More Babies

And after the tattoo . . . we got some tacos, and some more baby chicks :) I was hoping friends with bigger, already egg-laying aged birds would share with our pastor's family to complete our summer project. It turns out quite a few flocks have taken hits with hot weather and animals etc. this year. Sad! So, we stopped into our friendly neighborhood chicken store . . . and got eight more babies. Eeek!

There were not many chicks left, and because they were already a week old (they have their wing feathers) with more on the way, they were marked down to $2 each. A couple behind us said, "We're buying EVERYTHING you don't, so go ahead a pick." Lol, no pressure!! So, of course, they had some French Black Copper Marans--feathered feet (which Graysen's been wanting), dark, chocolate-colored eggs (which I've been wanting) and there were only three left! So, we got one for our friends and two for us :) That will put our flock at 25. The process of swapping out coops for three sets of birds of different ages will be complex, but we don't have to worry about that until late July. I'm not sure what we'll name them--my first thought was Cocoa and Puffs :)

The rest--three Rhode Island Reds (Brennen's favorite--they are SUCH cute chicks!!), and two Black Australorps (Orpingtons from Australia)--will go to start our pastor's family's flock. They won't start laying eggs until the fall, but it will be fun to come home to partially grown chicks (at least we hope so!! :)

Oh the Places You'll Go

One place I never thought I'd go--a tattoo shop :) However, after watching about 100 hours of tattoo shows while Buck was recouping from back surgery, I actually find the process kind of intriguing. There really is an art to body art :) I don't like the smarmy feel the lifestyle often projects, and I'm not a fan of the homage to death and nudity that generally accompanies these places. However, we were referenced to and found this shop to be run more by college-educated men and women than the stereotypical "I learned how to tat in jail" crowd. It was a clean, refurbished turn-of-the-century home with really nice wood floors. Yes, the undercurrent of the trade-known elements were present, but it was also bright and well-kept. Overall, I'd say Buck chose a good location to get his tattoo of 25 years past spruced up. The tattoo artist laughed and said, "Oh, I was two when you got this." Thanks, bud. Lol :)

Quite a difference, right? The original had color at one time, believe it or not. Our tech/design intern at church came up with a redo of the original. Buck submitted this to the guy who would be working on his refresh. We waited a month (because they only do tattoos by appointment--and we'd been talking about this for maybe a decade, so what's a few more weeks?). They made a few on-the-spot changes, and away the tattoo gun (?) went! Buck is glad something that used to represent something very different in his life is now representative of the Cross and his longing for God to be in every part of his life. Pretty cool transformation!

(Here's the redesign from our church friend . . . a few elements wouldn't fit, but Buck likes the result :)

Fur(ious)

This is how we spend our free time--brushing dogs . . . they are losing endless clumps of fur, and no matter how many times I vacuum, and no matter how many times we brush them, we still get piles and PILES of fur. It was pretty funny when the laid down back-to-back for today's grooming session, though :)

Move It!

Another hot and sweaty task we helped with this week--moving our friends! They purchased a beautiful old home and worked their tails off over the past year to fix it up. You may recall photos of the Crew tearing out rugs and steaming off 100-year-old wallpaper . . . about a year ago. Well, the bummer of the situation is, the neighborhood turned out to be not-so-safe for their crew of four littles. With the housing market crazy-hot they were able to sell in a blink, but there is just nothing out there for them to claim as their own next home. So, as many times as they've looked, closing dates and moving dates appeared on the calendar, and they needed some extra muscle for the move. They offered pizza and pop, so of course our Crew was in!

We arrived early and stayed late--so late, that my college friend and her roadtripping kiddos arrived in our town before we were home to greet them. Ooops! They watched the sunset, dashboard style, as we hurried home. It was a fun evening of catching up and finding out about future ministry plans (we're on their support team, too, so in-person updates are the best!).

The next morning, after some chicken visits, Jenga games, and breakfast chats, their van headed east and we checked in with our moving friends. It turns out that our moving friends were shocked to find they had completely refilled their moving truck and were rapidly running out of space in the storage unit. Eek! The girls were at work, but the boys were available. My friend brought her baby (who did NOT want to be held by anyone other than his mama :) and we spent a couple hours unpacking the truck (for the second time) into the storage unit. Well, actually, the previous day, the boys rode over to the storage unit to unload while the girls loaded the Caddy and took a couple of loads to our friends' mom's house, where they'll be staying until they find their own home. Actually, this is the same family we helped when they needed to clear out their grandparents' house last year during pandemic. We should have an HGTV show!! Lol :)

When the truck was empty (the boys are pretty good at wheeling heavily-laden carts around corners, now) we had just enough time to pick up a dozen cookies at a yummy cookie shop, and then to pick up Gabby at her yummy bakery shop. Apparently, someone ordered 68 dozen donuts, so, had she had her own wheels that day, she would have stayed late to help.

But it was okay that she didn't--everyone was tired and sore, and more than half of us slept 12 hours last night, but it has been a good week of serving others and fellowshipping with friends. I'm a happy camper! I'm glad our Crew enjoys cheerfully serving others, too :)

Coopy-Cat

IDK what that title is supposed to mean, lol! I was just thinking that our love of chickens (okay, MY love of chickens) sometimes spills onto others and inspires them to want to live the chicken life too--like a copy (coopy) cat? :) While our pastor's family is on sabbatical, we decided to surprise them with a coop of their own. Hopefully the bits of random conversation, and the weekly buying of farm-raised eggs is enough evidence that they wanted this to happen someday. Well, the day is here! Well, sort of . . . there are no actual birds in the coop, but it is built . . . maybe not stained . . . but cemented and extended from six foot long to 16 foot long! Happy chickens, happy humans . . . we should have an HGTV show ;)

"Is this where you want it?" The picture we sent to our pastor who is in on the surprise although the rest of the family isn't :)

Nope, down the slope . . . it required some extra digging, but we made it work!

Our boys raising the roof ;)

And when borrowing an old playcenter roof, one needs a structure to support it :) Brennen and I mathed out the dimensions for the extension walls. I suppose I could count this as an extra credit project for his construction class. I'll have to subtract a few points for him putting a screw into my thumb (but it was an accident :)

By day two, we had recruited our fourth helper (hard to catch the ladies between work schedules). Caelan said she likes to dig, so she got to do the trenches for eventual subterranean wood and concrete blockages for digging creatures.

It was crazy hot, so we had to take middle of the day breaks at home in the air conditioning. I don't know that we returned refreshed, but we did return with bug spray. The chickens are going to help take care of that business when they arrive at their new home later this summer!

The original end-piece fit nicely at the end of the extension. We flipped it upside down, because Buck had the idea that our pastor's fam could open the latch (which is supposed to let the chickens out to free range) and pour food directly into the feeding system we bought (which is just like ours, but now so much more convenient!) Smart thinking! Like I said . . . we should have a show!

At the end of day two, both roofs, plus the bonus roof in the middle and all the chicken wiring is done. Cement and dirt is in place. Extra door handle is installed. Storage shed is built, water hook is installed (we just need to get a chain to hang it from), all that's left is stain--which I've never done before, but online said not to stain if it's going to rain, and wouldn't you know it we have one random thunderstorm day in the midst of desert-like weather conditions. Oh right, and we have to get some chickens! I'm hoping friends will donate ones that are already laying. We have a bit of a chicken community around here :)

Gotta snap the blazing hot, no a/c in the Caddy, sweating all day, covered in bug spray, sitting with building materials on my head or snuggling your brother, drive home photo-op. Still smiling, though! That's got to count for something!

Graduation Open House

Hooray for teamwork! I'm grateful for friends and my own Crew who helped get us ready for Caelan's graduation open house. From the unexpected landscaping and bathroom renovating at our host location, to borrowed items from our youth group, to friends showing up hours early to help set everything up, to help tearing everything down and putting it away when the party ended (an hour and a half late :) it was just a great team effort to celebrate Caelan's accomplishment--high school grad!

The theme was pink, glitter, shimmer, lace, rose-gold, silver, country garden party. I think that was everything :) The wind was a bit much and knocked over a few items of décor (shattering one glass frame), so Buck's NGF rigged up some bonus posts to keep things aligned; it was overall a huge blessing to have my mom's tent available to keep everything safe from blowing away. We researched the best pens to sign photo paper in Caelan's senior year book--gels for the black paper pages and Sharpie markers for the white, glossy pages. Kind of fun to see those pops of color and messages distributed throughout.

My party planning friend suggested wild flower seeds as party favors. I found these pressed paper hearts that contain wildflower seeds. They are so pretty! We have loads of them left, so we will soon have a wildflower garden of our own :)

Caelan's slideshow was 55 minutes long :) I worked on the first half of her life, and Gabby did the rest (it was a bonus history project for school; it even fit the time frame, ha!) Graysen set up a playlist and let us use his new speaker. We found this elegant old table in the garage and I dropped a vase of unchosen flowers (for arrangements) behind the screen. I made sure to tell everyone that that was my arrangement, not Caelan's--one of which is pictured above :)

Lots of surprise faces and guests, like old friends from Bright Lights, my dad's fraternity brother and his wife, my aunt and uncle, and pandemic babies! We had a steady crowd of visitors, but not nearly enough of them ate dessert :)

We've been praying for these babies since long before they were born! It was the first time we got to meet them, and it also was their first birthday. What a miracle this pair is! We also got to meet the third karate baby (born during pandemic), but I didn't get a picture because I did a lot more talking than photographing at this event.

The cross-net game was a non-stop hit (no pun intended :) It had a steady line of players for more than four hours! Super glad the youth group let us borrow it for the party. Other highlights--the helium tank our friends lent us worked! Perhaps a confetti-filled balloon or two popped in the house, but they sure looked nice on the mailbox and the turn from the highway. The giant Caelan grad sign mom made last year got to be put on display--not sure what we do with that next, though :) My brother and his sweetheart got us JJ's and K shared half of hers with me--she chose the kind Caelan always gets because she though Caelan's order sounded so good. She also carried like four jugs of water at a time down the porch stairs during clean up--we had a lot of water left over because I thought we'd be refilling the lemonade throughout the day. Buck was in charge of mixing the initial batch, and it turned out to be potent enough that just adding ice throughout the event made it gradually more drinkable ;) Pucker up lemonade lovers! A lot of people thought it was just right, so I guess it depends on one's taste buds' preferences.

Let's see, oh, well we tossed the majority of two whole cakes (and still had another in the fridge). I learned later that my oldest younger brother challenged my youngest son to face plant in the cake--the tradition continues! G$ did score some life points on the deal, and no longer has frosting in his eyebrows. We also had two full containers of cookies and a giant bag of candy--the chocolate didn't do so well on the tables, so all that mushy goodness got tossed, too :)

I've been trying to think of all the important, funny, or unexpected details of the day, because we may not remember them later--that's why this post is so long in coming. For instance . . . original sentence: After the party, we loaded up four vehicles with stuff and drove home. Modified sentence(s): After the party, we reset the property to pre-celebration status, loaded up four vehicles with party stuff, and got ready to head home. At this point we realized, we still didn't have Gabby! She and Brennen moved their work schedules to earlier in the day so they could attend the party. Gabby is usually up and ready to go at 9 a.m., but was pretty wiped out from her previous day's work. At some point, mid-party, she went inside to take a nap. Good thing she woke up as we were leaving or she would have been pretty confused to be without people and wheels out in the country :)

Back at the house, Buck bought a sandwich tray and I was surprised that we were all hungry enough to make it disappear. Some watermelon might have disappeared, too. Here's me trying to take cute selfies with M like his 20-something auntie does--yeah, she's way better at it than I am. I'm sure her being half my age has nothing to do with it, ha!

Caelan's gift, gift card, and graduation card collection has grown and grown! I think there's at least another half dozen cards I've put on the wall since this photo. Pretty cool!

The Crew finished the evening with a game of badminton--Caelan and G$ bought the net lights at Hobby Lobby, and I ordered the glow shuttlecock so they could extend their game time. It looks pretty cool rocketing across the net!

Whoohoo! One graduated, three to go :)

Grad Party Prep

We (I) might have over-planned the graduation open house. We had double of just about everything we needed, including locations (we needed a back up plan for rain :) It was a surprise, though, when my double order of elegant lace tablecloths arrived with dinosaur stickers in the package. Lol!!

I forget we have a hot glue gun, but Caelan remembers and put it to work sticking burlap and lace ribbons to mason jars. I figured these would be a good place to put stray candy wrappers, rather than having robust breezes blow them across our pastor's property during the party :)

We did a quick "before" picture of the graduation greetings Caelan received so far . . . she's been overwhelmed with the amount of mail! She said it's like her birthday, but it just keeps going and going :) She is up to her ears in thank you notes, including one for a $1,000 scholarship she was just granted through the college. She now has enough funds to fully pay for her first year of school. Praise God!

I kind of jokingly drew up this schematic for the party layout. I slipped it into a plastic binder sheet cover and dropped it into the box of decorations. Buck and his NGF set up the tables as close to the schematic as they could. My NGF and her daughters set the decor up EXACTLY how I laid it out, and beautifully! Oh wait, that's blog fodder for the next day :) (But I seriously could not have gotten everything arranged and had time to run home to shower and grab the cakes if it hadn't been for their family, our youth intern and her hubby, those of our own Crew not working, and my brother's sweetheart!)

Our deck was in great need of its semi-annual painting (or every other year painting, bi-annual?). I took care of the railings, then the boys took care of the planks. I'm not sure how it turned into a full repainting on the deck, but it did, sure enough. In preparation for all this preparation, Buck and I tackled a list with 11 errands on it--which expanded to 14 before we were done--including four different home improvement stores in two states. That was quite an afternoon!

Meanwhile, we collected flowers from two different floral departments and a good friend's garden, so Caelan had lots of blooms and greens to work with for her graduation party floral arrangements. Before we knew it, our kitchen turned into a floral shop with stems and petals all over the floor and flying through the air! The arrangements looked really pretty though when she was finished!