Rewind: PRE-CHRISTMAS DECEMBER 2011

Wow...I am on a roll!  Since I blogged precisely ZERO times in January, I now have to write 4.5454545454545454545 (and so on) times per month for the rest of the year to reach my goal of 50 posts for 2012.  Aside from a haircut for my boy late this afternoon I have nothing planned for the day...perfect time to get back on the blogging bandwagon and start chipping away at my 50 posts.

First up is post-wind storm but still pre-Christmas in the month of December...

1. Christmas Parties

Early on in the month we had our local ward (congregation) Christmas party at the church.  In the past Claire hadn't been a fan of Santa Claus so I geared her up for meeting him again and threw a few bribes and empty threats her way.  She was totally clingy as we waited in line to see the man in red, hiding behind me and sucking her thumb while warily watching the other kids take their turns.  I quietly talked to one of the helpers and asked them to have Santa tone down his normally super jovial act for Claire sake.  When it came time for Hudson and Claire to go up, Santa happily obliged and kept it mellow and Hudson (who figured the whole thing out earlier this year but is a good sport and continues to encourage his sister) was quick to hop on his lap and tried to coax Claire to come closer.  She eventually did but wouldn't really smile for the camera at first and when Santa first put his hand on her shoulder, she looked at it as if it were poisonous and/or alien then looked at me as if to say, "This thing is touching me."  She did eventually smile for the camera but only after Santa gave her a rainbow striped candy cane.  Aside from the whole Santa Claus ordeal, the party had a very nice dinner and then a nativity program put on by the children.  Claire played a shy girl and stayed with me in the audience while Hudson dressed up as a shepherd.  It really was so cute.

The next day, I was talking with my sister on the phone and I told her how scared Claire had been about meeting Santa.  Claire wanted to talk to her and when she got on the phone, I could hear Anne ask, "Why were you afraid of Santa?"  Claire's deadpan response is one for the books: "I thought he was going to eat me."  Anne and I started to giggle, Hudson joined in, and finally Claire realized how ridiculous it was and we all had a good laugh together.

The week before Christmas we went to a smaller neighborhood Christmas party and progressive dinner.  Santa Claus came to the house where appetizers were served and the second he sat down, my previously timid daughter made a beeline for him and wanted to be the first one on his lap.  She was absolutely ecstatic to see him again and was proud to show that she was no longer on the big man's menu.  I had to run home to check on something after that and later learned that when Santa left, Claire ran to him and gave him a huge hug.  I heard it was positively darling and I was sad to miss it but glad that she overcame her St. Nickaphobia.

You'll never guess which party was which...I think she even had her candy cane in hand in the upper picture.  Sheesh!

2.  Christmas Card Pictures

In an effort to make sure I was ready to get our Christmas cards out earlier than past years (there have been years that I've mailed them only a couple of days before Christmas), I made the kids get all dressed up in their Christmas Sunday outfits early in the month and had a quick photo session with them by the Christmas tree.  Nothing much to say here other than I think my children are a couple of good lookers and I was happy with the way a number of the pictures turned out.

3.  Goodbye, Aspen Trees

When our huge pine tree came down in the wind storm last month, it did some damage to a number of the aspen trees as it fell.  Rather than hum and haw over what to do about it for the next several months and/or years, we decided to take them all down while the weather was unusually decent.  Not all of the trees were damaged but a few were, a couple had grown weird due to another pine tree (that we took out years ago) being in the way, and all of them had at least a couple of dead branches that were far too high up for us to trim.  So one Saturday morning Max went out with his trusty chain saw and fell all of the aspens with my brother and a good friend/neighbor helping out with pulling the trees in the right direction(s).  The job of getting them to the ground wasn't too time consuming but cutting the trees into firewood, hauling branches, and stacking logs took hours.  I think they all had at least some fun doing the job, though, and while our front yard looks somewhat barren, it's definitely much cleaner looking!

Thanks to the boys for letting me get a normal picture of them...at first all I could get was Max and Steve tying a noose around Jeff's neck and pretending to take a chain saw to his mid-section.  Is this the type of treatment a bromance consists of?

4.  Downtown SLC & Temple Square 

I took the kiddies downtown SLC to see the lights at Temple Square one evening.  I decided to go early and after parking the car at The Gateway and taking the commuter train into downtown, we got there just as the sun set.  It was the perfect time to go.  There weren't many people out (yet) and we were able to see everything we wanted to and finish up just as it started to get crowded.  I always love seeing the temple at night and the surrounding lighted trees and nativity displays always make it that much more beautiful.

After seeing the lights we walked over to and went inside the Deseret Book flagship store to warm up and see the window display.  It was a really fun gingerbread man/cookie making "machine" and the kids were enthralled with watching how it worked.  i think that at first, both of them were pretty well convinced that it was really pumping out cookies.  Inside the store there was a worker handing out little gingerbread man cookies to all the patrons.  We headed out front with our cookies to see the machine from the window outside and as we did so, Claire managed to drop a piece of her cookie on the sidewalk.  Just as I told her to leave it or throw it away, she swiped that tidbit up as fast as she could, popped it in her mouth and proceeded to chew it down as quickly as possible.  Yum.

Sorry for the super long post...not that you read the whole thing anyway.  In finishing up, I'd just like to point out how good I'm being.  I could have very easily split this into 4 separate posts, thereby almost meeting my quota for the month of February.  But I didn't.

More posts to follow...

Wind Storm Cleanup

Early Friday afternoon a few of a friend's landscaping work crew showed up to start cleaning up the prickly and sappy mess that was our front yard.  I wasn't expecting them and had to run out front and make sure that they knew that our phone line was stretched tight over the roots and trunk (it's the black piping and line that can be seen in the pictures on last night's post) and that we really didn't want it getting cut in the cleanup process.  I also asked them to be careful of the viburnum bushes that we were hoping to salvage on the side and to leave behind some of the thicker branches and part of the trunk so that our firewood supply could be bulked up.  They were very kind to listen to the bossy lady of the house and then got to work.  And boy, did they ever work!

I couldn't believe how fast they had that trunk stripped of branches.  Then they removed the three tops of the tree (the trunk started as one, split into two, and then topped off at three) which were collectively HUGE.  It took 3 guys yanking and pulling on the pieces to get each hauled away from against the house.  By the time they called it quits in the late afternoon much of the tree had been cut up and hauled away.  All that was left was the ginormous base of the trunk (to be removed sometime this week), a pile of branches and a few thick chunks of trunk.

After a period of windy-ness on Saturday morning and early afternoon, Max ventured out to take care of as much of the remaining tree as he could and to clean up the rest of the yard.  Can I just say now that I'm a lucky girl?  He seriously slaves away in the yard and NEVER complains about it.  Anyway, he sawed off some more of the trunk, got the aforementioned pile of branches and the big trunk pieces out into the road, filled several bags with pine cones, dirt, branches and leaves, and pretty much had our yard looking perfect again by the time he called it quits that night.  All except for that pesky tipped-over tree trunk.  As we went to bed last night we read online that a new storm with high winds (not as high as Thursday's) was due to arrive Sunday evening.

Yesterday morning we got to church a little bit late and sat down just in time to hear the bishop saying something about only holding the first/main meeting and the rest of church was cancelled.  I quietly confirmed with the people sitting behind me (happened to be our landscaper friend) that this was indeed the case.  They said that they didn't want to be alarmists but wanted to be prepared for the new storm.  All of our church's congregations in the area (a number of cities involved) were asking that all able bodied men and teenaged young men/boys  go out and help clear all loose debris from the neighborhood and the surrounding area in preparation for the forecasted storm.  Anything that could be blown away in strong winds needed to be secured to removed...everything from plant matter to vinyl siding to trampolines and swamp coolers.  After the meeting was over we all got into good work clothes and headed out to get some things done.  The kids and I helped our neighbors move a pile of roof shingles to a sheltered area where it won't blow away and picked up pieces that hadn't been collected yet.  Max, on the other hand, geared up and went to the church to join the brigade of men, women and teens that were heading out to clean up.  They had a number of open-bed trucks, SUV's and trucks with trailers, and other hauling vehicles to take away everything they could over the course of the day.  A crew of 5 or 6 men and teenagers showed up here and took everything but the heavy trunk pieces away from our place.  In driving around with the kids later, I saw crews of 10+ people working on bigger piles and jobs.  I can't tell you how impressed I was with all of these people and what they did for their neighbors, friends and even complete strangers.  Fallen trees were cut up and hauled away, trees that weren't down but were in danger of coming down oin the new storm were felled and removed and after every single job, these people jumped up and headed to the next house that needed help.  And all of this while it snowed a bit off and on and in freezing temperatures.  Max came home in the late afternoon soaked, dirty and covered in sawdust (as I'm sure many other men did, too).  Ah, the bond of a man and his chainsaw.

I learned on the news in the afternoon that the national guard had been called to aid in the cleanup effort.  The line to get into the local landfill (normally closed on Sunday but open all day for free yesterday) was literally miles long and people had to wait for hours to empty their loads.  Due to the huge number of people and vehicles involved in the cleanup effort, other landfills in the area opened for free and the city started designating other places as temporary dumping grounds...the high school, parks, church parking lots.  Once left there, crews from the city and national guard were using tractors to load up side-dumping trailers which in turn took the debris to the landfills.

As yesterday's light turned to evening and then night, I started doubting the forecastedwe live amongst amazing people who will put their plans and lives on hold at a moment's notice and step up to help each other out should anything happen.  In the end, last night's "storm" wasn't all that bad.  As a matter of fact, I think it was downright good as the preparation for it it brought people together and left us all with a great feeling of love, concern and appreciation for each other.

DECEMBER: IN LIKE A LION...

Wait...isn't that supposed to be March's thing?  Well, this year December most definitely took that title.

Disclaimer: This is going to be long and wordy.  Don't feel like you have to read all of it.  Just know that I will know if you don't and I will surely be offended.

In the wee small hours of this past Thursday, a much anticipated wind storm blew through the area.  A little bit before 4:00 a.m. Hudson came and crawled into bed with us after having a bad dream.  The three of us were lying there listening to the wind when and extra strong gust of wind came through and the whole house shook.  I commented that it was certainly a strong one and Max then shot of out bed and ran to one of our front windows.  He hollered back, "It came down!"  I had zero inkling as to what he was talking about so I asked him just what it was that came down.  His response?  The giant pine tree in our front yard.

The pine tree...much happier and alive back in May 2009.

It landed across the front lawn and came to rest right against the house next to my office window.  No wonder the house rattled!  Amazingly enough, Claire slept through everything, including being moved to our room for safety (her bedroom window is on the windy side).  She gradually woke up and joined the rest of us and our rapidly beating hearts.

Max headed out front at about 4:30 a.m. in the scary winds to assess the damage.  Incredibly enough, the only damage to the house was a bent gutter.  No broken window(s), no siding gone or problems with the roof.  In the process of checking things out, Max slipped on some ice and put a nice hole in one of his shins (not kidding...missing a lovely chunk - stitches not a possibility).  I also joined the ranks of the injured (though far inferior to the aforementioned impressive leg) when I was holding open one of our side gates for Max to bring the garbage cans in.  The wind blasted said gate, throwing me back and sandwiching my lower leg and ankle in between it and a low brick wall.  Ouch.  After our fun outside, the rest of the morning was spent trying very unsuccessfully to go back to sleep.  The kids were pretty wound up - especially Hudson who asked, "Why is Mother Nature doing this?!"  Finally around 6:00 Max took the kids downstairs to play a video game while I slept a bit off and on.  That lasted until the power went out around 8:00...it stayed out the whole day.

We had already determined that we were keeping Hudson home from school and later found out that they cancelled shortly after class started anyway.  It's crazy...I know people here who have never seen the schools close for snow, even when huge storms hit.  But Thursday the whole district was closed due to wind.  The day was filled with building Legos, doing a few chores, hand washing Wednesday night's dinner dishes, forgetting that the power was out and trying to turn lights on when entering dark rooms, making phone and receiving phone calls (thank goodness for our land line...our cell phones were sketchy at best most of the day), folding a bit of laundry and keeping the fridge and freezer closed as much as possible.  I also ventured outside with Max and Hudson on separate occasions to snaps some pictures of the tree and our yard.  When I took Hudson out the winds had calmed a bit but were still strong enough to make it hard for him to keep his footing.  You should be able to click on the collage below to get a closer look...

I could hardly believe my eyes looking at that monstrous tree lying in our front yard (we measured last night...it was 45 feet tall without the tops that snapped off when it fell).  As you can see in the pictures, he roots that were ripped up easily stick up 12 feet in the air.  There were aspen tree branches all over the place and some were tangled in the branches of the pine tree.  We also had PILES of dirt, aspen and pine branches, and pine cones on both sides of our backyard (it's basically split by the living room addition that sits in the middle).  We feel so fortunate and blessed that greater damage wasn't done.

When the winds died down even more later in the day, I took the kiddies out on a ride to see what had happened around our neighborhood.  I couldn't believe how many pine trees and fences were down, how many roofs were missing shingles and how much debris was littering the streets and yards.  As far as damage goes, we got off pretty easy.

One of the phone calls I made over the course of the day was to my parents in California.  While we were on the phone, my mom hopped on the internet to our local news page and read a couple of articles to me.  One of them stated that there were 100+ mph winds not far from our area (= to a category 2 hurricane) at various times.  A tanker train carrying cold asphalt had been derailed by the wind, several semi trucks had blown over on I-15 and trampolines, trees, and trash cans were all over the place.  Later in the afternoon I was told by my sister-in-law that she had driven through Centerville (hardest hit) and that it literally looked like a war zone.  No wonder our mighty tree gave out!

As previously mentioned, the power went out in the morning and stayed off the entire day.  The news stations and emergency management were advising that everyone should be prepared for 48 hours without power.  Our heater had been on at times for about an hour before the outage so we were glad to have started the day around 65 in the house.  However, with the cold and wind outside, our inside temperature didn't stay warm for long.    By afternoon we were down to 57 or so...a touch too chilly even for this warm blooded California girl!  I built a fire in the kitchen fireplace and turned on the gas fireplace in the living room.  Between the two of them, the center section of the house stayed quite comfortable.  Come later afternoon I pulled out candles and flashlights and made sure we were set up for the evening and night.  My brother was fortunate enough to get power back on at his place by dinner time so the kids and I joined them for dinner and a good defrosting.  We then enjoyed our lights-out time...Hudson built Legos by the light of a battery-powered lantern, Claire went into the darkest portions of the house over and over with a flashlight, and I read by the fire and kept taking Claire's flashlight away when she wouldn't stop playing with it.  When I tucked the kids in that night (Claire in her room and Hudson in ours) it was 54 back here...a little too far down the hall from the fires to keep warm.  Brrrrrrr!  Fortunately we didn't have to pull out every blanket in the house to stay warm for the night.  Thanks to the city and emergency management crews, our power was restored around 10:00.  The heater immediately kicked on and we were downright cozy.  That was only when we were inside, though.  Within a few minutes of the power kicking on, Max was up on the roof to fix the Christmas lights that had been hurt by the tree and I was out there with him, standing below to toss new lights up to him (and to monitor his craziness and attempt to catch him if needed).

I think it goes without saying (and yet I'll say it anyway) that Thursday was one heck of a day.  And a long one at that.

P.S.  As was forecasted for tonight, the wind is blowing again as I have been typing this.  I can feel a cold draft under my desk and my window is closed tight.  It's kind of freaking me out.

Leaves + Kids = Work & Play!

A few days before Halloween we had our first real leaf gathering/raking/bagging session of the fall.  In spite of the cooler temperatures in September, it seems like autumn has taken its sweet time kicking it into gear and the leaves have just recently started to flutter down.

The work started in the morning with the kids and the hubby starting to gather leaves and then covering poor Miles in them (though he didn't seem to mind too much...looked like he was ready to go to sleep).  From there it turned into the kids and dog chasing each other all over the place as the dog got a little spunky after escaping his blanket of leaves.  In the late afternoon, I called my little minions to get out front and bag leaves while I finished putting dinner together.  They are good little workers and seemed to enjoy (for the most part) stuffing the garbage can full, pushing the leaves down when it got too full, and occasionally throwing a few up in the air for good measure.

Oh - and please don't think that I didn't do anything.  I did my fair share by tying off and changing the bags in the can when they were full, snapping pictures of the kids doing the real work, and bossing them around.

Long Overdue Summer Post

Alrighty, folks.  Obviously haven't exactly been on top of blogging this summer.  Grand intentions and pathetic (non-existent?) efforts and results.  So here is our summer in a single photo happy post...

Flowers in our garden in the late spring/early summer.  I'm a touch obsessed with my white peonies and the dark blue delphinium and would check on them daily.  This year, the delphinium got to be over 5 feet tall!

Hubby got out the pressure washer one day in late June to clean off the fence and patio.  The kids had a glorious time playing in the misty spray.  The only problem is that we have irrigation water outside and we had to keep reminding them to keep their mouths closed and resist the urge to take some in (you can see in the bottom left picture that the reminders didn't always stick).

4th of July: We had some of Max's family over for a BBQ and fireworks.  In spite of the warm night, the kids "needed" to wrap up in blankets to watch them.  Maybe they're not the children of this always-warm lady.  My nephew went out and bought aerial fireworks (just became legal here) that we set off at the end of the "show".  Wish I'd had my act together to get some pictures...they were seriously awesome!

I wanted to get a wading pool for this kids this summer and lucked out at Target...a package had been opened for whatever reason and was marked down to $20 (no damage or anything missing).  It's a HUGE pool as far as the wading sort go - when I sit down in it the top edge is up to my armpits.  Unfortunately for the kids, as cool as I am for buying it, we only set it up the once.  It was there on the soft grass for a few days but then we had to empty it and take it off the lawn to avoid damage.  I hate to think of setting it up on the cement with how much they kids love jumping into it on their knees and the possibility of holes or damage on the bottom.  Maybe I'll get something figured out and fill it up for one last hurrah before the weather turns too cool.

A little robin couple set up house in the Japanese maple tree near our front door this year.  Three little chicks hatched and much to the parents' chagrin, I kept tabs on the little cuties and took pictures often.  You can see in a few of the pictures that dad and mom were keeping tabs on me in return (dad has the bright chest, mom is lighter).  Unfortunately one little chick didn't make it through the 2nd week but the other two were alive, healthy, and hopping away last time we saw them.  The chick sitting on the stepping stone in the one picture was my favorite.  It was very calm and happily sat in my hand and snuggled in  the couple of times that I held it (when it had fallen out of the nest). So stinking cute!

 What is summer without swimming lessons?  My kids both LOVE the water and were thrilled to be back in the pool in July.  I also put them in a 2nd session just before school started.  Claire is definitely progressing and easily moved from Preschool Level 1 to Preschool Level 2.  Hudson, on the other hand, is progressing but not so quickly as his little sister.  The biggest hitch for him?  He's tall.  So rather than breathe to the side as he goes, he stops, stands up, and then gets going again when he's ready...time to move this boy to deeper waters!

 Pioneer Day: It was a weekend long celebration for us this year.  We enjoyed the local fireworks show from our neighbors' backyard as always that Friday night and then had family events/dinners the next two nights.  Saturday night was at our house with part of Max's family.  The kids had a grand time lighting sparkler after sparkler after sparkler and we had a little mini fireworks show once it got dark enough (no aerials this time).

Lastly was a joint birthday shindig for Claire and me a couple of weekends ago (and her actual birthday the next night).  Pictures above are from both.  Claire's birthday is just over a week before mine so we often combine them for a little extended family party.  My favorite shot from the weekend is the one on the top right where I caught Claire's reaction when she saw her new pink scooter & helmet.  Operation perfect gift...success!

Well, that's about it in a nutshell.  Posts for Hudson's first day of school and my actual birthday (nothing big...just have to talk about my cake) to follow soon!

Rewind: Spring At Our House

I was just glancing through all the collages I made on Picasa in the past month or so and discovered a couple that are somewhat long overdue for being posted.  They're all overdue, really, but these are a little more dated than the others.

Back in May, we spent most of a Saturday out in the yard setting up the trampoline and getting some good old fashioned weeding and spring clean up done in the gardens.  I snapped a few shots of the very happy kids jumping to their hearts' content.  After having to wait several weeks into spring for the snows to finally stop falling and really melt before we could set up the trampoline, the kids did a grand job of wearing themselves out that day.

I also took a few shots of Hudson lounging on our jungle-esque lawn in the backyard.  When we first looked up to see where he was, we could barely see little bits of him through the tall grass (see 2nd pic down on the left).  It's hard to see in the picture on the top right, but he actually picked a blade that was a good foot long...time to mow, people!

Now that the hotter summer months are here, I'm really missing those cool (or perfectly not-too-warm) spring days.  And that grass looks really inviting...

Final Fall Post (Now That It's Almost Christmas)

Over the past several weeks, I've gotten a touch tired of seeing our Halloween pumpkins glowing on my blog each time I scroll down to look at updates on other peeps' blogs. Time to push those pictures down, make one final post about fall and then welcome the snow, winter, Christmas season, etc...

During the 1st full weekend of November and one day later in the month, we worked on cleaning up the billions of leaves in our yard. I'm sure the number isn't really that high but take 5 maple trees, several aspens, and a number of Japanese maple trees (and neighbors' leaves that blow into the yard) and you're sure to have one serious pile of leaves to jump in. Claire was actually a huge help, probably filling a good 2+ bags with leaves on her own. All I had to do was rake or sweep them in to piles and she'd dump them in the trash by the armful. Hudson, on the other hand, wasn't so keen on the task and took some convincing (aka threatening) to get involved...and only on the last day when we were close to being done with the whole thing. I should have roped him in sooner. Oh well - he got to see his 3-year-old sister get a bigger allowance than him. Maybe next time he'll remember that! Over the course of the 3 days that we spent working in the yard, we managed to fill over 20 huge black trash bags. Thankfully our town happily comes and picks them up if you call. Saved us the headache of hauling the bags or gradually getting rid of them with the trash each week!

Mid-month, I took Claire to the Living Planet Aquarium. I had heard mixed reviews - some people love it, others think it's so-so, and I've talked to a couple of people who didn't care for it at all. I figured that we had to give it a shot and decide for ourselves. There are a few great exhibits (the octopus and petting the rays were my favorites) but all in all, I'm in the so-so category myself. I'm sorry but it just doesn't compare to places like the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Steinhart Aquarium at the Academy of Sciences in California. I've been spoiled in that regard my whole life so it was hard for me to be thrilled with Living Planet. Claire, however, was happy and enjoyed seeing everything and I'm sure we'll go again sometime. Hudson still doesn't know that we went without him and I'm going to have to make up for it...

Lastly, we have the 1st real snow of the season. We finished up the aforementioned raking and yard work on the 18th and the next evening, the snow started falling. We had a few inches in a very short time and as it continued to come down, we all bundled up and went out to play. The kids had a blast "sledding" down the little hill in our backyard and Max and the kids made a snowman. We even went for a walk around the neighborhood and we adults couldn't help but giggle at the people who thought that they were going to make it up one of the hills in our neighborhood in their sedans and minivans (plows didn't make it to our street for a while).

Between that storm and a couple since, we've already had a couple feet of snow up here this year. Certainly makes it feel like winter is on it's way. Or at least it did until we got up into the 40's and low 50's over the past few days. Our yard is almost completely free of snow. The remnants of our snowman are one of the last signs of the white stuff out there...I'm thinking that my daffodils and other bulbs might pop up one of these days. Oh well. I know another storm will bring more snow soon enough. At least all the Christmas decorations are up, there are lights up on peoples' houses, and holiday music is playing on the radio!

More festive/seasonally appropriate posts to follow soon...

Cute Little Chrysalis

I was out in the backyard yesterday afternoon doing some planting and transplanting. Upon moving a perennial daisy from its old home to its new one, I noticed a perfect chrysalis sitting on the ground right where I had just pulled the plant from. Three thoughts immediately crossed my mind:

1. Oh, no! I killed a butterfly!
2. I wonder if it's okay and if I can save it.
3. That would be so cool to keep it and have it hatch!

I immediately went inside and did some research online. I couldn't figure out the exact breed of butterfly based on the looks of the chrysalis but found all the info I needed to move forward in my hopes to save the butterfly. Once finished, I went out and picked up the chrysalis. When I touched it, the tail end moved. That's the only way to confirm life - good sign! I then set up a nice, roomy habitat for our new pet in a huge glass jar with dirt/mud and a daisy stem and leaves. It was quite pretty - textured glass and all - if I do say so myself. I came down to my craft room and got my scrapbooking glue dots and using just one, secured the chrysalis to an aspen tree twig that I then carefully leaned against the inside wall of the jar. I pulled a knee-high nylon stocking over the jar's mouth and voila!...we had our own butterfly in progress.

I did the "touch check" on it again this morning and thank goodness, it was still alive. I really hadn't killed it. From what I'd read online, its dark color is indicative of the butterfly emerging soon, so I peeked in on our visitor off and on today, hoping to see our friend coming out of its protective home.

This evening, I couldn't help but think that there must be some way to figure out what breed of butterfly we would be seeing in the next day or two. So I went back to the computer and instead of "dark chrysalis" or "dark red chrysalis" as I did yesterday, I decided that my thinking it was red was incorrect and typed in "dark brown chrysalis". Once again, I found images of a darkening monarch chrysalis but the shape/form wasn't right. I kept pulling up different pages and then I found it. We were the proud foster parents of...

Some sort of Hawk Moth. Gross! I immediately took the contents of the jar and put them in the trash. Garbage day tomorrow...perfect. I am still getting the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. And I get them even worse when I try to find a good (aka totally disgusting) picture of one to post here. Not gonna do it. I could post the picture that I took of the chrysalis when I thought it was a butterfly. But I've already deleted it because just seeing it grosses me out.

Honestly, I can handle cute little moths like skippers (used to chase and catch them on the neighbor's lawn) but anything bigger or uglier than that? Count me out. I can't believe I was going to nurture a moth. Blech!

FALL COLORS AT OUR HOUSE

As I've said before, I am a big fan of the changing colors in the fall. This past Saturday morning, we went out back and took several pictures - some of the kids, a few of the dog, and some of the trees in our yard. I was going to post them that evening but didn't get around to it. I'm actually glad I waited because when we got up Sunday morning, we were positively amazed to see the difference in color in some of the trees. Below are some of the pics we took on Saturday, Sunday, and this afternoon.

The 1st three shots are of 3 different Japanese Maples...each showing color from Saturday on the left and either Sunday or Monday's color on the right. It's incredible what a night or two can do!

In this next shot, the tree in the lower left corner was dark green on Saturday so I didn't bother taking a picture of it. Late Monday morning, it was entirely red as seen below:

This here is our pooch, Miles. He doesn't mind looking at the camera from a distance, but if you're trying to get an up-close shot of him, think again. "I'm facing you, but I'm not going to look at you."

Miles has never minded hopping up onto the trampoline and wandering around inside. But on Saturday, he opted for skipping the inside and wandered around the mat surrounding it. Seemed downright happy cruising around. "I'm still not looking at you, Mom.":

Then he stopped at a certain point, got comfy, and sat a while. "Mom, just knock it off! No? Fine...I'm closing my eyes this time." Poor Miles. He's such a good boy and we torture him with things like digital cameras. And children.

Saving the best for last, here are a few snaps of the kids. Not the best ever of Claire but she wasn't exactly dishing out the smiles when it came to solo shots that morning.

On the other hand, Hudson is always ready to give us a good fake smile (this one might actually be real...not quite sure).

Now here's a real smile from both kids. Only problem is they're not both facing the camera. Oh well - we tried.

And finally, a rare treat: my husband wanted to be in a photo and to have a picture taken of the two of them together. And they both smiled. And I got it with the 1st click.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love this time of year.