Stick to what you know

The only thing I know about bugs is that I don't want them near me. In my mind they represent some of sort of status thing, bugs belong with the poor. I guess it stems from my childhood. Being a city kid who bussed to suburbia for school, I became very aware of the things that made my home life different then those whom I associated with between the hours of 8 and 3. Somewhere in this process of things, "bugs" and pretty much all outdoor creatures fell into the category of home life. I remember watching my grandmother vigorously swat, spray and smash anything that said “bzzzz”, “squeak”, or “chirp.” At times it appeared she was willing to risk her safety in order to keep these unwanted creatures outside of and away from our home. I don’t remember hearing any of my classmates discuss this; therefore bugs belong in the city and live with the poor.

While I am now grown and a little more educated, I know differently but this concept is hard to shake. It still doesn’t matter to me what family they belong to, where they come from, what good they serve on the food chain...none of it...I don't care, I simply prefer to stay away from all of them. They all mean the same thing: ant=gross, gnat=gross, fly=gross, spider=gross, lightening bug=gross, ladybug=gross!!! And we will not even discuss roaches and mice, uhhh I cringe just typing it!!

Now, my husband on the other hand grew up on a dirt road with full fledge farms next door. (ok I know that the animals that live on a farm are different then “bugs” but remember I am city kid so its all the same thing!) He spent many of his young days playing with, exploring and dissecting many of the very same creatures we prayed would flee from our home.

So now we have a dilemma. When mommy sees a fly she goes swatting and batting like a mad woman. When daddy sees a fly he ignores it. When Alena sees a fly she wants to get a good look at it and understand where it comes from, where it lives, why it says “bzzz”, where his mommy and daddy are and on, on and on!!!!

Usually I pull her away with a “ew Alena that’s gross”, but the other day I was feeling kinda of loopy and decided to entertain her questions about the family of caterpillars that were residing on our front steps. She and her friend were quite intrigued by them. So regardless of how grossed out I was, I let them get close and personal with these fury little green monsters. However I had absolutely no answers for any of the zillion questions they asked!

When we came in I was feeling even loopier and decided to make it a learning project for the three of us. I got on the net and found a kid friendly story on the life of a caterpillar. We read the story. Learned how to make the letter “C” and we even made our very own caterpillar friends! I mean I went all out…finger painting and blow drying cotton balls so we could have enough length to give the caterpillar's body the full effect. I even cut out eyes and legs! I have to admit it was a lot of fun.

Now, you are not going to believe this, as I am sitting here writing this blog on how I have been stretched to embrace creatures of nature, wouldn’t you know the news just did a story on “webworms.” Apparently they are known to attack the Texas trees. The news reports that due to the climate changes we have been having an extra dose of them this year and they are killing the trees. They even had a guy recommending different methods for killing them!!

As I looked up from the computer guess what I saw……that’s right, right there on my TV screen a picture of these “webworms” pop up. They look an awfully lot like the family of “caterpillars” that were living on my steps!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA wow…I LET ALENA PLAY WITH WORMS!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

My one liner husband says, “hmph, guess you know even less about bugs then you thought.”