the spider pictures you've all been waiting for

...or not.

Scroll down only if you want to see what an Argentinian Black Widow (Red Back) Spider looks like.

















Here are a few of the TEN Red Back Black Widows that were infesting a house just three blocks away.

you can see the red dot on the back of the one in the middle



the one they found behind the washer

Thanks, Dori, for sharing the pics. I think. At least now I know what to look for. Tony and the kids actually saw them live, well, mostly dead, twitching in the glass jars they had them in on top of their fridge. Ick.

So far we've found none here at our casita. Hope we never do. The good news is that Tony grabbed the fumigation guy when he came and talked him in to coming over and dousing our house, too.

Now, every night when I lay my little head down on my pillow, I think of black widows under my bed and flies that might crawl into... well, never mind. It's all just too gross to go on about.

I'll try not to post any more yucky spider pics. Promise.

:)

life in car purgatory & Christmas in Patagonia

Our first Christmas in Patagonia didn't look like what we thought it would, or what we (okay, I ) wanted it to look like, but life and plans and many other things have come to an unbelievable screeching halt with our moved-to-the-third-world car issues.

Since our car has been released from Customs prison paperwork, it has entered Car Purgatory. It occupies this nebulous, undefinable place between Customs and not-actually-registered yet. Apparently, registration is not so quick and simple a task here. Nothing is, really. Silly me for thinking we were home free once we got through Customs. Ah-ha, not so fast there, gringita.

It may be another month before it's actually registered here in country. No one seems to know how long it may take. For now, we drive around town, we think legally {I mean, they did give us a paper that says the ban on driving it has been lifted... so, that means we can drive it, right? Even though it's doesn't have plates or registration yet... right?}.

Since we're not sure of the actual status of our vehicle (no one else seems to be either), we keep a look out for the police. Everytime we see one, we sound the alarm, "POLICIA!", and Tony takes a sharp left or right before we get too close to them. Sometimes there's no avoiding it, though. They've been doing a lot of check point stops over the holidays. In cases like that, we just pray, Corrie Ten Boom style - "Lord, make us invisible" - and drive right through the check point with our unregistered van, no license plates, waving and smiling as if all is as it should be. Christmas Eve, as we slowed through a checkpoint, the policeman looked after us as we passed him. We not sure if he was reading the verse on the back of the van, or wondering why we didn't have plates. Or he just thought our 99 Ford Econoline was the coolest thing he's seen since sliced bread. He didn't flag us down or do anything, though.

"Welcome to Argentina" Tony and I say to each other, smiling, as we speed away.

But this car paperwork business has seriously cramped our (okay, my - I'm impatient) style. We wanted to travel to Bariloche and do a Christmas outreach, but that, and most other mission-y plans we have, have been put on the back burner until the car is actually registered here in Argentina. We are still mostly stuck in town, treading water, waiting, waiting, waiting. It's frustrating. Very frustrating. Sometimes we make plans, but God has His own timetable.

(But, there are many other things we have been doing. Remember, I'm married to Mr. Social. More on that later, I'm kind of wiped out at the moment... over-socialized. must. be. alone...)

Christmas week I had a migraine, four days of a headache. I was in bed, out of bed, back in bed. In between nursing my head, we had a lot of people over. We are really enjoying getting to know the people (finally) at church. They are wonderful and awesome and we adore them already.

Tito and his family came over for dinner. Tito told me they are waiting for me to come to practice so that they can teach me the panflute. He and Tony have become friendly already (but no surprise, Tony's friendly with everybody). As we sat at the table eating tarta de humita and pascualina, our kids playing together nearby, Gladys, his wife, told me how her baby had Scarlet Fever a few months ago. These are normal converstation here these days. After Christmas we are going to get together to talk seriously about putting their music group and our projector together to do some evangelistic mission trips. I already have plans to drag Keren the Mime along with us, too.

Jorge and Monica, who do the Hora Feliz , came over, as well. They need help and a break from their every single Saturday outreach. They have been trained in some degree by Child Evangelism Fellowship, which is one of the ministries I've always wanted to get hooked up with. Our daughters have hit it off and are great friends already. They hold hands and run and giggle and ask when they can play again.

Keren and her sweet and adorable family also came over. Keren said the first time we came to church, she took one look at Tony and said, "There! There is our new Youth Leader!" She is a trip. No one seems to want to lead up the Young Adults for some reason. I don't know why, they're an amazing and talented and warm group of kids. We talked about taking her Mime act outside of just church performances and doing more evangelism. Friday we spent the afternoon at the river with her, her mime buddy in crime, and some of the youth. What a great group of kids, we had so much fun, drinking terere and listening to Tony cracking jokes. Tony and I agree that, even though we miss the States and our family and friends and life there, if we left here, we would miss the people here, too, and a lot. They have opened up their lives to us and welcomed us with such open arms, calling us friends.

By Saturday, Christmas Eve day, my headache was finally gone, and we took off to spend Christmas with Edgardo and his family. His sister has a chacra [farm] in a town an hour away. We prayed our way through several police check points, and spent a nice afternoon and evening with their extended family. They were so kind to think of us, with no family here, and to invite us to spend Christmas with their extended family. We drank mate, the kids played in the little pool, they played soccer and badminton and volleyball, we had dinner (again, at 10pm - ack! I was out back by the grill stealing food in an attempt to avoid another four day long hunger-induced migraine. I hate that, always scrounging food before anyone else has eaten, it looks bad and maybe rude - but I can't help it!). They even gave us gifts. So sweet. We made the hour-long drive back at 1:30am, praying for safety as other cars sped past us at 80 miles and hour, no shoulder, no lighting on the two-lane highway, sharing it with big trucks speeding by the other way with no lights on. Crazy.

It wasn't the way I wanted to spend Christmas, but we were thankful for the blessings of God's kindness and goodness to us, even if it didn't look like what we had planned. I told Tony today what I wanted was to... and he finished the sentence for me, "Be with the kids at the children's home." We're tired of the same old same old. Then he reminded me this is not a game, some of these kids could pull a knife on you. Keren, who has been visiting the home for two years now, was telling us about each one when they were over for dinner. Some are jealous of little Dani, the youngest in the home. One of the 9 year old boys said he's going to kill her. He has such hate and anger inside from abuse and the life he has endured, that it comes out in hatred towards others. These kids need a lot of prayer, and so do we, she reminded us, if we want to go in there. Tony reminded me that we do have to be careful and think twice about where we take our own kids. It's okay to put the brakes on and take this slow. Without properly registered wheels, we are are in a holding pattern anyway. *sigh*

So, yes, even though we wanted to do something different perhaps, like last year, we are thankful for friends and family, near and far. But more and more, with each passing year, we think of all the people that don't have anyone to spend Christmas with, all the kids that won't even get one gift. But next year, I imagine, we'll probably be so busy, busier than we want to be, and begging for mercy and actually hoping to just sit around with nothing to do.

:)

More Church Building, Patagonia style

Church building (as in the construction aspect) looks very different here in Patagonia than it does in the States. I posted some pictures a few weeks ago.

The church we attend here is small by American standards, but a good size by Argentinian standards. Maybe 120-150 people or so. The little one-room sanctuary they meet in is getting too small. So they've been constructing a bigger meeting place right next door. The pastor's wife here tells us how they cooked and sold chickens to raise the money to build the smaller, original building. Several churches in Europe helped them with the funds for the new building. It is because of churches in the first world that they were even able to build their Christian school (at least I think, if I got the story right...). That just warms my heart, the generosity of God's people in other parts of the world. Plus, the hard-working example of the believers here contantly blesses us. We are so humbled and blessed to know them, they are such an example in so many ways.

So, the Christmas service this past Sunday was in the new building. Many people from the church scrambled to finish construction, electrical installation, and cleaning to get it ready on Saturday for Sunday's service. All last minute, it seemed. But many things are last minute here in Latin America.

Tony was there all day helping. I stayed home because construction sites here are a little sketchy. The Patagonian winds often blow brick walls over or send tin roofs flying. I would have been no help anyway, and surely would have spent the whole scorcher of a day chasing my adventurous three year-old to keep her from stepping on nails and grabbing loose-hanging electrical wires. Besides, I was busy cleaning my house top to bottom, a little freaked out by our black-widows-in-the-neighborhood news.

Here are some pictures of construction.

putting up tin sheeting on the front of the new building



cleaning the inside - the floor was covered with resident pigeon droppings

 

the back of the church




getting ready to raise the covering for the back windows that don't have glass in them yet



window covering hung - they were about 30 feet off the ground here

  

I don't know what they're doing, but it looks dangerous



decorating



the worship band practicing {they played this kind of music;
people came in off the street during the service because they heard the music!}



working on the electrical wiring



they needed somebody light, so up went the pastor's wife



almost finished



The new church building was up and running just hours before the Christmas service. It was truly one of the most beautiful services I've had the pleasure and privelege to be a part of.


Merry Christmas, everyone! 

10 Tips to Remember When Washing Clothes in Patagonia

If you ever come to our house... which, I suppose, no one wants to do after reading our blog... BUT, in case you do, and you need to wash clothes here, it is good to remember the following:


10 Tips to Remember When Washing Clothes in Patagonia

1. Be sure to add 2-4 extra gallons of water to your small, front-loader washing machine, which has a phobia with water, and only uses a trickle to wash all your desert dust and sand-encrusted clothes.
2. Get over your addiction to your dryer. There aren't any here. Your clothes will never again be soft and fluffy, and your jeans will come off the line hard as cardboard. One day you will cease to notice this.
3. Check to make sure it's not too windy outside. Wind kicks up dust. Dust will coat all your whites with dirt.
4. When hanging clothes, make sure you shove those clothespins on as hard and as far down as you can. It will keep your nice, clean clothies from being whipped off the line and into the dirt. The dirt will not come out and you will have to rewash.
5. Hang all your thin synthetics and light fabrics first. By the time you get to the end of the line, they may already very likely be dry.
6. When you go out to hang clothes, be prepared to have long converstations with the neighbors and/or construction workers next door who love to yell "Good day!" over the fence/wall at you. Remember to smile and be nice. This is not, in fact, an invasion of your privacy.
7. Watch where you step, especially if you are wearing flip flops. Those red ants really get mad if you step in their nests and will swarm your feet and have them for lunch. And believe me, it hurts.
8. If you leave your residence or are headed to bed, make sure you take your clothes off the line first and bring them inside. That is, if you want to be absolutely sure they will still be there when you get home or get up.
9. Give all clothes a good shake for good measure. Black widows and ginormous wolf spiders live here.
10. Wash, hang, fold, repeat.

how to indentify volcanic ash in the sky

The volcanic ash has been pretty good lately - meaning there hasn't been much for weeks.

But yesterday it blew in rather quickly. The skies here are bright blue, so when it gets hazy, it's usually ash. I could tell it was blowing in because there are a few telltale signs.

ONE: Gray, Hazy Skies

This is what the sky looked like when I went out to hang up some clothes...

sky still mostly blue, but telltale hazy gray circle around the sun (some ash)

This was the sky a half hour later when I went back out to take them off the line (yes, sometimes they dry that fast here in the blustery desert)...

obviously hazy gray sky (ashy)

TWO: Blustery Winds

When the clothes go horizontal on the line, this may be an indicator that ash is blowing in...

THREE: Gray Horizon

sky may be blue, but gets noticably grayer towards the horizon

FOUR: Completely Gray Skies

Within hours, the sky can turn almost completely gray - no blue left to be seen. This is ash.

And when the sun becomes one big, hazy gray orb....

...it's time to bring the kids in, shut the windows, and have some mate while remarking to one other, "Wow, did you see the ash today?"

First Day of Summer

Our pool's not quite ready for summer yet. Tony began to fill it, only to realize the pump is for 120V and needs to be converted to 220V. We gave it to the electrician weeks ago... he recently texted us to say that the specialist he passed it on to is on vacation; he's very sorry, but it'll be a while longer until it's ready.

Mkay.

No worries, we're getting used to this waiting thing.

Christmas, kids, and Karina

Sunday was the Christmas service at church. Christmas in Latin America is celebrated on December 24th at midnight, so since the 24th falls on a Saturday this year, the church did their Christmas service, live Nativity, and various Gospel Presentations (plays, video productions, and songs), plus a traditional service at church this past Sunday. It lasted 4 hours and it was about 90 degrees inside. No fans, no a/c.

The kids from the children's home came, so it was great to get to meet them - so sad, and yet so adorable.



Tony's and his buddies



Dani, 5, the youngest at the children's home, with Keren the Mime, who did an
excellent mime presentation of the gospel



First Dani smiled, then she got shy and wouldn't look at the camera
(with Keren and her mime partner in crime - they were so good I thought they were professional thespians)



one of the youth from church; Tony as one of the Three Wise Men; a girl who was abandoned at the
children's home (I didn't catch her name), and Keren



Keren (pre-mime make-up) with her guitar, and the kids presenting the Christmas songs they had been practicing 



the little kids didn't get up on stage, just the bigger ones



Karina in the white, and her brother, holding the sign with Rafa, the Youth Leader, in the background



An entirely different group of kids from a difficult neighborhood where a couple from church has been evangelizing every Saturday; their outreach is called "Hora Feliz" (Happy Hour). Here they are preforming the songs about Jesus and Christmas they learned. I could have taken them all home with me.



After the three-hour service was over, they served dinner. At 10 o'clock (which is typical dinner time here in Argentina). Just sandwiches and sodas and sweets. By 11:00, kids were still running around, ours included, so we ended up talking to the people that head up both outreaches, the Hora Feliz and the children's home.

Here, the church takes a break in summer, which starts tomorrow. Sunday School classes end, outreach programs take a break, active evangelism programs slow down. Everyone takes vacation pretty seriously here. Plus, the 100 degree temps and blazing desert sun with no air conditioning (I know, I've mentioned the no air conditioning thing more than a few times...) make going outside just plain difficult between the hours of 12 and 6 or 7.

It makes us sad to think the kids will get no visitors this summer. Tony and I are seeing if we can do something with the kids at the children's home while everyone is on vacation. We would love to be able to visit them once a week, have them come over to play in our above ground pool we brought from the U.S., and Tony is working on getting permission to take them on a tour of the local TV station he freelances for. I don't know if we will be allowed to do any of this, though, so please pray God would open the doors and guide us into just the right thing.

:)

photos... just life

Uploading these on snail-speed internet will probably drive me to the edge, but I'm a gluton for punishment. So here are some random pictures from missions and church and life here in Argentina...

Side note: When the neighbor heard of our internet troubles (we still don't have it installed at home), he said he waited three months for his. Then he had pity on us, since we've only been waiting a month, and gave us his Wifi password. Nice, nice, niiiice neighbor. He's not around during the week, so I guess he doesn't mind us using up his broadband. Thank you, Jesus. I can't say the connection is hugely better, I still sit by the window and am constantly moving the laptop at strange angles, being bumped off randomly for no explicable reason. But here I sit because everyone wants pictures. And we love you. So we suffer with this insanity provoking connection out of love for friends and family, and random internet stalkers. And blogging is still fun, even though not as much without hi-speed. Somedays I'd rather have a root canal.


Tony doing a Bible study with Pedro in his plywood house (you can see our pool in the upper left)

  

Baptism in the Limay River (it was cooold from spring, mountain run-off)

 

Sr. Velazquez who repairs our bike flats - we have invited them to our Wednesday night Bible Study,
and his wife has expressed interest - hopefully they will come soon.



Puma and fox skins at Sr. Velazquez's bike shop
(I believe Pumas are endangered and you're not allowed to hunt them.)



armadillos

 

deer head and bobcat skin



water balloon volleyball at Youth Camp for the 9-11 year-olds; most of these kids are neighborhood kids that aren't from Christian homes, but are being reached through the presence of the church or its Christian school

 

rinsing the potatoes for youth camp with water stored in gas containers -
there was no running water on site except in the bathrooms



pebbles on the River Limay

Patricia, who lives in this house across from Tony's sister's, is a Christian who would come across the street and encourage us and pray for us during our time in Buenos Aires

our living room/dining room 5 weeks ago

my almost 3 year-old begged me to start school: "I do hometool, too? I do hometool, you and me?"

spring flower, Buenos Aires

more early spring flowers (mums?), Buenos Aires



a playground at at the edge of our neighborhood



:)

Karina

Weeks ago we started praying for this little girl named Karina. The youth at church visit and do ministry at a children's home downtown. Anyone at church could offer to "adopt" one of the children to pray for, to visit, and to get a little Christmas present for. We raised our hand and they assigned us Karina.

All we have is a picture that she drew hanging on the fridge. We didn't know how old she is, her story, or anything. All we knew was the size of her hand that she traced on the paper, and that she lives in a home for abused, neglected, and abandoned kids.

Since we have arrived in Neuquen, never having been here before in our lives, we weren't sure what the street kid situation was. God has put it on our hearts to work with kids, amongst many other things we want to do, but getting connected while in essence being stranded at home without a car, has been challenging. So we have been waiting to see how God would work this out.

We'd like to work with street kids, but it doesn't look like there are street kids in Neuquen. We could be wrong - not like we've seen much here so far - but we haven't seen any. In Buenos Aires there are many. Other parts of Argentina as well. Here, not so much. We think it may be in part due to the fact that there is oil in this area. Oil means money. Money means less street kids... maybe? Money in the province also means children's homes instead of streets for homes.

So last week Tony was able to go with the youth to visit the kids and Karina for Christmas (sorry, no pics, he wasn't allowed to take any). The kids and I weren't allowed to go, only one person could visit at a time. Sigh. I feel like I am doing absolutely no ministry here. It's getting kind of frustrating! But there is a time for everything...right? At least that's what my Bible says. I have had my own work here at home so far, I guess - taking care of the kids, supporting Tony in all the ministry stuff he gets to do, and wasting my life away washing dishes by hand and hanging clothes on a clothes line and cleaning cleanig cleaning (I like none of these activities and I find them dreadfully boring. I would love house help. Then I could go out and do something else. But I'm not bitter. Nope. Not a hair.). Maybe we'll be healthy and mobile and be able to come up for a breath of air soon one of these days so Mommy can get out there, too... for now I'll just sit at home and feel frustrated.

So back to Karina.

He said she was about 13 and autisitic.

I got a text message from Tony mid-afternoon which said, "This reminds me of Ecuador. Very hard."

A few years ago we went on a short term mission trip to an orphanage in Ecuador. 100 kids, all abused, neglected, and abandoned. They all come to the home out of tragedy. All their stories are sad, all of them. Sexually abused, beaten, abandoned to the streets to eat trash, neglected, babies literally thrown in the trash. The children's home here is no different.

Tony said that the kids just threw themselves at him and their visitors, wrapping their needy little arms around his neck for hugs and hanging on them, refusing to let go. You have to peel them off. Starved for love. Starved for affection. Starved for attention. What did Jesus say about children...? Tony had to hold back the tears many times during the afternoon. A lot of the kids either seemed to be autistic, or appeared to have mental problems. Tony seemed to think that more than a few are that way because of the abuse they've lived through, not because they were born that way. He was pretty sure of it.

About mid-way through their visit (which lasted 5 or 6 hours), they handed out Christmas presents. We got Karina some nail polish, a bracelet and some candy. Not much, but the kids were so happy and so appreciative. Tony noticed a boy, about 12 or 13, who didn't get anything. He was new to the home, so wasn't on the list for presents. When he saw he didn't get a present, he went off to a corner and burst into tears. Tony saw it and ran out to the nearest store to buy him a present. He came back and gave him a hat, a necklace, some chocolate, and some candy. He said he brightened right up.

Then they played soccer in whatever ratty shoes they had and did some activities. I'm not sure if they shared the gospel so much in words as they did in action.

For years I've wanted to do away with Christmas presents at our house. Just a personal conviction. I hate the materialism of Christmas. I hate that my kids (well, not all of them, but at least one that I can think of) think that Christmas is about "Me, Me, Me" and "What am I getting for Christmas??" and, "What are you buying me for Christmas??" - instead of - "What can we GIVE for Christmas? What can we give to JESUS, who gave everything for us??"

I wholeheartedly agree with THIS POST. All I can say is, Yes, yes, and YES! That about sums up how I feel regarding Christmas, and Christmas presents.

So, the next day after visiting the kids at the home, and because we finally have a car (wll, semi-sort of... it actually doesn't have plates yet...even though it's been released from customs... so it's a little sketchy driving it until the registration goes through: Welcome to Argentina... :)), we went to the store to buy something for the kids for Christmas.

We started and ended our Christmas shopping in about an hour, a week before Christmas. It was fabulous. And an hour more than I like to do for Christmas shopping. I confess, I can't stand Christmas shopping. 

Mom-mom and Grandpa sent some Christmas money for the kids with instructions to buy something for each, from them. They each picked two things out, one from each grandparent, and that was it. Tony looked at me in the middle of the isle and said, "So, one thing each from each, and nothing from us, right?"

YES!

Finally.

We get it! We're getting it! We're really, really getting it. An answer to prayer. I've wanted it this way for years. I'm so happy.

Christmas is about giving, not getting. Harder to do than it sounds. It's HARD to fight against the flesh and our wants and our greed and our supposed "needs". Even against the natural desire we have to give our kids the best. Sometimes the best is less, not more. Or in our case, nothing, yet everything.

Little by little we are stepping closer heavenward. With our feeble feet, tripping along the way, little by little we are getting there... I think we are getting there.

[By the way, if you give your kids tons of Christmas presents, I don't think that's bad or wrong or evil. We've certainly done it. This is just something I'VE always wanted for Christmas. And I guess we'll see if my husband feels this way next year. Like a good Father, he likes to give gifts, too.]

Spiders, Chickenpox, plus other icky stuff

***DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU ARE ICKED OUT BY SPIDERS OR FLIES OR CHILDHOOD ILLNESSES, OR ANY PICTURES THEREOF. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.***

It's been an icky week of spiders, flies, and chickenpox. It all started when Tony went to help build that bathroom for a rural church plant.

He was told a really icky, horrible story about a member of our new church who died last year. While he was sleeping, a green fly crawled into his nose and laid eggs. The eggs hatched and the um, you know, babies... ick. I can't even say it. I'll spare you. The person was dead in a few days.

So Tony comes home, drops that bomb of a story, and begins to freak out over the few flies in the house, wildly swinging a towel at any and every one he could see in an attempt to kill them all. My girlie, who overhead the fly bomb story, sat quivering and shaking in the corner crying, "I don't want to die!".

Great, thanks, Tony.

I have to admit, I was a little freaked out, too. Now, I grew up on a farm, so flies don't bother me. At all. We had fly paper hanging above our dinner table in the summer. No big deal. But I was pretty freaked out by this true, and local story.... noting that this will be a long summer, because we have no screens on our windows. No one here does.

In other news, my baby is just getting over the chickenpox. So I guess we can add that to our ever growing list of health challenges here.

Fortunately it wasn't bad, though - and I'd take chickenpox over croup or even the common cold anyday! The oldest two didn't get it (unfortunately - I actually wish they had), because they were vaccinated before I knew what "Varicella" was.

Varicella is NO. BIG. DEAL here. People still kissed her hello and touched her and sent their kids over to play, knowing we had it. Upon finding out, they would just nod understandingly and say, "Oh, it's better they get it now, when young," or, "Oh, yeah, we've had that. It's better they get it. Stronger defenses!"

After a week of quarenteening her (so as not to spread it, not because she was feeling sick or even had a fever), we eventually started going out here and there. No one stopped, wide-eyed, pointing and screaming,

"AHHHH! Disinfect!!!

Juancito, come here! Stay away from that girl, she has (gasp) chickenpox!"

You know, it really was no big deal a generation ago. Chickenpox is not fatal. We got it and lived to tell about it.

In other news, it's been a week of spiders.

After our big spider friend popping in for dinner last week, my boy got to hold a tarantula. (I earned serious Mommy brownie points with that one.)

Don't worry, it's dead. The pet shop owner, a guy from church, wouldn't let him hold the live one. He was afraid it would get scared, fall, and die. I was actually okay with him holding the live one, though. He is old enough and knows all about spiders. And the bites from these are no worse than bee stings. At least, that's what they say. Well, good thing, because they live here up in the dry cliffs surrounding the city, and all over the Patagonian Desert. Tony has remarked that we never would have come here had we visited first and found all this out.

Our friends and neighbors three blocks away found two mature adult Black Widows in their house last night! (I will not insert a photo for all you arachnaphobes. They are actually Red Back spiders, cousin to the black widow and just as deadly, having a red stripe on their back instead of a red hour-glass on their bellies.)

We actually stayed at their house for 10 days, not ever-so long ago, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, until we were able to find our house here. I was on the lookout for spiders, mostly because we are a homeschooling family and, thanks to my son, I now know way too much about all things venemous than I ever cared to know. I killed whatever ones I found huddling in corners by our mattresses just in case, but, fortunately, didn't see any black widows.

Anyway, they caught and killed one, the other got away. Now they will take it, safe in a glass jar, to the local Police Station. If you can show them proof that you found one, they will come and fumigate your house for free. Nice.

Now, excuse my while I finish cleaning my whole house, top to bottom! So far this morning I haven't found anything, and hopefully I won't!

I will sweep and sweep and pray as I sweep, and check every corner and under everything. More I can not do but trust in God.

:)