Finally, I'm Blogging Again!!!!

Hi everyone! I know it's been too long since I've written, then I tried writing the last couple days and everytime I would go to publish it there would be errors, so hopefully this one works! :)
Well, alot has happened since last time I've written. First of all, let's recap May....
We finished up lambing and I finished planting my garden (now I'm just trying to keep ahead of the weeds! :) Then the middle of May I flew to Dallas Texas for meetings for work. It was also my Bday during that time, so when the meetings were over I rented a car for the weekend and road tripped over to Louisiana to go visit my sister and family and got to play with my adorable niece! My means of transportation ended up being an '06 silver Mustang! Yeah, it was a tough road trip to say the least! :)

Then the final week of May I was busy trying to get things in order to leave for my mission trip.

The beginning of June, I headed to Sri Lanka for 10 days to help build an orphange for one of Mission of Mercy's projects. 48 hours of traveling with 42 other people varying in ages and faiths, we landed half way around the world to help. For anyone who has never went on a mission trip or overseas or even to Mexico, I highly recommend it. This was my third mission trip, so it didn't impact me as much as some of the people who experineced this as their first trip, or SO I thought it didn't impact me as much! This is my third day back, and things are really starting to hit me. I'm blessed with a body that doesn't get jet lag, but the normal everyday life is back in gear, and that's the challenging part! I find myself missing being part of the "herd"....26! here!.....(that was my number for when taking head count).....I miss the different people's humorous wise cracks and quirks and the unfilled space of Shelia's nonstop stories and life experiences, and the "hurry up and wait" routine of traveling with 43 people, and being on "Jungle Time", and "just 10 more minutes" (no matter where we were going or what we were doing, when asked how much longer, the answer was "Just 10 more minutes!") Getting bug bites and heat rashes in places I never knew you could, eating fresh coconuts and living on watermelon and bread because the food tasted horrible! It's also different driving my car again. We bussed everywhere we went accept for one time when we took a local scooter car called a tu-tu on a tour a couple of us went on.
These are just small glimpses of the cherished moments from the trip. I will write another detailed entry about it and about what I actually did, but I've been reflecting back and finding myself almost lonely not having a roommate or an adopted family 42 strangers. To sum up the trip in one word I would have to simply say it was AMAZING!

my first blog...

Ok, Stace....I wasn't going to do this....but I gave in! So we'll see how well I do! I don't know if I'll be as dedicated as everyone else...But, I enjoy reading everyone else's blogs so much, I thought, eh, why not?
Well, I decided to call my blog south dakota girl, because as some of you who know me well, know that I didn't picture myself in South Dakota, at least not at this time in my life. Possibly later on, moving back, when i was older, but not as a young woman in her earlier twenties...still early twenties, and hanging on! ;)
Through all my travels and adventures of going to new places, I always enjoy the excitement and venture of traveling home as much as I enjoy the journey to a new destination. I always like to go to other places to remind myself how great life really is in South Dakota. Normally, the cold winters warn outsiders from ever moving to this area, but the past few winters, especially the recent weather we've been having....40's to 50's, even into the 60's last week and rain, instead of snow, hasn't been that bad! And Terry Peak still keeps getting snow to go skiing. It's been Great!
I am currently living in Sturgis, surrounded by the Black Hills. Every day I gaze out the sliding doors of our living room that look out towards a grassy pasture at the base of a small mountain covered with pine trees. In the evenings sometimes I watch a small herd of mule deer graze out in the grassy pasture. And every morning as I drive to work I see the beautiful rays of sun shining above other pieces of the Black Hills.

Ok, so that's where I live...for now....but the main topic that I wanted to share tonight was my favorite radio show! I know we all have our little addictions or tv shows we love, well, I have a favorite radio show! It's called Total Axxess! It's a Christian radio show out of Nashville, TN, with host Jayar who's from Seattle by the way, anyways, he's a great host! He became a radio show host because growing up the Christian music that was available to him was dull and boring to the younger generations. So he made it his goal to change Christian radio and make it fun and appeal to the younger generations. Jayar and his producer Shimmy are hilarious! They are always having bets with each other, which usually turn into contests that listeners can become involved in in some way, shape, or form. They have different Christian artists on almost everynight and do intereviews with them, or go on tour with them, or shopping, or baking Christmas cookies, calling their parents, writing songs out of listeners' comments, yeah, just about anything...even letting Ginny Owens (who's blind if you didn't know) drive Shimmy's new SUV! Did I mention they're nuts and hilarious?!!! :)
Their famous bowling for plugs is always funny. It's when they make a band member ride on a skateboard somehow down their hallway to knock over as many pins as they can, hense the bowling part, and the number of pins they knock down is the allotted seconds they receive to promote themselves or say anything they want! Anyways, I'm always laughing at the things they say or are doing. Plus, they always have the newest Christian bands in the alternative Christian music world on, and for those of you who don't know, Christian music is a really big part of my day to day life! From the time I wake up in the morning to when I fall asleep at night.
Well, that's my first blog...I hope you've enjoyed getting to know me a litte more.....

until next time...