God's Creations

If you've read my blog regularly, or even a bit, I think it's pretty obvious that I love the outdoors (not necessarily being outdoors, but I love looking at them). This weekend, Mia and I have had the house to ourselves. Jesse is in Sun Prairie with his brother Dave, and the older two kids are with their dad (actually they've both spent the weekend at friends' houses). So yesterday, I worked on laundry and spent the day sitting on the front porch with Mia. We played games, and listened to birdcalls in our bird book. I mentioned last week that we have two turkey vultures living across the road from us. They are an amazing sight with their six-foot wingspans. I'll see a large shadow drifting down the driveway and look up to see this enormous bird. My jaw drops every time I see one.

I have a hummingbird feeder on the corner of the porch. A male ruby-throated hummingbird kept buzzing around, perching on the grape arbor and then flitting in for a bite. I was watching him as he zipped from perch to perch on the feeder when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted one of the vultures. It swooped over the road and the field back and forth. So in one look, I could take in the tiny 2 inch body of the hummingbird and this immense soaring scavenger. It was a wonderful reminder about the different creations of God.

Then in the afternoon while hanging up the clothes in the backyard, I spotted the Northern Harrier that's been around. It floats so effortlessly, it almost looks like it's going to fall at any moment, like a kite, but then the wind catches its wings and up it goes again.

Last night for supper Mia had chocolate ice cream and I had bagged Chinese food (hers was better), and then I gave us both matching manicures and pedicures. We played several board games before she collapsed sound asleep next to me during Night at the Museum.

After church, Mia and I had to run Molly into Oconto Falls so she could sing in the choir at graduation. Just past my in-laws house, about 1/2 mile away from our house, I saw something black on the side of the road. We have a potbellied pig that runs around loose, so I slowed way down to take a look. Instead, imagine our surprise to see a huge full-grown black bear sitting calmly next to a telephone pole just over 10 feet away from us. Yes, I know that I should have driven away as quickly as I could, but I was so stunned to see this animal and have it look me right in the eyes, I couldn't move. I was freaking out telling the girls to look when it got up and trotted slowly away over the field. It turned around every so often to keep an eye on us. At some point, Molly took a picture of it on her cellphone, but all you can see is a large black dot in the middle of the field. It was AMAZING! It's something to see one in the zoo, but when you see it up close in the wild, the adrenaline rush is a bit much. I called my in-laws, then Jesse, then my mom while Molly frantically texted her new boyfriend Jesse. It made my day for certain! The bear in this picture is much skinnier than the one we saw, the the nose on ours was very brown, but this is the best I could find.

I think it will be just Mia and I again tonight. More board games, ice cream, and movies for sure.