Round Here, We Start Our Summers in July

Dear Readers,

It’s been a good and needed break, and now that the baby is (sometimes) (almost) sleeping through the night, it’s time to pick up our pens again. If you have stuck with us over these last few months, thank you! It’s so encouraging to know that there are people out there interested in our small, crazy lives and goofy thoughts!

Luckily, summer is usually when we have a lighter writing schedule anyway, so we can ease back into the swing of this blog thing over the next couple of months. Our plan right now is to post on Tuesdays and Fridays, starting next week.

Our series for this summer will be “Geeking Out” – things we’ve geeked out over, either now or in the past. If you too are a geek and want to join in the conversations, that might be a lot of fun!

So until next Tuesday, here’s Little Mister, waiting on pins and needles.

Just kidding. We took all of those out before he sat down.

My Mother’s Day Present

Dear Readers,

As you might have figured out from the previous post, there has been a change in personnel here at Crackersisters:

Little Mister has a little brother!

And, as with our previous additions, we’re going to take a few weeks off to rest and recuperate and reset our lives. I, at least, have to figure out how to juggle two kids as well as Erin does. Without dropping them.

When we return, we’ll have the summer ahead of us, a summer series or two may be in the offing, and hopefully we’ll be a little more consistent in our posting – it should be easier without storks dropping off little boys on the doorstep.

~Kristen.

Squatters

Dear Kristen,

“Squatter – noun – a person who unlawfully occupies an uninhabited building or unused land.”

Question:  Is it squatting if that person/thing is inhabiting an inhabited building?

I submit that it qualifies.

We have some squatters. A woodpecker family.

Our foray into the realm of illegal habitation started last year, when a woodpecker decided to start pecking at our house.  He made a nice sized hole that took him, somehow, into our attic.

Lucky for us and unlucky for him, he didn’t make it directly into the attic but to where the attic’s exhaust fan is.

He never made it out.

Fast forward to this year.  The hole is gone; our house is lovely and bird free.  You would have thought the neighboring woodpeckers learned from the mistakes of their brother – Matt and Erin’s house is a death trap!  DON’T. PECK. THERE.

But no. They didn’t.

And apparently they’ve smartened up since last winter/spring.

This huge woodpecker (let’s call him Woodrow – because I like history and Woody is too cliche) entered our domain in January – and we were none too happy. Matt borrows a BB gun from a friend…and it WAS a BB gun…but it looked like an AK-47.  He was intent on doing war with Woodrow.  If he came pecking knocking, Matt was trying to sight him and get rid of him.  He only got two shots off when we figured we probably shouldn’t be shooting this thing that looks like an AK in a residential zone.

You know.  Safety and stuff.

So, Woodrow got in.  His hole is big.  (Silly cedar siding – why must you be so durable and peckable all at the same time???)  And he lovingly made a nest for his mate to lay eggs in.

Which she did.

And they’ve hatched.

The nest is located between the siding and the drywall on the second story in the bathroom.  Over the toilet.

If you were taking a shower when Woodrow was working on his hole, you could hear it.  Now, NOW you hear something else entirely.

Munchkin heard the cheeps for the first time on Saturday.  “Oh, Mommy!  The woodpecker had babies and they are saying hi to me!  Hello babies!  You are so cute! ”

Meanwhile, I am having a different conversation with the birds in my head.

The sounds. Oh, the sounds!!!!

I like a good Hitchcock film, and I’ve seen a lot of them.  I have not seen The Birds.

I’ve got a pretty good idea how people who suffer from Ornithophobia (I looked it up) feel.  I hear chirping and that’s doable.  Its the flapping in the walls that is freaky.  I mean – I really don’t need to watch The Birds ever.  I’m living it!  My bathroom is now Hitchcockian domain!  As soon as those babies have flown the nest, that hole is disappearing.

And we will be putting up a sign that reads:

Squatters are NOT welcome here!!!

That’ll work, right?

On a good note, at least they aren’t owls.  Then the freaky flapping would be happening at night.  And that WOULD be freaky.

On Phones

Dear Kristen,

I love that Little Mister required boots for egg hunting.  If only you knew that was the magic component on those other egg hunts!  They are the cool kid accessory for all hunting adventures – next adventure, FROGS!

Do they have frogs in your neck of the woods?  Maybe its too dry?

I still think a fire truck is a good idea.

Easter here was delightful! We found eggs inside due to the rain and cold, enjoyed church, and drove to see family where there were more eggs to find.  It was a lot of fun – Munchkin found all her eggs, dutifully passing by the ones hidden obviously for Little Man.  And then Little Man stole her eggs and she was obliged to “find” his in retaliation.

And then I dropped my phone in the toilet.

Though certainly far from perfect, I’m the most responsible person in the house for maintaining important items.  I’m not “neat as a pin” (I like piles), but I’ve a pretty good handle on where things are.  I don’t typically lose things, break things, etc. and in fact am asked where other people’s things are when they can’t find them.  My track record is pretty good.

Not so much anymore.

I’m not even sure how it happened, really.  It was in my hand.  I blinked.  It was in the toilet.  Luckily, a clean one.  I grabbed it immediately and we set to work drying it out.  Except we couldn’t find the rice (we were not in our own home) so we had to make do with Easter grass.

Which isn’t the best for drying phones.

Well, to cut to the chase, the phone was fine except the sound didn’t work.  It kept assuming it had headphones stuck in it, so you couldn’t hear the videos we’ve recorded or my music or the ever important Apple trailers or the brushing teeth timer (aka the Disney app for timing your kids’ brushing.  Its magical.  Like rain boots.)

It also wouldn’t notify me if someone was texting.  So….it had to be on vibrate.  Which means I had a serious case of “phantom ringing” for awhile there.  You know, you feel a little vibration in your pocket and you dutifully take out your phone to respond, only to see that you have no messages.  And sometimes you feel the vibration in a pocket that has no phone in it?

Yeah.  I’ve officially gone crazy.

But we did have a Tuesday miracle.  The sound started working last night.  We celebrated with ice cream!

And then the brushing teeth timer was back in action!

 

 

Marching Into Spring

Dear Kristen,

Pardon the pun-ny title.  We’re only a week into March and I’m ready for spring to BE HERE.

March is hard for me, a Florida girl.  You have days like this one:

perfect for kite-flying and short sleeve shirts.

Then its followed by snow two days later.  Not enough to stick around, just enough to let you know that winter really isn’t over.

But I’m hopeful that this month will bring new fun and exciting things as we await spring, like…

• Little Man talking!  (He now says “Moo.” Kinda.)
• Little Man’s final teeth coming in!
• Peonies growing in the garden!
• Spring Break!
• And raccoons!

Wait. What?  Raccoons?

Yes. There was a raccoon in our yard.

Which I didn’t see when I let Gibbs outside.  But Gibbs was QUITE interested in it.  As interested as a wolf tracking a deer….

I’ve actually never heard tree used as a verb, until Saturday.  It was the appropriate verbiage for the raccoon’s experience.

Then Gibbs thought she would treat herself to the bacon grease as a reward.  Along with the aluminum foil. But that’s a story for another day.

Welcome March.  I’m ready for you!