Letter to the Centipedes

To any monster centipedes still hiding out in my home, or those outside thinking about coming in:

I've just about had enough of you for one season (or a lifetime).  I was quite taken by surprise the first time a freakishly fuzzy thing scooted out from beside the bottom stair when I was putting on my shoes a month ago, and I had to trap you with a cup.

I had never seen your kind before, so I had to google you.  Google said you liked warm and humid places, so I figured you were just lost.  We have nothing in here for you, and it's most definitely hotter and more humid outside than it is in our house.

Then your buddy decided to scare me by making his presence known under my vacuum another morning.  He really pushed my buttons though when I came back with a killing tool and was gone, and I had to leave him in my house all day.  We made amends though when he showed his face that afternoon and was taken captive.  J would have let him live in the great outdoors, but he had a homing beacon on our house, so he met his end.

One of your little ones really pushed the limit when they were found playing inside my lunchbox... even worse, inside my cup inside my lunchbox.  NOT COOL.

A few nights ago, one of your elders who apparently has been around a long time decided it was safe to come out in the wall on the stairwell.  Guess he thought we were upstairs for good, but little did he know, I had to go back downstairs.  J was in no mood for bug-saving games, so a huge wad of tissue was called in for duty.  Sorry if this guy was important or something.

But you guys have now gone too far.  This morning was the last straw - coming into my bedroom?  No sir, I'm not going to take it.  The thought of you guys near my bed and in my clothes... not gonna fly.  J found one of your young'uns in the kitchen again too, so I'm thinking you guys have gotten a little too bold with what you think is OK around here.

It's a good thing I don't have pets or babies around yet.  Because the bug spray is coming out this weekend in full force.  There will be no entry surface to cross without walking through our poison.  I'm sorry, I know you're all God's creatures too, but you've overstepped the boundaries here.

I hope you've enjoyed it while you can, because next week will be like walking on hot coals for you... well, hot coals coated with poison.  And one day, when our home isn't rented, I promise you my windows and doors will be sealed so well that you won't even have an option.

In closing, I think it's time to terrorize someone else now. Move on please, because even though I really can't stand your creepy-crawliness slinking across my floor and walls, I still don't really care to pick up your poisoned bodies either.

Please pass this along to all your friends.

Sincerely (and not kidding),
Sarah

I gave in to the holidays

So I've been a total blog slacker.  Not without reason though - I am getting married in just a few short weeks, after all.  I hope things will slow down significantly after that, but somehow I have a feeling that they won't anyway.  We shall see.

Well, I know I complained about everybody and their brother bringing out Christmas way too early, even before Halloween for goodness sake!  But last week something got into me and I finally gave in.  I figured it's a week out, it's ok.  So I went upstairs, moved the stuff away from the wall, and opened the little door to the lovely attic crawl space that is such a *great* perk of apartment living (you know what I'm talking about... the little child-size doors that open to a dark space of plywood and insulation up under the roof, which serves as your "storage space").  I tried to hold my breath as much as possible to avoid all the dust as I continued to get aggravated at the lack of storage space, as I always do.  After pulling out numerous boxes, bags, and bins, I finally found a few things worth keeping out.

My first item on the agenda was the lighted garland.  Here is the final result (this is something I usually do each year, so it was an easy choice to pull out)...

(Forgive the cell phone photos... these are of the stair railing.)

The little bow is either from my mom or one of the grandmothers, I can't recall... but I think it's fun.  Cute Santas are always fun.

Thank goodness I'd kept all the garland in a box together, along with the bow.  I even labeled the box before I put it away last year - probably knowing how annoyed I would get trying to find it again if I didn't do so.

I usually have a mid-sized tree I'll put up, but I decided against pulling all that out this year.  At my bridal shower a few weeks ago, they had a little tree, and everyone brought different snowflake ornaments to put on it.  It turned out beautifully, and it's also very special to me now since so many people contributed to it.  So I decided just to put that up in my place instead of the big tree this year.  Here it is...

All the snowflakes are from family and friends.  There are even some famiy heirlooms on there that have been handmade and around for a very long time, so it's a great keepsake.  And I've got a tree up now. :-)

That's all I did last week, but everyone around here was hanging up wreaths on their doors, so I decided to go dig mine out too on Sunday.  The wreath was in its own box.  But I had to do MUCH searching, digging, box shifting, and sneezing before finding the hanger.  Unfortunately, for some reason, it was put up in a big bin labeled "Christmas Stuff" - haha, what was I thinking?  THAT's a title that's going to help me out a lot.  Anyway, here ya go (bow credit to my mom, hehe)...

So, that's it for the Christmas decorations.  There are about 10 more boxes of stuff I could drag out up in that darn little storage area, but I wasn't going through that hassle this year.  I also gave in to some hints by a certain someone who really wanted some sausage balls, so they got baked this weekend as well.  I even find myself stopping on the Christmas radio station every now and then to hear the rest of the song.  Most still get on my nerves, since it's all basically the same set of songs done over and over different ways by different people... but hey, I guess that's just something to deal with.

Honestly, I truly hope everyone is having a good holiday season.  Spend time with the people who are important to you, and make sure they know that.  Remember the true reason that we celebrate Christmas, which is our Lord.  It's easy to get swept up in the holiday craziness all around us, so just make sure you take a few steps back and keep it all in perspective with what (and who) is really important to you. :-)