Tarantulas by Erin

Last year, my family lived in Ames, Iowa while my husband was completing his internship for his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. We knew it was only going to be a one year stint, and we were excited to finally have him be finished with school after 10 years. He applied for jobs across the country, from Eastern Kentucky, to central Texas, to Knoxville, Tennessee, to three sites in Utah. We accepted a job offer in Cedar City, Utah and prepared ourselves for the move. I had never been to Cedar City. I knew no one there. All I knew about it was that there were a lot of red rocks in the area, and the mountain biking and fishing nearby were amazing (my husband loves both). Right before we moved, I decided to Google "Cedar City bloggers." I only found one blog (not Lara's), and I felt uncomfortable reading it. Up to that point I had never read or commented on anyone's blog that I did not already know. I quickly closed the blog and we moved shortly after.

We had lived in Utah for about a month when I decided to search for bloggers in my town again. This time, Lara's was the first one I came across. She was very friendly, and I didn't feel uncomfortable reading her blog. I wondered whether she would be uncomfortable knowing someone she didn't know was reading her blog, so at first I just lurked. A couple of weeks later, however, she wrote a post about a woman in her ward spotting a tarantula when she was weeding her garden.

I had only lived in Cedar City for six weeks. I had no idea there were tarantulas here. It completely and utterly terrified me that I might see a tarantula in my own yard. So...I got brave and left Lara a comment:

Okay, you're totally freaking me out...I just found your blog (love it, by the way), and I just moved to Cedar City from Iowa last month. DON'T tell me there are tarantulas!!! I have been freaking out by all of the little daddy long legs I keep finding in my house. And now I have to watch for black widows, hobo spiders, and tarantulas?!? Should I move back to Iowa???
Oh, and my name is Erin. Nice to meet you!

Of course, Lara had to come over and see who this 'Erin' was that was commenting on her blog for the first time...and that, my friends, is the beginning of a great friendship. We have since gone out to lunch, gotten together and let our kids play with each other while we visited, and made cupcake pops together. Now, Lara is moving across the country, but I am so glad we will still have our blogs to help us keep in touch.

Good luck, Lara. I wish you the best.

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Erin is taller than her husband when she wears shoes and he is barefoot (and he is 6'1"). I can attest to this fact, since I was a little surprised by her height when I first met her, since I am usually taller than most women (and many men) that I meet. Erin plays the piano, and loves to teach; at one insane point she had 42 students. If Erin could do whatever she wanted 24 hours a day, she would read and blog.

Speaking of blogging, Erin blogs at If You Give a Mom a Moment, and is an awesome friend. Not only is her blog fun and insightful, but you can learn a lot about how to be a better blogger from Erin. She is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet, and I can say that, because I've met her. I'm thankful daily that Erin read my post about tarantulas and other creepy crawlies and commented on it. As hard as it was for me to live in Cedar City, Erin made the last year a little bit easier for me, and I will miss her muchly. But not as much as I might, because I will have her blog to keep me company.