I💗Fall 🍂 & Butterfly Shipment

I rode up the canyon today by myself, but with Corey's encouragement over text. I kept letting him know that I hadn't gotten off my bike to walk at all, and I made it all the way up to Lisa Falls without getting off! Although I did stop a few times to readjust my wheel or turn back my pedal, or pick up some of the fall leaves. IT IS SO GORGEOUS right now. 

I kept having to stop in awe of my surroundings. 

My favorite moment was when I was on my way back down, listening to "The Way It's Always Been" - I was going to skip the techy section, and I did, but then changed my mind, turned around and at "big wheel and the grind" I was jogging my bike back up, moving my feet to the beat at 2:25, and I was back on my bike riding at 2:40 after the build up, and then it got to my favorite part, which also happened to be right when the sun peeked up over the mountain and through the trees at me, and with the green and yellow colors, the river, the sky... it made my heart so full, I stopped and looked up and teared up with emotion.

Not sure why I teared up, but I think it was a combination of awe of God's creations and thankfulness for His kindness to me. I trust that he has the power to save me, I am grateful to be waiting for The Son to come again. I've had my moments at the waters edge waiting for the fog to clear, and I'm grateful for clear skies in my life right now. You can't have a problem free life, but you can have problem free days, as was well said in the talk I listened to on the way up (BYU speeches Finding Strength in the Lord) and fall colors and time in the mountains makes me feel problem free. So it was a great and beautiful morning. A great way to start the day! Right after I got home, I was feeding K or taking care of butterflies. I had 5 black chrysalides this morning and two of them eclosed while I was on my ride, one right after I got back. 

One of them came out an hour or so after I was home, and when I came down it was kinda stuck, so I very carefully tried to help it, and it got out, but then it was crawling all over trying to get itself upright. Exactly what happened with Maria, and her wings got messed up (pic 5) So this guy was freaking out but I had to keep it in upside down time-out, and mostly succeeded - his wings did dry straight and he looks perfect, but he seems anxious I hope he doesn't die early from having a traumatic experience! 

Like I've said before, it's going to be freezing temperatures on Sunday, and I don't want these butterflies to freeze, so I arranged for them to hitch a ride south with a neighbor Jess. I finished making their cage today, and them spent time this afternoon feeding them and placing them one by one into the tulle container. 

I couldn't tell which ones had emerged yesterday from the ones that emerged today, but I just moved them one by one, and tried to feed each one some honey water - the ones that eagerly ate are the ones that were a day older. It was fun, they all are so pretty. I still had the one male from this morning in time out...

He fell a few times. He was so busy moving around trying to escape that I'm worried for him - that he's used up too much of his energy, but since his wings are good, he's going with the rest of him and we'll hope for the best. Jess said they were leaving at 4:30, so I took them over around 4. First I went by Terry's to get her last butterfly, a lovely male she named Omega. 

And then on the right there I had one that still hadn't emerged, so I glued his stick with his chrysalis onto a small metal L wrench and tied him to the inside of a grape container, so that he'd be ok if he emerged. And then took them over! Good bye butterflies! and good luck!

We're hoping they make the trip well and that it isn't/wasn't too much of a hassle. I  know her family is busy with a biking thing, so I texted her that there was no pressure, but I'd love an update on how it went and any pictures she took while after they get back! Her kids came over to see our butterflies emerge and her son was especially interested in the monarchs and caterpillars (4th pic) so I know that they are in good and caring hands. 

And with that officially handed over, we are now done! Phew! Now I'm just be waiting for word on these 11+1, and then I'll do my official count! It's been a very successful monarch year!

Rainbows and Butterflies

Yesterday around 4:55, we had one of the brightest rainbows I've seen! It wasn't as tall and didn't last as long as the best rainbow we've seen in 2018, but the one today was a double and it was bright and so GORGEOUS. I was in awe. 

Zooming in a little - 

And a better picture of their cute faces - 

Rainbows are so amazing!!! Like WHO THINKS OF THAT?!?!?! If you were up in heaven trying to brainstorm some things that should be included on planet earth, how would you come up with an idea like that? I told my kids once to just try and imagine if there were 5 seasons instead of 4, what would the 5th season be and what would be some things that would happen during it. I can't come up with anything more incredible than what already is. That whole "Stand Forever" talk by Lawrence Corbridge is amazing, but just listen from 21:52 if you're pressed for time. There are miracles all around, and it's crazy amazing, from fall rainbows to autumn leaves, from monarch butterflies to snow, to the human heart, birth, and life!

My heart is full of awe and wonder at this glorious earth. Yesterday we had one monarch emerge, and the van was done and was on my way to pick it up and turn in my rental vehicle (goodbye Chevy Traverse! sniff) and I had the thought to take the butterfly to my friend Megan. It's hard to know how much to reach out, but I just sent a text to let her know that I was going to drop something off, and then I got it ready, and took it and one chrysalis over to their house. She texted back that she wasn't there but their housekeeps were, so she said the door should be open. I left a live butterfly and one chrysalis on a table for them and she sent me some pictures today of them smiling at this wonder of nature. "So so so fun <3 We let them go today after the storm passed" 

I thought of taking it to them for two reason. One being that Connor had a tatoo of a butterfly - this was on display at his funeral was on September 13th. 

He actually got a tattoo of a female monarch (I'm glad he knew the difference!) Megan just got the first image that she found online and she didn't know the difference. Megan told Corey a few weeks ago, before Connor passed, that Lizzy (their other child that died) had appeared to Connor in a dream and told him some things that he should do, like go on a mission, and that he got the tattoo after that to always remember her. Megan said that her kids often see a butterfly when Lizzy is near, even in winter time. I think I'll take them some milkweed too so that they can hopefully always have butterflies in their yard! 

A few more butterfly things - we've had some crazy wind and I've been trying to keep my caterpillars outside so that they can tell by the temperature and sun that they need to migrate, but the wind kinda freaks me out and so I'm constantly checking on them. The wind almost blew them over the other night. We were reading scriptures when it happened, I was holding Katharine, and I paniced when I saw the milkweed fall - I handed Katharine over to some kid, I don't remember who, I just shoved her over and said "Hold this!" as I ran outside. "THIS?!?!" they all said in joking shock - that is how you speak about your child? "Hold this"? I might never live that down. But the caterpillars were all still hanging on to their milkweed after that last night. I had one that fell yesterday, but some quilt batting that I got from a neighbor Terry saved his life. I've got their milkweed held down by lots of rocks and it's secure, but then again, the wind has blown over empty garbage cans before! Tonight one of the caterpillars that I thought was making it's j-hook, just disappeared. I worried it was blown off but I didn't find it on the ground or anywhere, I looked and looked, so I don't know. It will be nice to not worry about them once "caterpillar season" ends. Corey asked me that on Sunday in a moment of frustration ~ "When does caterpillar season end?" He's been very patient with me! We have a shared "to do" list on our phones and he put one of my tasks as "Save the monarchs from extinction", which was nice.

Stuffed Animals

We've had sore throats and goopy eyes going around the house. Peter is currently sick with it, and he was crying for help this morning to help get his eye open. After I helped him, he climbed in the chair with Tiny and fell back asleep. 

I bought him that dinosaur on an impulse near the end of date night in March. Peter has since named him Tiny, after the dinosaur named Tiny on this episode of Dino Ranch. Natalie thinks it's high time for Katharine to have a stuffed animal too, so yesterday Natalie was trying different stuffed animals out on her. Do you want a pretty puppy?

Natalie tried to offer her precious "baby" cause she doesn't use it anymore. 

Do you like Natalie's baby?

Sorry, Natalie, but she actually can't have that. I need it for my "toddler's favorite stuffed toy memorial" shelf. Katharine is looking at me thinking "Can I just have some milk, please?"

Natalie came in this morning and tucked a pink cheetah stuffed animal by Katharine.

That way they will both have baby cheetah's that can be friends and play together. Sounds like a good plan. A few other pics from today - I picked up Sophi from Safety Patrol this week. She was excited last spring when she was chosen to be a team captain. 

And Daniel was very excited that he got his kindergarten shirt today!

There is his self portrait - cute!

And his 4th grade buddy Parker is on the back. 

Daniel came to show me his shirt while I was in the laundry room checking on my caterpillar babies. I have 17 that just hatched yesterday and today. I don't have any eggs, so I think this will be the last of the monarchs for us this year. Can you see them all? 

There are 15 here and then there were two more on the underneath side of the leaf. Yay for caterpillar babies! They're so small, it's hard to keep track of them. I hope they don't die. My current monarch count is: 17 new babies, 5 large caterpillars, 7 medium (going to donate two tomorrow to a neighbor for their sister who is a science teacher) 5 small, and 2 chrysalides. 

Abi is 15!

Well, our little Abbers isn't little anymore. 

I guess she hasn't been for several years. I'm not sure when she passed me in height, but she's got 3+ inches on me. She and Mel have been able to share clothes well before Melodie left to college. And now Abi is old enough to get her driving permit? What keeps happening with all these kids growing up so fast?? Everyone just stop. (Katharine, don't you dare...) It was a typical "getting older" kid birthday today - meaning I didn't put up any decorations. I did get out a new birthday banner I bought, but it was too short to reach our hooks and I couldn't find string or ribbon, so it's still in the kitchen waiting to be hung. We'll try to get it up before Sophi's bday in 3 days (and before little boys rip it apart). My mom came over with some crumbl cookies - 

Part of the birthday privileges around here are to light the candles. 

Now we get to sing!

"Happy happy birthday, Abi dear! Happy days will come to you all year! If we had one wish, then it would be - a happy happy birthday to you from me!" Make a wish!

My mom had decorated the cookies with one icing letter on each cookie to spell "Abi's B-day Sept 3rd"

Crumbl cookies are huge, and if you eat one whole cookie, you honestly will feel sick. So we cut them into fourths and 8th, depending on the cookies, and we all took a sampling, except for Peter, because there was a P (in the "SEP" for September), and Peter was waiting for it as he told us "P is for Peter!"

So I gave him a whole pumpkin cookie, he ate the P off of it, and then the rest of us nibbled on it. My mom stayed for a visit and Abi shared with her some details of her summer of fun (Ballroom tour to Disneyland, Summerfest, FSY, Nauvoo, etc) and then Corey took Abi and the kids over to his parents' house. Abi received more birthday cash there, and then Corey took her out to eat and they drove around downtown SLC on electric scooters. Fun, huh! I stayed home with K, Wes was on a date, so he stayed home too, as did Lily who was transcribing something. Corey took ASNODP. 

While they were gone, I saw a monarch flitting around in the back yard, I went out and it continued to fly around for 10 min. I found 11 eggs! Yay, and then I went out again later and found 7 more. Which is good, cause the 100+ eggs I found over last weekend have not hatched. A dozen or so have, but not very many, and I'm guessing a lot of these were unfertilized. I only learned that that is possible yesterday. I've learned a lot about monarchs in 2022! I spent a moment crunching numbers, and here are my monarch stats for today (me with two that emerged this morning):

• 3 emerged (2 female, 1 male)
• 1 J-hook to chrysalis
• 1 4th instar
• 3 3rd instar 
• 10 caterpillars in 1st or 2nd instar
• 4 that hatched this morning (I am watching them like a hawk!)
• 30 eggs (18 I found today, plus 12 that I'm still holding onto with hopes that they hatch)
• 5 eggs that were for sure goners
• and 92 that I've had for over a week that I'll be throwing out soon if nothing happens. 

I did find a little yellow larva thingy eating an egg again. That makes the 3rd time we've seen something like that! Those might have been killing the eggs, or the eggs just might not have been fertilized. But even without those 92, this has been an AMAZING monarch year. I hope Granite becomes a monarch sanctuary. Once the milkweek pods are ripe, I am going to be sowing those all over in our yard any any wild space that looks like a good spot! 

Little Bit Sick

Hey there. Kids have been a little bit sick - sore throats and some coughs. Abi missed most of this week but went today. I haven't gotten them tested for covid. I think it's a lingering bug from the cough that their cousin Isaac had during Abi's car ride back from Nauvoo. 

Since we've kinda been hunkering down with kids not feeling well, I haven't run out for groceries for over 2 weeks. I finally went to Costco yesterday. Sometimes I let too long go by between my Costco runs, and then I get so much food that it amazes me. The Costco checkout employee asked if I was from out of town and this was my monthly grocery run. No, I just skipped a week of shopping and have a large family. I was also impressed that I was able to fit so much in around Katharine in her carseat as I loaded up! We un-buried her at checkout, and I asked for a flat cart and boxes, cause I didn't want to try and tetris everything in all around her again. When I left I got a "God bless you!" from the guy who loaded us up again. The bill was $800+ but I used our rebate and some cash to get it in the $300s, yay. 

I got some stuff for Abi's bday tomorrow, and cause I think college kids are joining us on Sunday for a combination celebration for Abi and Sophi's birthday. I got some presents for Christmas, and a dinosaur lego for Peter to open now, cause that's what happens when I take kids to the store - they see something and want it, and I give in. That's one reason why I try to go sans kids if I can. 

Corey went and got skis for the kids today, time to get ready for the ski season! What else... I haven't talked politics in a while... Corey reads up on the news every morning and will sometimes send me stuff or will share things with the kids when we gather after dinner. We both still think Trump is crazy. Him having the classified files at his home is nuts, and he pretends he's been framed or whatever but then after a photo of the documents is released he says "There seems to be confusion as to the picture where the documents were sloppily thrown on the floor and then released photographically for the world to see, as if that's what the FBI found when they broke into my home. Wrong! They took them out of cartons and spread them around on the carpet..." Um, that this is an admission that he had the documents and knew it. So funny, he just can't help himself. 

For butterflies - yesterday, I had one j-hook --> chrysalis and found 1 egg. Today we had 5 eclose: 4 female and 1 male. They are GORGEOUS!!!!

One enjoying the butterfly bush - 

Lily got to see some of them today after she got home, since it was an early out day for her jr. high. 

I'm glad monarchs are still around. After 2020 and 2021 were no-shows for any butterflies, I thought that perhaps our best days were behind us. I'm glad they're still here and that they've been so plentiful this summer! I'm grateful that there is still magic in the world!

Butterfly Gifts

Today I brought a flower centerpiece to church. For some reason, I was feeling generous and thought I'd give away some of my prize chrysalides that I've raised from an egg. I had two butterflies emerge this morning, they came along to be part of the centerpiece display. 

We went to church for sacrament meeting and I took this into the Relief Society room, where the butterflies patiently waited during the hour long meeting, and they also hung around during the whole RS class discussion. Before it started, I let people know that I've been fostering monarchs and I brought a few to share, if anyone wanted one. I might have been feeling like sharing the butterfly load because my hands have felt more full lately with taking care of Jerry. Anyway, luckily I had 5 volunteers who happily took the 7 chrysalides I had brought. After class, ladies that wanted to hold the butterflies had time to do that. 

It is really fun and special to hold a butterfly! They are ethereal creatures. 

e·the·re·al - /əˈTHirēəl/ (adjective): "extremely delicate and light in a way that seems too perfect for this world."

I was glad to share the fun. Allie is new in our ward so I was especially glad she took one. She texted "I can't believe you were handing out butterflies!" I texted them with follow up care for their chrysalides that kinda sounded like laundering instructions: "Should emerge in 7-10 days, allow to hang for 2 hours until wings are dry, just watch and enjoy!" 

As the kids were finishing up in their classes, Lily came in and shared her butterfly wisdom with some of the youth and primary kids. Lily led the kids outside with the two butterflies we brought, which were both ready to take off. As soon as they caught some wind they flew away. So that was fun. Back at home, I took Jerry out to enjoy time on the flowers that I researched about and bought as a butterfly gift for him at Home Depot on Friday - I bought him some coneflower (not pictured, they're pink and were inside for when he as inside time, we rotate that so the flowers each have a turn in the sun) some Black Eyed Susan (yellow below) purple flowers (Butterfly Bush) and my favorite was Salvia! It smells so nice!

So he was out there enjoying himself, even hanging out with a bee! (You can see the bee on the middle yellow flower) and my heart was happy feeling that all was right in the nature world and that Jerry was able to enjoy what other butterflies do. I knew that these flowers need full sun, so I thought we'll take care of two birds with one stone - Jerry getting some time outside, and flowers getting there sun. I went inside to do whatever, and I go out an hour later, to pick him up in case he had fallen on the ground or something, and I didn't see him on the flowers... I looked around on the grass and found him, but he wasn't trying to walk about... he was dead. Aw man! Poor guy, I think I cooked him! He must have overheated in the sun! I came in holding his little body and confessed my crime to the kids. 

It was a total accident, but it still killed him. Abi and Natalie had just buried Maria earlier that morning while we were at church (they had been home sick with sore throats). Maria had been awaiting a proper burial in the freezer, so Natalie prepared the plot right next to her and helped me bury him. 

I had totally thought Jerry would be with us through Christmas. He was healthy and strong, but... he was also black, and it was in the 90s around 3:30 when I set him out. I'm sorry Jerry, it was my ignorant self's fault. I have since done some googling about butterfly wings and overheating. Seems the wings have living veins in them. Ah, well that makes it sense, since we cut poor Jerry's wings off! So we had doomed him from the start. Jerry, I'm sorry that I lost track of you when you were a caterpillar and that you made your silk pad over that thin desk drawer. We've all learned from this experience. Thank you for what you've taught us this summer. We enjoyed our time with you! Your life was a butterfly gift for our family. RIP Jerry. He now flying high in the heavens with a lovely set of angel butterfly wings.

Ok two other items from this evening - 1) we had a neighborhood walk about. The cookies were tasty cause Maralee  and her daughters are amazing bakers!

And 2) Joseph is back home in Utah after 2 weeks in Guatemala. He passed out cookies and souvenirs to his siblings. 

And he got me another beaded Quetzal bird to hang on my wood thingy. He brought one after his mission, but, like so many things around our home, it mysteriously disappeared sometime ago and no one did it. And I just learned that the bird is on Etsy! I guess I didn't have to wait for Joseph to take a trip down there, but a trip does make it more personal, so thanks Joseph. School at BYU starts tomorrow, so he arrived in just the nick of time. We helped him load up his car with his belongings, which he had moved into the basement when he moved out of his apartment two weeks ago. His car was full, and we some stuff for Mel and Ethan (E - bowling ball and jacket that had been left in the Feista, and a butterfly gift for Mel: three chrysalides (1 for Mel and two for her friend who just got married) and two monarch eggs that Mel found, and he was off. 

Good luck at school tomorrow! Life is busy busy, fun, sad (RIP Jerry) and wonderful. It's a great experience happening, Corey and I are glad we get to share it with all these wonderful kids.