A Sunday Surprise

If you have read any of my previous blogs, you are aware that a) I said my new year's resolution was to blog once a week and b) I love animals.  Well, the new year's resolution kinda got put aside due to a good run of bad luck.  BUT...I'm back and this is about a really cool encounter with one of my favorite animals....hawks.  Around Christmas I wrote about the time we went for a walk in the woods on Christmas Eve and I finally got to take a picture of a hawk up close for the first time.  I thought I was in "hawk" heaven (sorry, couldn't help it).  A few Sundays ago, something happened that would make that time seem like nothing.  Wyatt, Joel (my step dad) and I had gotten up early one Sunday morning to go to Heber Springs to help his brother load some things.  I of course took my camera, just in case.  I never know what the just in case will be, but man am I prepared.  So of course I am always on the look out for hawks.  The kids and I have a joke that I am cursed.  When I have my camera, we don't see anything, and when I don't have it, of course we see miraculous wonders and bazillions of hawks.  I guess this day I happened to get lucky.
On the way back from Heber, the two times we happened to see hawks, I was taking a drink of my delicious gas station cappuccino.  So we laughed and said that I was still cursed.  Then Joel told me that he sees hawks on the walking trail in Conway.  He said he gets pretty close because they are used to people being on the trail and all.  I didn't really think much of it, because when he walks, it's usually at night.  On our way home, we happened to drive by the parking lot to the trail and I spotted something white in the tree.  I asked him to turn around and Wyatt and I hopped out of the truck and saw this hawk (at least I think it's a hawk).  I can't tell you what kind it is, I'm still in the process of learning to identify them.  They can have such color variations that it's really not fair!!

Wyatt and I were so excited.  I told him we were going to see how close we could get.  We walked over a bridge and I snapped another one.

We got almost right under it and I took this.  I was pretty happy!  So Wyatt and walked down the trial just a bit, and got distracted by some robins (I really am a sucker for birds).

It was so cold that it was really puffed up!  So he and I are just walking along and looking at the birds and a squirrel (Joel stayed in the truck, he's a wienie when it comes to cold).  All of the sudden I look down the trail and see this.....

Not the best picture, but you get the idea of our distance.  So of course, we take off towards the hawk.  I'm pretty sure it will fly off at any time.  But it doesn't...

We basically walked right under it, and then crossed another bridge.  That's where I took this picture, directly across the creek.  Then just to see what happened, we crossed back over the bridge and stood right under it!

Yep, it was looking right at us!  Then it did fly off and we went back to occupying ourselves with robins and a pair of mallards in the creek.

He's so pretty!  The female was right behind him.  Wyatt got the camera not long after this and was taking pictures of the ducks.  I noticed the hawk had flown down and was sitting in a bush right along the creek.  It flew down and landed on some ice along the creek and sat there for a minute before flying into the bush again.  I promptly took the camera back from Wyatt and sat down on a rock along the creek, a little ways down from the hawk.

I watched it, watching the creek and it suddenly dawned on me that it was looking for food in the creek.  So I sat there and watched, hoping that it would fly down again.  

Well, it did!

If you look closely, you will see it has a small fish in it's talons that it's putting into it's mouth.  Eley said it was biting the head to kill it (sorry if that was too harsh for you).  Then it put it back in it's talon and took off.

I know this picture is blurry, but I thought it was so cool with the water dripping from it.  It flew to a tree and was happily eating the fish.  Now my life would have been great if that was the end of the story.  I would have left there and been perfectly happy.  But, it wasn't.  We had seen another hawk earlier, farther back off the trail.  The one we watched catch the fish flew back down the trail towards the truck.  We were moseying our way back that way. We heard the hawk with the fish crying out, and all of a sudden, the other hawk took off in that direction.  We hoofed it down that way, thinking there was going to be a fight.  Boy was I was wrong!

We didn't actually see the transfer, but the hawk on the right is the one that caught the fish, and GAVE it to the one on the left.  We aren't sure if this was a mate or what, but they were definitely buds.  They sat there together for a minute, and then the hawk that caught the fish flew off to the top of the tree where we had first spotted it watching the creek.  

I apologize again, not the clearest picture, but OH so cool!  The hawk left behind sat there happily and ate the fish.  

So, it pretty much turned out to be a really awesome adventure at the walking trail.  I was so excited!  

Such a pretty thing!   Well, I may just blog twice this week to make up for lost time!   Seems like nothing much happened and then everything happened!  Anyway, just in case the week gets crazy, have a great week!  Don't forget to look around you!  You never know what you might see....  :)

Poor Pouty Me

     Well, I have to be honest.  I have been pouty all weekend.  Yep, I know I'm way too old to pout, but I am anyway.  When I tell you why, some of you will think I have lost my mind, but that's okay.  But those of you that really know me, won't be surprised. Do any of you realize what was happening exactly a year ago today?  Snow, snow, and more snow.  Today (actually it was the 9th, but it started on a Sunday) a year ago we had a gorgeous white view outside our window.  I should probably give you a little history on my love for snow.  Every since I was little, I have loved snow.  Growing up in Conway, we didn't get it every year, but when we did, I was the happiest girl in the world.  Sometimes it was ice.  I don't like ice, just snow.  I can remember one time when I was middle school aged and we got 11 inches.  I will never forget sitting in our living room and looking out the window watching it snow in the lights on the deck, and walking out in the front yard with my ruler and it almost going all the way down in the snow.  Then, I moved even further south, against my better judgement (he he he) where we get even less snow.
      A few years ago, I decided to use snow to help teach my kids a lesson in faith. When there was a tiny chance of snow in the forecast, I called a meeting with the kids in the living room (Grace said she thought someone had died).  I told them that if something was important to us, it was important to God, no matter how big or small. So I asked them if they really wanted it to snow, and they said yes!  So we prayed for snow, right then and there.  And guess what!  It did snow!  Not a lot, but regardless, it snowed.  It was a great example for my kids to see how prayer works.  We did talk about that if it didn't snow, that God heard us, but it just wasn't the time.  Because sometimes, the answers to our prayers are no.  Believe me, I have prayed for it many times and it didn't happen.  It actually happened two more times that winter, after we had prayed.  Nothing that you could build a snowman with, but it did snow.  So from then on, a snowflake became a symbol of faith to me.  I have one on a charm bracelet to remind me.            
     Fast forward to last Christmas...I got a snowflake necklace from my dad and stepmom.  I put it on that night, and wore it everyday.  So when we got the snow that started a year ago today, it was like God was saying, "Surprise!  You got it before you even asked this time!"  Needless to say, I loved last winter!  It was the first time my kids got to sled, play in the snow, throw snowballs, and build a snowman at our house.  And they got to share it with our friends and family, which was even more special.

All bundled up

Cousin fun

Sledding with the LeSieur girls

More cousin fun

     These are just a few of my snow pictures.  I actually have 6 folders of snow pictures!  I don't want to ever forget it.  Sometimes, I would lay in bed at night and go back through them on my ipad and just smile :)  Such happy memories for all of us.  

     So you have to forgive me that I got a little (okay...a lot) pouty when I saw that it was going to rain tonight, Monday and part of Tuesday.  If it wasn't so warm, it might possibly be snow.  I do have to tell you that I have high hopes for this winter.  The night I got out the old snowflake necklace and put it on for the first time, the next day it snowed (that snow we had for a few hours back the first week of December).  So that combined with the persimmon seed prediction (a shovel) gives me hope.  But even f we don't get any snow, I will be disappointed, but I'll keep on wearing my necklace and having faith.  
Maybe I should get a sun necklace and start praying for a cooler and wetter summer.....

Here are a few "crash" pictures to leave you with to make you smile.

Grace and Carson

Grace

Carson, Tori and Wyatt (part of him anyway)

Natalie

Garrett

Mary Liz and Wyatt

Katie

Ellen

And last but Not least...Nona

Have a great week!!

Fun Memories from the Beach

Tonight on the way to supper, we were discussing the plans for skiing (hopefully) next Christmas.  I was talking to Eley about driving versus flying, where to go, and all that fun stuff.  He asked if we were going to go anywhere this summer.  I told him probably the beach....and silence.  The beach isn't his favorite place to go.  He would much rather spend the summer camping at Lake Greeson or Dierks.  So he was trying to be clever and ask the kids if they liked going to the beach.  Wyatt and Grace were for it, but Garrett said he didn't like to go because he would get sand in his trunks. This led to one of my most favorite memories from the beach.  And I promise it really is true.....


We were hanging out at the beach one day, about mid-afternoon.  Our normal beach routine is to sleep until we want to (my favorite part), get up and eat breakfast, go to the beach and stay until early afternoon, then go back to the condo and wait out the hottest part of the day inside.  Sometimes we head back in the evening for crab catching or just to enjoy the breeze.    We had stayed longer than usual that day, and I don't remember what we were doing that was keeping us there.  Most likely riding the waves or looking for shells.  Anywho, Wyatt had obviously had all the fun he could take, because he fell asleep in the beach chair.

Of course, I thought it was precious and we just went about our beach business.  

Like so...

And so...

After the big kids were tired, we started packing up all of our
 stuff we hauled down to the beach (my least favorite part).  
I must stop here and say that the beach is the one place where
 my kids will take multiple showers a day without being asked.  
They don't like the salt and sand on them.  So when we got back 
to the condo and got our things put away, they all went straight 
to their showers to get cleaned up and changed.  We were 
headed to Lulu's that night in Gulf Shores.  I was waiting
 my turn in the shower, when Wyatt came running into 
the living room, naked as jaybird.
  He hollered "There's a fish in my pants, there's a fish in my pants". 
 Now, for those of you that know Wyatt, you can understand that my
 first thought was that I didn't believe a word he was saying.  
I asked him what in the world he was talking about. 
 He then proceeded to show me the proof, 
as evidenced below:

Yep, that my friends, is the lining of his swim trunks, and yes, that is a dead fish (among other things, sheesh, no wonder they want to shower with all that stuff in their trunks!).  After we picked ourselves up off the floor from laughing, we took a short moment to reflect upon the untimely demise of the poor fish.  It had gotten stuck in his swimsuit and while he was napping, it bit the dust, so to speak.  Aside from feeling sorry for the fish, my question is, how in the world can there be a fish in your swimsuit and you not feel it??  He must have really been tired it all I can say.
Life with my family is NEVER dull :)
R.I.S. dear friend (rest in stink) 
For those of you who REALLY know Wyatt will appreciate that last statement!  


Have a great week!