We're back!

I've be so neglectful of the blog as late. Here they come, excuses, excuses! I was having a birthday/valentines, preparing Boy to do his PRESIDENTAL speech (he did great, btw!), packing, getting ready, trying to coordinate getting our broken refrige fixed, getting a tree off our house, working OT and generally running around like a chicken....wait...I am a chicken hugger...I don't like that expression. How 'bout "running around like a woman who has lost her ever-loving mind!"? Yup, that about covers it!

But now, we're back from our jaunt and I'm ready to take a deep breath and tell you all about everything that has been going on. Perhaps in more than one post as I tend to be....um...rather verbal!

Our refridgerator has been broken for over 4 weeks. We had a power surge/brown out at the house and pow, the fridge took on a life of it's own...temp at 50*, fan screaming in terror, a brief period where I thought the good Lord above had answered my prayers and healed our machine. Then finally giving up and calling the insurance company to find out the bad news. $500 deductible...ouch. Then I called Samsung and ...la...da....they said they would extend our warranty out and covered all the repairs. Seems the ice maker (which we think has always been broken) dripped water into the motor, and then the water froze and expanded and cracked the condenser motor case or some such thing...But after only 6 days, the ice machine works again and so does the fridge!!! YEAH!!! Now, the water dispenser is not working though, which makes absolutely no sense.

There is still a tree on the house. Still in the power line. Still freaking me out. BUT...I've gotten the estimates I need and the guy is supposed to be out TODAY to get it off of our house, off of our yard, outta here! And he's taking out the little tree that also fell down but didn't get any press because, well it landed in the yard and not on the house. Updates on that after we see what happens today.

We lost our chicken Starr to her impacted crop while we were gone on our fact finding mission (yes, I will get to that!!! Be patient!). So I was grateful that I didn't have to cull her, but sad that I couldn't do anything to save her. Interestingly enough, the other girls did not peck at her sad little body as chickens tend to do (they will eat anything! I think they'd go after us if we weren't bigger than them.) But instead, they buried her in the hay. I took care of that matter and in respect, went and ordered 10 "nuggets" (which is what I call "day old baby chicks") They will be hatching on April 5th!! We know what we are getting and what some of their names will be... Connie, the new Americauna~Maran, the Cuckoo Maran~ and Becky, the Buckeye. I also ordered 4 "American Eskimo" chickens, but they come straight run (we won't know if they are boys or girls until some of them either start laying or crowing!) So we haven't thought up names for them yet. Oh, and on the day we returned from our trip, Arica started laying again! WooHoo.

The homeschool group did a "Hall of Presidents" like they have at Disney World, for President's Day. Each student had to stand up on the stage, with a mic and give a speech about their life, or recite a speech their president had given. It was a very fun night. BOY was President Zachary Taylor, old rough and ready! He did a really nice job. And I learned quite a bit about our 12th president. Now we are preparing for the Pinecar Derby on Saturday.

Speaking of our trip....NEXT POST~