**I just noticed that I never posted this blog from April. Looking back at the date, I see that this all occurred two days before precious Jackson’s arrival, so that may have something to do with why this post hung in cyberspace limbo…
I don’t like to think of myself as someone who scares easily. Given my love for Halloween, horror movies, and spooky stories, I’ve always considered myself to be somewhat scare-proof.
Don’t you just love when God brings to light your actual reality? I was obviously getting a bit too prideful about my “bravery”, because since we’ve lived in our new home, I’ve been reminded of a few things that make me squirm. Cockroaches for one (thank you dear friend/realtor David for letting us know that the palm trees in the front of our house could be the culprit for those nasty, way-too-big-to-just-be-called-bugs garage invaders. Eww!!), possums (we back up to a retention pond), and, when they are in a hoppy group of eight to ten, frogs.
Because of my silly, relentless pride, I was not quite willing to call my aversion to these creatures “fear”. I convinced myself that I wasn’t scared. I was concerned. And rightly so! They carry germs, and I have (almost!) two little ones to think about. Nobody wants to see a possum in their back yard, and slimy little creatures are just gross. That’s all it is. Definitely not afraid of anything.
Was I asking for it? Um, definitely. Cue the snake.
I was pulling weeds in our front flower beds this morning when I saw IT. My hand got about three inches away from IT when IT quickly slithered in to some branches. YIKES!!!
My next impulse (screaming like an infant) was interrupted when I saw my precious daughter walking outside to join me, and since I don’t want to pass on my foolish “concerns” to my kids, I feigned a completely relaxed look. Too late.
“Mommy, what’s wrong with you?”
“Oh….nothing. I just saw a snake. That’s all.”
This bizarre look of excitement spread across my princess-obsessed little girl’s face, and she requested gleefully, “Ooh, can I see???”
What on earth?! For those that have spent time with dear Jordan, you are quite familiar with a lot of her idiosyncrasies. She walks on her toes, she eats her meals one food item at a time, she is well-versed on everyone’s favorite color, and, as anyone who has tried to talk with her can attest, you can count on her to be cautious if not straight-up terrified of anything unfamiliar.
“Please, Mommy, can I see the snake?”
Gulp.
After she got a nice long look (and I was able to convince her that, no, she didn’t need to pet IT), Jordan trotted back inside, and I let go of the breath that I had apparently been holding for the past five minutes. I moved to the other end of the yard to continue weeding (no need to disturb Mr. Snake any further, right?), and after pulling about three more weeds and noticing that I could no longer spot the snake, I decided to call it a day.
I called Ryan to brag about my lack-of-screaming, and after he jokingly asked me if I’d “gotten rid of IT” (um, would you have to touch them to do that? Then, nooooo…), he suggested I find a picture of what the snake looked like. I might have been a bit generous to the snake when I reported of his size, and Ryan was concerned that we be ready should anything poisonous show up in our yard. I sent him a picture, but for some reason he thought that maybe I didn’t see it quite clearly enough. This looks pretty accurate to me:
Hmm…maybe I am afraid of snakes…
Curiouser and Curiouser 