Of driving and spiders ...

You would think that a 5 hour drive with two adults, two kids and a dog would be pretty uneventful. Right? You would think. For us, it is always a series of events. Let's take the recent trip to Oklahoma as an example. First, getting everybody into the car is always an ordeal. Tony asks me for 2 hours when we will be ready to leave, if I'm almost done, etc. So, when I'm finally done, and the car is packed, etc, he has something to do. I get the kids in the car, talk the dog into getting in (with a good treat), wait for Christopher to get in, then finally get myself in the car and start it up. Then, I wait. I wait and wait for Tony, who was just asking for the past 2 hours if I was almost ready. We have a 5 hour drive ahead of us, so the last thing I want to do is have the kids in the car an extra 10 minutes. I finally honk the horn to a tune, just to get him to hurry. After another 5 minutes, he finally emerges.

Now, one thing that is my saving grace is the "Dog Train" book and CD for Emily. My sister sent it, and I consider it a gift to me more than anything. So, I get her situated with the book, turn on the CD, and start driving. Ahhh, maybe this could be the uneventful trip I've been waiting for. I found this one too, and plan to buy it one day for our trips. Baby Rock Records: The Cure

So, then it all begins. Emily suddenly starts crying that something was crawling on her leg. She flicked it off and swore it was a spider. I assure her that it was probably just a little fly or something, but she is not convinced. She says that she brushed it off really fast, so I figure it's all okay. About 3 minutes later, I feel something crawl across the back of my neck. As a reflex, I swished it off really fast, swirving the car a bit, but not so much that I would be in another lane or anything. Tony starts complaining that I'm going to cause an accident, and I'm explaining that it's a reflex when you feel something crawling on the back of your neck.

Next, Christopher says that there is a big spider on the back of the seat. I could have gone the rest of the trip without knowing this. Panic sets in, and we are all scared (except Tony) that the spider is going to crawl on us. Tony says that I have an unnatural fear of spiders. I disagree.... I think it's completely natural. Finally, I had to just pull over. I pulled into the nearest gas station and got out, got Emily out of her carseat, and Christopher and the dog got out. I went to the back seat and tried to find the spider, that had crawled to some unknown place. I'm sure it was quite a scene, as I pulled the blanket out (holding it like it had the plague) and dropped it on the ground. I picked it up and shook it.. no spider. Darn. Slowly, I take each thing out of the back seat, holding it ever so carefully, so as not to have a spider crawl on me. As luck would have it, this spider is very good at hide-n-seek. I couldn't find it.

Eventually, Tony insisted that we continue on our journey. So, we put everything back in the car, and piled back in. As I was driving down the highway, what should crawl up the windshield, right in front of my face, but a spider? Once again, I swerve, Tony complains, I explain, etc. Finally, he decides that it would be safest if he drove. By the time I could pull over, the spider had found another place to hide. So, the rest of the trip was spent worried about where it would show up next. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it didn't.

In the meantime, I did hand dye some wool and turn it into some fun Night Owls. I'll admit that it has actually been dyed for a while, as I just didn't get time to turn it into anything..... but I finally did, and stocked them on Necessitae.



There's something oddly satisfying about making front snap serged diapers. It brings back memories of the diapers I made Emily as a baby. I always preferred front snap, serged, so I made her a bunch, with this very pattern of mine. Her favorite was the Care Bear one. Ahh, the memories.