Some new additions!
Last Friday I brought 12 of these cuties home. Last July we lost half of our flock with the extreme heat waves. (Turns out even with fresh water and shade, chickens die when the weather hits 117 or higher!) I have learned my lesson and have plans to keep our feathered brood alive next summer (like a little plastic baby pool filled with water for them to wet themselves in or a mister I can hook to the hose and turn on during those hot days). The kids were making decent money (for their age...$1-2 weekly each) selling all the eggs we were getting, but then 6 of the 12 of our chickens died and then we had a couple who weren't real good layers, so that little business fizzled out. Six months from now when these babies start laying we'll be up and rolling again!
When we put them out in the grass to run around they still stay huddled together and liked to gather underneath our legs.
This last Friday night we went to the Basha Elementary Family Fun Night. It's a PTO fundraiser but such a rip-off. I won't be going again... It was $8 per kid just for a wrist band for them to jump on the bouncers. Little homemade fair games (ring toss, etc.) cost $1 each to play, elementary sized hot dogs and nachos (made straight out of the school cafeteria) were $2-3 each, cotton candy was $2, snow cones were $3-4, popcorn was $3-4, etc. Ridiculous! We spent $30 and that was just for the bouncers and a sorry excuse for dinner. Next year we'll skip it completely and just go to the fair with that money, sorry Basha PTO. Happy to support you but not when you rip me off to that extreme.
See their happy smiles coming down the slide?
Had to include Brighton. My sweet boy is having a rough transition right now for some reason. At school this year he has had pretty stellar behavior, up until the last few weeks. He's received two detentions within a weeks time! The first one was for play fighting, which I can understand since any and all fighting is not allowed, but the second one (which he did receive a punishment for) was for pushing a kid out of line. His teacher (who has just loved him since he is such a smarty pants) has also said he hasn't been following directions in class. When I asked him why he wasn't listening he said it was because he already knew EVERYTHING. I assured him that even though he is very smart and a great reader, he does not know EVERYTHING yet and still needs to listen and follow directions. Sigh... At home we have also had a lot of rough days due to his persistent mouthing off and disrespectful attitude. I know my sensitive sweetheart is still in there somewhere, but somehow he's developed this expectation that he can argue his way out of anything - which doesn't happen, but he still tries. What ends up happening is we have to impose sad consequences on him that we have to stick to, regardless of how upset it makes him. On the way home from family night (a 10 minute drive), Brighton was hitting Adaira and after he refused to leave her alone he was told he would go to bed early that night. The hitting and pestering continued so he was then told he was also going to have a spanking. Upon getting that consequence, Brighton decided to start mouthing off and another consequence of lemon juice in his mouth was added along with a threat that he was not to say anything else until we arrived home. With that, he insisted on mouthing off and was told by Justin that if he didn't stop immediately he was going to lose the trip to the state fair that we had planned for the next day. Brighton immediately mouthed off again and Justin snapped back that the fair was off and only Justin and Adaira were going to get to go. Brighton couldn't believe it and kept asking Justin what he could do to make up for it. We told him he couldn't do anything to change it and that he needed to know when to stop his behavior. Of course things got sad and ugly from there because he assumed he could somehow fix what he had done, which he couldn't. He started yelling, I'm pretty sure he said he hated us, and told us that all we liked to do was punish him... It was a very rough night once we arrived home to say the least, and he managed to accomplish all of that in a 10 minute car ride!
Taken yesterday at 39 weeks and two days... Let the final countdown begin!
I'm due the 3rd but the Drs office thinks I'm due on Halloween (I fudge my dates a little bit so they think I'm due sooner than I really am, and with the size of babies that I produce they've yet to question it). At least by the time Sunday the 6th rolls around they will be ready and willing to induce me since according to their knowledge I will be a week overdue :) I told the doctor at my last check-up that I wasn't in a big hurry to deliver because I wanted to go to the Southwest Regional FSA Conference this weekend, so I told them they didn't even need to check me. Almost two weeks ago I was 2cm dilated and 70-80% effaced, so for now that is good enough for me.
I will be quitting LDS Family Services after I have this baby and will miss being involved in adoption work. I want to make it to the conference (even though it means going overdue on this pregnancy) so I can say goodbye to all my great adoption friends (couples and birthmothers alike). It has truly been a remarkable work to be a part of and I've witnessed so many sacred and spiritual things and met and rubbed shoulders with such amazing people. I am sad to go but I also feel like it is time. It's been hectic juggling both since having Dale, not to mention day care for four children during summer and school breaks is not exactly cheap and I can't ask Frances to watch all four of them when she's already got a full day care. I wasn't ready to leave at all when I had Dale, but after coming back since having him and trying to juggle it all (plus making it home by 3:15 to get the kids off the bus every day rather than being able to work a longer day and pick them up at 5pm), I can say that I am ready to let it go, but that doesn't mean I won't miss it. I have great coworkers, an awesome boss, work as many hours as I want when I want, a workplace that involves staff meetings that open with a prayer and spiritual thought, etc. I consider myself to blessed to have been able to have that job essentially fall into my lap 3.5 years ago. It's so hard to give it up!
Comments