Well, we survived the first week of school. The bus driver is not trained to use an epi pen yet so we are still driving back and forth to school. I don't mind so much as I can chat and get caught up with some of the other parents.

I spent the day cleaning my house. My plan was to start at the top and work my way down, leaving the kitchen for last. I cleaned all of the bedrooms and two upstairs bathrooms, vacuumed and dusted the living/dining rooms, ironed a table cloth and put it on the dining room table, did three loads of washing and dusted 3/4 of the family room until I saw a HUMONGOUS, GARGANTUAN, MAMMOTH spider. It was HUGE! I started to shake a little bit and left the room. I kept running up the steps to the kitchen and trying to think "Ok, Spy and Ash will be here in...too many hours to wait to have them kill the spider" then running back down to make sure it has not disappeared. Then I would run back to the kitchen and think "Can I justify calling Stephen to come home to help?" and "I wonder if Spider-Killer Old Neighbour up the street is home" then back again to make sure the spider had not moved. It was HUGE!

I finally decided I had to bite the bullet and expose my irrational fear to one of my current neighbours and ask if they could help. I peeked out the dining room windows and saw that the new neighbour was home (at least his van was in the driveway) so I snuck back down and through the family room, into the laundry room where I slipped on my shoes and out through the garage. As I was walking up the driveway, I noticed that my other neighbour was home and out the front of her house so I went over and shouted "ARE YOU AFRAID OF SPIDERS?!" She was not so she came over and squished the beast for me (not without a bit of a chase - these monsters are FAST!). ~shudder~

Then, she took the corpse outside and proceeded to tell me that it was a hobo spider and they sometimes chase people. OMFG. I did not need to hear that. Even if it is not true, I did not need to hear that.

Now I will be walking around, jumping at every little piece of something that I see on the floor. I will probably not enter the Lego room without shoes on for the next month or so. Geez, I hate spiders.