A Little Lesson on Life (courtesy of Grandma)

Anyone who has ever heard me talk about my childhood has definitely heard me say how I had the best grandparents EVER! Hands down my grandmas and grandpas were the BEST (and yes, I called both grandpas - grandpa, and both grandmas - grandma). Everyone knew which one I was talking about when I spoke of them. Anyway, now that I have kids of my own I get to appreciate my grandma through an entire different set of eyes. I never in a million years would have thought my grandma could be this whimsical and creative. She's not touchy feely, never has been, never will be. She's always expected a lot from me and at times growing up she seemed very abrasive and demanding. HOWEVER.....now that I have a daughter of my own I realize the many different hats my grandma has had to wear. She went from being my grandma to my mom and now she's become one of my best friends. Never when I was 18 would I have thought I'd be saying that my grandma was my friend....but its because of her high expectations and demanding approach that I made it through high school while living by myself. I made it through a top notch college in 4 years and got a great job and have stuck to it for 9 years now. It was also b/c of her intense unconditional love that Justin and I made it through some rocky roads and stuck together and have now been together for 14 years and have two beautiful children.

So a month ago when we were at her house for SeaWorld/Disney on Ice/Justin's bday, she took the kids across the road to the vacant lot where my grandma and her neighbors share a garden and chickens. Its Kate's favorite place to go when we go to Grandmas. She gets to see the Rooster and pick the fresh laid eggs and sit on the swing while my Grandma pushes her and Wesley. Dylan (the neighbor boy) joined us this time and picked a caterpillar from the dill plants my grandma had planted. He had been harvesting these caterpillars for a few weeks. My grandma had even bought him and Kate these little bug containers. So Dylan found a nice fat caterpillar for Kate and she put it her container and closed it up. Here is a picture of the caterpillar on Day 1 with fresh dill plants.....

Then after about 3 days we noticed that the caterpillar stopped moving around and stayed perfectly still on the dill stalk...

If you look closely you'll see how the caterpillar has already formed the cocoon and is holding itself on one silk strand...Justin thought it was dead at this point b/c it never moved again..... But on Sunday morning (04.26.09) Kate and Wesley were checking in on their caterpillar and MUCH TO OUR SURPRISE.....

What came out of the cocoon? A beautiful black butterfly with yellow and orange spots!

We had already prepared Kate that when the caterpillar became a butterfly we'd have to let it go b/c the container was too small. So they took a final look at their butterfly and we opened it up outside and let it go. It stammered for a little while and then flew into a tree and stayed there for a while. Probably taking a much needed break after going through so much change in a few short weeks. How Amazing!

So the moral of this posting is to stop and soak up the experiences around you. Something beautiful comes of everything..ever experience, every moment.

And just to close this posting....we washed the bug container and just a few hours later the kids were playing outside and got very very quiet. I went to check on them and found Kate and Wesley giggling by the water hose hanger. I thought for sure they had found a lizard but that would have been to easy. They actually found the cutest little green tree frog. In an attempt to save the little frogs life I bargained with Kate to stop trying to catch him and we'll put him in the bug container. So I grabbed the container, went back outside, put him inside, gave him some water and sticks. He slept in her room last night and went with her to school today to show her classmates. We are going to let him go when we get home from school today (and I just pray its still alive!)