California hail storm and a Mother bird needed help

Not Normal for Cali on June 1st!

I know for most states hail is a whatever happens all the time. But for here in sunny California its a big deal when it happens on June 1st! This is suppose to be the first day of summer. There should be sunshine, the smell of BBQ in the air and the sound of the ice cream mans truck driving around the neighborhood. Well it was nothing like that! The day was raining like crazy, thunder so loud it was starting to scare me a bit and then the tornado warnings that were only 20 minutes from here.

It was a weird moment when we were eating dinner with the blinds open to see outside. We do this every night so we can enjoy the sunshine while we eat. It was raining hard but in the distance I could see white soft clouds and blue skies. My husband hates then rain so I told him "Cheer up I can see blue skies just beyond the neighbors house. This will clear up any minute." I was so very wrong! The rain came down harder then very loud thunder followed by the biggest pieces of hail I have ever seen! I was stunned that it was happening so fast. The first hail was about the size of quarters! The whole neighborhood was covered in ice. I wanted to take a picture as it was happening but my husband suggested I stay in side. I am a bit crazy with my camera!

This is after it rained and melted the hail a bit.

To my amazement it hailed for a few minutes and when the pieces got smaller I went outside to snap some photos. I am still stunned this happened on June 1st! I even upload some pictures to our local news since they were asking for pictures from our area. It was quite a wild weather day here in Northern Cali.

The nest that fell from the tree above this recycling bin.

After the sun came back out about an hour later I went outside to pick up some trash that had been blown around from the wind. On top of my recycling can safely sat a nest with 4 eggs in it. It was amazing to me since I never until the day before put my recycling bins in that location under our fruit tree. I usually have them elsewhere but changed spots to make it easier to use the bin. I am so happy I did since I am sure a fall to the ground would have resulted in eggs being broken. I looked up to see the spot right above where the nest once sat. My husband was now outside holding our son showing him the eggs. I wanted to cry at the thought of the Mama birds little babies not in there home. I can imagine she flew off somewhere to hide from the huge pelting hail. I have seen the Mama bird a few times eating the fruit from our tree and I knew I had to help. After all for the first year my sons nickname was Birdie (he is now my Bubba!). I ran back inside and got a pair of plastic sterile gloves so my human scent wouldn't be on her nest. My husband held down some of the surrounding branches and I gently placed her nest back into the spot it once sat. I am happy that my recycling can caught the little eggs and I was able to have a Dr. Dolittle moment to show my son every Mama and her babies are worth caring for.

Do you have any animal rescue stories to share?

Organicville Foods Review and Giveaway

I am always on the look out for new products to try, especially in the kitchen. After you have been cooking dinner for 35 years like I have been, a little change is definitely needed! I love organic foods and as I become more aware of the benefits of eating organic, I try to incorporate them into my daily life. There are now so many organic foods to pick from, not just fruits and vegetables. Do I always eat organic? No. My budget and life don't always allow for it, although I wish it did. I recently came across a line of foods called Organicville Foods.

The company offers pasta sauces, salad dressings, salsas, and much more. Every product is certified organic, gluten free, vegan, and contains no added sugar. For dinner last night, I made pasta using the Portabella Mushroom Pasta Sauce. It was delicious. Portabella mushrooms, ripe tomatoes, and fragrant onions and garlic are blended together to taste so good, you'll want seconds. A simple salad, and some garlic bread sticks were enough to make a delicious yet easy meal.



We have also tried the Mild Salsa, made with agave nectar. That was very tasty, too. It tastes great with tortilla chips or used as a condiment with different dishes. Organicville products can be found in natural food stores and in many grocery stores across the country including Whole Foods, Safeway, and Costco.



You can also order from their online store at www.organicvillefoods.com. I will definitely buy more from this company. The founder is a third generation vegetarian and one of her goals was to make organic foods taste good. I think she has succeeded.

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*Limited to US residents; 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts June1, 2011 and ends on June 14, 2011 at midnight PST. Winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. I was provided for free the products mentioned for this review from Organicville Foods. The opinions are 100% mine and may vary from other

Peace

Baby L's pajamas say it all....



PEACE baby!

Wii for your Wee Ones

Ever since my brother and sister in law gave us a Wii we have all been hooked! I have loved playing video games since my older brother (the one who gave us a system) used to play the original Nintendo system. We would take turns with him and my sister with a lot of the timing watching him play. I was not very good at games back then but I have awesome memories of playing as kids. We played Mario, Sonic and Castlevania.

My son has oddly mastered some of the games we have on the Wii and hes only 18 months old! I find the games that have no button pushing and only involve him moving the Wii remote around to be the best ones. It makes sense of course since its not in his age category to play the Wii.  He doesn't get the button pushing other than pause. Which is hilarious when he pushes it he will run the Wii remote over to us so we can fix it for him to play again.

Trying to play the Elmo game

We have rented many games to see which ones he could play before buying any. To be frugal we always buy them used. We go to Game Stop since they have a guarantee that they will work. Oddly many of the games for EC (Early Childhood) like the Sesame Street ones involve a lot of button pushing. I have to play those with him and he gets mad that he can't do it himself.

Chuck E Cheese Basketball. He loves this one!

I have made a list of the top 5 games my son at 18 months can play.

1. Mario Tennis (this one he whirls his arm around and scores points and power ups he has a blast)

2. Racquet Sports ( he can do the hitting in this one, not the power hits which need buttons but he still loves to play)

3. Chuck E Cheese ( He loves this! Only drawback is I have to go earn the tokens by playing a game he cant do on his own, but once I have tokens he can play many games and has a blast.)

4. Wii Sports Resort (the sword fighting one he has so much fun, he claps when he knocks his opponent off the pedestal.)

5. Petz Dogz 2 and  Petz Catz 2 ( he likes to see his favorite animals on the screen, there is some button pushing for some things but he can make them run around and dig in the ground. He smiles a lot when he plays this one.)


There are more that we play "together" like Shrek, Toy Story and Garfield he likes to watch the characters but can get bored since it is really not made for him. I just love that we have our Wii to have some frugal fun with! Its great for the super hot summer days that are ahead of us and we can't go out to play. Plus once you buy the games and system its free to play as many times as you want!

What games do your kids love or you love to play on the Wii?

Baby Bedding Zone Website Review

BabyBeddingZone.com

*Sponsored Post

I must admit I did not do enough research on products for my son's bedding. I wish I would have looked online rather than have to pick from what my local stores offered. I was a newbie to online shopping before getting pregnant. I had used eBay only to get ripped off so I was weary about shopping online. I went with basic blue for my son's baby bedding, which is cute but not memorable. I won't have those so cute pics of his nursery like I would have wanted. I guess hindsight is priceless!

While searching for places to help my sister find bedding for Baby L I found Baby Bedding Zone. I spent over an hour looking at everything thinking of what Baby L could use, what would make a cute gift and what a new baby (wishful thinking Im NOT pregnant lol) could use.

Pirate set

I found really cute baby pirate bedding. I love the whole trendiness of Pirates with the new movies coming out and the products that come along with it. Its a fun theme. Swashbucklers and Sea Captains Ahoy!!! We played the New Pirates of the Caribbean Wii game, it was a blast!

Fire Truck set

For my next baby I want to do a different color from the basic blue, pink or yellow. I am thinking Red! The site had some really cute red baby bedding. My favorites were the Fire Truck Bedding Set and the Wild West Bedding Set. Who doesn't love cowboys and fire fighters!

Monkey set

Since my favorite color is brown I had to look at all the selections for that color. My husband told me the next baby not so much brown. I am not sure about that!  My son has brown on his crib, stroller and many of his outfits. There are many selections for the brown category. I found frogs, dinosaurs, sports themes, fishing, cowboys and so much more. My favorite brown one is the Monkey set. My son has an adorable monkey costume and monkey themed clothing that I adore.

Madison Set

For the Mommies that have little girls they have some really sweet pink and black baby bedding. The two sets I liked in that category were named girls names I love too! The Madison set and Sophia set are really stylish! Both sets also had FREE Shipping. As do many of the sets on the website.

Overall I really liked the variety if their selections and the Free Shipping on many of their items. They also sell decor, kids bedding and toddler bedding. I found some great deals and one of my favorite deals was the Little Farmer Set (I have my dreams of owning a farm!) It is 50% off original price for only $74.99 and free shipping!

Little Farmer set

*This is a sponsored post. I reviewed the site and gave my honest opinion about their products.