Chickens

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I don't like live chickens.  I can watch them from a distance, but if I am too close to them and they can have access to my body...I get the creeps.  I honestly start to get scared and wigged out.  But...Andy and the girls wanted chickens.  They wanted to raise them and get eggs and eventually eat the chickens.  I agreed with the egg and meat part, but not the "having chickens" part.  We reached an agreement--they would feed and care for the chickens, collect the eggs and all that.  I would wash the eggs and cook everything once it's away from the living chickens. 

(sorry the pics are sideways, and Mikayla is like me and won't touch them)

So we got 6 chickens.  When we got them from our friend, they were only a few days old.  Now they are almost 6 weeks old and much bigger than this.  They look like chickens, not cute, fuzzy chicks.  It was time for a new home.  Our friend Tom, who gave us the chicks, came over and helped us build a coop the other day.  We put up a fence and got it all ready for them, then released them into their enclosure.  It was quite funny.  Their new home is about 20' from our steers' pasture, and the steers are afraid of them!  I can SO relate.   Anyway, we aren't yet sure how many are hens or roosters, but next week we'll get another 6 baby chicks and start the process again.  Once they are big enough, they'll be released with the others and we'll hopefully end up with 6-8 laying hens.  The group we have now should start laying in July.  I admit it's cool to watch them run around in their pen, but other than that, I can't wait until July when I can stop buying eggs!

Still Sick...Plus 1

So in case you're wondering why I fell off the wagon again after proclaiming I wouldn't...I'm still sick.  Yep, it's been over a month.  My sick from before was labelled by the doc as "basically influenza minus the body aches" and since I had a flu shot, they didn't test for it.  Whatever.  It was a different doc than I normally see.  She gave me an inhaler and some cough syrup with codeine.  I was sick for about 3 weeks before it started turning into sinus crap.  After 2 days of sinus pain and pressure, I went in and it was indeed now a sinus infection.  Yuck.  I did what I was told and was finally feeling better at almost the 4 week mark.  Then Mikayla came down with strep throat (as did 4 people in 2 of my daycare families, who shared it with her) and a viral croup-type cough at the same time.  I got the croup type thing only 5 days after starting to feel better.  Mikayla is on day 8 of 10 of her antibiotics, and I'm able to breathe again.  Let's hope this is the END!!!  I'm incredibly sick of being sick.

Hey Spring...you're LATE!

Today is the first official day of Spring.  I get that.  But this year has been anything but normal in the weather-department.  Our winter was dry and either -20 or 45 above, not much of that in-between stuff.  Then our one and only true snow fall of the year was on Feb 29, when we got 15" of snow.  It was a beautiful, fun, wet snow that lasted all of about 6 days.  By March 10 we were in the 50s and we've already hit 80 twice so far this past week.  Our average high right now is in the low-to-mid-40s, and we aren't even that low for overnights.  Insane for where we live, I tell you.   The ice is out on most area lakes already, when the law for removing ice-houses from lakes is "the first Sunday following March 12".  This year, people would have been in a lot of danger had they waited for the first Sunday following March 12, which was this past Sunday when we sat at 79 degrees.  I'm quite worried that this will continue into the summer and it will be a horrid, hot summer.  However, a meteorologist that I casually know told me just the other day that this year is setting up like 2 other times in history, and in both of those years the spring was warm and active for storms, but July-September was cooler than average and less stormy.  I hope that's the case, because this year has just been the most bizarre weather.  But I know there's nothing we can do about it but wait and see, and hope and pray.

Sick

I have been sick.  Not pukey sick, but coughing until I think I'm going to pass out because I cannot catch my breath sick.  I went in to the doctor after 4 days of it, telling them I'd see whomever was available.  The doc (whom I'd never seen nor heard of) listened to me breathe, took my temp and blood pressure and proclaimed it a virus that perfectly mimics influenza minus the body aches.  Since I'd had my flu shot, there was no sense in testing for influenza.  Then she told me that it could turn into pneumonia, or bronchitis, and it would probably take about 3 weeks to feel 100% again.  An inhaler and cough syrup with codeine were prescribed and I was out the door. 

Well.  Let me tell you that 6 days later (10 days into the whole ordeal) I'm still coughing like I can't catch my breath, and I feel like an elephant is sitting on my chest most of the time.  I get light-headed from all the coughing, but when I'm not actively coughing I feel fine (minus the elephant and all).  I've never had anything like this before.  So I guess if you're the praying type, please say a prayer that I either feel better REAL soon or know for sure that I need to be seen again if it's progressed to something that needs further care.  I'm terrible about waiting things out and not knowing when I need to be seen, because I always say "just one more day and I'll go in".  I'm just too busy to be running the 30+ mins to the doctor for each thing.  I need to be healthy.  I need to have energy again.  Last night was the first real meal I've given my family in over a week and it was obvious--everyone got excited when they saw I had stuff out for dinner!  How sad.  That was enough to almost break my heart because I LOVE cooking and baking for my family, and for the past week they've existed on sandwiches, cereal, oatmeal, frozen pizza and 1 night of take-out.

Are you there Readers? It's me, Candy

Hi.  I'm still alive, I promise.  I kinda fell off the face of the blogging earth for the last few months.  I was busy with a lot of stuff, but I'd tell myself, "I'll get the blog caught up tomorrow."  Then three weeks later I'd yell at *myself for not doing it, promise I'd do it the next day, rinse and repeat.  Sorry. 

I'm REALLY going to try to work harder at updating the blog.  I love blogging not just for my readers, but for myself.  It's such a fun way to record our happenings and history to later look back on.  Today I'm not going to do a big, in-depth review of the last 3 months.  That would just be too hard and too much.  I will, however, hit the highlights of what's been happening and really try harder to keep things up to date from here on out.  So here is what we've been up to:

December:
*Christmas programs for all 3 girls at school
*Christmas program at church, including Alayna playing a saxophone solo for the first time ever (she started playing in October

*The girls and I went with my mom and some friends to see Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella.  Mikayla, in particular, loved it because it was her first big play/show!
*We got some new calves
*Christmas in all it's glory with lots of fun gatherings, church services and yummy foods
*Mikayla turned a whole hand full!  She's now the proud owner of 5 years of life.

January:
*Alayna turned 11!
*I went scrapbooking for a weekend away with friends
*We went to see The Lion King!  Mikayla is in love with all things lion and Lion King, and she was enthralled with the entire show.
*Mikayla and Lilly started 8 weeks of swimming lessons
*We got more new calves, bringing our total up to 5 babies and 3 big steers
*Lots of Saturdays spent at basketball tournaments for Alayna
*Wonderful report cards were sent home for all 3 girls!

February:
*More basketball tournaments, finally ending the end of the month
*Alayna won the 5th grade spelling bee and progressed to the school-wide bee, where she came in 2nd overall (first place was an 8th grader)
*Alayna also participated in Battle of the Books, where teams are given a bag of books to read and then tested on.  Her team placed third
*Lilly passed Level 1 swimming and Mikayla passed pre-school aquatics
*Big snow-storm that dumped 14" of snow on us, resulting in the only snow-day of the year since there's been little to no snow all year

So that's the gist of what's been going on.  I'm really going to try to stay caught up, but if I fall behind, don't be afraid to give me a shake and yell at me!  Please?!