Cooking, Crafts, & Cats

For some unknown reason I have been in a cooking mood lately. Why can't this strike me at a time when I actually need to cook?? This morning we had Overnight French Toast. I think I should have used a bigger dish.

The weather was gray and humid all day so we just goofed around the house. Jack beat me in all three games of Go Fish and in two of three games of Candy Land.

We are visiting the retirement home Friday morning so we worked on some crafts. I couldn't believe that Jack agreed to get paint all over his hands.

He thought it was great!

I think he is supposed to be a zombie.

Bobe lounged pretty much the whole day. I finally found him under the quilt on the futon.

Tomorrow we have crazy errands to run and lots to do, so hopefully we are fully rested after our day at home!

My New Header

My friend Alana made me this new header and I have finally figured out how to use it! Pretty cool, huh?!

More Bird Stuff

We put up some bird feeders at our house about a week ago but we haven't had too much luck with them. We have had one hummingbird at our feeder in the back and it was so windy that the feeder in the front blew out of the tree and into the neighbor's yard!

When we got to Grandma and Grandpa's house, though, our luck changed. In the tree next to the garage we found a robin's nest! My mom said that they had seen the mama before but they just found the nest this weekend.
All weekend I tried to get a picture of the mama bird on the nest, but she was pretty quick. I got her in the neighbor's tree...

and in the yard...

and finally right next to the nest!

These books and things finally came in the mail, too! The blue box is a tape of common bird songs I got from the Dover clearance sale for $1.00! I have had my eye on the purple book since I saw it in Barnes and Noble last fall, so I finally ordered it along with the really cool bird songs book that several people had recommended.

The bird songs book is really neat. It has pictures of the birds and tells a little about them, and if you press the number listed by the bird you can hear its song.

This morning when we left the house we found this shell on our front porch. We were pretty excited! We can't tell where it came from and we aren't sure what kind it is. Pretty scientific, huh? I couldn't get a very good close up shot if it.

This afternoon we read Jack's Garden, after which Jack wanted to go start a garden. Right. then. Gotta love that three year old enthusiasm.

He loved this page the most because he recognized the robin's eggs right away.

If you read the post below, you can see what may be part of the problem with our feeders. Hopefully we will have the kinks worked out soon and see some real birds in our own backyard!

Post 147

There wasn't too much going on around here today--I'll post about our biggest excitement in a while. We were slow getting around this morning and it was gray and drizzly--or drippy, as Jack called it. When we finally got cleaned up we went by the library, the post office, and the grocery store.

Our afternoon was spent playing with the toy dogs.

Jack also practiced tracing letters.

This evening the sun finally came out and we spent some time in the back yard. Do you think this might be why we aren't getting many birds at the feeder? I'm sure a giant cat wouldn't make a little hummingbird feel like it could eat in peace...We may have to rethink the positioning of this one!

Hopefully tomorrow will be another relaxing day!

Three Years Ago Today

Three years ago today I was busy house hunting. This might seem like a fun task for some, but for me it was a little nerve racking. This was our first time to buy a house and Jay was staying in Nebraska while I came here with my parents and Jack. What was going through my mind were the words Jay spoke to me when we moved into our first apartment, which I had picked on my own: "How long is the lease???"

We went through one day of looking and then I emailed all of the pictures back to Jay. He didn't really like any of them. So we came back another day and found two that I liked, the Monkey House and the Weird House. We ended up with the Monkey House, because as the realtor pointed out, do you really want to buy the one you're calling weird?

So here is what the Monkey House looked like back then...

Jack's bathroom--which now has a different monkey curtain.

The entry--How did we get in past that tree?

The living room and kitchen

The kitchen--Do you think they used those cabinets with the plants in front of them??

Our bathroom. I think Jack is wondering what all that stuff is. It's called "decorating," son.

Overall I guess I didn't do too bad. Jay failed to convey to me that he wanted white woodwork, though, so the entire house got an overhaul a few months after we moved in. And Jay thinks it is the perfect size for a bachelor, but I don't think it's too bad. In fact, we will probably be moving in the next year or so, so if you like what you see it could be yours! And it's the perfect size for a family of 3 to 4. Unless one of the family members has an insane video game collection. Or one of them likes all things scrapbooky. Or schooly. Or shoesy. Maybe Jay should come house hunting with me next time.

Weekend Update

I'm not too good at resizing pictures and posting from my mom's laptop, so here's the whole weekend in one post!

Friday afternoon we left for Grandma and Grandpa's. Jack got to go pick Hope up from school, which he always enjoys. Then Hope and Piers came out to spend the night.

Playing cards in the tent

Super Jack and Super Hope

Jack actually slept in his sleeping bag for a few hours this time. When he woke up, he even came to find me instead of calling for me. It freaked me out to roll over and see him standing next to the bed!

Donuts!

My brother in law had this idea about how to get this limb down from the tree in the front yard. So of course we all pulled up chairs and got the camera out. Hope was watching him do this when Jack came up to tell her something. She said, "Jack, my dad might get killed." And then she ran off to see what was going on in the back yard.

Grandpa got quite the arm workout from all the swinging he had to do.

Jack had a great time and I even got 8 scrapbook pages done! Combine that with no cooking or cleaning and you have a super weekend!

Is It Summer Already?

As I am typing this at 8:47 pm, the thermostat says it's 81 degrees in here! That's just not right for April. With the fan on, though, it doesn't feel too bad, which is good since I have a problem with turning on the air conditioner less than a week after I last used the heater.

This morning we loaded up the car and headed back home after a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's. This afternoon we ran some errands and then went to the park. Jack didn't seem to mind the heat at all.

Other than playing catch-up with the laundry and other housey stuff, that was about it for us. Now on to all the blog entries I need to do!