the black family

Wednesday, April 9, 2008


Ok, so today me and Kate were enjoying some time out on the patio. I was reading and she was playing, some inside and some out. Well, she comes outside holding a piece of bread leftover from her sandwich at lunch and sits down next to me. A minute later I look down at her and tell her to eat the piece of bread she's still holding in her hand. A second later I happen to look at her face. There is a HUGE spider on her cheek! As my parents and my husband can tell you, I do NOT like spiders. And today confirmed the fact that I am actually terrified of them. Growing up, we lived in a log cabin style house in the mountains, so of course there was an abundance of spiders. Most of these spiders seemed to wind up in my shower. I eventually got to the point where I could get a really long piece of toilet paper, let the spider crawl onto it and then flush it down the toilet. Although I detest insects and spiders of any kind, I can't bring myself to smash them. That's disgusting! So that's just a little background about me and my history with spiders. Now back to today. Did I mention I was terrified? However, because Kate's life was in danger (I don't know what kind of spider it was but it was big and brown and any big, brown spider has the potential to be deadly in my mind) I smacked it off her face and onto the ground. I was tempted to just let it go from there (remember? I hate smashing spiders) but then I knew I would probably never go on the patio again because I wouldn't know where it was or if it had had babies. So, I took the towel that we've been using as a doormat and dropped it on the spider and stomped on it. Katey in the meantime is just watching me like "what the heck are you doing mom?". She didn't seem the least bit concerned that I had just slapped at her face and then acted like a crazy woman. I must confess, however, that my bravery ended there. I called Jason to tell him about the incident and then told him he needs to move the towel with the dead spider under it when he gets home. There's no way I'm going near that thing!

All this to say, having kids makes you do crazy things. Only my child's life being in danger =) would make me ever touch a spider or smash one!