Some bird pics from the new camera...

The Five-Year Cure

When a person has battled cancer and has gone cancer-free for five years, the doctors say "you're cured".

I have a theory that all life's traumatic events also have a five-year cure rate.

When my head-on car collision occured back in 1998 I wondered if I would ever learn to love driving again. In 2003 (five years after the wreck) I found that, finally, I did once again love to drive for hours and hours.

John had two layoffs in quick succession, one lasting almost a year. He has one more year to go for a complete cure. But he's getting there.

Something I just realized this year, for Steve who was extremely traumatized after the shooting death of a classmate (November 2002 - his 4th grade year), it has now been over five years since this terrible event and I am almost convinced that Steve has been "cured" from his heartache. This 9th grade year for him, if I could describe it in one word, "flight". He's taken off. He's on his way. He's a young man with aspirations, amazing abilities, and just plain awesome-ness. He's earned some respect as a performer, singer and friend. He's managed to dig himself out of a grade snafu and even enjoy some of his core classes.

Is he cured? Perhaps. Will he ever forget his friend? No, never.

Walking Mary

I took a walk from 6am to 7am this morning. The sky was just getting a hint of light when I left the house, and when I returned the sun was about to come up. It was a bit chilly outside and my cheeks were very cold.

As I was heading back to the house I walked by a field that had just a shadow of fog. There was a herd of deer, numbering about 10-12 in the field eating grass. They were backlit by the eastern sky. Can you picture it? It was just lovely.

But it got me thinking. I remembered back to my teen years, and an unknown lady who we saw nearly every day walking down a busy main thoroughfare in my city. We just called her "Walking Mary" since we didn't know her. She must have walked all day long, or at least a good many hours each day.

As I walked this morning on the new 4-lane road that cuts through farmland, but will someday be crowded by gas stations, car dealerships and tanning salons I wondered if I would still be walking this same 4-lane road twenty years from now, and in my mind still seeing the farmland, the watchful deer, and remembering the sweet sounds of spring birds.

I wonder if Walking Mary saw Noland Road the way it used to be.

UPS where are you?

After getting the used camera of my dreams, a second hand older model rebel, I am now anxiously awaiting the cheap-o zoom lens I found on Ebay. Scheduled for delivery today, but still not here. But after checking the UPS site I have high hopes for some lovely outdoor bird photography tomorrow! The weather is supposed to be lovely!

Package Progress
Location_______________Date____Time _____ Description
KANSAS CITY,KS, US ___04/04/2008 _9:06 A.M. __OUT FOR DELIVERY

My lens has really travelled!

04/04/2008
12:09 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN


LENEXA,KS, US
04/03/2008
11:41 P.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
04/03/2008
1:33 P.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN

EARTH CITY,MO, US
04/03/2008
9:31 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
EARTH CITY,MO, US
04/02/2008
7:09 P.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN


DORAVILLE,GA, US
04/02/2008
10:49 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
04/02/2008
9:55 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN


JACKSONVILLE,FL, US
04/02/2008
1:57 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
JACKSONVILLE,FL, US
04/01/2008
3:01 P.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN

MIAMI,FL, US
03/31/2008
9:35 P.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
03/31/2008
7:30 P.M.
ORIGIN SCAN
03/31/2008
5:15 P.M.
PICKUP SCAN
US
03/31/2008
9:50 A.M.
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

blog challenge - $50000 question.

Congratulations! You've won 50,000!

Oh, but there's a catch.

You must spend every penny of it within 2 days.

What do you buy?

Here it is...... 1972 Ford Mustang Grande, with hardtop, color ginger.

Happy Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! This Easter will be with just us four. This will be the first time in 18 years that has happened. I think it will be fun, but I sure miss the old Easter egg hunts with the little ones and all the little cousins.

In NCAA news, my bracket is looking horrible. Although I did pick KU to win it all. (crazy from a mizzou fan, no?). But although most of my first round picks were good, many of my second round choices now have a big huge "X" through them.

I made waffle iron cookies last night. Chocolate and then sprinkled with powdered sugar. They were GOOD. I heard about them somewhere and found the recipe on the 'net. I managed to ride my bike yesterday afternoon too and do a chest/arm workout.

John is taking care of our dinner today. He went to the store yesterday and got the goodies. He also got some jelly beans and things so we would get our Easter candy fix. I think the plan is for ham and mashed potatoes. The kids have to be at church at 9am to practice for the 11am service. I should get done working at 1 so that is probably when we'll have dinner. Then we might watch a movie. They rented a couple.

In other news, John spent most of our tax refund on getting a bass! His plan is to learn it, so he won't be the only one in the family to not play anything. Pretty exciting. It's a pretty little guitar.

And I didn't think so, but I did have enough stashed away for a camera upgrade! Yay! It's just an old used canon rebel 6.3 mp. Nothing earth-shaking. I was shopping first for the nikon d40, but that was much more. Then I started looking at olympus evolt older model, and it was about the same. Then I looked at old canons and they must be a lot more common because they were about $100 less than the other ones! Now I just have to save up $99 for a zoom lens.

More squaw creek on Sunday March 9th.

Back to Squaw Creek again. This time I dragged the family along. I promised the kids this was the last, the very last time I would force them to go along on a bird watching outing. I think they were impressed though. When you're talking about almost 1/2 a million birds, it's hard not to be impressed. Here are some of the best shots of the day including a better shot of a bald eagle sitting on the ice. I also got a nice shot of a juvenile bald eagle as it flew right over our car. Did you know it takes a bald eagle 4 years to get its beautiful black and white coloring?

Squaw Creek on Saturday (3/1)

Oh what a WONDERFUL day....

You could feel the heat in the south wind. You could feel the chill coming up off of the ice. But oh, the combination of hot/cold/blue sky and fresh air was just what I needed!

Here are some pictures

trumpeter swans

common goldeneye in flight (duck)

i'm speechless

wish I could recreate the sound
snow geese
another common goldeneye
this is a bad picture of a bald eagle that was flying
in for dinner as I was driving out.

My house is so damn loud! And yes, I love it that way....

What's Annette ranting about now you ask? Not a rant. I swear. Walk into my house almost any evening and you will hear LOUD stuff. Music, IPOD, piano, electric guitar, and cat yowling all at once. Oh, you might hear me singing too, but that can be frightening, so...let's talk about cool sounds, not geek sounds.

Steve's and I went to Vintage Stock tonight and he picked up a Ramone's CD. So that was going full blast for awhile. Then Jordan had some Avenue Q blasting and Steve moved downstairs to play some Green Day on his electric guitar. Fireball just thinks we're all nuts I think. I love all the racket.

Anyway, back to my story. Ummm Yessss I was going to tell a story. Steve has been under a LOT of pressure this week and actually been forgetting to breathe. Yes, it happens to all of us I think. He felt like his heart was having a seizure. So, we thought SEIZURE OF LIFE was a good title for a rock and roll song. John is working on the lyrics. It'll be interesting to see what he comes up with.

And, just 'cause i know you miss him, here he is --
Fireball, a.k.a. Lion-O a.k.a. Sofa King

Feb 15th - Dad gets to go HOME!!!

Finally after 17 days, Dad got to go home from rehab on Feb 15th. YAY! Steve and I went over to help out that day. Here are some pictures.

Dad sitting in his wheelchair, until given the go-ahead!

Dad and Steve reviewing Steve's script for the spring play

2nd floor elevator

Down on the first floor, ready to walk on out!

Getting set up in his chair, Dad gets love and kisses from Missy.

Annette cuts off those silly wristbands!

Steve ponders life as a pig. (Grandpa is part pig now for real, with his replacement "porcine" valve)

Mom supervises kitchen clean-up

Kelly's blog challenge

Here's this week's challenge:You have to move. You have two choices: 1. A farm house in the middle of the field. Your closest neighbors/grocery/etc are miles away. 2. A big city apartment in a high rise. Yep, you still have your kids. Which is it and why?

MY CHOICE:
Definitely the farm.

Here are my pros and cons listed in "an organized fashion"

CONS:

• Planning trips to the grocery store, library, etc. I'm only a few blocks from the store now, and the distance can be walked.
• Transportation delays. If a kid wants to have a friend over, or go over to a friend's house, it would be a major undertaking.
• Shopping woes. I guess I'd have to do a lot more on-line shopping.

PROS:

• Birdies, birdies and more birdies.
• I could have an Irish Setter like I want.
• Peace and quiet.
• Independence, self-reliance would be required.
• Starry nights.
• No impulse buying (except for the on-line kind!).

February Birds

Its SPRING (for some of the birds anyway). I've been spending time at a local park off the beaten path.

YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER:

Today I got some HOPE that spring is around the corner. I saw the Yellow-rumped Warbler. I only got a picture of the female, but I have a picture of a male from last year. There were a few of them at the park today. I also added some other birds that I got pictures of this month.

Male:

Female:

Tufted Titmouse:

Northern Flicker:

Juvenile Red-Headed Woodpecker:

Brown Creeper:

A month of updates

Wooooah Nellie. Has it been a month since I posted? A lot has been happening and here's the run-down.

• Dad's surgery. If you did not know my dad had some major heart surgery last week. Very serious stuff. Fast forward to today and he sounds pretty good. He's on a ton of meds and today they are trying a new insulin dose since his blood sugar seems to be out of whack. BUT, he is up, walking the halls, enjoying visitors and his many piggie companions (yes, dad is a pig fanatic and he now has several new additions to the pig family, especially the pig valve now residing in his own heart!). "so far so good" was the mantra of the surgery waiting room, and I suspect will be our continued motto as dad recovers.
  
  A Day After Surgery Story: About 9 am the day after the surgery (he was still on the ventilator and couldn't talk) I started telling Dad about how nice it was weather-wise when he got to the hospital, and then told him about the white out snowstorm that happened during the day, and how the temperature dropped down to 10, blah-blah-blah. His response? Making the little circular motion with his right index finger to indicate "big whoop". :-) So, of course when I told mom about that, I said, well, we know his sense of humor is intact!
  
  Tuesday night, the night of his surgery, there was a code blue in the ICU that we heard while standing in the cafeteria line, and we all looked at each other saying "no, dad's not in ICU quite yet, so it can't be him". It wasn't. The brother of the guy was in the cafeteria line behind us and we found out later after we moved up to the ICU waiting room it was a 28 year old young man, never sick in his life, and died of bacterial pneumonia. It was very, very sad.
• In other family news, Steve's gerbil died sometime during the night Tuesday. We have just been discussing his age lately, and Tuesday night I was telling our family friend Kelly about him and how he was almost 5 years old which is ANCIENT for a gerbil. So, not unexpected. He is in a little wooden box in the garage and the boys are going to take care of him later.
• Training is going fine.
• Our little finch kingdom in the backyard is something to see! John wishes for a cardinal or a blue jay, but we don't seem to get any. The various finches though are really pretty.
• We are considering getting a dog.
• The superbowl was FUN! I don't remember having that much fun watching a superbowl for a long time.
• We watched Ratatouille yesterday afternoon, great movie. I loved it!

Pileated Woodpecker

Yup, I saw two, not one but TWO! My pictures aren't the best, but that doesn't lessen the thrill for me at all! We also saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk. He posed for a bit, then flew off. Some other birds shown below.

Nearly as large as a crow, the Pileated Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in most of North America. Its loud ringing calls and huge, rectangular excavations in dead trees announce its presence in forests across the continent.

Pileated Woodpecker, used to be rare,

but these guys are making a comeback

and I suspect moving their range northward,

as many other birds are doing.

Pileated Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker
Red-Bellied Woodpecker

American Tree Sparrow

(a winter only sparrow)

Sharp-shinned hawk

(similar to Cooper's Hawk)

Sharp-shinned hawk

Black-capped Chickadee

Hiking Kansas City - Return of a Legendary Book....

IT REALLY HAPPENED! The co-authors finally after 6 years published a new version of my all time favorite book "Hiking Kansas City". I have such fond memories of taking the kids on little day trips when they were younger, even in a stroller! The previous 2 versions of this book helped me plan, envision, dream and have giant adventures on a small scale. My previous versions have many little notes inside, records of hikes with one or both of my own children, and sometimes we added to the mix with childhood friends or family members. The first hike I took using this book as a guide was the October when Jordan went to kindergarten, and Steven and I took one of the hikes in the book. I still remember it like yesterday.

This 2007 version jumped off the shelf at Borders right into my eager hand! As I paged through this quote in the back caught my eye. It speaks my language.

Afoot and light-hearted,
I take to the open road,
Healthy, free,
the world before me,
The long brown path before me,
leading wherever I choose.
...Walt Whitman