Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Duck update :(

The handyman guy came to deliver the duck house and we found the duck eggs broken in the grass. An animal got to them. :(

*sigh*

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The further adventures of the ducks!

Ok, so let's just put it out there. I'm a complete weirdo about these ducks. You know it, I know it. I'm the weirdo crazy duck lady. :)

Now that we've established that, I can tell you the latest in the duck saga.

So I've been feeding the ducks for almost a month. I started out just throwing them some bread every now and then. Then I decided that ducks need water so I started putting out a big Tupperware of water for them to drink and they were thrilled about that. Then I decided that bread really isn't healthy for ducks so I went to the feed store and bought them a bag of duck food and a dog food feeder so that I could fill it up and leave it for them and not have to refill it very often so I wouldn't disturb them. Weirdo. Crazy. Duck. Lady.

They've been hanging out on my patio for about a month and I go out every couple of days and walk around and look for eggs but there hadn't been any. A week or so ago I found out that there were duck eggs in one of my neighbors yards and I thought maybe my ducks were eating at my house and laying their cute little duckie baby eggs at the neighbors house. Rude. But no, I determined that the neighbors have different ducks.

So then yesterday my boys went out to play and came running back in the house all excited to tell me that there are two duck eggs in the yard!! But get this-they're in the stupidest possible place in the world, sitting right in the grass in lawn. Not tucked away safely in the landscaping like the other ducks did, but right in the middle of the yard where we mow the grass and run around. Bless your heart, little duck, you've got to read a book on better egg hiding. Maybe they have pamphlets at the feed store...:)

So I didn't know what to do. I don't want them to get stepped on or mowed over obviously, but if I move them the mother will probably abandon them and that would be a bummer.

We've had a handyman crew in our yard for the past week or so working on rebuilding one side of our fence and while they were at it we decided to have them do some other projects around the yard that have needed to be done for a while and they've gotten pretty familiar with the ducks and my ridiculous need to make friends with them.

So last night I e-mailed the head handyman guy and told him my predicament, mostly because I didn't want them stepping on the eggs while they were working. I asked him if maybe we could put a little picket fence around the eggs or something so that they wouldn't get mowed over. I realize that sounded silly, but I didn't see another option.

I got an e-mail back from him last night and he said that he was on it.

Then this afternoon I got an e-mail from him with these pictures OF OUR NEW DUCK HOUSE!! LOL!




Oh my goodness, do you know of anyone that needs a duck house in their yard more than me?! :) I have a duck house! The best part is that he didn't even charge me for it, I think he just knew how much I love those silly ducks and wanted to do something nice. And by the way, if you need an awesome handyman company in Boise, Alpha Team Manpower rocks! Anyone who builds me a duck house can be my new best friend for life, lol.

He hasn't dropped it off yet and I'm hoping and praying that when he does the ducks are going to be OK with it. We had to do something, the eggs aren't safe just being left alone in the yard. The mama duck isn't going to be happy when the lawn mower is out and there are kids running around the yard. This way she'll be protected as long as she goes along with it. I think I'll move their duck food over there and hopefully they'll get the picture.

So far there are two eggs in the grass. What I know from previous experience is that the mama duck lays one egg every day or two until it "feels" right to her. Usually it's between 10-12. So if she goes along with the duck house and keeps laying eggs it will be a few weeks before she's done and sitting on them full time. Right now she's still wandering around the yard with the male duck. Once she's finished laying the eggs the male duck will take off and she'll sit on the eggs pretty much around the clock until they hatch.

So cross your fingers that my ducks like their new house and she keeps laying eggs! You know how happy the weirdo crazy duck lady gets when there are baby ducks in her yard!! :)



Monday, April 16, 2012

Garnier BB Cream



I'm a member of Bzzagent.com, which means I occasionally get to try out products for free in exchange for honestly spreading the word about what I think of them. The more I participate the more free products they give me to try, and there's nothing I love more than free stuff, so here is my honest review of my latest freebie, Garnier BB Cream.

I was excited to try it because I've been hearing good things about BB cream online. It's basically a cross between foundation and tinted moisturizer. It's a heavy cream that moisturizes your skin and evens out your skin tone without looking like a heavy foundation.

I have dry skin and lots of freckles and uneven skin tone so I have a hard time finding makeup that works well for me. I was immediately impressed with the BB cream because it went on nicely without looking dry or flaky like foundation sometimes does. It basically feels like a thick tinted moisturizer, which seems to work well with my skin. It evened out my skin tone without looking heavy or flaky, which is what I look for in makeup. I will continue to use it! Yay for Bzzagent freebies! :)

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Our Year Of Adventure: Fly a Kite

It was super windy outside today, so it we decided it was the perfect day to fly a kite. We tried it first in our backyard but quickly decided that we needed more room so we went over to a park. The boys had fun flying the kite in a field while I entertained Clarissa on the jungle gym.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures of the big event except for one that I got on my cellphone from far away. You'll just have to trust me that they had a great time, lol. Enjoy my high tech editing of the photo to point out the important elements! :)


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Wednesday

Life is busy around here, as usual! I'm still working on potty training Clarissa and I think we're making some progress. I definitely wouldn't call her fully potty trained, but she's doing better this week than she was last week, so we're getting there. There have been many milestones with Clarissa that I have been sad to see pass because she's our last child and I'm doing many things for the last time, but potty training is one of those milestones that I will celebrate when it is over! If I never have to potty train another child I will be perfectly happy. :)

Last week for my birthday I went to a glass fusing class with some friends. I really didn't know what glass fusing was before we went but we ended up having so much fun and I want to go back again! Glass fusing is basically melting pieces of glass together in a kiln. We were in a warehouse full of all different types and colors and sizes and shapes of glass and you cut and arrange them together and melt them to make things like plates, jewelry and other fun things. I made a plate and necklace pendant. It was a really fun way to spend my birthday!

It was such a fun creative outlet. It was really fun to create something. The possibilities were endless so it was a little overwhelming at first, but once I really got going I just wanted to keep making things! I'm hoping to go back and make something else one of these days when I have some free time. It looks like a really fun place to hang out.

This week we're working on some projects in our yard that really needed to get done. We're having the fence rebuilt on one side of our house because it was starting to fall over. Fortunately we have really great next door neighbors that we're splitting the costs with. I'm going to be really happy to have that project done and I'm excited to get our yard ready for summer.

The ducks are still hanging out in our yard but I still don't know what their egg laying plans are. I think in previous years the eggs were laid by now, or at least the female had started laying them. These ducks are just hanging out and enjoying being spoiled by me. :) They're not big fans of the new fence construction though. The male duck chased one of the construction guys this morning, lol.

So today we had something interesting happen. Shawn got offered a job opportunity in Denver, Colorado. We're not taking it, but it was interesting to think about for a minute. We weren't very seriously considering it but I did do a little research on Denver today to see what it would be like if we moved. What we decided is that it would basically be like living here. Nothing would change much except that we'd be farther away from family and friends, so it didn't make a lot of sense to take it. Shawn would be doing the same job he does here for basically the same money. Denver seems nice enough but it's not really high on my list of places I'd love to move to.

So I don't think we're going anywhere. We'd consider moving if the circumstances were right I suppose, but I don't think these were the right circumstances. It would have to be a big financial boost or be in a town we were really dying to live in or have some other benefit to it that we just couldn't pass up. So it looks like Boise is stuck with us for now. It was fun to pretend like we were moving for a few minutes anyway.

So that's pretty much all that is happening here these days. Oh, today I'm totally obsessed with the song "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye for some reason. I heard it last week and it got stuck in my head and then today I found a cover of it on Youtube by Jake Coco and I'm officially obsessed. I love moody acoustic covers. If you like them too, there's a song to check out.

Ok, so that's all I have to say today, I guess. I'm going to go back to eating too much leftover Easter candy and I'm off to try to convince the ducks that it's still OK to hang out in my yard, even with the scary construction guys.Wish me luck. :)

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Our Year Of Adventure: Easter Eggs

We had a fun time dying Easter eggs today! I'll let the pictures tell the story! :)














Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Our Year Of Adventure: Rent a Cabin

Our original year of adventure plan was to rent a cabin in Garden Valley, which is the little town in the mountains where we usually like to rent cabins, but we actually ended up renting one in another small town in the mountains called Donnelly, which is about 40 minutes or so past Garden Valley.

I found the cabin rental on the internet, like I always do, but I've done it enough to know how to pick good cabins, and I kind of took a chance on this one. The reason I picked it was because it offered a "buy two nights, get the third night free" deal, which was great because it made it affordable, but there weren't very many pictures of it on the website and no reviews, so I wasn't exactly sure what we'd be getting. Normally I rely heavily on photos and reviews, so I have a good idea of whether or not it's going to be a decent place to stay. This was met all our other requirements as far as I could tell though, so I took a chance and it ended up being AMAZING! Much nicer than I expected! It was really big with a nice loft with a pool table, which everyone really enjoyed.

We left Thursday and got home Sunday. One of the reasons I love renting cabins is because it's up in the beautiful mountains in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around except each other. It's a good chance for us to spend some fun family time together without distractions and without anywhere to go or anything to do. Basically we just sit around, play games, watch movies and spend time together, and I love it. No one is rushing off to work or school or taekwondo or scouts or meetings, and the phone isn't ringing and no one is knocking at the door. We all need some peace and quiet away from the world every now and then to recharge our batteries. I love it.

So that's pretty much what this trip was. Shawn taught the boys how to play pool, we sat around the kitchen table at mealtime and laughed and told jokes, we played games, we ate popcorn and watched movies and for a few days it felt like we were the only people in the world. I love my family so much. I'm so lucky to have such an awesome husband and such great kids. I love spending time with them.

Here are a few pictures I took on the trip!










Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday. I'm 37. I'm not someone who usually freaks out too much about my age on my birthday but I have to admit, the closer I get to 40 the more it's starting to freak me out. I'm trying not to think about it.

So I have a ton to talk about! I'm going to make two separate posts because we took a trip last weekend that fulfilled one of our year of adventure activities and I want to give it it's own separate post. We rented a cabin in the mountains for a few days as kind of an early birthday present to me, because renting cabins is one of my favorite things to do. We had a great time, I'll post about it in a few minutes.

Before I go too much further I need to update about the ducks! Shortly after I made my post last week about them coming back, they left again. We went on our little trip and when we got home I still didn't see them so I figured they were gone for good. Then the next morning I heard some quacking and looked outside and there they were again! They've been out there all week. They leave for a little bit and then come back and as soon as I open up the back door they come running to me to be fed. I'm still not seeing any eggs though, so I don't really know what their plans are.

Here's what I'm discovering though. I'm pretty sure that all my neighbors think that the ducks belong to them, lol. One of my friends was at my neighbors house the other day and she was all excited about the ducks in her backyard. I'm pretty sure they're the same ducks, they're just going up and down our street from house to house. They're probably getting fed all up and down our street. No wonder they're so friendly! So I have no idea what is going to happen with the ducks. I'm still feeding them and hoping for the best.

In other news, I'm potty training Clarissa this week. Someone just shoot me now. I HAAAATE potty training. In my 12 years of parenthood, potty training easily ranks up there as my #1 least favorite part of parenting. My boys were both nightmares to potty train and I had such high hopes that potty training a girl would be easier. Nope. Turns out she's just as stubborn as the boys.

I really should have potty trained her months ago, but I've been dragging my feet about it. I had a hundred excuses. I wanted to wait until after the holidays, then I wanted to wait until no one in the house was sick, then I wanted to wait because of track break, then I wanted to wait because we were going out of town...excuses, excuses, excuses. I think I was just hoping that if I waited long enough she'd miraculously potty train herself or the potty training fairy would come down from Heaven and do it for me. No such luck.

So Monday I decided that it was finally time and I took her to Walmart and we stocked up on potty training supplies. I bought poster board and stickers and candy and princess underwear and assorted cheap toy bribes. We came home and made her a potty chart and hung it in the bathroom. Every time she goes potty she gets a sticker on her chart and two Bottle Cap candies (she loves those) and when she gets to a square on her chart with a star on it (which happens about once a day) she gets to pick a prize out of my prize bag. For the past three days I've done nothing but take that kid to the potty every 30-45 minutes. I set the timer on the stove and when it goes off we go potty. For the most part it's working, at least it was for the first two days. She's a little bit over it today and hasn't been as cooperative. I'm a little over it myself, to tell you the truth. It's taking everything I have no to put a diaper back on her. It's becoming hard to fake enthusiasm for peeing 500 times a day, lol. My next door neighbor told me this morning that one of her kids potty trained themselves and she didn't have to do anything. I wanted to kick her in the shins.

So this is how my birthday has gone so far. It started off awesome. My family came into my room this morning to give me the cards they had made me. I didn't really get presents to open because the cabin trip was my present and I also bought myself some new clothes a couple of days ago, which was awesome and more than enough, but Shawn felt bad that I wouldn't have anything to open so he sat down with the kids yesterday and everyone made me a card. I had the best time looking at all of them this morning. They really spent a lot of time drawing me pictures and writing sweet notes and I really really love them. Best birthday present ever.

The rest of my day has been a little bit crazy! Josh is home sick, I spent a good portion of my morning in the bathroom with Clarissa reminding her that poop goes in the potty and NOT in her underwear(*sigh*) and in the meantime my phone kept ringing. My mom called to wish me a Happy Birthday, which was sweet and awesome and I talked to her for a while and then I switched from that phone call right to a friend who called to tell me Happy Birthday and chat for a bit, which was also awesome, and in the middle of juggling the phone calls and the potty training my next door neighbor came over while I was on the phone to tell me that she had someone coming to look at the fence that goes between our houses because it's falling over and needs to be fixed and we're splitting the costs.

So I got off the phone with my friend and called Shawn to tell him that the fence guy was coming and Shawn said that he was bringing me lunch for my birthday. My husband is awesome, by the way. So I went outside to meet with the fence guy (while keeping an eye on the clock so I can juggle a potty training argument in with Clarissa every 30 minutes), and when the fence guy got got there he noticed that we had a gas leak on the gas line on the side of our house. ACK! So I was trying to keep an eye on the clock to get Clarissa to the potty, talk to my neighbor and the house guy about the fence, figure out what to do about the gas leak, Shawn showed up with lunch (and called the gas company AND took over a round of potty training Clarissa, which is why I love that man), so I ate lunch, ran back to the neighbors house to find out what the verdict was on the fence (she's getting two more bids), then saw the gas guy in front of my house, who figured out what the problem was and fixed it (yay), and then I ran back inside just in time for Clarissa to poop in her underwear. How many times do I have to say it-POOP GOES IN THE POTTY! I'm tired.

So I got Clarissa down for her nap, (yay, no potty training for an hour an a half!) and now I'm getting my blogging done and then I'm going to go take a shower so I can get ready for the second half of my day, which I'm looking much more forward to! Shawn ordered me a birthday cake from the lady I always get our cakes from, which I'm really looking forward to, so we're going to eat some cake after he gets home from work and then this evening my friends are taking me out for an evening of fun! We're taking a glass fusing class (I'm not sure what that is exactly, but it sounds fun!) and then going out for some birthday desert. An entire evening with people who already know how to poop in the potty. Yay me! :) I have awesome friends and I'm really excited for a girls night out. A perfect end to a busy day!