Stare Down

In our kitchen/ dining room we have hummingbird feeders that hang in front of the window. This morning when I opened the curtains I saw what I thought was a horse fly on the feeder. It's not uncommon to find bugs drinking the sweet nectar so I tapped the window to get it to fly away, instead it turned around. It wasn't a horse fly, it was a huge spider about the size of a marble shooter (for those that know what that is...). The feeder is at eye level for me and I found myself staring in to the two little beady eyes of the thing. It was so large I could make out the eyes and fangs in perfect clarity. It was almost as if she turned around to asked what I wanted.

Surprisingly, I didn't scream (I am DEATHLY afraid of spiders, especially ones her size!) I calmly walked away and finished getting ready for work. All the while in the back of my mind I was making plans to get the broom and finish her off.

Once ready for work I went straight for the broom and the bug blocker barrier spray. I knocked her off the feeder until she hung from it then I knocked her to the ground and went Chuck Norris on the ground where she fell. I then swept the entire perimeter of the patio and both back windows. Any time I saw a spider it was swept off and I Chuck Norrised it's butt. After I felt sure that all my little "friends" were gone, along with their numerous sacks of children, I began spraying bug stuff in all the crevasses and along all the seams of the back of the house. I sprayed until I had to leave for work and have plans to finish the job the minute I get home.

For the spiders sake, they better hope they're all dead... if they're not, they're gonna be!

I know I'm going to have the creepy crawlies all day with the stupid image of her beady eyes in my head!

The Forgotten Finger

For a better part of the weekend Brandon and I worked on our flower beds. Having only done a few things here and there for my mom over the years I never imagined the amount of work and effort that would go into gardening. It was fun for about 30 minutes but after that my knees hurt, my back ached, my fingers stung, and I'm pretty sure I bent a nail or two in the process.

We had to clear the leaves, pull out all the weeds and grass, irrigate the ground, dig holes, mix in top soil, plant the flowers, mulch, edge, and water. Why or how people find this hobby fun is beyond me but I can speak for both Brandon and I when I say once a year is enough for us! It didn't help that the entire flower bed was clay; who knew KY was so clay ridden ??

After a full days work on Saturday all we had left to do on Sunday was mulch and edge around the tree. I took on the job of edging and was doing quite well until I whacked my left pinky with the mallet. It wasn't a full on blow, just the edge, but it still hurt. I could feel that it wasn't broken or dislocated so I didn't feel a need to worry or fuss about it. I shook it off as best I could and went about my day thinking nothing of it. After cleaning the bathroom about 2 hours later I looked down and noticed a hot dog sized pinky on my left hand. (Although a hot dog may not sound very big remember that I have skinny fingers to begin with. My pinky swelling to the width of a hot dog is about twice the size of my finger!) I had obviously hit my pinky harder than I originally thought. Don't get me wrong, it had been hurting all day but I had brushed it aside in hopes of getting stuff done and pushed threw the pain. When I saw how swollen it was the pain REALLY kicked in and I almost screamed in surprise and sudden realization. I spent the rest of the day icing my little finger and soon learned how ridiculous it was that I was unable to do so many tasks with out it. :-P

My lessons:
1. Don't hit your pinky with a mallet.
2. If you do hit your pinky with a mallet pay more attention to the swelling.
3. Pinkys are used in a lot more tasks than you would think and thus should be appreciated more than they are.

Beside Myself

Yet again, I blame Tiko.
Last night Brandon went to bed VERY early while I stayed up to finish a session with Beth Moore that I had missed due to surgery. Since Brandon was already in bed I was trying to be as quite as possible and move around with as little light as possible. I got ready for bed fairly quickly and made my way to bed wrapped up in a blanket. Yes, the blanket is important.

Unbeknownst to me Tiko had laid down at the opening of our bedroom waiting for me to come out of the bathroom. When I walked down our small hall I tripped right over him. He jumped up, surprised, and attempted to get out of my way. His scramble made me to step on him causing me to yell his name. As he scrambled to move out of the way, again, I countered as well and in the end tripped and fell smack down on top of him. Tiko immediately began to freak out and ended up getting tangled up in the blanket.

At this point I was laughing hysterically and had woken Brandon up. Brandon kept asking what was going on but I was laughing too hard to speak. Meanwhile, Tiko was still running around the room trying to get the blanket off of himself.

Had the light been on, I'm sure the scene would have been seen as something out of a movie. Unfortunately it was dark and all Brandon heard was an UMF, TIKO!, Tiko's cries and my laughter.

When I was finally able to stand I grabbed the blanket from Tiko and climbed into bed. Still laughing I tried to explain to Brandon what happened through the giggles. He didn't find it anywhere near as funny as I did. :)

Saying Goodbye...

"To the Fu mobile!"

This past weekend Brandon and I finally got around to donating my Saturn. For months the oil has leaked, the breaks have needed work, the clutch has needed to be replaced, and the air conditioner hasn't worked. All in all it would cost more to fix the car than we were willing to put into it so in the mean time it has been Brandon's way of getting to and from the bus stop. If someone broke into it or damaged it in some way at the bus stop it wouldn't have been a big deal.

If you know me at all you know that I'm sentimental. I didn't cry but I was a little down for the rest of the morning. It was sad to drive away from a car that held so many memories:

-Amanda and I drove it to SC to visit family and friends after graduating from HS.
-Many college road trips and fun exertions.
-My parents taking it on an anniversary trip and finding F-U-$-# Y-O-U keyed on the trunk.
-Naming it Fu, as in F-U (HAHAHAHA)
-Going to the moon and finding nothing but yield signs.
-Countless hours driving and talking with Tim.
-Refreshing/ teaching Brandon how to drive stick the right way.
-I even found one of my old prayer journal/ sermon notes notebook from college and a Cumberland parking pass from Sophmore year in the glove box.

I know, I know, it's just a car but that car holds a lot of laughter and memories for me. Now the men of the car ministry at Northeast Christian Church have plans to fix it up and give it to a family in need. At least it's going to a good home!

Goodbye Fu!