A Springtime Tragedy

A few weeks ago, on a beautiful Saturday, I spent most of the day weeding around our house.  At the back of the house, in one of the bushes, I spotted this nest.  4 sweet little eggs cozy and safe.  As I showed everyone else the eggs, I would occasionally scare the mama out of the nest, but couldn't figure out what bird would lay such tiny eggs.  Hummingbird was my best guess.  Fast forward about a week ago.  I quietly approached the nest, and there was the mama, sitting on her eggs.  It was a goldfinch.  I was happy to have the mystery solved.                                                    

Fast forward to today.  Another check on the nest brought unhappy news.  There was a hole in the side of it, and on the ground I found 2 eggs that were broken.  As you can see from the picture, they weren't remnants of a hatching.  Something got to the nest, and it didn't end well.  There is still at least one egg in the nest, but I can't imagine Mama coming back to it.  So not only are there at least two destroyed eggs, there is at least one that will languish because of neglect.  So Sad!!!

This reminds me of another Spring tragedy, about 12 years ago, give or take a year.  I discovered a bird's nest with bright blue eggs inside, they were robin's eggs, I was certain.  A few days later, Kristin and her friend, Cassidy were playing outside.  I don't remember how I discovered it, but sometime during their play date, they had found the nest and "moved" the eggs, and in the process broke at least one.  I was heart-broken!!  Of course, they were only about 3 or 4 years old, and in all their innocence told me what they had done.  I'm afraid I got more upset than I should have with them.  As I said, they were just little girls, and didn't mean to be malicious.  I think my sadness was for the mama.  My mother heart broke for the loss of her babies, because that is what would happen to my heart should I lose one of mine.

Of course, this is the way nature works, and there are little tragedies like this all the time.  I just don't like being reminded of that fact.

Home and 32 and counting (down)

The other night I was coming down the hill and caught a glimpse of our house.  Amber's shade was up and I could see her California State flag lit up by the twinkle lights she hung around it.  I smiled when I saw it.  The mission countdown is dwindling and just hovering over 30 days.  She got her itinerary to fly to Salt Lake this week!  So exciting!!  We started making skirts, and haven't had great success yet, but it is close.  Hopefully today there will be two finished and hanging in her closet.  And she got her booster Tdap so she is protected should she encounter a rusty nail or myriad other things that could give her tetanus, or be exposed to the rapidly returning Whooping Cough!  Immunize your kids for heaven's sake, and the rest of us, as well. (Stepping off soapbox now)

Its getting exciting, and scary and somedays I'm sure it can't get here fast enough.  So, so exciting!!!

But that is not what I sat down to blog about.

It's home that I want to wax poetic about.  When I came down the hill and saw the house with lit windows, I was glad to be heading there.  Not because I was eager to leave our RS Activity, where I had been.  It was a great evening where about 15 of us spent an hour and a half sewing comfort bags for elderly people.  I love getting together with my friends from church.  Laughing, sewing, eating, sharing - its all good.  So that wasn't why I was glad to see those windows iilluminated from inside.  It was knowing my family was inside that house, and although they don't come running to the door to greet me anymore (they are teenagers), I knew they wouldn't be sorry I was home, and thus in a roundabout way, I knew they were glad I was home.

I am not a homebody.  I love to travel.  In fact, John is in Utah right now to celebrate his mom's birthday, and I am very sad I couldn't go.  He gets to spend time with Alli and Ryan, his sisters and their families, and also he's done a little exploring of the art museum at BYU.  I would love to be there.

I love to go see our kids and their families, I love to go new places, I really hope the Australia trip comes to pass (Ashley says we just have to rip off the band-aid and go for it. :) I did fill out my passport application on-line and print it out.  John's is next.)  I have a list of places I would love to see - Italy, not only the picture from the puzzle, but maybe the area where my relatives come from; the French provincial countryside, and Paris of course; Arches and Zions National Parks - I have seen some incredible pictures; I'm told Mt. Ranier shouldn't be missed; and did I mention Australia??

I loved the historic sights, and pretzels, in Philly; could go back to New York in a heartbeat and see everything I missed the first time; and have fallen in love with downtown Seattle.  Portland is still one of my favorite places to go, as well as the Oregon Coast.

But at the end of it all, there is always home.  The place where our family story has taken place for the past 22+ years.  Three of our children were brought home as newborns to this house.  We have held two wedding celebrations, 6 baptism celebrations, 4 graduation parties, 22 Christmases, and I'm not sure how many Thanksgivings and hosted 3 General Authorities.  Again at the end of it all, there is home.

Home is where you hang your hat.
Home is where your story begins.
Home is where your heart is.
Home sweet home.

So no matter if I'm coming home from a trip or coming home from the grocery store, like Dorothy, I'm always glad to get back home, because there truly is no place like home.

A Springtime Post

 Spring has finally sprung, and that means a few things.  

 1 - It means Amber is done with her Freshman year.  I headed to Rexburg to pick her up on Thursday.  It was a pretty uneventful drive and I made it there safely and in good time.  One thing I was looking forward to was stopping at Lolo Pass.  Several years back when Chelsie was in High School, I took her to Idaho Falls to play in a soccer tournament.  I remember we stopped at the summit and there was stuff about Lewis and Clark and a monument to Stephen E. Ambrose, who wrote "Undaunted Courage" about the Corps of Discovery.  When I got there Tuesday, I was disappointed to find so much snow (see below), that I just used the bathroom and headed on my way.  No pausing to look at anything.  (Not that I could have found it in the snow anyway!!)

My courage was "daunted" and I didn't stay long.

One great thing about going to Rexburg is getting to visit with Dick and Lynnette.  They used to live here, and have relocated so they can live closer to family.  I can totally understand why they would want to live closer, especially after having just driven 1055 miles in two days, but I would be lying if I said I didn't miss them.  They are wonderful people, the kind who make you feel like you are their favorite person out of all the people they know.  (Of course, they make all their friends feel that way!  :)  but that's just the kind of people they are!  Rexburg won big when they moved down there.  They hosted me for the night, and I repaid their hospitality by making them pose with me for a selfie!!

I had Amber give me some pointers on taking selfies after I saw this!  Clearly I need some coaching!!

Although the drive from Lolo to Lewiston seems like it will take forever - probably due to the 50 mph speed limit for much of it - a view like this is worth the trip!  The bugs on the windshield detract from the river and canyon.  You'll just have to take my word that it is truly beautiful.  There are signs all along the road for hiking trailheads.  I'm going to do a little investigating and see about getting out there this summer for a family hike.

2 - Spring also means its time for prom, tonight!  There was a near Prom Dress Disaster (well not really a disaster, more like a snafoo, but disaster sounds better).  We ordered Kristin's dress from a website based in China.  The delivery date was anywhere from the 8th to the 14th of April.  I told Kristin she needed to come up with a Plan B if the dress didn't come.  Yesterday, we checked the tracking and it was still in Federal Way, Washington. I thought there was a chance it could come today, but when I checked tracking again this morning, it still showed the same status.  Time for Plan B.  She found a dress among our dresses from dances past, and all was well.  Fast forward to this afternoon when I checked the mail.  I couldn't believe it, but there was the dress, just as pretty as you please.  And it it VERY pretty.  After she saw it, she kept saying it was so much prettier than she expected.  YES!!  There was a little modification needed to spiff up the modesty, but I finished it by 5:00.  No worries, Cody wasn't coming until 5:15!! :)  The modification was one of those things I prayed would work out, not knowing exactly what I was doing until I was done!  Whew!! It worked out!!

Kristin and Cody posing for the requisite pictures.

The prom group, a very nice group, if I may say.

3- Spring also means yardwork. We spent most of today doing just that.  I was clearing out leaves from under a bush, when I saw something that looked like a hornet's nest.  I'm so glad I looked again, because look what I found!!!  The smallest nest with the smallest eggs.  (They are about the size of small malted milk Easter eggs.) So tiny and sweet.  The mama bird did not take kindly to me peeking at her soon-to-be-babies and showing everyone else my find.  She swooped out several times while we were walking by her nest.  Sorry, mama!!

And speaking of birds, here is a shot of one of the baby pheasants.  It is less than a week old in this picture and already its are feathers growing.  The past few days, the feathers have grown more, and the chicks try jumping and flying, especially if the door to the brooder is open.  Soon they will be put outdoors and able to use the caged run.  They are growing very fast.  

The big day is here...

Finally, after weeks of working on the brooder, the chicks came, today!!!  (Just a quick reminder, Trevor is raising 100 pheasant chicks to release into the wild for his Eagle Scout project.)  They are one day old and were hatched at a game bird farm yesterday.  Trevor and John went to pick them up with a man from town who also picked up 100 to raise himself.  He has done it before and has given Trevor lots of good tips and advice.   We will have the chicks for about 8 weeks and then Trev will release them.

Trev and Kristin spent a lot of time hanging out with the chicks.  Kristin has adopted one and is trying to decide if its name is Frederick or Chuck.  He is one of the biggest ones and has a really dark head.  She tried to paint his toenails so she could find him again.  The polish came right off, so we'll see if she can pick him out of the bunch tomorrow

Oh my, they are CUTE!!  They are funny too.  They will be walking around, eating and drinking and then suddenly decide they are tired and plop down on the spot and fall asleep.  The others pay them no heed.  The napper gets trampled and piled on, then when it has slept long enough, it gets up and does its thing!  That took a while to get used to.  I was sure when they were just laying there that they were going to die!!

Before they went into the brooder, they had to learn to drink.  We all took turns basically dunking their heads in the water and making sure they swallowed.  Then they could drink on their own.  Pretty amazing.

This is the watering system given to Trevor by the man who gave Trev the brooder.  The red is from the heat lamp and makes it hard to see, but there are nipples that come down from the pvc pipe and the chicks peck at them and get water out.  Again, they figured this out by themselves.  Pretty smart little things!

They are so cute!  We we'll enjoy watching them grow over the next few months.  John said there are so many people who are excited that Trevor is doing this for his project.  I already talked about the man who donated the brooder to him, and our neighbor who is also raising some, but another man in town donated the feed Trevor will use.  This has been a great project for Trevor so far, and its great that so many people are interested in helping him succeed.  More pictures to come as they grow and change...

And, just a humorous thing about my last blog post...Amber told me I should not have posted it on April Fool's Day as no one will think it is true!!  :)

The BIG Thing

A bit of a miracle happened last month. Our family only has one gallon of milk in the fridge at a time these days.  This is a change from the one gallon of 2% (drinkers - John, Kristin and Trevor) and one gallon of Fat Free (drinker - me).  I can't even begin to tell you how big this is. We have been divided on milk percentage for at least 10 years. Here's how the change came about....

We were visiting Chelsie and Dallin in February, and Dallin had John try some 1% milk they had in their fridge.  (Now you have to understand that John loves milk and the higher the fat percentage, the better.  2% milk is always his drink of choice, and he had no interest in even trying my fat-free (or chalk water, as he affectionately calls it :)  You needed that bit of background, but now back to the story.  After tasting their milk, John thought he would give Costco's 1% a try.  I bought some, we tried it, and after our respective milks ran out, we decided to compromise and this is the only milk jug to be found in our fridge! 

Yes, it is hard to believe.  We have shocked two of our daughters by sharing this news.  They really can't belive it, but here is the proof.  One jug of 1% milk sitting on the shelf nestled between the caesar dressing that fell victim to our persnickity fridge that randomly goes on tangents and freezes its contents, and the homemade spaghetti sauce that for some reason, turned out a little on the sweet side!  The only thing I can think is that I made it with home-grown tomatoes instead of canned.  Who knows?

So there you have it, the Rietz's are no longer a house divided over their milk.  This is strong evidence that you can teach old dogs new tricks. Woof!!