Short Plat Recorded!

On Wednesday, December 15th, 2010, Todd and I left the kids with my parents and made the trip to the King County Courthouse with mylars of our boundary surveys in hand in order to finally record our short plat of our property. After five years of preparation for this it still seems surreal to have it checked off the list. We've learned so much along the way.


Todd signing the mylar copies of our boundary surveys at Concept Engineers in Issaquah on Tuesday. A happy event!

Sargeant Short Plat Application

Night of my dreams! Oh, how I have dreamed of this day... The application for our subdivison of our property is sitting, complete and perfect and lovely on our kitchen table. How did paperwork become so alluring? After five years of working on this darn thing we are finally ready to move forward with dividing our property into two lots. I take it to the city planning office tomorrow and hope all of our ground work and meetings with their planning staff pays off for a quick review process. More later!

Bird Hospital

Into every childhood, a dead bird must fall, it seems.

Yesterday, the kids and I heard a distinct "thunk" at one of the front windows. My heart sank because I recognized it as a bird hitting the window. We opened the door cautiously, and sure enough. There was a poor Evening Grosbeak, a bright yellow, black and white male, on its back, mouth open, sides heaving, talons clenched. It didn't look good. I decided we should just stand back and watch for a little while to see if he was going to come out of it on his own and to make sure one of our feral cats didn't get him while he was recovering. Unfortunately, he had landed right next to a cat dish. I warned Finley and Evelyn that usually birds die after hitting windows and that we shouldn't have too high hopes for his recovery. Bird's necks are amazingly flexible and I had read somewhere that it's not usually a broken neck that does them in, but rather the head injury or being eaten by something while they're dazed.

We took turns watching for about 15 minutes and in that time he had managed to flip himself rightside up, his beak was now closed and he was breathing slower. We decided then that he might actually have a chance of full recovery if he was protected from the cats and elements. We fixed up a box with a soft cloth inside my lovebird, Esther's, extra travel cage with some food, water and perches. I put on my latex gloves and picked up the bird. He actually gripped my fingers with his talons so that was a good sign. His wings didn't feel broken. We put him in the box to start with, covered the cage and took him to the upstairs bathroom where we could turn on the heater and keep the room warmer.

All day, the kids and I took turns going to check on him every half hour or so. For most of the day he stayed huddled in the box, but actually perched on the rolled cloth. His droppings looked normal and there was no blood in them so I figured that ruled out major internal injuries. Then in the evening he managed to hop up to the lowest perch. By bedtime, he had managed to get to the top perch and was looking a little more bright eyed and alert.

This morning when we checked on him, he flew to the other side of the cage and back to a perch with no problem. We decided to let him go and see if he could make it on his own. We took him down to the front porch again and opened the cage towards the bird feeder and trees where the rest of flock was eating. I opened the door and he took off beautifully! He must have been very hungry because he just kind of camped out on the feeder and ate for about five minutes! Then he flew off. I wish every injured bird story ended that way... Best wishes little bird buddy!

By the way, the kids wanted to make sure no other birds made the same mistake of flying into the reflection on the windows. This set off a flurry of cutting and taping and now our front windows are sporting several scary cat faces, kites and abstract art-by-two-year-olds to ward off any unsuspecting birds.

Evening Grosbeaks

Lately, we've had unusual visitors to our birdfeeders. These birds seem so exotic compared to the usual brown, grey and blue around here. Today I counted at least eleven of them, some juveniles and some adult males and females. Also, the Blackheaded Grosbeaks are here, too. They are black and orange and also very flashy. I tried to take my own photos of these birds but I couldn't get close enough for my camera to do them justice so I used one from the web. It's been fun watching them. They are very loud and eat a lot! I had to go refill the feeder after they left. If you get a chance, you should look them up on the internet to see some really great pictures of these beautiful birds.

Rising From the Ashes

The past month has been a difficult one in the world of parenthood. Watching Finley process the event of his two best friends becoming his two "unfriends" has been difficult. What began as a wonderful little trio of Kindergarten buddies has devolved into namecalling and two-against-one bullying. Finley is resilient and hardier than I give him credit for though. He plays with other people at recess and sits with friendlier kids at lunch time. It does really bother him though and we've let him know we've got his back, while empowering him to figure out his own responses to their meaness. Fortunately, all the parents involved and Finley's teachers are on board with how to approach it. Hopefully, all three boys can come out of it understanding more about empathy, self-esteem, friendship and the power of our words and actions. Ah. Life's lessons....

Change of Worlds

My father had a stroke in October. This has precipitated many changes in my family and the dynamics of how we interact. It has challenged our assumptions and of course, forced us to stumble into action, mobilized as a team of sorts to offer support to my parents. It is new territory for us, this having to rely on one another, talk to one another about the details and not wait for Mom to fill us in on the details of each others lives. We have been spoiled. :) Mom and Dad have been so healthy and keen to help us with anything we've asked. Now, we gladly begin to return the generous extending of ourselves for them.


In December, despite Dad's stroke, we took him up to play in the snow for our family holiday outing. It was a huge success. A victory over our fears, over Dad's compromised physical condition and our own hesitance. Truly one of our best ideas as a family and one of the funnest snow trips ever, complete with a finished igloo, lawn chairs, heater, radio and excellent snacks. The excursion served as a powerful image and metaphor of our unity as a family and bodes well for the way we will face any challenges ahead. I love my fam!

Kindergarten Update May 2010

A blog. Why did I think I wanted to do a blog? To add to the incomprehensible largess, the copious amounts of information, musings and expression of human experience, exploiting the glut of technology at our disposal. To fill the slices of time between what must be done and what I am putting off doing. Hmmm. Yes, a blog.

My last post was in September. Pictures of my dear, sweet, precious Finley going off to his first day of school, terrified. That's always a great thing to get pictures of. We are surviving Kindergarten. It is both much better and worse than I anticipated. Finley's reading! And doing math! Those are indeed wonders and celebrated. I remind him weekly of how fortunate he is to live in a country that educates its people. As imperfect as I may find the public education system it is still a luxury by the world's standards.

Finley is also learning the heartache of a friend's silly cruelty as only another six year old can inflict. He is learning the compulsory boredom of standing in lines and wolfing down lunch to get out to recess with those same cruel friends (who have also hardly eaten their lunches either!).

He came home yesterday and told me about a girl in his class, Haille. "Mom," he says, putting his hand on his chest, "when I look at Haille my heart kind of hurts. She has hair of gold."

He is making up all sorts of rhyming and riddles and they mostly have to do with bodily functions, but hey! What a poet!

Evelyn is doing her best to keep up with Finley. Learning to count, "One, thwee, two, fo...". She has a precocious grasp of language and understands so much more than I give two -year-olds credit for. She also senses the power of emotions and asks me, "Mommy. You happy?" Already, she is apologizing too much, for things that are none of her concern or responsibility. I wonder at how my own idiosyncrasies have found their way to my children so early.