Baby bird

So tonight as Eric was out working in the yard he stumbled upon a surprise. He came in the house and asked, "Hey, do you want to see something cute?" I jumped up from the couch as if I had been awaiting any invitation at a possibility for some excitement. Eric led me out to the base of our pine tree where we found this fuzzy little guy. After discussing the possibilities, Eric decided to try and put him back in the nest that has kept us from cutting down this very pine tree. Now, we don't have a ladder so Eric did a "test" climb seeing if it would be possible for him to reach the nest. Upon reaching the nest, we learned that there were no other birds in the nest. I became nervous for the little bird. What if the mama bird had abandoned him? But I went inside, got my camera out to capture his cuteness in digital form and to use my camera case to contain the bird around Eric's neck as he climbed the pine. Eric placed the bird into my camera case and began his daring climb back up into the tree.

At last he reached the branch with the nest, dug into the case, pulled the baby bird out and gently stretched forth his hand to the nest, successfully delivering the bird into the comfort and safety of its home. With hope, I continued to capture the rescue attempt with my camera.


Eric posed happily as he made his way out of the tree. Then, looking back at the nest he yelled down to me, "Its trying to climb out of the nest!" Then, I noticed a quail on the other side of our fence. Eric, spotting the same bird said, "Quick, go inside and look up what a baby quail looks like." I ran inside, frantic, realizing our mistake far too late! Sure enough, the bird we thought we were rescuing was indeed a baby quail. Now for those of you who don't know, quails are ground animals. I ran out to Eric to tell him to get the bird out of the nest. As I came into his sight, I said, "IT'S A BABY QUAIL!" To which he replied, "It's already on the ground somewhere!" I slowly walked towards the tree, watching every step for fear of crushing it beneath my own feet. Alas, I found it, amazingly alive and well by a pile of wood. Eric and I quickly cleaned up and headed into the house just hoping that this birds mom would come to the rescue as soon as our threatening presence was gone. Hopefully!!

Haircuts!

I was just looking at the picture of Frankie & Roscoe right after we adopted them and how sad their hair was! They just got groomed yesterday and they are looking too hot to trot now. Frankie looks like a punk rocker and Roscoe looks like a tiger because he has stripes but they are both so cute! If you want to see the old pictures refer to my post The Newest Additions to our Family. Here they are now -My little boys! Roscoe can look tough if you try to toussle his hair a little bit but most of the time it goes flat with a part right down the middle so he looks like a real nerd!

Frankie on the other hand could be the next member of the White Stripes.

Hanging in the graveyard

So a couple of weeks ago we went to visit Grandma & Grandpa Jones' grave with the whole Jones family. Its a tradition, I guess. We spent about two hours hangin' in the graveyard. There was quite the wind chill but through it all I got some pictures that I couldn't resist posting. Afterwards, we "enjoyed" a meal at Golden Corral?

Parenting 101: don't leave one-year-olds unattended in a vehicle. Brice was one key-turn away from escape.

I saved the best for last... Eric has a way with Parker. Yes, he is as terrified as he looks and yes, Eric is laughing. It is even funnier because last night we babysat the boys and Eric held Parker down and made him pee his pants. Not on purpose, but still, I just wouldn't be surprised if Parker will need counseling from the trauma caused by his uncle Eric. Although, I must add that I was very proud of Eric for taking care of two children and a baby for 2 1/2 hours by himself before I arrived. He fed the baby & the kids, got them in the pajamas, played with them, cleaned up after them and mostly, handled Cooper when he was awake the whole time! He even put them to bed successfully and read them 3 stories. I found out a good gift for Eric is a pop-up book that is a Star Wars Guide to the Galaxy. He loved it more than the kids did!

My first year!

Well, I just had my one-year review at my job with Dr. Smith. I technically haven't been a registered dental hygienist for one year until June 18th but I started assisting at Dr. Smith's office before I got my license. So, one year at Dr. Smith's means that I am now getting a 401k, a raise in my salary & I finally get 2-weeks of paid time off. I feel very fortunate for every benefit I have at Dr. Smith's, due to the fact that probably at least half of the dentists out there still don't offer employee benefits. I am a saving junkie so I am very excited about the 401k. I was also very happy about the paid time off last week when I came down with the stomach flu! I can't tell you the misery of those few days when I was so sick I just wanted to crawl into a hole and step into coma but I suffered through 8 hours of hygiene just so I wouldn't miss the paycheck. Oh, the joy of paid sick-leave! Anyway, it is amazing how fast a year goes by. Dr. Smith asked me how the job was different than I expected and at first, I couldn't think of much but finally I said, " I thought I would be bored with the job after a year. I thought I would know it all and be a lot more complacent. And that is definitely not the case!" I am still learning so much about hygiene. And there will always be more to learn and keep up with. Just today, I was reading about a hygienist that used a product called Emdogain after SRP to help with attachment regeneration. She turned a 15 mm pocket into a 3-4 mm pocket! (For those that have made it this far and don't know hygiene lingo, that is amazing!) I don't know much about Emdogain or products like it, but I'd like to & there's much more out there to learn! But aside from the technical stuff, there's always more to learn about and from people too. Today, I had a patient with a ZAP! car, its an electric car that only has 3 wheels and she took me out to see it after her cleaning. People are so interesting and I have a job that allows me to interact with people in a one-on-one intimate setting and usually see them again every 3-6 months. I really enjoy my job more than I ever thought I would! I do have those days when I come home and crash on the couch all night due to exhaustion but in the end, I think its worth it.

Oh and in other news, Eric is only taking the garbage out past sunset now because he enjoys testing the motion light that he installed on the side of our house. I am very proud of all his hard work (and very thankful for Kent's help).