The Itsy Bitsy.....AHHHHHH!

Today I watched Cora and Gracyn, my nieces. David was home in the morning, so I bravely suggested that he might want to work on our front yard landscaping since it was cool outside. He accepted, and moved some hostas around, planted some "monkey grass" and laid some more rusty red mulch. Things are looking better and better in the front yard, but we still have a little ways to go.

This afternoon, I attempted to paint clear rock gems with my nieces while my girls slept, but Bekah had other plans for me and decided not to nap very long. So, I didn't paint very long. It started to hail outside during our snack time, and we all watched the small balls of ice bounce off of our trampoline.

This afternoon, Haleah took to terrorizing Kaelah and hit her with a bowl and also knocked her down on two occasions. I don't know where this aggression comes from, but it's really starting to get to me. Maybe Haleah feels I don't spend enough one-on-one time with her, and she's just vying for attention. And the truth of the matter is, I don't spend enough one-on-one time with her, and I rarely can with all of these kids I'm watching. I don't know what to do. All I know is that I am really upset that Kaelah gets the brunt of it.

After the rains fell tonight, Grandmama came over and she and David got into a discussion/banter about the age of the Earth and about creation. I stayed out of it and went to my Facebook page instead. I also took pictures of the beautiful jalapeno peppers that Mr. Beau brought over to me from his garden. The colors were so vibrant. Sometimes, I get taken away by the beauty of God's creation.

The night is now ending on a creepy, freaky note. My skin is crawling right now. David started asking me if we had a flashlight and he was milling around outside while I was at the computer. Well, he came back with pictures of the spiders he found both outside our front and back doors (great, now I'm trapped in my house). We initially thought the spider out back stringing his web was another black widow; it was freaking huge! (See pictures below, both living and dead, per my request). After research, we discovered it was an Orb Weaver spider. It had black and white striped front legs and black and red striped back legs (or visa versa--I don't know). It is said to have a bite, but is not poisonous. But it's enough to send me into the depths of insanity!

The spider hanging on our front porch after the rains (they must climb up high to their webs to dry off or something), was a brown spider of some sort. We didn't look it up, because it's now smashed into our house. And David also sprayed it with wasp killer to be sure it was dead. I can't believe I am posting pictures of them, but I will. And if there is one thing I cannot stand about Alabama---it would be spiders. I HATE THEM!!!!!!!