Unexpected Guests

I absolutely love surprise guests, it's how I know who is a real friend and who isn't - they aren't afraid to just drop in any time!  I know some people freak out because their house may be a mess, they may not be dressed or whatever but I say screw it and YAAY, come on in!  Oh sure you will likely show up on a day my house has been terrorized and looks like I haven't cleaned in three weeks but I don't care... #1 I have two very active young children and #2 you just showed up unannounced, you certainly can't expect a tidy home without warning.  So I guess if you're judgmental and particular then please, by all means - call first... or if you're traveling a great distance to get here, cause it would suck if you drove five hours to surprise us and nobody was here - I've done it and it sucks.

But I digress...

Last week we've had a couple of unannounced guests show up... not the type you may expect, I know I didn't expect them, but it was exciting all the same!  On Thursday evening I was relaxing, watching one of my shows when my daughter comes in all excited and says "there's a geese in the back yard."  "A geese huh?" "yeah, it has a green head."  "that would be a Mallard."  And then it clicked - what the heck is a duck doing in our yard??  I know we live fairly close to the water but we're also "in the city" and there isn't much wildlife happening around here.

I got up to check and sure enough, Ma & Pa Mallard were strutting around the back yard!  The kids were so excited, they were feeding the ducks right from the back door!  Who needs to go to the park to feed the ducks - they come to you now!  Pa Mallard was such a gentleman, he was letting Ma get all the food first and just stood by watching, checking things out like all good protectors should.  Pa toured the yard, the bushes, the flower beds all for what I believe to be a nesting spot.  That's when I got excited!  How kewl would it be to have baby ducks in your back yard?  I'm a country girl at heart and would love for my kids to experience that!  They eventually left, but came back the next day... and I haven't seen them since.  I'm hoping they just went away for the weekend to visit family... If they come back I'm going to have to invest in some real food for them. I mean, after all, we can't have the Mama eating poorly if she's expecting and has to raise babies... she needs good nutritional feed!

Happy Mother's Day Ma Mallard