new addtitions

i have wanted chickens for YEARS... but my sweet honey never was real big on the idea. then last year he started talking like yeah, one day we would put together a little coop and i could have a few chickens... WELL, that was all i needed to hear so while sister was here for spring break, before a coop was in existence or even planned, i picked up some cute little baby chicks...

and now they look like this... i have started anticipating fresh eggs in the next several weeks...

we have 9 all together, gertie (short for gertrude) the lady in charge, claire our sweet banty hen, berniece our red, and the three sisters that we can't really tell apart so they are the three sisters, and the boys darell and his other brother darell... the banty roosters that think they can crow and it cracks me up!

oh, my honey also picked up a game hen and two babies (a boy and a girl) that roost in the trees and won't let you anywhere near them... he has the chicken bug too now... i am expecting 100 baby quail any day now, 20 or so will stay with us and the rest will go live with the neighbors. oh and my dear father-in-law built me the cutest coop from spare lumber and windows... now if i could just finish painting it!

i heart me some fall

i heart me some fall... and it is here!

we have had a cool wet start to the season and trees are changing EVERYWHERE. it is going to be a beautiful fall.

mountain biking mommas

sister and i went on our first mountain bike ride, like on a trail, not down the road... we should have paid more attention to the sign we encountered glistening in the morning dew...here is our adventure... in pictures... with a few captions... be impressed!



shouldn't the caution sign be hanging in view
not laying on the ground covered in leaves?


where my bike landed after i bailed... don't worry i landed on my feet... and sister got the opportunity to bail too!

some parts of the trails were pretty intense... this ramp, at the end of the bridge in the photo below, would launch a rider a good five feet in the air... cr-a-zy...
we made it... despite no helmets, gloves (you would be really surprised how important they are, definitely not just for looks), knee or wrist guards, water, or much common sense...



i wish this picture really showed all the dirt, scrapes, and bruises we received from our morning adventures...

*just to let the world know, all of these pictures were posed. there was no way either of us could have ridden most of this trail even though we took the intermediate and easy routs. we did ride when we weren't laughing so hard we couldn't stand up, when we weren't stopping for photo ops, when sister wasn't running into trees, or it wasn't just plain too hard... it was great! i highly recommend going mountain biking. just make sure you are prepared!

not me monday

sister came up and we went mountain biking for the first time... more about that later...



we left the house at 9:00am, sweated profusely, went back to mom's house and the day just kept rolling on.



i did not get to take a shower (really), i did not go to the store later in the day still mud covered and smelling less than fresh, i did not stop till 8:00pm when my feet started itching (really), i did not have feet and ankles covered in seed ticks, how gross!

the half marathon: let the training begin

let me start by saying i love living in the foothills of the ozark mountains. where else can you train with views like these? beautiful, huh?

as i have trained for my first two 5ks, i have tried to be selective about where i run because up hill is not my forte. hills are however unavoidable.

well today was day three of my 1/2 marathon training program (i will be running the end of september) which means it was cross training day. and since i am also doing the muddy buddy ride and run in dallas the end of october, i decided biking would be the way to go.

so i get up this morning, get on my so so mountain bike i bought off craigs list for $80 and head out, riding about 7 miles.



what are these? hills... oh my, hills... and more hills. i just wanted to share with the world HILLS.

the zoo

i took boy to the zoo this weekend with his gamma and pawpaw. we saw all kinds of animals, ate ice cream cones, rode the train and the merry-go-round, saw more animals...

and his favorite part?

the plastic chains they had hanging in the doorways of the indoor displays so the birds couldn't fly out.

go figure...

but we still had a GREAT time.

the garden

this is our first garden, wanted to plant one for so long... so this year we have 9 summer squash plants thriving and 17 tomato plants! i told dfl, who helped get it started, that was a lot. he assured me not all the plants would make it. ha!

squash anyone?

my sweet little squash

my first ripe tomato

mmm...berries

the wild blackberries are finally starting to ripen. boy and i went out to the pasture behind the house, where the official wild berry patch is, and picked us some blackberries. there weren't many ripe and boy was eating them as fast as i could pick.

i think it's safe to say he liked them.

it's just not summer until you've had some wild blackberries.

enjoying the morning

it is quite chilly this morning... we were up before dawn

as the sun came up it lit up the pasture behind the house. frost twinkled in the bright morning light, turning the grass a warm golden orange. and there stood a beautiful doe and her yearling. we have been watching them eat as they slowly made their way back toward the woods, and it is a sweet reminder that we serve an amazing Creator who loves us.

this has been a really tough week, as i went back to work and we adjusted to going to a sitter and spending our days apart. a beautiful quiet morning with my son is just what i needed.