Reina's week

Last week, I had to travel to Santa Fe for work.  It was the last week of school and Glenn had to run a little ragged to get everyone to all of the places they needed to be, without an extra set of hands.  He did a terrific job.  

Reina had a slightly weird week.  On Wednesday afternoon, she fell going *up* our stairs and whacked her chin on the steps and bruised up her shins.  Later that night, Glenn called me and I could hear Reina wailing in the background.  She'd been holding on to the remote and put her hand on the stairs which Glenn then stepped on as he was coming downstairs.  When he called, the incident had just happened and Reina was wailing and I tried to help calm her down.  I was only marginally successful.  

Fast forward an hour and a half. I'm headed out to find a Target in Santa Fe because I am that kind of a tourist and Glenn calls to ask which of the nearest urgent care offices are still open.  Reina's finger is still bleeding and he's thinking she'll need stitches.  He loads Reina up in the car and I try to help calm her down again...she's momentarily diverted to tell me about playing with Pop-pop and Grandma earlier in the evening and Pop-pop kept pretending to barf.  Glenn says he'll keep me posted and we sign off. 

A few minutes later, Glenn texts that the doctor is ordering an x-ray of Reina's hand because they are worried it's fractured.  She's pretty freaked out and is shaking so hard that they can't get a good oxygen reading on her.  She is interested in seeing the inside of her hand, however.  I text back to see which finger is injured and he says the 'pointer.'  

Glenn calls a few more minutes later to report that she's fine now, no fracture, no stitches.  Just a big pink bandage.  

This just might be the highlight of her young life so far.  

And oh yeah, it's actually her middle finger.  By now, Reina is calm and charming the doctors and nurses.  She says "I don't mean to be rude..." as she holds up her hand.

I was home the next night, in time to see the giant pink bandage and hear the story all over again.  The next day, I pick up both kiddos from school for the last day and Reina's complaining about her ear hurting.  I notice her ear is red underneath her hair and when I pull her hair back, I see a tick chewing on her ear.  I immediately panic and look around for an adult, and then I remember that I'm actually one so I try to pull the tick off with my fingernail and then a little card thing on my key chain and when that's not successful, I take her inside the school to the nurse's office.  Luckily, there is an adult manning the nurse's office and she grabs a pair of tweezers and gets that sucker out of there.

Later that night, Reina has a slight fever which gets higher as the weekend goes on but I abstain from googling "weird tick diseases and fevers" and decide she probably just has a bad cold.  She's feeling much better today and is ready for whatever this next week has in store.  Hopefully less ticks.

Pauley Farm

I have very little time for blogging lately because of all of the craziness going on in our lives.  Will just finished soccer but he had his first baseball game on Saturday and has shooting sports once a week.  Reina's tap recital was Saturday and is on a break from piano lessons until later in June.  She still has swimming lessons twice a week.  I ran a race last weekend that had taken up some time training.  Glenn and I are embarking on a painting/remodeling project for our den and Glenn's also been busy building a chicken coop.  More on that later.  I'm between trips out of town for work and did I mention the last day of school is in 4 1/2 days? It's a wee bit CRAAAAZY around here.  But honestly, most of my evening free time is taken up with this:  

Who can resist that face?  

Coco loves to play hide and seek and when I see her face peeking out from around the corner, I must drop whatever chore I'm doing and play.  So I hide, she sneaks up on me, I jump out at her, she runs away, and the game starts all over again.  Sorry blog, I'm busy playing with the cat.

I tried taking pictures of her sneaking down the stairs while I hid around the corner but I was giggling too much to hold the camera steady.  Look at those eyes - those are some serious I'm-sneaking-up-on-you-eyes.  

A few weeks ago, I had a short trip up to Jackson for work.  One of my 'jobs' was to take a bunch of out-of-staters on an early morning drive to look for wildlife.  We saw these big boys chilling in the early morning sun.  

The Tetons, not a bad view.

So the big news in the Pauley household is that we bought four little, fluffy, cheeping baby chicks home last weekend.

Meet (Kylo) Ren 

and Rey 

Say hi to Dolly 

And Lolly 

When we were talking about getting chickens, Glenn announced that we were naming them Dolly, Holly, Polly and Molly.  So Dolly Pauley.  Cute, right?  And also a little, "Oh Glenn."  When we actually picked up the chicks, the kids prevailed in naming two of them after Star Wars characters and Glenn got his two "olly" names.  So far they live in the hunting and fishing room in a customized pen that Glenn has spent many hours on.  In a few weeks when they are older and it's warmer, they'll move outside.  Coco and Trigger and Tootsie are super interested in their every move but so far, we've kept their interactions on the nonviolent side.  I'm amazed at how much personality the little chicks seem to have.  We picked breeds that were hardy enough for our cold winters but also sociable since they will be more than just barnyard animals.  So far, I think we've chosen well.  Lolly is an Australorp and she's very relaxed.  Dolly is a few weeks older than the rest of the group and she was initially a little more scared of us.  She's an Orpington Buff.  Rey is a Rhode Island Red and Ren is a Barred Rock.  Ren, although she's named after a bad GUY, is the bravest and might be the boss of the group.  She runs up to the side of the cage to see if you have anything interesting and she even stuck her head through the wire to get a closer look at Coco.  Braaaave chicken.

Last month, I helped my sister in getting our city council to pass an ordinance allowing backyard chickens.  It was a great learning experience, I hadn't participated in local government like that before.  After attending five meetings, listening to debates and testifying a few times, we were delighted when the ordinance passed. If all goes according to plan, we'll have fresh eggs in the fall.  Until then, we have some cute new roommates.

Mother's Day

I woke up before 7 (and a good hour before I hoped to wake up) to Reina informing me that Coco had either barfed or pooped (luckily just a hairball that cleaned up easily) on the rug.  A few minutes later, Coco jumped on my chest to communicate her desire to eat breakfast already and my day started.

I realized at church that this is my tenth Mother's Day.  Wow.  Mathematically slightly less than 1/4 of my life has been spent mothering someone.  In some ways, it feels much less than that. I keep waiting for some adult to walk in and take charge of everything.  Other days, it's hard to remember a time when I wasn't doing loads of other people's laundry and worrying about coughs.  But it's all been a dream come true.

Once the cat barf and animal feeding had taken place, I opened my presents.  Reina drew me a picture featuring a cat (naturally) and gave me a jar of homemade bath salts that her teacher helped them put together at school.  Will wrote me the following letter:

Dear Mom:  I am very thankful for you although I've seen you eating cookies behind my back.  But it's okay.  I'm also thankful for you because you feed the dogs when I'm gone and sometimes clean my room which I really like.  So happy Mother's day.  I hope it is the best.  Sincerely, your very awesome son, Will.  

Glenn gave me a lovely card that Reina also signed "Let's party now.  Love, Reina."  Glenn bought me an awesome bird feeder for the backyard that Coco and Trigger will also enjoy.  Especially when she escapes into the backyard.... here birdie, birdie, birdie.

The rest of the day included church, jogging, delicious lunch with the in-laws, shopping, a quick visit with my parents, baseball, laundry, America's Funniest Home Videos and now a short blog post.  What a nice Mother's Day.

The rest of April

It is the first of May and Spring is just around the corner?  We are drying out after another Wyoming snowstorm and the sun is supposed to be shining for the rest of the week.  To say we are all a little cabin feverish is an understatement.  Both soccer and baseball were canceled this weekend and at this rate, we'll be playing makeup games until the Fourth of July.  But we've had some nice family hangout time and the house is clean-ish so we'll look on the bright side.  Plus, the grass is going to be so green when the sun finally comes back.  

During the snowstorm on Friday, we had a herd (pack?) of jackrabbits in the field behind our house. 

Friday night, we babysit Baby Cousin.  She's not a baby anymore so I really should start calling her Toddler Cousin or Preschooler Cousin!  She makes herself at home and really plays with Reina now.

Two cousins and a car, or perhaps a rocket ship?  Another game involved Reina walking onto the pillows and falling down which Toddler Cousin found HYSTERICAL.  Time and time again.  

 Glenn was turkey hunting in Kansas last week and came home with a big bird, which we were all impressed by but Coco was most intrigued (see next picture).  We were all pretty happy to see him walk in the door last Sunday.

Welcome home Dad!  

 Glenn and Will went turkey hunting earlier in the month and came back on late on Saturday with a turkey.  Glenn had saved a bunch of the feathers while he was butchering the tom.  The next morning we woke up to a delighted Coco and a giant mess of turkey feathers all over the living room.  She had found the stash of feathers and delighted in rolling around in them and I'm assuming, pretending she was a magnificent hunter.  We picked up all of the feathers that morning and went off to church.  When we came back a few hours later, the living room was again decorated in what we'll call 'turkey chic.'  We learned our lesson and picked up the flowers and secured them in a more catproof location.

Thank you Glenn for bringing me such a delightful trophy.  I'm very impressed by your hunting prowess.  

 Will received the Millennium Falcon for his birthday and he and Glenn spent many hours putting it together.  I'm happy to report that it's still mostly intact, even though this picture was taken a few weeks ago.

Han and Chewie would be proud.  

The rest of the month was a blur of soccer games, piano lessons for Reina, tap dance classes, work stuff and backyard chickens.  More on that last one later.