Snuggle Buddies

Ella and Satchel getting cozy on the sofa. Despite the somewhat long-suffering look in his eye, the cat LOVES to be carried around and loved on like this. Ella is always happy to oblige.

New Chick Pics

It's been awhile since I mentioned chickens on my blog. So... chickens, chickens, chickens and more chickens. There - I think we're all caught up now! Wocka wocka wocka. (Sorry, I have always loved Fozzie Bear.)

Elinor has all the baby chicks in her lap because Tilly is running the vacuum cleaner in the playroom. The brooder box is on the floor in the playroom and I'm always afraid that the loud noise will scare the chicks. I've heard stories that you can actually startle a bird to death. Does anybody know if that's true or just an old wives tale?

Anyway, yes, we have new chicks in addition to Mimi and Fifi (who now live outside in the coop). From left to right in the top picture are: Lola - an ISA Brown (we think), Bella - a golden laced Wyandotte, Nadine - a blue laced red Wyandotte, Lucy - a Rhode Island Red and Pearl - a white Leghorn.

Whew! We're definitely done adding chickens to our flock unless something happens to any of our girls OR if any of our "shes" turns out to be a "he". In that case, they'd go back to the breeder because roosters aren't allowed within the city limits.

They are SO much fun!

Monday Morning Update

HalloDotties for orders

I just realized this morning that it has been a week since I last posted - oops! I didn't mean be silent for so long, it's just that when I've got orders to fill, I don't really think about doing anything else. I suppose there are worse things than being single-minded, right?

On the home front, things are very much as they always are. There is one notable exception: Elinor and her partner won their doubles match this Saturday, 8-2!!! It's her first win of the ALTA season and we are quite proud of her! *grin*

Okay, my conscience is beginning to tug at me. I guess I'd better get busy making beads!

Happy Birthday, Elinor!!

Today at 12:34 p.m., Ella, my darling middle child, turns 10 years old. I have always thought that the time of her birth was cool but as she grows older, it's obvious that the universe was trying to tell me something.

Elinor is a fantastically different person than me and I'm in awe of her. She's a highly logical person who likes things to go from point A to point B (I usually fly by the seat of my pants.). She prefers when everything is put away and her immediate surroundings are clutter-free and has even been known to spontaneously start cleaning things. (When my work bench is clean, I feel as though my brain has somehow been thrown out with the clutter.) She likes to plan everything out ahead of time: she lays her clothes out - sometimes days in advance, she wants to know what I'm planning for supper before she's even finished eating her breakfast and she always knows what the school schedule will be at least a week in advance. (Uh...me? I roll with the punches and work with what I get on any given day.)

And yet, Ella is still very much my child. She is a voracious reader and spends nearly all her spare time devouring books. She has a fabulous imagination and is very creative, always making art projects and coming up with ideas for new things. She has a hot temper and a sharp tongue but also quickly forgives or apologizes. She's got an amazing sense of humor and has a tremendous talent for voices and mimicry. She can make me laugh even when I'm furious, which is no easy feat! Elinor is definitely the most self-reliant (I guess you kinda have to when you're the middle child!) but she's also the most loving of our 3 kids. She'll snuggle right up to you on the sofa or in our bed or - my favorite - walk up and give you a hug 'just because'.

It is absolutely amazing to watch Elinor grow up. I love seeing little glimpses of Dean and me in her, but I'm fascinated by the way she blends the familiar and the foreign in her unique personality. I can't wait to see what the next 10 years bring!!

She has requested chocolate zucchini cake for her party tonight, so I'd better go pick up the stuff I need to bake her cake.

Check out her main birthday present:

It's the Trek KDR 7.2 FX - a hybrid bike (kinda half road, half trail bike)
She's been working so hard to master riding the last bike she got so that she could graduate to a "big girl bike". This one is niiiiiiiiice!!

Uninvited Guest

We had an unexpected party crasher this Labor Day weekend! *shudder* Gives you the creeps, doesn't she? Yeah - yuck. I have a strict "no kill" policy when it comes to most pests, preferring to escort them either outdoors if they've wandered inside or away from our immediate surroundings if I feel like they're too close. (Remind me to tell you all about the time I caught a flying squirrel with a plastic trash can and a broom. It had fallen down the chimney into our bedroom and while I was running around the room trying to scoop it up, Dean was standing on our bed yelling "Catch it - there it goes!" and other unhelpful things.) The most notable exceptions to my pest policy are cockroaches and poisonous spiders. Then I have to dispatch them with extreme prejudice.

As luck would have it, Elinor (my child who is terrified of spiders) spotted it. She ran inside screaming for me to come and look. I took one look and said "Yep. That's a black widow." and headed back inside for some bug spray. Dean, of course, didn't believe me until after I sprayed it and flipped it over onto a paper plate so they could all see the red hourglass markings on her belly. Silly man, he should know by now not to doubt me when it comes to identifying venomous creatures!

I left it on the paper plate outside until I was absolutely, positively sure she had passed on. Then I dumped her into a little Gladware container, sealed the lid and put it in the kitchen window. I can't decide whether I'm going to take it to Tilly's science teacher at the middle school or have it mounted and framed. I know that's an odd choice to have to make, but scary as it is, it's got a sort of terrible beauty to it. Plus, Halloween is coming up soon (my favorite holiday - yea!!) and you gotta admit... a REAL black widow spider would make an awesome decoration!

No matter what we end up doing with the spider, I have learned something very important today: Raid ® Wasp & Hornet spray kills spiders!!