The decision to get married was extremely straight forward and we werent really sure we would be going through with it. So, of course we kept it pretty low key, you know, just in case. We rented a cabin near a casino. That way, we could still gamble on the machines if Mark took off again. We went for two nights; the first night Mark and I hung out at the casino and the second night, My sister and her now husband came and stayed with us too. We hired a judge to meet us there the next morning. If we were all still there, we would have him perform the ceremony.
On Sunday February 29, 2002 Mark and I were legally married. On Leap Day. Sort of fitting, wouldnt you agree? There was no turning back. Sometime in March, we went again to see the land Mark owned. It was covered in snow and I never got out of the car. It looked like your every day woods. Nothing special, but it was the silver lining I had been looking for. On that same visit we went to a trailer house junk yard. (Did you know they existed? I didnt) we paid 3,000$ cash. Our life savings. For a Piece of Crap trailer house.
In May, Mark left us again. This time, though, he left to set that POC trailer onto his property. He and his father worked on remodeling that POC into something that resembled livable. In June, after school got out for the summer, the kids and I joined Mark. All of May was spent being terrified. I am so scared of wild animals and frogs. I was sure our country place would be nothing but one giant nightmare. I prettied it up for the kids. Danika was now 11 and moody, and Tylen was 2 and a half years old. I told them they would climb trees and play outside when ever they wanted. I promised Danika this would be her last school.
I was determined to keep that promise to Danika. I also told Mark if he left us out in the sticks all alone, away from my friends and family it would be the last thing he would ever do. I think he believed me...after all I know how to break the nose of a drunk, mean, man. He did not go back to the carnival. But he did continue with his drinking.
The drinking in the country setting was different somehow and I didnt notice at first what a big problem it had become. We had so much work to do. Before they could move the POC onto the lot, 40 mature trees needed to be cut down. The trailer house Mark and his first wife lived in needed to be burned down. And we needed a yard for the kids to play in. So we spent our days cutting trees, hauling wood, tilling the earth and picking rocks. Oh for the rocks we picked! We have a mountain of them of to the side in the woods. Do you know, people in the city pay good money for rocks. But, we worked so hard getting those rocks out of the ground I couldnt bear to part with them. I plan to one day build an outdoor barbeque and fire pit with them. I could also build a rock wall around the entire five acres!
Our first summer was a blur of trees, rocks and frogs! oh yeah, mice too. In June when the kids and I arrived, the trailer had been over run with mice. For 3 days and nights I cried and cried. I cant stand those little things. Mark had told me there were no frogs out here. I believed him because other wise I would not have come. But, in the spring, when the snow melted, I was able to see that our piece of property was surrounded on three sides by swamp! Of course there were frogs!
So we spent every day of that summer going to work, picking rocks, tilling the land, cutting trees and hauling wood. Marks family lives here so we also had alot of guests. Most of the cooking I did at that time was done on a fire pit I dug myself. We did not own a stove when we first got here. (We also did not have a well dug, and that meant no working toilet!)
So the friends and family would come, help load a few truck full of rocks and we would thank them with a case of beer and a bonfire. It was so much fun! Real people. Real friends. Normalacy.
I will never forget that first summer here. It was such an odd mixture of excitement and hope and fear. In the mornings I woke up early to see the sunrising. I sent the kids out to play alone while I worked on the house or yard or whatever we needed to do. One afternoon I looked out to check on the kids (who were nearly as frightened as I was by our new life) I looked a little closer at my baby, 2.5 years old, and terrified of bugs. He was waving at something. I had to get closer before I could see that a wild, probably rabid racoon had wandered within 10 feet of my precious baby! That afternoon, I learned how to shoot my first gun.
