Bug killing & fort making!

Anyone who knows me well knows that one of my biggest fears is cockroaches. It's ridiculous. When I was little I used to have nightmares that my parents were giant cockroaches. I remember playing with a light bright as a kid and reaching to get some new pegs only to grab a cockroach. Sometimes if I am eating Raisin Bran and I think about cockroaches, I can't continue to eat because the raisins inside look too much like cockroaches. It is a ridiculous, out of control fear. Living in Kingman, there were cockroaches everywhere. They stayed out of our house for the most part, but they were everywhere outside. Coming home late at night was terrifying if there weren't any porch lights on because you were almost guaranteed to get attacked by a number of cockroaches scurrying across the porch. In Flagstaff, I don't think I EVER saw a cockroach. Maybe that's why I love Flagstaff so much. Ha!

Here in our apartments in Bensalem we very rarely see them. If we do (or if we see spiders or anything like that), we call our management office and an exterminator is here (free of charge) within a few days. But a few weeks ago I had the misfortune of seeing two cockroaches on the same night. Matthew found it first. It was crawling on the floor! I, being entirely myself, couldn't squish it with a shoe because then I would have a mess to clean up on the carpet and I just can't handle that. I also can't handle hearing the crunch that symbolizes their death. So I hesitated and then it crawled under our couch.

I moved the couch and eventually found the nasty thing, but again... I couldn't crunch it! So what do I do? I find a plastic cup, a lot of paper towels, and a gallon sized ziplock bag. I put the cup in front of the cockroach so it would crawl in and then I stuffed the cup with paper towels. I put the cup inside the bag and closed it. Then I threw it away. When I came inside, I actually felt remorse for the agony the creature will feel as it suffocates. I hate killing things. Even the things I fear the most!

Later that night I saw another one crawl in - literally - from the corner of our living room. I realized that there was a small hole in the wall that lead to outside, so I stuffed it with kleenex. That paired with the exterminator has kept our home bug free for quite some time.


In other news, we made just about the coolest living room fort we have ever made one day. It consisted of the boys' Cars tent on the couch and just about every stuffed animal that they own.

Then I put the iPad on a TV tray and turned a movie on for them while I made dinner. It was pretty awesome!!