You have heard me say many times how much I love my job at the radio station. I’m going to say it again. I love my job! I always smile when I get my paycheck. I’m getting paid to do this. I have the best time and get to meet the most awesome people. My job isn’t just covering high school sports, it’s way more than that. Here is my crazy week.

Monday, I spent most of the day selling state wrestling. I did a lot of phone calling. The Canby Lancer wrestling team qualified for state and KLQP will be covering them. We have the best small businesses, always willing to support their community and schools.

Tuesday, I was asked by science teacher Jenai Wright to be a judge for Canby’s 5th grade science fair. I always say yes. My wife laughs at me because I never lifted a finger to help my kids when they did a science project. She did it all. It’s always fun listening to the 5th graders present their science projects to me. Most of them are very nervous. They always come up with some pretty cool projects, like what paper towel absorbs the most water or what ingredient melts ice faster and which battery lasts the longest. I enjoy asking the kids questions and learning about their projects.

Tuesday evening was a Dawson-Boyd boys basketball game with Maccray in Dawson. It’s National FFA Week and so the Dawson FFA Chapter did some fundraising things for the local food shelf. They had a chili feed, nine different organizations at the high school made a crockpot of chili. I thought the 8th grade band chili was the best tasting so I voted for them.

I had a funny moment when taste testing the chili. Addison Jorgens gave me a little bit of her chili and they had shredded cheese, sour cream and crackers to add for toppings. There was also a bag of popcorn next to the shredded cheese. I’d never tried popcorn as a topping for chili, so I thought I would give it a try. I told Addison thats a good idea and took the popcorn bag and started to add popcorn to my chili. Addison stopped me and said that was her bag of popcorn and it wasn’t part of the toppings!! We both had a good laugh.

Addison and Ashton Swendra were my halftime guests and talked about the Dawson FFA Chapter and what it means to them. FFA Advisor John Shurb also was on the radio with me.

Wednesday I had more chili. This time at the Madison Mercantile for lunch. Maynard and I went over to check out the lunch menu at the Merc, chili and grilled cheese was the special. Kris has a new cook and Sam did a great job, the chili was very tasty. After lunch Maynard and I went to Old National Bank to wish Mona Buer the best in her retirement. Mona is retiring after 45 years at the bank. That’s pretty cool to work in one place for that long. As a joke I went in the drive through just to wish her a happy retirement. We did eventually go inside to have coffee and a cupcake. Mona has a list of every employee of the bank. It was fun to look at all the names. I recognized many who have worked there. My brother Greg and his wife worked at the bank in the early 90’s.

Thursday was another day of FFA activities and a big basketball game in Dawson. After lunch Kerri Boyens, the owner of KLQP radio and I went out to LQPV high school to see the LQPV FFA petting zoo and visit with some of the FFA members. I found this to be very fun. There were elementary students visiting the petting zoo when we were there. I interviewed a number of LQPV FFA students and even took a selfie with Zoey Dockter’s llama.

Thursday evening was the big boys basketball game in Dawson. The gym was packed full of Blackjack and Montevideo Thunder Hawk fans. Both teams are state ranked and both teams have some outstanding players. It was a very fun atmosphere. My halftime guests were Brody Bothun and Mitchell Myers of the Stitches rock band. They talked about fundraising for the LQP Hope Network with a big event Saturday night. A special moment for me Thursday night was watching my son Brandon coach his Montevideo C squad team. I don’t get to see him coach very often so that was fun.

Friday was more FFA interviews, this time in Canby. Kerri and I watched the traditional FFA hay bale toss. I even gave a hay bale a toss. It’s harder than you think. My first toss was 12 feet and second was 8 feet. Jordan DePestel, who happens to be Canby’s heavyweight wrestler tossed the bale 29 feet! I actually saw him do it and it was crazy. Another awesome toss was by teacher Tami Peterson, Tami lifted the bale above her head and threw it that way. That was a smart idea, I should have tried that.

Also, Friday afternoon Carly Wager, the Shadows head coach came to the studio to talk about the Shadows recent state dance championships in high kick and jazz last week. Carly is always smiling and has a great attitude about everything. She’s such a positive person. I don’t know how she handles being a wife, mother, teacher and a head coach. She does it so well.

Saturday was the Coaches Show for me then a trip to Montevideo for section girls basketball. It’s always hard to see a senior play their last game. They have put so much hard work and time into the sport since they were in elementary school. And just like that it’s over. I felt for the LQPV girls after their loss to Minneota. It’s sure been enjoyable watching them play over the years. It’s usually the same core of girls. When I got back to the radio station Saturday night I had a couple more hours of work to do, so it was a very long day.

Sunday is a day of rest and church for me. Like I said in the beginning. I’m a lucky guy to have a job I absolutely love. I love my co-workers and all the different people I get to meet and get to know. It’s an amazing job!