Tied Up!

We used to practice and practice. We probably still do it the same way our mothers taught. Usually some version about bunny ears crossing or going around a tree or something. Now it's not so much of a big deal because of all the shoes with velcro or slip-on features. So what if you don't know how to tie your shoes before kindergarten. Big deal, you'll get it eventually.

S showed A how it was done. I showed her too. We didn't think much of it, as her new shoes are velcro.

Then she comes out with her old shoes on. They don't have velcro. We asked who tied your shoes?

She replied, "I did. Look, double knots."

Sure enough, double knots and everything. Suprised us.

I'm amazed at what my little girl is capable of, and wonder if anything will be beyond her reach?

(Oh, wait, that would be keeping her clothes and toys off the floor....)

Invasion

I don't often use the front bathroom. I enjoy having a "master suite" (used in the most loose of terms here) and frequent that commode accordingly. Occasionally, however, I forgo the labyrinth path to privacy and use the first bathroom. I'm never sure what I will find, as A and Ch claim this as their domain. Usually surprises are easily dealt with by a quick flick of the silver handle. =)

Today was different. (For accuracy's sake it was actually Tuesday.) As I sat upon the porcelain throne I noticed a tiny black trail extending from the wall to the tub rug, about 3 inches away. Then it disappeared. Hmm... I flipped the rug with my foot. Ew! The tiny black line followed the contour of rug, and it was alive with movement. I followed the back trail, along the wall (after I had finished with necessities, thank-you). To my horror, the line extended around the toilet bowl brush caddy, behind the toilet and around to the other side. Descending to my hands and knees was the only way I could discover the lump of something brown that the ants were swarming over tucked away under the overhang of the cabinet. Ew! Ew! I quickly concluded that the brownish lump must be a crumb of gingerbread (remember the darling cookies? Playgroup at my house last week resulted in many small hands carrying gingerbread throughout the house. I thought I had removed all trace of crumbs, apparently not.) and that with the generous "housewarming" gift they now felt at home.

Swarms of sugar ants on my floor!

How dare they enter MY domain!

Death to black crawling, multi-legged creatures!!!

One problem: How do you kill ants?

While growing up, when faced with an ant dilemma, we usually boiled a pot of water and poured it down the ant hole. Granted, we usually found them outside on the brick patio and this was an acceptable solution. Waves of boiling water washing over my bathroom floor would certainly kill ants, and yet create more of a problem for me. Nix that idea. And I don't have assorted creepy-crawly death-in-a-bottle bug sprays. We left those in Abq.

What then?

The only solution I could reach in the instant I took to react (perhaps taking more time would have been better, but I hate crawling things inside...that's my territory and they aren't allowed!!) I ripped the rugs off of the floor and designated them for the laundry. Then I returned, armed with Lysol.

Yes, my friends. Lysol manages to kill the little bugs and other potentially harmful stuff that you can't even see. Death and disinfectant all in one bottle! (Who knew?)

And so, in a sea of Pacific Fresh Lysol (original flavor reminds me of the cadaver lab), the ants met their death. A and Ch took great delight in pointing out any speck that moved, which I would promptly shower in suds.

I was so proud of myself to get them all killed and cleaned up before S got home. All that met him was a gleaming tile floor when he inspected my handiwork.

Happy Day!

I wish I could say that was the end of it.

Grey and early the next morning, S kisses me good-bye and informs me that he's sorry, but there are more ants. This time they are in the playroom (where Ch snuck a snack and left a crumb) and up the cupboard in the bathroom. I groggily ask what cupboard? The only one we have, J. Oh, that one. I can't imagine why they would want to carry away the towels? Exit S.

And so begins the next adventure. They aren't on the floor, which I thoroughly destroyed of all things ant. They are coming out of a new hole and up the entire length of the built-in cupboard, which reaches nearly to the ceiling. Great.


Then they crawled into the cupboard.

Yes, friends, over and under and along both shelves.


The ants go marching, one by one, hurrah....

They weren't too interested in the ponytails and hair ribbons, but delighted to find the medicines. See how they crawled into my white basket? And across the shelf to the pink "bubble-gum medicine"? Not many, you say? No need to worry?

This is the sight I beheld when I pulled the basket down to peer inside at what the heck they could be getting into. (yes, they are swimming in "pacific fresh", and so are my cough syrups.) Great opportunity to pare down the contents of the medicine cabinet. Prior to moving, I had weeded out expired meds, here go the rest of them.

Out of curiosity I opened the lid to the NyQuil and this is what greeted me. Child resistant caps aren't ant resistant, heck, half the time they don't even deter the determined toddler from de-capitation.

My friend Anna pointed out that I was probably responsible now for the next generation of mutant sugar ants. I mean, what does NyQuil do to an ant? How much do they need before they get drowsy? Perhaps they fell asleep right in the lid? What sort of buzz were they on?!


Here's a sampling of what I feed the ants at my house. They're not gonna feel a thing when they die. (Hmm...I seem to like generic drugs.)

Ever present at my side was my faithful side-kick The Charlinator, shrieking at moving specks, insisting he could take the Lysol gun on a solo mission. Right. We used so much of the blue death water that we were getting high on the fumes.

Then I opened the drawer and found, yep, MORE ANTS!! There isn't even anything to eat in that drawer and they were swarming...(although the liner was a red/white gingham check... perhaps they are programmed to be attracted to the "picnic" blanket look.)

(Oh, and did I mention that I was waiting for the cable guy to come and install high-speed Internet service? You know the routine: between 8 and noon. The last serviceman that I waited for never showed up-twice. Waiting for four hours is not my idea of a good morning.)

So. Quarter to twelve and no cable guy and a bathroom full of Lysol fumes and dead ants. I was reaching the end of my "nice mommy" reserves.

S to the rescue!

He came to deal with the cable guy (who had arrived precisely at noon) while Ch and I went to an enrichment lunch at the church.

My sanity saved...I put hotels up for the relations of the dead. We want to be accommodating, right?

Yeah.

SOLD

Last week we sold our house.

For real. Final. History.

I have mixed emotions. Part of me is sooo relieved to have sold it when this is not an especially good market for selling.

Part of me is mad that the new owners want to paint.

(Then I remember that the first thing we did when we moved in was paint. Boy, it needed it too. Maybe I'm irked because when we left we touched up every nail hole we made. (I wonder if they removed the "Find Joy in Every Journey" vinyl decal over the fireplace...)

This is what I loved about our house: It was our first home. The laundry room was red, bright cheerful, deep red. So was the lower wall in the kitchen. I loved the 13' ceilings and the huge clock and red drapes below. I loved the tile jobs we did in the bathrooms. I loved the walls with faux finishes instead of wallpaper. I loved the backyard with grass and rocks. I loved the "man-cave" shed: 12'x20', lights, heater/ac, phone jack, which provided great storage. I loved the volunteer watermelon that inspired my green thumb. (I got a 40 lb watermelon last year, and assorted 16-20 lb.ers. This pic is the next year-pumpkins and watermelon.) I discovered I loved the gas stove...and want another! I loved the curvy sidewalk leading to the front walk. I loved the sunlight streaming through the windows in the early morning. I loved my neighbor, and crack-of-dawn jogging and playdates with our kids. I loved the commute for S--under 20 min. to each office. I loved being close to the zoo, aquarium, explora and shopping, yet feeling removed from it all. So many things I loved, so many memories there.

Safe.

Happy.

Home.

Good-bye little house.

I hope your new family loves you as much as we did.

ps. Here are some more pics...I realized I'm so busy taking pics of the children, I forget to catalogue the backdrop. Photograph your houses now!

I couldn't find a pic of the front...this is just under the eaves and shows what our brick looked like...and the bird nest that we watched this spring...four baby birds hatched. We hope they flew away. We're not sure.

Summer fun on the lawn with our Brown friends.

Skeleton Cookies

So. I saw the idea that Melissa got from Baking Bits and had to try it. Aren't they cute? I don't do alot for Halloween (not one of my favorite holidays) but this was too irresistable to pass up. I think my slightly twisted humor and love of anatomy kicked in.

I tried Martha Stewart's gingerbread recipe. The dough was really stiff, but perfect for little helpers to roll and cut out shapes from. (I've tried others that were too soft and difficult to work with.) Although it was a bit spicy for Alice, Charley didn't mind. I loved it. I also made Martha's Royal Icing for the frosting. Zippy lemony deliciousness. Hope you get some inspiration! Let me know if you try this!

The kids had a blast helping. Charley would cut out shapes right from the center of the dough. We worked on starting at the edges and filling in all the spaces. Alice started rolling and cutting all on her own. Charley then commenced to disintegrate the scraps with the remaining flour in a measuring cup. He just liked feeling squishy stuff between his fingers. Sometimes it's just fun to make a mess....he was really good about using only one hand, the one without the cast. (could you imaging gingerbread dough stuck on the plaster for two weeks?!? Ew!)

(animal shapes work best...something with a real skeleton....fish might be good too....I had to stop myself from running out and getting new cookie cutters. I had to use the moose, lamb (dog?), bat and gingerbread man that I already had on hand. Convincing Charley that Christmas trees wouldn't make good skeletons took awhile....)

As You Wish...

Don't get much bigger than that, schwan!!

Current

Phew! I think I've caught up with all that's happened. Look back and find pics in the moving posts. Not many, but a few. I managed to get them out of the camera, so look forward to many more! =)

Now that the traveloge is over, I can muse on every-day details and experiences. The joy. I know y'all can hardly wait.

Until then....

One Little Monkey...

...jumped across the beds
didn't stick his landing,
and fell upon his head.

Mama called the doctor,
and said with some alarm,
"I think our little Charley
has broken his left arm."

Doctor looked at Charley
took big pictures too,
and said sure enough, but
its not quite clean in two.

Charley got wrapped up in
a splint from elbow to hand
and came home exhausted
asleep, in bed, to land.

About one week later,
another Dr. to see,
his arm is getting better,
a smaller cast will be,

the perfect size for Charley,
to cover his left wrist,
with soccer balls all over
the top choice on the list.

Little Charley is fine,
a busy active boy,
a trial for his parents,
(who also brings great joy).

(Charles broke his arm Sept. 23, should get the cast off Oct. 22, just fine except he can't take baths like he wants to. As if my month wasn't already crazy enough....)

Oregon

...well folks, we made it. 1500 miles without a scratch and Scott has to hit the fence at the last corner and get stuck. No joke...he was stuck on the corner with the end of the truck. Getting unstuck involved removing the car from the carrier and relying on the assistance of a nice neighbor to pull the truck around. He claims the streets are sure narrow here. =)

We've been here one month and have only been slightly busy. Alice started Kindergarten, which she loves. She walked off with her class the first day without so much as a backward glance. (I was so worried because she had only been 5 for a week! There are some days when she would rather stay home and play, but overall the transition is pretty smooth. She doesn't offer information when I ask what she's done each day, but slowly it leaks out. She says "we learned". Practicing the politically vague answers at such an early age.) She goes in the afternoon, and Charley and I usually walk her to and from. Charley likes to ride his bike, and complains when we don't have time to walk and have to drive. (It only takes 12 min. to walk (with two little kids) and 5 to drive, with traffic).

We drove back to Utah for the full Top of Utah Marathon, which Scott and Kip finished.

Waiting in the frigid cold of the canyon winds for Daddy and Grandpa to run by. This was mile 14 of 26, just over halfway, and the first place where spectators were allowed along the road. Alice and Charley were not pleased to be waiting in the cold and both wanted to be held and blocked from the wind.

Due to holding children and cheering for the men, this is the first picture taken, of their back view, as we hurried off to the next cheering point. If you look closely, above the red shirts, there is a blue shirt and grey shirt running together. Scott is grey, Kip is blue. Go team!

Run like the wind, Old one! Busy schedules, inexperience and running the first 14 miles faster than their half-marathon time (which was faster than they planned on) threw the guys off their 10 min-mile pace and the cramping set in. Hard to run with crampy legs. They refused to leave each other's side, and walk/jogged the rest of the marathon. (I'm not sure if they'd do it again, but they really enjoyed the half-marathon three weeks previous.) We drove and stopped at about four more places to cheer them on. While I was waiting for them to pass (the duration got longer at each stop) I cheered on every other runner I saw. Yeah. I was suffering from a flu/cold at the time and practically lost my voice. I love runners.

Charley ran up to them at the finish line and crossed with them, I was too busy yelling to get a pic, and by the time I caught up with them, Scott looked like this.

Here they are with their shiny moose finishing medals. Go Team! They're happy to have shared the experience (neither one would have made it if it weren't for the other), but it's not one they're planning on repeating any time soon. Scott could give you more details if you want them. (I don't think you want them...but ask anyway, if you must.)

We drove out to the coast and the children saw the ocean for the first time (although, once we arrived, it was lunch time and they enjoyed playing at the nearby park more than walking on the beach. Go figure.)

I'm so excited!!!!! to be this close. You will probably get sick of beach and coast pictures. Too bad.

Look really close and you can see a tiny person at the base of the right rock. Alice called it "The Volcano."

I will leave you now with a walk into the horizon....