Birds out of the chimney and cars off the driveway

For the past several days we've been serenaded by birds living in our chimney who are not the most talented crooners. So rather than wait them out until winter we finally broke down and called a chimney sweep.

So $200 bucks or so later we've got a critter free chimney and a guilty conscience as the nest happened to contain baby birds. Yikes! What will we tell the children? (Hannah is convinced we had bats in the chimney no matter how often I've explained that bats don't 'chirp.' So maybe we can gloss over the details.)

Being afraid of climbing a ladder higher than 15' can certainly cost you!

And finally our driveway will stop looking like a used car lot. If seems like we've been dealing with four vehicles ever since we got our new van. This weekend we'll be handing over the old van to my parents on our way to celebrating our Anniversary. And Heather's mom returns from California leaving us with a much more manageable count of two vehicles. I'm sure the neighbors will approve!