BUGS!

I dreamed about bugs last night. Not an icky, crawling-all-over-me type of bug dream but a scientific cataloging of bugs dream. Mostly it was just the evening replaying over and over again in my sleep. Rebekah's bug collection for her science class was due today. She's been hunting bugs for the past month. All of us have helped her...I've caught 3 myself. Funny thing, catching them wasn't as bad as classifying and pinning them. We caught the bugs in nets and containers and then Rebekah stored them in plastic bags and put them in the freezer. Seeing those bugs all frozen and dead every time I went out to pull out a pound of hamburger or some ice cream...well, that was kind of gross. But when we went to pin them and classify them we were nose to nose with the darn things and even though they were dead Rebekah and I both caught a serious case of the heebie jeebies more than once as the evening went on! But you know what? There was something kind of fascinating and beautiful about those bugs. And I know, you all are saying, "What?? Are you crazy?" But really, if you can dismiss the icky bug feeling and just focus on all the details, they are kind of amazing. We had a field guide with tons of pictures and descriptions and we had to figure out which bug we had. A grasshopper is not just a grasshopper. We had 3 of them and they were all different...which you probably wouldn't realize at first until you get down nose to nose with them and notice all those teeny tiny details that make them unique. These tiny little insects that are so fragile and that we squish without hardly a second thought are so detailed and intricate with all sorts of interesting colors and patterns if you really take the time to notice. That being said, I'm not sure this project will change my mind any about stomping an earwig or grasshopper if I find it in my kitchen!