testing and ant updates

Hi all - I am trying out this way of linking my blog to my profile which is the main reason I am writing a post.

As a follow-up to the ant situation here goes: the borax/sugar mixture actually worked well, but I went ahead and bought some bait traps that seem to have done the job. We have had a stray ant or two today, but so far none tonight. Thank goodness they are gone. Now, if we could just get the new fridge....

Did I mention Harry is shopping online for it? I'm fascinated by how it's going to get here. I keep picturing UPS or FedEx showing up with this gigantic box. When I asked him how they ship them, he looked at me with this blank look and said "that's what shipping companies are for". So much for my imaginings of UPS rolling up the driveway with my new appliance. Moving companies seem so much more boring and anti-climatic than going to the store and having it delivered, but if we can save some big money this way, then I'm all for it!

ants and fridge problems

Apparently, nothing good really happens while Harry is out of town. He's been gone for a few days and my house has gone to the ants! The problem started a few days ago, and now I am in a never-ending struggle to rid myself of these menaces. They are the little black ones, so thankfully, they don't bite. "What have you tried?" you may ask. Well here goes:

 

1. Vinegar water solution: didn't even kill them or slow them down
2. Smash technique - therapeutic, but not effective at getting to the nest
3. Tonight at 2:30am I got up for water. Found them swarming an EMPTY sink and counter (yes, I cleared everything off today).
4. I've just laid out some borax mixed with sugar. Supposedly, this is another "green" way to get rid of them. I'm not hopeful
5. Tomorrow - er..later today, I am going to the store to buy ant traps.

So you're probably thinking, just find the nest and poison that. No can do. They don't come from a particular spot and swarm my whole counter. I even removed the outlet cover and carefully, but with great revenge in my heart, sprayed ant spray while praying I wouldn't electrocute myself. My husband did it once so why can't I?

What these ants don't know is the level of stubbornness they are dealing with. There is a lot in my life I can't control, so somehow, I am just BEGGING for a project like this. Clear-cut and to the point - find and kill the ants. I'll let you know how the traps go.

In other news, our 15 year-old fridge is just about dead (again, right as Harry was leaving town). Last month we were looking at new ones and he decided to wait since ours was still perfectly good. I acquiesced, but expressed my concern. See our house is 15 years-old, so the spot to put the fridge can only accommodate a 35 inch model. All of the new, fancy ones with freezers on the bottom and fridge on top and water in the door are wider than that. My concern was that if we waited for the current fridge to die, we wouldn't have the luxury of shopping around. Turns out I may be right.

My neighbors, God bless them, came to my rescue again. They sell ice cream on the weekends and brought me a freezer that I can dial down to use for the fridge items (we had a small freezer that I moved frozen foods to a few days ago). Now, I'm afraid we'll be using that cooler for a week while my wonderfully thrifty husband shops around; or worse, looks for some "part" to attempt to repair the 15 year-old beast.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures from our family *sarcasm intended!*.

Not bad all things considered

So yesterday was a bit of a let-down for us. We went to a pool party at a pool we don't normally attend. I was busy with the baby, but was checking in on Harry from time to time. Apparently, the "lifeguard" was a little too watchful of him. I say lifeguard loosely because she isn't really one - more like a rule monitor.

She stalked me down to complain about Harry not going down the slide properly and threatened to ban him. I told her he was Autistic and I would speak to him. She informed me she was a teacher but couldn't have children disobeying the rules. After a few other run-ins, I left with the baby and let my husband take over. She was mean and belligerent with him even calling him honey. He told her his name wasn't "honey", it was Mr. Bulbrook and a little respect on her part would go a long way towards solving the problem. She accused him of being "aggressive" and stalked off.

While I have shortened the narrative, I have detailed it all for her bosses in a letter that I have fired off. My question - although rhetorical at this point is - What is she a teacher of? She certainly didn't act like a teacher that understands Autism. Although, one time I did have one teacher refer to special needs kids as "those kids" when she went on a tirade to me one day (not knowing I was one of those kids moms and he was sitting right there)! Be careful what you say people! I also emailed her boss to let her know what a poor example she was setting for the school's reputation. I didn't tell her I was a special needs parent - that was on a need to know basis and she didn't need to know.

The point is people need to step back and chill out. I was just on a parent panel at TEACCH this week trying to explain what we go through. This was a perfect example. I was polite, but really just wanted to yell at her. That's ok - my letter will get my point across even if no one listens. It was so frustrating for me to watch her stalk my son waiting for any chance to call him out. I didn't interfere to much because he also needs to learn that people can be very serious about the rules. He also needs to develop more social awareness of what people are thinking around him.

On another note, we had a big milestone today. Harry has been saving his money for 6 weeks to buy a Buzz Lightyear toy. Every week we had to count the money and every time we went to Target, we had to visit the toy. Today he had enough money and proudly got to buy that toy. I'm so proud of him. Before he was saving for Buzz, he was saving his money for a wooden Amtrak train set he really wanted.

He is learning some real world skills and patience and I couldn't be more proud of him!