It has been an interesting time since I wrote. My ants? Well I became slightly obsessive in vacuuming. Seriously. I vacuumed the living room completely at least twice a day, sometimes 3 and the rest of the house at least daily. It seemed to have worked though. They just disappeared on Friday. No goodbuys, no nothing. Just left. This week I got a little tired and lazy and it had been 36 hours since I had vacuumed and one came back. Just one. Bit me on the heel. Didn't sting me, just bit. He got squished. Pretty cruel I suppose, but I don't want him reporting back to his fellows.
It was great to have Jon back home, but it makes it hard to want to do chores. It is much easier to sit and watch TV when someone else is sitting too. When he wasn't home anytime I sat down I felt guilty, like there is something else I ought to be doing. Like putting away dinner or one of the things on my to-do list. I don't think I sat down for more than 5 minutes at a time the whole week he was gone.
Sunday was hard though. They called me into the Primary 2 weeks ago and Sunday they had me sit in on the class I'm going to be teaching. Becca's class. Ugh. Not that I don't like 4 and 5 year olds but I hang around them ALL DAY EVERY DAY. It is going to be kinda hard for me. I was really enjoying my time in Relief Society and Sunday School and I was REALLY REALLY looking forward to Colin going into Nursery and getting a couple hours every week without any babies. Since all the babies are 18 months apart both Becca and Victor went into nursery the week after I had a new baby. So it has been nearly 4 and a half years since I've gone to class by myself on a regular basis, Jon takes a baby occasionally, but usually they are mine. So that was a hard loss for me. Not that I don't like teaching in Primary, I enjoy working with kids, really I do. I just really enjoy time with grown-ups, and I don't get much of that. I'm just kinda selfish I guess.
The Relief Society did ask me to do their weekly newsletter though, which was really nice, mostly that they thought of me. But more than that, I really enjoy it. And it keeps me in touch with everyone and everything that is going on. Which is the point of the newsletter, to keep everyone in Primary and Young Women's aware of what is going on. Plus it is something they can send to someone who isn't able to come to church much. Our ward is a really strange ward. It is huge, numbers-wise, but the number of people who actually come to church is tiny. I was talking the the Relief Society President the other day and she said that they figured once that if they split the entire ward and sent every active Melchezicek Priesthood holder home teaching by himself, he would still teach 16 families. I guess Visiting Teaching is about the same deal. So they've had to do some creative solutions.
Still working on getting our 72-hour kits finalized, I couldn't decide what to get for dinners that I knew could be safely eaten without heating. So many things say you need to heat before you can safely eat them, but I was glad to find out after research that anything Hormel or Campbells makes is safe without heating, so that will be finished after our next grocery list. The ward got together and we got a large order of 55 gallons water barrels, so I have a really good supply of water, or at least I will once I fill it up. One gallon at a time. My next project is to scan all our important documents onto a CD (encrypted of course) and put it in our 72-hr kit, so we have copies if they are ever needed. The Relief Society actually had an activity this week where they went down to someone's office and borrowed the scanner for the evening and had people sign up for time slots and bring their documents to scan. The ward donated the CDs and the Molens donated the use of their scanner at his office. I thought it was a good idea, but I have my own scanner, so I left the spots to someone who might need it more. Plus it is still too warm to go out much, though it at least rains most afternoons now. That's at least something.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Ant Farm....
Ugh. Went into the living room mid-morning on Tuesday and there was a nice line of ants crawling along the edge of the entertainment center. I had seen one or two for the couple days previous in random places around the house and had been making a concerted effort to keep the house vacuumed and swept, but alas, it was too late. So I got out my vacuumed and vacuumed up all the ants for the next couple hours-annoying the babies completely. They abondoned their post by about 1, but were back the next morning, and the scene was repeated. Luckily, they don't seem to go beyond the entertainment center and haven't even tried my kitchen or the dining room, but I've been keeping everything spotless, so I don't know why they are here at all, there isn't anything for them to eat. But I now have a vacuum full of ants that I need to figure out how to get rid of without getting bit.
Yep, that is the clincher, these aren't those harmless black ants everyone has in their house in summer. These are biters. Well, technically they only bite you to grab onto you while they sting you, like a bee, over and over again, injecting this poison into you which causes this burning feeling-thus why they are called fire ants. Pleasant huh? I called the office to get some help on how to get rid of them, especially since usually they are outside pests and the best treatments are to try to kill the whole nest. And the exterminator will be here on Monday. Not too bad. So I just have to keep Colin and the rest away from the entertainment center until them, not easy, because Colin REALLY like buttons. Ugh, Ugh, and double Ugh.
Yep, that is the clincher, these aren't those harmless black ants everyone has in their house in summer. These are biters. Well, technically they only bite you to grab onto you while they sting you, like a bee, over and over again, injecting this poison into you which causes this burning feeling-thus why they are called fire ants. Pleasant huh? I called the office to get some help on how to get rid of them, especially since usually they are outside pests and the best treatments are to try to kill the whole nest. And the exterminator will be here on Monday. Not too bad. So I just have to keep Colin and the rest away from the entertainment center until them, not easy, because Colin REALLY like buttons. Ugh, Ugh, and double Ugh.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
A Beginning...
And thus it starts.
Jon has left for Toronto. Almost there actually. Continental has this neat tool that has this little plane flying across the country and tells you what his route is and exactly where the plane is right now. At the moment he is flying over Lake Erie. His plane is actually scheduled to land 14 minutes early, which is nice for him I'm sure.
Kind of unexpected though, that he is off today. Until yesterday about 3 we thought he would be flying out tomorrow, Monday, and that we'd have time to do any last minute things Monday morning before the car came to pick him up at 2. Ooops. Car called to confirm the pickup (Exxon is great, they have this safety fixation and don't feel it is safe for people to have to leave their cars in airport parking lots when on company business, so anytime you have to fly somewhere you can ask for a car to pick you up and take you there), and we were a little shocked. First thought it was a error on the car guy's part. Then checked the flight. Uhoh, better check the hotel reservation...make sure you have a room for the extra night. Are you flying home on the right day? Yup. So Jon is on his way to Toronto a day early. Must have been some miscommunication between Jon and the lady in charge of travel arrangements. "I need to be there on Monday," meaning to her that he needed to be there for Monday morning, thus leave on Sunday, not that he needed to arrive on Monday for Tuesday. We've learned a lesson about attending to details and checking dates and such. So Jon missed part of Father's Day, which got me out of making a cake and nice dinner, which would have been fun, but warm. The babies and I had Tuna Hamburger Helper instead. A step or two down, but they are hit and miss on whether they eat much more than their applesauce and salad or green beans anyways. (Colin is the exception, he eats EVERYTHING. If he doesn't eat well for a meal, you can be sure he'll climb back up to the table or counter and find the leftovers and eat them an hour or two later.)
The babies have been pretty good. Victor had a hard time going down for his nap. He was tired, just wouldn't admit it. Colin had a hard time waking up, but that is pretty normal. I think they get awful warm while they sleep, like anyone, so he is fussy when he wakes up for a few minutes. I put on a Vegitales for Becca after naptime to see if that helped Colin calm down and it did. Plus it gave me the time to start the dishwasher and decide what to have for dinner.
Ugh, I feel boring today. Maybe I'll write more later, when the babies aren't needing me so much and I can concentrate.
Jon has left for Toronto. Almost there actually. Continental has this neat tool that has this little plane flying across the country and tells you what his route is and exactly where the plane is right now. At the moment he is flying over Lake Erie. His plane is actually scheduled to land 14 minutes early, which is nice for him I'm sure.
Kind of unexpected though, that he is off today. Until yesterday about 3 we thought he would be flying out tomorrow, Monday, and that we'd have time to do any last minute things Monday morning before the car came to pick him up at 2. Ooops. Car called to confirm the pickup (Exxon is great, they have this safety fixation and don't feel it is safe for people to have to leave their cars in airport parking lots when on company business, so anytime you have to fly somewhere you can ask for a car to pick you up and take you there), and we were a little shocked. First thought it was a error on the car guy's part. Then checked the flight. Uhoh, better check the hotel reservation...make sure you have a room for the extra night. Are you flying home on the right day? Yup. So Jon is on his way to Toronto a day early. Must have been some miscommunication between Jon and the lady in charge of travel arrangements. "I need to be there on Monday," meaning to her that he needed to be there for Monday morning, thus leave on Sunday, not that he needed to arrive on Monday for Tuesday. We've learned a lesson about attending to details and checking dates and such. So Jon missed part of Father's Day, which got me out of making a cake and nice dinner, which would have been fun, but warm. The babies and I had Tuna Hamburger Helper instead. A step or two down, but they are hit and miss on whether they eat much more than their applesauce and salad or green beans anyways. (Colin is the exception, he eats EVERYTHING. If he doesn't eat well for a meal, you can be sure he'll climb back up to the table or counter and find the leftovers and eat them an hour or two later.)
The babies have been pretty good. Victor had a hard time going down for his nap. He was tired, just wouldn't admit it. Colin had a hard time waking up, but that is pretty normal. I think they get awful warm while they sleep, like anyone, so he is fussy when he wakes up for a few minutes. I put on a Vegitales for Becca after naptime to see if that helped Colin calm down and it did. Plus it gave me the time to start the dishwasher and decide what to have for dinner.
Ugh, I feel boring today. Maybe I'll write more later, when the babies aren't needing me so much and I can concentrate.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Which Witch
See, I would have sworn that it was the Wicked Witch of the West who melted, not the Witch of the South, but I would tell you that the last few days has done nothing less than melt my brain into an unrecognizable glob of goo. I think someone needs to write to the L. Frank Baum and correct him. I guess it was written a while back though huh...I wonder who you'd have to get ahold of.....maybe I'll just start a smear campaign and force someone to contact me. Maybe I'll even be able to wrassle some money out of it. Can't quite figure out what to charge them with...defamation isn't quite right, nor libel (or is it slander, I can't ever remember), false report? Well, it is fiction, so duh. Hmmm, I'll come up with something.
It has been ridiculously warm here. I have come to detest the weatherman's smug looks as he nonchalantly reports every morning that it is once again going to exceed 100 degrees with the heat index. Not a big deal, whatever, happens all the time, who cares. I don't go outside anymore, except to go to the grocery store or church. That is about it. Well, I guess we went to Dairy Queen today. It was blissfully cool in there. I just wanted to sit forever. We got our electric bill here and I was shocked. I had already had the thermostat as high as comfortable, so I've been turning up the thermostat little by little, trying to get used to the heat somewhat to save a couple dollars. No need to be miserable, but if I let myself be uncomfortable for a little while I'll get used to it alot sooner. Theoretically.
It has been ridiculously warm here. I have come to detest the weatherman's smug looks as he nonchalantly reports every morning that it is once again going to exceed 100 degrees with the heat index. Not a big deal, whatever, happens all the time, who cares. I don't go outside anymore, except to go to the grocery store or church. That is about it. Well, I guess we went to Dairy Queen today. It was blissfully cool in there. I just wanted to sit forever. We got our electric bill here and I was shocked. I had already had the thermostat as high as comfortable, so I've been turning up the thermostat little by little, trying to get used to the heat somewhat to save a couple dollars. No need to be miserable, but if I let myself be uncomfortable for a little while I'll get used to it alot sooner. Theoretically.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Old Grizz's Farm
We happened to be in Prosser this year during the annual Grizz's farm. It was back in April, but I mentioned in a post a week or so back and thought I should put up a couple of the pictures. It was actually alot of fun for us all to go. Every year the high school agriculture students bring their animals or farm-type pets to the school for a day and they set up a little petting zoo in the ag parking lot. All the kindergarteners and 1st graders get bussed down from the elementary school to come see all the little anim
als. Baby animals are always popular to bring, because they are favorites with the kids. The turnout varies year to year, of course, as the students change, but it is always lots of fun. The incentive, of course, is if you bring an animal you get to spend most of the day staying with your animal and showing them to youngsters instead of going to class. Plus, most of the kids who do it now remember going themselves when they were little. I know I remember going. I talked to Mr. Adams, who founded the thing (Mr. Adams=Grizzly Adams=Grizz's Farm) and he said their first one was in 1983! Wow. This year there wa
s a really good assortment, pigs and goats and lambs and a miniature pony and a large horse and a couple cows and a calf, some bunnies, a duck, reptiles, a tarantula (!), some baby turtles, a pheasant, a turkey, baby chicks, hens and roosters of various varieties, and I'm sure I'm missing something. As we were getting ready to leave we sat on the hay bales by the baby goats for a minute and one of the little baby goats jumped up and squiggled and squirmed and squeezed its way through the bars on the stock panels and right into my lap! So all of a sudden I'm sitting there with my arms full of cuddly black goat. I called Mr. Adams over and we put her back in the pen, just to watch her do it all over again. We ended up having to put her in the pen next door that had smaller panels, poor baby just wanted to be held, but it just wou
ldn't do to have her running all over the parking lot and into the street. Victor's favorite was the pigs, he still plays Mr. Piggy regularly. I couldn't get Becca to even consider touching the turtle, and Victor would very quickly. He liked the funny claws on their toes. Colin just got carried around and look
ed at everything.
als. Baby animals are always popular to bring, because they are favorites with the kids. The turnout varies year to year, of course, as the students change, but it is always lots of fun. The incentive, of course, is if you bring an animal you get to spend most of the day staying with your animal and showing them to youngsters instead of going to class. Plus, most of the kids who do it now remember going themselves when they were little. I know I remember going. I talked to Mr. Adams, who founded the thing (Mr. Adams=Grizzly Adams=Grizz's Farm) and he said their first one was in 1983! Wow. This year there wa
s a really good assortment, pigs and goats and lambs and a miniature pony and a large horse and a couple cows and a calf, some bunnies, a duck, reptiles, a tarantula (!), some baby turtles, a pheasant, a turkey, baby chicks, hens and roosters of various varieties, and I'm sure I'm missing something. As we were getting ready to leave we sat on the hay bales by the baby goats for a minute and one of the little baby goats jumped up and squiggled and squirmed and squeezed its way through the bars on the stock panels and right into my lap! So all of a sudden I'm sitting there with my arms full of cuddly black goat. I called Mr. Adams over and we put her back in the pen, just to watch her do it all over again. We ended up having to put her in the pen next door that had smaller panels, poor baby just wanted to be held, but it just wou
ldn't do to have her running all over the parking lot and into the street. Victor's favorite was the pigs, he still plays Mr. Piggy regularly. I couldn't get Becca to even consider touching the turtle, and Victor would very quickly. He liked the funny claws on their toes. Colin just got carried around and look
ed at everything.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Tugs
It is amazing to me how some children seem to be born with this instinctive grasp on how to find their mom (or dad's) heartstrings and tug. It is pretty expected that Grandparents will be at the mercy of their grandchildren, but I always thought of that as some kind of inherent weakness built into grandparents, some hole in the defenses that developed in the aging process, along with gray hair and wrinkles and the other similar complaints. But it is ridiculous to me how easily one of the babies can bend me to their will, without even trying. Jon seems immune. He sees it as quite humorous really, to see me squirming to not go rush in to whichever child when I know that they are perfectly fine. Victor is the best at this though. He hasn't been thrilled with the idea of going to bed lately. He's exhausted, no doubt about that, but he just doesn't want to go to bed yet. So he'll stand at his door and call for me. I did pretty well last night. I lasted through the "Mommy! I need my mommy! I need her! I need my mommy! I need her! I need her!" That was hard. Victor has just taken off on talking the last 4 or 5 months and I still love to hear him talk and think he is absolutely adorable. So I'm used to rewarding him whenever he talks by giving him what to wants, to encourage him to communicate more. So not going to him was hard. But then he starts in on "Where's mommy? I need my mommy! She's gone. She's gone. Mommy gone" Just about broke my heart. Yeah, I caved. Went in tucked him into bed with his spiderman, but he told me he wanted his pound puppy instead. And he was asleep in only a minute or two, I'm sure.
A couple nights ago we had a hard time getting him to go to bed. He was in his room knocking on his door and yelling that his toe is stuck. So Jon goes in and he is standing behind that door. Jon doesn't understand what is wrong, because he is obviously not stuck and asks him again what is up. Victor then shoves his foot under the open door and says it is stuck. Jon closes the door a little to unstick his foot, at which point Victor shoves his foot under the door again and then repeats the declaration that his foot is stuck. Ahhh! Now we understand. Victor gets put in his bed and covered up and given his Spiderman and not 5 minutes later he is at is again. His foot is stuck. That was a long evening.
A couple nights ago we had a hard time getting him to go to bed. He was in his room knocking on his door and yelling that his toe is stuck. So Jon goes in and he is standing behind that door. Jon doesn't understand what is wrong, because he is obviously not stuck and asks him again what is up. Victor then shoves his foot under the open door and says it is stuck. Jon closes the door a little to unstick his foot, at which point Victor shoves his foot under the door again and then repeats the declaration that his foot is stuck. Ahhh! Now we understand. Victor gets put in his bed and covered up and given his Spiderman and not 5 minutes later he is at is again. His foot is stuck. That was a long evening.
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