Hee-Hoo bird

For as long as I can remember, I have been tormented by a the call of the phantom:

"Hee-Hoo bird"

From Idaho to Wisconsin I've heard this bird tease: "Hee-hoo. . . Hee-hoo. . . Hee-hoo" and I have always wondered what kind of silly bird made such a ridiculous sound. Well, . . . a couple of nights ago my family and I were at the hardware store. We were headed to the checkout when my children spied a tiered circular bin full of stuffed animals. They were drawn by unseen forces to begin inspecting them. All the sudden, I started hearing birds songs coming from the bin. Turns out they were toy birds that when squeezed made the corresponding bird call. And, THEN, I heard IT! "Hee- hoo. . . hee-hoo. . . " I'm sure my gasp was heard clear across the store when I lunged toward the bin of birds and cried, "What bird just made that noise!!! It seemed like we must've squeezed every bird in that bin before Jessa finally squeezed a black and white little birdie that made the familiar sound. She was very pleased to have been the one to find it and handed it to me. I felt like I had just won a contest. I scanned the tag looking for its name. In tiny letters at the bottom of the tag it read, "Black-capped Chickadee". So there ya go. Funny thing is, I'm still calling it the "Hee-hoo bird".

Stitches

Will was standing on top of the "island" in our kitchen reaching for a paper on a ledge. The table he was standing on slid out from behind his outstretched body and he collided with the the sharp wooden edge of a pantry door. He immediately began to scream in panic and pain and exclaimed, "I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding! I don't wanna die!" He WAS bleeding ALOT!! Without even looking to see where he was bleeding from, (mostly because I wasn't sure I wanted to know), I picked him up and rushed him to sit in the bathtub with a towel to his head while I found dad. Jeff came running in and told me to call his sister who is also a First Responder for Emergency Calls in our area. She said she'd be right over and while we waited for her, Jeff removed the towel to see where the blood was coming from. Will had a gaping wide hole right between his eyes! We knew he was going to need stitches. Our kitchen looked like somebody had been shot. Tracy came with her F. R. bag and agreed that we needed to take him to the ER. We took a moment for Jeff to give Will a blessing then I called Amy to watch the girls, found my purse and was ready to go. Jeff couldn't find his wallet. We quickly looked all over the places we thought it could be, but didn't find it! Jeff thought he maybe lost it in the woods while he was cutting wood. Nice, stress on TOP of stress! Amy came and got the girls, and Will, Jeff, Tracy, (the experienced emergency handler), and I all hurried to the van to head out. Will sobbed off and on the whole ride there. When nobody spoke to him he was quiet. When anybody tried to talk to him he got upset. After we registered at the front desk, an ER nurse took Will and Jeff back to a room and Tracy and I waited. For over an hour. Finally, when I decided that it had been plenty long enough, I went up to the desk and asked if I could go back to check on my son. She said I could. I don't think I'd taken more than five steps when Jeff came walking out carrying Will. Apparently, a little over an hour gets you 9 lovely stitches. When we got home, Jeff found his wallet under a blanket on our bed- hooray-. Will stayed home from school the rest of the week and the stitches came out 5 days later. NOT FUN! I do not care to ever have to do that again. Family, please keep all your bones in one piece and your blood on the INSIDE, thank you.

Kites with Grandpa

Grandpa is always coming up with fun things to do with the grandkids. He picked up some kites and one Saturday he came over to fly them. MAN was it WINDY!

Easter

We invited all the cousins over to our house to color eggs this year. They always have fun when they get together.

Easter Sunday was also Jeff's birthday AND General Conference this year! Busy day! The Easter Bunny came to our house and then later that day, Grandma Gene organized an egg hunt for the kids and I enjoyed watching their excitement as they ran around discovering colorful plastic, candy-filled eggs. They were told there were 10 eggs for each child and it was neat to watch them help each other, (after they'd found all of their own first, of course :) )