Aracnaphobia!!

For those who haven't seen that movie, count your blessings and let me say that I saw enough live wild spiders for my entire life yesterday. I was just sauntering into the bathroom when I saw a big, fat, hairy, black tarantula sitting on the side of the bathtub. I circled right on out of there, said "ohhhhhhhhh my goshhhhhhh" and ran out to Joaquim. "Ummm there is a VERY big spider in our bathroom." He went and sprayed some spider killing spray at it but it seemed more perturbed than, well, dead. It just walked on out of the bathtub, along the floor, and started heading out into the bedroom. Joaquim flipped it onto its back in the bathroom and it looked like it was dead, but after about 1 minute it stretched out its legs and righted itself. Flipped again, and then Joaquim grabbed it between two flip flops (this sucker was way too big to just smash...) and flushed it down the toilet. I kept a distance of about 10-20 feet during the whole incident, took a couple pictures, and mostly squealed while Mãe laughed and Joaquim concentrated on the poor arachnid's imminent death.

Well, this was at the end of a full, very busy, day.

The day started off very nicely...it was a federal holiday in Brazil (Good Friday) and all the kids were off school, all the stores were closed so there were no errands to run...a very nice forced break. We woke up around 9, had a calm, lazy breakfast, and then were almost immediately off to Gilberto and Roseli's house for lunch. I don't think I felt hungry once yesterday, due purely to constant eating. We had some good chicken, pasta, rice, and Guaraná (oh I am over caffeinating myself these days I am SURE) and lively conversation, then headed out around 2. After helping Cristina make some brownies here, we headed back out to visit Joaquim's cousin who lives in Assis but I had never met. First we went to his aunt's house, sat and chatted there for an hour, then went with her to Ursula's house and were there for two hours eating carrot cake and chatting. I think we left there around 5 or 6, and I was EXHAUSTED. It was hot inside the house and we were cramped at the kitchen table and I was just ready for a nap. Thankfully Joaquim responded to his pregnant wife's request to make our polite exit, and off we went. Except for the fact that we still had to drop off his aunt. Tia Ivanese is just the sweetest thing, but whenever we go over there, there is NO leaving! So we get to her house and her daughter invited us in right away and had made mousse de maracuja (passion fruit mousse) and cake and juice. More eating and talking. I was actually enjoying the conversation but I was so tired that I could have just cried. At one point I pondered upon how sleepy I was and tears actually did come to my eyes. I have a cold, I was thinking about how an illness and exhaustion is not good for a body that is in the process of making a human being, and then the hormones kicked in and made me one upset mama.

So I sat there, tapping Joaquim's leg, for about 40 minutes and at 8pm we left. When we arrived home I planned on laying down and maybe snoozing until dinner (completely unnecessary after all the food we'd eaten but this silly baby needs to eat on a regular basis, and maybe something of nutritional value!) when I encountered Harry the spider. And there was the end of any chance of sleep.

We ended up going to bed at about 10:30 or 11 after a day of lots of great conversation and fellowship...and a few tears that were quickly enveloped by SLEEP.

Today I've felt infinitely better, only a few sneezes, and I got a nap this afternoon. This equals a happy mama. :)

We hung around Lar and Pai and Mãe's house today...had breakfast, chatted, washed all our clothes, took a little walk, had lunch, slept, chilllllllled. Now we are downloading an episode of Lost on iTunes (I still had $12 from a gift card I got Christmas of 2008 on my itunes account...sweeeeeeet) and Joaquim is preparing to speak at church tomorrow.

It hardly feels like Easter weekend here...I've been a little nostalgic about Easter at home because we're not really celebrating in any way. Of course there is chocolate, but no church service on Good Friday and not much more than normal tomorrow morning it seems. Of course I've grown out of all the fun childhood Easter traditions we used to do in my family (and soon will do with our little Oliver, Lord willing!) but I still LOVE Easter. Yesterday as Joaquim and I drove through town I saw just how empty it was because of the day off. Then we drove past a Catholic church and saw that it was standing room only. The line at the butcher's counter at the supermarket today was also out the door, because all the Catholics are free to eat meat now. So there is a bit of an effort to not do anything show-boaty in church because this is SUCH a Catholic holiday here, and most of the people who "celebrate" by having fish on Friday and going to church for the only time all year don't even understand or know the significance of the day. In an effort to be different than the Catholics, there is a lack of recognition of Jesus's death on the cross because it has to be recognized every day, not just a religious attempt once a year. Ok, I get that...but I still miss a really good Good Friday service at Harvest and saying "Christ is Risen!! He is risen indeed!!" at church on Sunday morning.

But we will celebrate in our hearts tomorrow! And it's good to experience the holiday here and know how Joaquim is used to it...and plan how our Easter will be next year, no matter where we will be located.