Weeds and bugs

After living in the desert for 6 years I really didn't have much yard work to do. We had mostly rocks covering our front and back yards and so the occassional squirt of the weed spray was all we really needed to do. NOT SO HERE!. The pretty purple flowers that were all over our front and back yards were WEEDS!!! So early this morning I woke up with this overwhelming urge to get rid of them. We are the embarrassment of the neighborhood afterall. Our Arizona license plates will only fend them off for so long. Right? So here I go (no gloves - first mistake). I start gung ho and ready to rid the world of "pretty weeds". One spider, two spiders, and now a whole family comes charging out of the holes towards me with really angry looks on their faces. I am told that the spiders here are not like the ones in AZ (deadly). To me a spider is a spider. So, I freak out. Then I see rolly pollies, slugs, worms, and every other creature that the spiders could bully to come out and make me cringe. It worked. Gloves went on and Sean came outside to help me. Gotta love the North West and all their critters.