My Favorite Mother's Day weekend moment

"Stupid bass."

Let's rewind. We went up north to the lake this weekend to see my parents for Mother's Day and I woke up in the cabin on Saturday morning to those words.

Giant water beetle about 2 inches long

Shall we rewind a bit more?  Okay, my neighbor's husband found one of these critters and thought my kids would love to have it, so she brought it over in a Cool Whip container with holes poked in the lid. Yes, the kids thought it was so cool, so thanks Mark and Patti.

That container sat outside on our picnic table for 3 weeks, in the direct sun during the day, and all through the cold nights, with no food or changing of the water. I figured the thing was dead, but when we went up to the lake, my 10yr old daughter brought it with us (along with Little Toad in the coffee can) and we were sitting on the couch Friday night and kept hearing this scratching noise. My sister thought it was the toad, but then we realized it was the beetle swimming around in it's little container, desperate for freedom. Maybe he smelled the fresh water of the lake? Maybe he was just starving!

Saturday morning, I'm all snug in my bed when I hear the screen door slam and here's the story as my sister told it later.

We heard that bug scraping the sides of the container half the night, so when Morgan got up and headed outside, I asked her if she was going to set him free.

"Yep."

About ten minutes later the front screen door slams shut and Morgan comes in, pouting as she tosses the empty container on the table. "Stupid bass."

"What happened?" 

"I let him go, and he went swimming out to look for food, and a fish came and ate him!"

Now as my sister is telling the story, I recalled the words I heard while half asleep and knew it was coming, but still had to laugh. Morgan was standing right there and says "It's not funny!" But it was, and everyone we told the story to thought so, too. It's a story that's just too good not to tell.

Oh the irony for that poor, ugly giant water beetle. At least he was free for...5 seconds. LOL

And to give you all another smile for the day, we went up with Little Toad and the water beetle; we came home with Little Toad, a large injured moth Morgan saved from a robin attack, and a fat tadpole with tiny legs growing by his tail now named Soft Belly. She caught the tadpole in her shoe as she and her brother and Uncle Troy (my brother) were canoeing around the mud pond near the lake trying to catch painted turtles.

All I can say is thank God the brown snake Troy caught tried to bite them, and none of the chipmunks fell for the bait in the live trap Grandpa helped them set up.

Have a great week everyone!

Stacey Joy Netzel