I meant to blog more this week, but I'm a bit out of sorts and the words simply wouldn't come. Since I don't know how to spell various grunting noises (nor do I have any indication that any of you know how to translate them), blogging in that condition seemed a bit pointless. However, the porch is finished. I'll get pictures of that up hopefully tonight.
Zorak caulked the porch window and boys' window. Aesthetically, that's not the best feature of the house, but it's done wonders for me emotionally.
The sports thing is going to be a little nutso for a week or so, while the seasons overlap. Yesterday, James had a football meeting at 5:30 (and they are hitting the ground RUNNING!), then John had a game at 8:00. I don't know how families with overlapping sports do it, but if the seasons overlapped by more than just this coming week, I think I'd sit on a corner of the bleachers, muttering to myself and giving people the hairy eyeball if they got to close.
I think football is going to be very good for James, but truthfully, I think he's going to be hating life for most of the season. This is going to be all about his attitude, and whether he's really internalized our philosophy of being flexible in life. He's not a flexible kind of person. He's also very timid in a lot of ways. And, he has that whole I'm-not-really-listening-because-all-my-attention-is-focused-on-gnawing-on-this-hangnail (or picking something off my arm, or trying to pick things up with my toes - pretty much any distraction will do). The hair has got to go. We've been letting him grow it out, but he plays with it non-stop. To the point that I was ready to cut it myself right there at the meeting yesterday. Zorak, wise man that he is, suggested we head to the barber for this one and tell the guy he needs "a good football cut", thus removing me from the potential Mommy Dearest haircutting memory for James. (Not that I would do that to him, I wouldn't. But he's so attached to his bangs at the moment, he'll find a way to equate the two, should he ever see the movie.)
And now, to get the guest room ready today. I plan to put bug spray along the baseboard-like areas of all the rooms as I clean them. Normally, I wouldn't, but I'm tired of the Midnight Child Buffet the spiders seem to have going in the kids' rooms. Smidge and Emily wake every morning with five to ten huge bites all over them. Nothing I've tried has helped. I've pulled their beds away from the walls. I've not put anything dangling, like a bed ruffle, and all the blankets are short. I even put EmBaby in some winter pj's the other night, so she was covered from her chin to her toes -- the next morning, her head was absolutely covered in bites. Enough is enough. I don't mind if the things want to live outside, but until we can stucco this house and seal it up properly, the way houses are meant to be sealed, we're going to have a bit of a territory war.
AND so, to work.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
13 comments:
Oh, yuck. They're getting bit by spiders? In bed?! Poor babies, and did I already say it? Yuck! I'd start a turf war, too. Just don't let the babies lick the baseboards. They will, you know. Even if they've never done it before. As soon as there is poison somewhere, a sixth sense will kick in, and they will lick.
Good luck to you!
James sounds so much like my Jacob it is not even funny!
Uh...are these the same kinds of bites that you posted last week on Em's toe? I don't mean to gross you out but is it possible it could be bed bugs? Something lurking in the mattresses waiting for the lights to go out and the dinner bell to ring?
Ewwww... just the thought gives me the heebie jeebies and a sudden urge for a long, very hot, shower. I really hope the midnight snacking stops soon for everybody's sake!
mere
Hi Dy - I've nominated you as a Rockin' Girl Blogger. :-)
Sorry you have been feeling not-so-chipper! That business of 8:00 games (What are they thinking?) would certainly get me down.
Poor James. I have his scab picking, hair twirling twin here, and organized sports, especially those involving long periods of standing around being "prepared," are just not his thing. I think we may give swim team a go next summer, and his karate stuff (with some fancy name) is fine, but I don't think we are going in for football, soccer, or any more baseball. At least, not for a couple years. And we have the same problem with the bangs, and the same attachment to them:)
The bug bites sound Awful.Have you tried putting down those sticky traps (I mean, after the kids are in bed, of course) to try and catch some and see what they are?
I hope you get them gone soon!
OK, I started to say, "Oh, Nooooo. Heh, heh (nervous chuckle) no no no noooo, they couldn't be bed bugs." And the bites are different than the ones EmBaby had on her toe. So I googled, you know, just to be sure.
Shit.
I'm not "certain", but it's close enough that this mandates profanity. And more coffee.
I do not need this. Not on top of... the other stuff... (not the cousins coming - I really am excited about them coming, although their mother may kill me if I give them back covered in bed bug bites). But let's just say I did not need something else to fret over.
You know, ever since those things hit the news, and with Zorak traveling, and the fact that parasites are parasites and since we do leave the house to interact with humanity (however unwillingly at times...) I've been borderline OCD about checking mattress seams and bed frames, checking sheets, and looking, looking, looking. Spider webs, but no signs of bed bugs. Still I looked, and still nothing, other than the "duh" of the fact that it happens at night, every night. *sigh*
Generic advice? "Caulk everything." *snort* I don't have any baseboards TO caulk.
I think I'm going to go cry now, right after I turn up the water heater... two rooms down, three to go... Need dry ice, large bags, and heavy duty trash bags...
And if all else fails, perhaps I can just get a few more large dogs, some straw to make beds, and we can open a Middle Ages Bed & Breakfast. Parasitic infections, free with two-night stay!
I don't think YOU owe anyone an apology for not blogging more this week! You are the most consistent blogger that I know. I think most people feel like you felt this week: not quite knowing how to put things into words.
Thanks for sharing all that you do about your life which inspires me to delight in the details of my own.
Ewwww. I really hope you win the spider war. Really, how dare they bite your precious children!
Oh dear. I'm so sorry if those are bed bugs. I'm crying with you. I'll pray that you get the pests conquered.
You know, it's just the area of the country we're in (you're not that much farther south than we are). Mild winters, humidity, it all just works together.
I'm constantly weighing it out in my mind - carcinogens? bugs? carcinogens? bugs?
The Bug Man came to my house today, so, there you are.
Oh dear.
I haven't had these yet but I know someone who has. Heat, heat, heat was the ticket. You need hot laundry & the sun. First, vaccuum like crazy - at least daily and preferably twice a day, using the little attachments to vacuum all the crevices. Put the bed legs inside coffee cans filled with water - this stops any from coming in off the floor. If you can't use water because it would damage the legs, I'd use sticky tape on the bottom of the cans. Of course no bedskirts etc.
Encase the mattress in a plastic bag (moving companies have them); you can sleep on it at night & put it out in the sun during the day. Launder everything washable in hot water every day.
Good luck :-)
Oh my.
Maybe it's just mosquitoes.
Praying that it's just mosquitoes.
mere
I hope James likes football. Blake really likes it and Blake is incredibly hyper, well full of energy. It is really good for him because he is constantly moving in football. When Wayne played baseball, sometimes it worked out that he had a game at the same time at Blake. That was miserable, you want to watch both games and they would be played in ajoining fields but it's really hard to watch 2 games at the same time. Thank God we don't have that anymore. I think you will really enjoy the football. How many nights a week will they practice? Blake has it 3 times a week until school starts and then it goes to 2. Rusty coaches 3 teams so he has it every night of the week. It's a busy time of the year for us.
Sorry this was so long.
You might not have been trying to be funny when you wrote your comment , and no, the situation of possibly having bedbugs is absolutely not funny...
But your comment was hilarious.
"I'm not "certain", but it's close enough that this mandates profanity. And more coffee."
ROFLOL.
It was tragicomedy. Just thought you'd want to know..I was laughing with you not at you.
mere
Oh, I am so sorry to hear about the bug problem. We got bitten by bedbugs when we stayed at a cabin once in Colorado, and they were so itchy and annoying! I wish I could just wave my magic wand and make them all disappear, because it sounds like a heck of a lot of incovenience on your part to deal with them. : (
You know, as Bob inches closer and closer to retirement, we keep revisiting the Huntsville MDA job thing, but . . . boy, all these bugs! I'm not sure about that!
Post a Comment