Never Again.

Yesterday, after the race, Adi and I came home to find our sweet neighbors with a new dog on their leash.

It turned out to be lost and they were trying to find the owner. Adi loved the idea and wanted to help, so we went and knocked on a couple doors where we thought he might belong.

No luck.

What to do?

Our neighbors have a dog, so I offered to keep him in the backyard. What could it hurt?

Adi was on cloud nine. She loved it.

She kept hugging him and wanting to help him eat, although the funniest thing was that when we closed the screen door, he would whine and she would say to me, "You made him sad." So funny. 

Well... soon after Ryan got home, our little friend was nowhere to be seen from the window. Now we know why... 

He was digging a hole in our yard. Ryan was not happy. Neither was I.

I felt a little foolish that I'd left the dog unsupervised, but I really didn't know what to expect.

Needless to say, never again.

Sorry Adi, you're going to have to get your pet loving somewhere else.

Twins!

Gotcha. (Although I really have always wanted twins!)

Last weekend, when we got home from the cabin, we noticed that the swallows' nest by our next-door neighbors' door was broken. We were sad! We knew they had been building it and it seemed that there might be eggs or baby birds inside. 

Well, come to find out there were babies, and they'd fallen out when the nest broke (or when someone broke it)! Two of the five had died, but there were three left that our neighbors had put in a make-shift nest inside a hanging potted plan. The mom/dad was still hanging out and coming back, but wasn't coming to the new nest. 

In the meantime, Ryan was really keen on taking care of them so we googled what to feed baby swallows and bam, we were borrowing dog food, mixing in apple sauce, and calcium carbonate. I was (and am still) skeptical, and it gives me anxiety, but we're trying to to make sure they survive. 

After the first night, Ryan was concerned that they would get cold, so he put on a glove and brought the smallest one inside into a nice shoebox-nest. He fed it and even took it to work with him. But, when we got home, the make-shift nest was so very, very hot that one of the other birds had died. 

We rescued the other bird that was literally on death's door--its breathing was very shallow and it was barely moving. But, after some cool air, time, and some food and water it was perky once more. (I just feel sad that we didn't save all three.)

We're hoping that we can nurse them to health--we've been watching the mom/dad and are hoping that we might be able to re-introduce the babies soon. 

Here are some pictures of our adventures with them so far...  

A Visitor

A couple of weeks ago, Adrielle squealed with delight when this friend showed up.

It was pretty cute, But the closest we'll get to a pet kitty at home.

Tiki

If you have forgotten, my parents' cat is famous. Or should I say infamous.

When the doctor asked us how many words Adrielle knows this week, we counted: mama, dada, grandpa, tiki, and kittycat. Five.

Tiki accounted for two of the five. It is pretty dang cute that she knows Tiki and what a cat is.

In fact, this past week, we stopped at Ikea and Adrielle pointed to this "Tiki".

Gotta love the little smarty pants!

The Closest She'll Get

While Ryan and I both enjoy our parents' pets, this is the closest Adrielle will get to having pets of her own. (Unless Erin has something to do about it.) This little guy was pretty dang cute, and she did love him. Enjoy!

She also loved watching the birds and cried when we walked away...

Kittens Inspired by Tiki

I know you've all seen this, (and if not you should definitely take a look.) That little girl is so dang cute, and boy does she love her kittens.

Well, I'll let you guess which other little girl loves kittens. Yep, Adi. Today, she was looking and pointing to something on the fridge. I should have known because she was saying a "Tk" sound and an "ee" sound, Tiki. She was pointing to the picture of the cat on the calendar. She was pointing to "Tiki".

Tiki, is my brother's cat. She's a little older, but fairly docile, unless she gets ideas. Either way, Adi simply loves her. Ryan, on the other hand, hates her and every other cat on the planet for that matter. 

And for that reason and many others we hope that Adi gets her fix from Grandma and Grandpa's house, because we're not having pets. 

So baby girl, enjoy it while you can!

Toby's Cousin

This was today's big find. A snapping turtle. It was big, and mean. It bit the stick I prodded it with. I imagine that Toby/Keokuk would have looked like this if we would have kept him for a few more years. Yikes.

This is the turtle as we were setting it free. It was getting ready to bite the box. I'll try and see if we can get the video of us setting it free posted later. 

It has been really rainy the past couple of days and we think this guy made it into the backyard from the wooded area in the back of the house through the horse pasture. Since we didn't want it biting the kids, dogs, cats, or horses, we put it in a box and took it back to a small pond in the forested area behind the house. Hopefully it will be happy there and not come back for a snack.

This guy should have been more alert, the turtle was nearby and it could have been dinner. Actually, I don't know if it would have eaten the bird, but I have heard of snapping turtles eating ducks in ponds.

Birds

Out in the backyard, Brent and Shelly have a couple of bird feeders that attract some fun birds. These are a few pictures of those I was able to catch on camera. I hope to take some pictures of some little yellow finch-like birds, cardinals, and some blue birds that hang around also.

A woodpecker.

I have no idea what this bird is, but it is mostly blue and gray and is little.

I think this is the same bird as the one above.

I think this one is a Robin.

We're really loving it here in Fairfax Station. The scenery is great! But, we're also looking forward to moving in to our apartment on The Hill this next Saturday!

POST 100 - Freeing Willy... Well, Not Technically, Keokuk (aka Toby) Was a Snapping Turtle...

Finally Here!

I must have had the memories of the last leg of the trip placed in the deep recesses of my mind, because I am drawing a blank as to what happened. I tried to get Kenz to write this post, but she insisted that it was my turn. 

Anyway, we left early with hopes to arrive early. This plan was thwarted by the devious GPS that decided to take us down from Indianapolis to Cincinnati rather than straight through to Columbus. This cost us an hour that we could have used doing something more productive, like sleeping in. 

Another side effect of the trip down 74 to Cincinnati was that Kenz got a "citation" for going 15 over. She was following the fast car, the cop came from the other side of the freeway and nailed both cars with tickets. I didn't know that two cars could be pulled over at the same time. Kenz said that I was "blowing in her ear" (inside joke). 

Well, the ticket is going to cost $139.50, so much for our crouton budget. After Kenz go the citation, I said something to the effect of, "Well, there goes all the money we were going to spend on croutons!" It was the first thing that came to my mind. (I was once told that some of the most clever things I will ever think, I should never say. This is an example of what can happen when I say before I really think it through. Lesson failed.) 

It's really too bad, I wanted to try these delectable nuggets of dried garlic-ness.

After that, more driving through a lot of flat nothing until we got to Ohio, where we started to see some more trees. It changed a lot after that point to nothing but trees. West Virginia and Pennsylvania were beautiful, as was Maryland. 

But, I hear that West Virginians are a little backwards...the cousin-marrying type, or sister marrying-type. Needless to say, we didn't stop in West Virginia. We didn't want any scary run-ins with kissing cousins to taint our perception of its beauty. 

And, finally after more driving we arrived to a beautiful, somewhat muggy, warm day in northern Virginia! Until I start my internship, we are staying with Kenz's cousin in Fairfax Station, which is AWESOME!!! They live on about 5 acres with horses, trees, two dogs, a cat and some kids, too. Pictures of our adventures here to come!

This is just a teaser of what pictures are to come, me and a cat. (That is a nervous smile, cats have sharp teeth, claws, and unpredictable temperaments. I do not know how to tame them nor do anything with them as they are evil creatures.)

It's a Boy!!!

We have been planning on a new addition to our family for a little while, but have not told anyone about it. We just didn't know how or when to tell everyone. Sometimes if you tell someone before someone else, things can get sticky. But now the news is out, and we're excited to present the first pictures of little Bradford!

Here's a view from above. He has some great coloration, if we do say so ourselves. But, we're also a little biased.

And here he is checking out his new home.

No one thought we were planning on another type of addition, right? Sorry if you were expecting something different. We will not be adding any "floating fetuses" to our blog for a while.

Cats.

Some people ask me why I am cat-cautious. Take a good look at the picture above and tell me I don't have an argument here. They have sharp teeth, sharp claws, sinister ears, and glowing red eyes. With my in-laws' cat, Tiki, I can never tell if she is simply looking at me, or is ready to pounce on me and scratch me all over. Probably she will bite me, too. So, I will continue with this, as some say, unnatural apprehension. It's better than being dinner, don't you agree?