I dreamt about you last night and I fell out of bed twice

I am one of those people who posts pet pictures. I'm sorry.

2008-06-06T21:54:36Z

I love my dogs.
Dr. Snuggles (the one on the right) is chock full 'o' worms of all kinds and hopefully will be better next week. I don't know how the vet *missed* hookworms and tapeworms in the stool sample - but they did, so he just began de-worming treatments yesterday, poor guy. Great news though! Kids can get hookworms from dogs! Isn't that awesome? If that happens I will fire-bomb the vet's office. The kids don't go around barefoot outside or pick the dogs' butt or anything, so hopefully we'll be safe - and I pick up all the mountains of poo every day.

New Dog, etc

2008-05-27T10:17:44Z

The dog on the left is the one I've had for 6 months, Little Lamb, the shaggy one on the right I obtained yesterday. He is very underweight and in desperate need of a haircut, but seems to be very very sweet and gentle (opposite of Little Lamb!). They are both Standard Poodles, both males, and both about 8 months old. They get along great, walk together well, and he also gets along with my little dog and the outside cats. So far, so good!

Some pics from this morning

2008-05-19T17:29:12Z

Baby Names

2008-05-19T12:01:42Z

The current contenders are:

Journey / Journey Laura Louise

Fate / Fate Wendy Louise

Phoenix / Phoenix Laura Noreen

Opinions? Suggestions?

Photo Update

2008-05-13T12:37:27Z

Steve and Echo at our town's garage sale this past weekend (total bust)

Fiery reading the "singing In The Rain" soundtrack insert

Camera phone pic - not great quality

Fiery and Echo LOVE to dress up - here she is "Lena" from Singing In The Rain

Echo loves to carry Fiery - on her back, or in her arms. Fiery doesn't complain

Echo and one of our cats, Prince

I'm never updating again

2008-05-06T23:43:02Z

FUCK dial up takes FOREVER to log into this stupid site!
I recieved Kailleah's bike in the mail today! It was a bitch and a half for me to assemble. If you ever need a bike put together, don't call me! I hope to never repeat the process.

BUT

She really loves it! It's the first time she's been able to ride. When she was small enough for bikes with training wheels, she had a very hard time steering and pedaling at the same time and couldn't follow any safety rules or instructions well enough to actually go for a bike ride. She needs a push to get started on this trike for now, and she sometimes tries to get started by pedaling backwards, but she's pretty much got pedaling down. Her steering needs work too but she'll get it. We could only go out for 20 minutes on it tonight before it started drizzling and it was dinnertime. Tomorrow more practice!

The little girls have a new bike too, a tandem tricycle. It's awesome. Echo pedals and steers, and Fiery enjoys the ride. It's big enough for Echo to use next year too, and after that Fiery will be chauffering the new sister around on it.

norwegian_wood @ 2008-04-23T19:55:00

2008-04-24T01:18:56Z

Kailleah's dad is a real piece of work.

A week or so ago, Kailleah wrote him a letter (with my help) telling him about a bike - an adult tricycle - that she wanted. She included the price (300 dollars) and a picture of it. She asked if she could have some money - any amount- from her birthday/Christmas account toward the purchase and that mom would pay for the rest of it. The kid can't ride a regular bike, so this is pretty much her only option if she wants to join the family bike riding - which she does want to do.

(He tells her that the reason he never buys her any birthday or Christmas presents is that he instead puts money in a bank account for her. Whatever. He says she can't use it, or have it at 18, or even 21, but "when she's older" with his permission. He won't allow her access to it. This is unfair enough, but to then he also takes money out of birthday cards that other people send her which include money. He forwards birthday cards on to us which come to his house for her with a Post-It note inside that says, "Kailleah, this card had 15 dollars in it. I put it in your bank account.")

Kailleah has NEVER IN 15 YEARS asked him for ANYTHING. Most 15 year olds would have now probably asked for and recived a game system, or an mp3 player, or a scooter - but not Kailleah. So after yet another birthday and Christmas went by with nothing but a supposed bank account donation, I figured she could ask for some of the gifted money toward a big purchase. It's not like this is something that has a limited shelf life, or even that this is a request for money from his pocket. This is supposedly her gifted money.

- before I go on, let me say that the court decided Tuesday that he was supposed to be paying me 200 dollars MORE a month than he has been. He knows he's been getting away with paying me less because I was "trying to be nice" and not go to court. In light of all the saving he's been doing on his parental responsibilities, you'd think he could consider this request. But anyway, back to the story...

So he called today to tell her the answer about the bike. They spoke for about 5 minutes and I could not tell by her responses what he had decided. When their conversation was over, I asked her if her dad said he'd help get the bike. She said yeah. I asked if he said how he was going to do this and she said she didn't know. So I called him back and asked him what he decided. He said, "I told Kailleah." and hung up on me. So I called him back and started to leave a message on his answering machine saying, "Hi this is Poppy, I'm calling to ask you if you decided anything about Kailleah's request. As you know, she is not able to relay things like this to me." At this point he picked up and said that he already told Kailleah the answer. I told him that I would like to know the answer and Kailleah can't give me details. He refused to speak to me, but invited me to listen in as he reiterated the answer to Kailleah. He told her that because, she "never calls unless she wants something", he doesn't want to help her. He also said that the "bank account" will be inaccessible to her until he decides it's time.

Let me just say that there is no bank account. He is full of SHIT and is taking her birhday money from people who give her a monetary gift. Let me also say that it makes me PHYSICALLY ILL that he has the nerve to judge my child, as if she was a greedy kid who "only called when they want something". As if she is CAPABLE of manipulation or anything similar. She was asking for money that was supposedly gifted to her from other people. That foul odor has never acknowledged her as the young lady she is and he is unworthy of being related to her.

What kind of person won't help buy his daughter her first bike???? He is disgusting.

Excuse my angry typos.

She's getting that fucking bike.

norwegian_wood @ 2008-04-15T19:58:00

2008-04-16T01:03:08Z

I have dial up now, but it is so fucking slow, updating makes my brain bleed.
I am (hopefully) halfway through this pregnancy already! I am positive this is another girl.
These other little girls and the big one are doing great. I am crazy busy and getting busier. I am going to stop attending births in August at the latest, if I can make it through July.

I have a lot to say but no time to say it. It's hard to jump back in after being away so long.

Quick photo update

2008-02-20T17:00:39Z

I don't think I've mentioned that in November I became the owner of a standard poodle we named Little Lamb. He is now 4 months old (and 48 pounds!), and here are a few pictures. Also some of the little kids.

I am no longer stricken with pnumonia. Pregnancy going fine, no nausea, fatigue or anything, so that's cool. Growing more afraid of a boy every day, but lately I feel like that's what I'm gonna get. Name options so far:

Girl Possibilities:
Willowmay Wendy Louise
Willowmay Wendy Noreen
Arrow Laura Louise
Arrow Laura Noreen

(Willowmay is a name discovered in my family tree, Wendy and Lori are my best friends. Louise is a my dead grandma's name and most of my kids' middle names have Louise in them - Noreen is my MIL.)

Boy possibility
Arrow James Matthew

(Jim and Matt are 2 of my husband's best friends)

I'm real short on name ideas at present. I need a good dictionary. I still have no internet access, but I think I will be getting it (DIAL UP - ugh) soon.

Just found out my SIL wildrose80 is pregnant again, so I get to be an aunt to another kid which is cool. Too bad we live too far away for me to corrupt any of them!

norwegian_wood @ 2008-01-29T14:49:00

2008-01-29T20:58:53Z

I have stinking pneumonia. I've been on 3 different antibiotics, nothing. Nebulizer, inhaler, and now they want to put me on steroids which I am resisting because of the risk of birth defects. But they're saying that they can't do anything else but hospitalize me (not an option) at this point. I can't fucking breathe, I can't stop coughing, my oxygen saturation is 92%. I'm at the library looking up some stuff on steroids right now (still no internet access). Thought I'd let 'chall know 'case I end up ded.

norwegian_wood @ 2007-12-29T10:35:00

2007-12-29T16:36:44Z

HAY INTERNETS I'M PREGNANT!

Ridiculously brief and scattered photo/video update

2007-12-28T19:28:52Z

I have no internet time! Here's what we look like and what we've been doing lately!

Go here to see a bunch of videos of the kids doing cute stuff. Love you! Talk soon I hope!

Photo Update!

2007-11-20T16:48:56Z

norwegian_wood @ 2007-09-19T11:27:00

2007-09-19T16:36:45Z

Steve has been convinced to draw pencil portraits from photographs for $. I placed an ad in the local paper for him a week ago, and he's planning to sell them on ebay too, so he's been working on some examples to show prospective clients. Here's the one he just finished of my friend's daughters:

I don't have a scanner, so both of these pictures are diminished in quality, but you get the jist...

Pretty good, eh? Hopefully he'll stay inspired and make us some bucks.

This morning

2007-08-08T16:32:53Z

Hilarious

2007-07-26T22:05:42Z

Just documenting this one...

Today I took Kailleah to a new (and not as gentle) Chiropractor. He was stretching her legs and she said, "Ow! That hurts! I need my lawyer! Somebody call my lawyer!"

I almost died. That kid cracks me up!

Random photos

2007-07-15T23:14:21Z

My little naked Fireball

Echo and Silkypants

Silkypants' (lesbian) roomate, Jay

Fiery loves blackberries

Echo and Prince the lovebomb

These horrible beasts almost ate me! They had a 6 and 10 inch wingspan, respectively. They occupied the whole space between my steps, I almost died! I HATE BUGS!! These fuckers were more like BIRDS though.

I can't even look at this picture. TOO SCARY!!!

Strange morning, etc

2007-07-10T20:36:31Z

So this morning I ask Steve to get up with the baby for the first time in a zillion years so I could sleep a little later than 6 a.m.

So of course I'm up right away, and he tells me that while he was in the bathroom, he heard what sounded like a cat fight in the floor.
We keep the kittens in the mud room when they're not outside, so he went in there to check on them. NO kitties to be found. This vent is about 10 inches from the floor, in the wall, and the cover was off. As you can see, we've since taped it on.

This vent leads to these 3 heating ducts (a.k.a. kitty tunnels)

So we're like, "Shit" because we couldn't find a way to get the duct thing open without demolishing the new heating system. My landlords live 3 hours away and don't speak English very well, so they wouldn't be much help. I was thinking of how to replace them before the kids woke up and what their remains would smell like when winter came and we had to use the furnace (haha) when Mady heard meowing and found Fiddler trying to scramble his way through the vent in the kitchen floor! We took it off and pulled him in, but the other 2 were still missing. They weren't meowing or anything, so we had no idea where they were. I had Steve take the sash from a terrycloth robe of mine and feed it down the vent they entered through. I figured if they tried to play with it we could pull them up, and that's what he did. Stupid cats!

After a long, sweaty day, I like to cuddle with kittens.

The littlest one has this oral fixation, tries to nurse on everything because I think he was weaned too early. So we tried to give him some expressed cat milk (kidding, it's kitty formula!) in a bottle to see if he'd take it, but no luck.

He's thriving on kitten food, but I thought maybe we could help him overcome his habit.

On the 4th, we went to see some local rinkydink foreworks, and Echo was scared but she liked them ok. Especially when cousin Madylynne held her:

Today and every day I pick a bowlful of blackberries from the backyard, the kids love them!

And look at my peas!

I also picked a giant bowl of green beans...I love having a garden!

Poll

2007-07-07T20:39:12Z

Today (7-7-07) is my birthday. Should I buy Lottery tickets? Will I win?

I am not normally very superstitious, nor do I normally play Lotto.

EDIT:

2 dollars wasted! I FAIL re:birthday luck :/

More pictures

2007-07-03T00:25:01Z

This is what happens if you don't pick your clothes up MADYLYNNE :)

Echo loves Prince

Mady is staying til the 13th. The kids are thrilled :)

norwegian_wood @ 2007-06-24T17:36:00

2007-06-24T22:44:22Z

This morning bright and early I found these 2 little guys! They are about the size of my thumb since they are a Bantam (tiny sized) breed

Steve holding the chick that hatched 3 hours ago

Mother hen with babies (see the one under her wing??)

And with all 5 current hatchlings

So one of the remaining 7 eggs is starting to hatch, but so far no signs of hatching in the others, but they are a little newer eggs (I was stuffing eggs beneath her from another hen too, once she started to brood) and may take an extra day or so. Hopefully she'll wait them out. My first attempt at animal husbandry: S-U-C-C-E-S-S! Though I wonder if those striped chicks aren't cockerels, in which case they are going to the sale barn!

This morning at 8:30 I caught a beautiful FAT little baby girl. She was such a doll, OMG. Nine pounds 5 ounces, fat rolls all over the place, LONG black curls...soooooo sweet! I didn't tell the mom that her baby shared a birthday with my chicks. So that leaves just one more June client and I'm off til July!

I leave you with my adorable kitties

norwegian_wood @ 2007-06-23T20:18:00

2007-06-24T01:28:38Z

Fiddler loves his belly petted. Doesn't he look blissful?

My monkey ass children frequently do this is whenI lay down.

Our refrigerator is broken. Our landlords will not be replacing it as this place didn't come with appliances, they just left us what was here but are not obligated to repair/replace anything. The fridge was a piece of shit anyway, and a house call repairman is 70 bucks plus parts/service. We are superbroke until August (I have no July births) and I've paid all the bills through then which leaves us with nada for a new/used fridge. So today I picked up a cooler and some ice. Anyone have any other ideas for a pseudofridge?

Vulturey's eggs are peeping,and maybe by tomorrow they'll hatch! I hope it goes well, I'm very excited about it. Because I am now a big farmy(ey?) nerd.

Waiting on 2 ladies to go into labor...we've had 2-3 days of thunderstorms and every early morning I wake up ready to get out of here at like 3 a.m. They are both just at 40 weeks, so it could be a while yet. I think it'll be nice to not be on call for a month! But being broke sucks a whole lot.

More pictures of the farm

2007-06-18T01:11:29Z

This is our awesome house

Driveway

Some of front yard

Some of back yard - this area is great because it stays shaded all day

Some of my garden...I have strawberries, red, yellow, and green bell peppers, beans, lettuce, carrots, peas, watermelon, tomatoes, and corn growing so far :)

Our closest neighbors

Echo lecturing Fiery on kitty care

Echo feeding Roosterey, Swiss Miss On A Mountaintop, and Henny Penny

Chillin with Six

Silkypants the bunny

2 of our hens are brooding a clutch of eggs! I candled them and left only the growing ones under them. Vulturey, one of our Silkies is sitting on 12

And Snowflake, our Leghorn is sitting on 18! We thought she was eaten along with 4 of our teenage chicks and one of our Silkies, but then we found her in a horse trough sitting on her clutch. I made her a new nest and moved her so when the chicks hatch they can get out ok.

I hope they all hatch well. Within 2 weeks, tops, they should be done. I also just picked up these little hens last week at the auction, they are Bantam Cochins

These guys bring our current flock up to 16. We all really like having the chickens. We get fresh eggs every day, we get to play with baby chicks, and hand feed the adults, it's pretty fun! Our coop is a small old garage, so it has plenty of room for 20 or so more, at least, but I doubt we'll keep that many more. I may try to sell some chicks at the auction if these eggs hatch well (the auction is awesome, twice a month). I won the bunny there for 2 bucks last week, and those 3 new chicks were a little over a dollar.

Pictures of kids and kittens

2007-06-17T00:12:36Z

We have acquired 2 male soon-to-be-neutered kittens to live in the barn/mud room (in the winter if necessary).

Cats with thumbs! Now they can at last take over Earth!
His name is Six.

Cousin Sasha visits today

These kittens were born on a roof, and stayed there for several weeks. The orange one's name is Fiddler. Obviously he's a Jew.

Fiery carries him around constantly. He's very tolerant. He may even like it.

norwegian_wood @ 2007-06-08T18:49:00

2007-06-08T23:55:36Z

I've been too busy with homeschool, prenatals and births to post in forever! But I have no births for July, so I hope to have a little more time to post soon. I have the slowest dial-up connection known to man, so using the computer is a total drag. I miss you all and still read when I can!