Everything is Bigger in Texas

I am learning that everything is bigger in Texas.  Hospitality is bigger, smiles everywhere you go.  Everyone is so helpful and kind.  The Sun is bigger... at least that is how it feels.  It is 90 degrees this week and we are only in April.   The stores are bigger (HEB is now my most favorite grocery to shop in EVER.  So big, HUGE selection, tons of workers, great prices.  I love it!).  The insects are bigger, holy beetles batman!  Under any rock you can find jumbo sized black beetles.  And not to be outdone by the beetles, I must say that the spiders here are the biggest.  

 First day of taking the kids to the park we come across this sucker.  A TARANTULA.  Just waltzing about the playground like no big deal.  I about crapped my pants.  Talk about Texas welcoming us warmly!

 It kept rearing up like this to make itself bigger, probably as a defense tactic.  The kids were loving it.  I wanted to run home and take a shower.    When I tell this story in years to come I am going to say it also hissed.  Not entirely sure if this is accurate for tarantula behavior, but I swear that sucker hissed.

 It was our ward playgroup that we went to and the other two Mom's assured me that they had been here for 2 years and 3 years respectively and this was the first time they had seen one.  Well count my lucky stars!  I haven't even been here a week and we get the fire ants and the tarantulas.

Besides wanting to barf all over the place ( I have a terrible fear of spiders, and that is just regular ones, not jumbo meat eating ones.... just kidding about the meat eating part.  Well actually I don't know what they eat, so they could very well eat meat.  Note to self: research dietary needs of the Texas tarantula.).  I was also kinda in awe about it.  We are here for such a short time and it is not a normal thing for me to see things like this, so it was one of those "Wow, I really live in Texas" moments.

Then the little girl on orange declared that she was going to take the little big guy home in her satchel because her Grammy is WILD about spiders.  She picked it up and stored it in her bag.  I gave the Pappy a look to total shock to which he assured me that his wife did love spiders and they were in town visiting and it would make her day to play with the little fella.  Then I felt the bile starting to rise and my pulse race so I quietly separated myself from them until the left and took him home to Grammy.

I have been told in September there is the great Tarantula migration.  If you go out past the city in the night time and flash your lights into the fields, you can see a sea of tarantula doing their migration.  They give the guys on base a safety briefing about it when it hits that time of year.  PRAISE the heavens we will be long gone by then.  You would have to lock me away in a mental facility if I still lived here for that.  Seriously.

I also can't get enough of the southern accents.  Whenever we are in the store we just walk really slowly trying to overhear anything that we can.  If I miss a particularly magical discussion Marcus is sure to quietly repeat it back to me.  It is was easier to talk like them right after you have just heard it.  "I told Pappy if that y'all didn't hafta bring the steaks.  We was already grillin' and had enough for y'all."   It is seriously the coolest.  The gal at chick-fil-a couldn't believe I had never eaten at one before.  "I am SURE y'all have to have a chick-fil-AY over theYer.  Y'all have seriously neva eaten at a chick-fil-AY before?".    I love it!