Focus Pocus Friday: LOTS of Love Here for This Girl!

Spending a little time every week looking back through old photos has become a real treat for me. I hope that you can enjoy this magical trip back in time, too!

Branch - April 13, 2005

Isn't she just the cutest?!?! I'm sure glad she decided to stay with me a little longer! She is still lobbying for her own room... which means a new house. Hmmm - that might be a bit of a wait!

Well, Butter My Buns and Call Me a Biscuit!!

I made it on PW's Blog today!!

Click HERE and go and see what Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman had to say about her visit to Portland!!

Make sure to scroll through and look at all of those pictures!! ;)

Wooooooooo Hooooooooo!! Can you FEEL my smile radiating across the web-wires?!?!?!

OH!! And hello to all y'all comin' over from PW's site today!!!

HeartBreak

Just before lunch today, I nursed Bump and laid him down for his nap and went out into the kitchen to begin preparing something to eat. Then, I looked up the stairs and saw a SIGHT.

My Branch had a backpack stuffed full on one shoulder with a travel pillow wedged between her body and the bag, another bag with a teddy bear head and the tails of a bathrobe sticking out, tears rolling down her face and a piece of paper in her hand.

I said, "What are you doing?"

She replied with more tears and walked down the stairs and handed me the paper...

I asked her where she was going and she told me that she wasn't sure, but she couldn't stay here any longer. I pulled her onto my lap and asked her why she couldn't stay. She said, "There isn't any love here for me."

WHAT?!?!! My girl, the one who was poured into a mold that I thought I had cracked? My GIRL. MY girl. Not enough love for her?

I asked her what her plan was. She wasn't sure. I asked her where she would go. She said to some other house that had some extra love. I asked her how she would buy food. She said her piggy bank was packed in her backpack. I asked what else she had packed for her journey. She had a pair of jammies, a piggy bank, a lip gloss and a smell good spray, her teddy bear and a pillow... OH and a bath robe. She might have added a book or two as well. Blossom asked if she packed an extra pair of panties... Just in case, you know. No, she had not packed any extra panties and she had not packed any other clothes to wear. She planned to re-wear the clothes that she had on. So, she was ready to leave. Then I asked why she felt that there wasn't enough love and she told me that Blossom and Bud were too mean to her, there weren't enough bedrooms so that she could be alone in one and she NEEDED her own space because Blossom wouldn't leave her alone in quiet. Bud and Blossom by this time were quite concerned that Branch was leaving and were trying to convince her that they would miss her and that it is really just too scary to leave mom and have a go on your own.

I asked if she wanted to stay for lunch before she left. She did. She wanted tuna salad with crackers and cheese. And a movie. Max and Ruby to be exact. And now she is curled up in a club chair reading Berenstain Bears and the Dress Code and we will be leaving to go to her Little Flowers Girls' Club meeting in about 10 minutes. I hope that she has decided to stay with mom!

You've Got To Prey... Just To Make It Today

A week ago today, we went on a field trip with a local homeschool group to a wildlife refuge. We were lucky that Pops was working in the same general area and came to visit the animals with us! It was very interesting and there were many animals to see and learn about. I was VERY frustrated with myself when we got to the beginning of the tour - which was walking all the way to the back of the area to the bears - and I tried to take some pictures of grizzly bears that were 8 ft and 10 ft tall standing. Why was THAT frustrating? Because I had removed the memory card from my camera the night before to load my pictures to my computer. Grrrrr - no one to be frustrated with other than myself.

We went on most of the tour before Bump was ready to nurse - which I decided would be best undertaken in the car. After he was done, I looked in the camera bag that I had left in the car and saw that I had a spare memory card tucked inside! Wooo Hooo! So, we headed back to the group and found them looking at the birds of prey...

We then entered an aviary "hut" and the tour guide opened some garage door type windows and we were treated to some lovely Bald Eagles (or as Blossom used to call them... "Balk Eagles"!!) in the enclosure - without chain fencing or the like inhibiting the view or pictures!

Such beautiful birds... I LOVE their white feathers!

But the sibling rivalry with eagles is astounding... and makes me think that my kids' fighting is NOTHING compared to eaglets! This is a juvenile eagle - you can tell by the flecks of color in its head feathers.

This "guy" was pushed out of the nest by sibling eaglets and broke both of its wings on its fall.

This bird cannot fly as its wings are, hmmm... a bit mangled and unable to get into the right position for flying. But it hops around to get where it wants to go and seems quite resourceful!

If you have an opportunity to visit a wildlife refuge - I recommend it wholeheartedly!!