Don't judge a house by its pests

Ever since Matt brought home about 50 cardboard boxes from Solano last year (OK, it wasn't 50, but it was a lot)due to him having to clean out his storage facilities, we have seen some not-so-friendly cockroaches out by our garbage cans and sometimes in our garage. Matt brought a lot of the boxes back to school in the last 6-9 months and we are Solano box free now. But, the cockroaches are still around. They must have laid eggs or something. I haven't seen a lot, but one is enough for me. I feel like I am living in the ghetto or something. It was the last straw this morning when I brought the newspapers in to our room to read with my breakfast and upon opening it, was greeted by a crawling cockroach. Matt jumped so high that if he jumped any higher, he would've gone straight out of the roof.
Once I got rid of the little creep (the cockroach, not Matt), it was back to normal, but Matt wasn't quite himself. We have our regular pest company coming out on Monday to further survey the situation but something has to be done this weekend.
Matt took Diana to school later that morning, went to work, ran some errands and headed back home. He had set out some cockroach traps earlier in the morning and when he returned home in the afternoon, the traps caught two roaches. Argh...they still exist.
He texted me and said that our weekend project would be re-organizing the garage, getting rid of all the cardboard boxes that we have and putting their contents in plastic storage bins. Great. That's exactly what I want to do when I am 25 weeks pregnant and three days away from my first vacation in more than a year and a half.
It's gotta be done though. I said that I would go to Target after work and get the storage bins. They wouldn't all fit in my car though so I needed backup.
Who could I call? Dad. Yes...Chris? Sure. He gets off work the same time as me, is coming through Fairfield anyway and can meet me at Target in no time. My wonderful brother in law agreed.
I called him later to tell him that I think we can storage bins cheaper at Wal-Mart and to meet me there instead. After a huge sigh (which I completely understood) he agreed.
We found storage bins in no time...and they even had wheels! Score! We each grabbed five and rolled on out. And boy were we loud. Wal-Mart is a busy place, but of course everyone is so focused on getting what they have to get, it's not a loud place at 4:45 on a Friday. We made a huge commotion with those stupid rollie bins. Then, to add insult to injury, my brother in law decides to start skipping through Wal-Mart to attract even more attention to ourselves. As I grabbed my stomach to prevent the urine from leaving my bladder because I was laughing so hard, I looked around and realized that, oddly enough, no one was staring at us. Was this normal Wal-Mart behavior? I guess so. I moved on to the checkout line, paid and we left. I was then stopped abruptly by the woman at the exit who asked to see my receipt. Do so many pregnant women try to steal 10 storage bins? Seriously lady. Chris proceeds to yell "Make a run for it!" Oh, thanks, that's helpful. She gives me the all clear and we head to the car where Chris again skips to the car, well ahead of me.
I am sure I will post this weekend with an update as to how the re-organizing of the garage is going. It's quite an adventure around our house lately.
Stay tuned!

Voila!

As the Little Einsteins would say: Mission Completion!
Even though I know that maybe deep down inside, Matt can see 100 things still that need to be worked on. It took a lot of urging on Matt's part for me to get rid of a lot of things, re-organize things and really become an adult and start cleaning up but we got it done.
As the Wonder Pets would say: What's gonna work? Team work!

So, here are photos from the finished project which is now the baby's room/office/scrapbooking room. I seriously think it would've been easier to buy a new house and just start all over again. Se la vi!



This is the closet. Diana's dresser now becomes the baby's dresser and we moved it into the closet because that's the only place it fits. Matt said that if we have a boy, someday this office will strictly become his room because Diana and a boy are not going to share a room. I agree, which makes the downstairs area a lot more cluttered.

Princesses Attack

The princesses have attacked Diana's room. Well, in a matter of speaking, at least. Diana got a big girl bed today. I just checked on her five minutes ago and she is still napping in it...hasn't fallen out yet.
Thanks to Gramma V and Grampa D for putting it together, although Gramma V insists that there was nothing to put together. Then why, Gramma V, did it take over an hour and a half and why did Grampa D have to go over to his house to get his electric drill because Matt's wasn't working right? Hmmmmm...?
Anyway, Diana is set until she leaves for Stanford in 14 years. This is the forever bed.
It was quite an adventure putting it together. I had nothing to do with it. It was all Gramma V and Grampa D. They even kicked Matt out of the room after a while and he did some other chores around the house.
Some of the highlights: While bringing the biggest box inside, poor Grampa D got his feet caught underneath him and he fell into the bush in our front yard.
When the box finally made its way upstairs and into Diana's room, Matt opened it and there was a cockroach inside. Sheer panic ensued, Raid was brought upstairs and we got rid of the nasty creature quickly. All order was then restored.
I did my wifely duties and ran out to Subway to get sandwiches for the clan who were very appreciative after a tough morning of work. Here are some images of the new bed:





Gramma V also hooked Diana up with a new trash can, new area rug, new hamper...you get the idea.



Gramma V had to try out the new bed. I admit I am looking forward to sitting in the bed tonight to read books before bed time. No more floor for me! Yay!

Swim Lessons

Diana's first week of swim lessons was awesome!
She was always very eager to get in the water, not one tear was shed and we think she's the next Natalie Coughlin. OK, just kidding about that part.
The class is a little more advanced for her level, but that's OK. I would rather have her challenged than doing something that's too easy. They are using a kickboard, learning to swim freestyle and even spend the last five minutes of class jumping in the water. For some reason, Diana felt the need to hold her teacher's hands when she jumped in. I was shocked by this because she NEVER does this at our pool here at Dream Street. She's always done it by herself. Hopefully this week she get a little more brave and trust that her teacher will, in fact, catch her.
She really loves it and even remembered her teacher's name all week, which is a miracle for Diana. We are looking forward to week 2 of swimming this and seeing how much more improvement she can make.

This is Diana learning to float on her back. She doesn't like water in her eyes, so her eyes are always closed the tightest they can be.



She was really good at using the kickboard and made very big splashes.



After she jumped in the water, she looked at her fingers and said "Mommy, I got prunes!" The other moms thought it was adorable!

Long distance Mother's Day

My mom went to Washington, D.C. for vacation so she spent Mother's Day jaunting around our nation's capital. Good for her, I say! I talked to her yesterday and she was having the time of her life.
Meanwhile, I was online tracking the status of some flowers I ordered on Thursday from ftd.com that were supposed to be delivered to her hotel on Saturday. FTD didn't let me have them delivered on Sunday even though their website advertised differently. That's OK...Saturday is even better, I thought. She can have a two-day Mother's Day. By Saturday night, they still hadn't been delivered and my order status said they were going to be delivered on Monday. Huh? What? Monday? That's not going to work. I paid a lot of money in shipping to have them delivered speedy so she would get them on Saturday. Not happy with FTD at this point. I consulted my husband and sister who said I should definitely call FTD and see what was going on.
I checked the tracking number on Sunday, even though I knew they wouldn't be delivered and I knew my mom was still flowerless. So, first thing when I got to work on Monday, I called the customer service number. Their on-hold messages made excuse after excuse as to why I was going to be on hold for so long and why they wouldn't be able to do this and why they wouldn't be able to do that. Geez. OK already! I get it, you're lame!
After 22 minutes of being on hold, a woman finally got on the line and I told her my predicament. She asked me if I would like to cancel my order. Uh, no. I told her I wanted some sort of reimbursement for the shipping since you guys didn't deliver when you said you would. She said because of the high volume of orders placed on the holiday...blah blah. Basically, they didn't realize they would be so busy on Mother's Day. LAME!
She offered a 20 percent discount on the shipping which would be credited back to my credit card. Sweet deal, I guess. I would rather my mom just get her awesome flowers at her awesome hotel on her awesome vacation. She will get them today...hopefully. If she checks out of that hotel before the flowers get there though....I am going to be one mad pregnant lady!
UPDATED (3:15 p.m. PT)...Flowers delivered, Mom very surprised and happy. And there were more flowers in the vase than were ordered so I guess FTD came through.
UPDATED (11:25 a.m. 5/13/09)...Mom decided to tell me that when she got her flowers, four of them were wilted. The next morning, three of them were wilted. I called FTD and got a full refund for the flowers. Never using FTD again!

Beaming with pride

Moms are always beaming with pride about their kid(s). I am no exception to that rule. This has been a busy/hectic/crazy week. Matt stayed home for two and a half days with a really bad cold that turned into pink eye (sorry, Matt), Diana started a new sports class on Monday, she got evaluated in a new class at KinderCare and had a dentist appointment this morning. Lots going on.
The sports class (I will post a picture later) was OK. It's called Tiny Tots Olympics and they rotate the sport they play every week. Because of a scheduling gaffe by me, she will only take part in this class three times instead of five, because she has swimming lessons next week and the week after. Oops.
The first week of Olympics was basketball. Score! Something she's familiar with. She grabbed a basketball and must have shot 25 shots before the class started. At one point, she made four in a row and had a smile on her face the entire time. It was awesome. She did the stretching exercises and the up and back run to loosen her little muscles perfectly. Then the drills started...
Passing was good. Diana and I passed the ball back and forth and she had some great bounce passes. Then...dribbling. Let's just say that my daughter wants to be the shooter and not the point guard. We will leave it at that.
Diana visited the Preschool B class this week to get evaluated by the teacher to see if she's ready for the move to the bigger class. Since she was fifth on the list to get moved over to the class, according to age, they had to see if she was academically ready for the challenge of the new class. To make a long story short, she passed with flying colors. The "homework packet" starts next week and we couldn't be more thrilled! This is a huge step for Miss D and us and we are so excited about all that she is going to be learning and experiencing in her new environment. I feel like kindergarten is right around the corner.
The dentist this morning was awesome as well. Six months ago, she was crying, screaming and refusing at every turn. Today, she sat in the chair (with me, of course) and opened her mouth to let them look at and count her teeth. She didn't let them clean her teeth yet, but the dentist and hygenist both said that was fine. Her teeth looked great and they can tell she takes good care of them. She even got to wear these colorful sunglasses while sitting in the chair to protect her eyes from the light. How come I can't wear those?
Upon leaving, Diana asked if she could have some stickers. Well, of course! The hygenist took her over and gave her four Barbie stickers, a new pink toothbrush, a picture of her teeth to take to share day tomorrow and some other things. All in a cute little bag with teeth on it. She was beyond THRILLED and PROUD!
I was beaming with pride. I can't believe how fast she's growing up. I don't know how my mom is dealing with me becoming a mom again...I am her little one, for crying out loud! :)