Tuesday July 4th - 8:30pm
Screams pierce through the heavy evening air interrupting my train of thought. I glance to the kids, is #3 and it's late, she's tired. She might not last through the bon fire and sparklers tonight. I sigh, maybe I'll just put her to bed before we start the s'mores. Her screaming doesn't subside, now #4 is crying and the hysteria is spreading to #1 and 2. The sound of hands smacking skin and terrified sobs fill my ears. "Grab the kids" Tanner shouts as he tries to get away with #4 in his arms, only to drop her in his attempt to escape. I sprint to them, I can't tell what is happening. Tanner tries to grab #3 as she runs by him and in her panic she knocks #4 down. Tanner gets three steps before she slips from
his hands and he yells "get inside". I can't hear my own heavy breathing as I scoop up #4 in my arms and grab #3 by the hand. I am trying to run to the house, 1 and 2 are five paces ahead. Their scared whimpering mixes with the cries of the two I am trying to rescue. I look up and see Tanner running toward the house, urging #1 and 2 to keep moving. He is smacking at myself and peels his shirt off throwing it into the yard. "These mother fuckers, I am going to burn them alive". My skin starts to burn, it feels like my nerve endings are on fire. #4 is yelling with tears streaming down her face. She lost a shoe but there is no going back for it now. Sweat is dripping down my face, my heart is pounding and the back door feels like it's years away. Somehow despite the urgency of the situation, time has slowed to a crawl. While I am confident we are moving, the yard seems to lengthen with every step I take. One foot in front of the other. Hold on tight to the girls. We can make it. Get inside. Close the doors. Just get to the house...
Tuesday July 4th - 12:00pm
The sun is shining brightly in the sky, the southern heat and humidity has created the type of weather you can wear. Sweat starts to bead on my legs as I sit by the pool watching the girls swim. The house disasters are on the back of my mind but for the moment my annoyance and worry is subdued by the joyful sounds of the kids jumping off the diving board. The morning passed uneventfully with less frustration than the last few days. The unsettled nature of a move really did a number on the girls ability to play together and my patience with their bickering. But non of that matters becuase by some miracle, today has been wonderful. We've played and laughed without any yelling, arguing or ridiculous fights over things like rocks and the purple plastic plate. I leave Tanner to watch the kids and walk up the deck stairs to start lunch.
As I walk inside and open the fridge, I hear Tanner holler "go get mom, she will know what to do".
#2 walks inside holding her finger mumbling "I got stung, by a bee. It was in my hair and it hurts it hurts." like a mantra to herself. Since it's managing to keep her calm, I don't say anything but start taking care of her finger. "Dad got the stinger already mom".
"I am so proud of how you handled that." Tanner says as #2 and I walk back to the pool. "I do not handle stings that well. You are an incredible kid". #2's face lights up as she jumps into the pool ready to play again. Tanner goes on to explain how serious he is, he hates stings. We acknowledge in conversation it's the first time any of the kids have been stung, and we will find out next time if she is allergic. I have never been stung by anything other than a sweat bee but imagine it hurts bad.
Tuesday July 3rd 8:00pm.
The girls are outside helping Tanner unload fire wood. I gather the s'mores stuff, my phone and a big glass of water before heading out back. The lawn mower rumbles and I see the four girls climbing into the wagon trailer Tanner fixed the other day. They are all smiles as he drives them around the yard. They disappear through the gate to the front yard. He is probably taking them down the road a bit and I smile. This house isn't perfect, I'm not sure how much we have to put into electric repairs, the master tub is hot waterless and the amount of painting we have to do is overwhelming but right now, in this moment, the yard the pool, the quiet country atmosphere, it's perfect. I sit down by the fire and wait for them to return.
A few minutes pass and the sound of the mower and tiny voices break my train of thought. I pull out my phone to snap some pictures and take a video as the makeshift hay ride passes by the pool and around me. Four girls with grins as wide as their faces shout and wave as Daisy bounces along side them. #1 has decorated #4's face with star stickers and I am struck by the "All American" scene playing out before me. This is what dreams are made of. "I love you dad. You're the best dad ever". These are memories that will last a life time. Tanner cuts the mower to the right and drives a loop through the wooded section of the yard. The girls laugh and chatted as twigs snap beneath the weight of the mower. "Let's go again! We need to make our path through the woods" Tanner shouts over the sound of the engine. He does a circle in the grass and heads back toward the woods when the mower stops. "Oops, we are stuck. Hop out of the wagon while I get it out of this rut and you can get right back in." He adjusts the mower and waves the girls back in. #3 lifts her leg to climb into the wagon and starts to cry. #1 tries to help her in while #2 picks up #4 and walks toward the wagon. #4 starts to yell. Screams pierce through the heavy evening air interrupting my train of thought...
Tuesday July 4th 8:45pm.
We climb the stairs. #4 still in my arms. The nape of my neck is cold and hot at the same time. There is a feather like movement sensation across my hair line but I don't have the free hands to figure out what is happening. I cling to #4 and finally cross the threshold to the house. The girls are smacking themselves frantically. Adrenaline is coursing through my body, short zinging bolts of heat followed by intense tightness are running down my arms, legs and feet. My ears are aching, my right eye is watering and scratchy. Tanner rushes in and slams the door behind him "ground hornets" he exclaims as he swats at his wrist.
"ouch! It hurts! I'm being stung!" #2 is smacking at herself. I pat the kids down as quickly as I can. Hornets are flying all around us, diving in to sting and circling around to regroup before stinging again.
"If you're not being stung go into my room! Get away from them!" The girls run into the masterbedroom and we close the door leaving Tanner in the living room swatting at the hornets.
I take a deep breath, the girls are still swatting at their clothes. My brain slows, I have to check their clothes. A hornet is tangled in #3s hair, it breaks free and I smack it on the ground.
"I got it! It's okay. We are okay!" I say over the crying. I strip #4 off checking to make sure there aren't any hornets in her clothes.
"Mom another one!" #1 screams and points at the wall. I grab a shirt from the dirty clothes and kill it.
"We are fine. It's okay. Is anyone getting stung?"
"No" they say in unison.
"Mom ANOTHER ONE!" #3 screams. I push the girls into the corner of the room and stand infront of them.
I must look ridiculous in my wide leg stance arms out with a dirty shirt ready to strike when I see there are four hornets by the ceiling fan. I hear Tanner on the other side of the door yelling. "You mother fuckers!" The sound of something smacking the floor and then the wall tells me he is dealing with some out there too.
"It stung me!" #2 yells. A hornet flys from
behind us. We are trapped. I tell the girls to go into the bathroom and I see there are two hornets flying near the sinks. We can't escape this room, the living room is filled with them.
"Go to the end of the driveway, they won't follow you there! Just don't go to the backyard!" Tanner yells as he smacks against something. I open the exterior door of the bedroom and usher the girls out. #4 is naked, I put the dirty t shirt in my hands on her and we run to the driveway. It's so hot and the girls are still swatting at themselves.
"To the neighbors!" We rush across the street and knock on the door to our neighbors house. The neighbors, while we've only met in passing once or twice. They answer the door confused. My eye is red and watering, I am panting, the girls are frantic. Tim looks at me startled by our appearance. "Can we come in?" I blurt out as I tell him what is happening. He rushes to let us in and as we stand in the foyer of his house a hornet flies around our heads. The girls start to sob. It feels as though this will never end....
Wednesday July 4th 10:30pm.
The girls have been in bed asleep since 10:00pm. They are medicated with benadryl and motrin. Their stings fewer in number than we initially thought. They have cortisone cream on all their stings and are sleeping soundly. After we got the girls in bed we continued to kill the strangling hornet here and there. My stings form large painful welts. My nose is running, nasal congestion I didn't have earlier is bothering me now. I assume it's my sinuses inflamed from the sting so close to my eye. My eyes are itching, and I keep getting waves of hot and cold flashes with tingling down my extremities. I have 11 stings that I can see and count. Tanner has 6. The weird tinging sensation doesn't stop. My legs are aching and my neck is on fire. Tanner just finished cleaning up the dog puke upstairs which had two hornets in it. I give her benadryl too. Antihistamines all around! Like Oprah "you get a benadryl, you get a bendryl, you get a benadryl".
Present
I ended up in the ER to make sure I wasn't having a systemic reaction. I knew I wasn't having an anaphylactic response but I didn't feel right. I took an antihistamine before I went. By the time I got there the welts were subsiding but the pain and tingling wasn't. The doctor prescribe some steroids and an epi pen. He said I was having an exaggerated immune response and may very well end up allergic to stings the next time. He sent me home with some benadryl too and said to take it for a few days. I came home and killed two more hornets in the front hallway before finally falling into bed. While I was gone, Tanner dug up the nest and lit it on fire with gasoline and some sparklers.
This morning I woke up around 6:00 to intense itching, the stings were large welts again and a hornet was sitting on my bedroom door as I walked by to take more benadryl. I angrily killed it with a shoe and fell back into bed scratching at the stings that both itch and burn. Now, in the light of day with less chaos I was able to take a real look at myself, I have 14 stings in total.
We are still finding hornets here and there inside. I'm fairly certain the girls will scream whenever they see a fly now. Speaking of horners, we are pretty sure they were/are not horners but yellow jackets now that we've seen them up close and dead.
This is the second dust pan full of dead yellow jackets. And a screenshot of the joyful video I captured moments before the backyard yellow jacket massacre.
I haven't checked to see if our cameras caught any of the great escape on film. But I imagine if they did, it would look an awful lot like that scene from Tommy Boy when Chris Farley is yelling "bees! BEES! YOUR FIRE ARMS ARE USELESS"
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