Butterfly Delivery

We've had parent teacher conferences at all the schools this week. Corey took care of Wes at the Jr. High on Tues, then did part 1 of the high school kids yesterday... He's finishing up high school today and I attended the conferences for Abi Lily and Sophi at the elementary. That's the boring news for the day. The exciting new for today is that our last butterfly came out. This little lady was really behind the migration. We found her a month ago at my nephews birthday party up in Layton. They have a huge back yard with a lot of milkweed and I couldn't help myself but to go look for eggs. I found this egg black and ready to hatch and it did hatch that night after we got home. At that time, what I thought were our last butterflies were just finishing up their cycle. So, this little girl really was the very last and I was worried with how far behind she was from the others. It's been really cold and rainy outside as she was in her chrysalis and I've been checking the weather as I've pondered the chances for her survival.

I didn't see her emerge. She was in her chrysalis one moment, then I went upstairs and did laundry or whatever, and when I came back down she was out with wings fully expanded.

So before she came out this morning, I posted on facebook asking if anyone in the SL valley was headed south this weekend. After two hours there hadn't been any takers, so I put her outside and wished her luck. Then this afternoon my mom came over (with a plumber to finally fix our toilet, yay! Gosh it's almost been a year with that toilet issue. I don't know why I never thought of asking my mom for a plumber recommendation, seeing as she's in property management and such, duh! Thankfully my lil' bro Grant was a clear headed thinker for me and called her after I sent a Marco Polo video of our incident on Tuesday... Anyway...) So mom was over here, the butterfly hadn't flown away yet, so I brought her back in. Then I saw that a friend had replied! Hooray, the amazing Jen was heading down tomorrow with her family, yay!! I think we just increased her chances for survival! Sophi playing with our lovely butterfly, so cute.

So then I went to work on google learning something about Monarch raising that is a new area for us: transportation. This site said they need to be in their "carseats", but that kinda scared me to think of putting her in an envelope! So I read some more and decided she would be okay, since she's not being shipped by a mail carrier. So we just used a rice milk box and put some big yarn across it for her to hold on to - Abi helping me

and then made a mesh cover with the netting part of a potato sack. I know Jen and her girls will be careful enough with the box, so I wasn't worried about her being loose inside. I took our pretty Monarch lady over to their house at 7:30, and they are leaving tomorrow morning. I think she's gonna be okay! It was fun to have her for the day, she was so sweet, she stayed on my shirt as I made the box to transport her in.

I love monarchs! So that's what I did today: watch a butterfly, got the toilet fixed, and other than that, I've been feeling a little sick the past few days. Another bout of something that feels much like my stomach aches and sickness from last Sunday - which I thought then was caused by the Burmese diet we had eaten the day before. I was up at 3 a.m. in pain last night/this morning, haven't been able to exercise today. I feel kinda cramped up. Abi, my ever attentive daughter, gave me a back rub, she's so nice.

Update: Jen texted me this picture Friday afternoon - Monarch lady made it to a warmer climate in southern Utah! Yay! Fly free pretty butterfly!! We love you!