It's now trapped IN THE STOVE.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Rat: 1, Toby: Zip
This is what I saw when I walked to the kitchen after my shower to start my coffee.
It's early in the game, and my husband has already lost it.
So, last night we heard 2 traps go off. And we drifted back to sleep, dreaming of a rat-free kitchen. But when we got up this morning, there we no rats trapped. And a pack of hamburger buns had been chewed into....I bought that pack of buns yesterday and put it up on the highest shelf in the kitchen. He climbed up there. CRINGE.
So, that's a view of the kitchen right now (sans dishwasher - waaahhh!) and also a long-shot view of my husband's genius. I swear, if THIS works, we are opening a Pest Control business. I'll do the books.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
A Rat Tale.
So I might have neglected to mention that a few weeks ago, Toby discovered that his garage (which is not connected to the house - it's in the back of our yard) was infested with rats. RATS. Not a mouse. Or mice. Or even A rat. RATS. Plural. And BIG.
They were living in the walls and feasting on the dog food...and making a house in the fridge out there...and in the sofa... So when Toby moved the fridge out away from the wall for some reason and TWELVE giant rats scurried out, that began the Rat Wars.
So, fast forward a month and he has since gutted his garage, torn out the walls, gotten rid of the fridge and the couch and all of the work benches and rebuilt them and saturated it with Rat Poison.... the garage is doing well now.
But those rats have to go somewhere, right?!?! We have found LOTS of dead ones in the yard...and we have set bait stations all over the yard and outside of the house...It seemed to be under control.
So, yesterday morning I was getting ready for a GREAT weekend. I was so excited that NOTHING was on the calendar except to go see Sex and the City with some friends at 5pm. My Mother in Law was coming over to watch Stella and Kendall. Kim, Julie, and Katie were all coming over to go with me...and Heath and Chris and Toby were going to do the usual - drink beer and play pool in the garage. I was hoping to run some errands in the mornings and just get some stuff done. Nothing crazy.... Just take it easy and ENJOY a NON-eventful weekend.
Well, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! How DARE I think of doing that.
I get up and start a cup of coffee and hit "start" on the dishwasher. I'm standing there waiting for my coffee when I notice the dishwasher is leaking. Damn! Toby looks at it and thinks it's the seal around the front but he knows nothing about dishwashers, so I call Dad and he comes over for a visit and a peek at the dishwasher. He also thinks it's the seal around the front so he suggested I clean that off and get some of the grit off of it - maybe it will seal better because maybe the dirt is making it lose suction....blah blah. So he leaves and I do that and cut the thing back on and LAY ON THE FLOOR (this is important for later...) and look between the dishwasher and the cabinet to REALLY look at where it's leaking and I notice it's coming from the BACK of the dishwasher and is pouring out between the dishwasher and the cabinet on the floor. In other words, it is not dripping from the front of the dishwasher.... it's the back. So I tell Toby that and he says "that's impossible! The only way for it to come out is the front..." so he humours me and pulls the dishwasher out from under the countertop into the middle of the kitchen floor to look back there and
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THERE IS A GIANT RAT LIKE GIANT LIKE A FOOT LONG AND I SCREAM SO LOUD AND RUN INTO THE LIVING ROOM AND JUMP UP ON THE COUCH.
I mean, SHIT!!
So, this rat runs under the fridge now. I call Dad in a PANIC and yell at him to come back that we found the problem with the dishwasher it's a GIANT RAT!!!!!!! With our panicked selves, we looked at the dishwasher and that f-ing rat had chewed all of the wiring and tubes - no wonder it was leaking! And apparently he had set up homestead there for awhile because he had PIECES of bread and all kinds of food - probably from our trash can. UGH!!! I'm cringing while I type this. Toby said that "rats" to him are like "snakes" to me. I doubt it - because if that was the case and we had a snake living in the kitchen, there would already be a for sale sign on our front yard and we'd be living out of my Mazda Tribute.... but he is pretty worked up too.... We're both just in a frenzy.
So, Dad comes running across the yard with a bb gun wrapped in a big black garbage bag. LOL
I put up the baby gate to corral the rat in the kitchen. Stella and I go lock ourselves in the computer room and listen.... I swear I wish I had a video camera of what happened next. I can't see what's going on but I can hear it. It went something like this:
Dad and Toby in the kitchen "rocking" the appliances trying to get the rat to come out.
Toby: THERE IT IS!
Dad: screams
Toby: Wayne! Gimme the gun! Gimme the gun!
Dad: I'm trying to load it! How do you load it?
Toby: Give it to me. I had one years ago.
Dad: I got it loaded - here you go!
Toby: (Lifts the gun to shoot the rat but the trigger won't pull) SAFETY! The safety is on! How do you get it off!!!
Dad: THERE! THERE!
Toby: SHIT!! Where'd he go?
Rat: What a pair of clowns.
So anyway, the rat got away. The kitchen is OUT OF CONTROL. We're both shaking and nervous and grossed out and depressed. Plan of action? Ignore it.
We label the kitchen "out of commission" and just leave the baby gate up and go back to our plans. Zana and Erik arrive to keep the girls...and the big girls get in the car and go to the movies. The boys did their garage thing.
The movie was PERFECT. I loved every second of it. EVERY SECOND. I SO miss that show... I'm ready for Part II of the movie!!! And I ate enough popcorn mixed with goobers to last me for years and years... (It had BEEN years since I ate that wonderful concoction. Shoot, it had been years since I went to the movies!!)
So, we get home and just hang out with friends and chill out.
Everyone leaves and Toby passes out on the couch and I go lay in the bed and read. I cut out my light around midnight and it wasn't even 5 minutes before I hear rustling in the kitchen. Then stuff being knocked over.
I go running into the living room and whisper/scream: "TOBY! RAT!!" and his drunk ass says "I am in no condition to deal with that now." So, ok. I went back to bed and listened to my kitchen get turned upside down.
Dad had gone out to buy 2 glue strip traps and a snap trap that we had set up earlier in the day... so in my head, I was envisioning this rat being caught on the glue trap and knocking itself around trying to get loose.
Um... No.
When I got up this morning, I looked in there and the rat wasn't caught at all. The traps were all untouched. That thing was literally just running around knocking shit over! The stuff that usually sits in the window sill was on the counter. It had even gotten into our saltines. I swear that thing was like "Screw ya'll. This is MY crib!"
So, today we have unloaded the dishwasher and handwashed everything. We have removed the dishwasher and thrown it in the pile of old wood and construction from the old deck that needs to go to the dump. (When we catch this dude, we will celebrate by going to get a new dishwasher. Dammit.) And we also bleached the entire kitchen from top to bottom. We went to Home Depot and bought 8 more of the snap traps to "saturate" the area.
Toby said that he is going to put so many traps in that kitchen tonight that we shouldn't even LOOK at it because our eyes might get trapped.
He said "the war is on" and that rat is going to GET IT tonight. I hope so.....
They were living in the walls and feasting on the dog food...and making a house in the fridge out there...and in the sofa... So when Toby moved the fridge out away from the wall for some reason and TWELVE giant rats scurried out, that began the Rat Wars.
So, fast forward a month and he has since gutted his garage, torn out the walls, gotten rid of the fridge and the couch and all of the work benches and rebuilt them and saturated it with Rat Poison.... the garage is doing well now.
But those rats have to go somewhere, right?!?! We have found LOTS of dead ones in the yard...and we have set bait stations all over the yard and outside of the house...It seemed to be under control.
So, yesterday morning I was getting ready for a GREAT weekend. I was so excited that NOTHING was on the calendar except to go see Sex and the City with some friends at 5pm. My Mother in Law was coming over to watch Stella and Kendall. Kim, Julie, and Katie were all coming over to go with me...and Heath and Chris and Toby were going to do the usual - drink beer and play pool in the garage. I was hoping to run some errands in the mornings and just get some stuff done. Nothing crazy.... Just take it easy and ENJOY a NON-eventful weekend.
Well, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! How DARE I think of doing that.
I get up and start a cup of coffee and hit "start" on the dishwasher. I'm standing there waiting for my coffee when I notice the dishwasher is leaking. Damn! Toby looks at it and thinks it's the seal around the front but he knows nothing about dishwashers, so I call Dad and he comes over for a visit and a peek at the dishwasher. He also thinks it's the seal around the front so he suggested I clean that off and get some of the grit off of it - maybe it will seal better because maybe the dirt is making it lose suction....blah blah. So he leaves and I do that and cut the thing back on and LAY ON THE FLOOR (this is important for later...) and look between the dishwasher and the cabinet to REALLY look at where it's leaking and I notice it's coming from the BACK of the dishwasher and is pouring out between the dishwasher and the cabinet on the floor. In other words, it is not dripping from the front of the dishwasher.... it's the back. So I tell Toby that and he says "that's impossible! The only way for it to come out is the front..." so he humours me and pulls the dishwasher out from under the countertop into the middle of the kitchen floor to look back there and
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THERE IS A GIANT RAT LIKE GIANT LIKE A FOOT LONG AND I SCREAM SO LOUD AND RUN INTO THE LIVING ROOM AND JUMP UP ON THE COUCH.
I mean, SHIT!!
So, this rat runs under the fridge now. I call Dad in a PANIC and yell at him to come back that we found the problem with the dishwasher it's a GIANT RAT!!!!!!! With our panicked selves, we looked at the dishwasher and that f-ing rat had chewed all of the wiring and tubes - no wonder it was leaking! And apparently he had set up homestead there for awhile because he had PIECES of bread and all kinds of food - probably from our trash can. UGH!!! I'm cringing while I type this. Toby said that "rats" to him are like "snakes" to me. I doubt it - because if that was the case and we had a snake living in the kitchen, there would already be a for sale sign on our front yard and we'd be living out of my Mazda Tribute.... but he is pretty worked up too.... We're both just in a frenzy.
So, Dad comes running across the yard with a bb gun wrapped in a big black garbage bag. LOL
I put up the baby gate to corral the rat in the kitchen. Stella and I go lock ourselves in the computer room and listen.... I swear I wish I had a video camera of what happened next. I can't see what's going on but I can hear it. It went something like this:
Dad and Toby in the kitchen "rocking" the appliances trying to get the rat to come out.
Toby: THERE IT IS!
Dad: screams
Toby: Wayne! Gimme the gun! Gimme the gun!
Dad: I'm trying to load it! How do you load it?
Toby: Give it to me. I had one years ago.
Dad: I got it loaded - here you go!
Toby: (Lifts the gun to shoot the rat but the trigger won't pull) SAFETY! The safety is on! How do you get it off!!!
Dad: THERE! THERE!
Toby: SHIT!! Where'd he go?
Rat: What a pair of clowns.
So anyway, the rat got away. The kitchen is OUT OF CONTROL. We're both shaking and nervous and grossed out and depressed. Plan of action? Ignore it.
We label the kitchen "out of commission" and just leave the baby gate up and go back to our plans. Zana and Erik arrive to keep the girls...and the big girls get in the car and go to the movies. The boys did their garage thing.
The movie was PERFECT. I loved every second of it. EVERY SECOND. I SO miss that show... I'm ready for Part II of the movie!!! And I ate enough popcorn mixed with goobers to last me for years and years... (It had BEEN years since I ate that wonderful concoction. Shoot, it had been years since I went to the movies!!)
So, we get home and just hang out with friends and chill out.
Everyone leaves and Toby passes out on the couch and I go lay in the bed and read. I cut out my light around midnight and it wasn't even 5 minutes before I hear rustling in the kitchen. Then stuff being knocked over.
I go running into the living room and whisper/scream: "TOBY! RAT!!" and his drunk ass says "I am in no condition to deal with that now." So, ok. I went back to bed and listened to my kitchen get turned upside down.
Dad had gone out to buy 2 glue strip traps and a snap trap that we had set up earlier in the day... so in my head, I was envisioning this rat being caught on the glue trap and knocking itself around trying to get loose.
Um... No.
When I got up this morning, I looked in there and the rat wasn't caught at all. The traps were all untouched. That thing was literally just running around knocking shit over! The stuff that usually sits in the window sill was on the counter. It had even gotten into our saltines. I swear that thing was like "Screw ya'll. This is MY crib!"
So, today we have unloaded the dishwasher and handwashed everything. We have removed the dishwasher and thrown it in the pile of old wood and construction from the old deck that needs to go to the dump. (When we catch this dude, we will celebrate by going to get a new dishwasher. Dammit.) And we also bleached the entire kitchen from top to bottom. We went to Home Depot and bought 8 more of the snap traps to "saturate" the area.
Toby said that he is going to put so many traps in that kitchen tonight that we shouldn't even LOOK at it because our eyes might get trapped.
He said "the war is on" and that rat is going to GET IT tonight. I hope so.....
Monday, May 26, 2008
Of Course.
While Stella attended the Memorial Day parade with Neh-Neh and Bapaw, I hung out at Patient First for 2 hours because I HAVE STREP THROAT.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Memorial Day Weekend 2008
I was thinking about how last year, this weekend was HELL. I lost Carol Bock. And my Dad had his massive heart attack the next day. Whew. So, whatever happens this year would pale in comparison - I was hoping for an uneventful weekend. I guess I got my wish - in a strange way. :)
My last day of work was Wednesday. What a BLESSING. I was so looking forward to a long memorial day weekend on the new deck (pictures included below) and going to Mom's on Saturday for the annual Pool Party (where no one swims because it's too cold) and the Lakeside Memorial Day Parade......
So on Thursday, I began my mini-vaca with a trip to Tappahannock, VA to visit my Mimi's 2 sisters and families... It was Barbara's birthday and we all had the traditional lunch at Lowery's and then back to Barbara's to visit.
Here is Mimi and Stella walking into Lowery's.
It was so nice!! And Stella loved her ice cream, as usual.
Lowery's has a tradition where the kids "go fishing" after they eat. They get a little fishing pole and go back to the well in the back of the restaurant and catch these plastic fish and take their fish to the front and get a prize. I used to fish when I was Stella's age. So, Stella went fishing and got a prize of a little red ducky.
My cousin Amy got her a twirly thing that she loved...
Stella was great all day - She played with Aaron and Emaline's toys at their Memaw Barbara's house.... You can see in the video below. You can also hear my Mimi, Barbara, and Jean singing "like Marilyn Monroe." They are all nuts. In a wonderful way. And they did not know I was recording.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books
But when I pulled her out of the car after the 45 minute ride home, she was BURNING up! Then at 1am, she woke up crying - which she never does. I went in to get her and she was a million degrees and was shaking... It was pitiful!!! She slept with us the rest of the night and I took her to the doc the next morning.
She was acting totally normal and happy. She made friends with a little boy in the waiting room. "Hey boy!"
But when the doc looked at her throat, she actually gasped. "Her throat is awful!" I was shocked... The doc even said "You'd never know her throat looks like that, she is in such good spirits." She took a swab - and of course, it was Strep Throat. She said she is very contagious and will be until she has not had a fever for 24 hours - and that the fever could last for 3 days. Poor baby. And poor me! All I could think about was how this weekend was going to a be a repeat of Christmas!
We have been confined to the house - but sometimes that's not so bad. And we do have the new deck to sit on. We watched Mom and Dad's party from our deck yesterday...waved back and forth. A few family members came over in spurts and watched Stella dance from the yard - careful not to get too close. So, it wasn't a total bummer like Christmas.
I have been rather productive with being confined. All chores are done - laundry that had piled up, grocery shopping, and today I plan to organize some scrapbooking stuff... Toby has been SUPER productive this past week while he has been on vacation. Not only has he built a magical deck, but he has cleaned the gutters, cut all the grass, run power out to my shed so I can have a light in there, he removed a baseboard heating unit from the living room (that was inactive and Stella liked to stand on it and scare us..) and replaced it with a wood baseboard that looks great, he has totally gutted his garage and cleaned it.... on and on! I swear, if I could afford for HIM to stay home, I would! Things get done!!!!
And here is the BEFORE pic of "huck finn" - the old "dock."
And the AFTERS. I am so thankful!!
So it's not the Memorial Day of my dreams...but it's been pretty darn good.
And please say a prayer for Cece and John Bock. John (her Dad) flew out to LA to be with her this weekend. I am SO happy neither one of them is alone... And I am so incredibly thankful that my Dad is here to celebrate Memorial Day - even if I just get to wave back and forth from deck to deck.
My last day of work was Wednesday. What a BLESSING. I was so looking forward to a long memorial day weekend on the new deck (pictures included below) and going to Mom's on Saturday for the annual Pool Party (where no one swims because it's too cold) and the Lakeside Memorial Day Parade......
So on Thursday, I began my mini-vaca with a trip to Tappahannock, VA to visit my Mimi's 2 sisters and families... It was Barbara's birthday and we all had the traditional lunch at Lowery's and then back to Barbara's to visit.
Here is Mimi and Stella walking into Lowery's.
It was so nice!! And Stella loved her ice cream, as usual.
Lowery's has a tradition where the kids "go fishing" after they eat. They get a little fishing pole and go back to the well in the back of the restaurant and catch these plastic fish and take their fish to the front and get a prize. I used to fish when I was Stella's age. So, Stella went fishing and got a prize of a little red ducky.
My cousin Amy got her a twirly thing that she loved...
Stella was great all day - She played with Aaron and Emaline's toys at their Memaw Barbara's house.... You can see in the video below. You can also hear my Mimi, Barbara, and Jean singing "like Marilyn Monroe." They are all nuts. In a wonderful way. And they did not know I was recording.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books
But when I pulled her out of the car after the 45 minute ride home, she was BURNING up! Then at 1am, she woke up crying - which she never does. I went in to get her and she was a million degrees and was shaking... It was pitiful!!! She slept with us the rest of the night and I took her to the doc the next morning.
She was acting totally normal and happy. She made friends with a little boy in the waiting room. "Hey boy!"
But when the doc looked at her throat, she actually gasped. "Her throat is awful!" I was shocked... The doc even said "You'd never know her throat looks like that, she is in such good spirits." She took a swab - and of course, it was Strep Throat. She said she is very contagious and will be until she has not had a fever for 24 hours - and that the fever could last for 3 days. Poor baby. And poor me! All I could think about was how this weekend was going to a be a repeat of Christmas!
We have been confined to the house - but sometimes that's not so bad. And we do have the new deck to sit on. We watched Mom and Dad's party from our deck yesterday...waved back and forth. A few family members came over in spurts and watched Stella dance from the yard - careful not to get too close. So, it wasn't a total bummer like Christmas.
I have been rather productive with being confined. All chores are done - laundry that had piled up, grocery shopping, and today I plan to organize some scrapbooking stuff... Toby has been SUPER productive this past week while he has been on vacation. Not only has he built a magical deck, but he has cleaned the gutters, cut all the grass, run power out to my shed so I can have a light in there, he removed a baseboard heating unit from the living room (that was inactive and Stella liked to stand on it and scare us..) and replaced it with a wood baseboard that looks great, he has totally gutted his garage and cleaned it.... on and on! I swear, if I could afford for HIM to stay home, I would! Things get done!!!!
And here is the BEFORE pic of "huck finn" - the old "dock."
And the AFTERS. I am so thankful!!
So it's not the Memorial Day of my dreams...but it's been pretty darn good.
And please say a prayer for Cece and John Bock. John (her Dad) flew out to LA to be with her this weekend. I am SO happy neither one of them is alone... And I am so incredibly thankful that my Dad is here to celebrate Memorial Day - even if I just get to wave back and forth from deck to deck.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
We have a DECK!!
It's not quite finished...but look what 3 (very talented) average joes did in 2 days. Toby worked with his Uncle Greg and his Dad to build this AMAZING deck for us. I can't even believe how much I LOVE it and how impressed I am with their work.
Here are the "befores" - the old deck was lovingly referred to as "Huck Finn" because it was like a dock from the dang 1800's. I think it was built then it was so rickety and rotting.
And here are some "during" pictures...
Aunt Donna keeping Miss Thing entertained...
My parents live next door and sat on their wrap-around porch watching the construction. We went over there for a pizza dinner last night. My parents got such a kick out of me carrying lumber - I know there are several pictures on their camera. (I must be a spoiled rotten brat for them to get SO excited to see me do a little bit of manual labor. They told Toby that if I ever cut the grass, he better call them so they can set up chairs and drink margaritas and watch me.)
And here are some "almost done" pictures....
Please ignore the dirt on the backside of the side porch...we are replacing that siding very soon...
And here is the mean Superintendent of the job yelling orders through the window. She's a tough one.
Here are the "befores" - the old deck was lovingly referred to as "Huck Finn" because it was like a dock from the dang 1800's. I think it was built then it was so rickety and rotting.
And here are some "during" pictures...
Aunt Donna keeping Miss Thing entertained...
My parents live next door and sat on their wrap-around porch watching the construction. We went over there for a pizza dinner last night. My parents got such a kick out of me carrying lumber - I know there are several pictures on their camera. (I must be a spoiled rotten brat for them to get SO excited to see me do a little bit of manual labor. They told Toby that if I ever cut the grass, he better call them so they can set up chairs and drink margaritas and watch me.)
And here are some "almost done" pictures....
Please ignore the dirt on the backside of the side porch...we are replacing that siding very soon...
And here is the mean Superintendent of the job yelling orders through the window. She's a tough one.
For the record....
Stella is now counting and saying her ABCs. I need to get both of these on video...but for right now I just wanted to write this down for posterity.
When you ask my daughter to count, she says:
One!
Two!
Three!
Adook! (We have been clueless as to what this is...but then figured it out when she continued to count...)
Cinco!
Seiz!
Siete!
Ocho!
So, Adook must mean Quatro.
And Dora The Explorer has made my daughter bilingual.
When you ask my daughter to count, she says:
One!
Two!
Three!
Adook! (We have been clueless as to what this is...but then figured it out when she continued to count...)
Cinco!
Seiz!
Siete!
Ocho!
So, Adook must mean Quatro.
And Dora The Explorer has made my daughter bilingual.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Whirlwind
Um, Yeah.
Can you say "Not one minute to BREATHE?!?!?!" Welcome to my world. I mean, I am SURE I could find a minute to breathe somewhere, but it's so dang hard these days. I wish I could have just ONE week where I have a grip on everything. But then I would be bored, right?!?! Yeah.
So this past week has been a whirlwind of very busy work days and crazy chaotic nights at home. It's been a good one though. On Monday, I actually went to the gym during my lunch hour because I knew I would miss Jazzercise that night...How PROactive of me. Yep, that's the last time that happened this week.
I had to let our cleaning girl go. Poor thing just didn't show up sometimes - and I would be sooooooooo disappointed when I would get home from work, expecting a clean house, and then I was hit in the face with NOTHING. (And we all know I cleaned before the cleaning lady came...so that pissed me off that time was wasted. haha) Another fishy thing was that she never called us once. She always e-mailed. I gave her our phone numbers several times...but never got one in return....and she never called to tell us that she wouldn't make it. Maybe she didn't like confrontation in person. Who knows? This last time she didn't show, there was no e-mail. I e-mailed HER and told her "thank you for your work thus far, but we no longer will need your services." She E-MAILED back her sob story about how her grandma had a stroke and she had to rush to West Virginia where there were no cell phone signals for her to call.... Blah blah blah. I'm sorry about Grandma, but come on. She said that this is her primary form of income and would like more notice. I wrote back with some "feedback" on how she could be much more successful with her primary form of income - like SHOW UP.
I found a new house cleaner on Craigslist - she's a beautiful Russian lady named Olga. She came over Monday night to meet us and see the house. As we were talking, I heard some weird noise from the bathroom so I walked over and peeked in...and there is my daughter scooping up toilet water in one of her play bowls. Nice. When Olga left, she told Stella "Next time I bring you russian candies. They taste better than toilet water." ha! And she DID! She came back on Wednesday and cleaned while we were at work. Do you KNOW how wonderful it is to open the door and smell bleach and lysol and murphys soap on the wood floors??!?!?! There was a note on the table with 2 russian candies - "These are for little girl. I wish I could see her today." I think we found a good one.
Ok...so it is now 12 hours later. Today got away from me!!
The deck construction began today. You guys are going to flip when I post before/after pictures tomorrow. It is AMAZING. I am so excited and thankful. The finished deck is over 300 square feet. That's as big as my old studio apartment in Shockoe Bottom. And in the middle of the deck construction, we also had a home security system installed. Uh, yeah. That was not in the plans. However, there is a new company called "Platinum" and they are doing an advertising blitz right now. They get 5 houses in the same area and install an entire system for free. Our friends Mike and Jacqui got it installed...and so did several other neighbors. All you have to do is display a sign in your yard and pay the monthly monitoring fee which is $42. This system has detectors at both doors, a motion censor that covers the "heart" of our house, and a special smoke detector that alerts the fire dept at the smallest bit of smoke - in other words, before the house is burnt to the ground. Another cool thing is that the system is connected to a key fob (keychain) and I can just hit the button from my car to turn the system on and off. No trying to beat the clock to get in and put in the pin number to disarm. And on the system is a button to call the police and one to call for an ambulance in case of a medial emergency. It is very cool....although I was PISSED at Toby for telling the guy YES to everything before even talking to me...and then bringing the guy inside to me and saying "Gotta go finish the deck!" and leaving me to deal with it all.... But I'm over it now. And I think we got an amazing deal (if we paid outright for this, it would have been over $1500) and we are protected. And most importantly, Stella is protected.
So we added a lot of value to our house today...and we get to buy PATIO FURNITURE!!!
More to come....
Can you say "Not one minute to BREATHE?!?!?!" Welcome to my world. I mean, I am SURE I could find a minute to breathe somewhere, but it's so dang hard these days. I wish I could have just ONE week where I have a grip on everything. But then I would be bored, right?!?! Yeah.
So this past week has been a whirlwind of very busy work days and crazy chaotic nights at home. It's been a good one though. On Monday, I actually went to the gym during my lunch hour because I knew I would miss Jazzercise that night...How PROactive of me. Yep, that's the last time that happened this week.
I had to let our cleaning girl go. Poor thing just didn't show up sometimes - and I would be sooooooooo disappointed when I would get home from work, expecting a clean house, and then I was hit in the face with NOTHING. (And we all know I cleaned before the cleaning lady came...so that pissed me off that time was wasted. haha) Another fishy thing was that she never called us once. She always e-mailed. I gave her our phone numbers several times...but never got one in return....and she never called to tell us that she wouldn't make it. Maybe she didn't like confrontation in person. Who knows? This last time she didn't show, there was no e-mail. I e-mailed HER and told her "thank you for your work thus far, but we no longer will need your services." She E-MAILED back her sob story about how her grandma had a stroke and she had to rush to West Virginia where there were no cell phone signals for her to call.... Blah blah blah. I'm sorry about Grandma, but come on. She said that this is her primary form of income and would like more notice. I wrote back with some "feedback" on how she could be much more successful with her primary form of income - like SHOW UP.
I found a new house cleaner on Craigslist - she's a beautiful Russian lady named Olga. She came over Monday night to meet us and see the house. As we were talking, I heard some weird noise from the bathroom so I walked over and peeked in...and there is my daughter scooping up toilet water in one of her play bowls. Nice. When Olga left, she told Stella "Next time I bring you russian candies. They taste better than toilet water." ha! And she DID! She came back on Wednesday and cleaned while we were at work. Do you KNOW how wonderful it is to open the door and smell bleach and lysol and murphys soap on the wood floors??!?!?! There was a note on the table with 2 russian candies - "These are for little girl. I wish I could see her today." I think we found a good one.
Ok...so it is now 12 hours later. Today got away from me!!
The deck construction began today. You guys are going to flip when I post before/after pictures tomorrow. It is AMAZING. I am so excited and thankful. The finished deck is over 300 square feet. That's as big as my old studio apartment in Shockoe Bottom. And in the middle of the deck construction, we also had a home security system installed. Uh, yeah. That was not in the plans. However, there is a new company called "Platinum" and they are doing an advertising blitz right now. They get 5 houses in the same area and install an entire system for free. Our friends Mike and Jacqui got it installed...and so did several other neighbors. All you have to do is display a sign in your yard and pay the monthly monitoring fee which is $42. This system has detectors at both doors, a motion censor that covers the "heart" of our house, and a special smoke detector that alerts the fire dept at the smallest bit of smoke - in other words, before the house is burnt to the ground. Another cool thing is that the system is connected to a key fob (keychain) and I can just hit the button from my car to turn the system on and off. No trying to beat the clock to get in and put in the pin number to disarm. And on the system is a button to call the police and one to call for an ambulance in case of a medial emergency. It is very cool....although I was PISSED at Toby for telling the guy YES to everything before even talking to me...and then bringing the guy inside to me and saying "Gotta go finish the deck!" and leaving me to deal with it all.... But I'm over it now. And I think we got an amazing deal (if we paid outright for this, it would have been over $1500) and we are protected. And most importantly, Stella is protected.
So we added a lot of value to our house today...and we get to buy PATIO FURNITURE!!!
More to come....
Monday, May 12, 2008
May 2008 - Uncle Donnie Present
Dearest Stella O,
Though you cannot possibly be old enough to read and much less old enough to absorb Ms. HB Stowe's novel, I trust you will be a student of history!! Please find enclosed a Little Mischief Maker Topsy Doll. I hope it will bring you great joy! It sure does tickle me even at the ripe old age of 30... It is another creation by this brilliant woman from the North Carolina mountains where your Mom and I went to college. Trusting that you will turn out to be a genius! (no pressure...)
All my love, Uncle Donnie
(Written inside the book:)
Darling Stella O,
Please also find this classic brought to life in Rogers and Hammerstein's "The King and I" - 'Small House of Uncle Thomas.'
Heart, Uncle Donnie
Though you cannot possibly be old enough to read and much less old enough to absorb Ms. HB Stowe's novel, I trust you will be a student of history!! Please find enclosed a Little Mischief Maker Topsy Doll. I hope it will bring you great joy! It sure does tickle me even at the ripe old age of 30... It is another creation by this brilliant woman from the North Carolina mountains where your Mom and I went to college. Trusting that you will turn out to be a genius! (no pressure...)
All my love, Uncle Donnie
(Written inside the book:)
Darling Stella O,
Please also find this classic brought to life in Rogers and Hammerstein's "The King and I" - 'Small House of Uncle Thomas.'
Heart, Uncle Donnie
Sunday, May 11, 2008
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