Ode to the Bug Board

After some friends showed us their board o' bugs last summer, Gabe and I started collecting our own bugs to show off. We find most of them on our front porch, but we have happily accepted many donations. As we collect our bugs they either spend some time chilling out in our freezer to pass on 'gently' or they sit in a pile on our mantle until they can be pinned to their permanent resting place. Ah, Motherhood. It involves doing all sorts of things you never imagined yourself doing.

One day our bugs will be labeled and maybe even organized by more than my species speculations, but for now, we are content to pull out the board every few days and talk about how 'the huge beetle is our favorite', how we 'caught that one after it rained that day' and how 'that one that came out of the dead bird creeps us out.' We found a Japanese Hornet in a Sheetz parking lot (dead already, thank the Lord). The Luna Moth was in the parking lot of the middle school before a Saturday morning run (he suffered in a Kroger bag until he could get in our freezer for a proper death). The crazy female Rhinoceros Beetle was a donation from our friends with the bug board (lucky for us they already had one!). The Dobson Fly chose the wrong day to hang out on the window of the hair salon (Thanks Grandma Tori!). Many cicadas have succumbed to our bug fetish this summer, too -- one of them had just come out of his little shell and his wings were still tiny and shriveled up (I actually felt bad about that one). Big or small, we love them all! That was cheesy. But true.

Hmm, I could probably tell you the story of almost all of our bugs/beetles/moths/bees/butterflies, but that may bore my huge audience, so I will just show you some pictures! And next time you come over, ask to see the bug board! Gabe LOVES to show it off. I kind of do, too.