I just want to warn you that this post is EXTREMELY long. Be that as it may, I, for your viewing enjoyment, have included pictures.
This little disclaimer will either save you precious minutes in not having to read the mile long post or it will give you a good update as to why I haven't been posting every day.
First of all, work has been a little more challenging this month than in months past. My SUPER AWESOME boss (and no, she doesn't read my blog. She is really awesome and I want you all to know that.) is in France enjoying a month long vacation there with family. I hope she is having so much fun and hasn't thought about work ONCE while she was there. I sent her 2 emails (one right after the other) and feel so guilty about it. I was glad she didn't reply to them.
Anyway, so she is gone and the rest of us (about 6 gals) are covering those shifts. Last week, Dacia, my prego friend, went to the doctor about the little one growing inside of her. They have been worried about the swelling that Dacia has had. He told her then and there that she was done with work. Ouch! She felt so bad and I'm like, "No big deal! You've got to follow the Doc's orders. You want a healthly baby. We can cover it, no worries!" Then I started calling people to cover shifts and realized that one of the girls was going on a two week vacation starting in about 2 days and Dacia was going to cover some of her shifts. That's not going to happen.
20 minutes after my call from Dacia, Sylvia called and said that her father passed away. She knew it was coming and was relived that it happened. She said that there are worse things than death and her father's last few weeks on this earth was worse than death. So now there are 3 of us covering 7 shifts. I'm a little unnerved, but Treesa (who normally teaches middle school during the year) stepped up to the plate and took a whole slew of shifts. And it turned out that Sylvia didn't need time off this week because her father was cremated and they are having a 'Celebration of Life' ceremony on the weekend. We are back to +half power on the working crew. I can't wait until Monday when Vicky will be back! I have missed her in more ways than one.
Our home life has been busy as well. We decided to get an above ground pool for the backyard. As you know I am married to my very own "safety geek" who insisted on checking to see if we needed a fence or not. Of course we do! So we've been working on the fence. We decided to go with a "horse fence" since it could be more temporary in case my dad and mom didn't want the fence when they came back (and because it was about 1/4 the price which still was about as much as the pool itself). We've been at it for a few weeks now.
While Mike was living it up or should I say working it up in Las Vegas, Tyler and I (along with his friend Jon) put in the t-bars and tried to put up the wire mesh, but that was not going to happen. After Mike got home, the fence on the sides of the house got up. Now we just needed to get the gate between the house and the garage up. This meant digging four 3 foot deep holes to put the posts into. That proved tough. There's not just dirt down there - there are ROCKS. Who decided that dirt should hold rocks as well? I don't know. The worse rock came at the last hole so there was no way that we were going to start over and dig 4 more 3 foot holes. After much time and sweat (and probably tears) Mike got that big piece of rock out. I have decided to share the photos of it with you so that you know what it did to Mike.
Mike has been out in the sun a little too long (or maybe down in a dark hole a little too long) as he is trying to choke the rock. I think he won though because the rock isn't moving!
After all that we did get the gate installed. It is a bit remedial, but Mike and I laugh about our inabilities to build anything.
It's good to laugh at your recognized weaknesses you know.
Then came the pool install time. Here is the worker bee now (pic courtesy of Jeremy the second in command when it came to pool install.)
And now - the moment you've all been waiting for. After a month of fence planning and building; after 2 days of sticking pole A into pole B and trickling water coming from only 1 hose to fill the monster - may I present to you THE POOL.
I think it will look a lot funner with people in it and the "volleyball net included" attached to the outside. Really, I do.
But I have no people around to swim in it except for Briggy and he doesn't think I am very fun to get wet with. For some reason, splashing gets my hair wet and I don't like that. It's hard to be 6 and not splash in a pool.
Anyway, the reason why the pool is so empty is because everyone is off on summer adventures. Me with work (THAT'S an adventure - although I wouldn't say a fun one), Mike and Jeremy have gone to climb Mt. St. Helens for a couple of days and then they will come back, get Brigam and head to an observitory where they will be camping out again.
Brigam has adventure Mon - Thurs on a weekly basis as he attends what we like to call READING CAMP. It's actually summer school, but the
re-wording of the title of the activity really makes it much more of an enjoyable reward rather than a, "I thought school was over. Where's my summer?" type of situation. I asked him if the work was harder or easier than his 1st grade work. He said it was so easy. I wonder if his past 1st grade teacher would like to hear that since she's the one that thought he needed summer school. Whatever!
Mykalyn is gone to Camp Wooten with a girlfriend (Madison) and about 100 other boys and girls for a week of fun. This is her first time away from us, I hope she is having lots of fun and making great friends. I do really miss my Miny Me.
Tyler is in California with a friend and will have another friend join him this Saturday. They will be gone for about two weeks. I hope he is having a lot of fun there and gets to see so much like the beach, Hollywood, Rodeo Drive, the walk of fame, etc. I told him that he has to call me EVERY NIGHT and so far he has not forgotten me.
He was so cute as he told me that he got car sick on the drive down to California. He and Jon were riding down with one of Jon's good friends that was going down there for the summer to work. I asked him if he got sick because he was sitting in the backseat not watching the road. He told me that he got sick when he was just starting to take his turn driving. It's rare that you get car sick as the driver, but Tyler did the rare thing. He had to pull over to a gas station to walk around and then he threw up. He sounded a bit concerned about being sick on the begining of his adventure, but I told him it was probably a mixture between nerves (going to a place he'd never been before, not having a parent plan every move out for him, driving someone's car that he doesn't know, etc) and not getting more than about an hour's sleep the night before. I told him that he would feel much better after a good night's sleep. He asked, "Do you really think so?" Yes. And he did - see mama's DO know best!
The last thing that has been consuming my time beyond belief is the raspberry bushes. Every June-July they come on and they are in full force. I have only gone out there 3 times and I have more than a large ice cream bucket full of them. They are delicious, but time consuming. I basically have two rows to do - each side of them so I have 4 sides. They scratch me a lot AND I know there are bugs and other crawly stuff that live in those bushes. Every time a weed or leaf touches my leg or arm, I have to look quick to make sure it's not a spider or other crawly thing.
I know for a fact that Charlotte lives in the raspberry bushes by the compost pile. I know this not because I have seen her, but because I have seen her intrecute web. There's nothing spelled out in it, but I can read between the lines. It says, "These raspberries are mine. You must stay away." I have NO problem with that. As long as I don't have to see Charlotte, she can have that small grouping of raspberries. Although she does have a few juicy ones that would be ripe for the picking.
The problem with raspberries is that you think that you have picked all the ripe ones and then you move a little branch and there is a whole other crop that you didn't even know was there. As soon as you are through picking that new crop, you let the branch go, stand up to stretch out your back while looking at where you have already picked all the ripe ones now there are MORE ripe ones to be picked. I swear that they ripen within minutes of you being out there. Sometimes I talk to them and tell them that they will just have to wait until tomorrow for the pickin' to begin again. They are patient, but not for too long. Soon the season will be over and I will wish that I picked those and maybe that I had fought Charlotte for her share as well. (I was gonig to take a pic of the raspberries just so you knew that I wasn't exagerating, but both of my cameras are out on loan. One on Mt. St. Helens and one somewhere in California. I hope to see them both again soon.)
In the past, picking raspberries has been a calming time for me. Early in the morning lost among the raspberry bushes means that the kids won't be inturrupting my thinking time because they have a fear of being asked to help out. But that quiet, reflective time has been shattered by the moving in of our new backyard neighbors. Not that they or their children are loud or bothersome in anyway. It's that dumb dog. Bark, bark, bark, bark, BARK! Doesn't he ever have something different to say? He is annoying. He can't even see me, but he barks at me. I think he might be barking at the sprinklers too, but since I don't know him at all, he could be barking at me. I think, "I'm not even on your side of the fence or even by the fence. At least hold off the barking until it looks like I am going to break into your yard." But since he can't read my thoughts, he just keeps barking. What's a girl to do? I guess I'll have to chalk it up to "nature and the great outdoors" and try to enjoy it so I can get through the raspberry season.
Well, there's your update. I sacrificed grocery shopping without child to get this posted, so you know where I prioritize blogging in my life. Brigam gets off the bus from Reading Camp in about 20 minutes. I wonder if I can take a little swim in that time - I won't get my hair wet!
This is impressive to me because the boy doesn't even tip the scales at 100 lbs yet. He actually can look Ethiopian if he sucks in his stomach just a little bit, but I have noticed lately that his biceps and triceps have got great definition on them. I tell him that I have greatly defined biceps and triceps too, but they are just hiding under a layer of delicious Oreos. 
I am just so impressed that they both worked so hard and were so greatly rewarded with a feast for the eyes. I am sure that they will remember this one FOREVER!
