hen house happenings

the girls spent their first night in the hen house. i was a nervous wreck, absolutely certain we would come out this morning to find six dead chickens. luckily my worry was in vain (as per usual). hurray!

we had talked about getting chickens for quite a while, even at our old house. when we moved in to our home though, we knew this dilapidated shack in the back would be an ideal place to house our yard birds. i need to take pictures of the inside coop, which brandon has made quite nice for our little peepers. in the meantime, here is the run, where they spend the waking hours. 

the string to the left is my pea trellis, inspired by poppies in sisters.

it has a nice roof to keep them dry and brandon burried the poultry wire about a foot deep to keep predators (i.e., raccoon, fox, harvey, etc.) from digging their way in. brandon has poured many hours into this taj mahal of chicken love. my primary contributions were using the staple gun to secure the wire and painting the door like a good hippie. yes, it is brown and turquoise. yes, those are leaves stenciled across it. what of it?

harvey regularly entertains this pose.

off of the right side of the building shack (see above picture), there is another door. brandon set it up so we can access the nesting boxes (and eggs) without having to disrupt the birds too much.

the mottled one in front is the only one with a name: frankie.
mostly because she looked like a franciscan monk when we
brought her home, with a large white spot on her head
and a circle of black "hair" around that.  

we have three buff orpingtons (the orangish ones), one plymouth barred rock ("frankie") and two unknowns. we hoped to have three orpingtons and three barred rocks, but the feed store put two similar looking breeds together and we ended up with two of the others. we think they might be black stars. in which case we have a brood consisting of the left column below:

from my free-range chicken garden book

and lest you think our life has been taken over by chickens, i will share a photo of the sour cherry crumble pie i made last night. as you can tell it was a hit, with each of us going back for seconds. even my grandma would have wanted more than a "lil' sliver" of this pie! i am looking forward to having another slice tonight while i sit out on our back deck, watching the chickens peck around.

the reframe

lately i have had a lot of conversations with people about my {mis}perception of myself. particularly surround this belief:

i am shy.

yet, no one believes it. all my laramie friends challenge me on this, insisiting that shyness is impossible for me. one friend burst out laughing when i first told her i think of myself in this way. she thought i was being sarcastic, which admittedly, i often am. never-the-less, my shyness is real, despite my ability to have a conversation with a perfect stranger about just about anything.

i found this lovely little cartoon via pintrest that made me laugh. perhaps my ability to talk with strangers makes it difficult for people to believe i am shy. but i am telling you, i am incredibly introverted. just misunderstood.

 

we have a whole bunch going on right now, brandon especially. he defended his master's thesis yesterday {& was amazing!} & leaves for his PhD field work monday. he isn't complaining about spending the next three weeks in his kayak in jackson though--for his PhD research project he picked an awesome location & means of data collection. 

recap

the defense has been over for a couple of weeks, but i still don't feel "done" with grad school. it took about two hours for the knot in my stomach to loosen after my defense meeting. i passed! {whew!} i had a few corrections that took longer than i would have liked but they made my findings more significant. i will work on getting my thesis converted to a journal article & submit that this summer with hopes of getting published.

i finished my practicum at the hospital this last week by attending the national kidney foundation clinical meeting/conference in las vegas. despite my disdain for the sin city that should not exist in the middle of the desert, i traveled there for the second time in seven months. it was a great conference & confirmed my interest in nephrology social work, both with patients on dialysis & awaiting transplant. i am looking into a few jobs in the field & hope to have good news on that front soon.

i do have a job now though. i got hired on PRN {translation: "per request as needed" or on-call} at the hospital. i am really excited about this opportunity! i got the job without even interviewing, although brandon thinks i had a four month interview with my internship. i will cover for three people at the hospital & cancer center, filling in when they are sick or take vacation time. plus i will cover one weekend of call per month. the pay is lovely but there won't be enough work so i am on the hunt for something else. i think of this job as a foot in the door as it will place me first in line to be hired for the next social work opening. 

brandon is working furiously on his thesis & should be done this summer, just in time to jump into his PhD program. we are both excited about his new advisor who is a great mentor & friend to brandon. plus his research area will be the snake river in jackson, so it won't be hard to do research in the shadow of the tetons! 

he was awarded "graduate student of the year" for the geology department last week. {luckily he doesn't read the blog often to know i am bragging on him--he would be so embarrassed!} brandon shared the award with a good friend of ours that is the most diligent worker we have ever known, so it was a compliment to be considered equal with him. 

as i have said in the past few posts, i will get pictures up soon. just when i think i am done with school stuff another thing comes along. like exit loan counseling, which they told us about today and must be complete by friday or we don't graduate. thanks for the advanced notice.

d-fence?

tomorrow is my big "judgement" day: i have my oral defense of my thesis. 

i remember being a kid talking with my friend about going to college and writing a thesis. i really don't know how we knew such things existed, but i distinctly recall declaring to her that i was going to write one. although in those days, i probably also thought i was going to be president and find a cure for cancer. 

i am, of course, getting progressively more stressed out as 9AM mountain standard time approaches. if i had kept it simple and only included my committee in this meeting i don't think i would be as anxious, but i included friends and family. what was i thinking? i just keep imagining how awkward it is going to be to have brandon in the audience. give me a room full of strangers to talk to at length about oncology social work, just not the person i love and trust most in the world. ridiculous i know. 

i don't have fears of failing my defense, i just have fears of blubbering in front of my husband and friends. apparently you don't get to the point of your defense if you are unlike to pass. fingers crossed. 

hopefully my days of being a cheerleader will prepare me for this moment (haha) and i can just turn on a public persona of confidence and enthusiasm. i never thought i would find a way that being a cheerleader would help me through grad school, but i think this just might be the contribution! i'll try not to pull out any pom-poms or "ready? o-k"s. :)

i am optimistic that once this thesis business is behind me i can get back to the blog. i have a whole spring break trip to chronicle after all! for now, i just needed to vent and get my fears out on paper the internet. 

update on the random

whenever brandon is going to be gone, i make lists of things i want to accomplish while he is away. i get a little excited about having the house to myself, eating dinner standing over the sink, sleeping in without feeling guilty, & watching movies i know he would despise. the first few days i revel in all of the above, usually adding a night out with my girlfriends & a few craft projects to the list. but by day three i realize i miss him. a lot. mostly i miss his friendship. he is an amazing husband & i am desperately in love with him, but our friendship is what i can't to do without. especially the sarcasm & inside jokes. 

i know i shouldn't complain, & i feel guilty even posting this, because some people are apart from the person they love for months, even years, at a time. 

he comes home tonight! i might miss sleeping in the middle of our bed, reading until the wee hours of the morning without him dramatically sighing about my nocturnal habits, & eating cheese & crackers for a meal. but at this point, that stuff seems pretty trivial. 

**********************************

in other news, i think i misunderstood my spanish-only-speaking neighbor's gesture yesterday & gave her a hug. how do you recover from giving an unwelcome hug? yeah, i gave them homemade cookies wrapped up in holiday themed cellophane, but i don't know if the reciprocal gesture is a hug. so she will probably avoid me for a few weeks until this holiday hug fever passes.

**********************************

additionally, the neighbors who gave us a passive aggressive {read: irritating} letter about harvey's barking this summer stopped by. he knocked on our door & said he stopped by to tell me that my back porch light was on, that it had been on for two days, & that it was incredibly bright. "we don't have a back porch light," i said. he argued that indeed we do & that it is bothering him. again, we don't have a back porch light. at which point it dawned on me that our neighbors {see above, who only speak spanish} are the ones with the light. i told him this & he then said, "could you talk to them about it?" i stood staring for at least 30 seconds, with my mouth hanging open. in my shock & stupidity i said, "uh, if i can communicate that." he smiled sickeningly & thanked me. what was i thinking? why did i agree to deal with his junk? the absurdity of this request baffles me. so i followed his passive aggressive style & did nothing. so much for that holiday cheer i was trying to cultivate.

big brother

my dad is a little creeped out by the power of google maps, referring to it as "big brother". i suppose it has something to do with feeling like his privacy could be violated. but he didn't grow up in a generation of narcissistic facebook status updates, so i can understand his desire to preserve some sense of privacy.

recently google pulled off some pretty cool tricks for brandon though... 

we have been in the market for a truck & finally saved up enough cash {per dave ramsey's advice} to buy it outright. brandon found a pickup he is interested in on craigslist but we have had difficulty getting in touch with the person due to phone number issues. we were beginning to doubt the whole situation & fearing we were getting the run-around on a non-existent truck. 

cue google: brandon entered the phone number we had into google, got an address connected to the number, & then went to "street view" where he could see the truck we are trying to buy in the driveway!

we were feeling all excited about the magic of google, until we realized how easy it is to track down someone's home address, vehicle type, & property layout without even leaving the couch. let's just hope no one is looking for us with ill intentions, eh? so yeah, now i understand why that "big brother" gives my dad the heebie-jeebies. 

if all goes according to plan, we will head down to denver tomorrow, cash in hand, to add another vehicle to our car insurance policy. a bonus of the trip is that we get to visit tiffany in denver! 

pranky mcprankster

back in january i got a speeding ticket (ugh!). through a series of unfortunate events, i ended up dropping the payment in the courthouse box after 5PM the night of my court date, which was a friday of a three-day weekend. i was freaking out about being late on my payment because the back of the citation said a warrant would be issued for my arrest if i failed to appear or to pay before the assigned date. that weekend, i was followed on four separate occasions by police officers. i swore they were out to get me and that i was headed for the slammer!

i kept checking our bank account for a week, waiting to see if the check had been cashed. after my nerves were nearly fried i called the courthouse to see if i was in trouble or not. the woman assured me that she had my check and that my citation was "cleared". according to her, my payment was on time. i didn't protest.

this past thursday i came home from campus to quickly change into my running clothes, only to find a yellow notice in our pile of mail that said i had failed to pay my fine and/or appear for the appointed court date; therefore a warrant had been issued. i panicked! i immediately called the number listed and spoke with a kind woman. i explained my situation and we went through all the possibilities, including my maiden name, which i haven't used in almost five years. 

then i noticed that there were two address labels on the backside of the note card. she instructed me to peel them back to see if the card was addressed to someone else. i pulled the first label back: blank. under the second label the card read our address, but someone else's name. i read the name to her and immediately she told me they did have a warrant for that person. she assured me that my name was clear, and we ended our conversation utterly confused.

about that time brandon walked in. i launched into my crazy story and told him i called the court house. about that time he stopped me to say, "APRIL FOOLS". what?!? apparently the card arrived at our house that afternoon and he couldn't pass up the chance to prank me with a legitimate fear on this tricky day. how could i be mad? it was too perfect of a prank not to pull!

in five years of marriage brandon has never pulled a prank on me. not even a jump out from behind the closet door kind of prank. honestly, i have been a little disappointed. i expected that would be a big part of being married, seeing who could get the other's goat. but this one, it makes up for all the missed opportunities.

winter time, and the living is easy

harvey and i had a date with a friend and her dog tonight.. harvey decided to lap up her glass of red wine however so i am waiting for the hiccups to commence, dumbo style. he managed to indulge in a few sips without spilling a drop if you can believe it!

after we left the house we quickly realized that winter has set in on us. oh boy. not sure i am ready for the snow just yet. harvey doesn't care, provided that the frisbee is still in action.

brandon is gone yet again this week, therefore a few tests of my single-hood have ensued. first obstacle being a low bike tire. i went to fix it and whoa, ripped the metal end off. i searched through the leaves (prior to the snow falling), but couldn't find it. guess i am gonna need a new tube. luckily logan took it upon himself a number of years ago to train me how to change a tube. i am gonna have to put those skills to the test tomorrow, although with all the snow maybe riding my bike isn't the best idea.

at this point, i think i have substantial evidence to correlate brandon leaving with snow falling. it just always happens that way. must be his warm personality keeping the cold at bay!

good answer

last night i made a dinner i had been thinking about for a couple of weeks. i was imagining a sort of mushroom stroganoff and thought the night of our "big storm" would be a great time to make this winter meal.

sadly, the meal turned out more like mushroom and onion gravy over pasta. blech! i reverted back to my childhood ways and spent more time picking out the onions that didn't get fully sautéed than i did eating.

i was so disappointed that it didn't turn out well. i have been on a good role with cooking lately, creating things from scratch that have turned out surprisingly well; therefore, it was due time to have a total flop. never-the-less, i still felt like a kitchen failure.

brandon ate his meal and when i apologized half-way through for how repulsive it was, he said, "it's okay. thanks for trying something new."

i was floored by how spot on his response was. it was just what i needed to hear! i knew the food was gross so i didn't need to hear the words from his mouth and feel worse. his answer made me feel so validated and appreciated that i was okay with my failure.

good answer there brandon!

when you're a celebrity

this weekend an unusual death occurred at scout lake, a place where brandon and i have spent a lot of time learning/perfecting our kayaking rolls and flat-water cartwheels. this is a small lake full of logs that people are always swimming out to, clambering around on like a jungle gym, and proving their brute strength by wrestling on the slippery tree remnants. last night an 18 year old boy drowned in this apparently safe, hazard-free lake. from the accounts given he was attempting to swim to a log and something happened (a cramp maybe?) that caused him to give up and attempt to swim back. he didn't make it to shore and his friends didn't get to him in time. as hard as it is to believe, the young man drowned in 12 feet of water.

now to make an incredibly awkward segue (is that an oxymoron by the way?) to the above title...

brandon was working with our kayak school out at scout lake today as we often do on the first day of camp. there he was approached by the news crews and interviewed. i can't upload the video to our blog, but here is a link to the video and his interview. they cut him off at a strange place in his dialogue that doesn't make a lot of sense, but he still looks handsome and knowledgeable about river safety.

go forth and be safe on the water.

whatcha got cookin'?

been making gluten-free goodness in the form of chocolate chocolate-chip with walnut cookies. these didn't last but a few days and were a great consolatory gift for a friend that is going through a rough break up.  nothing like cookies to mend one's heart.

brandon caught a huge salmon that we cooked up with rob & becky--so fresh and delicious!

mmm, doesn't that salmon look scrumptious there on our counter?  

and last, but certainly most important, was that sara "mia" was here!  she came and we kayaked and we biked and we kayaked some more.  it was one of the most fun weekends i have ever had--unfortunately we did little to document it.  she is so brave and always willing to try anything once so we capitalized on that and introduced here to four new ways to recreate.  

worldwide participation

i came home from work tonight to find this in the google search box: 

what to make for dinner tonight

indeed, my husband googled what the people of the internet thought he should eat for dinner.  i was at work and therefore not a contributing party to this decision.

he settled on cereal, if you must know...

can there be a "new tradition"?

each sunday i eagerly await the weekly posting of new cards on post secret (see link on sidebar).  some weeks they seriously let me down with their themes of vengeance and adultery as people share their "big secrets".  but almost every week i come across one that resonates with me and makes me smile.  so i am going to start a new blog tradition: to post my favorite secret each week.  for those of you who follow post secret, i hope you will share your favorite card too.

and here is the first secret i share with the anonymous postcard sending people of the world:

when i was in middle school i remember thinking that when i was old i wanted to have fleshy arms to hug all the people i loved with.  i always thought that meaty arms were a sign of a capable, conquering, loving woman.  well, i am currently less-than-thrilled with the fact that my "triceps" jiggle when i wave to people, so my desire for fleshy arms has diminished substantially.  

my desire for laugh lines has surely replaced it!  brandon makes me so incredibly happy and each day he is to blame for the deepening of my laugh lines.  not a bad thing to cause at all...

shipping out

i'm off this afternoon to work as law enforcement for the fire burning 70 miles from our place. we are hoping that brandon gets in on fighting the fire soon also, but that will have to be after the boy scouts depart.

i am sure to all you blog readers, it is a funny thought that i will be law enforcement, but indeed that is part of my job. i have even written my first ticket (not to a person so much as an improperly parked car, but who's keeping track?).

in other big news, i finally kayaked the canyon. it is sad that i waited until 2 month of working here to conquer it, but alas the initial run is behind me and went well. i even managed a stern squirt (a basic-level play move i have never done before) and had a combat roll in the largest rapid on the run. all-in-all, a good run on the snake!

just wanted everyone to know we are happy and healthy and enjoying life in the wild west.

back to the original

i had to do it. i had to go back to the original layout of our blog. the green just wasn't working for me, perhaps because that color seems to have taken over my life (the truck i drive at work, the uniform i have to wear). it is just too much, even for this green-loving girl. so this is how i chose to spend my limited time at the library. :)

a large slew of boy scouts will be working on the forest in the coming weeks (we are talking hundreds here) so brandon has to work on his days off in order to prepare for the trails the eager boys will be cutting in. this means no major camping trips or the like for us this week, but i am enjoying a couple of days to get the stuff done that i need to.

however, brandon had to take the car to town this morning, leaving me at our place 16 miles out of town. so i rode my bike. currently i am feeling a little sore, a lot tired, and grossly sweaty. it was wonderful though and definitely made me feel like i conquered my day. always a good feeling.

the offer for visitors has been extended to all and so far only papa has taken us up on it. to the rest of you, get on it! we want to show you this beautiful place that we are temporarily calling home.

rash decisions

it seems that between brandon and i, life generally throws the strange injuries and illness my way (shingles, concussions, broken ribs, etc.). every year i have some "big" medical deal and i am always embarrassed because, for pete's sake, what is wrong with me?
this time however, brandon is the unfortunate one. over the past couple weeks he has been overly tired and he developed this strange rash on his abdomen, which has recently spread down his biceps. i concluded it wasn't shingles because it crossed his mid-line and from my 3 shingles experiences i know that is an impossible feat. so, there's one virus ruled out!
i (being the worrywart my mother taught me to be) insisted that he go to the doctor. he is almost always opposed to such suggestions, claiming that they won't know what is wrong or that there won't be anything they can do. this time i made the appointment for him and the doctor's conclusion was that he has pityriasis rosea. basically, a rash they don't know much about and can't treat. so brandon was right: going to the doctor accomplished next to nothing.
upon the diagnosis his first question was whether or not he could be around babies, as we are going to visit our godson this weekend. fortunately, the little they do know about this rash is that it is not contagious by contact. to be safe, we'll make sure he has plenty of long-sleeved shirts so we can keep rowan safe.
another note: the doctor told him his "bedmate" (i.e. his wife) would be safe from contracting the rash. i believe that is the first time i have been referred to as a bedmate--and hopefully the last!

thankfulness

as many of you know, i have not been grateful to live here for the past year and a half. i have complained about my job, about the climate, about the scenery, and the activities available. but today i got to thinking about what our time here has really looked like and i realized i have much to be thankful for. i suppose this post would have been more appropriate for thanksgiving, but it is one of my pseudo-resolutions to practice the art of gratitude, so here goes:

1. i realized i didn't want to pursue marriage and family therapy.
2. i realized that the human brain fascinated me and that i may be smart enough to pursue neuropsych.
3. i tried yoga. and loved it. it has changed my life and will forever be a part of who i am.
4. i found out i was celiacs and got healthy.
5. i tried quinoa, which may be my most favorite thing to eat.
6. we bought our beloved outback.
7. we were blessed with a wonderful godson, rowan.
8. brandon and i grew closer and found out what being married to your best friend is all about.
9. i have made amazing new friends: amber and afton, andrea and will, leah, jen and liam, sara, cori, tim... the list goes on. they are all so different and great.
10. i got my combat roll (kayaking).

our time here is drawing to a close and i am eagerly anticipating what is around the river bend (pocahontas anyone?), but we still have a few months left here so i am going to try to live out our blog title by living in the current moment and being thankful for all we have been blessed with.

another thing to be grateful for: all my applications are finally ready to submit. the UVM application will be in the mail tomorrow and then the waiting game can get into full swing. pray for the readers of our applications. pray they like us and want to offer us all kinds of assistantships and fellowships!

pomp and circumstance for brandon

just a notice for those interested: brandon is planning to participate in the UI commencement ceremony on december 8th. if there is any hint that you might want to be here to celebrate him, i would recommend reserving a hotel now as you can always cancel. we are familiar with la quinta and the university inn. beyond those, things can get scary, but good luck!

he is so eager to finish up and graduation is just around the corner! yea!

icicles in august?!?

brandon awoke this morning at 2:30 to unusual august weather conditions: below 32 degrees! freezing temperatures make it hard to understand how the fire danger could be so great that they have to work these crazy hours.

this photo is of the drill rig (and the brat)

this is the meadow near their current drill site, awakening from a foggy slumber
and yes, those are icicles in august!

needless to say, brandon was grumpy at four in the morning. what a way to start your day!

in other news..

the most exciting thing for our week is the purchase of our new computer (see previous post), but that is not to say that nothing else has been going on around here.

this weekend, papa and rodney came for a quick visit. they made me see two shoot-em-up movies, so brandon owes me a few "lindsey's picks". living with three men for a weekend was a bit much for me. i was, however, very sad to see them go.

brandon has had an interesting turn of events with his work schedule. due to fire danger, his drilling team has been forced to go to a hoot owl schedule: 1am-1pm. i get home at 4:30, we eat dinner, he goes to bed. as you can imagine, lots of good quality time! i just hope he adjusts quickly.

as for me, i have been gluten-free for about 1 month now. mom motivated me to cut out gluten (wheat) and dairy, as she and i are both allergic to them. they call a gluten intolerance celiacs disease (think: silly yak)

eating this way is expensive, requires major self-control and meal planning, but is well worth it. i feel worlds better and have more energy for each day. just don't put a basket of warm sourdough down in front of me!

so, if you know any good non-shoot-em-up movies, please share. also, sans-gluten recipes will be gladly accepted. other than that, come visit us!