Home Again, Home Again, Jiggidy Jig

All right, all right. I will tell the story of the bunnies. You can quit begging. There's only so much of that a person can stand.

I thought about naming this "True Confessions" but I thought I might get a bunch of hits looking for something a little wilder than a bunny tale. The confession will come later. First of all I'll tell you about the baby.

We have "wild" bunnies in our yard. They are loose and fend for themselves. For about 20 years they mostly stayed over in our next door neighbors yard, but for some reason about a month ago a couple of them moved into our front yard.

Last night Mike was mowing the lawn, his favorite past-time since all it involves is sitting and driving. Not too much manual labor involved. All of a sudden he started hollering and yelling. We were all in the house and couldn't understand a thing he was saying, but his tone of voice was very excited and urgent. Of course Oscar picked up on that and began to frantically run around the house barking and pawing at the doors. Finally I understood what Mike was yelling.

"Don't let Oscar out! Whatever you do, don't let Oscar out!!!"
I almost opened the door to ask Mike what he was yelling about, and Oscar surely would have escaped. It's a good thing I went to our big picture window and asked him through the screen instead.

Mike then told us there was a tiny little bunny under Andy's car. After a little while we saw it hop out onto the lawn, keeping close to it's mother. It was so tiny I thought it was just a little bunch of grass where the lawnmower had dropped some. The other rabbits are monster sized. They live the good life feasting on 5 acres of grass.

This morning I really wanted to see the baby up close. I walked around very quietly. I saw the hole which the adults had built a few weeks ago, but no luck with spotting the baby.



I told the girls that if they saw it while I was at work they were to get some pictures with my camera. Sure enough, as soon as I left a baby bunny came out and feasted. Abby got some good close shots of it. It was a different one than I had seen the night before. This one was brown. Last night's baby was grey with spots.



Tonight I thought it might come out again. I took a lawn chair, my camera, a bottle of water, and my sketchbook out to sit quietly and wait. There was one adult munching happily on the grass, not too concerned about the lady in the chair.



I spent some time sketching it as it moved around, changing positions and keeping a watchful eye out for any danger.



Mike saw me out there and brought Oscar out on a leash to keep me company. That was not exactly what I wanted as I knew the mother would never bring out her tiny baby with this excited canine lurking about. But it was still relaxing sitting out in the shade, sketching. I sketched some of Oscar, who never took his eyes off the big bunny 30 feet away.

I never did see the baby. I'm hopeful that I'll get a glimpse and some more pictures tomorrow.

Now for the confession.

The bunnies were originally ours. We got them for our kids for Easter,when they were little, about 20 years ago. The kids kept forgetting to lock the cages and the 2 bunnies kept escaping. I got so tired of catching the dang things and locking them back up that I just let them stay free. They moved to the neighbors back yard and thrived. We never told the neighbors where they came from. They are very protective of them and consider them almost like pets. I can't really see the need to tell them of our part in their origins.

So, I can't really complain when some of our pet's great-great-great-great.............. (well, you get the picture) grandkids, come back to their roots.

So Many Good Stories.....

What should I write about today.

~ About the tiny little bunny that's hopping and eating it's way through my flower garden, and how it's mamma is keeping a close watch for that killer cat that we affectionately call Burns?

~ About the lovely little luncheon I had today with my 3 lovely daughters on the lovely taco bus?

~ About the Indianapolis speedway in my front yard?

~ About Oscar's swimming foray?

~ About having to choose between hot air balloons, a fifer, a death ride or nothing, and nothing may be winning the vote?

Decisions, decisions. What's the vote? What should I write about?

The Attack of the Potato Vines

We didn't quite get around to dumping the old potatoes from our food storage room this spring until things got a little out of control. Abby insisted I take a photo of the room before we hauled away the boxes.

Poor little things. They were just looking for the sun and soil.

New York Times interviewed ME!

Yes, they sought me out and interviewed me yesterday. Can you guess why?

Air Show

On Saturday we went to the air show at the small airport in town. Here are some photos of the day.

A Morsel from My Art Readings

"Keeping oneself alive is not living."
-Theophile Gautier

Linda completed the quiz "Which Classic Hollywood Actress Are You?" with the result Katharine Hepburn.
You’re Katharine Hepburn! You are independent, intelligent, and extremely successful. You are one of a kind and loved for your unique beauty. Men are drawn to you because of your intensity and quickness of tongue. You have an unparalleled spirit and no woman can upstage a man quite like you. You take control of your future and will never let anyone define you. You will always be devoted to the love of your life, even it means facing scrutiny and ridicule. You really know who you are, and you will be remembered as one the most distinctive women of your time.
Classic Katharine Hepburn Movies: The Philadelphia Story, Woman of the Year, The African Queen.

Hearing A Silent Message

As I was driving into work this morning I found myself stuck behind 2 slow-moving vehicles. They were going 35 in a 50 mph zone. The first one was a farm truck pulling a trailer, the second one was a landscape truck full of trees and shrubs. It was a long stretch and I couldn't see anyone coming. Normally I wouldn't have thought twice about it and I'd have passed them both. For some reason,though, I just stayed back behind them, poking along at 35 miles per hour.

Suddenly up ahead a car came flying out of a residence's yard and came toward us. He didn't stop and check for traffic. He just flew out and sped down the road.

If I'd been in the middle of passing I would have hit him head on.

I love it when my guardian angel can actually get messages through my thick skull.

And I love it when I actually listen.

Can't Lose For Losing

12-15 years ago I was put on Advair. I never had asthmatic attacks, just that awful feeling of hearing gurgling when I breathed. Advair is expensive. I kept wondering if I really needed it.

Then I happened to read something that got me thinking about Advair's side effects. There was a big one.

Weight gain.

Sure the doctor's poo poo that idea. Say it's not a problem. But the more I searched on the internet, the more convinced I was that Advair was an evil sinister entity out to pump me up, and I don't mean with bulging muscles.

I quit taking my Advair. That was a week ago. At first I thought it would be okay. I was a little more short of breath, I couldn't walk as fast as I normally do (I usually almost race-walk) and sure I was so dead tired at the end of the day that I couldn't motivate myself to do anything.

That's not entirely true. I forced myself to take my nightly powerwalk and dragged my butt around the course, thinking the entire time that I should have brought my cell phone so I could have someone come and pick me up.

And I didn't lose a pound.

I gave up last night and inhaled a deep breath of Advair.

It was so invigorating to take a deep cleansing breath this morning. No tightness.
No fatigue.

I may not lose any weight, but at least I won't sleep through life.

You Know Who You Are......

Just because you didn't want to deal with the last two kittens from the litter.
Just because you were cruel and heartless.
Just because you didn't think of any consequence passed the moment when you tossed those babies from your moving car.
Just because of all that I spent the next 18 hours dealing with your mess.
My eyes aren't swollen from crying anymore.
Not that you care.
Just because you're you.

May's Gifts

I am thankful for:
~That Abby's not a teenager anymore. Whew! What a hard time having a teenage daughter. I'm so glad I lived through it. (see comments below) (Of course I didn't forget you Abby, I wanted to see if anyone else caught it. Way to go Lisa. You win the prize.)
~Andy being ordained an Elder. He's a good young man and I'm proud that he's made such good choices so far.
~That Joni, Mike and I took a little road trip and saw some cool interesting things.
~I'm thankful that Joni was accepted into law school, and even though she made the decision to pursue an advanced nursing degree instead of law, it is very awesome that she had both avenues open to her.
~That mom's cataract surger was a success and she regained the sight in her eye. She was so relieved and happy to be able to get back to her favorite activity.
~That I was released from being the primary chorister. I had fun doing it, but was starting to feel drained and stressed. Now I look forward to new things.
~That Andy graduated from high school with honors. Like I said before, he's a good kid.
~That I was able to watch Andy golf in a tournament. Joni, Abby and I all followed him around 18 holes of golf and had a great day.
~That Grandma Mitchell was able to come for Andy's graduation. We were able to celebrate her 79th birthday while she was here.
~ That we had a fun night roasting marshmallows over a fire in our back yard. There's just something about gathering around a campfire with your family that builds some good lasting memories.

I can't wait to see what June will bring.