4th of July

The 4th of July to me doesnt always bring about thoughts of fun. The 4th to me represents responsibility and fear, because I have animals and they have to come first every year in my planning process. My horses are kept on a pasture which is bordering the town of Monroe. Boy am I SOO glad I chose to move them into the country a little further to my parents place. Monroe was crazy with fireworks. Nice to watch, but the horses certainly do not appreciate it so much. I had to put them into the small corral with the goats because there still were fireworks around my parents and the last thing I need is a horse running through a fence, costing me hundreds in vet bills. The dog... well he is so good about fireworks. We should have taken him with us to watch fireworks, next year we definately will. He stayed home with mom and dad. The goats, well after the 2 babies figured out that these new horse monsters in their corral were not going to eat them, they were all just fine and the 2 big ones especially looked to the horses for moral support and comfort. It is nice to watch and see how they use the horses for protection.

So we had a very nice fourth! We didnt really know until about 6pm what we were going to do, but it all worked out. Our friends George & Rachel and their daughter Samantha drove up from Kent, stopped by the house to take a peak at the progress and then we went into Monroe, grabbed a bite to eat and took it with us to the Monroe Fairgrounds Parking Lot. It was VERY nice actually! We relaxed, chatted and sat in our chairs in the grass, ate some dinner, watched the entire town of Monroe light up all around us including in the parking lots fireworks and then waited for the races to finish for the fireworks show put on by the speedway. Which was OK, not as great as going to Seattle to see the show, but for free and not having to spend all day waiting or in traffic, it was perfect. Just our style I guess. Had a great time with our friends and Samantha.

Sitting there made both of us realize that we really want to do more camping next year. It also makes me want to adopt a child much sooner than later, it's fun spending time with them as a family and I'm startin to think about my own family and how nice a child would be to add to our life. We'll have to see how this house thing works out for a while and the economy, things have been slow for Derek, one week he is billing out his goal amount, next week it is half. We both are hoping things pick up in the auto business so he can stay busy.

The house progress... we did a truckload full of just cardboard recycling to the dump on Sunday. It was kinda funny acutally because when we got to the dump, the huge dump container was FULL, there was not enough room to cram all our cardboard in so as Derek is trying to do it, he looks at me and say "do you think if I climb in, I will be able to get back out?" I just smiled and in he went! He had about 2' height by about 3' lenth rectangle to get into this container.. Once he was in, he crawled around on his hands/knees, compressing the cardboard and then it was a piece of cake to get it all in and there was lots of room left for much more cardboard. The other people there just smiled and were thankful there was room for their recycling as well. I dont think the dump attendants noticed. I wish I had had my camera with me, certainly would have been a great shot!

Oh and I have to say my cry for help was answered by my AWESOME cousin MARC!! Thanks so much to him for taking time out of his day to spend a lot of it with us on Sunday to get our dishwasher installed! Yippy... the three of us went to McDaniels to get a power cord, went home and as we got that hooked up, realized that we needed the kind that was flat as the dishwasher would not scoot in all the way with the cord we purchased. So I went back to McDaniels on my own to get a new cord while the guys worked on the microwave. I get back to the house and the guys tell me I now need to go back for a 3rd time to get drywall anchors to hang the microwave! lol So I go back and get those, and when i get back, the dishwasher is done, hooked up, ready to go. Marc had to leave so Derek and I finished the microwave. Put it in the wall, what a bitch that was. Get it in, turn on the fan and it is blowing air at me and not sucking it up like it is supposed to! So we take it back out after we see that the instructions say that if the unit has a roof vent, we need to reverse the motor. dammit... So we take it back out, fix it and put it back. My kitchen appliances are now all done, and they look great. A few minor projects we need to work on this week and we are gettin closer to completion.