Spring Babies update

It has been about a week since the first pictures I took of the new hatchlings. This morning I went to check up on them. They have grown so dramatically! It is amazing how they have grown some feathers in such a short time, and they have double in size! As I went up to them I saw two babies resting their heads on the edge of their nest. They were resting so soundly. Their little eyes were closed and I could see two with breathing motion. The other one was somewhat covered in some fine downy feathers (probably covered by its mom) & did not look like it was breathing. Not that I could do anything about that, but I was really curious so I gently blew the feathers on top of him ever so lightly. It stirred the little fellow to move some. I was very pleased to see that all three birds are thriving well. At the time I did not see the momma bird, but she saw me from outside and flew into the room erradically, whistling frantically away for me to leave. I took my pictures quickly of the little ones and remembered to get some of her. I could not capture her up close. She would not sit still for too long.

I am wondering what kind of bird she is. Maybe a Swainson's Thrush? Just a guess...I would like to know though...so I have some researching to do. If anybody knows please comment.

As I left the building I could hear her following me outside. She whistled for awhile just to make sure I acknowledged that she is keeping an eye out on me. I am assuming she leaves her nest temporarily and watches from a near distance because I did not see her in the building when I first entered. She came in when she noticed that I was looking directly at her nest. Smart bird.

My name is Fudge

My name is Fudge.

I love animals, unfortunately my son is allergic to cats & dogs, any animal with dander. I personally love cats but cannot own one...so instead I have the name of my blog site, I Dream of Van Gogh's Bad Cat. I love the way the artist Eve Riser-Roberts paints art parody of cats.

Just a about 4 weeks ago, my son finally saved enough money to buy himself a guinne pig. He insisted, and he was determined to have a snuggle pet, one that he could hold on his lap & what not. I guess owning a bandit ghecko wasn't enough. I gave him advice before buying his fuzzy friend to hold the critter first & too see if he was allergic. He must have held his suffering all in because he claimed he was fine. Deep down I didn't believe him. He brought his guinne pig home and decided to name her Fudge. After a few days of holding her he finally could no longer keep his symptoms to himself. He became very agitated, grouchy and impatient with things. His eyes were red and he began to cough. I told him to avoid holding Fudge often and maybe it was best to find her a new home. That was out of the question because not only was my son attached but so were my daughters.

We decided to put Fudge downstairs & to not have her room with The Boy anymore. He did better & we bought a hepa filter to clear the air. It has helped tremendously but he still cannot hold her for too long with out consequences.

We have been enjoying Fudge. I didn't realize that guinne pigs are quick learners and can communicate when they want water or food. We have her spoiled. Whenever, we hold her she will squeak to let us know she wants a special treat. She loves yogurt candy ball treats for guinne pigs. She also loves to be snuggled.

More spring babies nesting

The nest consists of soft feathers, fur & hairs. Looks like horses' hairs & could possibly be our hairs too. :)

There's some shiny white yarn string in her nest. Now that is definitely ours. My kids have a roll of yarn (just like that same kind) & they are always bringing it outside for some project.

On May 18, my children came running back to the house to let me know that the bird eggs had hatched. We have been keeping an eye on this nest. The mother bird was rarely seen in the day time but at night when she returned, she was always guarding her nest and would fly around anxiously waiting for us to leave.

We visited her nest again when these pictures were taken. At the time she wasn't there but then after about 7 minutes I happen to notice a bird flying around outside the building and then perch itself on the roof. It was the momma. At one point she flew and landed on the asphalt at a distance from us just waiting for an opportunity to fly overhead & enter the building.

As you see her nest is perfect and she had plently of materials she gathered. It looked like she used many of the horses hairs next door. She made a very safe, warm and cozy nest. It appears she has 3 babies.

As soon as we began to leave she immediately flew to her babies. I tried to get a picture of her prior to leaving but she wouldn't let me get close enough, plus it was nearly dark.

If I remember, we will go back to the nest tomorrow to see how the babies are doing. I will take more pictures if there are any changes to add to this journal. They must have considerably changed by now. Perhaps have darkened up and have some fine feathers? I hope they are doing well. We have had so many baby birds this spring fall from our roof and it is such a tragedy to see them die. For some reason the ones that fell from our roof do not seem to be in nests that are stable. I do not know why the birds are not instinctually careful at where to build their nests. They are literally hanging over the edges under my terra cotta shingles. Any gust of wind or the mother's movement of trying to squeeze into her nest just seems to knock the little baby birds over. We were thinking about putting a mesh around those areas to maybe prevent the babies from falling out. The birds can still build there nests there but they will have some support to the nests.

Teacher Appreciation Gift

My son wrote a cute little note for his teacher's wrapped up apple,

"An apple a day, makes a happy teacher."

Summer break is almost here for my children. They will be out of school this Friday. Tonight we spent the evening making their appreciation gifts. Some teachers work very hard for our children. Very few will actually give 100% to your child. Those that do, really love to teach and love children. If you have a teacher or two that has done that, and you have forgotten to tell them you appreciate the time they have dedicated over the year, now is the best time to let them know.
Drop them a card saying thank you or just a thought, buy them a handy bright cheerful tote bag they can use. But most important, let them know they are appreciated. Being a real good teacher takes a great deal of work and dedication. There is not a lot of money in teaching k-12. Having a teacher who cares about education, and who takes their time with every student & most importantly, who knows how to adjust their teaching methods to make every individual student in class understand has become far and few. So don't forget, let that special teacher know she or he is making a difference!

Above pictures shown are the appreciation gifts my son put together & I helped with. This is just to give you an idea...Enclosed are: His handwritten note saying how his teacher is the best etc., mini musical doll, Snicker candy bar, a sweet book about children with illustrations (enclosed at the beginning of the book is a place to put my boy's school picture to remember him by), and a red juicy apple that I got creative & helped wrap up in tissue & construction paper & ribbons! Also, let your child write & pick out the stuff to show both of your appreciation. :)

Big ole spider

5/22/07 One of my young daughters happen to spot this huge spider last night in our garage. I did not think much about it to bother to look. At the time I thought she meant it was a size of a quarter. After about five minutes of tinkering around with what ever I was doing, I decided to step into our garage to get something & I decided to look down where she saw the spider run to. WOW! To my astonishment she wasn't joking when she said the spider was huge! It was at least 3 inches in diameter! My daughter ran into the house to get my husband to see it. He decided we should capture the critter to get a closer look. We grab one of our kid's net catcher & their little bug aquarium. We tried to scoop it up but the little guy was a real spiderman! It jumped & scurried until it decided to climb the wall. That is when we threw the net around & over. This wasn't easy since it tried its very best to escape through any slight opening. I guess James was in a hurry to capture the little fellow. I mean we were all screaming like a bunch of dumbasses. Then I told him to take his time and to do what the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin would do...to be patient and to be calculating about how we are to catch this spider. I found a flat aluminum sign and slid it between the wall and the netting entrapping the spider. We then transferred it to the bug aquarium.

We were really concern about the kind of spider we had. We were wondering if we had a brown recluse or a baby turantula? It was really fiesty and didn't want to be trapped. We went online and Googled our mystery spider. We found out that its a female wolf spider. It is somewhat related to the turantula, however it slightly resembles a brown recluse. We read that many people mistaken wolf spiders for brown recluses. To tell a wolf spider a part from a recluse is that a wolf spider tends to be a bit robust looking, it also has 8 eyes instead of 6. Its back has stripes that make the wolf spider appear to have ribs. Its tail part has a black splotchy dot. Wolf spiders are not boring looking spiders compare to brown recluses. Recluses are very plain with the exception of this dark violin or fiddle shape on its back, which is located about where its eyes would be. Anyway, here is the picture my oldest daughter took when we let it go away from our house. BTW, wolf spiders can bite but are not dangerous. They are actually very intriguing, especially where their eyes are set at. They are predatory of course and they have these prominent biddy black eyes on their heads. The wolf spider we were looking at was obviously looking at us too. She had a lot of character and after finding out what kind of spider she was, she appeared very friendly afterwards and we no longer feared her.

Cinco De Mayo

On Cinco De Mayo Day, May 5th, it was a perfect day for my kids to fly their big Blue Angels kite. Here are some of the unique pictures I was capturing. This was the day we had most of the family over. We cooked a wonderful homemade taco meal. Aimee made her famous avacado dip & we had some beer. We should have made margaritas but that will be next year!

Camera's perspective of Xeni

Xeni took this pic. I thought it was very artistic of her. I like the way she captured the divided lighting on her face and the way her big brown kaleidescope eyes stands out.

Thanks for the Steak

On mothers day James brought me & his mom out to Ruths Chriss. The meal was wonderful. The ribeye steak was perfect...I was told that the steak was flash cooked by some outrageous degrees or something. Kinda like "poof" steak, nuclear explosion steak! Weird but awesome. We had mash potatoes & asparagus.

We talked about all kinds of subjects. I do not remember all of it but James said some of it wasn't appropriate at RC. I talked about children drowning & who knows what else. James found the whole thing amusing I suppose because his mom & me just carried on in our conversation...maybe being a little loud. But hey, James returned to the table from the restroom & talked about how asparagus always makes his urine smell strong. I guess we performed all the stuff that etiquette die hards would moan at. For one, not only was our choice of communication subjects all wrong according to James but eventually I chose to talk on the cell phone to my sister & dad. Well, James made the mistake of not turning his ringer off, and we did ignore the calls for the longest time, but James insisted after persistent calls from my family to answer them.

I finally got some big glares from the table next to us. They looked at me with disgust at how I defiled their posh dinner. They were so pompous. They made their complaint to the manager & she confronted me. I know it was bad etiquette but afterwards I did not mind what I did, because I hated the idea of them being so stoic in their ways...I was defiant. I even made a point to get louder in my conversation & to carry on just to throw it back in their faces. We were done with our dinner anyways. I wanted to enjoy my coffee & have a fulfilling evening with my family. I did.

I must admit though, I think James had the worst manners. He told us that he kept passing gas & making pooting noises by the couple who was in back of him. We didn't hear or smell anything, so it was a shock and we laughed at what he had told us. We are so naughty! James thought that maybe when they left they reported our table for being rude. But I don't think so, they were love birds & they were in their own world. I don't recall them every showing any signs of displeasure with us?

Mothers day was very enjoyable. I wish I had pictures to provide of our evening. I enjoyed all of us being out in a fancy restaurant and causing some ruckus.

Shoes

Check out my DC's. James bought these for me as a Mother's Day gift. Aren't they awesome! I'm stylin' now.... yawwwn

Motherhood at its finest!

Today the weather is warm, and enjoyable. Spring is here and as I was admiring nature around me I spotted a dove nesting in my tree out front. Wow, isn't she a beaut!

The Leaning Tower of Cactaceae...What's Up with That?

This morning I discovered that my little cactus' were all leaning forward. I wonder why this is? I am perplexed because they were not like this a couple of days ago. Anyways, I think they have their own sense of humor. :)~





I also have this one huge cacti that is ready to fall over. Coincidence? We will have this one straightened out soon.

Stuff I got in the Mail...

Hey, I got my cottage chic looking pillow cases today! I love them so much. These will make my bed look so comfy! And my little kewpie doll Millie is wearing these sweet pillowcase dresses that are made from pillowcases! I bought these dresses from somebody who makes & sells them on Ebay. These are very simple to make and great for the summer months!

If you are interested in making a pillowcase dress, here is a link that I found that has a similar pattern to the one My Millie is wearing...................................http://www.jenleheny.com/archives/158 Have fun!

MYspace Facial Expression Photo Phenomenon

Will these facial expressions be iconic? Just look around on Myspace. Here are some examples of these quirky pictures I find so amusing! :) The common ones I found were sunglasses being worn, quirky pouts, & cameras being present in the shots!

The vanity shots...

in the bathroom.

Coupled by family, friendships & hair.

From sunglasses....

to computer geeking.

The smirks.

The attitudes.

It's all about me. My space.