The French Countryside, our last morning there
Too much time has passed since my last post, I know. The good news is that I am feeling so much better that I am out there living and playing catch up on all the things I've missed during the past year. I'm not lying on the couch all day! Yahoo! Lots of folks are wondering how we are doing, so I will try to give a recap and summarize March, April, and May. (Goodness, has it really been that long?!)
On March 10th we left for France, 2 days after my last radiation treatment. To say it was too much too soon for me would be an understatement. But, looking forward to the trip was such a bright spot that it kept me motivated during those last few months of treatment, so I wouldn't change a thing. We spent some time in Paris and in the southern countryside for about 2 weeks. On the bright side, we had a fantastic time being together as a family and not having to deal with any health issues. We went with my in-laws and had a great time with them, which was another bright spot... being together as a family and having fun (and drinking lots of wine!) On the not-s0-bright spot list was the weather... it rained and rained for most of the time we were there. Local bridges were washing out and fields were flooding, so we didn't do a lot of sightseeing. The picture above was taken on the very last day we were in the south... we were driving to catch the train early in the morning and the rain stopped and the sun came out. I hopped out of the car to take a few shots.
Visiting the city of Carcassone
Another highlight was visiting the walled city of Carcassone. It's an amazing medieval fortress that looks like something out of a movie set.... cobblestone streets, towers and turrets, ramparts, and even a moat! We had a great time exploring this ancient fortress. Another highlight for me personally was visiting a French no-till grain farmer on our drive down to the south. Aggies will be interested to know that France is the only country in Europe that can feed itself. This farmer in central France gets about 120 bu/acre of wheat, while his counterparts in northern France can get 160 bu/acre. This is staggering, considering the average in Montana is about 40 bu/acre. (Shows what a difference rain can make.)
Grace and I learned some French before going on the trip, and had a blast practicing our language skills. I have continued doing my French lessons since returning and am looking forward to going back someday, provided we go when it is warm and dry!
Really, the best thing about our trip was the change in perspective. For so long, our family had been focused on my health. It was great to get out there in the big, wide world and blow the doors off of our narrow perspective. It was a breath of fresh air.
We came back to the US at the end of March, and then things got really crazy. I received the amazingly good news that a grant proposal I had been working on for about a year had been accepted for full funding. This grant will allow me to start a graduate program in agronomy at MSU this fall. I really can't overstate how happy I was to hear this news. For several years I have been wanting to go back to school, as I currently only have a BS degree. I took my time and found several faculty I would really like to work with here at MSU. Last year, I asked one if he would take me on as a student. He agreed, but said I would have to find my own funding. So last March I started looking for grant opportunities. Then in May I received the bad news about my health. I was very discouraged and I was tempted to just give up the grad school idea and think about it some other time when all of this had passed.
And then I got really, really angry. I just refused to give up and roll over. Cancer had taken and destroyed so many beautiful things in life (my mom, my friend Todd, my cousin's health, my body) I just wasn't ready to give up on this dream because of cancer. I was determined to submit this grant proposal. The deadline for the first round was mid-June of 2010. I had no idea how I would get it done with all the chaos that was going on. In early June, Brett and I drove out to Seattle for the second time. Brett and I worked out an arrangement where I drove and dictated while he typed the grant proposal on my laptop. (My husband really deserves a gold medal for all the kindness he has shown me this past year... I am a very, very lucky girl to have him.)
Then in Seattle, I spent an entire day holed up in our hotel room, writing away. My professor cleaned up the draft and sent it in. In August we received word that our proposal had cleared the first round. They then asked us to submit a full proposal, due in November. So, all last fall, while I was going through chemo, I would go to MSU the day before my treatments and meet with 3 professors to work on this full grant proposal. At this point, they did most of the work, but I was so proud of myself that I was able to make any contribution, no matter how small. After the submission, we just waited to hear the decision.
The day I returned from France, (March 2011) I checked my email to see that we had won the grant! I bawled like a baby. To see all of that determination pay off was an amazing moment. We now have a healthy, six-figure sum to fund three years of research. Our project will focus on the use of multi-species cover crops in no-till systems and how these crops affect the soil properties. It's a wonderful thing. My professor had applied for this same grant 8 times in the past, each time with no luck. This was his first time to awarded this particular grant.
So, this fall I will start classes at MSU and will be officially pursuing a Master's degree. There is potential to declare as a PhD student later on. For now, we have decided that it's easier to scale up than scale down. In the interim, I took the GRE, have been out at the experiment farm looking at field trials, and meeting with professors.
So, that was big news. But more just kept on rolling in. At the end of March I was laid off my job at NCAT. NCAT's agriculture program was funded entirely by the federal government. The budget wranglings in March cut funding for many similar programs, and by the middle of April I was out of a job. This has proven to be a blessing in disguise as I am now free to spend the summer gaining back my strength and spending time with Grace. It's especially sweet since last summer, I really missed on having a "real summer."
So, with that in mind, we bought a little vintage 1968 camper trailer and are planning on having all sorts of fun this summer going camping and fishing and enjoying Montana in the summer. Summer may actually be here. The temps are getting into the 60's, although we still have our snow shovel out on the front porch. Ha!
I see that this post is getting quite long, so I will sign off for now and write more again soon.
Love to everyone.
Susan
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