A New Home

Our baby chicks are growing up and have been moved from the barn into a brand new 2006 mobile home built by my chicken farmer wanta-be husband. The newest chicken tractor is 85% complete and now houses 50 Buff Orpington hens and 1 extotic rooster, type to be determined. We need to buy more metal roofing for the top and build nesting boxes, so for the time being, a green tarp and old interior door serves as a roof. I think the door is kind of cool, we could hing it and add a door bell while we’re at it!

Our garden is doing well, the corn is thriving and we now have watermelon and cantaloupe leaves breaking ground as well. Ian designed and created signs for two of the rows, all his idea. I let him go and didn’t try to take over, like I usually do. He went through all his popsicle sticks and a good amount of glue and paint for his two signs, but I like them.

Girl’s Weekend

My New York trip was a success, lots of fun and laughter with some really good friends. We don’t talk often anymore or even email much, but as soon as we get together we talk and laugh like we have never been apart.
We met on Thursday morning at La Guardia airport and then headed to our hotel next to Grand Central Station. We ate lunch at a really good Chinese Restaurant near our hotel and went ice skating at Rockafeller Center.

On Friday we were determined to be on tv, so we got up at 5 am and walked to the NBC studios, got there at 6 am and waited in line until 7 am when the show started. We planned on staying for as long as it took to be on tv, well that proved to be another 3 hours, because AL never talked to us and the camera man stayed on the opposite side of us. At 9:45am, Katie and I had to leave and sit down, but Kelli was a trooper and stuck it our for 15 more minutes, that was it, just 15 more minutes after waiting for 3 hours and 45 minutes!! While Katie and I were waiting, my sister calls me and tells me she just saw Kelli on tv! Typical, I wait forever and give up. I could have had my moment of fame, oh well, a morning wasted in New York, but not quite. While we were waiting, Katie Couric was walking around posing for pictures with everyone, so we got our picture with her. I guess she’s not so bad after all!

We spent the next few hours resting up for dinner in Little Italy. We planned to eat at Luna’s, a restaurant we ate at 8 years ago, when we all visited New York together. Well, Luna’s was closed for rennovation, go figure. Good thing there are about 500 Italian Restaurants to choose from with all the waiters standing on the sidewalk with menus asking you to come eat at their restaurant. It wasn’t hard at all to choose one!
On Saturday we went on a lunch cruise on the Hudson, which included a buffet lunch, desert, caberet show and dance music and views of the city and statue of liberty. We did some shopping and rested some more and then back out for dinner.

Then there is Sunday, wow that was fast and we had to part. Such sweet sorrow! I did miss my boys and husband. Tried not to talk or think about them every waking moment, but they were on my mind often and I did show a lady in china town the picture of my boys when I was buying them swords and maybe a few other people, like the lady next to me on the plane home!
Thanks girls for putting up with me for 4 days and thanks family for putting up without me for four days and missing me!!

Sir Ian

I’m all packed and ready for NYC, but before I depart, I must leave you with a glimpse of our noble knight, high in the order of chivalry and bearing the most noble of arms.

Thailand Treats

My brother-in-law and his family are missionaries in Thailand, check out their blog here. They just had their second son over there, Calvin Lewis and my mother-in-law traveled there for a month to help out with their 2-1/2 year old. Well, she came home last week with the following goodies, beautiful orchids, a money purse, a silk elephant tie for Jay, 2 elephant toys for the boys, and some beautiful Thai fabric I can’t wait to cut into or I might make a sling for myself. Thanks Crystal and Paul and Grammie for the gifts from Thailand!

New York City here I come!

I’m getting excited about my trip to New York City this weekend! Going with my two best college buddies, Kelli and Katie. We are all flying out of different cities (Jax, Atlanta and West Palm) and meeting in New York on Thursday morning and leaving Sunday afternoon. The weather looks chilly there for the weekend with a high of 62 degrees. Guess I will have to layer up, thanks Mom for teaching me about layering, have to give credit where it’s due.
We plan on shopping, touring and checking out the museums of course and eating really well. Oh, and maybe we will even brave the cold early morning crowd outside of the Today Show, with crazy hats and signs, so keep and eye out for us on Friday morning!
The husband is in charge of the boys for the weekend and he is even taking two days off work, which is his looking forward to, so he can work and play in the yard with the boys. Maybe he will have another chicken tractor done by the time I get back! Whoo, hoo!
So if I don’t post for a while, it’s probably because I am busy getting ready, making my packing list, washing clothes and packing my bags for the “BIG APPLE”!!

Garden and stuff

We are getting ready for spring these days with flowers and a garden. Last month we planned out our spring garden, a 25′ x 25′ area to include corn, watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. Jay prepared the area with a rotatiller, thanks to “our neighbors” and Ian helped spread fertilizer and peet moss around, then we planted corn a few weeks ago. Now we have little corn sprouts that the boys love to check out everyday. We are looking forward to learning how to garden and grow vegetables with the boys. I am going to try to post when there is progress and keep this blog updated with our gardening adventure, whether it’s good or bad.

Yesterday, Ian and I read this book about trees and in the back, it had a little project for making bird treats to hang in a tree. It is really cute and easy for a yound child to make. Here are the directions: you need cookie cutters, bread, egg whites, bird seed and string. Cut out a shape in the bread, then poke a hole with a chop stick through the bread at the top of the shape, then brush egg white over the bread and press bird seed into it. Let it dry, then tie the string through the hole and hang it in a tree for the birds and squirrels to enjoy! We made a dog bone, a bunny and a foot!