Egg-O's

I work with a bunch of biologists and like-minded folks. One of the benefits of that is we have lots in common, including eating healthy and growing gardens. A recent trend in this area is for urban people to get chickens and now I have a few friends doing it. I tried to convince Michael upon moving from the City to the County that we should get a coop and a few chickens, but he wasn't having it. However, I've observed a few friends doing it and it looks like a fun venture.

One of my co-workers did it and she started a little co-op. Upon returning to work, I joined in. We help pay for feed and she brings in eggs. The eggs are different sizes and colors. I love the little green ones.With winter arriving, egg production has slowed down but over the past few months Michael was in heaven and I was worried about high cholesterol.

Part of the fun of being involved is I get to hear about the drama in the coop...for the most part it's funny, like what their names are and what they look like, but then there is the real life part including sickness and death. But I don't mind hearing about that stuff. Hate to say it but when wildlife interacts, I'm there.

The best part though is knowing where my eggs are coming from and what the chickens eat, you know, the whole story. Just like growing and picking fruit and vegetables from your own yard. Now, if I only had a magic garden fairy to hoe my beds and plant my winter garden...

Soft soles

Oh little shoe, where did you run off to?These are my favorite shoes of Maggie's and mysteriously, one has disappeared.

Long story short, I think the carpet cleaner ate it. I had a little run-in with our carpet cleaner last week which resulted in me calling the cops on him. It was right around the time that her little shoe disappeared. Maybe I should think of it as an offering to the Gods for keeping both Maggie and I safe and sound :-)

Helping hands

A shout out to my sweetie for being such a good guy. For how un-neighborly I am, Michael makes up for it.Michael is the hardest outdoor worker I know. He loves being outside so much and often tells me fond stories from his childhood. Most recent was how he loved raking leaves. It cracks me up.

We have an elderly neighbor who's husband is away on business so he went over to help her out. She tried to pay him but he refused so a few days later, she delivered some homemade goods. Very sweet.

30

It snuck up on me. So I celebrated with cupcakes. I bought four different flavors - red velvet, pinkalicious, blueberry cheesecake, and coconut cream. Yum! Don't worry, I shared. It's a week of celebrating. It started with a night out with family and friends. It wasn't the big party I was imagining, but it was great and made for some laughable memories. Still to come is another fun dinner and a day out shopping with mom.

Revelations about 30 so far - I've officially joined the club where no one likes to stay out late anymore/sleep is more important, many of us have kids and therefore going out is a lot of work/sometimes too much, live music is LOUD, and no one gets drunk anymore.

I don't really feel any different but the fact that hubby is in a different decade is wierd. It feels good to have a little one crawling around the house and be 30 - don't ask me why. Maggie did her part in present opening. Round two of chick in a box...

Going with the flow

I'm starting to understand why they use no sleep as a form of torture and why my sister has been telling me over the past two years that it's really hard to function when you are constantly up at night with a baby and not getting good sleep. I always thought it was funny how everyone would ask us about sleep and whether any of us were getting any because overall, the past 8 months have been pretty good to us. I really didn't understand...until now.

I've really noticed a change in her lately. Maggie is a little crankier (it's got to be teething but no teeth yet), she's easier to upset, and she is crawling like crazy which means she gets into stuff before you know it and taking things away from her little hands is like prying something out of a ninja grip and it does not please her one bit. Just getting her diaper on is an ordeal. And naps. What naps?

Yesterday, I was amazed I could get up and go to work looking better than I felt seeing as how I got no sleep that night. I woke up exhausted and had a heck of a day (turns out no sleep increases stress about everything which in turn makes it hard to pump and so that makes me go a little crazy). It was lights out just before 8. The other night, between Michael and I, we got up 6-8 times to soothe her. It was exhausting.

On the bright side, we painted Maggie's room. It's pretty cliche, but it's pink. We were given a lot of hand-me-downs for her room and a lot of the items are blue and white but there is this undertone of rose pink, so I incorporated it on the walls and love it. Below are the cute knobs my sister and I spotted at Target and she suprised me with pink ones awhile ago. They go perfectly.

I'll leave you with this...I think a raccoon got into the leftover paint as I let it dry outside overnight. There is one pink paw after another trailing down our walkway.

Fruity Halloween

So, I mentioned that we got a bike trailer. Our friend Adam works at REI and helped us score a top of the line Chariot 2-kid bike trailer with all the bells and whistles for a very affordable price on Halloween Day. Three words: used gear sale. If you've ever been to one, you know the maddness. We got there a 1/2 hour early and waited with the crowd of people outside. They do lotteries now. The only other one I've been to before was when I worked for REI so it was behind-the-scenes and easy to score stuff.

We got Maggie a helmet but it's still a little big for her. But she likes the trailer. I can barely feel it on the back of my bike and even though I can't see her, she can see me and I can hear her babbling away. Picture to come.

For Halloween, Maggie was a banana :-) We didn't get any trick-or-treaters, as all of the kids were up the street where the action was. So we loaded Maggie up in her stroller and took a walk. We were amused by the going ons up there...decorated houses, a haunted garage, moms laughing loudly as they walked with their red plastic cups, and all sorts of costumes out and about. My favorite was the toddler dressed as a dinosaur. So cute.