Hats

Voting

This was Monica's first Presidential election as a voter.  We went together & voted.  Just doing our civic duty.

Waze Flag

I use a GPS application on my phone called Waze.  I love using it for directions and that I can see my friends and when they are driving.  I have used it for over a year.  When they were first new I signed up on their Facebook page for a free car flag.

 I didn't use it very often, but loved it.  I had it in window of the car when Monica was driving.  She forgot it was there and opened the window.  She heard a noise and it was gone.  We went back looking for it and found it on the ground.  The holder is gone but I still have the flag.

Roof repairs

Ugh!  They decided to repair the roof of our condo building starting September 18th.  They said it would take about 3 weeks.  There would be intermittent noise and perhaps slight shaking.

They started on the other side of the building and we didn't notice a thing, except a sign in front of our building & trucks parked in our lot.  

Once they moved to our side of the building, the noise was unbearable, not intermittent.  It went on and on and on and on.  The first day one of the lights in the hallway started falling down. I guess this is from the "slight shaking" 

The noise went on and on and on.  They put up another sign, UGH!

When it finally ended, I couldn't believe how quiet it finally was.  I forgot how much I loved living on the top level of the building, without upstairs neighbors.

Key chain

Monica & I had bought lanyards together.  I really liked mine & wore it whenever we went out.  Then one day . . . it broke :(  I was so sad.  It was really pretty.

So, I bought a new one . . . and it broke!  What is wrong with me that I keep breaking my lanyard?  I am tempted to buy a new one . . . but.  We'll see.

General Conference Weekend

It's General Conference Weekend!  I love General Conference!  Saturday I dropped Geneva & Vicky off at the the YW Prophet Party then headed home to some treats.  (Anthony & Joshua in background)

We had quite a spread of treats to eat over the 4 sessions of conference.

By Sunday morning there wasn't as much left, but still quite a bunch of yummy treats, plus donuts!

Sunday Geneva & Vicky decided to come over & watch Conference with us.  We had a good day!

I love watching General Conference!

Rain

It's going to be a wet day. I'm sitting in the car waiting for Joshua, Anthony & Maggie. It's about 6:30. It was raining when we came out this morning. It's still coming down. I just checked the forecast, 80% chance of rain today, all day.

Here's my view of the church.

Have I told you how much I love the rain? As long as I'm not trying to get somewhere (where I might need to be dry) I LOVE it. I rarely ever carry an umbrella (and I have a nice one too).
Have a great day everyone! I'm so glad it's fall!

Day of Service

Our church congregation took a part of the Day of Service.  Some of my children & I helped out at Gaithersburg Help.  We had a good day of doing service & helping out a community service organization.

Luigi

A family in our Ward moved the end of the summer and had a tortoise to give away.  Knowing Monica has always wanted a turtle, I called them to see if it was still available.  It was. His name is Luigi.  The family didn't know much about him as they had only had him a few years and got him from another family when they moved. He is about 5 years old.

I went to the pet store & picked up some food & a book on turtles/tortoises.  I think he's a Russian Tortoise.  Actually, Monica helped me figure it out.  The family we got him from had been feeding him fruit every few days.  According to the book & what we found on the web, he's not supposed to have fruit.  We started buying Red Lettuce for him.  He is a very messy eater but really seems to enjoy it.

Monica Driving Practice

Monica got her driver's license "late".  She did not get it when she was first old enough.  When I was a teenager we all got our licenses as soon as we were old enough.  I don't understand why youth now, or at least my children, wait to get their licenses.  I guess I'm just a good Taxi driver. 

When Monica got home from Utah, she & I decided it was time for her to learn to drive stick shift.  She had driven Paul's car before, but not very often.  We went to the church parking lot & she drove around for quite awhile.  She's getting pretty good! Yay!

Death & Heaven

A good friend passed away this past month. Her funeral is today.  I only knew Ida a short time.  She is a really neat lady.  I met her through a friend, Safire.  She used to be Safire's neighbor and I met her at Safire's house.  She joined our church last December and I was able to spend more time with her & get to really know her.  While I will miss seeing her at least weekly at church I know she is in a good place. 

 

She had cancer and was going through chemotherapy.  She had beaten cancer previously and it had returned with a vigor.  She decided to stop chemotherapy because it was making her too sick.  She ended up in a great deal of pain.  I am grateful that she is no longer in pain.  I know she is in a good place.  I know she is with her family and with our Father in Heaven.  I know she is doing good works for our Father.

 

I wanted to take this time to share my thoughts on life after death.  I grew up learning about Heaven and always believed my parents/teachers.  In 1998 my brother, Jon, was killed in a car accident.  Jon was 21 years old. 

He liked to sleep in his closet as a young boy

 

 

At that time, I had the opportunity to figure out if I really had a testimony.  I prayed a lot in the week(s) following Jon's death.  I came to know where Jon is.  I know he is in Heaven teaching about Christ.  Jon had talked about the possibility of going on a mission.  I came to know that he is with our Father in Heaven and my grandparents.  I know that one day we will be together again.  My parents were sealed in the temple and through their sealing I am sealed to Jon.  I try daily to live my life in such a way that I will be able to live with my Father in Heaven and my brother Jon again.

 

I hope Jon gets to meet Ida.  I'm sure they would be friends. :)

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!