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Feeding Hummers

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Back when my sister came to visit and we did our landscaping project, we put up 2 bird feeders amidst our rock garden. They were primarily for decoration because I didn’t want to have to deal with cleaning up fallen seeds. One of the feeders is for hummingbirds and a few weeks ago, we saw a few hummers buzz by looking to eat. So, soon after, the boys and I made a batch of hummingbird nectar (- 1 cup sugar dissolved in 4 cups boiling water and cool overnight), we filled the feeder and waited. It didn’t take long! Hummers have been coming nearly every day since. 

These pics were taken on 2 different days. 
They are all ruby-throated hummingbirds, the most common on this side of America:
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beautiful male looking at me
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female flying on top and male on lower left
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drinking nectar!

Some fascinating facts about hummers (-the teacher in me cannot resist):
–  hummers are the only birds that can rotate each wing in a complete circle allowing them to fly in any direction – forward, backward, sideways, and even short distances upside down.
– they can hover perfectly still in the air by flapping their wings in repeated figure eights, much like a swimmer treading water
– their brilliant color comes from iridescence, not only pigment, so they can flash their colors or hide them by manipulating their movement contingent to light source…useful for picking up the ladies
– 30% of their weight is flight muscle
– their hearts can beat up to 1,260 beats per minute
– their tiny brains are proportionately the largest in the bird kingdom
– to stay warm/conserve energy, at night they are able to go into “torpor”, a metabolic rate that is 1/15th that of sleep
– the smallest bird in the world is a bee hummingbird – it weighs 1.8 grams and stands 5 cm tall

God never ceases to amaze me!  The more I see and learn about the things of nature, the more I appreciate the One who designed and brought them into existence…just for us!  In my humble opinion, I think everyone with a lawn should get a hummingbird feeder or two.  Totally worth it.

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The Results Are In!

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I did it!  With my first triathlon under my belt, I can’t help but feel a sense of gratitude towards all of you who have supported me and believed in me.    I plan to write an entry with my full race experience, but for now, I wanted to share the results and acknowledge those who helped make it happen.

Before the race, I had set personal race goals for myself:
400m swim: 8 min
16k bike: 38 min
5k run: 28 min
2 Transitions: 6 min
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Total Race Time: 1:20

My coach set goals for me which were more challenging:
400m swim: 7.5 min
16k bike: under 38 min
5k run: under 27 min
Transitions: 3 min
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Total Race Time: 1:15:30

And a more lofty goal that I had striven for was to rank in the top ten of my age category. 

Well, incredibly, I was able to reach all of those goals!

Here are my official race times:
400m swim: 10:09
16k bike: 34:25
5k run: 26:13
Transitions:  4:09
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Total Race Time: 1:14:54!!

Hawk Island Tri 2011 Race Results

I want to express my heart-felt thanks to those who not only supported me as an athlete, but supported the cause which I raced for – to end child sex trafficking and slavery.  Each of the following people have given generously to the incredible organization:  Love 146.  Click HERE to see how much money was raised!

Thank you for your sacrifice and for making a difference!

MY AWESOME DONORS:
– Mrs. Katherine Bonello
– Mrs. Ruth Chang
– Mrs. Jeanette Dorh
– Dr. Albert Kim
– Dr. Abigail Koo (Shin)
– Prof. Kendra Stanton Lee
– Mrs. Glenda Mock
– Dr. Alice Park
– Mr. & Mrs. Andy Publes
– Hubby Ramos

MY AMAZING SPONSORS:
– Mom & Dad Namm
– Dr. & Dr. Jukes Namm
– Dr. Julie Namm
– Mr. Justin Namm
– Hubby Ramos
– Dr. Christopher Schwartz (Coach)
– Mrs. Jen Song

It isn’t too late to support our Tread on Trafficking campaign.  Visit our team page and become a member!  Give a donation if you haven’t already done so!  My first tri is now history, but our fight isn’t over until every child is free…

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My 4th Grade Pen Pal

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I remember when the Gulf War broke out. I was in 4th grade and my teacher had a friend who was engaged to a U.S. Air Force captain, Stephen Phillis. He was deployed to Saudi Arabia. So, as a school assignment, we became pen pals with this captain and corresponded by handwritten letters. We got to know him as a real person as he faithfully wrote each one of us and answered the questions we 4th graders had for him.

A few months later, on February 15, 1991, Captain Phillis was flying an A10 “Warthog” and it was shot down over northwestern Kuwait. We received the shocking news that he was MIA. Our attention turned to his fiancee, Sharon, and we began writing her letters of encouragement, letting her know that we were praying for Steve. Weeks went by. Then we got the dreaded news that his body had been found. He had been killed. The war all of a sudden became so real.

Our class had a special ceremony honoring our brave hero and we planted a tree in front of our school. His fiancee, Sharon, was there and I just remember her and my teacher just crying and crying and crying. She brought his purple heart medal and we were able to see and touch it. I will never forget that day. That was 20 years ago.

I felt it was time to share this memory with my boys. It hits me much deeper now than ever before. As a 9 year old, I recall memories of the war being limited to phrases such as: Operation Desert Storm, scud missiles, stealth bombers, and Stormin’ Norman. But what really matters are that countless soldiers have lost their lives in order to preserve our freedom and rights. That means countless family members and loved ones have been devastated by a traumatic loss.

We typically spend Memorial Day as just another day off, but today I wanted honor the day for what it’s meant to be…a day to remember our fallen soldiers. It was totally unplanned, but a friend from Saudi Arabia came over and cooked Saudi food for dinner. I thought that was so fitting. Before eating, I gave a little mini-lesson to my boys about what Memorial Day symbolizes and shared about my special pen pal. I read one of his letters. Then, we listened to a recording of “Taps” and we remembered Captain Phillis and his family for a moment. I figured it was due time that I truly appreciated the ultimate sacrifice that he made for our country.

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Kabsa and Bamia. It was delicious.

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Being patriotic by making flags for dessert.

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A letter from his fiance written while Steve was MIA and a letter from him that I have kept.

Life is hard enough as it is. May God be near all those who were remembering fallen heroes today.

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Playing Mother Goose

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Last weekend, we went to Camp Sagola for UP Spring Retreat.  After church and potluck, Jeanette and I went for a relaxing walk by the lake that’s there.  We had a nice time chatting without the interruption of any kids or babies…until one came running straight towards us in the middle of the trail.  It was an adorable, fluffy, yellow baby bird of some sort.  We weren’t sure if it was a duckling or a gosling, but the webbed feet made it very clear that it was one of the above.  Jeanette and I weren’t sure what to do, but the baby bird just plopped right down next to us and wouldn’t leave.  We looked around for an irate mama goose or any other babies that naturally should be in the vicinity, but with no luck.  This baby was alone, shivering, and wouldn’t leave us.  To make matters worse, I knew that there was an eagle that lived right on that little lake.  We both knew this baby wouldn’t survive much longer without its mama.

We decided it would be best to take it with us and then find a wildlife expert to seek their counsel.  Immediately, I thought of Pastor Jim Nephew.  On our way to find him, we ran into our husbands.  They were not very supportive of our compassionate gesture.  Nethaniah’s response to our story was, “Haven’t you heard of the circle of life?”  Israel looked into my eyes and declared with conviction, “His eye is on the sparrow, Judy.”  They obviously weren’t there to see the desperation of this baby.  We didn’t choose the baby, the baby had chosen us!

We found Pastor Nephew and pulled him out of the afternoon meeting to tell him the story.  We learned it was a gosling and he told us that we should put it back where we found it.  He seemed quite sure that the mother goose would find it and he told us that the goslings often run around the beach area by the pond.  Even though we were still unsure, we trusted him and so we drove back to the site where we first encountered the gosling.  By this time, it had fallen asleep in Jeanette’s receiving blanket that we used to pick it up.  We found a nice spot in the area where the gosling would have a clear path into the water.  I got out of the car and placed the blanket with the gosling in it on the ground.  I opened up the blanket and nudged the baby, but it wouldn’t move.  I picked it up and place it on the grass.  It sat there for a while and then started shivering.  It was so hard to leave it there, but I knew that’s what we had to do.  I headed towards the car.  But then it began following me.  It sat right next to the tire of the car.  I picked it up and placed it back on the side of the trail but then right when I put it down and walked away, it immediately got up and tried to frantically follow me to the car.  Finally, I picked it up, placed it back on the grass, and just made a run for the car.  I jumped in and we drove off.  Jeanette watched from her rear-view mirror as the poor gosling ran as hard as it could, flapped its little wings, to try to follow us.  After a while, probably when it realized that it couldn’t keep up with the car, it stopped running.  We had left our baby in the dust.

This was such a heart-breaking experience.  I felt so misunderstood.  There was no way I could communicate with this baby that it was because we cared that we let it go.  A life in the wild being raised by its parents would be the best life possible.  It just had to endure this scary and lonely time for a while.  And likewise, God is often misunderstood.  When we feel abandoned and alone, when we wonder why He doesn’t wrap us up in safety and giving us the comfortable life we long for, and when the odds are against us, God longs to tell us that if we just endure for a while, it will be for the best.  He longs for us to trust Him.  He isn’t apathetic or too busy to intervene.  Every single circumstance in our lives has been weighed in the balance.  The amazing news is that God is never wrong.  He knows the end from the beginning.  He loves us with an undying love.

This baby has been in my prayers.  I do hope that it was reunited with its parents.  I’m not sure if we did the right thing, but I find comfort that God does care about our little gosling. 

So, Jeanette and I were mother geese for a day…and one day was much too long.

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En Route to the Koop

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This will be a summer of training.  Initially, I was only planning on doing the Hawk I which is a sprint tri on June 5th down in Lansing, MI.  But then, thanks to my ambitious friends, Tennille and Kimmy, we will be racing as a relay team in the half-ironman distance triathlon, the Kuparisaari or the “Koop” as they call it, on August 14th.  Tennille will be swimming the 1.2 miles, Kimmy will be running the 13.1 miles, and I am responsible for riding the 56 miles on bike.  At this point, I’m not too worried about the sprint tri.  I’m just working on paring down my time so I can raise as much money as possible from my sponsors for Love 146.  The Koop bike ride is what worries me.

Today was my longest bike ride to date and it was tough.  The workout was entitled, “Long Ride – Hills!”.  I didn’t understand what that exclamation point was doing there until about 30 minutes into the ride when I turned right up Broemer.  It was then, as I was pumping up this road, rain-drenched and fighting to see through all of the droplets on my sunglasses, that I understood what Christopher Schwartz meant by that punctuation mark.  Unfortunately, there were plenty more “hills!” during that 1:45 ride.  Now, after 25.41 miles and some time for my body to respond to the abuse that happened a few hours ago, I’m super-fatigued and my legs feel like bricks.  If I take a nap, I’m afraid I won’t be able to get back up.  But it was one of those rare workouts that meant more to me than just exercise.

There have only been two times since I began training 10 weeks ago, where after I completed a workout, I surprised myself. I’m beginning to see how these moments are becoming benchmarks in my triathlon journey. Moments where I can look back to for encouragement when I can’t seem to get into the daily grind. The first time was just last week when I swam a 1000yd time trial.  I had never swam that distance non-stop before. I couldn’t believe I finished it in 18:50.  For me, that was such an amazing time.  Today was the second.  This ride today signified something special to me, not so much because I was pleased with my overall speed or cadence.  (I wasn’t at all!)  But because I couldn’t believe I had pushed and endured the entire ride.  I went to the top of every hill (-even Painesdale) and didn’t give myself any shortcuts or breaks.  I had won a mental battle against myself. 

Sometimes, it’s the workouts that kick your butt that make you realize you can do more. Sometimes, it’s the greatest challenges overcome that give you the unexpected encouragement to try even harder. So funny how that works. Well, today I raised up an ebenezer. I do hope there are many more to come.

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Everything is About to Change

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Yesterday before I went on my bike ride, I checked the mail.  There was a flier hanging on the side of the mailbox so, naturally, I picked that up as well.  Little did I realize that this little act would be the impetus of change that we had hoped for only in our dreams.  Our marriage will be happier, our Wednesdays will be stress-free, the garage will smell better, and our cars will be cleaner because look who’s starting to make weekly visits out to us country folk:

Thank you for thinking of us, Greg.  We need to have you over for dinner sometime. 
You are a God-send.   

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Love 146: My Triathlon Mission

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Dear Mamas & Grandmamas,

Hope you had an amazing Mother’s Day.  You all deserve it!  I’m writing to you because as a mother, what I’m about to share will hit close to home.  But I know, like me, you will want to do something to make a difference.

We have been blessed to experience the miracle of having children.  We also have been so blessed to be able to provide for them a safe and loving home.  It is only by the grace of God that we find ourselves where we are – and yet so many are not so fortunate.  Last weekend as we celebrated motherhood, many mothers around the world were unable to do so because their greatest joys were stripped from them.  Their children were taken from them and they may never see them again.

As I prepare for my first triathlon that will be coming up in June, I wanted to dedicate this major milestone to the many mothers out there whose greatest joys were turned to their darkest nightmares.  I want my training and my inaugural race to raise money to end the sickening $32 billion industry of child trafficking. 

The non-profit organization, Love 146, works towards the abolition of child sex slavery and exploitation through prevention and after-care.  After looking through their website, I felt compelled to support this cause and I know all of you will too.  We have the opportunity to defend and protect these kids whose mothers are unable to.  They deserve to be loved and they deserve to know that they are worth so much more.

Here is a link to the page I created to help raise money towards this cause.  Please watch the video that you’ll find at the link below. 

http://Love146.kintera.org/tread/jrramos 

If you feel impressed to give, please do so generously.  Help spread awareness to your family and friends.  The least we can do is to help these young children have a safe place to sleep at night.

Happy Mother’s Day! 

Click HERE to watch the moving account about how this organization got started.

With Love,

Judy

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Our Newest Neighbors

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Last week, Manu and Micah were playing outside near our large pine tree when they wildly exclaimed that they saw a nest in the tree.  My boys tend to think a lot of things look like nests.  I was quite skeptical, plus, I was busy evening out our front lawn where the snow plow had uprooted rather large chunks.  I gave my vocal affirmation and continued to rake.  Then, Manu yelled over to me that he sees a bird in the nest.  He really wanted me to come and see it and so headed over.  To my amazement, there was a bird sitting up high in a nest.  Not wanting to scare the bird family, I asked the boys to play in the other side of our house. 

About 15 minutes later, I put the two younger boys to bed, and Manu and I got our binoculars and camera to do some further investigation.  This time, there were 2 birds!  I thought it was a mama and her baby, but after doing some research, I realized it’s most likely a couple who is taking turns sitting on their eggs! 

When we first moved up here, there was a particular bird song that we would often hear in our yard.  We were sure it was coming from an owl.  One of the first things our friends told us when we moved up here, was to make sure we didn’t leave our dog or cats outside after dark.  It wasn’t uncommon for owls and other raptors to snatch up small pets.  Whenever we’d hear this hooting sound, I’d panic and make sure our pets were indoors.  Well, one day, a friend incredulously informed us that it wasn’t coming from an owl. 

They were mourning doves. 

And we are absolutely stoked that a young family of mourning doves decided to move in to our pine tree!

      

our tree in front of our house


our new neighbors:  still working on their names…

Facts about mourning doves that we’ve learned:
– they are also called the Western Turtle Dove or Rain Dove
– diet consists 99% of seeds
– they are generally 12 inches in length and average 4-6 oz in weight
– pairs are monogamous
– they are prolific breeders (up to 6 broods per season), but very high mortality rate (~50-70%)
– females construct their nests while males bring her all the materials
– clutch size is almost always 2 eggs
– incubation & fledging both take about 2 weeks
– males incubate eggs morning/afternoon shift and females take over during evening/night
– young are fed crop milk by parents
– dedicated parents, if threatened, may perform broken-wing display or other nest-distraction display
– primary predators are diurnal raptors including hawks and falcons
– it is the leading game bird in the U.S. with over 70 million shot annually
– it is Michigan’s official state bird of peace

We’re hoping we’ll be able to catch a glimpse of the babies once they hatch and also during fledging.  That would be so exciting!  They are such beautiful birds. 

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Cinco de Mayo ’11 Rewind

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At the dawn of Cinco de Mayo, I drove to the gym beholding this:

Our day as a family started a couple hours later with worship and then a family meeting.  We needed a plan to tackle our two major items on our agenda:  Cinco de Mayo Fiesta and the Salsa-Making Contest.

We planned out the menu, wrote down the list of ingredients we needed, and went shopping.  We shopped at Econo Foods for produce and Walmart for everything else. 

The boys were thrilled to ride in the rad car cart at Econo.

We got home and it was game time.  Israel began working on his salsa.

He decided to make salsa verde, made with:  roasted tomatillos, poblanos, purple onions & garlic, fresh cilantro, and some other secret ingredients that I am unable to disclose.  Our house smelled rockin’.

Here, Israel is delicately peeling the skin off this poblano pepper.

This was the final product ready for competition!

All the while, we boiled the daylights out of this can to make cajeta, a Mexican candy.

Over 3 hours later…the cajeta was done and ready for tasting.  But we used the rest to make an ice cream.

We made nachos for our fiesta with homemade chips and cheese.

Sangria was our beverage of choice for Cinco de Mayo 2011.

  We ended our meal with homemade cajeta ice cream.

Then, we were off to the library to drop off Israel’s salsa at 5pm. 
He was entered in the “medium” category.

The tasting didn’t start until 6pm, so to ease his nerves, Israel played with the library toys.

The doors opened at 6pm and people began pouring in to the free tasting and voting.  Each person received 10 tickets and were asked to place tickets in jars next to their favorite salsas.

Micah did us proud by eating 3 bowls of chips & salsa and lemonade making this venture well worth the financial investment.  I was going to take more pictures of Israel’s ticket jar and all the other salsa entries, but somebody kept giving me the stink eye.  Here’s a hint:  he sleeps next to me.  So, this is the last picture.

We went home early to put the boys to bed and waited to hear the results of the ticket count.  The next morning, behold, Israel received a phone call to acknowledge that he had won!!  Later in the day, Manu and I went to pick up his awesome “On the Border” prize basket. 

We were so proud of him. 

T’was a tiring, but happy Cinco de Mayo!