The Yellow Jackets are GONE!

Finally! I broke down and paid someone to come take care of them yesterday. I had a pile of about 45 that I had killed in my living room just in the morning hours! I went out there this morning and there is NO activity at all! The guy that came told me I had a large nest in the wall. No kidding!

And now we've moved back to ants. In my kitchen. Again. Because my house just must be so irresistible to little things like that. We had ten bats in our crawlspace in the spring and last year we had an issue with European Hornets (yep, they were THAT BIG!) in the crawlspace (and occasionally flying around the 2nd floor) as well. And the other night, as I lay in my bed, I hear something above me in the other crawlspace (what is it with crawlspaces?) and Jon and I decided it must be a mouse (I'm thinking positive here...don't rain on my parade and tell me where there is one there is more....!). So, I set traps last night and what did I find this morning? A missing trap. I'm not kidding.

I love my cape cod, but I HATE the crawlspaces!!

Blech!

Looking cute waiting for the bus this morning!

Wall Art!

Well, I got to two of Ella's "brands," if you will, on her bedroom wall. I have all eight drawn in pencil and now I have to go back and paint them. Avery took a nice nap, so I was able to paint two! Now, granted, they are easy one's (only one color...), but they still took some time to do:

And to give you an idea of actual size:

The other six logo's I've sketched on her wall are: Camp Rock, Cheetah Girls, High School Musical, Hello Kitty, Hannah Montana and Littlest Pet Shop. I think the Camp Rock one will be my ultimate challenge. Maybe even more than my Raven's Cornhole design was...

Anyway, while I'm at it here, I thought I would share my other wall projects. It all started in the kitchen:

Then traveled to the powder room:

Thinking this was fun and relatively easy I decided to do one in our master bedroom. This one took forever because I used wall paint instead of the other stuff and so I had to do multiple coats. Plus it's quite large:

Next I perched on the washer and dryer and tackled the laundry room (which is my favorite so far!):

Then I wanted to do something fun in Ella's dress-up corner so I came up with this (in glitter paint, of course!):

I promise Bible verses are coming....I'm actually working on one for Jon's grandmom and pop. I'll take a pic when I'm done with that one as well.

To help get me thinking about verses for my house, which is your favorite (short!) verse you would love to see on your wall??!!??

I'm AN AUNT!!!

My SIL had her baby three weeks early this morning! I got the call at 7:00. What a surprise! But very exciting because we all now know what it is!

They had a little GIRL and named her Jenna Alyse! She was 6 pounds, 11 ounces and 19 inches long.

I get to go see her this morning because I'll be right by the hospital helping organize clothes for the big kids consignment sale tomorrow. I'm so excited because I can now look for clothes for her!!!

To Do List Update....

We're one week into school and I've gotten some accomplished. There are some things I'm waiting to do until it gets cooler outside. Here is my update:

* Finish the corn hole game for aunt and uncle Christmas gift...still have time!
* Paint verse on wall for grandmom Got the verse on paper, waiting for an evening to go trace
* Paint stuff Ella wants on her bedroom wall (this will be FUN!) Started this! I have four on there already and am planning on doing more today. Then I'll paint. This is a Thursday afternoon project that I do while Avery is napping next door in Coby's room (Avery is my niece that I watch every Thursday!)
* Go through kids closets (again? still? one never knows....) DONE!
* Re-pot bathroom plant DONE!
* Clean out and unpack (from when the house was on the market) the new part of the basement
* Paint cabinets to be ready to finish above mentioned "new part"
* Go through boxes of framed pictures and figure out what to do with them!
* Scan in all pictures from before we had a digital camera (LARGE undertaking!)
* Outside gardens - split hosta and other perennials and create new garden in front and side New side garden tilled...waiting for it to cool off to split hosta!
* Clean all windows inside and out. Include mini blinds and curtains Done kitchen and mud room windows

Another project I've started is getting my recipes on the computer and making a master dinner list to pull from when I am putting together my monthly menu. I have that updated and will post my dinner list if anyone wants to see it!!

Some of you were concerned yesterday about Ella. Thank you!! She is fine and now has an assigned seat (not just her...the timing couldn't have been more perfect!). She was very excited again this morning to go to school!

Week in Review

So, the first week of school went very well. Ella is loving it and Coby is tolerating it! Here is Ella with her ipod:

She was thrilled and has listened to it for hours already!

Coby had his first football game this weekend. They won! We were down 7-6 but ended up with a touchdown (and extra point!) at the end. He had a blast but it was soooo hot. I'm looking forward to real football weather, that's for sure. Here he is before the game:

In other news, we had five babies hatch Saturday! I had gotten Ella one of the butterfly habitats and we sent away for the caterpillars. They arrived via mail two weeks ago and were cocooned by last Sunday. Six days later the butterflies began to emerge! Don't freak out on me, the red you see is meconium which is the leftover coloring for the wings, not baby's first poop as we know meconium to be!

Ella loved feeding them the homemade nectar and gathering flowers for them every morning. Last night we set them free. She enjoyed putting the nectar on her fingers and watching them eat from it. It was very cool.

Recipe Friday

I made my banana bread yesterday and thought I'd share my recipe. It's very easy. When I have bananas that get too ripe I throw them into the freezer. When I have enough I thaw them and use them for this bread. So simple! Enjoy and have a great holiday weekend!

Best Banana Bread
Yield – one loaf

2 C All-purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt
½ C Butter, softened
¾ C Brown Sugar
2 Eggs, beaten
2 1/3 C Mashed Overripe Bananas



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter or spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.

In large bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.

In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar. Stir in eggs and bananas until blended. Add flour mixture and stir just until blended. Pour into loaf pan.

Bake 60-65 minutes. Let cool for 10 then turn onto wire rack to cool completely.

Interesting Blog

Stumbled across this blog the other day. I'm staying neutral, but know many of you watch this family. Thought it might be a rainy day read. I do wonder if there is any truth to it....

Football Practice!

-Jenn

Sent from my iPhone

Took the Plunge...

I am now on Facebook.

Yep.

Like I need another computer thing to get me sidetracked!

It is very addicting. I want lots of flair (I LOVE that movie...anyone know what movie "flair" is from??!!! Bonus points go to you....) but I can't seem to get it to show up. Huh.


Off to the gym....