AAAaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

Wednesday morning, I was standing at the kitchen sink and noticed something strange out the window in the neighbors grass.

I looked and looked and looked and decided it was a dead bird.  A dead bird that was not in my yard.

I forgot about it.

Yesterday morning I was standing at the same kitchen sink looking out the same kitchen window and noticed something strange in my grass.

A dead bird.

The same dead bird that the day before had been in my neighbors yard.

How do dead birds move?

Thursday is "mow the lawn" day and after a morning of running errands I couldn't delay any longer.  I had to move the dead bird.  (I just threw up a little in my mouth)

I got a shovel, some gloves, a plastic bag and a rock (to hold the plastic bag open).  I also had two helpers who were SO EXCITED to see a dead bird ("Mom, I've never seen a dead bird before....can I help?")

I thought the bird would be stiff and I could just flick it into the bag.

The bird was not stiff.  It was squishy.

blahhhhhhhhh!

I got it in the bag, in the garbage and out of my grass.  I felt bad but knew that my grandma would be proud of me for getting rid of the bird (Internet, remind me to tell you the store of when my grandma picked up a snake in my yard while my mom, sister and I stood in the house and screamed!).

Fast forward.....

I noticed a little dirt pile when mowing the lawn yesterday afternoon that was a new dirt pile.  I didn't think anything of it.  This morning I walked past a big picture window in the living room and looked more closely at the dirt pile.  I took a picture and texted Ross this message:

I'm concerned about this pile of dirt.  It just appeared yesterday.  This morning I noticed a big hole in the pile.  Do you think we might have a critter?

Time out:  Why me?  Why does this stuff always happen to me?  It's all because he's going out of town for work....things are going to fall apart.  It's going to be like the movie the money pit when tom hanks walks into a room, onto a rug, onto a hole and falls through getting stuck for hours until Shelly long comes home to rescue him.

Just a little while ago I had to take some garbage out and decided to get a closer, but safe distance away, look at the hole.  I rounded the corner of the yard and was not only greeted by a pile of dirt and a hole, but a little critter venturing from his earthen home into my flower bed.

I calmly walked back into the house, cursing the critter gods, and grabbed my camera.  When a paranoid girl like myself see's such critters, it is best to document them for the husband who never believes me.

Once I showed the boys what was going on, the critter was a great baby sitter for a good 15 minutes.  Every time it came out, they banged on the window and yelled, watching it duck back into it's home. 

Why is it that every home I own must be invaded by critters?  Why?

I'll tell you one thing...I haven't worked so hard on my grass and flower beds so that they can be attacked by critters.

I'll tell you another thing....I'm terrified of critters and may not ever go outside again.

BIRDS!

On Tuesday night I told the boys that we would be going with Aunt Haley and Miss Molly to the Tracy Aviary.

"Whats an Aviary mom?" asked the inquisitive 4 year old.

"An aviary is like a zoo for only birds," I replied.

"Oh, mom!  Do you think that the aviary will have birds of prey?  I absolutely LOVE birds of prey!  And scavengers...will they have any scavengers?  Did you know vultures are scavengers. Oh, I bet they'll have a peregrine falcon - if I could be a bird of prey I'd be a falcon."  said the 4 year old.

Yes my boy, they had birds of prey and scavengers and some scarlet ibis.  They had owls and eagles and a red-tailed hawk.  There was enough bird to keep the kids occupied for an hour which is longer than I've ever spent at the aviary in my life.

When we got back in the car, AC blasting, heading to lunch Elliott said to me, "Mom, what was your favorite bird?"

"The scarlet Ibis" I told him.

"I had 4 favorite birds: the vultures, the Andean condor, the bald eagle and the parrots.  I love parrots." He told me.

I then asked the Chick, "Wyatt, what was your favorite bird?"

He enthusiastically shouted, "Dump truck!" (We did see a dump truck at the aviary)

I asked him again, "Chicky boom, what was your favorite BIRD?"

He said more loudly, "Toucan!"

We didn't see a toucan at the aviary.

In a nutshell...

We did science experiments

We tried to make movies

We ran errands

We took notes

Some of us ate hot dogs

Some of us at Chipotle corn salsa

We cleaned the BBQ

Had the family over for Sunday dinner

We learned new games

Had naps in the sun

And little Miss Molly had to sing a song with her crazy screaming cousin.

Sentimental Summer

On Wednesday night my sister and I, and our kids, fixed dinner for and ate dinner with my Grandpa. We had tin foil dinners. They were delish. My grandpa was excited because he said he hadn't had a tin foil dinner in forever. He ate two.

After dinner we cleaned up, played with the kids and I watered the flowers. I did okay in the front yard because my watering time was also spent yelling at that crazy Chick to get out of the flowers. I was doing just great until my grandpa came outside. He sat on his red chair on the porch.

The other red chair was empty. I made it a few minutes before I was overcome with emotion over that empty red chair but then excused myself to go to the back yard and finish watering the flowers. When I got to the area of the back yard with this goofy garden gnome (alliteration at it's best!) I totally lost it.

I started to cry. It was one of those moments where last summer, she would have been outside on the deck talking to me while I watered. This year, I was out there all by myself.

My grandma's roses are beautiful. My mom and her sisters have been working on them and last week was a big effort to clean up the yard and get it grandma ready. She may not be there in person, but I'm sure she's looking down from heaven and is willing the yard to be just how she'd want it.

This is the backyard of my childhood. This is the swimming pool of my childhood. Oh, how I love this place. I loved being there with my sister and eating dinner with my grandpa. I've said it many times, how hard it is to keep moving forward but we have to do it. There is no choice. But keeping the backyard neat and tidy and beautiful, just how grandma always did keeps her memory alive and her spirit close by.

Summertime Science Fair

It's no secret that Elliott has a photographic memory and as most little kids, he remembers everything commercials tell him. Nearly everyday while watching the Sprout Channel, we encounter the 3 minute commercial for the "live butterfly garden". If you ask him, he can go into great detail about the whole process but basically, you get a net and a cup of live caterpillars. You then get to watch the caterpillars grow, turn into crysalids, then butterflies. At that point you can release them from your net or let them live for two weeks and die in the net.

Anyway, as a special "you survived moving to a new house" prize, Ross got the boys their own "live butterfly garden". The nets came in the mail, then we went online and ordered our caterpillars.  They came a few days later and the science experiment/life cycle observation began.

The commercial does not tell you about the caterpillar poop, or how gross in general the little creatures are. We've got two containers, 10 critters total and one of our containers all "chrysalized" yesterday afternoon.  That meant that it was time for dad to take them out of the container that was once filled with food, but now filled with poop and pin them into the net.











I guess it's a good experience for the kids - to watch the process. Elliott is fascinated with it all, but it does take to long for a 4 year old. If only caterpillars could change in about 3 hours, not a three week process.