Recovery

The 1st step to recovery is admittance:
~ Hello my name is Cammie and I am powerless over the creepy critters I have I HAD living in my home ~
Whew... that was a difficult one for me! I have always accepted the lingering spiders and other random eery creatures confined to the areas of the house we normally don't venture in to (more so the basement- and a few random corners of the house) but, only because the alternative meant I would have to kill them! And with my fear of them jumping onto my hand as it clutches the murder weapon of a shoe in which I would be whacking in their direction... the alternative of just not glancing in their direction is a much better option! Killing a bug means I have gotten way too close to them! We have come up with a mutual agreement of leaving each other alone and everyone is much happier! 
Therefore, knowing my loathing of creepy crawlers... when I start seeing a few more bugs than the usual popping up in my house... something must be done! So much for the mutual agreement!  

When anything with more than two legs starts calling me mommy, and asking for snacks I figure its time for some drastic measures.  OK- so maybe those are just the voices in my head which is exactly why step number 2 is so important on my road to bug recovery.

The 2nd step to recovery is believing God can restore my sanity (this one will be a very long process I'm sure!)

The girls were taking a bath, I was keeping an eye on them while vacuuming in the closet, and Ryan was downstairs with my mom that had just stopped by. 
The rest of the night was a bit of a blur...
I sat down on the floor in my closet, with the vacuum in my hand, just staring- for who knows how long...

my mom came up and that's when I lost it! I had a major meltdown on the floor in my closet.  I broke down and realized I could not live with any living thing smaller than a baby - luckily for Gary, he is 20 pounds... so he barely makes it!)

Ryan knelt down on the floor and said, "Babe, it's OK.  If you really think we have  bugs- we'll get rid of them".
My mom gave me a much needed hug and said, "Cammie, it'll be OK, but for now... we need to watch the girls in the tub..." 

OK, so at least they both already knew my sanity had been lost over these couple tiny creatures I spotted... and along with Mom, my brother in law (JJ) and mother in law (Gigi) stopped by and quickly realized it as well... The good Lord obviously knew I needed some help!!

...and so starts: OPERATION SANITY!

1- I called Jimmy from endopest (and now he has become my new best friend evicting all my unwanted intruders)
2- took off work and did a major declutter and debugger

3- and cleaned everything and anything in site and out of site...

I've donated items, tossed other things, and organized and cleaned what's left.
I've gone from the extreme of not even remembering when I last vacuumed to randomly purchasing new dusting cloths...

 and cleaners...

(I've realized I love these cloths and cleaner!! A definite must have!!!)

and even buying another vacuum so I'll have one on both floors!

Here is the rest of my splurge... (Notice the dust mite covers and bed bug covers I also splurged on... I figure I may as well be protected from everything bug related!)

I know... I know... I've completely lost it!

~ the last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of events of which I have not even been able to focus my attention on because I have been cleaning everything from the vents in the ceiling, behind the pictures on the walls, the couches and cushions, chairs, under the furniture, and all the way down to the inside of the vents in the floors...
It's crazy how long it has taken me to finally be in this comfortable state I have finally reached! All of my extra time has been devoted to my house, with the girlies fluttering around me here and there!
I wish I could say I've been away these past couple weeks on vacation, or enjoying some much deserved one on one time with my family... but no, I have no pictures of my family these last couple weeks, because like I said... my time and energy have been placed elsewhere.
Unfortunately because of these unwanted house guests pests, I was unable to focus on the regular ins and outs of our lives... 
For instance:

1- My brother's birthday (Chase)- he would have been 27! I think of him as always staying 21- and now thinking of him skipping 6 years to 27- It's crazy!  Happy Birthday Tayor Bugs! I love you and miss you!

(the picture is a little blurry, and my eyes are in the midst of closing... but I still LOVE this picture!)

2- Veterans day - Thank you to all of the amazing men and women who have served and still are serving our country! You are appreciated so very much! (Thank you so much for your amazing sacrifice Chase - and sooooo many others!!!)

3- Chase being remembered and honored on the Headline News show, "Nancy Grace" - Thank you Nancy Grace for doing a wonderful tribute to him!

~ this was amazing by the way! And it just so happened to be on veterans day of all days too! (and the day after his birthday! I wish I could figure out a way to find a section of it from her show on the Internet or something, but so far, I have not come across any of her shows on the Internet...? I was able to record it somewhat by holding my camera up to it... but the sound, quality, etc... is terrible!

(his picture also appeared again at the end, but I can not figure out how to make my video long enough to show the entire clip!??) - I'm a little technologically challenged! So the rest is in this little section...

awesome tribute right!? (if you could hear and/or see it on here...)

But, moving along on a lighter note, here are the other events...
4- Sloan had to go the dr. for an infection- now taking an antibiotic
5- different day Chayse had to go the dr. for an ear infection (of which was in both ears)! Poor thing! - also taking an antibiotic
6- different day taking Chayse back to the dr. for the worsening of her symptoms... a virus, which she is finally over!
7- and of course, I had to vacuum, vacuum, vacuum, dust, vacuum...!

Obviously I had a breakdown since my priorities are way out of order! Normally I would have put cleaning on the back burner since every single one of the items listed above is much more important than a clean home... but clearly not now, after I have been infected with a cleaning disease and obsession!

After taking an entire week to clean everything, stay up until 3:30 am, organize, and get my sanity back to normal... (which is still debatable!) There are some things I still want to do to help me with this new obsession, which will take time and money. Somehow, I have drastically managed, (with callouses on my hands now) to take our house from unlivable (in my mind at least) to spotless, all within weeks time... In order to maintain this new obsession of mine... these are the steps I have instilled to control my once infested home:

- baskets are placed by all outside doorways to take off shoes when entering the house...

(I'm definitely not discreet! Once my door opens, you can't enter with out seeing the basket that screams, "take off your shoes before entering!!) 

and this one is by the garage door...

- no food outside of the kitchen

- quilts on top of my newly vacuumed and laundered couch to prevent any cat hair and food lingering on the couch... the quilts can easily be removed and thrown in the wash!

(I don't care how pathetic it looks - I can always remove them when company comes? depending on if my obsession has subsided by then...)

- keeping everything organized and off the floor so I can easily run the vacuum (now that I have one for both floors!) hopefully this will be easier to accomplish!

- follow my cleaning schedule I created... (I adapted one I found off the Internet about a year ago, -which never went into effect- and clung to my fridge door without any check marks on it... I eventually took it down- after it looked so helpless...!) - note the color coordination for who's responsible for those duties...! (I thought if I made it pretty, it would help me complete the items!... obviously it didn't work the first time)

This one is a list of daily items needed to be done...

and this one is for longer timelines...

I'm sure like before, this one will probably be the first of the rules to be broken... again!

Now on to the rest of the events that need to be planned and prepared.
1- Thanksgiving dinner... I hope people like chocolate covered ants!!! Haha! This is my way of going green! Reusing my bugs of course!!  I have humor now, since they are long gone!!!
2- I need to figure out Christmas gifts before it's too late and I'm hurrying around, like always
3- I'm working on trying to get my nice newly clean home decorated the way I want it... finding paint colors, pictures, fabric and all that fun stuff... This I will definitely keep you up to date on!

4- and last but not least, deal with all the stress the holidays stir up with me on so many different levels!

Do do you think I could have added any more bullet points and lists in this post!? Don't worry though, before this post is over, I found a way to add some more!

OK- so much to do... (and especially now that I have added cleaning to the list...) we'll see how long that lasts though... it could just be one of my famous stages I go through! amongst so many others!
Seriously though, I'm am very open to suggestions!!!??? Please help and give me ideas!!! If anyone knows a good way to do EVERYTHING- please let me know!
Work, kids, cook, spend time with the family, and now clean... how in the world!? Please let me know if anyone has a good (manageable) schedule!? - other than dosing up on meds to stay sane and awake all hours of the night!

HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow... before I go, I wanted to express a couple of blessings I am thankful for:

1- my family and the wonderful times we do get to spend together

(this was taken on our way to our friends 80's themed birthday party!  Which was a blast! I had to throw this picture in there, since we had so much fun!!)

2- our health

3- the love we receive and give to others

4- and not to mention being bug free!! (and I am extremely thankful my bugs were not termites, roaches, bed bugs or anything of the like!!!)

Eat up good tomorrow!!

I hope everyone enjoys a nice break from their hectic lives and can sit back and make wonderful memories with your family!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

The cat's meow

I'm a sucker for Halloween! I love everything about it! Halloween has always been one of my favorite Holidays... but then again, I think I say that with every holiday that is being celebrated at that point in time! But Halloween is not like the rest.  Witches, Goblins, Ghosts, Haunted Houses and dressing up! What could be better!? And to top it off, you get to walk around your neighborhood and talk to all your friends and neighbors while passing out and receiving candy! It takes a lot to top this one! And I love to see all the different ideas for costumes and decorations. It's so much fun! 

It's such a great holiday too because it's the first holiday to really start off the holiday season! (I mean could I say the word 'holiday' one more time in one sentence?...)  I know everyone here knows their holidays, but really, after Easter, there's a drought. And then... Halloween comes around! Then Thanksgiving and Christmas quickly following, with New Years and Valentines day and Easter ending the celebrating frenzy! I mean it starts off the season of having a holiday once a month until Easter! So, its a great holiday just for that reason!
Anyway-  We have tons of dress up costumes in the basement, and so we just picked from the endless supply. I tried to save some money this year... while I still can at least, since they don't have any requests yet!  So, we went with the two cats that were in the stash.  (Of course, I had to be a little more persuasive so they would want the cats over the random and unknown princess dresses.) I really tried to sell the nemo outfit to one of them, while the other wore a cat- but if one has something, the other has to also... so we went for the two cats!

However, I was not as successful in getting a great picture of those little kittens...

Although I must admit... this one turned out to be rather cute! 

 But then they ran away as fast as possible to ride their cars... if I was going to get any more pictures, it was gonna have to be on these. 

Oh well - better luck bribing them with candy!

It worked for one of them! At least, long enough to capture a couple cute shots!

Here's the loot before I (as dad always said), 'go through it and make sure it's all ok to eat!'  

Thanks dad for teaching me such a great line! I can't believe I'm just now figuring out why you would always say it!

Ok- gotta go... those Skittles are completely calling me name! (If they are even still in there...)