CALLING ALL VERMINATORS!!

So as most of you know, we had a rather intense rat problem earlier this year. I am happy to report that DFW Pest Control has successfully eliminated the rodents [knock on wood]; however, it appears that we have an entirely new problem at hand.

I would like to start off by saying that I HATE roaches and snakes. Rats too, but roaches and snakes make me cry. I have been VERY fearful of them for my entire life, and mostly disgusted by their creepiness and nastiness and utter gross-ness, for lack of a better description.

This morning as I went to turn on the water in the shower, I was greeted by a large, nasty roach. He happened to be crawling on the metal cord of our detachable shower head. Gross, gross, gross, gross, gross. I, of course, screamed and ran out of the bathroom yelling at K to come take care of it most immediately, which he did as any great husband should.

Since our contract with the pest control company is still in place from our rat infestation, I decided to request an interior spray TODAY to help prevent further roach sightings. Thankfully, a) they had an opening and promised to be at our house between 1:00 - 3:00 pm, and b) I have an awesome boss who agreed to let me work from home for the afternoon.

The first thing I usually do when I get home is let Abby out in the backyard. I typically walk out with her, just to make sure she takes care of her business, etc. As I walked outside with her today, I happened to hear a rustling noise in the leaves by our trash bin. I turned around, and saw not 1, but approximately 3-4 snakes frolicking together out on the patio.

AN ENTIRE SNAKE FAMILY IN OUR BACKYARD.

I screamed for the 2nd time today, and started crying by myself on our driveway. It was a feeling of sheer panic combined with a radical wave of heebie jeebies. I continued crying and yelled, "OH MY GOSH" to the trees several times, jumping all around in shivers over how disgusted I was to see MULTIPLE slithery snakes in our own backyard.

After coming to the terrifying realization that the only way back into the house was to run within inches of the snakes, I grabbed Abby by the collar, counted to 3, and ran screaming as fast as I could towards the back door. By the grace of God, I made it inside safely.

K called our neighbor Les, who graciously came over and eliminated 2 of the snakes. In case there happens to be a snake lover out there, I will have you know that he did not kill them, but instead threw them over our back fence into the drainage ditch so they can crawl back into our backyard tomorrow and rejoin their other snake family members. Then I can see them again and frolick with them once more next time I go outside. As it turns out, they were "just garden snakes - not poisonous and actually good at eating bugs, rats, etc."

I took a picture to show K what we're dealing with here. My favorite part of the picture is Les's cool shorts. He also drives a Vespa, and will forever be known as my personal lifesaver...

Decorating impaired

Decorating our home seriously stresses me out. One of my worst nightmares is moving into a new house and staging all the empty rooms. It's pretty severe. Like I need serious affirmation that any decisions made on my own look decent. Given the high likelihood that my personal finished layout will NOT look decent, I need constructive criticism and examples on what WOULD look good in a nicely decorated space.

Up to this point I have copied. My college roommate was seriously amazing at making our apartment look like it was out of a magazine. I have tried to imitate her style in each residence I've inhabited since, but am still lacking when it comes to interior design.

The root of all this recent stress lies in the fact that I bought curtains this weekend at Linens N Things. This happened to be at one of the stores that's going out of business, meaning ALL SALES FINAL. I planned to hang said curtains in our living room, but failed to take into consideration the window in the dining room. Having 2 adjacent windows with only one dressed would look rather unbalanced.

A while back we decided to stop decorating our house knowing of our intentions to move / rebuild in the near future. K reminded me of this, further adding to my stress in the form of not knowing whether or not my recently purchased curtains would work in our new home. I knew this in the back of my mind when I bought them, but was feeling nesty and had the urge to make things in our current living environment feel more homey...

We decided to go back to Linens N Things to see if they had 2 more panels to hang in the dining room, with the assumption that we'd likely have at least ONE room in our speculative new house with 2 windows that we could hang the panels in. Linens N Things had 2 panels indeed - and ONLY 2 panels - left at the store; however, just my luck that one was 84" long, and the other was 95".

The first 2 I had purchased were 95". I will say that the idea of hemming 3 to 84" crossed my mind, but the thought of having to learn how to sew was overwhelming to me and would involve way more time than I was willing to contribute for a pair of curtains.

Long story short, we will likely end up hanging the curtains in our study instead. Oh how I wish I weren't so paranoid when it came to stuff like this. I have much better things to do with my time than to worry about house decorations. LIKE:

Celebrating with Elizabeth and Andrew at their wedding!!!!!!! Elizabeth is my Meals on Wheels partner and one of my last remaining Bank One friends who has not yet left the company. My mom used to call me, Elizabeth, and Stan the 3 Musketeers given our frequent lunch outings together throughout the week. How precious both their friendships are to me, and how grateful I am for the fun and joy that they've brought into my life as we navigate through the politics and bureaucracy of corporate America together....

Boating Weekend

Call us lake rats. This weekend was once again spent out on Lake Lewisville, partially floating at Party Cove, partially out wakeboarding. I always forget to bring my camera, but below is an awesome picture of the boat taken I think by Uncle Ryan. It really is so peaceful and relaxing to spend time out on the water. Maybe one day we'll have a lakehouse...

She's having a baby!!

My cousin Amanda and her husband Joe are expecting their first child, due in October. Given that she is like my sister, this is a very exciting time!! "Our" other sister, Lisa, hosted a wonderful baby shower in Houston this weekend. Have I mentioned that 2 other cousins - Sarah and Trish - in addition to my friends Megan and Katie are having babies all at the same time?? I did look into the free prenatal kit that work offers earlier this week [mostly out of boredom]; however, rest assured Kevin and I still have much travelling to do before we settle down with a fam. In the meantime, I'm grateful for the opportunity to live vicariously through my pregnant friends and already moms. Congrats Amanda and Joe on baby #1!!

The Year of Living Biblically

So I borrowed this book from my parents, The Year of Living Biblically, and it is hilarious. As a brief synopsis, the author - A.J. Jacobs - begins a quest to follow every single rule in the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But to also obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to play a ten-string harp; to stone adulterers.

A brief excerpt from the author's website:

"The most commonly mentioned punishment method in the Hebrew Bible is stoning. So I figure, at the very least, I should try to stone. But how?

I figured my loophole would be this: the bible doesn’t specify the size of the stones. So…pebbles.

A few days ago, I gathered a handful of small white pebbles from Central Park, which I stuffed in my back pants pocket. Now all I needed were some victims. I decide to start with Sabbath breakers. That’s easy enough to find in this workaholic city. I noticed a pot-bellied guy at the Avis down our block had worked on both Saturday and Sunday. So no matter what, he’s a Sabbath-breaker.

Here’s the thing, though: Even with pebbles, it is surprisingly hard to stone people.

My plan had been to walk nonchalantly past him and chuck the pebbles at the small of his back. But after a couple of failed passes, I realized it was a bad idea. A chucked pebble, no matter how small, does not go unnoticed.

My revised plan: I would pretend to be clumsy and drop the pebble on his shoe. So I did.

And in this way I stoned. But it was probably the most polite stoning in history – I said ‘I’m sorry,’ and then leaned down to pick up the pebble. And he leaned down at the same time, and we almost butted heads, and then he apologized, then I apologized again.

Highly unsatisfying."

For those who are looking for a good read, I highly recommend it!

White Trash, Anyone?

K's bro and his roommate decided to throw a white trash party this weekend. I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

The Farting Chart

Wild about Curves and Fu manchu

Marshall - very disturbing

Ryan and Leah

Shocker Rich

Baby Mama Autumn

Katie and Jack Ryan - his WT onesie says, "mmm...boobies"

I LOVE:

• summer dresses
• wearing my sunglasses on my head
• reading a good book
• the feeling that comes from giving someone the perfect gift!
• our Bowen return address stamp
• my shower radio, although it is in need of batteries currently
• cheesy birthday cards every year from my brother
• riggs' blue collar
• Mom's crab dip
• the shimmy
• going barefoot outside
• People magazine
• looking at old pictures
• listening to my Dad sing in the men's ensemble at church on Sundays
• dollar dog night at the ballpark in Arlington
• listening to K sing in the shower in the morning without aforementioned shower radio. he's very talented.
• milk
• my Christie's koozie
• flip flops
• laughing

Just to name a few spontaneous things that I'm thankful for today....