Tarantula

OK, so it wasn't a tarantula, but you would've thought it was by the reaction it got. I (Sandy) think this is one of the largest spiders I've ever seen not in a cage at the zoo or pet store and it was in our HOUSE! And I've seen lots of BIG spiders in the jungles of Papua New Guinea!
The first time we saw it Emery was picking up a pair of her jeans off the floor yesterday and it ran out from under it towards the furnace. I instinctively let out a loud scream and startled Emery so badly that she started crying and then screaming at the spider as well. Poor Emery! Peter asked me why I didn't just kill it. Well, first off, it ran away so quickly that I didn't have time to get a paper towel to squash it with and secondly, there was NO WAY I was even going to attempt to catch that creature. He said, "Just use the fly swatter." My response was, "That bug was so big that it would've grabbed the swatter out of my hand, eaten it and then continued to run off!" He was sure I was exaggerating.

Then today I was walking into the basement bathroom when lo and behold there it was again! It didn't look as big as it did yesterday so I'm actually wondering if this was actually the same spider but it was large none the less. I called for Peter and when he came down and saw it he said, "Whoa!" Yes, even he was surprised at the size of the thing. However, he did manage to kill it with the swatter and clean up the mass of guts on the floor. Yuck! Thankfully the spider is dead (if that really was him) and we can all sleep in peace tonight. (I may keep one eye open just in case...)

This picture does not do justice to how big he was in real life. I (Peter) can attest - that was the biggest house spider I've ever seen. It was about as big as my palm, and the fly swatter barely killed it. It was so big that it had spider guts (or was that blood?) come out of it.

On an entirely different note: Tonight we began reading 2 Chronicles chapter one to the kids during our family Bible time. Peter asked this question part way into it, "What did Solomon ask God for when God said he could ask for anything?" Matt's answer was, "Wisdom and construction," with his usual big grin on his face. Um, I think you meant "INstruction" Matt. :)