A Southern Experience

Cole was checking on the kids before we settled in for the night (2 had been sick the day before).  I went to the bedroom to brush my teeth. Being the nice wife that I am I decided to turn down the sheets to show Cole how much I loved him. He'd had a long day.

I walked over to my side of the bed turned over the pillow and saw this . . .

on MY pillow!! I jumped back, shuttered, and yelled, "Oh my gosh Cole, a cockroach!!!"

He came tearing around the corner, "What? What?"

"There's a cockroach on our bed!"

"Where is it?"

"I don't know. It ran away" I said, as I cowered with my hands covering my face.

Frustrated, he turns and walks back to the kid's room. "Don't ever yell like that again. I thought it was something terrible and serious. Just tell me when you find it."

Serious?! This is serious!! There's a cockroach on my pillow where I lay my head at night, where my kids were wrestling a few hours ago. My baby was crawling around naked in my room just earlier!! AGH!

So I took matters into my own trembling hands. I put on my running shoes on as fast as I could (shaking them out first, of course). I had to protect my bare feet from this nasty thing. I went down stairs and grabbed the broom and headed back up.

I proceeded to pull back the pillows one by one barely holding onto the edge. I didn't see anything. So I nudged the bed away from the wall to take a peek. Just dust bunnies ( wood floors ya know). I knew I need to strip down the bed so I picked up the pillows one by one giving them a gentle shake and set them aside. I picked up the last pillow and I saw it again!!!

On my bed!! Of course I shrieked and ran out the room not seeing where it went.

My husband sent me down stairs and proceeded to look. He came down 5 minutes later saying he had no clue where it was. He gave it a good effort for how exhausted he was.

OK, I decided I was going to be brave and show Cole how calm I could be about this. I spent the next  20 minutes gently lifting and shaking anything that was on the floors. I moved the bed around and took out stuff from underneath like boxes and guitar cases. I shoved the broom under in as many way as I could hoping it would run out the other side and I could smash it.

I was nervous, very nervous. I kept running my hands through my hair, my stomach was turning and I thought I was never going to be able to sleep in my bed again.

Cole came back up to the bedroom a while later. He lifted up the bed while I checked and sure enough it was right in the middle under the bed. It ran under my night stand, but Cole couldn't find it. So slowly I took out the drawers one by one as Cole stood by with a shoe to smash it. I saw it hiding on the side. I got a lump in my throat as I pointed to Cole where it was.

One smack and it was dead!

Hallelujah!

Cole is my hero. I may have cleared the way for the nasty creature, but he came in for the final kill. For that I will forever be thankful!

We knew there would be tons of bugs in Virginia. We'd even been told there are cockroaches. We've seen cicadas, crickets, millipedes, caterpillars, mosquitoes, lady bugs, grasshoppers etc. . .  and we've actually had many bugs come into our home through our old sliding door. Gross, yes, but not as horrifying and disgusting as the cockroach. Not sure how it got in and frankly I don't want to know. I hope it never. . . happens . . . again!

This experience reminds me of the time a HUGE moth flew in our house when we were first married . . . but that's a story for another time.

THE END!

** Sorry for the long dramatic tale. I can't sleep. How can I after all that! I was hoping writing would get it all out of my mind. I've got a million questions about roaches running through my head. Does anyone have any tips or advice on this issue? I don't have a clue and think searching the Internet might scare me even more.

I hesitated to even post the picture, but I know my kids will like it!