Bunnies

About a week ago, Jackie saw a bunny sitting in our backyard by the swing.

It was so cute how Jackie just stood there looking and watching that bunny.  The bunny stayed a long, long time.  We didn't think much of it because it was a warm evening and it was sitting in the shade of the swing.

Jackie, loved it.  And watched for the bunny to return constantly.

And return she did.  Last night she got even closer and sat right next to our back porch.  We let Jackie outside to sit on the steps by daddy and watch the bunny.  It was so cute to watch her try to inch closer and closer to the bunny.  Ms. Bunny would hop a few feet away when Jackie got close, but never take off.

Odd.

Even more odd.  She was there and stayed there the entire time that Ethan was mowing the lawn.

Then he saw it.

A little fur-ball sitting in the grass by the slide.

So he got down from the mower and took a closer look.  Sure enough, he saw a little baby bunny.  He investigated further and found the little nest where mama bunny and the babies had been staying.  Right under the slide.

Jackie and Katerina came out to peek at the bunnies.  Kat cared about as much as a 9 month old can care and Jackie said, "ahhhh, cute!" 

Brings me back to two very distinct memories of my childhood and bunnies.




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First story.  Good.

My brother, John, (the creature lover...snakes, frogs, salamanders, anything else slimy or found in a creek...) found a baby bunny that had fallen in our window well.  It was a regular task for him to check the window well for any of the above creatures that may have fallen.  A bunny was a super cool find.

For some reason, my mom was gone.  I don't know if she was coaching volleyball or out for a walk, or just running errands, but in the days before cell phones John decided to call my dad at work to ask if we could keep the bunny.  This was a gamble.  We NEVER called dad at work so we didn't know how he would appreciate us bothering him, BUT when it came to asking for things (cake for breakfast, ice cream while at the grocery store, etc...) dad was the easier target.

It paid off!  He said we could keep it!  John scurried off to get the bunny while I tried to find something temporary to put it in.

John with Bugs

I'm not quite sure what mom's reaction was, but she came home to four very excited kids and a new baby bunny we dubbed "Bugs."  Real original, I know :-)

The next few weeks found us feeding the bunny from a bottle. Really...mom went to the vet and asked what to do, gave us milk and a teeny tiny bottle to feed it.  We played with him as we watched him grow.  Our dachshund at the time, Fritz, caught Bugs once on the butt.  Bugs was fine and we thought it was hilarious that he was bit on the butt. 

Eventually Bugs got to be a really good jumper (imagine that...) and he wouldn't stay in the laundry basket home we created.  It was decided that he should be set free.  So we found a little wooded area around the creek John liked to play in and said our good byes.  I like to think that Bugs lived a happy, full, Rabbit life.

Me with Bugs shortly before we returned him to the wild.

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Story Two.  Not good.

This story won't take too long... But I will say, that had Google been around at the time, a quick search on the smart-phone would have given this story a much better ending.

My best friend just happened to live across my back yard.  I like to think that I could still walk to Jessica's house in the pitch dark missing all the trees because I had memorized the path after so many years...but between the shops and boats and campers our parents have acquired after we left, I would probably struggle.

One day we found a nest.  A cute little group of baby bunnies in her back yard.  We watched all day and mama bunny never came.  Of course we decided they must be abandoned.  Thanks to the recent success of Bugs I told her that we could "save" the bunnies. 

We went to the vet.  Got bunny food and those teeny tiny bottles.  Rescued the bunnies and started working on getting them ready to be set free.  Her mom refused to let us keep them in the house, so we set up their little home in their garage. 

Then my family set out on vacation. 

And a few days later, so did hers...

I will not go any further into our story, but I will say that her parents were very mad at us when they returned.  And I still can't go in their garage without thinking of that smell...

*********************
After searching Google on my smart-phone today we now know that the baby bunnies in our back yard are perfectly cared for, and probably a week or two from being out on their own.  So for the time being, Ethan will not be mowing under the slide and we'll continue to go check on the babies each day while watching for mama bunny in the evenings. 

:-)

Mystery Weekend Top 10

A little change to my Weekly Top 10.  Today it is all about Mystery Weekend.  Because something as awesome as this deserves a post all it's own.

10. Carpool - Thanks to my sister deciding to relocate literally 15 minutes from my driveway (if all the red lights are hit, which happens way more often than hitting all green...) we were able to drive together to Burlington to meet mom and learning our destination.  She requested that we be there by 7:00 on Wednesday night.  The trip found us brainstorming ideas on where we thought we were going and what she had planned that night.  We decided on the monthly Bunko night and a trip somewhere in Missouri. 

9. We were WRONG! - Oh wow, were we wrong.  Mom decided to leave Wednesday night in order to break up the trip a little.  We would be staying in Kansas City with my brother and then heading off in the morning for...

MALL OF AMERICA!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mall_of_America#mediaviewer/File:Schriftzug_moa.jpg

8. Seven Hours - was the time it took us to reach Minneapolis.  We weren't rushed to get there, we had two whole days to spend at the mall.  We stopped to go to the bathroom whenever we wanted, ate when we were hungry and enjoyed the time in the car.

7. Souvenirs - Each Mystery trip we try to get some piece of memorabilia from that city.  The last couple times have found us getting coffee mugs of some sort.  I think this is a tradition that is going to stick. 

6. Mall of America HOLLA! - We came with one purpose.  To shop.  And shop we did.  We were all the mall from 11 AM on Thursday until 8 PM.  (We did stop to eat twice).  The family we sat next to on the shuttle to the mall Friday morning called us "Professionals."  We were there again Friday from 10AM until 3PM. 

PS... We still didn't make it to all parts of the mall.  It is HUGE people.  And they are adding on more!  Craziness!!

5.  Think Happy :)

4. Coach - So my dad has this thing about Coach purses and the ladies in his life.  It all started quite a few years ago, when a lady at work had been to the Coach Outlet in Branson.  She brought back a bunch of bags and dad got each one of us one.  He loved the feeling of spoiling us with something we would never buy on our own.  We loved that he did that for us (something so out of the blue).  Since then he's bought different pieces from Coach at different times.  He shocked us again this trip when he said he would give us some "fun money" to get something.  Totally unexpected.  And the best way we started our day on Friday.  The sales ladies were AWESOME and made the hole experience worth it.  We took a selfie to celebrate.  Or is it an Us-ie? 

3. Recommendations - We love to ask for recommendations on what to do, where to eat, and what to order.  The people in Minnesota know how to answer.  (At least all the ones we asked).  The Catholic Church recommended to us was so welcoming and friendly.  Seriously.  They started Mass with having everyone introduce themselves to someone new.  So cool!  The sales lady we asked for a recommendation on where to eat sent us to Pizza Luce.  Oh wow, was she right.  I feel sad when I think that we could have missed out on this super yummy place.  And our ROCKING AWESOME waitress (who is also a Special Education teacher during the school year...bonus!) helped make our meal so great by suggesting spectacular items for each course.

Drinks.

Salad.

Pizza.  Seriously.  So good.

Dessert. 

Happy.

2. Reactions - I will never get tired of telling people about Mystery Weekend.  To see their amazement and listen to them gush about how awesome it is just makes me smile from ear to ear. 

1.  My Support System at home - There is no way Mystery Weekend would happen if I didn't have some amazing people to help out.  Ethan is such an awesome dad and the girls love him so much.  I never have to worry about them.  I have visions of my childhood and how much fun we had with our dad when mom went out of town.  (Not that we didn't love having mom around), but just "dad" time was special.  I know our kids will feel the same way. 

 
And my in-laws who graciously take the girls during the day when Ethan has to work.  Jackie had been saying all week that she wanted to go see "Papa and Gama"  and even today packed her little bag and said she was going bye bye to see Papa. 

Every year Mystery Weekend is one of the highlights of the summer.  And I know that this trip will be one for the record books.  Until next year...

Weekly Top 10

I like to take ideas that other people create, tweak them just a bit, and then pass it off as a cool "new" thing.

What???

I'm a teacher.  It's what we do.

I always give due credit to where the ideas come from.

As the title suggests the idea comes from Letterman's "Top 10" segment.

My tweak is that it is all about us here at Weber Haus.  What we did, who we are, and what took place around our not-so-picture-perfect home.

My purpose of this is twofold.  1:  I want to get more consistent with my blogging.  This is probably one of the only records my kids will have of their childhood.  This and an unorganized file of a bazillion pictures.  I'm not that great at all the milestone charting and scrapbooking stuff.  2:  I want this to be a real picture of what goes on here.  I feel like so many times what we (society...) post online is not a true representation of ourselves or our home.  We put out this picture perfect, all smiles type of life.  That's not reality.  So while much of the weekly top 10 will be some of my favorite things, I hope that it also paints a true, honest picture of how cool we are...because of our imperfections and unfolded laundry.

So here we go.  My first "Top 10"

*These are in no particular order, just when I thought about them at the time.

**This is long.  No apologies.


10 - Rock.  When we first moved in to our house over two and a half years ago, my parents offered to buy us a housewarming gift.  They wanted to get us one of those cool rocks with our last name chiseled out of it.  Cool!  I love those rocks.  We wanted to wait until our landscaping was finished before getting it so we would know right where we wanted to put it.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, found here, it took us a few years to get that done.  Ethan and I planned a day to travel to the town of Larned to pick it up.  We arranged for my sister to watch the girls while we headed out for a kid-free day.   We are SUPER happy with the way the rock turned out and would recommend the guy to anyone, so fee free to ask.

See our lovely landscaping... That pretty grass-like stuff that surrounds the rock.  Want some??? Super easy to get and low maintenance.  They're weeds.  Ugh!

9 - Cooler days.  Oh my this is awesome!  Thanks to the Polar Vortex in July I got to bust out the leggings and shirts with sleeves.  (Seriously...sleeves choke me in the summer.  I don't wear them.  It's tank tops and cut-offs all summer long!)  This also meant spending a couple of days inside, because along with the cooler air came a steady drizzle of rain off and on for the majority of two days.  Life at home with two little one shoots up to cabin fever mode REALLY fast.  That meant breaking one of the major rules of summer at Weber Haus.  NO OVEN.  Thanks to 68 degree days we got to do some baking!  Banana bread on Wednesday...bad move on my part.  I love banana bread (I think I ate the first loaf before it completely cooled off) and it just added to the mess and dishes in the kitchen.  And Jackie needed a second outfit.  But hey...the house smelled like fall and I was in leggings!    We also made some cookies.  It takes every single ounce of my attention to keep my two-year-old out of the uncooked batter before getting all the ingredients in.  She then enjoys the spatula while I scoop out yummy cookies onto the baking sheet.  Again, I ate too many and it made a mess.  BUT it kept us busy for a portion of the day.

 
8 - Folding Laundry.  I, like most mom's I have ever met, hate, Hate, HATE folding laundry.  I can wash and dry it fine, but when it comes to folding it... Well, I usually have to be prodded by my hubby saying he is out of boxers...  Finally on Friday I gave in and put in a movie for the girls to watch so they would be distracted so I could fold the 5 loads of laundry.

 

I really, really wish my girls were in to princesses, Lion King, or any other animated form of entertainment.  That's Jackie in the chair and Kat sitting on the floor fully engrossed in movies of themselves.  Oh well...the laundry got folded.  And put away!

7 - Morning Walks.  We try to take a morning walk each day.  I love it.  Jackie... gets bored.  The only way I can keep her going is "the animals."  The walk is divided into four legs; duckies, deer, horses, and bunnies.  The Duckies are usually a given, and when we see them we have to get as close as possible.  Jackie says "hi duckies" and "bye duckies" and we move on.  The deer are a constant. Every single day they are there.  They are fake.  She loves them and says "hi" and "bye" just the same.  The horses are usually "hiding" but sometimes we get to see them.   The bunnies are my lie to get her to last a little longer.  She saw a bunny in our yard one night and looks for them constantly.  I tell her to look at the end of the last cul-de-sac on our walk.  Then we head home.  This is the extent of the exercise I get.  I will say what I have to.

 
6 - Nap time.  Enough said.

5 - We are working on cutting out little Katerina's morning nap, and what I have found is she will sneak a quick little 10 minute snooze on our way to or from the park, pool, or store.  Basically whenever we are in the car.  That usually gets her to 1:00 when I can put her down for at least an hour and a half (and always hoping for 2).  However, if we don't go anywhere...like during the polar vortex...she hits a wall about Noon.

See that shirt I am wearing.  I think it's from high school, maybe middle school.  Cut off sleeves.  I'm rockin' it, don't ya think?! :o)

I even tried sitting her on the floor to get her to stay awake.  Yeah... it didn't work.

4.  The Park.  I have attempted to take the girls to the, very cool, Sedgwick County Park.  Lots of fun places to play, lots of shade...but LOTS of people.  I have discovered that small town parks are the way to go.  Few people and fun toys to play on.  The girls love it, it is easier than trying to wrangle them both at the pool, and it tires them out for a good afternoon nap (refer to number 6).

3.  The Pool.  Sundays have become the pool day for us.  Why?  There are two of us for the two of them, and if we go to early Mass and then head to the pool after, the girls pretty much get the pool to themselves.  No pool pictures.  Obviously.  (Not Obvious?  Try taking a two-year-old fish and an 8-month-old kind of fish and getting pictures with your smart-phone.  Yeah, not happening.)

2. Katerina is Crawling - I am pretty sure this is good news.  At least I feel like I'm supposed to think it's good news...  However, she doesn't like it.  She wants to be walking, but lacks the balance and strength to do so. So she crawls and gets in to things, but is whining and crying half the time because she doesn't like it.  Jackie is screaming the other half of the time because Kat just touched her blankie.  Oh, Lord it's going to be fun watching them fight for toys...  Eh...I'll just put in their movies and they can sit and watch TV all day.  Kidding.  Kind of...

That is were she ended up.  Got stuck, then got mad.  We took a picture before helping her.  Naturally.


1. Peaches - Two years ago we planted trees.  Two apple trees and one peach.  To be honest, I was REALLY doubtful of the peach tree.  We were in our second summer of record heat and drought and I just didn't see it happening.  Well, I have been proven wrong!  And I've never been happier.  This year we got 8 whole peaches on our peach tree...well, 7.  One fell off :(

Tonight the girls enjoyed the "fruits of our labor."  Those peaches were SO YUMMY, I suggested we get another tree so we can have more! 

Stop by next week (hopefully) for another Top 10!

Countdown

The countdown is getting closer...

5 days...

and the 5th annual "Mystery Weekend" will be here.

I can't believe this will be the 5th year!

My wonderful, creative, and super-cool mother came up with this awesome way for she, my sister, and me to get together for some "girl time" each year.

She saves her pennies, literally, she saves her coins all year long to help with the cost of gas.

She picks a destination.

Plans some activities and some time to shop.

And DOESN'T TELL US A THING until we are in the car and driving towards our destination.

And in case you were just thinking to yourself...

Wow, she's really cool...  
That's such a neat idea...  
I wish my mom was as cool as her...

You're right
It is an awesome idea.
And she is mine, you can't have her! :-)

This year I have been ready and waiting for our mystery trip for a long time.

I can no longer "online window shop" because I know every store's items by heart.

My wardrobe is in desperate need of updating.  (Seriously...I took a BAG FULL of clothes to one of those second-hand stores to get a little extra cash.  They bought one item.  I got a dollar.)

And I am in desperate need of some sleep.  This summer has been rough on me.  Our two year old has decided that sleeping all night isn't as great as it was for the first two years of her life.  Now she gets up and SCREAMS at her door (we put a child lock on the inside so she can't get out and come into our room...).  This happens once a night, on a good night.  Our almost 9 month old sleeps pretty much 8 hours straight, but that stupid pacifier falls out and she needs it shoved placed back in her mouth a couple times, and will want to eat a bottle anytime from 4AM to 6AM.

Last night was probably the best night sleep I have gotten all summer.  I still got up twice with kids and took 3 Benadryl to make it happen.

With Mystery Weekend, the only thing I have to worry about waking me up is my mother's snoring, and I'm packing earplugs.

Good shopping, good sleep, good food, great company and super memories to make along the way.

5 more days!