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I am once again out of the field, not a moment too soon this week. As you loyal blog stalkers know, i was struggling with the fact that erik was leaving last week as i headed into the field. Tip to those who want to work in wilderness therapy...taking your own baggage into the field with you is not good for anyone! And on top of that, i was missing Ashley and Ally's birthdays. 2nd year in a row that I have been in the field for Ally's bday, and before these 2 I had prefect attendence...same with Luke. I have been battling with this for a while, I've had a lot of guilt for missing family events, games, bdays because of work. I keep wondering, is it worth it? Deep down in my heart I know it is. Because I did live at home and had a job I didn't love and it wore on me and all i thought about was leaving. Yet there is still that part of me that feels like I need to be with my family when it matters. 

This is the sunset on Ashley's birthday

Ally's token bday card on a clients shoes

I luckily have wonderful support systems everywhere i turn. I talked to dad about the guilt and he was able to commiserate and told me of his doubts during his coaching career. Today I took Erik to the airport to go back to school. My close friend Jess offered to go with me so that I wouldn't have to drive home alone and sad. I ran errands all afternoon so I wouldn't just sit around the house and be sad. My sister figure JP called me and took me out to get some good Greek food(yes, there is a decent food place in St. g!) and we talked about what's going on for me. She is amazingly supportive. Her husband Shad and I shared some Root Beers(I'll post more soon about RB, yes i will blog about Root Beer) and talked football. Tonight I went to a movie with 4 friends and made plans with another to make a trip to Tn in the fall. It is funny that during the great times I tend to underestimate how wonderful the people in my life are. Then when I am going through a rough transition they all come swoop in and make sure that they iron out whatever wrinkles they can. It is extremely reassuring after I had a week in the field where I started to doubt my life here. 

In happy news I celebrated my 1 year anniversary with Second Nature! I can't even believe it! It was a weirdly cyclical week in that regard. I was with group 4 my first shift and with them this shift, we spent time at the first campsite i ever visited, we climbed Water Canyon Peak last year on August 29th and this year we climbed it on August 30th. To weird right? here are 2 shots almost a year apart....

last year on top of WCP 8-29-08

this year on top of WCP 8-30-09

Here are a few other pics from the week...

Me with Jess and Katelyn, the ladies I have been working with all summer

Hiking wound

I will be blogging up a storm hopefully this week, so come on back