{light at the end of the tunnel}

This title has a couple meanings. ONE-the daddy will be home Friday! However, he's going back out for at least another week :(. Hey, at least we get him for 48 hours! TWO-the little ones and I have been sick as dogs for the last couple days and as of today were all starting to recover.

The last 48 hours have been tough. Coach got sick first, but he just coughed and sneezed for a couple days and was over it. Fancy got it next and it hit her like a semi truck. Fevers in the 102 range, up all night, throwing up stuffy head, all around miserable.

She fought for 2 whole days before she finally kicked it. I've been wrestling with it for a day or so and it seems I'm over the hump (fingers crossed). Whew. What a week for the daddy to be gone.

My dad (Papa) will be here Sunday! We're exited! My step mom was going to come also, but her father is very sick. Please keep them all in your prayers. The babies haven't seen them since June. Three whole months is a lot in baby world.

Hoping to get to Wilmington and just hang out around town for the week. The babies are pumped! I told them Nannie and Papa were coming soon and the pic is the reaction I got. They're the cutest.

Note: Coach really isnt that much bigger. He was sitting on the blanket and Fancy was sitting in the cushion crack. He is bigger than her, just not by that much :).

{F.U. nature}

I came home from running errands this morning to find a big, dead, FEMALE black widow laying near the garage door on the driveway.  That's just fucking great.  We have a big, harmless garden spider that hangs out on the front porch, but he doesn't bother anyone, so we don't bother him.  A black widow, though?  That's a whole new ballgame. 

She was dead, but she had to have come from somewhere close.  My guess is she lived somewhere in the garage.  The daddy is going to be pretty busy cleaning that out when he gets home.  I turned on the hose and semi power washed (as much power as a hose nozzle can muster) the eaves of the roof where the creepy and crawly critters hide.  I found 2 more large spiders (both are now dead), a frog hanging out above our front door (who was spared) and a buuunch of moths. 

Here's the thing about the south.  Its infested.  Its call "dirty south" for a reason.  Spiders, roaches, silverfish, wasps/bees/hornets, red ants, moths, gnats and any other kind of disgusting fucking bug you can think of all live here in large numbers.  Our house is still mercifully bug free, but for how long?  We haven't seen roaches in several weeks, but since they left the spiders have taken over.  I don't mind the garden spiders...that stay IN the garden.  If you're on the house or porch or Heaven help them, in the house, you're a goner. 

The black widow sighting makes me very nervous given that they are the most venomous spider in the U.S.  Supposedly several times more venomous than a rattlesnake.  The venom can be deadly to humans, especially little humans.  It wouldn't be a lie to say I'm more than a little freaked out.  When the babies go to bed tonight I'm going to do a full house deep clean.  Fun.  I've never seen one inside, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.  I'm counting on the large rats we call pets to be the first line of defense. 

We have a big box of Diatomaceous Earth food grade.  <<<Click and read how this stuff works, its incredible!  We haven't used it yet because its apparently monsoon season here.  Rain every day isn't conducive for sprinkling or spraying bug killer.  That garage is going to get a big dousing of it.
Wish me luck in my deep cleaning escapades :)

UPDATE:  I found a few more.  OMG.  More than freaking out at this point.  I just drenched the foundation, front porch, back porch and garage in Diatomaceous Earth.  Well, actually, I had a bottle of rubbing alcohol on the kitchen table when I spotted her and the spider I saw got the royal (rubbing alcohol) treatment.  So did its web...and the deck...and anything else I could reach with my stream of rubbing alcohol. 

Air Force, you picked a fabulous time to take my husband.