Pictures of a Fat Mamma

Some people have suggested that we need more pictures of myself on this family blog. I am generally opposed to pictures of myself looking so . . . round, but I will accommodate. My mom has asked for weekly pictures so Jim has been taking them on Sundays. (I guess my consolation is at least Jim still thinks I'm cute.)

There is not much else going on. We are still trying to get everything as prepared as possible for Baby Michelle's arrival. Of course you can never be fully prepared for such a big change, but we want the house to be ready for her. Thanks to Grandmas she will at least have clothes to wear and somewhere nice to sleep. The rest is just details, right?

Chicken . . . bahk, bahk, bahk!

So we have been talking about getting chickens for a few months now. The problem is, you can only buy them locally in the spring. If you order them online there is a 25 chick minimum, and we definitely don't need that many! So we were going to have to wait until spring. But then . . . I got an email at work from a teacher who DID order the 25 minimum and also doesn't need that many. He is selling 15 of them! I told him we would take a few! Now Jim is spending Saturday building a chicken coop so we can bo pick them up! He's so talented. He just creates this stuff and it is totally awesome! Our coop will have a spot at the bottom for the chickens to be outside on the ground, and it has a cool trap door so they can get in and out of the roost! Of course, it will get painted-eventually. But right now we just needed to get it built so we could pick up those hens.

Dating

Our garden provided us with an abundance of delicious produce this fall, so we have been learning how to preserve it all by either freezing or canning. It has been a lot of fun to do together. We have bottled tomatoes and A LOT of frozen zucchini in all shapes and sizes. Today we froze green peppers. We really do love this! A couple of weeks ago we went to the cannery together and canned powdered milk. That was one of the most surprisingly fun dates we have had in a while!

Of course, we also go on real dates! We went to see Eagle Eye last weekend and it was pretty good. This weekend Jim bought tickets to Little Shop of Horrors at a theater in Flagstaff, so we enjoyed the evening there. It was a good show. Before the show we enjoyed shopping at Barnes and Noble for Michelle. That little girl is going to have to be spoiled with books I decided because I have never had so much fun in Barnes and Noble, and I have had a lot of fun there before!!

Jim the Carvin' Fool

Jim is in the mood . . . the mood for . . . wood. He is a carving fool lately. Right now he is working on an adorable double pumpkin with a cat poking its head out of the top! Of course, he is also working on Christmas presents, but those are a secret!