Great Uncles, Aunts, and Ants

This post is very long over due, so I'm going to combine two completely unrelated topics to save some time. Last Thursday, I had the opportunity of meeting and visiting with my great uncle Joe and great aunt Linda and their son (my moms cousin), Danny. It was so delightful. They are jovial people with big laughs, but also a sense of refinement. I instantly loved them, and so did the kids. I've never seen Jade so chummy with somebody new as quickly as she was with Aunt Linda. She was letting her hold her, talking with her, and sharing her toys. It was awesome. Of course, Braden was in both of their faces instantly upon meeting them to show them the toys or tell them about something he found to be interesting. Joe and Linda are from Georgia, but I'm not really sure where their accent is from. I can't exactly place it except to say that it is not from the West... definitely an Eastern sound. I loved listening to them talk and hearing each vowel just a little differently than I usually do. I wasn't able to stay very long because the kids had to get home and get to bed, but I really enjoyed every minute I was there.

When the kids and I got home, Spencer had gotten home from work and had started cleaning the kids room in preparation for them to go to bed. When we walked in the door, he said, "Don't let the kids go in their room. There are ants all over the place" I went in there and sure enough, they were all along the edge of the floor going into the bathroom, and also on the carpet under the kids table. I determined that the infestation was probably spurred by the fact that I had been doing a project on the kitchen table and had therefore fed the kids a snack on the table in their room. During the snack, Jade had chosen to smash all of her crackers with the base of her cup, and there were crumbs everywhere. I had vacuumed the floor,the table, the chairs, and Jades clothes and had wiped down the table and chairs with a rag, but I knew there were probably still some fragrant crumbs attracting the tiny terrors. Spencer vacuumed the ants that he could see, and I sprayed poison along the carpet near the bathroom . That seemed to put a stop to the problem and we saw no more ants, so we put the kids to bed. In the morning, after the kids had been up for an hour or so, Spencer found more ants. They were on Jades bed! AHH! We immediately washed her sheets and bedding, pulled out her bed and found a trail of ants along the baseboard on the North side of the rooms. I sprayed the poison along the baseboard. Spencer had to go to work, but on his way out, he found an ant hill right up against the side of the wall downstairs. He had me boil some water, and I poured it all over the hole. We haven't seen any more ants, and luckily the kids didn't get bitten, and it was isolated to that one room. Hopefully they don't come back. So, there you have it... my two completely unrelated stories of great uncles, aunts, and ants.