Catty

Typically, this is what people think of when they hear the word catty:

cat-ty

adj. cat-ti-er, cat-ti-est

1. subtly, cruel or malicious; spitelful: a catty remark

2. catlike; stealthy

But not at our house. Catty is our former caterpillar. The caterpillar my kids captured in their bug catcher late last summer because he was going to turn into a butterfly. He wrapped himself into a chrysalis and settled in for a time.

Then fall came, and there was no butterfly.

Winter was next and, well, you know.

I put the bug catcher in the garage for the winter. Our very.long.winter. Our very long, COLD, winter. The very long, cold winter that we all thought would never end.

(You get it, right?)

Once it was finally starting to warm up, the kids brought the bug catcher back out and sat it on the porch. I let them continue to believe that this pupa survived the winter and was still undergoing metamorphosis. I didn't want to break their little hearts by telling them that their caterpillar probably didn't survive for seven months outside in the cold.

But apparently the joke was on me.

Meet Catty.

Xander was outside playing one May afternoon and came running in shouting that Catty turned into a butterfly. It was a gorgeous butterfly at that. And the odd thing was that Xander had brought home a butterfly book that day for his reading homework.

The kids wanted to keep it, but we had to explain to them that it needed to be free, so we opened up the door and watched it for awhile.

Catty seemed to have trouble finding his way out, so Jason found a thick piece of mulch for him to hop up on and we brought him out of the bug catcher where he made his way down to the flower bed next to our lilac bush.

He stayed there for quite a bit, flapping his little wings. We thought he was learning to fly, but after a quick internet search I discovered it's how they dry off their wings after first emerging. And then he must have gotten tired of two little kids ogling him and breathing on him, and he flew away.

I hate being wrong, but I'm so glad my kids got to have faith in nature and see that some things are worth the wait.

Ice storm

At the beginning of the month we had a lovely ice storm. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. I love to look around and see how everything that's been glazed over shines so brightly in the sunlight. But it always amazes me how something so beautiful can cause so much destruction.

There were lots of car accidents, trees and power lines down, and widespread power outages. Our power was out overnight for twelve hours, which wasn't horrible compared to some other people. Once the power came on though, we still couldn't see out all of the windows at the back of our house.

Today it was in the 40's and sunny, a far cry from two weeks ago. Xander might actually get some outdoor recess this week. Let's hope that the groundhog was right and the end of winter is right around the corner.

Winter Blahs

Winter seems like it has been so long already, and Groundhog Day was only the halfway point. It's this time of year when I really wished we lived in the south, so the kids could go outside more often. They *seriously* need to get outside, because their running around inside the house is driving us nuts. Jordis made it outside one day to play in the snow. This girl LOVES winter.

We've been playing lots of games.

We've even had successful trips to the library. I quit taking both kids at the same time after an incident where I had to carry one of them sideways, kicking and screaming, from the back of the library to the car while said child was pulling my dress off. It was quite a show for this little town. But a few weeks ago I let them each get their own library card.

Now we're having successful trips where we cooperate, learn how to look for books on the shelves and *gasp* have calm bodies with indoor voices.

The kids have done some chillin' by the fireplace, which we also use to dry coats, hats and gloves.

This week Xander was out of school for three days due to ice and we spent 12 hours without power. You know it's bad when your kids get half naked and start trading fishing baits in your family room.

Mayday, mayday!

S-N-O-W

Okay, really? More snow?

Back on February 5th I was excited about our first big snow of the year. I was outside taking videos to send to our family and friends in Louisiana. That was the last time I've seen any grass.

But we had fun. We had movies and books and snacks. We made hot chocolate and chocolate chip snow cream.

Jordis loves the snow. She's helped me shovel and would play out there all day if you let her.

It was the weekend and the kids were due to be home and it was nice to stay in and do nothing.

Then a few days later......it snowed some more. There was already 14 inches on the ground and it was piled so high that we were running out of places to put it when we shoveled.

On the second day in a row of no school my friend down the street invited my kids down to play with her kids. It took me an hour to get them ready and down there. I think they played outside for 30 minutes. They were getting creative, too, using sleds to go down the slide on the swing set.

The other day, Jason called me from work to tell me about a refurbished snow blower he saw at the mechanic's where they have their cruisers serviced. He told me how much it costs new versus what this man wanted for his. I said, "Watch, we'll spend the money for it and it won't snow the rest of the year" and he said "Great!" So much for irony, as we got another 7-9 inches of snow today. You'll notice there's no picture. It's because I'm over it. Tired of snow suits, gloves and boots in front of my fire place. Tired of the dog shaking wet snow all over my carpet, tired of snow days and missing bible study two weeks in a row.

The snowblower works great though.

Winter Wonderland

Okay, I'm joking about the wonderland part. The snow was cool the whole week before Christmas, but I'm just about over it now because I don't know the last time I saw the grass. Or the sun for that matter. Jordis loves it though. You will notice no pictures of Xander in this post because he is not a fan of snow. He pretends to be, but after a few minutes he's pretty much f-i-n-i-s-h-e-d. He's like his mommy, doesn't like to be wet or cold. After our 5 or so inches of snow last week Jason took the kids out to build a snowman. It was dry snow and not good for packing, so it didn't roll very well. Xander helped briefly, but not before I was able to get outside and take pictures.

The kids had spent all morning fighting over what the snowman was going to wear. My mom had given them a snowman kit a few years ago so we had a perfect carrot nose. The snowman turned out really cute except that they wanted him to wear a hat. But apparently it just wasn't staying on.

After the snowman Jordis decided to try a snow angel.

The next morning we got up and the snowman looked a little different.

Jason had found some sticks at work and gave him some arms when he got home.

And since this post is featuring Jordis, didn't she look cute on bowl day? Unfortunately Ohio State and LSU both played on the same day so we had to get creative with her clothing. She chose LSU dress with OSU socks and hair accessories. I'm thinking she would make a good Dorothy for Halloween.

Sadly, this is not the picture I intended to use. In the one I took Jordis had thrown up her hands in a big "block O" and was shouting "Go Bucks!" However, I traded in my cell phone and the picture didn't transfer during the download, so I don't have it anymore. That's okay though, Ohio State won and LSU, I think, got beat by a Big Ten team, which I've been told will never happen. Hmmmmm.....

My computer's back!

I'm so excited to have my computer back from the shop, but now I have to try and condense what I was going to blog about so it's not so overwhelming. Jason was letting me use his computer but the blog program only lets you upload photos from a URL or from the computer you're on, and I didn't want to download things to his computer and then go back and delete them later. Too time consuming. So I took a little blog hiatus.

Let's see....I discovered the icicles hanging off the house the day after I made snow ice cream. They're right over the AC unit so I left them there. Figured there's no one walking around back there that could get impaled if they fell.

Jordis is finally fitting in to her Raggedy Ann outfit. My step-mom bought it for her, I think last Christmas, and she couldn't wear it. The skirt is actually still too big but if I don't put her in it soon the shirt will be too small, so I folded it down a little. She wouldn't pose for me so I bribed her by letting her stand on the sofa with her shoes on. I didn't know how long she'd wear the hat but she still had it on after church. I was impressed.

Xan likes rockin' out on his new guitar.

Pretty winter morning.

The kids love playing Wii Fit.

Jordis goes shopping.

Posing with the bird at Red Robin after Jason took us out to dinner.

Big storm. Blew a ridge vent off the roof and left us with a big hole, but we've gotten it fixed now.

Xander loves his new winter coat. And I love that I got an amazing deal on it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome to our spa and salon, Jason will be your stylist.

I think that's it. Not much going on with us. Hope you're all enjoying the end of winter. Or what I hope is the end of winter.