All Things Baseball

Opening day for the baseball season was this past Saturday. For the next 2 months our lives will revolve around all things baseball. Muffin Man is on a T-Ball team and Little Man is on a Coach Pitch team. Both teams are The Angels. We had opening ceremonies and two games on Saturday so we were at the park from 8:30 in the morning until 1:30 in the afternoon. I got fried! Time to whip out the sunscreen. Our schedual for baseball season is CRAZY! Little Man has games every Monday and Friday evening. Muffin Man has games every Tuesday evening and Saturday morning. And both of them have practice on Wednesday. So that means that the only days that we are not doing baseball is Thursday and Sunday. UHG! To make it worse, My Honey will be out of town for much of the season. Makes it hard on me but the boys love it and that is what is important. I have included a few photos of the first games.

Here is Muffin Man getting ready to hit the ball.

 

And here he is running for home plate! Look at the determination on his face. To cute!

 

Here is Little Man just seconds after hitting the ball.

 

Here he is playing catcher. He prefers short stop but his coach moves the boys around quite a bit and gives them a chance to try out all the different positions.

 

The Story Of Gimpy The Butterfly

On March 14, 2008, 3 butterflies emerged from their chrysalis'. Two were healthy and soon released to enjoy their butterfly lives. One emerged with a deformed leg and wing. We took him to the same flower filled garden as the others, placed him safely on a tuft of flowers and wished him well. The next day when we went out to the garden, he was still there. He had not moved 1 inch! Muffin Man immediately picked him up and proclaimed "Poor little guy!" Thus began the pampered life of a disabled butterfly named Gimpy. We brought him back inside and set up a small butterfly abode in a large bug keeper container. The boys found some nice twigs and blooms and we carefully placed each in the container for Gimpy to climb on. I searched the web for butterfly food recipes and found that it is simply a mixture of 4 parts water with 1 part sugar. The instructions said to put the mixture into a small jar and make a hole in the jar lid. Then stretch a cotton ball into a wick and poke the end of it through the jar lid. Put the lid on the jar making sure that the cotton hangs down into the liquid. The cotton will wick the "nectar" up and the butterfly will feed off the exposed cotton. I created the jar just as per the instructions and within seconds of placing little Gimpy on the top of the jar his long tongue unfurled and he stuck it right into the exposed cotton. Success! It was very cool to see! None of us had ever actually seen a butterfly unfurl it's tongue and eat. The only modification I had to make was to cover the lid with some gauze to help poor Gimpy get a foothold. He had quite a bit of trouble on the smooth metal lid.
Over the next few weeks I regularly helped The Gimp up onto the jar lid and he would usually eat. Little Man and Muffin Man gathered clean and fresh plant life to keep his home nice and held him daily. He was very calm and easy to hold. Muffin Man, especially, grew very fond of him. As we closed in on two weeks I went online to see just what the life expectancy of Painted Lady Butterflies is and found that it is in fact two weeks. Gimpy had lived a full life! However, I could tell that he was beginning to fade. He stopped eating and spent more and more time on the bottom of the container listing to the side. I spoke with the boys and we agreed that he should be able to finish his life in a lush garden doing what butterflies love most. Muffin Man really wanted to keep him but he finally agreed that Gimpy deserved his freedom. We took him back down to my mom's garden and said our goodbyes. We carefully placed him on a rose bush and wished him well. When we went back to check the next day he was nowhere to be found. Maybe he is now flitting about in Butterfly Heaven with little Angels chasing after him. I hope so. We miss you Gimpy!

This first picture is of Gimpy on his feeder jar.

 

Here is a picture of Gimpy with his wings spread open. This was toward the end of his time with us and his one good wing had begun to break down some as well. It may have been due to the fact that he spent quite a bit of time flapping around upside down trying to right himself after trying to fly.

 

This picture is of Muffin Man holding Gimpy one last time before we released him for good. Muffin Man was very fond of Gimpy and in fact strongly expressed his desire to keep ALL the butterflies when they emerged.

 

This is the last picture we snapped of Gimpy, on the rose bush.

 

The Butterflies Emerge

It has been such a very long time since I really updated. So much has happened. I will need to post a number of posts to catch up on everything. I figure I will begin with the butterflies. On March 14th we woke to find 3 butterflies had emerged. One of them had a deformed wing. When a butterfly first emerges, it must have something to hang from in order for it's wings to open and dry correctly. Although the butterfly in question was still hanging upside down from his chrysalis, one wing failed to open. We do not know why. we took all three butterflies down to my mother's garden (She has lots of flowers) and set them free. We set the deformed butterfly down on a clump of flowers and wished him well. We watched as the other two flitted away. The boys each held the butterflies and we took quite a few pictures. The following morning we awoke to find the last 3 butterflies ready to be released. We again headed down to my mom's house, took more pictures, released the last three butterflies and began to head home. THEN we noticed that the poor little deformed butterfly was still sitting on the exact same clump of flowers that we had set him on 24 hours earlier. Being the bleeding hearts that we are, we gathered the poor little thing up and brought him home. We have named him Gimpy. I will post pictures and the story of Gimpy in my next post.

In the mean time........
Here is a photo of one of the first butterflies after it emerged but before we released it.

 

Here is a picture of Little Man holding one of the butterflies. I LOVE this picture. I am going to have it blown up and framed.

 

Here is a picture of Muffin Man with a butterfly on his face. Cute!

 

And here is a close up of one of our beautiful painted ladies just before it flew away.

 

We had a great time watching the butterflies as they made their way through their fascinating life cycle.

Will It Never End????????

We are still sick here in the Chaos household. Muffin Man seems to be on the upswing. He has been on breathing treatments for the past week. His congestion seems to finally be easing up. My Honey is on a 3rd round of antibiotics. He's got it BAD and it has settled in his lungs. The Dr. put him on a new, super heavy duty antibiotic that targets the lungs. He has a follow up appointment on Monday. Little Man seemed to be sailing through with no signs of catching what we all had but that ended two days ago. I have an appointment for him today. I am pretty sure he has an ear infection. He is running a low grade fever, is very congested and started complaining of ear pain this morning. UHG! Will it never end? At least I am feeling better.

So much has happened that I need to update on. All our butterflies emerged. One is deformed. I call him Gimpy. I am hand feeding him. I will post pictures and the full story within the next few days. I am expecting the mantis' to hatch any day now. My girlfriend's already hatched and we got our egg cases around the same time. Can't wait for that.

Anyway, I will post again in a few days and catch up on all the happenings. Please keep us in your prayers that we will all be healthy and well, SOON!

The Sickies

Well, we almost made it through the winter without everyone getting sick. I thought we were homefree but I guess I thought too soon. I am still fighting my illness from last week. I seem to be on the upswing, but it has been bad. My Honey has it even worse, poor guy. He made a second trip to the Dr. today for a second course of meds. I had hoped it would bypass the kids, but Muffin Man has succumbed. He began running a fever on Tuesday and is still feeling poorly. We made it in to the pediatrician today and he is back on breathing treatments for now. Hopefully he will be feeling better soon. His throat is really hurting him and that makes him miserable but the throat culture was negative for strep. Hopefully it will pass quickly. Little Man still appears to be defying the odds. Hope that continues.

In the meantime, I have not had much time or desire to take pictures or do much of anything, in fact. As a quick update.......Our butterflies and mantis' have not yet emerged. We will update with pictures when that happens. We now have 4 tadpoles that are growing like weeds. They are so cute! We actually got them the day they hatched from eggs. So Tiny!!! They are smaller than the tip of a pencil eraser. They should begin sprouting leg buds in about a week. Can't wait! After they turn into frogs we will disect a larger frog specimen that I got from the supply company. (already dead and preserved of course) The chicken eggs will most likely not be happening for another month or so. The boys enjoy checking out all the critters and their growth daily. What an awesome lesson on different life cycle's and God's AWESOME Creations!!!

So that is this past week in a nut shell. We have spent it convalescing, visiting Dr. offices and pharmacies, and watching life begin again.

Muffin Man on his horse, Diesel. Look at that grin!

 

Due to age, Muffin Man was unable to ride solo, but he got a good ride all around the ranch accompanied by a very patient ranch hand.

 

Here is Little Man on his horse, Banjo. He had picked Banjo out of all the other horses as the one he hoped to ride. He was a pretty small horse. Although we were not abale to pick our horses, Little Man lucked out and got his wish.

 

My little cowboy! He actually went on a ride out on the desert trails with a group of about 10 others for about an hour. He did really well and he LOVED it! But his legs were sure hurting him the next morning.

 

A Day At The Ranch

On Tuesday of this week we went on a field trip with the homeschool group to a local ranch. It is called Stage Coach Trails Guest Ranch and is located about an hour from town. They have a real nice set up there. They have guest houses that you can rent. A beautiful lodge with a big fireplace to gather round on chilly nights. A mess hall, playground, heated pool and jacuzzi, lots of farm animals, barn cats, dogs, goats, horses etc. They have horse back riding for all levels of experience and quads that can be taken out on the surrounding trails. For the field trip, we just went up for the day but My Honey and I are planning on taking the boys up for an overnight stay very soon. So, here are a few photos of the day. This first one is of the boys meeting one of the many ranch cats. They are all so friendly! This one was named Buster

 

Here is a picture of Little Man getting a feel for horse back riding on the play horse at the playground.

 

And one of Muffin Man.

 

Here the boys are meeting the real horses face to face.

 

Sometimes Mother Nature Needs Assistance

I'm Back! Still sick but wanted to update anyway. Yesterday I woke to find four of the six caterpillars on the roof of their container. One had already chrysalized, 2 were hanging in j formation which is what they do just prior to making their chrysalis and one was just up there relaxing. The other two were frantically trying to climb the sides of the container but for whatever reason kept slipping down. I knew that if they were unable to get out of the food and poo on the bottom of the container they would die so I gave them a little help. I went outside and found a few twigs. I wrapped gauze around the twigs since that is what is at the top of the container. They seems to be able to hang from it easily. I placed the twigs into a large bug container I have and then put each one gently on one of the twigs. One of them almost immediately hung down in j formation. The other seemed lost. Poor little soul! He wandered up and down the twig and around the bottom of the
bug container for a few hours before finally just ceasing to move. He curled himself into a j formation on the bottom of the container and that was that. I wondered whether he would die or if it was possible that he would still chrysalize right there on the bottom. I got my answer this morning. He had chrysalized! Yippee! The problem with this is that when the butterfly emerges in a week or so it is important that the chrysalis be hanging from something so that the butterfly can hang upside down to allow its wings to dry correctly. Otherwise, the wings dry malformed and the butterfly cannot fly. I gently retrieved the chrysalis from the container. They are really neat! They move and wiggle when you touch them. From looking at them you would think they were hard to the touch but they are not. Both of the boys got to hold this little guy while he quaked and shimmied. We managed to disconnect the skin and head that he had shed. It was still hanging on to the top of the chrysalis and in the way for what I needed to do. I then used just a small touch of Elmers glue to hang him from one of the twigs. Success! He wiggled around for a bit after I got him stuck on but now he has settled down to quietly await his transformation. Below are two pictures I took of a few of the chrysalis. The one picture is rather fuzzy, but you can see that there are three chrysalis already formed and the caterpillar in the forground is in j formation. He actually turned into a chrysalis just about 20 minutes ago. The other photo is of "Elmer". LOL! I snapped this photo just after gluing him onto the twig. I have since transfered all the chrysalis into the larger bug container. If all goes well, we should have 6 Painted Lady butterflies in about a weeks time. I will make sure to post pictures when they emerge.

 

 

A Bad Case of the Blahs

So much has happened this past week. Lots of new things happening with our Painted Ladies and we all spent a day horseback riding at a local ranch. I have pictures of both and I promise I will get them up as soon as possible. In the meantime, I have been struck down with some vicious illness. Every part of my body hurts! Even my scalp. I have a horrid cough, tons of mucus, pain in both of my ears, unbelievable sinus pressure, and my throat feels like I swallowed a bunch of steel wool. I cannot even swallow my own spit it hurts so bad. Please pray that I will recover quickly and that the boys and My Honey do not catch it. I will check back in in a few days. Until then, God Bless.