Windows and Birds and Snakes, Oh My!

Two weekends ago, when my husband took the boys to visit their paternal grandparents, I was a whirling dervish of activity, cleaning and sorting and attempting to use the precious time to get things done. Several people on Face book, mentioned that they didn't think cleaning for 7 hours made for a very lovely birthday. I guess I did find myself thinking, "wouldn't it be nice if I could have a weekend to myself to do as I pleased?"

This past weekend was my husband's birthday. Instead of giving him a gift (he told me to wait until the little boys were gone, when I would find shopping easier), it seems he has given me the gift. He, once again, took the boys to my in-laws. Originally, the plan was for him to take ES over to their house because ES is attending a wrestling camp there. However, at some point he decided to take the two little ones along, leaving on Saturday afternoon and returning on Monday.

Another purpose for his visit, included taking our van into the original shop where we had purchased it, in the hopes that they would be able to remove the CD from the CD player (the eject button has failed to work ever since I went away for the women's retreat in February, despite our best efforts). Believe me, I have definitely noticed the decline in books read since losing my CD player in the van. I miss it sorely.

Unfortunately, when they looked at it today, they determined that it is a job which will require more than one day. They will have to remove the entire system and send it off to be tested (to determine what caused the malfunction of the eject button). Alas, I will not be getting the library CD out of the CD player.

I have already renewed the book umpteen times. I did call Recorded Books, Inc., to see if I could purchase the single replacement CD, but they said I would have to go through my library. Thankfully, when I spilled the whole story, the librarian gave me the happy news that it will only cost $6.00. If this had been my library back in DeKalb, where you were only allowed to renew an item twice, I would have already racked up a $6 overdue fee.

The estimated fee for replacing the CD system in the van? $500! No kidding! That is ridiculous. I told hubby that I will put my portable CD player and connecting speakers in the van between the driver and passenger seat. I'm not willing to lose all my opportunities for listening to books on CD in the van, but I'm also not willing to part with $500 to make it more convenient.

Given hubby's description of the weekend, we may have to write out a check for $500 to my in-laws (not that they would accept it). Apparently, hubby's birthday weekend was far from the relaxing weekend I experienced for my birthday (even with the blitz cleaning). The two boys were quite a handful for my husband. Indeed, YS threw his sippy cup and broke a window in the living room. Oy vey! I'm sure Grandpa, in constant pain, managed a smile when they headed home tonight.

Thanks to my own pain, from a backache brought on by a) jumping on the trampoline with the little boys, or b) exercising while they climb all over me, I had the laid-back (no pun intended) weekend I wouldn't have dreamed of giving myself. In fact, my plans had been to go through as many rooms as possible and sort out things to get rid of. Alas, that never happened. At some points, I could barely walk.

My weekend was spent catching up on e-mail and blogs, lying on the couch with my legs raised, reading a book, and ... failing to shop for my husband's birthday gifts. I did make it to Walmart, because we were completely out of water (and our well water is something we still haven't acclimated to). (Ah, memories of my niece, Kirsten, and the song from "Jungle Book," - "I must go to fetch the water, 'til the day that I am grown."), so at this point I have only one gift for him.

My husband is the practical sort. He asks for things like belts, socks, underwear, etc. Unbelievably, from his short 4 item list of suggestions, I was only able to find one of his requested gifts.

Then again, now that he is home, I think he considers the fact that I take care of our boys most of the time to be plenty of a gift. After another invitation for a group reunion, I have been trying to make arrangements to head to DeKalb this coming weekend. He looked at me tonight and said, quite clearly, "You either go and take them with you or you stay. I can't give you another weekend away from those boys."

So, my peaceful weekends of mommy down-time have come to an end. Still, two weekends, so close together, was more than I anticipated or expected. Now, the task will be finding someone who is available to watch my two little boys in DeKalb while I get together with friends at a restaurant ('cause there ain't no way in the world that I would get one word of conversation in if the boys accompany me there!). I think my husband is hoping I find someone because he wants a weekend to himself now.

Tonight, as I was preparing for their return (scrambling to make it look like I had been partially effective this weekend, despite the back) I was standing by the washing machine. When I glanced out the window, I noticed that the nest (in the photo in the last post) was occupied by the momma bird again. I stood there looking at it, thinking "Now momma birdie, did you just come back to sit there because you miss your fledglings? I know how you feel. I'm beginning to miss my little boys, too!"

It seemed unusual for the grown birds to be back (I think I have seen both the momma and the daddy bird), so I tried to look on-line for wisdom in this matter. Here is what Corey Finger from 10000 Birds wrote to me:

"Rarely a pair of robins will reuse a nest, so that might be what is happening here. If you or your husband want to take a look, feel free. One look to see if there are eggs won't hurt. I can't think of any other reason beyond a second nesting attempt that would bring a pair of robins back to the same nest."

I'll be keeping my eye on that nest in the coming days. I don't know if I'll venture propping up a ladder to check for eggs. Although, I'm sure my MS would gladly offer for me to hold him out of the window to gain a better look!

Then, I noticed something in the back yard and thought it might be another turtle (turned out to be a giant overturned leaf). I went outside to check. As I walked out of the door from our garage, I decided to quickly look at four pots where I have been trying to grow plants (ha! YS already dumped one of them). I stepped towards the pots and noticed more ground squirrel holes in the mulch.

Suddenly, I noticed more than holes. There was a snake. a little more than a foot from my ankle. I quickly side-stepped away and the thing remained motionless, with its head perched up looking at me for almost two minutes. Finally, I decided to make a run for my camera (did I really think that snake would still be there, looking like a giant z coming out of the bush area when I returned???). I saw no trace of the snake when I returned (however, this is the same bush area where MS found a snake skin the summer before last).

Now, the thought of my little guys sitting out in the sandbox makes me nervous (it is quite close to those bushes). The snake was thin and had long stripes running down from the head to the tail. I tried to identify it on-line, but am not quite sure. Here is the closest photo, I could come up with:



I think instead of sitting outside, enjoying the day tomorrow, we will go to the library for their summer reading kick-off. The only snakes we will run into there, will be in books. Just the way I like them!