Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today I wanted to dedicate my blog to wishing my grandmother a happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Another Unspecified Wish

Again, I wished for something and got exactly what I wished for. I said my kayak wants to go floating on the upper Buffalo....I guess next time I should say with me in it! Yesterday, a beautiful day on all counts, my kayak took off without me, from Ponca to Kyle's Landing. Redbuds were in bloom (I wanna see SOMETHING in bloom). There was the perfect amount of water (at least the pictures look like it). And I received a phone call last night saying my kayak had a little smile on its kayak face. All this has done is make me want to go even worse. Next time, I'm calling in sick!

Birds

Again this year I have a mama robin sitting in the tree next to my front porch. When I looked the other day there was one egg in the nest, but she might have been getting ready to lay more. Last year, there was a nest in that exact same spot...until something came and turned it over, killing two of the three babies. My guess is a stray cat, but I never saw the culprit so I dont really know. I hope this year they make it to fledgling. I'm going to try to get some pictures, but I dont think it is quite light enough outside yet to try this morning, so I'll have to do that later on.

I dont know if there are any nests in my other bird houses or not. I do know that my backyard is extremely muddy so I havent been going out there too much. There were birds drinking from my birdbath (or as Kendall calls it her outside water dish) yesterday.

Whenever we are actually past a freeze I will go ahead and hang up hummingbird feeders. Although it seems like spring and things that come with it like hummingbirds, have been forgotten by the weatherman, the calendar promises they will arrive soon. And yesterday, was nice sunny and "warm". Normally we don't call 50 degrees warm, but I guess, it is all simply a matter of perspective.

Chickens

It's that time of year when you drive past the farm supply store and they have the big banner out front that says "Chick days". There was a time when I would have lots and lots of baby chicks, or at least an incubator full of eggs at this time of the year. And after getting a "bargain" on eggs for $1.29 a dozen, maybe having chickens wouldn't be such a bad idea. If only I had somewhere to put them and they didnt smell! So anyway, growing up I had chickens. They were bantys actually, so they were miniature chickens and they laid miniature eggs. We could still eat them, but they definitely weren't the large variety. Quickster was my first, and probably over the years my favorite, chicken. I hatched Quickster in a little bity incubator in my room, she was the only one that actually hatched. And for the first six weeks of her life, she lived in my bedroom, at which time my mother declared her stinky and made her move outside with the rest of the chickens. Quickster defied the law that chickens are dumb. She was very smart. I could pat my arm and she'd land on it. If we were out in the yard and she got scared, she would jump on my shoulder and she knew that if a concrete block were turned up there was sure to be a big juicy worm underneath. She also knew to fly to the top of the pen one day when we were out in the yard and our dog, Peanut, decided she woudl be a tasty mid-afternoon snack. I couldn't hold it against Peanut, the poor dog would even attack a feather duster, but still to protect my little chicken, I tackled the dog. I was probably about 13 at the time, and the dog was about half my size....too big for me to pick up really, but when yelling for help from anyone for a few minutes didn't work, I lugged the dog to the porch, threw him in the house and took off to rescue Quickster. There was also one night when she was little that a opossum had been in the chicken house. The next morning I was scared because I couldn't find her. I couldnt find any feathers of her either though, and I found evidence of the ones the opossum had killed. After a while of looking around with Mom's help, we located her...above the door in a small nest of chicken wire....evidently she was smart enough to get out of the way of the opossum! I just thoguht I'd share my thoughts as I saw the chick sign the other day....too bad I can't have a chicken now!

Not Busy and What Happened to Spring?

April 12---shouldn't it be warm? Shouldn't flu season be over? Why is it snowing???? These are the questions that have been running through my head this morning. First off, it is cold adn snowing, not exactly nice weather! It isn't snowing enough to stick or accumulate, but the fact remains, it is April and snowing. I always thought April showers were supposed to come in the form of rain, warm, spring rains! And then flu season. My husband isn't feeling well, my best friends that were going to come visit couldnt come because they are sick, and I even have the sniffles (not bad though, maybe I can avoid anything worse!) So today in the nasty weather I took a trek to the post office to mail my taxes (no refund for us this year...we need another deduction:), the grocery store (I rather despise grocery shopping), the vet to get the kitty cat some food and Walmart for cold medicine, kitty insulin syringes, and a toaster. Now, what can I make for lunch that involves toast? Tuna sandwiches (although I prefer mine untoasted), hmmm...I just don't know. So now my big plans for the day include making toast, maybe reading my book I got this week that I've barely opened, and I'm sure a nap is somewhere in my afternoon plans. I actually could deep clean some on my house, if I get to feeling ambitious, but that isn't likely to happen. Probably snuggling with a kitty, puppy and sick hubby are what I'll end up doing, which isnt all bad. Bundle up, stay out of the cold, and avoid colds and the flu!

A Full Weekend

This weekend will be incredibly busy...and I'm glad because I will be busy doing fun stuff. Today, I have to get my house clean, which isn't counted on the fun stuff but it is always a nice feeling to have a clean house. Then tomorrow our best friends are coming for a visit. Its supposed to be absolutely nasty weather, so we will probably stick to inside activities. We have no actual plans of what we will be doing, but we could do absolutely nothing with them and it will still be a lot of fun.

So I'm going to keep this short because I have a lot I need to get done today.

By the way, for my sister who commented yesterday that I should look at ebay, the clothes may be a little cheaper, but they still look like clown suits!

Clown Suits

Why is it assumed by clothing manufacturers that just because a person is pregnant that they want to spend a lot of money to wear something that looks like it best belongs on a clown? I'm not in need of maternity clothes yet, but as infrequently as I go clothes shopping I had some time the other night so I thought I would look. What I found appalled me. At least 90% of the clothes would look much better on a clown, than me. The only "normal" looking clothes were t-shirts which I probably won't be able to wear to work. I have only recently begun my search, and I'm hoping that the stores I've visited aren't an overall representation of what all is out there. My second complaint....clothes that will be worn for a maximum of six months, I'm not paying $40-$50 for one piece of clothing. For that matter, unless it is a pair of boots, I don't think I'd pay that much for a single piece of clothing even if I could wear it for the rest of my life. Needless to say, I left my shopping endeavor the other night with determination that garage sales are good. I have absolutely no problem buying clothes from garage sales to wear, if I can ever find any that look more attractive than Bozo the clown's wardrobe.