Random thoughts of "Seige on Whiting Road"

Last night, thanks to some strange circumstances beyond my control, I had the opportunity to observe some of our local law enforcement's finest. Since I had a perfect vantage point (my Mother's front windows) I have decided to share some of my random insights:

Wow, I had no idea they made gun belts that big around.

Residents of Mesa County should always hope they are not in a hostage situation, since it takes about 3 hours to round up the SWAT team.

Should the guy in the house really be given the same ultimatum by PA four times? What? Do they think he might have been in the bathroom and not have noticed the armored swat vehicle sitting next to the front door?

I really should buy my Mom one of those eavesdropping things.

Has any of the tax payers in Mesa County noticed that the mobile command unit looks like a street taco vending truck? Several members of my family and I had to resist the urge to run over and place an order.

While I do appreciate them clearing my home before I came in, could they not have taken half a second to wipe their combat boots?

Ok, I can understand breaking out one window, but 6? And not using the doors?

If you are going to give the fugitive instructions, hope that he really does know which way is west.

Maybe, if the family members are all telling you he's not in the house, maybe he's not in the house.

Before you call out 30+ officers, maybe you should ping his cell first.

I know the fugitive wasn't very bright, but if he can outwit the deputies how smart are they?

If you really want to frustrate a former AF air base ground defense troop security police, federal officer- make him sit up at the end of the street and watch the keystone cops run all over the place. (ps, thanks for letting me listen to that last night).

Finally, if on the way up the street this morning and my son wondering why the windows are all broke out says, "why couldn't they just use one of those body heat, thermo things to see if he was in there?" I realize he gets it, maybe he should have been in charge of the op.

No Clue

I am a bad parent. It's true. I have no idea what I'm doing, there I said what I think everyone else has been saying. Well, what do you expect? They just sent these children home with me from the hospital and the only thing they checked was if I had the car seat installed properly. The little buggers don't come with any instructions, there isn't any license or certifications required. So here it is over 16 years later and I still don't know for sure how to do it.

I just wing it. Once many years ago I worked with a guy and his daughter who was also named Emily. She was such an awesome young woman, one day I told him he had done such a good job I should give him my daughter to raise. He looked at me bewildered and said, "I didn't do that. A pack of wolves could have raised her and she would have turned out just the same. I don't know how to be a parent, I just came to the breakfast table one day and there were five little faces looking at me."

The other day I think my son had a panic attack because "the market has been down, and the jobless rate is so high". Turns out I may be exposing my children to too much Fox News, who knew 12 year olds could get freaked out from the bad economy. I don't force my children to go to YW/YM every week, and I acknowledge that there are good leaders and bad in their lives. I let them not eat brussel sprouts and I force Emily to wear nylons with her dresses. I am obsessive compulsive about homework, but not about to much tv time. My children lecture me about swearing and talking smack about some people.

So, I am coming out of the closet and admitting what so many people know. I have no idea what I'm doing, and I plan to continue just like before.

I'm Voting No, you know because I hate children

Well, there it was in the mail on Thursday afternoon...my official ballot. I knew it was coming, that's all there has been in the letters to the editor in the paper, the "you said it" column, and all over with the yard signs and billboards. You see our local School District 51 has had to tighten it's belt in the last couple years with the downturn in the economy. So, despite getting turned down before they are trying yet again to get the property owners in Mesa County to pony up a little more money. The threats are clear, closing schools, laying off teachers, bigger classroom sizes, etc, etc.

Now for the disclaimer: I currently have three nieces with teaching degrees. One teaches back east, one teaches for District 51, and one is on active reserve attempting to raise 3 1/2 boys. I don't hate them, want them to earn less money, or want them to teach in schools without lights. (And, thank you Allie for agreeing with me on this measure).

You see the problem is that for the last 11 years I have dealt directly with this school district, and all the machinations that it has managed to create. My children currently can not bring home some of their text books because there aren't enough to share and can't leave the school. They have dropped some classes because the district can't afford some of the programs, and they literally go to the same schools I did 30 years ago and have some of the same desks, lockers, and even a few of the same teachers. But throwing money at them isn't going to fix any of this.

The district's mentality that "just give us more" will fix any and all problems isn't the answer. My children have had 30+ year teachers who flat don't give a damn. My nieces school has adopted a policy of "no homework" because the parents complained. The middle school has now adopted a "rubric" style of grading, which is completely bizarre. My daughters high school has 3 assistant principals, 5 counselors (all new this year) and six secretaries. My list of examples can go on and on, but please explain how any of this helps with a quality education.

My parents managed to get pretty good educations with only chalk boards and books, I managed to get a darn good education with chalk boards, books and a few computers. I don't think fancy projection boards, web sites, progress counselors, and dispute mediation's really help. So I am voting no. No, you can't have more money, you just have to tighten your belt like the rest of the country. It's like a teenager that has managed to go through his allowance in the first three days of the week, the solution isn't to give the teenager more money, the solution is to get the teenager to be more responsible. More money is not the solution to this nations education problem. If throwing money at it made it the best, our country's education results would lead the world. Our children and the administration of the district both need to learn the same lesson...responsibility.

The College Hunt Has Begun

College. College? Oh thanks, I've been there done that. What? Time for my daughter to start looking at colleges? No that isn't possible, I'm pretty sure she is only in third grade!

Well, today Emily and I went up to Aspen for the Western Colorado College Fair. (Ok, we missed church) Anyway, off we went because Emily just turned 16, and apparently the clock is seriously ticking. According to the counselors at GJHS we are already behind schedule. So there we were, with over 200 colleges in attendance and only three hours to look through them. There were colleges from every state in the union, ranging from Harvard (yes, Harvard) to IntelliTech. I think we are somewhere in between. The trouble is Emily wants to go into structural or architectural engineering (this week), so we are definitely not looking for a liberal arts college. Of course she found the perfect college...in Vermont.

Currently she seems to be interested in the following:

Vermont Tech

Colorado School of Mines

CU

Westminster

U S Coast Guard Academy (they include big guns with engineering)

Of course I have no idea who is going to pay for any of these colleges, but the dialogue has begun. We filled out enough of the little interest cards that our mail box should be over flowing in the next couple months. Next comes all the tests, PSAT, SAT, ACT, ASVAB, blah, blah, blah.

I'm not sure how the heck I ever went to college, I guess that is why I just stayed at MIT (you know Mesa in Town). But, even if Emily ends up at my alma mater that will be just fine. I'm glad Emily is being proactive and I hope all the entrance stuff doesn't overwhelm all of us. So begins a new chapter in our lives, well in two years, since we just started our junior year, but hey...the clock is ticking!

I Don't like Halloween

It's true, I really don't like Halloween. No, it isn't the religious part of me either, I simply don't like it. I have never liked scary things, I don't really appreciate gore and blood, and I don't even like suspense...so pretty much all things Halloween.

When I went to see Ghost Busters in my younger days I went home with nightmares. When my Dad suggested that that I watch Hitchcock's famous movie Psycho, I had a clear shower curtain for two years (that seriously irritated my sister Ellen). when my friends convinced me to go see Night of the Living Dead, I spent all but the first five minutes in the lobby. When I first got married Scott didn't believe that I really didn't like scary, and tried to get me to watch The Fly, I didn't sleep for three days and I only saw a few minutes of it too.

I have been known to attempt bribery of my children with multiple bags of their favorite candy if we don't have to go trick or treating. I have been known to purposely go out to dinner to avoid trick or treaters. I refuse to decorate my home with any extra cobwebs, skeletons, witches, etc.

If I have to I will go to church parties, I will get dressed up, and I will give out candy, but just realize that I really don't like Halloween.

Blame it on Shadrach

Approximately 10 weeks ago, I woke up thinking about the fact that I have a really big yard, and I really hate yard work. There are tons of nooks and crannies, a bizarre corner over behind Clark's, peach trees and lots of weeds. So I woke up and thought, "I need a goat", so I checked Craig's List and consulted my goat expert Allison the Younger. The conversation went like this:

Me: Hey, what do you know about La Mancha goats?

Allison: They're ugly, they don't have ears.

So, on the way home from work that day,

Introducing...Shadrach

No...he's not a camel. He's our sweet addition. But that just opened a whole other can of worms. First of all, staking out a goat in my neighborhood is like offering the local dogs/bears/mountain lions a treat on the end of a string, and apparently goats like friends. So, the task of fencing in the portion of our lot behind the Clark's began. Scott decided that the fence should be good enough to hold what ever his wife might bring home (what does that imply?). We had just started the fencing process, (spending a lot of time at my favorite store Murdoch's) and we had found all the necessary parts, except for a 16 foot wire filled livestock gate for the far corner. Unfortunately, Murdock's only had 14 foot gates, so Scott and I were looking for a misplaced 16 footer...when I tripped over the gate rack and broke the 5th metatarsal in my left foot. So the task of building nearly the entire fence went to...
Scott, and his "trusty" helpers

Okay, maybe not so trusty, but they did help.

Nearly 500 feet of fencing, two livestock gates, 18 eight foot post, and 45 T-posts later, we had a new goat pen.

In the midst of building the goat pen, we had an RE Whiting Family Reunion at the ranch. We had a pretty good turn out.

And of course Shadrach was invited. But he wasn't the main course.Despite the broken foot we did take a quick family vaca/back to school shopping trip to Salt Lake. We went to Lagoon, where my family had the opportunity to push me around in a transfer chair for the day. In a moment of weakness or maybe it was the percocet...I agreed to let my children do the following:

Get strapped into harnesses by twenty something year olds with little or no training

Hoisted a couple hundred feet in the air

and released.

Fortunately they survived, because I can't bake anymore.

We started back to school in August, the day before Emily turned sweet 16. She decided to post phone her party until Labor Day weekend, and the pictures from that are on another camera, so you will just have to breathlessly anticipate them.

Then last week we finally moved Shadrach out of the Chicken Coop (his temporary home while the fence was being finished) and got two new friends for him. I let the kids name them which is why we on't havea aMeeshach and Abednego. We now have...

Diva (who isn't really)

and Little Tim (Emily named him), she said, "He looks like a little Tim" So I asked, "Do you mean Tiny Tim?". "Who's Tiny Tim?" she asked. Never mind.
So now we have three goats, small, medium, and large. Although Shadrach has a few issues, he likes to play with Frank.Right now the goats only have a upside down Loomix tank for a home, but knowing my husband they will soon have a goat palace. But looking at them they don't seem to mind.

Anyway, I know I haven't blogged in a really long time, but between the broken foot, the goats, family reunions, school starting, a sweet 16 party, and maybe even a cub scout regatta race, I've been a little out of it. So I'm working on it.

The Dederick Family Shoes

A long time ago, I made an impulse purchase at Wal-mart. A pair of slip on Dr. Scholl's. How was I to know that many, many years later these same shoes would come to be known as "The Dederick's Family Shoes"? Well, it's true. We all wear them. We slip them on to run out to the chicken coop, over to Nancy's, up to Grandma's, out to get the paper, etc, etc, etc. If we all need to go somewhere, and the shoes have all ready been taken, we stack up at the door, like pringles...and stare, not really sure what to do. My family members can tell if someone from my family is visiting someone else's house, they just look for the family shoes, kicked off by the front door. We aren't proud...those are awesome shoes, and we all love them! I think everyone else is just jealous. And yes, I have been half way up the street or maybe even farther into town and realized that I forgot to change.