Apiphobia

Yep, that's right. I, Heidi, have a fear of bees. Now this all came from one incident that happened when I was about 10 years old.

I was playing soccer one Saturday morning- this particular year our uniforms were bright yellow, you know like marigold-yellow, or sunflower-yellow. Anyway, I was minding my own business and suddenly I felt a pinch under my shirt. Then there was a stinging feeling and then another pinch. It happened over and over. I remember being hysterical trying to figure out what was going on. I was yelling and crying and I'm sure I was thrashing about, waving my shirt around. What had actually happened was a hornet (or maybe a wasp, or yellow-jacket, or whatever [in my mind they are all viscious bees]) had somehow got stuck in my sports bra and was trapped so it kept attacking me. For all those entomologists out there, you will instinctly know exactly what it was now, because supposedly there is only one type of these creatures that can sting (or bite) over and over. I still don't know or care, I just know it hurt and it took my dad's bravery to come over and kill the bug before I passed out. I was in utter shock. That was the first experience I had with stings and the last. I hope to never encounter such a horrible nightmare again.

Now, why do I bring this up? Today, the weather was so nice that I had all the windows open so the screens could let in the nice air. I neglected to take notice in the hole in our screen door that has been there since before we moved in. I was off doing something and came down to the family room to check on the boys and I noticed this enormous thing flying around the screen. My first thought, "thank goodness for this screen to keep these nasty pests out". That is when I saw the hole and I quickly looked up at the "bee" and noticed it was inside. Now usually I would just scream and run away, but this was different. I had no where to go and I couldn't leave my kids there to be target practice. Which, if there is a bee around, I usually do leave my children as I quickly scream and run away. I decided to be brave. Although my heart was racing and I could feel anxiety building, I quickly went closer and waited for the right moment and I slid our glass door shut, thus trapping the beast between the screen and the glass. I demanded that the door stay shut and locked until the thing dies. For the first time ever, I feel like I am getting closer to conquering this fear. Someday I will be like my noble husband and just stand there waving the bees away. I was so proud for my tiny little act of courage that I repeated that story twice to Frank when he got home from work.

Here is the nasty thing that lurked around between the two doors for about a 1/2 hour and finally found it's way out.

Thanks to the previous owner's dogs this is the lovely hole that let the horrible varmint in our home.