New Chicks

Here's some pics of our 5 new chickies. According to Kenzie, they did okay overnight...she found them all huddled in one nestbox this morning, guess they were keeping each other company.

These little ones were very thirsty...


This one was roosting on the arm of a chair...


and this one was running around the pen crying...guess he was having trouble finding his friends.

Labor Day

I hope everyone is have a fun and relaxing Labor Day. Not much is going on here other than Andy and Kenzie picking up a few new chickens...as if we need anymore chickens. They are so small compared to the ones we already have but the bigger ones are pretty much ignoring them at this point, so that's good.

Oops!

Andy decided to do some work inside the chicken coop today and ended up locking himself inside the coop. ROFL The door latches by a slide bolt that slips into a hole in the floor. When he closed the door behind him he hadn't turned the bolt so that it wouldn't slip into the hole. There's no way to open the door from the inside once the bolt is in. Luckily he had his cell phone on him so he called our home phone and asked McKenzie to come out and let him out. Of course, he told her not to tell me what he'd done...which she didn't, he ended up telling. It's a good thing he had his cell phone on him otherwise he would have been keeping those chickens company for quite awhile before we would have gone looking for him. LOL

Big Girl Bed

Bekah got her big girl bed today and she was so excited about it. She had the biggest grin on her face that you could imagine when we finally got it put all together. She's having a hard time staying put in it now that it's time for bed...funny how she had no problem being in it earlier when Taylor and her spent the afternoon playing in it. LOL



This means that I was able to get the crib moved over into Kearsyn's room so now her room is complete other than putting some additional items on the walls. I still need to get frames for my Noah's Ark stitching to hang in there but eventually that will get done.



Kearsyn did excellent while I went to my two appts today. She slept the entire time I was gone both times...approx 1 1/2 - 2 hrs each time...that might have had something to do with me stuffing her full of milk before I left. LOL I got a clean bill of health from my OB with instructions to come back in a few months for my annual. Ugh! Everything checked out at the eye doctor as well and I made it out of there without needing a new prescription. Whew!

Andy and the kids decided it was time to put the Christmas tree up...we're trying to having all the decorations done by the time my family comes over for Thanksgiving. Because we don't have much room this year, Andy decided that we should only put up half a tree. Now when I first heard this, I thought he meant the top half of the tree and couldn't figure out how that was going to help us (just blame that on sleep deprivation) but in reality he meant the front half of tree, leaving the back half off so that it could sit flush against the wall. I have to say it was a good idea and works really well. They were able to get all the branches assembled but I have to say that their grooming ability leaves alot to be desired. But as I was told, their job is to make the tree functional while by job is to make it pretty. LOL Tomorrow I'll work on fluffing up the tree so it doesn't have any holes although Andy claims those holes would be good to put ornaments in. Hmmm...LOL I'll take a picture of it once it's completely decorated.

That's about it for the day...was a long one for me as I'm not used to doing all this running around so I'm going to be tired tonight. Let's hope Kearsyn's goes back to sleep after she's gets her middle of the night feedings...she has a habit of eating and then staying awake for another hour looking around before she drifts back off to sleep.

I'm sure most have read about this already on Andy's blog but just thought I mention it here that we have a hawk making breakfasts out of our chickens. Hopefully the netting that Andy and Kenzie put over the run this morning will keep him, and any of his friends, at bay.

I just went to check on how Bekah was doing in her bed and found what the pic shows. Now that's true sisterly love.

Flown the Coop

Our foster roosters have left their temporary home and will be on their way to the butchers bright and early tomorrow morning. Kenzie was quite sad that she had to let her favorite rooster go. The coop didn't stay empty for long, though. Andy and Kenzie cleaned out the coop to get it ready for it's new inhabitants. Our chickens our now happily nesting away in there new home. You can read more details about the transfer here.

Our First Baby...

...chicky baby that is. The very first one hatched this morning to an audience of Kenzie, Taylor, Tyler and Alex. You see a pic of him here. We've since had one more hatch and a few others that are trying.

Updating to add that we now have 5 baby chicks that have hatched today. Almost all the remaining have been pecked through. Will be interesting to see how many hatch overnight and throughout the day tomorrow.

A Quiet Day at Home

It was wonderful waking up this morning when I wanted to...not having to worry about being up at the crack of dawn, running around to get a shower, get dressed, get my lunch together and then making the hour drive to work. I was still up at 5 though, my normal waking time, so I got up and bopped around the boards for a little bit then went back to bed. How nice that was! Guess it'll take a little while for my internal clock to readjust to not needing to be up that early. I was able to get a number of things done while logged in to work today although I am at a slight disadvantage since all my notes are at work. If I had planned this better I would have grabbed them before I left work on Tuesday. LOL Not to mention straightening up my desk. What a mess that was! When I work on a report I usually spread all the papers I'm using out on my desk so I can refer easily from one to the other. Sometimes when I leave in the evening, it's not worth putting them all back together in the folder just to pull them all back out in the morning. And that's exactly what I'd done when I left work Tuesday...left them spread out all over my desk. Luckily I have a nice coworker who straightened my desk of for me. =)

I made one short trip out of the house today to get the emissions test done on my car...thought I had another week to get it done but I was mistaken. While I was out, I also stopped by the post office to mail a mini rr and a finishers too piece since I couldn't hand deliver them while at Hershey like I had planned to today. I was able to talk to Jo Anna yesterday and it sounded like they were having a wonderful time up there...and buying lots of stitchy stuff.

A very nice friend brought dinner over for us tonight. How sweet was that? She wanted to do something for us after hearing about what's been going on with the munchkin. The dinner was a delicious noodle casserole and much to my DH's surprise, all the kids actually liked it. They usually grumble about sauce being on noodles...some like, some don't...but they all liked the dish tonight. There was also yummy rolls, applesauce, milk, butter and cookies. A complete meal. And there are even leftovers, so we have lunch for tomorrow. =)

Tomorrow is another milestone for our chickie eggs...they get to be taken out of their rockers in preparation of them hopefully starting to hatch on Monday. I recandled all the eggs so that we could try to remove any empty eggs. Wow, what a difference a week makes...most of the eggs are completely black now which should mean that there is a chickie in there. Even most of our questionable eggs are looking good. So the numbers now look like 17 with chickies in them and 5 that are empty. Now to wait and see how many of the 17 actually hatch.

I've also been getting some stitching in. I decided Tuesday night, while having all the contractions, that I needed something mindless to work on so I started Tanya's Halloween Gameboard Mystery Stitch A Long. I figured I could handle stitching a bunch of boxes in one color. LOL I'm almost done with the orange boxes...only two more rows to go then I can switch to the black ones.

Stitching Today

I was a good girl and that's pretty much all I did today except for a few loads of laundry. As a result, I was able to get my Quaker Mystery Sampler all finished up. I decided after looking at the last part that it wouldn't take very long to get it done so I figured I'd just go ahead and finish it instead of switching to Mother's Bliss. Now to decide which of my other wips to replace this one with or if I'm going to start a new piece.

I candled a few eggs today just to see what Andy had seen the other day. Little chickies are definitely growing in some of them and it looks like some of 4 questionable eggs have chicks in them as well. We took a pic of one as it was being candled...go here if you'd like to see it. Only about a week to go before they should start hatching. Andy has made a friend with one of our border roosters...although we are thinking this one might actually be a hen. He sat on a chair in the pen today and one jumped up on his knee wanting his attention. He commented that he doesn't think he'd be able to eat this one, which is a good thing since it's not our chicken to eat. LOL

Egg Update

Just a quick update on the chickie eggs. The eggs have now been incubating for 6 days, so last night we did our first try at candling the eggs to see what's going on inside of them. It looks like we have 10 that have embryos, 4 that are infertile, 2 that are bad, 4 possibles and 4 that we aren't sure of yet. Will be interesting to see what we end up with.

Play Ball!

Kenzie had her first softball practice today and judging from the big grin she had on her face when she got home, I'm thinking she had a good time. She was talking about the different games they played and how she won the first one, about the different skills they practiced...batting, fielding, throwing. I do believe she's looking forward to her next practice. I also think she mentioned something about possibly doing tournaments in October but maybe I just misheard that. ;)

I had my 34wk appt today. Everything is going well although I did gain 10lbs since my last appt 5 wks ago. That makes a total of 35lbs so far this pregnancy with 6 wks to go. Forgot to check what my blood pressure was but I'm assuming it was normal since they didn't mention it...we were yapping about the traffic and the rain at the time so I forgot to look. Had the strep B test done today and he checked the cervix out while there...nothing going on, still closed and thick so all the contractions I've been having haven't been productive. Not sure if I'm happy or sad about that. LOL Of course I'm happy...the little munchkin isn't ready to come out yet...she still needs to cook a little longer.

Alex and Connor had their first 4-H meeting tonight. That was a surprise to me when their ride showed up at the door to pick them up and I didn't know what was going on. It was slightly chaotic tonight with me trying to get home from my drs appt and getting stuck in traffic caused by and overturned tractor trailer, Andy trying to leave to get Kenzie to her practice on time and trying to fit dinner in there which I still don't think was fair at all that we got blecky ole frozen pizza while Andy and Kenzie got to stop at McD's on the way to practice. ;) After Alex and Connor have left, I get a phone from Andy asking that I make sure that someone puts the chickens away for the night. Hmm, wonder who that someone was going to be since all the older kiddos were gone. What a sight I must have made chasing chickens around their pen trying to shoo them through the doorway into the coop. I'd get a couple through the door, go and try to shoo more that direction and the couple that had gone in were now coming back out. I finally got them all in but it was no easy task, let me tell you. Andy was laughing and was saying how he'd have liked to have seen me doing that with my big belly. I didn't find that amusing in the slightest. Hmmpphff! Actually, it was pretty funny, especially if you picture me doing that in the rain. LOL

We Have Chicken Eggs

24 chicken eggs to be exact. They are snug and toasty in their incubator as you can see in the pic. Thankfully the incubator has an automatic egg turner so we don't have to worry about turning them every few hours throughout the day. Just have to keep an eye on the temp and the humidity levels. We should know in about 2 1/2wks or so how many chickies we'll get out of the bunch. I'll keep you updated. :)

Kenzie's softball coach called today and said that their first practice is on Thursday. At least we only have to go to Easton for this practice and not their indoor facility in Trappe...saves about a 1/2hr driving time. Andy's going to take her this time so he can meet the coach since he had to miss the tryouts. I told him in no way was he to get roped into helping coach this team. We'll see how that goes. LOL