Oh Hey 5 on Friday…Moments

Thank you all for your sympathy it really is appreciated.  Though it is hard it just reminds me to never take a single day for granted and to make the most of every moment.

So here a few great moments that have happened. This week:

{one} 

Last week was also my Moms birthday.  It was great spending the day with her and planning our next half marathon. Yup we are doing it again the OC half in May! 

{two}

Spending some one on one with my big girl she also has a birthday next week.  I can't believe she is turning 21 where has the time gone.  I love her so much and am so proud of the woman she has become. Beautiful, fearless, kind. 

{three}

Moments like this are my favorite.  Just some quite time (after a run) sitting down enjoying a cup of coffee at my own personal zoo otherwise known as my backyard.  

{four}

And now my zoo is finally paying it back. We got our first egg yesterday.  Was it writes that I was so excited!! DQ wants to keep the shell so I will blow it out tomorrow and make a scrambled egg out of it. Hope it's all that it's cracked up to be. Sw what I did there lol I'm so funny. 

{five}

I love when I find a Pinterest recipe and it really is as good as it says and looks. This is a Pesto Caprese thingy <--- thats a word right?  Any way its a whole wheat roll split in half with about a tablespoon of pesto spread then topped with mozzarella tomatoes (you are supposed to add basil leaves but I didn't have any) a bit of Parm then put it under the broiler for 3-5 minutes and drizzle with balsamic glaze.  

What's your favorite Pinterest find lately?

Crazy Chicken Lady

I don't have a WIW for you guys this week as I am on vacation but
a few of of you have emailed or left a comment asking about my girls...not my human girls but my feathered ones. So here it is everything I have learned about being a crazy chicken lady…so far.

 It was never my intention to trun it the crazy chicken lady and really it happened so fast and painlessly that I didn't even  noticed until I was looking for something on amazon and this came up. 

Ya I also google stuff  I never thought I would either, like "what does normal chicken poop look like",  hey I was worried I thought Xena was getting sick...nope there is a wide range of normal in that area. 

So to answer some question...

How many chicken do I have? 

 I have 3 which technically is a small flock, and the pecking order thing is true.  They all have their  place in even this little flock and they all have very different personalities.  Yes they really do...

 Xena the Warrior Chicken is an Easter Egger 

She is the Big Boss Lady, and also the mama hen she watches out for the other girls but keeps them in line. 

She is also the most friendly and will actually come a cuddle up with DQ when she's out there.

 Princess Shit Head is a Barred Rock,

I added the shit head part cause she is the spoiled teenager of the bunch, and only likes to listen and come to us if we have something for her. She also chases Dobby (the dog) for sport.

 Noodle is an Australorp and the baby of the bunch.

I worried bout her when I first put them out in the coop, she didn't quite have all her feathers and looked so scraggly for the longest time.

Now she is actually the biggest in the bunch.  She is also the one that likes to sneak into the house if I leave the screen open.

 Are chickens noisy?
Not really or at least not that I have heard.  The coop is right outside my bedroom window and I have never heard them.  They do make the normal clucking sounds and Xena will often coo when I'm holding her (I like to think she is talking to me…see crazy chicken lady party of one).  But we also do not have a rooster, they are the noisy ones and are actually not allowed by the city.  Our city only allows up to 5 hens and NO roosters.

Don't you need a rooster for eggs?
Nope this is the question I get most, and no you do not need a rooster for your girls to have eggs.  Chickens will lay eggs no matter what roosters are only needed if you want those eggs to become chicks.

Are you going to eat the chickens?
Ummm NO!  I kinda have a rule that I don't eat anything I name (hey maybe I should start naming my cupcakes lol).  And truthfully I don't think I could do all the stuff that needs to be done before you eat them… Don't get me wrong I still love me some chicken nuggets but I'll just go to the supermarket and pick up some nameless, beak less relatives.

Why?
Well cause I'm a little crazy, I love all animals and DQ is just like me.  Also what other "pet" can give you breakfast!! it's really a win/win.

Are they easy to take care of?
Yes they are actually very easy to take care of. We have a coop that we bought pre made and just had to put it together.  The hubs is pretty talented so he made me a watering system that stays clean and I only need to fill up once a week, and a food one that I need to refill twice a week.

They are in the coop most of the day but I let them out to roam for a few hours when I get home if possible

and then most of the day on the weekends.  Really the only bad part is the poop. I'm talking A LOT of poop and my backyard is mostly concrete, so what I do is before I let them out I sweep all the poop from the day before (so it's dry) into the patches of garden I have (great fertilizer) then let them out so it docent really build up to bad, and I only have to clean out the coop once a week.
I have this big popper scooper thing I made it's kinda like cleaning a giant cat box. but it only takes about 20 minutes once a week.

So, that my friends is some answers to your chicken questions.  I am no expert and am learning new things about my girls everyday  but it a fun little thing we enjoy.

She Left Me...

 This weekend we shipped the little one off to grandma's just so we could have a quiet weekend (I tell you grandparents are the best!!)   So I started my Saturday off by dropping my car  at the dealers for service.  Since it's only a few miles from my daughter's we had decided that I would run to her house then she would drop me off at home so I could get some stuff done and then meet up later so I could pick up my car then we would go get a massage.

So after dropping off my car I ran to her place and stood outside and text her. She didn't answer right away so I ran around the block then I finally got a text back…that little shit forgot about me really.... She had stayed at her boyfriends WTH!!  I will give her points for offering to come get me (it was still pretty early) but I told her to forget (and to let her feel a little guilt lol) and called the hubs to come get me, it was a beautiful cool morning I told him I would just keep running until he found me. About 2 miles later we finally met up, so what was going to be a quick 2 miler turned into about 4.  Bonus points right.

He found me!

Then sunday I was debating about going hiking but decided to do it,  I love this sunday morning routine.  I get to catch up with my girl hit the framers market, and not feel guilty about having a baleg after the 5 mile hike :) and this week I met her new guy.

He was very nice and bonus was able to keep up lol.

another beautiful morning.

When I got home it was time to clean the coop and spend some time with my other girls.

They totally think they are lap chickens.

WiW....Sweat Bomb

I'm back down, but only a few ounces. I really wish things would move a little faster, but I guess as long as it's moving (down) I shouldn't bitch. 

 It had been a pretty quiet week so far. The hubs has been out of town since Monday for work.  This is both good and bad, bad because I miss him when he's gone, but good because I don't feel so bad being at the gym.  He really doesn't give me crap about it, it's all me. I'm sure I've said this brfore but I commute a long ways to work every fricken day so that means I'm pretty much gone from 5am to 5pm then if I hit the gym right after I end up getting home after 6 most of the time and we go to bed pretty early (between 8-9) since we get up at 4am so that doesn't leave much time for a whole lot.

Any way I digress, since he's been gone I have turned into a sweat bomb (thanks DQ for helping with the pic though she took like 500 lol)

and that smile is coming straight from the heart.  I did my treadmill HIIT workout. Then I was feeling so good with the running parts I ran another 2 miles after.

Look at that burn, and my legs have that great achy feeling, not bad but just enough to let em' know who's boss. 

Another great thing when the hubs is gone is that if I don't feel like cooking I can just make a protein smoothie.  I found this while browsing online the other day. The brand is Cellucor and they have a bunch of different flavors I haven't really seen and the great thing is the sell them in a 4 serving "trial" pack. It's a little more than buying the big one, but I hate when I buy something then turns out I don't like it.  It's worth the extra to test it out.  So far I've tried the Red Velvet (yum!) Cor-fettie Cake Batter (yum and it even has cute little  sprinkles in it) Cinnamon Swirl (just ok as a drink but great to cook with)

And of course no post is complete without a chicken picture.  They are all getting so big and Noodle is finally not looking like a crack head anymore, and finally has some feathers.

from top to bottom DQ, Xena , Princess, and Noodle.

Linking up with Fitness Blondie, the WiW girls and Vodka and Soda.

Apartment Chicks

Sorry there was no post Friday but this weekend was busy!!!  

I got a bit of a surprise on Thursday night, TaTa is moving out again... Last year at this time she moved out of our house to my moms (just more room and no little sister to fight with). This time she is moving out all by her big girl self into her very own apartment!!  

HOLY CRAP!! 

When did she get so grown up and responsible… Damn I must of done something right.

I am so proud of her, in the span of 3 months she has bought a new car and found an apartment all by herself.  So this weekend I did what any good mom would do and took her shopping!!

She pretty much has a bed, T.V and dresser so we hit up Ikea and a few other stores to get some must haves, like dishes, towels, pans.  

It was so fun, we got a ton of walking in, stayed under budget, and found some really cute things.

Besides our impromptu shopping trips, it was chicken day on Saturday. Me and the girls took a drive up the coast to Lompoc where Dare 2 Dream Farms is and picked out our chicks.  We ended up with an Easter Egger (Xena Warrior Chicken), a Barred Rock (Princess) and an Australorp  (Noodle) can you tell we let the girls name them lol.  They are so cute and funny to watch.

It was quite the 3 hour drive home with all these girls!

Sydney Doolittle enjoying her new calling as an urban chicken farmer :)

Dobby is not quite sure what to think yet, but he is being very sweet  and hasn't even barked at them.  But we are keeping a close eye on them all.

Even though it was crazy busy I did get in a few good workouts.  I did the treadmill HIIT training 

again, and threw in some swimming since it was so hot this weekend!

Linking up with, Katie, Motivational Monday, and Leeann.  

Oxymorons

Another weekend in the books.  This one was pretty relaxing and I'm not complaining. Pretty soon (like two weeks) DQ will start school and the hectic back to school craziness will start.

Saturday started off with a not so quick 3 miles.  My pace has slowed way down, I am so not happy about that but tit's my own fault (it has been a struggle to get myself motivated as you all know) I think I may need to get back to my early morning runs and quick!. After my run I enjoyed a coffee protein shake (like my glass lol) by the pool.

Then it was off to the farmers market and Sam's Club (yes I realize that is an oxymoron of sorts but I'm a rebel…and just to prove it I'm ordering my chicken coop for my urban farm fresh egg layers from Amazon haha) to stock up on some healthy eats.

And though I will be ordering my coop from Amazon it won't be for a few weeks (the chicks need to stay inside until they are fully feathered about 5-6 weeks). So the hubs and I built this cool little chick brooder all by ourselves( he even let me use the circular saw that is after i pouted that I was a big girl and knew how to use power tools), and the new tenets will be here next week.  We, ok DQ and I are so excited the hubs still thinks I'm nuts  but how awesome will pet chickens be!

To end the weekend we went to The Cheesecake Factory.  It was so good and  easy to stay on track they have the best skinnylicious menu.  I know right Cheesecake Factory and "healthy-ish" food who knew...

How was your weekend? do anything nuts?

Linking up with Katie and Motivational  Monday.