what a week!!

It has been a crazy week full of some major changes! I haven't had time to do the laundry let alone type up an update!

This year was definitely one of the best (and busiest) birthdays ever! Generally, my phone doesn't ring very much but I had tons of wonderful birthday wishes waiting for me on top of the press release going out about the new job!

I haven't laid out the story yet (of how the Montana Western thing transpired) so here goes--

A few months back, I was contacted about the job opening at Montana Western. The person thought it would be a job I may be interested in so I looked into it. When I sent an email to the athletic director to follow up and he said they were interviewing a candidate and would let me know if anything changed. At this point, I wrote it off and figured we would stay our last year in Michigan (that was the simpler answer anyway).

Then, when we were in Riverside visiting after Christmas, I had a missed call and message from a random number one night after dinner. I listened to the message and it was the athletic director asking if I would be interested in coming out for a visit. I am so glad that I didn't hear my phone ring and missed that call because I would have been COMPLETELY blindsided. I had all but forgotten about the position and it would have taken some miracle composure to pull it off. I called the athletic director back, and arrangements were made quickly!

Fast forward to MLK weekend and I was set to fly out. I had to take the 3:30am shuttle out on Friday morning because my flight left Detroit super early so I was extremely tired but ready to go! After they loaded the plane in Detroit, an announcement was made that they had to shut off the plane and "restart" it because it wasn't accepting fuel and they didn't really know why. They said it should only take a couple minutes but nearly two hours later we took off to Denver. Naturally, nearly everyone who wasn't headed to Denver or staying on the same plane had missed their connections. For most people, they were able to get on the next flight but this didn't work for me. There is only one flight from Denver to Bozeman, MT a day and I had missed it. Panic ensued but the athletic director was ok with everything, the airline put me up in Denver, and I had a flight out the next day. I did not pack any extra clothes of course so I had to improvise but I managed.

The next day, I headed back to the airport and to Montana! It was a day late but everything worked out. From there, I heard there was another candidate coming in the next day but they wanted to make a decision quickly (like Wednesday or Thursday). Once Thursday rolled around and I hadn't heard, we were again figuring we'd be staying in Michigan but Friday afternoon I got a call and got offered the job! Of course, this led into the weekend so I couldn't talk to anyone at school that I needed to but I was definitely excited!

Monday morning I blindsided my advisor with the news and she took it well (the fact that I would be doing my dissertation from somewhere else) . It's a good thing I told her in the morning because by the end of the day, the press release was out and everyone knew!

Ever since then, it's been a crazy whirlwind of getting things in order but we are definitely excited. I will be finishing my semester here and then we're moving at the beginning of May! I will be the head volleyball coach and a teacher in the Department of Health and Human Performance!!

holy moley!!!

I don't even have time to write anything but we wanted to let everyone know the newest news:

http://news.umwestern.edu/2011/01/montana-western-names-new-volleyball-coach/

It looks like we're moving to Montana!! (not until after the semester but we're still very excited!)

Bushman family pictures

When we were in California over break, we managed to get some good family pictures using Matt's fancy camera.

Gotta love (relatively) warm weather in the winter!

Ahhhhh!!!

Palm Springs

On the way home from Palm Springs we stopped at a gas station by the big dinosaurs on the side of the road. While I filled the car with gas the boys disappeared and this is what they came back with...

 That is Josh down by the feet...

 And Mikel...

They've missed each other!

Palm Springs

During our wonderful time in California we spent some time in Palm Springs soaking up the sun.

Josh also came down while we were there so he was able to enjoy Palm Springs with us and Mikel and Josh explored their creative side with pictures of all the pretty flowers in town...

 This is the mountain at the end of the street...

 And some of the cool houses on the mountain side...

It was SOOOO warm and wonderful!

The view from the top...

This is Mt Rubidoux where my mom and I always walk. It has a pretty good view of Riverside from the top!

surf fishing

When we were in San Clemente at my parents new condo, Mikel and Matt went out fishing. 

They were hoping to go out on a boat for a bigger trip but the weather didn't cooperate but they had fun catching surf perch...

Pistons Game

After our sweet trip to the Henry Ford museum, we got to see the Pistons play the Celtics before we headed to California.

Neither of us had ever been to a professional basketball game so it was pretty fun!

Inside the facility they had all the holidays covered...

 We sat up pretty high but had a great view still!

 This is when Kevin Garnett got hurt in the game..

 In the Palace they had banners for how many sell outs different performers had. I think Kid Rock had the most with 21 but Neil Diamond had 16 and Bon Jovi had 12...

Fun fun!