Meet Gertie.

As if we don't have to share the spotlight with enough little people (ahem, Karis), it seems that we have now added another member to the family...and potentially 15 more. Let me explain.

Meg and Brett went to the beach for a weekend to visit the Lybrands. After they picked us up from our vacation at Ultimate Canine Care in Graham (nothing like dogs that bark incessantly and sleeping on concrete in an unfamiliar place) our neighbor, Marie, pointed out to Brett what my nose was already telling me....check this out:

We moved to a new house! CRAZY story about Jesus' provision involving Meg's enormously generous mom & Steve that we'll tell you later. But isn't it pretty? It has a FANTASTIC backyard for me and Libby, too... But I digress. Notice the small bushes to the right.

So this is the view from that front window into those bushes... notice anything? Nope? Okay...scroll down to the next pictures.

LOOK WHO LIVES IN THE BUSHES!!!
Gertrude! ...or Gertie as we call her.

Gertie normally lives with her duck friends down at the pond that is on the trail we walk every day with Meg and Brett and the kid. Every time we would see Gertie on the walk, Libby and I tried to eat them, but the dagburn leashes and Brett's brute strength kept it from happening. Lucky ducks. Regardless, apparently while we were all on vacation (yay kennel... ugh) Gertie made the bold decision to make her home in the bushes in front of the home with two dogs that would like to eat her. Crazy duck.

Why is she living in our bushes? You might ask... Well, it seems that Gertie is expecting FIFTEEN little ducklings and probably in the next two weeks! For approximately 23.5 hours a day Gertie sits in those bushes on her 15 eggs in the SCALDING North Carolina summer heat. You go girl.

So there it is. ANOTHER member of our family. Gertie...and her 15 eggs. Yeesh that's a lot of kids to have at once. Meg and Brett could barely handle one.

And while we are talking about the front of the house and the scalding North Carolina heat, take a look at YET ANOTHER innocent plant that Meg killed.

We're just glad she takes better care of the animals in our house than the plants....