I got back to North Dakota for a full week recently and caught up on a whole mess of medical stuff, including a routine dental cleaning.

My former hygienist, Deb, has retired. I coached Deb’s daughter figure skating in Hazen, ND back in the day and it has always been so fun visiting her (even if my mouth is cranked open and all I can do is grunt my responses.)

I got to meet the new hygienist (good grief, I can’t remember her name) and she was set up by the actual dentist, who was standing in the next room. New girl started off with, “So, what do you do?”

The dentist burst out laughing and I had to join in.

I mean, really, there is no easy way to answer that!

The former professional figure skater-turned veterinarian who sells real estate and writes blogs and books and newspaper columns wasn’t back in North Dakota just to have her teeth cleaned- I actually got back into full-blown coaching mode when I was there!

My first session was thrown together by word of mouth thanks to Sherry with Vision Hockey and I had 15 keen high schoolers to train for a full hour.

It was awesome!

I showed up before anyone else for that first session and just enjoyed looking at the clean sheet of ice under dim lighting.

A blank canvas waiting for my edges to scribble designs all over it.

It had that “rink” smell.

And the power skating session kicked ass.

I coached 2 more sessions so that the rest of the Vision Hockey team could see what I’m all about. What and how I coach doesn’t really fit into one of their more popular formats so Sherry and I hashed out how to make this work. In the end it just makes more sense to give me the ice (and maybe a microphone) and let me do my thing.

The kids and their parents seemed to respond well and I’m enjoying being Coach again.

Just as much as I enjoy being Dr.Me, too.

The veterinary world is challenging and occasionally dramatic but it speaks to the science geek in me and I really enjoy the team of people I work with.

We are back to in-person clinics now so there is a lot less swearing going on in the treatment area but I can still find areas where I can dance a little if the right music is playing.

And this version of me remains crazy busy right now!

I closed that incredible listing I had on Glacier Creek last Monday and my good friends and their sweet dog are flying to Australia tomorrow. The new buyers just love their river-front historic log home and the other agent and I had a wonderful time on that transaction!

It feels great to be able to help my friends with such a big deal at a pivotal time in their lives.

And I’m working on helping other good friends make their way to their closing early next month. This particular deal involved me coordinating several people over the next couple of days to make many things happen and there was potential to lose my mind a teensy bit the other day.

But the folks in my circle I was coordinating are also all friends and it truly can be amazing what you can accomplish when everyone is pleasant, friendly and fun.

And we all genuinely want everything to work out!

Us Clearwater realtors had our annual “giving back” reception recently here in Seeley Lake and that’s a cool part of the Realtor-Me. We all give a small portion of every single transaction to non-profits within the area of said transaction. Its a fun evening and each non-profit has someone get up to give a small talk about what their foundation or group does and who benefits and maybe even why the group was established.

When I was back in Bismarck I only got to see a couple of our hockey boys one night. I didn’t really have the time to enjoy coffee or wine dates with my neighbors or other ice rink friends but I’ll be back in June and July.

It is a long haul (10-11 hours one way!) to get there but the coaching is so mentally rewarding for me right now.

And we have our Painted Woods golf course membership to make the most of!

Alistair’s ribs are healing and we made a point to hit the course a couple of times while I was there, despite the less-than-perfect weather. (Crappy weather keeps the course wide open for us.)

It turns out “the boys” who worked there last summer and who also attend my alma matter, UMary, are back along with John, the golf pro so it was just like old times when we hit the course.

Maybe that, in itself, keeps me going back to Bismarck.

Some familiarity amidst the craziness that is my life.

Maybe I need that more than I thought.

Maybe I need to know that Deb lives just over there and even though we didn’t hang out we sure could have.

And that the ice rink is still the same ice rink with the same old red and white clock.

While Bismarck has grown exponentially over the years its still Bismarck.

Its still the prairies with the wide open skies and storm clouds you can watch coming for a few hours.

The gang

The ponies are all there (down to 7 now!) and they always come up to their Mummy for scritches, no matter how long it has been since I’ve been there.

Maggie and Fumie are going to a new home in Montana soon to see if their well-bred uteruses can be useful for a good friend and her farm so it will soon just be the geldings. Hopefully we’ll drag a couple of them back to the ranch in Montana to graze so I’ll have them around all of the time for a few months.

So, this.

All of this.

This is what I do.

I try to keep pets alive and healthy while being their voice and advocate because they can’t speak to the humans who care for them while writing educational articles for 4 newspapers and fitting in coaching little kids to grown adults how to utilize and develop their bodies and muscles in ways to maximize the power and strength they can get out of the most important piece of hockey equipment they have in their skates all while getting out on the ice myself to maintain and hone my own skills (and also because I freaking enjoy gliding on the ice with the wind in my hair, lets not pretend otherwise) along with holding the hands of my buyers and sellers while hoping they truly listen to me and let me guide them in often one of the most important decisions they’ll ever make in life on top of being a pet Mummy and a wife and a friend and a neighbor.

After our laughter died down in the dentist’s office I gave the new hygienist, whose name still eludes me, a thumbnail sketch of all of that.

No need to overwhelm her.

I don’t do all the things by myself, too. I absolutely have to acknowledge my friends who let me coordinate the next couple of days along with many colleagues and the other veterinarians and team members and specialists I refer to and Sherry and people at the title company and the buyers and sellers and golf course workers and my bosses on top of my husband and my many patient friends.

You all rock.

While Alistair is back in Bismarck hitting up Painted Woods I’m heading off to our Seeley Lake Double Arrow gold course myself right now. Coping mechanisms and all that, remember?

Its one of the ways I can #beallthethings, even if the new dental gal doesn’t know it.