Attack of the killer mom

I've been having issues with pests in my house.

No, not the kids. This time.

I'm talking about 4- and 6-legged pests. Mice and ants. I have a standing rule in my house - if it has more than 2 legs and wasn't invited to come in, it will die. Some call it cruel and heartless, but I just can't stand any unwanted critters. I'm not afraid of them, and I don't jump up on a chair when I see a mouse, but I will kill them.

I found the telltale signs of mice in one of my cabinets a few days ago, and since then two unfortunate rodents have exited the house in garbage bags to meet their maker in the great landfill. As it turned out, upon further inspection, I realized that there was a huge gap in the back of the cabinet where the floor of it didn't meet the back wall - so that's where they were coming in to do their dirty work.

I've also had issues with ants ever since we moved into this place. I guess they're the "sugar ant" variety - little tiny black things that just will not go away, no matter how many traps I put on the counters. I scrub the counters daily to make sure that there are no crumbs, and within minutes, they're back. I've tried every home remedy from baby powder to cinnamon, and nothing would get rid of them. So, although I try to use the natural stuff whenever I can, I knew that it was time to declare chemical war.

I made a quick trip to the hardware store today and $10 later emerged with a can of ant spray and a can of spray-in foam goo stuff.

Everything came off of the counters and I soaked the counters with the ant spray - at this point, I didn't care if the counters disintegrated - the ants were going to die. There's a tiny little gap between the counter and the backsplash, and I suspect that they might be coming in through there, so it got a heavy shot along the entire length of it.

I have to admit that I enjoyed a bit of sadistic pleasure watching the ants shrivel up and die the instant the spray touched them - so sue me. They're in my territory. I let that soak for a while and then wiped down the counters and put everything back.

Then I started working on the gaps in the cabinets. I had never used that spray-in goo before, so that was kind of interesting. I wasn't quite prepared for how much it would expand - but it certainly sealed up the gaps.

When I got done with that and got everything put away, I used more of the spray-in goo in the bathroom, where someone decided that it would be smart to leave about a 1" gap between the bottom of the walls and the floor - so that's all filled in now too, but I have to go around with a knife and trim it up so that it looks a little bit better. I sprayed more ant spray in the bathroom and all around the baseboards in the kitchen, so hopefully, all of my pests will now be gone....

And at least my kitchen is somewhat clean too.

Turned out to be a pretty productive day, after getting zero sleep due to a kid puking all night long....but we did take a nice long nap together this morning so that helped to rejuvenate me a little bit. The weather is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous tomorrow so I'm going to try to maybe do some work outside and go for a run at some point so that I can prepare a little more for this 5K on Saturday - although I'm running into a potential issue with finding someone to watch the boys since The Dude is still having issues with his neck. But, I'll figure something out and everything will work out in the end.

I might lose what little bit of sanity I have left before that happens....but that's nothing new!

The Dude, the Tooth Fairy, and a Redneck Santa

Sounds like a bad sitcom, doesn't it?

Just to make it interesting, let's throw in a Vomit Rocket and a ride on the Poop Train.

Yeah, it's been one of those days.

It started out well enough. The Dude came over and we went on our major grocery shopping trip to prepare for our Christmas Eve feast. Now, let me remind you, I *hate* to shop. Seriously - I hate it. It doesn't matter if I have a pocketful of cash and no time limit - I still hate it. Add the whole pre-holiday attitude of the other customers and idiotic cashiers, and I was about at my wit's end.

Like my hat?

I think he was trying to strike a pose...

Daniel got sick at school today - I'm beginning to think that he might have some kind of allergy issue because he's been doing this a little too often. But yeah, the kid was hit by both the Vomit Rocket and the Poop Train today - and then was fine for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

He likes my hat too.

Alex has been having an issue with his teeth. For some reason, he likes to keep his baby teeth until his permanent ones are in completely - then his baby teeth slowly start to wiggle loose. We've been working on getting this tooth out for a couple of days now, and I was finally able to yank it tonight.

My skin is still crawling. I hate doing that.

Pre-yanking

Success!!!

Getting it into the Tooth Fairy Pillow

Ready for bed...

Alex is in kindergarten. He's 5...almost 6. I still can't get used to the idea of him reading. He's growing up too fast, and he likes to remind me on a regular basis.

He got a little notebook from his teacher today for Christmas, and he was "writing" notes in it. At first, he was just scribbling so then I told him to go ahead and write something - just to see what he could do. He surprised me and did these totally on his own, with no help at all.

So now the boys are in bed, the house is quiet, and I'm looking forward to being able to sleep in tomorrow. The older 3 kids have one more day of school before Christmas break but they're with Ex1 tonight so I don't have to get up in the morning - which I tried to drill into Alex's head, but I'm sure he'll have me up at the buttcrack of dawn like he always does. Hopefully no one is sick tomorrow so that we can go to the girls' choir concert in the afternoon - we missed their band concert tonight since Daniel wasn't feeling well.

The next few days will be a little crazy, between having the kids home from school and getting things done around the house before Christmas and finishing my shopping and trying to get things wrapped - I need a few more days, but I usually work better under pressure. It'll all get done one way or another.

I might go insane in the meantime, but at least it'll be fun!

More basketball practice

The fun never ends! We had the normal Wednesday chaos, compounded by Daniel getting sick at school. I had to go and pick him up early, and he napped while I got supper ready and until the other kids got home from school.

In my stress of trying to figure out how to juggle basketball practice with a sick kid, The Dude came to the rescue and offered to come over and stay with Daniel while I did basketball duty.

Alex brought some books with him to add to his reading log for school, and now that he's done with those we are just watching the girls get their butts kicked by the coach. I can about guarantee that she is going to be wiped out by the end of practice!

After practice, we have to meet Ex1 to get Sarah and Jared from him, and then get them all home and into bed. Hopefully Daniel will feel better tomorrow, but I'm planning on keeping him home anyway.

And yes, I'm cheating and doing this by phone so that I can (hopefully) get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight!

I need a helmet

Today started out as a much better day than yesterday did. I got up almost on time, got everyone up and dressed and fed, got lunches packed, and got everyone off to school - on time, even.

Daniel seemed to be feeling better, so I took him to his morning preschool and then I took off walking on my trail that goes through the woods. I wasn't really in the mood to go, but as usual once I got moving it felt pretty good. It was cool out, but not so cold that it was uncomfortable. As I walked, I enjoyed the scenery and got lost in my thoughts.

Suddenly, I heard (and felt) a SWISH! go past my right ear, followed by a WHAM!

What the..............?

OK, you know those cartoons where a squirrel throws an acorn at a human? Yeah. I found that squirrel. Or rather, he found me. But he wasn't chucking any tiny little acorns at my head - instead, it was one of these.

A hedgeapple. The squirrel threw a damned hedgeapple at my head. I kid you not. He sat there on a branch that was hanging across the trail, and I swear he was rubbing his front paws together gleefully as I walked past him.

Now granted, it wasn't as big as this one, but it wasn't much smaller either. It might have been baseball-sized, which is how big they usually are.

I'm thankful that he didn't bean me with this one.

They're not terribly heavy, but I'd imagine that taking one upside the head without warning might sting a little bit.

I'm seriously considering not walking that path again until they're done falling from the trees. It's bad enough to have to watch where I walk so that I don't sprain an ankle on one, but now I have to worry about them being chucked at my head by an evil squirrel.

Only me. I swear.....

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As for the rest of the day, I took Daniel to his afternoon preschool and came home and did some sewing and watched a movie for a while. Then I went to get Alex, and then to get Daniel, as the routine usually goes. I was talking to Daniel's teacher and we were discussing how he just didn't look quite right, but I dismissed it as him being tired since we were up so early.

Then he puked all over the floor outside of the classroom.

Looks like the Vomit Rocket has returned. We got him cleaned up, came home, and he promptly crashed on the couch. Alex is chilling out watching movies and looks like he could fall asleep soon. The older 3 went to a football game with their father so they won't be home until probably 10pm so it's going to be a fairly quiet evening.

I'm going to sew. And do laundry. And maybe mop the kitchen.

Woohoo!!! It's Friday night at my house! Par-tay!

Or not.

Oh yay, what a day.

I know it could have been worse.

I put the kids to bed last night, and around midnight, I heard screaming coming from the boys' room. I ran in there and Daniel was crying that he had to go to the bathroom. We sprinted and barely made it before he had a massive bout of diarrhea. Then while he was sitting there, he started to puke. He was not a happy camper. So he came out to the living room and sat with me while I watched a movie. This went on until about 4am, so needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night.

I got up early enough (5:45ish) to take the cinnamon rolls out of the fridge and preheat the oven, and then I laid back down "for a few minutes". Next thing I knew, it was 6:54. We have to leave by 7:15 to get the older 3 kids to school on time. I threw the cinnamon rolls into the oven, yelled at the kids, and got them up and dressed and they got all of their stuff together. I grabbed plastic plates, threw hot cinnamon rolls onto them, and got everyone into the van by about 7:20. They ate and I drove, and we made it to the school on time - barely. Then we took off again so that I could get Alex to his school by 8:00. I think it was 8:02 when we pulled in - worked for me at that point. Besides, there was a school van pulling up behind us at the same time, so it's not like we were that late, right?

Daniel and I came home, and all I wanted to do was lay back down for a while. But he had other ideas. After being a Vomit Rocket all night long, the kid was ready to go this morning! He was in such a good mood and just wanted to DO stuff all morning. I really just wanted to sleep. But about the time I decided that it was pointless and I would go get a shower, there was a knock at the door.

Hello, Mr. Maintenance Dude.

I had called the landlord the other day because there is STILL a leak in the bathroom - but I had figured out where it was coming from and it really only needed some caulking. So he came in, took a look at it, and went to get the stuff that he needed. He found a few more leaks and so he went caulk-crazy, which of course meant that I couldn't take a shower. *rolling eyes*

I did go a little crazy this afternoon and whipped up a batch of cornbread. From scratch. Just because I wanted some. And it was goooooooooooood. Even the kids liked it, which amazed me since they're normally so picky about that. Oh, and that's the second pan of cinnamon rolls which will be tomorrow's breakfast since I plan to get up on time. Ha. Ha. Ha.

I did finally decide that it was time to do Daniel's laundry today. The good part about him having a ton of clothes is that I don't have to do his very often. The bad part is that when I finally do decide to do it, his basket looks something like this.

When the pile of dirty laundry is taller than the kid who wears the clothes, it's time to do it. No more excuses.

Of course the girls decided that I need to do their laundry tonight too - which I'm not really looking forward to doing, but at the same time they did finally tell me that they need to have it done the night before, instead of pitching a total fit 5 minutes before it's time to go to school because they don't have anything to wear. Plus, I was just informed that they need to have something pink to wear to the football game tomorrow night. Like that's going to work - they don't have a lot of pink stuff, and I know I don't have any. Pink is not a popular color in this house. At all.

I keep saying that I'm just going to make them start doing their own laundry - but I haven't done it yet. I know that they're old enough, but sometimes it's just easier to do it myself. At least then I know that it's done right.

Oh boy....I think I just discovered another control-freak-tendency of mine. Every time I say that I'm not a control freak, something like that pops up. *sigh* I should just give up and admit it.

But I'm really not that bad. I don't have to be in total control all of the time. Do I?