Updates

I made some progress on the house painting!!! :) It looks really good against the white, I'm very happy with the color.. This side of the house was a bitch to paint, mostly because this side of the house is the dog crap yard! So I was out there in shorts, steppin in dogshit left and right, climbing ladders, moving ladders, not able to avoid landmines, then I'd climb the ladder and get crap on the ladder step, then I'd turn around on the step to paint the house, my calf would push against the shit! I was NEVER SO HAPPY to be finished with this section and get in the house to shower! Normally I can get in/out of the shower in about 6-7 minutes, I spent 20 that day in there... I still have 2 sides to paint, but for now the publicly visible sides are done. :)

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Well Echo is still alive! He is doing really well as far as I can tell. His leg is still pretty nasty, the skin flappy is starting to shrivel up and is exposing the huge hole that is left behind, we got some pics of it. The white that you see in the pics in the middle of the wound, yeah that's his bone! I need to talk with Andrea tonight and find out what to do from here, his spirits are good, but I dont know at what point I could/should turn him back out to pasture. I'm worried about him getting dirt in that hole, at what point will he produce new skin to cover the bone? He started putting a tiny bit of weight on it finally...






So we thought after Friday's great catch, we would be done fishin for the year, so we took our boat to Harry on Saturday, who is going to build a custom duck blind on the boat for Derek. Saturday night we decide to fish on Sunday, we got up at 5am!!! yeah that is damn early. :) We thought if we got to the river at 6am, we'd beat out the majority of fishermen and find good spots to fish.. Oh NO. We were too late at 6:10am! So we drove out to the tressle and decided to fish off the dike, there was only one vehicle there, amazing! We didnt have to fight for a spot, but we did have to walk our asses a long ways to get where we needed to fish carting along fishing poles, coolers, cushion to sit on, fishnet, tacklebox... And it was an 80+ degree day.

So we are fishin, the 3 of us (Tyler was along too). There were 3 mexicans there when we got to the river, they appeared to have pretty good spots on the rocks, so we went way down river to avoid crowding in on them. We had somewhat crappy spots in this mucky slick area, but it worked. We start catching fish... Next thing we see, this mexican is at our spot staring at us, didnt say a word. We all were thinking "Ok, whats this guy doing?" So Tyler and Derek had walked down into the slimy area and there is lots of beach for this guy to go on, but when he realizes he will slip and sink in the slime and ruin his shoes, he decides not to walk down there. Tyler is to the right 10 feet from me in the slime, I am on a grassy patch and then Derek is about 10 feet to the left of me in the slime. We had a good thing going. So I cast out straight ahead and this guy has the nerve to stand in a grass patch 5 feet to my left with Derek only another 5 feet over from that and he casts out! Well this guy doesnt know how to cast and his line goes at a 45 degree angle towards Tyler, he is completely OVER my line! I'm just sitting there feeling very awkward. Tyler looks at the guy and says "There's a whole f*cking river to fish dude" or something like that. I reel in real quick to avoid this guy messing up my line. I'm thinking, okay he clearly sees he is overcrowding our already tight situation and he'll leave. So I hold my pole/line out of the water as he reels in. After he reeled in, he cast out AGAIN! same crooked throw almost crossing Tyler's line at this point. So I'm sitting there twiddling my thumbs, Tyler looks at me and says "Can you fish?" So I say, Uh No! I wanted to whip the guy with my pole, it was just plain rude and disrespectful what he was doing. Tyler just starred at him until he finally left, apparently Derek was a few seconds from throwing the guy in the river. Not to mention, he was using illegal hooks on his line! He and his buddies saw us catching fish and apparently even though fish were jumping ALL over that river section, they must have thought you had to be in our spot to catch 'em. He left but he came back many times and stood behind us with his friend or by himself, you could see that he wanted to fish right there on top of us but it seemed like maybe he was trying to weigh out his chances on getting his ASS kicked! It was just interesting.

We left that spot a while later when the fishin died off and found another spot off the river road in Snohomish.. Only came home with 6 fish between the 3 of us, we let a lot of fish go while in the slough, the fishin was so good there early on so we just kept the ones that appeared fresher.

Great Fishin!

Yesterday we went out fishin once again.. we keep saying (Okay this is the last time out, but then.. we go out again!) We were on the river at 11:15am and had our limit at noon!! Just can't beat that kind of day. :)

I HATE cats!!

I am debating a few things...

1) just shoot the cats!
2) tell the neighbor to take care of these 1/2 wild things before I do!
3) trap the cats and take them to the pound

They are pissing on our things on the deck, and it is PISSING me off!! It is absolutely disgusting to go out there to grab a pair of rain pants that were drying on the railing after washing them and now they are ruined because a cat had to back it's ass up to them and pee on them. There goes $25 down the drain.

The problem is the neighbor, they just let their cats run wild and breed like rabbits. I think I'm going to have to say something to them about it... The cats are invading my porch, my barn, my yard....

Goat Down.. Goat Down..

I found Echo hiding out under the barn yesterday and from where I stood, it appeared he had something sticking out of his leg, I panicked thinking he had a broken leg as he was not putting any weight on it and he wouldnt come out to me. I phoned Derek and told him we might need to shoot the poor guy :(

I pursueded him to come out with treats and realized what was sticking out was a big flappy of skin, he had cut his leg up real bad and part of his bone was exposed. By this time I had already phoned Andrea and after getting him into my horse trailer (a dry and fairly clean environment) I finally got Andrea on the phone to find out what to do next. I love my goat, but I just am not willing to pump a bunch of money into him like we did with Troy.

So we headed to Dels to buy some supplies, betadine, furizone, needles, syringes, tetnus shot, penicilin. I know I misspelled some of those words! :) Got home and cleaned it the best we could, its tough to try to scrub an area that you know hurts like hell and he was gettin pretty pissed. It had been there for atleast 24 if not 36 hours, there was no sign of blood really, it was VERY dirty though and I did not get it all out. Andrea told me to cut the flappy skin off, maybe another day! He was too irritated last night.

The good news, his spirits seem pretty good, he is eating and drinking, pooping and peeing. ;) He is living in my horse trailer for now and will stay there until he is all better, so the ride I was supposed to do tomorrow... well I told the ladies they would have to pick me up or I couldnt go. The baby kids are really upset that their big buddy is missing and they just cry and cry for him.

I really hope Echo makes it, I will try my hardest to doctor it myself and wish for the best. I was initially worried that Oakley stepped on Echo and did this to him, but his leg is cut so badly and scraped on the inside too, that it is hard to believe a horse did this. The goats have found a way under the big barn and who knows what crap is under that barn he might have gotten stuck in.. I know I'm not climbing under there to look! The old barn has a concrete runner down the whole length on one side and I was told that it was there to be filled up with animal bones from butchering etc... so I am pretty sure there are still bones under that barn.

Back That ____ Up! :)

See Derek and I have this routine with the boat. When we go fishin, he backs the boat into the water, I grab the boat line and wait for him to park the truck/trailer and then he jumps in, after he is settled, I push us off the shore and jump in. When we are finished for the day, he hands me the keys, I get the truck/trailer and back them into the water while he drives the boat up on the trailer and I drive us up out of the water.

I think it's awesome when I show up to back the trailer down the boat ramp, makes me feel pretty good to do so well in front of all these burly manly men! :) Well yesterday we are in line waiting to launch our boat and met a couple guys in front of us and then one behind us, it was a long wait, atleast 30 minutes. So anyways, when it came time to launch the boat, because it was soooo busy and packed in with boats, there was no room on the shore to hold the boat, so Derek wanted me to back the boat in the water with him already in it and when he hit the water, he'd just motor out and wait for me to park and come back to the shore to pick me up.

So the guy in front of me gets his boat launched and I back down the ramp. As I'm backing, my window is down and to the drivers side of me, I hear a guy say "Wow, I've never seen that before" Now my ego is feeling pretty good and I'm thinking to myself, he MUST be talking about me!! lol... Sure enough, I turn my head his direction and he looks at me and says again, "I've never seen a woman launch a boat, this is a first!" So I'm feeling all good and tingly inside, I am a fantastic backer if you didnt already know! lol

Then as I'm down with the trailer in the water, I look to my left and there is a lady looking at me and she says "I am damn proud of you girl!" I was like, woohoo what a great day! So I pull out of the ramp, head up the road, turn around and come back down to park the truck/trailer. Well the guy that was in front of me, he parks on the downhill, but I see a spot real close to the ramp, so I drive past him (he didnt notice) and park closer to the ramp. As I'm walking down to the boat, he runs up behind me and says "Now how did you get ahead of me?" I said "Well I guess I'm just a better driver!!" LOL I was laughing, he kinda chuckles and says, "No lets not say better, maybe just smarter". I didnt argue...

Derek said as I was backing down the ramp to launch the boat, he was in the boat and he said lots of the guys were complimenting my skills/abilities as a woman. It just feels good to impress and get compliments from strangers :) I told Derek I am a 75% package, if I was skinny I'd be a complete total package. hehehe Apparently (according to Derek) he is a 98% package!

It was such a great 3 day weekend, spending a lot of great time with Derek. We spent 2 days in the pouring ass rain and had a great time doing it, just enjoying our hobby and eachother. We ride in the rain and sun, we fish in the rain and sun, we camp in the rain and sun...

It reminds me that no matter the weather, just get out and enjoy life!!!!

2 Limits in 2 Hours

Yep, we went out again this evening.. in the rain! :) We had to hold up in Snohomish at McDaniels for a few minutes when the lightening and thunder rolled right over the top of us, we did not want to become lighting rods!

We went back to our favorite spot and within 30-40 minutes I had caught 3 fish, Derek zero.. He got the 4th fish, I think I got the 5th, then he caught the 6th.. by this time the fish are practically jumping in the boat!! They were rolling and jumping like crazy, it was insane. It was dusk and we commented we needed to get our next 2 fish real quick so we could get out of the water before dark and head home.. Derek got one on right then, but lost it, a few minutes later I had one on, got him in the boat and recast and BAM I had the last fish on the line. I do feel a little bad that I caught 6 tonight and Derek only got 2, but we had a blast all the same.

I counted and in 3 days of fishin, we caught 20 fish!

Here are some pics I finally took of tonights catches. Derek is holding the 2 biggest fish we caught, not sure who caught them, I think I caught atleast one of the big ones.. Then the fish before cleaning and after cleaning. Oh and I had to get a pic of all the fish eggs we collected in 3 days, there is a guy we met tonight at the river launch that is going to take the eggs..

Who Stabs Themself in the Back of the Hand?

I do!! ;(

I was clearing out the dishwasher on Thurs (had the day off) so I was home alone and our new filet knife, you know the VERY sharp one that we just got from Cutco, well I was trying to retract the blade and it just wouldnt budge so I was being pretty dumb and in the midst of my lack of judgement I guess, I actually stabbled the back of my hand between my knuckles, its a very soft area apparently! I'd say my cut was 1/2 inch wide and it was just pumping out blood at a very fast rate.. I was a bit concerned that I cut some sort of artery (I know, there are no main arteries in your hands) but in the moment and with all the blood, I was close to hyperventillating and/or panicking. I put a papertowel on it and finally it slowed enough to put a bandage on it. What a dumbass I am! I mean, who does that...

I told Derek that maybe some day I might actually want to start hunting for duck, maybe other hunting as well, I'm migrating that direction I guess but I'm scared to death that my clumsiness will interfere particularly while dealing with a shotgun! I know how to shoot the darn thing and am smart enough to know how to properly handle it, but what if I did a dumb thing?? Hmmmm... will have to think long and hard before I venture into hunting, which wouldnt be anytime this year anyways.

I got in a nice ride on Oakley on Friday, he is doing pretty well. I am thinking maybe this next year if Derek agrees, I can ride Oakley and he can ride Edgar, this would give me the time to put the miles on Oakley that he needs in order to be the best trailhorse he can be.

Saturday mid morning we headed to town with the boat, but we realized (after we were all the way in town) that we forgot the fish cooler, not too big a deal, but we also forgot the stringer which IS a big deal.. dammit, had to make a trip back home to grab that, how can we catch our limit if we have no cooler or stringer to put the fish in, they'd just be floppin around in the bottom of the boat otherwise! lol

I think we finally got on the water at about noon, headed down river a little ways, found a great hole and after about 90 minutes, the fish finally started biting. They were rolling all over the river, it is funny when fish are jumpin 4-5' from the boat. Derek caught 2, then a guy on the shore offered us one so we took it (no sense wasting fish!) and over the next hour or so, Derek caught 2 more and I caught 3, so we left the river with our limits of 4 each. It was actually nice to get off the river in the daylight! :) After we cleaned the 8 fish, we headed out the door to the Scherrer's Ranch to spend some time with friends watching a band play live music at the lake.. Stayed 3 hours then went back home to rest up for an early morning rise with another round of fishin..

Well when we walked in the door, life cant just be simple.. No we dont come home to 2 well behaved dogs, we come home to one great dog (Russell) and one stinker (Scout) who decided that she liked the smell of the fresh fish on the vaccum food sealer and proceeded to jump on the counter at her leisure and chewed on the sealing foam, chewed up the plastic piece that actually did the vaccuming, basically she ruined the sealer.. the sealer was a piece of crap anyways, it did NOT do it's job very well anyways, it oversealed burning holes in the sealed edges!

Sunday morning we woke up early, headed to Freddy's and bought a brand new Sealer, some breakfast, a couple fishing lures (had to replace the 2 we gave to a guy on the shore who needed all the help we could provide!) and then headed to the river. The weather seemed cooperative, we were optimistic we might have a nice morning and for the first couple hours, it was not bad. A little rain, put the ponchos on, but then the sun came out.. Well we (okay I) caught 3 fish!! Poor Derek had zero fishies at this point, we get back to our favorite spot and it just starts POURING.. not just raining, it was plain dumping on us! The guy we had given lures to the day before, he was on the shore again and informs us that he did NOT catch anything the day before.. so about 15 minutes into fishing the spot, Derek hooks into the biggest fish of the day.. the guy on the shore is saying, yelling (OH NO YOU DIDNT!) (I CANT BELIEVE THIS!) We are chuckling... it rained so hard, we were drenched and the boat was fillin up with water, I scooped a few gallons out and when we finally decided to call it quits and head to the shore to give our new friend a fish to take home to his wife, he was gone. I dont blame him, the rain was nasty.

Oh and did I Forget to tell you that when we dropped the boat in the water this morning, Derek heads up the ramp to park the truck, I'm just hanging out, just me and the boat... I look in the boat and see that the battery is almost underwater, the tackle box is floating! :) Derek forgot to put the plugs in the boat!! We got it all under control.. just an interesting way to start the day, but we left with 4 fish, so not dissappointing at all. I'm thinkin we might just have to make it out tomorrow.

It is Labor Day tommorrow (Derek has to work) and if its not raining in the morning, I'll be going riding and then when I get home, the hope is that the rain is away long enough to get our boat in the water when Derek gets off work and work on limiting out again!!! :) I LOVE this fishin business.. We've been givin fish away to friends/family, we've got plenty to share.

Annual Weekend of Hay is Finally over..

well almost over! :) Thursday we picked up my friends flatbed trailer (Thanks Amber & Jerod!!) Friday we drove to Spokane after work, had dinner with Dereks nephews Rick & Rob and their wives, Saturday Derek golfed while I spent it with Toni, Saturday night we went to the car races to watch Darryl race, Sunday morning we loaded up hay, Sunday ALL day we drove home (due to a 20+ mile 4 hour car accident on I90), got home at 10pm, worked Monday, unloaded 5 tons of hay into the barn after work on Monday, Derek had to go BACK to work after he unloaded the hay, and then tonight we are driving the trailer back up to Anacortes... So MAYBE tomorrow evening we can just go straight home after work and not have to do this or do that, we can just plop our asses on the couch, maybe cook a homecooked meal for the first time in over a week and just relax! :)

The trip with our hay this year was a little hairy! We had a nice flatbed trailer that easily handled the 5 tons of hay, however we discovered it's not exactly the best type of trailer to use for hay, the way it was set up it put a lot of tongue weight on our truck which had us in a V shape driving home, PLUS we realized AFTER we were on the road, that we probably had our truck overloaded by about 3,000 pounds and the weight was also over the ball/hitch rating!! AND our hay was loaded a hair crooked.. Lets just say with all this going on, it was a tense, stressful, sometimes arguing, LONG drive home! BUT the good news, we made it home safely, Derek & I are still talking to eachother, no flat tires, no loss of hay, nothing caught on fire, the hay is in the barn safe and sound (thanks to the help of Ted on that by the way, oh and my dads Awesome Supervisory Skills!) lol

I am hoping now that this is all done and finally taken care of until next year, my stomach will go back to normal, I think it was overstressed, I always hate having to haul hay across the state. Next year we might just take our small trailer and make 2 trips, ease up the load a little. It's really hard to not go all the way to Spokane to get hay, when I'm getting it at $65/ton! Its just plain worth the drive and hassle unfortunately...

The only bad thing about this trip is that I picked up the last of this type of hay from the farmer, so unfortunately as we unloaded it into the barn, we found 7 bales with a layer of slight mold on them, so I'm listing those bales on CL as Cow Hay. I could scrape the bales and I'm sure they'd be fine, it's just a bummer cuz 7 bales is almost 1/2 a ton, thats a lot of hay to have to give up but I think I have 1-2 tons more than I really needed anyways :(

Fishon!!!! Finally....

Yep, you read it right!! I FINALLY caught me a damn salmon :) Woooohoooo

We went out on Wednesday after work, we did not take the boat out, easier to just hit the bank with Tyler, he cleared a decent spot for the 3 of us. It was kindof a pain with having to deal with bushes for casting, but it worked and I caught a fish before Derek did.. hehe

In about 2 hours time I caught 2 (but lost one, the bastard found a way to come off my line AND get me snagged up on something underwater at the same time, I lost my lure too!) and then Derek caught 2, so we took home 3 nice fish. We tried to filet one, we kinda butchered it!! lol I think dad would be ashamed of that filet job...

Tyler caught the mammajamma of the day, he brought in a big 'ole daddy of a fish, the sucker was almost double in size the average salmon being caught, had to be a good 6 pounder!! I shoulda taken a pic, he was nice.

I'm a little bummed that we are getting hay this weekend, although it's gonna be a great weekend, I REALLY want to be FISHIN!! lol I think I'm addicted already cuz I just wanna be out there every day.. I guess I still have quite a few weeks of fishin ahead of me, they are really runnin up the river now, it is exciting.

Fishin & Ridin

We spent 3 days on the river in the past week, the Humpies & Silvers are runnin.. It was the first river excursions for the boat, it did pretty well although Derek & I both agree that we far prefer to have 2 in the boat vs the 3 we had on Thursday & Saturday (Tyler was with us). The boat handled well with the wakes as there were a lot of people out on Saturday and Sunday, most were pretty courteous, only a few jackasses.

Tyler was the only one to catch a fish on Thursday, he caught this little bullhead fish (above) and then later he caught the nice one shown below. He has a knack for snagging baby fish! I think he even had another on that he couldnt get in the boat. Here we are providing a nice boat for him to fish out of and how does he thank us.. by catchin the fish while we catch nothin!! ;)

Here's the "fish tale" of the weekend! We were anchored down on Saturday and I had my lure out quite a ways behind the boat and I decided I'd had enough of not catching anything so I started to reel in to put a different lure on. As I'm slowly reeling in, all the sudden my line was snagged straight down in front of me.. my brain was trying to process how this was possible but I felt no fish on my line, never felt any change in my line until I was "snagged". The guys asked if I had a fish, I was like "uh no!" So my line keeps dissappearing now towards the front of the boat, I am flipping my bail letting more line out as I dont want to break my line or my pole on this snag and my line just keeps dissappearing even though the boat is not moving, hmmm my brain is really starting to wonder what the hell kind of snag is this that goes upriver yet there cant be a fish, I never felt a bump or anything!

So about this time that I keep letting out line, the guys start to really question my "snag" which we finally realize is impossible to actually be a snag that I MUST have a fish and it MUST be a sturgeon! So then I finally feel a bump bump and I start to reel.. the only problem?? I'm not able to reel anything in, as I'm reeling my line is just spooling out from this fish taking my line, I keep tightening my tension down and this fish continues to take my line and I'm trying and trying to reel when all the sudden he just spits out my lure and I reel in a big fat.... NOTHING! I am convinced had the boat not been anchored down, this fish would have pulled us upriver, it was that big. We never saw it, but I could tell by the pull (once I even realized I had a fish on) that he was a mammajamma! Sturgeons can get huge, I think the minimum size you can keep is almost 4' long!! Wow, that would have been a great battle.

But unfortunately that was the most excitement I had in 3 days of fishing! :( Derek had 2 on his line on Saturday but never got them in the boat and same on Sunday, he had one on but it never made it in the boat either. I hear reports that the fishing is pretty good, we think it's still a little slow but I look foward to getting out as much as possible, I want some fish!! The fish should really start to come up river soon, there were lots out there, we saw them rolling and jumping all over the place, just didnt see a ton of them making it into the boats!

Shana and I rode on Friday up at Heart Lake in Anacortes with Wendy and Nikki. We had a really nice ride, got in 3.5 hours plus a nice lunch at Whistle Lake. I LOVE the pic of Shana on Edgar, she looks so cute up there on him!

I like the look of a horses head, heading down the trail..

The trails up there are really nice!

Lunch at Whistle Lake..

Unfortunately Edgar is still pretty lame.. I am SO DAMN FRUSTRATED about it.. I dont mind riding Oakley, just sucks that I have someone now to ride Edgar and he is still lame, I think he needs the rest of the year off. Oakley did okay, he had a shithead moment twice on the trail. First time we were heading up a very long continuous hill and about 4/5 of the way up, he decided he had had enough! He refused to go on and when I pushed him on, he threw his head up, bolted forward at a fast walk, starting walking from side/side.. Once we peaked that very long section, he went back to being his good 'ole normal self. But then on our way back (we went a different route) we were almost to the trailhead and heading down a really steep section. Shana got off Edgar as his shoulder really bothered him going downhill and Oakley started to throw a fit, he spun around on the trail and there was not much room to deal with a difficult horse, there was a dropoff on the one side, uphill on the other. Well I tried to get him to go down normal, but he was acting very dangerously with thinking about bucking and trying to run off the trail and spinning around, so I got off and lead him down as well. Once at the bottom I got back on and he was great for the rest of the ride back.

Oakley has his moments where it is just safer to get off. He is still young and immature at times, so instead of fighting him, I got off. Maybe that is letting the horse win, but when I'm staring at a cliff and my horse has ZERO regard for where he is stepping, it would be dumb for me to try to fight him. It was a long day packing my ass around, so it didnt bother me at all to get off for 5 minutes and walk him, his back might have been a little sore as well going downhill. I had a saddle on him that I think fits him about as perfect as a saddle can fit. ZERO dry spots when I got off him and the next day he was only a tiny bit sore, which is GREAT when he's packing a heavy load.

I started painting the house too a week ago, and well thats about as far as I got! About 1/3 done. It looks really good, I'm being very meticulous about it, maybe I told you the story already of firing Derek! lol I just havent had time to get out and paint more this past week or weekend with fishing opening. Plus I had my skin tags removed last week which was scary for me. I was VERY apprehensive about the whole deal but it wasnt quite as bad as I imagined, actually the few days after visiting Miss Lancelot were worse than having them cut off. I had one under my boob that irritated me the most, then the neck flappy came off and then a few under my armpits. The shot to numb them up was not too bad in all reality, but a couple of them did NOT get numb enough and I could feel her cutting my skin away!! UGGHH that was not real pleasant! ;) But now they are healing up real good and maybe in a week I can shave again and I wont have to be embarassed anymore about my flappies of skin under my arms. The neck one didnt bother me, but it was weird having it cut off though, because it has been a part of me for so long.. seems silly really to be attached to something so little, but for the first couple days it was like I lost a part of me... mostly because that one was visible to the general eye. I did NOT have my mini-me brain removed, it was too large for her to do at that appointment, maybe in the future, but thats gonna take some guts to go in for cuz they will have to stitch that one.. What would I ever do without that little extra brain, it's probably what keeps me functional! lol

Pole Dancin'

We spent a couple hours on Sunday looking for a new salmon/river fishing pole for me.. we literally were in/out of about 10 stores between Marysville and Burlington, it was quite commical, we would jump out of the truck, briskly want into store, not find what we wanted, briskly walk back out, drive off to next store down the road and repeated that over and over and over again.. We did not find what we wanted so Derek & I went back out to Lynnwood/Everett last night and finally found a pole. We actually bought a pole at Walmart (an Ugly Stick) then went to a Big 5 type sportstore and found a slightly better version of the same pole for same price so then we had to go back to Walmart to take the other one back.. But I now have a great rod and a really pretty reel. Although I think Derek is a little jealous (sorry my person!!!) because my reel is in his favorite color and I know he wants it real bad but I dont think I can part with it, I like it too much!!

Toucan Sam I am..

Saturday night I'm fast asleep, dreaming... 3:30 I wake up and am lying there in the dark and my nose is smelling smoke. I had to lay there a few seconds wondering if I was still in a dream or if I was truly smelling fire smoke in my house! I woke up Derek and asked him "Hey do you smell smoke or is it just me" See the fan was on my side of the bed blowing straight at my face/body and the window to our bedroom is on the opposite side of the room as the fan.. so I was feeling very concerned at this point.

Derek says "yeah I smell it too" so we jump out of bed and are smelling it throughout the house as well, but no fire in our house so we go on the front porch.. a car happens to drive by and we can see a smog of smoke rolling up over the top of the back side of the shop and we start to panic a tiny bit and run back to the bedroom, get dressed quickly then Derek opens the shop to be sure it is not on fire.. No fire there..

So we walk down the street a little and can see the haze of smoke but cannot find a fire, so we jump in the truck (we had to drag the kiddos out of our bed, they were not too thrilled to be woken at 3:30am but as soon as we said "do you want to go for a ride", they woke up right now!) anyways, we jumped in the truck and drove the neighborhood trying to find a fire incase someone else hadnt woken up yet.. no fires anywhere..

It was very bizzarre. We think that someone had to have gotten up in the middle of the night and started a fire in their fireplace and maybe since it was first fire of the year, it was extra strong or something I dont know.. I just know my darn nose is like that of a bloodhound and if we are ever on fire, I may just get us up before the smoke alarms even go off!! :) Derek likes to tease me about my nose sensitivity, it seems to grow stronger every year. It was just a strange evening.

I spent the weekend painting the house.. only got about 1/3 of it done at this point but it's a great start. Derek was working on the shed as I worked on the house, thank goodness for IPods!! :) When Derek quit working on the shed, he started to help on the house.. Well, he was not doing a very good job. lol He was not putting the paint on thick enough so I was seeing I would have to go back over his areas entirely and he was not very careful with keeping the brown off the white edges, so I told him in an irritated tone with a smile, that if he wasnt going to do it right, just stop doing it. He walked around the corner to what I assumed was in the house. So I'm on the one side of the house grunting out loud every few seconds as I'm repainting his areas, I climb up the ladder, down the ladder, move the ladder.. grrr Then I get the ladder to the edge of the house and see out of the corner of my eye he is right there around the corner painting the side of the house (and not very well at that!) I smile and he says "Yeah I hear you grunting over there!" lol I just laughed and then I look at his work and said something like, if you arent going to do it right, then dont do it at all.. and then something about firing him. He wasnt too dissappointed I dont think.

It actually was probably all part of his plan. See he knows how anal I was being about painting the house, I was being very slow and meticulous about my paint job, I did not want to have to put a second coat on.. maybe minor touchups here/there is all that was required with my paintjob. So he probably did it halfass so that he would get fired and not have to deal with it.. I'm on to him, I know how guys work! :)

So I have about 1/3 or more of the house finished, it looks really good. I mean it's not perfect and if you stand up close you can find minor flaws in my paintjob, there is a point that my analness stops and says, good enough! :) But it has to be MY decision and not someone elses.. LOL But if you stand back, my paintjob looks flawless, LIKE ME!! hahaha

Tucker Saddle Pictures

I am just using this post to post pictures of our saddle for sale so those that dont want to download a bunch of pictures can go here to see them all :)


I uploaded this first picture because although much smaller, this picture shows the true color of the saddle. The other larger pictures were taken with a flash and do not properly reflect the color at all.

First side is right side.. Obviously ! :) The right side has almost zero scuff marks on it and no scratches.

The left side has some scratches, not sure why they all are on the one side! Nothing major really.

Gel Cushioned Seat! :) No scratches or tears in it at all.


Front View...

Back view...


Underside..

Tucker Tag.. from what I understand the m at the end confirms it is Medium Tree.

That about covers all the angles I believe.. :)

My Teeth Still Hurt...

ugghh.. damn dentist! 10 minutes into my teeth drilling I start to feel pain, I'm laying there on the gas wondering if I am imagining it or if it is real because I KNOW how my brain works and then as she continued to drill on, I realized Oh Shit, I'm feelin it!! So my face was numb and my nose was swollen for the entire workday and today (2 days later) my gums/teeth still are pretty sore....

OHH>>> The curse of our boat has been lifted!! Not sure what we did "right" but this past weekend we went out to Lake McMurray in Mt Vernon area and proceeded to land 16 fish in our boat!! 15 of them were Perch which is what we were fishin for, the first fish of the day was an ugly trout I caught that had I think parasites on it.. yuck, we tossed him back overboard even though he was gonna die cuz he was a swollower.. maybe it was a she! :) My parents outfished us by about 8 fish (they are the Perch Masters) and we all outfished Eric & Andrea.. I felt bad for them, they were using the same thing as us, fishin the same whole and they got maybe 4 fish. It was their 1yr anniversary, wish they had had better luck. I fileted all the fish when I got home and it amounted to almost a sandwich baggie worth of fish strips! lol

And we are having to sell Derek's Tucker Saddle afterall. Bummer. If you know anyone interested, would like to get $950 for it. NICE Saddle!!

I'm Doctor'd Out..

This is the month for seein the doctor! 2 weeks ago I had a dentist appointment, ya know the once or twice a year checkup.. damn I have 2 cavities! So on Monday I get to go back to the dentist to fix that, the good thing is that they have the GAS, so I will be loopeying it up!

Tuesday of this week I went to my doctor to find out why my foot swells up and hurts real bad every now/then.. apparently there is nothing wrong with the bone, she said I might have tendonitis in my foot or soft tissue damage and that I could go see a foot specialist if I really want.. we'll see, maybe down the road. I dont recall ever injuring my foot, it just flares up and will be sore for a couple weeks and then it will go away for months.

Then 2 days later (today) I go in for my yearly girly exam inwhich I talked to her about my bitchy aunt that comes to town with a vengeance almost every other month.. so I may go back into the doctor later this month or next to get that resolved.

And then I have an appointment in 2 weeks to go back to my doctor to have some skin flaps removed.. What the Heck! :) So lets count between doctor and dentist in a 30 day period, I will have been in 6 times...

Pictures from Lk Wenatchee

Here are some pics that Dawn sent to me from this past weekend.

Here is Rob & Rick with their brother Mackenzie and sister Asa. It was the first time the older boys had met their younger siblings and I was very happy for all 4 of them to have some time together to start bonding... Rob & Rick were also able to see their dad Dee whom they hadnt seen in many years. I'm so glad this weekend happened!

Derek & I with his mom Nouna

All of Nouna's kids in one picture!! This hasnt happened in MANY years, maybe at our wedding?? Darren, Dana, Dee, Derek, Dalyce, Nouna, Diana & Dawn.

This is Dana's dog, who enjoyed sitting on laps apparently! The dog weighs more than Nouna I'm sure.. :)

Just a small handful of the children.. all of whom seem to have iron feet as I hardly recall any of the kids with shoes on!

Feelin a little Crispy!!

This past weekend, we spent Thurs night to Sunday at Lake Wenatchee for Derek's Family Reunion which hadnt been held in about 22 years!!

I was almost dreading the trip because of the heat we were having in Western WA with record breaking 103+ weather, I thought Lk Wenatchee would only be hotter! Pretty bad when you have to go to Eastern WA to cool off.. lol It had been soooo long since we had seen some of the family, there was some slight anxiety I guess building up too.

The Weather:
It was not in the 100's, well I dont think it was. :) We had a very nice shaded campsite and although at night when we laid down to sleep, we were pretty warm at first, for the most part it was really perfect weather in the shade and plenty warm enough to get burnt in the sun while swimming! I swam twice on Friday, twice on Saturday and then at 7am Sunday morning!! Yes I braved the water first thing in the morning, it was beautiful with noone else in the water and crystal clear smooth. It was a great way to start the morning of our last day. I think everyone in camp thought I was a little nuts. Next year I may just do that every morning and see if I can snag someone to swim with me.

Dereks nephew Ricky, he and I swam to this island on Friday afternoon, it was exciting to push myself to swim that far, I did not get tired (I didnt swim hard/fast either) and the water was fairly calm although it was at the base of the inlet to the river, so we did have a little current to deal with on our swim back to the main beach. Saturday the water was very choppy and it was fun to float and bobble head through the rolling waves. :)

The Dogs:
Russell & Scout did really well! It was really sappy on the ground over there, so they have some sap stains on their bodies and our shoe bottoms got full of sap, so the dogs stayed in the camper quite a bit, but they seemed fairly content. We had a runner rope for them to go on at times when we were sitting by the campfire and we walked them a few times each day. Poor kids were misarable last week dealing with all the heat at home, they just couldnt get comfy anywhere! The camper didnt get as hot inside as our house was last week.

The Family:
The anxiety of seeing the family after maybe 10+ years for some, was diminished over the weekend. We met husbands we hadnt met before, met lots of children we didnt know. Derek's family is the opposite of my family. In my family circle we have 3 children, oh wait we have 5 kids (2 belong to the girlfriend of a cousin). One of Derek's neices has 5 of her own! Then there are 4 more here, 2 more there, 2 or 3 more here, 2 more there, 1 with Crystal... those are just some of the kids that were there, not to mention the MANY more that were not there! Literally, children everywhere! lol It was great. There were a few family situations that created some tension, but by the end of the weekend, relationships were on the mend and starting fresh and new with hopes for the future. I was very proud of Derek's nephews Rick & Rob who met their brother and sister for the first time ever and I really enjoyed my time with them, bonding and learning more and looking forward to the future.

The Next One:
I believe this will turn into a yearly event that is re-established. Derek's family used to gather every year at Lk Wenatchee and it fizzled out but I am hopeful that this past weekend proved how important this family is and how much it is needed for us all. Derek's mom flew in from AZ, it was really nice to see her (Hi Nouna!) Another brother flew in from Georgia I think is where he lives and then Dee came up from OR. Dana who just lost his wife came with his daughter. There was lots of talk of next year and I know I am already excited about it and looking forward to going back. I have no idea how many were actually there, but including children there were definately over 50!

I Cant Believe:
I wore my bathing suit in PUBLIC with NO shirt over the top!!!! What the heck was I thinking! lol I guess it was so nice and warm and I didnt want to be restricted by a tank top in the water, so I just went all in w/o worrying about what I looked like.. I mean I was in a bathing suit in front of people I know even, which is what usually bothers me more than strangers seeing me! ;) Oh well, right!

Exhausted:
We were worn out by yesterday afternoon, we came home and crashed in our chairs, we were lucky to even have unloaded the camper! Tonight I'll have to do the camping dishes and wash the wet clothes. Derek got quite the sunburn, he was going to swim in his t-shirt but the guys teased him so he thought.. what the heck, how burnt can I get, I'll be underwater mostly.. He'd have been fine if we had put sunscreen on him! Ooops.. ;)

Pictures:
Right! Yeah, I took a few of our dogs in the camper.. but I was too busy swimming and socializing and cooking to deal with taking pics.. maybe I'll snag/steal some pictures off other peoples facebook pages once they post them and then repost them here for you to enjoy! lol

Whats Up....

Well lets start with the bad news and look up from there.. Dana's wife Terri passed away a few days ago. Sounds like a memorial/funeral will be set back a couple weeks to allow for family to be able to be in town, we are thinking of them often.

Okay, so I know I am always talkin about riding and my irrational fears, but dammit if we didnt ride on Sunday off the Dubuque Rd and come across a bear in the bushes! I wish I did not have these fears of wild creatures, but I can say that although my heart was going to leap out of my throat, I did feel a tiny, miniscule better knowing Derek could protect me! :) We are riding along and I hear some noises like some leaves are blowing in the wind and along with that I am hearing some snack crackle and popping of branches and leaves in the woods to the right of us. I am trying desperately to ignore what I am hearing, but damn if Derek didnt hear the same thing and stop his horse! A part of me wanted to pretend I was not hearing it and just keep on moving so I wouldnt have to think too much about what I was actually hearing.. lol Yes you can shake your head at me.. I am doing it myself! So anways, this "bear" walks along snap crackle pop, then stops, then walks along, snap crackle pop.. stop... snap crackle pop.. stop.. and on and on. We finally just asked the horses to keep going, clearly the bear was in no hurry to run away as I'm talking very loudly about useless things, just to be sure his path led him in the opposite direction of our trail. We never did see the bear, but no other animal would make so much noise.. well okay maybe Sasquatch! There is a possibility it was him.. I mean we didnt see it.. so who knows!!!!

Hmm.. what the heck did we do Saturday... I know we did something... Am I getting that scenile that I cant even remember 4 days ago, clearly that is the case because I dont know what we did.. OH wait! I know what I did.. I spent the entire day inside the house cleaning! lol No wonder I couldnt remember that.. who blogs about cleaning their house..

I know it is ALL over the internet right now from the folks living in the NW, but it is BLAZIN HOT and well it's just miserable at times!! We are breakin records here people.. I am puttin it out there so in the future I can look back and read this and remember.. OH Yeah, THAT was the year it was so hot and dry! lol I'm blogging this for future reference.. take note. We have had VERY little rain since spring. The temps reached 100+ yesterday and will be doing the same today and most likely tomorrow. I dont love the heat, but over the last few years I am getting more used to it, the problem with this heat though is that our animals are not used to it either and it is just too hot to take the horses out for a ride, unless one got up at 5am! I'd love to go for an afternoon ride, but at 90+ and with horses that havent been ridden much this year, they might just suffer from heat exhaustion.

Oh and finally we had a great BBQ on Sunday at our place for Shana's Bday and although too hot to play badmitton in the sun, we had quite a few games of ladder golf played and then an hour or more playing Apples to Apples!! If you havent played that game, you've got to! Its even funner with a few drinks in ya.. lol A great family game.

We have officially given up on Derek's saddle fitting Oakley.. it is out on trial with a friend (Hi Arlene!!) and I hope it fits her and her horse so we can start the process of finding a new saddle for Derek. Ta Ta for now...

Family News

We received word that Dereks brother Dana, well his wife Terri's heart stopped beating on Monday for 17 minutes and she is now in a coma with failing kidneys. Apparently a week ago, she was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and then this happened. Derek & I are very sad for Dana and his family.

A Day at the Lake..

Saturday afternoon was the horse club Ice Cream Social at the Scherrer Ranch in Granite Falls, they own a private lake and the weather was perfect for BBQing, Socializing, playing games , boating and playing in the water. Derek decided he was going to give skiing/wakeboarding a try, something he had never tried before. In the back of my head, I wanted to try it too but I knew if he couldnt do it, then I probably couldnt do it. ;)

Originally he wanted to wakeboard first, but this is all he could accomplish when in the water with the board, just hovering over it. He could not get the board on his feet while he was in the water.....

so he decided to try skiing, he needed assistance getting his skiis on as you can see here..

Here's a quick video of his 1st (and last for the day) attempt at skiing, see for yourself how it turned out...

He then tried wakeboarding off the dock, here are his attempts at that...

Attempt #1

Attempt #2 (the final attempt lol)

I decided to go behind the boat with a big tube and that was a blast! I held the tube to my chest and jumped off the dock, hoping to land in the water with me laying on top of the tube, HAH that was a big flop as I bounced off the tube and rolled off into the water! As I swam to the boat I realized by lifevest was hindering me quite a bit (so I took it off) and thought.. well maybe I should just sit in the tube, so I plopped back with my butt landing in the tube hole and then I plopped right on out, backwards, did a complete backwards sumersault underwater! It was pretty damn funny I'm sure!!! So I got back on the boat again and gingerly laid on the tube this time and held on for dear life!!! John wizzed me around that lake, I almost came off around one of the corners, the entire time I was thinking "how dumb is this, you are having a blast and it is going to be the last thing you do because if you fall off, you might just drown". Children, do NOT try this at home, you should wear your lifevest at all times!!! I knew I could swim if I came off the tube, it's just that initial falling off and being under water for a few seconds that is scary... but I didnt fall off and my arm muscles paid the price for staying on! lol

We spent the night at the Scherrers with our kids, had a nice evening and a great breakfast the next day. Pretty much spent Sunday being lazy, we were tired and just drained. It might have only been a 24 hour vacation, but it was nice to get out and have some fun with good friends. Besides it's been too hot to fish or ride horses lately and although the boys are getting new shoes today, I dont know that it will be cool enough to ride anytime soon, might need to wait for a full moon and ride at midnight if this keeps up! ;)

I think it's time to admit it...

that it is very likely that Derek's saddle does not fit his horse! :( :(

Oakley unfortunately has developed white hairs on his withers, both sides... I am just sick about it because they will never go away at this point, they are noticeable AND it means we have to start this process of saddle searching which sucks! Part of me wants to believe that maybe Derek's saddle fits fine and it is my saddle and my weight that doesnt work on Oakley. I think we'll have to go out for another trail ride with Derek in his own saddle and see how the sweat marks appear after the ride, if his shoulders are dry, we are gonna have to get a new saddle.

I know Derek does NOT want to hear that, he loves his saddle, but it is incredibly embarassing to have our 5yr old horse with white scarring on him. I may have Derek try our other saddles on Oakley as well, he'll hate that (they are not padded!) but we can always buy him a gel pad to put on his seat. Bummer.. I am just bummed today

On the flip side, I am very happy to have my boys back home!!!! They'll be home for a week or so, until the grass dissappears again. I went out this morning and sat on the deck, watching them eat.. just because! :)

Flip back to the bad side of things.. Edgar is limping again! Nothing major actually, I felt it when I rode him about 10 days ago and can see it when he trots. Remember when I rode with my cousin Shana a couple weeks ago, well Edgar had pulled back while tied to the trailer (he had a blonde moment!) and after he did that, he was limping but we rode anyways and he loosened up, so I know he strained one of his back legs that day and he's still a little off from that. This is just NOT his year!!! I will ride him though, it is minor and it's not like I'm out riding all the time right now anyways, it's too Blazin HOT!! ;)

Slackin Lately!

Okay, sorry I havent been on here in 10 days or so... :) Life has just been one big bottle of stress lately and I think I see the light finally.

Just to run through this quickly, we didnt get the loan (of course not) from the lender that screwed us on the appraisal. We did get qualified for an FHA loan with the previous lender we had been working with but after an hour of discussion last night with Derek and an hour today of calculating ALL costs on this new loan in Excel here is what we found.. In order to save ourselves $150/month, it will cost us $20,000 in loan fees (which will take us 10 years! to recover on a 30 year loan) and after 30 years with this loan, we will have saved only $37,000 total.. Hell that is hardly worth it.. who knows where we will be in 10 years, eventually I'd love to get more property, although I love my place..

So the solution for now: Eliminate our escrow payment from our loan which will save us an immediate $585/month! Yes we will have to find $2000 in 3 months to cover our property taxes, but we'll make it work and find a way. From now on, we'll pay our property taxes with our income tax return and not have to worry about escrow. WHAT A F*ING RELIEF to finally figure this mess all out and find some room to breathe...

Maybe now that this will be behind us, we can get back to riding! I rode a week ago with Wendy, went and explored the trails off Dubuque Rd and found the largest pile of Bear Shit I have ever seen!!! Made me quite nervous actually for the ride, there were lots of piles, but that one pile really had my head spinnin :)

I camped out Friday night by myself (well okay, there were other people camping as well) but Derek and the dogs were at home. There was a regional prize ride (screeeeech.....) sorry, we couldnt call it a prize ride, it was a Ride Challenge Fundraiser with Donations. lol I helped all day in registration, got to talk with a lot of people. The ride was to raise money to maintain the trailhead there outside Sedro Woolley at Harry O. I've only ridden there a few times, it had been atleast 5 years since I had been there last. The ride challenge seemed like a GREAT idea and everyone seemed to really like the change. I had wished I was riding it, but I was needed in registration so I felt good that I could help out.

As I drove home, I realized how much I missed horse camping! I havent been in almost 2 years, the last camping trip I did was with Carrie when we went to Easton in Oct 07, just a month before she died. With building the house last year, it just was not really an option, plus my head was not in it last year, actually it is amazing to think back to the building process and although it was almost exactly a year ago that we finished with everything, I dont really recall that summer/year much. I wish I had started blogging earlier in the year last year, so I could go back and remind myself what that year was like, it is all just a blurr to me now. It is weird to think back like that and feel like you have lost so much time, but yet I was so busy. I think the busyness helped get me through.

Okay sap sap, I will move on... ;) But back to where I started, I realized while camping that I missed that feeling of being independant and going out for a weekend and having it just be "me" time again. Not that I dont love camping with Derek, dont get me wrong, but it felt good to remember I can do things on my own and I feel pretty darn good doing it!

My parents bought a boat, a little fishing boat... We have had such bad luck with our boat as far as NOT catching any fish, I told my dad that if we, my parents and Eric/Andrea all go out to the same lake and they all 4 catch fish while we get skunked again, I'm throwing someone overboard, I think I'll go postal.. lol I'm actually excited to get out and do some fishin with my folks, it is something we have not done together as a family in... oh man, I dont even know how long its been, probably atleast 20+ years! I'd love to get them out camping as well, it would be fun for the 6 of us to go out, maybe invite some other friends, but not sure my parents are up to camping in a tent!!! I have a cot my dad could use, or they could get an airmattress, those are pretty comfy.. they even make those ones that are super tall so it's easier to get in/out of.

Oh and my brother and Andrea are official homeowners!!! YEAH.. I am over my jealously of their new place.. okay well not quite. But I'm working on it. They have a GREAT level 5 acre partially fenced property, a rental apartment, a barn (although gutted but easily reconverted) and then the main house is very charming.. :) Apparently too they can walk down their road to a nice manicured trail down to the river! and they'll get a key to a gate so they can drive to the river bank which is supposedly sandy and very nice.. I know their 2 dogs will LOVE going to the river.. I think we'll have to invite ourselves over often.. lol But all jealously aside, I am VERY VERY happy for them, this is a great house. It is big enough for children down the road and many farm animals to come.

GRRR

The appraisal came back $35,000 less than the one 6 months ago! although I think the guy that came out this time really under-valued our property as his comparisons were NOT horse property at all!! Non of them had a shop and/or a barn and the houses were older.. so how is it my house is valued the same as them when I have a lot more to offer at my property.. BS is what it is, so of course the lender cant help us because now the LTV is WAY too high!!

We are considering now taking on a renter, we found a couple that wants to put their 5th wheel on a property to live in, so we are thinking about it and talking with them. We dont know them, I saw an ad they posted looking for somewhere to live... not exactly ideal, but we can get a few hundred bucks in our pocket. If that doesnt work out, we might have to consider renting out a bedroom. This other couple would want access to the house for showering and laundry, I just dont know... maybe we need to meet them and make a decision.

My co-worker (who lives in Spokane and gets all his auto fuel/expenses/vehicle covered by the company) just smirks at me and says to me "well this is why I have a house that we can afford if one of us looses our job" I said to him "well if I lived in Spokane and didnt have horses, I could probably do the same damn thing, but I'd like to see you find a house in Sno Co that is not a POS that you and your family can afford on 1 income!!!"

I guess we just suck it up, sacrifice and do what we can... maybe we should "miss" our mortgage payment for a couple months and let our bank restructure our loan to get a lower interest rate! I can completely understand how people are becoming homeless and loosing everything, makes me appreciate what I can still afford, just sucks to be in this situation and feel like there is not much of a way out right now. Maybe I should look for a new job with better pay... HA unlikely that exists right now! :)

Sharing a Picture

I was just sent this picture today from Jenny (a friend from the horse club) that took this picture during lunch when we were riding up at Lily/Lizzard a few months ago.

All Work, not much Play :)

I took a 4-day weekend over the 4th of July... just because I could! :)

The only day I spent riding was on Thursday at Lords Hill with some friends, invited my cousin Shana who I grew up riding with but she has only ridden 1 time in the past 11 years. She rode Edgar and I was very happy to see she was able to get on him just fine with just the stool... she's a limber one that Shana, she is shorter than me, we had to laugh histerically when we saw the stirrups up to their highest hole on Edgar, looked like a midget was about to ride him! lol But when she got on, she didnt look like a midget, he's just so flippin fat right now, he had a cow when I cinched up his back-cinch, he actually "blew up" for a minute, I had to punch extra holes to get it to fit.

We spent the remainder of the weekend working on the shed, which is about 75% done now. Derek almost fell off the roof! It was actually before the roof was up, he was standing on the top of the wall, which is over 8' up and a brace board gave out and fell, which caused him to go "OH SHIT" (probably just as much almost literally shit as it was vocalized) lol He had to jump from one wall over to the next, did the whole leaning forward arms flapping like a bird to avoid falling forward and to what would have been a very big "OUCH" I screamed, mom screamed, dad didnt know what was going on! lol Thank Goodness he was OKAY, he climbed down shortly after that. Because we were so motivated to get that done, we did not spend any more time in the saddle or on a lake..

damn boat, it is jinxed anyways! It actually was far too hot to really get out and ride or fish, unless you were motivated to get up super early or ride really late afternoon. We spent the 4th in Marysville with old friends, not sure we will do that again! Actually we both enjoyed the socializing part of the BBQ, but I especially could have done without the fireworks! It reminded us why we were SOOO glad to NOT live there anymore!! It was WWI II and III, maybe even IV out there! I sat in the front yard, watching the fireworks, nervous as all could be. I didnt realize what a flippin freak/nut/nervous nelly I was until that night when it came to home-fireworks.

I've never really loved them, I enjoy the big shows that are off in the distance.. but I was really uneasy and not lovin it! I joked that I wished I had an umbrella I was so worried about something landing on me, there were fireworks going off from about every 3rd house and these are the neighborhoods where you can hand milk to your neighbor from your bedroom window to their window!! ;) So anyways, after a few minutes, something fell from the sky and hit me on the shoulder!!! :( Have you ever read the story of Chicken Lickin?? She's the chicken that thinks the sky is falling and goes all crazy, yeah well I was doing all I could to keep my ass planted in my chair after being hit with something..

.... then 15 minutes later a VERY LOUD boom happens right behind us, in the tree I swear (well thats what one of the guys said that it was in the tree that I was sitting somewhat under/in front of) well the boom happens and a second later I am showered in debris!! OMG, nothing hot or on fire, but the shit was in my hair, I swear to you I was about to have a heart attack. I did NOT want to be the damn whimp weany girl that goes in the house, so I thought.. Okay, one more thing hits me and I'm going inside the damn house. I wasnt even watching the show at this point anyways, I was focused so hard on the stuff they were lighting, I was too afraid to look up and get firecrackers in my eyes... lol

I can hear you laughing at me as I type this.. Another 10 minutes goes by and I'm going nuts inside my own brain, I couldnt tolerate it any more, I was freakin out. Call me a sissy, I dont care, I went in the house and sat on the couch by myself! After a while I had some company, I didnt need company, I couldnt see the fireworks through the window, there was a tree blocking. But I could see the guys standing in the street by the car and about 15 minutes after being inside, a big firework fell over, was shooting at everyone in sight! Derek ran for cover, moms are covering their children.. one guy had to run up to the firework apparently and swung at it with his hand as it was shooting directly at some cars.. It was pure chaos and then it was over, everyone outside was laughing.. hahahaha.. F That! I am SOOO thankful I did not wait for the 3rd strike of fireworks to hit me.. I think the fireworks continued for another 45 minutes atleast.
We had a good time, next year if we hang with this crowd, we'll go over and socialize and then just leave around 8 and head to Monroe to watch the nice show at the fairgrounds where I'm not going to get showered in debris and I can actually ENJOY the show!! Not sure what my fears/anxiety was all about, guess I've been out in the country too long... but I'm not complaining.

The poor dog, we came home and Russell's legs were green!! hehehe.. he ran himself ragged, he cut a path in the grass that was NOT there before that night! We realized the next morning too that he had lost his voice.. it was so sad to hear him try to bark, he was very upet/embarrassed about it too. His voice is slowly coming back, but he's not 100% yet. It actually is kinda nice to have a softer tone to his damn bark, which can be so ear piercing!

I got some pics of the shed and the dogs this weekend.. Oh and the appraiser came out on Thursday evening and we hope to have the results tomorrow. I tried very hard to pursued him to see things my way, maybe I should have offered him some cash.....



Well Hello!!

Derek standing on the roof on the phone, even after his near death experience! And I've always thought he was the smarter of us two.. :)

Looking at the shed from our back deck..

This is how it sits right now...