do not be alarmed!!!

Meet Mr. Huntsman Spider!!! OK, get ready for this one. I will admit that I am pretty dramatic when it comes to spiders. I DO NOT like spiders, big, small, hairy, smooth, poisonous, harmless...I don't like any of them. When we moved to Sydney we heard about the spiders and most people told me that they rarely see a Huntsman, so I wasn't too worried about it. Well, well, well, lucky me was able to meet one of these suckers a few weeks ago. I hesitated posting about this because I was afraid that some people might not want to come & visit us because of the spiders (I am mainly just worried about my sister....maybe she won't read this post).

So let me paint you a little picture. I am quite embarrassed about parts of this story. Here we go....we had just had the missionaries over for dinner. Btw, they brought some salmon over and one of the Elders from New Zealand insisted that it is best eaten raw. After a lot of mental preparation I ate it. We all ate the salmon raw. It actually wasn't too bad. Anyway, I am getting sidetracked. So the missionaries left and the kids were upstairs getting jammies on and getting ready for bed. I went into the garage with Jared to put some things away and we were just talking. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a blob on the wall but I thought it was a clump of grass or something. I got closer and it moved and crawled under a wooden slate. I yelled, and I mean yelled. "OH MY, OH MY.." I couldn't get any words out. Jared was wondering what was wrong and after I got my breath back I told him it was a HUGE spider. I said over and over that it has to die...it can't just hide in the garage. If it would have escaped, I am sad to say that I may have been on the next flight home. Not really, but pretty close. Let me remind you that I HATE spiders. Just then it crawled out and I flipped out. I was in the corner and if the garage floor wasn't so nasty and I wasn't afraid of other things crawling on me I would have been on the floor in the fetal position. It was so huge I wanted to throw up. It was crawling around and could tell that Jared was trying to kill it because it was crouching and moving fast....(time out...I am starting to panic again...deep breaths...) OK, so I am still in the corner and by now I am crying, yes, you heard me, crying!! This is the embarrassing part. I was crying and hyperventilating and yelling. "It has to die, it has to die." It crawled over just above the door to the laundry room and I could hear the kids yelling for me and starting to panic because they couldn't find me. I was so scared that they would open the door and the beast would crawl inside and hide or that it would jump on their faces. I know, I am dramatic. So, with boogie board in hand, Jared quickly smacks it, chopping off some of its legs. It fell to the ground and I think I screamed. I ran inside, wiping tears as I went, and grabbed the camera. I took a pic and just to make me relax a little Jared smashed it again just to be 100% sure it was dead.

I have since learned that they are totally common and like to hide in cars and can be seen quite frequently. And they are even bigger then the one we encountered. So, let's hope that I never see another one again. I would actually welcome the cockroaches by the dozen before I ever want to see one of those in my house. I told Jared that it was a good thing he was there. If I had been alone I may have passed out. Wow, sometimes I can be pretty dramatic. ha ha