An Unwanted Guest

A few weeks ago, I promised I would discuss a 'guest' we had in our house over the holidays. I'm following through with my promise right now. I am dreading making this public knowledge, but I'm hoping I can educate someone and/or help them out through it. 

 Let me back up to the weekend before Thanksgiving. Our little community was very excited to travel to Ste. Genevieve, MO, to play in the quarter-final football game. Win this game, we go to state. Since it is a 5-hour drive there, I reserved a hotel room for the night before the game. Knox and I hitched a ride with another teacher and my mom met me there that evening. 

Like always, I was trying to carry more than I could handle into the room. I entered the room, and quickly dropped all my bags wherever they fell...floor, bed, desk. I opened my suitcase and got pajamas out for the evening. When it was time for bed, I swept everything onto the floor and passed out for the evening. 

The next morning, I threw everything back into the suitcase, packed the car, and headed to the game. I rode the bus home with Cody (Knox absolutely loved the charter bus! The giant windshield was like a big-screen tv for him.). Oh, by the way, we lost the game, but they had an awesome season! 

Anywho, when we got home, I unpacked my suitcase and laid it next to my side of the bed against the wall. We were planning on going to Moberly the next weekend for Thanksgiving and, as lazy as it sounds, I didn't feel like putting it on the top shelf of my closet just to take it down in a few days. 

Ok, now fast-forward through Thanksgiving weekend. My mom decided to let us enjoy the long weekend since it was our first of the school year without football. In the meantime, I kept discovering small, bug-bite-like bumps on my arms. They itched like crazy, but when I would scratch them, it turned into a burning sensation. I couldn't imagine why there would be Mosquitos in the middle of winter, but I just tried to ignore them. 

The bites kept appearing over the next couple of weeks. Cody went out of town for a football meeting, but not before spitting out the joke, 'maybe we have bed bugs.' 

That night, I spent a couple of hours on the Internet, researching bed bugs. I finally got up the nerve to enter the bedroom and take a look. I looked along the baseboard and saw several small bugs. I immediately called terminix and set up an inspection. 

They came and said that we had carpet beetles. They came a couple days later and sprayed the carpet. Perfect. Nightmare is over. Right? Wrong!!

I continued to wake up with bites. I thought I was going crazy. Every day I would have more and more bites, and every day I would inspect the carpet and bed frame for bed bugs. I couldn't find anything. 

After a couple more weeks, I decided to finally pull the bed away from the wall and check behind the mattress. There it was. Behind the mattress tag. Black dots. This is what I had been looking for. The black dots are actually the bed bugs' waste. Disgusting, I know. But I finally had an answer. 

After a half-angry phone call to terminix, they came back for another inspection and confirmed it was bed bugs. Although it was an $810 treatment, I was happy to finally have peace of mind and to be back in my own bed. 

We had to pack up every piece of clothing, blankets, curtains and towels. We placed them in trash bags and had to run everything through the dryer to kill any bugs that may be living. Here is what our house looks like:

Everything had to be kept in the bags until they cleared us a few weeks after the treatment (yesterday). 

We have been living out of Rubbermaid tubs for the past month. I'm so excited that we can now unpack again and life can get back to normal. 

I called the hotel, because I'm 99.9% sure that's where I got them. It was the Microtel in Ste. Genevieve, if anyone cares to know. They had nothing to do with me. The manager assured me they were bed bug free. I honestly wasn't expecting any sort of reimbursement, so it upset me that he could be so careless. 

Here's what I learned from the whole ordeal, and what I hope to pass on to anyone who is not aware, as I was not: 

-bed bug infestations are on the rise. Up until 2007, bed bugs were completely eradicated from the U.S. Because the pesticide DDT was banned at that point, they are now coming back. 

-the easiest way to kill bed bugs is heat. They have to heat up to 140 degrees. 

-when staying in a hotel, never put your bags on the bed or floors. The bathtub is a great place to store your things because bed bugs cannot crawl on the porcelain. You can also store them in the closet on the luggage rack. 

-any hotel can get bed bugs. They have no social status and can even be in 5-star hotels. 

-pack empty trash bags in your suitcase. Any dirty clothes can be sealed in that. Also put any unused clothes in the bag, as they can get on clean clothes as well. Take them straight to the washer when you get home. 

-place your suitcase in a trash bag when you get home. Tie it up and set it out in the sun. It should get hot enough to kill any bed bugs that are in your suitcase. 

And I know waaayyy too much more about bed bugs. Way more than I ever wanted to know. If you need anymore info, just ask me. Hopefully you at least have enough information to prevent getting them yourself. It is a nightmare and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I will tell you that you will never, EVER hear me tell my kids, 'don't let the bed bugs bite.' 

Catching Up

We are definitely back in the swing of things. We have been back in school for about two weeks now. It seems like things are more busy than ever! Cody has math competition practice Mondays after school, tutoring after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and weights after school on Wednesday...and this is his off season. 

So to catch up! Knox is growing like crazy. He's talking more everyday and learning a lot faster. I can show him something one time and he knows it forever. He loves 'Chicka Chicka Boom Boom' and says 'coconut' every once in a while (for some reason he likes that word). 

I made this bath paint out of baby soap, corn starch, and food coloring. He had a blast painting the tub! 

And can I brag some more on my kid?!? He had his SECOND haircut a couple weeks ago and sat all by himself the whole time! Seriously....why is he so big?? 

I realized the other day that he's now closer to 2 years old than 1 :( I also realized that I think I had his birthday theme picked out by this time last year and I haven't even thought of it this year. 

SO things have been interesting for me. I got pulled over on Saturday. I wasn't speeding so I was very confused. Turns out my license plates were expired. And had been since August....

So I got a $95 ticket. Of course it had to happen on a holiday weekend so I had to wait until Tuesday to get it taken care of. I got the inspection. Couldn't find my tax receipts. I called the courthouse. Apparently we hadn't paid 2013 personal property tax. And actually never filled out the paper to file in our new county. Whoops. Apparently having a high-stress life catches up to you eventually. 

They were closing so we had to wait until Wednesday to go in and take care of it. I went to the grocery store to get some food for dinner. The truck's gas light was on and we have no gas station open past 5:00 at the moment (yay small towns!) so I drove the car. 

On my way home from the grocery store I got pulled over....AGAIN! I was not pleased. I explained the situation and didn't get another ticket. Anyway, it was a huge ordeal just to get new tags. But it's taken care of and all is well in the world again. 

Last thing. I am working on organizing my house and work (part of my New Year's resolution). So I am going to be posting a series of '31 days to organization' posts. These will be practical, both in total cost and time. So get ready!! Coming soon :) 

Snow Days!

As a child, I looked forward to those mornings when I woke up to a blanket of fresh snow. I would turn on the radio and wait anxiously as the school listings went from a to b to c, and finally to the m's. And when I heard 'Moberly School District' called out, my siblings and I would have a little celebration and immediately start planning our day...or go back to sleep for a while. 

Oh, those poor teachers. I felt as though we pulled a fast one on those teachers because they wouldn't have the privilege of teaching our wonderful faces that day. If I only knew then... Because as a teacher now, I realize there is more celebration on the teacher's part than the students' parts. 

For now, we have Monday and Tuesday off for snow. Although we have had two weeks off for Christmas, I feel a sense of relief. I was dreading starting back with a full week, so it works out nicely that we can gently ease back into it. 

I'll start off my post about my snow day with an adorable picture....

We were so worried because we were out of almond milk for Knox. And so was the grocery store. They ran out of all their milk in one day because of the storm and weren't getting more until Monday around 3. We were worried that Knox wouldn't be able to fall asleep without it. He proved us wrong yesterday when he fell asleep eating! 

Today, I went to work creating some fun inside activities for Knox. He loves being outside and, even when it's cold out, we try to take him outside for a little bit every day. However, when you hear on the news that you can get frostbite in 10 minutes today, we decided to keep him in. 

I made a felt snake using ribbon, a button, and felt scraps. He threads the ribbon through the slit in the felt pieces...still a little tough for him but he can get it if we help a bit. (Let me know if you want the tutorial...I'm feeling too lazy to look up the link!)

Next, I made a 'window painting' station for him. I put a few squirts of paint in a gallon ziploc bag, taped it to the window with duct tape, and he used his finger to make designs in it (see photo below). 

Finally, my favorite. Our friend, Ardith, gave Knox an awesome water and sand table for his birthday. Although we never got the sand to put in it, he LOVED playing in the water this summer. I had an idea to move it inside for the winter and use it as a sensory table. I've read that beans are way easier to clean up than rice. So I spent about $3 on a few bags of pinto beans, dumped them in, gave him some scooping tools, and it entertained him for a LONG time. Even as I'm typing, I hear him going crazy with the beans! 

 

You'll notice the paint on the window behind him. Also, take note of the 'big boy underwear'...aka cloth trainers. They are basically the cloth version of Pull-Ups. He's awfully proud of those. No, he's not potty trained. No, he's not even close. But he knows what the potty is, loves his new bottoms, and is making some gains toward it. I'm hoping he will go in his potty seat soon so he can make all the connections. Wish us luck! 

New Year, New Beginning

Every year, it seems like we rush around to celebrate Christmas and all of the sudden it's New Year's Eve. We don't do anything too special. We don't go to a party or even celebrate with friends. We have noticed our tradition has been to go to Cody's parent's house, have dinner, and play games until the ball drops, when we cheers each other with sparkling grape juice. Lemme tell ya...it gets a little crazy. We had a great time this year, and Knox even made it til midnight. 

One thing I always have intentions of doing but never get around to is making a resolution. Resolution, by definition, means 'a course of action determined or decided on; a formal statement of a decision; firm determination.' I love the idea of firm determination. However, even if I had thought of a resolution in the past, it was never vocalized or even thought of past the first few days of the new year. 

This year, as I was cooking for our New Year's Eve dinner, I asked Cody what his resolution was. We decided to each speak a personal resolution, then come up with one together. So here goes. If I vocalize it on my blog, I have to stick to it, right?!? I have two personal resolutions: to lose 40 pounds and to stay more organized at work and home. Our family resolution is to pay off half of our student loans (half is roughly $18,000). 

I know these are all three very lofty goals. I am hopeful they will lead to a happier, healthier life for my family and me. However, I know a goal without a plan is merely a wish. So I do have a plan for all three:

1. To lose 40 pounds, I am going to simply cut back on my caloric intake, try to choose healthier foods (if you're reading this, Nichole, I may even try the paleo route), and exercise daily. I still have to experiment with the working out part of it. We don't have a gym here since our town is so small, so I would have to do cardio at home and lift weights in the school weight room. I'll have to figure out what works best with my schedule. When I figured it up, I'll have to lose 10 pounds every three months, which makes it sound way more attainable. 

2. To stay more organized, I will get into a routine. At school I need to make myself stay an extra 15 minutes each day to put things away before I leave. 

3. To pay off half our student loan debt, we have enlisted the help of Dave Ramsey. We took the course last Spring and loved it. We kept up with it for quite a while but we fell apart this fall. Cody is in charge of the finances and since he was coaching, things got a little jumbled. Hopefully we can get back on track with that, sell the truck, and start throwing all our extra cash at our debt. It will feel so great to have only a house payment when those get paid off. 

I keep coming back to the phrase 'firm determination' and hope I can instill that into my everyday life. Wish me luck! 

Side note: maybe one of my resolutions should have been to stop hurting my child. Today, the following happened within a 6-hour (or so) time span: Knox dropped the hand-held vacuum on his foot, which immediately bruised and swelled up, he fell off the coffee table and onto his new, metal tonka truck (see the picture below), and then he decided to drink bleach. Don't worry, he is ok! I thought his foot or toe was broken but it seems better now. We are keeping his gash clean. And we think he only drank one squirt of bleach. He started drinking water out of a spray bottle I use for his hair. He found a spray bottle of bleach and tried to do the same. He came right to me and 'told' me all about it. When I couldn't figure out what he was saying, he leaned over and kissed me. I smelled the bleach and got him taken care of with lots of water. I swear! I was not prepared for such an active, curious boy. He definitely keeps me on my toes! 

       Knox's battle wound!

What's your New Year's Resolution?