Covers and Coops

There has been a lot of building around our house lately. It started off with a new patio cover. Our backyard faces west and gets really hot in the summer. We don't even begin to get shade until 4pm. By then, the patio has gotten very hot and we've all experienced severe burns on the bottoms of our feet. Not a lot of fun. So Will and a friend of his brother's built a cover so, not only will we have shade in the summer, but it will be dry in the winter and spring months.

This is the patio before...

and after.

It's already been wonderful having it up. It helps to keep the dogs dry when they are out so they are not tracking in all that muck every time they come in. We will be putting up some lights and a fan and hopefully I can get some hanging baskets up too.

This past weekend, Moira and Will built a little outdoor coop for the chicks. They can't be put in with our other chickens until they are fully grown. Right now they are in the garage in a make shift chick "condo" that Will rigged together using a dog crate and a plastic storage bin.

We've been letting them into their outdoor coop in the afternoons when the weather is decent. They are still unsure and rarely venture out from under their heat lamp.

Every day the chicks get bigger and they pretty much have their feathers in now. In another month we will stop bringing them in at night and just let them live outdoors. By the end of the summer they should be living in the chicken coop with the other girls.

Final Update

Here it is, the final update and I should be all caught up.

Will is still working for Health and Welfare keeping the city safe by giving all the local crazies their anti-psychotic meds so they behave themselves. He down plays the seriousness of his job, but I am well aware of the dangerous people he has to deal with every day - prisoners in the jail, ex-cons living in group homes and people who are on disability because they're brains are so messed up that they can't hold down a job or look after themselves. He gets threatened, doors slammed in his face and all kinds of other awful things that would send the average person running home and not ever go back. But Will perseveres day in and day out. This past Tuesday, though, only brought home what an awful job he has. One of his clients punched him in the mouth several times because he didn't want his shot. He had to go to the ER and got four stitches in his upper lip. I thought I was going to be sick when I got the call from Will's boss. The thought of someone hurting Will is so frightening. And he was covered in blood when he got home. It wasn't a pretty sight. He has taken the last three days off of work. He figures that's the least the State can do for him.

As for me, I'm as busy as ever. No matter how hard I work I never seem to be caught up on anything.

For Valentine's Day I got to make two custom order pillows which was totally fun. At the same time I got my first wholesale order - twenty-four of my "Colour-Your-Own" dolls were sent to Cambridge, Mass. I also made another six that are for sale at a hair salon down town. I've also come up with two new doll designs for colouring and made a pair of super cool pleated pillows.

My new baby and robot "Colour-Your-Own" dolls

My totally rad brown with blue stitching pleated pillows. I'm debating whether or not to keep them or try to sell them.

Valentine's custom order pillows that I made

Last week Will went to the store to get a new filter for Moira's fish tank. He ended up coming home with...

a new beta fish which the cats find fascinating...

and two new baby chicks. Kyla named hers Isabella and Liam's is Dora. They are living in a dog crate in the garage until they get bigger. Then they will join Penny, Hilda and Eagle out in the coop.

Will and I are still going to school. Will is working on his bachelor's in nursing at Boise State University and I'm taking two classes in the Library and Information Technology programme at the University of the Fraser Valley. After the kids go to bed we both go to our respective computers and start on homework. It's a daily chore that I will be glad to stop when the semester ends next month. We are also working on some home improvement projects, but I'll save those for another post.

Liam's Update

What can I say about Liam? He and Kyla are inseparable. They get along really well and when I hear them giggling, it usually means they are getting into trouble. I've had to separate them so they would behave. Lately, Kyla has been into dressing up Liam - putting butterfly clips in his hair, putting him in her skirts and socks and jewelry. Whatever the girls do, Liam has to do it too. In spite of it all, he is still ALL BOY. He loves trucks and tools and has a potty mouth ("poop" being his favourite word). Liam does have a very sweet side to him, one that likes to cuddle and tell you over and over that he loves you.

Liam finally got a big boy bed. He had been bugging us for a few weeks and, since he was 3 1/2 already, we figured it was time.

Liam decided to draw himself a mustache.

One morning while the girls were at school, Liam got into Kyla's play makeup. Notice the purple eyeshadow under his eyes and the bright pink lip gloss all over his mouth.

Kyla's Update

Kyla has grown so much in the past few months. Not so much physically (she's still super skinny), but she has grown mentally. She is doing really well in pre-school. She is at the top of her class and her teachers say she is more than ready for kindergarten. She has become a little more social in her class. At the beginning of the school year she would cry when I tried to leave and she would sit with one of her teachers, Miss Sonne, for most of the morning. After a few weeks she stopped crying, but she wouldn't let me leave until she was safely holding her teacher's hand. In the last week she will now go into the gym and find her teacher on her own. She is even starting to talk to some of the other kids. It's a big step for her.

Kyla, who gave Moira the nickname Honey, has now stopped calling her that and uses her real name. It's sad to me. I'm not even sure why she stopped. I guess it's just another way that she is getting older.

Through it all, Kyla is still the clown. She loves to make people laugh.

(Above pics courtesy of Liam)

Lately Kyla has been wearing one of Moira's old ballet recital costumes. Here she is performing some leaps.

Moira's Update

My poor neglected blog! I'm sorry I haven't updated you in a long time. Life sometimes gets in the way of the fun stuff. And the longer I went without updating, the more overwhelming it got. The more overwhelming it got, the more I waited. So I've decided to break it down into smaller bits that way it doesn't become too much for everyone to handle.

I'm going to start with Moira. The year started off with a bang for her. At the end of January she received a citizenship award from school.

That weekend was the annual Robbie Burns dinner. While we didn't attend this year, we did go to watch Moira dance. This was her first time dancing at Burns. It was a very exciting and proud moment to see her perform in front of over 500 people.

Here she is dancing the Highland Fling.

Today is the first day of Moira's track break. She gets three weeks off. She has been looking forward to this break for while. She continues to do well at school, but, if given the choice, she would rather stay at home.