Family...

So you can ask anyone... I don't really LOVE nature...

For Example:

If you ask Husband, he will tell you countless stories of times I've screamed in terror of a spider or bug (of any size) crawling around. OR the times when he wasn't around to save me from those horrible things that I cupped them for him to kill later.

OR

You can ask my house mom in Australia of the countless times I would scream bloody murder because a spider was around (I never knew which one could ultimately bite me and claim my life... there are tons of killing animals in Australia). This ultimately led her to leaving a can of some pretty sweet bug killer on my bed side table....

OR

You can ask my former students from St. John about the time I told them about the killer PRAYING MANTIS! It was hugging my water bottle.... and looking at me with KILL in its eyes. So much so that I hit it out of the garage (with a tennis racket) so that I would no longer be threatened with such a bug! They are super duper dangerous... (not really... I just really hate all bugs that much, and truly feel my life is at risk with them alive near me).

But what I hate more than bugs are BIRDS (can I get an AMEN from someone on this one? Wichita friend L I know I can get one from you... we've been to the zoo together). Anyway... they are super scary. They have weird eyes. They poop on EVERYTHING. They swoop at your face/head. AND they are super dirty! Anyway... They are horrible... why am I telling you all this? So I can set the stage for the real story:

REAL STORY:
During our week in Mexico we came back to a dove/pigeon (Husband looked it up and turns out they are pretty much the same, but pigeons are bigger... and they don't live in the country... beings that I don't know what ours is... or if we are in the CITY or COUNTRY... I went with dove/pigeon) in our hanging planter. Now... the plant was dead (go figure.. we suck at plants) but there was a nesting bird. At first.. I was annoyed (I hate birds). Then as time went on.. I thought about how the plant was never coming back... so we might as well just let the bird have it's babies. As time has gone on... we've watched this mom perch on her little eggs day in and day out.

Fast forward to the present weekend... crazy me thought we should get to a house project since it's been a while since we've done one, and since we have no guests coming we had lots of time. So we decided to resurface our deck (that is a whole other blog discussion!) Anyway... We had to move (temporarily) the planter to paint behind it and clean and sand it. So when we lowered it down off of its appointed hanger we were happily surprised to see one baby had hatched and the other egg was so darn small and cute! I actually felt a bit responsible for it... Even though I had nothing to do with it at all. I felt like an aunt to these little guys. So we painted and returned the planter. Now... I've heard if the mom can smell people on their eggs they will not return to the nest... So I was a bit concerned that the mom would not return to the remaining egg and baby. This would be sad at the expense of my already dead plant, and the time I've vested in watching this mom do her thing... Plus.. it's a bird that I've come to kinda love (just don't fly at my head or poop on my deck sister).

All day long today I've been keeping my eyes peeled at that planter to make sure she would return. Don't worry.. She did. The other baby has hatched and mom is proudly perched over them! As much as I hate birds, I found myself full vested in this family! Hope to get pictures for you to see how cute they are! :)