When the A's came to town...

Sorry about my absence recently, but I do have an excuse. Or at least I think I have a valid excuse. My brother-in-law and his lovely wife and children came to visit us recently! It was way too short of a trip, but it was fantastic none the less. We (me, the hubby, and the kids) finally got around to actually "seeing" the town we call home. Next week when the in-laws come Bangkok will have us (shout out to anyone who knows that movie reference and admits it!!).

So, let us get to it! The first thing we went to see was the Santuary of Truth, and boy was it awesome! I had heard some mixed reviews and we were told that it maybe wasnt all that great for kids, but we were determined to infuse as much culture into our guest as possible. Since we live in a toirist town, culture is rather hard to come by, but this place totally fit the bill. After we paid and walked the 1/2 mile to get to the temple we were all quite speechless. It was hidden from our view by a clump of trees and when it finally came into view we were stuned. I mean, this place just screamed culture and beauty

The second place that we took them was a Mexican restaurant (yes, even in Thailand they have Mexican food). We were a little apprehensive about taking them since my sister in law is actually Mexican, but we went, and it was good. End of story!

The second full day that they were here we took them to a Chinese temple not far from our house. As I said earlier, culture is lacking here, but this place was on one of the guides that I had checked as a "must see". In the bottom part of the temple they had several members of the Terracotta Army on display that are on permanent loan to this temple. They also had more god statues then I could count. The actual temple was upstairs and we did not get to see that, but the downstairs were the museum was, was very neat.



After we left the temple we went over to a monastery that my sister in law and I spotted. We had no idea what this place was or even if we could go there, but we saw it from the temple and wanted to check it out. While the building and grounds were beautiful, the sick begging canines that were there was just too much to handle. Plus, the actual monastery and temple that were on the grounds were not open that day. I do hope to return on a day that this place is open because I imagine that the inside is beautiful.

Last on our tour that day was the golden Buddha on the mountain. I will not tell you what happened at this place as I have been forbidden to do so by my hubby, but lets just say that my sister in law and I were scolded like two year olds by my hubby for the hi jinks that occurred. Don't worry though, I fully intend on breaking my silence and show the pictures of our hi jinks one day ;-) After that incident though, I am certain that my hubby is thankful that when back home, that she and I live very far from one another because if we didn't, we would surely get into a lot of trouble. She is such a fun gal!



I think my favorite day of their stay here had to be Monday. On Monday we had a girls day out! A much needed girls day out complete with body scrub, hot stone massage, facial, foot rub on the balcony of a swanking hotel, and topped off with an entire bottle of sparkling wine! It was awesome and very relaxing. We talked, we ate, we drank, we relaxed, we went shopping, she taught me how to get cheaper prices on knock off goods, etc. It was fantastic! I think that was the longest either of us had stayed away from our respective babies (her baby being 5 months!). Should we ever find ourselves together in a tropical country with great spas again, we will be doing a repeat of that day!

So, with all of that being said, I really should run. Time to start homeschool lessons for day. Hope all is well. I shall be back very soon!

Kristen

Fight or flight...

Fight or flight: the natural response that people have when faced with a crisis. They either A) fight, or B) fly away. I think for the most part people would like to think of themselves as fighters, as those who stand up to the challenge when faced with a crisis, and not fliers who, well, fly! I know that about two days ago I thought that I was a fighter but have since been sadly proven wrong. I may also fall into the "bad parent" category and I am surely not winning any "mother of the year" awards.

So, you may be asking yourself what prompted this post and may be sitting on your hands in anticipation of the story that I am about to tell. So, without further a-do:

Friday was my birthday (yep, turned the big 3-1!) and since our neighbors had so very nicely agreed to watch the babes on Saturday, my hubby decided to take me out to eat at a very nice vineyard. So, as I am getting ready and all fancied up, my two year old decided that he was famished and had to eat right away. The crying fit was quite awful. They (the kids, that is) were going to be eating pizza in about one hour, but I decided to make him a Nutella sandwich to hold him over, and you know, stop the crying. As we are standing in the kitchen he lets out this blood curling, ear piercing, make you think someone had died kind of scream and starts pointing at where he had just been standing. Since it seems that I have passed on my fear of all things creepy crawly I thought maybe he had seen a gecko. My fear of geckos is quite bad. So bad in fact that when I see something move out the corner of eye, I always jump. It could be a flower falling, or ash in the air for instance, and I jump sky high.

But back to my story :-). Now, please keep in mind that I am barefoot because I had not finished getting dressed yet and I usually don't wear shoes around my house. So, as I am frantically looking for the vanishing gecko my son runs around the corner still screaming and then I see it! Sauntering across my kitchen floor like he owned the place. At first I thought it was a mouse it was so big. Now me and mice??? We have a very ugly history so when I "think" I may be seeing one I tend to freak out in a very big way. Well, turns out what I was seeing was not in fact a mouse but a huge, big as my hand, make you pass out from sheer terror, COCKROACH! Umm yeah.... my fear of those things is probably rated higher then my fear of geckos and right below mice...

So.. now, my son is not the only one screaming because I too have joined in on it. And here is where my "bad parent of the year" award is given. Instead of comforting my two year old and whisking him to safety I take off running. And I don't mean that I was sort of skipping or anything. I'm talking full out Olympic style sprinting kind of running. I left my poor two year old alone, in the kitchen, screaming his poor head off. Once he realized that his screams were not the only ones going on and once he saw me take off without him, he starts frantically running after me, arms flapping, screaming "mommy, not without me! NOT WITHOUT MEEEE!!!".  And what do I do??? Well, a good mother would have stopped and gotten him. Me??? I keep right on trucking! Apparently I am a flyer and apparently assume the motto "every man for himself" is correct. Who knew??? Certainly not me, because as I am typing this I still cannot believe that I left him and then chose to keep running without him even after I hear him screaming for me. No wonder that when we left for dinner he practically pushed me out the door. I can still see the look on his face when he caught up to me. It was a cross between disbelief and terror.

Anyway, the story does not end there. Once I had arrived at my destination, aka my husband, I start screaming at him about what had just transpired in the kitchen. It was at that point that I realized that my two year old was trailing behind me. Great parenting folks! As I was screaming at my husband it occurred to me that he had this very confused look on his face like he had no idea what was going on. Personally I thought that I was making my point very well and A) he was the dumbest man on the planet because he couldn't understand me (I mean, whats not to understand?? Me screaming and shouting "Kill it with a shoe" should have been clear), B) I wasn't making as much sense as I thought I was (okay, truthfully I could have been speaking gibberish, or Thai for that matter), or C) he again was the dumbest man on the planet because he decided that this was the perfect opportunity to make fun of me. Turns, it was a little bit of both B & C. Once I started making  sense (to both of apparently) and once he seemed to have a little fun at my expense, he went to the shoe closet and grabbed my shoe. Of course it was my shoe! There weren't like fifty other shoes to choose from or anything!

And here is where C comes in. As he is standing in the kitchen looking for the roach that had apparently vanished, he says "come and show me where you saw it". So, stupidly I walk barefoot into the kitchen. That poor silly man, lol! He decided that this was prime time to shout "look out, its right behind you!" Umm, lesson learned on his part. You DO NOT, under any circumstance, do that to a very agitated, and very scared woman. As i am jumping and dancing around the kitchen trying to get away from the roach and onto something high it occurs to me that I have turned in a complete circle and that there was no roach behind me. It was at this point that I pummeled that man so hard that he was swearing up and down that he was going to be bruised in the morning. Sorry honey. I know that it is rather embarrassing to have to tell your coworkers that the bruise on your arm was caused by a girl! After he had shaken off his pummeling and after I decided to come back out of my room (yes, I did have to walk away after that to prevent causing further injury to my husband or from my kids learning a few new four letter words), I hear the beautiful sound of shoe smacking floor!

After all was said and done, we both agreed that it was by far the biggest roach either of us had ever seen. We also both agreed that I should never be allowed to take our kids down water slides (whole other story, lol) because of me being a flight risk and all. Oh, and mother of the year??? Totally out of the running. I would however win "loudest screamer of all time" with my two year old coming in second! Guess he just needs to learn to run a little faster now ;-)

Until next time!
Kristen

A Gecko ate your baby...

Not really. A gecko did not in fact eat my baby, or any baby that I know of. One did however cross the line at climbing into my baby's bed and thus died an untimely death under my flip flop. Seriously, you would think that by now that when their aunt gecko and uncle gecko, cousins, brothers, sisters, whatever, didn't come back that they would learn to stay away from the crazy white lady and her whacking shoe. But no, they are not that smart and alas, I have been forced to kill a few over the last couple of days. I'm not proud, but I am insanely happy that I am getting rid of the little suckers, one gecko at a time!

So the back story. Yesterday we hired a new maid and in an effort to start her out on the right foot, I was walking around opening curtains and picking up some things that had been left on the floor. And yes. I am the crazy person who attempts to clean before the maid comes over. Anyway, I take off walking to my room when I see this... Thing, shoot out from under my bed. I scream of course prompting my oldest to yell from the living room asking what was wrong. He's a brave one, that one, lol! It was brown and rather large so my first thought was mouse. Now seriously, if you have ever seen a gecko you know that they look nothing like a mouse, but seeing as how I am terrified of both and mice more so, my brain coverts scary things into mice apparently. Anywho, after my life finished playing out before me (this was a heart attack inducing experience after all, thus near death and the whole life flashing thing), I realized that what I was seeing was not a mouse after all. So, brave one that I am, I stand there looking at it hoping that my mere stare will reduce it to ashes. Since that didn't work, I was left with the whacking shoe.

As I am about to turn on my heel to retrieve my shoe from the hall closet, as my bedroom closet was off limits due to the gecko standing between us, I decide to take one more look at it so that I don't lose him. And that my friends is when that little sucker made the decision that ultimately lead to me taking his little gecko life. He ran towards Baby K's blankets that were on the floor, over her teddy, and into her bed! Of course only the kids were home and since I have passed on my fear to them, they were totally useless. After about 15 minutes of getting my stomach and brain to cooperate with me I grabbed my shoe and took off for my room.

Turns that the little gecko was a runner. When he saw me coming (I swear he was waiting for me) he took off for my bed. Crazy lady that I am, I started screaming and he turned towards the crib again. I was so pissed by this point that I took the crib and slid it across the floor and started running after the gecko screaming and waving my shoe. Eventually the madness ended when I cornered him again the dresser and proceeded to whack the poo out of him. Needless to say but totally saying it anyway, that gecko is no longer with us...

So, with that being said, umm yeah, later that day I almost died again due to another gecko attack. I was putting away my crochet supplies when one came within inches of my face in the closet. It seems as though I may be doomed, or cursed, or something, for these random gecko attacks to keep occurring. Oh, and I should probably mention the third one who tried to kill me when I opened the sliding door in our living room. Those two are currently still at large and have a rather sizeable bounty on their tiny heads. Oh well. Such is life in sunny Thailand!

Kristen

Stranded on a deserted mountain on New Years eve...

A few weeks ago I decided to take the kids out riding on the golf course behind our house. There is a spot that I have been itching to see that is about as far away from our house as you can get without leaving the compound. To get there from my front door it takes about 15 minutes but the drive is well worth the city/mountain/lake views that await you. I loved it so much up there that I started taking the kids there every afternoon just to take in the sites and let the kids roll around on the hills. It truly is a gorgeous place and to top it off, there isn't a soul around to bother you. And with that being said, here is my story of being stranded on top of a mountain with no one around.

The day started out like any typical day in our family. Nothing special going on. Just a nice, quite, relaxing day. Since we had been having those types of days for the better part of a week with the hubby being off from work, we were all going a bit stir crazy. So, around 4pm we loaded up the kids on the golf cart and took off to the swimming pool in our compound. The pool was a bit dirty from all the ash of the brush fire the day prior, and with there being no pool toys, it turned out to be a rather quick trip. After leaving the pool we decided that we needed more "out time"so we took off for the mountain for the kids to play.

As were are driving along i stated to smell this very foul odor. I had smelled it earlier on the way to the pool and thought it smelled like pesticides , but I wanst 100% sure. The higher we climbed the worse the smell got. Since there was no one around spraying I started looking for more fires thinking maybe that could have been it. We saw a few but they were off in the distances miles away, so that wanst it either. So??? What could it be???

Umm yes, we very soon  found out what it could be! As we were getting to the place where we usually stop with the kids for them to play I turned to the hubby and said "hmm, I wonder if it could be the golf cart making that smell?"  And would you know that no sooner did those words leave my mouth that the hubby turns to be while frantically pushing the gas and says "oh now you figure it out!". WORST. TIMING. EVER!!! 

So, here we are. At the very least, two miles away from the house. Up a mountain. With three kids in what we presumed was a broken down golf cart. Not a soul around to help because it was New Years eve and people had stopped playing golf hours before.  Oh, and lets not forget that it was close to dinner time and we were all wet from being at the pool!

Since the battery compartment was hot to the touch the hubby had us get off the golf cart while he tried to get his thoughts together on how we were getting back home. She-woman that I am decided to try and take control of the situation and was getting ready to put the babe in the basket and have our five year old drive down the mountain while the hubby and I pushed. In hindsight, that was a terrible idea, lol!

Before actually attempting to play out my idea the hubby had an even better one. You see, where the drive/park stick is located is right below where our big kid was resting his feet. The hubby had the genius idea to check to ensure that we hadn't accidentally been put in neutral before attempting my brilliant idea.  Umm, yeah. It had!!! We weren't stranded after all. At least not yet!

It turns out that there is something wrong with our golf cart that does in fact involve the battery compartment and a rather stinky smell. Since the golf cart is just a rental and since we have no idea how to open the darn thing, we have to "call the guy" to come out and fix it. Note to self: call the guy! Anyway, we did make it home without further incident, smelling like burnt rubber. Stinky smell and almost being stranded aside, it was a rather nice drive and an interesting way to end the year, especially seeing as how I had been stranded at the start of our year in Thailand... TWICE! I see a very disturbing theme developing here, lol!

After safely arriving home and parking the golf cart WITHOUT plugging it in (that was pretty much the only good idea I brought to the table) we had a nice relaxing dinner followed by some TV time and bed. I was the only one up to see the new year roll in as my crew had long since passed out.

Well, since it is dinner time, I really must go. I hope you all have a fantastic new year!
Kristen

Thailand 2012 Year End Review

We have officially been in Thailand for a whole four months and I must say that I have a learned a thing or two since our arrival. Heck, I learned a lot before our arrival, lol! We have had some good times and some bad, but all in all, it was life with my family, so it was great! So, with that being said, here is my list of year 2012 most memorable moments:

10) When you are waiting for your husband to call with news about your move to Texas, holding your breath is not advisable. You think i would have learned this fact a few years when back when the whole "moving to Texas" thing started. But alas, I held my breath anyway and the call never came. Well, it did, but not with news about a Texas move. Although, I must admit that when my husband said Thailand I did in fact ask if that was in Texas. Umm, no. It isn't!

9) Moving to a foreign country is hard, especially when that country is a 3rd world country. Before our arrival everyone we talked to informed us that living here would be like a permanent vacation, or a staycation if you will. Well, they were seriously wrong as our time in Thailand has been anything but. Hopefully 2013 will be much nicer.

8) Tokay's, geckos, rats, bees, and ants, do not make for great pets or house guest! Enough said!!!

7) Flying with three kids half way around the world is not as bad as you would think. Well, maybe it is for people who have less chilled kids then ours, but ours did great! Could have also had something to do with the fact that we flew first class.....

6) I always knew that life was short and that family was important. I never felt those lessons more then on October 19 (state side). My outlook on life changed with one phone call.

5) Seeing your last baby turn one is both a sad and amazing feeling all at once! She is finally walking and even says a few words.

4) Watching your second child grown into a boy who can talk in full sentences when you previous thought you would need interventions is an amazing feeling. Heck, the boy even says a few words of Thai! He is an amazing little man with so much personality!

3) Seeing your oldest go off to "big kid school", especially in a foreign country, is a hard thing for a momma to process. There are still days when I question our decision. Every day I hold my breath until I have him home with me again.

2) Celebrating the 10 year anniversary with the most amazing man ever! We didn't do anything big and flashy, but we spent it together with our babies and it was great!

1) I guess the most memorable thing that I can think of for 2012 isn't so much a single memorable moment as it is a collection of moments. 2012 was harsh and kind all at the same time and it is a year that I will never forget for many reasons (see previous 9 for starters). We have been blessed in so many ways and I thank God every day that my family is together and healthy and happy.

So, with all of that being said, my new motto for the new year is "Worrying will never change the outcome". I really need to learn this lesson and stop stressing so much over things that I cannot change.

And to my family: I love you all dearly and life would not be same without every single one of you in it! Thank you for being you!

Happy New Year!
Kristen

My sweet honey bee...

I'm not really sure how to start this post as I am still in a wee bit of shock that this actually happened. I am quite certain a plague of biblical proportions has descended upon our house. This realization, the realization about biblical plague and our house, is really quite disturbing for a few reasons. One: it proves to me that all that time in Sunday School and Catechism were totally useless because two: I had no idea that there were 10 plagues. I thought that there were seven. Seven I can handle because we have been through five. Seven meant we were almost done. But 10??? 10 has me..well, scared poop less (especially since I found a spider on my curtain this morning)!

It started out as one. Then two. Then about half a dozen. And finally, it ended with a swarm that chased me and the three kids, as well as my friend J and her two babes, out of the house... for two hours... in 80 degree heat!  Bees.The spiky tailed devil. Killers of Thomas J. in "My Girl". Things that give my friend J goose bumps the size of Michigan.

The day started out like any Wednesday would, which means "well enough". My human alarm clock, aka The Babe, aka the "The girl who hates for her mother to sleep past the butt crack of dawn", decided to sleep a little late prompting us to arrive right at 8am (so..late!) to the Big Kid's school. Wednesday is the short day of the week for school and usually we have Thai lessons that day. However, because the Big Kid and his friend, Little J, have been begging for a play date, I canceled Thai lessons and set up a play date with Little J and his mommy J. So, after we pick up the boys at school, load them into their various spots in the SUV and golf cart, we head over to our house for the play date.

The play date went very well for the first half . The kids played well together, Middle boy only had a few melt downs, Babe only pitched a few fits. It was great! Then all hell broke loose. As I said earlier, it started out as one. Little J pointed out to his mom that there was a fly on my curtain. She of course turns around, sees the "fly" and says "That's okay honey. Thailand has flies. No big deal". So, I turn around a few seconds later and there were two of them. Okay. Just a fly. No big deal. Umm, no. Very big deal because when I went to kill them they were bees. Again, no big deal right? Maybe they got in when we walked in. Totally logical assumption.

Eventually we relocated to the living room because the babe and the middle boys were playing in there and there was no telling what they would get into. Eventually I had to walk back into "The Bee room" and noticed that it felt way hotter then it should, especially since I had just turned on the air con. And that is when I saw them.. Oh them. Them, them, and more them. So, calmly I walked into the room where J was and asked her if she could come and take a look "at something". She walks in and says "OMG!". And yep, that pretty much sums it up.  OMG!! As I was debating on what to do, outside of the bee room, I decided to walk back in and see what was up. And boy did I see! They had multiplied and were swarming around my lights. This time, slightly more freaked out, I walked into the kitchen which adjoined the bee room and saw that they were in there too. They were also in my other dining room. And they had multiplied yet again in the Bee room. As calmly as two mothers can, J and I gathered the kids and took off out the house.

To say that my good day turned bad is quite possibly the biggest understatement of the week. I will spare you many of the other details of that day (my exact wording when I abandoned my Thai sensibilities of kindness and friendliness and opened up a good old fashioned can of American verbal whoop-ass on my landlord, for example). After several heated, non progress making conversations with the non-English speaking handy man about them trying to use poison to kill the bees (Not going to happen around my kids!), J's driver ever so nicely took over for me with communicating. Apparently yelling loudly at a Thai in a language that they don't understand doesn't really get you anywhere. They just smile at you bigger then normal... which of course pisses off this girl like you wouldn't believe!

 I do have to say though that when I called my hubby about the poison the conversation that followed was quite funny looking back on it. Apparently in my panicked state I suggested that instead of poison that they wrangle to bees like they would do cattle. This apparently confused my hubby a great deal because in a very surprised tone he says "you want them to wrangle the bees? How exactly do you propose they do that?"  Well.. with a net and a rope of course! After finding out how they killed them, wrangling doesn't seem all that far out there though. Their solution??? Rolled up TV fliers for the local cable company! High tech stuff man! Speaking of solutions, when I asked them where they came from they informed me that there was a hole in the roof. When I proposed the very logical (well, I thought it was logical) solution of just closing the hole, they informed that no, they could not do that. What? Why not? Because then the bees would have no where to live? Correct me if I am wrong here, but we, the HUMAN occupants of this house, are the ones paying rent, right? Not the bees.

So, that was my day in a nut shell. Fun times! Hopefully plagues 6-10 decide not to visit us... EVER, because I am quite certain that my crazy card is totally full. Here's to hoping for a better week with no more creepy surprises! Until next time, I hope all is well!
Kristen

Room for Two at the Loony Bin, Please!

I am quite certain that when the hubby and I are repatriated that they will strongly suggest that we both check into some sort of clinic for the mentally insane. You see, when they repatriate someone they give you this survey that you have to fill out, or at least I think they do, and I can tell you right now that ours will be filled with all sort of crazy, crazy, stuff. Really and truly I am beginning to question our mental health. Let me explain...

If you have been following this blog you have read all about my gecko phobia and how they have tried to kill me on more then one occasion and you may also recall Remy the Rat. Well my friends, they are both back. Or at least their kin are now here. I really and truly thought that by allowing Remy to live that we would come into some of that good Thai karma that I have been hearing all about, but it seems that by killing a gecko (multiple geckos actually) that I totally screw up the karma thing. And we now seem to be paying for it in a big way!

A few days ago I bought some bananas. Some fantastic mini Thai bananas! Boy were they delicious. Apparently Emile, Remy's older, fatter brother, decided that he too liked my yummy Thai bananas because when I walked into the kitchen for breakfast there was a half eaten one on my counter. Now, if you know my kids you know that my middle leaves food in various places and in various states of half eateness (i know that isn't a word, but I claim mental!), and in all likelihood, it could have been him. However, my counters are really high and my son doesn't gnaw at food, nor does he eat the peelings of bananas. Oh, he also poops a lot bigger (yeah, rat poop on my counter!). So, of course I freak. I mean seriously, I freaked when there was a tiny little bug in my flour so as you can imagine this incident was very traumatic for me. Between the crying, screaming, and asking God to forgive me for my sins and to stop all of these terrible injustices from happening again, I finally managed to call my hubby and demand (as nicely as possible) that he call the landlord and tell her of this "incident".

Before I continue, I should probably tell you a little about how the Thai people operate. They don't! Or at least that seems to be true in a lot of cases. They have this live and let live attitude that pretty much prevents anything meaningful from happening. They just let things go.

Okay, now that we have that established, the landlord sent over the handy man (who totally speaks good English but pretends not to!). I tell him what is going on and he takes a look and decided that he would need to come back and seal up the pass through from the maids quarters into the house. Okay, great! Action! His other solution was to put a freaking trap ON MY COUNTER! Not really a trap so much as a darn cage. Umm, no. Not EVEN going to happen my friend. We compromised by him putting it on the counter in the maids quarters. Some good that did since he didn't even bait the darn thing. Seriously, did he think the rat was just going to take a stroll into the cage for the heck of it???

That night things got really bad. And by really bad, I mean I walk into the boy's room and find rat poo on the big kids bed. And on the side of the bed. And on his sheets. Seriously, my skin is crawling just thinking about it. Thankfully the hubby was home this time and witnessed first hand my reaction (see previous paragraph!) and knew that it was time for him to take action. You see, when handy man came over I informed him that there was an opening somewhere outside that was allowing them to come into the house. I told him to walk the perimeter and find said hole, and close said hole. He said okay and that he would be back in 50 minutes. He never came. In fact, it took several heated phone calls just to get him to come to the house to finally seal up the pass through. Live and let live!

So, the hubby asks me if I know how to work the bait less trap that was left behind by the brainless handy man. Umm no. No I don't. And no I don't want to know, thankyouverymuch! Thankfully our driver was still hanging around and helped the hubby bait the trap with chicken nuggets, and then informed us that we would need to hole up in our bedroom (the only room not touched by Emile) by putting a towel across our door. Great! Fantastic! So much fun! Anyway, I didn't sleep very well that night, to say the least. The next morning however, I did get some relief when the hubby came in and announced that Emile was gone and any evidence of him was gone as well. Boy was he ever wrong.

As I am sitting in the living room, crocheting a Christmas Tree skirt and drinking my coffee, my babe decided to go sit by our back window. She likes playing there and does so, often. So, I walk over to open the curtains for her and get a huge, very unwelcome, surprise. They were droppings everywhere. I mean at least 20-30, plus more right outside the window. Infestation is probably putting it mild. I do believe that WE are living in THEIR place and not the other way around. So, again, I call the hubby and let him know what is going on and that I was packing our bags because we were about to be calling the Hilton our home. Thankfully, at least this time, there was a mix up with our temp driver and he never left the office where hubby works to come and get me. Since I had grocery shopping to do, the hubby volunteered to come home early and watch the kids and clean up the rat poop.

After the cleaning we decided to stick it out. At least for the time being. We set more traps and have yet to see any more even though we have seen their poop. We did however see more geckos. The hubby almost died of a heart attack as did I, in the same, so it wasn't a good day. In fact, as I was sweeping, one of those suckers decided to run across my foot and he died a very violent death. As I am whacking him with my hot pink broom and screaming "I told you not to mess with me! WHAT! You want some more! Tell your friends you .....!", the hubby quietly calls from the other room "Hon, you okay in there? Did you find the gecko?" That man knows me too well!

As for our mental well being, well, that seems to be slipping hour by hour (see paragraph about the gecko). That night as we were laying in bed talking about our day, the subject of him catching Emile comes up. Since we aren't Buddhist and since we do in fact believe in killing the rats, we start talking about the various ways for a rat in a trap to die. He was trying to think of ways to get the rat out of the trap so that he could run him over in the golf cart. I simply informed him that a better way, a way not to use the mom mobile, would be to stick the whole trap in a bucket of water and drown the sucker. There were various others ways of rat death that were discussed, but after typing just that out I do believe that we are now one Fruit Loop short of a box. Find a happy place, find a HAPPY PLACE!!!

Well, I guess I had better get going. Until next time, I hope all is well!
Kristen