a giraffe kind of day

Sam woke up in one of those moods. You know, when you can't live without ALL of your giraffe toys in your arms? It happens to all of us.

What can I say? The boy loves his "ah-waffs".

"Sam, where are your giraffes?"

Giraffe attacks are funny.

Sam has been so helpful this morning. I'm on day 4 of waking up totally exhausted (thank you sinus infection) but he has been an angel. Handing me tissues, putting toys away and giving me kisses on my cheek.
 
I had a little sneezing fit after breakfast and when I had finished there was Sam at my feet stroking my knee. "You aright? You aright, Mommy?" I couldn't help but pick him up and squeeze the little man. He is such a love!

Chickens!

After years of begging, Matty finally caved and allowed me to buy chickens! (and dont say anything, but I'm pretty sure Matty is starting to like them.) Besides the fact that I LOVE me some birds, I am excited to gather eggs, build them a coop and use their mess to fertilize our vegetable garden. Bring on the overalls and plaid shirts because I'm a farmin'!

Meet the little ladies!

This is Dotty. She is a Barred Plymouth Rock hen. She is quite shy but still super sweet. She is the loudest of the three and "peeps" a lot during the day.Dotty will grow up to look something like this:

This is Daisy. She is a White Leghorn hen and she is large and in charge. She is a week older than the other two and she thinks that makes her "Mother Hen." She is a drama queen and yells bloody murder when you pick her up. She is quite the character already.

She is going to be pretty like so:

And last, but absolutely not least, Doris. She is my favorite. (don't tell the others!) Doris is a Rhode Island Red. She loves to be cuddled and is sweet little soul. She is the best at keeping herself clean and eats a whole lot.

She should grow up to look like this:

They have been so much fun. We are going to enjoy the cute baby phase as much as we can because these 3 will be mature and laying eggs by August!

Sam is AMAZING with them. He is so gentle and they actually seem to really like him. They stay seated in his lap and allow him to pet them.  Sam gets so excited to tell people about his chickens and is so proud to show them off.

Here is Daisy doing what she does best. Protecting her "babies."

We have had lots of visitors that will hopefully get these little girls socialized.
HEN FACTS:

An egg takes the hen 25 hours to make, so at most, a hen can lay 6 eggs per week. (That's 18 a week for us! Our neighbors will be getting free dozens, I promise you that.)

A minimum of 3 chickens makes a brood. If a chicken is alone, they can easily die of loneliness.


A hen lives an average of 5-7 years, but can live up to 20 years. She'll lay eggs her entire life, with production decreasing every year from year one.

Alektorophobia is the name given to "The Fear of Chickens". I have the opposite of this :)


Eggs have a natural protective coating called the "bloom", which gives the egg a slightly "matt" finish. Washing Grade A eggs before selling them to the public is illegal, as it removes this coating. In the 19th century in Ireland, a farmer could be put in jail for washing eggs.


A chicken with red earlobes will produce brown eggs and a chicken with white earlobes will produce white eggs.

Olympic Game Farm

Since I was off of work last Saturday we decided to enjoy the time off together and head into Sequim with my parents. We have been wanting to drive through the animal reserve since we tried it out last summer, so we caught a ferry and spent the day there.











The elk. Showing us how he really feels about wheat bread.

Look at that face! Aren't the oxen kind of cute?

Me feeding the lama. I was pretty sure I was going to get spit on.





This bread-preying eagle,

Plus bread-hungry peacocks,

equal = a fight.

There were monkeys there too :)









And, scene.

Our new hangout

The Lynnwood Rec center. Only $4.50 for adults and $3.50 for kids to use the pool. This post may sound a little like a paid advertisement...but it ain't.

We have spent hours and hours there just this week. Sam has tons of fun splashing around while Matt and I trade parenting shifts to try out the water slides (which are surprisingly fast!).

If we're not home, chances are this is where we are. Such a fun place!

Why I am a Mom

There is a reason to laugh and make someone else laugh every day.

The rewards are prominent and endless.

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.

The everyday lessons of patience, understanding and time management.

The constant reminder that life is fragile and fast.

All the fun activities you can only get away with when you have a child.

(Swings and slides, hello!)

The joy of teaching and seeing your baby learn.

The firmness it adds to any testimony.

Seeing life through "first time" eyes.

The kisses, hugs and "I love you's".

To be able to use and cherish the gift of birth and motherhood
given to us by God.

The timelessness of it all.

Unemployed

Thanks to this wonderfully crappy economy, Matt has really struggled to find work. And thanks to an even more amazingly silly government, Matt was denied unemployment because "he's a student, and therefore unavailable for work."  This is ridiculous, as the MBA program he's enrolled in is designed for people already in their careers who don't want to quit their jobs to attend school full time.  Matt filed an appeal with the State to argue this point, and we pray that it rules in our favor. We are hoping for an answer in the mail today or tomorrow.

Matty asked me the other day what I thought the Lord was trying to teach us with this trial.  Humility, patience and financial preparedness were a few thoughts that came to mind.  We are definitely learning how important these three principles are as we wait for one of these job leads to turn into something.

Matt and I have been blessed with finances sufficient to meet our needs, often with extra for some fun.  We haven't been too good at saving and we were never really concerned with our future. The past few months have definitely taught us to be more aware of the potential instability of income. Doesn't it seem like all things fall apart when you have no money to fix them?

These few months have been an emotional roller coaster, to say the least. Matt has had exciting leads and hopeful interviews that have yet to work out. It's a very frustrating process.  There are so many people in the same situation as us.  My parents have been struggling financially for almost four years now and the unemployment rate is an extremely depressing number.

We are lucky that I am able to bring in some money by picking up extra shifts with Courtney, or through photo shoots that I have been able to book on the few days of sun that we have had. Its not enough, but it keeps us fed and clothed.

Its been hard, as we expected it would be, but we are still so blessed. Its not easy to do, but we thank the Lord for the learning experiences and hardships that we have been given to remind us how truly lucky we are. We hope and pray for some positive changes in the VERY near future, but we know that we will be taken care of until then.

Happenings

Although Matt is still struggling to find a job, we managed to go out to dinner for our anniversary. We dropped Sam off with Papa and Tutu and sat down for dinner at the one place we had a gift card for, Spazzo's.

The food wasn't that great and our waitress probably used meth, but it was so amazing to just sit down, relax and focus on us. Its been a while since it was just the two of us and it was a very refreshing night.

After dinner we headed home and...that's all you need to know. ;)

This weekend turned out to be so beautiful! Although I worked with Courtney and Matt attended school, we did get to enjoy the sun when we got home. Saturday night we played outside at Matt's parents house and then Sunday we flew kites and hiked to the pond. Sam was in heaven. We could really use more sunny days here in Seattle. April was pretty darned miserable.

Sam has been signing a lot lately. Of course my favorite is "I love you."

Looks like the weather report calls for more vitamin D tomorrow so we'll probably be out re-living the weekend, if we're able.