Front Row Seats!

Well okay, not exactly, but from the size of my new t.v...!

I grew up watching many a tennis player, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Chris Evert, Arantxa Sanches-Vicario...just to name a few. A few players I have actually had the chance to see in person, even managed to get an autograph. At the same time I managed an autograph from many female players, the one that snubbed me was Venus Williams. I thought she was great until that moment. I no longer root for her.

I grew up around tennis period. My mother played from the time I was young, and when not in school I would go watch. Sometimes I would be on the backboards at Kennedy Park, or anywhere else if the courts had any. Then there were times I would watch mom and her friends play. Years ago my parents were on a raquetball league, and I would go watch as well.
Soon after mom started playing, I picked up a raquet and started to hit balls with mom, and on rare occassion, dad. The most interesting moment was the time I was using crutches, the metal ones that you stuck your arms through. Here's me, tossing one crutch aside so that I had a racquet in one hand and a crutch in the other, not to mention braces on both legs.

This weekend has been a rare occassion that I don't have to fight for control of the t.v. Not many roomates home or even living in the house right now. Over the past few years of having the house, girls have come to know that NOTHING get's in the way of me and tennis. I have on occassion sacrificed a match here and there since others were watching something else, but the days when no one is home..."YESSS!!!!!!IT"S ALL MINE!!!HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! A few people, such as Rael, or maybe even Linds, will watch with me. I have heard from a few people how they can't stand tennis, and to that my jaw just drops :O

My dad dare not even touch the t.v. if my mother and I are watching; oh does he get an earful if he does! "We don't try to change it when you watch golf now do we?" For a time, he and my mother even played on a mixed doubles league. It was fun going to watch them play together, fun to see my dad out there, having fun.

Back to the autographs and how I got them. A few summers ago, my mother and I started volunteering at the local raquet club where mom and I had a membership (She would play tennis, I would work out in the gym, or swim). Each summer, they have an all-women's match with some of the top women's players. If we volunteered, there would be a match or two or three that we would get to see... for free.

Here in Misoula, I can play with a few people , although one is now gone for the year and another is moving to Dillon for school. We just have fun hitting balls to eachother. After about an hour and a half, I am tired. But then I get a hankering for going to Jus' Chillin', a smoothie place that is in the University center. A perfect ending to a perfect day.

So who's up for a challenge?

Graduation Pictures - finally!

I had family members come from Washington and California. Here, my brother Clint Merriman arrives from Issaquah, Washington on his new motorcycle.







My grandmother Corinne McKeel came from Spring Valley, California. She was in Seattle, Washington visiting my aunt Sharon and uncle Larry Russon. The three of them drove in my aunt and uncle's motorhome to see me graduate.





There was a graduate processional minutes before the actual ceremony started. Here, us graudates are walking from the outside of the building, into the Adam's Center gym where the ceremony was held





Officially a University of Montana Class of 2006 graduate with a Bachelor's of Applied Sciences Degree in Applied Sciences, and a minor in Human and Family Development. Seated next to me
on my left, Lynn Stocking, Associate Dean of the College of Technology who was a big support in receiving my degree. Alehe (Allie), my service dog is on my left, sporting a graduation cap my roomate found for her to wear.


I am pictured here with Candace (Quigley) Marshall, a former XA girl's house resident, and her husband Zack Marshall. Candace is holding their son, Quinn Quigley Marshall.






Aleh's puppyraiser sent me flowers for graduation. This was just one of many gifts and I received from many friends and family, not to mention cards.





CONGRATULATIONS TRYNA & JANINE! We ordered a marble cake from the Albertson's across the footbridge. Had I thought of it much much earlier, I have a friend who works in the bakery department at Super One in Stevensville, I should have asked her to make it.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11