Megan Westerkamp

Anyone who knows me can guess what my most prominent feature is……my very large and very red curly hair!  It’s been something I have struggled with most of my life and have yet to come to terms with, although I begin to love it more and more everyday! (most of the time) As a child I was always ridiculed by my peers because of my hair!   I didn’t know what to do with it.  It was just there, a bright red mess on top of my head.  After years of bad haircuts (one of them by my Grandfather! ) I finally found one that I liked and could show off my hair in it’s full glory!  But as it goes I’m back to hating my hair once again.  The color, I love! The curls, I HATE, so I started doing some research on hair straightening products. I know! you think I’m crazy, but you don’t have to live with this hair everyday.

I found a few but decided to go with Rusk Anti-Curl because it was on sale and most of the reviews I read were positive.  It did scare me a lot that it was a salon product that i would be using at home, but because of the hard economic times I couldn’t afford get it done in the salon. eep!  On the box it gave 3 options to use the product to get different results.  The first, was to tame your frizzies and give you a more polished look. The Second was to relax the curl but not take it out completely, and the third was to make it stick straight.  I opted for the second since i wasn’t sure I wanted to get rid of the curls. They have been apart of me for the last 28 years!  I also didn’t want to keep retouching my roots.  That would be sight to see.  Straight hair with curly roots!

I took the plunge and did it one Sunday night after one of my worst hair days ever!  I had had it!!!   I began the process and it was fairly easy. I made sure to follow the directions EXACTLY!!  I’m super paranoid when it comes to my hair and I didn’t want to make a mistake and leave my hair damaged or broken!   I was nervous my hair was going to fall out or that nothing would happen at all.  To my surprise it turned out great.   I could tell right away that it was less curly, which translates to = not as big or frizzy!  Yipee!!!  Hopefully now I can straighten my hair with ease and not waste 2 hours out of my day doing so!  I would recomend this product to anyone who is struggleing with unmanagable curly fizzy hair.  If you have any questions feel free to ask!  The Picture on the left is the final product!

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Dahlias1

Originally uploaded by RedMgn

More Dhalias

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Julie’s Dahlias

Originally uploaded by RedMgn

I went to a dahlia farm and shot some frames for a friend. IT WAS AMAZING!!!

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Auto Salvage yard

Originally uploaded by RedMgn

I went to the salvage yard today hoping i could find a new fog light for my Subaru. Sadly, I wasn’t able to find one but I did discover a jack pot of really cool old cars. Who knew they were hiding here. I wish I had the ability to fix one up!

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Birch tree Seed Pods

Originally uploaded by RedMgn

These things are all over my parents driveway and yard. I had to sweep them up. They look so gross, like a bunch of worms. They move like them too.

Tags: Birch, Seed pods

Camp Thunderbird


Originally uploaded by RedMgn

One of my most favorite places. Bemidji, MN. Boys camp on the way to the waterfront!

Tags: Camp Thunderbird, Trees

Walden/ North Park

Originally uploaded by RedMgn

I took this photo on my way home from my parents last week as I was heading back to Steamboat. The blue creek winding it’s way through the gold grass caught my eye.

Tags: Colorado, landscape

DSC_0181-1

Originally uploaded by RedMgn

So, I feel the need to revamp this blog a bit. It’s been bothering me for some time now how it’s lacking in content. (I’ve blogged 5 times in the past year, sad!) It has no direction and frankly I’m getting sick of writing about nothing. SO…..I’m following the lead of many of my friends before me, original I know, and I’m going to post a photo a day in hopes that I will start taking more photos. I’ve been slacking a lot here lately and I’m quite frustrated with myself because of it.

The first, and hopefully not my last Rockies game of the season! The Rockies played the LA Dodgers and lost 5-6. 13 of us went for my friend Bevo’s birthday and had a great time despite the cold weather. I miss the days when my family had season tickets. I caught a fly ball once with my bare hand. It hurt!

Tags: baseball, Colorado, Rockies

Today I had my 1 month appointment with my doctor.  I can’t believe it’s been a month!  He couldn’t believe how good my knee looked!  I’m ahead of the game!  yeah!!!  The bad news is I have to wear this stupid knee brace longer.  I’ve cheated and didn’t wear it last week.  He told me now is the hard part because I’m feeling so well that it’s tempting to not wear it, but one little slip in the parking lot and I could tear it all over again and all that work will be gone.  Sad.  Nothing like scare tactics to keep me wearing it.

PT is going well just slower that I would like.  I the hardest thing I’m working on now is getting my range of motion back.  I started out at 90 degrees and now I’m at 125 degrees which is good! but getting there hurt so bad!

Tags: ACL, Knee, PT

It’s been 9 months since I last posted.  Man that’s a long time!  Sorry! I know you have all been wondering what I have been up to, right?  Not much.  I went to Minnesota for the summer to teach Photography.  It was a ton of fun but lets talk about more recent news shall we.

Early December I was prepping for my ski certification which consists of 3 days of movement analysis and showing I can do certain maneuvers and a hunk of change! I was skiing poorly during my exam (poorly in my eyes) but still managed to pass!!!!  woo hoo I get a pay raise!!!

The following day I went out with my friends to hit the slopes before starting work for the season the following day.  I was skiing SO WELL!!!  I probably felt too confident because the next thing I new I hucked myself off a rock, landed wrong, and heard a loud POP from my knee.  It looked a lot like this. Laying in the snow all I could do  was squirm around like a earthworm out of it’s element in severe pain, all while punching the ground with my fist yelling obscenities.   I was taken down the Mountain in the toboggan and to the hospital.  Naively I didn’t think anything major was wrong since my knee no longer hurt. WRONG!! It didn’t hurt because I tore my ACL completely.  The ER Dr told me I most likely need to have surgery.  My heart sank

I had surgery Jan 13th here in Steamboat.  My surgeon, a professional bull rider,  fixed my knee up nice.  I was given the option to get a spinal anesthesia so i could watch my surgery on a monitor.  It sounded cool but opted to get general.  I don’t think I could watch or listen to the things they were going to do to me.  I was given a cadaver tendon,  so now I have a part of someone else in me.  WEIRD! I’m working on getting the video of my surgery. 

I’ve been going to physical therapy a couple times a week.  I’m progressing, but slower than I WOULD like.  My right calf is now 1/2 inch smaller than my left and my quad is 1 inch 1/2 smaller too.  It’s crazy how fast you can loose muscle!  My favorite/most painful part of therapy is the muscle stimulator. It reminds me of this box Harper brought to school one day when he tricked me into zapping myself with electricity. Only mine goes in 20 second intervals for 15 min before I get a break!  Onmy days off I’ve been swimming with a buoy just to get some physical activity in my life.  I’m ready to ditch my huge metal knee brace.  1 more week!!! One Perk…..I get a handicap parking pass for 3 months.  Perfect for parking at the mountain!  I have 4 months of rehab which means no more skiing for me this winter, which means no teaching, and no pay raise and out a bunch of money! luckily the Ski school ticket office gave me a job! I hate sitting behind a desk!

I’ll post pics and Videos later and update on how rehab is going!

Tags: ACL, Knee