Creepy Crawlies!

I am not particularly fond of bugs. Our new house has had quite a few bugs. I just don't get it!! It's not a new house, but there are lots of ways for the bugs to get in. When we first moved into our previous house, James came running to me saying "Mommy, there's a baby dinosaur in the basement". The dinosaur turned out to be a little anole lizard.

After the dinosaur incident, Chris surveyed the exterior of the house and found all kinds of cracks and holes which he sealed up.

Now in our new house, the first invasion we had was stink bugs. Evidently stink bugs have been a problem for many people down in Georgia. Now if only we had baby dinosaurs living in this house! Lizards eat bugs, so that would be a good thing.

The stink bugs lasted for about a week. I've seen a few outside, but they haven't been in the house lately.

After the stink bugs, we had some tiny ants.

Chris set up some bait traps and the ants were under control in a day or so.

Then this past weekend, we found lots of millipedes crawling around in the basement. Hannah & I vacuumed them up as fast as we could.

Chris & James were out of town during the millipede debacle. Yuck!!!

This morning I saw a lady bug in the house. Flash forward a few hours and now we have lots of lady bugs.

Now that Chris is back in town & marching band season is nearing the end, this week's project is to seal any cracks and holes to keep those uninvited creatures OUT! There are a couple of exterior doors that have space under them to allow bugs to get in. There's a decorative window that's high up that appears to be slightly open. I just don't get it!!!! Didn't the previous home owners notice that bugs could get inside easily!?!??

So hopefully this is the end of our creepy crawlies!!

Halloween Decorations

I usually start decorating for Halloween on October 1st. Things were a bit behind schedule with our late September move date. We did manage to find some time to do a little decorating this past weekend.

As far as interior decorating, I only decorated the fireplace mantle and hearth this year. I love my collection on musical Hallmark characters on the hearth! The kids were so amused by them when they were younger.

Here's a close up of the mantle. Here's the link to my post from last year about making the altered printer's tray. Halloween Altered Printer's Tray

We also did minimal decorating outside.

Close up of some of our tombstones that we made last year. Tombstones

Although simple, we are happy to at least have a few decorations out this year. But with only a week before Halloween, it seemed like too much of an effort for such a short time. Hope the new neighbors appreciate our holiday decorating!!

All Moved In

We've been in the new house for 1 month now. We've made a lot of progress unpacking, but there is still a lot to do. We did get one of the cars in the garage last weekend which was a huge accomplishment!

Why did we move? After the death of my father-in-law this past March and my mother in May, we decided that we needed a home with a designated guest room. We aren't expecting anyone to move in with us, but we are hoping we will have more frequent and longer visits from our remaining parents. Up until now, we've just rearranged the kids to accommodate guests.

The new house is less than 10 minutes away from our old house and it's in the same schools. That was pretty important to us. We have more rooms and living space, but less storage. The new neighborhood is small & quiet and the yard is much larger.

In the 22 years we've been married, with the exception of the first 10 months where we lived in an upstairs apartment, we've always had a main floor bedroom. That is until now! Let's just say, I'm getting a lot more exercise!

I'll post more pictures when we finish unpacking.