FHE and a cake

This week I went a little overboard and did an elaborate FHE for Michenna. We started with a scripture scavenger hunt. For example, one of the scriptures was Malachi 3:10 and the item (in this case a picture) was hidden in a window. After we found all 16 pictures, we made the footprints for each prophet based on the summaries on the backs of the pictures. We "walked" the footprints up the back door to the sign. It was so much fun!

Also, we made a cake for Michenna's teacher. It is her birthday this week. I should probably point out that the teacher requested Spiderman, since he is her favorite cartoon character. :) I like the way it turned out, though if I had it to do over again, I would plan the letters in BIRTHDAY a little bit better.

I've always wanted to be tagged . . .

. . . but since it hasn't happened, I'll take Tracey up on her offer and considered myself tagged.

How you met your husband: He walked up to me at church (I was a single mom at the time) and said, “So, are you divorced, or is she an ‘oops baby’?” I was so shocked at his bluntness that I kept talking to him. It was a lousy pick-up line, but he likes to point out that it worked.

Favorite vacation: Anyone who knows me knows the answer to this . . . GERMANY!

If I had a million dollars: I’d pay off any debt, put some into Michenna’s college account, take Spencer and Michenna on a grand tour of Germany (and probably other parts of Europe, too), and fly all my family out to Guam for a reunion (complete with bouncy house).

Favorite movie: Pride and Prejudice, the 5-hour version.

Something that scares me: snakes, being alone in a house at night

Something you may not know about me: I have always wanted to write a screenplay.

Something you may not know about Spencer: What his call-sign means, but I’m not telling! :)

The last movie I watched: Felicity, An American Girl Adventure and Nancy Drew, both today

Something that reminds me of home: Michenna playing on the piano while I finish getting ready for church. :)

Most painful experience(s): physically, back surgery and a C-section (thankfully not at the same time!)

One of my biggest accomplishments: I speak German fluently, despite having started learning the language in college.

Something funny that happened recently: Michenna asked me who was coming over for dinner, because I was making “real food” (not chicken nuggets, corn dogs, fries, etc). It reminded me of another little girl who, when asked to help straighten the living room, wondered aloud, “Why? Is someone coming over?” I think the mothers’ responses were also fairly similar. :)

The Baby Bird Saga

For the past several months, I have been hearing a strange sound, almost like the metal lids in my cupboards were shifting at random times. I didn't pay much attention until Michenna complained about hearing the noise as well.

My first thought was that we had a shrew (a rodent similar to a rat) in the cupboard. So one day, while Michenna was at school, I gathered my courage and took everything out of the cupboard. No shrew, and no indication of what could be making the noise.

Finally, the noise lasted long enough that I was able to trace its origin to my stove-top vent. Anyone who has seen a dryer vent on the side of a house can picture the vent. The fan above the stove draws the smoke away and the smoke goes out the vent. I thought maybe the birds were just rattling the outside of the vent.

Then, a few weeks ago, I started hearing chirping from inside the vent. I thought a bird had been trapped inside somehow, and I called maintenance.

The maintenance guy pulled open the flap that covers the hole and we saw a bunch of sticks. I asked, "Do you think it's a bird's nest?" He said, "Nah, probably just some trash that got blown in and was never cleaned out." He also pointed out that it was a fire hazard, and he started to clean out the vent.

The mystery was explained when he pulled a baby bird out with a handful of sticks. Because the maintenance man was startled, he dropped the sticks and the bird. We then found 2 other baby birds inside the vent. We put them in a shoebox. I wasn't sure what to do with them next.

I called the local animal shelter, but they didn't take birds. They said I should call the USDA. The USDA guy was out of town. Next I called the vet on base. She referred me to Security Forces, who directed me to Civil Engineering, who passed me off to the Game Warden (we have a Game Warden, who knew?). The Game Warden told me that I had broken the law by destroying the nest and handling the birds. After much discussion, she finally told me to call the vet and have the birds "taken care of". I called the vet again and she assured me that they did not take care of birds in any sense of the phrase. She made a few phone calls, then called me back and said that I should just let the birds go. So we did.

One bird died (the one that was dropped). We covered him with pieces of the nest and left him by the garden. The other 2 birds hopped away, and I hope they made it to safety.

That is my crazy baby bird saga from Spring Break.

A New Perspective: Scenic Views from Guam

We wanted to show everyone how beautiful Guam is. So we took pictures of some of our favorite places and found some new places to show you.

This is the view from Sander's Slope on base. When we reached this point during our first trip out to Tarague Beach, I just gasped. The pictures really don't do it justice.

We found the Scenic Overlook up by the squadron buildings. (Spencer had looked for it before with no luck. The turn-off is just after the sign that says "Danger: Keep Out".) Michenna and I were enjoying the view and the sound of the ocean, until a live shell exploded on the artillery range far below us. Then we jumped about 10 feet in the air and high-tailed it back to the car.

Guam is the home of the "War in the Pacific National Historic Park". Today we revisited Asan Overlook . . .

. . . and stopped for the first time at Fonte Plateau. There is probably more to it than these 2 doors, but we were trying to outrun a huge rainstorm, and this is the only picture we had time to take.

More pictures from this week:

A banana spider (they're everywhere!)

An Ifit tree, the official tree of Guam

The tail section of a damaged B-52. The wreckage was scattered into the jungle by a typhoon and uncovered by a later typhoon.

The baby birds that were trapped in our stove-top vent (that was truly an adventure!)