Opposums, blah, blah, Deer ticks and my Dad.

Well I’m doing better considering what I have been through. I can’t stop thinking about my Dad. A trip to Costco and walking past the mixed nuts he loved makes me weepy. Then the pork tamales he loved them too. I have been getting a lot of advice lately. Some asked for and some unsolicited. All of it the same, “It will get better.” I know that to be true but it doesn’t exactly help when I’m knee deep in self pity. Poor Heather, she is an orphan, blah blah blah. I don’t care if you understand it, it is how I feel. I’m struggling. Having to drive up to Portland to see Kim's doctor to have her look at Kim's new lumps has put another fear in me. She has been so sick since her bout with breast cancer. I'm freaked I'm going to lose her too. I have done enough crying this year. It is August no more grief for this year. I have already had 2 people die in my house. Not sure but thinking that is sufficient. If the lumps she found have not shrunk by Tuesday they are going to do surgery and remove the lymph nodes and then biopsy them. I'm a Boulanger and that means we always think the worst.

Tonight Colton’s dog Wynne was scratching under the kitchen sink.

<--- Colton and scary Opossum #1

I went out there to investigate and we had opossums crawling into the area around the sink thinking how nice and toasty it was. Wynne started barking, they started hissing like crazy, I nearly peed my pants and then all the dogs started barking. It’s like duh. I’m right here dogs, I see those scary little Satan eyes staring up at me. Barking makes them scared, they hiss louder and then I holler for Colton. We started out with one, than two now we have located 4 so far.

We are relocating them out in the woods. I worry if left by the house they could bite one of my dogs or a dog could eat one and leave it’s stinky carcass some where on the lawn. I mow the lawn, and dead decaying opossum guts fly up at me. Not so much. Relocation is the only answer.

I’m not complaining about living out in the country. On the contrary, I love it. I love the deers, the wild turkeys, I feed all the birds, and the occasional fox. I haven’t seen any bears in a long time. I think that having my dogs all over the property makes them follow our creek to the river instead of going across the grassy knoll. I don’t complain about how I can’t plant much because the deers think of my yard as “the garden of eaten.” I in fact had bought a deer lick. David explained there is a reason that the worst ticks are called “deer ticks” I don’t purposely feed them I don’t want a tick to get on my dog and I’m afraid of Lyme’s disease.

I’m going to try to do one thing a day out of my comfort zone. Today I went to Costco and for the first time I left the house in years I didn’t keep calling the kids to check on Grandpa. I think I should be glad he is in a “better place”. I’m not feeling it yet. Hey, I found the coolest thing to do with Snapfish.com. I uploaded all the pictures I wanted of my Dad and the kids etc and have ordered a real book. It is like a yearbook with those kind of pages. Way cool. I’m also going to start scrap booking with Serina, Brittany, Joy and Mandy once a month. This way I can be with them, they can all meet and we can share the pictures with one another. We can share idea’s and I have WAY too much stuff for one person to use. Like everything else if I do it I always “Go Big”. Go big or go home.