Home Sweet Home!

This weekend is a little change of pace for me from being back in Redfield!  I'm back home in Minnesota for the weekend along with my fiance's mom (Sheree) who drove the 4.5 hours from Redfield, SD to St. Peter, MN where my parents live by a lake to also stay for the weekend.  Last night we had a great time together out on the pontoon talking and floating around the lake.

Before Sheree got here last night, my mom and I actually went to Inspire Bridal Boutique right on main street in St. Peter.  It was my first time trying on wedding dresses but I had a very successful first day!  Surprisingly enough, pretty much every dress fit me perfectly and I ended up liking 6+ dresses!  I thought I would be overwhelmed by not being able to find one I like, but it was completely the opposite.  I was a little overwhelmed that I liked so many!  I did end up narrowing it down to two dresses, but I did have a favorite.  I also looked at bridesmaids dresses and tuxes for our bridal party and found the colors I like (charcoal gray and coral) and the styles I liked.  So like I said, it was a very successful day :)

I ended up making another short appointment today at 11:00 AM so I could bring Sheree back with my mom and I to try on the dresses for her to see.  So this afternoon we went back into the boutique and I narrowed it down to my favorite.  Sheree liked that one the best so that was reassuring :)  I didn't purchase it yet because I want to try and find it cheaper somewhere else, but it's very relieving to have found one I love!  I have our reception hall picked out and our DJ... Which both worked for the date we are thinking next summer.  I finally picked the church we want to get married in and plan to meet with the pastor at the church this coming week and hopefully that day works as well with the church! It's starting to all come together!!

The Calm After the Storm!

Wow, 11 straight days of camps are DONE! As a senior, it's the start of many lasts which is bittersweet!  It's amazing how slow the days feel from day-to-day sometimes but looking back how fast the series of days went for camps.  Advanced camp went by much quicker than Intermediate camp because it was a whole day shorter.  Team camp is a full four days and it always gets really hot and humid in the gyms during that week!  It got up to 100 degrees most of the days and it's miserable in the gyms without any air conditioning!! We actually had to completely cancel one of our night sessions from 6:30-8:30 because we were in an extreme heat advisory.  The gym floors start to get slippery from all the humidity and it does get dangerous for the players.

So camps are done and I headed home Wednesday night for my follow-up appointments for my shoulder on Thursday morning.  I had surgery on my right shoulder back in December to get my labrum repaired and I have to see my doctor and physical therapist every couple months.  It was nice to see them right after camps when we play and scrimmage very competitively during all of our breaks.  It was a good test to see where my shoulder was at from all my rehab and strengthening this summer.  So I got cleared to play this fall for my last year!  Now I get a nice break at home for the weekend :) 

One Camp Down, Two to Go!

The girls at the first camp finished their last night off in the pool after camp was over for the night on Wednesday! I was on "pool duty" with the rest of the team until about 10 pm.  I thought those girls would be worn out from long, 12-hour days, but they were still squealing and having fun in the pool for an hour or so!

We finished up Intermediate Camp on Thursday afternoon, and Advanced Camp started today (Friday).  There were about 170 girls in the first camp, and now there are about 205 girls in this second camp!  Advanced camp is one day shorter - only going from Friday to Sunday - so this one goes by REALLY fast, which is nice!  After the first day, I can already tell these girls are a little more advanced and experienced with their volleyball skills, which will also be nice and refreshing to have! Pictured below is a picture of our team in our locker room before we went to scrimmage during one of our breaks :)

For Advanced Camp, we pretty much do the same thing... But just condensed into one less day.  This ends up working out okay though because the girls tend to have a little bit more experience and background of volleyball, like I said.  Pictured below is a post on Instagram from our SMSU Volleyball page of some of our players performing a passing demo for all the campers.  We usually always do demos as a big group before we break out onto separate courts for skills sessions. Tomorrow, the girls will get divided into their positions and then placed with a coach on a team depending on their skill level and they will start playing with those teams the rest of camp!

From Law Office Intern to Volleyball Camp Coach

Although my blog this summer has been all about my internship in Gillette Law Office in Redfield, SD... The next couple weeks will be a change of pace for me as I'm back in Marshall, MN working our SMSU Volleyball Program's summer camps.  These camps are something we are required to do each summer as collegiate volleyball players at Southwest Minnesota State.  It's a total of three different camps:  Intermediate Camp (for younger & less-skilled middle and high school players) from Monday - Thursday of this week; Advanced Camp (for older/more-skilled players) from Friday - Sunday this weekend; and finally Team Camp (for high school teams) next week from Monday - Thursday.  So... It's 11 straight days that are usually 13 hour days from 8:30 am - 9:30 pm!!! We finished Day 2 today and have a long haul ahead of us... And let me tell you, I could go for a foot massage already!  Our bodies are all usually hurting by the end of this, especially since we scrimmage during our lunch and dinner breaks for an hour or so each time.  

Pictured to the left is all of the campers in our Intermediate Camp this week - Which totals about 170 campers!









Pictured below is most of our coaching staff consisting of our 17 players, coaches and previous players/coaches that help work the camps every summer.  We always have very good numbers for all of our camps with our good reputation and work ethic from year to year.  Our head coach has very high expectations of us as coaches because we are providing a "customer service" to these campers that pay us to come and learn more about volleyball and become better players.  Even though the days are long and it can get extremely hot... We always have to push through, keep going, and keep the faith and energy up for the campers!

Pictured above is a few of our players performing a demo of a skill for all the campers to watch.  We do a lot of training in all the skills of volleyball as a whole group (like in this setting), but also dispersed out into smaller groups on each court with a few coaches.  We have 8 courts set up in the RA Facility gym and 3 more courts up in the PE gym, so we have a lot of court space which is helpful!  This year, I have been in charge of running my own court because I'm a senior (and older with more experience at this), and coming up with different drills and ideas on my own can be stressful and difficult sometimes.  But, I do believe experiences like these will help me in my future careers also.  My patience is tested every year with these little campers, but it can be a very rewarding job at the same time too! 

TGIF!

This was my mood all day today - Did not want to be in the office!  It was a pretty boring day in my cubical... I continued working on a project that Paul gave me last week. I obtained copies of deeds from the Register of Deeds office for a couple trust accounts for one of his client's.  From those I figured out how much interest each trust owned for each parcel of property along with who all owned the property and how much in percentages. Sounds confusing, huh?  Well it was and I felt like I had no idea what I was doing the whole time! 

We finally have started to receive some medical records for one of Tim's clients in regards to their personal injury case.  So a majority of the day I went through these medical records from a couple providers and organized the information into an Excel spreadsheet so it's organized and easier to understand.  Like the other two personal injury cases I worked on earlier this summer, it will be a LONG process!  Dealing with medical providers and records can be a headache.  I'm glad I have some background and experience dealing with these types of cases, and now understand the steps that need to be taken.  That is rewarding! 

I also got to help out Angela a little bit today, who is an accountant in the office.  She needed some help with taxes, specifically entering information into Form 2290 for several of her clients.  It was a pretty easy job that didn't require a whole lot of strenuous thinking so I enjoyed that for part of the day :) 

Clark, SD Courthouse

Due to another crazy week of a Monday holiday and having to go back to Minnesota for a funeral on Tuesday and Wednesday, today was my first day back to the internship!  Kimberly Zachrison (the Deputy State's Attorney in Huron, SD) contacted me and told me she was over in Clark, SD for court today.  Clark is about an hour drive for me but is a straight shot from where I live in Rockham, as you can see above.  I headed over there this morning for court at 9:30 which went all morning.

As always, it was very cool to see a different court room, judge, and how they do things differently. This judge was the first woman I have seen throughout the couple courts I have been to - Which I think is pretty rare especially around this area.  She seemed to be a very understanding yet fair judge, which I liked to see.  I was a little disappointed in many of the cases... A majority of the lawyers just asked the judge for extensions to the next court date because they needed more time on their cases or whatever the case was.  So I really didn't even hear that many cases and it went really quick.  After court, I sat down and talked with Kimberly a little bit about the cases she is currently working on and I also had the pleasure of meeting Cindy Schmit who is a victim witness specialist for the Division of Criminal Investigation for the State of South Dakota out of Brookings, SD.  We had a nice conversation and she gave me her business card to contact her if I ever have questions - Which is great!  The connections KEEP coming :) 

Whirlwind of a Week!

There's a reason I've been away from my blog for awhile... This past week of my life has been CRAZY - Not necessarily my internship, just life!  I got engaged exactly a week ago on Saturday - It was one of the happiest days of my life!  I then had to head home to Minnesota the next day for a funeral on Monday and to see my great grandma before she passed away (on Thursday)... So, I really only worked Wednesday-Friday this week in the office.  First, I'll share a picture of my ring for everyone to see - I don't think the picture does justice - I think it's much more beautiful in person! I'm in love with it and we are so excited and happy!

So I headed back to work on Wednesday... And I started off helping Tim with his two personal injury cases.  We got all the HIPPA forms signed and returned from his clients so I organized which medical providers we had to send those to for each client, typed up a cover letter, and faxed those out to the providers.  With having a lot of previous experience earlier this summer with working on two other personal injury cases for Kristen and Paul, I actually feel like I know what I'm doing which is nice and rewarding :) Lizzie (the other intern) wanted to get in on the picture for my blog as we were working on and organizing these two personal injury files - She is a hoot! 

Over the course of the week, I continued to help Paul with one of his client's family trust accounts which I did all of the accounting work for earlier this summer.  Since there is an issue among this family because they are questioning the sibling who was in charge of their parent's finances and accounts when they became incapable, we are trying to go through and track all deposits and disbursements from all the accounts to prove no money was taken by their sister.  So, he had me type up a few documents that explain, in a simple way, how the money is traceable.  Notice my post-it note beside my computer which is a to-do list... Since I always have 10 different little jobs going on at once for everyone around the office! 

I'm sure next week will be another hectic week as I have to go back to MN for my great grandma's funeral on Wednesday,,, So we will see how much work and blogging I get around to!  Not to mention the two weeks following that, I'll be away from my internship and working volleyball camps at the college with my team!  I'm sure I will be blogging about those experiences for those two weeks!