quick update and info

I thought I'd quickly fill in some blanks that I had noticed in my blogging....

• Yes, one of my eardrums burst. Not the inital one with the pain much to my amazement. But both now have this not-so-lovely ringing/water rushing sound that prevents me from having completely comfortable face-to-face conversations as I do a lot of guessing as to what people are saying...."You want to do what to your dizzy, polkadot washwater?!" I am headed to a specialist in a few weeks to see about tubes. Yes, tubes in my ears just like a freckly little eight year old.
• No, Robo hasn't come home. We miss him terribly and are worried sick. I've told the kids that he has gone fishing. Briar has been crying for him occasionally and Liv wants to show him the sea monkeys that we did end up starting without him. "Robo will be so excited!"

Desha - Robo is one of Jeff's best friends. I've known him as long as I've known Jeff - 14 years. He has lived with us on and off for years and would usually come home with Jeff when they weren't fishing. Robo, obviously, is not his 'real' name.

• All three chickens are now laying eggs. Small (Sara-bantam barred plymouth rock), medium (Stella - black australorp) and large (Lucy, of course - buff orpington).
• I recently got rid of the bloody turkeys. No, they weren't 'bloody' at the time (unfortunately...Was that my outside voice?!). Just mean and caustic. Actually just the black one, Noel. They never got to be a size that would allow for more than two people to eat them. Noel was 9.6 lbs and Pilgrim was 8.4 lbs when we dropped them off at B&Ps. Penny kindly gave us a pre-butchered, cleaned and frozen turkey to take home and graciously offered to give us back our turkeys when they were large enough and butchered. I declined as I feel they won't taste very appetizing what with being only full of 'piss and vinegar'. Do you remember a while back when I thought that having turkeys was so easy and fun and that anyone could have one in the backyard? Yeah. I was wrong. They attack the chickens and nearly pull the comb off the rooster (Rosie the rooster). They hide under wooden contraptions in the pouring rain on top of a mud slicked hill forcing you to try to rescue the bastards in the dark only to be clawed and beat with wings causing you to fall on your ass and slide down the hill into the coop door....not once but twice. They hiss when you try to pick them up. They eat everyone else's food but their own. They're bullies of the barnyard. I am glad to see them go. I will leave turkey raising to the real farmers.
• Yup, we still have snow on the ground. I have never seen it snow so much. I have never seen snow last so long. I have never despised snow so much. Seasonal temperatures are beginning to come back for us causing it to melt and things to flood.
• The illness that I had awhile back was never successfully diagnosed. Just a bad flu, I am guessing. They had thought it was glandular fever (aka mono) but tests came back negative. I have had this in the past and was convinced that it could not come back multiple times. It turns out that mono stays in your system and will recur if your body gets too worn out.
• If you would like to contact me because you don't want to leave you message in a comment, you can find a link to my email address on my profile page. I love to hear from you. I feel so much less alone knowing that someone out there can 'hear' me.
• I have a horrendously bad memory. I had a list of things that I wanted to mention or update on this post and now I am staring at the screen, listening to the rushing water/cicadas in my head with a complete loss of brain function. If it all comes back to me, I'll update in the AM.
• Sorry that this post was one long complaint.

Oh! I remembered one thing....My little man, my little bear, Briar, is potty trained! With help from his cousins who are adding incentive because they are doing the same thing and his litte pal, Brody, who crossed the poop bridge a few months back, he has the interest and the want to use the can. We still have the occasional accident but the majority of the time, the bombs land where they should - in the toilet. Yay, Briar! (Is it silly that it makes me a bit sad? Crossing the big boy bridge into boyhood rather than staying with the familiar babyhood means the closing of a door and yet another milestone that Jeff has missed. He would be so proud. He would have been the one to show Briar how to stand in front of the toilet...not his mommy or one of his little pals.)