More Bugs

UPDATE: They were "seed ticks". The MD said she must have fallen into a nest of them out in the woods. She said Catelin had "Too many bites to count" in "to many places to list". Yuck!


Catelin complained of "itching" Monday after school. She seemed to have a rash, no big deal. Before bed time I put her in an oatmeal bath. She has red bumps all over her belly and legs. No fun to be so itchy. I thought, chiggers maybe, she played in the woods Sunday evening with the neighbor kids.

"I saw two ticks today at school. One at recess, and one after recess, in the class." She is afraid she has ticks.

Well, around here it is a reasonable fear... Upon closer inspection, guess what... little tiny brown specks near her splotchy rashes.

OMG. I picked about 10 teeny, tiny, microscopic, can't hardly see 'em with your naked eye, TICKS off of that child! I had to use tweezers, they were too small to grab otherwise!

Yesterday, she was still itchy and had a rash. Another oatmeal bath, and two more ticks...

We have an appointment with the pediatrician today to check the rash. I saved the ticks on a piece of scotch tape because I know the doctor won't believe me when I tell him they were tiny ticks.

Who knows where they came from: the play ground at school, the woods behind the house, the neighbors yard????

I'm starting to feel like Eva Gabor in Green Acres. "Oli-ver I vahnt to go bak to the city!"
All this nature is making my twitchy.

Welcome To Wild Kingdom

I am not making this up!
Today, as we are leaving for the airport, a bird flew into the house. A little brown Georgia bird of some sort.

It flew into the garage, then into the open door into the house, buzzing Rita across the top of her head as it entered. It then proceeded to fly around the dining room until it flew smack into the window and sank, stunned between the window and the blinds.

I grabbed a towel, but got squemish, so Rita scooped him up and deposited him into the bush outside.

Bugs, critters, snakes, what's a little birdie flying around the house?

Manic Monday

Oh, look! It's been over a week since my last post. Ooops. I think the #2 rule of blogging is Post Often. Sorry... But it has been a busy, full week. Rita and Don (MIL & FIL) arrived last weekend for a visit and they just left today. *sniff, sniff*

We had a really good time while they were here. Mark and I were able to take off for 2 nights to Biloxi for some grown-up down-time. Mark was really needing that! Stress, stress, stress.

We went to the Georgia Aquarium for Catelin's birthday. That girl is crazy for the aquariums. She loves the one in Las Vegas too! Georgia has the World's Largest Aquarium, who knew? Well, the aquarium was really cool and the area where it is located in Atlanta is really nice and there are other things to do there as well. Coca-Cola World, a Children's museum, etc. Many things to try another day. Read: "$$$$".

We hung out, ran around, ate out, had birthday cake... All with extra Grandma hands for diaper changes, naps, baths, playing outside, etc. They also keep my house clean and do laundry. It was almost a vacation to have so much help!! Thank you!

Today is Catelin's actual birthday Oct. 6. Nine years old, hard to believe. I will try to get some pictures up this week from the aquarium and of the birthday girl. But we have a big homework project to work on this week, the school is getting ready for their Fall Festival, and the kids and I are leaving Thursday for Illinois, to spend a long weekend with my mom. Aka: Nanny.

I need a nap just thinking about this week. Oh, and that reminds me, Alex decided this past week, that he doesn't need a nap anymore. He also started climbing out of his crib to emphasize the point! I feel a "match of wills" coming up, he not giving up his nap. Mommy has spoken...

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.