Open Writing

2am Woke up to find TICKS in my bed.

3am More itchies!

3:00 – 3:16am Checked dogs from head to tail to look for any little critters.

5:08 am Can’t understand how my daughter can sleep so sound next to me, while I am so uncomfortable.

5:12 am I might as well just get up even though my alarm is set for 6:30 am.

7:10 am Got to work 20 minutes early today, because I just didn’t know what to do with myself. Surprised my co-worker showing up so early for my breakfast shift.

12:37 pm Have to leave on time today, the BUG MAN is coming at 1pm. Two hour window for my appointment, but just my luck he’ll be early. Had to vacuum my entire house last night from top to bottom – all 2700 square feet of beige carpet. Bath both 100lb dogs, prepare two daughters under the age of 13 for possible freeloaders, and straighten up yard to insure nothing is in the way when BUG MAN comes to do the treatment.

1:03 pm Pest control truck pulls into drive. Nice and early. Excellent.

1:48 pm Finished treatment on inside of house. Removed all linen. Bedding from four queen-sized and 1 king-sized beds, plus 2-livingrooms worth of couch covers and enough throws to cover a small nation. Pittsburg Steelers, Barbie, Sponge Bob…they all had to be bagged and washed on a HOT cycle, before bringing them back into the house, and after I had re-vacuumed the entire house – no less than 2-hours later – after the powder treatment had properly dried. Only to have to repeat the vacuuming process every day for the next 10-days to ensure the treatment had properly worked. Yeah.

2:06 pm Packed my daughters, my dogs, and all my garbage bags of bedding into my Jeep, while I watched the Bug Man lay granules over my entire yard.

2:16 pm Couldn’t keep dogs contained in car, left Bug Man to finish on his own while I proceeded to my mother’s home to drop off my passengers and start a load of laundry in her washing machine, before backtracking toward my house to dump four more loads at the local Laundromat. Then back to my house to swap a load from my washer to the dryer, before driving back to my mom’s to check on my girls and start another load of laundry there.

2:46 pm TIME! Change machines again. First at mom’s house, than at the Laundromat (positioned between both homes) than back to my house again. Criss-cross machines and back again. Eleven loads total, while cleaning my mother’s house like I had promised a couple of weeks ago, when she was preparing her hip-replacement surgery.

4:18 pm My carpet should be dry. Load everyone back into the car. Park by garage as to not get any unneccesary dirt in the house.

4:23 pm Start vacuuming from back to front of my house – every nook and cranny…every baseboard and mattress.

4:47 pm Quickly start supper, while continuing to vacuum. Desperately trying to keep my girls and dogs entertained until I was finished so that they wouldn’t touch any of the power treatment that way sprinkled on everything.

6:08 pm My husband comes home from work amazed that I had gotten as much as I did accomplished. He emptied my vacuum dirt-container, and took over where I left off. My five-bedrooms, 4-bath house takes a lot longer to detail than I ever calculated, especially when on a mission to remove all unwanted critters!

6:36pm Fed the girls in the back living room, so dad and I could finish the rest of the house. Still had to remake all the beds, put out all the towels and throw rugs, try to get everything ready for tomorrow – my family’s school and work clothes, homework, lunches, etc.

7:48 pm Lots of dead bugs all over the place, but for the moment everything is CLEAN! But me of course.

7:51 pm Jumped in the shower and scrubbed myself shiny. Kept feeling like something was crawling on me. OCD definitely taking over the logical side of my brain.

8:01 pm Other than putting the dinner dishes in the dishwasher and boxing up some lunches, I am finally finished. Plopped on my beautifully fresh and clean smelling couch and relaxed for the first moment all day while watching my favorite Wednesday night show – America’s Top Model.

9:13 pm Kissed my girls good night and collapsed onto my bed.

9:15 pm My husband, Joe, came into the bedroom to check on me, and according to him, already snoring!

Tomorrow is another day!