Hawk Eyes

When it comes to eyesight, I'm pretty much blind.  The eye doctor once told me that my vision is around 20/200 (where most people can see something at 20 ft away, it looks like it's about 200 ft away to me).  So, I'm pretty much legally blind.

Even though my eyesight is awful without glasses or contacts, a blind person could of spotted what I saw this morning.

I was going about my lazy Sunday, and walked into my bathroom and spotted this:

What is that! An owl?? Once I got closer to the window, I was convinced there was an owl just perched up on a tree right near our backyard.  I freaked out and had Ryan come look, and he confirmed it was NOT an owl, and instead an animal eating, ravenous, sharp clawed HAWK.

Just a few days prior, some of our neighbors told us that they saw a hawk swoop into a tree down the street that was hosting a squirrels nest and IT FLEW AWAY WITH A SQUIRREL.  They said they have been at their house for 15 years and have never seen anything like it.  Immediately I start to think, "THIS HAWK IS GOING TO EAT OUR DOG!".  I mean really!  Zoe doesn't weigh that much more than a squirrel.

My next thought, "I need to google this and see how many dachshunds have died from hawks." Extreme, I know.  But this is what I came across:

http://ohiothoughtsblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/mean-dachshunds-sidekick-kitty-trick.html

and this:

http://dachshundlove.blogspot.com/2011/01/louisiana-dachshund-barely-escapes.html

Scary!

I went in the backyard (without Zoe of course) to see if I could get a better picture of it with my camera.

There Mr. Hawk is, just hawk-eyeing away into our backyard.  I then realized since Zoe hadn't been outside the whole time that I spotted the bird back there, that it probably had it's eyes on the mole that lives in our backyard.  I would be happy for Mr. Hawk to take that mole away!  He's destroying our backyard and Ryan hasn't gotten anything to scare it away or kill it yet.

Once I realized this big ole bird could help us, I calmed down a bit and just let him be.  Someone walking their dog eventually scared him away, but I'll be on the lookout every time I let Zoe outside to see if Zoe might become prey.  Let's all hope this never happens because my life and everyone around me would be miserable for a long, long time if something ever happens to her.

On another note, here are some other pictures I've taken lately:

Zoe was subject of my test holiday photo shoot.  What a good sport :)  (Yes, that's our Charlie Brown christmas tree in the background....I've had that tree for years and suddenly it's WAY too small for our living room.  I'm too cheap to buy a big one right now, so I'm going to wait until after Christmas to get a good deal on a huge tree :) )

Our decorated fireplace mantle :) 

Patrick flew in from the UK for Thanksgiving!  Dinner out before he left us again :( 

I was visiting a daycare at one work day, and came across this gem of a car.  Just a mom, her kid, and her 9 cats.  Purrr.  My favorite is the hand drawn cat on the tire.  WOWOWOWOWOW people. are. crazy.

Just another day in the office.  I love my job!

We're famous!  

I will update more soon!  I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! I know I have tons to be thankful for! 

Random Thoughts

Randoms:

1.  Truck Yeah by Tim McGraw is the worst country song ever.  Actually, take that back.  Worst song ever.

2.  My knees now hurt when it's raining outside.  Is this normal?

3.  I'm starting to appreciate when someone tells me I look younger than 28.  My mom used to tell meThis means I'm old.

4.  Don't lock yourself out of the house.  If you do, don't do it while your husband is at work.  If your husband locks himself out of the house, make sure you aren't in Va Beach for a work meeting so your husband doesn't have to pay $100 for Pop A Lock.  So that's what they mean when they tell you to hide a key outside somewhere....

5.  I'm having a hard time admitting this, but I shop at Wal Mart way more than Target now.  ONLY because we have a Wal Mart 5 minutes away.  I suddenly have a confidence boost after leaving that place.  Every. Single. Time.

6. Facebook should not be used as a diary.  I don't understand that people can't understand this.

7. I know nothing about plants.  If there is an app out there that will allow me to take a picture of a plant/weed so it will tell me what it is and how to take care of it, then I need to know what it's called.  If not, I need someone to invent one.  ASAP, please.

8.  It's upsetting we aren't going to spend any time with Ryan's family in TN for Thanksgiving OR Christmas this year.  Hmph.

9.  I'm thankful to have holidays this year that we can spend around family.  Thanksgiving last year was spent at Cracker Barrel and even though it was nice not to cook and I at least had Ryan by my side, I don't want to do that again....ever.

10.  Just thinking about decorating for Christmas (will do it day after Thanksgiving - Ryan doesn't like it if I do it before then) gets me all giddy inside.  This year, we actually have a fireplace mantel to decorate. 

11. Real Housewives are ridiculous   All of them.  And I can't stop watching it.  

12.  I really want to start volunteering soon and can't figure out where I want to volunteer.  Ideas?

13.  I've created a 2 page list of To Dos around the house.  Out of probably 20 things, we've crossed off 2 things on the list.  Things like "rake 10 tons of leaves" don't even make it on the list.  

14.  Global warming scares me.

15.  Christmas music never gets old. 

Camera Pics

I finally uploaded pics from my good camera and wanted to share some!  Also, today was a monumental day due to the fact that I deleted all the pictures off of my camera, dating back to December 2011.  Oops. I meant to delete them because they're all stored on my computer (and online for backup), but didn't meant to wait almost a year to clean it out.

Lovin on sweet Rena

she's getting so big!! 

Driving her mommy & daddy around, no big deal.

The CUTEST

She was NOT a fan of the train.  That's her "get me off of here now" look.

Rena found something to push...game over.

She plays with her tongue when playing/thinking....love it!

The Dalton's family portrait

Obligatory first house picture :)

You thought there were going to be more, didn't you?!  Sorry...somehow my days and weekend FLY by, and trying to get some of this house stuff straight takes up a lot of my old "spare" time.  Boring, I know.  I'm working on it!! 

Excited!

I love love love the thought of the holidays coming up and us spending it in our new house!  Halloween went well last night and we probably had a total of 40 kids come to our door!  Somehow we still have candy left which is not good for me.  As a friend said, I'll probably have diabetes by tomorrow. :P

Things have been busy as usual, and I just realized that if I don't get out and plant some bulbs now, we probably won't have any pretty spring flowers.  We do have flower leaves (is that what people call them??) out in our yard now, but I have NO CLUE what they are, if they are flowers or weeds, and what I need to do to maintain them??? Does anybody know anything about gardening that can maybe help me?!

Anyway, here are a few pictures from randoms lately:

We tried to give Zoe away with the Halloween candy, but nobody would take her.  Poor thing.

Intense game of tug of war...guess who won?

I got to spend time with Norah Mae <3 already="already" changed="changed" much="much" p="p" s="s" she="she" so="so">

Chris, Emily & Rena came down to visit last weekend!  Rena feeding mama some Sweet Frog! I took lots of  other pics on my good camera - I'll upload them soon!

View of the sunrise over the reservoir right near our house one morning...so pretty!

I'll post more later!  Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!