Heritage Hawks

For those not in the know, Homer is part of the Heritage School District, home of the Heritage Hawks.

Over the years, we've been fortunate never to have small birds, small crawling mammals, small flying mammals, or any other animal of notable size in our chimney and / or attic. My in-laws on the other hand have experienced all of the above at least once.

After returning home from a Christmas visit to the St. Louis area, I heard a strange noise in our breezeway (enclosure that connects our house and garage). The breezeway is part of the house with doors, windows, and walls. As I opened the door, I saw enough fluttering about to make me duck, even though the storm door was still closed.

Upon further inspection, I discovered a small hawk sitting on top of our freezer! The following is a textual dramatization: The hawk entered the garage by going under the big garage door, left propped open for the dog (cawwww, cawwwww). After eating a couple of our small garage rodents for lunch, the hawk decided to probe deeper into the human space. The hawk hopped/flew through the bottom pane of the aluminum storm door between the garage and breezeway (missing a screen due to chronic kids) (cawwwww, cawwww, cawwwwww). After pecking his way into a root beer, the hawk became discouraged because he could not find any more rodents, and the freezer was stuck shut. What to do??? Poop....a lot!



Fortunately, all I had to do was open the outside door and step back (and down) and he took his leave.

2009 mouse tally: +1

ESRB - Teen

Last year, we were big fans of Guitar Hero III (Wii). Ethan tore through that game in a couple of months. To date, I believe he's almost beat the game in "hard" mode. I found it mildly disturbing when he was singing some of the songs: Miss Murder, Talk Dirty to Me. Of course his favorite, School's Out, was just amusing. His interest (and singing) slowly waned.

Like any good American family, we currently love Guitar Hero World Tour. Of course, Ethan is the biggest and most talented fan. Although, as an actual drummer, I think I've finally made a breakthrough as Ethan hasn't wanted to play drums on our co-op career all week as we near the end of the game. Now, the ESRB Teen rating has reared its ugly head this week with Dammit, and the Sex Pistols. I see the worst one coming just around the corner - Hot For Teacher (which I'm actually quite excited to play on the drums).

In a couple more years (after he starts attending public school), we'll probably just have to cut him off cold from these offensive games. That's the only sensible solution!



This video has some amusing clips of Ethan the Guitar Hero (a true Legend of Rock) near the end. For those expecting their first child, this video could be considered obscene.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!

I have toyed with the idea of starting a blog for some time. I've felt like I should have something useful to share with the world at large. However, I've come to believe that my life may just be amusing enough as is. So, maybe no one will ever read this, but I'll enjoy writing it.

I've titled my blog "Trying To Make Life Hard" to catch your attention. If you know our family, it may seem like we go out of our way to make life more challenging. Recurring themes of this blog will be our wild family (3 little boys) and our wild house (130+ year old farmhouse) that we're constantly upgrading and/or repairing.

First Proof of Making Life Hard: In today's crazy economic times, my wife and I have decided to have a fourth child! Kimberly is about 9 weeks pregnant and thoroughly enjoying all-day-sickness. Our three boys are excited to have a new family member. We'll see what they think when there's a new crying baby...