What A Day

For those of you who were so concerned about EmmaRay with the chocolate incident, I will preface this post with this disclaimer: at the end of the day, everyone is all fine and happy.

Today was ridiculously windy but warm, so we tried to get a bunch done in the yard. I have a picture of the project that we have undertaken, but I also have a baby sleeping on my chest at the moment so I'm not going to go get the camera. We are building a rock pathway from the driveway around the side of the house to the new deck, so yesterday I started digging out the sod. I made it about a third of the way, which was fabulous.

Today Michael was super busy with church volleyball, shopping for a dishwasher for our rental house and then building a section of fence and a gate for the side of our house. (Just an FYI, the dishwasher is the 9th appliance we have bought in the last two and a half years. It follows two washers, three dryers, a stove, a freezer, and a refrigerator. We're not done yet... the next one we get to buy is a new stove for me! Hooray!) He got the posts cemented in and we have the rest of the stuff ready for when the cement is set up.

While all this was going on (plus weeding the strawberry patch, digging all the post holes, digging out more sod for the pathway, cleaning the house, etc.) the kids had a great time playing with tractors and bikes and balls outside in the wind (wind strong enough to rip the shingles off of our roof).

Michael's parents came down this afternoon to check out a new dog (hooray, it's the one!). They showed up just in time for Steve to help level the posts before pouring cement. Thanks!!!! Meanwhile I ran to the store to pick up some things for dinner, leaving Michael with the boys.
Brennan left the fence scene while Michael was in the middle of mixing cement with Cade's help (too much help with the water!) and Michael found him 10 seconds later at the top of the porch stairs climbing on the railing. Brennan was confined to a camping chair until I got home 10 minutes later. He is such a climber and scares us frequently!

So then I got EmmaRay to sleep and laid her on the couch so I could give the boys a bath (they were filthy from playing in the dirt all day) and after a few minutes with the boys in the bathtub I heard EmmaRay start fussing so I ran downstairs to get her. Then I screamed and grabbed her, because there right next to her was a Black Widow spider. I screamed to Michael outside and he hurdled over the fence that he was building and knocked his newly cemented posts out of alignment and broke a brace post running into the house. He thought it was probably our climber Brennan who had fallen or something and was ready to rush to the hospital. He killed the spider and ran back outside to go realign the posts before the cement set up too much. I was crying and shaking I was so scared for my baby. I took her upstairs to the bathroom to check on the boys in the tub and stripped her down under bright lights to make sure that she hadn't been bitten. Heavenly Father was watching out for our family today!

We have since pulled apart our couch to check for any more spiders- no more to be found thank goodness. But gross! That is the first black widow we have ever seen in our lives, but I recognized it right off. What they say is true, they do have a very distinct red mark on their backs. Michael and I were both pretty shaken up by the events of the day, I was trembling while making dinner and for about an hour and a half after it happened, and I keep checking EmmaRay just to be sure, but we are feeling very blessed. And very blessed that our funny Brennan hasn't broken a bone yet... we hope he learns to be more careful and obedient soon!!

So, now we are going to sit and eat ice cream and watch a movie and relax after the events of the day and hope that we never have another day with scary events like this again!