It all started off as a nice evening. Keina came by for dinner and we were having a nice time visiting and Alyson was completely enjoying Auntie’s attention. Christian and Brandon were out playing with their friends Charlie and Teddy. If you have a thing about insects, now is the time to stop reading. Seriously.

You asked for it…

Suddenly, Charlie comes running into the house saying “Teddy is on the other side of the fence and there are bees!” with Brandon right on his heels saying “I’m so sorry, Mommy! We won’t go over there again!”. As I got my shoes on and headed out the door, Charlie said Teddy and Christian were trapped on the other side of the fence. So I ran up the hill, Charlie leading the way (slower than I wish I could, but this is the hill I get winded walking up). I hear Brandon behind me asking, “Is Christian ever going to get to come back in the house?”. I’m certain he thought I would be completely furious that they had gone over the fence.

So first I see Christian standing really still, freaking out that he’s being stung, and then I see Teddy a ways back also really still and really upset. So I go to the furthest kid first, and help him over the other fence by the playfields so he is out of the wooded area and ok. I turn around and now Brandon is freaking out too. By now, I’ve been stung twice too. Charlie had stayed back, but Christian and Brandon practically got eaten alive (ok, so bees don’t bite, but you get the picture). I got them running away from the woods, back to the sidewalk, down the hill, and back to the house, hitting the bees I can see off of them.

I didn’t think Brandon was that bad, because he’d seemed fine when he came down to the house, and he’d not been back up that long. Went down the list… Charlie was ok, Teddy was ok but scared, their dad showed up (Charlie has a cell phone and called him). Christian was ok. Brandon, on the other hand, was just wearing his baggy hooded sweatshirt, really light loose pants, and shoes. Literally nothing else. He had at least 1/2 dozen bees in his shirt and several more on his pants when I got to him. The poor kid, I had to strip him right there in the yard to get them all off of him. I’ve never seen bees attack like that. It was awful.

Got the kids all covered in baking soda and let them stay up and watch a movie. They’ve decided they’re never going outside again except to go out to dinner. And Christian is upset with Charlie because he’s the one that wanted to go over the fence (or so he says). They’ll all survive though. I’m immensely grateful that none of them are allergic to bee stings, or we would have been in serious trouble.

Of course, in the midst of all of this, I get a call from one of the developers on my team… she’s back in the hospital with a collapsed lung (for the second time in 2 weeks) and she’ll be staying at the hospital and having surgery this week. I think it’s time to skip ahead to Friday… this week isn’t starting off that great.