Bargain Bee Hunt

Ok, so we have had a MAJOR bee problem, and every spring it gets worse! We have bees, wasps, hornets and carpenter bees...Last year Alex was stung four times in a row, and so I decided this was the year to get rid of the bees!

The carpenter Bees were easy to spot, but would take some serious work to get rid of. They would make their nests in the peaks of the roof, so it would require some dangerous tall ladder work.(And Dale's grandma made it clear that she didn't want him on the ladder) The wasps and hornets were a different story. Easy to kill, but I couldn't locate their nests! For those two reason, I called in a professional pest control company.

The estimates they gave were several thousand dollars (yes I said several THOUSAND dollars) and he seemed to know very little about pests, in particular, the bees. Once again I decided it would be much better, not to mention a WHOLE lot cheaper for Dale and I to do it ourselves, so thats what we have been doing for several days now.

After working on the carpenter bees, Dale on the 20 foot ladder (Don't tell grandma) and me doing nothing at all except entertaining him, I saw a hornet fly under the railing...I looked under the railing and didn't see anything, so I was perplexed why they kept flying under there. Dale had told me last year that they lived under the railing, but I could never see them! The sky was such a bright backdrop that they were hard to spot. I went and got an old compact, used it to look under the railing, and then it came into focus, a nest! With the compact I saw a BUNCH of them...I made a little video so you could see the crazy number of bees that have been living here!! The best thing is, now I know where the hornets are, I can kill them myself! for under a 100 dollars we are doing what the professionals were going to charge us THOUSANDS to do!

spring fever!!

You know it's spring when you start cleaning and making things look nice! The kids start spring break tomorrow, so I wanted to get one major project done this week while they were still in school...I have been putting off cleaning my office and organizing all of my paperwork,it really really needed to be done...so I decided that could be my next major project AFTER I painted the foyer and hallway! Here are the before and afters...

Before: Beautiful green stencil from the previous owner..(circa 1992)

Before: More Lovely green stencil..it was everywhere!

After...a much warmer color...ahhhh
After: of course now I want a new rug, a new bench and a nice big painting to go in the new foyer! in time in time!

I also spent the morning fixing the kids up for "twin crazy hair day" Melissa and her buddy did 3 long spikes...David and Greg decided to "rock the Red" with crazy wild red Washington Capitals hair

airing my dirty laundry...

In 13 years, when I will most likely be an empty nester, and I will be crying because all my babies are gone, I will need something to cheer me up, and this post should do the trick..

Dear self,

Back in the winter of 2009, your washing machine was broken, here is the accumulated laundry for 6 days (not including throw rugs, linens and the occassional comforter!)

Sincerely,

Me

..Monday, Monday...

Every Monday is my day off. With all of my children in school, I get to go out to lunch with my girlfriends, get my hair done, go to the movies, whatever I so choose...NOT!! I have been asked this question no less than 20 times since the kids started school, "so, how nice is it that the kids are in school all day?" With so many kids at home for so many years, I kept thinking, "oh, life will be so easy when they are all in school, I will paint and read and take time for myself!" , if I had only known how erroneous my thinking was! that time is here, and I am feeling just as busy as ever, and actually reading less! So what do I do??? Here is a little peek into my mondays...

Let me start by showing you some beautiful pics of our house!!! It is a a house for all seasons...I absolutely LOVE our home and community...

Here is the house in the spring, once all the leaves have come out...

Here it is last winter (today is a beautiful 50 degrees, with a bit of a warm up coming, so no snow for us, at least for a while!)

Here is the house in the fall... (yes, those leaves do need to get cleaned up!)

I love our home, it is a wonderful place to live! Now, here is my answer to the question "how is it now that the kids are all in school?" Truthfully, with a home this big, and with 5 acres of property maintenance, I wish the kids weren't in school so much!!(and I wish they didn't have so much homework!) I need them to help me with....

cleaning the leaves out of the pool! and blowing the leaves off all the decks! (Dale does the yard)..In the winter we need help with bringing wood in, and snow..in the spring with planting flowers and a garden, in the summer, the pool..lots of work to be done in our "all season" house!

Inside stuff needs to be done daily, like...Cleaning the bathroom after they all have bathed and brushed their teeth and hair!

Cleaning my office after they terrorize it looking for needed school items and after getting dressed for school in it!

Cleaning the kitchen after breakfast!

Cleaning the laundry room up after they have thrown everything around looking for the exact hat/ mittens/ coats/ socks/ shoes/ clothes that they want!

So what did I get done on this leisurely Monday after the kids all went to school?? I cleaned the kitchen!! and parts of the rest of the house...(all laundry is washed and in their baskets, so I guess it was a productive monday!) Here is a nice shiny kitchen...enjoy, because in one hour they will be here and it will not look like this!

I am finishing my post today on tuesday, and I want to laugh...I spent a few hours at the school volunteering, did a few errands, more laundry, some office stuff, and cleaned some leaves from the pool, and will anticipate the remaining housework to be done by friday, just in time for the weekend and then, you guessed it, ANOTHER monday! So are my days easier now that my kids are all in school?? well...if they were all in school when they were 2 or 3, yes, but now they are all big, and I could really use some help!!