Ant update

Whoa, has it really been over two years since I've blogged?  I guess having a third child really rocked my world.  Anyway, I was randomly looking at my stats today and saw that my previous ant post had a page view so I thought I would update.  

So we tried:
-pepper: Deters them temporarily
-peppermint oil soaked cotton balls: Also a temporary fix
-raid: Yes, believe it or not this doesn't work permanently
-cleaning (apparently diry kitchen attract pests): Works temporarily..until you want to eat again
-peanut butter based ant traps: Worthless
-peanut butter mixed with borax: Worthless (apparently the ants we have prefer sugar over oil)
-sugar mixed with borax and water: I don't think my recipe was very good.  The ants couldn't take it back to their queen because they drowned in my pathetic poison
-ant powder around the house: Not sure if this helped because there is a very real possibility that my ants live in my walls (ugh)
-caulking: Ok, so we didn't caulk the whole house.  Do you know how long that would take to find each and every possible little hole and fill it with caulk?

I'm sure there were more ways we tried but I can't think of anymore.  It's been a while.  Anyway, now to what you've been waiting for.  What HAS worked (at least worked for more than a month.)  Thanks to one of my besties for tell me about this product.

Terro traps

You can get them at Home Depot.  Why have I not seen them before now?  I think they're basically like the sugar/borax mix I made but these work SO much better.

Anyway, we set out traps everywhere we had seen ants and left for a weekend.  When we came back this is what we saw:

Ick

Almost all the traps were full.  And there were still ants coming.  Yuck.

We've had to refresh the traps a few times but all in all, a month later and we're still ant free.  And this is ant season.  We're sooooo incredibly happy.  Maybe this will work for you if you have those annoying little sugar ants.  Good luck.

WWLCD?

I love this website. I wish I could make EVERY piece! I wonder why The Pottery Barn is so nervous? Is it really a crime to offer affordable design? What do you think?

PS....that isn't a typo in the title....LC stands for Le Corbusier....a famous furniture designer.

Not to smother artistic talent...

but, really, let's keep it on paper. If you have a little artist like I do, you probably have some walls that look like this:




BUT, with a little toothpaste and a lot of elbow grease (especially if you have textured walls...ugh) your wall can go back to this:



Yes, I used Arm and Hammer toothpaste because, really, it's not fit for brushing your teeth. Ick

Taming shrews and Culturing children

Phew, haven't done movie/book reviews for a while.


I love art. I hope my children love art too. Why not expose art to them now! The book is Children's Book of Art. I read it to Bryant. He lasted 2 minutes. Yeah, well I tried. I wonder how they chose the different pieces for this book. Well, I really liked it. Maybe it should be renamed Parents' Book of Art.





Tonight we watched Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's Taming of the Shrew. Loved it! I have seen it before but this was the first time for Ben. I loved that the costumes and scenery were set in Shakespearean time. I loved that they didn't modernize the script. I loved Liz's big hair. I just loved it. I wonder if Liz and Rich were like that in real life (the feuding parts.) After all...they were married twice. See this, you'll love it too.

Practically a new kitchen!

Ok, maybe not quite. But our new backsplash sure does wonders for our kitchen. I don't have a before picture. The backsplash was just the wall. It was hard to clean and ugly. So you can just picture something ugly and hard to clean. But here's the after!





We got the tiles online from here and we LOVE them! We're not quite done. Still have some to put up. And we have to order some more because my hubby decided to become a cabinet maker!







Yes, he made that. Now we finally have somewhere to put the mixer. He just has to put on the door and then we can paint. And I think I'm tired of the white. I was thinking maybe a creamy color to try and warm up the kitchen a little. That probably won't happen until after the Holidays. It took us a month to put up tiles and we're not even done yet. The projects never end. Good thing they're lots of fun!

Baby, it's cold outside!

It's freezing here. Literally. The tube that takes the water from the condensate pump (for our furnace) outside is plugged up because the water in it has turned to ice.

Goodee.

At least give us snow if it's going to be this cold! Hope you're all staying warm...and having a Happy Holidays.

Anyway, I love the smell of Christmas trees. Ours is up but not quite all the way decorated. We've been decorating it with the boys a little at a time.

Drosophila

image found here

Fruit flies. Ugh. I hope you don't have a problem with them too. Sure, we need to eat our bananas a little faster but sheesh! It doesn't take long for these fruit decomposers to make some friends. They can lay up to 20 eggs a day! No fair.

Well, if you do have a problem with them maybe you can try this homemade fly trap. Mix a cup or two of apple cider vinegar and a few squirts of dish detergent in a glass jar. Put some plastic wrap on the top and poke some holes in the top. Shake up the jar a little bit to make some fly trapping bubbles and there you have it.

Or, if your trap isn't working fast enough and the flies are REALLY getting on your nerves....you can fire up the vacuum. :)

Yum yum

I LOVE these. I personally can't justify buying them in the summer, but now that it's winter, I'm totally hittin' Costco to get me some mango goodness.

Partaaaaay

Today

Me: Bryant, what are you doing?

Bryant: Having a party under my bed!

Me: I see

word

U2

We went to the U2 concert in Vancouver, Canada. All I can say is AMAZING! Thanks Ben for taking me. And thanks Crystal for watching the kiddies!

Heh, you can see we were pretty high up, but I LOVED it!