I have BUGS in my freezer...

There are several things that are a “rite of passage” when you go to our little grade school.

In third grade they each had a rock collection to do. It was simple - 12 rocks. Find a black one, a round one, a square one (I do believe Tom CREATED a square one for Tyler...we couldn't FIND one...so, he chiseled one!)

In the 4th grade, it was the Illinois scrapbook. Tyler had to do it – 50 facts about Illinois in scrapbook form. He had all kinds of facts and all kinds of pictures from all over Illinois (because…I am a photographer…I take LOTS of pictures. And, the kids are almost used to it). He had everything from Metropolis to Chicago. AND, because we knew that Zach would be in the 4th grade, too, I always took pictures of him by all of the interesting Illinois stuff. We planned ahead. Anyway, Tyler’s Illinois scrapbook was awesome. I got an A+ on it. I mean, err…HE got an A+ on it. Then the grade school hired another 4th grade teacher and last year, Zach had her instead of the teacher Tyler had.

She SAID they were doing an Illinois scrapbook…but time kept passing and the box full of Illinois memorabilia kept getting dustier. Then the edict came down. They would be doing not an Illinois scrapbook, but an Illinois ABC book. Through the alphabet with three Illinois things for each letter. Zach got right to work and said he was doing great and needed NO help. What is a mother to do? FORCE her artistry on her son? I checked on him a little but, for the most part, I let him do his own thing. THEN…the day before it was due arrived. And I decided to check on my son and his ABC Illinois book. We got through A, B and C without too many problems. Then we hit D and I immediately knew I should have been checking CLOSELY all along. Three things for Illinois… Well, we have D – DOGS. There are dogs in Illinois. D – DOLLARS. There are dollars in Illinois. Is this what the teacher wants??? I don’t think this is what she wants. And then the D of all time. D…DIAPERS. People in Illinois wear diapers. Oh, my. What to do…laugh or cry? I think I yelled. Poor kid. Starting at D (and of course it was about 8:30 at night) and we had a looong night in front of us. Although it wasn’t perfect, it DID make sense. So off to school he went and turned it in – on time, albeit lacking some sleep on both our parts. But here is the kicker…because OTHER kids didn’t have it turned in, anyone who turned it in completed and on time got an automatic A. He COULD have gone with D – DIAPERS. People in Illinois wear DIAPERS.

ANYWAY…back to the bugs. In my freezer. Rumor has it that another mandatory grade school project is a BUG collection in the 6th grade. Every cousin who has attended 6th grade here has done one (an NO ONE saved any critters for us to recycle and re-use!!!). So, not knowing what we need, we started collecting bugs. And we kill them by freezing them. In plastic baggies, in Tupperware, in whatever we can find. After they are bug-sicles, I put them in one "community" container. It’s kind of gross. I am beginning to wonder if cryogenics is the best form of bug preservation. There are various unclaimed legs in the container.

So, I have a cicada, grasshopper, cricket, praying mantis, lightening bug, several moths and assorted I-don’t-have-a-clue bugs. Rumor has it that TYLER has actually put some bugs in the freezer, too (so I’m not the only one collecting bugs for our…I mean HIS bug collection.) We EVEN have some “midges” flown back from one of Tom’s trips from Oregon. Hopefully this isn’t an ILLINOIS bug collection.

I remember my mandatory 7th grade project – it was a LEAF collection. Much easier to collect, much easier to store. And…prettier, too. And not so gross and…leggy.