Ample Arachnophobia

Dallin ran in the house from the backyard yesterday screaming and crying.  He had found a spider and was literally freaking out.  Now spiders don't bother me, so in my calm state I told him everything was okay and that it's just a spider.  He continued to freak out as he showed me what he had found in his play fort.  I walk out to find this ginormous and intricately crafted spider web with its huge maker in the middle.  It was nasty.  I was wishing the web and spider looked a little more like this...

then I would know that we simply had a very sweet and talented spider living in our backyard (and maybe a cute pig nearby), but no.  I looked around and saw my Dallin, locked in the house staring at me through the back window with worried eyes.  I saw my Claire trying with all her might to see the spider, hoping to touch and play with it.  I also saw my mom trying so hard to be strong even though spiders are her greatest phobia.  I could have waited for Peter to come home to kill it, but he sits in the same phobia boat as my mom.  I knew it was my time to be the backyard hero.  I went to the garage and grabbed  a can of this:

I sprayed that mighty sucker for quite awhile trying not to inhale the fumes.  He wriggled and squirmed for quite some time before he finally gave in.  I then grabbed this:

and went wild.  My mom was so brave standing right next to me supporting me in my mission to demolish this intruder.  We got an old piece of tupperware, scooped this enormous spider into it with a kids shovel, sealed him tightly in his plastic casket and threw him away (and everything that touched him).  I have to give props to my mom who carried the spider to the garbage can (it was more like jitter dancing there with squeals thrown in)... for having a phobia of spiders, she was amazing (she even endured a few spider nightmares last night).  

We all felt pretty heroic in our own right:  Dallin saved the day by finding the spider, I saved the day by killing it, Mom saved the day by getting rid of it (and conquering a phobia), and Claire saved the day by not touching it and ending up in the emergency room.  

So long to the nastiest spider I have ever seen outside of a cage... and hooray for Bullseye Pest Control who will spray our yard tomorrow!