Surviving

I'm still here...barely.

Dealing with four kids all day while they get cabin fever is proving to be enough to make any sane woman question her sanity. Don't tell anyone, but I'm letting them have free rain over the TV, computer, and Wii just so I can survive this school break.

We had a lovely Christmas though and enjoyed our usual traditions.

Making Cookies for Santa. With two decorated cookies from
each girl, Santa rolled out of our house this year!

John and I got a string this year leading to a ping pong table down in our basement. So far it's been a hit with the kids and I am remembering how much I love ping pong. I have many fond memories playing with my family growing up - especially my dad when we originally used a table made out of plywood and saw horses.

Orion is a Ute!

The biggest question haunting me lately was whether or not Orion (my recently returned Kestrel) was a Ute or a Cougar. Now I know; he's a Ute! Now to convince him to become an Aggie! :)

During Orion's life on the lam, a kind photography couple from Murray who frequently visits the Farmington Bay Wildlife Refuge kept tabs on him. I would receive several updates each week. To repay their kindness, I brought Orion to work yesterday and stopped by their house with him. It was a good chat and they were quite excited to see him up close.

While at work, I placed the sports section of the SL Trib under his perch to keep things clean in the office. I didn't notice at the time that the left half of the front page was an article discussing the U's chances at the Poinsettia Bowl, and the right half was an article discussing the Y's chances at the Las Vegas Bowl. Near the end of the day, one of the guys in the office pointed out that Orion had "left his mark" repeatedly on the article discussing BYU's chances at the Las Vegas Bowl. It got quite the rise from my Cougar manager.

Christmas Fun

We have been having fun getting ready for Christmas around here, which has meant some fun old and new traditions.

Gingerbread House Making - a fun tradition we have been doing for many years now.

A New Tradition - the Christmas Village in Ogden with the Rimingtons. Dozens of small houses are decorated for Christmas. You peer through the windows and enjoy all of the sights and lights. We were there for an hour and didn't get to see everything! This is definitely a tradition I would like to continue in years to come.

He's back!

It has taken 3 months, but Orion is back home now!

Back in mid-September, we had some friends over one weekend evening. Orion had just finished molting his feathers and I was going to start training again the following Monday. I got Orion out for some up-and-close time with the kids from both families. Kimberly adores Orion and had been desperate to hold him. (Kim has talked repeatedly of becoming a falconer when she turns 14.) She knows enough about falconry that I let her hold him.

How did he escape? Good question...we were outside the whole time. Since there is little interaction during "the molt," most falconry birds revert to near wild. As Kim gave Orion back to me to put in the mews, there was a brief moment where neither Kim nor I had a good hold on him, and he bolted for the nearest tree. We weren't paying close enough attention to what we were doing!

A couple weeks later, I found Orion again...one block south of where I originally trapped him in Farmington! This started a two-and-a-half month process of trying to recapture Orion. Most of the small farm owners in the area were very generous letting me roam their pastures to set my traps. The biggest problem was the abundance of prey; my two mice in the trap weren't appealing enough. It was the recent storms that made prey scarce and my two mice more appealing.

Two other falconers were helping the day I recaptured him. He had garnered some limited celebrity that caught the DWR's attention. We actually caught him three times in a 90 minute period. Obviously, he escaped the traps twice. The third time we caught him, we actually caught the falconry jesses; he nearly escaped a third time.

I haven't heard Kim squeal in excitement that loud in a long time! It's great to have him back. He's already flying on call and we should be ready to hunt together shortly.

Pass the Pigs Feet Please

We went to a party on Friday night with some friends. Best part - adults only (other than our little babe, but she just sat in our arms the whole time good as gold. Why can't my other kids do that?)

The highlight of the evening was when someone opened the pig's feet we brought for the white elephant game. While most everyone was gasping at the sight, my friend who is part Hispanic and grew up in L.A. replied, "They are actually quite good. Here, let me try one!" She ate it like a chicken drumstick, even licking her fingers! Several other party goers attempted to eat one, but they all spit their bite out. Pigs feet are nothing compared to the other things true Mexicans enjoy eating (cow's tongue, stomach...etc.) I guess it's not much different than Japanese eating Sushi. All in how you look at it. I have a pretty weak stomach, but when John introduced me to sushi, I fell in love with the eel roll (cooked of course).

You go girl - especially since no one else could do it!!

Let There Be Lights.

Look closely - Can you find what's wrong with this picture?

No, the tree is not crooked, but can you tell where the old set of lights begin and the new LED lights begin? Probably not hard to figure out, huh.

Replacing old lights with led lights is not cheap, so we decided to do half at a time. The other half will be purchased next year, at which time our tree will then match.