Yarnocturnally

or almost two weeks, Wednesday will be the two week mark. I got the reasons semi wrong for the mass firing/crew change, there was stealing but now I dunno who did what and it ain’t my business so I’m stayin’ out of that and just doing the best I can to help get things back in order.

It’s been a long haul these past two weeks. It’s been a little tough getting back into the swing of things. Doesn’t help that the boy got his right hand put in a cast the day before I went back to work. He’s been pretty useless for a lot of things because he can’t get it wet, so dishes are mostly out, though he can load things that have been pre-rinsed and he can unload. Some things are just really hard to do with your non-dominant hand, so I try to take that into consideration when asking for his help around here.

But today I had to put the Bitch Mom Pants back on, because he’s really been slacking around here and I need him to spend a lil less time online IM’ing or playing games or whatever and a lil more time pitching in. I can not do it all. I could if I were the only living being in the house, yes. But there are five other living beings here and one of them is capable of doing more than he has been.

Then there was the lie. Again. Oh. My. Gods. How many freakin’ times must we go through this? A lie is a lie. It’s mama’s pet peeve. I have told the boy that so long as he is always honest with me and talks to me etc. he’s pretty much going to be able to run at will… within reason. I have a few very non-negotiable rules. I must know where he is and who he is with at all times when he is not with me. Big one. Biggest one really. I went out and got him a damned cell phone so that he’d have the ability to do so. I’ve told him he’s going to earn my respect by being honest with me, even if he thinks a lie would be better. Next big rule is I want to briefly meet at least one parent of any friend who he plans to spend time at their homes or riding in their cars. I also want home and cell numbers of those parents, and I reciprocate. Don’t freakin’ lie. That’s pretty much it for rules at this point in time. I try to deal with everything that comes up on a situational basis and not lay down a set curfew etc.

So what does he do? He makes plans with a bunch of friends, including a girl he likes who lives over the state line and had to drive over an hour to get up here, to go to the mall and the movies. I ask the typical questions, who’s all going, how ya getting there and back, etc. I get a buncha bullshit answers. Something about he was going to walk to his friend’s house and the friend’s parents would give him a ride… on a rainy day with a cast on his arm. So I offer to drive him to the friend’s house. But the friend’s dad is notorious for not liking other kids so that wasn’t an option, so he gets some of the kids to go earlier and I drop him off on my way to work. He was supposed to get a ride from the above parents after the movie so I expected him to be home before I got off work. Instead, I call him and he’s still there. So I offer to pick them up on my way home… but oh, no that’s ok we’ve got it covered we’ll be home in an hour or an hour and a half. So, already way past suspicious, I say ok, fine. When he messaged me that he was on his way home I went outside, to thank the parent who’d driven my child home of course. Only, my child got dropped off out back and I was unable to see just who it was who did the dropping or offer my thanks. Interesting huh, that he’d come in the back door. Two years and he’s never done that before when his friend’s parents drive him home from places. When asked he said it was just easier and said it had been the parent I was expecting.

But, mama didn’t fall off a turnip truck lately. Sunday I had to open the store, and when I got home I took a nap. But he never mentioned anything that night. So today, my day off, I confront his lying ass and let him know I know exactly what went down and did he really think he could pull one over on me like that? Seriously? WTF? No, dude, you’re so busted you’re flat. Ten days, no social life. Can’t be trusted to be with who you tell me you’re going to be with, outright lie when asked, sorry, you’re homebound. No one else in either, no friends over.

I chose ten days because that’s when his big brother will be here, and we’ll be busy for those two weeks, after that we’ll see how things stand on the boy getting his social life back. I just don’t know what else to do. I read up online and I’m doing all the right things, the things “they” say to do, but it doesn’t get results. The boy is stubborn, but mama is more stubborn.

It gets easier someday right?

My old boss called me and asked me to come back to work because they had to fire everyone in the store for stealing. I said yes and start back tomorrow. I’m going to be very specific as to what I’m willing to work and if they want me back badly enough they’ll accept it. I’m willing to work 20-30 hours, off no later than 7pm, I’ll close on Sundays but otherwise no weekends and I won’t be in at all during the two weeks my oldest boy is visiting. I am giving her a bit more than that this first week because we have no people and we’re going to have to train some fast, but that’s to my benefit because I can use the cash right now and the sooner we get ppl trained the sooner I can have my schedule

This afternoon I’m taking the boy to the Naval hospital so the Ortho department can take a look at his hand, which the clinic thinks is fractured. He was messing around with his friends, hit one of them somehow and screwed up his own hand. We’re probably looking at 3 weeks of either casting or splinting. Fortunately though, if that’s the case it’ll be off by the time school is out.

I went to the doc about a week ago and got put on anti-anxiety meds. I just couldn’t get over that bed bug issue. I felt crawly and itchy all the time, even though I can find no proof that there are still bugs present. I did some research and discovered it’s pretty common. So I started taking Zyrtec which has stopped the itching and the anti-anxiety meds have put the crawly feeling at bay for the most part. Whatever is left is just my sensitive skin. While I’m pretty sure there are no bugs now, I’m still taking certain precautions to be sure they can’t come back somehow. I also still have some new compulsive issues to deal with. But things are getting better on that front. I just keep praying it stays good. I seriously can’t go through that again.

Going back to work will help, my boy’s visit will help, not letting myself become a hermit will help. I’m slowly becoming me again =) I’ve got a lot of good going on these days!

MS&W was awesome =) We had a wonderful time, I met a cool friend of Kell’s and the three of us enjoyed a day of yarn, fiber, food and fun. Pics on my Facebook and Myspace pages if you’re interested. Can’t wait for next year =)

Got to run, time to get dressed and go get the boy then drive to Portsmouth. Ugh. This is gonna be the worst time of day to be over there because by the time we get out, the shifts will be changing and we’ll be stuck in traffic for ages. I hate having to go over there. I really do. Which reminds me, I better pull out the GPS because I never remember where to go.

Hope y’all are having a good week!

I spent a good portion of yesterday digging in the dirt, got a little sunburned but not too badly. I got all the dead stalks cut down, re-did the mailbox flowerbed, and trimmed the rosebush a little bit. I’m hoping that will send those little house finches somewhere else to nest this year, but I don’t know if it will work. I could hear them fussing nearby the whole time I was near the bush, though there’s no nest in it at the moment. They must consider it their very own bush lol. There’s still a lot of work to be done though. Things to be trimmed, stuff to be re-located, and the never ending weed battle of course. And as always, it’s a work in progress. I really need to get some larger plantings in the front bed, something with some height, but that will have to wait another season probably.

But that’s ok because I have plenty of other things going on to keep my mind of the plainness of the flowerbeds.

Going in chronological order there is MS&W in just two! weeks (Kell are ya ready?) and shortly after that my oldest son will be coming to visit =) I bought the plane tickets last night! The only downside is that B will still be in school while his brother visits, but he’ll be here for two weeks so they’ll have lots of time to get to know each other. B gets home by 2:30 every day anyway so there’s still lots of hours left in the day =)

I’m really looking forward to MS&W this year. I won’t have much money to spend, but the experience alone is what makes it so great =) We had so much fun last year! Now that we know what to expect we can enjoy it even more this year.

Well, I better go kick B out of bed. Time to get him back on a normal sleep pattern since he goes back to school tomorrow. Or, school will be back in session. I’m not certain he’ll go. They’ve had some arrests recently of kids at his school who were planning some sort of attack(?) on the school for tomorrow. I guess in honor of the ten year anniversary of Columbine. There will be bomb sweeps and increased police presence at all of the schools in the area. It’s either gonna be the safest day for him to attend school, or the scariest. I’m leaning towards letting him stay home if he wants. Not that he’ll get a free day of lazy, no, we will be trimming trees and bushes and he’ll be mowing the yard and things of that nature. But we’ll see what he wants to do I guess.

Hope you have a lovely Sunday! It’s going to be another pretty day here =)

It’s a lovely day today. Tomorrow should be even nicer =) Time to get out in the flower beds, finally, and clean up the mess I left last fall. What I wouldn’t give to have a nice load of mulch dropped in my driveway. To be able to mulch deep and thick. Ahhh, the dreams. My groundcovers are starting to take hold in a few places, so that will help keep weeds down some but mulch would go so far towards holding in moisture this summer. Mulch and a few soaker hoses of course The things I’ve planted the past springs have really started taking off. I promise pictures as I get things prettied up out there!

The boy has been home for Spring Break this week, so I have spent most of that time running him from friend to friend to friend and back again lol. But he’s enjoying himself and I like to see that =)

I’ve also spent the past week talking with my oldest boy =) Things are going well there, I couldn’t be happier. Well, unless he comes out here to visit or we go out there to see him Which we are hopeful for in the near-ish future. I’m so hopeful that I went on the local Craig’s List and asked if anyone who had a futon for sale would be willing to deliver for me. Within three hours I had a futon sitting in my garage =) Talk about things working out well. I’ve also started watching for cheap flights and rearranging things so that if things work out, I can afford to make it happen. I don’t even know if it will happen soon, but at the very least I’ve gotten us a spare bed. It was something we’d discussed needing anyway, so it’ll go into the office and be available when the boy has sleepovers (at least this next year while hubby’s still gone) and for those rare times when we have other overnight guests. We didn’t buy living room furniture that would serve as sleeping space when we replaced my old beloved couch and it was a slight issue when the inlaws were here last. Fortunately, the boy is young and recovered well from his night spent in the recliner So, if nothing else I’ve solved a problem.

Uh-oh, Mom’s Taxi service just went back on duty. Time to run the boy out to his friend’s house lol. Have a wonderful weekend y’all! I hope you have gorgeous weather and get to enjoy it!

Give your kids an extra hug today.

My son sent me a text a while ago. A kid in his school has been arrested and explosives were found in his home after he’d made threats against the school. I am so sad that this child would have resorted to something like this, and so thankful he was caught before he could act. How does a child get and store explosives in his home without his parents knowledge? How does he even get to the point where thought becomes action? How clueless are these parents that this happens? I may not know every detail of my boy’s thoughts and actions, but by the Gods, I know enough and am involved enough that I’m certain he could never get to this point without my knowledge or suspicion that something was wrong. I don’t know. I just don’t get it. The boy seems to think he’s outgrown hugs, but he’s getting one today when he gets home.

If I can stay awake that is. I’m fighting with my allergies right now, and I seem to be loosing. I don’t remember my allergies acting up this badly any of the other years we’ve lived here in Virginia. A bit, but not horribly. I haven’t felt this badly since I lived in the Hill Country. I was recently told that for some reasons having to do with stuff I can’t wrap my stuffed head around at the moment, the trees are all producing tons more pollen than normal. I guess that would explain it. I told my hubby I wanna find some place that doesn’t have cedar or juniper in abundance, where I/we can spend the spring…*achoo* Hiding from the stuff.

Have I ever mentioned the fact that we have a cat who is highly offended by human bodily noises? Well, we do. Her name is BB (short for Baby Bitch because from the moment hubby brought her home she’s bitched, but *I* am the head bitch in charge so she had to be the baby bitch *g*) and whenever anyone sneezes or coughs or gawd forbid expels gas… she bitches. That is the only way to describe the sound she makes. It’s not a meow, she never meows though she does chirp on occasion. But this is not her happy chirp, this is the sound she makes when she is annoyed or being demanding, it has been compared rather accurately to a duck quack. In her sleep, from the other room, doesn’t matter. She will bitch when I sneeze or blow my nose. She is Not Happy with me these days.

I think I’m going to go curl up on my couch and dream about a place free of the things that are making me feel like dying right now.

It’s Saturday already? This week seems to have flown by.

So, I told y’all I sent the message to my oldest son’s father. It took a couple of days (I think if it were me it might have taken longer) but he wrote back, and so did his mother, who has really done the raising of the boy. He told our son that I’d written and gave him the choice to write back or not and he did tell me a bit about him and enclosed a few pictures. I don’t know what he’ll do, the poor kid has got to be in shock. It’s a lot to deal with. He knows how to reach me now, if he ever wants to. That will have to be enough. His grandmother’s letter was more hopeful. She was much nicer than the ex was (he’s still very angry about a lot of things) and she offered to fill me in and send me his senior picture. She’ll help the boy get through this emotional upheaval I caused by popping up out of the blue like this.

I shouldn’t call him a boy, he’s now 18, a young man. A handsome young man with goals and dreams. I hope someday I will get to know him. In the meantime, I am so very happy to finally be able to see him as he is now and to have the line of communication open.

I’ve got my inlaws coming back by later this morning, we had a nice visit on their way down to NC last week, now we’ll have another day to visit before they head back north. I’m so glad I like my inlaws =) I hear horror stories of other people’s and I just silently thank the Gods for mine =) All I have to deal with as a pet allergy, and that’s just a matter of cleaning up and keeping the critters from coming in contact with her skin. Surprisingly, they are all very good when it comes to that. It’s as if they sense that she would *like* to pet them more, but none of them will try to force attention on her like they do with anyone else who walks through the door. She can pet them with the sleeve of her shirt if she’s careful not to touch with her skin, so the cats will walk delicately across her lap (OK, BB is delicate the boys not so much) and let her pet their heads and say hello… then they pretty much go away. Even Boomer is careful with her, though I do have to watch him a bit more because he’s just so big and pushy. Manners are our next big training thing!

But now I’ve got to run so I can change the bedding and get a few last little things done before they arrive =)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

I don’t have any jokes today I’ve never been a big prankster. I’ve been told I’m too serious sometimes. Probably true =) I’ve been feeling very serious and introspective recently though. Which is why I got so quiet for so long. When I need to evaluate, I tend to withdraw from all social life, or at least most of it. What little socializing I’ve done is because my non-biological sister doesn’t let me get away with the hermit thing for very long lol.

One of the things that’s been on my mind even more than usual lately are my children. Most of you probably think I just have one son, because he is the only one I talk about much. The reason for that is that my other two sons don’t live with me. The oldest has lived with his dad most of his life and due to things that happened many years ago, we’ve had no contact since I sent him to live with his dad. I wasn’t allowed to know where he was or contact him. The middle one was adopted at birth, an open adoption where we have stayed in touch over the years and he and B know each other. His mom has sent me pictures and kept me updated on how he’s doing. My babies did not share fathers and they were born very close together. I got pregnant the first time at 17 and at 21 gave birth to my third and final baby boy whereupon I promptly had my tubes tied at the government’s expense.

I was young, stupid, and full of myself. I was not ready to be a parent. I hadn’t had much in the way of examples growing up, and while my family was technically huge I had zero support system within it because after the deaths of my parents most of the family just kinda forgot about me. I was on my own and I had babies to care for. Little income and hardly any child care much less reliable childcare. I got in with a *very* bad crowd and things led to me giving up the two children I had into the care of others. It was meant to be temporary, and in B’s case it was though just barely. My oldest boy though, I never saw again. Over the years I have heard a few third or fourth-hand things regarding him, his father or his grandmother but nothing that could really tell me how he was doing or where he was. I kept trying to get my life to a place where I could try to gain visitation or contact, but it was years before I made it to that place. By then, I convinced myself that he was old enough to have formed some opinions and that if he wanted to contact me, his father knew how to do so through the child support I pay monthly. This was after I had finally married my current husband. It wasn’t a cold-hearted decision at all, though it may look it in print. I wished daily for that contact to come, but I couldn’t bring myself to be the one to initiate it.

For a long time I felt I had no right to suddenly appear in his life and stir things up. I was also petrified of rejection. But every so often, I’d give in and do a search online for him or his dad. I’ve made every effort I can think of to put myself out there in case he ever looked. I never found them, I didn’t have enough information to narrow things down on my own. I never hired anyone to look because I wasn’t supposed to know.

But recently I gave in to the urge to look again. First I found my ex. I debated long and hard, but in the end I sent him a message. You see, our son turns 18 tomorrow. I wanted his dad to know that should our son ever have any questions, desire to meet me or even the urge to tell me off, the door is open. If he chooses to maintain the status quo, I will accept that. What I did ask for though, was that the boys be given the chance to know each other. B has always known he has brothers and he’s met one and has a relationship of sorts with him. He deserves that option with the other, even if they leave me out of it. They are both old enough to handle that I think, if that’s how the elder wants it. I don’t know, maybe knowing his little brother would be too hard for him. But that’s why I have left it up to him to choose. He and his dad will know we’re open to it at least.

But anyway, all of that has taken me back in time a bit, looking back to see how far I have come, how I have grown and changed, what bits might still be there etc. I have to say, I like the current me a WHOLE lot better than that younger me. I still have flaws of course, one or two anyway But all in all, I think I have grown up well.

I’ve accepted that I did the best that I could and tried to make the best choices I could for my kids, and from what I can see it wasn’t all bad. They have all become pretty awesome young men, the people who have raised them should be proud of the job they’ve done. I know I could not have given #2 the opportunities his mom has given him, and I know that if I had managed to keep us all together, none of them would have had the lives they have now. What I do know, is that I’ve never regretted being the one who brought each one of them into this world, even if someone else had the honor of raising them into what they have become.

Since I’m pretty certain I won’t be wanting to spend time online tomorrow… I just want to say here….

Happy Birthday Oldest Son, may your day be filled with love and blessings.

As for all of my friends =) Enjoy your April Fools day! I’m going to spend the rest of it cleaning since I spent the morning wasting time on Facebook

Gosh, I know it’s been ages. So much has happened…

Hubby doesn’t retire this spring like we’d thought he would. He’s in till 2013, and he has to stay in Japan till NEXT spring. So another entire year apart, at which point he’ll come back here and finish out his time in. He recently got to come home for 30 days. Gods that was nice. It had been 6 months since his last visit. He came back to go to school, which he followed up by taking leave. We had to enjoy every second of his time home, bc it’s unlikely he’ll get to come home again before Christmas. =(

I quit my job. Things were getting out of hand there. I got written up twice, the first time I deserved and will admit I screwed up and knew better. The second time, I got written up because when I took out the trash one night, I missed two cans. I was traininga new girl and couldn’t get away from the registers for three seconds at a time, and she’d called meback inside to fix a problem. Then I just simply forgot to go back to empty those last two cans. I didn’t feel it was an offense worthy of a writeup. Especially since I had been giving that place way more of my hours than I wanted to do as well as working a lot of nights there at the end because I was trying to be nice. So, I left.

I’ve spent the time since then getting my house and life back in order. Cleaning and organizing and pitching and all sorts of stuff. I even got rid of several large trash bags worth of yarn. I finally cleared out a bunch of stuff I’ll never use and donated it to a friend’s daughter for her homeschool group.

I have knitted a bit, though I haven’t got many pics to prove it lol. Just this one.

I knitted my old boss a pair of wristwarmers for Christmas. But I’ve gone and lost the yarn label so I can’t even tell you what I used. I suck. Sorry. I was hanging on by a thread those days and just didn’t think to document the project.

Some days I still hang on by a thread. OK pretty much every day Some days the thread is gossamer weight and others it’s a nice sturdy acrylic 4 ply lol.

I’ve lost 40 pounds since hubby left last April. No miracle diet or anything like that. I’m hoping things have leveled off finally. I seem to have been holding my current weight for the past two or three months so I’m content now =) I’m where I wanted to be. I’d prefer not to loose more, if for no other reason than that I am tired of having to go buy new clothes! My closet is currently quite full. But the clothes inside range from size 16 (where I was a year ago) down to size 6 (where I am now)… I even have them grouped by size. Pants, sweats bras and bags of panties grouped together by one or two sizes, just in case I go up again at some point. Fortunately, most of my tops still fit. I didn’t bother sorting those out because I will wear larger tops as layers or just to be comfy. While I am very happy about the weight loss in general…

I WANT MY BOOBS BACK.

Seriously, I kinda miss ‘em lol. I lost two cup sizes and what’s left behind was NOT the nice firm boobs we all have in our dreams. I even told hubby, I’d halfway consider staying fat if I got to have my boobs back like they were.

Here are a few more pics, just for cuz. Look at my two handsome boys there =) Isn’t the boy growing up? Some of you will remember pics of him from a while back or have met him in person. He’s now 5′5 and outweighs me =)

Boomer is growing up quite nicely too! He’s become such a good boy! I’m very proud of how far he has come in the year and a half we’ve had him now. Is it really bad that I’m already angling for another one? *g*

OK guys, I’m going to close for now. I’ve got to get the kid busy on his chores as well as get my own done I’ll be catching up on everyone’s blogs soon! I have so many unread posts though that there’s no way to read it all at once so it is gonna take me some time to weed through it all!

Hi everyone… just popping in to let you all know we are still alive. Life has been more than hectic lately. Just in the past month I have dealt with a number of crisis. First it was one of my teeth, had to have it pulled. That was two full weeks of me on a liquid or soft diet so I dropped a number of pounds in a hurry, which while I was happy to see the smaller numbers on the scale I wasn’t to thrilled about how quickly it happened. Plus I was in pain the whole time because the infection was raging and the meds didn’t seem to knock it out as quickly as I’ve been used to in the past.

Just as I was getting past that issue, I discovered something. You know that old saying “Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite?” Yeah, well I discovered why it came about. I found an infestation of bed bugs in my house. I’ve spent the past several weeks and several thousand dollars dealing with that. New beds had to be purchased. Pest control had to be called in, to the tune of $1600. I had to have professionals come in to steam clean every inch of carpet and the upholstered furniture. I had to bag up all of our clothing, linens, every scrap of fabric that could be removed and laundered or heat treated in some way. I had to clear out the infested rooms, which meant bagging everything that wasn’t being laundered. I threw away a lot of stuff that could not be heat treated or laundered.

Over the course of the past several weeks I have learned more than a normal person should ever know about bed bugs. I have learned the only true way to kill all life stages is heat. I have learned that pesticides are no guarantee, that while they will kill what is living at the time of application, it does not kill eggs so a second treatment needs to be done at the time of hatching. I also learned that if a female lays eggs after being sprayed but before she dies, her offspring will hatch armed with immunities to that form of pesticide. I learned that these bugs can life for up to a year and a half without a blood meal, wake up when a food source becomes available and begin procreating. I learned they prefer humans for feeding on and will only feed on animals if they are desperate, because their bodies are not designed to navigate the fur on animals. I learned that they are most active between 3 and 5 am when we are in our 4th stage of REM sleep, so we will not feel them crawling on us or feel them inject the numbing agent which allows them to feed for up to ten minutes on our blood. Blood is the only thing they eat, so a person can keep a germ free home, without a crumb of food or a speck of dust to be found, but they can still have bed bugs as long as blood flows through their veins. And once you get them, the little fukkers are nearly impossible to get rid of and it will be a very long, expensive, work intensive process if you do succeed.

We don’t yet know if our efforts will pay off. It will be months before we can be sure. And then we have to be super careful from now on about the things we bring in from rooms that didn’t get treated but which could possibly have harbored eggs or hibernating adults so we don’t risk re-infesting ourselves.

Then, to top it ALL off, the boy has been ordered to use crutches and has a referral to Ortho for an ankle injury he sustained playing football at the park with his friends. I don’t know for how long or even exactly what the problem is. It’s not broken, but the doc saw something abnormal and wants it checked out and in the meantime he told B not to put any pressure whatsoever on that foot.

The boy is of course being stubborn about it. The injury actually happened a couple of weeks ago, but we were in hell that week and it seemed to be getting better so I let it go. But when he was still complaining about it last week and asking me to get him a note excusing him from PE or at least running, I got him in to the doc. Now that he’s been told to use the crutches though, it suddenly feels much better and he’s “just fine, really mom” and he’s hopping around without the crutches, sort of trying not to put pressure on it… at least when I’m looking. I’m about ready to beat him about the head with the dammed things, since he won’t use them for their intended purpose.

The only good thing to come out of any of this is my new bed. I splurged. It was hubby’s bday the day I went to shop for a bed, and I have a job now so we (had) some extra money and I chose to use it to sleep well every night. *big grin* I got a King sized Tempurpedic bed. It just so happened to be a floor model which I got at a deep discount, but because I got the floor model I did have to accept that it comes with adjustable bases and massage. Damn the luck. I reluctantly accepted I mean, they offered interest free financing for two years and the payment *is* within my budget, how could I say no? And I have slept incredibly well every night since it was delivered. And every afternoon when I get home from work. I fall asleep so quickly I haven’t really had a chance to enjoy the massage or adjustment features.

I will admit I am still having aches and pains during the daytime, but I’m working my tail off trying to get everything put pack together. I had 30 giant lawn and leaf bags stuffed *full* of laundry that I had to wash, dry and fold before bringing it back into the house. At this point I have done all but 12 of them, including putting it all away yesterday. Those bags were heavy and that’s a lot of folding. The boy helped a bit, but I honestly did 95% of it by myself. So I’m a bit sore in the back and arms lol. I also was the one who had to empty out the rooms and bag everything up, because that mostly happened while he was at school. Keep in mind, I had to do all of this around my work schedule as well, and some of it had to be done on the spot in a hurry. I have high hopes though, that once I have the house back in shape and give my body a chance to settle down, the pain will go away and stay gone. I do wake up refreshed and pain free, so that’s something =)

I will say, from dealing with all of this bed bug crap (literally) I now know why people used white bed linens for so long. Since I had to replace my bedding when I upgraded our bed, I bought whites and light colors for the most part. I also bought lighter colored sheets to cover the living room furniture. Until I can be sure these little blood suckers are gone for good, I want to be able to *see* them at a glance, so light colors and little or no patterns for my house for a while. It’s boring as hell but I had to do it.

I tell you, other than the financial impact of this, the psychological impact is by far the biggest. I didn’t sleep through the night for 12 nights, because I was sleeping in my chair after I found the bugs in my bed and couch. It was uncomfortable as hell, but I also would wake up every time I thought I felt something crawling on me. I’d turn on the light, fling back the covers, check my pillows and the cracks of the chair for bugs and then it’d take a while to get back to sleep after I got back into “bed.” I’ve mostly stopped doing that since the new bed arrived, the same day as the pest control guy came and spent 6 hours treating my house and the steamers came to steam the crap out of my furniture. I am still throwing blankets and pillows into the dryer though, because I can’t go to sleep if I don’t. My electric bill is going to be awful, even though I did 98% of the laundry at the laundromat, I’ve still used the dryer at home a lot in dealing with this mess. You just don’t realize how much fabric you have in your house till you really have to make a point of finding out.

And I know every last one of you is sitting there (if you’ve made it this far in my brain dump) hollering at the screen “What about the YARN?!?!?!!?!” The yarn is fine. If only because none of it is stored in the bedroom or near the couch. As of this moment I haven’t had to throw away or ruin any yarn in this process.

Though, since we do not know where the bugs came from or how long we’ve had them (based on several clues we’ve determined they could possibly have come over from Germany in our household goods or been picked up at one of the hotels in transit but we have no way to be certain, we could have picked them up as recently as our trip to Texas) everything in the house is a possible source since pretty much everything we have was in that move. We just have to be uber careful for a long time. I sort of wish it were still the height of summer, because then Mother Nature could help me a lot. I could set a lot of things in the sun or in black bags in the sun or in black bags in the sealed car. As it is now though, it’s no longer warm enough to do the job. So nothing can be moved out of untreated rooms into treated rooms unless I can find a way to apply heat to it first.

And now, I am going to close, because while it is my day off I have ten thousand things to do and I’m getting none of them accomplished sitting on my butt. The sooner I get it done, the sooner I can get out of hell and resume something more like my normal life =) Please send bug free thoughts my way if you have them. I’m not sure I can deal with this all a second time, financially or emotionally.

The boy is about to start high school, any minute now. My baby boy. He’s gotten so big! He can officially reach things I am to short to reach now His voice has gotten even deeper too. I guess I should start calling him my little man now, instead of my baby boy =( He’s been such a help this summer though! He really stepped up and helped out with me working. I’m really proud of him for how well he’s handling this all.

And I worked the summer away… it seems to have flown by. I’ve been either too busy or too tired to post anywhere. The only thing I have used the internet for in months is email, sporadically, and ordering pizza, oh, and paying bills.

I’m slowly adjusting to work+home life+social life but it ain’t easy lol. Usually, after working and dealing with people all day I want nothing to do with dealing with other people, even people I love. So I’m not spending much time with my friends, but I’ve been doing a bit better here lately.

I haven’t done any knitting or crocheting this summer. The baby blanket isn’t even half done and the baby was born nearly a month ago. I never really get much fiber work done in the summer months though.

I did read a lot of books. Escaping. I didn’t want to watch TV most nights because the noise was irritating if I’d worked all day, so I read. I didn’t garden because I was usually too darn tired to fight with the bugs and the heat. I did make some mental plans for things to try to accomplish this fall and next spring though, to make next year a bit easier and prettier.

Hubby is on his way to Japan, after spending the summer in San Diego. I don’t think I’ve posted since we got the news, but he doesn’t get to retire next year like we’d thought and planned. So now, the boy will graduate high school before hubby gets to retire. Which means, right now we don’t know what the future holds. We *hope* he will get to come home next spring as we’d planned for all along. But there’s a chance he might have to stay over there longer. Right now, we just don’t know. Grrr. I hate that part the most I think. It’s so much easier to deal when you know what you’re dealing with.

I’ve lost almost 20 pounds since hubby left. In part from walking the dog, though the boy walks him as often as I do now that I work. I think working is the biggest reason. It’s changed my eating patterns. Instead of meals, I graze at work. We don’t get real breaks or a lunch, so you have to eat things that are easy to put down when a customer walks up. Half the time, I don’t want dinner because I’ve eaten all day long. If I can drop another 15 or 20 pounds I’ll be happy =) Hell, at this point I’d be happy with 10 more lol.

I had planned to post a picture of the boy on his first day of school but my camera is giving me an attitude and won’t take pictures right now. Which means I also do not have a current picture of the puppy. He’s my mental savior probably lol. I love this dog so dammed much. He’s just such a joy to have in my life. He’s come so far since we got him. He’s still got a hunk of puppy in him, but he’s much better behaved now. He listens and minds me on the first command more often than he ignores me anyway His newest trick is that he can “gimme 5″ with either paw. It’s not perfect yet, but he’s learning to offer the matching paw to the one you offer when you tell him to give 5, and if you offer the other hand he’ll give you five with the other paw. It took some time for him to figure it out, and for a while he was offering it more than we wanted, but he’s getting the hang of it now.

Well, I think that’s everything lol. Not that it’s much, but life has been pretty uneventful. I’m alright though, I promise =) I miss you all tons!