Talk about a learning curve!

We've had such a busy, crazy, fun weekend. Whew!

If you read my post below, then you saw that we became rather quick (very unplanned) chicken owners. I've had so much to learn ~ and even though I've been reading all about chickens/random farm stuff --> all that "knowledge" that I thought I had went straight out the window once we walked in with the chicks! lol

They've been lots of fun to have around; even if they are in my living room (lol). It's so neat to watch them ~ I love how they just fall asleep so fast (sometimes while still standing up! sometimes all stretched out! sometimes they look not so alive either so I have to check for breathing!) and we love how they stretch their little legs out when they've been sitting down too long. Just when they've all fallen asleep... it never fails that one will jump up chirping loudly and wake them ALL up again -- then they run around for a few minutes, settle back down, fall asleep, and do it all over again! They've officially been named by Katelyn as the "chick gang". Here is a picture from this morning of a few of them standing in the food dish... yeah, I know it's a Christmas mini-loaf pan --> I'm all about repurposing (my Michaels 10 cent after Christmas special from 2 years ago!) ... and it's the best I could find for now until they grow more! :)

Below is todays chick pic! :)


And Cole didn't end up with a bunny after all. I knew that would be a no-go once he started talking about he'd play with the bunny... and feed/water it... but I'd have to clean the poopy cage up everyday. Ummm, no. So we went yesterday and he picked out a cute dwarf hamster and all the fixings to go with it using his birthday money. He is very excited to have his 1st animal that even lives in his room! ;) And the bonus is... it's smaller... it makes less poop... and he gets to clean the cage himself! Yay, win for me! ha ha Here are a few pics of "Peanut" the hamster, who is a girl and lives in a Bolt cage with her very own plastic couch & TV. She stays up all night exercising loudly in her wheel and she even has a look-out tower on the top of her cage. She's one lucky girl, huh? :)

Cole is so excited!
sleeping in her TV? :)

Have a wonderful day everyone! Oh, and I posted on my housebuilding blog but I'll mention it here too --> we're getting our electrical inspection today, which means we may finally get lights on IN our house which doesn't involve using a big, long electrical cord. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we pass our inspection!

Done went and done it...

Me & the kiddos went to the Tractor Supply today... nope, not to get chicks - just to get dog & cat food for my mom. Yep, they had chicks ~ bunches of chicks and even rabbits too! And nope, we bought only dog & cat food. Aren't you surprised? I was. Those chicks were so cute & fluffy... and I just couldn't help but think of what wonderful addition they'd be to our new house and land. Katelyn & Cole both were just scooping them up and loving them. I mean, we need farm animals, right?? How can we be called a farm without farm animals? It just doesn't sound right. And I've read that it's harder to get chicks from the hatchery's this year because demand is so high... yep, you know where this is headed, I'm weak I tell ya! And of course, I totally had it all rationized out. :)

So, me & Katelyn decided we'd better go back and just a few little chickies to get us started... but then the girl who was helping us said we had to get 6 (a law?)... then for some crazy reason, I told Katelyn to pick out 8 chickies instead. Then that number went up to 10, just straight outta my mouth! What has possessed me?? :) We loaded up our buggy full of chickie things and quickly jumped into the van for the 20 ride home -- Katelyn held the little cardboard box full of chicks in her lap all the way home. She was even talking to them, yep, wayyyy cute! They all have survived so far (4+ hours) and are just "talking" away in their little make-shift brooder.

I'll take more pics later (of course!) but here are a few for now! Oh and PS: Cole wants to go back tomorrow and buy a bunny/bunny cage/supplies with his birthday money! I think it may be a good responsibility for him. And I think my husband is going to faint! lol ;)

Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far!

Tea Party Anyone?

Since the weather here has been so rainy & windy... we've had to be more creative with what we do indoors to keep the kids occupied while on spring break. It's hard work keeping them occupied. I'm not kidding, if I could bottle up their energy and sell it --> we'd be overnight millionaires! ;)

So we've played with toys & games; danced; watched some cartoons; did an impromptu circus act {Katelyn as the ring master/ballerina act & Cole as the juggling act} in the living room floor; and me & Katelyn even did some basic sewing. But I'm starting to run out of "fun" things... which is not good when it's looking like rain for the next 4 days! Yuck!

Luckily for me, Little Miss Katelyn always comes up with the cutest ideas of things to do or crafts to make. So while playing restaurant with her Dora kitchen, she decided to invite me & Cole to a Tea Party {fancy plastic dishes and all! yes, I super duper washed them first... complete germ-o-phobe here}. It was cute and we all enjoyed it. She even had Sierra Mist ready for Cole, the picky one who doesn't like sweet tea. Ahhh, relaxing! :)



Now I'm thinking that a tea party birthday in August might be right up her alley. I decorate cakes as a hobby, so I could totally make her a cute little teacup cake! :)

Calgon... take me away!

Today is not a good day -- my head has been pounding all day {I have migraines quite frequently... yuck!}; it's been raining and sooo windy here since lastnight; and the kids are off from school for their spring break... which equals to this --> I'm feeling kinda crabby and the kids can't go outside to play to run off their pent up energy so they've been arguing and uber moody all day long. Ahhhh... is it bedtime yet? :)

And obviously my hearing is going too along with my sanity... because I drove Katelyn 15 miles into town for her dance class in the pouring down rain (I so hate driving in the rain!) only to read the sign on the door saying they were closed this week. I was wondering why I was the only one in the parking lot. Hmph, guess I missed hearing that last week! ha ha

I should've known that today would be crazy --> yesterday I found a 4-leaf clover (a rarity for me!) and when I woke up this morning, my lucky clover that was so pretty yesterday had willowed, rolled and dried up into a 2-leaf clover. That was my sign that I should probably just crawl back into the bed. :)

However... on a small brighter note... several good things have happened today ~

*I did change my blog background to another cute bird theme. I'm totally digging all things bird themed right now, including the cute nest w/eggs & a small bird cage on my "decorating" table in my living room.

*I am totally skemping on the nutritious, healthy dinner tonight and making us some calzones. No slaving in the hot kitchen with a big headache for me... woohoo!

*And since I needed to look half-way presentable {versus the "just crawled out from under a rock" edition of me} to the dance moms who always look flawless, I took a shower... washed my hair AND styled it... and even applied some nice makeup -- all while the kids were having "quiet time" in their rooms (read it as they only banged on the bathroom door 3x versus the usual 8x, lol). Yay me! Even though I goofed b/c there was no dance class, hey, atleast I'm clean! And that matters for something. :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Soccer season starts again

Cole played last season and really, really enjoyed it. And this time, Katelyn is playing too... although she made it thru one practice and said that she doesn't like it. Go figure! :) Oh well, it only lasts 2 months so surely she can make it thru that long or maybe she'll grow to like it as time goes on. Her coach is really great with the youngins', so that should help her too.

It didn't help that it was really cold on practice day and only got colder once the sun started going down... like shivering cold for us peeps who get cold easily. I could barely focus! I now realize that I cannot possibly ever live my dream life in the snow field plains of Montana or in the Alaska bush (my 2 choices) --> because if 55 degrees is cold to me, just imagine what the winters there would be! -- I'd turn into a ice sculpture quickly! Brrrr... maybe Hawaii is more up my alley! ha ha :)

So, here are a couple pictures before their first soccer practice.


Here is their "game faces" on... funny!

Cole (in the green shirt) practicing stopping the ball... he had fun but he's team is no joke this season. Very serious stuff now.

Katelyn practicing kicking the ball up past the cones... she looks excited huh?

But she did enjoy making her hair flip & flop from side to side... and she did save a ladybug that she almost stepped on with her cleats (she's my bug girl). I had to go on the field and get it from her so she'd get back to soccer instead of bug saving. Ahhh, fun times! :)

Kids keep it interesting, that's for sure! :)

Fun, warmer times! Yay!

There is about to be picture overload -- we've been so busy around here and I've neglected my blog (again!). The weather has been generally good, so we've done alot more outside things... which mean tons of pictures! And since my memory is so bad, I need to put them on here so I won't forget! lol ;)

Here are some pics that we took at a local park on the first really nice day.

I forced them to pose by a tree... I'm soooo not a photographer! :)


And here's me & Cole...

and there's Katelyn (she picked out the non-matching bow, btw... lol)

And Cole again. I love his smile here, you can tell he was excited to get some good play time in.

Hope the weather is starting to warm up where-ever you are too!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

... and for the record, I do not have on any green today! {Unless pink is the new green} And yes, I did get pinched quite hard this morning by my wonderful son. :)

Someone stop me! :)

I love Tractor Supply. That's big considering I'm a former city girl with no "real" country girl experience at all. We were just there last week browsing around... and I just so happened to notice 4 very large tubs & bags of chick feed around the tubs.

Awesome Breaking News! --> They're getting chicks in today! Which means... I am NOT allowed NEAR Tractor Supply -- because I am not feeling very strong today. ;)

We've wanted chicks for a few years now but I need to wait until we get all moved in and build a decent coop. But they are ohhhhh so cute! And I've read several chicken/farm animal raising books... so I'm all ready, right? David just said how cool it would be to get the kids involved in 4-H ~ so they'd learn a lot about helping raise the chicks. I could totally talk myself into this... which wouldn't be good! But look at how cute they are too {pic below}.

Ohhhh, I totally have to control myself today. I can hear them now... cheep, cheep, cheep, come buy me Ashley!... cheep, cheep, cheep.... lol!

And the precious fluff ball pup below is another one that we're so looking forward to one day soon! Great Pyrenees are the cutest ever... and they keep the coyotes away too! :)



The last time I went to Tractor Supply when they had animals (a few years ago), I came home with a cute bunny and all the bunny fixings {cage, food, watering stuff, treats, etc...}. The kids were stoked! So David was really scared when they had goats for sale in the front of the store -- they were all in the parking lot and so cute! Had they not been all males... it's very possible that I would have stuffed one in the mini-van and came home with it. :) And he thinks me bringing home stray baby kittens is a problem... ha ha ha!!

Another time, me & the kids ended up at a diary cow auction -- yep, I was secretly eyeing the little heifer bottle babies. I totally would've put one of them in the mini-van too... except they sold for around $1,000 a piece because of their cow lineage. So that totally killed that little plan. But one day I'll get one! :)

Happy Monday everyone!

I have not been abducted by aliens! :)

I just wanted to tell you 4 people who read my blog... ha ha haa!... that I'm alive & kicking. I realize that I've neglected my blog and I promise that this week I will get back on track (hopefully!).

We've been so busy around here with birthdays {which equals to parties, goodies, presents...}, then my daughter got sick last week and now I've been sick with the crud for the past few days too. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's just allergies and not some super funky crud. Everything here is in full bloom (blah, pollen!) and the weather has strangley went from "oh-it's-so-nice" warm one day to "brrrr, I'm freezing" snowing the next. C'mon spring already, geez!

It's bed time for me now though... so until tomorrow... good nite! :)

Ouch!

Today I went and had my hair done by the cheap little salon down the street from the kids school. I've been trying to treat myself to little pleasures some... okay, actually this only started last week -- ha ha! But I sometimes forget to think of special things for me, and instead focus 110% on everyone else, which leaves me feeling empty when I actually have time to sit down and think about it.

It's something that I'm working on... and I've forgotten how much I like certain things -- like not having bad hair that looks like a skunk on top and straw at the bottom; and like not wearing the same clothes over & over for years {when the homeless peeps are looking better than you, it's a sign!}; and not having 18 different hair colors in my hair because I'm too cheap to pay to have someone do it {the diy color now has even a twinge of green in it now thanks to a backfired "ash blonde" that didn't work out as planned, lol}. I'm definitely not the "girly-girl princess" that I was in my past life (before kids!), that's for sure. Ahhh, confession... it feels good! ;)

So, back to the story. I had my hair washed/trimmed/styled today. The only problem is the girl who washed my hair was half cat, no kidding! -- she washed my hair and scrubbed so hard {clawing! literally clawing with her pointy nails} that I was almost in tears (or shock!). In her past life, she must have been a tiger. lol I think she could tell that I was uncomfortable when she noticed my neck tensing up in the wash bowl -- but nope, she didn't let up! Actually, now that I think about it... maybe she could tell I looked stressed ~ so she thought I'd enjoy it?? Like I was relaxing. And I know my hair wasn't THAT dirty to need all that kneading, clawing and scrubbing all combined. Hmmm. Surely not, I mean who in their right mind would love getting their scalp peeled off section by section by a total stranger in a random beauty shop? My head still hurts hours later! One thing is for sure, if she is there next time --> I will run straight out the door!

I hope your day was better than mine... atleast this part of my day anyways!

I got my snow wish!

Here in our part of TN, we rarely get snow -- usually, if anything, we get ice! So imagine our surprise to wake up Sunday morning to this beautiful 5 inches of snow... it was amazing! :)

I posted some other pics on the house blog too for those who want to check them out. Sadly, it's all melted now ~ but I'm ready for Spring anyway. ha ha

Below is K making a snow angel...

And C helped our neighbors make an igloo... neat huh?
K took her sand bucket & shovel to dig in the snow...

Here was our patio table -- 5 inches of snow!

Below is the creek beside our new house -- so beautiful!