Sunday, May 13, 2012

Spider Sickness

Oh I am sick. I just coached myself, while freaking out, with my sister-in-law, Megan, on the phone, to kill the biggest leg span circumference and fattest spider I have ever seen in my house.

Where? On the carpet in my bedroom - 1mm from climbing up my white comforter. It actually had a few legs on the comforter, at one point, when I was throwing things at it to see how fast it moved (Megan's idea, also Megan's idea to spray Lysol on it- she said it works- I like this idea except I didn't have any).

When? At night without Luke home to kill it for me. Luke I want your job in SC to be over so you can rescue your damsel in distress over spiders.

Why? I HATE SPIDERS!!! I am definitely irrational about them... Arachnophobia is by far one of the scariest, realest movies of all time. They are so gross, creepy, fast, leggy and mean looking that I think I would die if one crawled on me. That is why killing it is so hard for me. I worry about it escaping up my arm or leg! And then there's feeling it squish in the toilet paper or under your shoe. And to think my sister, Nancy, squishes 'em between her fingers! And then there's cleaning it up or flushing it down the toilet and still feeling like it could crawl out of the toilet at any time and get you. Irrational I know, just wait till you ask me about roosters!

So what happened? Megan, my phone support buddy, and new spider confidante, had to go to bed so I was dreadfully on my own. I threw a few things at it, but it just kept standing its ground. Duh! Move away from my comforter you vile thing. I tried one more time and it ran a little so I threw a bowl over it! Then while keeping down pressure on it, I slid it slowly over to get it on the tile. I kept seeing all these little moving black specks on the bowl not understanding what they were. Then, at the threshold of the doorway, the spider's legs popped out and it laid there crunched flat in the carpet. But it was crawling with little black dots that were quickly spreading from her body. "HER" body? "FAT" spider? BABIES!! I just smashed a hesitant to move, pregnant spider - in LABOR! Oh the nausea in the pit of my stomach. Her body was still glaring at me and all these little babies were getting away. I sprayed it with the only thing I had - window cleaner. It did a pretty good job and what babies didn't die from that, died when I vacuumed them up. That was Luke's good idea. Yes I had to call him for moral support and tips for how to pick up the pregnant body and all the little black specks that were slightly crawling still. The portable hand vacuum worked great so I didn't have to feel it in the toilet paper or see it go down the toilet. Now Luke gets to empty it for me when he comes home next.

Even though the debacle is over, I am still creepin' out about it and thoroughly nauseous. That is why I am writing this - to document the name and symptoms for my new medical disease that I discovered occurs in some people for hours after encountering spiders - not a clever name, just the bare ugly truth - Spider Sickness. And it's double if you encounter 50 at the same time. I am double SICK! The only treatment is sleep and increased time between encounters! ~ Goodnight...    

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Greenwood, SC: 4 months of life

Developing a sense of style
Growing Pains
How we feel about it...
Katie always being squished
Luke gave me the World
Chocolate Lifeline
101 Hutira Lane - not a place for kids
Anyone welcome - no cockroaches
Did it ever look like this?
Cheerful, bright, unfinished!
Finally used my vinyl wall art just to leave it there.
Girls + Balloons = Screaming but happy
Needs work
Master awesome bath
One of my favorite places
The kids favorite too.
The funniest place
Master Closet = Katie's Naptime, Mom's Worktime
Little Backyard we did mow it once.
So much fun to decorate
Layout from front door
Can't forget I got Black Beauty for $100 delivered, not $4500 like I should have paid
Happy Bath
Luke made the shelves, cluttered we know
No need to fear my to do list getting erased in the move
We loved the garage
My old way to decorate, YUCK
TV in loft, not front room :), gotta love my barbie house, yes "my"
Girls' humongous room upstairs
I just got everything hung up
A closet to sleep in
And store all your baby stuff
And have a dressup corner
Katie loved my surprisingly cohesive picture gallery
My favorite place, I cooked some good food too
I like my curtains

Now put it all in boxes as fast as you can and pay to take it with you
Couldn't we just not have stuff?
Girls went to the park with Kay, ice cream after
The 4 elders were our family, Abanqua, Chapman, Cahoun, Lavulo
Growing pains that are too cute
Trip to Abbeville, where the South Seceded from the Union
Best hotdogs in the world, my eye, looked like Luke's diner in Gilmore Girls which was cool
Pollen on everything
We were all sick with allergies
Manley Family, our friends along with the Taylors, Wests, Whites
Goodbye Greenwood! We will miss just a handful of things. We loved your free childcare at the YMCA so we could play racquetball. Sorry we stayed such a short time.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Home In Every Sense of the Word!

We moved our stuff to FL. Left Greenwood at like 8pm Thursday and got a hotel in Georgia at midnight. Arrived in PCB Friday late and we unloaded until we couldn't move any more that night. Finished unloading the next morning and afternoon. Dropped the truck off and set up beds and shower curtains so we could have somewhere to sleep and shower. Went to church on Sunday, planning on only going to the first hour, but Luke was asked to teach a lesson second hour and so we just had to stay. we packed our car again that night and head off to Hilton Head, SC for a 7 week job. We got there in teh early morning and Luke started the next morning at work. Luke and I did not want to be apart so we went and lasted a week there.
  
Hilton Head Island is not what we anticipated it would be because we are used to Panama City Beach. 2 VERY DIFFERENT BEACHES. HH is upper scale ritzy shopping eating drinking golfing for older crowd, we hardly saw any children when on the beach and around it and if we did they were with their grandparents. There were even signs that warned you where to walk, and not to be boisterous. :( Very pretty, foresty beach, like camping in the forest with the ocean right there. And like only one public access to the beach. All others were gated, security guarded, private expensive club access. The beach had maybe 10 feet of actual playing soft sand far from the beach, followed by very hard packed sand that was firm as a road so people rode their bikes down the beach. The water was dark and not too pretty. We were staying in an extended stay about 20 minutes from the beach without a car and surrounded by busy highway with no sidewalks to walk anywhere. It was cold so the hotel pool was freezing and tiny. The people were rough language and smoking. We were staying in a one bedroom place with kitchenette that was not fully equipped to make anything and their stupid pans kept burning everything. How do you burn quesadillas? Come on! Grace was on the floor and Kate was in the pack and play. The thought of them starting to call that place home, which they would after 7 weeks, just made me sad. That is long enough for them to forget that we had a home in FL with all of our stuff and half as long as we stayed in Greenwood for. Long enough to get adjusted to a ward and new friends, just to uproot them again and adjust again in FL. We decided to divide and conquer, me and Luke. Even though we didn't want to be apart, we can already feel it is better this way, for the girls, and for me and my work, and not going stir crazy with nothing to do and boxes of stuff at home to put away. For Luke, it is the hardest I am sure.

PCBeach, by contrast, has made me fall in love all over again. It is so gorgeous here and there so many fun things to do. Our home, that we decided to come back and save from deed in lieu of foreclosure, although smaller, is perfect for us. We forgot how much we loved this place. We bought it after all! It was our first home and we did a lot of remodeling to it and plan to do more. Garage is going to be turned into half office and half garage so we can still have a tool/work area and bikes. We need an office so we can dedicate more official, organized time to our business which we are excited about recent growth. PCB sand is like beautiful golden powdered sugar that just envelopes your feet warmly and then falls right off when you step out. The water is beautiful, transparent, turquoise with the waves crashing over and turning white as it makes one of the most beautiful sounds I can't get enough of. All of front beach, middle beach, and back beach roads are full of fun things to do that encourage you to have a blast. There is shopping, piers, volleyball nets, all kinds of beach/touristy shops and restaurants, kiddie circus rides, kid train ride, snorkeling, scuba diving, island boat rides, recreation park/area and even a Target + shopping area that I can ride my bike to for supplies (I don't any other wheels still). It is more developed than when we first lived here 3 1/2 year ago which is nice but still a small town. The palm trees in our front yard and neighborhood have grown so much and it is so beautiful. The sidewalks and neighbors are family friendly and there are two awesome pools that we have rights to with our HOA. We have two sets of snowbird grandparents that are our neighbors and they are so excited we are back. They love the girls. Can you just here the happiness dripping from my words. We finally found a place we actually want to be and stay and love even if we don't have a job yet. (Luke is interviewing in Bay county, close to home, in May and then if he doesn't get that job then he will probably get the available job in Washington County where we used to work, hour commute.) Our friends in our awesome branch are still here and are excited to have us back. It feels good to have a HOME again, in every sense of the word. It feels like home here.

You can come visit us. We would love it. You would love PCB I am telling you.

P.S. So many posts to catch up on and pictures instead of all this boring text, next! :)