Week 2 in NJ

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Nothing eventful other than unpacking.


Wednesday

I learned something on Wednesday. Well several things.

First, the exterminator came! He came to our door and asked what kind of cat we wanted. He took a look around our kitchen and our other main living spaces. He believed me (always a relief but I don’t know why I worry that people won’t believe me) and set seven traps in the kitchen, one in the bathroom, and one by our radiator water dish.

The traps were interesting. He set two live traps that are basically silver boxes where they can get in but not out. Those are called Tin Cats apparently. I like that name.

He also set two snap traps inside black boxes so that the deadly mess is contained.

Finally, the rest were the sticky glue papers. Some were left flat and others he folded into a tunnel – something that would probably be intellectually stimulating if they weren’t covered in deadly goo.

He said he’d come back basically every other morning for the next 10 days to check them starting on Friday. So, ok. Wait for success.

Second, we invited the sister missionaries over for dinner and so I had a great reason to get the dining area and kitchen in some sort of working order. I also had an audience to show Abi off for. So, I put her in a cute outfit of pink and gray colors. She looked darling! No, there’s no picture. You’ll see why soon.

I was trying to speedily clean the table area, wash dishes, cook dinner, and feed Abi all at one time. (Who was it in General Conference this weekend that said multi-tasking is another way to get nothing done?)

I mixed Abi’s usual dinner of rice cereal and some sort of vegetable – orange colored this time. I carefully fed her so as not to stain her cute company-worthy outfit in a record time of 10 minutes and then moved on to dishes while she sat in her Bumbo chair behind me.

Poor 8-month old. She got bored quickly and probably was still a little hungry as I hadn’t taken time to make her a bottle yet. I felt bad that she was still a little hungry so I got some Graduates cereal to give her thinking if she could just feed and entertain herself for 30 minutes more…

Well, she can’t stand the texture of the cereal yet. She spits them right back out. But I really, really need her to entertain herself for 30 more minutes and she will love them if she’ll just give them a chance… So, like any good mom trying to teach her daughter to like new food, I shoved a piece into the side of her mouth so it could get soggy inside her cheek and she’d taste it and realize she loved it the whole time and she’d thank me profusely. Right?

Wrong!

She mashed it a little with her gums, gagged and choked a little and spit some out. It landed on her cute company-worthy pants!! Augh! It’s ok. I can wipe that off and no one will be the wiser. I turn to get a rag and as I turn back around, I see her throw up her entire (orange) dinner all over herself and the Bumbo seat and the counter and the floor.

Oh boy!

What did I learn on Wednesday? Babies are not machines. They don’t work when I want them to work but when they want to work. I guess she really doesn’t like cereal yet and will, actually, gag.

BTW, thanks, Sarah and Meagan, for advice on getting rid of mice. It turns out you are both right. The glue sheets are very effective and the mice do drag them around…

Wednesday night, I discovered one of the glue sheets was sticking out from behind the oven where it had been pushed way back against the wall. Why? Because a mouse had gotten stuck to it and somehow wiggled it away from the wall. I begged James to take care of it then or call our exterminator because I couldn’t wait until Friday with a live mouse watching me in the kitchen.

He took care of it. Smashed it with a rock to quickly put it out of its misery and threw it away.

He came back saying, “The next time I hear a woman say she wants more equality I’m going to hand her a mouse and a rock and demand she kill it right then.” I am glad I have a strong man to save me from such experiences in life. And I’m glad to be a woman and I’m glad I’m not equal with men.


Thursday

Abi and I got up early (8AM) and left the house early (9AM) because a company came to get rid of the asbestos in the basement of the house and I just didn’t want to be around for it. Stirring up a bunch of cancerous particles into the air sounded like an excuse to buy a stroller and hang out at the park or the mall all day.

So we did!

I found my way to Babies R Us, walked around killing time for a while, then bought a stroller. The worker there set it up for me (big consumer kudos for Babies R Us for that!) and then I walked out of the store pushing my baby in my new stroller singing songs like, “Walking along with my brand new stroller… baby beside me at the wheel!”

Then we drove to a park and spent 3+ hours there. It’s a beautiful park with a pond and fountain, all sorts of sports courts, and a FANTASTIC play area.

I was surprised by how many father/child and parents/child groups I saw. I supposed I’d see mostly mother/child groups. At one point, I saw couples everywhere. I even saw two geese…

Two mallard ducks…

And two wood ducks.

It was like the beginning of Disney's 101 Dalmatians. It made me miss James! And he was just at work.

I also saw a turtle!

And these pretty flowers.

It was a super beautiful day for both me and Abi!

Friday

Mostly uneventful.

The exterminator came back and I explained how we got one that James killed and the exterminator looked at me and said, “You’re husband is mean!”

What does that mean??? I still don’t understand.

He checked the traps and found one of the snap traps also had a mouse. So two down!


Saturday and Sunday

These days were amazing because of General Conference! I loved everything about them. I especially loved watching them with Abi on Saturday while we ate apple slices, dried mango, and popsicles. She was so sweet and seemed genuinely interested in the conference at times.

Between the Sunday conferences, we took a picnic lunch and walked through the park again to show James how great it was. This weekend was relaxing to both body and spirit, and motivating at the same time. I’m very excited to work on the things that were spoken about. If you missed Conference or haven’t heard about it, check it out here: gc.lds.org.