Remember the little wading pools we used to play in during the summer?  I do, they were a few inches deep, a couple feet across, had pretty wimpy sides, always ended up full of grass.  But they got the job done, I loved playing in those pools with my brothers and sisters. 

Jayden got this “pool” for his birthday from his grandma and grandpa.  Look at this contraption.  

It has water that shoots out all around the edge, a palm tree, a water slide with a puffy clam shell landing pad, stacking star fish rings, a dolphin to sit on, and a covered cave so that when the sun becomes too unbearable, you have a place to rest.  

Aunt Jojee got him a pool too, it’s a blow up wading pool that also comes with a sun-shade, which I love because I’m going to need a place to sit while Jayden goes to town in his blow up water amusement park.

One thing I loved about Willie was he would call me out of the blue to talk to me about nothing, and most of the time it was him talking and me listening, just trying to get a word in edgewise.  Sometimes he would call to do a little name-dropping on who had been hanging out with.  He called after he hung out with Matt Hasselbeck in the locker room to tell me that he thought he’d played it pretty cool, and that he was sure Matt thought he was pretty awesome.  He called to tell me he had just had drinks with Rod Stewart.  Right after the WaMu theater opened, he called to tell me about all famous people he was meeting, like Seal, although he was disappointed that Seal didn’t bring Heidi Klum along with him.  I, of course, brought him right back down to earth by saying, ‘yeah you got to hang out with Seal, but you also had to go to a Barney (the purple dinosaur) Live! show.’ 

Sometimes he would call to sing some stupid song that he had just thought of.  Sometimes he would call to tell me some random fact that he thought I needed to know.  Sometimes he would call just to see what was going on, and find out the latest thing Jayden was doing.  Sometimes he would call in the morning on his way to work, and I would give him a bad time about driving into work at 10am, and he would give me a bad time for quitting my well paying job. 

The last time Willie called, he was driving home from work.  I was trying to finish cooking dinner and entertaining Jayden at the same time, and was feeling a bit frazzled, and I remember thinking, ‘how the heck am i going to get him off the phone?’  Because a phone call with Willie was never short.  I am so glad now that I couldn’t get a word in to tell him I’d call him later.  I probably would have never had a chance to have this phone call again, and this was one of my favorite kind of calls, the kind where you got to see the quirky side of Willie, the rainbow-colored airstream trailer side of Willie. 

He started off by saying, ‘Rach, you’re never going to believe this, but I have been right all along’ (big surprise).  He was calling to tell me that he had finally figured out that the guy who sang the songs from the movie “You’ve Got Mail”, that our mom loves, was the same guy who sang the songs from the movie “The Point”.  What made him decide after all this time to find out who the guy was?  Who knows.  But most of the time we couldn’t figure out what was really going on inside that head of his.  I said, ‘oh yea, I already knew that, his name is Harry Nilsson’.  Willie couldn’t believe that I already knew that, so he decided to throw in another bit of info.  He said, ‘Did you know that ‘The Point’ was narrated by Ringo Star?’  Now, that, I did not know.  So, he goes off for awhile about Ringo Star and The Point, and we start talking about the songs again.  Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, of me trying to cook dinner, of me trying to keep Jayden out of all the cupboards, one of my favorite things happened, Willie and I started singing a stupid song, cracking up the whole time, seeing who could remember the words the best.  We started singing “Think About Your Troubles”, the song during the movie when poor Oblio was sitting by the river crying.

Sit beside the breakfast table
Think about your troubles
Pour yourself a cup of tea
Then think about the bubbles
You can take your teardrops
And drop ‘em in a teacup
Take them down to the riverside

And throw them over the side
To be swept up by a current
Then taken to the ocean
To be eaten by some fishes
Who were eaten by some fishes
And swallowed by a whale
Who grew so old
He decomposed, doo, doo, doo

He died and left his body
To the bottom of the ocean
Now everybody knows
That when a body decomposes
The basic elements
Are given back to the ocean
And the sea does what it oughta

And soon there’s salty water
Not too good for drinking
‘Cause it tastes just like a teardrop
So they run it through a filter
And it comes out from a faucet
And it pours into a teapot
Which is just about to bubble
Now think about your troubles, now
 

I miss these phone calls from Willie.  I never knew when they would come or what we would talk about.  But I find myself during Jayden’s morning nap or while cooking dinner waiting for the phone to ring, waiting to hear another piece of information that might only be good if I liked playing trival pursuit.  I find it really hard to accept that I won’t get another phone call from him, that I am going to have to wait for what seems like forever to sing another song with him, to see who knows the lyrics the best to ‘Ice Ice Baby’, to see who can count to the highest prime number, to listen to him ramble on about his airplanes or his motorcycle or countless other topics I know nothing about, to listen to him tell me what he thinks I should do or what I should buy.  What I wouldn’t give for one more “last” random phone call.

Yesterday was 1 month from the day that has forever changed us.  Jac said she was going to come down and visit Willie, so Joanna and I were going to try and hook up with her for dinner.   I drive into Shelton and pick Joanna up around 6, when she gets in the car she says, ‘I think I have some bad news, I think the cemetary closes at 5′.  We both are like, ‘oh, no, jac drove all this way.’  So we decide to do a drive by the cemetary and see what their hours are.  8:30 - 4:00!!!  Can you believe that??  Joanna and I were mad about that.  What if I wanted to see my brother before I went to work?  Or what if I wanted to see my brother after I was at work?  Granted, I don’t work an 8-5 job, but still, what if I did?  I should have a right to visit him whenever I want.  My parents do own the little pieces of land.  Since they own it, we should have a right to it.  Joanna and I decided that we are either going to find a place to cut through the fence or demand to have a key.  We do know people in high places, or at least my dad does, and who is going to tell my dad no?  So, Jac pulls up right after us.  She said she had been talking with my mom who told her the cemetary would be closed, so Jac had made a plan.  She was going to hop the fence.  She rummaged around the back of her car, put on her chucks and a hat on backwards, she said the hat was for disguise, and headed for the fence.  She gets over it easy enough and pretty much drops to the other side.  We hand her the coffee she had brought for Willie and she heads off to find him.  We were going to watch for cops and anybody who might look like they were going to call us in.  Joanna and I waited in the car and actually sat there laughing the whole time, which felt really good.  It was nice to have endorphins release from laughing instead of crying.  Jac spent her time with Willie and then climbs back over the fence.  Thank goodness it wasn’t electric or had razor wire at the top. 

After a short discussion, we decide we are going to go to El Sarape (El Sarape #5)because we all needed a good margarita.  So, we scarf down some greasy mexican food and some delicious margaritas and have a pretty good time considering.  The margaritas helped us laugh quite a bit, so that was nice.  After we were done eating, we decided we weren’t ready to part ways, so we get in my car and decide we are going to go bowling.  However, none of us have socks, but Joanna’s house wasn’t too far away so we head there to break into her house since she didn’t have any keys with her.  I won’t tell you how we did it, because I don’t want anybody to try and copy us and then steal all of her stuff.  But I will say that it involved a random push pin, Jac having to be nimble once again, and Joanna shouting, ‘hallelujia! and we didn’t break anything!’ (or something along those lines)  We get our socks and head down to the Timberbowl.

The Timberbowl is closed on Mondays.  What the heck is wrong with Shelton?  Why are half the businesses closed on Monday? Stevens, the Timberbowl, Fancy Image Yarn, etc…  So we decide we’ll drive by the movie theater.  They are closed by the time we get there, the last movie started at 7, and it was 7:45.  So then we decide to drive by all the nail places to see if anybody is open late and we can get pedicures.  Nope, all closed.  Guess what is open?  Beachhut.  That’s right, cancer beds r us.  So, we decide to do some tanning since the tanning bed room walls don’t go all the way to the ceiling, we should be able to shout at each.  It has been years since I have been down there, but I still had 20 mins on my account.  They were left over from when I worked there, and since they were employee minutes they never expired!  Yipee.  So we spend our 10 mins exposing ourself to harmful UV rays, which Joanna needed anyway, (she’s leaving for Cancun in 23 days and she still has Washington pasty white skin) then climb back in the car and drive around town a bit to put off saying goodbye a little bit longer.  We eventually have to part ways, but we promise that we are going to have a margarita nite soon up at Jac’s place.  Her dad has 2 margarita machines!!

**disclaimer** beware, this is not for the faint of heart **

We just got Scooter about 4 weeks ago.  She used to be the Wagner’s cat, but they weren’t going to take her down to Arizona with them, so I convinced Royal to let us keep her so she wouldn’t get put to sleep at some stupid cat shelter.  Scooter has never been the smartest of cats, she has a snaggle tooth, and she drools when you pet her.  Royal kept saying the Scooter had to be an outside cat, she could sleep in the garage, but there was no way she was ever going to be let in the house.  I agreed so that Royal would let me bring her home, but I figured that when Royal was at work, I’d let her in the house to play with me and Jayden and I’d make sure she went back outside before Royal came home.  Well, we picked up Scooter on Friday, April 13th, when we were saying good-bye to the Wagner’s as they packed up their U-haul.  We were going to keep her in the garage (and the house when Royal wasn’t looking) for at least a week or two to make sure she knew this was her new home and didn’t run away.  Well in the next 24 hours, everything in our life changed, and all the sudden we were living out at my parents house at the lake.  Luckily we got our neighbor, Ed, to give her food and water, but poor Scooter was just locked up.  Royal ended up going back to our home during the week because he had to work, and this is where we find out what a softy Royal is.  Scooter would sit out in the garage and meow and meow, so Royal finally let her in the house and she sat on his lap and he pet her and pet her until he pretty much had a pile of drool on his lap. (he’s so nice)  When I finally left my parents house 2 weeks later and came back home, Scooter had had plenty of time indoors and that’s pretty much where she wanted to be.  She would go outside when I went outside and would follow me around the yard, but that’s about it.  We made her stay outside for a little bit one time and this is where we find out that Scooter may not be cut out for the outdoors.   She was sitting on our rock wall, looking around, and one of the roaming neighborhood cats starts sneaking up behind her.  Does Scooter notice, or even flinch?  Nope, she just sits there.  So right before the cat pounced on her, I opened the door and scared it away. 

At the beginning of this week, Royal and I noticed that Scooter was acting funny.  When she came in the house, she would run right upstairs and sleep on our bed all day.  Then Royal noticed that she would hardley let him pick her up, and she would freak out if he touched her back.  So we took a closer look and noticed she had this huge bump forming on her back right between her hips.   We figured she must of finally be caught by one of the roaming cats in our area.  The next day I make an appointment with a vet so they can check her out.  They pin her down so they can touch it and the vet is like, ‘well it looks like she got scratched or bit by something’ and she shows me where it has kind of scabbed over.  She told me that Scooter had an absess and they were going to have to drain it.  So, I leave her there because they were going to put her under so that they could clean it up.  They call me afterwards and say that the absess ruptured as they were taking her to the procedure table.  All I can say is, hallelujia that didn’t happen in my house.  :)  But they put her under anyways to make sure it was completely drained and all the dead skin got removed.  The vet said that it was the biggest absess she had ever seen (way to go Scooter), and figured it must of been a racoon or something and she doens’t think that Scooter is very good at defending herself.  She said where the absess was, was square on her back so it didn’t look like she was really trying to get away.  So, Joanna goes with me to pick her up, and they bring Scooter to us and we could not believe what we saw.  Her hind quarters are all shaved, and she has a huge row of stiches across her back, and 2 gauze drains running out of her.  They tell me that I have to shove anti-biotics down her throat and hot compress her back twice a day and wiggle the drains around so they don’t get plugged.  I just can’t believe it.  It is so gross.  They said that Scooter has to stay indoors for 2 weeks and that until we have her drains taken out, she’ll need to be somewhere that doesn’t matter if it gets messy because her drains are going to be leaking blood and puss.  Yea, say it with me, ’sick’.  And on top of it all, she has to wear a cone around her neck, for up to 2 weeks, so she doesn’t try to get at the stitches or drains.  Yea, say it with me, ‘oh, sad’.  So, for the moment, Scooter is trapped in our laundry room, which is right next to the family room and when you are in there, she just meows and meows and then you can hear her running her little cone into the door, or along the wall.  It’s just really sad.  Poor little Scooter.

Here is an angry Scooter

Here is her big owie

I am tired of having to have “first” experiences.  Everything I do is like, “well this is the first time I’ve had to do this now that Willie is gone”.   I had to have the first family function that Willie was missing from.  It would of been hard to explain to Jayden years down the road why we ignored his first birthday.  

This is the first blog I have written.  

This past weekend was the first time Royal went fishing and Willie probably would have came down to go too, there was even an empty spot in the boat.  Royal didn’t catch anything, and that’s definitely not a first.  I’d bet you a million bucks Willie wouldn’t of caught anything either.  Royal swears he’s the most unlucky fisherman he ever took fishing. 

I went to the yarn store for the first time, which is where my nightmare started…and didn’t buy anything - that was definitely a first.  It is where I was when I took the phone call from my mom and had to guess that my brother had died because my mom couldn’t say it. 

I’ve had to have the first day that I was alone and taking care of Jayden.  The first time I actually had to think about what to make for dinner.   I have yet to go to the grocery store, but that first will happen today, poor Jayden can’t live on toast and cheese forever, and I can’t live off elk-a-roni sticks and ice cream, mostly because all my elk-a-roni is now gone. 

I’m going to go for my first run today, the half-marathon is a little less than 3 weeks away and I haven’t put my running shoes on for over 3 weeks.  I have a feeling this will be the first race I will seriously struggle to finish.  Plus this will be my first capital city marathon that I will be doing with out my dad running with me.  I am grateful Willie never gave into my badgering and started running with me, because I have something that I can do that doesn’t feel like I am missing something.  Unfortunetly, 13 miles is a long way to run so you have plenty of time to think.  Hopefully I will be so miserable that all I will be thinking about is where the next water station is and the free massage at the end.