Will the bugs EVER leave me alone???

The other night - the day after we got back into town - the kids and I came by the house to get some stuff. There on the kitchen floor was the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life. I totally freaked out. I got the bug spray and had Dakota get me one of John's shoes. I started spraying the spider and it started running right towards me! I was screaming like crazy and finally had to get it with the shoe. Dakota told me that I hurt his ears when I screamed and that he likes it better when I say "eek" - which is what I normally do with normal sized bugs. Apparently, bug spray doesn't do much for animal sized bugs. I'm not exaggerating about it being big either. After I killed it - I didn't pick it up, I just left. I had John get it when he finally got back home a couple days later. Even he thought it was huge - and that is with it being shriveled up and dried out. I was doing some research on common spiders in Missouri - because my curiosity was driving me crazy. I didn't know if it was the poisonous kind or not. The picture it looked most like was the brown recluse spider but I didn't remember there being a design on the back. John said it was bigger than any brown recluse spider he has ever seen. So, anyway - an exterminator came today. The landlord is paying for it. That is helping my paranoia a little (but the spider research didn't help matters much). But of course it was raining today so the exterminator wasn't able to spray around the house yet.

On to better things - we are planning on staying overnight in Omaha, NE either Thursday and/or Friday night and having a little getaway. We are hoping to take the kids to the zoo if the weather cooperates. I feel bad that they had to ride in a car for 19 hours but never got a vacation out of it. They didn't get to do anything fun. And I was really proud of how they handled the long car ride.