My Sister's Fairytale

Several months ago, my older sister’s (Natalie) boyfriend proposed to her! They had been dating for a few years and fell madly in love.  They set the wedding for October 10^th and Natalie has been wedding planning ever since. My sister is very much into fashion and loves being creative, so naturally, she is living for her wedding and enjoying every step of the planning process in the mean time.

Natalie has not always been the self confident outgoing person she is now. About two years ago, she underwent gastric bypass surgery and lost over 100 lbs! This stemmed from being overweight her whole life but eventually it became a serious health issue and the surgery seemed to be her only remaining option at the time. The surgery was not only a success, her results are nothing short of a miracle. Since the surgery, Natalie has come out of her shell, made new friends, picked up healthier hobbies, and ultimately fell in love with a nice man named Ben that treats her the way she deserves to be treated.

Natalie’s engagement was the icing on the cake. She was even lucky enough to be able to design her own ring (which is GORGEOUS)! Natalie and Ben were eventually chosen to be featured in our hometown’s (Madison) magazine called Madison Living magazine! The couple went for a 50’s theme and Natalie enjoyed every moment channeling Maralyn Monroe, her idol. The magazine chose them to be occupy a several page spread instead of a single page that every other couple received.

 

The story of Natalie’s life is a real life fairy tale and she is truly an inspiration whom I admire and look up to as a role model. I love my sister and she deserves everything positive that has happened to her. <3

Momma Banana Spider Continued!

It has only been a week since my last post and I have a very interesting update on the infamous momma banana spider!

I went back over to my friend’s house 3 different times since my last post. The first time I visited, we noticed the lady spider (last time I checked, non-pregnant spider) was HUGE again! This time, even BIGGER than before when she was pregnant at her biggest! Her legs were even longer; she seemed like she had a mini growth spurt or something.

Anyway, my first guess was that she was pregnant again, but we immediately disregarded that assumption since it had only been less than a week since she was last laying her eggs. My friend and I came to the conclusion that she must have grown simply from eating a lot considering my friend feeds it moths off his front porch pretty often (ew, I know).

The second time I visited, we went to go check on Ms. banana spider only to find ANOTHER huge egg sack!!! We were in disbelief... twice in one week?! Here is what her new egg sack looked like:

 

This girl was working hard at having babies! As much as I hate insects, it was really hard seeing that egg sack knowing my friend would eventually have to destroy it just like the last one. Anyway, the third and final time I visited, the time had come. My friend was afraid if he waited any longer, they would hatch and take over his porch where his kids play. So he decided instead of smashing it with a shovel like last time, he would cut it open with a knife to actually see what the inside looked like...boys, sigh.

 

As weird as it sounds, I personally think that is a really cool picture and I'm glad I got to capture it to show all of you. What we found was amazing! There was a bright red colored webbing that made up a sack within the outside sack. Inside of that, there were hundreds of bright yellow colored eggs! It was very interesting; definitely not what I expected.

I also just got word that Ms. Banana spider is currently back down to her regular weight and size. I really hope she doesn't decide to get pregnant again or else I will have to convince my friend to relocate her somehow because I am definitely not getting close to that thing! I guess we will see what happens...

Momma Banana Spider

This past month, I have been keeping up with a spider I found in my friend's front yard garden. I first found it about a month ago when I came over to hang out. It scared the life out of me as I spotted it to my left in the garden as I walked up my friend's font porch. It was a huge yellow scary looking spider; a kind I have never seen before. I told my friend about it and we were quickly intrigued. I quickly researched it on my phone and figured out it is a garden spider commonly referred to as a "banana spider". This is what it looked like:

It became a ritual of checking on the spider every time I came over to my friend's house after that. I started referring to it as our "pet". My friend would even feed it moths sometimes. So when I saw the spider about a week later and it was really fat, I just thought it was because it was eating well. Little did I know, the banana spider was pregnant! This is what she looked like pregnant (look at the difference in size!):

About a week after that is when we actually came to the realization that she was pregnant, not just fat. The way we knew this was because she had not only returned to her natural size, but she had laid a HUGE egg sack with millions of babies! Check out how big its egg sack was (compare it to the size of the spider):

As much as I hate spiders, it was really cool to witness the life cycle of this momma banana spider. I am sorry to say, but this story has a sad ending... my friend had to destroy the egg sack with a shovel so his kids wouldn't have to worry about getting bit by tons of baby spiders every time they walked up the front porch. Needless to say, the momma spider still lives there to this day.