Happy Birthday Dad

Today would have been my dad's 76th birthday. Happy birthday Dad! It's so sad to know that these two are both gone now, my dad and his twin sister. I'm glad that they were able to spend time together down in Arizona throughout the last few years they were both here. I know Joan and her husband enjoyed their time in Leisure World, with her sister and a brother also living there and her kids and grandkids visiting. My dad wasn't too far away from them over in Mesa Regal, and they would get together regularly. I've written plenty about how much my dad enjoyed the community he found at Mesa Regal. This would be the time of year he'd be having the most fun with the evening happy hours and bands, and hanging out with all his buddies. It's hard to believe he's been gone for 3 1/2 years already. A lot has happened in our lives in that time, so sometimes it seems like yesterday, while other days it seems like time has stood still. I think about my dad in the darnedest times. Music is one of the things that brings me back, especially when I find myself in the mood for some Jimmy Buffett. I have a red and black fleece button down that I took from his clothes after he passed, which I get to wear this time of year. I wear it as often as the weather allows, most frequently during my patio time in the morning. He is on my mind a lot at Christmas time, as I always enjoyed watching him spoil my kids on Christmas morning. I came across some videos recently, and it was great to hear his voice. I often think about how fast it all happened, and there are so many things I wish I could have said to him in those last weeks. I wish he could have been around to see his grandkids grow up to become the amazing young adults they are. I spent today listening to my JB playlist of some of my favorite songs, used this Thanksgiving weekend to spend some time being thankful for the time I had with him, especially in those years he was in AZ with me and my family. I love you dad, you are missed by so many. 

Thanksgiving 2025

We had a nice day as a family for Thanksgiving today. Kathy and Joe hosted, and they have the best party house! They have done quite a bit of remodeling in the last year, but this is the first party I've been to since all the work was done. Hailey is working as a photographer and has really gotten good. I'm happy to pass the job of taking all the family photos on holidays on to Hailey, and was glad to get this nice shot of all of us. 

She also snapped this picture of me and Ava enjoying the trampoline after we took our family picture. These big kids don't jump on the trampoline much, but ten years ago, they were having a blast out there. Now it's the next generation of cousins enjoying the backyard activities while the bigger kids sit around and chat, play games, and look at their phones. 

And they take weird photos like this too, I guess. I'm not sure what was going on here, but Tyler was looking forward to getting this photo back from Hailey. 

Here we have the two youngest cousins from our family holding the two youngest babies in the family. These two little girls belong to Dave's cousin Jocci (Ella with Ava) and his cousin Marty (Joely with Lacy). They had fun with the babies!

You've probably never seen Tyler with hair this long! It was sort of by accident, with him just not getting around to a haircut, but then he couldn't quite figure out what to do with it. I think it looks good long, he just needs to decide on a style and maybe...gasp...put some product in it. He doesn't want to be bothered by having to do much, so we'll see what he decided. 

What can I even say about this beautiful girl? She is absolutely stunning and I am so proud of the wonderful young woman she has grown in to. I love these pictures of me with my kids. They're pretty great!

Dave volunteered to make the turkey this year, and due to his success, will likely be the turkey guy moving forward. He smoked it, and got so many compliments! He heard from a lot of people that they don't usually like turkey (including me and all the kids), but that it was really good this time. 

Here are a few pictures from the different tables around the backyard. Like I said, this is a great party house!

This is the "kids" table....clearly no kids left. Congrats to Hailey and Stephen on their recent engagement too! 

It was a really nice day for celebrating Thanksgiving--perfect weather! After eating, the games started and went until well into the night. It's cool that this family has started the tradition of playing games at every get together--it's always fun. It's also great to hang out with these kids as adults. It's crazy to think how quickly we went from little ones running around to a whole family full of adults--and really cool adults at that. My kids are very lucky to be part of this family with cousins who are all so close and enjoy spending time together. They have made a lot of great memories over the years. 

We were treated to a beautiful sunset tonight too! 

It's not a family party without several rounds of Codenames. The teams are usually the 1900s vs the 2000s, and it's hit or miss who wins. It was a really nice day together, with much to be thankful for even in times of hardship and challenge both personally and around the world. Regardless of where we are in life, I'm grateful for this family and the love they have for one another. Happy Thanksgiving to all those friends and loved ones, past and present. Sending love out to you all. 

Quick trip to Atlanta

One of the benefits to my job is that I'm eligible for funding each year for professional growth. In my 20 years here, I think I've only used these funds maybe 5-6 times. I tell myself every time I use my funding that I'm going to do it more often. The two most memorable uses of the funds were when Beth Ann and I went to NYC, and when I went with Cara to Hawaii last year. I can't say this recent trip to Atlanta could even come close to those experiences, but it was a good use of my funds for this year. I had heard about this conference called the National Conference on Student Life via an email from LeaderShape, as they were the sponsors this year. One of the reasons I don't go to too many conferences is that it seems like very few are relevant to the work I actually do. Any that are related to Student Life, leadership or event programming tend to be focuses on universities, which aren't always as relevant to us in the community colleges. This one was a student conference, but there was an advisor track, which seemed to have a few worthwhile workshops. 

It was a short trip. I left Thursday around noon and got back Saturday night. The conference was just Friday and Saturday, and I left as soon as it ended. It was in downtown Atlanta, so I just took the metro fro the airport to the stop nearest my hotel. It was easy and cheap, and only moderately sketchy on the walk to the hotel in the dark. The hotel was nice and I enjoyed these pretty fall leaves on the trees nearby. 

Conference look of the day...

There were some good keynote speakers for the students, and this tug of worth activity was a fun one. I might try to remember this activity for the future. 

There was one session time that didn't have an advisor workshop, so I took that chance to get outside and wander around the Olympic Park area that was just outside our hotel. It was a neat space, that was built as part of the 1998 Olympics that happened in Atlanta. 

If I had more time, it would have been fun to explore a bit more. I would have rode on this cool gondola to see the city and maybe checked out the Atlanta Aquarium. Another time I guess...

On the second day, I didn't feel like eating the conference lunch, so I walked down the street to grab something else to eat. I was eating my lunch at a counter while looking out at the traffic walking by. More accurately, I was looking at my phone, when a little old lady asked me if I was watching the people walk by or watching my phone. I put my phone down, a bit out of embarrassment because people watching is always a better past time. She started chatting with me a bit, and it turned into a 30 minute conversation. It was just so lovely! She was a really interesting woman, and I enjoyed our visit. She was downtown for a black storytellers event. She herself was a storyteller who has one competitions telling stories on the Moth. She talked about living in Atlanta during the Olympics, her story telling, getting around in the city, and even told me some fun little stories. It just goes to show how nice it can be when you decide to have a chat with a stranger rather than stare at your phone all the time. Oddly, this interaction was one of the highlights of my trip. 

The other highlight was getting to see one of the first people I met through my involvement with LeaderShape back in 2005. When we first brought LeaderShape to Maricopa, Kristen came out to our session to help us get started and make sure we were comfortable running the program. She is now the Executive Director of LeaderShape, and she and I have run into each other a few times over the last 20 years at things like this. It was so great to catch up and be part of the LeaderShape world again. 

In one of the sessions I attended, the facilitator (who is a co-lead for the program) asked us to reflect on the question of "what experiences influenced your career over time?" It was a workshop on persistence and resilience in this field. The thing that came to mind for me was my experience with LeaderShape. That program was one of the biggest things I was involved in, and it started during my first year of my job back in 2004. For fifteen years, it was the program that continued to remind me why I do this work. Year after year, at the close of every academic year, I got to watch 60 students go through this transformational leadership program. It was my proudest accomplishment each year, and it was the thing that continually motivated me to want to keep doing this work. I'm sad that it's no longer something we offer to our students, but I know without a doubt it was one of the things that most influenced my career. I shared this with the folks from LeaderShape, and they were very moved to hear that testimony. It was life changing for the hundreds of students who went through it, but it was for me too. Overall, this conference was what the kids today would call "mid," but I was happy to spend some time with my LeaderShape connections and listen to them share the benefits of their program. I also shared to a couple of groups, so I'm sure they appreciated the plug. It was also interesting to hear from other professionals in this field that we are all facing very similar struggles, even if we come from different types of institutions. Our challenges are all the same--apathy among students, struggles to get them to engage, retention, budget, personnel....we all feel the same pain that goes along with trying to engage students in 2025. I wish we could take students to something like this. I'm sure they would benefit. I'm glad to have the opportunity to travel to things like this to help me see the value of the work I do. Sometimes it's good to be reminded. 

Ironman JoEllen

I've written about my friend JoEllen before, but as a quick refresher---she and I became very close when I was in 8th grade and she was a sophomore. We were inseparable for three years until she moved away for college. We were on swim team and spent many hours together in and out of the pool. Today, she's a interventional cardiologist in western Minnesota and has a great life with her husband, Jeremy, and their four kids. Funny too, as JoEllen always swore she wasn't having any kids. On top of that, she is a very accomplished Ironman triathlete, having completed at least 8 or 9 full triathlons. She even competed in the Women's World Ironman competition in France last year. She's pretty amazing! I was excited to hear that she was competing in Ironman AZ this year (which happens to be the last year of the race). I picked her up at the airport when she arrived and got to spend the evening with her as she was getting organized for her race.  

We walked from her hotel over to the Athlete's Village where she picked up her race packet, and we checked out the merch tent. 

After that, we went back to the hotel so she could unpack her bike and start organizing her gear. Her friend Shauna was in town for the weekend too, and has served as her "sherpa" for a couple of her races (including the one in France). There's so much that goes into these races, even with just the organization of all the gear--not to mention the crazy amount of training and preparation ahead of time. It's pretty mind blowing. Her bike was all packed up in this case, with part protected by pool noodles and towels. 

Shauna and I helped her put her bike together (I just held it up while she put things in place), and she said it took a fraction of the time it usually does thanks to the extra hands. She had a different bag for each leg of the race, where she organized the gear needed for that activity. Each bag had the right nutrition, hydration, electrolytes and equipment needed for the swim, the bike, and the run. 

After all that hard work, I needed to relax with some compression boots. I've seen these in various recovery rooms at sporting events or at some gyms, but never had a chance to try them. I haven't even done any crazy exercise but they felt amazing! They fill up with air and compress your legs and I could have laid here all day. I think I need some of these! She said she usually uses them the day before the race while she's "bed rotting" all day leading up to the race. I think some people use them after, but she said her legs are too sore for it after. I don't know but it was pretty great. 

On Saturday, JoEllen had to do some race stuff--check in her bike, do a practice swim in Tempe Town Lake, a short run, and then she rested for the remainder of the day. She's done these races enough to know what her body needs to prepare--the rest, the nutrition and hydration she needs to take in. There are so many things that can affect her race, so she has to follow all her usual steps. 

On race day, I met up with Shauna just before JoEllen made the first turn on the bike. She had already completed the 2.4 mile swim in the lake (which went well and wasn't nearly as cold as she had heard it could be), and also 37 miles of the bike ride. This race has 3 x 37 mile loops on the bike, and I got to see her all 3 times she passed this spot. Each time, she got a big smile on her face at the sight of her supporters! This route goes from Tempe Town Lake up to the Beeline Highway before Fountain Hills--three times! That's crazy. Luckily it was a really nice day, and the wind wasn't to bad. The forecast was for rain, but it ended up being perfect weather for a race. 

It took about 2+ hours for each bike loop, so in between seeing her, we had some time to kill. After the first loop, Shauna and I went to a restaurant down the street and killed some time with a spiked cold brew and then headed over to a little salon where she had an appointment. I spent a bit of time there before heading over to watch JoEllen make the turn again. After that, and while Shauna was still at her appointment, I hiked up to the top of A Mountain. I've lived here all these years and never done that hike. It was a quick, but moderately strenuous hike and had some great views. The sky was beautiful! I was huffing an puffing from this short hike while JoEllen was out there somewhere around her 75th mile on her bike.  I met up with Shawna again and then we stopped for a margarita--we had to to kill time one way or another, right?! 

After our margaritas, we saw her finish on the bike and then it was time to run. Ironman has a great app that lets us track our athlete, which helps us know when they're close to us and when to estimate when they'll come back around again. It was very helpful and we found her every time she was near us. We saw her several times during her 26 mile run, as the course was just a bunch of loops around lake. I think we saw her at least 4-5 times during the run. This course is a great one for spectators. You can really see your athlete quite a few times since it's not all spread out over the city. 

In between seeing her on the run, you guessed it, we stopped for one more drink after we ate a corndog and poutine at the food trucks. The IPA beer tasted delicious after those food truck delicacies. I love a good corn dog! I don't think I've had one since last time I went to the State Fair. Just as a reminder, as our friend has swam 2.4 miles, rode 112 miles on her bike, and is in the middle of 26 miles of running, we've had 3 rounds of drinks at different places, visited a salon, did some shopping (I got a new plant that I carried in my backpack and this headband), and I went on a hike. And she's still out there. It was a very exhausting day for all of us. Ha!!

It was finally getting close to time for her to finish, so we headed back to the lake. I had to stop and take a photo of this awesome sign. I know it's for the athletes in this race, but I thought it was fitting for me too. 

The racers (and spectators) had a great sunset tonight! 

We were so excited to see her cross the finish line! Here is a video of her coming through the finish line, twelve hours and twenty three minutes after she started. I cannot even begin to imagine what it takes to complete a race like this. She, and all of these athletes are truly remarkable! She's all smiles after the race too! 

As with before the race, she has an after race routine which consists of diet coke and pepperoni pizza. Shauna arranged to have it delivered to the hotel, and we sat around and enjoyed her post-race treat while she told us about the day. Overall, it sounds like she felt pretty good throughout most of the race. She was pretty wobbly on her legs as she walked around the hotel room, but she said she felt pretty good the next day. She was 16th place in her age group! 

I got to meet JoEllen and Shauna for dinner on Monday night before they headed home the next day. We had a delicious sushi dinner at Blue Sushi Saki Grill in Tempe. It was so good! We couldn't decide what to order so we asked our server to pick 4 of his favorites and it he chose well! 

It was so much fun to spend some time with JoEllen and get to know her friend as well. I am totally amazed at her superhuman ability to complete a race like this, and to do it once a year! She said she trains about 30 hours a week during triathlon season--and you'll recall she's a cardiologist with 4 kids. I don't know how she does it! That is some serious dedication and I am in awe of her! I feel so fortunate to have so many friends who have been there for nearly my entire life. JoEllen and I first became close when I was 13 years old and here we are, 33 years later still spending time together. I am so grateful for friends like this.

Trapeze photo shoot

Our coach, Katie was hosting a trapeze workshop out here, and she asked me to take some photos for the participants. I took two afternoons off of work to hang out and take photos and videos of all the amazing ladies while they flew. It was a lot of fun to be there to see Katie coaching (she's so good!) and see the progress they ladies made. I got up into the catch trap both days and got some really great shots. I also took a bunch of photos from the roof of the shed, and the ladies were all really happy with the photos! It's more often that you have video of your flying, but it's really nice to have good photos. I'm glad I could do that for them. Here is the album, if you're interested in seeing my work. 

This was one of my favorite shots!

Of course, our group got in on some great coaching in the evenings while Katie and Nate were here. I always love getting coached by Katie, and am grateful for the opportunity to learn from the best!

Dave's pheasant hunting trip

I won't have a whole lot to write for this post, because this is a trip that Dave took on his own with a couple of his friends. In the last couple years, Dave has started doing some bird hunting, as he has some friends that are in to it. I'm not sure how it came up, but somewhere along the way, Dave has shared with them that my farm has really good pheasant hunting, so they made plans for a trip. We always used to joke that my dad had a lot of "friends during hunting season because everyone wanted to hunt on Berger's land. Dave worked out the details with my brother, and that was it. Dave, Jason and Kenny, both friends from softball would head up there for about 5-6 days. Dave and Jason went first, and then Kenny joined them the next day. 

This looks like a lot of photos I saw over the years of my dad and his friends--men in hunting clothes, posed with the birds they've killed. It's not my favorite, but I know there are plenty of people who enjoy hunting. I'm glad Dave has found a new hobby, and something else to do with his friends. If you'd asked me 10 years ago, this definitely would not be on my bingo card of things Dave was doing--but, times change! 

It's been so long since I've been to my farm! This isn't the time of year I typically go, so it's been even longer since I've seen it in November. It's not as green or lush, and it has that dreary look that is just a sign of much colder and snowier days to come. 

They had some snow the first day, some pretty cold mornings, and some blue skies. Dave said he had to go and buy new boots because the ones he brought were really uncomfortable, but then the new ones, which were supposed to be waterproof ended up leaking. He ended up returning them at the end of the trip. 

Another photo of hunters with their dead birds. Pheasants are so pretty--makes me a little sad, but as a farmers daughter, I get it. 

Dave said they had a good time with Jason, and that he was a really good host. They went out several times, had a pheasant (and walleye) fry at his friend Guy's house, and did some bar hopping in Williston. 

These are some really pretty shots of the farm. I'm sure Dave knew I'd want to see plenty of pictures of my farm, so I'm very glad he got these. I especially love these photos of it under a thin layer of fresh snow, with icy trees. 

Jason recently (within the last week or so) had a new trailer house moved into the yard, and got rid of the 50+ year old one that I grew up in so many years ago. It was definitely time that it got replaced! 

I wonder what the story is behind this random old car that found it's final resting place to be somewhere in the middle of the prairie outside of Williston, ND. 

You can see why they need to be wearing orange! That camouflage blends in perfectly to the brown grass. It's also deer hunting season, so there's a good chance for there to be other hunters out here. Our land is posted (no trespassing), so there shouldn't really be anyone on our land, but I'm not sure if they stuck to our land or explored surrounding areas.  

They did get a chance to stop over to visit my Grandma, so that was nice of them. Dave said she put out a nice breakfast for them, with her table decorated as if she was hosting the queen (as usual). He hasn't seen her since 2022, so that was good that he could stop in for a visit. 

Not much more for me to tell about this trip since I wasn't there, but Kenny was over at the house the other day and I asked him what he thought of my home town. He said it was a fantastic trip, and that he hoped they could make it an annual thing. It was a little strange that Dave was going to ND without any of us, but I'm glad he had this chance to take a trip with his friends and try something new. I haven't been to ND since summer of 2023, so I really need to get back there soon. Here are a few last photos of they night of barhopping around the hopping town of Williston. Glad you and your friends had fun!