Okay, the mouse isn't imaginary. I saw it on Sunday. It skurried from the utility room into the laundry/pantry/junk room then along the wall to behind the freezer then from the other side of the freezer to under the shelf we have for shoes.

So, yeah...there's at least one mouse in the house. Although, the traps are un-touched! Either this is one smart-assed mouse (ew mice?), or there's too much other stuff hidden to entice the mouse to eat of the death-trap peanut butter. Since I refuse to believe that these rodents have evolved or learned enough to know to stay away from traps (i mean we're out in the woods, where would they learn that...) (COULD they learn that?)

Okay, so I'm thinking there's food elsewhere...you know what that means....yup my favorite subject! Cleaning!

So yesterday I O.C.ed (my sis and I's term for detail cleaning) the kitchen/dining/living rooms. As well as the Den. I also rearranged the living room, and we LOVE it! I took every single item out of drawers, cupboards and cubbies and cleaned it all out, cleaned up the bottles etc. Cleaned the floors and the table and chairs...took apart the couch and cleaned all that.

Lemme tell you (should I be ashamed?) that I found a LOT of crumbs. This find lend me to the realization (with the help of Captain) that since December, we've only really been cleaning the surface. Haven't had the time or energy to really clean the place.

Okay, yeah...here and there I've done some major stuff...not even including the kids' rooms! But it really hasn't been enough or often enough to make a difference.

Today my plan was to do the laundry/pantry/junk room and try to hit the kids' rooms again. Yeah...but of course the day dawned mostly sunny and just beautiful. I don't know where my children are. They ate breakfast (eww we only have the apple oatmeal left, mom) and took off to the winds. That's fine by me, they've been driving me up the wall for over a week cause the weather has been horrible!

And so...I'm bravely attacking the laundry etc room today...by myself. I just picked up all the laundry that the kids have thrown on the floor (for fear of entering mouse infested area). If I can do it...I plan to move out the washer and dryer and clean behind/under those. And also try to move the freezer to clean around that area....it's empty so there's a 5% chance that I'll be able to move it.

And yes, I'm prepared to scream as if my life depends on it if I do find that smart little mouse behind anything!

Ps If I somehow have the energy or motivation after all that, I'm going to try to re-organize the shelves in the room too....they seriously need help...

pps. check back later today or tomorrow for a PHOTO post! About what? Well...Cleaning of course!

Real and Imaginary

Yikes! I posted a comment on one of my favorite blogs just now...without thinking that someone out there might read it, and then click on over here! So I thought I might come on over, take down the dust covers and spruce the place up. At least post something...something hopefully not related to cleaning or the weather...

*****40 minutes later******

Um yeah, can't think of anything. Haha, no really, it hasn't been 40 minutes. But I really can't think of anything.

Honetly, my life is consumed by cleaning. Dishes, sweeping, dirty toilets, laundry. With 6 people in the house and several "extras" all the time (neighborhood kids, friends and family), the place can get quite messy. And by messy I don't mean a few toys on the floor. I mean the sort of messy that makes you want to rent a front-end loader to just clear it all out and start over.

Oh pooh...I've already gone and wrote about cleaning twice!

Monkey Man came running up to me this morning in tears. He said that a spider stole his bouncy ball. I laughed and he glared. My first thought was something like a Dung Beetle rolling a ball of turds...only this being a large spider rolling away on his bouncy ball.* Funny to me, but not so much to a five year old scared of spiders (all my kids are scared of spiders, I think I did it to them when we lived in Georgia and told them to RUN SCREAMING if they saw one-um yeah). So anyway, I got ahold of myself and followed him to the ball-stealing spider.

He asked me what I was going to do. "Well, I'm going to go beat up that ball-stealing spider!" He cheered.

Sure enough, there was his bouncy ball, just under the stove, and when I rolled it away with my shoe (ew I'm not scared of spiders, but I don't like them much either), there was a rather large spider. And in true ball-stealing bulliness, once it fell off the ball, it ran AT me. AHHIEEEE!

Squish!** All is better! No bully spider is gunna get away with stealing my baby's play-things! Ha!

Of course, a few minutes later....M.M. uses said bouncy ball as a progectile weapon against his brother. Good thing he has bad aim!

In other "pest" tales...two of my children have reportedly seen mice in the house...in two different places. I dutifully bought a few traps ***, and wonderful Captain set them up. In the search for the best places to put them, we found zero signs of mice in the house. NONE at all. Not even in the crawl space...where we did find a half-eaten bag of stale cheetos, a pizza crust and a soda can...but not even one mouse turd! We did set the traps, though, just in case. Although, I'm pretty sure that the trap in the garage is um, full, the ones in the house are un-touched.

I'm starting to think that I've caused this pest scare as well. See...about a week ago, I helped the girls to clean their room (oh no more about cleaning!). And was totally disgusted. Needless to say, they are grounded from sweets/yummies for a little while. We found packaging for soda, chips, cookies, ice cream, candy and crackers. And several cups, spoons and two plates. Yeah. And no, they aren't allowed to eat in their rooms. Allowed being the key word here.

All of this was hidden quite well...jambed way under the bed, in between the bed and the wall, in drawers and even an empty bag in between the mattress and the box.

Where was I going with this? Oh yeah!

While sweeping up tons of food crumbs off the floor, I laid it on thick. "I'm surprised you don't have bugs and mice in here!" Bugs and mice love this sort of stuff...lots of food and great places to hide! The girls looked dutifully ashamed (but didn't stop Princess Pout from stealing the rest of Daddy's Triple Strawberry Ice Cream a few days later and hiding the carton in her dresser).

So, yeah, I think with all of that, they got it in their heads that since they are the little pigs **** that they are, there must be mice in the house. Ha ha ha...jokes on me-who's out the $ spent on the traps we probably don't need.

* Interestingly gross...in searching for a pic of a spider on a ball (bug circus style), I ran across this rather disturbing site. I guess this guy's got talent, but who'd want these things?

** Yes, I squished the spider...I have no problems with that at all. Don't tell me it's animal cruelty, or bad luck or any of that. I love all of God's creatures, but Spiders are gross!

*** Yes, they are KILL traps...see above

**** Yes, I know pigs are actually very clean! And I love pigs. I don't love food all over the place!

Need foot products?

Okay...just a quick note to ask google ads WHY my blog gets foot stuff ads?

I don't think I've even written the word FOOT in the time I've been writing! Foot doesn't cross my daily vocabulary as much as one might think...unless you ask me about all the times that I've been sitting on the couch and someone sticks a foot in my face, telling me to smell it. Unless you ask about the time that someone stepped on a nail, I'd guess I would have to say the word foot. Unless you ask what's at the foot of my bed (um nothing). Unless you ask what's on my foot, duh, shoes. Unless you ask me what a footer is...which is a thingy at the end of an essay or something like that...I know what it is, just can't explain it. ha, so don't ask.

So, foot, to my knowledge, has never been written in this blog...until today...and I write this foot post in hopes that Google ads will put different ads on my blog. Hmm...may I suggest something else totally un-realted like....hmm condoms.

I don't know how, but my flowers are blooming

Do you rememer your 7th birthday? I don't. Well, maybe I could if I talked to my sister. She seems to have a perfect memory...or maybe it's just that she remembers some odd things that I don't remember. Like the fact that Dad drove a water delivery truck for like THREE YEARS...I didn't remeber that at all....so yeah, maybe she'd remember my 7th birthday...although she was only 5. lol

So.....#3 (Shorty) is turning 7 tomorrow. I'd thought about writing one of those touching, from-the-heart letters to her...one she'll probably never read, but speaks about how much I love her and can't wait to see the woman she's becomeing....yeah, um....Probably not.

There's just too much to do. Like usuall. Today is falling under the "ugh it's how late" catagory. Not that I've spent a lot of time goofing off this morning...at least it didn't feel like a lot of time. But it's already noon, and the list of things done is agonizingly short. Although I have already ticked off Monkey Man THREE whole times today. Whoohooo go me! Oh and I have gotten coffee (of course), although I'm not sure if one cup is gunna cut it...I may have to make more.

OH my! Bone Head got his hair done on Saturday! His hair was rapidly changing from baby blonde to darker blonde...and he badly needed a haircut. So, Captain took him and MM to the hair place. They came back with an adorable bowl cut for M.M. Shaved underneath and long on top :) And my eldest child came home with what I can only describe as a "Jonas Brothers" do. Yea...his hair is now dark brown (chocolate to be exact), with a blonde-blonde area above his forehead. He LOVES it. Shocked the heck outta me...but looks good. At least it looks like it's supposed to be messy.

Okay, okay...going to get busy on my list of adventures today. Yeah...adventures sounds WAY more interesting then chores. Hm...I may be on to something here. I'll test it out on the kids and get back to ya. "Hey kids...we need to start our adventures today". Hey, might work!

ps. Oh and yeah...the flowers are blooming...the ones that I didn't plant, and haven't touched are doing splendidly....the stuff I planted or take care of...isn't.

pps Okay...the tomato and the squash are doing good...but that's because Captain took those over. hahahahahahaaaa

Yes, another cleaning post!

You know that you really, really need to get some cleaning done when it takes you 5 minutes to locate the broom and dust pan...and you need to call in the search hounds to find the cleaner. It eludes me as to why these items were not in their homes, even though they haven't been used in over a week.

My wonderful Captain will be home from school in just eight days, and I just realized that I haven't gotten anything don that I said I was going to. On that list was...

1. Kill weeds and level out the area for the "secret garden" decking
2. Clean out green house and plant plants
3. Till garden area and plant plants
4. Clean up garage and have a yard sale

On the lit contributing to the fact that I haven't done a single one of these things...

1. Too tired at the end of the day to do much else than make dinner and pass out
2. I don't wanna
3. Overwhelmed by the ammount of yuck and (ew) spiders in the green house
4. RAIN! And yucky weather
5. I don't wanna
6. I searched for the "round-to-it", but it must have run away with my motivation, I'll be calling the dairy to post their pictures on milk cartons as soon as I find some motivation....maybe I can borrow some one else's
7. When I walk into the garage....well it's not a pretty picture at all. Between the cardboard space ship (waycool), MIL's stuff from moving that we haven't gotten around to taking to her house, the gear for Captain's job, and various other things that "belong" in a garage, oh and the garage sale stuff, stuffed into every little hole I could find... UGH...........I DON'T WANNA!

Okay, so it's Saturday, and I'm really supposed to be at WORK (the paying kind) right now, but my sitter is sick..so I'm not. Whew! I really didn't want to work today.

I DID find some motivation (prolly stolen, not borrowed), and am cleaning. The house. I must. I do this massive "oh crap" cleaning just about every Saturday. Because I wake up in the morning, look around and wonder what oh...Child Protective Services would think about my house. I worry that they would whisk my children away on the spot when they see the ring in the tub, or the 6 loads of laundry waiting to be either washed, folded or put away.

Okay, Okay....my house really isn't all that bad. No CPS agent would take kids away because of the state of my house. But that still doesn't mean that I LIKE the state my house gets into after all week of just barely doing anything.

It has just occured to me that a lot of my posts have been about cleaning. Maybe because when I take a break from cleaning I think...hmmm good time to blog and what's on my mind...cleaning. Maybe because I really know cleaning...I clean alot. Despite the fact that I barely clean during the week.

Maybe because it's a nice, safe topic to write about because I don't feel open enough to talk about things like my underware, bra shopping, details of my past and/or sex life.

Yup, I think that's probably the best reason...err excuse!

Okay I'm off to do another 15 minuts...as directed by the wonderful FlyLady....her system/method/rules really does work....as long as you do them! Check her out!* She's much funnier than I am.

* There's a LOT on her site! Take it slow and have fun! ;)

Ranting...cause I'm ticked and I can.

I need to rant. About work...once again.

I've spoken to the Manager and Assistant Manager several times now about them finding me a new job to do in the store so that I can give my arm a chance to heal. Early this week (I think it was Monday), they said that today was going to be my last day being a cashier, and that I'd do "something" else. They said that they'd tell the person in charge of the cashiers, so that she wouldn't schedule me.

Um...Yeah....I'm scheduled for the coming week...as a cashier. The manager has NO IDEA what I'm going to be doing, but thinks that the assistant manager has something in mind...and can I finish out the next week as cashier? GRRR NO! What part of "I need to stop" dont' you understand?

Okay, since I'm not ticked at my fellow cashiers or the person in charge of us, I'll work the next week...just so that they aren't short. But, if they dont' have something new for me starting the next Monday, I'm quitting on the spot. I already told the cashier's manager to not put me on the next schedule...so that's covered. We'll see.....right now I feel like they are just leading me on....dicking me around-so to speak.

In other news....ummm.....There is no other news....I don't have any cute stories about what the kids did today....I barely know what they did today. I hate working and not being the central part in their lives. Hell...I don't even know what they had for lunch today. I hate this....

Summer Gripes...

The last day of school is the 20th. This leaves us just 6 days until the children of the Valley run amock in every corner, hill, dale and road.

This post is about all the things that I don't like about children being out of school for the summer....(by children, I mean in general, not mine, that post will have to wait, it's too long)

The kids up the road will get honked at, I guarentee it. The other day, on the way out, I drove up the road to find three little boys riding their bikes in the road. No biggie, it's a rural road, and where else do you ride a bike? Well, I slowed down even further (speed limit is 20), and waited for them to get off the road to let me pass. Two of them did, the other looked at me, and proceeded to ride in circles in the middle of the road. He finally moved, and I wen ton my fuming way....after I told my kids that if I ever caught them acting stupid like that in the road I'd do all sorts of un-lovely things...top of the list would be taking bikes away.

They all swore, and I admitted they are all very well-behaved when it comes to giving vehicles their space to pass. They all get OFF the road and STOP until the vehicle is past. Hurray! I taught them something right!

On the other hand, they aren't getting themselves ready for school.

The other thing I'm not ready to handle during the summer....the loads of kids coming into the store buying all the candy and engery drinks (OMG, parents do you know your kids are getting energy drinks at the age of 10?), and paying with all their hard-earned (or found) change.

Okay that shouldn't be as bad for me this year, since I'm at the grocery store, and not the gas station like last year. Hopefully.

But the change doesn't bug me as much as the energy drinks does. Seriously, does an average 10 to 15 year old NEED energy drinks? I don't think so! I've even had parents in my checkout, actually buying cases of these things for their kids! Makes me really want to refuse to let them get the darn things. Am I allowed to do that? Can I seriously ask the customer if they are buying the drinks for themselves (also not a great choice of beverage for an adult), or the kids? Can I follow them home and make sure they aren't allowing Jr. to drink mass quanities of sugar, caffiene and "herbs" so they can stay up all night and keep everyone who has to work in the morning awake?

Living here it isnt' quite so bad. But when we used to live "in town", there would be children up and in the road, or near-by yards playing loudly until all hours of the night. There was even one family that apparently let their children just pass out whenever they felt like it, since the kids were routinly awake at 2 am.

My children will be awoken no later than 8 am during the summer (if they aren't already up), and will be sent to bed no later than 10 pm-but most likely closer to 8:30 or 9:00. A slight change in the schedule, to allow for more playing in the wonderful Alaska Sun.

How does your summertime schedule differ from your school-time schedule? I'll share ours in the next post! Until then....the countdown is on!

Rants and Raves

Okay, maybe a bit more rants than that of raves today, but we'll see what comes to pass....

I offically HATE my printer. Not only is the ink expensive enough that you have to take a second mortgage out to afford it, it does not print if one of those ink containers is out of ink. It will not do anything. It's an "all in one" that doesn't do a thing if there's no ink. I can't even scan, which takes no ink at all.

I also offically hate mornings like this. I woke the kids up just a little bit late this morning, and told them to hurry a little, and was met by Shorty flopping on the floor in a fit of tears, saying that it was all Princess's fault. Um, no, it's Mama's fault, dear, now get your butt dressed. She progressed from this colapsed state into the screaming and crying state through the morning.

Which, as you can imagine, drives everyone in the house up the wall. Monkey is now in a bad mood, and Princess it in her room pouting because I told her (for the millionth time) that she CAN NOT wear the same shirt two days in a row. OMG, she just came upstairs wrapped in a blanket. Wearng the same shirt, but without pants. Breathe, Mama, breathe......

They have to be out of the house in 7 minutes.....and Yuppers, I'm sitting here blogging it instead of dressing my NINE year old daughter. She'll just have to figure it out and get yelled at, cause I told her 40 minutes ago that she had to change.

Work rant.....Every morning,us cashiers have to sign out a counterfit pen from the Cash Audit lady. And in turn we have to return and sign in the pen when our shift is over. I've been signing the paper upside-down every day, because well....because I'm lazy for the most part. But because I dont' see why I should have to take an extra minute to turn it around to sign the right way and turn it back around, when there's customers waiting. ANYWHO....yesterday the Cash Audit Troll was saying my name(I should think of a name for myself) as I was signing. I finished and turned aroung. She told me to turn the paper around and sign the right way. I just looked at her with a blank stare. When my shift was over, I signed upside-down.

Today I'll be signing the right way, but under the name "Samantha Stevens".

Ummm....raves? I love Vanilla-Nut coffee creamer!

This and that - cause I can't think of a catchy title

Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) is when your nerve and artery gets pinched in between your colar bone and your first rib. (That's WAY layman's terms, I'm in no way professional about explaining things like that) And that's apparently what's wrong with my arm.

How to correct? Push, pull, prod, stretch and strengthen. And a whole lotta painfull crap. And even more of getting "yelled" at to stand and sit up straighter. Fun stuff...where's Mom when I need her...and when the Hell did I start NOT standing and sitting up straight? Seriously, I really thought that my posture was good...if not great, it was at least Okay. Not so. I could stand in for the Hunchback of Notradame when sitting....

Okay, it's not that bad.

The therapy hurts though.

Having TOS explains at least one thing, though. All those times when I went to the Doc for various things and they asked if I've always had low blood pressure....well yeah, if you take the readings in my right arm, I do...the damn artery is pinched!

In other news...Old Man Winter is giving us a reminder that he hates us. Snow every night and sun in the day. My sis-in-law went off the road this morning...and so I sit waiting for her and have a moment to blog. Mixed blessing? Heh heh. She's okay, btw, but going off the road is freaky and basically makes you feel like a dumb-ass. LOL

One a completely strange and off the wall note...why are fingers hairy?

My Fav. Spud recipe...

Crazy Hip Blog Mama's is outta dinner ideas and are desprately asking for recipes using potatoes. So, for everyone's taste buds delight, I give you....

"Food involving potatoes"
(everything is 'food', kids ask "What's for dinner?", I say FOOD)

3 T veg oil (i use safflower)
1 bag frozen diced potatoes with onions and peppers (potatoes o'brian)
1/2 tsp dried oregano or basil
1/2 tsp pepper
2 Cups (or a small bag) broccoli flowerets
1 pound smoked sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
1-2 cups (to taste) Cheddar Cheese

~Heat oil in 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add potatoes, oregano and pepper. Cover and cook awhile, stirring so it doesn't burn, until potatoes are done. 8 to 10 minutes (If useing frozen broccoli add this too)

~Stir in broccoli (if fresh); add sausage. Cover and cook until sausage is hot (again, stir so it doesn't burn)

~Cover with cheese and heat until cheese is melty...just the way kids like it.

If you do the cheese just right, kids will barely notice that there's green stuff in it. Even makes husbands happy!

cook time: about 20 minutes
Makes 6 servings