I had WHAT back there?

today my goal was to clean out the food cupboards and pantry. We had a bag of organic oatmeal that wasnt tightened all the way and some sort of larvae got into it and started reproducing. Over the past few weeks I had been seeing the worms and moths everywhere. I pulled them off the ceiling several times, and thought I had it under control. Then they started appearing again everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I couldnt figure it out. So I decided to fight fire with fire. Take away their food source...ANY food source.

So the goal was to clean out the food pantry, throw away all baggies of bread crumbs, rice, grains, oatmeal etc. Get rid of the problem once and for all.

So as I was cleaning out the pantry I was pulling out botulised cans of food, stuck way back in the recesses, expiration dates almost 4 or 5 years past, old half used boxes of spaghetti, noodles and more. I even pulled out a box of Lipton soup mix that I am positive I have had since 2002.

Jello I didnt realize I had, cake mixes, pudding and a whole slew of Papmered Chef and Tupperware spice packets.

Then I lifted up the rubberized shelf liner mats..I found where they had been coming from. There were HUNDREDS of little worms and moth casings and stuff. They had been feeding like kings and queens up there under those little mats. Since they were under the mats I hadnt seen them. So I pulled up the mats, cleaned, bleached and dried. I feel better and am positive that those worms will not dare to show their faces around MY cupboards again.

And as a side note, there was a spider up in the corner, the likes of which I had never seen before. A beautiful little brown and tan bulbous spider with a zig zaggy pattern. I am sure she had been eating heartily on a daily basis.

Steatoda Triangulosa...also known as the common cobweb spider. She sure was pretty, but I got the heebie jeebies just looking at her move. I made Charles take her out and find her a nice new home.

crud, just looking at the picture makes me all tingly and antsy. I keep feeling something crawling over me, and I know it is all mental.

My week in a nutshell

Just a few things from this week

THE POOL

1. Just because they make a bikini in your size, that does not mean you should wear it.

2. Girl in the orange floral bikini- YOU need a bikini that is 2 times BIGGER. Your bottoms are so tight you have a muffin top. Your top is so small your giant bazoongas are popping out like Pam Anderson. I have kids and would prefer pimply lifeguard to pay attention to them instead of trying to sneak a peek at your girls unleashed.

3. Boys who think they are studly- White bathing trunks are see through. You arent as impressive as you THINK you are.

4. If you are as hairy as a silverback gorilla, I suggest investing in some back wax. Seriously. Your girls can ride you like a bareback horse, grabbing your back hair as they would a horses mane.

5. To the snotty, overskinny, REALLY white lady in the ugly bikini and stupid Bug eye sunglasses: yes my kid threw up. He swallowed water which made him gag and he was running to the bathroom when it all came out. At least it was on the sidewalk and NOT in the pool. At least I put chairs around it and told someone and asked if I could help clean it up. They told me not to worry about it. So dont sit there in the snack area moaning and complaining and being completely ugly about it. I know you did not realize it was me, but when you call my kid germy and disgusting, it's personal. He was not sick from the flu. He was not germy from some sort of disease that I ("what kind of mother brings their sick kid to the pool and then makes someone else clean it up-she should be shot") didnt have him innoculated against. We were swimming in the deep end together and playing around. He swallowed too much water and it made him throw up. Your kid isnt going to get Hepatitis or any other germ that us white trash mothers let our kids get. So dont think I didnt hear you and immeditely place you and your friend on my poop list.

SALSA: I made salsa yesterday. I wish I could say it was from my garden, but it wasnt. We were really hankering for some good salsa. So here is Salsa Making 101. I dont really have any set measurments.

I dice a TON tomatoes and add a large can of whole tomatoes(drained). I would say probably 10 cups of diced tomatoes. I used 3/4 of a LARGE sweet onion, chopped pretty well. I added 3 chopped jalapenos, a TON of garlic(about 4 TBSP), and eyeballed the cumin, cilantro, salt and pepper. I added juice from 1/2 a large lemon as well.

Mix together and I used an immersion hand blender to semi-puree it until It looked like this:

Put into a large container, or containers, and put in fridge. Let it sit for at least 24 hours before eating it and making adjustments.

The jalapenos were really potent and the oils from the peppers stayed on my hands and made my whole night pretty miserable. My hands and nails and nailbeds were on fire. I tired everything. I even googled solutions. I tried rubbing a lemon on them. I tired pouring vinegar over them. I tried using dishsoap with no water. I even rubbed my hands with a piece of dry bread. It really was miserable.

SCHOOL:

today is Peters last day of school. I mean he has school on Monday, but they are just having parties and pizza etc.
We have a busy sumemr ahead of us and then at the End of August Peter goes into 2nd grade and Finn starts Kindergarten.

CLEANING:

Well I got the craft/computer room done. I then decided to get a little crazy and re-arrange some things in the family room. It looks much better PLUS It forced me to organize my bookshelves and vacuum around Jakes crate.


FREECYCLE:
We got rid of 2 tables, a Total Body Gym, an old computer, a Web Cam and have a few other things listed . They will be getting a good home instead of going into a landfill and I dont have to haul myself over to goodwill (a whole 3 miles).
Next I will be tackling the guest bedroom... THAT will be a chore.


So that was a portion of my week. Hopefully next week will be a little more exciting. Happy weekend!

My house is a disaster

Authors update: I know I said I was proud of Charles, however I am feeling like I need to take it back. He was pulling out old floppy disks to save. WE DONT EVEN HAVE A COMPUTER THAT ACCEPT FLOPPIES! He said that he wanted to go through and make sure there was nothing personal on them, such as financials, social security numbers etc. I NEVER store anything sensitive like that on floppy disks, and if I do I would write on there what it was. I finally got him to throw them away after getting snotty and refusing to talk to him.
He was saving the paper sleeves to loose CD ROM's we no longer have. We only have like 4 of those stupid CD holder cases he can use!! And dont get me started on the comic books...so despite our best efforts to De-junk, we STILL have too much stuff. (And yes Charles, most of it is my craft stuff, which I CANT get rid of because it is my business and scant livelyhood!)


My craft room was getting to be a bit "cramped". We pulled EVERYTHING out of this computer room/craft area ,distributed it evenly throughout the house, and decided to go hard-core getting rid of stuff we dont even use. I am so proud of charles! His need to organize overcame his need to pack-rat. I could see the raging internal battle over certain cords, computer parts, papers etc. It was KILLING him to get rid of a few things, but he did it. We put out 2 GIANT bags of trash(lawn bags), a 2 level computer desk, and a small craft table/sewing desk. If you are in the Charlotte area feel free to come by and pick them up and use them for your own.

We got a big bad voodoo daddy of a desk from someone on freecycle and have been putting it together. When i say Big desk, i really mean behemoth. It is an actual industrial L-shaped Cubicle, complete with walls, top filing drawer and overhead lights. No screws, everything slides together. We picked it up the other day and it was in about 27 different pieces. We didnt have instructions on how to put it together, nothing- just a van full of panels, desk pieces, rails, shelving, supports etc.

But with our impressive combined I.Q. we were able to figure it out and get it together. We only had to take it apart twice before getting it mostly correct. But it makes a HUGE difference in the room. There is so much more space and we have a TON of desk space and room for business, crafts etc. It really is amazing and I am thrilled with the results.

Now i just need to get everything BACK into the office, arranged, put away, dejunked even MORE etc...
I have been taking pictures of before and after and will post when my new office/craft room is finished. Prepare to be amazed.

Happy Hump Day!