Ugh, The Winter Weather

Let me just first say, I can't stand the winter. Nope, not at all. Can't find one redeeming quality. John says I'll like it when I learn to ski, but until then, I'll just have to take his word for it. The coldness, the dry skin and nasal passages (yes, I'm getting old, thank you), the coldness, the bundling up kids and jamming huge coats into car seats, the buckling of those car seats with brittle icicles for fingers, the dirty boot drippings all over the car, and did I mention the bitter coldness?

It doesn't help that we just moved either. I'd love a nice, warm play date/mom chit-chat time. Instead, I feel couped up and stir crazy!!! Yet somehow, I choose to stay inside, slowly going insane, rather than wrestle my big belly and two kids through the snow and ice.

Oh, do I need to mention that I've been cranky and a little pessimistic lately?

Whatever, here are some pics of our winter thus far:
The first slide show is of our house in the "big snow" and the one day it all melted. Don't worry though, the water went down and was completely replaced by a new coating of snow overnight. We still haven't seen grass yet.

This slideshow is just a few pics of us on a day the family went sledding, Nat and daddy walked out on the ice of Pymatuning and we found a swing-set to play on.
Upon seeing the swing set, Nat was uncharacteristically sedate
Daddy: "whadda ya think?"
Nat: "about what?"
Daddy: "the swing set. Do you see the swings."
Nat: sadly, "yeah, but they're somebody's"
Daddy: "No, it's a park."
Nat: "A park? They're not anybody's?"
Daddy: "No, you can swing on 'em"
She was elated and ran. Upon Julsie and I catching up, she said, "Mom, look at these swings! And they aren't anybody's, this is a park!"
I figure she is so used to Hershey, where she would see lots of swing sets on our walks that she would have to pass up because they were in people's yards. =)

My Baby Is 5 =(

I can't help it. This was a very hard birthday for me. I am excited to see her grow and learn new things, but the prospect of sending her away to school is just ... well..., just horrifying for me. I know it's probably somewhat selfish, but I love her! I know she'll enjoy making friends and showing me all the new things she has learned, but I will be lost without her. She is my little buddy. I don't think I want to spend my day Natty-less.

Ugh, and then there's the mean girls, and the inevitable misunderstandings with teachers, etc. that seem so unfair, and little boys who think she's cute and... ugh. Anyway, I'm sure there will be much more agonizing over kindergarten in posts to come.

Back to the birthday -

There were many other stressors for my already emotionally-fragile pregnant self:

-Family scheduling issues causing us to have the party well after her b-day

-Miscommunication between daddy and me so that we did NOTHING for her on her actual b-day (no cards, no presents, no cake). Just "Um, it's your birthday. You're 5 now."

-The entire weeks leading up to her party, she was talking about how she didn't have any friends here and she would have no friends at her party. She even told Nana, "I don't have any friends anymore, so I just invited all my family."

I was completely ready to have a melt-down. How could such a big birthday be celebrated so un-eventfully? My heart was broken.

Anyway, we did have a party, although everyone had to leave early. She got a lot of cute outfits and some fun Littlest Pet Shops. I made her a special cake too. In the end, the day turned out okay. The cake was very good and she was happy eating pizza. It was not the party I would have liked, but I'm sure I took it much harder than she did and in the grand scheme of things, she won't be too emotionally scarred. ;)

Hahaha! Finally Got My Camera Back!

And you will reap the benefits! Now, this picture goes with a previous story - the one on the mouse who eluded me for oh, so long.

Kinda gross, but I HAD to share ....

See those perfect little bloody paw prints!!!! I wasn't even kidding!

Another Nail Polish Nightmare

Once again, Jules' desire for girly fashion has gotten the best of her. Believe me, after the last debaucle (an entire bottle of Purple Passion on the floor of our Hershey bedroom one month before move-out), she is FULLY aware that she is not allowed to paint her nails by herself.

Anyway...

Earlier in the day we painted our nails together, over newspaper, very carefully. Once I cleaned everything up, everyone was dry and beautiful, I placed my tupperware container of polish on the stairs so I could take it up on my next trip. My next trip was obviously not soon enough.

Hours later, Nat came to me, "Mom, wait until you see what Jules did. It's bad!" Wearily, I say, "What now?" As if on cue, out comes Jules covered in "Brilliant Red." Her nails were painted from the first knuckle up and her toes looked like she was simply dipped. There was some in her hair and all down her belly. When I went to the scene of the crime, it was atrocious. There was the entire bottle, little mixing ball bearing and all, poured onto the beige carpeted steps which face the front door. The polish had already completely soaked through the fibers down to the matting.

I immediately started carpet clean-up and requested John clean the suspect and put her to bed. I knew my temper was likely to get the best of me if I had to deal with her. To ensure his didn't get the best of him (which it actually never does), I hid the evidence until after she was in bed.

After many hours, 1.5 bottles of Goo Gone, 1/2 bottle of dish soap, some Coke (who knows, thought I'd give it a try), the sham-wow, terry cloth towel, scrub brush and an emergency borrowing of my sister-in-law's steam cleaner, only a faint pink tinge can be seen. I don't know. We'll see if there is anything else we're going to do about it... besides completely banning all nail polish, that is.

Technology Stinks

Well, when it's broken. Does this seem like a bad cycle to you?
October - our 3yr old flat screen completely pooped out. The repairman didn't even want it for parts.
November - after a long time nursing it, our computer power cord finally died. (3rd one in 3 yrs at $70 a pop)
December - All the cord troubles have caused our battery to be unable to hold a charge so our lap-top is essentially now a desktop. A new battery will cost $120.
December - Got a fancy new mixer for Christmas... but it didn't work. Luckily we just traded it in for a new one.
January - Our digital camera no longer downloads to our computer and our EasyShare software is now missing ALL of our 50+ albums
February - John's trail cam (This is the replacement for the original that didn't work properly) stopped working completely.
Really?

Photo Updates!

Here are some much needed photo updates of the girls. They date back to the beginning of my blogging hiatus. Sorry there aren't any more recent photos, but our camera and computer are having "professional differences."

Photos include Nat's first day of preschool this year, Julia's first day of baby gymnastics, the pumpkin we grew ourselves in the flower bed at our apt. building (oops!), Natalie's tissue paper fashion, and Halloween.

My Little Sweethearts

When I gave Jules her Valentine gifts, she was so excited and thankful. She opened her box of chocolate hearts and although she absolutely LOVES chocolate, the very first thing she did was give one to me and one to her dad. She shared with everyone all day. She is very generous with her things.

When Nat came downstairs and saw that there were gifts and cards and cookies for her, she became teary-eyed and cried, "but I didn't get you a Valentines gift." I had to work hard through the morning to console her. Later, my parents took us out to Valentines lunch. John had to leave a little early for work and as he was preparing to go, Nana heard Natalie say to him, "on your first day off, can you take me to get mommy a Valentines gift? On your first day?" She is often thinking of others.

My little sweet petites. I love them so much. I am so blessed to have girls with such kind, kind souls.

"Daddy 'napped him!"

Well, apparently I am no trapper. My husband, on the other hand...

After my last post, noting his lack of assistance in mouse eradication, John thought he'd better help out. He employed the most "basic" trapping techniques (oh, excuse me), and the results were stunning.

The Theory:
You see, trapping is not about placing a trap and hoping they come to the bait, it's about placing bait and making sure the only way to get to it is over your trap. (I'm sure you were dying to know that info.)
The Set-Up:
In this case, a trap was placed on the front edge of the sink with a hefty helping of brown sugar leading right to it. Another trap was placed on the back edge of the sink and John's lunch box blocked any other passsage way. (In police terms, a "fatal funnel")
The Outcome:
During my first bout of insomnia that night, I found no trap on the front edge of the sink! To my excitement, it had flipped onto the floor when that stinkin' mouse found himself squarely in its clutches. I left the evidence for John to see (well, really to clean up), ate some Cheerios, read the Area Shopper and went back to bed.
During my second bout of insomnia, I was back downstairs messing around on the computer when I heard a loud "WHAAAH-CHOW!!" I waited about 20 minutes before checking (a little afraid), but sure enough, the trap at the back of the sink contained another mouse! Two for two! I couldn't believe I actually heard it happen!
The Celebration:
I ended up discarding both mice myself and relayed the story to Toby in the morning. He was excited to see the evidence in the outside trash can. While Nat wanted nothing to do with it, Jules was more than excited to take a peek. She came in jumping and yelling "Mouses in a twash can! My daddy 'napped him. He 'napped him and 'napped him!"

We haven't seen sign of a mouse since, although we still have traps set. Toby, of course, had to gloat over his superior skills. I said, "well if you thought you could do it better, why didn't you help me before?" He said, "because the mice really didn't bother me and I was having fun watching you try." - ugh. Stinker.

A Mouse in the House

Yes, there is a mouse in my house. Well, probably many, but there is this one -

We set some traps after noticing one mouse scurry across the kitchen floor and immediately caught two of the little buggers. (John, of course, was somewhat saddened by the loss of the first, eulogizing "he was a good lookin' mouse.")

Unfortunately, that's when the real trouble started. Apparently, mice too, follow the pattern that squirrels did at my Great Uncle's home - "I shoot one and 10 more show up for the funeral." After the initial fatalities, we had traps tripped a few times and even blood trails with tiny, perfect paw prints leading away from the scene. Yet each morning the traps were empty.

Perhaps by nearly escaping death they were emboldened. Because now, only after the traps arrived, I am waking up to mouse droppings on my counter tops instead of mouse carcasses! I have had to splurge on tupperware containers to seal everything in my pantry. They have gotten to my un-opened sugar, brown sugar, coconut, crackers and cookies in Ziploc bags!

Now, if you know me and how I react to vermin/pests/parasites (think ticks), you know I consider this attack as a personal affront. Not only have they wasted my time in cleaning and disinfecting, but they have wasted my money too (and we all know how much I hate that.) Therefore, I have upped my game. In addition to the sealed pantry, I have placed additional and novel traps. I have sanitized my counters and vacuumed my kitchen each night before bed. I have even tailored the bait to their apparent penchant for sweets. Last night, I even left a trail of brown sugar leading right to the trap. (Upon seeing this, my husband laughed aloud. Notably, record of HIS effort in this mission of eradication has been absent.)

Anyway, what do I get for all of these additional measures of prevention? I'll tell you, the most fat and happy mouse you've ever seen scurrying across my counter tops at prime time! Yes, I've seen him the last two nights at progressively earlier times (8:15, then 7:45) while the whole family was still up and moving about.

I've had it. I have been in bed thinking about putting up John's infrared trail camera to scout the culprit's movements, about practicing my marksmanship with the bb gun. But wait, perhaps that's his strategy - push the envelope until I finally I drive myself into the looney bin and then he'll have free reign! Oh, the "Rats of NIMH" have nothing on this fella.

Long Time Comin'

I know, this has been a long time in coming. If you're not aware (and it's been so long that I'm sure you all are by now), around September I found out that I was pregnant. Yep, baby number three is now well on the way.

I stopped blogging completely around that time because I figured, if I can't handle packing a lunch for my husband or playing with my kids, I can't take time to blog. Plus, I like to keep my pregnancies a secret at first and, well, if I have a secret, there's no way I can blog.

Trust me, it was definitely NOT for a lack of good blogging fodder. Besides the pregnancy, we moved during Thanksgiving week and that has been a big change.
From a two bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom home with 10 acres.
From 25 yards to the grocery store to 25 MINUTES!
From the "sweetest place on earth" to perhaps the coldest.
From one floor to three
and the list goes on.

And then we have the girls. I can't believe there has been SOOOO much I haven't documented.
Julsies first hair-cut, given at the hands of her sister (with Crayola scissors)
Nat's final year of pre-school in Hershey
"baby 'nastics" classes
and many many many notable quotes.

I'm not going to try to re-invent the wheel and back-post. If I have a couple good pics, I'll post them soon, but otherwise I'm just going to take a line from my favorite movie and "keep moving forward."