Surprise!!

J's rabbit was due today to have her babies. She had started building her nest day before yesterday and then she started pulling fur out yesterday afternoon, so we knew she was getting close.
She didn't get really has fat as she did last time so I was expecting her to have 3-4 babies. Last time she had 5 and looked like a furry dump truck.
So after work yesterday we took a trip to Dodge. The cupboards were bare here at the Bruckner house, and honestly just like shopping out of town sometimes for a variety. I feel like I buy the same things over and over here. School had been canceled again for today so it wasn't a big deal that we would be getting back late.
We get home at 11, and J grabs the flashlight and says he's going on a baby check. Runs back in a few seconds later: THERE'S BABIES!!! I panicked because we lost all the babies last time from the cold. We had already talked about bringing the nest box inside at night (They only eat once a day) just till the weather warms up a bit and becomes more "stable!" HA! So I run out there and bring it in and pull back there fur....and am greeted by a HUGE blob of little arms, legs, tails, noses...there are so many in there I just gasp and stare for a moment. There are *9* babies!!
9 BABIES!!! J is excited and in disbelief.
I hope this litter goes ALOT smoother than the last one!!

And it seems really weird that I just blogged about baby bunnies. Oh well. =-)

Blizzard of 2009

Well, when my boys are old and grey, they will be able to tell the stories from the Blizzard of 2009. They have had so much fun out there today. They can even walk right over our fence because the snow was so high!
We trudged out to take of the rabbits and chickens- It took me a good 10 minutes this morning to walk about 50 feet from the house. There was snow up to my hips in some spots. All of them made it through, though the bunnies seemed to be pretty freaked out and skittish. It got better and faster for us to go back there after we had walked out there a couple of times and wore a path.
You would think being stuck at home I would have lots and lots done. Nope. I’ve been really lazy. I got the laundry all done and my kitchen clean-ish, but that’s about all.
I should have gotten a lot done on my cross-stitch project I’m working on, but haven’t even really done that. A couple of years ago my mom got me a cross-stitch pattern of a picture of the boys she had had converted over to a pattern. It has about 65 different colors, and it seems every stitch is a new color. It is by far the most complicated project I have ever done. In fact, it scared me so bad when I first got it, I put it up on my closet shelf and just now got the guts to do it!! I think it will be really neat though when I get it done. It’s coming along—just VERY slowly.
I’m really hoping we can get out of the house very soon.

I haven’t updated on us for a while, so while I am sitting here waiting for the blizzard of 2009 to hit, I thought I would write.
Things are good. I just caught myself thinking of today of how grown up my boys are. It suddenly just hit me. They are just lot of fun and we have been doing a lot of family things together lately. Sunday we took the boys to see WWE. We surprised them with tickets a couple of weeks ago. They really enjoyed it. They got pictures of John Cena while he was signing autographs, as well has GETTING his autograph, so it was a hit. Me? I sat and read the teenage girls text messages who was sitting in front of me, and listened to the family behind me make idiots of themselves. Not really my thing. But it was so awesome to watch my boy’s faces and feel their excitement.
Monday night we had parent teacher conferences. We were very pleased. J has all A’s. He was very excited because he was gotten very close a couple of times, with only one B, but has never pulled off ALL A’s before! T had a good report card too. Mostly A’s with a couple B’s.
J got his rabbits’ re-bred and she is due to have her kits March 31st. We’ve decided she is defiantly pregnant. I just hope it goes a bit better than last time.
T has taken on a new adventure. He recently, after a trip in to Orschelns, became obsessed with chickens. So he came, in a very grown up manner, and asked if he could do a poultry project for 4-H. Any normal parent would have probably laughed and said HELL NO, but….. Danny has been wanting chickens for a couple of years now, so it wasn’t really hard to convince his dad why this would be a good idea. So, our shed out back has been converted into a chicken coop. T got them from a chicken breeder here in town, and he and his dad have spent hours out there learning different things. He even showed T how to candle eggs and showed him several in different stages of development. I do not think I have ever seen T so excited and interested in a subject before. We have had some self esteem and social anxiety problems with T, so this really pleased me to see him branch out to something *he* was interested in. He is a major follower, and usually just sticks to things that his brother is doing, so this has been a major step up for him. So, our new additions are: Jack (the rooster), Chirpy, Sally, Loren, and Tyson (get it? Tyson Chicken?). And I admit..there is something really satisfying about collecting eggs and knowing exactly where it has come from.

We have our garden plot plowed and our potatoes planted. I am so ready to get things planted and to see things grow. My kids are really into the garden thing this year too so it’s a nice project for all of us.
D also got the front lawn tilled up. Right now it’s tilled up with lots of rabbit manure mixed in waiting for seed. I hope it goes well. I love grass and I hate dirt…at least as my front yard. My house has been even more dusty than usual since he has done it. Ugh.

The Mute Human

I didn’t think I would be one those people that would blog about their dog, but I am really just wanting to write, and things are kinda slow here on the home front, so here I sit.

This is Smokey. He came to join our family 5 years ago. He shares the same birthday as my husband, which is fitting, because he’s suppose to be Danny’s dog. Dan had a weimaraner when he was growing up whose name was Smokey, and he had hinted and begged for a weim for years, but I am more of a Paris Hilton dog kinda gal. You know..cute dogs..ones that fit in your purse and you can dress up in those retarded outfits you see for sale. I did NOT want a big dog. Finally, reluctantly, I caved and off he went to pick one out. He came driving up into our driveway with this gray wrinkly blob curled up on his lap….my heart melted…he looked up at me with the most amazing piercing eyes I had ever seen….my heart was soup..I was gone.

“If that dog shits or pees in my house more than 3 times, he’s gone,” I told my family.

“I really mean it,” I told Smokey. To date, that dog has had one poop and one pee accident in my house, both right after we brought him home. At least the dog takes me seriously around here!

We took Smokey everywhere with us as a baby. We even took him into Petco one time. I quickly discovered having a puppy in that store is much like having a newborn baby in your hometown grocery store. I left Danny with a small audience of people oohhing and gooing over our dog to get what we came there for.

He USED to sleep with us. Right smack in the middle of Dan and I. That stopped when he reached about 60lbs or so, and decided to stretch his legs one right and pushed me right off the bed.

Smokey suffers from Binge Eating Disorder. Late at night, when we are all sleeping, he paces the kitchen, almost like a crack head looking for a hit. Nothing is safe from that dog. He has eaten whole coconuts, buckets of Crisco, jars of peanut butter, countless loaves of bread,…anything considered edible is not safe. He also has a love for books and crayons. Not real sure what it is about the books. Every so often, once or twice a year, he will pick out a book and chew on the spine. It always seems to be a library book for some reason. Maybe he likes the smell? I am surprised we haven’t been banned from the library yet. The crayon thing grosses me out. At night, he goes to the daycare coloring box, picks out a crayon, and eats it. His part of the yard is filled with a rainbow of poop piles. Though this food quirk of his drives me crazy, it could be worse. We have read on the internet stories of people putting a roast in the oven before work, and coming home to nothing…the dog pulled that roast out of the hot oven and ate it.

His bark is SOOO much worse than his bite. He barks…obsessively sometimes. Our gasman is so afraid of him he reads our meter with binoculars. It makes me laugh because not only has that dog never EVER bitten anyone, he’s the biggest wiener there is out there. He is terrified of anything with a motor…lawnmowers, vacuums, weed eaters, rototillers. In fact, I am positive all the gas guy would have to do it carry a dust buster around with him and Smokey would run inside. Our poor back door has shown much abuse around the bottom from Smokey trying to eat the door because the neighbors were mowing their lawn.

Much to my families and daycare kids’ amusement, Smoky loves to howl at the fire whistle. In fact, he has cured many of my daycare kids’ fear of the fire whistle; because it’s so silly you can’t help but laugh at him. He starts as soon as it starts, and doesn’t stop till the thing goes off. It’s funny when he’s outside during the day..not so funny at 2am.

I was so reluctant to get a weimaraner, but they are such amazing animals and I think you really have to own one before you can appreciate all there is about them. My cousin also owns a Weim and they refer to theirs as the Mute Human. That about sums it all up.

Sometimes, I feel as though he really is. In fact, he could be one of my children-he’s a slob, loves junk food, hogs the couch, runs away from me when he’s in trouble…. I guess I have not caught my boys drinking from the toilet though…yet.

Spring Fever

I am SO excited! I have tulips and tuffs of green coming up in my yard. Spring really IS coming. I don’t think the winter has been all that horrible this year, it just seems like it’s been so long. I love the time between spring and summer where you can open up all the windows—even at night. I love waking up and hearing the morning birds singing. I also love the way the morning SMELLS when my windows are open. I know its morning before I even open my eyes.

J decided that he did in fact want to try to have another litter of rabbits. This is after D talked to a breeder friend who assured J that this does in fact happen ALOT. In fact, he lost a litter the same night J did due to the cold. He re-bred them on Saturday, so, J’s new litter is due March 31^st, and I am praying this one goes much better. At least the weather SHOULD be a bit warmer.

His last home BBall game was on Saturday. He’s gotten to play point guard a lot the past 2 games he’s played so he’s been very excited. We have one more game, and then I believe a tournament and then we are done. On to baseball….

T informed me last night that he thinks he’s going to grow his hair out. I told him he still has to get it trimmed up around his ears and neck, but I got out of him that he really is just trying to hide the moles he has growing on his head. The kids at school bug him about them I guess. He’s almost made his AR goal. This kid likes to slack off the first few weeks and then really push it as the deadline draws closer. This is the last week, and he needs to read 4 small chapter books. We shall see…

The tiller is sitting on my porch awaiting a new gas line so my yard is still intact at the moment. I think he has big plans for it this weekend, however. He was not able to go get the King Kong rabbits this past weekend as planned, but we are going to a show in Garden on the 21^st and are going to meet our friend then.

I just realized that there are only about 11 weeks of school left. Wow—I swear I JUST BOUGHT gym shoes and new pencils.