The Critter Saga

The story just keeps getting more interesting...

I wrote about how we had to take our Honda Odyssey in to the dealer because some check engine lights were coming on. They found a nest inside the engine built by some kind of critter. There were wires chewed up, which supposedly got fixed, only when we came to pick it up the next morning the check engine lights were back on again.

Well, they checked it out again on Monday morning and said they think the critter (whatever it is) is still hiding in the van somewhere, because there were a few more leaves in the engine and the exact same wires were chewed through again. Believable? Possibly, I suppose, but it is all rather odd. Brian's more skeptical than I am because he doesn't see how or where a critter big enough to carry some of these pieces of wood and mulch could hide (and survive) while the van has been driven quite a ways and not be seen by anyone checking it out. This time, they said they had to order the wire harness part needed to fix the wire and it would take a few days to come in.

Brian drove down to the dealership today to talk to the mechanics and have them show him the van. They did tell us they wouldn't charge us any extra to fix the wires a second time (which was very good news). However, the bigger concern is making sure whatever has been chewing the wires is gone and won't come back. They decided that Brian would take the van home for now and suggested a garden center where we could go and get some repellant stuff to spray in the engine.

This evening, Brian sprayed the repellent throughout the engine (it is actually a deer repellant, but the people at the garden place told him it worked well for this situation too). Then we thought maybe we should spray the engine of the Xterra as well, just in case.

We popped the hood of the Xterra and there was a collective gasp as we saw this:

We could not believe how much "stuff" there was stuffed in the engine! It filled a good part of a plastic shopping bag. Most of it was mulch type pieces (some of them quite big), but there were pieces of bushes and berries and a couple of very interesting things, like this little plastic army guy stuffed way in there:

And this piece of mouse (or rat?) skeleton (yuck!!):

Brian and Julie worked for quite a while digging stuff out of all the little cracks and crevices -- not to mention the big pile that was sitting right on top in a very neat and round nest. It really looked like a bird's nest on top!

We got most of it cleaned out and sprayed it as well, but I sure wish we knew what kind of critter we were dealing with (or how many) and if it was even still around. Our best guess is a squirrel, although we haven't seen any at all around our house. It's weird that we had so many squirrels in The Woodlands, yet no one we knew of ever had a problem with nests being built in their car engines.

Now we really need to get our garage cleaned out!

Looking for the Light

The subject of my online photography class this week is light, which is the most crucial aspect of photography. So I have really been trying to pay attention to the lighting and am working on getting pictures with good natural light (not having to use the camera's flash).

One of my goals is to take good close-up portraits of the kids that I can hang in the family room in the new black 8x10 frames I just bought. For the most part so far, they've been pretty willing subjects and put up with me and the camera. (We'll see how long that lasts!)

I've tried taking both some inside and outside pictures and am still not sure if I've found "the light." I am learning lots of things, however, like how I can try to "blur" the background and how to change settings on my camera.

So here are a few portraits I've taken recently -- I'd love any opinions as to ones you like or ones you think might be too dark, etc. (I do realize I have a problem with reflections on McKay's glasses, so I've asked my teacher for suggestions on correcting that.)

Any opinions, critiques, suggestions, favorites? (Pretty please?) :-)

Odyssey Adventures

A couple of days ago, I noticed some lights on the dashboard of our Odyssey van. First, the "engine malfunction" light was on and then the "TCS" light starting coming on every time I hit about 30-35mph and would stay on until the engine was turned off. So we decided we'd better take it in to get checked out.

We dropped the van off at the Honda dealer on Friday morning. Brian picked us up and we all had to squeeze in the Xterra to get back home (there are only 5 seatbelts in the Xterra, so McKay had to sit in the very back area -- so of course the girls whined about why they couldn't ride back there too).

I got a call Friday afternoon from the Honda service guy. He said that apparently some kind of critter decided to build a nest up inside our engine and also started chewing on wires. He said it almost looked like there were two nest areas -- they pulled out a bunch of sticks and leaves (some of them were pretty thick pieces of wood). He thought maybe it was a squirrel, but we haven't seen any squirrels around our house (we don't have any trees). We've seen lots of rabbits and turtles, but I don't think either of those would be carrying sticks up inside an engine. The joys of living in the country! (I guess we need to hurry and clean out the garage so we can park in it.)

He called me back a little later and said all the wires were fixed and they drove it and it wasn't "throwing any more codes" so we could come and pick it up. We didn't get back there before they closed yesterday, so we went down this morning to get it.

We got back down to the dealer, paid a few hundred dollars for the wires they supposedly fixed and I loaded up the girls in the van and Brian and McKay left in the Xterra. Wouldn't you know it, a few hundred yards down the road and both of those lights came right back on. Aargh! So we turned back around and took it back to the dealer. He wasn't sure what was going on and the mechanic who worked on it wasn't in today, so they can't look at it again until Monday. I guess we get to be a one-car family and squeeze in the Xterra a few more times.

Piano Music

With our beautiful new piano, I've decided I need to start playing more often! I was looking for some new music to try and found a new favorite piano composer/arranger - Paul Cardall. He is sort of a new-age composer who writes original pieces but has also done arrangements of Primary songs and hymns. I love them!

I discovered that I could purchase the "digital" version of his sheet music from his Web site, so I first downloaded the "Primary Worship" book. I just love his arrangements. I can't play all of them (yet!) and I need to practice to play them very well, but I've been able to get through several of them well enough to enjoy them. :-)

One thing that is a little unique about his arrangements is that in several of his songs, he does sort of a "variation on the theme." In the middle of the song, you get a totally different melody (usually more new-age sounding) and then after a bit it goes back to the melody of the original song.

Last night I downloaded his first book of Hymn arrangements and I'm excited to try playing them -- we'll see how many I can get through! It is great incentive for me to practice -- something I haven't done enough of for several years now.

You can also buy CDs of his music if you just want to listen to it. I just wanted to share!

Decorating!

I've finally made a little progress in the decorating department this past week, especially since Brian's sister Julie has been here to help (she is our fabulous decorator!).

Our dining room table and chairs finally came in and we got them all assembled:


I don't get the see the pretty table too much, however, as we have been keeping it covered with a tablecloth to prevent crayons and markers from making their way onto the table. The girls are constantly coloring and as the tablecloth already shows, they aren't always too careful around the edges. :-) We're hoping to get some barstools for the high counter and some plastic placemats or something (since the counter is tile and makes for a bumpy surface) and try to "train" the girls to sit up there and color.

McKay and Hannah have already complained that they don't like the new chairs -- they say the curved design in the back of the chair feels really weird/uncomfortable to them. Hopefully they'll get used to them!

As part of the dining room decorating process, we moved our black "kid art supply" cabinet out into the family room. Hopefully this will also help encourage the girls to color at the closer counter (once we get barstools) rather than over at the table. Julie helped me figure out what to do with the walls here (in case you're wondering Dad, the door on the far right goes into the kid's bedroom area). And the thing on top with the big antenna is our new weather radio which is supposed to keep us alerted to any tornado warnings or that sort of thing.


Here's a close-up of the wall. We got the vinyl lettering from my friend Lorie before she moved (she also did the lettering design in Hayley's old bedroom if any of you remember that).


Finally, our bedroom! I have been wanting to replace our bedding for awhile now and since the blue didn't really match the paint color in this room, it was a good time to finally get it done! Julie helped me pick some out and was my super seamstress in "stretching" the bedskirt (it wasn't quite wide enough for some reason, so she added a strip of fabric down the middle).


We are also planning to get a headboard (hopefully soon). We saw some pretty metal ones on sale in the Garden Ridge ad, so Julie might grab one for us and bring it up the next time they come (since there isn't a Garden Ridge here).

We ordered a goose down comforter and put it inside a white duvet cover we found at Target. Julie found the white bedskirt on clearance at TJ Maxx. I ordered some white flannel sheets (also a set of sateen sheets which haven't come yet). Julie also found the little pink pillow to add a touch of color. I am so excited to try it out tonight -- it looks so comfy and cozy!

Bed of Weeds

The girls went outside after dinner tonight and I decided I'd better go check on them after a while when I hadn't seen them out the kitchen windows. I went out the front door and immediately heard Hayley crying (quite hysterically). She was "locked" in the bike trailer that McKay had left out in the driveway and couldn't get out from the inside. Apparently they were playing and Hannah had snapped the net cover on and then left with Courtney somewhere, forgetting all about poor Hayley. I don't know how long she had been crying -- poor thing!

After I got her out and she calmed down, we went to find the other two girls and see what happened. They were on the back side of the house, in the small fenced dog run area (not that we have a dog, but apparently the previous owners did). They were lying in the "grass" and gazing up at the sky. Apparently they couldn't hear Hayley's cries for help.

To make Hayley feel better, they offered to make her a "bed of weeds" too. And yes, we really need to mow the area around the house. This dog run area has more weeds or something than other parts around the front of the house. But I guess they make a soft bed (at least until the bugs start crawling on you!)

Evening Walk

Yesterday evening after dinner we all took a little walk around the property. Brian wanted to see if he could get exact location readings from his GPS in the different corners of our property. I decided to bring along the camera -- I ended up taking lots of flower pictures (see my previous post), but took some others as well.

Here is everyone walking towards the NE property corner. (Julie and her two youngest boys were out with us.) Most of our property is covered with these bushes (not sure what exact kind they are -- does anyone know?)

The area right behind our house (on the north side) slopes down quite a bit. Here is a view looking up at the back of our house from the bottom of this hill.

Another view of the back of our house from the bottom of the hill. If you look closely, you might be able to see Hannah and her cousin Austin climbing up the hill to go back to the house. Hannah ended up stepping in an ant mound or something and getting several bites on her ankle, as well as stepping in some kind of cactus plant and getting lots of little prickles in her foot. She was not a happy girl!

A few close-ups of the kids (except Hannah, who was in the house recovering).

Hayley and her face that didn't get washed after dinner:

Courtney riding her bike in the wind:

And McKay with his brand new glasses! He ended up needing a stronger prescription as we guessed (it actually changed quite a bit for less than a year) and we got him two pairs.

Flora

We were out walking around the property a little bit this evening and I decided to take along my camera. I saw some interesting wild plants and flowers, so I thought I'd play with the close-up mode on my camera a little. Then I thought it might be fun to take pictures of all the different flowers around our house. We have some beauties! Some are just growing wild and others along the front were planted there (not by us). They are all so pretty (and a couple are pretty prickly too) -- enjoy!

This first set were all growing wild out in the fields:

A big patch of sunflowers blowing in the wind!


This next group are the ones planted in the areas around the front and side of the house:


The bees love this strong-smelling lavender bush (not sure if that is officially what it is, but that's what it smells like!)


Courtney was the first to notice that these purple flowers are "closed" up most of the day and open up a lot more in the evening hours.

I have no idea what these red and yellow flowers are, but I think they are so neat!

And I'll end with a picture of the sky as it was getting close to sunset:

What a beautiful world Heavenly Father has given us!

Ant Invasion

Our friendly neighborhood winged ants are back (again). This afternoon, I came home from taking McKay to the eye doctor (he's finally getting new glasses) and looked out on the back patio to see the swarms of ants EVERYWHERE. They went all around the patio to the side by the kitchen -- they were on the concrete, in the landscaped area, all over the railroad ties (that create a "border" for the landscaping, all over the roof, in the grass, flying all around, EVERYWHERE!

I'm pretty sure this is some kind of mating thing -- and it always seems to happen a few days after it rains. We apparently have a "nest" of these ants somewhere nearby that they are coming out of. The last time we had a big ant problem (4th of July), they were mostly dead when we found them. Today, they were very much alive -- moving all over, so much that you could hear a buzzing sound when you went outside.

Even though I have a big "yuck" factor with these ants, I did venture outside with my zoom lens to try taking some pictures of them along the railroad ties.

Fortunately, I only found a handful inside the house today. I can handle them better when they stay outside. I just keep thinking that surely their mating season is over by now so these swarms will just go away.

Snake Story

The girls came running inside this morning screaming that there was a snake. We have been told there are rattlesnakes around here, so they know (hopefully) to be careful about snakes and not pick them up like they do the turtles.

We all went out and spotted the snake hiding in a bush off our patio:

It appeared to be about 4 feet long. We didn't know what kind it was so Brian decided to take a shovel to it (sorry if there are any snake lovers out there).

After the poor snake was gone, we put it in a box and tried to figure out what kind it was. Brian even took it down to the apartments to see if anyone there knew. The general consensus was that it was a basic garden snake (I think) and not poisionous. In fact, one of the apartment workers who is from Korea (I think) asked if she could have the snake so she could cook it up to eat! (And yes, she did take it home with her!)

A Few Weekend Shots

I've been taking more pictures this weekend. Our challenge was to take pictures inspired by the word "blue" (in any sense it inspired us). Here are a couple of the ones I took:

I also tried taking one of the homemade rootbeer we made after we added dry ice:

And, I decided to post my sunrise picture for my class instructor to critique to see how it could have been improved. This was her comment:

When your camera's meter is reading a scene like this, it sees a lot of light and a lot of dark. It tries to find a happy medium. Since there was more light than dark, it exposed it to have it darker than maybe it truly was. I think the colors are beautiful. Try cropping out about half of that dark bottom and see how you like it. You hit the rule of thirds perfectly here but I think a more severe crop may make this more dramatic. It really is beautiful.

So I tried her cropping suggestion, and I do quite like the results. What do you think?

I also decided to upload my double rainbow picture as my second picture this week because I'd really like to know how that could have turned out better and brighter.

In other news, Julie & John and their two boys are still here with us (they've been here since last Tuesday, I think). John's been doing some work at the apartments and Julie's been helping me shop and decorate. We got some new bedding for our bed (bought some local and ordered some online) -- I am so excited to see it all put together! I'll be sure to put some pictures up. We also finally hung a few pictures up on the wall today.

And, our dining room table and chairs arrived -- hooray! I love the table and the extra room! (Picture coming soon.)

Finally, Brian and I both got callings in our ward today. I was called as a "Primary Worker," specifically for now to play the piano and possibly fill in to teach as needed. I am totally happy behind the piano and Courtney & Hayley went into Primary easier today (i.e. only a few tears instead of many) because I was going to stay in there. Brian got called to be one of the Elder's Quroum instructors (switching off with another teacher). He also got asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting next week!

It's going to be a busy Monday tomorrow -- cleaning, swimming lessons, errands and more! Have a great week!