Tryout Day

Today is tryout day for Alison.  She has been working hard and today she’ll learn the routine and do their other skills assessments to see if she makes the varsity again this year.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed for her.  I am hopeful that she’ll make it again this year.  I think that her coaches like her because she works hard and always keeps a positive attitude at practice.  But just because she made it last year, doesn’t mean she’ll get picked again this year.  The competition is always tough.  Good Luck Ali!

Baby Birds

It’s been a couple of weeks now and the robin is still sitting in the nest on the garage.  Kris looked up the time table for hatching robin eggs and it is about the time that there should be babies in the nest.  So I have been trying to keep an eye out for scrawny little heads, or maybe the mother robin to fly back and feed them a worm.  It just so happened that I saw the mother fly out of the nest as I was walking into the garage and I thought, I am going to grab my step stool and see if I can see over the edge of the nest to see if there are any babies.  There are.  We have two baby robins in the nest. 

Shortly afterward, the mother came back with a big, juicy worm and the two little heads popped up with their mouths open.  One baby got the whole worm and the other was out of luck.  But then the mother flew away again, so I hope it gets something for the other baby.  It would suck to have to scrape a dead baby bird off the pavement!

Final Warm-Up

Today was the final chance to practice before Ali’s cheerleading tryout.  She spent a couple of hours at the “tumbling factory” working on her back handsprings and her tumbling skills in general.  It seems like this off-season, the girls are all getting super competitive for spots on the Varsity squad (or maybe it is just the parents).  Ali is treating it sort of like, if she makes it, she makes it.  I guess that is a good attitude to have, but I will say that if she doesn’t make Varsity this year after being on Varsity last year, I would be willing to bet she’ll be disappointed.  But hopefully it won’t come to that.  I am keeping my fingers crossed for her.

Semester Grades

When Sarah got home from work today and checked her phone to see that her grades had posted.  The good news is that she passed all of her classes.  The bad news (if it is really bad news) is that she just missed making the dean’s list.  She ended up with three B's and an A/B, which is from what I can gather equal to an A-.  That is good news because she is now free to take all the next level classes, like Chemistry II, or Biology II.  I forget what her classes actually are for the fall semester.  Now we just need to figure out how she can get her patient care/contact hours so she can apply to her PA Schools (assuming she still wants that major) after her junior year.

Buzzed By A Robin

Today when I left for work, the robin wasn’t in its nest.  I also didn’t see it there when I got home.  I was wondering if maybe the eggs didn’t hatch, or something got in the nest and stole the eggs.  I had read somewhere that robins will know either when an egg isn’t viable or isn’t going to hatch.  They will then actually will pick it up and drop it on the ground away from the nest.  I think that is what happened the last time we had a robin build a nest there. 

So when we got back from running errands I thought, why don’t I get out the step stool and climb up to see if the eggs are gone.  I no sooner had unfolded the stool and was taking my first step up when the robin came zipping by my head with a whoosh.  I could hear the flapping wings as it flew past about 4 or 5 inches from my ear.  So I guess it is still here.  I wasn’t even close to the nest, I was climbing up about six or seven feet away, just enough so I could peer over the edge of the nest to see what was in there. 

It’s good to know that if the robin is still there, then the eggs are most likely still there as well.  I’ll have to keep an eye on them, because it has been there for a couple of weeks now, which means that it is almost time for those eggs to hatch.  If I can get back up there without disturbing it, I’ll try and take some pictures.

Happy Mother’s Day

Since today is Mother’s Day we needed to get the annual photo with the girls.  I almost totally forgot it, but mostly because Sarah has been disrupting things around here since getting home two days ago.  She (Sarah) was actually the one who reminded me since she wanted to have a picture she could post.  Happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful wife!

Welcome Home!

The first year of college is over and today is Sarah’s first day back home in the Falls.  The big question is going to be how long before we (and by we I mean Kris and me) are ready for her to go back to school.  As much as we love having Sarah around, I remember what it was like coming home for my first summer.  You get used to coming and going as you pleased, and not wanting to listen to anything.  Basically you feel like you don’t need to follow any of the rules because you’re an adult now.  So I have a feeling we’ll be fighting about loud music, curfews, and a variety of other things pretty soon.