The girls have arrived!

My Hens are here.  

Meet Hen #1, because we don't have a name for her yet.

 We are waiting on J to name her, so until then she is #1. 

This little one is Sprout. 

She is 2 months old, this is Elyssa's chicken. 

She has a twin that Ash, named bob....

This is the west side of my coop and the egg door. 

The roof is copper colored metal over plywood.

 I have a big copper star I may put out here and change up the look of this side. 

Not sure I am completely happy with it.

 I want an Americana look. 

I may incorporate more onto the door as well. 

Here is my chicken, Americus. 

This is a picture of the south side of the coop and the run.

Bgawk!

I have been watching several different ads lately,

 waiting for the right kind of chickens at the right price. 

Yesterday my BIL messaged me to tell me one of his students,

 was trying to get rid of his chickens.

 And did I want them? 

 Of course, I jumped on it, 

he just wanted to give them away. 

 So I ended up with 2, eight week old chickens. 

Then as I was watching the ads yesterday,

 a guy was trying to get rid of 2 hens free. 

I called on it but I was too late someone else had claimed them.

 However late last night he called me to ask if I wanted them,

 because the other person never showed up to claim them. 

I jumped on it and picked them up early this morning. 

Tonight I went to close up the coop and all 4 hens were on their roosts. 

I was completely amazed.

But I was flabbergasted when I checked the nesting boxes and there was an egg. 

Our very first egg! 

We had the chickens less than 8 hours and we had our first egg!

Amazing! 

time to play catch up...

It has been a while since we got home from St. George. Well about a month. I feel like I have been playing catch up the whole time. So much has been going on around us and just trying to keep up is a bit overwhelming some days. Especially after our super laid back months, being away from home.

 And we brought a puppy with us! So add that to the mix and it has been busy. I am constantly running around trying to rescue my bra's and underwear from that dog! What is it with dogs and under clothes? Really, My best bra?!?  Dixie did you really have to chew up both cups?

We have been spring cleaning, and I must have got it bad, because I am tossing stuff into the donation pile left and right. I vacuumed the whole house the other day, I cleaned out the spice drawer (it has been bothering me for a while), I organized my food storage area (HUGE accomplishment). Cleaning up the school room/office/hobby room, tough job, I am making small bits of progress though.

Other things I have been up to?

  I built a chicken coop (now if the rain would stop so I could finish it! pics coming soon). The more I read about and research having chickens, the more excited I get! My dear husband was a tremendously wonderful help in building the actual coop! I could not have done it with out his expert help. All I had to do was tell him exactly what I wanted and he helped me get it done.  Just a bit of trivia here... Did you know that the city of Diest, in Belgium actually handed out chickens to their citizens to help cut down the amount of waste going into the land fills? Chickens will eat anything humans will and also lots of things they won't.

I started couponing again, this time on a much larger scale. My goal is to be an extreme couponer. In the last 2 weeks I have purchased 48 boxes of pasta. They were all free with in-ad deals and coupons.  Last Sunday I went to Smith's to use up the last of my coupons for pasta and a few other things. My total bill came to $0.12!!! that was a savings of 100% for 10 boxes of pasta and a tube of toothpaste. That was at the first store. At the second store, I purchased: 1 bbq sauce, 6 boxes of pasta, 1 sunny delight, 2 quaker quakes rice snacks, my total was $2.27 cents! So in total I spent $2.39.

I have so much cereal from my past attempts at couponing which were fairly meager and my last 3 weeks of couponing, that I am not quite sure where to store it all. I most definitely want to take some of it to to the food bank at the church. Along with some of the pasta and 84 razors I have purchased.
My goal is to have enough food on hand that if my husband gets laid off from work we will be able to survive with out it being a huge burden to him. We have definitely seen that side of the barrel before. Construction work is feast or famine. The other goal is to have enough on hand that I can help out others going through similar situations.

Also I am helping throw a baby shower for the dear young woman who was the first ever to baby sit my children. She lives in England now but we are having a shower for her anyway. Her mom and I will be hosting this Baby-Shower-in-a Suitcase if you will. Her mom and dad will be headed out to England shortly after and will be taking all of the baby shower gifts and a video to the new parents and baby. That shower is the first weekend in June.

Lastly I have been involved in a renewal of wedding vows ceremony that will take place a month from now. I will be catering it.

Well I guess that pretty much sums up what is going on around here and why I have not blogged in a while.   I promise to do better just as soon as I get my girls (hens) and get them settled in their coop.

Meet the Newest Member of Our Family

This is DIXIE

She is a puppy about 12 weeks old. 

We got her from the Cedar City animal shelter

She instantly "adopted" Justin and would not leave his side

She is supposed to be a border collie ~ heeler mix

 but she is so small we wonder?

Dixie is the perfect fit for our little family 

She is sweet and energetic, while being cuddly and loveable

Resting, Leaning, Longing... Lessons I'm Learning.

Today is 60 days that we have been in St. George, Utah. Literally our home away from home.

 I have learned a few things, some of them were gentle reminders.

 Of course I have a lot to process now.  

When we learned Justin was going to have to work in St. George, it was extremely emotional. I was completely 100% confident that God would provide for us. My faith in God never waivered. What I expected or wanted from God was my own idea of how he should provide. I was not outright demanding. I was just overwrought with emotion and thought that if we just stayed put He would provide. What I did not expect was that His provision would be perfect. It would be the the most magnificent gift of rest, and renewal in many ways. The only way for me to get that rest was to leave the city.

  I remember my first thought, that I was not going to stay behind while my husband was so far away.   If you can call 4 1/2 hours "so far away".  I remember feeling like people were going to judge me because I could not be with out him. But I had some wonderful encouragement from some beautiful ladies letting me know that what I was doing was absolutely right.  My place was with my husband being his help meet. There was absolutely no reason for me to stay behind. I am a stay at home mom, I home school my kids, all of my outside responsibilities could be handled by other people if I would just be willing to give them up. So I followed my husband. I stayed with him. My job has been to make sure all of his needs are met. He is well taken care of. We see him only a few hours a day but at least we see him. We are a complete family minus the dog.  It has been one of the best decisions of my life! I can't imagine him having to work 10 hour days and then travel home on the weekends. He would not have time to rest up if that was the case. 

The move was extremely emotional. I was a mess to say the least. We had 2 days notice and we needed to pack everything we would need for the first few weeks. I had the hardest time focusing on what needed to be done. I had offers from my sister-in-law, to come and help me pack. Problem was I did not have the slightest idea what needed to go. I learned that you absolutely can live with very minimal supplies. You can make do with what you have on hand. And if all else fails find the local dollar store. 

Watching God work in our favor from the very first moment was incredible. I found a place to live that miraculously opened up the day before we needed it. And it is a beautiful retreat. In a place we would never be able to afford to stay, if it were not for the long term arrangements. 

It took me about 3 or 4 weeks to process everything that had happened. Learning to unwind and settle down was very difficult.  So I took up crochet.  Needing to have a small, portable hobby. Come to find out doing crochet has the same effect on the brain as meditation, who knew?

I have found now that what I wanted and what I needed were not one in the same. I never saw my provision coming. Sure we knew it was God's hand that kept Justin working but what I did not see was that I needed a break. I was on a path leading to serious burn out, and a bad attitude was just the beginning of it manifesting itself.  That vacation I had wanted so bad was right there under my nose I just had to realize it. It only took me about 45 days... Sure we were taking every opportunity to hike and swim but it was my mind set that had not caught up.

 Now I am looking at the last 2 weeks of our stay here. And it is with mixed emotions that I look at going home. Part of me wants to stay here forever, that part that wants to be in the warmth. The other part of me so anxiously wants to go home, that some days I can barely stand it. I think about the garden and the chicken coop, things that need to be done before it gets too far into spring. I am learning patience I suppose.  Sundays are the hardest, I miss my church family. I feel out of the loop, so to speak. 

It has taken about 45 days for me to realize that spiritually I feel like I am dry as the desert, fitting isn't it. I know that I am in a season of renewal. I see it and long for it and I know it is happening, just as spring is beginning.  I am newly opened to things God wants me to learn, unfortunately I am a slow learner.  Right now I am going to lean on the Lord, as I have been, until we are settled at home. I know He knows what is best for us. What we need! I am not worried about Justin's job situation.

 His provision is perfect.  

  

  

Monster Jam in Vegas

The trip to Vegas seemed to take forever to get here and then before we knew it, our vacation was over. We do get to keep all of the fabulous memories that came with it though.

Our good friends Jon and Meagan invited us to join them for the Monster Jam World Finals.  A few pictures, ok a lot of pictures, of our fun time together in Vegas.

Hot Wheels Cars

One of Elyssa's favorite trucks. The other one is Monster Mutt. 

The "girls" with Madusa.

Justin's pick "The Avenger"

Ashton's pick "Grave Digger"

Back in our room after the day in the pits, 

we were resting up before dinner and the monster truck show. 

The show was at the Sam Boyd UNLV arena.

We were not disappointed!

Monster Mutt

Day 2 in Vegas found us at the Harley dealership.
We could not leave with out a t-shirt.

Next stop The Strip. 

We needed to make a stop at the M&M store,

 and the Coke Cola store.

Early dinner was found at Caesar's Palace, they have a Cheesecake Factory.

Justin needed to leave Vegas to go back to St. George,

 because he had to work the next morning.  

I stayed one more night at Sam's Town with the kids. Jon and Meagan drove us back to St. George the next day on their way back to Salt Lake. 

This very last picture was taken before Justin left. Then his camera died or I would have kept it to take more photos.  

After dinner Justin and Jon took the monorail back to the vehicles. Justin left Vegas and John picked us up at the Flamingo. We went to the Treasure Island Show but it was awful. It was a little too grown up for the kids. Too many girls dancing with too little clothes on. If you know what I mean. 

Next up was a trip to  Circus Circus. It has to be the dirtiest place on the strip, but it has the best midway for the kids. And They have a Krispy Kreme donuts, McDonald's and loads of gift shops inside. We were so exhausted when we finally headed back to our rooms around 10pm. That was just under 12 hours of walking on the strip. 

The next morning we had breakfast and checked out of our rooms. We were fortunate enough to have a room right next to Jon and Meagan. That was very convenient!

We loaded up and headed back to Utah. A quick stop in Mesquite and then a short drive to St. George and we were home. Jon and Meagan traveled on to SLC. It was awesome being able to hang out with them.  We had so much fun and it was much needed.  

DIXIE Rock Hiking

Elyssa caught this lizard. It was gently released back into a protected area away from the hikers

Las Palmas......Enjoying the Outdoors

A Picture Post

I didn't know that Palm Trees have teeth, Some might cal them thorns or defense mechanisms, but the only way I can describe them is to say they have TEETH! have a look...

They finally heated the outdoor pools for the weekends so we have been spending some quality time there. Just working on our tans.