Max is gone

Today right before noon was the last time we have seen max our Boxer. We think he took off chasing a deer and he never returned. We know that means bad news as he never goes off very far and he ALWAYS comes when we call him if he hears us. We have been out looking for him and I called all the Animal shelters in the area and nothing so far. I am just so sick to my stomach worried about him. It's been so cold and it rained ALL day here so on top of him being soaked it's going to get darn cold tonight and he can't even stay outside long to potty when it's this cold. I just hope someone picked him up and has him at their house and he's not lost out in the woods some place. We started our bantam coop today and I can't even be happy about that because I'm so worried about Max. It's SO strange here without him :( My son is out of town with a friend (it's his dog) and he is heart broken. Tomorrow I make up signs and post them around the area to see if anyone seen him. Nic is so sad too! It will be sad day's ahead if he doesn't come home.

I'm alive!

I am SO sorry I haven't posted in well, A LONG time! I have to say, number one....HOW DO YOU FULL TIME FAMILIES DO IT AND POST TOO!!!??? LOL OMG I have never worked full time before and I have to tell you, I have WAY MORE respect for those women who do now and take care of the house stuff and babies too! I get 15 min to sit at work and that is it. I have been SO busy! I am SO sore when I get home it's not even funny but the good news is I LOST 10 LBS! No change in the way I eat but boy do I move! LOL Can we say NO time for anything else!? The one computer thing I have been doing is going to my Private message box on Back Yard Chickens because I have been selling Mille Fleur D'uccle eggs (I have sold EVERY egg those chickens have laid!) it's sort of a side business to try to make chicken food money. Those four chickens have earned their stay here PLUS some :D

My baby blu is doing AWESOME...he was so much smaller than the others but he's catching up. Looks like I MAY have three boys and only ONE girl :( If that is the case than two will have to go. :( We just don't have the room to separate them right now. The girl (thank god) is my splash :D That makes me happy. And of course I'm keeping Baby Blu! Blu did have spraddle legs (their legs are straight out to the side and they can't walk well at all) It was from being in the egg for so many days after his hatch date...I cured that in four days and you would never know anything was ever wrong with him. He is one strong bird Its all I can say. They are about 7 weeks old now and staying nice and warm in our basement...soon to move to our heated shed by the bantams though. We have a wood stove out there and they stay right about 60 degrees :D I could not watch them all get so cold in our garage as we have NOT made our bantam coop yet (cory says this week!)

OK now for us...well, we have been a busy family. Nic stays with grandma when both Cory and I work and LOVES it. He asks every morning..."mom, do you have to go to work today?" and when I say NO (Hoping he will say AHHH Shoot!" He says "OH MAN, I wanted to go to grandma's!" Lol Little stinker! He's a whole four now! And he has a (DARE I SAY IT) ATTITUDE! He does NOT like when we laugh at his funny saying's Here is a cute one I have to share with you. He grabbed a gardening book I had in the book shelf and put it on his head. He starts walking with his hands out for balance and says "ok, Easy, Easy, Come on Nicholas you can do this! You got this!" It was just hilarious! But if you laugh at him he will take off running to his room and pout. HEHE He has grown up so much and is SO easy to love.
My daughter has two jobs again and is paying her bills and being way more responsible. He nice car we bought her died a few months back and she was not working so we didn't see the need to have a car...Right? Well, she finally got a job and she stayed at it for a while so we thought it was time to get her another car...we know she could not get one on her own and all her money was going to other people to drive her to work and back. We found a 675.00 one in the paper that we could pay cash for rather than have MORE payments (were still paying for her other car!) We told her the only stipulation with that she HAD to come sit with us and figure out a budget to get all her bills paid up. She did that and she has been doing really well at it so far :D

My van is broke down so I have to get another vehicle so were looking for that now. I have been using Stefan's truck (he is now making his own payments on it to grandpa!) That is a load off our budget :D He has a job at the school he goes to and he is now getting a LITTLE disability ssi money. He would NEVER be able to live off that (300.00) but it gets his truck payment paid and gives him a little extra for things he needs. We pay the kids car ins and their cell phones so we can get ahold of them. If we didn't they would be driving without ins and we would never be able to talk to them! Neither of them can afford the car ins that's for sure! It's so crazy for teens now to get coverage.
****Guess what else??? Stefan is an "ALL AMERICAN" football player! He is recognized in a magazine even! I was shocked when he brought home all his awards and coaches plague. So proud of him! He can't wait to show his wrestling coach from his old school. He will be graduating in June and than I will have NO ONE in school for one year! WHEW! I would LOVE to keep Nic home but I know I can't and work full time. Plus he really wants to go to school. He loves his play group at his school once a week. He has made two really good friends Jadan and Jordan (twins) They are three peas in a pod. Their dad looks strangely like Cory too. Their dad is the one who takes them to the play group every Wed.

Cory has been doing dishes for me when I'm at work so that's nice! And last night the three boys cleaned almost the whole house while I was at work! Cory took two weeks off work so he has really been doing good here at home with helping out. Even with the chickens!

Ok pictures will come soon. But I can't do it right now because I'm on our old computer (we get our new apple in Jan or Feb) and I don't know how to add pics on this one yet. Waiting for hubby to show me. For now this is it and If I think of anything else I will post again. But I am still alive! Oh and Nic's hand is totally healed and looks normal :D He did split his lip really good and hurt his ankle but those are healed to now :D

A miracle!

I had a miracle happen today. Four days ago I had an egg pip and usually they hatch 12-24 hours after that. Well this one did NOT! In fact close to 30 hours later I decided I needed to step in and help it a bit. I chipped away at the shell and got over 1/2 of it off. I than covered it with wet paper towel and left it be to see if it could make it's way out. It was able to tear a little bigger hole in the shell over the next two days but that was it. This morning (I had to work from 11am to 11pm yesterday) I went down to check on it and it wasn't moving at all. Nothing. I went to pick it up to throw it away and it peeped at me! STILL ALIVE after all this time. It's a strong chick! It was my only blue and I was so upset because I thought I was going to lose it. I got four healthy chicks already and this was the last one to hatch. I looked at it a bit better and seen his foot sticking out a bit. He was looking at me with those cute eyes just begging for help. It was SO sad! I than decided I was on a mission to help this baby no matter what! I took it out and began working on it. I pulled the membrane away very slowly and inch by inch (45 min later) I was able to free it! Talk about relieved! That poor chick was SO relieved I could see it. Now, it's not doing great but it's alive and I have been giving it water with an eye dropper until it gets some strength back. His neck is weak from being all scrunched up in that egg for so long! Otherwise it looks like a perfect chick! I will let you know how it does. Here are some pics I got of it AND of my other four babies.

*YAWN*

I'm still up tonight only because I'm waiting for my eggs to hatch. I have nine orpington's in the bator right now and I'm waiting for them to pip! They are due to hatch tomorrow :D I always do this! Get excited and than wait up for the darn things even if they aren't doing anything. I'm SO tired. I worked from 7am to 7pm and I'm just tired. I'm going to check one more time and if there is nothing going on I'm going to hit the sack and HOPE for something tomorrow morning when I wake up. The hens have been laying four eggs a day for us! We still have several that need to start laying yet.

Work has been ok...I like it but it's just so darn draining. SO different than my last job even though it's the same type of job. Nic's hand is totally healed now and he is doing great :) He got to spend all day with grandma today and he was loving it. I was so happy to see him when I got home from work though! I miss him so much when I'm at work. I'm off tomorrow and Saturday and I work 11am to 11pm on Sunday. Another hectic day! Well, just wanted to come on to say hi and again I'm SO sorry I have not been around to comment to anyone's journal but I will catch up! It's just been pretty crazy lately.

Pictures/Nic's new pics of hand

Well I hope pictures show up here...I have been having problems getting them on here again. The first day it worked now it's giving me grief again. Janis didn't know what D'uccles were. Janis, here is a picture of my Mille Fleur D'uccle's. They are very sweet girls. Ok so my pictures are 1/2 cut off but I think you can see what you need to see. The D'uccle girls are the brown ones. The fuzzy butts in the back are silkies.



Helen wanted to see pics of the eggs they laid...the little white ones are next to my Sex link pullet eggs which are still not regular sized. I didn't have a store egg to compare it to but it's about quarter size. maybe a touch bigger





And here is my baby's new hand pics. The first two are of Nic with his thinner bandage on and the last one is of Nic with it all off :D Now all we have to do is put Biafine on it to keep it moist and the skin from getting overly hard while growing in. If you look on the dates of the pictures you can see how fast he has healed up. He first got burned on October 24th.







As for work...well, it's MUCH harder than my last job I had at a hotel. At this hotel we NEVER sit down. Heck I used to watch tv at my other job...or play on the computer. Not here...no time! BUT what I am hoping is that I will lose some weight while working there LOL Everything else at home has been great. Cory has even been doing the dishes :D that makes me VERY happy to come home to the dishes done. He fixed my oven last night too so now I can cook again :D AND he made home made bread! I come home and the house smelled SOO good! I have a day off today so I'm going to spend time with Nic and the chickens. I'm sure they are wondering where the heck I have been for the past 4 days. I purchased a larger waterer for them because I was not home to refill it like I used to be.

My D'uccles gone mad

I went out to change water yesterday morning to find two tiny cream eggs laying on the floor of the D'uccle chicken coop! I was thrilled. I waited patiently for my dad to wake his butt up so I could show him and than I wanted to check for fertility. Well they ARE fertile :D So guess what I will be doing after the eggs hatch that I have in my incubator right now? YUP hatching D'uccle eggs! Not right away...I'm going to give them a month so the chicks have a better chance at hatching. So than I go to leave for work and guess what I see!? ANOTHER tiny egg on the ground. ALL three of them laid the same day! So far none today but maybe later. Nic went to see the doctor again today and he got all bandages off and he just has to put med cream on it three times a day :D It's healing up nicely! I will take a picture of it tomorrow when I have a day off work. Have to leave here in a bit to go to work. Just wanted to fill you all in. I hope everyone has a great day :D

Monday reports on Nic

BOY it's cold here lately. We had our first snow yesterday, not much just a few flurries but it was pretty. I love snow. I don't know If I'm ready for it yet...seems like it just melted a while ago. Well we still had feet of it in April yet!

So Monday we went to the burn clinic and here is what they told me at check in.

"Today we will be popping the blisters and cutting off all the skin over the burned area and wrapping it back up" I'm like OH GOODIE! THAT should be fun! So we fill out our paper work and head back to the room. It looked like a surgery room with a bed and totally white! I felt sick to my stomach. Nic jumped right up on the bed himself and the nurse took his temp and than three other nurses walk in. The head nurse explained to me that the nurses would help hold Nic down while they cut the old skin off. They explained this to Nic... Nic looked at them and put his hand up, waved it a bit and said in a brave voice "NO, that's ok" LOL They said that's ok what? He said I don't need you to hold me I'm ok. I told them to wait before they hold him...that he may be ok. So they tried it...all standing around ready to grab Nic and hold him. The women got her grabbers and her scissors and Nic sat there patiently watching her...still as can be. He sat there through the whole thing and said NOTHING! Well I should say nothing...he did say ouch twice. He amazed those nurses s much that they went and got the other nurses to peak in and see what a brave boy he was being. They said they never had that happen before with a 3 yr old. They ALWAYS had to hold the 3 yr old down. I was so proud of him :D They got done and gave Nic his special glove they had been telling him about. Not anything special just finger gauze. Makes little finger gloves for him. He liked it though.
He got TONS of stickers and they even gave him several little toys because he was SO good. He has to go back on Wed and Fri and than start water therapy after that. Sounds fun.

Got my blogs copied...whew! On way to doctor

Today Nic and I head to the burn clinic to see what's up. Got my blogs copied today so that is off my chest now. I just wish I could put them all together into one. I will be journaling here in this one from now on and only this one. That way it's easier for my followers rather than changing blogs for me again. I will just add links here for my other ones as well but not till later...gotta run! Will update later about how he did and what they said.

Update on doctor visit

Well we had to go back to the doctor yesterday and get his bandage changed. He said it was a little worse than what they thought but it's still not bad bad. They are sending him to the burn clinic on Monday because the joint is also burned where his fingers bend and they don't want that to get hard with the new skin growing in under the blisters so they have to send him for a special glove I guess. They don't THINK they will have to do any skin graphs at all which is good! Tomorrow we go back again for another bandage change. This sure is not slowing him down at all. What he can't do with his had he does with his feet! LOL He's been happy and has not complained.

On the chicken front...I had a rooster who we were thinking was a hen and I was kind of bummed out about it because I wanted him to be a rooster. Two days ago he was in the nest box. I thought he was laying an egg so we than thought hen...well today he crowed! AND he started mating the girls! All of a sudden this morning he decides to be a rooster?? No signs AT ALL until this morning.

We have company today so I'm going to get off here for now but will update again later.

Emergency room vist AGAIN for Nic...Poor baby!

Oh it was a bad day yesterday...I was in the shower (getting ready for work) and Nic was out with Grandpa Artie and he was helping him move things since it was big garbage pick up the next day. We had a fire going in the yard to burn anything that could burn rather than throw it on the road. Nic was "helping" and before grandpa could see him Nic reached down to pick up a VERY hot piece of metal and burned his hand bad. All I heard was "CARRIE" grandpa was calling me telling me Nic got burned. I quick threw something on and ran out there to Nic who was just screaming. We had to force him to run it under cold water. He did NOT like that at all. Grandpa called grandma who was a nurse back in the day, and she come over. I grabbed the ice pack because he was pulling so much out of the water I thought it would break open the blisters so I just let him hold his ice pack on it. He wanted me to hold him but he once I picked him up he wanted down. We rushed out (I called work told them I would be late) and went to the emergency room. He screamed all the way (I'm lucky I didn't get picked up for speeding) once we got their they took him right in. Had a hard time looking at it since he didn't want to remove the ice pack from it. The skin was black and it was on all fingers and part of his palm :( The doc things his fingerprints will no longer be there and they won't know what degree burns until today. They wrapped it up with pain reliever and sent us home. He has to go back today to see what degree burns and than we see where we go and what we do from there. We have company coming today, I still have not cleaned, and I'm just bummed out hoping Nic will be ok. It's his left hand so he didn't have problems playing on the computer today. Here are a few pics of him (now feeling a little better) We have him on Ibuprofen/Tylenol mix so he gets meds every 2 hours for the pain...per doctors advice.

Well better get cleaning. What the heck happened to larger font? AND COLOR!? It's not on my post today! GRRR I HATE new things! well I have pics but it's not letting me add them! What's going on?

Got it!~

Ok I figured it out! :D I had to get a new template..had my own that hubby made and it wasn't allowing me to add the gadgets that way. Now I got um :D SO ADD AWAY FOLKS! AND I was told my picture worked too :D That makes me happy.

Trying this picture thing

Lets see if adding pictures works for me. Let me know if you can see this :D Ok and than on another note. I did see where to add a followers button but I can only add it on one and the other says template rather than layouts and I can't find the gadgets button on that one GRRR anyone have a clue to get to the gadgets from your template button?

Follower box

Missy has requested a follower box but how do I add that :D Please help! LOL I have NO clue how to work this thingy.

Not an actual new journal but moving my aol journal here

I've been keeping a journal at AOL but they are not closing their doors so here I am back here. I opened this one up in 2006 but could not figure out how to post pictures so went over to aol. Guess I'm going to have to learn huh! I'm going to be keeping only ONE journal here. I'm hoping that everything transfers over ok along with my pictures. I'm working on it but until I get everything here I"m going to keep updating over at aol where I KNOW what I'm doing ;)

NEWS: We got our first pullet egg! Izzy laid her first egg at noon today :D She made a big deal out of it too! She had all the chickens bawking like crazy.