What is He Building in There? (Something Awesome.)

Aaron's been working diligently in his workshop since well before our anniversary on a mysterious gift made of paper, the traditional first anniversary gift. That's all I knew. Time went by and things came up. Chicken houses, birthday gifts (more on that later), and it has taken until this afternoon to finally see what it is he was working on. Aaron made me a beautiful paper lamp.

And it's not just any old lamp. He designed it himself. It is made of walnut and has little lattice pieces all around it and fine paper made with imprisoned mulberry leaves. It is really incredible. I couldn't believe it when he finally gave it to me.

The paper has little flecks of pink where the mulberries lay.

The walnut base has purplish tones.

It's so pretty. Like something I would want but wouldn't be able to afford. I can't believe he made something so lovely. Thank you, Thank you. Happy anniversary, darling.

Two Eggs

I don't think I've mentioned yet that we got a replacement chicken. We found someone willing to give up a Rhode Island Red. She's quite a bit bigger than Henny-Penny. And meaner, uglier, bossier, and mouthier (she's taken to waking up the neighborhood at 7am). We decided to name her after someone who deserves to have my meanest chicken named after them. We decided to name her Large Marge.

I don't think I would get another Rhode Island Red if I continue to raise chickens in town. Way too loud and too big. Also, interestingly, even though Henny-Penny (a Red Star) is much smaller, she lays eggs that are way bigger. They won't even fit in the egg carton.

Yesterday we got two eggs in one day for the first time. Marge's morning whining actually paid off, because it happened that we fed them twice in the morning, and came home to find two eggs. We fed them twice before we left for work again today: two more eggs. We've got a system and we're in business.

Birthday

My birthday trip to the U.P. was really, really great. Aaron loved Michigan in the summer. I loved Michigan in the summer. It's very different without snow. We did so many nice things. A photo recap:


We took a couple of hikes out to see waterfalls.





We went to Lake Superior.


My aunt made a caterpillar cake just for me! It was so cute and tasty!

Yes, that is a bear popping out of the wall behind me!

We saw more than one fireworks display