I HATE bugs, especially in my house

As many of you know, I HATE HATE HATE bugs. The only exceptions are: ladybugs, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, honeybees and fuzzy bumblebees, preying mantises. And ONLY IF they do not touch me or land on me or get too close. I also like artwork of these bugs, but only if it's cute. No scientific close-ups, thankyouverymuch.

Tuesday my friend Meredith stopped by after bible study. She came in the front door, and somehow this bug got inside in the process. All of a sudden, on the wall, was this THING!!! A giant walking stick. YUCK! Trying not to panic so I would not 1) alarm Maggie, 2) freak out Meredith and 3) look like a total doofus (#3 was not attained) I squelched my squealing and ran out the back door to get the broom. Of course I did have to snap a picture, because no one would believe me if I told you a 7-inch bug was in my living room. Or that I was able to get it out of the house without fainting or needing a valium.

It was about 7 inches from the tips of its antennae to tail, and it did not like the broom I was trying to get it to attach to so I could get it out the door. It scurried up my wall over our family pictures (note to self: spray with lysol). But, it did finally latch onto the broom without me knocking down the pictures and I quickly got it outside before it could climb up the handle to inflict what I am sure would have been life-threatening injuries to my person.

On a related note, the first summer here in Nashville we lived in a ground-floor apartment. That was awesome after having lived on the 3rd floor the previous year. Except for the bugs. Bugs would seriously be lined up outside our door to rush it every time I opened the door. The worst instance of this was one morning when I was leaving for work. Tyler was still asleep, and as I opened the door to leave for work in comes a 4-inch big black millipede!!! EEEEEEEK! It was crawling all over the place, and poor Tyler. He was in grad school at the time - still sleeping after staying up very late studying. The millipede stayed between me and the door (as if I would actually leave the bug in the house to come home to later), so Tyler had to come capture said bug in some compromising attire with the door wide open for the world to see. He grumpily caught the bug and disposed of it so I could go to work. I love my husband, catcher of bugs and squasher of spiders!