The Reilly's: Snakes, Space Shuttles and Sonic BOOMS!!!

Ah, the joys of living in Florida!!! So about 2 weeks ago I was getting ready to go to the grocery store and before I open my front door I notice some black thing on the door step as I look through the glass window next to the front door. At first I thought that some old piece of tire was carried to the front door step by the wind, but WOW how could that piece of tire be so long a skinny and curled up like....HOLY CRAP....thats not a piece of tire thats a flippin' SNAKE!!! I immediately get the goosebumps and feel like it is crawling all over me!!! I call Chris, who is conveniently, at work and tell him there is a huge black snake on our doorstep. His response, "Alright, well just get a shovel and chop it's head off." Cool as a cucumber. Who in the world does Chris think he married? I am not Jeff Irwin's wife, I am not a crocodile hunter and frankly I am not a really big wildlife lover! I tell him he is nuts and that the only option was for me to leave the house! Luckily, I could go through the garage because had that been the only way to get in and out of the house I would have just stayed inside the house all day!

I went to the store and came back to find it had moved off the front door step, but was still in front of the front door. It's head was up the entire time I saw it and I just had to ignore it and stay inside and by "ignore it" I mean work for 20 minutes then go check on the snake and repeat 10 times! So eventually the snake was gone, Chris never saw it but I sent him enough pics from my phone. He of course immediately researched what type of snake it was and became an expert on everything BLACK RACER!

In my mind, this snake sighting was an isolated event and since living here for 8 months I hadn't seen another snake on our property so I thought, "Okay, saw a snake, I live in Florida, whatever." SO WRONG!!! About 3 days go by and Chris and I were getting ready to go up and play tennis at the nearby park. We were going to walk so we have our rackets and tennis balls and I was heading out the front door with Chris following and I stop before opening the door and tell him there is another flippin' snake. He thinks I am joking and tells me "You're not going to get me! No way is there another snake in the same place." I say, "You're right it is in the bed of the rock garden." He looks and says he can't see it and still thinks I am lying!!! (You can tell me joke around and play pranks on each other a lot!) I stop him before opening the door and specifically point it out to him...the goosebumps set in!!!

Then Mr. Cool Calm and Collected goes into the garage for a shovel. I get out my camera so I can watch him be so brave and stare at the snake for 5 minutes then lean on the shovel for 5 minutes then get ready to kill for 5 minutes. Pretty soon I realize he is not so comfortable with just getting the shovel and killing the snake!!! Anyways, long story short he slams the shovel into the back of the snake and kills it!!! Thank goodness!!! Disclaimer: Not knowing if the snake was poisonous or not we had to kill the snake because we do not want to take any chances.

I now cannot open my door without surveying the area first. I am not kidding! I do not walk anywhere without scanning the area first! The best way to get rid of snakes is cats and basically, I would rather live with a few snakes then have a cat!

Another fun Florida thing is getting to see the space shuttles cross over the sky as they launch from Kennedy Space center which about an hour south of Ormond Beach. Chris and I saw the Space Shuttle take off in the beginning of April as we were headed to the airport. At first, I thought I saw a UFO then we realized it had to be the Space Shuttle! We saw the blaze of fire in the sky then we actually saw booster thing separate from the space shuttle. It was pretty amazing. Then a couple of weeks late the space shuttle was coming back to earth (doesn't that sound crazy?!) and again I was able to go out in our front yard and see it fly over head again. Luckily, my neighbor also came out to watch it and he directed me which way to look and warned me about the sonic boom. This was all new to me, but when the space shuttles breaks the sound barrier there is a huge boom. I could not believe the sound of the sonic boom! It was so loud and totally awesome to witness!

Then about a week later we were at the Daytona Cubs baseball game and we saw a rocket pass over head which was full of supplies for the international space station. It is just amazing and interesting to hear so much more NASA news and witness something as cool as a space shuttle taking off!

As an aunt I now also think that if the boys aren't into Disney and the Princesses then we still have space shuttles and snakes! What more good Gannon, Mason, Lucy and Lola ask for?!!!

The only guest we have ever turned away!