My Sister Beth

This is my littlest sister, Beth.

And her parrot, Pickle.

And Laci, but you probably already knew that.

Pickle is an eclectis? eclectic? GREEN parrot.

Beth bought him online somewhere and had to pick him up at the airport.

Who gets a parrot at the airport?

Beth does.

After she did gobs of research on exactly this type of bird.

Beth likes to research things a lot.

She's had him for a couple of years I think and he laughs just like her.

No really, I mean he sounds exactly like her when he laughs.

And she has a pretty unmistakable laugh.

Laci loves all her aunties,

but Aunt Beth is the crazy aunt who makes Laci smile and laugh and act totally crazy and out of control.

I think we all need an aunty like that.

Laci loves to visit Pickle, but we can't let her handle him quite the way she handles kitties.

I don't think he would survive.

Back to Beth.

And her parrot.

Beth cooks for her parrot.

Every weekend she prepares his meals for the week.

He eats lots of fresh vegetables and fruit, and I think rice.

But I'm not really sure about that last one.

She is also a fanatic about using cleansers in her house.

Only 100% natural products around this guy.

And no non-stick pans either.

What would I do without non-stick?

We haven't seen much of Beth lately.

School has started again.

She is in her umpteenth year of community college.

Don't worry Beth, it is OK to be a community college lifer.

She has changed her major so many times I can't even remember them all.

But I give her credit, she hasn't quit.

Ok, actually, she has quit, a couple of times,

but she keeps going back, so that's good enough for me.

(I quit too, and then went back, and then quit, and then went back, and then had a baby.)

This time, she's decided on Horticulture.

Which is a really good match for her.

She planted over 500 seeds this Spring just for fun.

Some of the seeds were so small, she had to plant them with tweezers.

Seriously?

This is why I love Beth.

When she is interested in something, she dives in head first.

She loves to soak in every bit of information she can,

and then she "teaches" all of us about what she is learning.

To date we've been thoroughly schooled by Beth in the areas of

Nutrition, Parrots, Plant Propagation, Homeless Greyhounds, Miniature Horses, Interior Design,

and about a million other things she has been interested in over the past few years.

You can't deny she loves to learn.

As long as it is something she's interested in.

I'm looking forward to when she takes a landscaping class.

I'm pretty sure I'll have more than a few opportunities to put her new knowledge to good use.