Carrie Managed to Surprise Me

My sneaky wife managed to sneak a surprise by me today. She didn't mention anything in the morning about my birthday. Then she snuck a cake and cookies to school!

I felt loved! There was already a work cake, so I had my pick (and clearly, I chose Carrie's!).

It was a rough day at work, so the cake was appreciated. Then I left an hour early to go to the dentist. At the dentist, I was treated to a new hygenist, 18 x-rays, and intensive flossing. There's been a lot of change at the dentist office and I haven't I liked it. I got a bill months later from December, extra x-rays, and they charged me $50 for a cleaning which has always been covered before. Apparently, they were bought out. I'm alleged to have gingivitis, but the only thing that felt different was my mouth was more sore from the new hygenist. It could be my gums were irritated. It could be she put a lot more elbow grease into flossing than before. Or it could be a combination of both. I've never gone home with the ability to suck and then spit little bits of blood before.

I got home in time to be recruited for a chicken errand.

Carrie kept apologizing, but I like to be around her and help out. We had to "rescue" a few hens.

One of the hens did not want to be rescued.

We had to herd her back into the coop to catch her. The owner has decided to not raise chickens anymore and has let them be free range. She ran out of feed over the weekend, but chickens are good scroungers (When her dogs don't chase them or they don't disappear and never come back). We left the rooster to enjoy his freedom.

I managed to drop an egg on the way out. I'm sure it cooked before we got home.

Here are the new hens. They rode in the back of the truck with the cover on.

I picked up Shane while Carrie got the hens settled. He was happy to sample my cake.

We drove Carrie out to help Jenny around 7 PM. I handed Shane the portable SNES.

Jenny was out of town and Carrie agreed to watch things for a couple of days for her. It was a muggy and rainy evening.

Shane and I have been to Jenny's many times. There's a trio of new barn cats claiming stake to it.

I refrained from introducing myself. 

Armour is on the left. Most of the horses were out in the field. Carrie took them their dinner.

We got home without disrupting the usual bed time. Shane and I are reading The Boxcar Children. He surprised me by starting to read a chapter by himself when I finished the one for the night!

I let him stay up later as long as he was reading. Have to reward that behavior! I can't wait until Shane's reading more advanced stories. I hope he'll be a reader like my siblings and I were.

And that was my birthday this year. There were low points, but there were high points. I'm twice as old as I ever expected to be when I was 18.

I know my 18 year old self would never have dreamed I'd be owning chickens, but that's the way it turned out.