for the birds...

Well, I don't know much about birds, but I know that I was drawn to the pond mid-day yesterday b/c of a group of cute ones that kept hovering & dipping in the pond and stream. I tried to look it up online to see what they were and this is pretty close to what I saw minus the red tips. (bird ID-ing is hard if you have no clue what you're doing!) maybe i'll get a book with lots of pictures so we can try to figure out what's visiting. That would be a fun thing, I suppose, for young children - when we have them - to engage with nature and learn about them. (I've got a lot of brushing up to do between now & then!)

There were maybe 10 of them hanging out late morning. I set a table up near the waterfall for us to eat lunch, but they were afraid, I guess, and hanging out in the big tree above. I was in the back yard all afternoon and saw them at the top of the stream dipping into the water later in the day.

I've never seen any like them before, so it was kinda cool to sit for a few minutes and watch them. Actually - I love watching how all animals interact with our pond and stream... dragonflies, squirrels, and birds are definitely drawn to the area.

There was another exciting experience with a bird. There was a red bird (a cardinal, I think) trapped in our garage! I had the doors open all day b/c I was getting gear out for our camping trip (tent, cooler, folding chairs, etc)... and he must have flew in at some point. He was in there for hours. I'm assuming he flew out b/c by the end of the afternoon, I didn't see him flying around. I felt so bad for him -- but he had no clue I'd try to help him out... I'm sure he was just afraid of me.

We set up the tent in the back yard to make sure all the pieces were there, cleaned off a bunch of gear, and started packing a box of things to take with us. We'll need to run to REI this week and pick up a couple more things... but we're really excited about the (much needed) trip.

Well, I should crash. Todd woke up in the middle of the night coughing (4 am) and I got up to get him water / wasn't able to go back to sleep. I feel so bad for him. He's back to normal from his little surgery -- except when he coughs -- it hurts the incision on his stomach. And - as his cough from being sick last week lingers, I know it hurts him every time he coughs.

I made a vanilla steamer (milk puts you back to sleep, right?) and thought I'd look up that bird. I need to get some more zzz's before going to work today. Got a busy day ahead of me. I have a board meeting after work near the square and then I am going to go meet Todd's brother for dinner. He's flying into town to teach a class -- but Todd is heading out of town to go to his jobsite several hours before his brother's flight lands. Oh well.

re: ADOPTION stuff. We haven't heard anything about the situation in Oklahoma, but Todd & I started to look through agency applications this weekend. We filled one out & read / signed all of the paperwork... but we have to get certified copies of marraige liscense and birth certificates, MORE letters of recommendation, etc. Boy - I feel like we're tapping some people too much with these letters! Each agency also requests 4 - 5 copies of our profile book -- but there's 2 we're applying with this week & neither have an application fee -- so that's cool. We also have to include completed copies of our homestudy. I think that should be wrapping up this week after my physical Wednesday.