Field Trip Day!

Today was my first field trip for invert. It was pretty fun. We went to the national seashore. The first thing we did was find crab holes and dig em out to capture ghost crabs. I found a big male ghost crab in the first hole I dug up. I had never seen that kind of a crab before (he looked like the crab in this picture). Then we went out to the water and dug up ghost shrimp and little clams and tiny crabs that live in the ghost shrimp's burrow. And then we basically went swimming. We were supposed to be diving for sand dollars, but of course, I left my flippers and dive mask back in the van, so I only dove down a few times and didn't catch anything. So then I just floated around for a while. It was a pretty good time.

Last night was not quite so fun. I had to mow the back yard. The grass had grown out of control due to all the rain and the fact that my lawn mower was broke during the few breaks between the rain. So I finally was able to cut the yard, and what is usually an enjoyable experience was horrible. I completely drenched myself with bug spray before I started, but I had to carry the repellent with me the entire time because I kept getting swarmed by mosquitoes. They were everywhere, and they're so huge. And the grass was so long and thick that it took at least twice as long as it usually does because I could only go about a foot and then I'd have to stop and lift up the mower so all the excess grass would get out of the mower. Otherwise, all the grass would have killed the engine. AND, I got attacked by fire ants while being attacked my mosquitoes. The swarm of mosquitoes distracted me and I wasn't paying attention to where my feet were, and I must have stepped in an ant pile. The fire ants are terrible. Their bites burn and they burn for days after being bit. It was terrible, but it's done.

One last thing. My cousin Mel pointed out that I'm very fortunate not to be on bed rest. That is very true. I would be so screwed if I had problematic pregnancies. If I got put on bed rest, I'd have to drop my classes, my house would totally fall apart since no one else lives here to help me. So I'm thanking God that the worst problems I've had with my pregnancies include back pain and bleeding gums. That's pretty tolerable.

Well, I need to go put something soothing on my fire ant bites.