Current Mood: 
I aspire to be that woman, but I'm afraid the reality this evening is I'm just a gal with a fondness for cappuccino, a deep-seeded hatred for that evil Exercise Bike O'Doom, and a fondness for taking random quizzes only because I'm trying to avoid devouring all the ice cream in the freezer because I just got off that d@mned bicycle a couple hours ago.
So anyway... I provided the link to each quiz, in case you'd like to take them too.
Just because you're practical, it doesn't mean you don't dream. You just like to put your dreams into action more than most people.
At first you dream big, but then you stop and think... Can your dream actually be achieved? You're willing to rethink and refine your dream until it is possible. And then you go act on it!
Link
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You are the type of person who always has to be creating something - whether it's something beautiful or something useful. You enjoy getting involved in huge projects. Your projects usually don't have a beginning or an ending.
You are always ready to mix things up a bit and do something different. You're constantly looking for inspiration. You are unique and special. And you have learned how to use your strengths well.
Link
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You tend to have your head in the clouds. You love to be drawn in to a whole other world. You are a sensitive person. You find it easy to be emotionally affected by books.
You are a person with a few deep interests. If you're drawn to something, you learn everything about it. You are a person who loves to acquire possessions. You can't resist a sale, and you own a lot of things.
Link
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People tend to look up to you, and it's a bit lonely at the top. Inside, you are not always self confident but you show great courage. Mature and organized, you are reliable in any situation. You tend to have an artistic or philosophical outlook on life. You are very choosy in love and take partnership seriously.
Link
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You have learned to live a life of balance and moderation. You believe that there can be too much of a good thing, and you act accordingly.
You try to put equal emphasis on work and play. You also divide your focus between yourself and others. You shy away from extremes.
Link
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People find you cute because you truly shine from within. You are an optimistic and cheerful person. You have a lot of positive energy, and you're rarely stuck in a rut. You are also very creative.
At times, you have so much energy that you can become a bit high strung or anxious. It's hard to channel all of your drive. You sometimes take on too much and get overwhelmed, but even when your life is chaotic, you have a sense of humor about it.
Link
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You are a very visual and creative person. You couldn't stop making beautiful things, even if you tried. You are constantly inspired and driven to create. It would drive you crazy to follow too many rules at work.
You have to do things your own way. If you're given room to be yourself, you come up with amazing things. You never stop making art, so you might as well get paid for doing something you love!
Link
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You are a warm and friendly person. You have a compassionate heart, and it shows. You are naturally sweet and kind. Your spirit of generosity is far reaching.
You love to be cozy and comfortable. You are a natural homebody. And while you like to be at home, you're not a hermit. You love it when your friends make themselves at home at your place.
Link
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Beauty, happiness, pleasure, success, luxury, dissipation.
The Empress is associated with Venus, the feminine planet, so it represents, beauty, charm, pleasure, luxury, and delight. You may be good at home decorating, art or anything to do with making things beautiful.
The Empress is a creator, be it creation of life, of romance, of art or business. While the Magician is the primal spark, the idea made real, and the High Priestess is the one who gives the idea a form, the Empress is the womb where it gestates and grows till it is ready to be born. This is why her symbol is Venus, goddess of beautiful things as well as love.
Even so, the Empress is more Demeter, goddess of abundance, then sensual Venus. She is the giver of Earthly gifts, yet at the same time she can, in anger withhold; as Demeter did when her daughter, Persephone, was kidnapped. In fury and grief, she kept the Earth barren till her child was returned to her.
I never got around to sharing my grandmother's blog of poems. Click HERE to read.
I think I love her children's and witty poems the best. They really are treasures and have a lot of personality.
To name a couple of my personal favorites:
I Wonder... Old Man Will... Fickle Woman... My Darlin' Husband... Grandma Froze... Grandma Got Drunk... Memories... The Tree... Chanting... Preacher's Wife... The Still...
Okay, so maybe that's more than a couple. 
Grandma doesn't know I'm pimpin' her artsy, writerly-self so feel free to browse her poems and leave a comment(s) if you wish. I'm sure she would be delighted to read them.
- Guess who will be having her birthday soon. That's right, Abby our sweet and adorable middle child! We're gonna have to give her and the girls some Frosty Paws ice cream in order to celebrate.
I wish like mad that I knew her exact birth date, but her papers don't say when that is. My brother says her birthday is sometime this coming week, but I read on one of her papers that on August 15, 2011 she was 5 years and 11 months old. I can't believe she's almost 7 years old! That makes me sad.
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- Anyone else ever seen this movie? It's one of my favorite 60's flicks, starring Sandra Dee, Robert Goulet and Maurice Chevalier.
I am so glad I taped this off tv years ago, because as far as I know the only way to watch it these days is on YouTube. The quality of the YT videos are even poorer than my own copy, but it's better than nothing I guess. The only sections in the movie that I skip over are when Andy Williams sings two songs. 
This is the movie I watch when I can't sleep or need a quick pick-me-up. It's just fun to watch, and I love Robert Goulet and Maurice Chevalier in this.
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- Another rare classic that I stumbled upon by accident several years ago is "She Couldn't Say No" with Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons.
Unfortunately, all I could find of the movie is the video above.
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- I just had possibly one of the strangest dreams of my life. I wrote about it on my dreams blog HERE.
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- Anyone have a 3-year old I can borrow? This one telemarketer is calling this house so much! They called 4 or 5 times the other day, so now I answer the phone and just set it down on a table for a minute or two.
And... I guess I'll go now. I've added to this post a couple times - not wanting to bore people with new posts - and Blogger keeps acting up.
Current Mood: 
I can’t believe that we didn’t bother putting out our usual Easter decorations this year. We had a few new things out, but not the older decorations.
Namely the little scene below. Shame on me!
(Larger Pic HERE)
And of course they have names. 
Father: Finnigan / Mother: Rebecca
Girl bunny: Polly / Boy bunny: Patrick
Chick #1: Lily / Chick #2: Westley
Sheep: Owen
I have no clue where these Easter bottles are stored. I haven’t the foggiest idea. I bet I’ll find them by Halloween.
Can you believe I found them for only $1 a piece in Old Town Spring?!
The little guy pictured above we did remember to set out this year. He, too, has a name but it escapes me at the moment.
No, I remember now. His name is Elwood, from the Jimmy Stewart movie “Harvey.” You know who Harvey is, right? The 6 foot 3 and a half inches invisible rabbit belonging to one Elwood P Dowd.
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- My parents went up to our land yesterday to mow the grass. Thank goodness, Hugs and the cattle were there again.
I guess when I was there last weekend they were just grazing in another field. I didn't think they'd get rid of Hugs, but I was worried they had sold the cattle. Hopefully, they're all pets.
- My dream was right. There was no Disney Easter Parade on tv this year. 
HOW COULD THEY DO THAT TO ME?! I can't even remember the last time they cancelled the Easter parade. It doesn't feel very much like Easter without it.
Ah, well. I'm gonna have to remedy this nonsense right away. Maybe I'll watch "Miss Potter" or something. That's a really sweet movie (although a little sad in parts), which I haven't seen in a really long time.
(Click HERE for larger version)
Warning: Lots of rambling down memory lane ahead, so grab the Tylenol.
I've been meaning to post these videos for a while now, but I think today is the perfect day for it. It's the perfect day because it was Easter week of 2009 that we were befriended by the tiniest little bluebird we named "Fievel." (Yes, thanks to some lovely people on a Bluebirds forum at the time, I discovered that if Fievel were to be placed in a Beatrix Potter story he'd definitely be wearing trousers and not a dress).
For years, we had two bluebirds that always built a nest in our backyard. We named them Duncan and Rose. Sadly, in 2009 Duncan was without Rose and caring for the little baby bluebirds on his own. He wasn't feeding Fievel very much. Fievel was the runt compared to his siblings, and we feared he wouldn't make it. Nature can be cruel like that.
(Meet Rose)
(Meet Duncan)
That Easter Sunday we had an unusual spot of chilly and extremely rainy weather with high winds. It was raining cats and dogs and there were tornado warnings everywhere. We didn't know what to do. Before that nasty weather arrived on our doorstep, we had decided to do our best to step back and let nature run it's course. So far Duncan was still the caretaker here. Mom and I were just keeping Fievel away from those big dogs next door and the busy street; a perfectly humane thing to do I think. We tried to just have faith that Duncan would take over and teach the little guy to fly.
That didn't happen, and we quickly realized that there was no way Fievel would survive in those conditions. Truly, it was like Tropical Storm weather out there but with cold temperatures. (By this time Fievel refused to stay inside the birdhouse, so he was open to the elements). It's one thing to sermonize that letting nature run it's course is the right thing to do, but until you yourself EXPERIENCE having to make that decision... well, if you have any heart and compassion at all you'll choose a chance at life over witnessing certain death the next morning. We couldn't allow this creature to starve to death, and being Easter Sunday there were no wildlife organizations open to call for help anyway. So all I knew was that while there was still a heart beating inside that little chest, if I could help him I would. If Mom and I didn’t even try, we’d feel like an accomplice to murder. That wasn't us being over-dramatic either. It was the nasty black and white truth. Whatever happened to him after he could fly.. now that we felt had to be left up to nature. Whatever happens, happens. Hopefully, if he'd survive that is, instinct would just kick in when it came to foraging for food. Surely he'd learn just from observing other birds.
During the day we tied a huge beach umbrella to a bench with some rope, to try to protect him from the elements, but it was a disaster. The high winds turned the umbrella inside out, even after nailing part of it to the fence to secure it.
Thank goodness there was a break in the weather after a few hours, and the sun came out. (This was when the videos I'll post below took place; that Easter Sunday).
That evening we put him inside the cat's crate inside my Mom's closet. We really didn't think he would survive the night, but at least inside he had a 50/50 chance. (And apart from the weather, we were worried about the big dog next door making a dinner of him. This dog was so fierce that they had to replace the fencing once because the dog would slam himself into the fence so hard; the same fence Fievel liked to make a little home for himself next to). Mom and I both didn't sleep a wink that night.
To our surprise, Fievel did survive the night. Duncan still came around with Fievel's sibling's (pictured below), but only once every evening at around 6:30. We fed Fievel every once in a while, but for the most part had faith that his Daddy and siblings would help him out. We didn't want to intervene more than was necessary, as this was a wild animal we're talking about and not something to make a pet of.
(Meet Fievel's Siblings)
Thankfully, Fievel was okay in the end. He learned to soar like some eagle, and came back to visit us every once in a while.
I'll never forget his first visit. (April 15, 2009). That evening was the day he flew off on his own. Mom and I were worried for him because he wasn't with his Daddy and siblings. He was still a fledgling, and fledglings still need to be fed by their parents. That was the most depressing day. We felt like our child had gone off to college and was all alone and not knowing what to do or where to go. Thank goodness, that day I heard his little chirping. (It's true. Mom and I both could recognize his 'voice' by now. Like a mother knowing her child's cry). Mom was talking to the neighbors in the front yard when she heard Fievel calling. She hushed the neighbors, gasped, said "That's my baby!" and ran off. She told Dad to check the backyard for him, which is where I was.
We kept calling Fievel, like he was some dog or cat, and he kept answering. He finally swooped down on the first story roof of the empty house behind us. I mean, he was sitting there smack dab at the apex of that roof and talking to us.
Mom and I tried getting him to fly down so we could feed him, but instead he keeps talking to us before he flies up to the second story roof. It's as if he was showing off and saying "Look what I can do, Ma!" He was flying WELL, too. Just like a pro. Him landing on that first roof was such a sappy, beautiful, Heavenly Hallmark moment!
He didn't come down for food, so we knew that meant he was being fed somehow. He had to have found Duncan and his siblings during all those long hours he was away.
Honestly, that moment felt like something spiritual. It's only that Mom and I were so desperately worried for his well-being, and then right before sunset he pays us a visit. It felt very clear to us that he visited us that evening intentionally.
I often hope that the male bluebird we have visiting us these days is Fievel all grown up. It probably isn't, but you never know as they say that bluebirds do return to nest where they were born.
Here are a few videos of Mom's and mine's feathery friend. Wasn't he just too adorable for words?! He was so small. Were he a female, I'd have named him Thumbelina. Even pictures and video can't demonstrate how small he was. This bluebird was the size of my thumb, and here people are always telling me I have "baby hands," so you can imagine how small that was.
Eventually, I'll add more photos of Duncan and then Fievel's siblings inside this post. I can't do it now because I'm painstakingly backing up all my old photos onto a flash drive. Photobucket wouldn't even accept my password yesterday, so I'm backing everything up now.
