Fire Ants!!!!

When we first moved to Georgia almost a year ago....there was one thing each and every conversation with the locals included.....a warning about fire ants.  We were warned how much it would hurt if bitten....that a baby had died after having her car seat put down on a fire ant hill.....that fire ants have some sort of way of communicating with each other so that when they bite they do it simultaneously....you get the idea.

Thus began the constant diatribe from me every time we arrived at a new location, "Look out for fire ants!"  "Watch where you are stepping, there might be fire ants!"  "There is a big fire ant pile here, be careful!"

We recently had family in town from Minnesota and we decided to take them to a local wild animal shelter/zoo type place.  When we were a few minutes away from our destination, I realized I had forgotten my camera.  Although I have become much more sparing in my picture taking because with 6 kids, I am years behind in my scrapbooking - so more pictures taken = more behind in making my books = more guilt that I am not treating my kids the same = imagined conversations with the younger children when they are old about why mommy hardly took any pictures of them and the older kids have tons which must mean that mommy didn't love them.... anyway, this was a big photo op, so I was really bummed that I didn't have it. 

My family was following us because there were too many to fit in one vehicle, so when everyone arrived,  I needed to share my despair, so I hopped out of the van while Rainman got the stroller ready and walked over to my sister's van to share the news.  She is the one that got me hooked on scrapbooking, so I knew she would commiserate with me on this horrible development.....then I felt them.....little things crawling all over my ankle.....and then...owww, that hurt.....ooh, get them off....play it cool...."No, it doesn't hurt that  bad.....I'm fine."

But, it really did hurt and boy there were a lot of them....all at once. 

Freaky, really. 

I am fine now.  However, nobody warned me about the little blisters that would be left behind in the coming days.  I had a ring around my ankle where my sock stopped that was blister, after blister and a few on my wrist from where I had brushed them off and made them angry....apparently.

So, yes, I was the one to get bit by fire ants after warning the kids for a year to be careful!!!

This is a picture my sister took of a different fire ant hill that day....the one I stepped in was camouflaged a LOT better.... notice the poor little moth being led to a fiery grave...

I think that my incident did help the kids future safety though - because they saw how quickly I stepped in them....how quickly I brushed them off of me....how quickly they bit me....and the loads of blisters I got later.  I should have taken a picture of them, but I didn't want to show the world my "cankles"!