Lest I Forget . . .

I interrupt this blog to bring you random things I feel should be part of the update process.

1. At approximately 10 PM on a recent VBS night, I found myself on top of a chicken coop. Let me explain. Since the loss of our two feathered friends, we've been propping the lid of the nesting area open during the heat of the day. The small entry door on the opposite side draws a bit of air through, and keeps (we hope) any more chickens from pre-baking. At the end of the day, we remove the blocks, secure the latches, and keep all wild critters who would eat our sleeping hens from making entry through the five inch gap. 

Well, on this particular night--no one closed the coop. It was all kinds of dark outside, and I had the assistance of only a small head lamp for my investigations. Since I still am not quite sure how to turn the thing on, but randomly push all aspects of it until light appears, I was completely blinded when I finally found the "on" while wandering up the hill. This haphazard meandering was enough to spook a grazing deer, which was enough to spook me!

As I shone my light into the crack of the box . . . I kept counting to eight . . . not nine. I looked all around the coop, underneath, wondering where the missing bird had gone. My light caught a black shadow on top of the coop; it took me a minute to process that this was not just any shadow . . . this was a baby chicken who had somehow climbed to the peak of the roof and fallen asleep.

We have owls. BIG owls. We have hawks; we have all kinds of things that can swoop on a sleeping baby bird at night. But, none of these swooped. Rather. It was me. I climbed to the top of that coop, probably alarming the inside birds beyond their tiny-brained imaginations, and grabbed the baby chicken (Jessie, Sammie? we won't name names). It FREAKED out. So now, I'm perched (no pun intended) on the roof of the coop, trying to get ahold of a mad flapping of wings and panicked feathers. Having accomplished this feat, I slid back down the coop on me bum (as the say in the Emerald Isle) carrying the chicken like the baby that it is (with claws).

I popped the lid. Inserted the chicken. Headed back down the hill. And had a little discussion with my children. Can you believe they were stifling laughter at my tale of woe and chicken rescue?!! Grounded. Everyone is grounded :)

2. Brennen had a MISERABLE night last night. We were up every two hours. I told the doctor it was like having a newborn that was as tall as me. He was talking in his sleep, writhing in his bed, dry-heaving in the bathroom, and finally, when Buck left for work at three or four A.M., Brennen fell asleep for a few hours (only to be awakened, as I was, by another monsoon-like downpour--post to come!)

So, as soon as the pediatric office opened, we were there. There was a long line of ladies who came to check him out--I think four? People training, people job shadowing, a student, a nurse (who sounded like she needed to be seen by a doctor), and they all decided that he's just got a virus . . . no wait . . . acute pharyngitis of an unknown idiopathic origin.

"That means you have a sore throat," said doctor number four :) 

They also did a rapid strep test at my request. It came back negative, which she said is 85% accurate. They are sending it for a culture, so I believe that is either 24 or 48 hours. My (was it March?) rapid strep was also negative, with a positive culture later, so we will see. He still is not feeling great. I left him home alone (the girls informed me that he is the very first of our crew to be allowed this privilege) while I took the other three to karate, and then did some grocery/OTC shopping.

Baseball was cancelled for the sixth time this season (as I suspected it would be), so Brennen got a decent day of rest. Hopefully tonight will be MUCH better for him and for me both :) And, since Buck is experiencing similar symptoms, we are hoping that this virus runs its course quickly (and maybe is only contagious if you're a male--while we're hoping, we can throw that one in too, right? ;)