Pet Boarding

So, today we were having a follow-up extermination some work done on our house and we needed to board our pets. I decided to let Sidney be a shop dog and took her to work with me for the day. She enjoyed six hours of treating everyone who walked through BGES's doors like an intruder who she dared to protect me from. It was actually quite sweet. By the end of the day she had chilled out a little bit. All in all, I know that it was less stressful than going to the vet and I suspect that she even had a good time and liked some of the attention.

The cats got to go to the vet. As many of you may already know, we have Pandora who is older than old. She was born in 1994! And.... SHE'S NEVER BEEN SICK IN HER LIFE. It's likely that Pandora will live forever. She's basically a long haired lump. She has one particular chair in our house that she loves to sit on (don't ever sit there. even if it's empty. If you sit there you will definitely have a pandora fur butt and I will not feel sorry for you because you've been warned.) But don't worry. It won't be empty unless we're all in bed. When we are in bed Pandora will come up to sleep near my head. Outside of moving those two times each day... she must eat and use her litter box... but that's about it.

Then there's Sherbert. He hates people. He was a stray kitten and we rescued him. I am 100% sure that he considers us the enemy, would kill us if he could and believes that we are holding him captive in our home. For a long time we considered giving him away or to a shelter (he attacks). But after awhile he became a little, orange, hostile family member and can't help but love him. I set up quarters in our house where he can be alone. I put a bed and cat cube up on top of our hutch and he spends most of his time there.

When we leave the cats at the vet for boarding, they always take a picture.

Here is Pandoras:

Here is Sherbert:

I was not exaggerating.

Motherfuckingfuckingfuckers

Late last week we received a letter from the management company of blood suckers and bastards. The letter ignored the rebuttle that we sent as response to their first letter. The new letter stated that if we didn't pay them several thousand dollars within ten days that they'd send us to collections.

We sent the last letter certified mail and the post office was never able to deliver it and no one from the apartment company ever picked it up. We followed up by overnighting it to them. Still, several weeks passed before the sent a new letter (that didn't even acknowledge anything that we tried to negotiate).

This time we faxed them a letter saying that any attempt to slander our credit will be vigrorously faught by both Jay and I and that we dispute owing them any money. It also points out that they've made no attempt to come to an agreement, nor did they acknowledge our losses.

So, they called. They are saying that because the girls and I traveled last summer that we likely brought the bed bugs into the building and that the company had to exterminate the hallways after we moved out. The thing is that we hired a company to safely remove all of our belongings and dispose of them. Also, the girls and I traveled TO MY PARENTS HOUSE in Naples. We came home to a bed bug infestation. Philadelphia is number 2 in the country for bed bug infestation. My parents did not, do not and never have had bed bugs. They live in one of the wealthiest communities in the US, for Christ's sake. Not that money has that much to do with it... but one of the biggest reasons that bed bugs are so prevalent in cities is because they are so expensive to exterminate. When people can't exterminate properly because they don't have THOUSANDS of dollars at hand... the bed bugs spread.

The apartment company is also saying that the condo association fined them because we moved out on the wrong day and used the wrong hallway. But Jay had our move approved by the condo association days before we actually left and all parties were in agreement that doing the move at night and through a back door would be the best, healthiest thing to do.

So, here's the thing. I WILL NOT. I WILL NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER give those bloodsuckers one penny of our money. I know that they can say that we didn't have to throw out everything that we own. Some experts say that you do. Some experts say that you don't. And if we went to court, they could probably find lots of people to say that we chose it so we can eat the money. For the most part, that's fine. Jay and I are back on our feet. We came out of this okay. And look, it even worked as the catalyst to get me a job that I really like.

But the apartment wasn't inhabitable. How in the world can they possibly be charging us for something that we couldn't live in.

That company is one big giant jerk and I hate it.

It's been awhile since I have written about the bed bugs.

When we were moving, we did two things with our clothes. Anything in boxes was thrown out and everything in our apartment that hadn't been packed yet went into bags, went to a laundry mat, was put through a heavy duty drier cycle, put into new trash bags and has been sitting in our basement for two months.

I have only had three actual outfits and have just been wearing them and wearing them for three months. The girls have just been wearing new clothes and new school uniforms. Jay also bought a few new things.

But, confident that the bed bugs are gone, we took the 11 trash bags that we had stack in our basement to a laundry mat this weekend and Jay washed and dried everything.

There should be no survivors. There really shouldn't have been any survivors after the first time. But we left them there because the eggs aren't killed by the heat and they needed to hatch and the babies needed to starve.

Also, we received a letter from our old management company saying that if we do not pay them a ridiculous amount of money that they are sending us to collections. We do not owe these bastards a cent. What do we do?

Adorable Frames/ Another Extermination

I was relocating the BGES recycling (glasses, batteries, cell phones and laptops) from one box to another when I came across these fantastic frames. Who would want to get rid of them? They're so cute and make me look like a movie star! I'm going going to ask T if I can have them. We can recycle them with my head and a local Lens Crafters.

We're having ANOTHER extermination today. Jay is home to help with the girls and the pets while I prepare the house before going to work.

This is good though. No need to freak out. This is the end... I just hate that within a few days of being exterminated we are always bitten really badly. And it's always the girls. I guess if we aren't bitten this time we'll know that everything is dead.

Another great thing about my job

Today is the first day that I'm working while the girls are in school.

I was able to drop them off, come home, have a cup of coffee, IM with Jay for a few minutes, load the dishwasher, flip the laundry, take some meat out to defrost for dinner and vacuum my house before hopping in the shower to get ready. It couldn't be more convenient, could it?

I'm really looking forward to going in today! It's going to be a good day!

Lila woke up this morning and said, "My back feels funny. It's pains me."

I said, "Maybe you slept on it funny..."

and she responded, "It's probably because I woke up on the wrong side of the bed."

Oh, and in other news, we are 7 days with no bug bites. It doesn't make us free and clear (they say 55 days is the magic number), but it makes us 7 days closer.

Another one bites the dust

Bed Bug victims lay poisoned and dead all around our new home. I have found four so far.

Today I found this one. He's currently encased in tape and after I took the picture I smooshed his belly with my fingernail. He was already dead... but I just don't want to take any chances.

This is the biggest one I've seen.

I put the penny next to him because before I had ever seen a bed bug, I was expecting something much bigger. The pictures on the internet are usually blown up to make the bugs look like they're the size of a fingernail. In reality they're the size of an apple seed. That said, I've never seen a live bed bug, and the dead guys are usually curled up a bit.

Lack of bites and the number of dead bugs I'm seeing gives me some hope that our troubles are on their way out.

I Love My Shop!

I stopped in at the Big Green Earth Store after school pick-up today. I have a few dates that I can't work. One is Lila's birthday party, one is Lila's field trip and the other is a Saturday that Jay has to work. I HATE telling people that I can't work. That said, the people who own this shop are seriously the warmest people on earth. I feel so comfortable there.

The people I'm working for are so nice. They were happy to see me and so friendly and kind to the girls. We bought a little mouse flashlight that Bunny's had her eye on and they even gave me my employee discount!

I just know that I'm going to be so happy with this job. I'm really looking forward to my first day on Sunday. Also, I work Monday and Tuesday as well. I like the schedule because I have time to come home after I drop the girls off at school. I can do things like make the beds, clean a little, take a shower and maybe put dinner in the crock pot (after I replace my crock pot, of course) before leaving the house for work.

Today I learned that Klean Kanteen bottles preferable to Sigg bottles because stainless steel is better than coated aluminum (which is coated and can leak). After I work there for two months I get a free Klean Kanteen bottle. I will probably replace B and L's water bottles before that point though. My discount there is 25%. It should be a very green Christmas for the Holler House.

In other news, I found another dead bed bug today. Dead is good. Dead is good.

Trick or Treat

Yesterday I spoke on the phone with my childhood friend S. I caught her up sobbed my way through the long, distorted, miserable tale that has become the story of our recent past. She's probably the strongest, most grounded, earthiest person I know. I sort of consider her fearless. She's the sort of person who's like, "What's the big deal about lice? Sprinkle a little Cayenne Pepper and some organic apple cider vinegar on your head and yer good to go."

Honestly, I was hoping that she'd offer me some sort of refuge. Not that I'd necessarily take it. But yesterday was a low day and the thought of dipping my children into tubs of hot water, spraying my car with pesticides, popping some strong antihistamines in my dogs mouth and us all quietly escaping Philadelphia at some point in the middle of the night did cross my mind once or twice.

But even my fearless friend S was like, "BEDBUGS ARE MY WORST FEAR. Don't go anywhere. You'll take them with you."

I cried and cried and cried.

And she was like, "It's okay to call me crying. Do it as much as you need to. But remember, you're the mama. You're the lighthouse (I think that she said lighthouse... but it could have been flashlight or lamppost or porch light or maybe even life force... something to that effect) and you've got to hold it together for your family."

This isn't the first time that someone has said something like this to me in reference to the bb's. And I have been trying VERY HARD to hold it together. I lay in bed with my girls and tell them that everything is going to be alright. I tell them not to worry and I recite all of the good things in our lives. I tell them how much I love them and I tell them about all the great things that we have to look forward to. I spend a lot of time on the dinners that I make each night and I try very hard to create a homey atmosphere of safety, sanctuary and peace.

Realistically, this is just a show. And every so often I slip and I snap or I break and I cry.

I cry more when they are in school than when they are at home and I cry less this week than I did last week.

But, sometimes I fall apart.

I am going to work harder to make things better for the girls. No matter how much money we owe and don't have. No matter how much stuff we've lost. No matter how victimized we feel by the stupid bed bugs or how long it's going to take us to recover from them... our kids have whole lives ahead of them and they need to walk away from this unscarred.

So, although it probably seems small and silly, I took a little step towards happiness and normalcy today by decorating our fireplace with a few of the Halloween party decorations that V passed down to me (from her party a few years back). It's just a couple things, but I know that she'd probably rather see something from my house incinerated rather than have it back in her house right now. I know that my girls will come home this afternoon and be completely thrilled to see this!

I am going to do more happiness and less complaining. I'm going to be more grateful that we're alive and that nothing irreparable has happened to my family. This, eventually, can all be fixed.

I woke up feeling a little bit better this morning. Actually, I felt better after speaking with the exterminator. My big fear was that our new furniture could be infested. The dead bed bug that we found was on a blanket that was sitting on our new couch. Though I realize that bed bugs aren't likely to travel downstairs when we all sleep upstairs (they like to stay close to where they eat) I was scared that that little jerk did just that. It what if it laid eggs there?

It's totally possible that it died on a floor upstairs and got stuck on someones sock as they were walking around. I think that's likely. Then that person came downstairs and cuddled up in a blanket on the couch.

But the uncertainly of this was really messing with me.

The exterminator told me that the bb's aren't going to make nests in my couches because tehy can't. He sprayed something in our house to prevent them from reproducing. So, our problem is only the existing bb's who survived the first extermination. He said that if we had different floors that we wouldn't have to worry about them at this point. They'd just be gone. It's our floors that have done us in.

But he told me that from this point forward our problem should be over and that though we may find more bb's, they shouldn't be strong enough to bite us and will all be dead soon. On the off chance that we do continue to be bitten, he said to call him and he'll come out and exterminate again.

Bunny told me that she was only sad yesterday while going into the school. I really hope that this morning goes more smoothly. She has a dentist appointment this afternoon that Jay's leaving work early to take her to (Jay is the dentist guy. I do shots. He does fillings.)

I'm still really excited to start my new job. I'm going to spend a lot of my day on their website reading product descriptions so that I can be knowledgeable about the merchandise from the get-go. I also think it's great that I get to be a part of the new store from the set-up. I will know where everything is because I probably put it there! That's exciting. I'll also get to know the products better before having to sell them.

Please let our lives turn around now.

Cancelled the Party

For obvious reasons we have to cancel Lila's fifth birthday party at our house.

I feel so sorry for her. My poor daughter is robbed of her birthday party for one reason or another each year. This year we celebrated her birthday while in Florida. It's on August 25th. We had a family party with my mom, dad, Lila's Great Grandmother and Great Grandfather. I promised her that after we returned home to Philadelphia and we were settled into our new home that we could have a big, Halloween birthday party that we'd invite all of her new, kindergarten school friends to. As soon as we got home I designed and ordered cute birthday invitations and sent them into her teacher to go in each child's folder on the first week of school.

Then we found out about the bed bugs.

We've held off on canceling the party because a.) Lila talks about it every day. And b.) I'd hate to have cancelled it and then have no bed bugs and no reason not to have it on October 30th.

But, really, we should be bb free for a long time before allowing families into our home. It's not fair to risk passing this to someone else.

This doesn't make my daughters heart any less broken.

So, here's what we're doing. We booked a little Build-A-Bear party at a mall in New Jersey. We invited five of Lila's close friends to the party (I honestly wish that we could invite more friends, but it gets very expensive very quickly). Each child will go to the party and be able to make their own bear, while celebrating Lila as a guest of honor. Then, we'll find a little pizzeria outside of the mall and everyone can get a bite to eat together.

And that's that.

It's not perfect, but it's something.

I was looking at my husband yesterday and saw how beat up and downtrodden he seemed. Life has been very hard for us for quite awhile now. Between Jay's health problem, bed bugs, financial suicide and Bunny's broken arm and general anxiety issues... it has taken a toll on our family. I'm worried about us.

...and the bites go on

Yesterday, both of my girls woke up with bed bug bites. When is this going to get better?

I seriously feel like I could cry (again). I wasn't even able to send Lila to school because the bite on her foot is so terrible that her foot was too swollen to fit in socks and shoes.

The exterminator said to give it until the end of the week and if we're still getting bites at that point he'll come back to spray again. Killing bed bugs isn't instant. They have to crawl around in the poison and then it takes time for them to die.

Also, Bun is struggling in school. I wrote to her teacher a few times yesterday... but she didn't write back. Granted, it's only 6:30 am and my daughter's issues and struggles in school undoubtedly feel much bigger to me than they do to her. That said, the school that kept us in Philadelphia, that seemed like the only great thing about Philadelphia... is disappointing me and failing both of my children this year. GREAT.

More than ever, I just want to run away to the burbs.

I'd better go now so that I can go fetal and cry before my kids need to get dressed and out the door.

And for your viewing pleasure:

Lila's normal ankle.

Lila's bug bitten ankle (one day after the fact).

Oh no!

In our haste to become bed bug free, we accidentally threw out our "important documents" folder that held things like our social security cards and birth certificates. All of this can be replaced, but it will take time.

This morning while filling out online job applications I realized that I can't actually prove who I am. Not even the address on my drivers license is current.

ohmygod.

progress

We are making some progress, but we had an insanely long yesterday.

We were up at 6 to leave Philadelphia at 6:30. Surprisingly, my children were up and excited to leave (even Bunny- who I have totally given up on calling Kaitlyn). We got to New Jersey, picked up our UHall truck, dropped off the girls with an incredibly generous friend who showered them with toys (so appreciated and needed). I met Jay, his friends CK and JP over at the storage unit and we emptied it into the truck. Then, I picked up the girls, dropped the keys to the storage place off and headed back to Philadelphia. This was a LOT of time in the car for the girls (about 5 hours in the car with an hour and a half break). I was incredibly proud of them for being so understanding. When we got home, Jay's friend B was here to help us unload our furniture.

There's a lot left to do. We unwrapped most of the furniture and unpacked many boxes... but, still, there's a lot to do. Also, furniture that will eventually go into a bedroom (like one of the little love seats and a tv and a few of our chairs) are downstairs. We are a little bit scared to move them at the moment. Our problem is likely over (fingers crossed) but we won't know for sure until we've had two weeks without anyone experiencing a bite... which hasn't happened yet.

Of everything, the girls are the happiest to have their own computer! Jay is happiest to have a couch to sit on. I am happiest to have our patio furniture! Oh, and I got pretty excited when I unwrapped about two dozen of my mother's old steak knives!

Here are some pictures. Like I said, we have a long way to go... but this gives you an idea!

Good News

I called the Philadelphia Bar Association today.

They have a service where they put you on the telephone with a lawyer who listens to what you have to say and makes a referral if they feel you've got a case.

I told the lawyer everything that's happened to us and she said that she definitely thinks that we have a case. She gave me a referral and said that if she were in private practice she'd love a case like this. I gave the lawyer who she referred me to a call and am waiting to hear back from him.

I have called other advocacy groups and renters rights groups to find out my rights. They must be swamped because mailboxes always seem to be full and I never get calls back. Granted, I'm not leaving detailed messages and maybe I should be. I might be falling through the cracks. I just hate prattling on people's voice mails.

I've decided to hop, skip and jump over to a lawyer.

I'm going to make an inventory of our losses today.

But first, I clean.

2d Extermination

Today is the BIG EVENT! We've been counting down the days and it's finally here! I feel like it's a prom or a party or a birthday or a holiday. But no... it's an extermination. Who ever thought that an extermination could be such a joyous occasion?

Here are my plans:

In a few minutes I need to strip the girls beds and get everything in the wash (***which may not be easy considering that Bunny is still laying in her bed begrudgingly, refusing to get out of it).

Then I need to get the girls ready and off to school. Come home, flip the laundry, do a bit of tidying, get dressed (and if I'm lucky I'll be able to shower as well), put my cats in their carriers (something that I've been dreading because they FIGHT) and take them to the vet.

Then, I need to get back to my house to meet the exterminator.

I forgot that tomorrow was picture day. My poor children have nothing to wear. Usually we do dresses and get up early to curl their hair. Instead, due to the constraints of my budget and the fact that I don't have ANYTHING for them to wear or ANY way to curl their hair, I'm going to go out to the Old Navy and buy them each a new dress (hopefully I can find one that is on sale). Though I can imagine some people not feeling that this is sacrificial, it actually is. I generally do fancy outfits and lots of accessories. But anyway, then I'm going to a drug store and picking up two packs of curlers and a few bobby pins.

Unfortunately I'll have Sidney with me for this trip. I'm petrified of leaving her in a car alone. My friend J says that I can pick her up and she'll go along for the ride. She'll just Sidneysit while I do my errands. Phew!!!!!

After I pick the girls up from school we have to get frozen yogurt. We do this every Wednesday. I've noticed that Bunny is especially interested in new traditions lately. She's been asking for all sorts of things to "happen on such and such day." Last night I made a whole, stuffed, citrus, honey chicken and she asked that I do this every Tuesday. I think that they miss pie night a lot... which is the one tradition that we've had and kept. I think that I'll start pie nights again next Thursday!

By the way, it's a little bit early in the day to know for sure (because bites usually don't appear on me until after lunch) but I am 99% sure that it's been over 5 days since I've been bitten by a bed bug. I say this because yesterday I had my first itch free day and I noticed that my bites seem to itch for around five days. I've also noticed that my dog doesn't appear to have been bitten recently either. Bunny hasn't been bitten since she was attacked that night in our old apartment. And Lila hasn't been bitten since the night preceding the morning when I found the poisoned bed bug in her bed (almost two weeks ago). Who knows about Jay. It's tough to say because he doesn't have a reaction to them. He may have been bitten over the weekend... but I suspect it was a mosquito bite. After all, there's no way that they could have eaten him up all summer and he didn't feel anything... and now suddenly he's allergic to them.

I have never hated anything the way I hate a bed bug

***I just noticed that my time stamp is off and this post shows as being published at 3:58 am. Don't worry. It was actually 6:58 when I published this. I wasn't forcing my 6 year old out of bed in the middle of the night.

Starting over- Tales of a Bed Bug Warrior

Jay and I have had such a mountain of crap to deal with that we didn't quite know where to start.

For the most part (and take this for what it is because the emotion might be different in 30 seconds) I think that we are both done being traumatized by the idea of bedbugs. This is, in part, because we have our second extermination on Wed. morning. Everyone needs more than one chemical extermination. About 20% of people need more than 2 chemical exterminations. So, we're hoping for the best on Wed.

Before we can sue the panties off of our management group (who are bloodsuckers themselves), we really need to get our here and now in order. We need to know that our present life isn't compromised. This means, we need to know that we can pay our bills and feed our children. Really, not having furniture and rewashing all of your bedding and clothing every day isn't the end of the world, stressful as it may be, if all your other bases are covered. For us, the financial burden of this situation has stung and this has exasperated our already stressed out state of mind.

Step one to recovery: Jay called the credit card companies who were pretty reasonable. The second company suggested we call a number for a credit council. We did a conference and the lady was really helpful. We can use the service and cut our interest rates drastically. It will take us four years to pay off our credit cards (we obviously had some debt before. It was more manageable though. This huge bed bug problem pushed our manageable debt over the edge and made it unmanageable).

Step 2: Have our second extermination. The exterminator is coming at 11 on Wednesday morning. To avoid one of our pets dying, I called the vet who has agreed to pet sit for Sherbert and Pandora from 10-6 on Wed. This should give our house plenty of time to dry and we don't have to worry about our cats being trapped in little pet carriers in our car, totally stressed out with no food water or way to go to the bathroom. It's $30 bucks per pet, but I think that's money well spent. After all... what did our "Sherbert Almost Died" vet visit cost? A whole helluva lot more than $30 bucks. Thatsfersure.

Step 3: I need a job. I applied at Whole Foods, my favorite place on earth. I'm going to go in tomorrow and talk to someone. I'm going to go around from place to place on South street and see if I can find something. Anything will do I will totally work for minimum wage. Honestly, the whole reason that I need a job (outside of digging myself out of this financial hole) is because I'm scared that I won't be able to afford Christmas this year. That's just unacceptable to me. I will NEVER let fucking bedbugs strip the magic of Christmas out of my children's lives. NEVER. NEVER. NEVER.

Step 4: Get furniture. No explanation needed.

Step 5: Organize everything that we need to present to a lawyer to make a case against Philadelphia Management.

Step 6: Sue the MoFo's.

Okay, so this is where we stand. I feel like I'm in a slightly better mental place (for the most part) right this second than I have been since the whole bed bug thing began.

Hopefully I can survive this without running away. Hopefully the worst is over. Hopefully things will just get better from here.

UPDATE:

I just called this place and the mailbox was full so I was unable to leave a message. Why does that strike me as bad?

Fair Housing Commission 34 S Eleventh Street, 6th Floor Philadelphia PA 19107 215.686.3237

Fair Housing addresses housing code violations and unfair rental practices

recovering...

So, the bed bugs have hit us financially pretty hard.

As it was, we were just scraping by. I mean, we had food, shelter and our bills were getting paid... but we certainly weren't eating out every night or building our savings with all of our extra money. The bed bugs have really robbed us of everything. On top of our safety, peace of mind and furniture, we have also dug ourselves a hole of debt.

It looks like I need a job. With the craziness of exterminations and laundry (doing laundry in our home has become a full time/ 8 hour a day job), I will need to wait it out briefly. But, maybe by the end of next week I can start trying to find a job. Anything would help.

We're taking my engagment ring (the only expensive piece of jewelry that I own) to the pawn shop today in hopes that it will help cut down on our credit card bill. I doubt that they'll give us much for it... but, we'll see.

And we're considering filing for bankruptcy.

Both Jay and I feel so overwhelmed.

Also, we got a letter from our apartment managment company saying that we owe them about $4000 in charges. Pretty sure that they are going to sue us. We really need to take a step toward taking legal action against them. I HATE them. When I think about it I can't breathe.

Jay spent the evening last night watching the cleaning crew remove all of our old belongings for disposal. I can't believe that losing our stuff is hitting me so hard. I'm crying as I write it. I mean, it's JUST stuff. We'll get more stuff. It will be okay. I just feel stripped of everything.

Jay is working all the time in hopes of recovering from this a little bit.

Did I tell you that we are holding off on moving our things. We couldn't find anyone to help us. This strikes me as being so insane. Jay asked everyone he knows. No one would help. The only person who even offered was someone who we haven't been close with in years. I couldn't even find someone who was willing to babysit the girls while I helped Jay load the storage facility into a uhall. So, we'll have to hold off and go longer until we are able to find people to help. Honestly, I wasn't that comfortable bringing furniture into our house right now anyway. So, maybe it's for the best.

Up and Off the Floor

With hesitance, we've started putting new furniture in our house.

This is our new kitchen table. It's no match for the beautiful dining room set that my parents gave me for my birthday a few years back, but it's fine. It will do. I'm happy to have it so that we can give up the card table and folding chairs that have been functioning as our couch, homework and dinner tables.

Also, our bed frames came. Like I said, it will be awhile before we buy head and foot boards for them... but at the very least they are off the ground. In this picture the beds are totally stripped. Why? Because I wash our bedding EVERY SINGLE DAY. I spend so much time doing laundry that it's practically a full time job. I actually ruined Kaitlyn's comforter and need to buy her a new one today. I over washed it and it began falling apart. I wash each sheet, pillowcase, blanket and comforter and then dry them all for two 80 minute dryer cycles every day. Notice the little white bowl around the leg. Each of our beds has 4 of them. They are full of poison and once the bedbug crawls into it... they'll never crawl out. Mwah hahahahhahhaha...

So, on Saturday we'll be getting some furniture out of storage. I know that what is in the storage facility will work for us in some respect. We will make it.

The company who is disposing of our old furniture and our old belongings would like to do it on Friday night, but Jay's been getting some resistance from the condo association. You'd think that they'd want every contaminated piece of furniture out of there as soon as possible, but instead they're complaining about where they can park the truck? Bizarre.

Getting Back To Normal

We are working on making things normal again here.

We have bed frames coming today. They aren't fancy or fantastic. They're just metal frames. We need to recover from the financial hit of bed bugs before we invest in nice furniture again.

The exterminator suggested bringing furniture in a week after our extermination. This gives the bed bugs a chance to come out of hiding, drag themselves through the poison pesticides and die. Then, if anything remains or (eek!) hatches, he'll be back to exterminate everything again... and will come back as many times as it takes to solve the problem.

So, this Saturday we're going to our storage facility and getting out our belongings. Couches, chairs, tables, pots, pans, dishes... Phew.

I am nervous about it, but we can't go without furniture forever and we do need to make things more normal for our kids. This has been such a long road. Kaitlyn was crying as she went into school today and the counselor told me that she says that she doesn't want to leave me during the day because I'm so stressed out. I find this heartbreaking.

I've also found that I'm hiding from a lot of people. Everyone wants to talk bed bugs with me and when I engage in conversations about them I get so anxious and depressed that I can't focus on anything else. I just need to let all of the harmful carcinogens in my home do their job and move forward now.

By the way, I was bitten by a dog this morning. It ran right up to me, bit my hand and drew blood. It's not a big bite, but geesh. Wanna see? It was strange. The dog bit me. It ran towards me, jumped up, I put my hand out defensively and it bit... and the owner was sort of like, "Yeh, he doesn't like adults... only children. That's why you have to let him smell you first." I was thinking, smell me? He just bit my hand!!!!

It's not that big of a deal, just another bizarre note in my sour concerto.

Bed Bugs in da house

All I can say is that Lila woke up with a half-live bed bug on her sheets and blood stains this morning.

The exterminator says that this is good.

I am unable to think and my feelings are insane, unhealthy and shooting all over the place.

My friend Victoria says that we can go and live with her if we need to... just until we can get on our feet. I may need to leave Philadelphia. I know that Jay can't. His job is here. Plus, he loves it here. I don't want to walk away from my marriage (AT ALL) but it's irresponsible for me to keep my children in this situation.

I am going to follow the exterminators directions, practice patience and hope for the best. If, in a few weeks, we're still going through this...I'll have to leave.

The company that we hired to dispose of our belongings will not do it until it's been exterminated. Our apartment management didn't want to exterminate until our belongings are gone.

Oh, and today was our anniversary.