Eggs!

We are super excited that we now have one of our hens earning her keep. Yes! We have received our first eggs. Thursday morning I was working in the garden, tieing up and picking tomatoes. I heard her in the hen house scratching around. I knew she was up to something and decided not to disturb her until she was finished. Sure enough, there it was, a beautiful brown egg! I decided to leave it there so the kids could find it after school. My daughter decided immediately that she was going to hatch it :) I reminded her that we were going to eat them. She was going to cook it and cut it into four pieces so we could all get a taste, but instead decided to hold out until we had four eggs. Monday morning she treated us all to our first homegrown eggs. They taste a little different, and will take some getting used to, but we are still excited! And right now Chicken Little is our favorite hen :)

Birds of a Feather

Just wanted to say hello and post a quick update as to what we are doing. The weather is warming up and I finished my Interpersonal Communications class (Yeah!). The kids are back in school until July 1st so I'm attempting to get caught up on the house and the yard. It seems that when I focus on one the other turns to chaos. Not sure how to manage it all yet,
but I'm sure balance has something to do with it :)


Our 4 chickens are now staying outside full time. Their chicken coop is nearly completed, and totally habitable, so they are now out of the garage which is a great thing since they had outgrown the box we had been keeping them in. They have been so much fun. My husband had to ban the kids from bringing them into the house. Our daughter is especially fond of them and would have one with her 24/7 if we would let her :)

Adding to Our Family

We've added a few additions to our family. For my husband's birthday we bought him 4 baby chicks, hens that will be laying eggs in about 12 weeks. I started building him a chicken coop with my dad's experience and labor :) I try to be as helpful as I can, which isn't as much as I was hoping :) It isn't finished, but we figure we've got a few weeks before they can be outside all the time. Right now they live in a box in our garage with a light to keep them warm. They are about 5 1/2 weeks old, and are growing quickly. We are anxious to move them outside. Our daughter has been great about cleaning out their box every other day or so and making sure they stay fed and watered.
Our son keeps asking for a dog, but I'm not sure I'm ready
for that one yet. Maybe never.

Becoming Blanketeers

Our YW and leaders have started crocheting around fleece blankets for an organization called Project Linus. These blankets are then given to various hospitals, police and fire stations, foster care homes, military families, etc., where ever there may be children who need comfort. We are learning first to crochet, then to add fun edges. We have already completed approximately 40 blankets and will continue as long as supplies and interest are available.

It's truly amazing what many helping hands can do! Here are the next 22 blankets our Young Women, YW Leaders, and a couple of Relief Society sisters have completed to donate to Project Linus.

Project Linus' mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer "blanketeers."

I ran into this group at the library awhile back. They have work days there occassionally and I had joined them a few times and was receiving their emails. Last December my Laurels planned to make a blanket to donate to someone as a Christmas service project. At the November work group, the lady in charge announced that she had a bag of fleece blankets that needed to be crocheted around if anyone wanted to take them. I jumped at the opportunity. We added our own yarn, handed out some crochet hooks, worked with several girls to get them started and they took off. I was a few blankets short, so I offered to do more, which they happily provided. What started with my Laurels now includes nearly all our Young Women and leaders. Each time I bring more blankets to be done, they are quickly snatched up.

The fleece sale at JoAnn's last week
was a dangerous place for me to be :)

The Whole Tooth

I have a story to tell.

I've been searching for a new dentist for some time now. I'm a baby when it comes to dental work. I don't mind the cleanings, but am always thankful when the dental exam ends in my favor (ie. looks good, see you in six months). The last tooth I had fixed was a pretty rough experience. I had a hard time numbing, meaning that he'd start to drill and it would hurt so he'd give me another shot, wait for it to take effect, start to drill again, and repeat the hurting and additional shot. By then, maybe he was running behind schedule or perhaps he's always that rough, but it wasn't fun. I continued to go to his office for another year or so, praying that I wouldn't need anything fixed. Knowing that sooner or later I would need additional work (due to a mouth full of silver fillings), I decided I'd better find another dentist
before I needed more work done.

Well, Monday, I had a tooth break.
It was time to try another dentist.

For the past several months, whenever I received flyers in the mail for dentists, I'd look at them, and if the dentist looked nice, I'd put it in a file. So, Monday I pulled out the file. I had 2 for one dentist and 1 for another. So, I made sure the first one was on my insurance, and then I called and quizzed the receptionist about what kind of dentist he was. When I was satisfied,
I made an appointment.

So, that's how I chose him, and thankfully, it was a great experience! Yeah! I have a new dentist!

However, during the exam, he found that the last tooth I had fixed, a partial crown, has chipped, and needs to be fixed. He would be happy to do it and they checked on how much it would cost me. Thankfully our insurance covers 80%. But he also suggested that it could be under warranty by the dentist that did the work originally, and I might want to check on that.

As much as I didn’t want to go back to that dentist, the possibility of him fixing it for free seemed worth checking into. Well, visiting his office was awkward. In the end, he said he would fix it for half of what I was originally charged, partly because it’s almost four years old, and partly because I’m no longer his patient. He asked why I changed and I told him. Uncomfortable, but he asked. Now I need a fun crown, and he’ll bill the insurance and take the 80% if they’ll cover it, or I’ll owe $350 if they won’t.

I’ve decided that I’d rather pay $180 to the dentist I like, and know that I’ll have a better experience. I’m wondering why I even considered going back to the original dentist, when the reason I changed dentists was because I was afraid of having him work
on my teeth again.

So that’s my story, and I think it’s worth sharing. The moral of this story is, make your kids brush their teeth everyday so that when they are older they won’t have a story like mine to tell.

Bedtime Rambling

Last night I was laying awake and as I was trying to pass
the time constructively, I started writing this blog post, in my head. And even then, without all the distractions of the day,
I wasn't sure what to write about.
What would someone reading this really want to know?
Do you want to know what's going on inside my life,
inside my heart, or maybe even inside my head?
Or maybe some insight into all three?
My life, my heart, and my head all seem very full,
so there should be plenty of material.
But honestly, this was easier last night
when I didn't have to spell or punctuate anything :)
Pretty soon I realized that I had really rambled on,
in my bedtime blog post, about pretty much nothing.
And then I wondered if instead of calling my blog "Bailey x 4",
I should call it "Rambling and More", which would be more fitting.
What do you think?

Summer Camping

Last week we camped, camped, and camped. We left Monday for Goblin Valley which was truly amazing! I'd seen pictures but they could never convey the magnitude and awesomeness of that truly incredible place. The night sky was magnificent! I don't know that I've ever seen so many stars before. It was a memorable experience to sit together as a family marveling at the heavens. We enjoyed hiking and exploring and meeting people from Florida and Israel before we headed to Capital Reef National Park where we camped on Tuesday night. We did 3 different hikes while we were there, exploring different canyons, including some pretty cool slot canyons. Wednesday we headed to Fish Lake where we met my family, including my grandparents, parents, siblings, and all their kids, 23 people total. We camped, fished, ate yummy food, etc. until Saturday when we headed to Moon Lake to meet my husband’s mom's family for their family reunion. This was a much bigger group of about 120 people. Some were in small rustic cabins, big 5th wheel trailers, other trailers, tents, etc. Wow the work and effort that was put together for that group. It was truly incredible. We came home yesterday and are still working on the laundry :)