How they have grown...

They grow so fast.

Harriet is the fluffy one on the far left.

My husband is almost done with the chicken run/coop he is building outside. He is building it as a part of the playset. I am hoping that the offer of free eggs will make the neighbors forgiving of any additional noise the chickens make once we move them from the garage. I put Harriet on the ground today and she chirped incessantly and loudly. I can't imagine that they are going to be quiet neighbors. Fortunately, I am teaching one of the next door neighbors' children and I give him a ride to school every day so Mom doesn't have to get out. I hope that garners us enough favor not to warrant complaints, since livestock is against the HOA.

My friend says I worry too much about what other people think. Probably.

13 chicks, 2 cats, a dog, 3 kids, 2 parents and a tank of fish walk into a bar...

So clearly we are up to 13 chicks. My husband had a coupon, headed back to the tractor store, and came home with 7 more chicks. We have 2 black, 6 brown, and 5 yellow chicks. Two of the new ones are Harriet and Manuel, though I can only tell who Harriet is because she is the tiniest. Muffin (the pup) thinks they look like so much fun to play with, and consequently must be kept away from them so she doesn't stress them out with her incessant barking.

So far all I've done is feed them and talk to them. I brought down a book from the craft room that I bought a long time ago and never managed to read:

Hopefully I will make time to read it and it will contain some usable information as well as a nice story...

I should have seen it coming when hubby insisted on getting this off the clearance rack at Pier I.

Today I was going to work on the craft room, but...

my husband had other plans.

He took off work early and invited me to lunch at Zaxby's. Yum.

Afterwards I did a little shopping- more on that later.

When the girls' got home from school, he took them to do a little errand and came home with these:



I can't yet tell who is who, but they have all been named. Carly, Shelly, Penny, Leonard, Raj, and Howard. And yes, Shelly is short for Sheldon. We love the Big Bang Theory around here. I'm afraid Carly is of iCarly fame, named by one of the twins.

Hubby is busy at work on building the coop:



I have wanted chickens for eons, so I am thrilled. I am afraid the Homeowner's Association will be less so. We didn't know we were part of a subdivision when we initially bid on the house and were dismayed to find out before it closed that we were officially, even though we are actually on the outside of the subdivision. Well, hopefully we won't start a war, though small battles have been going on since we moved in.

While the girls are busy driving both the chicks and my husband crazy, the teen is busy working on projects for the end of the year.



My shopping consisted of more yarn for shell afghan, embroidery thread to start embroidering panels for the quilt for the craft room bed, and some clothing. Since aquiring my mostest favoritest shoes of the decade:



I have realized how very little red I have in my wardrobe. I have realized that in order to wear these shoes more often without clashing horribly, I need to add some more red tops, or at least tops which go with red shoes, to my closet.

I have also found that while I did put a bit of weight back on since my massive (46 lb!) loss last summer, I am either too small or too big for most of my bottoms.

So I bought some bottoms, a red top, a red purse and wallet, a red mini-lap bag to tote this thing around, some red flip-flops, red headbands, and some tops for the girls. Not thrifty at all, but very fun! I think I went a little crazy!