Argh, it's been so long since I've blogged. But then I wonder, who really reads these things. Nevertheless, I press on! :)

We renamed Hannah's parakeets. The green one escaped twice in a week, so I dubbed it "Houdini," and Hannah decided to rename the blue one "Isadora." So now they are Houdini and Izzy. They are the most cheerful little creatures and bring us so much joy! Who'd have thought? We spend quite a bit of time taming them. No, they don't bite, and if they DO nip your finger, it doesn't hurt at all. We are working with them to train them to sit on our fingers and not be afraid of us.

Houdini was a natural student. He learned quickly and in one day was sitting on my finger while we watched "My Fair Lady." Izzy was much more nervous; it took her a week to finally sit on my finger in their cage for a full minute. We're very patient, and last night it paid off. Izzy sat on my finger, outside of the cage for many minutes. The thing is, the birds don't like to be separated; Houdini flies back into the cage if I take him out too quickly. They chirp and call to each other and when reunited, they smooch a lot (it looks like smooching to me).

I held Houdini, little green feathered creature perched on my finger, tiny black eyes peering at my face, head cocked to the side, listening, and I marveled at him. What an amazing thing to make! What fun God must have had, designing birds. Such brilliant colored feathers, tiny, tiny feet that grip my finger so firmly and that weird chirruping they make that I cannot reproduce.

So, that's been our experience for the past two weeks...working with these birds and enjoying the heck out of them.

Yesterday Hannah had her braces tightened. It'd been a dull, grey day and both of us were sort of "blah," when the receptionist told us there was a new smoothie place in town. Our eyes brightened, and as soon as we left, we took off for a smoothie. Man! Was it good. Peaches, dark cherries, soymilk and ice. I did a leisurely jog/walk around the neighborhood while Hannah helped Maddie do her homework next door.

Now it's the weekend, and I'm wrapping up the set of brochures I've been designing for WIM. Only one more to do and then I have to find a way to put them all together in one packet along with our promotional DVD. What kind of folder would that be? How much will it cost? What if we used an envelope instead with a custom label on it? Ideas rolling around in my head...

There are other ideas for Deep Thoughts or incidents I'd like to share, but I think I'll save them for our newsletter coming up in a couple of weeks. And honestly, at the moment, I can't recall any of them. Cheerio, and have a great weekend! --Rachael