The Butterfly

Here's the pretty caterpillar that Ladybug found already attached to a tomato. This is how we suspended the tomato:

That evening the caterpillar changed:

Here's the skin - kind of neat - you can see the head and legs:

Getting closer. We could see the colors of the butterfly:

And finally - here's the beautiful butterfly:

Panda says...

Grandpa was laying next to Panda at bedtime. While talking non-stop Panda says:

"Grandpa, when I stop talking, I'll be asleep."

Panda news, etc.

I think I can safely say this now: Panda is potty trained! Woo hoo. Who knew I could be so excited about bathroom business? Yeah, my life is in the toilet...

In other news I have lost 5 pounds in two days. How you ask - well, that's a secret that I cannot tell right now. But, it has worked before - I'll let you know how it comes out this time - later. 30 more to go.

We did release the butterfly today. But, I couldn't catch a picture of it. She looked really happy to be flying away.

The Butterfly Emerged

I promised pictures, but I want to get pictures of us releasing it too and it was raining all day, so that did not happen. Besides the fact that I had a crappy day and now I've got one kid who threw up and another one with an upset stomach. So, I just don't feel like posting pictures. Yipee.

All you get for today is this lousy blog post! I'll try again tomorrow. Hoping for better weather so we can get a release done. She's a beautiful butterfly!

Butterfly watch

Last Friday, the 11th, Ladybug went outside to pick tomatoes. As she picked one she felt something brush against her finger and figured it was a spider or a bug. She looked under the tomato and found a monarch caterpillar attached to the tomato. She carefully carried it inside to show me. I didn't believe her at first - I figured it was a tomato worm! But, after looking it up on the internet, I found out that she was correct!

The caterpillar was already hanging in the j shape, so we wondered if we would have to opportunity to watch it transform into a butterfly. But, we had to figure out how to take care of it since it was attached to the tomato! First we decided to tie a string to the stem of the tomato and tied that to the top of one of Ladybug's large bug containers. Then I worried that the tomato might rot off the stem and crush the butterfly. We found a piece of material, cut a hole and fashioned a "net" for the tomato to rest on. We then carefully threaded the caterpillar through the hole and tied the material to the top of the bug container.

Then... I read online that when raising monarch caterpillars, once they are in the j shape you are not to touch them or move them. Great.

I had to work that night. Brian took the girls downstairs to work on cleaning the basement. They were only down there for about an hour, came up and found the caterpillar was in it's chrysalis!

It's looking like it will emerge in the morning. I've been taking pictures at each stage that I will post when we finally have our butterfly. This has been so neat to watch!

So bad

I am just not doing well in keeping up with this blog. (*really* - you say!)

We started our first day of school on Tuesday. So far, so good. Things are going fairly well. Ladybug is enjoying her next level of math. In fact, so well that she did 3 units in one day yesterday! It helps that one of my friends just started home schooling her son - he's on the same math book and they are having a competition.

Butterfly always likes her school work and is very good at entertaining Panda while I work with Ladybug. That's a huge help.

Panda is working on potty training (FINALLY). She's doing very well. This week she has only had about one accident per day. Over last weekend, we finally resorted to what I call "operation sun dress". That is what she was wearing. If we added anything to it - we had a mess. So, we left things that way for about 2 days and then tried adding the panties back in. Bingo. Worked like a charm. We also added a sticker chart and m&ms as incentive.

Lessons are in full swing. I have a very nice group of kids to work with. This weekend is another weekend class with childbirth education. KMEA will kick in to high gear before I know it - my email inbox for that account is starting to show it.

I hear chaos erupting upstairs - time to go back and reclaim order... wish me luck!

Why is it...

that people who call others close-minded won't listen to any view point other than their own?

Just wondering.

More cute thoughts from the youngin'

From Panda again:

As the timer was going off:

"Mom, the oven is "timer-ing" again."

As we were picking out a dress for her to wear today. (she wanted a dress today):

"Mom, this one will work. It goes down past my legs."

(we like them to go below their knees)

3 year old creativity

Panda came into my room the other day carrying a flashlight. She started flipping it on and off over and over. Then she looked at me and exclaimed, "Look Mom, it's a thunderstorm!"

Let the Games Begin

Ok, it's really not *that* exciting to most of us anyway. The school year is underway again. I'm just not sure I'm ready for how busy things get again. (probably because things never slowed down this summer)

Ladybug had a first tonight - her first children's choir rehearsal. She has been so excited. She has counted days, hours and minutes and was in the car at least five minutes before I got to the car!

Butterfly had a first on Friday - she lost her first tooth. If I can ever get back on my desktop computer (which I keep unplugging for all the recent storms we have had), I'll load a picture of her.

With all the rain, we have had several rainbow sightings. I got a picture of part of one on Saturday. Tonight there was a full rainbow. It was beautiful!

My lessons start tomorrow. I have 12 piano students, 1 flute student and 1 bassoon student. I'm looking forward to seeing all the kids again.

A request for renaming...

Monkey apparently no longer likes her nickname. She wants to be called Butterfly. So, I will honor her wishes and from here on out, her nickname will be Butterfly. I like that too. Butterflies were Grandma's favorite.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! I'm hoping she's having a wonderful day today. Here's a photo of the flowers we (Angela, Jennifer and I) sent her.

Love you Mom!

Back again

Well, I'm finally back. It's been kind of a wild 3 weeks here. I'll have to go into detail later when I have a bit of time, but here is the short story of what has gone on here:

On June 18th my grandma went into the hospital while my parents were out of state. I live 30 minutes from my grandparents so I went back and forth to the hospital to visit and see how things were going, so that I could let my mom know and hopefully set her mind at ease while she was gone. I'm so glad that I was able to do that. I received some treasures that I will be able to hold on to. More on that later. Grandma went home on the 22nd, but was too weak for grandpa to be able to help her, so on the 23rd she went to a rehab/nursing center. The people there were wonderful. We had a meeting on the 26th with the goal of doing OT and PT and getting her back home. Things were going pretty well. On the 3rd of July, Mom and Dad stopped through on their way out again and grandma was still doing fine. On the 4th she was dehydrated again and they could no longer get an iv in. Mom and Dad came back on the 5th to see how she was doing and she was eating and drinking and walked using her walker again. Thinking all was well again, they went on home. On the 6th, mom got a call from grandpa that gma was no longer eating or drinking and had not gotten out of bed. Mom and Dad came back. My aunt and uncle joined my mom as we waited for the Lord to call grandma home.

Dad and I decided on the 12th to go ahead and head back to their house so that he could go to work and I could work on camp. We got 10 minutes from their house when we received the call that Grandma died. Dad and I stayed until Wednesday and then returned, while Mom, Brian and my sister, Angela and her husband, Travis held down the fort at our house and finalized all the plans. Visitation was Thursday and the funeral was Friday.

I returned to Mom and Dad's house Friday night and went back to work on camp stuff on Saturday morning. Sunday through Saturday went as the usual blur of activity during camp.

Today we returned home and I'm writing this as I cool off after hanging clothes on the line. I have pictures that I would like to post as well as some of my treasured stories. I hope to catch up on those soon.

Well, that was a long short story. Beware of the long story!

Sad News

I just heard this evening that my college bassoon teacher passed away. He was a teacher, mentor, friend and very much like a family member to me. I wish he hadn't lived so far away these past several years.

I had such high respect for him. Not only did he teach me bassoon through my undergraduate degree, but we worked together on camp. I was his secretary for four years for the camp. The first year I was secretary, he was ill and in the hospital from early in the summer until the final day of camp. He ran camp from his hospital bed through me. I made many trips that year to see him and find out what to do next. He was so prepared that it wasn't hard to put all together. I learned so much that year.

After I graduated from college he made me his assistant director. I was honored to have that title, a title I didn't feel I necessarily deserved; and honored that he respected my opinions enough to give me that title. I worked with him until he retired and moved in with his daughter and her husband out of state.

He was very happy living next to his daughter. They had a nice house that basically had an apartment attached. He could live independently yet be a part of their lives. He was so excited when his grandson was born.

One thing I will miss is his Christmas letters. They were always so nicely done and included photos of his family and his cats (who he treated as family). He did beautiful woodwork. We have one of the doll houses that he built. He was so kind to give it to my girls. He also cross-stitched! One of my treasured wedding presents is a wall hanging that he cross-stitched for us himself.

My prayers are with his children and grandchildren. They are all very neat people.

I will miss him.

Lady Bug's Art Show

Lady Bug went to art camp last week. Here are her masterpieces: