pokey!

This is Pokey!!!

Yes this is the teeny little chick from a previous post!!! And he isn't so little anymore!!! And ...... he ...... is a she!!! And......there are five more little ones on their way!!! I do believe that they also will have five to six mothers like little Pokey does!!! Pokey has her real mother # 1, Mrs. Cluck # 2 (she isn't Pokey's real mother although she acts like it), Me # 3, Glenna W.# 4. Natt I. # 5, and Madi T. # 6!!!!!!!!! I don't think my dear Pokey will ever be motherless!!!!!!

I love Pokey with all my heart as well as Mrs. Cluck!!! I wasn't sure if Mrs. Cluck would be very friendly because she wasn't used to me. but...she is adorable!!! She loves and I mean LOVES her goodies!!! just so you know, her goodies include scratch(mostly corn), flax seeds, and some parrot food that looks like miniature fruit!!! this morning, like most, mom went out to let the chickens out of their coop. But Mrs. Cluck wanted her goodies(which I usually give her)so she sat on the porch and stared in the window!!! Mom came and got me out of bed to feed her, but she had already left the porch. I am sure there will be pictures of my new little babies in about a month!!! I can't wait!!!

Bekah

Celebrating Jesse's Birthday

Can anybody guess what I am going to talk about, oh wait, the title gives it away. Yes, it is about Jesse's birthday, and it happens in two different days. Day One, take Jesse to the Lego store. We wake up in the morning on Friday the fifth, (which is Jesse's birthday) and go to the Lego store in the Disney Village. Sadly, Hannah could not go, because she was in class. When we were there, Jesse got to shop for some Lego's of his choice. Instead of getting a Lego set, Jesse decided he would like to get one of the Lego buckets full of his choice of Lego's.

This is where you can choose from a huge assortment of miscellaneous Lego bricks, and stuff a bucket full of whatever you want, and I mean stuff!!!

Jesse also asked Mom and Dad if he could get one of the build a mini sets and they agreed to it and so he took to the task of building the mini-figures that he wanted. When you are done, then you put it into a small container, you can build three mini-figures by the way.

After he was done with that, we went to the Rainforest Cafe, which has to be one of the most expensive restaurants ever. I say this because my hamburger was almost around fifteen dollars. And instead of a meal, my Mom, Bekah, and Jesse had appetizers that were almost eight dollars apiece!! Sheesh!!!!

This is Jesse's shrimp appetizer, and the shrimp were quite large. But I don't know why he has that look on his face, Oh, he said he was expecting the shrimp to be smaller than that and not on sticks. I tried to explain to him that in restaurant's like this they usually put shrimp on sticks and they can't do that with small shrimp very well, but the at the time it was thundering fake thunder and flashing fake lightning, which wasn't to impressive (no lightning is more impressive than the real thing!!).

Oh, and my favorite thing was the fish tank, it had some really cool fish in it. In fact this fish here looks like the one I caught in Key Largo.

Day two, Have the Snyder's over to celebrate Jesse's Birthday.

This year we hid Jesse's presents and he had to find them and then he could unwrap them.

Not surprisingly Jesse wanted his cake to be a Lego brick, and he got one!!

Pretty cool!!

Here's more of the pictures of the celebration, and at the end of the day everyone was stuffed, because we had Hot Chicken salad for supper, and if you came over to Hannah's graduation party, then you know how good it is!!!

Another funny picture!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSE!!!!!!!

Zach R.

Rigel Happenings

Hello everybody!!! sorry we haven't posted in such a long time!!!
but........today is Jesse's 10th birthday!!!!!!!!!!! yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will celebrate it tomorrow, so there should be pics of his cake, ice cream.....so we'll post later!!!


Bekah

Plenty Wet!

Tropical storm Fay is, as they say in PA, making down with the wet! At first I was thinking we weren't even going to get as much as we do in afternoon storms... but then it started to rain for real. And then Fay stalled. I'm feeling really sorry for those over near the coast - some areas have had over two feet of rain in the last two days!!!! Here I'd guess we've had near 10 inches.

Hannah and I both love 'hurricane days'. I asked her why she liked them so much and she replied "Because you get to snuggle in bed and read stories!" I love being home with nowhere to go!

We took pity on our poor, wet chickens. They spent most of the afternoon huddled on the patio and this evening Bekah brought them into the garage and bedded them down in a nice, dry dog kennel.

Now that Fay has started moving, we're getting a bit of gusty wind. When it's just a tropical storm it's fun to go outside and play in it. The kids are out back doing one of their favorite 'been-cooped-up-too-long-in-a-tropical-storm things... pretending to be reporters from TWC reporting on the 'terrible' storm! At the moment Bekah is the reporter, Hannah the videographer and the boys are adding sound/storm effects. It's plenty windy and rain is falling but Zach is banging things around and Jesse is throwing extra water on Bekah. Hopefully we'll have video for you later - but please remember that most of the violent weather is added by sibling power!

pictures

Here are a couple pictures from our trip.

Here is a picture of a salamander that I took. Ain't he cute!!!

Here is one of the beautiful Tennessee views!!!!!

More coming soon!!! I hope you enjoy!!!!!

Bekah

Suprise Birthday Celebration!!

Okay everyone, sorry for the wait but we had to get back into our normal schedule in the Rigelzoo home after vacationing and some camp. I decided to tell about the second day in Pennsylvania even though the trip in Tennessee was first. This is what happened. I woke up early in the morning to do a little fishing in Beaver Creek which was just down hill from Grandma's house, but first I had to make a little note to tell my parents (still asleep) where I was. After quickly making a note on a page of notebook paper that spelled out "Gone Fishing" I made my way down the stairs as quietly as I could (which is not an easy thing to do in a old house with squeaky floors) and grabbed my gear and took off. Then after fishing for a little while I went back to the house smelling like fish so I had to use soap, lots of it, to make my hands smell like anything but fish. Little did I know that my Grandma had planned something for us, it was my Moms birthday, so of course we celebrated with some cake. So my Grandma brings out an angel food cake with a circle of paper on top saying "Happy Birthday Dawn" and places it on the table. Of course I'm sitting there getting ready to eat some cake, but Grandma had some more tricks up her sleeve. She brought out another cake, which was chocolate with icing on top! She was celebrating all of our birthdays in one day since she can't come to Florida for each of our birthdays. And while she is doing all this, I'm thinking in my head, "ooh, some ice cream would be nice" then I hear Grandma's voice asking me if I wanted to get the ice cream from the cellar! Talk about reading my mind! So now we had a multiple birthday celebration with two cakes and tons of Turkey Hill ice cream (My Favorite!!!)!


This is the cake that was for my Dad, and the rest of my siblings.



And here is the cake for my Mom's birthday.



Hannah was happy to eat angel food cake, even though she probably likes chocolate more.



I really enjoyed eating the cake that my Grandma prepared for us.

Special post (with more to come) by Zach R.

P.S. Thank you Grandma!!!!!!

A joy given, a life taken...

As some of you may know, less than two weeks ago, on a Saturday, a friend of ours gave us three chickens. A momma, and her two chicks. We named them Mrs. cluck, Pokey, and Gumby. Well, we built them a coop, bought them food, feeders, etc. And we have enjoyed them ever since!!! Gumby has been my favorite since the start, although I loved both of them deeply.


Here is a picture of the chicks and Zach. Pokey is on the left, and Gumby is on the right.







Well, every morning I get up and go out to feed them (unless Jesse gets there first). This morning, I got up, ate breakfast, and went out to feed them. Right away I knew something was wrong. Mrs. Cluck was pacing in front of the door and clucking loudly. I looked through the door, and only saw her and Pokey. Frantically, I looked around for Gumby, and when I didn't see him, went inside to look. I peeked inside their bed(an empty garbage can with paper shreds inside), and saw Gumby curled up in the back. When I saw that he was not moving, I ran inside and yelled for mom. She came outside, pulled him out, and told me he was dead. Hannah and Zach were at Mr. and Mrs L's house about three miles away. They had been working since early morning and didn't find out about it until hours later. I sobbed my heart out while Mom and Jesse buried Him/her(not sure which one). and later J and I had a small funeral for him. I made a small headstone for him, and we gave him flowers too. We have had plenty of practice with this sort of thing because we have buried toads, lizards, bugs, birds, snakes, and anything else that was dead. Here is a picture of the grave site.







Poor Mrs. Cluck misses her baby. She wandered around looking for him for a while, and has been acting sad all day. I am very sad as well. I believe Pokey is lonely too.

Doesn't he look sad???







With love, Bekah

I Tag...

I don't really know how to do this tagging thing for those who don't have blogs... I really want to tag my MOM (Martha) and MIL (Ruth). Also my SILs (Betsy and Nancy). Maybe they can respond here in a comment. So consider yourselves tagged. Nancy you can put yours on your blog if you want to play. I also tag MRS and Hannah. I like this kind of tag - I'm too slow for the real world version. I love you dear ladies and would so enjoy learning a few little known tidbits about each of you.

Fair Trade

Last Friday H, Z, and I visited the newly opened Whole Foods store near I-Drive. The kids thought it was funny that I got so excited about a 'grocery store'. That's OK. They get excited about dinner.

One thing they noticed was that some of the products were marked "Fair Trade". And that prompted a discussion of just what that means. For a couple of years - ever since I've been aware - I've tried to buy fair trade products when they're an option. I like knowing that the person on the other end, maybe the grower or harvester, is able to provide for his family's needs because I'm paying a few cents more for the product. In some economies my few cents makes a world of difference.

Today I ran across a website that hits closer to home. I'm reminded as I plan and purchase materials for our next school year that 'fair trade' applies just as much and as meaningfully to those wise and wonderful people who write and publish our favorite books. Take a moment to check out this link to copyrights and make a fair trade difference!

http://www.eclectichomeschool.org/articles/article.asp?articleid=388&deptid=23&resourceid=209

I've been tagged!

My friend Shannon at Withwards tagged me. That means I'm supposed to tell you six (I think) little known facts about myself.

Here goes:

1. I do my best thinking in the shower and have actually considered putting a waterproof notepad in there so I can remember all those great insights after I'm dry.

2. My dream house is a small cabin in a big woods - big porch, with a swing. Workshop for David, stable for my horses. Not too small - gotta have room for family and friends.

3. I want to hike the Appalachian Trail. I'd start tomorrow if I could.

4. I have a serious interest in nutrition, herbs and holistic healthcare.

5. I love snow! One of my favorite childhood memories is of snowy nights when my parents would conclude that the next day was almost certainly a 'snow day' - sort of like hurricane days here when schools are closed - and we would hop on the snowmobiles and go for a ride. The woods on a snowy night have a kind of quietness that is awe-inspiring - and the stars when the sky clears -indescribable!

6. I hope this one isn't little known but I have to put it here because it is such a big part of who I am... I love, love, love, my husband, my children, my family and friends! And I love my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!


I'll tag some of you later - but first I have a list a mile long because... I'm off to Michigan tomorrow to visit my aunt, uncle, cousins, etc. and to celebrate the wedding of my godson/cousin Matt B. and his fiance Ambre. I haven't seen most of these people in years and years so we have a lot of catching up to do.

I know my very capable family can handle life without me but I just want to make it as easy for them as possible. Hence, I've started decorating the house with sticky notes - telling what meds the cat gets, who eats what kind of food with which supplements, when. 'Don't forget to find and feed the tortoise.' 'If you do any laundry, carefully check that the tortoise wasn't sleeping in the pile before you throw it in the washer.' It's funny, my family already does all this but I feel like the orchestra conductor throwing cues right and left. They'll be fine. I'll miss them.