Devil Bushes

We set out on Sunday to trim bushes. No big deal.

(It's always a big deal.)

Once we dug in, it was apparent that said bushes were spawn of the devil and more than a trim was going to be necessary. They all had to go.

Long story, we got it done, complained afterwards about not being cut out for manual labor as our backs hurt, arms were scratched up from the branches, blah, blah blah.

End of night, I'm sitting on the couch and notice three welts on my arm, two of which are close together and have black spots in the middle. I assume it's a spider bite and did what I know should never be done in these exact circumstances. I Googled "early spider bites". Don't ever do that. I'm convinced that mine don't look that bad and then used a trick that I learned from the kid's doctor - circled the areas with pen so that I could tell later on if/how much they had swollen.

No more swelling in the morning, so I'm good. Justin's arms on the other hand, are covered in itchy red bumps. We do what any normal people do and cut the toe off from an old sock, cover his worst arm with hydracortisone cream and slide the sock over his arm so that the cream wouldn't get on his work shirt.

I think I'm sitting pretty with what could or couldn't be a spider bite until lunch. Vaughn and I are enjoying lunch al fresco and I notice red bumps on both of my arms. And a couple spots on my legs. I text Justin and he replies with something about wanting to cut his arms off so I know he's hurting too.

Of course those Devil Bushes gave us Poison Ivy. Why wouldn't they?

We both know what poison ivy looks like. I'm still confused how we missed it.

We're itchy and bitchy. Don't mess with us.