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June
2006 Journal
Getting
into the grove of summer! It's been kind of a rainy
start but HOT!
We WILL finally be decorating the downstairs...it's
official, and there IS paint already on the walls!
No big plans other than that...everything else will be
spontaneous :)
Start shopping now...you know I will be FIVE next month!
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From Caterpillars to Painted Ladies ~ Day One
June 3, 2006 |
I got a
"butterfly garden" as a Christmas gift and I finally sent away for
my caterpillars before Memorial Day. Well, they arrived in the
mail today! Mommy was surprised to see that I got 2 containers
of them. Each one contains 5 caterpillars. They sure are
tiny. There is this stuff on the bottom and that is their
food. If I watch them very closely, I can see them eating it
up. What I really think is funny are the little "balls" you
can see laying around...it's caterpillar poop! I laughed and
laughed when Mommy told me that. We can pick the jars up
gently to look at them more closely. However, you are not
allowed to open the containers...they could get sick from bacteria
if you do. It says it could take up to 10 days for them to
spin cocoons. I will keep you posted with photos and entries
of their progress.
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Painting Begins!
June 4, 2006 |
It's finally
happened....Mommy and Daddy have agreed on a paint color for the
downstairs - kitchen/living room area. They couldn't figure
out how to divide the rooms that would look right, so I guess we are
trying with a color that will all mesh together. We figure, if
it's just not right...it's just paint and we can go over it.
Mommy wasn't planning on starting to paint yet, but she got started
cleaning around the refrigerator and decided to start there, just to
see the color on the walls. Since we have been here for 2
years, a lot of dust accumulates in places you don't clean often.
So, just for today, the fridge-side wall is painted. It looks
pretty nice. I call it "yellow" but the technical name is
"canary" but Mom says it more of a muted buttery gold...think 1970's
yellow but a bit updated....whatever that means! Anyway, so
far so good. Hopefully, we will get some pictures of the slow
progress. Daddy wants to wait until the cabinet is ready to
move in and he gets speakers wired for the "surround sound" (mommy
rolls her eyes..heehee!) before we tear up the living room and paint
those walls. So, for awhile...I think our house is going to be
even more of a mess! YAY!
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From Caterpillars to Painted Ladies ~ Day 6
June 9, 2006 |
My caterpillars
have been eating non-stop since I received them in the mail!
It's fun to watch and I even remember the scientific name for their
poop, frass. I surprised Mommy with that bit of information.
Anyway...they are all about 3 times bigger than they were only a few
days ago! They all appear to be healthy too! Mommy thinks it
will be soon that we see them crawl to the top of the cup!
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Cars the Movie
June 10, 2006 |
We went to see
Pixar's Cars movie today! I have been talking about it all
week! It was very good and funny! I will tell you that
my favorite part is when Mater (the tow truck) says that the girl
car likes him for "his body"! Daddy thinks I learned that from
Pa-Pa, that is his favorite part too! Anyway, there are lots
of "awesome" parts in the film and it sends a good message, like all
of Pixar's films do. We give it a "thumbs up!" Be sure
to go see it, you will be entertained, and impressed by the special
effects...it's amazing to believe that it was all done on a
computer. Some parts looked very, very real!
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Taylor's Birthday
Party!
June 10, 2006 |
After the movie,
I had a party to go to for one of my school friends. It is now
official, everyone is 5 but me! Mommy & Daddy dropped me off
and I think they went and had dinner together. Anyway, I had a
fun time...we played games, hit a piñata ( I want at my party now)
and ate yummy food and cake. The party was over too soon for
me and I did not want to leave when Mommy & Daddy came back!
I hope all my friends will come to my birthday! It's coming up
you know!? :)
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From Caterpillars to Painted Ladies ~ Day 8
June 11, 2006 |
WOW...it sure
did not take long, but all but one lonely little caterpillar have
moved to the top of the cup and are hanging upside down! It's
been fun to watch this happen, they hang and twitch around a bit,
almost looking like they are doing crunches! We walk away for
a few hours, come back and they are wrapped in a "shell" that Mommy
said is called a "chrysalis" or cocoon. Mommy taught me
another word, "metamorphosis" which means, changing.
So, we are waiting on one last little guy to build his cocoon and we
can move them to the "butterfly pavilion"....then we just have to
wait!
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Miniature Golfing
June 11, 2006 |
We did some
mini-golfing today. I don't think we have gone for a long
time...I remember going with Uncle Mark once, and I think that was
before he moved away! My focus on the "sport" wasn't quite
what my Dad wanted but I stayed in the game and didn't quit! I
have my own style and it has nothing to do with standing on the
correct side, holding the club just right or looking at the hole.
I just kind of hit it all over the place...oh, and watch out for my
back swing, it's dangerous. I actually did have some nice
plays though, that actually got me a par lower than a 6! All
of our scores were pretty pathetic. Daddy won of course.
Afterwards, we hit the arcade and played some...you guessed
it....skeeball!
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Chuckee
Cheese Field Trip!
June 14, 2006 |
We had our first
field trip of the summer at school today! CHUCKEE CHEESE...my
new official most favorite place in the world to go. It almost
beats out Chocolate World...mostly because of the Skeeball! We
rode on a big school bus to get there...and that is just fun all by
itself! I showed all my friends and teachers my great skeeball
throwing techniques. Our whole class worked together to get
over 100 tickets. We got a neat slinky with sharks on it!
Woo-hoo! (Some reason the grown-ups found this funny, but we
were thrilled with it!)
It was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go back.
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From Caterpillars
to Painted Ladies ~ Day 11
June 14, 2006 |
All of my
caterpillars are in a "chrysalis" now! Daddy hung my pavilion
in my playroom and Mommy attached the paper discs that they are
hanging on to the inside. I have to be very careful not to
bang them around too much! It's kind of boring now,
since there isn't really anything to watch....but I do check on them
often.
I can't wait until they hatch and I hope we are home when it
happens!
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My New
Pool!
June 17, 2006 |
Mommy & Daddy
got me a new pool. It was finally hot enough outside on a
weekend that we were just hanging out at home. It's HUGE!
Mommy, Daddy and I all fit in it...and probably a couple other kids
would! Daddy used his machine to blow it up and we put it
under my slide!
Weeeee! Splash! What fun I had....I must have
played in it for over 5 hours!
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From Caterpillars
to Painted Ladies ~ Day 15
June 18, 2006 |
Mommy and me sat
down for breakfast this morning beside my caterpillars
and....something moved! Scared us for a second and then we
realized that TWO of my caterpillars came out of their cocoons!
One was flying around and the other was still resting and drying out
it's wings! HOW EXCITING! We quickly mixed up some sugar
water and balled up some paper towels to put in there for them to
eat! I hope we get to see at least one come out of the cocoon.
We are going to be pretty busy today...so, we'll see.
**Update! Well...all but 3 of my caterpillars have emerged.
We haven't gotten to see one come out yet. You can't tell when
they are going to do that! Seems every time we walked
by...there would be another one out!
There is all this red stuff on the side of the pavilion, looks like
blood, but it's not. It's called meconium and it is just the
extra "stuff" that the caterpillar had to make him/herself a
butterfly. One thing is neat, I can see their "tongues" come
out when they are eating the sugar water. It says on there
that we can feed them orange slices too. Mommy has some
oranges, so we will give them those since we don't have any flowers
laying around here. (Mommy made some kind of comment about
Daddy...blah, blah...heehee).
There are 3 caterpillars left....MAYBE we will be lucky to see one
of them. Hope they don't come out while I am sleeping!
Mommy did try and take some pictures, but it's hard too through the
mesh of the pavilion and they are moving around. We got some
pictures though,
enough to document our experiences with them!
What a great gift...I've been having so much fun with it.
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Happy
Father's Day!
June 18, 2006 |
Happy Father's
Day to my Daddy! We were going to spend the day in
Philadelphia and go to the Insectarium (bug museum) but it was
closed. Good thing Daddy checked on that before we drove over
there! We thought about some other places to go, but with the
temperatures supposed to reach the high 90's...we opted to just stay
home and do some "fun" stuff together.
I made Daddy (Pa-Pa and Pap too) a "car wash" bucket. I
decorated some sticky craft foam with pictures of cars, trucks,
helicopters, boats and also made some clouds, hearts and a sun.
I stuck them around the bucket and Mommy wrote their names on it.
They turned out pretty nice! I got them some car wash soap and
a rag to go with it too. Daddy decided to clean out his car
(boy, was it dirty...so dirty that he actually had to take the car
seats completely out!). Mommy later washed the outside for
him. He said my bucket worked perfect for the job.
We got my pool out again and we all took a nice refreshing dip in
it. I even got Daddy to go down the slide. Funny, he
wouldn't let Mommy take a picture of that?! Anyway, Mommy got us
a fun project to do, Tye Dying. Unfortunately, Daddy got sick
with the flu or something. He hadn't really been feeling well
the last couple days, but thought it was allergies...not so.
Daddy spent the rest of his day on the couch sleeping. I
joined him and took a nap in my "tent" (under the ottoman).
Mommy did some more work around the house. So, in a way Daddy
had a relaxing day for himself...but I don't think that is how he
wanted it.
Oh well....I LOVE YOU DADDY!
We'll have a Father's Day "make-up day" some time soon!
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Congratulations ~
Hartley's!
June 21, 2006 |
It's fitting
that this past weekend was Father's Day! We have gotten some
great news that our dear friends, Jen & Darrin ARE pregnant!
They have been struggling the past year and with the aid of science
and probably a bit "more"....the invetro process was successful!
With a due date of March 1st....we are anxiously awaiting the
arrival of a new baby in our circle!
Best wishes and we will continue to keep you in our prayers!
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My Painted Ladies
~ Day 19
June 22, 2006 |
My caterpillars
have all emerged as healthy, beautiful Painted Lady butterflies!
Unfortunately, we did not get to see any actually come out of their
cocoons...bummer. We would watch for awhile, walk away for a
second (I swear!) and then come back and see a new one! Oh
well...Mommy & me have been feeding them orange slices...it's neat
to see them all gathered together on the plate eating. We have
10 butterflies all together.
Some fun facts that I have learned is that they taste with their
feet and they have 10,000 eyes! WOW!
Mommy wants to set them free, but she can't see to talk me into it.
She said that they want to go fly around and have babies...whatever.
I heard her telling Daddy about some of them "mating"...???.....I
just think they are neat to watch and I don't want to let them go.
Guess we will see what happens. Mommy said they don't live
very long...only a few weeks.
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Daddy's Caching Trip to Southwestern PA
June 24 - 25, 2006 |
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Daddy went with
some friends to go geocaching in Southwestern PA. I'll let him
tell you about it:
First off, I had
to get up at 3 in the morning. Ugh. But some coffee
fixed that right up. I met the guys at 4:00 and we took off to
our first set of caches, which were near Breezewood on the old
abandoned section of the Turnpike. One of the caches was
inside an abandoned 1.2 mile long tunnel. It was a ton of fun.
We also did several other caches, including a couple with very
scenic vistas, a huge cave, and another near Elk Rocks which was
also very scenic rock formations. I also finally saw my first
rattlesnake along the trail...a black-phased timber rattler.
It didn't really care that we were there though, and basically
ignored us as we passed by. By the end of the first day, we
had hiked about 15 miles, and everyone's feet were sore, but we had
plenty of hiking to do the next day.
Early the
next morning, we took off again...but it was raining. But rain
can't stop us from caching! We hiked out to the old remains of
a gun powder factory complex, which has many old buildings and
ruins. The factory had had 3 major explosions, which you can
read
about here. Too bad we couldn't find a map of the area, as
I'd have loved to explore more.
Afterwards,
we hiked on over to a cache called "Polly Takes The Plunge" where
Polly Williams was murdered over 200 years ago by her fiancé.
You can read about her sad story here. This cache has us
visiting the site of her murder, as well as her final resting spot,
where we paid our respects.
By the end of
the second day, we guesstimated we had hiked between 22 and 25
miles, and my dogs were barking. It was nice to finally be
back home, but I'm already looking forward to the next geocaching
adventure!
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My Painted Lady
Butterflies
June 25, 2006 |
Mommy finally
convinced me to set my butterflies free. I didn't want too but
Mommy said they need to be free to have their babies and fly around.
I guess that would be more fun than being trapped in my net, so I
let them go and watched them fly away!
Thanks Susie for the great gift....it was a lot of fun. What
can I grow now?
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Caia Lee Miller
~ A Life Well Lived
June 28, 2006 |
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Our dear friend, who had been ill for some time, passed away
peacefully today. Daddy had worked with Caia for a few years
and Mommy met her through Daddy's friends. I just recently was
able to meet her at Mike & Kirsten's wedding in Toronto. From
what I saw and what Daddy and Mommy have been telling me...she was a
great person and we all feel lucky to have known her. Here is
a copy of the obituary from the Ottawa Citizen newspaper:
Caia Miller ~
Miller, Caia Lee Peacefully in hospital in Montreal on Wednesday,
June 28th 2006, in her 35th year. Caia Miller, beloved daughter of
June and the late David Miller, dearest sister of Sean, was
predeceased by her grandparents George and Constance Miller and Ed
and Sara Laushway. Caia's life was enriched by the correspondence
she enjoyed with four generations of her extended family. Caia was a
systems engineering graduate from the University of Waterloo and,
more recently, was pursuing studies in demography at the University
of Montreal. She was a young woman of courage, wit, compassion and
grace, who will be sadly missed by her family and by her many
friends. Her family would like to thank Doctors Marleau and Nutini
and everyone who looked after Caia at the Hopital St-Luc in Montreal
for their outstanding care and affection. In addition, we will be
forever grateful to the donor family, whose generosity gave us ten
more years with our darling girl. Friends may visit at the St.
Laurent Chapel of Hulse, Playfair & McGarry, 1200 Ogilvie Road at
Aviation Parkway on Friday, June 30th from 7 to 9 p.m. and on
Saturday, July 1st from 10 a.m. until service time in the Chapel at
11 a.m. Memorial donations to the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the
Leukemia Lymphoma Foundation would be appreciated.
Also, her brother has put together a simple memorial website.
Feel free to browse the site, so you too can get to know this
wonderful woman that will be missed so much by her family and
friends.
www.caiamiller.ca
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