Exciting venture

I closed the door on my old job. As I worked out my notice Chuck and I talked about the next thing for me. While there are great jobs posted on a regular basis, they all require a long commute. We agreed that was not ideal for me, or for our family.

He said he had been wanting to become a general contractor, and thought maybe we should start a contracting business. He could run a crew and I could do the behind-the-scenes daily tasks for running the business. (He is keeping his regular firefighter job.)

We applied for licenses, and got a bond, and went through the hoops to establish Chuck West Construction and Contracting, LLC.  We are specializing in historic restoration and modern remodeling. We quickly submitted a bid for a dream job right here in our community, and we got the bid! That meant we had to hurry and hire a crew, and set up our office and get rolling. Our crew has been working hard to restore the historic Glen Cove Hotel that burned. Soon after we landed a small job at a YMCA facility.

Though running a business is something I've done before, I haven't done all of the paperwork myself. There is a bit of a learning curve for me.

It's an exciting adventure for us.  So far I am loving it, but it is a drastic change. I find myself a little stressed out sometimes. So much to learn, and so quickly. So much to do, and juggle. We have to keep a very detailed calendar so I know where everyone is going to be each day, including myself!

Our summer is scheduled out to the end of August, but we will find time to do some fun things, too.

Happy Summer!

Fountain glass

It's one of my favorite seasons--Yard Sale Season!
I like to just look to see what people are tired of, have to sell because they are moving, or have priced so high there is no way they'll ever sell it.
Karen and I used to talk about writing a book on how to have a great sale.

Luckily I have a man who also loves to go to yard sales. So last weekend we hit a couple of them and scored a few items.  This beautiful glass dish was one of them. It doesn't have a "made in..." stamp on it, and it is really heavy, so I think it must have been made by a glass artist, but I can't be sure.  I am completely certain that it was a bargain! I think it is beautiful, and it was only $1. (These people knew how to have a great sale.)

When I showed it to Chuck at the sale I said I wanted it for some place in one of the gardens, and he suggested we could put it in the old fountain. I like it, but I think it needs something. Maybe it needs some friends. I'm going to start looking for old paper weights to keep it company.

Family Time

A couple of weeks ago we spent the afternoon at Cindy's. There was quite a crowd of family members there for a little BBQ gathering. We had lots of food. A couple of people brought ATVs and the kids had a great time riding around the back yard.

Chuck and Sean sped around for a while, then it was Lilly's turn. I was wearing a dress, so I sat on the sidelines.

May was a great month. We had some nice weather and spent a lot of time outside in the gardens and flower beds. I also took the kids to the opening of the new playground at our local civic center.

Our dog, Molly, is settling in just fine. She is an Australian Shepard. We got her just after we got the chickens. She has learned quickly that it is her job to protect them.  She keeps the cats away from them and enjoys her job.
I say, "Let's go check on the girls," and she runs down to the chicken coop. Early on I made her sit in a specific spot there to keep an eye on them.  Today she was going nuts barking, and I wonder if she was trying to tell me the chickens were upset. When I got to the chicken enclosure they were very happy to see me. They were hungry because their feeder was inside the coop and I don't think they are smart enough to go inside to eat if they're hungry. In some ways they are kind of smart, and sometimes they're really stupid. But Molly is very smart.

Reading again

As my plane was landing in Atlanta I realized I absolutely needed another book. I had been reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett, and finished it minutes before the plane landed. First stop is always the bathroom, but I knew I couldn't spend hours on a plane headed for San Francisco with nothing to do or read.

I had lugged The Help from home all the way to Tennessee and was hoping to finish it while I was there so I could leave it. I didn't get a lot of reading time. I thought of leaving it anyway and picking up a copy once I got back, but in the end I stuffed it in my carry-on bag and devoured the last 30 pages or so from Tri-Cities to Atlanta.

I was traveling alone, so the level of boredom was high. I guess I could have just as easily paid for a movie on the flight, but I knew that would only last for two hours max, and I had another 4 hours, plus a layover in San Francisco, plus that last leg of flight to Seattle.

I enjoy novels, but my reading moods come and go. My desire to read usually coincides with the amount of time I have to dedicate to a book. Sometimes I have one book on my nightstand, and other times I've had at least four, all with bookmarks sandwiched between the pages.

I bought "State of Wonder" by Ann Patchett when I landed in Atlanta. I quickly found a kiosk with books and had to make a hasty choice as I was on a short layover and had to get to my gate.

"State of Wonder" had just arrived, the girl at the checkout stand said. She didn't know anything about it, but for me it was the most appealing of the small selection. I don't read vampire books, I wasn't in the mood for a biography, and I wanted something completely different from "The Help."

I'm mid-way through it.  So far I am enjoying the characters and can relate to the women in the book. It's about a scientist who is sent to get information about the ETA of a drug being developed by another scientist in the Amazon. The last guy the company sent down to get information ended up dead.

"The Help" was not what I would call great literature, but it was definitely a fun read. It was fast, and I liked the way the story was told. The voices of each character were so clear for me. I haven't seen the movie, and I'm not so sure I want to. I've got my own image of each of those women and I don't think Hollywood can do it justice.

Last night I watched Charlie Rose with Robert Caro. I was intrigued by his information about Lyndon B. Johnson, and I plan to read his series of books. It was fascinating to listen to him talk about his research for the latest book in the series, "Passage of Power."

It's always a little awkward when I have been absent for a while. Kind of like showing up for class after skipping for a couple of days. You hate to overdo the explanation of your absence, but you feel that accusing glare as you take your seat.

Here are some pics of some of the things we've been doing for a couple of months.

We built a chicken coop and were still nailing the wire into place on Easter.

These little ones are the latest addition to the coop. Austrolorps and I can't remember what kind the red one is. These little ones have grown quickly. One of them is very social and comes right up to us. It likes to stand on our finger. One of them is a rooster. He doesn't know it yet, and I'm not sure if we're keeping him. We really only need one...

These were the first bunch of chickens. The golden ones are from the same batch and are Buff Orpingtons. The smaller one is a lavender Orpington, and turns out he's a rooster. The lavender ones are more rare, and he's the one we'll keep if we can only deal with one rooster. They've all grown quickly, and I'll ad some new photos soon. I can't tell the golden ones apart except for one that still has some baby feathers around her neck. She is kind of unpredictable, and I named her Juanita. Each one has a unique personality.
We hope to have some eggs by next month.

These guys showed up and worked on our property for quite some time. We logged a couple of acres of the land, and cleared some at the back to open it up for sun. We want a pasture and hope to have a couple of pasture animals in the near future. No cows, though. I don't want any large pasture animals. Too much poo.

Dave and Jewel graduated from college this year, and I took a short trip to Tennessee to be there for the ceremonies. It was so great to get away and enjoy some time there with family and friends.

On  my last full day there we took a little trip to the lake house to enjoy a day on the lake. It was raining when we headed out, so we stopped off at Brown's in Hampton to look around and wait for the weather to improve.

We brought the kayaks and met up with Dave and Grace, stopped off at Chik-fil-A for a chicken biscuit breakfast, and were on our way.

It turned out to be a beautiful day and perfect weather for a day on the lake. I had never been kayaking and I loved it. I am already shopping.

I love this little girl! I had so much fun spending time with her. She is so precious.

Dave and I stopped off for lunch at Applebee's so I could say goodbye to Jewel before he dropped me off at the airport. She had to work that day. I miss them all already. Can't wait to go back.

A prayer for silence

Life is a series of lessons, and I try to learn from each one.  I lived through a very stressful and awful experience almost 10 years ago, and from that I learned how to pray.

Prayer was nothing new to me. I'm a Christian. But that experience was so intense and lasted for so long that I prayed each day, and sometimes I prayed all day. Everything I asked for was important, but maybe the most important was silence. I asked that God help me to remain silent when nothing needed to be said, and when I should say something that I would use His words and not mine.

Each thing I prayed for I received. I was so amazed by how I was led through that time that I have continued to pray for strength, patience, and silence. Sometimes I think my silence is misinterpreted for compliance or apathy, so I continue to ask for understanding to know when I should speak and what I should say.

I have been faced with a troubling situation that is a circular argument. No matter how I've tried to make my point clear it has fallen on deaf ears. I've tried coming at it from different angles, looking at the situation from the other point of view, and have consulted with a few outsiders to try to get a clearer picture. Though I have admitted some wrong doing in this situation, the other parties continue to insist that they have done nothing wrong at all.

The picture is clear, but my attempt to make my point has not worked. So instead of continuing to argue the same point and ride the merry-go-round of the argument, I decided to remain silent. It was so clear to me that it would not be worth my time and energy to try any longer.  I had to take control of the situation by not engaging.

I believe that truth will prevail, but for some reason they can't see the truth through me. It will take a different person to bring that truth back again and elicit some positive changes.

I decided to step away altogether and sever the tie. I am thankful for silence, for strength and patience, and for Chuck. He has been so loving and supportive while I've been dealing with this situation.

Grieving a short pregnancy

This post is about a past pregnancy. I'm not pregnant. I was not recently pregnant. Those who know me can relax now.

I know in the larger scheme of things this is not on the scale of other types of grief. I thank God every day that my preemie was healthy and is a normal boy today.

I delivered my first two children full term, and I couldn't wait to lose that baby weight and get back into my normal clothes. I lose weight fast after pregnancy so I was back in them by the time I went for my six-week checkup.

But when I had Sean at 9 weeks early I didn't have that same desire to get back to normal. I held onto those maternity clothes and wore them. In fact, I was really sad to put them away.
I mentioned this to the social worker who was assigned to us as he spent the next 3 1/2 weeks in the NICU, and she said she had heard of mothers of preemies who had experienced similar feelings. That was as far as that conversation ever went.

It has taken a long time for me to get back to this subject, but at the time I knew I wanted to get this out there. It is a real grief. I was sad.  And I felt guilty about feeling sad. Though I was worried that something could go wrong, I had a healthy baby. Other mothers around me were living through all sorts of medical problems with their preemies. I would walk by the chapel near the NICU and know that we were so fortunate to have our baby.

Maybe my feelings of sadness were worse because I had already carried two babies to term. I didn't experience that last trimester of gaining a lot of weight and looking as if I was ready to pop. In fact, I had gone with my mom to an appointment that week and her nurse couldn't even tell I was pregnant until I stood up.

We didn't have time to sign up for a birthing class. We didn't have time to get the nursery painted and set up. We didn't have a baby shower or even get to talk about one. When I could have been showing off my baby to family and friends, I was driving to the hospital twice a day to hold him. My time was consumed by pumping breast milk. I should have been excited and happy, but I was worried and sad.

Each day I would get up, get ready for the day and choose what to wear. I would pull on a maternity top. I did that for a long time. And I found myself wishing I was still pregnant, and wondering what was wrong with me.

These feelings eventually passed. Sean came home, and he was beautiful and healthy, and life went on. But that grief is real. There is something about an interrupted pregnancy that throws us off. I consider myself very lucky to have had a mild case of sadness.

If you are experiencing sadness due to an interrupted pregnancy, talk to your doctor. If you believe you need to talk to someone other than your ob/gyn please seek out a mental health professional. Sometimes it's enough to just talk to someone who understands.