taking my own advice

what do you remember from your childhood? i remember trips to my grandparents house in rural PA. i remember flying to CA to visit family. i remember each HS musical i saw as a preteen. i remember Christmas Eve & morning. you get the idea... i remember the things that were out of our ordinary day-to-day life.

don't get me wrong, i'm a big believer in the little things. like eating meals together, playing hide & seek until there are no more hiding spots & reading to each kid every night. i acknowledge that those things probably make more of an impact on child rearing, but it's not necessarily what we remember.

i mentioned in an earlier post that we recently went to the beach but the car ride was not the kids favorite part (and in turn not MY favorite part either) so i made an off hand comment about how we should just stay there for a week. that thought stuck in my head. the next day i looked at week long rentals in Ocean City, NJ just to see what i was missing... turns out if you don't need a huge, beach front space in peek season you can find some reasonable deals. SO i found the best deal (sorry, i got it first!) for under $650 we got an older but nice little two bed, 1bath, second story near the end of August (when it's still really hot here) the best part of this is that it's 2 blocks from the beach and only one block from an awesome playground (34th st. if you know the city)!!! it's a great location for us and i am BEYOND excited!!!!

this has got me dreaming of a week in OC every summer....

project hatch: day 4 (AH)

below is a little video of the chicks on day 4 (after hatch). they are doing well, but definitely need a bigger space. i need to find something for them to be in while the outside coop is being built. apparently we wont know who is rooster and who is not for a few more weeks. once that happens we'll know how many hens we have and then find homes for anymore than the 3-4 we want to keep. let me know if you want one!

wordless wednesday

project hatch: day 20

we have chicks!!! LOTS AND LOTS OF CHICKS!!! most of the hatching was done on Saturday (day 20). i woke up Saturday morning disappointed because that hole i found on day 19 looked exactly the same. i thought more progress should have been made. so the kids and i went to a green festival 45 minutes away and ultimately missed the first hatch! a bummer but turns out we had an opportunity to watch 10 other hatches!!!! the kids (especially May-May) were trilled by all the chick action. it seemed like every time i turned around another was about to break on into this world. by the end of the day on Saturday we had 9 chicks fully hatched with two others on their way. by morning on Sunday the other two were out! so much to my surprise every single egg we started with (minus one that wasn't fertilized) hatched... i had a few people tell me that wouldn't happen which is why i accepted so many eggs. my next project will be to find homes for some of these little guys as we can really only keep 3-4. anybody wanna chick?? click here for more pictures from the last few days.

wonderfully warm weekend

the making of a wonderfully warm weekend...

clothes on the line

husbands outside


bathing suites

new friends

sprinklers

wet faces

wind blown hair

fun!

pant-less car rides

"green" festivals

plenty of water

rosy cheeks

dandelions

wet snuggles

grill cleaning

and of course.... lots of chicks!!

project hatch: day 19

as you can see things are moving along quickly in our chick hatching world. it's a few days early but i guess hope they know what they are doing. today after work i noticed one of the eggs moving around without the assistance of anyone and i quickly realized it must be a chick trying to come out and play. very soon after i noticed the movement i heard that first little "peep"!! throughout the night Mayden and i (chris was at school) have been listening for more chirps. we'd heard lots and were pretty sure they're was more than one little noise maker. after the kids went to bed i spent a good 20 minutes staring at these eggs (crazy lady syndrome??) trying to get an idea of which ones were "active" I saw a few more shaking around and then finally i realized one of the hard to see eggs had a hole in it!!!! WOW!!! i snuck a fast picture even thought i'm not suppose to open the incubator at this point. this is happening a little faster than i thought as they aren't due until Sunday. so looks like tomorrow we'll have at least one baby chick, if not a few more. 

i'll blog about this more i'm sure but if you're looking for a more detailed minute by minute (well, it's going to be 88 degrees all weekend so i'll probably be outside a bunch) account find me on Facebook or you can follow me on Twitter @adiaspeer

stay tuned....

wordless wednesday

project hatch- day16

our babies are due on Sunday (april 26th) and i have nothing ready in the way of chick care. YIKES! i did try last week. i went to the Tractor Supply Store where i was the only vehicle in the parking lot that wasn't a pick-up truck. maybe i need one. anyway i was completely overwhelmed in there and ended up walking out empty handed.

i will try again today after work because i had a horrible dream about it last night. i dreamt that they started to hatch early and i thought to myself that it will take most of the day for them to get completely out of their eggs so i could run to the store BUT they got out in like 1 hour and i wasn't ready... all 12 made it (although it seemed like there was more than 12) and so i was rushing around trying to get things together but they were so lethargic, sick and finally most of them ended up dying. SO needless to say i'm off to get the supplies today. no more messing around. there are little chick lives at steak here!

they recommend doing fertility tests on the eggs a few times throughout the incubation process. you do this by candling the eggs which is simply placing a strong directed light source under the egg. it's hard to tell in this picture but you can kinda of see the light area on the bottom and the line of dark. the dark is our growing chick. it's really amazing because if you look long enough (but not to long, they need to stay warm) you can see it moving around in there. it's like a little ultrasound.... the mama in me has definitely kicked in! so i've done this a few times but i'm not really sure what i'm looking for. i did find a website that tells me BUT i'm still not entirely certain about what i'm seeing. another problem is that most of our eggs are dark (brown) and my light source isn't all that bright so i just can't see anything at all. i don't want to be responsible for a chick abortion so my plan is to just let them all go to 21 days (maybe a few more days just to be sure) and see who hatches and who doesn't. my only concern is that this website says the bad ones may explode which would put a damper on things... ugh.

mayden says

last night we went to the mall to eat dinner before heading over to Barnes & Noble... a great way to spend a rainy evening. May got her hands on 3 pennies to use for the "wishing fountain"

i leaned in so i could hear her three wishes

1) "i wish that everyone would be my friend"
2) "i wish that it would be Christmas again"
3) "i wish that it would be my birthday again"

that sounds about right!

flashbacks: all better

August 26th, 2005

From Mayden's 2nd week of life journal. BTW we're all better now!!

Mayden's already giving us a little scare... since Monday we've been living in the hospital again, this time at AI DuPont Children's Hospital. During a routine home visit from a Birth Center nurse she noticed Mayden's heart rate was lower than normal and had periods of sleep apnea. In the process of checking that out they found that she is making too many red blood cells which is causing her to have "thick blood" which may or may not have been causing the low heart rate, but is a concern in it's self. This morning they did a semi-surgical procedure where they take some of her blood out and replace it with saline to in-a-sense dilute her blood and make it thinner. She did well, but we're still going to need to be here a few more days for observation. Just wanted you guys to be aware of what's going on. I finally got a chance to sneak away and write this. Please be praying for us as we get through this road block. Hopefully we'll be home soon, i can't wait to get her there!!

down the shore

this weekend's weather was wonderful so we did one of our favorite things and visited Ocean City, NJ. our kids are such bad car riders that i always question the sanity of our decision making during that 1hr 20min drive down the shore but once we're there it's magical (and probably worth it). i dream of this often, and think maybe it's in our future but what we really need to do is rent a place nearby for a week every summer. i think that would solve our little problem.

it might as well of been the middle of July because it was so packed! everything was open and there were lots of people in the water. crazies! the kids just loved the beach. they did really well only getting their feet wet until one wave came a little too fast and knocked 'em off their feet. Camo was mostly dry as i was holding his hand

and and kept him from falling. Mayden on the other hand got really wet! after some beach time we walked the boards, got some pizza, played some arcade games and headed home with very tired kids. if you'd like to see more pictures of our day click here.




below is a little video of Cameron trying to out run the waves. he did this over and over and over....

book #6 of 2009

The Time Traveler's Wife

i'm really sad to see this one finished. i feel like i could have been happy reading about these characters my whole life. and to think i almost abandoned this book after chapter one... i just couldn't wrap my head around all this time traveling stuff but once i did, it was well worth all the initial headaches! if you're looking for a good book to curl up with during a cold winter blizzard, this is your book!

this was the other book Chris picked for me for Valentine's Day, good book picker that man is :o)

rollerskates

today's weather was wonderful! after two days of cold rain it was welcomed with open arms. the next two days are suppose to be even warmer!!! we stumbled across the rollerskates as we were cleaning out the totally trashed garage

monkey see, monkey do... Cameron insisted on getting in the action too and was surprisingly better at skating than May! you just might see this kid in the 2023 X-Games

Easter

we cut it close with dying our (non-hatching) eggs this year. the day before Easter we finally got to it and came up with some good results and a few duds. since i didn't really plan ahead we just used what we had already in the house. the blueberries & red jello turned out the best while the coffee & spinach mostly failed. next year i'm thinking about just using a bunch of different colored jello packets... they smelled really good too!

Easter was very nice. the kids loved finding the eggs that the Easter Bunny hid for them. baskets were a fun treat too! it was chilly for us dress wearers but it was fun to get everyone all dressed up. i'll post a few pics but if you want to see more click here.

wordless wednesday

perhaps one too many easter morning photos....

10

starting yesterday i have 10 days off and i am MORE than thrilled about this. i think after this break i'm going to schedule things a little differently so that i'm seeing my kids more during the week. they've been awfully needy the second i walk thru the door and rightfully so, but it's wearing on my body, mind & soul. so here's the plan for the next week, let's hope i can get most of it done!

1. get my hair did

2. go to the beach/boardwalk w/ kids & hubby

3. plant spinach

4. finish the book i'm 1/2 way thru

5. take a bath

6th folder, 6th picture

a random shot of Cameron from back in February. seems like this must have been a day when he was feeling okay (there weren't many of those days in Feb) you can tell he's anticipating the flash. i think he looks a lot like Chris in this picture... cutie pie for sure

okay i'm not sure who will read this --let alone people who also blog but here goes my tagging...

Beth C.

Gina H.

Cassie H.

Libby F.

Sarah C.

Annette B.

flashbacks: sheeeeee's here!

July 2, 2005

We're proud to announce the arrival of:

Mayden Rae Speer
June 20, 2005 7:06pm
6lbs 10oz 20 inches

wordless wednesday

project hatch- day one

a proud mama brings her brood to their warm cozy home. the hope is that in 3 weeks with a lot of care and just the right conditions we'll have a few chicks make their way into our lives. we're starting off with 12 but that will more than likely dwindle down as the weeks tick by.

such love for these little guys already!

so here is where they stay at 99.5 degrees (or as close to it as we can get) and where they are turned twice a day.

Mayden says

this weekend:

me: you know, were going to plant seeds in this garden soon so you won't be able to walk around in it like we are now.

May: what are we going to plant?

me: first we'll plant spinach.

May: when are we going to plant Macaroni & Cheese?

hatching a shirt

Mayden is really into things that hatch, particularly baby chicks! she's been interested for at least a year now-- so much so that i think the Easter bunny has possibly gotten wind of this and may, just may, be bringing some REAL hatching eggs this year! but i thought the whole chick hatching thing would make a great shirt for her... she was so excited to see it and i think it turned out really cute! fits in well with celebrating springs arrival! 

my new hobby

i've been designing shirts using freezer paper! i learned about this in The Creative Family book i wrote about last week. so far i've only finished one but i'm already addicted. i've been scouring our closets for any boring blank shirts then searching for cool designs online.... i must paint! the possibilities are endless it seems. i can't wait to start on some shirts for the kids. i'll post more pictures once i'm finished.

in progress

complete!

a plague upon our house...

since Feb 14th it's felt like we've been living day by day just trying to survive (forget about thriving). each one of us has had a stomach virus that lasted a week and a severe upper respiratory infection that's lasted a few weeks... Mayden had it for even longer! every time i dared to think we were getting better we were hit with a nice surprise like pink eye.

being sick and taking care of sick people doesn't leave much room for things like dishes, laundry, vacuuming... let alone fun things like reading, crafting etc. it gets overwhelming very quickly! this put me in a dark place but now that we've all been feeling better for over a week i'm starting to think the worst of it is gone and wondering if that light i see is at the end of the tunnel! anyway i'm starting to feel like i'm in the land of the living again ... so expect more blogging soon :o)

wordless wednesday