Also, we called a local lender today and are waiting to hear if we are pre approved for a mortgage. We are either buying a home in the next few months or we’ll be hunting for a 2 year rental, either way we are preparing to get out of our current lease. Here is why:

Mold is natural everywhere that is why an outdoor control test is done. See all the black mold with a spot of white and a spot of yellow on the control test?

When you look at the two basement tests you can see much less black colored mold (that is naturally occurring in our area as shown by the test) and more yellow and white looking mold growth that is not present as much outdoors as proved by the control test. It looks to be a sign that we have some additional stuff growing and polluting the air within our home that isn’t abundantly present outdoors.

Seems to me like an obvious sign that the air quality within the home is worse than the air quality outside the home, what do you think?

Oh and it’s been raining for less than 24 hours and our basement is filling with water again. Took some more photos to document it all for our landlords.

Now we are having majorly high winds and rain. The power is flickering and turning on and off. I better get off the computer now. Keep your fingers crossed for us and subscribe to this blog so you’ll be the first to know when we share our Tater Tot news!

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N is anticipating the prenatal appointments because he gets anxious to hear that little Tater Tot’s heart is still beating. He admitted last night that it is hard for him to trust that all is going as planned with Tater Tot inside my uterus since he can’t feel any movement yet or experience the growth and body changes I am going through. Although he does admit to having sympathy symptoms right along with me.

I let him feel the tightness in my lower belly where Tater Tot is growing, let him feel where my uterus presses extra hard on my bladder and intestines so he got little belly field trip to help him feel better. We have about another month to go until we find out if Tater Tot is a boy or a girl, we probably wont have another ultrasound picture until then either.

In other news I have a gianormous zit on my neck that is making me a bit crazy, it is like a second head is growing or something and no matter what I do to it (including stabbing it with a sewing needle) it will not pop or go away. I thought you might like to know about this but I wont be photographing it for you, sorry. All you get is poo photos! On second thought why not take a photo of the zit for you? I am not shy!

Oh and did I mention that we still have not had a single snow fall here this winter? Today we have more craptastic freezing rain but no frigging snow! We are never going to see snow ever again, isn’t that wonderful? Ooo looks like that freezing rain has turned to snow! Hurray, we get to see some fluffy white stuff falling. It isn’t sticking but it is still nice to see.

I told N that I would not be sad about moving from this town at the end of his 3 year contract, of course we will try to stay in this general vicinity of the US since we spent so much moving here and all. Anywhere near here that is foresty and gets snow is fine with me, this place is nasty.

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We have a storm coming this week and man is it cold! I also moved my laptop/ office area from the couch to the kitchen table this week and I am convinced that the kitchen table area is much colder than the couch area.. Burrrr!!!

Is anyone else sightly annoyed by the shows on TV lately? We have been watching Grey’s Anatomy religiously.. We record the show on our DVR and then watch it when we are both home together.. Lifetime has been playing all the reruns for those who have not seen the show and ABC plays the current seasons episodes. Well lately ABC has been running reruns also.. The writers strike of 2007/2008 has surly had an impact on my TV watching experience! I am not resorting to watching Reba & Still Standing on lifetime and we record Dirty Jobs, X Files and Ace of Cakes so we have something to watch but I am really going crazy without Gray’s Anatomy and Lost!! Has your TV viewing been impacted by the writers strike?

Pst.. For all you Gray’s Anatomy addicts (like us) ABC’s site claims an ALL NEW episode will be airing January 10th.. whew, thank goodness!

The post It's too cold for cereal and other musings.. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

As you can see in the photo they are getting fed and are starting to get their feathers. Our chicks are about 7-10 days old and they are growing like crazy!

Do you see the seed looking stuff under the skin between it’s neck and body? That is the food they have been fed, it’s called the crop.

The babies have opened their eyes and are also getting much stronger now. They are now able to move around the inside the nest on their own and their feathers are really starting to grow.

We are having so much fun watching these finches develop! I hope you are enjoying seeing the photos and I hope you enjoy this video!

We are just watching our baby finches and trying to stay warm. We still have quite a bit of snow on the ground around here and the temperatures have been below freezing all week.

Burr, I need to add more wood the the fire! Keep warm and enjoy the video & photo!

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Some of you already know that one of our finch eggs hatched this week, well I have more to report in that area! We now have two baby finches in the nest; daddy finch appears to be keeping them warm and fed so we may have some finches to give away for the holidays! It’s pretty cool to be able to witness the whole procreating process here in our home! We are so excited about the babies!

Our car drama has also worked its self out nicely. The woman who hit us was very nice and she explained the whole situation to her insurance company. They are taking care of the damage and our car rental while the damage is being repaired. We had an estimate done today on the damage and it came out to $2800! The shop will have our car for 10 business days (from Dec 17^th – Dec 27^th) and we will have a rental car for that time. We are thankful that the insurance clam has been easy and hassle free but we feel bad for the lady because of how costly the incident has turned out to be. At least it was just a parking lot fender bender and nobody was hurt!

Well, that is all I have to report here! I hope everyone stays warm and safe this week!

The post More winter weather is on the way and we have more babies! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.