Rinn's Wedding

I know it was ages ago but I thought I would share a few pictures of the big day anyway.  I have to admit I didn't take very many pictures and I tried to limit the ones for my blog to ones of Corinne and Dan or me.  I just thought she was so gorgeous I had to show her off a little keep in mind that I am a Backyard Poultry photographer and not a wedding photographer.

The nieces and nephews were very supportive.

Here I am with my Grandparents.  I haven't seen them in over 6 years they are both around ninety years old-can you believe it?

Here they are exiting the Temple.  I like how happy Corinne is even though I attempted to ruin her wedding.  Right at the end of the ceremony I developed a bit of a cough.  The more I tried to hold it in the worse it became-you know how that is?  Unfortunately I was sitting as far as possible from the exit so I had to cross the couple.  Right before the official end to the ceremony my devoted hubby stopped the wedding and left to go find me.  I made it in time and I like to think I did a pretty good job about making it all about me.

I stole the show on the inside and their exit was taken over by Cale when he ran right in front of them, turned to face the camera and smiled.  He was too cute.

Here I am being Corinne's dress slave.  You can see how I clearly failed to be skinnier than the bride on her special day.  Even with all that was going on she actually noticed how I stole her headband and earrings. 

The wedding was full of red heads.

Corinne's trademark stance.

One of the most stunning bouquets I have ever seen.

Smoochy smoochy

Izzy's shoes stole the show at the reception.  I have to say by the end of the evening I was wondering if I could pay her 5 bucks and squeeze my footsies into her shoues.

This is Corinne getting to eat at her reception.  I sat down next to her for a minute only to get up to leave and realize that somehow fishing line had looped itself about a million times around one of my heels.  I tried to walk away and tugged and pulled in the middle of the dance floor.  People were staring until my awesome brother Mike came and saved me from the invisible line.  Did Corinne set me up?

Get a good look because RARE is it that you catch the two of us in a photo together.  I think we are rather stunning.

The Girls

I figured everyone was dying to get a chicken update and these days I am always willing to talk about them because I have learned quite a bit. Just in case anyone was worried, they were only in the garden beds for the photo shoot and the younger ones are separate from the older ones. Tess has been outside at the same time as them unsupervised but within an invisible fence. The chickens are just now getting comfortable roaming further from the coop so I suppose I will need to be more careful about that...
So far I am enjoying being a chicken owner. What I realized too late with the dog is that dogs have feelings and needs just like a young child-but worse in many other ways so it really only amped my stress levels. I like to say the dog is for the kids and the chickens are for me. The chickens are brainless yet entertaining and I feel no guilt for neglect like I do with Tess the Dog. So anyway here are my girls and yes, many of them look similar-Lucy is really the only one that can tell the difference. :) If you want to see the bigger versions you will need to click on the picture.



Ed also named this one Eddie at the same time Danielle named hers Danielle but his sisters talked him into changing the name since he already had a chicken named Eddie. He chose "Buddy" because that is one of his nicknames and his favorite dinosaur on Dinosaur Train.

Danielle has since claimed this as her chicken because she decided she liked the white one instead but I am not giving this one up. I named her popcorn because she looks like popped corn. Since I got her her feathers have gone all crazy so I am thinking she may be a frizzle? She gets along with everyone but she is a stress case.

Caramel was added last and I am glad every morning when I check the brooder and she hasn't been pecked to death for being a small intruder.

Danielle is a bit of a bully but she was humbled by the big chickens when they went for her toes because they thought they were worms. Don't worry the toe pecking has stopped.

Lucy's chicken and the most held of the bunch as you can see.

Poor Tess. She is contained while the chickens roam free. So far she doesn't bark at the chickens which is good because if they are stressed they won't lay as often. I think mostly Tess hates the neglect she has gotten since the arrival of the chickens. It really is only a matter of time until and "incident".

I am not a proponent of standardized testing...

yet it was nice for Aida to hand me this certificate just before going to bed (not a big deal to her I guess) along with a coupon worth $10 of books at the book fair. In my head I replaced "highest score in Language Arts" to mean that yes, it is true your daughter is the brightest of the lot. Congratulations to Aida!

Happy Mothers Day to Me

Mother's Day is quickly moving up the list to being my favorite holiday. Today I was in a conversation with some ladies about Mother's Day. One of them was a little upset because she has one child and is 36 weeks pregnant with baby number 2. This morning she woke up to her child sleeping on her head and her and her mother exchanged presents while their husbands slumbered away. He didn't make it any better by giving her some flowers and when she asked if there was a card from her daughter he said it was the one that came with the flowers. I guess she was hoping for some homemade thing evoking sentiment and warm fuzzies. Several of the ladies came to his defense saying how really it takes years (this was only her third) and you have to train the family to know what to do for you. I was shocked that she at least hadn't taught him to TRY to let her sleep in. Sometimes there isn't any sleep but it is just nice to not have to be the one to jump out of bed first or in my case just not feel guilty about hubby having to jump out of bed first.
What she failed to understand in my eyes is that Mother's Day isn't like Valentine's Day or your Birthday it really isn't a holiday it is a state of mind. The idea is that on Mother's Day it is truly "Queen for a Day" where whatever I say goes and no one can complain about it. Every whim and demand within reason and even some that aren't are to be granted. I started prepping my family for Mother's Day a week ago. Maya gave me a new card everyday and I liked it. They knew breakfast was a given and last night I lovingly reminded them that not only could they not knock on my door in the early hours of the morn but I didn't want to hear any noise at all from any part of the house this morning.

Lucy's class called all of the Dads in to help with Mother's Day surprises and he was great to go and help her for 1.5 hours on a weekday. I liked that. Yesterday (Saturday) Mark gave me the gift of a quiet house while he took the kids on errands and worked on a surprise gift in the garage all day long. The quiet house made me feel zen-like and full of love. I told Mark that I decided that Mother's Day would be spent hanging out all day with my children. Okay, so that didn't really happen but I enjoyed my long nap, my nice dinner the AWESOME homemade gift goodness. I remember always being disappointed that I couldn't get my mom something nice for Mother's Day but now I can see why she said she like the homemade ones the best. I thought she was saying it to be nice but as a mother, I really do enjoy those ones the best. They are creative, thoughtful and one of a kind. Ed caught on to the gift giving and kept finding favorites of his to give me all day long so thanks for the pictures of "rivers" and for your deflated red balloon from the fair yesterday. So here is a picture of me with my lovelies-thanks Mark for getting a rare picture of me.  For those of you wanting a closer look at me I have included the portrait Maya drew of me for Mother's Day.  I will have to post other Mother's Day bounty tomorrow.  I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day-I have to say this has been the best one so far.  They only seem to get better and better.

Crazy Susan’s Cookies

Today I hit a yard sale and returned with a few things I think I don’t want but at the time I couldn’t help but get it because at yard sales sometimes you get that “but I where would I ever possible find this again?” feeling. Completely forgetting that maybe there are some things that should never have been found in the first place much less found for a second go. Feeling a little ripped off that I didn’t find something cool for Mark and I’s garden oasis we are making, I decided to drive past an antique store that was down the road from the yard sale and next door to Crazy Susan’s Cookies. The antique store was closed but Susan’s was open (she is only open weekends until tourist season opens up).
Here’s the thing-I like my cookies. I like MY cookies a lot. I remember making cookies for a friend of mine and all she said was how good HER mom’s recipe was and that her mom is so good at cookie making she can make them more round that mine and faster using nothing but a spoon as opposed to my scooper which I feel like she was implying was a cheats tool. After feeling a bit offended at her unsubtle insinuations that my cookies weren’t up to snuff I had to forgive her because aren’t we all a bit protective of what our momma’s cookies? I think many people feel that way about their own cookies even though for the most part isn’t everyone’s “secret family recipe” really the toll-house recipe with maybe a bit more vanilla in it? Remember when wards were filled with ward cookbooks proclaiming to have the REAL Mrs. Fields Cookie recipe? The first time I went to Susan’s I was not impressed with the overall “appearance” of the cookie and I did find the chocolate chip to be a little too sweet and brown sugary but the other cookies-like the turtle cookie-delicious. Aida and I decided to treat ourselves after the unproductive yard sale. We had a plan we would each get a different flavour, go halfsies and get rid of the evidence before going home. Aida chose a warm peanut butter cookie with peanut butter chips in it. Okay, I am not a peanut butter cookie fan but this cookie was super super good. It wasn’t hard and crunchy like peanut butter can be but it had the crisp edges and the warm gooey middle that i like. Again, not a real looker of a cookie but the best peanut butter cookie I have ever had it just melted in your mouth. I actually turned the car around and bought Mark one because I felt THAT guilty about enjoying the deliciousness without him. The ladies that work there-including Susan are friends with a lot of their patrons and it is fun to visit with them. I guess this will be their first year with a a kiosk on the boardwalk which I am pretty sure will do nothing to aid me getting rid of the sarong this year. Anyway here is video of Susan and some shots of Ocean City to entice anyone to come out and visit New Joize.