In Which there are Injured Legs, Crazy Family Members, Tired Castle Keepers, Intense House Cleaning, a Crazy Writerly Daughter, and Many Dead Bugs

Hello, good readers of the Faerie Castle. This is Jenna, of As the Plot Thickens and The Delusional (loving that shameless blog promoting, eh?), Tracy's kickass and oh-so-modest (heh) daughter, here today (erm, tonight) with none other than a GUEST POST! Because Mother has all but LOST HER MIND!

(Which isn't exactly a good thing, but it does provide me with endless hours of amusement, so there ya go.)

Mah Mommeh has been a bit occupied these past couple of days. I succeeded in busting my knee on Thursday night and pulling a muscle, which caused me not to be able to walk for a day (which meant I, unfortunately, had to miss school and TWO TESTS AND A PRESENTATION). So she had to wait on me and take me to the doctor. But I'm fine now, so no worries there.

My grandma, nana, and cousin all got into town from sunny Florida on Saturday afternoon, and Mother-of-Mine and I spent most of that day cleaning the house from top to bottom. I spent three hours up to my elbows in bleach water, scrubbing my bathroom from tub to toilet. Most definitely NOT my favorite task in the world.

Over the past few days, I have been frantically trying to finish this year's National Novel Writing Month novel, which I have titled The Endless. It's a murder mystery, and it's hard work. I've met the official goal of 50,000 words, but I'm shooting for 90,000 total. Meaning that I've been holed up in my room for the past two days doing not a whole lot with the family unless they make me. Which irritates Mother-of-Mine. But hey, last year I typed through Thanksgiving dinner. I don't think much can top that level of irritation. But don't worry, I won't do that this year.

Maybe.

Anyway, we fumigated today (again) and killed some bugs (again). They're still sort of...everywhere...but we did manage to put a dent in the scurrying, many-legged, icky population. For a few days. Maybe.

Icky, icky, grosstastic, ucky, yucky, absolutely disgusting little creatures are bugs. Ugh.

Before I leave you to go do your thing, I'll toss a funny lil' video at you:



(Be sure to check out my blogs, kthnxbai.)

Love and hugs and stuff,

Jenna.

:P

The Bug Hunters

Just a quick check in with everyone. We are having a blast. I am sooooooo happy to have The Girl home. I want to share a story with you.

I live in a 40 - 50 year old house in the Deep South. That means bugs. You cannot get away from them. And I have kids. Which means crumbs. Crumbs = Bugs. Deep South = Bugs x 100. So. I have bugs. My middle child is scared of bugs. When he sees a bug he screams. It could be a roach, a gnat, a housefly, a spider.... it doesn't matter. He screams "A Bug, A Bug!" and I go running with the fly swatter to kill it. (This can be really amusing when we are outside.) I have a heavy duty bug swatter. I swear, this thing is like an inch thick and is attached to a tire iron.

Anyway. This evening (as I type this) my son is leading his sister and his grandmother on a merry chase through the house in search of bugs. When he finds one he jumps up and down and points while hollering "a bug, a bug!" at the top of his lungs. His sister then screams and his grandmother attacks the bug with the swatter. It is highly amusing. He then says Thank You to his grandmother. What can I say.... he is polite! LOL LOL LOL

So, the bug hunters are on the loose. They may have to move outside soon as I think they are running out of bugs in the house.

Maybe I should rent them out......

I have a need for order in my life. I like to know what is happening and when and where. I like to know that things are where they belong. Don't get me wrong, I love spontaneity as well. But.... in my day to day life, I like order. Which is why my life is so hilarious. With two boys under 3 and a teenager as well as a husband who does not seem to understand the concepts of being on time or being organized.... my life is in such chaos all of the time that it is a wonder I have not murdered someone yet! LOL

The need for organization in my home is really a major thing right now. I am so tired of never knowing where something is or having boxes of crap everywhere.... I really have hit this point in my life where I cannot handle it anymore. So, for the past two days I have finished tackling the boys' room. I have organized toys and moved the train table and done all kinds of crap and it is mostly done. At least I have one room organized!

Next, I am tackling the office. Wish me luck.

How long can you keep things packed in boxes after a move before it becomes ridiculous? And how long can you keep something packed away before it becomes obvious that you do not need it? And maybe you should just get rid of it? I wish I could convince my husband that the limit on this is six months. Then I could just get rid of all of the crap that he has in boxes and has not done anything with. He has some boxes that he has not unpacked since we met. Really. Ditto for the daughter. Boxes of stuff still packed from 2 - 3 years ago. What in the world are you people going to do with this crap?

I have gone through my stuff and the boys' stuff and gotten rid of anything that we do not need or use/ play with on a regular basis. And the memorabilia that really means something.... Now, to get a home for everything. And to make my husband find homes for his crap....


Can someone send me some energy?

Hi all! I am alive and kicking. I have been cleaning and gardening and wrangling babies and just have not had a spare moment to blog about any of it! Things are going fine here. I am just trying to figure out what is going on with our finances this month so I figured a break was needed.... so here I am! I have pictures to share....

First, today in the mail I received a present from my good friend Alisa in FL. She said that she came across this while she was at a garage sale and thought of me. What she said was, "I saw it and the powers that be said it was really yours - so all I'm doing is delivering it to it's rightful owner!". You can't really tell in the pic below, but it is painted on a tile and hangs on the wall. I love it! Thanks Alisa!!


Here, we have a picture of the eldest Wingman of Mayhem as he is learning to make grilled cheese sandwiches. he is very amusing when he wants a sandwich. he goes and gets the spatula and smacks me with it! While I would rather he did not hit me, at least he is letting me know what he wants!
Here are both of the WOMs sitting on bar stools and waiting for me to cook them dinner. I was a nervous wreck that one of them would fall off, but Daddy was right there and they were happy as clams to be sitting and watching me!
This next two pictures are some of my favorites. This is my darling husband teaching the boy to play guitar. He is veeeery interested and wants to play all the time. he has his own small guitar but wants to play on one of daddy's all the time!

And here we have the "plumber's" towel incident of 2008. My eldest boy loves to wrap up in a towel. And this is the result! LOL

The youngest loves to watch "I-Carly" on TV. I have no idea why. It's a cute show but who would have thought a one year old would be interested? As you can see, he loves it. He won't move for the entire show. I think he has a crush on Carly.
And.... these pics just show you how entirely exhausted we all are at the end of the day. My boys wear themselves out! (and me too)

For the rest of today I am going to be running around like a chicken with no head. I have to go get DHs check, go to the bank, pay the rent, go to Wally World, go to Curves with DD, cook dinner, finish laundry and vacuum. Among other things! I will try to be back tomorrow with something a little more interesting! LOL

Stop Hitting Your Brother With The Rubber Chicken

Yes. That came out of my mouth today. LOL The boys are sooooo much fun. even when they are driving me crazy! Here is The Boy after his bath. He loves to cuddle in a towel and just relax.

So, of course, The Baby must ruin that for him! LOL Poor Boy.
Thanks to everyone for your comments on yesterdays post. I am in the process of figuring out WHAT I need in my life that will get me to my happy place. OR, what I need to accept about my life as it is. Yesterday was just a bad day overall. Thanks for the input and the positive thoughts and hugs!

Now..... guess what I will be making soon?

Yes! Banana Bread! Anyone have any new variations they would like to share? I have a tried and true recipe and one new one that I made not that long ago. I am looking for something so decadent and yummy that your tongue flops out and beats you around the head and shoulders trying to get more..... let me know if you have something like that! I think tomorrow is baking day. Of course, Gift of the Magi bread is so completely yummy I may have to make that instead. Think banana bread with cherries, coconut and pineapple. Yum.


I am, honestly, in a horrible mood today. I need more sleep. I could not get to sleep last night to save my life. I did have a little nap this morning, as DH watched the boys for me. I just need some caffeine! Or more sleep... I wonder which one I will get?

Yesterday, The Boy did something that I just do not understand. he has been climbing on top of his train table lately. Ok, he likes to climb. Every time I catch him doing it, I go in and make him get down. Yesterday, when I went in I found.... guess what.... in the drawer....

Yes, in the drawer to his train table he had put most of his train pieces and..... he peed on them. WHAT?!? WTF? WHY? I don't get it. I cleaned it up and I still don't get it. Is it a boy thing? Is my son just weird? What?

Anyway. In the same room where the train table is being kept, we also have.... our library! We will be moving the train table out soon. And then, I get to tackle another "little" project. Organizing THIS:

While some of the books are in some kind of order, most are just shoved on the shelves to get them out of the way. When we moved in.... I just wanted stuff unpacked. i didn't care where it went. NOW... when I cannot find my copy of Stranger in a Strange Land or Incubus Dreams, when I cannot find my Sewing for the Home resource book or my Bad Fairies journal... now is the time to get this taken care of. I just have to figure out exactly how I want to organize it. The Girl has 3 bookcases of her own. But my books keep ending up there, so I may just stop segregating them. Cookbooks have 2 - 3 bookcases of their own and that is hubby's job. He organizes those to his liking. So... that leaves me the rest. Quite a job, huh? Should I organize by subject only? By genre? By author? By author within genre? hmmm....

Wish me luck! If I get it done by the end of summer I will be thankful...

Today had been an interesting day so far. And it is only 10:45 am. I can't wait to see what the afternoon has in store for me!

First, I woke up to less back pain than yesterday, but a toddler trying to poke my eyes out. The Middlest Child was trying to wake me up by putting my glasses on me. And then he handed me his cup and waited. LOL So, I got up and got him a drink. He proceeded to be sick. All over the place. He was also running a temp so i gave him Tylenol and held him for a bit. He was an unhappy boy. He seems to be feeling a little better now, at least he is napping without crying. I swear, if I could get all three of the kids healthy at the same time it would be a miracle. I had to cancel a playdate today for the baby because I don't want to chance infecting anyone else's children with this nasty bug.

DH decided to cook breakfast and made pancakes and sausage. Yum. Anything I don't have to cook always tastes so good.

So, I went outside to smoke a cig this morning and what do you know... a fire behind my house. I'm talking flames shooting up to the sky and billowing clouds of black smoke. It was across a field from the house, back in some woods. I was getting ready to call the fire dept when i heard sirens. A fire truck, 2 other trucks and about 20 cops came tearing through my yard and across the field. They hooked up their hoses to a fire hydrant across the street which necessitated the closing of said street to traffic. Lots of excitement. It was an old barn in the woods burning. the cop I spoke to said they had no idea at this point what started it. I have my suspicions. there are some neighborhood boys who cut across the field and go back there to hang out all the time. It wouldn't surprise me if it was started by them. Either accidentally or on purpose... who knows.

I'm just glad they got it put out OK.

My garden is growing like gangbusters! LOL I will try to post pics again one day soon. The plants are all up and growing well. Soon i will have to thin the plants. We still have several other things to plant in seperate container planters. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, watermelon and pumpkins. I think i am going to attempt to get all of these started today.

I have about 4 loads of laundry to fold. I HATE folding laundry. With a passion. I don't mind washing it. And I kind of like drying it. I hang out a lot of it to dry on lines behind the house. I like taking down the crisp clothes. I just hate having to deal with it afterwords.

I also have to decide on my menu for this week. hmmmmm......

Wednesday - Country Fried Steak, Au Gratin Potatoes, Peas

I will decide on the rest after I get the sales papers in the mail later.

Nothing earth shaking going on in my life. I sometimes wonder why i blog! LOL It can't be very interesting to read about potty training and folding clothes.

Anyway, I will be back later on with more menus and who knows what else!

9 out of 10 blog readers agree that catchy, fun blog titles are for wusses

ha.

I am alive. I am bitchy and feel yucky but I am alive. The Baby still has not cut his teeth. The Boy is determined to make me insane throught he use of crumbs and licking. The Girl is full of b-day plans and making me feel old old old. DH is working too much at work and not enough at home.

I am just depressed. I can't lose weight. I have no motivation or energy. I feel old. I feel totally un-sexy. And I am tired.

But my house is partially clean. And I have clean clothes. Even if they are not folded and are just in a pile in the livingroom justr waiting for The Boy to decide that he needs to take a running jump while naked and decide to pee ont hem and then they will not be clean anymore. phew.

I will return tomorrow in a (hopefully) better mood with (hopefully) amusing anecdotes to share regarding bday plans and potty training.

First of all, Infinity Goods has contacted me and will be getting her set of fabulous jewelry sometime this week. Hopefully, she will let us know what she thinks of it!

Now, on to the meat of the post... duh duh duh.. LOL. The stupid mouse in my house has stolen another glue trap. Kara suggested on my last post regarding the thieving mouse that I use poison but I am too too paranoid about the boys getting into it. Even if I put it in an out of the way place I am scared that the mouse will drag the poison out where the boys can get it. And both of them still stick stuff in their mouths. So... no poison. The glue traps are obviously NOT WORKING. And I don't think regular spring traps are a good idea, either. The boy gets up in the middle of the night and wanders sometimes. I would hate for him to get ahold of one. And the spot where I am seeing the silly mouse is right in the middle of my liviing room. It is by my fireplace. And so, I would nbeed to put the traps near there. So, no. I am running out of ideas. I might just have to call a professional in.

The weird thing is that I have seen no signs of the mice in my kitchen. No droppings. No chewed up food wrappers. I have a bunch of those ultrasonic pest things plugged in around the kitchen area so maybe that is helping. And we did not see the mice until winter. Maybe they will go away when it gets warm? Yuck.

On a brighter note, the baby has almost cut through his top teeth. He has been teething on these things for MONTHS. And making my life hell. He actually has six teeth up top that he is working on. But only two look like they are cutting through soon. I am hoping for tomorrow!

He has also decided to not nurse during the day any more. At all. Unless he is going to bed. He turns his head away from my nipple and cries. Kinda hurts my feelings. I think he is ready to wean. (Obviously) Maybe I can just keep the bedtime nursing for a bit. He does still want that. My baby is growing up! sniff sniff

The girl will be turning 14 in 2 weeks. That really makes me feel old.

Darling Hubby has injured himself. He has a WOUND on his foot! Yuck. So, I get to play doctor in a not so pleasant way with him. LOL

I had a yard sale yesterday. And made $200. Yay, me! I still have lots of junk to get rid of though. Now I have to decide whether I should hold onto it for a month and have another sale or just get rid of it (freecycle, etc). I do still have 2 rooms to sort through as I am continuing the unending chore of trying to organize my house. So I will probably end up with much more for the sale. If I decide to have another one. I probably will. If I could get DH to part with some of his carefully hoarded junk it would be nice.... The Girl finally decided to jump on the bandwagon and went through much of her stuff. I am so tired of being surrounded by things that we do not need or ever use. It is ridiculous! Clutter, clutter, clutter!

And, the spell check is not working on this thing. So, please forgive any misspellings. I think I at least spelled tomorrow right anyway!

Speech Therapy 101

The Boy had his first speech therapy session today. I am not really ready to write about it yet. I don't think that I have really processed everything yet. It was mostly good... very little bad. More details when I can wrap my head around them.

Right now I am mindlessly unpacking and organizing the last of the boxes that have been stacked in my bedroom since August. Yay me! Now as long as all this junk doesn't just end up back in boxes in another room we are doing good....

Update tomorrow...

But, seriously....

Today was a day of running in place. I had all good intentions of doing laundry and dishes, folding clothes, cleaning off the bag of holding that is my kitchen bar, cooking dinner, unpacking boxes in the office and putting away clothes in my room. Unfortunately, the Fates conspired against me in the form of three little monsters. Well. One of them is not so little and she was not TOO monstrous. Just uncooperative. In the spirit of teaching her responsibility I have been giving her chores to do. This only backfires when it is something like putting dishes away and I do not give her a time limit to get it done. I waited all day to be able to do more dishes because my clean ones were not put away. She just does not understand prioritization. A new chore and incentive plan is in the works to allow me to live my life without having to constantly scream and nag. Well. One can hope.

So, I made lists of Christmas ideas for presents. And did 2 loads of laundry. Am still waiting to cook as I forgot to take meat out to defrost early enough. Did not get ANYthing unpacked and only got 1 load of clothes folded. There are 4 more waiting to be folded. Yuck. The boys just seem to make the day stream by ultra fast. It's like I am in slow motion and the rest of the world is fast forwarding before my eyes. Throw me a branch cause I think I am sinking fast.....

So... what is your LEAST FAVORITE chore to do around the house? I think mine is folding laundry (in case you couldn't tell that one) or maybe just unpacking! LOL