{semi} wordless wednesday: katydid it.

i don't want to disappoint, but i think this will be the last set of bug pictures i post for a while. why? well, i'm lazy & not interested in scouring my backyard for another insect to photograph. besides, i'm sure y'all want to see pictures of things like the beach, the pups & various other shenanigans that may {or may not} take place at mi casa. no? well, whatever.

so, here is my latest installment for {semi} wordless - yet bug filled - wednesday. i'm not sure what kind of katydid this is, but it is indeed a katydid.

i harassed the hell out of this katydid. out of the 23 pictures i took {yes, 23!} there were only three that were fit for sharing. of course, i should consider myself lucky because had i not been watering the butterfly bush i would have never known there was a katydid hanging out on the plant. of course, had i not been hosing the plant down with water then the katydid would not have flown from one side of it to another...only to walk towards the center of the plant where i couldn't get a good shot of it. silly bug.

anyways. enjoy...because this is it for the bug pictures. well, unless i find where those swallowtail larva went.

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speaking of pictures, i've received many lovely compliments about my pictures. thanks, y'all! seriously, the feedback i'm getting is amazing. i'm not blessed with photography skills nor do i use a fancy camera. many of you have asked what kind of camera i am using. believe it or not, i'm using a digital point & shoot that has dslr tendencies. my camera is a "tweener" because it IS a point & shoot, but it also features manual settings, too. it also looks like a little wanna be dslr.

{source}

i was once a kodak girl, but back in february i treated myself to a new camera made by panasonic {i bought my camera from qvc...surprise, surprise}. the fz40 is my favorite toy. i'm still learning how to use it. for every great picture i take, there are about 15 or more crummy shots. but, overall, i am in love with this camera.

p.s. tomorrow i'm guest posting on my friend rachel's blog.

{semi} wordless wednesday: lil' mantis.

"mom, people are going to think that all you do is take pictures of bugs!"  {malia, age 10}

yes, people, that is what i do. i take pictures of bugs & i post them for you to see every wednesday. or, so it seems {click here, here, here & here if you don't believe me}.

last wednesday, adam & malia were in the backyard. malia found a little praying mantis on her leg. it freaked her out {read: therefore, i grabbed my camera}. when i got outside, adam had the lil' bugger & was placing him on one of our sunflower plants. the leaves of our sunflower plants are huge. and, this guy was, well, he's just very small. 

i wonder what kind of bug i'll post pictures of next week?

{semi} wordless wednesday: butterfly garden.

it's wednesday, again.  i'm going to talk about bugs, again. you know, because it's what i do on wednesdays {see here, here & here for proof}.

our dill plant is pretty popular these days. earlier in the week, we noticed a couple of caterpillars on it. as of this week, there are six caterpillars on the plant. we think they're black swallowtail larva. adam & the kids want to bring the larva inside to protect them from the birds. i said no. what do you think?

we're anxiously awaiting the formation of the first chrysalis. i can't wait to take pictures of it. i swear, our garden is not only providing us with food, but it's providing us with our very own science lesson {because the life cycle of a butterfly is part of my state's education curriculum}!

speaking of butterflies, how excited was i when i saw a monarch butterfly on our butterfly bush?!

we've also noticed two hummingbirds recently at the butterfly bush, but this post is about bugs, not birds.  so far, our backyard is becoming a place of discovery. seriously, i could take pictures of the bugs all day long. there are spiders, too, but i'll wait until our garden spiders get bigger...trust me...they get HUGE.

my kids are very excited about the caterpillars. i am, too. i can't wait to share more pictures with you all, especially when they emerge from their cocoons as butterflies!

oh, and remember when i posted pictures of the "mystery bug" or the humming-bumble-shrimp? well, we learned {thanks to google} that it is a hummingbird moth {there are three varieties...ours is a snowberry clearwing hummingbird moth...what a mouthful!}. we saw a few more at the butterfly bush over the weekend...they are neat to watch!

{semi} wordless wednesday: name that bug.

since i posted about a dragonfly last wednesday, it only seems fitting that i continue with my wednesday bug theme...

adam & i were in the backyard on sunday when we noticed this crazy looking bug flying around our butterfly bush.

is it a bird? no. {interestingly enough, not long after spotting the bug in question a hummingbird flew in for a brief moment.}

is it a bee? no. but it's color does remind me of a bumblebee.

is it a shrimp? ha ha ha. no. but, adam thought that the bug's body was shaped like a shrimp.

we're not sure what the heck it is. we watched it for a good 15 minutes as it flew from flower to flower on our butterfly bush. 

my guess is that it's a moth of some kind.

for now, we are referring to this guy as a humming-bumble-shrimp. you know, until an entomologist can set us straight or i find out what it is on google...whichever happens first.

paparazzi. bugarazzi.

a couple weekends ago - while in the backyard - malia came inside & told me that i needed to come outside...with my camera.  she was tending to the garden with adam when this guy decided to take a rest on one of our tomato cages:

i had a lot of fun taking pictures of him...or her.  {like i know how to tell the sex of a dragonfly...}  

i'm not very good at using my camera, but i wanted to get some good pictures.  {it's not a fancy, schmancy big girl camera.  it's stuck in between a point & shoot and a dslr.}  anyways, i was totally expecting mista dragonfly to fly off while i was in mid focus, but NOPE, he stuck around!

i had fun taking pictures of this dragonfly. he moved around to different parts of the tomato cage, but he didn't fly off.  in fact, he always flew back to the same spot {hence the reason for so many similar shots}.  i think i had a good ten minute photo session with the lil' bugger {pun intended...ha!}.  and, did he enjoy being the subject of my camera's lens?  you tell me...

Poop & Ants

Poop & ants.

Ants & poop.

It pretty much sums up my afternoon.

I get home from work & check the mail only to find that ALL of the mail that was held since last Thursday {because we were on vacation} found it's way to my mailbox...including the note for the 'mail hold' request that I did with the postal service that said, "Customer will pick up all vacation hold mail." Thank you, Mr. Mailman, for not reading.

That wasn't the bad part.

The bad part was opening my mailbox, grabbing the mail & looking down to find that my hand was covered {and I mean covered} in ants. It's one thing getting bills in the mail, but bills that come with their own bugs?! Yuck. Ants skeeve - is that even a word? - me out. Needless to say, I dropped the mail. All of it. Into a puddle. A muddy puddle thanks to the 5+ inches of rain we've gotten in just over a day. So much for those bills. I also sprayed the HECK out of my mailbox with Raid. Ew.

Fast forward to about an hour later...I'm getting dinner ready {porkchops & sauerkraut...yum!} and I see the dog haul buns into my bedroom. I asked Aidan to grab him - the pup cannot be trusted just yet in any room by himself. Aidan obliges...and I follow Aidan just to be safe. I walk into my bedroom to find a pile of poo on my bathroom floor. Smushed poo. Gross.

Guess who walked through it?

Yep. Aidan. So, there I was on my hands & knees scrubbing my bathroom floor with bleach & washing Aidan's socks in h-o-t water.

*sigh*

I swear, today feels totally like a Monday yet it's already Tuesday.

BEDS, BUGS AND A LACK OF FANCY

Our son is "vacationing" with my parents...in other words, he's staying at their house. I guess this means that WE are the ones who are technically on vacation, right?? Well, not exactly, but it's always nice to have a bit of a break from the kid (soon it will be a break from both kids, but that's a different blog post).

Anyways, at my parents house, Aidan always sleeps by himself in the spare bedroom. I should clarify that "sleeps by himself" means that he doesn't get up in the middle of the night or early in the morning and climb into bed with anyone. I don't know if it's because he's sleeping on a bed that's bigger than his puny twin size bed at home. I don't know if it's just because he's at Po Po and Gung Gung's house and not at home (I mean, things are always so much more special when you're at your grandparents house, right?). Or, maybe it's just because the queen size bed he's sleeping on this week (and for the next two weeks...woo hoo!) is so damn comfortable. I mean, even I had trouble getting up last weekend when we visited my parents because I felt as if I could sleep all day in that bed.

Well, he told me the reason why he sleeps in his own bed at Po Po & Gung Gung's house and NOT at our house (because he still climbs into bed with us in the wee morning hours)...

And, I quote...

"Because your house has bugs and isn't fancy enough."

WTF? Really? Thanks, son. I love you, too. My "all houses have bugs and no one in our family lives in a fancy house" talk didn't work. That was his story and he was stickin' to it.

So, I guess this means that when he gets home I should put some (fake) bugs in my bed and make his room as fancy as fancy could be for a 5 year old boy...that way he'll steer clear of my bed and want to sleep in his own bedroom all the time.