Smoky Is Ours No Longer :(

"...the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself..."

Psalm 84:3

I had the idea to post a "Found" ad on craigslist.org for Smoky, just to see if there was an owner to be found. In less than 4 hours we had about 10-15 emails from people giving us info about African Greys, asking if they could have him if we didn't find the owner, and some more serious inquiries about people who had lost one and wanted some info. As with anything on the Internet, we had to be really careful because African Greys are very expensive and would greatly profit someone who might've deceived us as to him being theirs. :) Thankfully, Mama and Daddy are very aware of that fact and deleted all the emails but the serious ones! :) Anyways, to make a long story short on Sunday we got an email from a lady. She said they had lost theirs in August and that their parrot liked to say "peeper-pooper," which Smoky says a lot (when we're not within eyesight). That gave us a huge hint that these people might be the actual owners. After emailing back and forth, she gave another hint - he liked making a noise that sounded like a telephone. Every one of the descriptions matched and finally, they sent us his band number and it matched. So, we have found Smoky's owner and he is now in his own home. His real name is Ousea (pronounced like wah-so...it's French for bird) and he was born in March 2007 so he was really young.

Since today was our last afternoon with him we took him out and gave him his favorite snack...Cheezits. I'm glad the owners have been found but sad also because we've grown quite attatched to him and don't want him to leave.

Mr. Pabst (the owner) picked up him around 6 PM tonight.

Bye Smoky (a.k.a. Ousea) - we love you!

Kimber

Smoky Fun! :)

"For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind."

James 3:7

Smoky (the parrot) has been loads of fun ever since the first day we found him. He surprises us with new sounds every day. Recently he's started talking like a human which is good and bad. The good being that it's fun trying to decipher what he's saying and the bad is that you can't control what he's saying.

Anyways he was talking and making lots of weird noises this morning so Daddy brought his cage into the kitchen so he could be near us. (We wanted him to talk in the kitchen so we could hear him better.) Well, he doesn't talk when people are around him, he just sits and chirps. He was acting like he wanted to come out so Daddy opened the cage door and Smoky climbed up onto the door. Then he started acting like he was going to fly (Mama was protesting that it would fly to the table or poop on the floor, which it did). He eventually decided on...

...Daddy's head! :)

We gave him an apple but he threw it away because he didn't want it.

He just sat up there, walked in circles, and more. Daddy said it felt like a deep head massage! :)

Well, he decided that Daddy's head was a little too unstable and slippery so he went to Caleb.

Taking an apple from Daddy.

He is the friendliest thing in the world. If I could get videos to upload I would take some but I seem to have trouble with that.

After sitting on Caleb's shoulder for a bit Daddy took him and, before putting him in the cage, Daddy stuck his tongue out and moved it around. Smoky thought it very intriguing and decided he wanted to "see" what that thing was...with his beak.

Going after his tongue.

(Daddy is the BEST person ever to photograph because there never is an end to any of his faces! :)

You can get it, Smoky - keep trying! :)

Reach, Smoky, reach! :)

Daddy did keep his tongue from being bit off by closing his mouth just at the right time but I think Smoky was still wondering about it.

Back in his cage."I'll get it next time....just you wait and see"

Just a note to make: We don't know if Smoky is a girl or boy, so my verbage might be wrong (for example, "he" or "him").

Anyways, we love Smoky and if no one claims him real soon Daddy says he's going to get a book to learn more about them (African Grey Parrots) because they are supposedly the "Einstein of the Parrots." We've been trying to repeat words to him to get us to copy us but so far it hasn't worked. He stares at you like "No Comprendo." Mr. Williams (a friend of ours) watched the animals for us while we were at the beach and he tried to teach Smoky to say "Scott" so we would have a pleasant surprise when we got home, but it didn't work.....yet

I really wish you all could see how neat he is but for those who can't, I hope these posts give away a little bit of his wonderful personality!

All for Jesus,
Kimber

An Update

(I've got a couple miscellaneous things to report so this post is a little unorganized! Just in case you're wondering the verse for this post is later on! :-D)

Well, last Thursday (on Daddy's birthday) he and Mama went out on a date. We watched everyone else, ate dinner, watched a movie, had ice cream, and went to bed. Mama and Daddy got home about 10 minutes after we got in bed. We had set up the guest bedroom for them. We put candles in the room, flowers, etc. to make it all special. Lexi and Hannah even tried to melt a soap bar to make a heart - which they did but the soap didn't melt completely! :)

Here's just one picture from their special night:

Daddy took this picture for me because I was in bed! :)

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Last Saturday Daddy took us to Northern VA and we played and ate at Chuck-E-Cheese's with Grandpa and Grandma.

Josiah on the carousel.



Seth

Caleb

Alexis

Eden feeding the tickets in.

After some fun and playing (thanks Grandpa/ma!), Grandpa and Grandma took us to their house and Grandma made a wonderful dinner and then we left soon after.

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The other morning the sun was shining through our trees again:

Shining on a greenbean plant! :)

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Lexi harvested some apples from our tree (VERY sour by the way!). The apple tree we're talking about was given to us by Uncle Greg when we first moved into the house.

The apple from the store is on the left, and ours is the right! Ours is bigger! :)


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Tuesday night, we had our Bread Becker Fellowship/Pick-Up Night (www.breadbeckers.com). We met a few new people and it was so much fun to see everybody!

This is a whole-wheat lemon balm pound cake.

(Daddy calls it "Lemon-Bomb," He likes it:)

We got the recipe from some friends of ours from church and it was so yummy!

The flax energy bars.

The sugar and spice cookies, Calebs' speciality. (these were gone by the end of the night! :)

Lexi setting up the table.

Fresh home-made salsa.

Hannah playing with Lydia before our friends arrived.

For those of you who don't know about Bread Beckers (see the above website)... it's when people who have ordered things from us come to "pick up" their order. We make lots of food and fellowship with everyone. It's so much fun...meeting new people and talking to people we haven't seen in awhile! :)

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To give an update on Smoky: he's doing very well! Still no one has called about a missing parrot, so I guess we'll get to keep him! (Or we'll just advertise more and his owner might show up). He makes lots of weird noises now: first it sounds like we're in the rainforest, then the telephone is ringing, an old man is grumbling, cars wheels are screeching, etc. It's pretty funny to listen to!

He (or she?!) is SO sweet, he'll make all the above noises (and more!) and I'll walk up slowly to his cage, softly calling his name, stick my finger in his cage, and he'll come over, lay his down and let me pet him on the head! What a sweet little bird! :)

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"He stirs up the sea with His power, And by His understanding He breaks up the storm."

Job 26:12

Now for the good news!

Tomorrow we're leaving for our annual family beach vacation!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!! To make things short here is the link to the beach house we'll be staying in: http://www.twiddy.com/homes/corolla/ocean-hill/legend-of-atlantis.aspx This will be the first year we've stayed in it. I'm so excited I'm already getting those butterflies in my stomach! We've been packing up all day (and some Wednesday and yesterday) and Daddy will load up the car tonight and we're hoping to leave sometime tomorrow (Saturday) morning around 5-7 AM so we can spend a whole day at the beach!

Here is a list of prayer requests that I had for last year's beach vacation:

- No sharks nearby while we're in the ocean "riding the waves"
- No one gets stung by a jellfish/stinging nettle or other pain-inflicting creatures
- All of us will be a good witness to those around us
- Have lots of fun
- Not get into any arguments
- Get our Bible time and devotions with Jesus every day
- Have a safe trip to and from everywhere.
- Very little rain so we can enjoy God's creation without the fear of being drenched

And I would add to that:

- No rip tides (or terribly rough seas) caused because of the tropical storm Danny that will be passing by us tomorrow morning.

That's it for now!

There is Internet Access in the house so I might be able to update from the beach!

All for Jesus,
Kimber :)

Smoky the Parrot

"Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, And makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?’"

Job 35:11

On Wednesday of last week, Daddy had finished weedwacking a customer's pond and fenceline and we had been riding their horses, looking at their animals, fishing, (or watching someone else fish) when a bird flew into a tree nearby. We decided to go investigate what it was since we saw a glimpse of red. Alexis, Seth, and I (Kimber) went underneath the tree. Daddy had said that he thought it was a parrot and sure enough...it was! The parrot was up fairly high but then he slowly climbed his way down the branches till he was on the bottom branch. Daddy then suggested we go get the Cheezits out of the car and offer it one (Polly want a cracker???). Well, they got the bag and brought it near it as I went back to the truck to get my camera. When I re-emerged the parrot was on Seth's shoulder eating a Cheezit!

This is what I saw.

It was so neat seeing him just sitting there, calmly eating a cracker like it was completely normal. Obviously it is a domestic parrot since there are no wild parrots in Virginia! :) He must've escaped from a cage or something because he even has a metal band on one of his legs.

Look at his beautiful head!

The feathers are so beautiful with the gray and then the white tips!

Holding a cracker.

This is how he ate: he would take the cracker with his beak, then transfer it to his foot (he's standing on one leg now), and slowly take nibbles off of the cracker until it was all gone.

His tail feathers were so pretty too!

Such a pretty bird!
(Do I keep saying that?? :)

This is the picture I took right before Daddy decided to try and catch him and put him in the truck to take home until we could find the owner.

Looks pretty peaceful, right?

Not! He grabbed Daddy's fingers at least 5 times with his sharp beak and broke Daddy's skin twice! Ouch! Daddy went up to it, slowly positioned his hands around it and then grabbed it real quick. Of course parrot didn't appreciate that so he swiveled his teeny head around and started biting Daddy. It was hard for Daddy to get away from him because their head rotates like 360 degrees! So finally he wrapped him up in his shirt to try and transport him into the truck safely.

In the truck.

This picture is really dark but I thought it was neat seeing just his gray and white head.

Eating a pretzel.

Yummy!

And, if you were wondering, the name for Mr. (or Mrs.?) Parrot is...Smoky. We're hoping to find an owner for him soon but for now he's staying in the laundry room in my rabbit's old cage. We've been feeding him pistachios, fruit, Cheezits, tomatoes, etc. Daddy gets him out at least once a day and we feed him mandarin oranges and he flies around sometime to different people as they hold their hands up. Smoky is extremely gentle when you're handing him food that I even let Lydia give him pistachios (Lydia thinks its so much fun!). If anyone knows of a person who owns an African Grey parrot and has lost one recently please let us know (leave a comment or email us). We found Smoky in the New Kent County of Virginia. If you need any more information about Smoky for someone, please contact us at wassfam@aol.com. Thanks!

All for Jesus,
Kimber

P.S. - We think we may know someone who might be Smoky's owner but we can't get a hold of them right now so we're just waiting to be able to reach them. I'll let you know how things go! If we can't find the owner we'll just end up keeping him and probably teaching him some tricks and things!

P.S.S - Also...if there are any parrot experts reading this please let us know what we should do to make sure Smoky is comfortable and well fed!