A Southern Experience

Cole was checking on the kids before we settled in for the night (2 had been sick the day before).  I went to the bedroom to brush my teeth. Being the nice wife that I am I decided to turn down the sheets to show Cole how much I loved him. He'd had a long day.

I walked over to my side of the bed turned over the pillow and saw this . . .

on MY pillow!! I jumped back, shuttered, and yelled, "Oh my gosh Cole, a cockroach!!!"

He came tearing around the corner, "What? What?"

"There's a cockroach on our bed!"

"Where is it?"

"I don't know. It ran away" I said, as I cowered with my hands covering my face.

Frustrated, he turns and walks back to the kid's room. "Don't ever yell like that again. I thought it was something terrible and serious. Just tell me when you find it."

Serious?! This is serious!! There's a cockroach on my pillow where I lay my head at night, where my kids were wrestling a few hours ago. My baby was crawling around naked in my room just earlier!! AGH!

So I took matters into my own trembling hands. I put on my running shoes on as fast as I could (shaking them out first, of course). I had to protect my bare feet from this nasty thing. I went down stairs and grabbed the broom and headed back up.

I proceeded to pull back the pillows one by one barely holding onto the edge. I didn't see anything. So I nudged the bed away from the wall to take a peek. Just dust bunnies ( wood floors ya know). I knew I need to strip down the bed so I picked up the pillows one by one giving them a gentle shake and set them aside. I picked up the last pillow and I saw it again!!!

On my bed!! Of course I shrieked and ran out the room not seeing where it went.

My husband sent me down stairs and proceeded to look. He came down 5 minutes later saying he had no clue where it was. He gave it a good effort for how exhausted he was.

OK, I decided I was going to be brave and show Cole how calm I could be about this. I spent the next  20 minutes gently lifting and shaking anything that was on the floors. I moved the bed around and took out stuff from underneath like boxes and guitar cases. I shoved the broom under in as many way as I could hoping it would run out the other side and I could smash it.

I was nervous, very nervous. I kept running my hands through my hair, my stomach was turning and I thought I was never going to be able to sleep in my bed again.

Cole came back up to the bedroom a while later. He lifted up the bed while I checked and sure enough it was right in the middle under the bed. It ran under my night stand, but Cole couldn't find it. So slowly I took out the drawers one by one as Cole stood by with a shoe to smash it. I saw it hiding on the side. I got a lump in my throat as I pointed to Cole where it was.

One smack and it was dead!

Hallelujah!

Cole is my hero. I may have cleared the way for the nasty creature, but he came in for the final kill. For that I will forever be thankful!

We knew there would be tons of bugs in Virginia. We'd even been told there are cockroaches. We've seen cicadas, crickets, millipedes, caterpillars, mosquitoes, lady bugs, grasshoppers etc. . .  and we've actually had many bugs come into our home through our old sliding door. Gross, yes, but not as horrifying and disgusting as the cockroach. Not sure how it got in and frankly I don't want to know. I hope it never. . . happens . . . again!

This experience reminds me of the time a HUGE moth flew in our house when we were first married . . . but that's a story for another time.

THE END!

** Sorry for the long dramatic tale. I can't sleep. How can I after all that! I was hoping writing would get it all out of my mind. I've got a million questions about roaches running through my head. Does anyone have any tips or advice on this issue? I don't have a clue and think searching the Internet might scare me even more.

I hesitated to even post the picture, but I know my kids will like it!

Crawling - Sort Of

Did I mention Claire is crawling (started about 10.5 months)?

It's a funky crawl that starts out right for about 3 knee moves and then she does this funny dead leg drag with one leg under her body. Maybe it's more comfortable this way on the hard wood floors. I mean, her knees have got to hurt. Maybe I should make her some knee pads (hmmmm?) Anyway, here she is in action and can you tell she loves the camera these days!

PS. I think she's adorable so there are lots of pictures!

Her shirt was getting in the way of the funky leg action - had to strip her down.

She kept giving me these slow funny blinks.

She's in a daze. I love how she crawled around with that baby in her hand. Oh, how I love her squishy little body (or fluffy as one kid said).

To the Car Wash

Tessa is teriffied of the car wash. She gets so scared as it starts, closes her eyes and whines and sometimes cries. 

A little more time passes and with enough encouragment she finally opens her eyes to take a peak.

By the end we manage to get a smile out of her. Dominic loves it all and to be honest, I get a bit scared myself. That poor little thing is a nervous girl like me.

Mrs. Pickle & Mr. Apple Blueberry Fin Fin

Dominic got new fish after he learned all his letter sounds a few months ago. Mr. Apple Blueberry Fin Fin is what the kids named him. He's a pretty fish and we've had him for a few months. 

When we were camping in June Cole caught a frog. There were always tons of them hanging around the    outside of the bathrooms. The kids named her Mrs. Pickle and quickly fell in love. She lived out back in a big bin.  A few times a week we'd take her into the bathroom a let her swim in the tub. Dominic became so good at a handling the frog and would spend so much time watching it swim. Everyone was brave enough to hold or at least touch her.  Definitely more fun than a beta fish.

New Pictures of the Kids

Need Advice: Blog to Book Options

I've seen that many of you have printed out your blog into a book. I started one with Blurb awhile a go, but before I continue I want to check if I'm using the best company.

I'm most interested in the picture quality being imported directly from the blog to the book and getting something for a good price.

If you've done a book can you let me know who you used and how you liked it!

Thanks!

Wood Floors and a Broken Tooth

We almost made it to a year without any major injuries in this house. Leave it to our clumsy little Tessa to leave a big mark and really do some damage to herself.

The kids were upstairs getting ready for bed and all of the sudden there was a huge crash that continued all the way down the stairs. Our poor Tessa had fallen down the stairs. Wooden stairs, hard unforgiving wooden stairs (we have NO carpet in this place). She has done this once before, which ended in a small bump and a rash from the shoe basket, but just by the sound of her fall and cry this was clearly much worse.

Cole got to her first. There was a ton of blood coming from her mouth and she was screaming. Her head had an immediate goose egg bigger than a golf ball.

I just held her in my arms, dabbing blood from her mouth until she fell alseep (we looked for signs of a concussion - don't worry mom).

By the next morning her head was looking better and then we got a glimpse of her mouth. Her gums were horribly bruised and she had broken off a huge chunk of her front tooth. My heart just sank. I know lots of little kids chip their teeth, but I still feel terrible. It's been a few weeks and now her front teeth are looking gray and damaged. I guess we're lucky Cole is in the dental field. This girl is going to need a lot of work.

She's always been facinated with teeth, especially now that I have braces, and goes around telling us about how she needs new teeth cuz that one is broken.

I've never been a fan of a house full of wooden floors. I actually hate them!! If there would have been carpet on those stupid stairs the outcome would have been much better. When we finally do live somewhere with carpet again I'm pretty sure I'll just want to roll around on it, just like the missionaries who serve in third world countries do when they get back home.

At least she's still super cute. Look at that cute chin and dimples. She looks so much like Cole!

4th of July Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend festivities started Saturday with a very small parade put on by a local church down the street. It was the first year they had done the parade and it was about 10 minutes long. The kids didn't mind since they ended up with tons of candy!

After the parade there was a little festival at the church with bouncy houses, firetrucks, food etc. . . We stayed for a little while, but the 100 degree heat was brutal.

We took our kids to watch fireworks downtown on the top deck of Cole's parking garage. We were the only ones up there which was nice. We were able to see several different fireworks shows way out in the distance. Not quite the grand feeling of being up close, but there were no crowds or traffic to deal with. We also saw a helicopter land on the next building over.

Once we started to see fireworks Tessa retreated to the safety of the car. We were so far away that there weren't any loud noises. Not sure what scared her.

We also went to 2 different BBQ's over the weekend with friends from church and the other with some fellow residents.