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After graduation, since I had signed on the dotted line to teach school in Great Falls, Mont., I did just that. After a couple of years, I married a native son, and had four wonderful daughters, the middle two being twins. I was lucky to have Malmstrom AFB on the outskirts of town, as that is where I received my master’s in counseling psychology from Pepperdine University in their "innovative education program."  Working at the Mental Health Center as a staff psychologist for eight years was a wonderful training ground for going into private practice, which I did for several years. 

When the kids got older, I moved to California to do post-graduate work at UCSB, moving to a townhouse in Carpinteria. While jumping through the hoops to get my California license, I worked as an educator and counselor at the Santa Barbara Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse; managed the Santa Barbara battered women's shelter; then, upon receiving my license, managed the psychiatric assessment teams of two counties for a psychiatric hospital in Ventura, Calif., while doing some private practice, and teaching in the Adult Education Department of Santa Barbara City College.

When I retired from the hospital in 2000, I enjoyed my leisure for about three years; then got my certification to teach English as a Second Language at SBCC part time. In 2005, I retired again and moved to Indio, Calif., to Sun City Shadow Hills. In the heat of the summer I spend three months in Montana on Flathead Lake, and my girls and their families frequently join me there from their homes in Missoula, Mont., about an hour away. I would say that I have the best of both worlds.