Locust Watch 2010

I grabbed my cup of coffee and moved to the formal dining room, where i sat to watch for the bus. The girls stood at the front door, inspecting some kind of large bug that lay on the front porch, upside down, in a fierce fight for it's life.
"Go turn it over with a stick," I said.
"Ewwww!" Jenna's such a wuss.
Clairey spoke up: "I'll do it!" Of COURSE she will.

Clairey walked outside and flipped it over with a stick. It was a locust. Couldn't walk, it's wings were dirty, it started lumbering along. Slowly. I went back to my chair and my cup of coffee, listening to the chicks chatter in the background.
"It's limping," said Clairey.
"It's going to fall off the sidewalk! Go save it, Clairey!" yelled Jenna.
So, again, Clairey goes outside to save the locust from certain death...you know...from falling off the walkway. I remained in my chair, with my coffee.

Clairey comes in--the Locust Saver--and the girls continue Locust Watch 2010. The poor thing is limping down the walkway. Jenna sighs a deep sigh, then says (quite forlornly), "It's going to die." So, of course, I immediately belt out, "It's the ciiiiiiiiirrrrrrrcle of LIFE!!!!! And it moves us alllllllll....." I mean, seriously, what else was there to do?

Then the whole family joins in. Let me paint a mental picture:
Me, sitting in the rocking chair, by the window (much like Norman Bates' dead mother) with my coffee cup, singing "The Circle of Life"; Tito, hops up on the piano and starts walking around on the keys (providing musical backdrop); Clairey doing an interpretive dance; and Jenna, at the door, waving to the dying locust.

Yep, normal morning in our house.