Transformation of the Comet Darner

I was tending to my gardens this morning and saw what appeared to be a cellophane wrapper in my lilies.  

It wasn't cellophane.

Hubs reported that it was a newly emerged Comet Darner and while it is common other places, it is quite rare for us.  

He told me to watch it for a few hours and I would see how it would change.  

The wings are clear and glassy.  Just slightly lined.  The body is just filling with blood.  You can see how it isn't completely filled up yet.  

(A hair blurry.  If I got any closer, it would have flown away.)

The wings are lined.  The body is changing color.

Look at how the body has changed as it has dried in the sun. 

Class dismissed. :)

Monarch Watch Tagging: It's that time of year again!

I caught three monarchs, which is rather a miracle in itself since the numbers have been so dreadfully low and prior to this, we only saw one or two total this summer. 

Out comes the tag.  We buy these tags from Monarch Watch.  You can't just go sticking your own tags on them.  

Ready to go, go, go to Mexico!

But not this cicada.  It wanted in on the fun, but I had to explain that we were counting Monarchs and not cicadas. 

A hike and a lesson.

K and I went on a butterfly hike and ran into the White Pine forest.

So pretty!

Your lesson for the day- what is this butterfly? (I'll say that this was a distance away, so it isn't real crisp.)  Can you see the semi-circle line on the wings?  That line is what will tell you that it is not . . .

. . . a monarch.  (A better picture of a monarch is on the blog header.) Hubs taught me to remember that a viceroy smiles back at you.  Besides, this monarch is on milkweed and the look-a-like is definitely not.  (Not that monarchs exclusively stay on milkweed.  It is their host plant, though.) Viceroys are often identified as a monarch and a monarch they are not.

Chicory.  Oh how I want some of this for my yard.  Yes, it is the stuff that grows along the roadside.

While we were hiking, I looked down a long mowed path and there were what looked like two huge bowling pins looking back at me.  TURKEYS!  One ducked into the woods before the camera snapped the picture.

K carefully pulling a butterfly from the net.

An orange sulfur.  K loved the pink antennae.

A red spotted purple in our backyard.  It's an edge-of-forest butterfly and we are not edge-of-forest.  Looks like he was snacked upon.

Another snacking victim.  A fully tail-less tiger swallowtail.

Shhh!  They'll never see me here.

A slice of butterfly!

This bad boy is going to go into the black bean nacho burgers I'm about to make.

K asked that I wear it as a mustache.  :)

Have a great weekend!

Well hello there!

I found this guy on my parsley.  Don't worry.  I'm not mad.  It's a host plant and I have it growing knowing that I will be sharing with the wildlife.

Soon that caterpillar will become a tiger swallowtail. 

It's been a rather low butterfly year.  In fact, I need to purchase tags for monarch tagging, but I've only seen one fly over.  It didn't even stop to nectar.  I'm thrilled with any butterfly I get this year.

Have a great weekend!

A post of miscellaneous photoness.

Friday we had a big day.  We started out with a sewing lesson, then went on to pick R up for an overnight.  R is K's friend who has a birthday tomorrow.  Since they have sold their house, are building another and are in-between and living temporarily at her grandparent's house, a girl party wasn't to be this year.  We decided to do a reverse party for her.  We had her come on over and enjoy having a birthday girl celebration with us.

We went to the park near the hangar and played on the play equipment, then we had lunch together.

We watched the blimp come in for a landing (look at the guys pulling the ropes) and very soon . . .

 . . . it took off again!

And away she goes! 

Pardon the poor photo, but the hummingbird moths are back.  Hummingbirds were nectaring at the butterfly bush today, too.

A red spotted purple.  Not a typical find for us.  We've also had summer azure as a regular visitor, a monarch fly-by and a red admiral.  The average cabbage whites have been around.

Today K caught a tailless yellow swallowtail.

The cupflower is blooming.

So is the aster.

This was earlier in the week.

This is today.  Hello dinner!

The girls at the park.  R would be the upside down child.

The girls made brownies, by R's request.  They were a bit lavish with the sprinkles, but they were delicious!

Our weekend was good!  We hope yours was, too!

The first butterfly of the season!

We had a Red Admiral come by for a visit today.  It decided to hang out on the Black Eyed Susan's that are working on blooming.  It's always good to see the first of the summer since that is confirmation that you are doing something right.  The butterfly bushes should bloom within the next week or two, so we should have a lot more visitors by that point.

Hooray!

Monarch Tagging 2012: It's all fun and games until a Monarch gets loose in the house.

Today we began tagging our Monarchs.  We've purchased 100 tags and so far, we tagged 6.  That may not seem like a lot, but we have a church nature walk to our house so that some parishioners can help catch, tag and release.  We're also having a Boy Scout troop over (4 boys thankyouverymuch) that will do the same.  My cousin wants to come over.  My sister and her girls want to come over.  We think that 100 will work.

K- was all excited to be tagging.  She continued catching as I was making dinner.  She'd catch it and bring it to me.  We were tagging at the kitchen table and she'd take it back out to release it.  That is, until the one she was so enchanted with was walking on her finger.  I don't know, but she lost her monarchin' mind and didn't guard the little guy. 

He was in flight in the kitchen.  He kept getting whacked by the ceiling fan.  "K- A-!"  "Mom, I'm sorry!"  She went to get the butterfly net as I was attempting to catch the Monarch by hand.  Finally, he flew to the window screen and clung on.  I was able to get him detached, tagged, logged and on his merry way.  K- was relieved.  So was I.

I can officially say that is the first butterfly to ever get into my house.  We've had moths, spiders and once a mouse.  We've even had ants.  There's been a renegade earwig.  Never a butterfly-- until now.

Smiles in my day:
-  K- loves LOVES her teacher.  Mrs. H- is truly delightful and I'm so glad that I chose her. 
-  K- is taking dinner leftovers for lunch tomorrow-- chick'n nuggets and sweet potato whole grain pierogies.  "What am I supposed to tell them that I'm eating?"  "Chicken nuggets and pierogies."  I'm thinking that she might be getting a little embarrassed now of her not average lunch. 
-  They have reworked lunches completely and even had them nutritionally okay'd by the Cleveland Clinic.  They claim that they are the healthiest school lunches in the area.  Grilled chicken sandwiches.  Turkey dogs.  (Better than regular, I'm thinking.)  Chef salad with turkey and GARBANZO BEANS!  (My kid will eat them, but the general most?)  They even have seasoned collards with the macaroni and cheese.  Well, I say good on them.  K- knows that she can do mac and cheese for a lunch with school.  She's excited to see what else is offered.  Each lunch will have two veggies and one fruit.  Today they had cherry tomatoes.  That's wonderful!  :)

Have a great night!

It's like planning a party and all of your guests are late.

My regular readers will know that we have butterfly gardens out back.  Our out back is part of our 40' x 120' plot of dirt. 

It's not so big.

Still, I have planted, tended, watered in the drought (not crazy, but reasonable enough) to the point that our water bill greatly reflects that.  We've traded for plants, bought them, raised them, lost them, thought we'd love them, then had to rip some out when they were found to be invasive.  We've weeded, despite being a bit wild and woolly.  A perfectly manicured bed isn't really how I roll.  I like to have the butterflies flutter about on our little city plot in a way that might mimic what they find elsewhere.

The last few years have been tough on butterfly numbers here.  It isn't anything we've done wrong.  We still have their lovely plants and bushes, garden organically and so forth.  Weather has not been our friend.  Last year, we had flooding and I only used municipal water twice. This year, we've been in a drought.

Those are not conditions that butterflies truly love.

Last year, monarchs were so low in number that we were having difficulty finding the number we needed for the tags that were purchased.  In the end, it worked out fine and me in a cast, but we used them all.

This year, we've had little action.  Truly, we have had years when monarchs were hanging by 30 at a time on the bushes.  I saw my first monarch here just a few days ago.

Wow.

But now, our guests are finally arriving.  We've had some monarchs.  We've had more tiger swallowtails.  We've had black swallowtails.  There have been silver spotted skippers and some red admirals.  The Peck's skippers have finally returned, along with our hummingbird moths.  Early in the season, we had commas and question marks-- butterflies we aren't used to seeing here.  Just a few days ago, I got photos of a spice bush swallowtail.  That is the first one we ever saw.  We also had the never-seen-here fiery skipper and Zebulon skippers.  (They were a pair that I took photos of and Hubs very tactfully said that they were "courting.")  That was certainly my guess.  He said that he has never seen that before.  Score one for me.  :)

Finally, they are starting to visit.  My camera batteries are all charged.  When I have time, I'll even be able to download all of them!

Smiles in my day:
-  Checking on K- (as I always do each night) and finding that she is actually sleeping with the pair of clearance marked (hooray) Twinkle Toes light up Skechers that I bought her for school this year.  She has wanted them for years, and finally their price was what I was willing to pay.  I did take a photo and know that will be a part of some photo collage when she graduates or gets married.  ;)

Have a great day!

Crutch-free

When I had my bedazzled purple cast cut off, the doctor who put me into the cam boot said that I could technically walk on my foot.  Dr. W- told me limited weight bearing for two weeks.  I opted to stay with the original instructions.  Thursday, was my first day out, crutch-free.

It is grand. 

Grant you, I walk as if I am a victim of a displaced stick, but it's all good.  I have to keep a tennis shoe on, though.  The height of the cam boot vs. a flat foot is quite different.  I have to walk on my  toes if unshoed on the left. 

My crutches are still in the truck if I need them.  I'm looking forward to going to the grocery today.  I hadn't gone before, as I didn't care to go in a motorized shopping scooter. 

I go back on the 29th to see what progress I've made and if I'm shoe-ready.  I dare not walk anywhere without my boot.  I even sleep with it on.  Better to be safe than sorry, even if when I take it off, it smells like little kid foot.  Eeeeewwwwww!

Smiles in my days:
-  Busy, busy.  We had an open house Thursday evening where we were able to go to our child's class and get the full run-down of what they do with their day.  It helped to explain a lot of things and clarification is always good.  I could tell that the teacher was nervous, as she apologized the next day for things that she had missed.  I told her how much I appreciated it.  She needed an atagirl.  You know, sometimes it's a lot easier to get in front of the little people that their parents.  If you do something goofy in front of the kids, they'll laugh, you'll laugh and all is done.  Parents take things way too seriously.
-  Mike, the wonder neighbor, is back from his quick trip to Myrtle Beach.  Some old guy ran a stop sign and hit him with his car, though.  Mike rolled over the hood and landed on the other side.  The man saw that he appeared unhurt and he WAVED AND DROVE AWAY.  I told Mike that I'm sure that he'd rather it be him than his girlfriend, Ruth.  Wow.
-  We caught our last monarch yesterday.  The tally sheets will be mailed on Monday.  The butterflies will begin arriving in Mexico in about mid-November.  We'll see if any of ours made it.  Of course, we're really pulling for PMA 912.  I mean, I busted my foot for that butterfly and all!  I'll keep you guys up to date on whether any of our butterflies make it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Monarch Watch Tagging: The broken foot version.

You take a butterfly that you've caught while in a boot for a broken foot. 

Figure out whether it is a male or female.

Get your sticker on.



Get it set to fly away.  Good luck PMA 928!  We hope you make it to Mexico!

 Smiles in my day:
-  K- won first place in her category at the Garden Fair today!  She was so excited!

Have a great weekend!

Tales from the Trenches: Just remember how well I told you that I HAD been doing.

It was 2 AM Monday morning when I woke up hot, sweaty, uncomfortable and in an absolute panic attack.  My ankle felt like someone was continually rubbing an emery board against it and my leg felt as if it was wrapped in a wet blood pressure cuff that was continually tightening.  I envisioned a sore that was developing beneath the cast.  No care or air could get to it.  Most certainly, it would get gangrenous.  My leg wasn't swelling, but it felt as if the cast was shrinking.  I had fallen asleep watching the 9/11 88th Floor program, remembered hearing people screaming in my dreams and I woke up absolutely losing it. 

I had to wake my husband up to come talk to me. 

A pair of scissors weren't far from me.  I had seriously considered trying to cut my cast off. 

The more I tried to NOT think about my discomfort, the more I thought about it.  The more I thought about it, the more it drove me absolutely mad.  To say that all my marbles were nearly gone from my mental state is definitely not a lie.  I had made the decision that the cast had to come off.  Hubs said that they wouldn't take it off, but would probably give me drugs instead.

I got myself sufficiently worked up to think that I was going to have to go doctor shopping to get the purple rhinestoned cast cut off of my leg.  My friend Kay offered her assistance.  "We have tools!"  The dremel tool in my studio was looking mighty fine.  Rest assured, I was getting the cast cut off today no matter what. 

I hobbled down to K-'s bus stop with her.  As we waited for the bus to arrive, I phoned the doctor's office.  Dr. W- was on a few days of vacation, but she asked me, "How about Dr. R-?"  I told her that he would be great.  He cared for Hubs when he had rotavirus and seemed like a truly understanding and caring soul. 

Dr. R- walked in.  "What can I do for you today?"  I explained my rubbing discomfort, then I launched into my bigger complaint.  "Dr., I suffer from pretty severe claustrophobia.  Never did I ever think that would effect my having a cast on, but it has.  I have had panic attacks and have been brought to tears.  Is there anyway that you can take this cast off?  Is there any other option for me other than the cast?" 

"Did you break your ankle?" 

"No."

"What did you break and do I have films?"  (No, he wasn't being lazy.  He had truly just walked in the room and I had never come to see him before.  Obviously, he checked out the records after he figured out that I was a part of the practice and had received care there/at the attached hospital.)

I told him that the films were done just down the hall and that I broke my 5th metatarsal near the base.

"Oh!  We can put you in a cam boot for a 5th metatarsal break.  I'll take the cast off."  Then he shared a story with us about his daughter.  It seems as though she suffered from the rubbing problems that I was suffering from.  He said that he changed her cast every 2-3 days because of her discomfort. 

We changed rooms and he set to task.  He cut and cut and cut.  Then he asked, "Who put this cast on?" 

"Dr. W-."

"Sean?" 

"Yes.  He really did do a very good job.  It isn't his fault.  I had no idea that I wouldn't be able to stand having a cast on."

He went on to say about how very thorough Dr. W- was, as he had bound my foot with layers and layers of casting material to be certain that it was kept immobilized and would heal well. 

Changing to the cam boot has taken me from a 4 week recovery to a probable 6 week recovery, but I told him that my mental well-being was quite fine with that. 

When we went to leave, Dr. R- said, "You know, I've never broken anything, but I don't think that I could do a cast, either." 

I told him to make sure that he doesn't break anything, then he doesn't have to find out. 

Rachael got many e-mails from me.  Bless her dear soul.  At one point, I told her that I thought that they were going to put me in a beautiful white coat that allowed me to give myself a psychiatric hug.  She worked hard at not only listening to me losing it, but also praying that I didn't lose the rest of my rapidly fraying mental status.  A friend offered the vodka in her freezer or the fine chocolate flavored wine that she had.  It's been probably 9 years since I've had anything with any alcohol in it (family history of alcohol/substance abuse), but I did seriously consider her offer just as a calming effect.  Hubs offered melatonin and had me sleep in bed with him, even though sleep wasn't something that he knew that I would actually be able to do.  Kay offered to help me cut the cast off.  Mom kept calling in a very serious tone to see if I had taken the dremel out yet. 

My claustrophobia is no light matter.  Hubs made me promise, as I was soaking in a hot tub while giving BOTH legs a shave, that I would never ever be put in any type of cast that I couldn't exit from on my own ever again. 

Poor man.  Poor child.  They were both very supportive as I cried and panicked and apologized for my irrational behavior. 

"Honey, you need to distract yourself.  Don't you have PTA things that you could do?"  I ended up working on PTA things for 2 hours in the AM and 4 hours in the PM.  At least my attempt at distraction did accomplish things. 

:deep breath:

Claustrophobia is a bad thing.  A very bad thing.  Who knew that a cast would cause me to flip a lid?  My lid is now turned back upright and properly screwed back on. 

Praise God!

Smiles in my day:
-  I'm free!

A thankfulness post: If you've got it, be happy and accessorize it.

Okay, obviously I didn't get a professional pedicure.  Just pardon the excess glitter top coat polish lopped over the sides.  If someone is looking that closely at my foot (y'all fall under the exception here), they deserve to see some over polish. 

K- and E- had a good time treating the cast as a canvas.  K- helped me to glue rhinestones to the top.  I was going to go overboard, but the neighbor mentioned that when they run films again to make certain it has healed, they will reflect on the film.  Oops.  The lower ones won't cause a problem. 

Hubs and I had a discussion earlier about my foot, his habit of injury and the fact that no one else has the odd issues that our match provides.  I told him, "People might not understand when I say this, but I hope that you do.  I'm glad that I broke my foot."  Being the husband he is and knowing how my mind works he said, "Tendons and ligaments would have probably ended up in surgery."  "Exactly.  And, I hear that a severe sprain is worse to get over than a break."  Truly, I am very thankful.  It hurt when I first did it, but nothing that brought me to tears.  The lump that instantly appeared on my foot paired with the loud crack upon landing pretty much sold me to the thought that I broke it, but it really could have been much worse.  All the bones lined up.  No setting or surgery were required.  I could wait until the next day for medical intervention.  I have insurance.  Let me repeat that.  I have insurance.  So many other people don't.  I have a doctor who could handle my care in office.  I have wonderful people at work that have e-mailed to say not to sweat it, they'll find desk work for me to do.  I had worried.  I had worried that I couldn't find the "permission slip to work" from the doctor and that Tuesday, they would turn me around and send me home.  They are happy to have me come to hang out.  My mom kept calling to see what she could bring.  My aunt came over on her mobility scooter to drop off 3 giant dark chocolate bars, because she couldn't think of anything else to do.  (She felt a little useless.) The neighbor drove me several places for hours while my foot was casted, I retrieved crutches and tried to find the illusive cast boot.  (I finally did find it later on my own.)  My PTA mama friend, Kay, helped me to start cleaning the PTA room at school.  (We're in a swing space and our room is not a closet anymore, but the previous teacher's lounge and it is gross.)  My in-law's had us over last night for dinner, even though they were supposed to come to our house.  My daughter has kicked in and really helped and is currently in training to become a laundress like her mama.  (No Cinderella here, but it doesn't hurt for the child to learn how to do some basic laundry helping.)  Hubs is always a big help around the house and he's also picking up my slack.  He's out shopping at Sam's right now.  (And has called me twice already.)  My SIL and BIL in the Chicagoland area are calling in pick up for us at a local Italian restaurant tonight.  And again I reiterate, I can drive.  That I worried about, as well.

It's all good.  It'll be a short month and sooner than I know it, I'll be shaving two legs at the same bath time again. 

We can't run it with just plainness!

You can note that we have added artwork and my toes are now glittery.  I would have painted them last night, but I didn't know if they needed to see the true color of  my toes before casting. 

You'd be glad to know that K- and E- had a fantastic time decorating my cast.  I have some rhinestones that K- and I are going to hot glue on in a bit.  I mean, if I have to rock a cast, why not be obnoxious about it, right? 

As the day has worn on, my high tolerance to pain couldn't mask the fact that my foot is still broken and in the midst of being in fracture fits.  My toes were sausaging and the bruising up at the top is a bit more purple than before. 

I'm happy to report that I can drive!  Because they were kind enough to leave my toes exposed, I can press the gas with my big toe (thank goodness it isn't winter!) and press the brake with my left foot.  It took a one-time run to get the more gentle nature needed, as I was a bit herky-jerky and felt as if I was going to give myself whip lash.  I did finally find a cast boot, after going three places and spending a few hours on trying to track it down, but I do need to remove it to drive. 

This is my second post for the day.  Read on!

Smiles in my day:
-  As I admit that my underpits (as K- calls them) are aching in a way that I cannot describe, my foot is relatively pain free.  I really am quite lucky in that I only broke a bone (fully, but just one), nothing needed to be set and everything was well in place.  I have a great doctor who could deal with all of it in office.  He casted it himself and truly did a very nice job.  The office laughed at my story and different ones were asking me what color I got when I left.  See, I am quite the advocate for conservation and monarch migration.  I'm a poster child of, "Hey!  Ask me what I did!"  Sure.  That was my intention.  Uh, huh.  :S
-  Hubs just caught an American Copper, which is a rare butterfly for us.  Yet another confirmation that we're doing something right on our little rectangle of earth here. 

I'm going to go hang my leg out of the tub and get myself bathed.  It was in the mid 90's today and between the heat and the crutches and working up a sweat for a variety of reasons, I need a bit of a soak. 

Have a great weekend!

The latest in migratory tagging footwear.

Who would have thought that the simple act of catching butterflies would land me in a permanent purple leg for a month?

BUSTED!

My 5th metatarsal was the one that made that loud crack sound last night.  Pardon me as I continue icing, per instructions from the doctor, so that I can go in tomorrow, get a non-waterproof cast in a color of my choice with some lovely crutches to boot.

Have I failed to mention my lack of athleticism?

I am not the picture of grace.

I did not excel in sports, except volleyball.  I wailed on the ball. 

This evening, I told Hubs and K- that I was going to go out to the back yard for one last look for monarchs.  "You know, I believe I'll join you," Hubs says.  Quickly, K- was in tow. 

I had a monarch in my sights.  It fluttered to the other side of the fence, and I decided that would be the side to pursue on.  K- followed me, but hung back where I told her, so as not to scare the monarch.

I stalked the monarch.  I was quiet and stealth-like.  I made the leap.   I made the swoop.  I caught it! 

Then I landed.  On an incline.  In Birkenstock's. 

With a crack. 

Audibly. 

It was so loud that Hubs heard it from probably about 10 feet away.  "Honey, WHAT did you just do?"

I got myself turned around while keeping the monarch in the confines of the butterfly net.  I told him that he needed to come help me.  I thought that I potentially broke my foot. 

I instantly took my shoe off.  Best to remove than to cut or pry my shoe off.  Hubs bent down and started caring for my foot.  All I could think of was the butterfly. 

"Get the butterfly."

"Amy, I need to see what you did."

"No, seriously.  You need to get the butterfly."  He and K- complied with my request.  They sexed, tagged and released. 

I got up, started to hobble down Mike's driveway (which has cameras and Hubs is pretty certain that I should blog my catch or put it on You Tube), then I hear my aunt.  "AMY!  AMY!"  She was very sing-songy. 

I did not feel so sing-songy. 

I told K- to go get her and I told Hubs, "Oh, I just can't do it tonight."  She was on a ride about and as it turns out, she was okay.  I talked to her a bit, mulled over the potential of taking a trip to the ER, but neighbors and my mom weren't around.  K- starts school in the AM, I didn't want to keep her up late by taking her to someone elses house and I didn't want her all stressed out about me.

So where am I at tonight?  I'm sitting on the computer chair with my foot, not aching, but swollen and showing slight bruising.  My plan is to get K- onto the bus in the AM, drive out (of course it is my right foot) to retrieve the RAV from the body shop and onward to my doctor's office.  (More on the RAV in a later post.  Not crashed but damaged by the belt on the windshield repair guy.)  My doctor's office is in one of the local hospitals, so if my foot requires a scanning of some sort, which I believe I've won the lottery for, they'll be able to do it on site. 

My toes bend.  The whole row.  I can flex them back and forth.  My ankle flexes back and forth.  I can walk on the inside of my foot.  The outside of my foot has a swelling that doesn't belong there, a slight haze of purple and I can't walk on it. 

Good times, right? 

Yes, I'll keep you up to date on my orthopedic health.

In the meantime, just remember that I caught and got that butterfly tagged.  Oh, I just can't wait for the doctor to ask what I did. 

Monarch Watch Tagging: First ones up!



We started our tagging today.  I admit that the first one was a little worn and I'm not real hopeful that he will make the journey to El Rosario, so it was an excellent one for me to learn tagging on.  In the photo, I see that the sticker is on, but I should have pressed it down a little bit more. 

We only had two that K- and her friends had caught earlier.  We thought that we had three, but one turned out to be a Viceroy.  Doh!  When a Monarch smiles back, it is a fake. 

Two down.  48 more to go!

Smiles in my day:
-  My friend, Heather, came over with her boys.  K- and I taught them how to catch butterflies.  I held the Venus Fly Trap so that they could all hand feed it.  We even hit a giant milestone, as L- learned to ride a bike here.  Now, we are a girl house.  L- expressed interest in riding K-'s bike.  Her bike was a gift from Aunt Kristin about 3 1/2 years ago.  It is a Disney Princess bike that is definitely oozing girl.  He was half way okay with that.  He did ask if I had a different helmet.  K- has a Razor scooter helmet that is very dark pink with daisies.  "I do!"  "Great," L- says.  "It has Tinkerbell on it!"  "DOH!" he said with a grin.  He opted for the dark pink Razor scooter helmet.  He wobbled.  Occasionally he flopped, but by the time they left, he was riding up and down the sidewalk without falling and without pushing the bike up the hill. 
-  Hubs being so excited about putting our Monarch Waystation sign up.  He did a great job.

A prayer request:  My good friend, Rachael, and her family are hunkering down to weather Hurricane Irene.  Their area is not evacuated, but she is rather concerned about this storm.  Their 5 year old daughter, Lily, is somewhat beside herself.  Her 16 month old daughter, Ellie, has been a bit under her own weather.  Brien?  He's been readying the generator and probably a number of other things.  Please consider praying that they are kept safe. 

We're officially a Monarch Waystation!

Hubs registered our butterfly gardens with Monarch Watch and purchased a kit to tag 50 Monarchs (to track their migration) over the next month.  What did he do this for?  My birthday.  :)

Thanks to my people for doing such nice things for me!

Smiles in my day:
-  All the hard work that Hubs put into registering our property.  K- with her poofy squirrel cheek card and the Mrs. Potato Head. 
-  DQ cake for breakfast.
-  The wedding order of frames were finished last night at 11:58 PM.

Have a great day!