Friday Photo Favorites

One week ago we looked like this!
Today our cheeks and arms are pink from sunburn!

The Car Song!



Discoveries!

Settlilng In

We are settling in quite nicely with Gia and Pop Pop. Even having battled several different illnesses, we are so blest to live with them. Several people keep asking when we will get a place of our own. The answer to that question is... when we can save enough money for a down payment. We have lived in apartments now for four years and, well, apartment life is just that: apartment life. Our last apartment was no exception. We discovered three days into our move that the previous tenants we not very clean and there was a roach population do deal with.

After bleaching and major cleaning, we evicted all the previous tenants. Borax Acid is amazing as is bleach.
Most of you witnessed our rain storm inside which was the last straw. However before the rain came the nastyest of all pest....

BEDBUGS.

After we learned that we had them it was hard not to weep, especially after researching how to get rid of them. It was no easy task. We took to the trenches from April to July. Steaming beds and furniture, vacuuming and washing bed clothes daily.  Everything was stored in plastic bins. I felt trapped in our own bedbug war zone. I couldn't dare let someone over for fear of spreading nor could we visit anyone either. We replaced all the mattresses and double covered the new ones.  At my breaking point my mom came to the rescue. She came and stayed a couple of days to get the last of the vermin.

The beginning of the mega clean.

We wrapped every potential hiding spot in trash bags and duct tape and set them outside to bake for six hours in the Texas sun. Bedbugs are super sensitive to heat so this is one of the best methods. In fact most exterminators super heat your house to get rid of them.

In the middle of the cleaning PT found a nap in the living room as his bed was dismantled for steaming and then baking. Yes every inch of every bed was steamed several time. Every little screw hole, every nut, every inch!

The washer washed non-stop during these four months with the motto of "If it can't be washed, it can't stay!" Every stuffed animal was washed, dried, bagged and baked!

No wash, No stay!

Thanks Mom for your help! This was the cleaning that sent the bedbugs packing.

We had a hard time figuring out where the pest were coming from, in the end we were convinced they come in through our neighboring wall via an outlet behind our bed. Yeah apartment life!

Aside from mega cleaning we used a wonderful spray and powder called Bed Bug Patrol.

It is all natural and worked!

We learned through all of this that bedbugs do not discriminate, rich or poor, house or apartment, anyone can get them. It was a huge lesson in humility. We also learned that in an apartment there is really no way to rid your self of pests, you simply have to be the least desirable place for them to live. So we are happy to be sharing walls with a back and front yard and are saving and praying that we can purchase a house of our own....eventually

By the way we are still bedbug free!

Friday Photo Favorites

Water and Bears!

On the way back from Mass one Sunday.

Paul Thomas, in an utterly desperate voice in order to convey that death is knock at his door, "Mommy, I need a drink!"

Mommy, in a calm controlled voice in hopes of defusing a possible fit situation, "Okay Paul Thomas as soon as we get home I will get you a drink. Would you like milk or water when we get home."

Paul Thomas weighing his options, "Well, I want water so I can stay hydrated."

Mommy in a surprise and delighted voice, "That's right water does helps you stay hydrated."

"Yeah, that's right water helps you stay hydrated, just like a bear."

Mommy, suppressing giggles once she connects the PT dots, "Ohhh, bears hibernate..."

This baby better be a saint...

Those were the very sweet and exhausted words uttered by my hubby Friday night at 2:00 am in the ER. He has been by my side for a very trying first trimester which left me horizontal more than vertical. He also watched and cared for me as a struggled with stomach bug after stomach bug and now he willingly sits with me in the ER. All the strep and flu in the house caught up with me in bad way.  All is better or at least getting better now. Those words were actually so sweet to hear as I know he did not mean anything about our child, just that he understood the true sacrifice of self mothers go through for their little ones.

Thank you for all you do for me and for our family.

I couldn't take this journey without you.