Bird Hunters

We are all finally feeling better! Praise the Lord! It was a long week. Andrew didn't have school this last Thursday and Friday, so we really enjoyed just hanging around the house and relaxing! Friday morning as I was putting away laundry I could hear that there was a bird in my bedroom wall. Unfortunately one of the "blessings" of having a century old home is that animals find their way in. We have bats, squirrels and birds that get into our attic. If my memory serves me correctly, it is only the bats that make their way into the house. We also have balloon framing which means that once the animal gets in the wall, it can go from attic to basement. So I made a mental note that there was a bird in the wall so I could tell Brian when he got home from work. Well the older two kids were both having some computer time in the office while Emily was napping, and I kept hearing something in the hallway by the office. I excused it as one of the kids. After I kept hearing it, it started to annoy me so I went to see what in the world they were doing. Well it was that stupid bird. It had made its way down into the basement and into an open piece of duct work that heats part of the basement, into the furnace, into another piece of duct work and was attempting to get out at a register that is in the hallway! And wouldn't it just figure that it is the one register/vent that is not attached it is just resting there against the wall. So I slammed my hand against the register and had Andrew grab a couple of heavy books so we could secure it and keep the frantic bird from entering the house. The kids figured that it would eventually come out of the duct work, back into the basement and that we should be there to shoo it outside when it did. I told them I would finish the project I was working on and then we would head down to the basement to try to flush it out. A few minutes later this is how they came to me..."Mom, were all ready! Can we go down now??"



We did find where the bird was in the duct, but it was not finding its way back out. But we haven't heard anything in a while, so it is either in the basement or back in the attic, or dead in the furnace. I guess it will start smelling like roasted chickadee when the heat kicks on if it's in the furnace?? =)

Bloopers

I saw this on another blog today....it made me laugh, so I thought I would share. It is fun to see someone who is usually so composed mess up!

Are we on the upswing?

As I wrote earlier Sunday Brian and I were hit with the stomach flu, followed by Andrew in the wee hours of the morning on Monday. Brian felt okay Monday morning and went to work. Andrew stayed home from school and just took it easy. I felt really very good compared to the day before. Brian came home from work exhausted, but feeling okay. We just relaxed and ate dinner, which then threw me into another fetal position, don't touch me, I am not moving state of nausea for many hours. When I woke up Tuesday morning at 630, Brian was still in bed. Normally he would have already been on the road for over a half hour at that time. I woke him, just to make sure he hadn't overslept and he said that he was nauseous again and was going to stay home. I on the other hand felt much better! So I got up, took Andrew to school and then Kelli and I went grocery shopping. After stopping to vote we got home unloaded and put all the groceries away and rested for a while on the couch. I went and picked up Andrew from school and then Brian took him with when he went to vote. In the mean time Kelli has begun to complain of an ear ache. She was hesitant to make a decision as to whether she could go to swim lessons that afternoon, but decided that she would at least try. So after returning home from voting, I had Andrew and Kelli get in their swimsuits, gave them both a snack and we got in the van and headed to the YMCA for lessons. We were probably a mile from our house when I heard the puke hit the back of my seat. "Kelli, did you just throw up?" "It's all over my clothes mom, and my car seat". I laughed. It was that or cry. So I laughed. I grabbed a towel out of the swim bag and handed it back to her, did a u turn and headed for home. Brian met us at the back door and quickly knew what had happened by taking a quick glance at our sweet 4 year old. Poor thing, she without a doubt got hit with this harder than any of us. The poor thing was a limp noodle today. She seemed much better tonight. Every time Emily burps we all freeze wondering if is going to be her next! I told Brian I am really thinking about what I feed her as I process if it is something I am going to want to clean up later! =) I am sure you all love these thoughts that enter my head! But hey, it's my blog and I'll share if I want to!! =) Seriously though, thanks to the many who have been praying that we get better. It is really appreciated! I know there are alot worse things than the stomach flu, but when you are in the middle of it, it sucks! Here's to keeping it down!

A great reminder

Romans 13:1b..."for there is no authority except that which God has established"

I received the following in an email this week...
TOP 10 PREDICTIONS NO MATTER WHO WINS THE ELECTION


1. The Bible will still have all the answers.


2. Prayer will still work.


3. The Holy Spirit will still move.


4. God will still inhabit the praises of His people.


5. There will still be God-anointed teaching and healing.


6. There will still be singing of praise to God.


7. God will still pour out blessings upon His people.


8. There will still be room at the Cross.


9. Jesus will still love you.


10. Jesus will still save the lost.

Trick or Treat, weekend getaway and the flu??

Well we have had an adventure filled few days! Friday I helped out at Andrew's school for his Halloween parade and party and then we took the kids trick or treating after dinner. Emily wasn't sure what was going on she mostly just hung back with me and Brian, but did muster up the courage to go to one door and was thrilled with her bag of whoppers!





And this was funny...Emily saw all these political signs in this one yard and she made a bee line for this one and ran right into it and tried to knock it down! =)


Our last stop for Trick or Treating is always Brian's parents. This year we left the kids there and Brian and I headed out for an overnight getaway that I had been planning for a while! I don't think that I have ever successfully pulled of a surprise as long as I have known him, so I was so excited that I had been able to keep this one a secret! We left from there and headed in towards Chicago and stayed at a lovely hotel Friday night. Unfortunately, I was up coughing all night long, so it was not the great night of sleep I was hoping for! We headed out Saturday morning for a yummy breakfast and then on to the College of Dupage for a show at their arts center. Brian and I are big fans of WGN Radio and one of our favorite brodcasters is John Williams. He is funny, intellegent and just a real character. He has been doing this show for the last 12 years where he interviews an actor that is playing Thomas Jefferson. Last year this same actor portratyed Teddy Roosevelt. It was such a great show that they did that again this year. The tickets are really hard to get but I got some for us and it was super! We were a little worried as neither of us are big history buffs, and the fact that the mean age of the audience was about 30 years our senior was also a little unsettling! =) But it was a fabulous show! Very entertaining! From there we went and saw a movie and then off to Cheeseburgers In Paradise for an early dinner. Brian is a Jimmy Buffet fan so this is a restrauant he had wanted to try for a while now! I happened to get a gift card from Ted and Danielle for my birthday that could be used there! So thanks Ted and Danielle for helping fund our weekend! After our yummy meal we headed back to get the kiddos. Got everyone home and settled in bed shortly thereafter. Brian and I watched a little tv and then off to bed ourselves. We woke up the next morning and neither Brian or I felt well at all. Both of us with really upset stomachs. We figured it must have been something we ate at the resteraunt. That is, until Kelli came and wake me up at 330 this morning to say that now Andrew was throwning up too!! I called Brian's mom to let her know and she had been sick yesterday too! Uggh! Well we are just laying low today. All feeling much better than yesterday, but not totally recovered. I sure am glad Brian and I had our little getaway as a little respite before the puke hit the floor! =)

Little Football Fan

Emily is really starting to talk up a storm! She has a whole repertoire of words, mostly only translatable by our family, but impressive none the less! The only bummer is that most of these she will not say upon request! I did manage to catch a few on video (please ignore my obnoxiousness on there). I was gone for two weekends in a row and while I was gone, Brian turned her into a football fan. It is pretty cute, but I still am not sure how I feel about her learning how to say football and touchdown before mommy! =)

Hello Fall!

Look what Andrew found!

Andrew was outside practicing kicking his football, Kelli was inside coloring, Brian was getting Emily up from her nap and I was editing pictures of my sweet niece, Teagan, when Andrew came running inside yelling, "There is a snake in the back yard!!" His tone told us that this was not a joke or a ploy to get one of us outside to play catch with him, so I immediately ran out with him and sure enough there it was, along our garage. Brian then made his way out and right before the thing slithered up in to the siding of the garage Brian grabbed it and pulled it out. I of course was freaking out! Keep in mind that I grew up in Arizona, where the snakes we found were rattle snakes! Well I quickly realized that this was a dream come true for a 6 year old boy! He was SO facinated by this slithery creature! Both Brian and Andrew tried to convince me that we should keep it as a pet! Ah, no. I will not do snakes! I told Brian I thought he should kill it, and Andrew immediately said, "Ooohhh, can I kill it?" Must be a boy thing! =) They ended up taking it to a local park and releasing it by a pond. Better option, I suppose, but I still would feel better if it were dead!

Cousins!!

It has been a great week being away from the computer and I will post more about that later...but for now here are a few pics I couldn't wait to get up!

Signing Off...

Hi All~

Just got back from an amazing Women's Retreat! It was a wonderful time with 40 other women. Our topic was Living Life Together...Be Authentic, Be Available and Be Adventurous. I will share some more about it later, but I just wanted to put a little post on here that I am signing off the computer for a while. Going on a computer fast. For the first week I am turning the computer totally off. And throughout this week I am going to decide what to do after that. I have become SO distracted from the things in my life that are so much more important in my life and I am getting my priorities back where they are supposed to be. And the first thing I need to do is shut down the computer. It is a huge time consumer for me and I might even say an addiction. So I will write more at a later time about how this came about. But for now...wanted to let you know I am offline at least for the rest of this week!