created especially for us: An extension of last weekend

The last post I wrote, I declared what a glorious weekend we had. What I failed to mention was that my weekend ended with a pretty significant downer. Significant enough that I wasn't even ready to talk about it yet. A few hours previous to the terrible, heart-stopping moment that brought my splendid weekend to a screeching halt, Brian had sprayed around all the entrances to the house to help prevent ants/bugs/spiders from getting in. Let me just say that whoever invented a spray that not only helps keep spiders from coming in, but also kills them when they come into contact with it, is officially my hero.

Well that night Brian ended up going to sleep before me. About an hour later I was ready to hit the hay and decided to take Callie out for one last bathroom break before bed. Normally I would just put her on the chain we have staked in the backyard, but taking her out on her leash was faster. As I stepped out onto the lighted patio my breath caught and I think my heart may have actually stopped beating for a moment. Strutting across our patio was one of the biggest spiders I've ever seen. Outside of our Missouri vacation last year I'm positive it was the biggest. I fought my natural reaction to scream and fall over in a state of utter horror (yes, I have been known to actually do this in the presence of particularly large arachnids). A billion thoughts crossed my mind in a split second: what shoes am I wearing? should I step on it? why am I standing on the same surface as it? what if it turns around and attacks? why the hell haven't I moved? run away! far, far away! I couldn't even kill it. It was one of those spiders that's so big you would feel it squish like a small animal if you stepped on it. The horrible thought that it's still out there somewhere plagues me. I'm sure it's just waiting for the opportune moment when Brian is unavailable and I'm unprepared.

The worst part about the whole thing was not only is it March and these beasts are not allowed to be staking their claim out in the open yet, but I didn't even get eased into it! The biggest spider I'd seen this year before that was the size of a dime. I know for a fact that we have some moderately sized creepers that hang around the seating wall on our patio because I saw several of them last year. None of which were near as big as this beast and not even they have been coaxed from their winter dens by our abnormally beautiful weather...yet.

I love living in Iowa (shush, I can hear your gasping from here). We live in a great area, we have lots of friends, and we have a great home. But never in my life have I seen such giant spiders until moving down here, particularly to Ankeny. It's just not right. If I had grown up any further south than this I would have been a goner for sure. Thank you, Mom, for living in the glorious, much less (giant) spidery state of MN.

On a much happier note (not hard to do after talking about gigantic spiders) here is my 17 week baby bump picture. My bump isn't as big as I would have expected by now but I'm definitely not complaining!