Black Betty Saved My Life

I was in dire need of cleaning the chicken coops and moving them to greener pastures. They have made little dust pens out of the ground they were on. They like to take dust baths and make holes to keep cool so they like the dust but I also know that they like fresh grass. The larger coop had bricks around it because I was paranoid about predators digging. I have not seen any digging activity and I have had the chickens for about 6 months. Since they have been OK so we decided not to put the bricks back around the coop. As I was pulling up bricks, I saw a black widow go running from one of the bricks I picked up into the coop. Black Betty caught a glimpse of it and was on it. She gobbled it up-end of story. I was a little worried that it would hurt her but I read that chickens have been know to eat brown recluses and black widows. While I was narrating to Dave what had just happened, Ava was on her swing (obviously listening to me) singing "Black Betty, Black Widow". Yuck. I hate spiders that can hurt you.
Anyway, both coops have been moved to new grass and the chickens are so happy. They were pecking away at the grass/ground. I expect tomorrow they will look green from eating all of that grass :)

Next weekend is my birthday and I will be 32 years old.
Ava told Dave that she wanted to buy me some scissors for my birthday.

Lately

Mom and I went to a thrift store the other weekend (my favorite thing to do) and I found some Halloween patterns that looked pretty intact for 25 cents a piece. I got 2 patterns. On Sunday, Ava wanted me to make her a princess outfit from one of the patterns. I have lots of fabric so I searched my stash and made her a purple satin princess dress she loves. I think it looks terrible because I know all of the mistakes I made. I will try to get a pic of her in it. I need a little work in the sleeve and zipper department.

It makes the 20.00 Disney dresses Ava wants so badly seem like a real good deal!

I will keep trying. My next dress will be out of cotton-NOT satin.

Ha!

On my quest for exercise and to lose my gut, I went running on Monday and did OK. Tuesday I did this class I have done in the past that is offered at lunch time. Still OK. Wednesday, my friend Nicole came and I sat down on the couch and my back went out when I went to stand up. What luck! I was so irritated. When my back goes "out" it basically locks up. It is almost a paralysis of my lower back. A couple of days of ibuprofen and I can move around.

I took Friday off and hung out with one of my very best friends Nicole. It was so nice to hang out and do non-work related things. I sewed and she played around on the computer but it was nice. I made three bags. Dave made me a sewing center (have I already blogged about this?) and I got to utilize it. I have a three sewing machines and I was able to bounce between all three.

Dave has been catering to all my requests. He built new shelves to make Ava's closet more user friendly. I love it and Ava could probably care less. However, she can reach all of her dresses now so she picks out a dress to wear each day and it has helped facilitating getting dressed. She has to wear a dress everyday and yells at you if you suggest pants or shorts. She has also been into hairbows lately so I have picking them up here and there for her. I can tell it makes her feel fancy. We also went out shoe shopping in honor of the tax free weekend and Ava picked out a pair of black patent leather shoes with heels and a pair of pink dress shoes. She calls the higher heels on them "high hips." I correct her and she still changes it back and says that is how she says it. She also calls Cocoa Puffs "Huffy Puffs" and that is "her" name for them.

I got a haircut and I am on the fence about it. I got ALOT cut off and and I got it put in layers and if I am not careful, I think it all sticks straight up and out in cowlicks and curls.

In the lab our two undergrads read the Twilight trilogy and I picked on them when they told me what it was about. They made such a stink about it that I had to borrow them and now I am hooked!

I guess that is all for now.