What's been happing around here

Well, my life has been kind of crazy and my blogging has been put to a hold for awhile. So here is what's been happing here for about a month.

*I had been intently cleaning my house for our upcoming Holydays (which takes weeks). My life was so focused on getting it done that many things got put off.

* I had my best friend (Ginger) get married on April 11th and most of her close friends didn't even HAVE a clue she was having a long distance relationship going for awhile and then one day(Kevin) just packed all his things up from (Montana, where he lived) and drove straight here for her. Well, that surprise ended up them being engage a week later and married several weeks on from that. So, I planned a bachorlette evening for her so we could have time with her and NEWS on what all just HAPPENED. Mr. Bachelor (Kevin) could not be many hours away from her and HAD to drop her off the restaurant to see if it was an ok place for him to trust us with her. I almost got mad since he thought I would do something a line of craziness. Well, as she was telling us some other BIG news, she also mentioned that she is going to have a private wedding and ONLY immediate family was invited. I just sat there in my chair holding back sobs, for we have been child hood friends (since 3) and I felt hurt and had to hold it in. I didn't want to say anything since it was her wedding not mine and I didn't want to hurt my best friend. I HAD to accept it like it or not. Her sister planned a bridal shower the day before she got married and I had so hard of time seeing those "newly weds, who couldn’t be separated,” and on how much I have lost my connection to my friendship with her. It sure put me in depression for awhile.

*We finally had our Holydays and had to do potluck cooking/Sabbath cooking for many days in a row. We had several days of late nights and full days as church services. I performed two songs in our local Ensemble choir and was working on getting ready for our next performance.

* I have been doing pre-school as much as I can and Ashley has dance lessons on Thursday afternoons. Ashley is reading many books now and we are about ready to start two vowel words by the end of this summer. I have been planning out things that I need to order for school next year and what all classes I want her to be put in with "Home Source". I think I will be spending about $150 for the girls this year. Most of what I will purchase will be used with my other children too, so it is not all bad to think about it that way. We will be starting school in Aug. sometime officially for Kindergarten since I will have many things throughout the year that will be given days off. But our school work now is going fine and I will be going through summer with her reading.

* Last week a big tragedy happened with two of my chicks. I aloud my girls to be in the chicken coop (box) in our garage for a little and I went inside to do sometime and came back five minutes later to the door and called my children in. I went out to check on my chicks and I found two chicks in their dirt box dead. I immediately yelled at my children "what just happened" and yelled at them "you killed them" over and over with great sobs with hurtful feelings toward my children. For the first time in my life I fully lost control and I was red in the face and made them confess and sent them to bed. I called John, (in sobs) that our children just killed two of MY chicks (my pets) and one other chick is missing and couldn't get an answer out of the girls what they did with the other chick. I went all around in my garage thinking they shoved the chick in a box somewhere and was searching in rage for this chick. I had the garage door open for a few minutes and thought maybe it snuck out without me seeing it. So, I went searching all around our yard and neighbors yards and couldn't find it. I finally gave up and went in my girl’s room and asked them again what they did with the chick and both didn't answer and I just got up and said you just lost your dinner for the night and told them goodnight. I so needed a break from my children so *I* could calm myself down. I got the whole confession the next day on how they were holding the chicks and they more a less chocked them to death. We also, the next morning found the lost chick, which came out of hiding place back behind our washer/dryer all limping and looked cold. I picked her up and put her in the box with the other three chicks and turned on their heat lamp. As, I looked closer at this chick I saw that she wasn't able to move her head much and I wondered if her neck was somewhat broken. I don't really know how this one got injured but by several days past she was able to move her head more and eat properly. She is fully recovering now and can't tell she had this injury any more. The lesson I learned here is that, NEVER allow young children without supervision to hold anything that is fragile. My girls are BAND for even touching the chicks for quite some time now. I'm not sure when I can feel like I trust the girls again with the chicks. We all did our sorry’s the next day and many long talks of what they just did too. All is better, and I'm able to talk about it with much more ease and *LOVE* with my children now.

* Yesterday we worked all day on building the chicken coop. We finally got the outside fencing done and I can put them out during the day and bring them in at night since the building part is not finished and they have no inside cover. I have just temporally put a tarp tent in so they have a place to go when it is raining. I think they are quite enjoying their run and they have seemed to be more a challenge to collect for the night too.

*It is John and I anniversary (7yrs) tomorrow. We plan on going this weekend, for the first time since we have had our children, a getaway for the parents. We are going to the coast for two nights and driving up to Vancouver, Wash. to go to church there for our Sabbath, while our good friend (Rebecca) will stay at our house for those two days and also take the girls to church. I will tell more details more next week after we've gone.

That is pretty much the news you missed so far since my last update.

d so far since my last update.