The other day...

A little story I thought I'd share with you all:

I was folding laundry in the laundry room off of our kitchen one evening last week while the older kids were playing outside with the neighborhood gang of kiddos when I was interrupted.  I don't remember if I heard the screaming first or the screen door slamming shut, but my oldest child was screaming like I have never heard her before, and hope I never hear again.  It was a terror scream.  I fully expected to come around the corner and see a bone protruding from an arm or something.

I came around the corner to see Abby shaking and screaming and dancing all in one big motion.  I was surprisingly calmer than one would think I would be in a situation like this.

"What is going on?" I asked.

Screaming: "There's a spider on me!  It's huge!  Get it off!  Get it off! AHHHHHHH!!!"  She is crying now and shaking her leg up and down.

At this point I'm thinking I'm going to look down and see a big fat Black Widow with it's fangs deeply imbedded in my sweet daughter's little pink calf.  She was wearing black capri length leggings with lace on the bottom, and I could definitely see something dangling off her pant leg.

Let me pause here for a minute for a little bit of side information.  I had about four inches of my hair cut off about a month ago.  I desperately needed to get my hair cut as it was getting very long and breaking off and falling out in chunks and we were finding little clumps of hair knots all over the place, I'm still seeing some on occasion.

Back to the story.

I manage to get Abby to hold still for a moment and I reach down and pull off a little clump of my hair that is stuck on a loose thread dangling from the lace trim on her legging.

"It's not a spider Abby, it's my hair."

"Oh."  She says, a little embarrassed.  We stare at each other for a moment in silence, she takes a deep breath.  "Thanks, I'm going back outside now."  And I hear her telling her friends, "it wasn't a spider, I'm okay" when she goes out the door.

I told my mom this story today and she just laughed and said to me, "like mother like daughter, only you were a lot older when you did that to us (meaning my parents)."

Yup, I remember it all, funny how traumatic events can be frozen in your mind forever.

We were visiting the Henry Doorley Zoo in Omaha one summer when I was in junior high.  I was ruthlessly attacked by a hideous black bug with venom so powerful that I was sure my death was imminent.  It flew right up under my glasses and bit/stung/stabbed me in the tender skin of my lower eyelid.  I dropped to my knees clutching my eye screaming, "my eye! I need first aid!" (Oh yeah, I'm not exaggerating about that part.)  The pain was pretty intense, I was crying and screaming for help while my parents were frozen in fear (or too embarrassed to want to acknowledge that I belonged to them).  We never did find out what kind of bug viciously attacked me, but I'm sure it was some kind of evil africanized demon bug sent from the bowels of hell.  I'm lucky to be alive to tell the story, I was sure I was going to go blind, my eye would fall out of the socket and the flesh would completely melt off the right side of my face.  By the time we found the first aid station the only evidence left behind by my brutal attacker was a small welt surrounded by a reddish area under my eye, it must have only been a warning attack.  I got an ice pack and some ice cream and continued with life as best as I could.

Stupid bug.

Honestly, that Abby, she is such a drama queen.  I don't know where she gets that from.