Anyway, wedding plans are on track. We have done a lot in the past week doing all the little things. We met with the florist, applied for our marriage license, ordered the cake, and visited the garden center for ideas and things to rent for the reception. My dress is in and it fits just about perfect, except for the bust area - go figure! I bought my shoes today and have an appointment with the seamstress next Saturday for a fitting. The invitations are all out. I love going to the mailbox to see who sent their RSVP back.
Our school year is still in progress but will be wrapping up within the next few weeks. We finally finished the school house! I spent the last week also moving things out of the house into the school. I can't believe the amount of stuff I have accumulated. I am sooooo glad I bought the building with the loft overhead, because I can hide most of my stuff. I have everything organized in totes by subject so when we finish one year, I just go through all the totes to see what I need for the next. I am also working on making lists of all the books I have so when we study a topic I can look at the list and go up and dig out what books I need.
Here are the boys in the new school house. We hope to run electric from the house to the building by winter so I can run a heater. We have the room all wired up and ready to go. I have added a small futon for a reading corner and a large bookshelf in the back for all our books we use and reference material. Nico will be moving onto 5th grade and Luca will be starting a more organized Pre-K year 2 program. He loves creating his letters with Hand Writing Without Tears and asks to do his lessons everyday.
Both boys played soccer this year. Luca had a blast just running around and making friends. Nico was more serious this year and really focused on his skills. I am so proud of both of them. Nico continues to dance HipHop and does his tumbling. He is excelling at both and hoping to go competitive in HipHop next year. He will be getting one on one lessons this summer. Luca will be starting tumbling and dance this summer. I am really pushing for him in tap and jazz to start with because now I can't get Nico to try tap at all. Luca can't take hiphop until he is 5.
Luca turned 4 this May. I can't believe it has been 3 years since my trip to Guatemala with Brian and Nico to celebrate his first birthday. He is such a character. He cracks me up everyday. He always has something funny coming out of his mouth. He is into so much more than Nico ever was and I mean getting into things. I have to keep a sharp eye on him. Nico is the best big brother ever and is a great help. It does not go unappreciated.
We have been having a good time with our chickens. Well, after the bout of largnyotrachetitis that they had. Many still have garbling breath sounds. I lost about 10 hens this summer. Lucky for me Missouri University Veterninary School took two of my birds and tested them so I could find out what they had. There is a vaccine for it. My 22 remaining chickens (2 roosters and 20 hens) are all immune to it now, but are carries of it. This spring one of the hens got really broody so we let her sit on 10 eggs. None of them hatched. They were slowing dissappearing and the last one she walked away from. We broke it open on day 24. There was a chick inside, but it must have stopped developing. I decided I was going to break down and buy an incubator. We put 15 eggs in it. We candled them and let them all go. I was totally surprised to find that all 15 hatched!!!! I cannot yet determine how many roosters we have ended up with though. I am hoping for more hens than roos. They are all so cute. Our two roosters are white leg horn and rhode island red. Thus, our chicks are mutts. Our hens range from americauna, rhode island red, red/white sex link, black austrolope, and new hampshire red.
We have been blessed to be missed by the horrible storms raging through the midwest. I pray for all those who have lost everything. I can't imagine what it would be like. We went through the house and collected toys and clothing to donate to some of the families. I know it is not a lot, but hoping it gave help to some.
So, until later.....all is good in our neck of the woods.
