The baby birds are two days old.

Seems like I should think of some kind of lol cats caption to put on the pic of the two fuzzy little babies, with their backs to the world, end to end...



And in other news ... THIS is the face of HAPPY:



You know how your dog is always happy to see you when you get home? How they dance back and forth along the fence? Belle had a dental appointment in Flower Mound today and we always take the backroads where all the really cool horse farms dot the landscape. So we're driving along and we see a field of horses and one of the horses begins to trot, then gallop, then run toward and along the fence. There was a white Lexus in front of me that slowed down to turn. As the car turned, ALL the horses began running to the fence and followed along as that car drove down the entry. WOW!!! Can you IMAGINE a greeting like THAT???

Blue Moon - How should we celebrate?

This is the second full moon this month. When two blue moons occur in the same month, the second one is referred to as a "blue moon." Well, that's just one interpretation/definition. This morning, I have to get ready to take Belle to get her newly refurbished palate expander. In the meantime, I like this Blue Moon Edition on today's Thursday Thirteen. *whew* I will post my 13 later this evening (hopefully!)

The Babies Tonight

The baby bird on the right seems stronger, or hungrier, or simply more outgoing, than the one on the left, which always seems to stay tucked beneath its sibling.

Wander the Web Wednesday #2

The idea is to highlight 5 links that you feel would be new to other readers.
They can be daily reads, or personal favorites.
They may even just be something fun or freaky or just plain facinating that you stumbled into recently.
If you want to “play along” make a list on your site and link to it in the comments. Of course I’d appreciate a link back. You may use the graphic above, do not hotlink, simply save it to your own computer.

Even before Belle was born, I longed to subscribe to this magazine. I'm wondering if it might be something nice for her 7th birthday next month: New Moon

I've been thinking about food a lot lately: Macrobiotic Cooking. I have The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics: A Philosophy for Achieving a Radiant Mind and a Fabulous Body, but I can't find it in all this clutter!

And that points me to Declutter 101.

Miss Belle and I both agree that she would like to try a chore chart.

One more ... let me think ... Oh! We want to go here: Fantasy Island

Little Yogi ... Reading

The babies look a little like ...

BABY LOUIE

Compare these photos to the photos in the previous post ...
...

FYI: There is no Wikipedia entry for Baby Louie. Someone should write one.

Baby Cardinals!!!

They've hatched!!! I checked on them yesterday afternoon, and they were still eggs. Then Ben checked them in the evening and *thought* there might've been one baby, but wasn't sure. We woke up this morning to a loud, pouring thunderstorm and all we could think about was the mama on the nest. Well, I just went to check and here's what I found ...

Both eggs hatched ...



They are kind of curled around one another. One has its head on top and the other one has its head tucked underneath the one beside it. Looks at the tufts of fluff!


Awwwwww.......



This time, the mother didn't fly up in the tree to scold me. She hopped all around on the ground beside me. I was out there for less than a minute, but she was ON THE JOB. Such a good mama.

Egg Update

No changes.

Sunday Driving

Well, we took the pickup out to the "country" yesterday. I have put country in quotations because we made a disappointing discovery -- All the roads that used to be backroads have now been taken over by weird little developments. You'll be going along, make a turn onto a road that SHOULD be a dirt road or backroad and all of a sudden, there will be a NEIGHBORHOOD. Even if it's just one row of houses, they're there. Out in the middle of nowhere -- little boxes on the hillside. Anyway ... I pictured us as caped crusaders saving the turtles that were trying to cross the road. This guy in particular was something of a mystery:



From a distance, we thought he was a snapper, but up close, he didn't seem to be. Seemed to be a water turtle though, because of the flat back.

WHO KNEW that tarantulas don't bite?!?! Ben knew ...



And I could've sworn from reading the newspaper articles several months ago that this had been covered up. Seems that the good people of Pilot Point got themselves all in an uproar because an artist had painted this on the side of his own building ...



So anyway, it's NOT covered. At least not anymore. And Anabelle was wondering about the meaning of pornography. Here's the definition from dictionary.com: obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, esp. those having little or no artistic merit.
And because I know the next question, here's the definition of obscene: offensive to morality or decency.
In other words, it upsets people. But only some people. Other people appreciate the art. Some things DO match those descriptions, but not art. The obscenity in this case was that the artist had to cover his work for awhile. JUST MY OPINION.

P.S. I found the newspaper article: No Nudes Allowed in Texas
Ah! And here's the pic where it was covered: Censorship

PARTAY!!!!

The graduation party was at our house. It rained. Isn't it funny how the raindrops show up as little orbs? I couldn't have made the picture look like that if I had TRIED, but it's pretty cool the way it is.

Melon Art

Belle took these photos at Thai Ocha restaurant. Yes, they're real.





After that, she got artsy by taking another photo of the floating flowers. The flowers are NOT real ...

KitKat Graduates!!!

It seems impossible that little Katherine is all grown up and graduated from high school. It was beyond the usual big deal because she was the first graduate since ... 1992, I think. That's because they only reopened the "upper school" 4 years ago. What will be next for her? She's been accepted to several colleges so we will just have to wait and see.

Drama Queen

Anabelle has LOVED her theater class and Thursday was the last day. The title of the class was "Fabulous Fables," so the class had made their own fable, and created their own characters. Belle was a dog named Loretta. She stayed in character throughout the performance by periodically scratching at her ears ...

Only two eggs now ...

There was another big thunderstorm on Thursday, so afterwards I went out to check on the nest.



What happened? I checked all around on the ground, but didn't see any signs. Someone suggested that a bluejay might've stolen it. There are LOTS of bluejays in the yard, so this is certainly a possibility. They come right up on the back porch to eat the dog food right out of the bowl. After another big thunderstorm yesterday, I only looked out briefly today -- the mother was back on the nest. Will be so exciting when the babies finally hatch!

A Miracle Among Us

Well, the original goal was to trim the hedges out by the fence. The fence is brick, probably 6 feet tall, and the shrubs are taller than that. So Ben was cutting them back a little, of course. Except he started pruning them instead of trimming them, and they ended up very unique. Not even halfway down the fenceline, he found a nest. So no one touched it and he left those tall shrub branches intact. And the mother returned -- a cardinal!



When the flash went off, she left the nest and I zoomed the lens in for a shot of the eggs ...



While I was taking the pictures of her nest, she flew down to the fence and began to chirp at me -- single chirps, loud and repetitive. When I moved my camera to take her picture, she left the fence and flew up to a nearby tree to continue her tirade:



Very shortly after she began her chiding chirps at me, a male cardinal appeared and began making the same sound in my direction. Was it the father cardinal or just a passing citizen? From this, Junior Scientist Belle and I deduce that when the cardinals are making their sing-song, lyrical sound in the trees -- they are simply communicating with one another, or possibly just greeting the day in a happy way. Like Snow White singing, "Whistle While You Work." But when they are making short, sharp chirps in a cadence pattern -- they are sending a signal for help or emitting a cry of distress. And it may be a GENERAL cry of distress, or it may be a specific cry for fear of her nest that causes just the father cardinal to come to the rescue. Will need to research further.

Let's go to the moon tonight!

But just for a visit ...

Wander the Web Wednesday #1

This is PERFECT! I bookmark so many websites that it gets overwhelming at times. So today I read about this on one of my favorite blogs, A Blog of Two Witches. The graphic and info in italics is from their website:



The idea is to highlight 5 links that you feel would be new to other readers.

They can be daily reads, or personal favorites.

They may even just be something fun or freaky or just plain facinating that you stumbled into recently.

If you want to “play along” make a list on your site and link to it in the comments. Of course I’d appreciate a link back. You may use the graphic above, do not hotlink, simply save it to your own computer.

Okay, my first URL was recommended to me today while Belle and I were on a field trip to Rehoboth Ranch, an organic farm in Greenville. If you're going to eat meat, this has all the information you need: EatWild.com.

Belle's favorite new site is Webkinz. We absolutely cannot find these for sale anywhere locally, but we've ordered from an independent seller on Amazon and anxiously awaiting our new pet.

A friend recommended ALEKS, but I haven't had a chance to go in and look around yet. Appears to be an excellent math resource with a FREE trial.

APConnect! is "the online network for Dallas/Fort Worth (Texas, USA) families interested in attachment parenting and natural family living." It's been a favorite for quite awhile, but I forget to go check in for updates. I'll put it here first, then add it to my permanent links, so MAYBE that will help me remember.

Angela sent me this cool page for drawing a giant labyrinth with chalk -- as soon as I get a chance, I want to explore the rest of the Kiddley site.

When things get quiet later (?) I'll post about our field trip today. Both of us learned a LOT!!!

Recording

Anabelle has written (another) song. But now she is learning the ins and outs of recording. I think she could probably do this ALL DAY. Of course, she writes her own lyrics. Then Ben plays the guitar. They add it all together on the four-track and then VOILA! I really wish that Ben would figure out how to use Blogger so he could write about this stuff himself. I don't really understand it at all. I like the song, though.

Stuck in the middle of nowhere
Feeling lonesome and seasick
My guitar is all soggy
And I'm feeling lonesome and blue

Hang on! That's just the beginning! The backup guitar sounds suspiciously like the Cult.