My How They've Grown

Sally, Spot & Omelette explore outside on 7/18 while the kids swim! We can't let them out unsupervised: we've got hawks, owls & coyotes nearby... Follow @Erin_Murphy

Summer Chicks! June 4th!

Sally, Spot & Omelette

Farm Fresh Eggs!

This year in addition to fruits & vegetables, we're adding something new to our garden: chickens! Despite the fact that I love animals, I've always had a slight fear of birds. I think this can be traced back to some traumatic childhood experiences. Once while riding my bike, an enormous black crow swooped down & plucked hair from my head & knocked me to the ground. Also, as a young teen, I was chased daily by a pair of swans, who would follow & peck at me when I sailed past their nest. I've also had some negative experiences with angry geese & roosters. Surprisingly, when our local feed store mentioned that they had chicks for sale, with very little prodding from the kids, I quickly agreed. I learned a couple interesting facts: The reason you can get 1 day old chicks is because they don't nurse & are separated from the hens before they hatch. Also, they can determine the sex of a newborn chick with over 90% accuracy. This is important because many people want eggs only, not baby chicks & many neighborhoods don't allow roosters.
The chicks have been delightful, funny, friendly, EASY pets so far. We have seven: 2 Buff Orpingtons (Sally & Omelette), 1 Plymouth Barred Rock (Spot), 1 Black Sex-Link (Dot), 1 Americauna (Dot) & 2 Black Silkies- pictured above (Disco & Daiquiri). I'll fill you in on their personalities & more as we undertake our adventure in farm fresh eggs!!
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Farm Fresh Eggs!

This year in addition to growing fruits & vegetables, we've decided to add chickens, so we can have fresh free range eggs. To be perfectly candid, as much as I love animals, I have a slight fear of birds. I think this comes from several childhood incidents. Once a large crow swooped down & actually plucked hair from my head while I road my bike. I was also chased daily by swans when I was a young teen when I sailed by their nest.
But, when our local feed store was offering chicks for sale, with very little prompting from the kids, I very quickly agree. Much to my surprise, the chicks have turned out to be delightful, funny, easy pets! We have seven so far: 2 Buff Orpingtons (Sally & Omelette), 1 Plymouth Barred Rock (Spot), 1 Black Sex-Link (Dot), 1 Amer
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Drag U Promo!

Watch

Rupaul's Drag U

See if you can spot me in the promo clip!

TMZ Caught Me With No Makeup!

Here's my paparazzi moment from this week. Of course they caught me after a workout with no makeup!

http://www.mefeedia.com/video/30561682

This Week

Yesterday, I chaperoned the fourth grade field trip, then we went to see a taping of The Doctors about autism. After the show, the Glee kids were waiting at the Paramount valet with us. They're all so cute (& all have brand new cars)!

Also, went out on a school night this week! I'm a girl who usually falls asleep watching TV with my hubby around 10:00 PM. Went to see Mark Ballas (Dancing With the Stars) sing at The Mint, then to see my friend Raven's show at Micky's & Candice Cayne at the Abbey. Grabbed a slice of pizza with friends before heading home. Since I spent the night nursing a club soda, I felt great at 6:00 AM the next day when I had to wake up to pack lunches and get the kids ready for school. I made the press: //www.wenn.com/archives/18009 Follow @Erin_Murphy

I'm on Twitter!

I don't quite understand twitter, but my friends have been teasing me for not being technologically advanced. If anyone is interested in my random musings, I am now on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/erin_murphy

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My Commercial With Ronald Reagan!

Thanks to GaryB from Australia for finding my old commercial with Ronald Reagan. I'm topless, of course! This was one of Ronald Reagan's last commercials before he ran for Governor of California.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

It's Spring, my favorite time of year. Full of promise. We've been spending every weekend in the garden planting and battling the bunnies. I love all the rabbits in our yard, as long as they don't eat my roses! For the first time ever, I've planted a vegetable garden: several varieties of tomatoes, sugar snap peas, pickles(okay, cucumbers really...but my kids love pickles!) and pretty in pink strawberries. Can't wait to post photos of our first harvest.

I HATE MOTHS!!

OK, I don't hate ALL moths. How can I hate something so closely related to a butterfly? I like watching moths flitter around the outside lights in the summer. I also like finding those weird mutant moths that are the size of a soccer ball. To be specific, what I hate are the individual moths who made a meal out of one of my favorite dresses. These moths were so stealth and crafty that I didn't even know what they'd done until I was out IN PUBLIC leaving a meeting. I felt a sudden draft and realized that the entire back of my dress was disintegrating leaving me completely exposed! It was like something out of an R rated episode of I Love Lucy as I attempted to use my purse to cover myself.

Have a Very Scary Christmas :)

My first grader had a class project last week where he had to prepare a presentation about how our family celebrates the holiday season. Some of the kids celebrate Christmas and some celebrate Hanukkah. The first part of the assignment required the kids to draw a picture that showed how their family decorates for the holidays. My little boy colored a picture that was very dark and a little scary looking. In one corner it looked like there was a knife with blood. I asked him how his picture symbolized Christmas. He said, "Weeellll, our family also celebrates Halloween!!

Why Don't You "Stay A Spell"?

While on a recent trip to the East Coast, I paid a visit to the Bewitched Bed & Breakfast in Rehoboth Beach. The lovely owners, Inez and Shirley, graciously offered me a tour when I called them completely out of the blue. They have three beautiful B & B's in a row and one of them is completely Bewitched theme. Such a fun place to stay!!

http://www.seawitchmanor.com/

Hell's Kitchen!

I love a good haunted house! Our neighborhood has a fun Halloween event and this year we've decided to add a Haunted Kitchen. I'm in charge, so I'm calling on all my creative friends to send me your great ideas! I've come up with some scary "menu" items: Mice-A-Roni, Hot Apple Spider, Spaghetti and Eyeballs & for dessert a nice slice of Frosted Chocolate Snake! We also got lucky because one of our neighbors produced the Halloween movies, so we have access to some cool props and costumes. I'm thinking that we stick with the kitchen theme and have people dressed like scary chefs, waitresses, etc.
We'll have a less scary version early in the night for the younger kids and a teenage version later on. Any suggestions on how to totally transform a banquet room catering kitchen?

Fight On!

I love college football! The USC-Ohio State game tonight was absolute perfection. Have you ever ridden a roller coaster and found yourself laughing hysterically and totally exhilarated? That's how I felt after tonight's game. Led by our true freshman quarterback, Matt Barkley, we're going to have quite a season.
Great job kid!

Fried Pickles?

When I was in Junior High and High School, our family did weekly theme dinners, like "taco night" (which we still occasionally do) and "fry"day, which ironically we had on Thursday. Keep in mind this was quite awhile ago and folks weren't as health conscious. Our family had a deep fat fryer (just sounds unhealthy, doesn't it?) and my mom would cook up a tasty assortment of sizzling treats: fish sticks, tater tots, vegetables. As an adult, I'm not a huge fan of fried foods, but I do enjoy hearing about the latest crunchy offerings that they come up with each year at the county fairs. We took the family to a fair this summer and one of my sons was delighted with the deep fried pickles, which were actually better than they sound. I recently heard about one of the most disgusting sounding treats ever: Deep fried BUTTER! I wish I were kidding.

Firestorm!

I'm a big supporter of lifelong learning. I try to take a college course every semester on a topic of interest. I'm also not afraid to admit that I don't know something. If I can't answer a question, I turn to the internet (much as I turned to encyclopedias when I was young.). This week I was confronted by something that I'd never seen or heard of before (see photo above). I learned about clouds when I was a kid: stratus, cumulus, nimbus; but somehow, I'd missed out on learning about pyrocumulus clouds. They're formed when a rapidly moving fire sucks all the moisture out of the atmosphere and burning brush. The most amazing example of nature taking care of itself is that the clouds can turn to rain and extinguish the fire! In an ironic twist on the workings of Mother Nature, the clouds can also produce lightening which can start another fire.

In Living Color!

I was reading to my youngest son about the history of Sesame Street, which happens to be celebrating it's 40th season. The story featured lots of photographs, including a black and white shot with Bill Cosby. He asked me what year the photo was from & I guessed somewhere around 1970. My dear little boy asked "When did color start Mommy?". I explained about color television and photographs. I told him that when I was young, lots of people only had black and white television sets and NBC had an animated peacock that would open it's tail with a voiceover that said "The following program is brought to you in color". My sister Diane & I called it the "following peacock". After I'd finished explaining, he said "I mean when did color come to the earth,like the sky and the trees?". My sweet little son thought that the entire world was black and white in 1970.

The Joys of Summer

Do you remember Otter Pops? Of course you do, they're still around. I'm a fan of Strawberry Short Kook. There are so many things that I love about summer, but today while watching my kids invent new dives (Look I'm a pencil! I'm a question mark!), I realized that not many people have diving boards anymore. I wonder if they were deemed too unsafe, like those merry-go-rounds that used to be on every school playground and now you only see in deserted parks. When I was little, we had a diving board and our parents also got one of those big fiberglass pool slides. Boy, did we have fun with that! These days, it seems like people only have rockslides that look like something you'd find at a 5 star resort. Since my childhood home is only a couple miles from our current home, I drove by and took a peek in the backyard. The pool's still there, but no diving board or slide! Oh, well.
Another thing that I'm enjoying this summer are popsicle stick jokes. Example: Where do actors go camping? The Holly Woods! Is that funny, Mommy? Yes, it is.
Summer is all about the simple pleasures. Put on some sunscreen and Enjoy!