a tournament to determine who went the following week.  I lucked out one week and played my way into the fifth and final spot for the Forsyth Invitational.  I was pumped!  This was my first high school tourney and I was the lone freshman on the team, the rest of the team all really good juniors and seniors.  I had a horrible day, hitting more shanks than solid shots and posted a 137!  I was utterly embarrassed.  I gradually improved each year though and four years later at the same Forsyth Invite, I shot 72 on aerated greens and won the tournament!  
     So don't worry Luke, as long as you take something positive from each tourney you play in, you will continue to grow.  Heck I'm still learning things and growing each tourney I play in!  Regardless of what the activity is, that's all any of us can hope for is that we continue to make ourselves better.  I try to take this same mentality throughout life, each day I would like to think I learn something that will help me be a better person.  Which reminds me, I better finish packing for Spokane so I can go work on my short game before we leave:)


Remember, our lives will naturally improve if we make an effort to grow, inside and out.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

It's a new day!

     Another fantastic weekend is slowly coming to a close as Kelli and i are about to go have a fire on the patio.  We had a ton of fun this weekend, I even made another attempt at landing a fish on a fly rod with no success, I have related fly fishing to golf in that no one goes out and breaks par their first time out, it takes time to gradually improve.  
     Last night we attended the Grizzlies spring scrimmage which was a first for both of us.  The Griz couldn't stand the Bobcats having one up on them with the stadium lights so in the last two weeks Washington Grizzly stadium received eight new light towers!  The scrimmage was the first time they were used and I have to say, they are pretty cool!  That stadium has always been in a league of it's own and this just continued with the addition of the lights.  I was shocked to see how many Griz faithful were in attendance, the athletic department was trying to make the scrimmage feel as close to a real game as possible, including a tailgate that made it feel like September instead of April!  Everything you would encounter at a home game was in place, except the game.  The players ran out of the inflatable giant helmet through the smoke machine, Monte the mascot made a dramatic entrance in an old hot rodded out nova, a Griz volleyball player sang the national anthem, and even the potato gun t-shirt shooter was in action!  The football however was exactly what you'd expect from a scrimmage, the offense ran about four series with each one of the quarterbacks and then they ran a simulated overtime at the end.  
     The oddest part of the entire evening was the announcer was calling the game as if it were homecoming, even yelling out the famous chant of "that's another first down.......Montana!!", each time the offense would move the chains.  Considering there were 8,700 fans in attendance this got old really quick!  Thats not a typo either there were more fans at the spring scrimmage than some FCS schools will see during homecoming!  This town goes nuts for it's Griz!  Some of them are certifiable crazy though as I had to laugh when one fan was screaming at the ref when he clearly thought a pass interference call was missed!  I wanted to walk over to him and kindly remind him we were playing ourselves!
     All in all though it was a very fun evening, the best part may have come when I noticed the Griz will be traveling to Fargo to take on North Dakota in October!  I told Kelli this may be the perfect time for her and I to take a pilgrimage to my home country since she's never been to Adrian.  I could think of nothing more fun than sitting in the middle of all of my die hard Bison cousins completely decked out in Griz maroon watching us beat up on the defending national champs!  It would be a long way to go but sure would be fun!
     Easily the best part of our weekend was while helping our friends move out of their storage unit, they had hired a couple of guys to help out and these two guys don't own a car so they've been doing what they can to make ends meat traveling around town on their bikes.  While waiting for our friend to pick them up in the Albertsons parking lot, one of their bikes was stolen!  Kelli just bought a new bike Friday and I inherited her old one so we had an extra and without hesitation I took it out of the garage sale pile and gave it to this man.  The joy and appreciation he showed for my gesture will keep my heart warm for months!  It was a no brainer for me but you could tell by his reaction that not too many people have given him a break like that.  Little did he know that my act of kindest made me feel equally as appreciative as he was to receive the bike to have such a good life!  I often take for granted all of the blessings I have in life and this mans gratitude reminded me of how lucky I am.  This just proves that some of Gods greatest miracles are the most subtle.


Remember, show some compassion for a stranger and your day will be brighter!!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Like a bandaid!

     I was diving home yesterday evening after another fun-filled week of work on the other side of the divide and Kelli called me with a somewhat shocking idea, she thought we should cancel our dish network service.  Doing so would leave us with no tv at all as we are too far from town to receive the local channels with good ol' rabbit ears!  But after watching Jill and Ryan cancel theirs and survive off of Netflix and Hulu we decided that maybe it isn't such a bad idea.  After talking about it for a while we both realized how much of LIFE we are missing out on by sitting on the couch and watching the same Sportcenter four times in a row every Friday, and fixating ourselves in a Renovation Realities marathon into the wee hours of a Saturday night.  We are lucky enough to live in a section of the world in which many people only dream of visiting one time!  I look around at all of the recreational opportunities around us and we haven't even tried half of them.  
     I know we don't watch a lot of tv but I bet if we sat down and figured it out we would be shocked and appalled at how much of our valuable free time the two of us have wasted in front of this flat screen.  We often complain about our day jobs getting in the way of all of the fun things we would like to do then when we find ourselves with some free time on a weekend we find something to watch rather than getting out and doing one of those activities.  Am I going to have a more joyful experience watching a golf tournament on Sunday or playing 18 at Canyon River?  Is Kelli going to fuel her passion for design more by watching Dear Genevieve or by redesigning our living room?  For me the answers to these questions is pretty obvious!  
     So I called Dish this morning to cancel, fully aware that our two year contract will not be over until September, and talked to Juan.  As you can imagine the language barrier between Juan and myself made for an interesting conversation!  I get just as frustrated with these customer service call center people as anyone else, but I understand he's just doing his job. After literally three minutes of Juan explaining my different options rather than canceling, such as cheaper packages, pausing service, and anything else his computer was telling him to tell me, I finally heard the option I was looking for.  For a small cancellation fee we can stop service effective immediately, I politely told Juan to rip off the bandaid, we're done!
     Now I know what your thinking, how can an extremely good looking, die hard true blue Dallas Cowboys fan such as myself go without watching the games?  That's easy, since I live in Montana and Fox always airs the regional game for your particular area, instead of watching the 'Boys take on the Eagles in a divisional rivalry game, I get to watch the 1-7 Seachickens play the 0 for the century Rams in a game that had fewer people in the stands than Cat/Griz!!  So trust me, I won't be missing much, I'll just have to go in to town to watch the game at Wingers.  I think football Sunday at BWW might be kind of fun!
     So with that, instead of sitting down to watch a re-play of Sportcenter, I think I'm going into town to buy tickets to the Griz spring scrimmage under the lights for tomorrow night!  Now that will be some good viewing!


Remember, take time to get outside and enjoy what God has created!!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Masters is over

     After spending a fun filled Saturday with Kelli enjoying the sunshine in our beautiful city, Sunday was spent with a great Easter service at a new church we found and thoroughly enjoyed, followed by the final round of the Masters.  No other golf tournament in the US compares to the Masters, of course the Open across the pond is THE major if your a golf enthusiast, but nothing else is even close.  Between the history, the condition of the course, and the invitation format of the tourney it is easily the best.  If your a golf fan chances are you've got a list of favorite Masters moments, I know I do.
     This afternoon my list grew by one.  One of my favorite golfers, Bubba Watson played one of the best final rounds I've ever seen to beat Louis Oosthuizen on the second hole of sudden death playoff!  Bubba is always fascinating to watch because of his self taught swing and the way he plays the game, today though he hit a couple shots that mere mortals couldn't pull off! My brother Curt put it best after one of Bubba's rescue shots from the trees he texted me and said we all love Bubba cause he plays the game just like we do!  Hit the heck out of it, go find it, hit the heck out of it again!
     The level of importance in a Masters victory was evident when Bubba broke down in tears immediately after winning.  He is a very emotional man to begin with, add on top of that he's finally got his first major, it's the Masters, it happened in a playoff, and he's a new dad!  Hell I broke down in tears with him from 2500 miles away!  You can't help but feel extra happy for a guy like Bubba Watson winning the way he did.  Theres never been a more deserving man to don the green jacket!  


Remember, it truly is a tradition unlike any other!

Better luck next time

     Well with the snow falling out of the sky by the bucket load and the temperatures hovering around the freezing mark the fishing did not go well.  We floated a five mile section of the river and although we did not catch anything, as the fish were just not active at all, it was easily the most peaceful few hours of my week!  Being one of a very few number of boats on the water we felt as though we had the entire place to ourselves.  Bryant and I were talking about how time just seems to come to a stop when you are on the water and this proved to be true when we beached the raft to fish a creek entrance and Bryant noticed it was noon, we had been on the water for two hours and it felt like twenty minutes!  
     As we floated down the Bitteroot we found ourselves surrounded by God's creations.  The many different sounds of the frigid water rolling over the rocks serenaded us as the most beautiful group of mountain bluebirds followed us along.  Bryants raft is nearly the same color as the blue in their feathers so I couldn't help but wonder if they were thinking we were some sort of a mother ship!  Halfway through our day we spotted an eagle high up in a tree scouting the waters for his next meal, and across the river from him was a small herd of whitetail deer enjoying their dinner in a hay field.
     So while I sat in the boat with Bryants lab Kaycee an watched him try to entice a trout to take a nymph, I couldn't help but be thankful for the life that I have.  On this Easter weekend I hope that all of take the time to fully appreciate the little things in this world that are sometimes taken for granted.  I have driven by this section of the river dozens of times and never even thought about it.  Now when I drive by it I will hear the waters flowing and see the bluebirds, and with these thoughts from that Good Friday I will find myself smiling no doubt as in just the few short hours we spent on the river, I formed some lasting memories that will remain with me forever!  Take a moment for yourself and enjoy the world God has created for us, after all none of us know just how long we have to soak it all in.  


     Happy Easter!  May you all have a blessed day as we celebrate what He has given us!


Remember, some of life's simplest actions bring us the most joy!

Friday, April 6, 2012

Here we go again!

     Masters week is officially here!  If your a golfer and you don't get excited about the Masters then you might want to check your pulse!  Not only is it the first major of the year it is played at not just one of the best, the BEST track in the country!  I can say this having been lucky enough to go to the practice rounds last year with the Action man, Jill, and Mother.  Everyone says tv doesn't do that golf course justice and they are absolutely right.  If you don't think going there is a big deal then consider this, a man down south somewhere won practice round tickets through the lottery, which is the only way to get them without paying out the ass through a ticket broker.  He set them on the counter and went to work only to come home to find that his dog had ate everything but the elastic string!!  He got the dog to throw them up and he waded through the pile to piece enough of one ticket together to send a photo to the golf club and they issued him another set!  You might think that sounds crazy but to Jill, Dad, Mother, and myself that sounds totally within reason!  It simply is a golfers heaven!
     So with the golf tournament in full swing I have decided to take up my friend Bryants offer to float the Bitteroot river today in hopes of catching a fish on a fly rod.  If you've read this in the past you know how much of a challenge this has been for me.  Bryant has taken on the task of being the guy who puts me onto my first catch and I hope he is successful today!  Even though the conditions are a tad balmy, as a matter of fact it's snowing right now, we're going anyway because it's not snowing under the surface and the fish are still hungry!  Wish me luck!


Remember, rain, snow, sleet, or shine, a day on the river still beats a day of work!