A Sunday Morning Surprise

I love having Bantam hens around the farm.  They are SO cute!  We have a Bantam (meaning SMALLER) hen on the farm currently - her name is Molly!  She's VERY cute!  She came to live with us back in the fall.  She found a friend in Reuben the rooster.  He's a very handsome guy and easy to get along with.

The only BAD thing about Bantam hens is this.....



Molly the Banty hen and one of her brand new babies


I looked out the laundry room window this morning to see Molly with EIGHT of these!!!!!  It certainly WAS a Sunday morning surprise!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to those in blogland.  It seems like time goes so very quickly and other things take priority over blogging.

2011 ended with a bit of a flop in that I had a pretty awful flu through Christmas and the holidays and wasn't feeling too good.  Thankfully I'm on the mend now with just a residual cough.  My 82-year-old Dad has the flu now, though, so hopefully he will be able to fend it off - I'll be keeping a close eye on him.

We did have a wonderful Christmas dinner on Christmas day at my sister, Karen and her hubby Allen's house.  It was really wonderful to enjoy Christmas dinner with family even though I was feeling under the weather.  A very special time, for sure.  Karen, your house looked beautiful and the dinner was AWESOME!  Thank you for having all of us and I'm sorry that it's so much work and stress for the hostess.

Here's hoping that 2012 is kind to everyone. It's like a clean slate and a fresh start, isn't it? 

I'm off tonight to join one of my "other" daughters (Connie's daughter, Tianna) in picking out her wedding dress for an upcoming August 2012 wedding!!  How exciting!!!

Bird count: 2 Greys, 4 Quakers plus 2 foster Quakers plus visiting Lucy Quaker plus 2 Society Finches

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, whether your children are near or far, or here on earth or up in heaven. I have two babies in heaven (as well as my two down here on earth) and today I am reminded of them more than any other day of the year. I am also blessed to be mom to many feathered and furry children.

I hope you had a wonderful day. I sure did! I had quite possibly THE best Mother's Day. EVER. REALLY. I will post about it when I have more time.

For now, Happy Mother's Day to all moms and a special thanks to my friend, Connie, who made my Mother's Day so special.

Happy Birthday Connie!

My dear friend, Connie has a birthday today!  Happy Birthday, my dear!!!!  She also just became a Grandma on Saturday!!  Hard to believe she can be 29 AGAIN!  LOL!

Happy Birthday!!!!!  You deserve the very best that life has to offer!

By the way, this photo of Connie and her DH is a couple of years old (I don't really have a current one) - she looks MUCH older now and she just became a Grandma on Saturday, May 1!!!!  Just kidding, dear!!!!  LOL!!!  But congrats to Connie & her DH on the safe arrival of their new grandbaby, Jace James.  Parents JJ and Karisa are so proud and doing an awesome job as new parents.  I will be "Oma Audrey" - we are all as proud as can be!!!

MOVING ON....

A lot has happened since my last post.....  It seems that life is moving on.

Our foster bird, Lucy, has
returned to her mom after
three years

My long-term foster bird, Lucy, has returned to her mom.  I knew from the moment she came here (in November of 2007) that she would return to her mom at some point.  Lucy was with us for one month short of three years.  That's a long time....a long time to get attached to a sweet little green face and body and adorable chatter.  We miss you, Lucy!  We all came to love you.  I did my job and now she is where she should be.  That doesn't mean that it wasn't difficult to give her back.  I spent an entire half day crying when I was packing up her things.  Most people would think I'm nuts, I'm sure, but that's how I am.  I see, I love, I get attached, I cry.  Ask anyone who knows me - Connie, Robin, Jenny, Lorraine?  Just ask them!

 I had my (hopefully) final reconstructive surgery this past Monday.  The hospital experience was great, as usual.  The Abbotsford Regional Hospital is wonderful - at least all MY experiences have been (and I had a few TOO many experiences, in my opinion).  I'm so grateful that we live so close to such a great hospital where we get such great care.  My surgeon, Dr. Brown, is great - I highly recommend him and he is outstanding in his field.  Recovery is going well, but it seems that each time I have anaesthetic, it knocks me down for a bit longer.  I don't get sick or anything, just VERY tired.  I guess that's normal, in a way, but frustrating when you want to be up and doing everything.  It's difficult to just lay on the couch and rest as the body heals.  I still have the bandages on - will until Tuesday.  Can't shower until then, either - YUCK!  :-)  I saw the surgeon on Thursday and he said that things are looking good and healing nicely.  What more can I ask for?  This is the way I can move on from breast cancer.  My body will be somewhat complete again, even if things aren't as they were originally and I have some saline implants where my real breasts used to be - at least they won't try to kill me!  LOL!  And, for the record, they are a fair bit smaller than what I was expecting, but that's OK!!  Many thanks to DH for his love, support and help while I'm down and unable to fulfill all my duties as a wife/mom/whatever.  I want to thank my friend Lorraine for getting up at 4:30 a.m. so she could be here to drive me to the hospital for my surgery and for being there for me.  Thanks also to my sister, Karen, who was also there while I went "under the knife", and then drove me home.  Then, my dear friend, Connie, who was there while I was recovering, then brought dinner over later for our family.  Thank you to all of you.  I am so blessed.

And so, life goes on.  As I think about life going on, I am reminded, at this time of year of an anniversary coming up.  November 14 will mark one year since my friend, Wanda, died of her cancer.  Wanda was a wonderful lady, so full of life and optimism.  She loved her family, she loved her birds, she loved her friends, she loved life!  What a special lady she was, and what a lucky person I was, to have known her.  I miss you, Wanda.  I miss your contagious smile and positive attitude.  You were a blessing to me and I wish we'd have been able to spend more time together.

As life goes on, I encourage you to enjoy each and every day.  Each and every moment.  For every moment is a gift and that's why it's called the 'present'.  A cliche, for sure, but very true.

Foster Birds, Friends, and Summer Gardens...

Amos & Andy (Pacific Parrotlets), current foster birds

They are SO cute!!!


Right now I am fostering two wee parrotlets.  Parrotlets are tiny little things - about half the size of a lovebird.  To look at them, they seem small, but generally Parrotlets think they are the size of a Macaw!  These two are just so cute and I'm so enjoying having them!!!

Had a busy day today.  Took DD to soccer camp for 9 a.m., had coffee with a friend whom I haven't seen in about 10 years, took my Dad to Tim's for his soup and coffee, then came home and made lunch for ds and I.  We had yummy black forest ham sandwiches with lettuce from OUR OWN GARDEN, tomato, cheese and mustard and mayo!  Yumm-o!!!  How nice it is to be able to pick fresh things from our garden.  Not a thing that I'm used to.  It's beyond description knowing that there are no sprays or nasty things on whatever comes from our place. After lunch we made smoothies with our new "Bullet" food processor.  Wow, what a little machine that is!!  It makes short work of any blending/mixing jobs.  Mmmmmm, those smoothies were yummy!  Picked dd up @ 3 p.m. with a yummy sandwich and a smoothie for her.  She was glad for the nice cold smoothie and the sandwich didn't last very long!

Speaking of the garden, I have several tomato plants that are in bloom.  They were set back by a REALLY cool June (we jokingly call it our JUNE-uary!), so hopefully they are just delayed and the tomatoes will be fine.  I have gathered a few strawberries from plants that I planted quite late.  That's OK, it's just nice to taste a few.  We also had a cucumber from my single plant last night with dinner.  It was very good.  There are a few more cukes coming, but the plant also got set back from the cooler weather we had when it was first planted.

Can't believe it's the 21st of July already!  The kids have been out of school for almost a month - it's just gone so fast!

Connie and I did a bit of shopping yesterday and then she bought me lunch in Fort Langley.  My windshield was being repaired and Connie picked me up from the place that was fixing it.  We had a lovely few hours together - makes me realize how much I miss her.  Our lives just seem busy and we don't get together as much as we'd like.  :-|
We are enjoying some absolutely gorgeous weather here on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada this week.  It's absolutely gorgeous.  Not so hot that you feel sick, but just nice.....  :-)  :-)


July 21, 2010 - a look out my back door

Here is a look out our back door today....

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Love,