Puppies and Prayers

The kids and I were talking at lunch. Apparently they are still on the death kick, and one question led to another and Kember asked me when Jesus was coming. I told her that no one knew when he was going to come, and she said, "I do!"
me -"Really? When is he coming?"
kember -"At the end."
Well, yes, yes, that's true. He is going to come at the end.
Then we got talking about prayers. I was trying to explain to them that Heavenly Father will always answer our prayers, even if the answer is no. I didn't explain this very well. I used this example. "So if you pray for Heavenly Father to let you have a puppy, and you don't get one, this isn't because Heavenly Father didn't answer your prayer, it's because He knows they best possible thing to make you happy." (Okay, and reading this no wonder I get a blank look from my kids a lot) and Kember says, "We get puppies from the pet store." Okay, bad example. That's the last time I try to explain prayers with puppies.

Chop, chop!

Well, it's done. Quite quickly for me too! I was talking to my friend at the park, and we got talking about my hair when she turns to me and says, "Let's go right now! I'll watch your kids." Wow...okay, sure why not? I called Dan to prepare him, and let him know I wouldn't be home for lunch. He was worried. But he got over it and came to the school where I got my hair chopped off. Yikes! She cut my braid off and I ran my fingers through my hair and I thought, "Oh, dear...this is so much shorter than I thought it was going to be....what have I done?" She cut a little more than 10 inches off, and inside I'll admit I was freaking out. But I had come prepared to hate it and just live with it. After all, it was for a good cause, and hair grows back. Mine a little more slower than some peoples, but hey, it would grow back. Dan came before she was done styling it, and he got a little worried too. However, I'll just say this. I like it. Which I was not prepared for. Dan is growing to like it (hehehe) too. He says it fits my personality better...something about being sassy, which I'm not sure how I feel about that. I'm going to show you pictures, but please realize it looks way cuter in person (because I'm just goofy looking in front of a camera....not photogenic at all). So, don't mind the weird look on my face, just look at the hair. Kember took this picture for me. Not a bad job.

It's so quick and easy to do. The best part for me is that even when it's curly (which was another surprise...she styled it straight, which I loved, but thought it would look terribly curly, but low and behold, I like it better than straight!) I still feel like it looks cute at the end of the day. Normally I only thought my hair looked nice for about an hour after I did it, then it started to look...well, not so nice. Now I've even taken naps on it (yes, I do take naps) and I still feel like it looks fine. I had some issues straightening it myself, and I can't really pull it back into a pony tail, but considering how fast it is, hopefully I won't need to.

Anyway, just wanted to let everyone know that I actually did it. I got my hair chopped off.

Adventures in Chickenland

Yes, that's correct. We are now owners of three chickens. Dan brought them home this weekend per my request and his parents generosity. I'd been thinking about getting chickens for quite a while. When ever I think about self-reliance I think about chickens. Long complicated story, don't ask. Anyway, I always thought about it, but didn't think it was possible given where we live. Well, our friends who live a few houses down got some and told us that the city had changed some laws to allow it. Great! Now I just had to convince Dan. I talked to his parents about their chicken experience and they said we could have some of their chickens, and this way, if we don't like it they will take them back. This was all sounding really perfect to me. My family really wants pets because fish apparently aren't enough, so chickens sounded like the next best thing. No need to love a chicken...no need to feel guilty for not loving a chicken or not spending time with it. It will teach the kids responsibility and hey, we'll get eggs. So, perfect all around. Dan took some convincing. Once I told him he could build the coop he argreed (and then I dashed his hopes when I told him no to all his elaborate plans...but really, why spend all that money on something we might not keep?). Anyway, like I said, he agreed and brought them home Saturday night. It was around then that our neighbors told us that their chickens had yet to lay an egg. Hmm...well, it's still a great experience. We really only use eggs for baking, and I don't bake all that much. No biggie.
Saturday night we put the kids to bed and stay up until 11:30 finishing the chicken coop...well, not finishing, but making it chicken-liveable. It was kind of fun to build something with Dan, even it if took me ten times longer to do things than it would have taken him. He was good to let me help. Well, Sunday when we drove up the driveway from church I saw an egg in the coop! Awesome! I figured that was the one and only egg we would get, and only got it because it was in the making the previous day at it's former home. Well, to make a really long story shorter (but still long) we've got one egg every day so far. Here's a picture of Kember with our first egg. So glad her eyes are closed...sigh.We enclosed our side yard and we've been letting the chickens roam our yard during the day. I thought this was a great idea, especially when we plant our garden because they eat bugs! Awesome. Well, maybe not. I'm not sure if all chickens do this, or if ours are just particularly weird, but they are major destructive (not like there is anything there yet that we care about) and they like to throw dirt on themselves. Is that normal? I know horses do that, but chickens? Weird. Here are our chickens burying themselves in dirt.
Well, here is where the adventure begins. We decided to paint the chicken coop to make it last a little longer. So I shooed the chickens out of it (it was mid-day and they were free to roam, but were in the coops. Well, painting was an adventure. It was Kember and me trying to do it. She was painting the outside, and I the inside. The chickens really wanted back in...really bad. They kept trying to get in, and flapping and scaring Kember and whatever. Anyway, I decided to be done painting and let the birds in. Just at that time two of them decided that it was time to fly over the fence to our neighbors yard. Oh wonderful. Dan is no where near being home, and these are neighbors I haven't met (pathetic I know, no excuse other than we're anti-social). Anyway, I knock on their door and explain the situation. Two of them come out to help me round up the stupid chickens. No, I'm not feeling very friendly towards them at this time. Kember starts freaking out. She screams, "I want you! Mom, I want you!" I keep telling her that I'm right here and will be back as soon as we get the chickens. Well, shes screaming for a while because I'm no good at catching chickens (I'm rather chicken myself). I ran home to grab a sheet to throw over them, and the neighbor lady realizes that Kember is screaming this time because she is stuck. She went through two fences to try to get to me and got stuck. Sigh. Well, I run back around to unwedge her through the fence, leave her screaming again (I did hug her and comfort her a little) to go catch another stupid bird (I had caught one of them by this time). They grabbed the other by the time I got there, but Kember is traumatized. Cole escaped the yard too, and couldn't figure out how to get back, so he was crying, and I couldn't find him (he was in the other neighbors yard). Caden was just wandering around happy as could be because he was missing his nap. Sigh...We finally got all three chickens back in their coop, and there they are staying until Dan clips their wings and even then they might stay there indefinitely. Oh, so in the middle of all this Dan calls me back to tell me that he will clip their wings when he gets home, and that it shouldn't be that hard. I wasn't really in the mood to take this call. The chickens were hiding in the neighbors front yard bushes at this time, and no one could get them, but the lady was trying to go in her bushes to do it. Sigh...well, it's all good now. And it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it made for a crazy afternoon. My other neighbor called when we finally got inside to see if everything was okay. They could hear Kember screaming her head off when she was stuck. Chickens....great idea....lovin' 'em. Teaches responsibility....Good times :)