Parrots, Parrots, Parrots!

We spent the three-day holiday in Corpus Christi area and loved being in one of our favorite weekend get-away destinations! Our first day was spent visiting the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center. We did not know what to expect, but the place blew us away with all the beautiful flowers and animals to see! When we first arrived, we saw lots of beautiful Plumeria trees, amazing parrots, reptiles, butterflies, orchids, cacti, and a really unique playground! They had sunflower seeds and popcorn you could feed to the parrots and giant collard green leaves to feed the iguanas. Feeding and holding the parrots were definitely the favorite highlights of our time there!

Plumeria at the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center. They were everywhere! So beautiful!

This place has the largest grove of Plumeria trees in the United States. They were gorgeous, and smelled amazing! 

More Plumeria . . . I just could not stop taking pictures of them!

Isaac and Jason ready to go exploring! 

I never knew parrots like to eat popcorn! It was so cute to watch them gently grab the popcorn in their beak, then reach their claw up to hold it. They would take little tiny bites off the piece of popcorn while holding it in their "hand".  It was so fun feeding them and watching them. Sometimes they would squawk really loud if you did not give them another piece fast enough, or worse yet if you or they accidentally dropped it and it fell into the bottom of their cage. God was very creative when he made parrots--they have such beautiful colors and very unique patterns.  

I got to feed an iguana two giant collard greens leaves. They were so cute tearing the leafy parts off the stalk. Did you know they are vegetarians? I remember seeing iguanas in Cozumel on our honeymoon.
There were 6-7 of them in the side yard of our hotel, and they were grazing on the grass like cows 

Isaac really enjoyed the parrots! He even got to hold this one!

Jason enjoyed holding this young parrot. He was kind of playful and kind of "hyper" like a toddler. 

Isaac could not get enough of feeding the parrots sunflower seeds! He kept wanting to feed them more and more! 

The smile says it all! 

Feeding parrots at the South Texas Botanical Gardens and Nature Center.

The botanical gardens had an entire green house filled with all different types of orchids. They were gorgeous! I love to take pictures of flowers so much! Here are a few I took of the orchids. 

We enjoyed a moment in the shade on this whimsical butterfly bench. 

Zinnias in the botanical gardens

Not sure what Type of flower this is, but it was really beautiful! 

Butterflies in the butterfly area of the botanical gardens.

Flower in the butterfly area in the botanical gardens. Not sure what type it was, but I love this very pretty color! 

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The playground was really cool, with a really tree house. The house part of the playset was built
on a really huge and really old tree stump from a redwood tree from California. 

Isaac loves any and all playgrounds!

A beautiful bushy clump of flowers in the botanical gardens. I don't know what type it was, but I snapped this picture of it.

I saw this and thought it was some well placed art. This sculpture blended in with this marshy area. So lovely! 

Becoming a butterfly. . . except the "mini-butterfly" was getting very tired and fussy. Good thing lunch and the hotel pool was next on the agenda, because that perked him up really quick! 

Furry Family Members

Do you have pets? Well, then you will totally love this post! Here is our herd of cats! They are a mother cat and her three kittens. We adopted Romeo, who had a twin sister named Juliet who we did not adopt, because she had already found another home. When we took Romeo home, we let him spend time both outside and inside. He would climb the huge live oak tree in our back yard all the time, and brought us "gifts" of rats from the right-of-way at the end of our cul-de-sac. He would spend time with the neighbor's big orange male cat, and they would both act territorial at times. We were so thrilled with the lifestyle we were giving our little male kitty --freedom to be outside and lots of cozy lap time inside. When the seasons changed, and spring time was in the air, we noticed Romeo out in the street with some other cats. 

It became very quickly apparent that Romeo was not  boy cat. He/She was frolicking with another cat in the street. Romeo must have really been "Juliet", because in a few months after the love fest in the street "he" had kittens. We did not plan to have kittens ever, and we should have had her spayed sooner, but since she was "male" in our minds we were not in any rush to take care of that surgery. We planned to do it with in a year of adopting him/her. It was too late to do anything about it once we realized our gender mistake. We felt bad to add more cats to the world when there are so many in shelters and in need of homes.  But what happened, happened. So Romeo (yes we kept her name, because by that point it was stuck) had four kittens, but one died shortly after birth. The other three kittens did great and were soo cute! Tommy was the only male kitten, and he had two beautiful sisters --Callie and Fluffy. I knew from the first time I saw Fluffy that I wanted to keep her. She is such a beautiful and unique looking cat and has the sweetest, most gentle personality. I just fell in love with her immediately. Callie and Tommy were up for adoption for several weeks, and some people wanted to come see them or think about adopting one or both of them, but something kept not working out. So, by the time they were a couple months old, we were much too attached to them all to think of giving them up or taking them to a shelter. So, we decided at that point to keep them. They have been such a wonderful part of our family, and we love them so much! They each have fun personalities and are very loving and playful.  

Tommy and Romeo share a sunny afternoon nap. The back of the love seat in the living room is a
favorite place to curl up and sleep for all the cats. Sometimes they are territorial and
only one is in "the spot" but usually Romeo makes room for any of her kittens. 

Tommy basking in the sun on the living room floor.

Yes, that look in Romeo's eyes is guilt. Clean laundry. She knows better . . . naughty Romeo!

A rare photo with all four cats in one spot!  

Callie checking out the view from Isaac's window.

Callie watching birds and squirrels out the back door.

Fluffy loves to perch up high on the ledge by the front door. She sometimes does some racing back and forth in the house and then does a flying leap up onto the ledge!  Then she gets this wild look in her eye and does it all over again! It's hilarious!! 

Tommy is chillin' out! 

Cozy nap time for Fluffy on the back of the couch. This is her favorite spot to sleep!

Romeo is as soft as she looks. Her fur feels like silk! 

Who says pressure washing isn't fun?

Can pressure washing the sidewalk in front of our house be fun? Of course!

Jason's sidewalk art! 

I drew the heart, which is mostly washed away! Who knew the pressure washer could be so much fun!?

Isaac is always eager to help Daddy in the yard! 

Time to get back to work ! 

The Ants Go Marching Two by . . .

It's incredible how fast crumbs accumulate under the couch cushions. We just recently started upping the frequency that we clean out that hidden area. It all started when we were watching TV and noticed something crawling and even nipping at our leg. We looked down and it was an ant, then another, and then we saw a little line of them marching in from the bottom corner of the back door.  We have never had ants inside our house before, and so this was definitely worrisome. I vacuumed them up right away, but then a few days later we saw them again, and this time Jason sprayed ant spray outside the back door to discourage them from coming inside.

This past Sunday, we saw some more ants, and did the same thing. Vacuum them up and spray the ant poison outside. On Monday, I was leaving the house to go to the gym, when I saw my neighbor on her porch and her son climbing in their hibiscus bush, which was strange, since he's a college student and doesn't "play" in the yard. I said hi and asked them what was going on. I thought it might be a stray puppy or kitten they were trying to get out from behind the bush. They said they were having problems with ants. Well, it was good to know that we weren't the only ones with ants in the house. We chatted about how they must be trying to find water in this extreme heat and drought conditions we have been having. And I told them they were not alone in this situation, and we had been exterminating our own little congress of ants. 

So, now that we know these little critters can get into our house, we are taking even more precautions to try to dissuade them from wanting to come in. Today I was babysitting three young children who came to play with my son. And they were all eating chips and cookies in the living room. I was following them around trying to keep the crumbs under control, and planning my "as-soon-as-they-leave-i'm-vacuuming" plan of action to hopefully stop this ant problem from going to the next level. It seems like it could be like an iceberg situation, where you see 10 ants, but there are 100 more hidden somewhere in the "nest".  Yikes!!! I sure hope they haven't built a nest yet.  I think those ants we have vacuumed up were just the search party out prospecting. Maybe their recent demise will stop any plans for real estate expansion project. We can only hope . . . and keep the vacuum plugged in. 

Prayer Journaling for Students

Have you ever prayed Scripture? I recently tried it and loved it! What a blessing!  I have been reading Psalm for my devotional time, and found so many verses that were the cry of my heart. I prayed those verses in a way that was personal and that experience has really touched my heart deeply. Try it, I think you will be blessed.

Speaking of praying Scripture, I found this wonderful list of verses to pray for students. I decided to pray these over my little soon-to-be kindergartner. Maybe you would like to pray them over your children too. Here is the graphic, and below it are the verses for you to begin praying the Scriptures specifically for your kids. They are from the New King James Version of the Bible.

Attitude: Psalm 19:14 -- "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."

Boldness: Psalm 27:1 -- "The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?"

Courage: John 1:9 -- "That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world."

Discernment: Philippians 1:4-10 -- ". . . always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ . . ."

Enthusiasm: Colossians 3:23 -- "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men . . ."

Friendliness: Proverbs 18:24 -- "A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Generosity: 2 Corinthians 9:7 -- "So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver."

Humility: Philippians 2:3-5 -- "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

Initiative: 1 John 3:18 -- "My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth."

Joyfulness: Philippians 4:4 -- "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!"

Knowledge: Proverbs 18:5 -- "It is not good to show partiality to the wicked, or to overthrow the righteous in judgment."

Listening: Proverbs 12:15 -- "The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise."

Maturity: 1 Corinthians 14:20 -- "Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature."

Neighbors: Mark 12:31 -- "And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these."

Overflow: Romans 15:13 -- "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Perseverance: Galatians 6:9 -- "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."

Quiet: Proverbs 29:11 -- "A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back."

Respect: Romans 12:10 -- "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another . . ."

Self-control: 2 Peter 1:5-7 -- "But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,  to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love."

Thankfulness: I Chronicles 16:34 -- "Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever."

Understanding: Psalm 119:130 --  "The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple."

Victory: Psalm 18:29 -- "For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall."

Wisdom: James 3:17 -- "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy."

Excellence: Proverbs 3:9 -- "Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of all your increase . . ."

Youthfulness: 1 Timothy 4:12 -- "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity."

Zeal: Romans 12:11 -- ". . . [do] not [be] lagging in diligence, [but be] fervent in spirit, serving the Lord . . ."