Sep 20
Everyone,
Shopping: This morning, after Butterfly said good bye to her grandparents and was shipped off to school, the rest of us went shopping! We also went out to breakfast. And the toy store (just to browse…all I bought was a new child lock to replace the one that broke.) And to the mall. Did you know that Christmas is less than 100 days away? Consider this a reminder.
Shrieking: Coming home from the shopping, we discovered vermin in our house. Again! Except this time it wasn’t a little field mouse like that last two times we’ve had mice. This was a rat. A RAT. In MY house. It was a young rat. And still fairly small. But A RAT! In MY house!
Lucky for us, Soot the doggie thinks that taking care of this for me is her ultimate job in life. I don’t argue with it. EVER. She made short work of the rat. Lucky for me, Grandpa was still here and took it outside to the garbage can. Ugh, a RAT!
(Side note, I know our neighborhood has rats. People just don’t clean up well here and leave piles of stuff all over. That brings rats, and rats breed more rats, etc. I’ve seen them walking around the neighborhood a lot bigger than the one Soot just killed. [This is her second rat.] I was hoping we vermin proofed our house a ton last time. Obviously not.)
Because of this rat, Juice actually cleaned out under our stairs. Talk about a pile of stuff! We found droppings all around the water heater so that’s where it got in. Now how to seal it off…
Sending: My parents went home today. I miss having them around. They make good company. Also, they can be quite handy. (See above.)
Suceess: We have a winner of my birthday giveaway! Congrats to my friend Valinda who was VERY enthusiastic of her promotion of my picture. And even though I didn’t win (boo hoo), Valinda won $45 to spend at CSN for her, and her alone. Happy spending Valinda! Check your email!
Safire
Safirefamily visiting, pests and critters, winnings grandparents, pests, winners
Apr 07
Everyone,
The mouse is dead! The mouse is dead! Icky too. Juice put it in the dirty diaper pail outside. It creeps me out every time I have to put a dirty diaper in there but there was no where else to put it until garbage day. I’m just glad it’s not summer.
It is SO not summer. In fact, it snowed today! It’s crazy cold for this time of year. Thanks Mom and Dad, for bringing winter back with you. 
The flowering trees do look enchanting with all the snow drifting down. Sadly, no pictures as I was driving furiously home from the park. Too cold to play today!
I am thinking of getting a few blueberry bushes to live in pots for us. Anyone have experience growing blueberries? Anyone?
I spent the afternoon on the phone with different people setting up stuff for the boys’ birthday. I am so excited to celebrate one whole year! And I’m so happy we survived it.
I had to change Butterfly’s clothes 4 times today. That girl is pushing the potty limits. She obviously doesn’t know where the potty limits are since she went over them 4 times today. She is also pushing MY limits because this is driving me crazy!
Even though the conformation email says that my White House Easter Egg Roll Tickets will be emailed to me April 6-8th, they have not come yet. I am slightly worried. I guess they still have about 28 hours left to email me. I will probably call the company tomorrow and check because that would suck if I didn’t actually get any tickets. Especially since I have a conformation email and number.
Only 52 hours until my parents get here! (Give or take a few hours…I kind of got side tracked around hour #40.) I’m excited to see them again and have a week of fun filled exploration. Weather permitting, the airplane park, the cherry blossoms, the zoo, and the Lincoln Paper display are all on the list. Weather not permitting includes a few museums and probably the mall.
I have been so wrapped up in Operation Destroy Mouse and All Available Entrances To Warm House for Rodents that I haven’t done any cleaning. Mostly I am cleaning to find my metro pass. It’s around here somewhere…I’m just not sure where.
More on ODM&AAETWHR later, including cement. This should be fun. (Know what else would be fun? Playing godfather with the mice…putting their little feet in tiny cement blocks and pushing them off the pier of the local lake. Too cruel?)
Safire
SafireButterfly, my family, P and P birthday, pests and critters, plants and flowers, randomness, snow, spring, White House Easter Egg Roll
Apr 06
Everyone,
It’s so very late tonight so this will be short. The mouse is back. Juice and I have spent the last two hours pulling the washer/dryer and the oven away from the wall. (Since my washer/dryer is in my kitchen.) We have pulled all of the food out of the cupboards and put it into big plastic bins with snapping lids. This is what we used to to at camp when the mice were bad.
We have set 7 traps around the kitchen as well as the huge hole behind the washer/dryer. They are set with peanut butter although we haven’t caught anything with the peanut butter yet.
We have bleached down the counters, the stove, the floor and the microwave (because we were cleaning and we might as well). The boys have been banned from the kitchen until we have caught the mouse and boarded up all the holes into the house. Tomorrow we will buy some heavy duty traps as well as steel wool to plug up the holes.
The goal also tomorrow is to find some natural mice deterrents. Because at this point, poison is back on the list. I hate to put it in the house house the dog and the kids, but we CAN NOT have mice.
I hate rodents.
Safire
Safirepests and critters
Apr 04
Everyone,
It’s been 11 days since the boys got another cold. Today, I watch Professor crawl towards a toy, stop, rub his ear, go back to crawling, go back to ear rubbing, and finally get to the toy. He rubbed his ear all through lunch and dinner. He woke up from his nap screaming (but not touching his ear). His appetite is down. His nose is not always running. It seems like that might be clearing up. He has no fever and only the ear rubbing is stopping him. A trip to the doctor seems like a good idea, huh?
Pirate has major snot but I can always count on his nose to produce enough snot to lubricate a squeaky wheel. Too bad I don’t have one of those! Anyone know how to stop the kid from shredding the tissue before you make it to their nose? Anyone?
Juice went painting again this morning (a friend of ours is trying to paint her house to put it on the market) so I had the kids by myself. The morning flew by and in no time it was time for Conference. (Our church has a world wide church conference every 6 months, first weekend in April, the first weekend in October.) I have to say that I missed most of the morning session because the MOUSE is back. Ooohhh…I hate that mouse. No luck in catching it either. Juice got home just in time for it to reappear and he crawled under the house, pulled out the oven and the washer/dryer, and checked for holes under the house. He even took the dog in there to see if she would point out where this mouse is coming from. No luck. There was no nest, no droppings, no holes, no nothing! We have all kinds of traps and are just not getting anything. I am at my wits end with this. Any suggestions?
Ack…I just realized that the boys party is a short 2 weeks away! Off to take care of plans!
Safire
Safirepests and critters, sickness 2009
Apr 01
Everyone,
One late night for me and Juice.
Check.
Two midnight snacks.
Check.
One anxious dog.
Check.
One removal of the oven drawer.
Check.
One MOUSE under the oven.
Check.
One freaked out Mommy.
Check.
One very excited dog who did NOT get said mouse.
Check.
One mouse under our washing machine.
Check.
One actual move of the oven.
Check.
Two traps set out.
Check.
Two empty traps this morning.
Check.
One seriously freaked out Mommy.
Check.
One developing burning loathing of rodents.
Check.
One developing burning loathing of dirty neighbors.
Check.
One developing burning desire to live in car.
Check.
Sigh…send help, again!
Safire
Safirepests and critters
Nov 22
Everyone,
Today our short window of outing time was filled with going to the hardware store. I was kind of hoping to go out and do some kind of family outing this weekend. Juice had Thursday afternoon off, along with all day Friday this week. It has been wonderful to have him home. We were able to get all of our normal Saturday chores done on Friday and so I thought we could have a play day on Saturday.
Then I thought, it’s going to be Thanksgiving next week and I don’t want to go to the hardware store by myself/on black Friday. So we went today and will plan on doing something fun next weekend.
We left the hardware store with some no see no touch mouse traps for when he goes away next week. We also got some hooks for various art projects that are going on in my house and for stockings. I never know where to put Butterfly’s stocking. I think last year we hung it from the corner of the blinds next to the Christmas lights in our window. That’s not going to work this year since there are only 2 corners. So I bought some sticky hooks and we will hang them from the wall in our dining room.
On Friday, I was able to go to hang out with the ladies at my church and learn about vinyl lettering. This is a lot of fun! I even made something. I’m not terribly crafty so this is big for me. See, isn’t it cute?
I put the letters on the board, and Juice hung the hooks and the wire for me. Originally I thought I would get more vinyl letters and make name tags to put up for everyone on the hooks. But then I thought I would do pictures instead. I’ve spend the evening browsing a bunch of sights for some small reusable picture frames and I think I found some on etsy. No matter that there are more things there than we have members of our family. We will just pick the most important ones…prayer, song, lesson, treat, prayer. It’s what we do right now anyway. As the kids get older, we’ll rotate through some things. Anyway, this is one of 2 home decorating projects I have in my head with vinyl lettering. The next one to come later.
Butterfly saw Juice making the marks for the hooks and asked if she could too. I said sure, it was just pencil and Juice would know his own marks. I went to do a baby related thing and came back to find her tracing the letters with her pencil. Good thing pencil erases or she’d be in bigger trouble.
Still no sign of mice. It’s been almost a week now. Juice is convinced we have them but they have stored away enough food to sustain them for awhile. I kind of agree with that. I mean, the mouse I saw was not the first one I saw in the house (I thought I saw one in the kitchen about a week before I saw this one in the living room.) Soot periodically goes nuts at our heat vent in the corner so I’m pretty sure there is something in there. Also, we randomly get dog food under the couch. Hmm…all signs point to a mouse but not very active ones here. I am still banking on the fact that we have several. Hopefully when Juice gets back from his traveling he can plug up the numerous holes we have in our house. One can only dream.
Safire
SafireButterfly in trouble, crafts, house, NaBloPoMo, pests and critters
Nov 21
Everyone,
The boys turned 7 months old on Tuesday. 7 MONTHS! Wow time really does fly. I think I hit the twin jackpot because they are just easy going happy boys. 
(Now that I’ve said that, things will change.) They play really well on the floor and with others. Butterfly is a great entertainer and they think she is the most wonderful thing besides Mommy. They will even not eat if she is in the room because they insist on watching her. Makes for interesting times at our house. They are starting to really notice each other and I hear them chatting to each other in their crib in the morning. Yes, they are still sleeping together in the same crib. I do have 2 cribs, both up even. But I find they sleep a little better with the other there. On the down side, they do wake each other up at night. Mostly I think it’s Pirate waking Professor up who then cries. I go get Professor because I hear him and then Pirate cries like I’ve taken his best friend away. They are both getting up at night lately. I think they must be growing. They down at 5:30pm these days, up at 11pm, up at 3am, up at 5am and then up at 7am to start the day. And really, those moments of them being up is about 6 or 7 minutes and back down. I have been feeding them but not feeding them as long as they want at night. Occasionally they will skip one or all of the feedings depending on their sleep during the day.
Pirate is my happy happy boy. He still laughs all the time, but has been a little more serious these past few days. I think he’s getting a little bit of separation anxiety because he cries whenever we leave the room. He still does not sit up. Nor does he have any interest in it. He is up on his hands and knees a lot rocking furiously. Most of the time he is also crying when he rocks. He so wants to be able to move! He does scoot back and back himself into corners or away from toys. He still does the superman move which is very cute. The only thing touching the floor is his belly and his arms and legs move furiously. I keep trying to get a video of this but my movies are chaos. Kind of like life right now.
He weighs 17.5 lbs and is 27.5 inches long. This is according to my scale and tape measure since no doctor visit this month. I really feel like he grew all of a sudden this month. He seems a lot bigger than Professor. His eyes are also going through some drastic change in color. They used to be a blue with a brown ring near the pupil. Now, the brown is spreading out through the rest of the eye. He will have brown eyes like Butterfly and Juice. His hair also grows straight down like Butterfly’s did. Butterfly and Pirate have the same coloring. I imagine they will grow up looking quite similar. He is my little thumb sucker and it’s just so cute! He has a major fascination with Professor’s binkie and swipes it all the time.
Professor is a mama’s boy. He does not like to be very far away from me. Since he is moving, he always moves in my direction. He still leans in my direction whenever someone else is holding him. And when I hold him, he hooks his arm around mine and holds onto my shirt for dear life. Like I said, he is a mover. He has the rolling around the floor thing down pat. He can get wherever he wants to by rolling. He also does the army crawl thing. Elbow, elbow, hip in the air with leg flung forward, drag other leg up. It’s still very early in his crawling and he gets tired and frustrated more often than not but he does do it.
He is 16.7 lbs and is 26 inches long. With my tape measure. And all of his clothes on too. 
He has 2 teeth on the bottom and bright blue eyes. When we give him a bath, he just looks so bright after. His hair is that bright shiny blond. And he’s got a serious cowlick that makes his hair go over to one side. He has discovered his tongue and it’s almost constantly out of his mouth lately. He is pretty emotional and cries/talks/moans/screams more often than Pirate. He is fascinated with paper and cups. He really really wants a drink out of any cup you put near him. He also is in love with food. I have given them little bits of bread to gnaw on during dinner and he cries big sobbing tears whenever his bread is gone.
Cute cute boys!
Safire
PS- We got our first snow today! It fell but nothing stuck.
PPS- Still no other signs of mice. Hmm…maybe a fluke? Maybe they moved next door? Maybe word got around that Soot is a mighty mouse killer and they don’t come over anymore? Please let one of these be the case. I’m sick of tiptoeing around the house.
Safiremonthly stats, NaBloPoMo, P and P stats, pests and critters
Nov 20
Everyone,
I saw this list on The Busy Body and had to borrow it. By the end, I was wondering how many on the list I have done. Everything in bold I’ve done.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (does orchestra count? I think it should.)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (ok, we aren’t talking about a huge mountain)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning – either that or just really bad gas.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching (not specifically but seen whales from a cruise ship)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (the outside, still trying to get inside)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (three actually)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else’s blog to your own
Hey, 45 out of 100 isn’t bad! Almost half. There are a few things I would like to do, like see Paris and the Great Wall of China. There are things I don’t want to do, like sit on a jury or be involved in a law suit.
Still no sign of any more mice. Maybe they don’t like organic sugar free peanut butter.
Safire
Safireblog fun, NaBloPoMo, pests and critters
Nov 18
Everyone,
So I’ve been tagged by my friend Marisa and since I can’t think of anything better to write about today, I’ll do it. But I refuse to perpetuate the tag. Do it if you’d like.
8 Favorite TV Shows: (I watch most of these either online or by dvd)
1- Ugly Betty
2- Grey’s Anatomy
3- Private Practice
4- Northern Exposure
5- Gilmore Girls
6- Pushing Up Daisies
7- The Dog Whisperer
9- Animal Planet (yes I used to watch that station all the time.)
8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1- Freaked out over a mouse.
2- Screamed and watched said mouse jump into the air.
3- Cleaned till I dropped.
4- Changed several diapers (around 9).
5- Blogged.
6- Set up my Christmas cards.
7- Walked to the post office.
8- Watched Professor and Pirate fight over Professor’s binky.
8 Things I Look Forward To:
1- Seeing my family again.
2- Having my own mailbox near my house.
3- Having a garage.
4- Not having to worry about mice.
5- Seeing the boys and Butterfly grow up, along with any other siblings.
6- My 10 year anniversary (and hopefully accompanying cruise to Alaska)
7- Having a bigger kitchen table.
8- Having a horse and miles of near by trails to explore.
8 Favorite Restaurants:
1- Red Rock Canyon Grill
2- Canton Delight (Chinese take out)
3- Pizza Hut
4- Chipotle
5- Cheeburger, Cheeburger
6- Baja Fresh
7- Chick-Fil-A
8- Bajio (in Utah)
8 Things on my Wish List:
1- A horse and all accompanying stuff.
2- A bigger mouse free house.
3- A little trip by myself with my Mom and/or BFF Mink to some random place we’ve never been. (sans kids)
4- An itunes gift card.
5- Awesome lenses for my camera, with image stabilizer.
6- A work out partner.
7- Fios
8- Horseback riding lessons.
There you go Marisa!
A mouse update: no mice in traps today, but we are starting to find droppings around. Juice is thrilled that Soot was so helpful and plans to have her just as helpful if we need her to be. I am freaked over every little movement out of the corner of my eye. I am making plans to try and plug up some more likely holes and we are not leaving dog food out overnight anymore. We need to go get some different traps because I think they are running under the cupboards and the snap traps we have won’t spring under there. I am never moving to NYC because apparently they have lots of mice there. (Every single website I read on it was geared towards New Yorkers. Sorry.)
We went to the resource center with friends from my moms group today and that was fun! They had shaving cream out for the craft and Butterfly managed to get it all over. My friend made mention about how Butterfly just really spreads herself out and boy does she ever. She is a boisterous little girl, but happy and friendly. They had a great time together and I had a nice chat. Seriously loving the resource center more this year than last. And I loved it lots last year!
Safire
Safirememes, NaBloPoMo, pests and critters, resource center
Nov 17
Everyone,
One super cross, super bossy, super attitude pre-schooler.
Check.
One very needy boy.
Check.
One very sad boy today (also pretty needy…lots of crying from the boys today.)
Check.
One very long outing.
Check.
Three very short naps.
Check.
One mouse in my living room.
Check.
One scream from me. (which is why they were short naps)
Check.
One hysterical call to Juice to come home and deal with it.
Check.
One very nice Juice who did.
Check.
One very cocky dog who caught and killed mouse.
Check.
One afternoon spent in my bedroom with the door shut.
Check.
One total clean of the living room.
Check.
One half done clean of the kitchen.
Check.
Seven traps set out for tonight.
Check.
Six websites read before freaking out over what they said and stopping.
Check.
One very stressed, very tired, very creeped out mommy.
Check.
Send help.
Safire
Safirehouse, NaBloPoMo, pests and critters
