Making a House a Home

Yesterday I woke up with some seriously, near manic-ish energy.  Like, I literally woke up, ready to do something.  I have recovered from my little bug from earlier in the week and I guess that meant s**t needed to get done!  So, after practicing dance, writing in my journal, I decided to break out the paint supplies that had been sitting around for...ummm.. let's go with awhile and begin working on finally getting the dining room painted.  I was tired of this house not feeling like home and it's time we put some of our plans in motion!

From blah to bright!

It was just me for the first hour or so, then Jon came back from his biology class and helped out.  As you can see, the walls were white.  I have often felt that I'm walking through an institution because the walls are so sterile white- everywhere in this house. I love white, but, too much of it is just... irritating. Gradually we came around to painting first with the living room and then we kinda just stopped.  However, we're picking up speed with that and other projects/decorating things around here.  It really is time to put some personality in this home!  For too long it has just functioned as a living space, but, now we want more of our own little stamp to make it a place where we really feel at home.

I like it when I don't have to use the ladder.  I have this thing about falling.... and heights make it worse!  Gravity, will you ever be cool?

 Leo should be happy he's yellow already.  I'm certain he got paint on him, there's no way he could've avoided it!

The painting took us no more than four hours.  That's right, under four hours!!  God bless primer and paint together.  It really speeds up the painting process.  Is it sad that I could go on and on about that?  

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After we were finished painting I looked at our furniture in there and felt really... well, I felt worse about the room!  It wasn't because of the paint, I LOVE it, but, I realized that the huge dining room table that had been sitting in there, mostly unused, was just not right for the space and new color.  Jon was given that table three years ago, it used to be his sister's.  We decided that we'd keep an eye out (we're in the process of saving money atm) for a nice, smaller dining room table, and a piano to really make the dining room a place we would go into and use for its intended purposes.  The cats used that room more than we did, and that's kinda sad when you think about it.

This morning I decided to look through Craigslist and see if anything caught my eye.  I've gone through it before for dining room tables, bookcases, etc to see if I found something that was a bargain.  No luck, obviously, so I figured what was the harm in looking through furniture for sale ads?   

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And what do you know, I found a bloody table!!  And was being sold for only $150 to boot!!  I emailed Jon the ad and texted him to call me back after looking at it (he was running errands, I was cleaning house- and surfing the internet).  When he did I nearly begged him to go take a look as I was sure it would be a great table for us.  It may not be something we'll keep forever, but, it would definitely be more functional, add space for a piano, and more us!  He went over and gave me a call saying he did indeed like it and if I was good he'd bring it home.  WOOT!

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I must mention here that he fit that entire thing, plus a leaf, in his Prius.  That's right, I said Prius.  Makes you wonder how much Tetris Jon played as a kid.

Two minutes.  That's all it took for the cats to begin finding sweet spots on the table.

We have swaped the tables out and I couldn't be more thrilled will the look.  It's perfect!  Not to big, but, can be added to if necessary.  We will sell the other table on Craigslist for cheap, and hopefully selling that will pay for this table.  This purchase was not planned to be so soon, but, hey life is funny sometimes.  I'm glad a little initiative and the universe throwing us a bone yielded such great results.  I can't wait for a piano to be in there and to have some nice meals on that table.

If the cats don't mind sharing the dining room that is. ;-)

R&R??

Remember when you were younger, and when it was Saturday came around all you had to worry about was the what television programs to watch and/or where you were going to hang out with your friends? I know I do, though it seems like eons ago. Now that I'm working more my Saturdays have transformed into days where I am excited, yes excited, to clean house and get things in order. I have developed some kind of weird neurosis about having the house cleaned up before Monday.

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However, the past two weeks I haven't felt well at all thanks to the outrageous levels of ragweed and other allergens in there air. No kidding folks, it has been BAD. My roomie had to go to four pharmacies to find Zyrtec as so many people are desperate for relief that the stores can't keep that product stocked. Even Jon started suffering symptoms and the beginning of an infection and he rarely gets so much as the sniffles because of the pollen count. Anywho, thanks to constricted airways and a puffy face I wasn't exactly feeling up to cleaning. Now things got done here and there to keep the house from completely going to pot, but, it just hasn't been in any kind of order as I and Jon and my roomie have all felt lethargic and ill.

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Well thanks to better living through chemistry (ie antibiotics, Zyrtec D, and steroids) I'm feeling my more alive and motivated to get things done. Today my Saturday will not be spent laying on the couch, it will be spent getting this place cleaned up and even some practicing in. I'm actually very anxious to get through it all. Is that sad?

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And in the spirit of full disclosure here I will show you all what I am up against. Brace yourself folks. Please don't judge me and this house of yucky. If you are sensitive to pictures of what messiness looks like please look away now and do not return to this post. Okay you all have been warned!

Exhibit A: The laundry. Keep in mind this is before sorting and before all the laundry was moved to the basement to get washed. Laundry is one of those things that will never, ever end and I've come to accept it- to a degree. I still LOATH folding laundry though... that may never go away and I may have to come to accept it too. It a process I'm working through. They need a 12 step program for laundry I think... would help some of us out there.

Can you guess what clothing items are clean and which ones are dirty on the washer and dryer? I can't. Seriously, I have no clue on that one. If you have any thoughts do share!

Exhibit B: The Kitchen. This will be Jon's project for today. Lucky him!! I am really spoiled though. Jon cooks most of the meals and cleans up the kitchen. Though, he can take awhile to get to the dishes. It drives me nuts!! He has gotten better about it so I can't complain too much. Oh and before you click on this picture (I don't recommend it though) do know that all those black specs around the sink are coffee grinds. We won't go into the incident that caused them to be everywhere. Just understand that there is a legit reason for it and that is not little mold spores you're looking at.

Exhibit C: The Floors and The Dogs. My boys, ohhh how I love my doggy boys. They are so sweet, fun to be around, cute, loving, etc, etc. They are also the main culprits in creating a never ending trail of fur and destruction of toilet paper and toy remains on the floor (see picture below). I used to vacuum more than once a week, then I got a bit lazy these past couple of weeks and boy was the floor showing signs of neglect! Absolutely disgraceful, no excuse really. Cleaning the floor will be a major part of today.

Why did SpongeBob deserve to die?? SpongeBob lovers, I apologize for the graphic display of his tattered corpse. But scenes such as this (fur balls, toilet paper, shredded toys) are all too common around here. It's almost like the laundry in that fur balls are almost always on the floor. It's almost enough to make me give up keeping up with it, but, since my slight tendency towards OCD cannot tolerate looking at dust and fuzz tumbleweed I will take care of it! Just waiting for the medicine to open up my air passages for me to fully commit to cleaning and breathing while cleaning. It's the little things.

Well, at least some of us around here will get to lay around. Hope you all are having or had (for my friends in Oz and Asia) a Happy Saturday! I know mine will be happy once all this is DONE!

Moving Out, Moving In, and Other Matters (Warning- this post's a doozy!)

Oh Google Images, you've done it again!

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My blogging absence has been due to a massive influx of insanity. One part of this insanity is from yesterday when my roomie and I moved out of our cute bungalow midtown home into a slightly time-specific (think 70s) duplex in an even better midtown neighborhood. Why did we move you ask? Well.... naturally, there's a bit of a story behind that.

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Our little bungalow home, while cute, and colorful, has a multitude of issues that took us to a breaking point. Well, to be fair, my roomie hit the breaking point more than me as I took refuge at Jon's nicer house. We always knew our house was leaky, but, when we discovered that the air ducts from the heating and air unit are leaking and providing heat and air in the attic; and the wood rot is so bad on some windows one can push a finger through it (plus the lack of proper insulation in the walls, attic, and the crawlspace being open) we had an explaination to our abnormally high gas and electric bills.

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Then there was the smell and the sound of rats. This problem took us months to get our landlord to address as he kept insisting it was a 'mouse' problem and we just needed to spray. The oven since roughly November has smelled of burnt urine everytime we turned it on. Yes, that is as nasty and gross as it sounds. Later even turning the stovetop on to boil water would cause a foul smell. We mentioned this to our landlord in December, to which he said he'd replace it. Yeah, that hasn't happened. Don't even get me started on how bad things got, but, an exterminator was finally hired and confirmed we had rats. In fact, he said he could smell the urine as soon as he walked intp our house (can you blame me for being at Jon's?). So traps were laid, an attic door finally fixed (you don't want me to go into that whole expedition- you really don't), but, then came the smell of rotting dead rats and flies, and the monthly inspections we have to take time out on our schedule to take care of.

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Yeah, we were ready to move. It's a big, big shame such an adorable house has been cheaply maintained! A bit of a remodel and some upgrading to make it more insulated would go a LONG way. Ugh. So there you go, we found a nice little, though slightly dated, duplex for about the same price with a landlord who has proved to be really responsive and helpful. On top of that, the previous tenants showed us their monthly bills. Let's just say we'll be saving money. I nearly fell over when I saw the electric in the summer!

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I promise pictures to come soon. It's mass chaos over there. At least we had tons of guys to help make the move as smooth as possible. Yay for friends! Now onto the next bit of nasty business I've been dealing with....

Thanks to the cool artist who put this on deviantart.com and allowed Google to find it.

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Work. In the past three weeks work has becoming nuts, even brinking on insanity. Last week I was so frustrated and upset at the various situations I was shaking!

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Okay I should back up and explain huh? Keep in mind, I LOVE my job. I don't get paid a lot, but, I get friendly co-workers, understanding bosses, lots of flexibility in my schedule, and of course the joy of teaching kids music in turn for a modest salary. So the week before, while I was battling my infection, imgaine my surprise when I recieved an email stating, "As per your contract with MSPA you are required to work at the summer camps we are putting on". No one asked, no one talked to me, nada- just came out of the blue really. Huh???

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First off I never signed a contract. I know, I know I should've and I realize that now. We're such a small business I think some of those more technical/legal ends sometimes get overlooked. Still, I don't recall being told I would be required to work at these camps. Which, okay, I did offer to help at some if I needed to- but did I get assigned one camp? Oh no... no no that would be civilized. I have to be at three camps. Each is a week long. Back to back. Two weeks I work 8:30am-12pm roughly. Not too bad, but, it will be tiring especially since my private lesson load is remaining the same! The other camp is from 8:30am til whenever I need off to go teach. So some days I'm going to start the day with 10-30 kids to herd and teach, then going straight to private lessons which sometimes end around 6pm.

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Let's not even start into how I'll manage all of that, plus Leo's training, plus dance stuff. I'm going to be dancing at OK Mozart in the midst of all of this for pete's sake! On top of all of this there are my usual duties assisting my bosses and keeping things afloat at the studio. I don't know how this will happen. Just the thought of juggling it all and my blood pressure goes up. No joke.

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That leads me to the next part of work related stress. Communications have all but broken down it seems. We rely a ton on email to communicate at my job, plus, weekly meetings with my boss so we're on the same page on a lot of things. The past three weekly meetings have been canceled for one reason or another. The emails have become inconsistent with my boss as well.

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Except to tell me what I have to do. Oh a list I was given either from an email or through another person. Last week I was in charge of basically hiring a new piano teacher, her paperwork and getting it to the proper people, calling new students, trying to get teacher's summer schedules straight, labeling envelopes, etc etc. I also ended up making decisions that are out of my realm, but, only because teachers were left without answers and as I knew some thoughts of my boss on these matters I went ahead and made the call.

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So I am extremely frustrated and stressed out. I feel completly walked over. I've tried to line up meeting with my boss to discuss the camps and the conflicts and issues it will probably cause for me, but, as you probably guessed, no dice. I am thinking that that a lot of personal stuff in her life has come up, as well as, concerns about saving money this summer have led to these decisions and the breakdown in communications. However, I would just like to talk things out, feel like someone who has value in our workplace- not just someone who will do it because I can.

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Or maybe I should talk to another boss? I dunno. I'm rather lost how to approach this situation. However, I'm getting the shaft, especially with an added 20+ hours onto my workload for three weeks, with private lessons thrown in the mix! Sorry to unload, it's probably rather confusing. I have barely been able to keep track of things to be honest!

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I am trying to make it work, but, I don't know how. I really would like to keep my sanity through June! It's a thing.

Forgive Me Blogger for I Have Sinned....

Okay so it's been a little bit since a new 'here's what's going on in my life' post. To be quite honest life just got busy and thus I was T-I-R-E-D. Too much going on, info scattered and jumbled in my brain, and lots of fatigue made it difficult to sit down and sort through it all on my blog. So I will try to give a little recap to catch everyone up on the latest and greatest. Again no pictures because yeah... the camera has just not been taken care of. I think I'm going to make some serious threats to Jon to get that thing fixed... stay tuned.

On with the show!

Thanksgiving was celebrated at Jon's sisters house on Wednesday night. Everything went well- and I didn't have to bake a thing! Jon's sis is amazing, very much like him, in that she LOVES to cook and she handled it all with calm and holiday cheer. If I had to be in charge of an entire Thanksgiving meal for 15 people I would be having a series of mini-meltdowns- at best! We ended the night playing Cranium with Faith's whole family plus a boyfriend. Jon and I totally lost, but, I did know the answer to a little known factoid proving once again I have way to much random information in my brain.

Thursday Jon and his father cleared out the way too small storage unit and dropped everything off at his house. This proved to be helpful come Sunday when the big move occured.

Friday Tia and I rented a U-Haul to pick up the piano in Broken Arrow (a city just south of Tulsa). Thank goodness for Tia's brother and father though! The piano is a spinet or console, meaning it's the smallest upright piano you can get. Still, that sucker weighs easily 300-400 pounds! Fortunatly man power (literally), wheels on the piano, and a ramp got the piano safely in the truck. Add some scarves (yes I said scarves! We didn't pack any rope- real smart move) and we got the piano safely into our house. I've been playing LOTS! The joy of having a piano in my home after 6 years of not having one has been bliss!

Oh and Jon braved Black Friday madness and bought a fridge and a couple of random items for the house. Give me piano moving any day over retail madness!

Saturday brought about moving two loads of small boxes from Jon's parents house to his new abode. That took all afternoon. So the evening was spent in proper style over at a friends house with Wii playing and pizza eating good times.

Sunday- ie "D-Day" ie "The Big Move". Four friends volunteered to help with the promise of two paid for meals as payment. Jon rented a U-Haul and I drove it. Yes, I drove a U-Haul around as I wasn't going to be able to be much help when it came to the heavy lifting- had to contribute in some way! Of course Sunday was cold and dreary with the threat of rain. Still we managed to clean out most of Jon's stuff from his parent's house and all the stuff that was stored at my place (due to the before mentioned storage unit being tiny). This was accomplished in about four hours and we beat the rain. Some doors had to come off their hinges, but, large items were put in place and our friends were rewarded with a large Indian meal bought at a nearby restaurante.

So to summerize... several days of on and off packing and three days of moving culminated in Jon finally out of his parents house and into his own place- FOR GOOD! If I hadn't been so exhausted I think I would've done cartwheels all over Tulsa. However, for me, the adventure didn't stop there. Monday I went down to Norman in a rental car (my roomie works for a large car rental company and it was going to be cheaper than filling the tank my big hooptie car) to see an aunt and uncle I haven't seen in over 8 years! They live in California and they were in town to see my cousin's family. So, I made the trek in hopes of reconnecting with more of my family. The trip was a success. Nothing major really went down, just lots of catching up, and helping with a project my aunt and cousin were working on. I finally got home around 11pm and in bed after midnight.

As a result of all of that 'activity', yesterday I woke up EXHAUSTED beyond comprehension. So that's why this rather long and drawn out post came today.

So there's what I've been up to! How are you all doing?

Finally

It's done. Jon closed on the house this afternoon!! He's moving in over this next week.

Oh and also I am getting a piano (for free!!)! It's coming home this week!

Oh and there's Thanksgiving which means stuffing, dessert, which makes me happy!

I am having serious issues sorting the degrees of excited I am about these things.

Quick Update (ie.I'm Too Tired to Write a Real Entry)

So inspections have gone well with the house. I am beginning to wonder, however, if there is life after buying a house? Do homes really become this all consuming? Does this get better or worse after the ink dries on the dotted line?

Really if you have some input, it would be most welcome. I'm a bit battle weary!

Looking forward to other subjects for entries ahead,
Megan

Let the Exorcism Begin

The Power of Clorox Compels You!!

Okay the bad news first, there is mold in the house. However, there is great news. The mold was found only in one place- the basement. Specifically, on a couple of wood timbers that makes the ceiling of the basement and the base of the above level's floor. The mold levels are well within the 'threshold' and thus, can be easily removed without much fuss. (hey I made a rhyme!)

So yay!! Mold in one spot, a spot that was tested at the last minute 'just in case'. The rest of the house checked out. We're getting estimations on the mold exorcism, but, everything else is go. Inspections are being scheduled and I am praying to all who can help that they'll be as smooth as this! Also, hoping we can wrap all this stuff up and close in the next couple of weeks. Beyond happy and relieved that we are over this big hurdle.

Pictures

As the camera is out for the count right now, and the owner was on top of taking the house off of the websites, I had to do some serious digging to find pictures of the place we could one day call home as long as the inspections go well of course.

Here's the house. If this link doesn't work let me know and I'll do what I can to get some photos. Mind you we're probably going to expand the half-bath downstairs, remodel the upstairs bathroom, open the kitchen up, and make the sunroom the breakfast nook. Not that we've thought much about this! lol

Hope you all like it!

House Buying Post Number...Wait I've Lost Count!

Seriously, buying a house in one heck of an intricate dance- and I'm not much of a dancer! I'll attempt to look pretty in a leotard, but, that's about it. Anywho, the bid that Jon made on the house was accepted first go around as is. I discovered that 'as-is' means everything, the price, the conditions, that we put on the bid were accepted, period, end of sentence.

Are you kidding me?!

Today we did the mold test- gee wonder why that was on the inspection to-do list first! The results will be in Monday. Which is nice, we won't have to wait too long to know if we can continue or jump ship. If all checks out then the other hurdles shouldn't be so bad. Of course that's in theory. The saga continues and btw I am SOOOOOO ready for this to be over with!

Yes Another "Stay Tuned" Entry

Seriously, do you ever tire of these, "wait and see" posts? You don't?! Excellent.

So I as I said we planned on bidding adieu to the house, and we did. Monday the contract was canceled. It was a major bummer and we really didn't want to, but, it was neccessary as our time frame is just too limited to wait and see what'll happen.

Today we put a bid on another house. Yes I realize it has only been roughly 36 hours since we said, 'buh bye' to the other house. I swear it's not like we were ready to jump to bidding on another house so quickly! It just so happened that Sunday Jon's sister saw a house, in a historic district, that had been recently reduced as it had been on the market since June. We did the look through Sunday night, Monday his father and sister came over, and yesterday his uncle (an architect) looked through it. That's right folks, to buy a house with Jon's family there is a three visit minimum requirement.

The verdict? Everyone loves it. The only catch is that it needs updating- like kitchen, bathrooms, knock out a wall here and there sorta way. That said, however, it is in great condition especially considering it is 84 years old! Jon is actually gun-ho, getting out of his long 'funk', and wants to go for it. Holy crap! I've been sick and wasn't quite prepared for a renovation house, but, I've warmed up to it and if we did do it- boy howdy would we get some money back.

The contract was sent in this morning... and now we wait- again! Stay tuned!

Cuuhhhhhraaapppppp

When Jon was leaving tonight I noticed there were marks on the inside of the door. Marks that were not there yesterday. Upon closer inspection it was obvious that those marks were made by a crowbar. My memory wafted back to early this morning when I heard Louie barking, loudly, and (for him) viciously. Best we can figure, someone tried to pry our door open early this morning in hopes they could swipe something and Louie's barking and our sliding bolt saved the day.

Ugh and ugh. A call has already been made to our landlord, David, who thankfully will add more safety measures to the front door, the back door, and our fence gate. I am doing what I can to keep the "What if?" scenarios at bay and just process through all of the rather intense emotions. Most importantly, keep focused on the fact that we are okay and they (whoever they are) did not succeed. Some people aren't so lucky.

We Have a What?!

My roomie's parents came down from Iowa this holiday weekend for a brief visit. We've been having little house problems here and there, so, her folks swung by the house to look at them. Her father inspected a couple of places and told us what was up and what we needed to do. He also took a closer look at the massive tree in our front yard and declared it to be a pecan tree. Of course, I googled it, compared the leaves (which you don't see in the pic) and the green 'pods' (my term) in it and sure enough we do!

Now we get to figure out if we want to collect pecans or not. And then if we do what to cook? I know there's the classics such as pecan pie and sugar coated pecans. Is there anything else I'm not thinking of?

Before and After

Before
The look: Velveeta-cheese-dip-threw-up-all-over-my-bedroom-yellow. Imagine trying to go to sleep and your walls are radiating this color. Now think about waking up in the morning and the first thing you see is this color searing into your retina. Needless to say it had to be changed.
After
The look: Parisian-feel-nice-and-cozy-salon-red. (Oui, my inspiration came from Amélie in case you were wondering) Darker yes, but, the kind of warmth I can get behind. The room still needs some decorating, but, the hard part is over. Now this is a bedroom and I can look at all times of the day and not be horrified!


Please note that these pics were taken with really bad lighting as Oklahoma has decided it doesn't like sunshine right now.

Oh My Good Gawd

I am TIRED!! Yesterday what started out as a simple room painting project turned into quite an ordeal. Isn't it always like that though when it comes to home improvement project? Okay in fairness there wasn't a lot of drama just a lot of painting! Jon, roomie, and moi started work around 3pm and we didn't get done until well past midnight. After putting the room back together, clean up, etc I crashed around 2:15am.

Why so long for a small bedroom? It took three, yes three (not including the primer) coats of paint! Jon had to run to Lowe's just down the street to grab another gallon around 9:30pm. We didn't use that much in the living room which is easily twice if not three times the size of my bedroom.

I will say it was worth the effort, but, today I'm doing diddly squat. And I don't care who knows it! (and yes there will be pictures later- too lazy to do it today)

Painting Round 2 and 3

We'll call this the 'condensed' version of painting the living room Monday and Tuesday evening.

There was sweat...

There was grit...

There was lots and Lots and LOTS of painting...
Maybe a swear word or two...or three...or...

And finally...

There was a living room that became a place we loved.

And supposedly that makes it all worth the effort... I'll get back to you on that. ;-)

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Painting Round 1

In a fit of restlessness or insanity (or both) my roomie and I started painting the living room of our house Sunday afternoon. The goal is to get the living room, dining room, and my bedroom done within a week. We also hope to get the kitchen done soon, though that isn't as big of a priority as the color in there is tolerable.

Why do this? Yeah I know, we rent a house BUT our landlord is really cool and reimburses us for any work we do on the house. The largest factor, however, is the color. I love, LOVE yellow- bright, open, airy, yellow. However, we have a lot of it in this cute house- three rooms in all (the ones mentioned above). And the yellow that is in those rooms... well got kinda gross after awhile (and I will show you that momentarily). So, we're trying to get things taken care of now before the heat of summer hits... okay really it's before we get desperate and take markers to the walls just to escape that color!

Oscar didn't last long out on the leash... we're still getting paint out of his coat!
Mina overall was pretty good, though she prefers rolling around in the plastic tarps over getting into paint. She's in kitty heaven!

Roomie hard at work!

The color to the left is the original color. It's not bad, but, in certain lights it's not the nicest to look at. And it just looked 'dirty' in comparison to the new softer, kinder yellow on the right which is also clean and inviting. Not to mention it's a LOT easier to decorate around!

Sorry for the glowing dvd's! Had to kick up the saturation to capture the new color. And even after stepping it up a notch or two I still wasn't able to get the yellow right! Ah well, you get the idea of the new color. I will post pics soon of round 2 and 3 of painting. As of Sunday evening we got half of the room done in one coat, and the other half was primed last night. Hopefully (please God, Jesus, and anyone else who's listening!) we'll get it all done tonight... first and second coats.

We will see!! More to come later (you know you're excited!!) lol

Images

Our tulips have taken forever to show their blossoms, but, finally there are some beautiful colors emerging. I love the bug on this last photo. Too bad I don't have a macro lense! I would've loved to see his little face. (sorry for the low quality- blame blogger!)

Taking Time

The days sometimes run together; each daily activity feeling more mundane. When the weekend came around, last week, I felt that my life was boring. Then Sunday Tia spotted this little plant on the south side of the house. Isn't it beautiful? It reminded of what Thoreau preached- taking time out to appreciate nature and the now is truely living and experiencing your life. Maybe there's not a whole lotta of interesting things going on day to day, but, each day is wonderful and brings with it beautiful moments such as getting out of my head, stop whining about being bored, and taking the time to look at and capture this lovely flower. Sounds simple, maybe cliche, but, it works for me. :-)

"The Incident"

Last night Tia and I headed to bed a little after midnight (as per usual). I started reading to begin my winding down process, but, before I got too tangled up in a work of fiction decided to take a potty break (gotta love the little kid lingo here). I did my business and opened up the small cabinent above the toliet where roomie and I keep our various beauty things and what do I see crawling about?

THIS!!!!!

Immediatly I scream in horror. In all fairness, I wasn't expecting a roach scurring on the bottle of lotion and I HATE roaches. Loathe, despise, and various other adjectives. I won't go into why I have such intense feelings towards these crunchy bastards, but, I will say it stems from a deep seeded trauma.

Don't judge me.

Tia immediatly leaps out of bed, cautiously enters the hallway (as if she knew it wasn't good). I meet her in the hallway and give it to her straight. She hates roaches even more than me which helped the situation ten fold. Knowing that neither of us would sleep in peace of we didn't take exterminate the terror we entered the bathroom. With no real specific plan in mind, we first started prodding through the cabinet; me standing atop the toliet, due to concerns that it had made its way to the floor, with a roll of toliet paper and Tia with a toothbrush. This process did not yield the desired results (I know shocker).

Finally I tell her to go grab a shoe because I was going to lift up the basket on the bottom shelf hoping that would get him out of there. Tia understandably was rather reluctant to surrender her shoe to be used as a murder weapon, but, she relented. I positioned myself in an attack posture(atop the toliet), lifted the basket up with my free hand, and out emerges the four legged trespasser who began to flee knowing, I assume, my malicious purpose. Did I get him? Oh NO! Tia and I both screamed and jumped about...because you know that's 'productive'. I will say that I screamed and leapt across the bathroom into the hallway at Mach 3- I didn't know I could move that fast without injuring myself.

We gathered our wits (took a minute) and after a quick inspection of the floor entered the scene of terror. I get back up on with one foot on the toliet the other on the edge of the bathtub to make a second attempt. By this time he had made his way to the side of the cabinet which was smart b/c it was a horribly awkward angle. I slammed the shoe towards him and he makes a beeline to the top of the cabinet. Somehow, I'm still fuzzy on the details, the kleenex box came down and WHACK WHACK!!

That roach exploded.... no for real it looked like a Mack Truck ran over his body, and everything inside him burst like some festering zit. The carnage was quite impressive. Even moreso considering I'm pretty sure I closed my eyes and moved away with the final death blow. Tia grabbed some 409, paper towels, and I cleaned up the massacre. Yeah it was not pretty.

'The Incident' lasted a total of fifteen minutes. Long enough for our blood pressure to rise and our inner paranoias emerge in the ugliest way possible. We sounded like screaming banshees. Though I'm not proud of that degree of 'wussiness' on display, I at least got things done and Tia gained some comfort in witnessing the entire affair. However, she may never wear that pair of shoes again.

That's not a complete tragedy... I'll probably recieve said pair of shoes. A trophy of my great adventure as 'exterminator'.