At the Risk of Losing All Future Houseguests

Yes, well, so today I got back from walking Wonder Dog to find two little boys anxiously awaiting my return so that they could greet me with these famous words:

"MOM!  There's something CREEPY in the living room!!!" 

Words to warm a mother's heart undoubtedly.  In our house, that something CREEPY really could be just about anything at all.  Like this.  Or this.  And this. Or even this.  Good gracious - why do we have so many of these situations?????

I just don't know what it says that as my heart began beating rapidly, the first words out of my mouth were, "Is it poop???!!!  Is it an animal??!!!" 

Really Julie?  CREEPY poop???  In your living room? What kind of reality show are we headed for if that's where your mind goes first?

And actually, no, thankfully, it wasn't poop.  Instead, it was this little lady trying to escape the confines of my fireplace screen:

Turns out, she's a female Rhinocerous Beetle, also known as The Largest Insect Known To Reside In North America.  Not making up that official title just because I was chicken pants at getting her out of the screen, by the way.  She was about 2 inches long and an inch or so wide.  These beetles are also known as the Strongest Animals on the Planet Proportionately.  So I totally get bonus points for wrestling her out of my fireplace with my salad tongs.

Salad tongs that promptly went into the dishwasher for Beetle Spore Removal, by the way.

So, um, yes.  Perhaps CREEPY is not a completely inappropriate word.