Day 109 & 110: Once Bitten

Thursday, Day 109: 

I had a work call in the afternoon that I took at the pool while Jeremy and the kids swam. It was a conversation that made me proud to work with such thoughtful, smart people. When I got off the call afterwards, I joined in on the game Taiya and William invented that involved Santa Claus and his magical bird, which doesn't seem very seasonally appropriate, but it was fun. 

Friday, Day 110: 

I had the day off from work today, so we had the whole day to play. William woke up and wanted to make pumpkin scones, so we did. They are his favorite scone, and likes to eat some of the extra canned pumpkin plain with a spoon while we're making them. He ate scones for breakfast and lunch, which was fine with me. I have enough problems finding food he'll eat that when he does want something that is somewhat healthy (the scones had whole wheat AND a vegetable in them) I'm just like yes please eat as much as you want! 

When we were getting ready to go to the pool in the afternoon, I picked up my bathing suit and shrieked and dropped it. There within its folds was a scorpion. I am perfectly fine with most insects and arachnids in general, but scorpions deeply bother me, and so I started hollering for the kids to get back and for Jeremy to get here so he could help me deal with it. I have been stung once by a scorpion on the leg, and its neurotoxin hurt worse than any other sting I've had and made me feel weird and off-balance for days. As they say, once bitten, twice shy. I picked up my bathing suit with kitchen tongs and then Jeremy arrived to carry it outside. I, Buddhist though I may claim to be, was telling him to please kill it as quickly as possible. However, he, unsqueamish parent that he is, caught the little monster and put it in a jar for the kids to look at. And now all of you get to enjoy its creepiness too. You're welcome. 

This is how much I don't like scorpions: even though the little beast was captured, I went and found a different bathing suit to wear to the pool. 

In the evening, after dinner, it RAINED. It was a nice, straight-down rain, and everyone went out in it to play. William and Taiya and I put on rain jackets, and while they played in puddles, I walked the paths of my garden, pulling a weed here and there. It always amazes me that even in a deluge like I was standing in, if you dig down in the soil just an inch, the soil is still dry there. It takes a LOT of rain to soak the whole soil profile after a dry spell. The rain cooled everything down and the air felt amazing. I guess that's one thing you can say about Arkansas summer heat - any respite is so deeply felt.