little wren

Yikes, so much for being current.

We moved back from Korea, bought our first minivan, roadtripped across the US tracking Jupiter in the evening sky each night. We arrived in Baton Rouge and resumed our lives as if we never left for Korea.

We are living in our Kingcrest place and changing the windows, roof, and updating each room while we live here. We are also doing some work at our little Sparrow place. We plan on being around working on these projects for the next few months and selling maybe one or two places.

As soon as Trent rolled into town we got into a wasps nest, got bitten by fireants, and I promptly got into some poison ivy somewhere. I am pleased to report that I was able to beat it without a doctor's visit/prescription this time. It started mild to moderate and by the time it got really bad I was on top of it with rubbing alcohol (the wintergreen kind), calamine, and over-the-counter hydrocortizone cream. Finally, it was the Benadryl that did the trick.

We are just about finished with out master bedroom. Our master bathroom is next to be finished, unless we get to painting another room or two before I get all finished with installing the bathroom sink and toilet. We still need to grout the bathroom floor tile and I have a little prep work left on the walls as well. Meanwhile, there are many boxes around and we don't have the sort of space we would like. Having one room done will help, but not right away, as we'll have to move into that room from the next one while we do that room, which won't take too long.

I am establishing a pleasant natural order in the jungle wildlife preserve of our backyard. We have some wildlife friends. One of the friends is a little wren that sleeps in our carport. There is no nest, and she sleeps in one of two places, but she's there roosting most every evening. Also, she does not take of her toilet in that place--she just sleeps there. Quite untimidly, as we frequently are passing by her or approaching her. It is strange bird behavior that I don't really understand. Maybe a former tenant gave her little crumbs? I doubt that. Maybe more likely is that the carport was used only rarely for the past year plus, and even now, we don't go out much in the evening, so with our quiet neighborhood maybe the carport overhang is a nice quiet safe place in general.

Bonnie made cloth napkins and we have a good amount of furniture ready to realize its place in the Becker household. Bonnie also joined up in the handbell choir, and those ladies are playing their seasonal debut today.

We have been getting a gas out of the awkward family photos website, where a recent Becker submission is all the rage.

Orry is going on 3 1/2. He talks a lot and plays all sorts of games. Isaac is going on 1 1/2. He talks very little and plays the following games. Dog. This is when he barks to indicate there is a dog and other animals. The variation is Lion, where he growls. Chase. A favorite for kids and grown-ups alike. And most recently, Repeat. We finally got some enunciated words out and just the other day our little Gonzo started repeating some voiced sounds and finally said clearly Mama and Dada. Before, other than his barking, his only real word of frequent use was "ball". He also started dancing last week.

We went without home internet access for over a month. Now we're rolling.