What a Weekend!

What a weekend......

On Trinity's birthday on Friday, we spent the afternoon with Christian and Mallory Topel, Trinity's best buddies since she was 2 months old! We decided to wait until the evening to celebrate with my dad, his girlfriend and her son.
What a special girl I've been blessed with. Not once all day did Trinity even ask for or about gifts.

Saturday was interesting.....right before bed Bruce let Lulu,our dog, outside to do her business. Suddenly I heard him yelling desperately for her to get into the house.

 A skunk had walked right in front of Bruce (head-toward him, thankfully.)  Lulu being a dog, of course had to sniff the skunks rear-end. She got a mouthful of the raunchiest stench I've ever smelled! It smells like a funky, musky, sulfury rotten poison.

After Bruce hosed her off she spent the night upstairs, away from the rest of the family. The house STILL smells like skunk. Not a lot, but you can tell there was a skunk around recently.

Sunday, I went to church. Since children's church is now on Wednesday evenings, it's hard to have Trinity come to church with us. She's fidgety and it's hard for her to stay quiet.
So, Bruce took her to buy a pumpkin while I went to church.
We relaxed, watched a little of "The Office" on DVD, watched some football, and a little bit of "Tron."
Later we braved the 45 mile per hour winds and explored a tree in our backyard that has huge mushrooms growing on it. I've never seen anything like it. Very strange. Maybe I'll post some pictures.

Back to school and work today. It's starting to feel like late fall and some snow has even fallen in the area. Didn't we just have snow???? Oh yeah, like 9 feet of it!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRINITY ROSE

"I'm 5 today!!" (October 24th)

Mommy and Trinity Rose. She's pretty sick in this picture so she doesn't look thrilled!

Trinity and best buddies Mallory and Christian Topel

Three Generations

Check out the 3 generations!

No, I haven't gone through an adult version of puberty, whereby I"ve grown 6 inches! My mom is just that short! I'm still barely 5 foot 3 inches tall. I feel and look like a giant next to her.

The BIG cut.....

Well, I've been threatening to do it for months now, but never had the guts. Yes, Trinity's waistlong hair is beautiful for the five minutes it's down and not braided, in pigtails, a ponytail, or in a bun. But, it's so fine and thin, that it gets snarly and tangly in mere seconds. It's a nightmare to brush through in the mornings and after bathtime. After about a week of daily confirmations with her, to help her understand the big change she would be committing to, we made a date.

We put it in a ponytail, and told the girl to chop it off. I kept envisioning Trinity screaming in horror as the hairstylish held up the ponytail in front of her. Thank God she just gave a huge grin.

We all love it!! Most importantly, Trinity loves it. Now, after bath it's a quick comb-through and voila! In the morning before school, a quick spritz of water and a brush is all it takes to get her hair done.

CAMEL TIME!!

While the "Cheetah girls" were on a break, we decided to go visit some other wild animals at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Papa Bob and Bruce went to a Brewers baseball game. They didn't win that one, but they did the next day, which sent them to the playoffs for the first time since 1982!

Anyway, Trinity and Gramma Donna had great fun riding a camel, feeding goats, and pretending to be all the other animals we saw. My favorite was the spider monkeys, they were such entertainers and so goofy when they walked on their back legs. Trinity said her favorite was the giraffes. I'm surprised she didn't say her favorite thing was feeding the goats, since she always wanted to do that. Maybe the giraffes were just more magnificent--they are pretty incredible in person.

MEET ROCKY!

Two weeks ago, as we were enjoying the cooler late summer weather, Bruce noticed something odd from afar in the corner of our garage side door. Upon further investigation, we found this Hyalophora Cercropia. In other words, big ole fat green caterpillar, which Trinity named "ROCKY."

He was huge, and none of us had ever seen anything like it. He was bigger than Bruces thumb-and very well fed. Come to find out, they are very common here in Wisconsin, but not to us. He is beautiful, too-so colorful, with blue, orange, yellow, green, and black.

The only other time I'd seen this kind of caterpillar was in Trinity's book called "Hermie and Wormie" by Max Lucado.

He was so fascinating to watch as he feverishly worked on his cocoon. The first layer looks like a cob-web, but is not sticky at all and about as sturdy as fishing line. We were so curious as to how long it would take to build his little home that would protect him from temperatures as low as negative 30 degrees.

We monitored the progress all day long and by the end of the day he had a translucent web all around him.

It took Rocky less than 24 hours to build a self-contained home in which he will transform into a moth. His wingspan will be 5-6 inches wide and he will have red and black wings.

I never thought I'd be so interested in a silly ole caterpillar, but having kids changes you in ways you never expected. Rocky was our source of entertainment for an entire day. When people would call and ask what we were up to, we'd tell them about Rocky!

It's amazing to watch God's creation do what it's meant to do without interuption and to its fullest potential. Rocky's purpose once he's turned into a huge colorful moth, is simply to mate. He will live for only 2 weeks and in that time his mouth and digestive systems becomes non-functioning. Such a short time to exist, but as long as he does what he's been created for, he will have accomplished what he was made for.

We just pray we're around to see him emerge in the spring.