The Rez

The reservation

When we first moved to our new home we called the encampment at the beginning of our dirt road "shanty town".  Then our neighbor's at the top of the road told us they call it "the rez.", short for the Reservation.  It stuck.  It is quite the eyesore.  I haven't exactly counted all of the trailers (those with wheels and those of the double-wide style).  There are several, and all of them in poor repair.  There are also broken down cars and trucks and even a few port-a-potties.  Awesome.  I have only met one of the guys who dwells there and I'm certain he was not sober.  I'm sure that people get a really nice impression when they turn down our road.  Luckily our house is a half mile up the dirt/gravel road and you can't even see it from our gate at the beginning of our property.  I tell myself this is good because it will keep prowlers away.  Between the Rez and the proximity of our house I feel pretty safe.  Plus, hey, 4 dogs let me know when anyone comes anywhere even close to the house.

Since Gillian gets off the bus alone this year she has to walk by the Rez alone unless I'm there to pick her up.  She once told me that when she starts walking she sings a song to make herself feel better.  Then she began to sing it to illustrate.  I figured she'd sing a primary song to comfort herself so I wasn't surprised when she started singing "I am... (and here's where I thought she was going to sing '...a child of God).  She paused and started again and sang "I am Ironman!"  An Ozzy Osborne song.  Of course. I guess that's way more comforting than I am a Child of God.

All I know is that the people on the Rez better watch out.  My daughter is Ironman.

Super awesome tansy time

I'm not quite sure why the kids all seem so distraught that it's that time of year again-- time to pull, poison, and kill all the Tansy Ragwort on the property.  So far I have pretty much been the only person who has done anything about the dreaded weed so far.  I've been having PTSD and flashbacks of last year.  I think I developed arthritis last year from pulling so many weeds.  This year I'm determined not to let any of the tansy go to seed.  I got a 4 gallon backpack weed sprayer and made the rounds on a lot of the weeds.  I've been trying several concoctions.  So far the diesel fuel I sprayed seems to have worked the best.  Unfortunately it has been raining for several days which is not conducive to poisoning these devilish weeds.  So today I went out and pulled all the really big ones.  I will succeed!  They will die!!!

I often feel like there are eyes watching me.  Then I turn around and voila, dogs, dogs, dogs.  They are literally everywhere.  Shadow has developed a skin condition.  She has lost a lot of hair and has very itchy and bumpy skin.  Darren took her to the vet.  She was so stinky.  Beyond any kind of dog stink I've smelled.  It has been three days of steroid and antibiotic pills and special shampoo and she finally smells normal.  Normal for a dog, just the normal stink.  She's such a sweet dog but I didn't want to pet her because I had to immediately wash my hands.  

The good news is that Roxy seems to be completely healed.  She's running around again and even ran out with the big dogs to chase away a coyote that was out by the fire pit.  I hope that she doesn't get herself into trouble again.  

I'm getting really excited for lacrosse to be done.  Between both girls there is practice every day and Saturday games.  Which means a lot of driving for me.  A lot.  Then Drew decided to do track too, which I'm happy about.  It adds in a Wednesday track meet every week.  Drew has made it to finals.  I'm so proud.  She runs the mile in 6:23.  Pretty darn good!  I could never do that at her age.  Or at any other age.  I can, however, do a workout with 100 pull-ups in it.  Which is how I trashed my hands and had painful open blisters for days.  I know that it doesn't make sense to many people to put myself through this kind of torture but for some reason I love it.  

On Saturday night we went to go see Star Trek with Rebecca and Tyler.  The movie theater was full so we had a couple of hours to kill before the next movie.  We could hear the NASCAR race at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe.  Darren just couldn't resist.  We went to watch the races.  Afterwards the girls ran down to the front because they wanted to get a picture with the winner.  They got a picture with the second place winner.  Then Gillian said that she wants to be a race car driver when she grows up.  We are truly a redneck family now!

All eyes on Cyn.  All day long.

A skillet full of Roxy

Kids with a race car driver

I never knew how loud the races are.  I guess if I can hear it from my house....

Me, Chuck, Roxy, and my lilac tree

The workout was: 100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats

Mother's Day

I really enjoy Mother's Day because I get to sleep in.  Then Darren and the girls bring me breakfast in bed.  After church I get a nap.  Ok, so this usually happens every Sunday, but on Mother's Day I don't help clean up at all.  So nice.

I wish I lived closer to Patsy.  She's such a great mama.  I try to be as good as she is but I fall short.  I'm not sure how she survived through six kids.  She did everything.  She drove 14 hours to Utah with six kids by herself in the summers.  And one fun time Johnny puked over her shoulder and into her purse.  She always just keeps trucking on.  And whenever I need anything she is always there.  Just a few months ago she flew out when she found out that I was sick.  She has a sixth sense when it comes to her kids.  I'd like to be as tough as her.  She always has a way of turning everything into something positive, even when it's pretty much crap.

I am grateful to be a mom.  It's a tough job.  Tougher than I ever thought it would be.  But so worth it.

Happy Mother's Day Patsy !

Two birthdays and a mauling

On April 24th Gavin turned 17.  I can hardly believe it.  He is quite the redneck kid.  His favorite thing to talk about is anything anti-Obama.  Ugh.  Not a topic that I love talking about.  Not sure where he gets his angst from. 

Then on May 7th Gillian turned 11.  And she's finally starting to sleep in her own bed.  She wanted dresses for her birthday.  And headphones.  She's growing up so fast.  Too fast.  It's all going too fast.

Then, a week ago Roxy got attacked by the neighbor's black Lab.  I was walking over to Aaron and Ashley's house to see if they had jumper cables to jump my dead car.  Roxy followed me over and started barking at their two dogs.  It all happened so quickly.  Their dog Bailey turned into Cujo and pounced on Roxy, grabbed her in her mouth and shook her around. I ran over and picked her up as quick as I could.  She was crying and bleeding all over me.  We ended up taking her to the emergency vet that evening.  She has fractured ribs and a big open bite wound that just now is starting to heal.  She developed quite an infection and has been on three different antibiotics to clear up the infection.  Poor little thing.  She has lost almost a pound, now down to 3.5 pounds.  She needed to lose weight but I think this was the wrong way of going about it.  

Roxy's compression wrap