Weekend Funnies

I *heart* Georgia

All Spring it was the gnats. You could not leave any doors or windows open because the gnats would swarm into the house. In the mornings you would find dead gnat bodies all over the bathroom and kitchen counters, as they were attracted to the nightlights. Yuck.

After the gnats came the mosquitos. Mosquitos would get into the house and somehow find their way into Alexander's bedroom. There, they would feast on his blood all night long and he would wake with huge, swollen, itchy bites all over his exposed skin.

Around the first of April the tick population exploded in the backyard. Mark bought 2 big bags of "granules" to kill the ticks. That worked pretty good for the FIRE ANTS also. Good since Alexander kept finding the Fire Ant hills by stepping on them bare foot! Ouch!

Soon it was warm enough for the A/C, so the flying insects in the house decreased.

Next arrived the scorpions. I killed at least four in the house. But I'm pretty sure they were only coming in the house to eat the roaches.

Three cans of Raid Industrial Strength later, I killed a couple of big centipedes(millipedes?) that were still very much alive. Did you know that they can sting, like a scorpion?

Also, Raid doesn't really work for spiders...

In June we evicted a blue skink (lizard) that was hiding under the stove.

I think I've been a pretty good sport. It's a rental house, in the woods, okay. Thus far, in my book, the roaches were the worst. I just can't abide the nasty little buggers.

But today takes the cake.

Go ahead, guess..... just guess...... what was in my bedroom. Okay, well it's Mark's room too...

Did you guess..... A SNAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You didn't guess that did you???

A baby black snake strolling across the bedroom floor. All I can say, is it was a good thing Mark was actually home and saw it. Because if I had seen it I would not have been composed enough to smack it, with my favorite, blue Nike flip-flop, like he did.

And if it had remained uncaptured in the bedroom it never would have been found and we would have had to abandon ship. I mean abandon the house and stay at a hotel.

But, now that it's almost bedtime I can't get over the feeling that there might be another one, somewhere, hiding...

Kids and Pets

I could hear giggling and laughing coming from the Living Room and Alex was the only one in there. This is what Alex and Lucy get-up-to when no one is looking.

That is the rocker, turned over on top of a little stroller, shoved against the futon/sofa.

When I first walked in Alex was under the couch, shrieking with laughter and Lucy was standing on the back of the rocker looking down at him.

I have no idea what the game was, but they were enjoying themselves so much I just left them alone! There are worse games they play together.


I especially like the game where Lucy gets on the desk and bats all the pens onto the floor, then Alex gathers them up and uses them to scribble all over the white walls. And the toys, and the books, and his legs....

Right now they are both in the backyard. Alex is chasing the cat, with a big stick in his hand. It seems like Lucy is enjoying herself.?

Summer Fun

All these two have talked about all summer is having a Lemonade stand so they can make money to buy "stuff". I think Catelin was planning to make enough money to buy a Nintendo DS, or maybe a Wii.

Oops, they caught me and said: "Stop it, go back inside!" "Wait! Buy some lemonade first!"

They made $6.00. Which of course they had to split.

Because I'm onery (or bored and have nothing else to amuse myself with), I tried to explain to Catelin about business expenses and overhead and really they owed money to myself and Other Mom. You know, for cups, Kool-aid, table rental, ice, etc. The way I figured it they owed each Mom about $5.00. Hee, Hee!

She didn't buy it, and I think she hid her $3.00 from me.

Growing

When we moved into this house, in March, Alexander could walk under the edge of this bar and not hit his head. Now he just reaches up to get what ever he wants!

Chinese Food

I told Mark Tuesday night that I was going to make Fried Rice for supper Wednesday. He had a day shift on Wednesday, so he was going to be home and we would have Family Dinner. We all like fried rice, even Alex.

I went to the grocery store on Wednesday morning to purchase supplies.
This was homemade, from scratch, not from a box. Homemade Chicken Fried Rice, a very good recipe if I might say so myself.
I cooked chicken, chopped vegetables and had everything ready to go when Mark got home from work.
It was still early, so he and Catelin went out to run a few errands before dinner.

Now, all my veggies are chopped and lined up on the counter and my fresh chicken is de-boned and ready to go. Dinner is perfectly planned and ready to proceed.
An hour later Mark and Catelin return.
With two bags of food.
From a chinese restaurant.
Two entrees and two sushi rolls.

Infer what you will.

Big Boy Haircut

Alex finally got his Big Boy Haircut today. Mark has been threatening for months. I tried a preemptive strike last time I took Alex to get a haircut. I still took him to the expensive frou-frou kids place for the $23.00 "Surfer Boy Shag" cut that had kept his blonde curls intact. But that time I told the stylist to make it a little bit shorter. Unfortunately, the Surfer Boy Shag doesn't look good, "a little bit shorter". With all the wave and body in his hair, he really just looked like a Little Dutch Boy. It wasn't very cute and I was anxiously waiting for it to grow back out shag-length so the cute little curls would come back on the back of his head.

Mark said it is a Father-Son bonding moment and I was butting in, to that I say.... Pthffffttt!

So, off they go to the BARBER! A man with slow reflexes and sharp pointy scissors flicking around in my baby's face. Alex sits on a board across the arms of a barber chair so old it has ash-trays built into the armrests!!! I kid you NOT!

Now, when we go to the frou-frou place Alex gets to pick if he wants the orange or the lime green chair, the chair has wrap-around arms, and it has a safety belt, and he gets to watch a video while getting his hair cut. I'm just sayin'...

Okay, back to the barbershop.

Notice the decor at the barbershop. There were even deer antlers on the wall, Vietnam memorabilia, vintage model cars and (again, I kid you not) they used an air compressor to blow the hair off of you instead of a hair dryer. They have Rave hairspray and Alberto V05 shampoo in use. Again, I am not even kidding.

Look at this stuff:

Actually, this stuff looked pretty cool.... hair and scalp tonic!

Alex, being so experienced in the Salon setting, was absolutely perfect and well behaved. He played cars on the hair covered floor and slurped on suckers the whole time, making all the men smile and comment about how well behaved he was.

Afterward, they all commented about how different he looked with his haircut. How much OLDER and MORE MATURE he looked, and how he DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A BABY anymore!

Then, I went to the parking lot and stomped my feet and cried....

well, not really. I held up admirably and didn't embarrass Mark in Manville.

Without all that adorable, curly hair Alex actually has ears, and a neck, and he still has a birthmark on his forehead. Who knew! But he sure doesn't look like a baby anymore.

*sniff, sniff*.