You MUST Flea From My Life You Evil, Monopolizing, Maniacal Insect You!

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Sooooooooooooo…

I have been angry, sad, frustrated, stressed and sweaty for the past 5.5 days? What could take me to these measures? What could make feel like a killer and push me past my carefully produced limits?

Evil, monopolizing, maniacal fleas that’s what.

Arrghghghghgh. Dang 6 week life cycles. Dang hard to crush backs. Dang water proof larva in the pupae stage.

My two poor cats have playing host to these teensy-tiny-hard-to-shake miscreants.

Since there are people in Iraq who just lost loved ones to a crazy suicide bomber and since other folks are starving in the world, let’s do a “good” & “bad” list for perspective sake.

You never go wrong with a little perspective. A truth I tried to tell my 4.5 year old yesterday when he proclaimed he didn’t like his house anymore and wanted Uncle Ryan & Auntie Joy to be his new parents. *Sigh* Of course if I were Ransom & had 25 flea bites on my belly I may be feeling the same way, poor kid.

THE GOOD LIST

We both had the flexibility to take a day off work to deal with all the drama.
My wonderful in-laws took the kids for two nights/days to help us out.
Uncle Ryan & Auntie Joy -the Godparents- also took them for a night while we cleaned. The kids slept in until 9am –go figure!
The whole house is clean, except for a few very unorganized closets.
The whole house was vacuumed from head to toe, every nook-n-cranny three times!
The whole house was dusted –something that had happened since, say 2002.
The exterminator gave us $200 off!
My IV staff colleague, Cristina let us use her parents GORGEOUS vacation home for 5 days. No money spent on a hotel!
10 trash bags to throw away!
3 boxes & 3 garbage bags donated to the Goodwill!
Got rid of a lot of junk.

THE BAD LIST

Cat’s treatment + shots + kennel care + de-flea products = $300. *Sigh* Wanted to buy the kids an outdoor swing set at end of summer sales. 🙁
32 whopping bags full of clothes, towels, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, etc. that still need to be cleaned.
Still about 5 hours worth of work to put our house back to “normal.”
Exhaustion. We’ve been our feet for 10-12 hours for 5 days straight. Ugh. How was I ever a waitress for 6 years?!?! My feet are killing me.
No internet, no blogging, no emailing, no facebook! Of course, perhaps I needed the break. So maybe should be on the good list?!

That’s life folks.

A wise person once told me that all good leaders have the ability to be flexible at any given moment and with that feel honestly happy about their flexibility. I am so thankful for whoever told me that because for the last year I have tried to employ that attitude when new circumstances –like spending my entire weekend knee deep in dust, dust mites, fleas & laundry– pop up unexpected.

Also, I think the fleas have been God’s grace on us to get our house in order. Honestly, it was overwhelmingly messy. For the past two weeks I kept praying that God would help me to even approach all the mess because I felt like we were “living in squalor.” I think God answered.

A kick in the butt is what you need sometime to do things that require hard work, flexibility and help from others! 🙂

How do you handle stress?

What’s the best tips you have used?

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