Spider

This blog entry has been working on me for about 10 days. It is really hard for me to talk and think about spiders, and I guarantee my skin will be crawling after I get finish with this entry.

A couple of weeks ago, when it was still very warm in So Cal, my plumeria plant was looking very withered, and being in direct sun, I decided to move the plant into a partially sunny area of my yard. In the process of moving it, I noticed a very large spider running up it's now torn web. She was caring a yellow egg packet with two legs and running on six. I only saw her for a couple of seconds and now she was hidden under a leaf somewhere. The days passed and I kept thinking about her and the egg, wondering when it would hatch. The thought of thousands of little spiders, that, one day would be big like her was a bit overwhelming.

Then one day I noticed something, one of the leaves was kinda rolled up and spider web all around it, she had placed her egg right there and you could see it in full view. If you looked closely, you could see her hi dding behind it. She had yellow/brown legs with black strips on them and a very big abdomen, off White/stone color with tan spots. I guess someone who studies spiders might have been extremely excited but I was kinda grossed out. One of the most interesting things about her was her egg packet, unlike anything I have ever seen, it had spikes all over it.



So after deciding I couldn't kill her, I went with plan B. I wanted to know if she was poisonous. If she was then she would have to be killed but if she was a harmless garden spider then I would have to go with plan B. So I put the previous pic's on the web and a guy e-mailed me to tell me she was a "Brown widow spider" cousin to the black widow. They come from Africa, and their venom is poisonous but when they bite, they inject so little venom that no human was ever hurt by one. They came to So Cal about 5 years ago in shipping containers. Their numbers are not that numerous but they give away that this was my spider was the egg sack. No other spider has an egg sack with spikes all over it except these spiders. He sent me this pic



I looked at Joe and said "That's my spider!" So plan B consists of calling my friend/manager/co-worker, Angel who's son is really into these things. He has all kinds of incests and spiders at their house. She was excited to hear about my spider and said she wanted it. So Joe helped me get it into a plastic bottle. I took it to work and she came and got it. She's not scared of these things (I think she's a little desensitized!) LOL. Now I am waiting and she is feeding her crickets and waiting for the egg to hatch. She will send me pic's of the as it happens and I will be posting more about the spider I gave up for adoption.

The first days of school

Kevin just finished his first week of high school. HIGH SCHOOL! 2 years ago I made a comment that I was to young to have a child in Junior high school. Getting ready for high school seemed a little bit different. I was not as freaked out as I had been when he started junior high. I think high school was a lot easier for him than junior high. I missed his origanal registeration day. We were at camp meeting, so his counselor said the make up day was the day before school started. I geuss up until then I was in denial that my son was going to be at a school with 18 year old boys/men. It all hit me when we were finally there to register. I think it went really well, no major problems with registation, but the reality hit me. Then I FREAKED OUT!

The next day was the first day of school. I took the day off of work like I always do. Last year Joe said, "Why do you have to take the whole day off?" Now, I am a mother, and no matter how old my childern are, I AM THEIR MOTHER! Joe said jokingly of course, "I would just drop him off at the corner" (HUSBANDS!) I was really glad I was there with Kevin, and although he wants to fly on his own, I know he was glad I was there also. I was standing in line with him and he looked at me, "You can go now mom" he said. I told him I would sit over on the bench and be there if he needed me. Otherwise, you just do your thing. He said OKAY! I sat down and waited. I was glad I stayed, he got his schedule and couldn't find his first class. So I helped him and then I left for home.

It's funny how things went that day. I have had plenty of days off of work and home alone, but this day wes filled with an anticipation of "I wounder how his day is going?" I think I looked at the clock about 100 times, and even counted how much longer I had until I picked him up.

The rest of the day was acutually pretty funny also. At 2:30pm when I picked Madison up from school, it was about 105 degrees outside. Knowing how hot it was I grabbed 2 cold bottles of water, and headed off to pick the kids up. Madison's day was great as always. I she was glad I brought her water. I was driving towards Kevin's school when I saw this boy, about 13 years old walking his dog. The VET TECH in me came out. I know super vet tech to the rescue! It was so hot and this dog was about to die of heat stroke. It was a pug. They are brachiocephelic dog and can't breathe in regular room temp, let alone 105 degrees. I told Madison THAT DOG IS DIEING! I mad a u-turn and pulled over and talked to the boy who was nevous talking to a stranger. He politely declined a ride home, so I did what I had to do. I gave away Kevins cold water bottle! LOL, You all thaought I was going to say I stole the dog , huh? Well needless to say when I picked up Kevin he said his day went well, he only got lost one time.

On our way home, Kevin saw his friend. We pulled over but couldn't offer him a ride. His bike had broke down and the tire was off the wheel frame. He was walking his bike home. I felt bad so we gave him a hot bottle of water which is all we had and he thanked us. About 20 minutes later he called to say that his bike was hit/side swiped by a truck, which did't even stop to see if he was okay. He was okay, but his bike was more messed up than before.

What a first day of school. I was so glad to spend the day, watching my kids grow up. Last year when Joe said "Your going to take the whole day off of work?" I said "Kevin only has 4 more first days of school left, For the rest of his life, I only have 4 more times, I get to take him to school on the first day" But now I only have 3. Cherish your children, they grow up way to fast.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6