May

It's been a long and stressful month. Christian has basically one more month of school before summer break. It's been a really rough year. Lots of bad behavior and fights all over the school along with the policies that enable this type of behavior. It's getting pretty ridiculous and dangerous at schools these days. 

On top of that, about a year ago, Christian got into a bit of a scuffle with another car on his way home from school. There was a lot of traffic and a jeep tried to force her way onto the freeway. She hit the side of Christian's truck near the back. She was pissed off that he did not hit his brakes to let her on or something. He looked through his side view mirror and didn't see any damage. The Jeep was full of her irate friends or family and they tried to get him to pull over. They were yelling at him and driving erratically. He didn't want to pull over to get abused by them and he certainly didn't want to trade information with them so that they would get his address. Since they hit hit and there was no damage, he didn't pull over. 

Apparently, they took a picture of his license plate and called the cops on him and claimed it to be a hit and run. Some cops came over and berated him about it. They would not listen to his side of the story and even claimed to see damage on his vehicle. It only had a little rubbing of plastic or rubber from probably their bumper or fender. It basically washed off afterwards without leaving as much as a scuff. They wrote him up and left. We reported everything to the insurance company and after the year came and went and we did not hear anything further, we hoped that everything was resolved. 

But, after a year, he got a notice from the court about appearing regarding the charge. He had to take a day off to go in to find out what was going to happen with that. Every time he take an extra day off, he basically has to pay a substitute to take his place at school. One court date turned into five as he kept taking days off, he stands in line to wait his turn only for them to hum and haw about what to do. I spent several hours trying to contact our insurance company to find out what happened with this claim. They tried to contact they lady in the Jeep for three months but they would not even return the call to make the claim. If that doesn't show you that it wasn't a real claim, I don't know what does since our insurance company didn't look into it that much and was just going to take the cops' word for it and pay up. Apparently, the court tried to contact her over and over as well without getting any response either. Meanwhile, they kept dragging it out, hoping to hear from her and making Christian go in every week for nothing. Finally, without anyone to really accuse him, they finally dismissed the case. She basically made our life hell with the help of inept and corrupt cops and lawyers and the court cost nearly a thousand dollars in missed work because she didn't know how to merge onto a freeway and was affronted that he didn't slam on his brakes to let her onto the already crowded freeway.

Christian and I drove out to Copper Canyon on one of the days off that he took (after court). We just needed to get away for a bit. We didn't really have an exact destination but wanted to just explore the area a bit. 

We found some pretty wildflowers here and there. And we found that the Mojave River actually had water in it! 

We did get to visit with some family this month though. We visited with my mom for Mother's Day. My sister wasn't in town, but her oldest was here along with my brother and his family. We made her lunch and visited with her for a while. My sister and her had just gotten back from a big Mediterranean cruise. They called while we were there and they told us a little of their trip.

Our nephew Austin stopped by with his wife Natalie and their daughter. 

Georgia is so cute but she is in her 'stranger danger' faze, so she wouldn't come to us. I tried to bribe her with homemade cinnamon rolls. She ate it but it didn't endear her to me...ha ha.

Our niece, Michaela came home from her mission in Florida. We went down to San Diego to hear her talk.    Austin's family was still there. Christian's sister, Aron was there, along with her other son, Mason. We got to talk with everyone a little but they all basically had to travel to get home afterwards so we didn't get to chat too long. It's been a while since we have all been together since Aron's divorce. Austin is married with his own business and family now. Mason is married as well but we haven't met his wife yet. She just started a new job so was unable to travel back home with him. Michaela had been away on her mission and will be going to school in the fall at the University of Utah. Brandon is overseas with the military in Lithuania.

Meanwhile, Christian did some much needed maintenance on the F-150 and my Trooper. They are running so much better now. The Trooper issn't completely finished. We are still working on flushing the radiator.