Birdie

As you know, we've had tons of snow. I cannot believe how tall the girls are standing on top of that mountain of snow in our front yard. Inches and inches of snow. And it just snowed again this week. The third week of March! It better be done now.

As the snow started to melt a little after the last big storm, my heart melted a little too and I told Dan I would take the kids sledding with him

Unfortunately, the snow had melted a little too much and the hills were more muddy than anything. But it was a nice out-of-the-routine thing to do on a Tuesday.

Story time at the library was St. Patrick's Day-themed last week, and Gwen was excited to make a leprechaun. But she could NOT wrap her mind around the concept of what a leprechaun is. I kept trying to help her cut and glue the appropriate parts, but when it came time to draw the leprechaun's mouth, she wanted it on his forehead.

It was then I realized that she had been fighting me the whole time because she thought she was making a red-headed boy wearing a green shirt with a black stripe.

Not to be outdone, June's latest crafts include taping cheese to everything. She handed this one to me while I was on the phone with someone.

That's a piece of provolone cheese taped to a cup. There have been many things like that lately.

I was able to sneak away to the Manhattan Temple last Friday night with my friend, Aubree. It was so nice to have a girl chat on the train and then attend a session at the temple. 

That is what my face looks like at 11:00 at night. I am sooo a morning person.

Last week, as I went downstairs to change the laundry, something flew right by my ear. And I screamed big time. My first thought was that it had to be a moth, but that it had to be the biggest moth I had ever encountered. I stood perfectly still. And nothing happened. And just as I was about to move again, convinced it was all in my head, I saw it.

A bird.

In our basement.

We already call our basement, "the haunted basement". It's a million years old and creaky and a little smelly, and I really thought it was creepy when we first moved in. I have since come to love Old Hauntie because it's always a good temperature and a great place for the kids to play without wrecking the living room or other places guests see as soon as they walk in.

So I ran upstairs and yelled to Dan, "There's a bird flying around in the basement." Dan, sweet man that he is, gave me the look that he always gives me when he doesn't believe a word of what I'm saying.

I have a tendency to exaggerate. When we were first married, I yelled to Dan to come save me from an 8-foot spider that was about to attack me in our ghetto Las Vegas apartment. And he hasn't believed a word I have said since. We once went canoeing when we lived in Tampa. And he didn't believe me when I saw a dolphin's fin right next to us. He didn't believe me until dolphins were circling our canoe. It was beautiful. And a little freaky. We would see them and then they would completely disappear, and I was convinced they were going to tip us over into the alligator water.

Which brings me to another time Dan didn't believe me. We were canoeing AGAIN (which really makes it sound like it's something we do regularly--we don't), and Dan was teasing me about how we might see an alligator. And I did. We were facing each other, and I saw an alligator just over Dan's shoulder, and we were heading right toward him. I could not speak. I just pointed and gasped, and Dan rolled his eyes, until he looked behind him and then he freaked out. And then made us go closer. And closer. Until I exclaimed I was never going to speak to him again. At which point he got even closer.

We finally turned around but not until he got some good pictures.

Anyway, so Dan didn't believe me about our new pet bird either. And then he went downstairs and it was completely silent and still. And then the bird flapped its wings.

Dan chased it up the stairs where it landed on our watering can.

Dan went outside of the house and opened the side door next to the watering can, and I had the job of chasing the bird out with a broom. I didn't know how to scare the bird out so I started screaming "OOGLY BOOGLY". That did the trick! Just call me Dr. Doolittle. Or Dr. Doeslittle.

The girls were very excited about the bird, and in the midst of all of the chaos, June was peppering me with questions: "Does it have a beak? Is it lonely? Did it say AHHHH when it saw you? Is it colorful?"

After the ordeal was over, I told Dan how grateful I was that it was a bird and not a bat when June asked me, "Do bats wear pants?"

And on the prayer front--we are still working on saying good prayers in this house. Here are some of the things June has prayed for recently. You always know what went down right before the prayer because June will mention it in her prayer. And then will usually say something completely random.

"Please keep the birds out of our house. And please tell me if a small rabbit can have a big mouth."

"Please help Gwen to stop screaming NOOO! all of the time."

"Please help Baby Harris to eat his applesauce."

And there has been an increase of talk about Dan in her prayers, and they always have me rolling.

"Please help Daddy to not take things that aren't his."  That Dan! Such a thief!

And then there's the more general--"Please help us all with Daddy."

This wasn't a prayer, but June did ask me yesterday, "Mom, can I help you get smarter?"

That would be answer to my prayers at this point. I need all the brain help I can get.

The End.