So Much To Do…

So little time, am I right?  Of course because it’s a saying for a reason. Ha!  Today I was sitting back and enjoying some peaceful time alone while the kids napped and then the all encompassing starting to make me hyperventilate if I think about it too long list of things we need to accomplish before September hit me.  

September is a deadline we MUST meet because that is when we are hosting our FIRST house guest – my mother-in-law.  We haven’t seen her in about 2 years and I blame it on the economy.  We moved here to be close to my parents because they are getting up in years and then the price of tickets for air travel went up and we look like rejects with no friends because no one can hardly afford to come visit us.  Haha!  We tell our friends here “We swear we are not running from the law and we do have friends and family all over the place but they just haven’t visited since The Great Recession started.”  

September.

Just about 3 months away. That is not alot of time to accomplish aaaaaaaall this…

Things to do before September:

• Finish the flooring in the office.
• Figure out the configuration of the laundry/mud room
• Finish repainting living room missed spots
• Hang all pictures
• Set up office to host Michaels mama
• Fix the side bathroom
• Redo the floor
• Paint over the tub
• Replace the shower heads – plural (hallway and ours)
• Clean out all sawdust in grandmas room (don’t worry she doesn’t live with us yet so it’s serving as our tool room for now)
• Return everyones tools (this should be fun figuring out what goes to who – which reminds me – start labeling all our tools somehow!)

So I am thoroughly concerned and determined all in one fell swoop.  Taking this list one day at a time and adding to it and crossing things off satisfyingly will be the hamster wheel that we are now on after we got the keys to this here abode.  I love this house, so I’m not really complaining because these are nice problems to have in the world considering.

 

For tonight hopefully we can finish painting the living room once and for all and can start on the final baseboards caulking.

 

I have a thyroid seminar to attend first, but after that these walls won’t know what hit em.  Mostly because they have no brain function. What are you guys up to?  Any painting or caulking going on?   

Yes! Nooo…and Oh Boy!

Okay so I have good news, bad news, and a little bit of the ugly as well.  First things first, I will lead off with the good news and get to the sobering in a bit.  

I passed.  I did it!  I did it, I did it, I did it!  After my first failed attempt to procure my FL State Real Estate License I didn’t give up and instead took about almost 2 months to mourn the loss of the 1st test, dust off my book, contact my teacher, and dive right back into the beast that is the Real Estate industry.  When I say the test is a killer I kid you not.  Unless you are super good at all things math and memorization (which 1 out the 2 were in my favor and it doesn’t rhyme with bath) I failed the first time by only 3 points.  This time I wiped the floor with that test and pulled off an upset to the tune of a 93!  Yeeeeah dawg!  Yes I did give my teacher the biggest hug in her office and then run around the corner and proceed to dance a jig in the main conference area since no one else was there.  You’re welcome future security camera checker upper!  Aaaahhhh…sigh…good news is great news.

Onto the bad…

I don’t think I can upload the video because the Flip camcorder is acting all stuck up and wonky after I import the vids to my computer.  They copy but the playback is kinda all Max Hedroomey…ish.  The other day we were sitting around the house because it was raining outside – yet again – and my daughter “SuperGirl” comes in and says in her little voice “Mommy do you hear that?”  I listened for a sec but didn’t hear anything.  “I hear your voice.” She smiled and walked away.  Just a few seconds later she comes back and grabs my hand and says “Mommy come here you don’t hear that?” and walks me across the house over to the hallway and I looked one way and all of a sudden I hear a cascading water sound.  

It was cascading water.  

Groan…and then panic at the disco because I realized what was causing it was actually a pretty big deal.  Water was gushing in through the top of one of our doors that leads to the back patio and it was causing some rapids to develop as it coasted down the hall threatening to enter our kids bedrooms.  To which I say “NOT ON MY WATCH!”  Did I tell you that I almost single handedly installed all their wood laminate flooring in their rooms?  My back still won’t let me forget it, nor do I think has it forgiven me.  So all that flashed before my eyes was warped floor boards and me wailing uncontrollably and I would have raccoon eyes from the mascara that only appears in my daydreams rolling down my face.  It would scare the children…a whole big thing…so I jumped to action.  

Towel. Stat! Acrobatic measures to hurdle jump the random puddles forming. Check! TOWELS!!!!! Phone.  “Honey it’s like Noah’s Ark up in here get home as soon as you can.  Please and thank you!”

So the end result (so far) is that we had our carpenter friend come over and assess the situation and he said he saw 2 holes in the roof. When he said that I was like “Who’s-a-what’s-it now?”

Needless to say, I am getting really familiar with our homeowners insurance policy.  Haha!  

And finally the ugly…

Yes those ants are back…the bane of my existence.  The things that are making a much more flinchier human being have reared their ugly heads again.  I almost give up.  They seem to surge when the weather gets rainy.  I think the rain is washing away all of my home remedies.  Come on!!  I can’t take much more of this.  Tomorrow hopefully will be a clear day and I can run out with the kids to do some much needed errands.  I’m sorry, did somebody in the back just shout “RAAAAID?!?”?

Any tips on how to get the animals in check?  What are your go to bug remedies when it comes to carpenter ants and palmetto bugs?  Who also seem to come out of the woodwork whenever we get a downpour.  Thanks Tropical Storm Debby…for nothin’!

 

Dare I Say It?

This morning I woke up to no sound of Michael stomping out some ants in the front door area and in the kitchen.  Just a quiet little house and nothing but some cinnamon dust on the floor from when Michael went out and then ran back in to get something when I got out of bed.

So dare I say it?  I don’t want to be prematurely happy about anything when it comes these pesky little ants, buuuuuut….(I whisper this) “I think we’ve won…”

I was talking to my friend and her husband tonight about it and they said that their mother had the same situation but with those tiny ants and they were always in her sugar jar.  She finally put full cinnamon sticks inside and then they disappeared and they never saw one ant after that.  Hopefully the powder will do the same trick.  But if that alone won’t do the trick, I read on some ant forums (oh yeah, it’s a whole big thing on the Interweb that could possibly rival the number of Star Wars forums out there) that spraying Windex on their pathway will help screw up their sense of direction and they won’t know which way to walk because it covers the scent of the urine (ewww!) that they use to let the guy behind him know where to go.  With friends like that…

Since I didn’t have any Windex in the house (I just use vinegar or rubbing alcohol and water on my windows and glass) I went to the next best thing and used up the rest of my Febreze that has been staring at me since we have moved.  I dropped it all over the back lanai down their “path” and hopefully the potpourri scent will screw them all kinds of up and they will end up marching right into the pool.  Oops wrong turn!

My disdain for these things doesn’t make me come across as a serial killer psychopath right?  I’m not like a squirrel shooting bbgun holding weirdo.  That’s just crazy.  But cinnamon…ing some ants that threaten to eat me out of house and home?  I’m down with it.

Tonight though we are going to start the repairs back up on the house.  We had to take a little breather after the kids end of school party because basically it taught us that it probably – no, wait – most definitely is not the best thing to agree to host after being in your new home for only 2 short months.  In short – we are both no longer 20 and we are beat.

So we rest.  Until tonight.  When we shall dust off our work shorts and get back into some spackling.  Tackle some spackle as only I they say. 

This is work that can only get done after the kids get to bed.  The temptation to tag the walls with “Kiddo #1 Wuz Here 2012!” or “Kid 2 In Da Hizzow!” would be too great for them to conquer I fear.  So sleep little babies and hopefully tomorrow they can help with the fun and easy stuff a.k.a. painting.

Are any of you out there tackling any spackling as of late?  Share your stories.

Cinnabuns?

So this is what our front entryway and our back door into the lanai look like presently…

That’s cinnamon…

Why?  Well because my chalk method which turned into my basil leaves method which then turned into my vinegar method ALL FAILED.

Miserably too.  The chalk method I thought was solid and had it in the bag and after a few ants were like “Whoa…what is this powdery substance?  Me scared.  Me run away now.” the word must have gotten out to send in the A-Team.  You know, the ants that are on the ‘roids?  Because those bad boys just muscled their way right on through that chalk like they could care less about me and all my googled methods.  

So I switched over to the basil and one queen ant actually sat on it and apparently fell asleep! So I nixed that method.  Onto the vinegar!  Now other than probably sanitizing the chalk to make it even more approachable for the ants that pretty much did nothing.  In fact, when we woke up this morning there were more ants than ever in the house.  Just chilling on the floor playing poker, shooting dice, playing spoons.  So to say there was a stomping massacre is an understatement.  Yes it was in slow motion set to this music…

Ride of the Valkyries

I am almost at my wits end.  I HATE BUGS!!! I don’t know if I have told you that – but I do.  With a strong inward passion.  I hate em.  All kinds of them. Moths the most because they remind me of miniature bats.  So have I been a flinchy mess before bed every night this week?  Yes I have. 

I finally called my brother today and he said to try cinnamon because it burns their little legs and they scurry off and tell the tale of the “Fire Door” hopefully to all their little friends and girlfriends a.k.a. the queens.  This had better work.  Or I’m giving the keys back to the realtor. Haha!

But seriously, what does a girl do???? Any tips on how to get rid of these carpenter ants without having to use really toxic bug spray?  Is there any natural ways to kill carpenter ants?

Let The Sun Shine!

We woke up to blue skies and a nice breeze this morning.  This was a welcome atmosphere considering we have endured rain, thunder and lightning every day since the kids were sprung for summer vacation from school.  How much can a mother take?  Not much, and that’s the truth!  So today they will be getting their outdoors on and hopefully leaving the interior chambers of our house untouched until dinner time.  

In the meantime, this is what’s going on outside in the lot next door…

This biggun’ is drying out after helping us throw a wild kids party last weekend.  It’s been kind of a tragedy that he is still here with us.  The party was Saturday and we have had him since the weekend before that because we took him for a test spin with some kids to see how he rolls – or rather how he hopefully doesn’t roll with kids putting him to full use.  He was chock full of holes though which our friend Jay had told us about.  “If there are holes just patch em up and it should hopefully still inflate.  I’ve used it about 13 or 14 times and have gotten my moneys worth out of it.  Hope it still works for you guys.”  And it did!  Hooray!  Even though the kids played on it for all of 20 minutes and then just jumped in the pool for the rest of the party.  

I wish I had taken more pics of the party but seriously between running around so much and wiping up the wood laminate floor after pool kids drudged through the house, I have pretty much only about 4 pictures to commemorate that day.  Sorry folks.  

Anyway, back to the bouncy slide.  His instructions were to leave it up to dry for a few days after the party so it gets all nice and dry and he can just tuck it away in his storage spot.  So us being the good little instruction followers that we are, we did just so.  Two days of it sitting out in the sun and it was good to go.  Dry as a bone.  So we were getting ready to start packing everything up from everyone we borrowed stuff from (chairs, tables) and as we are getting everything lined up what is that we hear?

A TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR OF COURSE!!!!!

I wanted to cry…I actually might have because I have been pretty emotional during this time of the year. Kids moving up a grade and all that jazz.  And then remember how I said that they haven’t been outside since school let out on Wednesday?  Well the bouncehouse has been sitting outside in the rain since it was too heavy to lug inside and far too big to be set up inside to dry out too.  

So Saturday is for drying out apparently.  How is yours going?