Then they flew the nest...

Boy do I feel guilty!  Right as I say I want to start blogging regularly, I take a 4 day hiatus.  I have legitimate reasons and will be back in it, starting today. 

Have you ever seen a baby bird from the time it was 2 days old till the time they have feathers and are flying around?  

This has been one of my life's greatest accomplishments.  I put my heart and soul into caring for these birds, they received hours upon hours of care and attention.  I spent hours upon hours reading blogs and bird websites to make sure that I was doing everything correctly.  I had my share of negativeness from people, "you need to take them to a wildlife rescue, you are not experienced enough to give them what they need".   Some of those comments hurt, struck me right in the heart and some days when the comments came flooding in like that I would think "am I doing more harm than good"?  My husband was a great support system throughout this process, without him I may have thrown in the towel, but I am glad I did not....for the full journey go to Fledgling Four.

Up until June 23rd-September 28th I have never seen life change so rapidly.  On June 23rd I received a text from my father in law,  "a nest of baby sparrows fell from the gutter, I will care for them tonight, will you take them?


2 or 3 days old, my "pinkies".

A little back story to how it all unfolded.
The nest was initially located at my in-laws house, up on a gutter at the very top of the house. It was a large nest, momma bird went in and out through a hole. After the baby birds hatched the nest must have been to large and it split in half and fell to the ground.... Two baby birds landed outside the nest and the others were still inside. My father in-law put the 2 that fell out back in and left the nest be, in hopes that momma would return.

She did, but back up to the gutter. Sparrows make their nests up high and after the babies hatch that is where they return. They will not look for them anywhere else. Momma bird returned all day to that gutter with worms for the babies, she never did find them.

The baby birds went unattended, with no food for about 6 hours. Then my father in-law stepped in. He did some online research and then ran to the store. He returned with cat food, the baby birds were fed mushed up cat food for the first 24 hours, it is full of protein and vitamins.

The baby birds were offered to me, Roy had to work on Monday and the birds need to be fed every hour throughout the day. This was a big decision for me. Do I want to dedicate myself to these birds for the next 21+ days? With obvious proof the answer was "yes". I picked up the baby birds at 7:15am Monday June 24th.....

 

....And that is where my journey began to check out the journey from the beginning check out the Fledgling Four a page I created to document the journey.

 

The first 3 weeks was grueling, time consuming care.  They were fed from a syringe every hour from 6am to 9pm sometimes, every 45 minutes based on their intake.  I enjoyed every minute of it though. 

I weaned them from formula to bird seed at about a month or so but continued to do one feeding a day of the formula. 

 

 

I kept the birds a bit longer than I should have, when you put everything you have into making sure they survive it is hard to open the latch and swing the cage door open to let them go. 

 

Yesterday was one of the hardest things I have ever done when I let go, I knew it would hurt but not as much as it did.  They are around my house, I am sure they have eaten with the neighborhood sparrows from my bird feeder already.  They were greeted with open wings yesterday, one by one as they flew out a group of sparrows would follow it and greet and they would come back and wait for another one to fly out.  It was an amazing thing to see as the birds were greeted by the other sparrows.  I will miss them but I know that they are here and I know I did the right thing yesterday as hard as it was to see them fly out the cage door, I knew it was time.  I will leave you all with some pictures

 Forever my "bebies"!

 

 

LIfe as I currently know it-

Blogtember; Life Lately Whoa, where to start?  It has been so crazy here in the Draino household, some days I wonder "what house have I just walked into"?  Then I realize, it is my house, it is what I have going on....craziness!  

I babysit our niece(4yo) and nephew (11mo) 5 or 6 days a week from 7:30p-11:30a it makes for long nights and even longer days and about 5 days a week I watch our other nephew (5yo) that lives with us while his mom works.  My hands are full, I enjoy it though, I love kids and always have and can not wait for Billy and I to announce one day, that finally it happened, until then I get my fix with our niece and nephews. 

Meet Collin one of our nephews, 5 yo.   He is little cutie, with the biggest brown eyes you will ever see.  He loves playing soccer, minecraft and going fishing with his dad.  He is my littlest best friend.

 

This is our niece Brooklynn, 4 going on 14.  A little spit fire, full of energy and attitude.  She is super active and loves her Barbies.

 

Now Brandon 11 mo.  He is learning to walk, feed himself and getting ready for his big Mickey Mouse birthday party.  He is one of the quickest crawlers I have ever seen and is so happy.

Brandon's 10 month "photo shoot".  Photos taken by me, with my point and shoot.



 

Now that the kids are out of the way, on to life!  Billy left today for the week to work out of town, we have not been away from each except for two nights since we have been together, even during all his health stuff, I was by his side in the hospital.  I miss him and it will be a long week and an empty bed.  

 

I have had an extreme interest in starting up my photography, pursuing the dream of having a studio, being able to provide quality photographs without charging an arm and a leg to do it. Few things need to happen first; I need to purchase a camera, take some classes and learn a lot before I can even call myself a photographer.  I have always loved to take pictures, there is something about capturing something that is right there, in that moment that you will never be able to get back.  I have my eye on the Nikon D5200, now to pull the trigger and purchase it.  I have been saving and am waiting for my next payment for babysitting to buy it.  I have spent countless hours comparing, holding and playing around with different brands of cameras, reading reviews and making sure this is the one I want.  With some guidance from a photographer friend, she swayed me from the D3200 to the D5200 and when I purchase it I am sure I will be very happy with it. 

 

 

 

 

September is what month?

Did you know that September is Ovarian cancer awareness month?  Did you also know that the color for Ovarian cancer is Teal? 

I knew for the longest time that the color was Teal, I never thought too much about it though.  Until I came across a great friend from the "September 2012 wives" group, Britt.  She fought Ovarian cancer and is now fighting to make more people aware of the "silent symptoms".

For the next week Britt is on a journey to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for Ovarian cancer, for the Expedition of Hope I am so proud of all she has over come trying to get the word out about this specific cancer and she is so strong!  Before she left she posted a travel schedule for the climb. 

Map showing the routes that they will climb. Source of picture unknown.

 

Mon. Sept. 23 (Day 1): Moshi to Nale Muru to Simba Camp

Tues. Sept. 24 (Day 2): Simba Camp to Second Cave

Wed. Sept. 25 (Day 3): Second Cave to Third Cave...
Thurs. Sept. 26 (Day 4): Third Cave to Kibo Huts
Fri. Sept. 27 (Day 5): Summit Day! Kibo Huts to Uhuru Peak, reach summit after sunrise
Sat. Sept. 28 (Day 6): Horombo Huts to Marangu Gate

Britt and her husband Jano(he is doing the climb with her) and this is Mt. Kilimanjaro 

 

I live in a small town Coal City, IL and our town had hung up teal ribbons for "Turn the Town Teal".  To help bring the community together and bring awareness for Ovarian Caner. 

My nephew proudly showing off one of the neighborhood ribbons.

 

After seeing the support that my comunity showed for the month of September to try to bring awareness, I thought "could I get a couple Teal ribbons for myself"?  That I did, two of them.  I tried to hang them on the posts on my porch but I did not cut them long enough, so I tied them on my flower pots.

 

Until I met Britt, I did not even give this a second thought.  I now show my support for her and for all that have been affected by Ovarian cancer and for all that have fought this battle.  For more information on "Turn the Town Teal"  visit here.  Spread the word, this is a silent killer and we need to make more woman aware.

"I Do" Photos only

Blogtember  Day 12 topic of the day "only pictures".  
What would you choose?  I thought about this for most of the day, I am still not sure but I think I will do our wedding day.  There were over 2,200 pictures taken and I did not want to bore you to death, this was a difficult decision making process.  It truly was one of the best days of my life.  I hope you all enjoy!

 

Memories of mom

Blogtember topic for today is "a memory you'd love to relive".    I took a sneak peek last night at the topic and thought about it throughout the day.  It had me motivated to go through 3 bins of pictures and old memories from my childhood.  I lost my mom 10 years ago and wanted this memory to include her, of course.  After spending hours going through bins and bins, I decided that I have multiple memories I would love to relive.  

My mom was the hardest working, most loving and dedicated person I knew. But most of all she was an amazing cook, everything was made from scratch, no measuring cups no recipes just from memory and her fingers.  I would LOVE to have my mom's spaghetti sauce again, it is a smell that would fill the whole house, the sauce simmered all day and it was amazing as soon as it hit your mouth.  Her recipes were family recipes, that were a couple generations old and by the time they got to my mom they were no longer on paper, or maybe they were but she never shared the recipes with us.   

She was also the queen of holidays, the house would be decked out for any and all holidays.  The Christmas tree was always in the window, she also would do animated characters in the windows.  The front door was wrapped as a present, the stockings were hung on the walls ( we never had a fire place), the mistletoe was in one of the door ways.  She would cook on Christmas day and it would be a full spread.  One thing I miss dearly is Christmas Eve mass, we did not attend church regularly but every year for as long as I can remember we went to Christmas Eve mass, I hope one day to go back to mass to honor my mom and relive that memory.  

     

I ride with my husband on our Harley Davidson, I probably get my love and joy of riding with my husband from my mom.  She was a Harley Davidson mamma, she did not own a Harley but she rode all the time.  I loved watching her get on the back of the motorcycle and ride off with her boyfriend. 

 



A love letter or two

Blogtember topic for the day: Write a public love letter to someone in your life. It doesn't necessarily need to be romantic.

Who would your love letter go to?  I asked myself this question this morning as I started thinking about the topic, the obvious came to mind one to my husband of course, then I started thinking well maybe I could write two?  So two it will be, one to my husband and one to my best friend.

My husband-

Where would my life be without you?  I honestly do not want to know the answer to that question.  You have made me the happiest woman in world, I know that is so cliché but it is very true.  As a child I dreamt that I would find my "prince charming" and he would give me my "fairy tale", you are my prince and you have given me to the best of your ability my fairy tale.  I love our life, I love the love we have, I love how you work so very hard to provide for our little family that we have right now.  You prove over and over everyday that you are so madly in love with me.  Some days I can not believe the amount of love you have for me, what have I done to make you love me like this?  I still can not believe we have been married a year already and that we will be together for 3 years in February.  You have changed my life in so many wonderful ways.

Please know my dear husband that I love you to death and I am so proud to call you my husband and for me to be your wife. You are my soul mate, my lover for life, the father of our one day children.  You are the man that has given me everything that I could ever ask for in life.  I look forward to what the future holds for us, I know we will have an amazing life together. This first year has been a whirlwind of ups and downs but I would not trade it for all the "sunshine and roses" most newlyweds make the first year look.  I love you so much!  Thank you, husband for being my true best friend for life!

Love your wife,
Fire ball


My husband on our 1st wedding anniversary trip to Atlantic City, NJ.

Trisha-

Can you believe we have been friends for almost 5 years?  When you sat at my table in class Jan 2009 I never in my life figured we would be such amazing friends.  In the 4.5 years I have known you I have spilled my whole entire life to you, like I was making up for lost time.  You have proven to me that you are there by my side in this friendship, even though at times I have turned from you.  To this day I still can not pin point why exactly we are such amazing friends, we are so different from one another.  Maybe it is the balance we bring to each other, you show me that I can let loose and have fun a bit more and I bring you down from your "anxiety girl". 

Even though it has been a few months since we have had a real "Friday" night I enjoy our pretend sessions we have.  I enjoy our laughs, our talks and of course your guacamole.  You are an amazing friend and I appreciate our friendship.  I know we will be friends till we are gray and wrinkled.  Until that day though, I thank you for the commitment of friendship you have shown so far.

I love you dear friend. 

Tarra