Birthday boy.

Yesterday was Chad's birthday and we sadly, did nothing exciting. I know, epic wife fail. I didn't even buy him a present. Yep. It was that lame. In fact, he spent about 6 hours yesterday working on a leaking sink and toilet - replacing parts, 3 trips to Ace, and lots of banging and bumping and tools dropping that sent Gwendolen to hide in the other bathroom. Not the most exciting birthday ever. After a later lunch, we also didn't eat dinner till almost 9pm and thought that Cracker Barrel wouldn't be crowded on a Friday night (apprently it is fish fry night. Who knew?).

So, I'm committing to today being better. The sink and the toilet are dripless (hugh success!) and we have plans to just hang out today. Weather dependant, we might go on a hike or for a walk on the river or something that Gwen can do with us. Tonight we are grilling out at the townhouse with family and friends to celebrate my guy (brownies and ice cream included - my special request). Crossing my fingers that today is a much bigger success than yesterday!

Working.

Sorry it has been quiet around here. I am working quite a bit this week...regular days and then Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights too. I don't have to work this Saturday which is great because starting next weekend, I will be working 6 weekends in a row...one off then two more. Yuck.

So, if you want to come visit us, please come! But please don't expect my house to be clean or for their to be anything to eat in my pantry!

Good weekend.

It has been and is going to be a great weekend!


I got off work at a normal time yesterday, came home, hung out with my dude and was in bed by 10pm (good stuff already!). This morning, we slept in and I lazily got up and showered in time to head to a baby sprinkle for a sweet friend in our small group. We went to a fabulous local restaurant - Foodworks - and had lunch and she opened sweet girly gifts (her first was a boy! She deserves some bows and pink!).

This afternoon, I came home to Chad working on our toilet (we have a leaking one in the hall bathroom) but no real plans for the rest of the day. Tomorrow we have church, lunch then TICKETS TO SEE HUNGER GAMES. Can you tell that I am excited? Fun day!

I love weekends when I don't work - unlike the entire month of April when I have to work every weekend. Le sigh.

For comparison.

Paula's Honda Fit = 2,400 lbs.

Chad's transport plus dozer = 18 tons = 32,000 lbs.

Sorry for the cruddy phone photo but I couldn't resist the visual comparison.

I think I will stick with the Fit.

March Birchbox.

In case you missed yesterday's blurb, I'll say it again...my sister got me a year's subscription to Birchbox! If you don't know what that is, I am about to give you more information than you every could have wanted!

Kate, over at "The Small Things Blog" (one of the blogs that I check out pretty faithfully...mostly for GREAT hairstyle help!) talks about her Birchbox all the time so I had to check it out (well - I've finally done it. I'm talking about a complete stranger like I know her because I read her blog...awkward?) . I will probably never be as cute and put together as she is (come on - she is a hairstylist...of course she has great hair!) but I've always loved trying new products on my face and hair to see what works best so I figured Birchbox would be something super fun to try. Only downside - no disposable income for things I don't really "need" (though frankly, I can justify almost anything!).

Birchbox has been on my wishlist for a while now but I think my sneaky sister - who is the best gift-giver ever - saw it on my Facebook page and got me on the waiting list. She didn't tell me - only that I had something coming in the mail when she finally saw that it shipped. So...what is a Birchbox? Only magical I say! You go online to their website, sign up, and fill out a beauty profile. The profile asks a few questions about your skin care habits, what hair type you have, make up preferences, etc. Then, once a month, you get your Birchbox in the mail! It is full of sample sized products that "fit" you based on what you picked on your profile. You never know what you will get and you might get things you love and things you don't love. If you find a product that you really like, you can go on their website and order the full size edition...easy peesy. You also earn points towards products too, by ordering other things. Pretty cool huh? It is super girly and fun and totally a splurge and I am super duper excited. Can you tell?

Right, right. Enough talking...what was in the box right?!?

So it comes like this...this is the inner box and the outer shipping box is hot pink. I am already excited about seeing that pink goodness show up in my mailbox for the next 12 months.

Everything was wrapped up all cute but I was too excited to see what was in there to take pictures first. Maybe next month...yeah...we'll see.

Inside:

Petite Cheri perfume - Annick Goutal  - Paris ~ already used it this morning. LOVE the way it smells.

Orofluido hair oil ~ really looking forward to using this when I shower tonight

Juice Beauty organic skin care Blenish Clearing Cleanser - totally gonna try this tonight too!

Deborah Lippmann's The Stripper to go fingernail polish remover - it is a mitt style doo-dad that fits over one finger and is preloaded with fingernail polish remover.~  There were two in my box and I already used one this morning. It worked great and the lavender based scent didn't smell all chemical-like!

Hollywood Fashion Secrets - fashion tape assortment ~ I think I will tuck these in my glovebox for when a "fashion emergency" strikes like a loose hem or gapping blouse. Awesome!

Eye Rock stick-on eye liners ~ this is the only item I am hesitant about. I know other Birchbox gals were like "what the heck!?" so I am going to try to get the guts to use them sometime (they are funky and cool like cat-eye look, etc.) when I have an occasion. Be brave, P, be brave!

So, I sort of stole Kate's  idea of telling what was in her box but I want you all to have fun with me so I will probably do it every month. They should totally pay me for advertising! 

Birchbox.

Oh. My. Gosh.
My sister sent me a Birchbox subscription.

I will tell you all about it tomorrow when I am not exhausted from working 12 hours.
And show pictures.

Bzzzz.

So when you order bees, this is how they come (as long as you don't get a nuc - which would include eggs and honey too). This set up just has a couple of pounds of bees and a queen - along with a can of sugar water for them to eat/drink on the drive.

Our bees came from an apiary (a bee breeder!) and they were delivered on a truck headed somewhere else today. Chad's dad went and picked them up (literally right off the truck near the highway!) and brought them to us earlier today and they were waiting at home for us when we got off work!

If you can see the little plate on the top - that is just a little piece of plywood that you pry off and you can access the screened in portion that way.

 You take the bees out to where you are going to put the hive...which is in our side yard next to the older hive. Here is Chad crossing the bridge to the side yard where the clover and bees live!

Once you pry off the plywood to get inside, you need to get the queen out and put her in the new hive. Here you can see Chad getting the smaller box out that houses the queen and putting it in the new hive. Once the queen is in the new hive, the other bees will go in there to protect her so it makes it easier.  

 Basically now all you have to do is dump the bees into the hive! It looks nuts but that is the best and easiest thing to do. The top of the hive is open and the bees just fall into it. Once you have everyone in there, you can put the lid on top. You can see that the other hive is much older and more mature. This is the 3rd year we will have it and Chad has already put on the extra honey supers so it is 5 supers (boxes) high.

So there you have it!  A short bee lesson for the day.

Chad did get stung more times today than he has before so we've already dosed him with Benadryl and checked for stingers and I promise I will keep an eye on him! The bees didn't like to be moved!