They are here!

Wow, didn't realize it has been that long since I posted!  But appropriately enough, I am posting photos of the little tiny cardinals that hatched sometime over the last few days...I think there are 2. The previous post was their mother sitting on her eggs..I held the camera up above my head to take the pictures as I tried not to disturb the nest too much.

The second picture shows their unopened eyes really well. The parents were in a nearby tree letting me know full well they were not happy I was so close to their children!  I didn't water that plant and went back inside as soon as I was done watering the rest.

I was suppose to work all weekend but was having systems issues today so got to watch Olympics instead. You know it is funny when Michael Phelps did not metal last night when Lochte did I told hub that Phelps probably didn't think he needed to practice much and sure enough the commentators earlier said just that! He had not trained very much for these Olympics...and those who were in the last one..trained extra hard so that they wouldn't experience a repeat of the last games!

I may have to serve jury duty tomorrow.  I called the phone number and alas I do need to show up. So we'll see what happens. Guess I'll have to dress business casual...including a bra. ;-)  I'm going to make sure I either wear a few layers or bring a sweater or jacket. Last time I was sitting waiting it got very cold from the air conditioning.

Sort of hope I do not get picked as it is really busy at work with the mortgage rates so low.Well back to the Olympics...can't stop humming the theme song in my head!

Early Bird..literally

I got up a little earlier today so that I had some time to water my balcony garden..fingers crossed two more cantaloupe will make it. At the risk of sounding corny....I think that sometimes we are given little pleasures from God because he knows what we like. We just have to recognize them as such.

Remember when I was so enthralled with the little birds that had a nest tucked inside my zucchini planter barrel?  And the day I went to finally try to take a picture before they all flew ?...and they were already gone?

Well I happened to notice the other day what looked like the makings of a bird's nest starting in one of my hanging flowers right at eye level.  I was gitty with anticipation that there may be another nest I can watch progress from empty to eggs, to tiny birds (possibly)...to empty again.  This time I caught the early bird!! I was out there watering and glanced over at the hanging flowers that I knew had a nest in it and there she was, a female cardinal...she didn't move at all, trying to be inconspicuous for sure. But I saw her and a big grin came across my face.  I noticed a male cardinal in a tree nearby as well so based on that and the google images I looked up for cardinals, she is a female cardinal tending to her nest.  I am guessing she is in the process of laying her eggs, otherwise I am not so sure she would have been that bold to not budge.

See her?.... She is smack center where all 4 strands start to come together. Her beak is orange and she is sitting so as to see a side view of her (beak facing left). I took this photo inside the screen door while I was hiding behind the wall. 

I think it is so cool that this is all going to be at eye level.  Of course I did not bother trying to water that plant today, but if I see the nest empty later on this evening before sundown I will try to water it a little. With the temperatures getting up to the 90's, can't let the watering go more than a day or so.

Well I am going to start getting to work now.  But what a nice way to start my Friday. :)

finally...

We finally got a little bit of rain here in Central Texas and believe it or not it is down to 71 degrees right now, although a humid 71 degrees!  Funny how you can still sweat even though it really is a perfect temperature outside.  Of course it isn't 71 degrees in here, even though we have the windows and doors open.  Let me go look....yup it is 84 inside...so probably going to need the A/C again tonight mostly to get rid of the humidity.

There is a chance of rain the rest of this week too. Maybe some of the back yard will turn green again.
I'll settle for some of the cracked earth filling in!  Yes it is that bad!

I want to thank my oldest for writing a comment here on my blog! :)  It let's me know somebody is actually reading this thing.  Not that it really matters I guess, as it is for my own amusement and a way to mark down this time approaching the true empty nest period of my life. 

 That cantaloupe that I picked last week I shared with my folks the other evening. It was good!  I actually have two more than are not ready yet. It will be nice if I can harvest 3 on my first attempt!  The zucchini still just have a bunch of leaves and very little flowers, and No zucchini, so still waiting to see what happens with that plant.

Going to hit the sack as I got up early today and am getting tired. 

Happy 4th of July!

Oh my!  It has been weeks since I blogged. Have been busy working nights and weekend again...but let's see, lots to say.  First and foremost, we did get another dog and it happened within a day or two of my last blog.  I went and checked craigslist as I remembered that someone had posted about a sheltie in Dallas and thought I'd give it a shot.  Well someone was actually trying to re-home a sheltie! (mix).  I called that morning when I saw the listing, we went to look at her that evening, and we got her! Here is her picture and her name is Ditzy. We didn't name her that, it was the name she was named by the previous owners.

Isn't she cute!?  She is part sheltie and part papillon (we think or maybe part chihuahua), not positive and she is less than 8 pounds!  She's got the cutest little bark and is very sweet. You can see by this pic she is a lap dog too, first one we've had. Our other shelties just have no interest in that. When we got her she did have tapeworms and we had to get her all her shots (the previous people who had her never took her to the vet), but she did not have heart worms which was my biggest concern. The vet thinks she is around 2 year old. She did have puppies about 3 months ago and we will get her spayed once all her shots are done. She gets along fine with out other dogs and has been picking up their habits...like barking at people out on the street. Here she is along with Molly helping out with that..

Other news is my nephew got married last Friday.  I did not fly out to PA for the wedding as could not afford it, unless I charged it and I am trying so hard to get the credit cards paid off! My oldest was a bridesmaid and I did get to see a few photos of her and the wedding. Hopefully will get to see more soon.  My two other siblings made it to the wedding so it was nice for my sister to get to see two of us anyway (I was the only sibling not to get there).

I have a niece getting married later this month too, but won't get to Massachusetts for that either. But I am very happy for them!  It is so exciting to have members of the family tying the knot!  Hopefully they can come out to visit sometime!

I have been working on trying to keep the garden going in this heat.  Got a few tomatoes for my dad. I went to check on my cantaloupe today as there is one about 3 inches big that I saw and I decided to check all around the vine well (some of it grew over the railing and down the other side of the chicken wire fencing we have up).  To my surprise I saw one that is about 4-5 inches big!  Since it was on the outside of the fence I decided to go ahead and pull it (remember my garden is a BALCONY garden).  I will wait a few days before slicing it open. Hope it will be ripe enough!!  I have never grown cantaloupe before and am so excited to get one this big!   That's it for now....going to spend time with hub..