Bed Bugs Revisited!

Nico came home from Grandma Camp (not technically a Grandma Camp but we're calling it that) last Thursday night with a diary he could fill out a la Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He was working on it Friday and created his Dream House. I love that it has an art gallery in it.

Friday was a total relax day. It wasn't the best weather outside so we stayed indoors and watched Three Stooges.

Saturday was a slow day as well, I had some cleaning and organizing planned, but I hurt my back Friday night so we made Saturday a slow day as well. Nico went over to Rylan's house for a while in the afternoon.

It was my turn to pick the movie for pizza night and so we rented Ralph Breaks the Internet from RedBox at M&W Market. It was funny, we all liked it!

Sunday started like any other day, but after church I noticed Nico was itching. Nico had bed bug bites! Uh oh! Guy went on a search and found a live bed bug in Nico's bed frame. So he killed it. Then he got meticulous, and pulled out the rails on Nico's bed, searched the wardrobe, and our bed. He found no other live bed bugs. But what we did find was a previous infestation in the frame of Nico's bed. Lots of bed bug casings and in the cardboard room separator Guy found EGGS. They are visible to the naked eye, as are bed bugs. Can you see them in this picture?

These are likely dead eggs that were killed in the first heat treatment. We called the bed bug guys on Monday and they were able to come out on Tuesday for another heat treatment. We spent Monday afternoon getting everything ready for the treatment, and Tuesday he showed up bright and early before 8AM to get started. In addition to the heat treatment, he also sprayed a "safe"? pesticide on Nico's bed frame.

We stayed the night at my parents' house on Tuesday night. We played a game I don't remember the name of, and Grandma made these things called "Ogre Bars" that we ate while we played.  The game was fun, and the ogre bars were delicious! We arrived home Wednesday morning for an early school day with chess. I spent Wednesday cleaning up the Clubhouse after the heat treatment.

For the next few nights Nico is sleeping in our bed, to let his pesticide bed air out. Not that our bed is much further from his bed than his own mattress, but the less exposure he has to it the better I'd feel!

Some unexpected melted things upon our arrival home Wednesday:

Nico made a big decision this week. Baseball season is starting up, and every Tuesday he has baseball practice or a baseball game. Tuesdays are also Cub Scout nights. We asked Nico to choose between Cub Scouts and baseball, and he chose Cub Scouts. So, we are dropping baseball for now. We recently signed him up for swimming lessons at the Y, they start next Monday. Twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays until he knows how to swim!

Yesterday Nico came home from school and asked Alexa to play Potato Dog. Funny song! I asked Alexa who sang it and she said Perry Gripp, so I asked her to play songs by Perry Gripp and all of a sudden Alexa was playing all these songs that Nico knew! He was stoked!! He had his very own dance party. You can check it out in the video :D :D :D Nico knows these songs from his Chess class, Coach Vellotti plays them. They are really hilarious. Some of them even have videos on Youtube.

Playing the Game of Life!

When I picked up Nico from Drama today, we passed by his classroom and we talked to his teacher a bit about the project he was going to do that requires a tri-fold poster board. It's a voluntary project that requires research and presentation. For the previous 2 years Nico has done it. The first year it was about a particular bird (can't remember which!), last year he only started it but didn't finish, it was about different boat sizes (based on a YouTube video he had seen). This year he has chosen to do his report on India. He spent some time researching tonight on the computer. I had to find a safe internet search site for kids, and came across kidtopia.info, run by Google. He found some good stuff from National Geographic Kids about India that he copied down. 

After dinner tonight we all went to band practice at the church. Nico and I only stayed a little while. Myself and another girl will be doing a piano/flute duet for Easter, so I was giving her the sheet music. Guy is bringing home a keyboard for me to practice on for the next month. 

I had an interesting discussion with Nico tonight on our way to church about God, after the radio mentioned the sometimes-used tactic to disprove God by asking, “If God can do anything, can he create a rock so big that he can’t pick it up?” 

I think God already did that by creating the law. A rock that he can’t “pick up” (dispose of), and by creating his promises, which he can’t break. Sin requires death, and that can’t be changed, so he created a way around it by sending Jesus to die.

Nico asked so many questions, and he reframed back to me what I was saying. I've never seen him repeat back to me what I was saying in different words just to make sure he got it right. We talked about sin requiring death, that's why the Israelites sacrificed animals. But then Jesus came and died once for all. So Nico said, "So sin is like all balled up into one place, and Jesus takes it away. Then we sin again, and he takes it away, then we sin and he takes it away. Like we're fresh."

Right on, little dude!

That's it for this week, enjoy the video!

Grandparents Russell!!

Last Friday, Nico had an early release from school, and guess who picked him up?? Grandma Russell! The Grandparents Russell came into town shortly before the end of school day, so Grandma walked over to the school to pick him up. That afternoon we made our way to the Botanical Garden.

That evening, Grandma Russell had an activity for us that she had planned superbly well - sugar cookies in the shape of a circle, yellow frosting, and a variety of colors of squeezable frosting. We were to make EMOJI cookies! This was so fun and that first night we made two pans full of them.

Reading a new comic book from Grandma Russell

The next day, Saturday, we went to the James Castle House. This was the house where the artist James Castle used to live, in Boise/Garden City off in the Hill Rd area.

The last time that the Grandparents Russell were in town, we visited the art museum and had seen some of James Castle's works. James Castle was deaf, he made a lot of his drawings using an ink he made himself from charcoal and spit. I loved seeing the house where he used to live. It was inspiring. I saw several of his works that reminded me of art that Grandpa Russell has done. The similarities were astounding!

A few pictures of James Castle's work.

After that, we went to the Boise Art Museum. We're typically not allowed to take pictures in the Art Museum, but they had an exception this time. There was an exhibit by Jae Yong Kim called Donut Ever Forget Me. Several hundred donuts he created (not edible) and decorated.

Tacos for lunch

Nico ate both of these! This was at Madre, a gourmet taco restaurant close to downtown. Excellent!

After lunch, Nico went to the Grandparents Russell's hotel and did some swimming with Grandma! For dinner on Saturday, of course we had PIZZA! We watched Three Stooges while we ate. 

Nico building his pizzas

 Making more emoji cookies after pizza

Sunday was church, and hanging out!

On Monday morning, Grandpa, Guy, and Nico went out to breakfast. Nico ate a pork chop, two slices of bacon, and scrambled eggs. After they came back home, I stayed back while the crew went to visit the Discovery Center and Zoo.

We said goodbye to the Grandparents Russell after dinner on Monday, and they headed back to Arlington Tuesday morning. We will see them again shortly at the very end of May when we make our trip to Arlington! We are looking forward to that. 

Tuesday was a lucky day for Nico because his glasses arrived!! He is taking great care of them, cleaning them often with his little spray bottle and cloth.

Guy and I had a trip to Moscow planned for Wednesday, so we spent a bit of Tuesday packing and getting stuff ready. Plans changed on Tuesday evening and it was decided to postpone our trip. My mom still offered to watch Nico for a few nights, so Guy and I decided to turn our next few days into a staycation. We went to the library, we ran errands, we watched shows and went to Chipotle for dinner. On Wednesday night we took Guy's acoustic bass guitar that used to belong to his Papa (his mom's dad) and had it restrung with new strings. 

You could tell that the guy who did it really enjoyed his work. After taking the old strings off, he conditioned the neck of the guitar with a castor-oil based oil and let it soak in. It instantly brightened it up. 

This afternoon was Ivy's birthday party. Nico wasn't with us but we went anyway! It was at Quarry View Park. Pizza and cupcakes, a pinata, and presents.

Oh, and what has Nico been up to???

They went to Altitude

They went swimming at the hotel that Nico and Lexie and my parents are staying at just for fun.

Hotel breakfast. HAVE to have bacon!!

And now for a thrilling spring break adventures video! Some videos taken by Grandma Russell and Grandma Salisbury. Oh, and some of the pictures in the post were taken by them too!

BED BUGS, family, eye doctor, hair cut, gg, woah that's a lot!

Well Hello! It's been a while! I think that was the first time I ever skipped a week. Let's jump right into it!

On March 1st, Friday, Guy woke up sick, with whatever it was that I had while in Redding. I told him to stay home from work and he quickly got worse. He spent all Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in bed, he finally started feeling himself again only a few days ago.

Jumping on the trampoline with Merek on Friday the 1st

Saturday visit to the library. I parked across the street and we took the Greenbelt tunnel to the library. A bit of fresh air.

On our way back to the car with our goodies.

Nico chose our movie on Saturday and he chose one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies. Guy ate a few pieces of pizza and then went to bed while Nico and I stayed up to watch it. Those movies are funny, I enjoyed it.

Nico had told me about a STEM activity they had done in the library on Friday. On Saturday I saw pictures on Facebook that were posted of the event, and downloaded a few of them. Nico won this challenge - how many squares can you fit onto your popsicle stick without them falling over?

Practicing a magic trick

It was Sunday night, while Guy was lying in bed staring at the wall, that he saw a bug crawling up that wall, right next to our bed. He called me over and we identified it as a bed bug. Ah shucks! With a toothpick, Guy went fishing in the crack between the wall and the baseboard, and pulled out a shed bed bug skin. We slept in the bed that night, I was hoping that perhaps those two bug signs would be the extent of it. But, you know that's rarely the case.

Monday afternoon I pulled all the sheets off our beds and scoured the mattresses while sanitizing the sheets in the washing machine. I found NO signs of bed bugs on either mattress. Guy and I were casually talking about how to prevent a bed bug outbreak when he tapped lightly on the wardrobe and I watched as something fell from the spot he tapped, right onto the bare mattress. Boom. Another shed bed bug skin.

That dreadful feeling in the pit of my stomach - uh oh - they're in the wardrobe!!

We indeed found bed bugs hiding between the cracks on the back of the wardrobe.

You can only see one bed bug in this picture, but there were about a dozen scattered in the crack right here.

We decided to go professional, and we called around and found a good place that specializes in bed bugs. The treatment involves spraying a pesticide around the baseboards, then heating up the house to 135 degrees for 6 hours. Afterward, they sprinkle silica around the baseboards.

The guy (Dave) came to take a look before telling us whether he could do it, because we live in a small place he was worried about clutter, which can make the treatment harder to do. He said there wasn't much clutter, just that everything was all together in a small space. He said he could do it!  He said it would either be Thursday the 7th or the following Monday, the 11th, that he could do it.

So that night we moved out of the clubhouse and into a hotel for 3 nights. Dave asked us to remove all the clothes from the wardrobe and from our cube storage dresser and heat-treat them in the dryer and then get them out of the house. So I spent the next few days doing that. We slept at the hotel but then came back to the Clubhouse in the mornings for breakfast and school, then after school went back to the hotel.

When we discovered that it would not be Thursday that the treatment would take place, we booked another 5 days at an AirBnb close to downtown. We decided then to stay away from the Clubhouse. The bed bugs, having nothing to eat, would likely migrate. They can sense when someone comes into the room because they can smell the carbon dioxide and feel the heat of a body. If they are hungry, they can move fast to get a quick meal, even if you are standing on the floor for even a few minutes. To prevent migration, we had the door that leads to the main house sprayed with a pesticide. And so we stayed away. The only things we brought with us were heat-treated clothes, food, and plastic bags to put everything in. We left purses, back packs, bags, EVERYTHING, at the Clubhouse. Hmm... except the iPads and the Nintendo DS. We removed those the first day we went to a hotel, so we felt safe that the bed bugs hadn't migrated to them. And because the bed bugs weren't in the bathroom, we were able to bring our bathroom overnight bag filled with all our shampoo and combs.

At the AirBnb

The week that this all took place, my Aunt Liz was in town. I was able to see her on Thursday, and then on Friday there was a get together at my parents' house with Aunt Liz, and other family.

Saturday morning Nico and I researched which library we could go to to get the rest of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. There were four more that he needed to read. We realized after leaving that it didn't open until noon, so we drove to the park that was a few blocks away and I let him play while I stayed in the car figuring out what to do (and because brrrr it was cold I didn't want to get out!) I decided to take him somewhere as a surprise. He tried to guess where we were going the whole way there. He finally got it right when I turned into the parking lot, Lakeshore Learning. I told him he HAD to buy something with MY MONEY or he couldn't leave the store. He seemed pleased with that idea.

He chose some magnetic putty, and an archeological dig activity where he had to excavate five stones from a block of dirt.

We waited until after noon and then ran to the specific library we needed to go to, and we came home with four books for Nico to read. 

For dinner that night we chose to go to a place called Asian Cuisine, we ordered to go. Guy chose Dark Crystal for the movie. Nico mostly played with his magnetic putty and came over to see what was going on every once in a while. 

We really took advantage of the opportunity to eat out. Sunday we ordered pizza. Monday we had Boise Fry Company, Tuesday was Jimmy Johns. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Breakfast on Sunday (no pancakes, so it was toast with peanut butter and jam. No toaster, so it was microwave-heated bread with peanut butter and jam).

Sunday afternoon we visited the park again, and then got Nico's hair cut. 

Monday after school Nico had an eye appointment. He needs glasses, so we chose a pair for him and they should be ready in a few weeks.

Green is Nico's favorite color. These glasses are green on the bottom, and slightly leopard print on the top. They happen to look a lot like Guy's glasses, but not on purpose. It was the green that got him hooked.

Nico is VERY excited about having glasses.

The heat treatment took place this past Monday. We didn't bother coming home Monday evening, because I knew there would be a layer of dust on everything and I would have more time to deal with it the following day.

The next day I spent at the Clubhouse washing sheets and dusting, mopping, etc. No sign of bugs anywhere... yay! We are guaranteed bug free for at least 30 days after treatment. We are thinking that the bites were causing hives on Nico, and that's where his hives were coming from. He's been hive free since we left the Clubhouse.

After school on Tuesday we went to visit GG and Aunt Pat. Melody (Aunt Pat's daughter) stopped by and we got a few handfuls of seeds from her! Peppers, Cucumber, and Radishes. We'd like to plant them out front. We picked up Jimmy John's on the way home, then Guy and Nico went to Cub Scouts that night. There was a magician there that showed them 3 magic tricks and Nico came home with the tricks to show me, they are pretty good!

Wednesday was the parent baseball meeting at Timberline High School. We skipped the spaghetti feed this year, and just showed up for the meeting. It was a quick and informative presentation, and afterward we met Nico's baseball coach. He is on the REDS team. Practices could possibly start next week depending on weather, otherwise they will start closer to April. The coach is very laid back.

On our to do list: Make sure Nico's equipment will still function for another season. He may have grown out of some of his stuff.

Some quick snippets of the past two weeks. We are welcoming the Grandparents Russell into town tomorrow, as Spring Break is upon us! Stay tuned!