I can tell you one thing about my children.

They are not arachnophobes. They are not afraid to check out the creepy crawly things in nature, from worms to insects to snakes to salamanders. And yes, spiders.

Case in point:

I insisted Sam and Rachel let this big beauty out of the glass jar they had her in. I think they caught her because Sam would love to be able to tell people he caught some crazy-dangerous poisonous spider that usually lives in South America or something.

Plus, Sam was a little bit nervous that the spider was climbing up the side of the house near his bedroom window. Like she was gonna' crawl up there and knock on the glass and ask to be let in.

She does look pretty intimidating. That leaf she's sitting on? Is the size of my head. OK, more like the size of my hand but that still makes her a pretty big spider.

I did a quick search on-line and learned that this is a garden variety, non-poisonous, insect-eating, really-cool-zigzag-pattern-web-making spider. I hope she has a male counterpart and they produce lots of little ones.

I also hope they never, ever find their way into my house.