Hmmm, once a year...at least I'm consistent.

Hello again,

I was looking at Lena's blog and saw the link to mine.

Owww pang of guilt hit.

So I thought, what they hey, I'll put a little post together.

So I bet you want to know about whats going on in our life. If you don't I don't know why your on our blogs...

So if you want to know whats going on look at Lena's blog! :)

Just kidding. This is papa's blog and I have add a different perspective on what is going on in our wonderful life.

First off, I'm not being sarcastic. Life is wonderful. I have the best wife for me and I have 3 wonderful children! Yes, my job doesn't pay squat but I am lucky to have a job, especially where we live. Yes, we are living in the upstairs of a barn but at least we have a roof over our heads and air conditioning and heating during the winter. Yes, school is never fun and takes so much time and money, but hey I am at school and hopefully bettering myself.

This semester its Micro Biology, Anatomy, statistics, and organizational theory. 14 credits. 32 hour a week job. 1 wife. 3 children. Life is wonderful but busy.

Our plans have changed about 45 times, wait....maybe it was 46 times since I last wrote. I will leave out all the past plans and tell you our most current ones. This year I finish my bachelors in Administration and all my pre-reqs to nursing. Then next year, with the hope a great government scholarship, we will attend a 14 month accelerated BSN program. That means, by the spring of 2013 I will have 2 bachelor degrees including the administration and the nursing degree! Ya, I can get a job that pays the bills and supports my family! Then maybe will go to Missouri where we might be able to afford a house!

Anyway. Thats that plans. Our little JJ Lee is teaching us that sleep is very precious and should not be wasted. So...hey look at the time....its BED TIME!

Take care and Love you all!

It been awhile!

Hey! Where have you been? I would have posted at least 5 posts while you were gone, but Noooo, you left some where so I decided I would wait until you were back to write again. But your back so I guess I will write again...

First off, an update on the HCG diet. I lost a total of around 25 pounds on the diet and now I'm finishing up the maintance part. I am happy with the wieght I lost even though I still could lose another 10 or so comfortably.

Life focus has now changed. This summer so far was diet, diet, diet...with some chick raising and some yard work.

Diet is about done, now it is SCHOOL for at least a week, then vacation, YAAAAA!, and then it is back to yard for a bit before school begins in full force for the fall. Both Lena and I have some major papers to write this week before we leave on vacation. Not fun, but I think we will manage. When we get back, I have to really focus on school and the future and get some of the little things I've procrastinated done. I did a little today, which turned out great. In fact I will share...

This fall my plan was to take 2 prereqs for Nursing, Biology 100 and chemistry 130. Then in the spring I was going to take Bio 201 and other classes. The advisor I talked with today said then when you apply (early spring) for the nursing program they like to see a grade for bio 201 completed. (hmmm, this isn't good...) But then she said she would override the requirement to take Bio 100 and let me take bio 201 this fall! Yea!!! One less class I have to take! Saves me time and money and also gets me in a better position to get into the nursing program.

Well, I just thought of another thing I want to get done, so I better do it while I'm thinking of it.

Later, but don't leave for so long this time!

The HCG diet.

Have you wondered where I've been? Well I'm afraid if you want update you just have to read our family blog or our new HCG blog.

Since starting the diet I haven't had my normal energy and therefore have wanted to go to bed earlier. Also, school has been crazy for my love so she needs a couple hours about everyday for it. That leaves me a couple hours during whole week to do mine.

I am getting more confortable with the diet. (if you ask me around 11am you may get a different answer) I am also happy with the weight that has been going down. I feel better about myself with less weight and feel healthier.

Chickens have also been crazy. Been trying to teach them to roost in the coop. So far it has been on the tree, on the fence, on the coop, on the door, and anywhere except the coop. I did realize tonight that many of them cannot fly the high yet. I need to build them a ladder of some type. Also I need to build another roost for them.

Well I am tired so good night and hope to see you soon!

My birthday and other happenings...

First of all, thank you who all voted on my rooster problem. And for those of you who haven't voted yet, get your tush in gear and vote! :) Just to let you know we have found out there is a good chance our Golden Laced Polish is a hen and not a rooster, but we shall see.

Life Happenings...

Last week was a blast. Hiking, dinosaur foot print hunting, site seeing, horse back riding...all in one week. Actually all that was in two days.

We got our next shipment of chicks last friday. We had ordered 3 more silkies, 3 black Marans, 1 Production Red and then Eriks chicks which was 25 white Leghorns. The company sent us 4 silkies, 1 bantam cochin, 4 Marans, 2 Production Reds, and 27 Leghorns. We gave Erik his Leghorns, but also a Maran and silkie. I wanted my brother to have a little variety in his chickens. It was sad one of our silkies ended up getting weak and passed away today.

Our other chicken problem was our golden laced polish got prolapsed. Basicly it means, stuff that is supposed to be inside started sticking out side. We worked with her for 4 days and yesterday she seemed better. We ended up having a appointment at best friends who said that would look at her today and they said everything was looking better. So today she was finally able to rejoin the flock. I'm glad I don't have to play chicken doctor anymore.

More life...HCG diet. We started shooting up yesterday. The first 3 days of this diet it great! Bacon, sausage, cheese, hot dogs, cake, candies and more...so far so good...I think I can handle the diet...I guess we will see Friday evening how I am doing. :)

Birthday...My sweet wife wrote a nice tribute on her blog wishing me a happy birthday... thank you Honey.

Oh no...running out of typing steam....must fit in last thoughts....

School started....its ok.....Mark, Durin, Derrik, Nick, Victoria, and Victoria visiting... fun, especially for Jakob....Lawn doing great....Garden Growing good....Pretty birds....Pink elephants...fading...Fading...Fading

Question of the roo's

So... its been a little while. I have a lot to catch up on, but first I want to ask you your opinion. Our sweet chickens are growing up and we are finding we have some roosters. Actually we have to many roosters. So some must go. Help me decide which ones to keep and reply on your thoughts. I have pictures of what they should look like when full grown.


First, we have the possibility of at least 1 silkie rooster.

Next, we have 2 Polish possible roosters. The first a golden laced Polish and the next a white crested black polish.

Next, we have 2 Golden laced Wyandottes. They are very pretty, close to your traditional rooster.

Next we have 2 Partridge Cochin Rooster. Close to the same marking just fluffier and not quite as bright colors.

So...We are thinking 4 roosters should be our max, that means 3 have got to go or turn out to be hens. We will have 19 or so hens and 4 roosters. What is your vote?

Long Good Day...better then yesterday...

Wouldn't it be great if everyday was better then the last? I actually hope it is and strive to live that ideal, but it is not always so. Of course it helps if 1 day just really sucks, then you can live the ideal at least for 1 or 2 days... :)

Anyway, Friday wasn't so bad, it just wasn't great. We went to a doctors appointment for our baby. It went as well as expected, then did a little shopping, then went car shopping for several hours. It was very back and forth with our thought processes, then talking with salespeople, getting sisters help and suggestions...only to find out that car buying isn't a possibility for us right now. Rrrrrgh. Not just for us but it was a waste for many people who were trying to help us that day. Just feeling bad for them. So we did some more grocery shopping and came home.

Today was our work in the yard day. It was great and made me very tired. We mostly worked in the chicken run. Lena did great and did tons of organizing in our storage, did dishes, took care of the children, and still managed to help me out quite a bit. I worked on building a large fence between our chickens and the neighbors dogs. It was a lot of work, but it sure looks better and is going to be safer for our chickens. We even gave them a little field trip to their future run. Some were curious, others stayed in the coop. Chickens! Scared to come out... :)

We had a yummy dinner with my parents, did some nice quiet time, and now its time to sleep....

Nighty night.

I know it been a little while...

Life has been cruising along pretty fast this last week or so. The only problem its been cruising so long and fast that I haven't had very many rest stops on the way. And when I've hit those few rest stops, all I want to do is rest! Imagine that. But this morning, I had to wake up early to try to get some boards for our chicken coup. That is done with so now I'm awake and nobody else is and I have time to finally blog again!

Some of the things that have kept me busy is school, work, and family activities.

With school, this last week I had to read a book and write a report on it. I did it my typical fashion by reading some of it before hand, then the day its due finishing reading it and then writing the report that night. I don't recommend this method, but that is what seems to happen more often then not. The funny story with this is that I had read about half of the book come Sat. night. So, I thought to myself I can finish reading Monday and write the report that night. It was due Monday. Sunday I don't work on school work, so I didn't. Monday comes and I get done some of the reading during the day and then I get a call from Lena. She called to remind me that we family home evening with the rest of my family and we were doing a barbaque. I thought, Ok, I can do this. I'll just read up to the BBQ and then write the report after words. Then Lena said, Oh ya, its at your bothers. Ohhhhhh....he lives an hour away. This isn't going to be as easy as I thought. So I finished the book during the day, wrote a quick page before going, then went to the BBQ. It was alot of fun, then got home and finished it. It worked out, or at least I think it worked out. I haven't got my grade yet from it.

Work just has been work. It's nearing the end of the school year and that makes the kids anxious for summer. Actually it does me too. Its going good, but it does take a good chunk out of the day and I need to do better with CCC.

Family activities are also very fun, but it seems we've had several lately. There was the BBQ at Eriks that was a lot of fun. They make wonderful food and great company. It was fun to see the barn they've built and prepared for their upcoming cow, pigs, and chickens. It was fun to see their chicks and kittens they have. Its too bad they live so far away and life is so busy we don't see much of each other sometimes.

Jakob had a very fun dance recital. You can read about it on Lena's blog. But Jakob did great. It was fun to watch him. He did still the show as the many people came up to us after words and told us .

We've now started having T-ball practice for Jakob. He'll do great once he learns the basics of where to run after hitting it and where to throw the ball.

I guess the chicks we have take up a far bit of time too. They are growing great. All happy and healthy. We did notice when I got home from work yesterday that it smelled like a farm when I stepped in the door. Mainly we just need to add some more pine shavings to their litter and that helped tons. But I'm hoping to have the coop finished enough to put them in it later this week. They will be fine and the house will smell better and I'll think I'll sleep better. Those little peeps sometimes keep me up at night. We did add one more chickens to our group. A Barred Rock which is a pretty chicken that lays large tinted brown eggs. I figure we are going to have 3 dozen eggs a week when they all start laying. It may change if we have more roosters then we thought though. Just to let you know which kinds we have I'll tell ya.

1 Patridge Polish
2 White crested Black Polish
1 Buff Polish
2 Wyandottes (Pretty chickens)
3 Americanas (Easter Egg laying chickens)
5 Patridge Cochins (feathers on their feet) (Possible Bantom or mini chickens)
2 Buff Opringtons
1 Black Astrolorp
1 Barred Rock
1 White Silkie (the lap dog of Chickens)
2 Red Stars (great brown egg layers)

I think thats it. Crazy heh?

Anyway, just to let you know. I've got a great wife. She is so patient with all my little errors and annoying habits. I love her so much and am so greatful for her. She is a great woman.

Well others will be waking up soon, so see ya later!