I was laying in bed this morning and I could hear lots of birds chirping in the backyard. I love that sound! As I listened I kept hearing another sound but I wasn’t sure what it was. When I got up and looked I saw a woodpecker. I have only seen him around a few [...]
Doesn’t this lizard that Lily pulled out of the pool this afternoon look a lot like the lizard that I photographed for the post earlier today? Hmm..
Hopefully you read the story about The Baby Bird Rescuer (if not click here). If you did then then I need to add to the story. Not long after putting him in the basket and attaching it to the tree we saw two really pretty red birds loitering around the area. We kept on watching [...]
Lily went to her dad’s house last night so I was on my own. I will admit that what I usually do after dropping her off is head home and be super duper lazy. On my way home I plan in my head what I’m eating for dinner (just in case I have to stop [...]
Last week Lily was outside playing in the yard while I was doing some stuff inside. Before I knew it she came bolting in the door and had a funny look on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she said “there is something in the bushes”. I told her it was probably [...]
Last week Lily was outside playing in the yard while I was doing some stuff inside. Before I knew it she came bolting in the door and had a funny look on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she said “there is something in the bushes”. I told her it was probably [...]
It seems like I have been on a kick lately about things in our backyard. I have one more guy to share with you. These guys are called Mediterranean House Geckos and you can see them every night. They are nocturnal and hang out on both our front porch and on the back side of [...]
We see these guys running around the yard, in the trees, etc every single day but I have never seen them doing this. I found these frisky little critters out on the back porch. Hmmm. I went online and this is what I learned about them : Often mistaken for chameleons, the green anole [...]
A couple of weeks ago I told you guys that we have some sneaky squirrels in our backyard. If you don’t remember click here to see them hanging from the bird feeder. About a week ago I bought a new feeder that claimed to be squirrel proof. The exact name was the Perky-Pet Squirrel Stumper. [...]
After school today Lily was sitting at the kitchen table finishing up her homework when she said “Mom, there are a lot of birds out there”. I told her that when she finished her homework we could go out and take a look. After she finished we went outside and sat on the porch swing [...]
I have told you before that Lily is pretty fearless when it comes to animals… even dead ones. Right before I put her to bed last night I looked out the window and I saw a bird laying on the deck. It was right below the windows so I assume it must have flown into [...]
I was looking out the window today and I spotted this on our back fence. I didn’t want to scare him by trying to get too close. I grabbed my camera and my big lens and slowly walked out on the deck. This picture was taken from about 40 yards away. I assume he is [...]
I have told you a bunch of times about my plants that live out on back deck. They are very happy and are growing like crazy but there is one problem. The squirrels that live in our backyard are constantly messing with the plants. Maybe it’s because that is the only digable dirt in the back but [...]
We have found lots of stuff in our pool in the past. Leaves, bugs, squirrels, little lizards, scorpions, crickets, grass hoppers… but never a lizard this big. OMG is all I have to say. I was to afraid to scoop him out so I called out the fearless 9 year old that I live with. This thing [...]
Today while I was vacuuming in the front entry way I opened the front door and this little guy came running in. Every once in awhile we find these little guys running around the house and I am totally ok with it. We have never found one of their dead bodies so I assume they somehow go [...]
This morning the air conditioning guys showed up as promised. I guess we are gonna have to consider their $89 visit as educational. After they checked the units upstairs and outside, wanna know what they told me? The problem is the air conditioning/furnace air filters… the dirty dirty air filters. It seems like a crazy [...]
As you can probably tell I have been obsessed lately with the animals our our backyard. I love the fact that I can look out the window at any time of the day and see things running and flying around. Mostly its birds and lizards but I have also seen a bunny and a roadrunner [...]
I was sitting at the breakfast table this morning and when I looked out the window I saw this squirrel. I am so glad I had my camera sitting on the table. What the heck is he doing? I was able to quietly walk outside and get a better picture. The sun was shining like [...]
Today I was outside watering the plants on the deck with I heard something shuffling through the foliage out in the yard. I knew it was big because I could totally hear the leaves going crunch, crunch, crunch. Usually when I post pictures of the backyard you see the pool. Well if you are on [...]
It all started a couple months ago when I noticed a little water spot on the master bedroom ceiling. I mentioned it to JP and he went upstairs and looked and sure enough the same spot was on the ceiling on the second floor. We also had an issue with a puddle in our side yard [...]
I was standing outside on the back deck today and I noticed a lizard sitting there. I looked at him for a little while because he was a different type of lizard than I usually see back there. I ran inside to grab my camera and when I came back this guy was sitting there instead. I seriously could have [...]
In my opinion one of the absolute best things to do in Washington is to go to the Olympic Game Farm. I have been there a bunch of times through the years and I am never disapointed. Most people go to the Olympic Peninsula to go to the Olympic National Forest or to see the town of Forks, [...]
When I was younger (like pre-Lily days) and lived in Washington we use to spend a lot of weekend time in the forest. There is so much lush green forest, tons of trails and endless things to see and do. One of my favorite things was always the Ice Caves. So on Thursday night when we [...]
A: To Keep Their Nuts Warm! Ha ha Did I make you laugh? There were lots of squirrels running around in the backyard today. I was able to grab my camera and my long lense and get this guy on film! He seemed to be hanging out with a squirrel about half his size. Maybe [...]
Last night Lily and Cameron were swimming around in the pool while Crystal and I sat on the pool deck talking. All of the sudden Lily said “Mom, look what I found”. I have told you before that we have lots of wild life in our backyard but this is a new one. I almost [...]
Last fall when JP and I were cleaning out our pantry in the kitchen together we found a hummingbird feeder and food. Neither JP nor I know where it came from but it was there. I have never had a hummingbird feeder before and I had never seen that many in real life so I didn’t know [...]
Today was one of our favorite days of our vacation so far. We took so many great photos that I have decided to break this up into two postings. We covered a lot of ground today and explored the greater NW portion of Michigan. When we woke up this morning the first thing Lily said [...]
Check out the map below. We put in a solid 8+ hour day today of being a tourist and driving really far! Lily slept for the first couple hours of our trip while we went from St Ignace, MI to Paradise, MI. Right before we drove into Paradise I saw Lake Superior. Sure she was sleeping [...]
JP, Lily and I are so crazy about the beach that we decided we need to spend some more time there before heading home today. We packed up the condo and headed into town really quick to buy a couple things before we hit the beach. Lily was almost eaten by a shark. And we took the [...]
We hung out in the pool until it was time to get ready for Lily’s volleyball game. I have no idea why they schedule games for 4:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday but that was this weeks game time. Here is Me, Teylor and Shauna getting ready to go. We clean up pretty well, [...]
So this afternoon I was in the kitchen and when I looked out the window toward the pool I saw this. I thought to myself “What the hell?”. I seriously thought he was dead!! Of course in true me form I grabbed my camera and headed outside to take a picture of it. I snapped off [...]
I was outside today watering my plants and I saw this guy. When I first saw him I literally let out a little scream because I wasn’t expecting him to be sitting there. I immediately went inside to grab the camera.
I want to warn you that the picture below is pretty gross. If you don’t like dead things stop at the first picture please! Everyone remembers Rockey & Bullwinkle, right? We here are some awesome quotes I found! Bullwinkle: Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. Rocky: Again? Bullwinkle: Presto! Lion: [...]
I guess when I think about Arizona lakes are not one of the first things that come to mind. We decided we wanted to go boating so I did a little bit of googling and figured out that the largest lake near Phoenix is Lake Pleasant. According to the website they have over 10,000 acres [...]
In true Lily form she woke me up at 6:30am to tell me that she was hungry. The hotel restaurant doesn’t open until 7:00am so I told her we could go for a walk on the beach. It was super foggy when we woke up but to quote JP “Even the worst day at the [...]
So many parties, so little time. Me and JP talked a few times about what to do for the super bowl. When we woke up this morning we decided it was a stay in bed and watch tv all day kinda day. That is exactly what we did. Even Cheeky watched the game with us! GO [...]
You know the old saying about the grass being greener on the other side? Well that is not the case behind our house. If you go to the back fence on the right side of our yard there is a gate that opens up into the green belt. When my brother James came to visit [...]
Once we got to West Yellowstone we rented snowmobiles from Back Country Snowmobile Adventures. The rental was not nearly as much as I thought it might be. We paid a little over $100 per snowmobile and we could use them for the entire day. The people were friendly and it didn’t take long until they [...]
Today me and a co-worker hosted the Halloween Costume Contest at work! There were lots of great costumes! The first place individual costume was someone dressed as Brett Michaels! Here is a picture of me and my co-host. I had a freaky experience yesterday and today Lily and JP solved the mystery of what happened. [...]
This morning when I was done folding the clean towels I took the pool towels outside to the pool house and I saw this in the water. Seriously! Thank God JP was not far away because I think I started to freak out. Sure it was dead and at the bottom of the pool….. but that means [...]
Today I helped JP with the front yard work. I spent about an hour chopping down weeds with the hedge trimmer while he mowed. By the time we were done we took 3 wheelbarrows of stuff out of the yard. I even pushed the wheelbarrow once!
We have been hearing the cicada for a few months now. I remember the first time JP heard them he was like “What the heck is that sound?”. They are so loud and I am convinced that like a million of them live in the trees in our backyard. Today when we headed outside to [...]
Tonight JP and me were driving down Bitters Road and I asked him to turn down a road we never turn down. I showed him a magical place that I recently discovered called Hill Country Village. This is a neighborhood that I would love to live in! As we drove around we saw lots and [...]
As of this moment I am officially the bravest person that I know of today! It all started a couple days ago I saw a wasp that kept flying in between some bricks on the outside of our house. We don’t have wasp spray but we do have bug spray so I sprayed the brick [...]
Back in April I did a posting about our pet goldfish. Since then I have learned that the reason algae grows in water fountains is because of the direct sunlight. Today it was time to clean the fountain… here is a before picture. Can you believe there are fish living in that water! That is [...]
I am sure that by now everyone knows about the oil that is shooting into the Gulf of Mexico. I told Lily about the oil spill today and we wanted to find pictures of the animals that are being affected. Sadly here is a pretty good example of what BP is doing to the gulf coast. [...]
Although we have seen them lots of times we still get excited when they show up. This is the first thing JP and I noticed when we pulled up at home today. Here is a picture of me and said lizard while I was on the phone with Bob. Sorry Bob but this posting should explain [...]
When we pulled up to the house today I noticed these flowers growing on a tree in the front yard. I have no idea what they are but they are beautiful! They are growing upside down on the tree like that. While me and Amanda were admiring the flowers Lily found a snail. And another And [...]
This is just way to cute not to share. This morning I gave Lily money so that she could buy some books at the book fair at her school. After I picked her up from school we were in the truck and I asked her what books she bought. She pulled her books out and the [...]
