Creepy Crawlies

I have never even seen a scorpion in Arizona, and we've lived here for three years ... that is until last month, when I found one in my house!  It was just scampering down the hall like it owned the place, so I grabbed a jar and put it over the top of him, then tipped the jar over and sealed the lid.  I know it sounds silly, but I didn't feel like squishing him with a shoe because I didn't know how that would go, and I didn't know if I flushed him down the toilet alive if he could somehow swim or survive in water - dumb, I know - but I was in total panic mode.  So then we kept him as a pet for a couple days, then put him in the freezer to die and then I flushed him down the toilet.  I didn't take a great picture of him, but it looked a lot like the one pictured below (except ours was much bigger than that one, but it was the same color).  They are nasty little buggers.  I called our bug guy and we found only one more scorpion in the weeks to follow, but because of the spray, he was pretty much dead.  I was still totally creeped out and made sure to clean under all the couches and beds.  Hopefully we won't see any more!

A couple weeks ago, we were at the Trendler's for Sunday dinner, and they live in Las Sendas where there has been a huge population of baby frogs all of a sudden.  I think this is so random for the hot desert, but regardless, there were TONS of baby frogs in their backyard.  So we gave the kids a jar and let them catch them.  Paul, Kate, Rachel & Andrew caught over 20 baby frogs, and had an absolute blast doing it.  I must have lost my mind, because I said it was fine if we brought them to our house to keep them as pets for a couple days.  What was I thinking?  I got them home and in a bigger bowl, and then was completely stumped at what to feed them.  Again, what was I thinking?  So Rachel and I went to our neighbors, Jim & Pam, who have a pond and thought he might want them or be able to tell us about the frogs.  Thankfully, he said we could put them in him front yard near the pond and he was actually kind of excited about it.  Rachel was excited too, since if they live at Jim's then we can go see them occasionally (that is if they survive - Jim thought that his fish might eat them).  We left with no frogs and a present for Rachel - he always gives her cute little things - they are the sweetest neighbors.

And while I am thinking about creepy crawlies, after Rachel's soccer game last week, we found a lizard just crawling in the grass.  Rachel has no fear and went to catch it.  Luckily Nana was there, so she helped Rachel catch the fast crawling lizard so they could hold it.  Rachel carried him to a safer place in the rocks and off the soccer field.

Gotta love Arizona!!  (Lore, this post made me think of you since I keep hearing about all the cute animals your children are playing with in your rural Wenatchee, WA farmland.  While your children are taking care of baby goats, puppies, pigs and horses, my poor children are completely satisfied with their scorpions, frogs and lizards!!  Hopefully we can come visit sometime and see your life there!)

Scorpion!!  Gross!!

The kids caught 20 baby frogs in Las Sendas with their friends!

Rachel loved her "pets" that she got to keep for about one hour.