Just an update

The "Let's get Alex to stop biting" Project appears to have been successful. I didn't think so at first. When I got home from out of town, he was still extremely aggressive. He would not "step up" and bit me painfully hard when I tried to handle him.
We spent the last two days cleaning the house and rearranging furniture and "critters". We moved his cage back to the original spot and amazingly, he didn't bite me. He didn't bite yesterday or today. He has been talking his silly little head off and "wonder of wonders", he is "stepping up" on command. I am so happy. I can finally interact with him, without losing blood. He even gave me a kiss, on request. He is molting, which could explain some of his disagreeable attitude, I am going to clip his wing feathers tomorrow. They have grown out and he flew across the house today. Not good! There are too many dangers around the house for little birds. Also, trimming his wings helps to improve his willingness to be handled.
Other news, the Zebras have laid three eggs! I don't know if there is a chance they will hatch. Or, if they will survive, if they do hatch. But it is kinda cool. The little Zebras are about as big as my thumb and their eggs are about the size of small peanuts. They are spending a lot of time, in and out of the little nest box, but neither one of them is doing any sitting, yet. I'm going to leave the eggs alone for a while and see what happens. Some of the information, I have read regarding birds says that the eggs will lay dormant until "Mama" begins to sit. So. I'll be watching for that and give another update at a later date.
Jerry tied some cool new jigs this week-end. He is going to attempt to go fishing in the morning, weather permitting. We spent all day Saturday and most of today, steam cleaning carpets and clearing clutter out of the living and dining room, so he deserves a little treat before he goes back to work. I go back tomorrow. It has been a great vacation and I hate for it to end, but gotta make a living.

Doin' The Boardwalk

This is my little brother, Frankie.
He acted as tour guide.









A beautiful shot of the Red River.












Enjoying the scenery.
You can see one of the "Boats"
on the right.









The "Long-Allen" Bridge.
One side is Shreveport, the
other side is Bossier City.









I like the shark.









Beautiful flowers everywhere.









Frankie and Kim, enjoying a laugh.









Geri and I made a new friend.









Where else in the world, might you find a "Craw-dad"
on a carousel?









Geri found a zebra. Behind her you can see
a large fish and a turtle.












Sunset!









There are really too many pictures to post them all.
I think this one is great. Hope you enjoyed the mini-tour.

What a trip!!!

Sunday afternoon, Geri and I loaded up "Lexus", her cage, all her belongings and enough clothes for three or four days and headed to Shreveport. I love going to visit my Mom and seeing my family.
We went to help out because my Step-dad, Eddie had surgery on Monday morning and I wanted to be there for them. Eddie's surgery went great and he is now at home recovering. I really felt bad for him in the hospital. He is blind and is limited on what he can do in unfamiliar surroundings. Not to mention, the difficulty of having surgery and the pain that usually goes along with it. Once he was able to get back home to his own world, he was much happier and Mom and I tried to make sure he took his pain medication at regular intervals. Before too long he was his old jovial self. Well, almost, until his pain returned. We finally got him convinced that it is alright to take the pain med. when you are hurting and we were able to keep him somewhat comfortable. I really admire him. It would be so easy for him to sit down and say, "I can't!" But, I don't think he even knows those words. Beth tells me he is her mentor. Although she has serious vision difficulties, like Eddie, she has the opinion that she can do anything and the intellegience to figure out a way, when a lot of us would just let someone else do it for us.

Monday evening after the surgey, Eddie was too tired and uncomfortable for company, so we let him rest and Geri and I toured "The Boardwalk" with Frankie and Kim.
We had so much fun! Geri was the official photogragher. She took over 1oo pictures of all the interesting sights, including me, Frankie and Kim. I will be posting them at a later date. Geri is busy editing and cropping them. When she has them just right she will download them to my computer and I can share them.
We must have walked forever! The wierd thing is when we finally got back to the car, according to my clock, we were only out for about two hours.
I really enjoyed the time I got to spend with my little brother. He was such a clown and picked on Geri constantly. Kim was almost as silly, so we got to laugh a lot.

Tuesday morning, Eddie was released from the hospital. So we stayed close to home and watched over him. Mom made "chicken and dumplings" for dinner. When I was little, that was always my favorite meal. I found out, it is also Beths' favorite meal. We spent Tuesday evening watching American Idol (Jordin was outstanding) , watching over Eddie, creating a blog for Mom and just sitting around the dining room table, drinking coffee and talking girl talk. I never get to see enough of Mom and Beth, it was so nice to get to sit and talk.

In between, other things, I taught Mom to clip the birds wings and taught everyone how to physically handle Lexus and Sam (Moms' cockatiel).

We left around 11:oo this morning. It seemed to take forever to get home. We made a couple of extra stops for food and other things. When we got home, I cooked dinner and watched the Idol results show with Jerry.

I love going to Shreveport. But it is great to be home. I miss my sweet husband when I am away from him. He won't admit it, but I think he misses me, too.

A New Day!

Today, I have been doing a lot of remembering. I think we have a tendency to do that as we get older. Not that I am old. But, sometimes you just get a chance to think about your life and how the choices that you made affected the outcome.
I think about my children, all grown now, and how proud I am of all four of them. I hope that I had some small influence on how they have all grown into responsible adults.
I think about my sweet husband and all the ups and downs we have been through. I think about our 30+ years together and wonder why he never grew tired of me. I wonder how we could have just grown closer over all these years. All the trials that we have been through, all the adventures. I think about how he has supported me always, and given me little pushes when I needed them. If not for his support, I would never have made it through Nursing School.
I think about my two beautiful grandchildren and I pray that when they are grown and I am gone to be with my Lord, they will remember me with love as I remember my own grandparents. Every day they get older and wiser. Life is a great adventure to them and I want to be part of that adventure.
I think about my Faith and how my life as been blessed by the presence of my Lord for as long as I can remember knowing Him. The truly amazing thing about Christ is that no matter how preoccupied we become with what we perceive to be important issues, He never becomes too preoccupied to be with us, in our times of need. For some reason, we don't always recognize His presence. For me, He has been like a warm and comforting quilt on a chilly winter day. He is like a constant hug, a precious friend, a candle when the lights go out. He is always with me, I don't make a single decision without His influence. I don't say a single word without thinking about what the consequences might be. Because of Him, I find it impossible to deliberately cause pain to someone else. Because of Him, I find it impossible for sadness to enter my life and stay there. Because of Him, as Paul said, "I am content!"
I realize that I have made mistakes in my life. Some bad mistakes and some not so bad. If I could go back and do it all over, I am sure I would just make different mistakes. That is what comes of being human. God created us with the ability to make choices and sometimes we make the wrong choice, either because we don't know any better or because we knew better but, were too stubborn to admit it.
Anyway, so far, my life has never been boring and I have quite a few years left yet to have many more adventures and make many more mistakes. I am so glad that I have a loving and dedicated husband to share them with and Christ to guide our path.

Lexus is going home!

During my last trip to Shreveport, Beth mentioned that she would really like to get Mom a "talking bird". I thought it was a great idea! When I got back home, I started making calls to find Mom a Quaker. I didn't have a lot of luck. Most of the places I called didn't have any babies for sale and the one place that did wanted nearly $200.00 each for them. When I said that was a little high, I was informed that they were hand fed babies and were well socialized.
I understand the difference, however as bad as I wanted to, I still could not afford that much for the bird. I still needed to get a cage and supplies. The total amount for everything I needed to set Mom up would have been somewhere around $400.00.
As I was trying to figure out how to make this work. I was visiting with "Alex" and "Lexus". I was trying to get "Alex" to "step-up" and he bit me, HARD! He has been doing that more and more lately. He and "Lexus" were acting a little bit too attached lately. I decided that I needed to separate them. Then, I got the brain storm. "Lexus" does not get enough attention because "Alex" is too aggressive when I get near her. "Alex" is just getting too aggressive. What if "Lexus" went to live with Mom in Shreveport? Mom could have her talking parrot, I could work with "Alex" on his aggression and "Lexus" could be the center of attention for a change.
I talked it over with Jerry, I talk every thing over with Jerry, and decided that I would work on that project!
My next door neighbor had a cage that was not being used, I asked her if she would be willing to part with it, she said, "Sure, just take it". It is a very nice cage, actually nicer than what I could have bought. I brought it home, gave it a good cleaning and a few new nuts and bolts. Now, I had a great cage! Next, I moved "Lexus" out of the cage with "Alex".
Almost immediately, "Lexus" became a little more social and "Alex" became a little more agreeable. They can still see each other but they are less disturbed when I get in their cages to feed them or clean. "Lexus" is a little more verbal and will say words that we can understand, occasionally. She does not have the vocabulary that "Alex" has, but I am confident that will change once she gets settled in her new home.
The best part of all of this, is Mom, Beth and even, Eddie are excited about her. Eddie even told me that he has always wanted a bird that could talk.
The thing is, that Eddie is having surgery next Monday, he will be off work for several weeks afterward. I think "Lexus" will help the time to pass a little more pleasantly. Someone will need to spend a great deal of time talking to her and handling her. I am sure that by the time Eddie goes back to work, "Lexus" will be talking a lot more.
After, thinking about it and trying to make the best decision for "Alex", "Lexus" and my poor sore fingers ("Lexus" doesn't bite me) I really believe this is going to be the best resolution for all of us.
Although, "Lexus" is meant to be a gift to Mom, from me and Beth (it was her idea, after all), I hope that she is a blessing for them all.

This is "Alex" (on the left) and "Lexus" (on the right. This picture was taken when I first brought them home. Since then, I have discovered, that having two Quakers is very different from having just one.
When I previously owned a Quaker, she was very affectionate and easy to handle. She was always willing to cuddle and although she would give me an occasional nip, she never hurt me.
When I first got "Alex" and "Lexus", I was able to get "Alex" to "step up" and he would let him hold and cuddle him.
Over the last few weeks, "Alex" has become increasingly aggressive. He would never really let me near "Lexus" but I was okay with that. She is really shy and I was not sure how much she had been worked with. I was content to just be able to handle "Alex".
Well, things have changed dramatically. "Alex" bites me every chance he gets. Not a nip, a painful hard bite, that usually draws blood. So, I made a difficult decision. I am separating "Alex" and "Lexus". I moved "Lexus" into a separate cage this evening. I have her in the living room, where she and "Alex" can still see each other, but tomorrow, I will move her into a different room. I am hoping that this separation will allow me to work with each Quaker individually. I know "Lexus" will be a little more accepting of my attention without "Alex" close by and getting upset. And I believe, it will allow me to handle "Alex" a little safer if he doesn't feel like he has to "protect" "Lexus".
In a couple of weeks, "Lexus" will be moving to Shreveport to live with my Mom, my little sister, Beth and my Step-dad, Eddie. I am confident that she will adjust well to life without "Alex". As a matter of fact, I think she will probably be happier without his overpowering personality preventing her from getting any attention. I am in hopes that I will be able to accustom her to being handled befor we go to Shreveport. Mom and Beth are both exteremely excited about there new parrot. Jerry thinks they are going to be very suprised when they realize exactly what they have gotten themselves into.