Foreseen and Unforeseen

Today is the first official day of Summer Break for the minions.  It was a jam-packed last couple of weeks for us with school stuff and whatnot.  Both minions are a bit sad to be leaving school and their friends for a while but they wasted no time and began participating in 3 different Summer Reading Programs within hours of walking out of the school.  This is on top of what I usually do with them as far as Homeschooling Projects.  We had to run more errands than I planned on yesterday and I was rather excited to see the two of them sitting in their seats reading their books just like I used to.

I mentioned that this past few weeks has been busy; ever since little man had his field trip to Reiman Gardens he has been talking about getting a tarantula nonstop.  Nonstop.  Though I love his enthusiasm, I was not about to have one in the house and came up with a clever solution (or so I thought): the school tarantula, Charlotte.  Elated by my little solution, I went to little man.  "Little man, why not add tarantulas to our Summer Projects and you can learn all about them and how to take care of them so come next Fall, you can maybe become a Special Tarantula Helper at the school!"  This intrigued him, for a little while, and so I set about doing some research.  I wanted to find out how much things cost for someone to buy a tarantuala and set it up, how to take care of them, different types... You know, make it an official project.  Charlotte has always been housed in the school library so I, like the vast majority of people in the school, assumed it belonged to the librarian.  Nope.  She told me that it was the Principal's pet.  The school has been packing things up for renovations that will take place over the Summer so I helped out on Monday morning after completing the Walk-A-Thon with the minions and happened to run into the Principal, T.  The conversation went something like this:

Hey, T?  Where did you buy Charlotte?
"Why, do you want her?"
I just want to know where you bought her.
"She's yours."
What?
"She's yours.  Little man will love it, it's for him, right?"
Wait a minute, I just wanted to know where you got her for research.  I was hoping little man could help take care of her in the Fall.
"He can take care of her now, I'll bring it in tomorrow and she's all yours".
What just happened?

Needless to say, little man was beyond thrilled and I entered into a Crash Course on Tarantulas before bringing her home yesterday.  Turns out, a student gave Charlotte to the Principal's husband 13 years ago and he promptly gave her to our Principal.  She has been bringing her to the school during the school year and taking her home over the Summer ever since.  I tried to reason with her - "Well, don't your boys want her?"  Nope.  "Don't you want the students to be able to watch her?" They'll be fine, they've seen her.  None of my arguments would hold so here we are, parents to a geriatric tarantula that I am referring to as Aragog.  It's been odd.  I never ever thought I would take care of a tarantula.  Never.  One of my knitting ladies told me that "I caved".  I don't think it's an official cave - I told him that I wouldn't buy him one, and I didn't.  I told him that he wouldn't get one from Santa, and he didn't.  Yes, I am a bit creeped out, but watching him get so excited....  It's worth it.

Here's Aragog (or Charlotte, whichever you prefer). 

 

Aragog/Charlotte is a Chilean Rose Haired Tarantula that can live for 20-30 years.  We're at least 13 years in - looks like I will have to get used to her.

The hubby is fine taking care of Aragog.  Little miss is fine, though she doesn't really want anything to do with it so she needed a pet of her own.  Dogs are out due to little man's allergies, Cats are out due to my MIL's allergies, so a fish it is.

Little miss loves him.  We went over how it's a he, not a she, but she decked out her wee tank little miss style.  We also discussed how you never really know how old they are and/or how long they'll live when you get them from a pet store so we'll see.

It's been an odd 2 days.  

Prior to this week though, the minions, hubby, and I escaped to the in-law's lake house so the hubby could work with one of his baseball clients and the minions and I could get some fresh air.  I love Spring Flowers.

Little miss was having fun popping the heads off the dandilions.

We had gone to a birthday party on Saturday before heading down where she obtained a handful of new temporary tattoos...

Little man found this in the yard and now we are going to look up which bug lays its eggs in this style.  I knew once, but I have since forgotten.  

He had fun playing in the sand and looking for bugs.

I got some knitting done.  I made little miss a hat like little man's Yukon Beanie using a skein of Aran Weight Yarn dyed by a friend of mine, K.  It's right up her alley color-wise.  She loves it and is showing it off via one of her dance poses for her upcoming recital.

The minions wanted me to make their teachers one last Thank You gift before the end of the school year so on Sunday night I whipped up a coaster for each so "they can set their lemonade on it in the hot weather" as per minion instruction.  I got to do more stashbusting which is always good :)

I suppose I should see about the rest of my day and make sure Aragog is still in her new pimped-out palace (we had to upgrade her aquarium furnishings a little bit, it'd been a while since they had changed anything out).  I told little man, "Mom is not touching the bugs when we feed it" and "if it's in the cage, fine, if it's out of the cage, that is most-definitely not fine and Charlotte will go back to the Principal".  I find I keep looking at her just to make sure she's still where she's supposed to be.  I have also taken to looking up all sorts of different spider symbolism to make it more okay in my head.  So far my favorite is that Spiders have always meant good luck to professional weavers and spinners.  Excellent.  I have a new spinning buddy!  o.O  It has given me a few ideas for some new patterns - I have a vision of a large wrap encompassing Hagrid, Aragog, and the Dark Forest.  Maybe with a scarf option and/or mitts...  I'll have to get planning!