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. 

I finally sat down.

I have run basically non-stop for the last month.  Today I sat down.  I started the day with a headache that was growing.  I laid down on the couch and fell asleep around 10 AM while K- played with K'inex.  That didn't help, but she was creating fun things.  I ate a few Advil, we talked and I toodled about in a non-specific and non-accomplishing way.  She rode her bike and I taught her how to do a figure 8. 

We had a rather laid back day.

It has come to the end of the summer.  I've had to hound her each and every day to do the summer bridge reading and math work from school.  Well, I'll say that a lot of July was skipped because of illness, which is the reason we are still at it.  K- has had a case of the whinies.  She has had a bit of the "I know what you asked, but . . ."  All of those things grind at my very mama nerves.  We've had some pretty hard hitting heart to heart talks over the past few days about behavior and adoption.  (Completely unrelated, but equally as deep.)  Today, I made a concerted effort to be a bit less mama naggin' and she put more effort into doin', cooperatin' and being a problem solver.  She had her bike out in the front lawn when I returned from the PTA meeting (at 9:30 PM) and I told her that she had to be sure to put it up or it would be stolen.  She got it around to the back, took it to the shed, got herself a flashlight and managed to get everything done on her own without a whine for help.  She locked it back up, put the key away properly, gathered up her play things in her play area downstairs without hounding and went to bed without a fight. 

I complimented her for doing such great things.  I complimented her for working together with me today.  I told her that those are the days I love best.  It was nice to come home after the three hour meeting to her having had a bath, hair washed and things taken care of.  The day wasn't perfect, but I wanted her to go back to school not thinking that her mom was some horrible ogre.  I want her to know that I care.  Still, I want to remind myself that she is a kid.  Sometimes my expectations for her are too high.  I just want her to be a good kid.  I want her to do well in school.  I need to express myself differently sometimes.

So I sat down today.  K- did, too.  We didn't run around like crazy, doing ten things at once.  We enjoyed the day.  We hunted down butterflies, worked on math, did a bit of reading together and snuggled. 

It was good to finally sit.

Smiles in my day:
-  Sitting down for a meal at our kitchen table.  We've been out on dinners elsewhere this week and while that is wonderful, there's something about your own table, you know?
-  We're going to start tagging monarchs!

Have a great day!

It all moved, but I didn't feel a thing.

I work just on the edge of downtown.  There were buildings evacuated just in case.  The KSU Main branch library was evacuated just in case.  (Hubs and I went to college there.) 

I felt nothing.

Hubs felt nothing.

K- called me and said, "Mom?  I think that there was an earthquake.  Did you feel it?" 

We had no news or any update feed available to us, so I was functioning with what I overheard from customers and my mom.  Mom reported Emerald Isle having been affected, so that left me to think of my friend, Rachael, and her family.  I gave a quick call from work.  She is good and well.  The family is good and well. 

I hope that this post finds all of you well.  So, did you feel it.  Are y'all okay?

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!

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth.

It's been a long and quick summer.  That doesn't make sense, but June flew by, July crawled with the the extended fever funk, only to toss us head-first into August with a schedule that doesn't stop. 

Let's review:

1st weekend of August-  In Chicago Friday - Sunday.
2nd weekend of August- Yard sale Thurs., Fri. and Saturday.
3rd weekend of August- Camping at Ohiopyle Thurs. - Sunday.

We had things back to back without a break, without a breath, without a pause of any kind.

We came back from vacation yesterday afternoon, only to know that I was going to be going straight to the studio (dancing from the studio to the laundry with gross and wet camping laundry), because I have a deadline for 2 frames to be done by tomorrow.  EEEEK!

So, if you'll pardon me, I must press on and solder some glass.  I promise that vacation photos are coming this week.

Have a great day!

My 20 year reunion.

I graduated in 1991.  When I graduated, I happily walked away from the people who tormented me for so many years, with no intention of fake hob-knobbing with them again. 

My best friend was really excited about going to the 10 year reunion.  I decided that we would go and find out that hopefully, people grew up.

They hadn't.  I only had one person really actually stop to talk to me.  There were a few comments in passing, but I didn't find that the folks that I graduated with had changed all that much. 

They were a little heavier.

They were a little leather-like.

Their attitude in life was the same, though.

My best friend has been so excited about the reunion.  About three years ago, when they began planning the reunion, she e-mailed that I needed to get onto Facebook and hook up with their page (or whatever you call it.) 

No thank you.

They made fun of me because I didn't have the right clothes.

They made fun of me because I was a bit awkward. 

I was a decent student and was made fun of for that.

I was an art kid and got heat for that.

The teachers liked me and there were occasions that I had a hard time because of that, as well.

I'm good with skipping the bar mixer with the other classes.  I'm good with skipping the dinner and dancing with a bunch of folks who didn't care to even speak to me in the lunch room.  I'm quite happy with skipping the day at the local pool that we actually have passes at, because gym was far too horrible and would I really want these people to purposely see me in a swimming suit?  I mean, it isn't that bad, but I don't need them to scrutinize my body, when they already did that 20 years ago.

Can you tell that I didn't leave high school with warm fuzzies?  Hubs didn't, either.  He was on the MIA list and was quite thrilled with that.  Can you tell that they did hurt me.  I don't want to get together with a bunch of people who wouldn't give me the time of day 20-24 years ago, only to have them want to know how I am, how many kids I have, if I'm married and how many times, what I do, where do I do it, where I live, how big the house is, what I drive and so forth.

No thank you.  The people who I want to know that stuff already stay in contact with me.  I'm good with that.

Reunion?  No thank you.

Smiles in my day: 
-  Seinfeld re-runs.  I can't tell you how many times we'll be in a store and one of us will belt out, "Jerry?  Jerry?  Stick a fork in me, I'm done!"  Even K-, at her earliest point of speech, would belt out the "Stick a fork in me, I done!" bit. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Our latest horticultural acquisition.

While at the Chicago Botanic Garden, we decided that a Venus Fly Trap was just quirky enough to come home with us.  The garlic chives in the background were a freebie they were giving away outside of the Barilla demo. 

 

Hubs handfed the plant.  No kidding.  He couldn't wait! 


Venus Fly Traps come with directions.  No chlorinated or softened water.  Bright light.  Keep continuously damp (which is why I have it in a ramekin filled halfway with water).  If transplanting, peat or spagnum moss as the planting medium.  No food.  It is happy with what I'm doing to it, so I'll keep on keepin' on. 

:)!

Smiles in my day:
-  The gloriously crisp sleeping evenings that we've been able to enjoy.
-  Hubs working so hard on our bikes to get them ready for us to enjoy a bike ride together.  Since K- learned to ride her bike, we needed to get ours out from the cobwebs to show her that we can ride ours, too!
-  Getting a ton done at work.
-  The lovely wonders of the half gallon of soda AKA the 59 cent Polar Pop from Circle K.  It is truly the only way I got as much done at work as I did.

Have a great day!

Want to know more about where we visited?  Click here!