She works hard for the money

Sooo much to catch up on. It’s crazy that I’m here every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, to keep track of everyone else, but I never have the time to update myself. Of course, 99% of the time if I’m on the computer there’s a squirmly toddler attached to my breast, so that makes it difficult. lol

Let’s see here… Wes has been gone for 2 weeks now. I’ve been keeping myself OMGCrazySuperBusy and it’s been working…mostly. Days are mostly fine, since he’d be gone at work, anyway. Nights are harder. We usually play mafia together online after the kids go to bed, but his hotel has been having issues with their internet, so I’ve been missing him for a few nights. 🙁 It’s hard to go up to bed knowing he’s not there. Really the hardest part. But the paychecks…woo hoo the paycheck! lol His first one was $1300 + $390 per diem bonus. AND that was working 5 10hr shifts, not 6 12s. So the next one will likely be around $2000 with his per diem. $2000 a WEEK. I think I can handle being alone for awhile. lol

As part of the keep-me-busy initiative, I’ve been teaching myself to build things. 🙂 MIL and I got the chicken coop finished (the one we were building from the kitchen cabinet we got from the Habitat store) and I’m REALLY happy with it. I even came up with the idea to cut out a piece of the wall and make a nesting box with outside access. So proud of myself for that one. lol

I also decided I REALLY wanted a learning tower. I was even going to spend the $200 on one (since Wes is making more money than God right now). Wes mentioned that he thought we could make one, and I found the plans on the Ana White website. OMG. If you haven’t been to that website yet, it’s a DIY-ers PARADISE. So I built one. Finished it up tonight, in fact. 🙂

I decided to do the version that folds up for storage, and although it’s neat to have that option, it was the biggest pain EVER and if I had it all to do over again I wouldn’t bother. It also more than doubled the cost – the 8 sets of hinges cost me more than the wood AND the paint.

 folded up

What else…oh, chicken drama. lol So we had our hen Betty sitting on eggs. I bought a few sebright eggs because they’re gorgeous chickens – 3 silver laced and 2 gold laced, plus I put 2 eggs from our own bantams under her. Well, out of 7 eggs, only 2 hatched. The 2 from our bantams weren’t fertilized or didn’t grow at all. The other 3 were nearly completely grown but didn’t hatch for some reason. Of the 2 that hatched, one died the next day (it didn’t seem to be able to use its legs and was smaller than the other one). THEN the other one somehow got out of the run (I guess standard chicken wire doesn’t account for how small bantam babies are at birth) and couldn’t get back in and ended up freezing to death. 🙁 Betty was going crazy looking for her baby. So I ran up to the hardware store and purchased 9 chicks. *hides* Yes, I have a chicken problem. lol I got 3 silver laced wyandottes, 2 gold laced wyandottes, 2 buff orpingtons, and 2 light brahmas. Brought them home and stuck them under Betty and prayed she’d take them. Sure enough, she happily gathered all 9 underneath her. 🙂 Pidgey and her 3 babies (about 1 1/2 months old at this point) and Betty and the 9 chicks are all living in the "nursery coop", or the coop MIL and I built. If Southern States does their "buy a bag of feed, get 10 free chicks" deal again, I might go snag another 10, just so we have plenty of meat birds. Laura and I also plan to buy turkey eggs and hatch out turkeys for Thanksgiving. 🙂 My house is turning into a regular little poultry farm and I LOVE it.

Speaking of houses, I’ve been watching this house on Trulia for a month or so. It’s a short sale, and the price just keeps going down. Started at 199k, then was dropped to 159k, and this month it hit 149k. It’s HUGE – 2000sq ft, 2 car garage, and 5.5 acres. I drove by and from what I could see from the driveway, it already looks like there’s a giant chicken coop AND part of the land is fenced off for goats or some such. I can’t even begin to describe how amazing this house looks. BUT I can’t even go see it formally unless I have a prequalification letter. I seriously doubt Wes and I can get approved for anything right now since he made so little last year, but I’m going to send in an application anyway to see if I can get the pre-qualification letter so I can go look at this house. Part of me says if it’s still there in August when we have to be out of here, it’ll be even cheaper, but I can’t see letting it slip out of our hands, even for this price. Not sure what we’re gonna do. Just trying to get the letter right now.

AND my kids are flooding the bathroom so I should probably go get them ready for bed. I have more to write about – especially the fact that I’m in therapy right now, but that’ll have to wait.