Zoo Animals

My sister was here in town on Monday and Tuesday for a couple of days and we decided to take the kids to the zoo.  I hadn't been there in a couple of years so my girls were pretty excited, especially Paisley, who has never been to a zoo.  Our zoo is pretty small and doesn't have too many exotic animals, but it's about right for the 2-6 year old crowd.  They also got to ride on the merry-go-round.  Note to self-do not try to take pictures while riding on the very small merry-go-round.  My head was still going in circles for several minutes afterward.   

My Front Door

This post is way overdue, but I still have to write it.  Since we first started building our house, Ryan wanted to build the front door himself.  The idea came from an Amish tradition where the husband would build the front door in anticipation of his marriage.  He had some beautiful walnut wood that came from a tree that was on one of the original homesteads here in Dry Creek Valley.   There were so many projects going on when we moved in that the door just didn't happen.  We put some boards up over our main entrance and just went on.  But our mortgage company withheld a portion of our funds in escrow until we completed the door, as well as several other items that weren't essential for living, but certainly kept the house unfinished. I patiently waited without trying to be too nagging for our front door.  The mortgage company said our deadline was April 30th. By April 30th I had a frame for the front door, but still no actual door to put in there.  We were able to get extensions from the bank, and I kept telling Ryan the deadline was 3 days away, and he put in many almost all-nighters, and by the end of May I actually had a front door hung.  It still needs a couple of coats of finish, and the actual art glass that will go in the windows of the door, but it's beautiful, and it makes the house look more finished.  Ryan does some amazing woodwork-he just doesn't like to be on a timeline.  Now can we talk about bookshelves . . 

Farm adventures

Wednesday morning I woke up and was sitting at the computer doing my morning email checking routine.  Everyone else was still asleep, except for Christa and Lexi, who went out for a run.  I thought the chickens were being especially noisy, but thought maybe I just hadn't noticed them before since it's not usually so quiet this time of day.  Chickens?  I guess I should explain.  We had been told that chickens are fairly easy to raise and that we could have our own fresh, organic eggs within a few months.  So we decided to give it a try.  Of course when Ryan decides to try a new hobby, he goes all out.  Within about a week's time, we had close to 50 tiny chicks and 4 cute ducklings in a little pen in our garage under a heat lamp.  This was in mid-March.  In about 2 weeks they grew out of that pen and he built a slightly larger pen for them, still in the garage, since it was still pretty chilly outside.  Meanwhile, a friend started building a more permanent chicken coop out on the driveway in front of Ryan's shop, with the intention of moving it to it's permanent home in the pasture when it was complete.  Well, the chickens continued to grow and didn't know they were supposed to wait for the coop to be ready so they could have a home and learned to fly out of the pen in the garage and were creating a bit more mess and smell that I really wanted in the garage.  Plus the nights were mostly above freezing by the first part of May.  We attached wheels to the coop and moved in about 50 feet down the driveway, where it has been stuck since the first week in May.  The ground has been too wet for us to try to take a large, heavy building across the field.  And the original plan for moving it did not work quite the way we expected.  The chickens (and ducks) were moved to a new temporary home of enclosed chicken wire in the field. They have been mostly content with this arrangement, as long as someone remembers to feed and water them often enough.  The girls like to go out and pay them a visit every now and then.  We have several varieties-mostly hens, but some roosters, too, and four funny ducks. On Wednesday morning as I was sitting here, I heard an especially loud THUMP, followed by more chicken sounds.  It's not uncommon for birds to hit my windows in the morning, but this didn't sound like the usual chickadee hitting the glass.  So, I went downstairs to investigate.  Out the back window I saw my chicken enclosure completely empty with not a chicken in sight, and a large dog running away across my field.  Hmmmm.  I stepped out the back door, and still could see no chickens.  I walked around to the front of the house and found about a dozen of the chickens hiding out on my front porch.  Then I went around the other side and found another couple dozen, and the ducks, hiding out under Ryan's truck.  I also found a few on the back porch, and two that had somehow fallen down the window well to the basement.  I don't know a lot about chickens, but I really didn't want to leave them all over my house and yard, leaving little presents for us to find later with bare feet.  So how to get them back to their home.  (There was one chicken dead next to the enclosure, and lots of scattered feathers.)  In books and movies it seems you see chickens happily following their caretaker, who scatters corn as she wanders the farmyard, and all the chicken follow.  My chickens were not the least bit interested in following my trails of feed.  Next idea:  to herd the chickens back toward the enclosure.  I learned that chickens are not particularly herding animals.  Especially if there is only one chicken herder.  I did manage to get all of the ones on the front porch to join the group on the back porch.  Now to get the ones from under Ryan's truck.  Finally Ryan came out to join me in my chicken herding endeavors.  (Of course by now it's starting to rain again.)  With the two of us and Ryan's brother Andrew, and our lawn boy, Blake, we managed to herd all the chickens back to their enclosure.  Ryan nicknamed me "Chicken Whisperer" because I did have a good number following me around.  We must have looked pretty silly chasing chickens all over the yard.  Blake had to climb down the window well and carry the two that were down there up and out.  I need to get better farm girl shoes-my good white sandals got pretty muddy.  Another adventure of the city girl trying to turn into Farmer Brown.

Shopping . . .

So, the last few months have been crazy busy and I was in Facebook world for awhile, but it's not really working for me as a good way to actually share or record what's going on in my life, so I think I'm back to blogger.  I'm not deserting Facebook altogether, since I still like to spy on my children that way, but for my personal use, I think this is better.  I've skipped a lot, but I'm not going to try to go back and catch up now, I'll just pick up with my thoughts for today and maybe one day next week I'll find some pictures we've taken in the last bit and add a few historical notes.
As for the title of this post . . . I've discovered that the trade off for the fun of shopping for cute baby girl clothes is the agony of shopping for preteen and teenage girl clothes.  This is where having boys would really be handy-jeans and T-shirts and styles that don't really change from toddler through adulthood.  That doesn't work for girls.  Particularly my girls.  You would think that with all them I would just be able to pass things right on down the line.  Not so much.  For one thing, they are all different body types.  For another thing, they all have completely different tastes.  Thirdly, they are all pretty particular about what they will and won't wear (it's too itchy, it's too clingy, it's too loose, it's too short, it's too long, the pockets are strange, I hate glitter).  Fourthly, styles change between the time #1 child wears it and #6 child gets it.  Fifthly, after about 3 children, clothes start looking pretty worn or stained.  So, I find myself needing to buy every single one of these cute girls a new summer wardrobe this year.  Luckily the oldest 2 have their own source of income and are largely responsible for paying for their own things.  But I still have to endure the shopping for the new things.  I confess, I have never been a shopaholic.  I spent some time wandering the mall as a teenager, but not for the love of shopping.  I get a headache after running from store to store for more than about and hour and a 1/2.   I don't even enjoy shopping for my own clothes.  I find myself spending hours perseverating over whether or not I'm getting the best deal, and whether I might find something I like more somewhere else, how often it will have to be ironed, and whether I really should be spending my money on this at all, or if this article of clothing will match enough of what is already in my closet.  That's after I even find something I kind of like and that mostly fits, which in and of itself is a major chore.  I inherited my shopping dislike from my mother.  She was one of those who knew what she needed, knew where to get it and was in and out of the store with her mission accomplished.  I'll probably pass it on to my children.  Summer clothes and church dresses are particularly troublesome shopping missions.  Shorts are too short, tank tops too skimpy, and dresses don't come with sleeves anymore.  Of course my girls want to look reasonably stylish, and so do I, but these days stylish means having the least amount of coverage of your body as possible.  That doesn't work for me.  This season I seem to be having an especially hard time finding things I like and that they like for anyone.  Lexi and Christa are so long-legged that any skirt or shorts is too short.  Emma is difficult right now being in that weird preteen size where juniors don't really fit, unless I can find an extra small, but girls' size 14/16 don't really work either.  Sierra is just too skinny and pretty much any bottoms fall off of her.  I had a bunch of knit shorts that Emma wore, but she hates those.   I have several cute summer skirts in Anya's size, but she's not so much into those.  I've tried saying, "Well, that's what we have, so wear it or not" and they usually opt for the "or not" and wear the same 3 outfits that they like every day then cry to me in the morning that their clothes aren't clean.  I just gave away boxes of clothes that were just sitting in the closet not worn while my kids complain that they have nothing to wear.  Internet shopping doesn't really help me because the girls really need to be able to try things on-there is so much variation in sizing.  Maybe I'll be hiring a personal shopper for back to school season . . . for the next 15 years.

Fall update

My girls remind me regularly that I need to update our blog. Yes, I do. It's been a crazy few months. I don't think I've even downloaded pictures off our camera since my last post. Can I even find the camera at this point? Here's the overview:

Oct. 18: Sierra's 9th birthday. Emma was so sweet and put together a surprise party for her.

Oct. 29: Emma's 11th birthday.

Oct. 31: Halloween

Also Oct 31: Moved out of rental house while Ryan was away in Chicago at a business meeting.

Nov. 1: Went to Pocatello to see my brother who was in town for 2 days before deploying to Iraq this month.

Nov. 2-20: Stayed in another rental. Ryan was over at our new place every night until 1 or 2 am trying to get it livable.

Nov. 19: Paisley sick with the stomach flu.

Nov. 20: Ready or not, here we come. We moved into our new house, on the condition that the plumbers turn on hot water for us that day, which they did. But the electricians shut off the circuit to the heat and we didn't have heat until Sunday. Thanks goodness for the wood-burning stove.

Nov. 20: Sierra, Anya, Christa and Mom up all night with the stomach flu.

Nov. 22: Lexi and Ryan up all night with the stomach flu.

Nov. 24: My sister Karianne came over to help me get a few things unpacked.

Nov. 26: Thanksgiving, with 3 more sisters here with their families and my parents, here at our new house. They all went home with the stomach flu as well.

Nov. 30: We actually closed the mortgage on our house.

We are grateful to be here, but still LOTS of work to be done (a front door before Christmas would be nice). Yes, my husband is a compulsive perfectionist, who believes that if it's going to be done correctly, he has to do it himself. Lots of boxes to unpack as I figure out how to arrange things.

December 4: Girls played piano in Christmas recital

December 5: Christa performed a Mozart and Mendelssohn concerto in a solo recital.

So, that's been our life for the last couple months. Kind of crazy, but good crazy. I am getting a bit tired of "Mom, do you know where . . . is?" Some days I feel like I spend 1/2 the day just finding things for people around here. It's nice to know I don't have to move again for a long while. Paisley is into the full blown 2 year old stage, complete with tantrums and screaming fits, alternating with complete cuteness, like when she points out the Christmas lights with a big "WOW!" Anya loves her preschool, and lots of playdates with friends. Sierra is so excited about making everyone's Christmas presents and started Irish dance this fall, along with Emma and Anya. She also had a great soccer season. Emma is really enjoying playing viola in the school orchestra, and is really picking it up quickly. Lexi has the lead role in the school play coming up in February, had an awesome cross country season, and is on student council. Christa is also in the school play, also on student council, played on the 9th grade varsity volleyball team, and is still keeping up with violin, piano, and her AP Physics class. Plus she's officially old enough for driver's ed, although that will have to wait a couple of months.

Now to think about Christmas, if I can find any decorations.

I'll try to find my camera to add some pictures of all this excitement! Happy December.

Pictures

Birthday Girl

Yellowstone

Yellowstone

4th of July with the Freis

Dr. Cole and Dr. Cole

Shoshone Falls

Paisley dressing herself

First Day of School

Christa and Friends at Music Camp

Is summer over already?

I can't believe how this summer has flown.  I've been really negligent on posting, partly because Christa wanted a Facebook account, so I started that, partly to get a glimpse of her life from that point of view, and I can only keep up with so many online posting things at a time.  Here's a brief update:  We moved Ryan into his new office.  He's been working out of our home for the past 5 years since starting his own practice.  Having him work at home has been a great thing for our family in many ways, but it was time to make the transition back to a regular office space.  One major reason being he needed to hire some additional support staff and I can't have a couple of administrative people working in my house.  We were able to hire my sister, who has worked for our billing office for quite awhile, and convince her to move to Boise, and we found another girl with some medical office experience who should be a good fit.  I have been working down at the office (about 12 minutes down the hill) trying to get the new people trained in and things running smoothly.  I have full time help at home with the girls for 10 more days, and then I get to really be a stay home mom again.  It will be strange to not be in the day to day of our practice, though.  Though I have plenty to do to keep me busy at home, I'll miss being more of a part of Ryan's world.

After putting out our For Sale By Owner on a whim, we had an offer on the house within 2 weeks, and closed a month later.  We were able to find a rental here in the neighborhood, since our new place won't be ready for move in until sometime mid October.  We put a lot in storage, and in many ways that has greatly simplified things.  It's a lot easier to pick up toys when the number that can get dumped out is limited.  

Meanwhile, Christa and Lexi went to Girl's Camp.  Then we took Christa over to Harrington State Park (Eastern Idaho, North of Rexburg) for an amazing two week music camp.  We took the whole family and spent an extra day in Yellowstone and checking out Bear World.  We were reminded that Paisley really does not like being in the car for longer than, say, 30 minutes at a stretch, and she doesn't sleep in the car for more than 30 minutes a day. 

July 22-25 Ryan had a conference in Cle Elum, Washington (an hour east of Seattle) so he and I took Lexi and Emma over to that, and enjoyed a couple of days relaxing and biking in the great outdoors.  We came back from that to a new hire at the office to train in, a record case load for the week, and a house to finish packing and moving.  We had some wonderful help with the move and getting the old house ready for the new owners, and it is great to have that behind us.  

I think I'm pretty much done with getting ready for school, except for finding shoes and a backpack for Lexi.  The girls are very excited about their new teachers and classes.  Christa just found out she made the varsity 9th grade volleyball team.  Lexi will be starting the junior high, and just got her very own cell phone.  Emma is going back to regular school after doing homeschool for last semester.  Sierra is always excited about everything and she'll be starting her new soccer season this week.  Anya is a bit sad that most of her good friends will be in kindergarten, and she gets another year of preschool.  It will be good to have the extra time with her, though.  Paisley is just a busy busy bee.  Her favorite words are Mommy, More and Shoes. And we added 4 more new kittens a month ago, but we lost 3 with the move.  They won't stay at the new place.  

One more week of summer freedom then back to the school routine!