{birds and babies and spiders, oh my!}

{such is life}

I just had the most terrifying spider incident! I was driving home from the bank, taking the winding roads through my neighborhood. I like the scenic route. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, looked down, and saw a GINORMOUS spider on the dashboard, right behind my steering wheel. Seriously, this thing was huge. The biggest spider I've ever seen that wasn't behind glass. I panicked, and nearly ran off the road. I managed to pull to a stop and jumped out of the car. I quickly released Alex from his car seat (you know, in case this spider had a taste for toddlers) and set him on the sidewalk while I considered my options. Now, I generally like spiders. We had a rather large one living in the corner of our french doors (outside) last year that I named Aragog and loved to watch. I don't scream and jump on chairs when I see one. I prefer to catch them and put them outside instead of killing them. I'm just not freaked out by spiders. But this one had HAIR! I could see his beady eyes watching me. He was just not something I wanted to be locked in a car with! But now what? Call Ed? It would take him 30 minutes to get to me, and he would laugh. Leave the car there and walk home? Nah, it was stopped in the middle of the road. I had to get the car home, and that meant I had to deal with the spider. By myself. Ugh. So I began looking for a suitable object with which to squish this thing. My flipflop would have just bounced off it. Alex was wearing some lightweight Crocs, and I would have to get too close to it to use those. There was an old water bottle in the car that was probably heavy enough, but it was round, and that would require a precise hit. This had to be a one-shot kill. Then I saw the Atlas. Perfect! It was one of those full-sized ones in the leather case, so it was big and heavy. I managed to roll it up somewhat, then swatted. Spider incident over, thank God. Now I just had to clean up the gooey mess. Yuck!

Speaking of wildlife (*shudder*), we've been lucky enough to watch a family of robins who nested in our arbor, right next to the house, this Spring. We saw the mom build the nest, lay her eggs, and hatch 4 tiny babies. We got to observe the mom and dad taking turns feeding them, and hear their cute squeaking calls. Well, on Mother's Day of all days, the babies decided it was time for flying lessons. They left the nest, one by one, and went after Mom. They couldn't go far at once, and did a lot of hopping. The last one to leave (we called him John, after my brother, who was 30 when he finally moved out of my parents' house! :p ) walked up and down the arbor all day before he finally got the nerve. I managed to snap a few photos while they were resting in the grass, still with tufts of down on their heads:



These last two weeks have been crazy busy. We have decided it is finally time to build a pool in our backyard, so we've (well, mostly just me) have been interviewing pool contractors and talking to banks. It's been exhausting! But hopefully, it will be worth it in the end!

The kids have had their end-of-school programs and awards this week as well. Their last day is Friday. The 3rd graders had a music program, and Jessie had a speaking part (she's the third from the left on the bottom row):



Both she and Helen (4th grade) received honor roll and citizenship awards. Helen had a small party in her classroom afterwards, and Jessie has her party on Friday. Here's Helen with her teacher, who Jessie hopes to have next year:



The oldest didn't grab any awards this year, but she does have a new boyfriend. Ugh. It's difficult to accept that she's old enough to date now! And he drives! Scary. He's a nice guy, though, and they do make a cute couple:



Oh! And the anniversary. I promised to share more details. Ed told me he was taking me out, but wouldn't tell me where. I love surprises :) He came home with some lovely silver and diamond leaf-shaped earrings that I LOVE, and can wear with just about anything. We drove to dinner, which ended up being here, at the Tower Room. It's located at the top of the tallest building in Memphis, and the view was incredible! We got there in time to have a few drinks at the bar, and were seated for dinner just as the sun was going down. Gorgeous, and so terribly romantic! The food was fabulous, the view was lovely, and the company was good too ;) When we left there, we did something we almost never get to do.... see a movie! We saw "What Happens in Vegas," which was a cute, perfect anniversary movie. It was a flawless, wonderful date!

{down to business}

Have you seen this cool site?



ScrapBlog is a cool, *free* service that lets you create scrapbooks online. It's easy and fun! Everything is built into the site, so there's no software to buy or learn. Use a pre-assembled template, or you can design your own pages. You can even add sound and video! Watch out, it's addicting! I create designs for them on occasion, so you may see some of my work there:



Look for lots more of my designs coming soon!

Starting this week, I'm going to be having Happy Hour at my shoppe every Thursday! One of my products will be on sale 50% off for the entire day. So come on in, grab a cocktail, and relax. I won't tell you which product, but it will be something different each week! Starts tomorrow!



And don't forget the CT call at WST!



And in closing, I can't help but to share this adorable photo of Alex and "Honey" (Alex's word for "Helen"):



Nothing better than seeing love in a child!! Here's to small spiders! ;) Cheers!