So I’m going to fast forward to where we are now in our lives after the fire. I do want to make one thing clear…how we got here was not easy. The first couple months after the fire when my mom was still here helping out, things were okay. But when she left to go back to California, James and I fell apart a little. There were SOOO many nights of fights, tears, angry words, threats to leave (by me). We were a mess. Or at least I thought we were. I felt we were. We were definitely growing apart in some ways. When I would read posts from readers/friends who said things like, “I love how positive you are being,” or “You and James are handling this great,” I would feel like a fraud…mainly because a lot of times we WEREN’T handling it great.
But we got through it. LOL. Thank God for Gentleman Jack! HEHE
SOOOO…we finally found a place to live! It’s a country home on five acres. This is what I call a “James home” kind of place. I loved my town living in my 120-year-old Victorian. James really didn’t like it. This place is allll him! LOL. The “barn” is bigger than our house!!! And I’m not EVEN joking! But there’s land for James to grow things (which he’s always wanted to do), and there’s a small pond that has fish in it (which James loves to fly fish). So this will be a great place to stay for a few years.
FARM LIVING!! OMG!! LOL. Let me first just say WHAT IS UP WITH ALL THESE BUGS!!! Now James and Maddy have been way better about this new lifestyle. They’re all acting cool with these bugs and spiders, giving me information, “That’s an assassin bug. It’s good for gardens. But be careful, they will hurt if they get you.” Um…we don’t have a damn garden! Why do I have to befriend this thing!??!!
So, the other day James is mowing, and y’all know that spiders are considered friends in this family…Maddy has a pet tarantula. That’s why telling this story will bring me such joy!! Anyway, James is mowing the lawn and suddenly there is a “man scream” heard miles around. This is James’s version: It seems when James got off the lawn mower to move something, a HUGE HAIRLESS spider the size of his head came FLYING out of nowhere and attacked him!!! LOL. When he told the story I couldn’t help laugh. I’m like, “Maddy has a tarantula. Since when have you been scared of spiders?” He’s like, “Jenna, it was HAIRLESS!!!” LOL. Oh, okay.
Fast forward to today. I’m driving Maddy back home from school and I stop to get the mail. NOTE TO SELF: NEVER JUST GRAB MAIL AND GO!! So I pull out the mail and fling it in the car, and a HUGE spider slides down my Food & Wine magazine. I’m FREAKING OUT! Screaming and instinctively flinging it away…RIGHT ONTO MADDY!! LOL. She’s SCREAMING at me, SCREAMING in general, trying to get out of the car, but she’s still seatbelted in. The spider has dropped in between the seats, we are still screaming, Maddy has now jumped out of the car…and there’s James, standing there shaking his head while Maddy is running from the car and tattling on me that I THREW a spider on her! LOL.
But turn about is fair play. She may have tattled on me…but I got the last laugh. When I went to pick her up from play practice tonight I said, “Hey Maddy, just so you know…I never found the spider!” HEHEHEHEHE……
