Bees in our Eves...

The day we came home from Utah we noticed a ton of dead bees on our front porch. Upon further investigation we discovered that our eves had, in fact, been infested with bees. We had a Bee Keeper come out and exterminate the hive. He came about 9pm with a red light (bees return at night and cannot see red light) and it took him about an hour. Then, it was a day and a half of carpentry work to rip off the old eves, clean out all the honey, hive and rebuild crack free eves. We had to fix all the eves on our house or else they said they would just come back and start building in the next crack. That is a grand total of $1600 - for bees. It was great entertainment for the kids and Warren thought it was cool to meet a real Bee keeper but STILL! Ugh.

From the outside you couldn't see a whole lot but this entire corner of the eve was the home of the hive.

These poor carpenters were being dive bombed the entire day by angry bees - who upon arrival from their journeys found their little home away from home was gonzo.

Bag of hive #1 - He said he thought their was approximately 30,000 bees. If you look closely, all the little white wormy things are larve ready to hatch. The hive was ready to explode!

Bag #2 of stuff. - Yuck!

Bag of dead bees.

More of the honeycombed not yet bagged.

Next time you come to my house I want to hear oohs and ah's about our new eves, ya got it? ;) A pure waste of $1600 bucks. Can you tell it was painful writing the check?

Viola! Beach ready!

Ok, I was just reading our monthly community magazine and I ran across this ad. I am considering it....as long as it is waterproof. Can't have my ABS falling off at the beach. That would be seriously LAME! Ohhhhhh my. ;)

Walmart Freaky

The Jeep has been having battery issues and because of Weston's busy work schedule I have been without a car for several days this week. The weather has been nice but a little on the hot-ter balmy side... so biking & walking places has been less appealing. No biggie really but my errands started to add up and the pantry which was already on the low side became sparce. After wrestling the boys into bed that night, I was exhausted but needed to take advantage of Weston's car being home and therefore be as productive as possible in the approximately 2 hours available to me . Even though I don't like buying my produce there (from previous bad experiences) I decided the Wally World one stop shop, in a nearby town, would be my best bet.

I shuffle into the store, start with the produce and weave down the isles toward the back. I turn down the paper goods isle looking for straws. There is only one other shopper in the isle (that I could see) ;) and as I approach them I hear a husband ask his wife "Why do we need straws anyway?" Perfect straw isle mark. I stop, grab some straws and throw them in my cart. I stopped only for about 10 seconds, maybe. I continue down the isle. About 5 minutes later I glance down in my cart only to see that I had a HUGE package of paper towels and another HUGE package of styrofoam plates in my cart. At first I thought perhaps I accidentally stole someone elses shopping cart, as that has happened to me before. As I traced the items in my cart I could see they were all there, not to mention the tale tell purse in the child seat (that I saw last) which also aided in the cart identification process.

Hmmm. Very strange. Even if I did it withought thinking, which I know I better, I didn't need those things anyway and being the eco-concious person that I am (cue sarcasm) I stopped buying styrofoam a long time ago. Not only did I have ANY clue how those HUGE items got in my cart, I also had no idea how long they had been in there. So... I am starting to think I am a little crazy, ditch the items (in their proper place of course) and I move on.

I blast threw the freezer section and start my journey across the store to get some other random items. I walked past the make-up section and not even taking my hands off the cart, paused for a moment to think if there was anything I needed to pick up. I drew a blank and pressed on. I get to the hardware section and I find the WD-40 and look down to toss it in my cart when I see yet another unidentified object. Mascara. Not only did I NOT put that in my cart either but it was also a brand (Max Factor) that I have never used. I laugh and and at this point I start looking around thinking that somebody I know is in the store and they are playing a joke on me, right? I scan my surroundings and am vigilant as I explore the rest of the store but I see no one.

Time to check out. As I pile all my stuff on the belt, the checker asks me "Would you be interested in helping the environment and purchasing some of our reusable shopping bags today?" I have contemplated it a few times now, as it is the latest and greatest in saving the environment and not to mention the enticing, oh so trendy styles popping up everywhere I go. I decline the offer and he continues to bag.

I look down and see that the bagging rounder has almost fully rotated and I grab a few bags to start loading my cart. Instantly, I feel the bags are drafty and not even close to being full. I glance down at the other bags, only seeing perhaps 2 or occasionally 3 items in each bag. I see there are still groceries on the belt and I pause..."Oh, I'm sorry, where you sorting the bags still?" Then, he says "No, miss. You are free to start loading your bags, the rounder is getting full."

Hmmm. Ok? I load my cart and he gives me my receipt. Chuckling, I load my bags in my car...one by one....by one....by one...by one. I get home and after putting the groceries away, I stuff my almost empty IKEA shopping bag keeper to the max. Still having quite a few bags left that won't fit. Which causes me to wonder..... just how many bags exactly did that oh so friendly eco-checker use on my 58 items purchased shopping trip? Not that I didn't have anything else to do but I succumbed to my curiosity. Twenty eight! The math = 2.07 items per bag. Saving the environment.....one Walmart Checker at a time. :)

Emiizzle....

I thought this was clever and it made me laugh, so I thought I would give it a whirl. From now on you can just call me Emiizzle.

1. REAL NAME: Emily JoAnne Hall

2. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (middle name of your mother and father): Marie White

3. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother's dad, father's dad) Lucein Glenn

4. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name) Halem

5. DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Red Dolphin

6. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, town where you were born) JoAnne Logan

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning ) The Blue (virgin) Margarita

8. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 2 letters of your last name) Emal

9. STREET NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie) Phish Food Chocolate Chip

10. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pet's and street name) Willis Rustic Haven

11. GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle) Emiizzle

12. IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, first two letters of your middle name, last two letters of your first name then last three letters of your last name) Mljolyall

13. GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets) Black Tommy

A Free-king Joke....

Okay, so yesterday was free scoop day at Ben & Jerry's and we decided to check it out. We love their ice cream. Weston had been before but I have never ventured out to the celebrations myself. I expected chaos but it was sure mahem. The place was completely packed and I seriously don't think they had their AC on it all. It was like a freaking sauna in there. If we had braved the hour long wait in line, I think I would have passed out from heat exhaustion in the first 20 minutes. It was ridiculous. I tried to snap a picture of the chaos but I think the picture I got was a really bad representaion of how packed it actually was. This was only half of the room and the line wound back and forth 5 times and went out the door. I love Ben & Jerry's and perhaps I am just getting old but it totally wasn't worth waiting in those conditions for 1/2 scoop of ice cream.

Ka-Chow!!

Okay, if this can put a smile on my face these days it has to be funny! You have to watch the whole thing...."Its like a magician trick...." HILARIOUS!

WARNING...FHE Bowling..a real mess

My friend Megan just posted this on her blog and I just about died laughing...I had to share!

FHE Bowling & Self-Effacing Humor

Tonight for family night we went over to the Texas A&M's student center to go bowling. My score - I finished last - was a measly 63 - my two year old scored 64. Anyhow, my post isn't really about that, but what happened at the end of the game. Andrew needed to use the restroom and since Mike had already made one trip there with him that night - I couldn't really get him to take Andrew so I had to take him. When asking about where the restrooms were located the girl informed me that the first three stalls in the women's restroom were "female urinals".

Female urinals? I was intrigued - no, excited to reach the restroom and see exactly what this meant. I acted like, "Gee, that's strange but I'll never use one of those..." But inside I knew I was up for the experience. (It's kind of been a secret jealousy of mine - I have four brothers and now two sons.) Anyhow, when we got there I got Andrew situated in his stall and headed back to the urinals. Amazingly I found an image of the internet of the actual urinals in that very bathroom - some site catalogs all of the female urinals around the country - most seemed to be at universities.

Well, there weren't any instructions and I was pretty sure I could figure it out on my own. At first, everything seemed to be going pretty well - it was kind of fun - but then suddenly things spiraled out of control(literally) and I was left with a mess.

The thing about peeing on yourself as an adult is that you still have to pull up your pants and move on. It's kind of weird. You just stand there for a second not knowing what to do. No diaper bag change of clothes - no patient mother to sort out the mess. Just mother and her own mess. I actually feel really bad for the janitors.

Oh well...It appears there used to be instructions above the urinal on the wall - I looked and they weren't there tonight. I REALLY could have used those...

In the end, the question is - were people - women specifically - demanding to get these installed in the restroom? Did anyone think, "Man, I sure wish we had female urinals. That would be soo much better..."? And have any of you experienced the female urinal? If so, was your experience much like mine or were you more of a "natural"?

p.s. There's a part of me that wants to go back there and master that thing. Just to regain some self respect.