First Day of School

Yes, school is back in session.  I took my obligatory first day of school pictures, of course.

 

 

 

Joshua & Anthony are Seniors.  They are pretty excited to be in their last year of High School. 

 

 

Maggie is in 10th grade.

 

 

 

Samantha is starting Middle School (6th grade).

 

I am glad they are back to school as they were getting bored.  They also all enjoy school (for the most part).  I do miss them when they are gone but appreciate the time we are together even more.  I am making a stronger effort to be with them when they are home (as opposed to working on something on my computer - usually in my bedroom).

 

I was surprised at how much I was able to get accomplished with them at school.  I had forgotten how much I could do without constant interruptions.  I guess if I didn't put them as my priority, I could get more accomplished. :) 

 

Unfortunately my dear husband called me this morning and asked me how my "vacation" was going.  Really? As if!

 

Seminary starts on Wednesday.  Maggie seems excited, I'm not so sure about Joshua and Anthony.  We're going to see if we can convince Geneva to come as well.

She finished!

Maggie finished reading the Old Testament!  I am so proud of her.  We had been so busy that we hadn't been reading together.  We had to do a lot of reading on our own.  I'm not quite there yet but she is done!  I am so proud of her. 

Next year's Seminary is dedicated to the New Testament.  We decided as a family to read it together.  We are going to read 1 chapter each day.  We should be done before school ends.  Maggie will probably read it by herself as well.

Bed Bugs & the Hot Box

We had bed bugs last year. Have you ever had them? If not, consider yourself very lucky! They are AWFUL! And extremely difficult to get rid of.  I just realized that I didn't take many pictures when we had them.  The kids were playing with the camera as they prepped their room.  They also took some pictures of some art they decided to get rid of.

Rosie's art project from 5th grade - they had a painter spend a few weeks at their school teaching technique

Emmie's SWAP Bandanna - had SWAPS from the 90th GS Sing-a-long

Rosie's paper mache (notice the spray bottle next to it? It's full of rubbing alcohol which kills bed bugs)

The children decided to get rid of anything that might have the bed bugs (YAY!).  It wasn't much of a fight to downsize all our junk.  We used tons of black trash bags & took many trips to the dumpster.  We even got rid of all of our beds except Essie & Rosie's bed (it had a bed bug cover on it). It is in the background of one of the other pictures the kids took.

Corner of bed, I can see 8 bed bugs on it (dead) and their feces, YUCK!

We did remove the bed bug cover & wash it before the house was treated.  We have since gotten rid of the bed. (this was October 2011)

Here are some pictures of our living room in February 2011 (we think we got the bedbugs in April 2011).  My Mom had come over after I was in the hospital (Summer 2010) & helped me to get our home in order.  When we were finally done, I took some pictures to send to Paul.

The is the sofa I eventually slept on - the boxes behind are storage

The love seat is where Paul often slept. The sun room behind eventually became Monica's "bedroom"

 

The preparations to have out home exterminated was AWFUL!  We had to go through everything we owned that was in infected areas (everywhere except the kitchen, bathroom, and certain items in the walk-in master room closet).  We did take the opportunity to clean out under the sinks and most of the items in the master closet only leaving items that were in boxes and had been for over a year.

To prep our house we had to bag up everything in black trash bags.  It was recommended that we dispose of our living room furniture (we did). Everything had to be disassembled and put in the center of the room.  The carpet had to be lifted from the floor so they could treat under the walls & under the carpet.  There had to be a space about 3 feet from each wall.  We had to remove all the wall plates (and most we still have not put back).  We had to take all material items (clothes, curtains, towels, etc) out of the house the day of treatment (and there were 3 days of treatment).  We spent a lot of time at the local laundromats washing & drying everything we owned.  After the first treatment, we started keeping the material items in the cars.  Anything that came into the house was put in ziploc bags.  It was crazy!  During the time between treatments whenever someone took clothes off they were put directly into the washing machine.  I washed everything on hot and dried it for about 2 hours on hot.  As soon as it was done, I folded each item and put it into a ziploc bag.  I still have some of my clothes in ziploc bags. 

I took some pictures of our house before the first treatment.  The treatments are a week apart, where are we supposed to be during the time between treatments?  It was crazy!




Living Room

Living Room & Dining Room (from sun room)

Sun room & part of living room

2nd bedroom

Master bedroom (notice clean bedbug cover on the bed)

Master bedroom

We ended up spending a few weekends in local hotels.  I just couldn't see us spending the weekend in a home where there was nothing to do, and nowhere to go.  The treatments were in October and November so the kids were in school.  They were such troopers!

We are done, Thank Goodness!  We have finally finished "hot boxing" everything.  A Hot Box is just that.  It is a box that has a heater inside of it.  You put items into it (on a shelf) and zip is closed and turn the heat on.  There is a sensor that you put in the middle of the items.  Once the temperature in the box reaches 120 degrees and sits there for an hour, you can remove the items.  The heat will kill any stage of bedbug from egg to adult.

Now we are attempting to get the house put back together. We were given a couch by a member of our congregation and a futon from my sister, Tammy.  Our living room is now usable but not at all what I would prefer.  We still have a bunch of stuff just in boxes (when we took it from the hot box, we put it in boxes to go through later).  Once it is done (if ever), I will post some pictures (I havent' taken any yet). We were given beds for the children and bought one for us from another member of our congregation.  I did take a picture of Emmie's room since we just finished it.  She comes home tonight! The black item on the right is the corner of the hot box.

I hope you aren't reading this because you have bedbugs.  They are AWFUL!  We think we got them in April 2011.  We realized what they were in June 2011.  My lovely husband really thought we could get rid of them ourselves.  Emmie & I had scoured the web and were doubtful but willing to try anything.  In the end, we called an exterminator in August.  It took us a long time to get the house prepped, we even put treatment off at least once because we weren't going to be ready.  In the end, it took 3 treatments (they thought it would only take 2).  The bedbugs that started in the 2nd bedroom ended up in both bedrooms, the living room, the sun room and the dining room.  I'm just glad they are gone!
 

 

No more Rosie!

Maggie has requested that I stop using nicknames for her. She really doesn't like them & has asked me to only use her given name, Maggie. This makes me sad but I will attempt to comply with her request.

Ouch! Dog Bite!

We have a neighbor with a dog we like to call "killer".  It is a small dog.  Most small dogs tend to bark but this one . . . we were sure it would attack any chance it got.  There are 4 people living in this condo.  The 2 moms, an adult (19ish) daughter and a son, Michael (middle school age).  The daughter, when she walks the dog, will carry him/her in the elevator and wait until she is outside away from people before she puts it down.  Even if you are in the elevator with her, it seems like it will jump right out of her hands if it had the opportunity.  It is almost always growling unless it's barking.

 

I had just dropped girls off after bringing them home from Girl's Camp.  I had previously dropped Maggie (& Samantha) off because we were passing by our house anyway & they had just woken up from being asleep in the car.  I then took the other girls home. I had an appointment with the dermatologist in a little less than an hour.  I was going to run upstairs, go to the bathroom, fill my water & leave again.  I was waiting for the elevator when Michael (carrying a bag of trash) and a younger boy (about 8-10) holding "Killer"'s leash came out of the elevator.  "Killer" was the first off the elevator and jumped at me and bit my pants.  This really surprised me as I knew there was someone in the elevator (I could hear them talking) and was backed up quite a bit to give them room to get out.  I pushed "Killer" off my pants with my foot and he/she released the pants and came back and bit again.  This time the bite went through my pants into my leg!  Needless to say, I wet myself.  Michael pulled "Killer" leash and they left to take out the trash & walk the dog.

 

Here are pictures of the bite

 

 

Ouch!  After cleaning myself up, changing my clothes & refilling my water I went by the neighbor's house on my way back out.  They said the dog had all her shots.  The dermatologist wouldn't let me leave until I agreed to get the bite checked out by either my primary care doctor (who wasn't there) or the clinic.  On my way home, I called the city & reported the bite.  The dog had to be quarantined for 10 days.  What is really needed is some owner/dog training.  I just make sure to keep WAY clear of the elevator if I hear anyone inside.

 



Needlework & Other Craft Projects

I started learning at a young age (8?) to do some handcrafts.  I learned to croche, knitt and do some simple needlework.  I really enjoy cross-stitching.  I have attempted to instill that in my children . . . didn't work so well.  Most of them don't have the patience to just do it.  Essie, on the other hand, enjoys it.

She finished her first project this past February.  I finally took pictures off my camera.

She did a real nice job.  She did some "pillow" projects as well.  She cannot find one of them but here's the other (picture taken today as I forgot to take pictures when she was done.

Right now she's attempting to learn to croche so she can make a new project. It is real cute & I may borrow the instructions and attempt to make some myself.

New Beds

G & T have been sleeping on the floor since we finished the bed bug erradication.  We have had multiple offers of beds and/or mattresses.  They have always denied receiving them.  We have offered to purchase them and they have denied them.

T's old "bed" or sleeping space

G's old "bed" or sleeping space

A friend from church is moving and offered her triple bunkbed.  We went by and looked at it last week.  They decided they wanted it.  We picked it up today with the help of my Mom, my sister (Becky) and her husband (Matt).  We only put two of the beds together and are holding the third bed out for Emmie.  Tonight they are not sleeping on the floor. Yay! 

I didn't want to take a picture of them while asleep (didn't want to wake them up). I am so glad they are now off the floor!

Old Testament Update

Rosie & I are doing well in our reading.  We have fallen behind a few times but were able to catch up.  We are in Proverbs and are on track to finish before school starts.

 

She is at YW camp this week.  As long as we each read 6 chapters per day while she's gone, we'll keep on schedule.

 

This is a big endeavor but I'm glad we are attempting it.