I'm addicted...

Natalie looks just like my cousin, Jessica, in this pic when Jessica was a baby.




TO EBAY!!!!

I have never had quite an addiction like e-bay. Diet Coke compares but I love e-bay! I have won some girls clothing lots for dirt cheep prices and when I've received them many of them have been of great quality! I won a Gap/Old Navy lot of clothes (10 pieces + 2 pairs of socks) for $17 and then a set of 12 pieces of clothes for .01- yes, 1 penny! (Granted s/h was $6- but still what a deal. All of the clothes are Melanie's size so they will be passed down to Natalie and then consigned so I totally feel I am getting my $ worth- I am all about deals/coupons these days...maybe border line obsessive! Anyway that is why I have been off of the blog world b/c I am on the ebay world.

For all of you that are wondering- no rat...we don't know where Templeton wondered off to but he is currently gone.

Enjoy the pics they are all from my mom (who is not addicted to ebay and has time to deal with pictures.)

Totally Random

Scroll over the colors to learn about me...I'm sure you are greatly intrigued :)

These days I piddle on the computer to relax...

Killing a Rat...Priceless

If anyone is keeping score...Rat 3 Gilbreath's 0

New Grill....$250 (voted-no)
Professional "wildlife removal"..... $215 (voted-no)
Rat Poison....$8 (voted-yes)
Emergency Vet Appointment....$280
Vitamin K Tablets....appx. $50
Follow Up Visit....$80
Borrowed Rat Trap....$0
Dead Rat....priceless

So, the menacing little creature I guess still lurks...we haven't killed it or seen it since. However, we realized we couldn't pay for the professional wildlife removal. So, Clint got some rat poison. He was going to put it on the outside of the fence where the hole is for the rat. I was inside on the phone/computer and he was outside with the door shut doing his thing. At some point Melanie opened up the door and let Shelby out. Clint had rested the poison on the chair as he was situating it all. (It comes in blocks like a KitKat and you break off bars to put places.) Melanie starts yelling, "Daddy, Daddy, no Shelby." At this point Clint and I both know what has happened and I quickly hang up on my mom and run after the dog. She looks at Clint and I chasing her and immediately swallows the rat poison. Wonderful, lovely, this is turning out just dandy. I rush over to Aileen's and tell her to please watch the girls the dog just ate rat poison. I grab my shoes and Clint grabs his keys and attempts to put Shelby on her leash. I am quickly calling her vet (it is 5:55) and they inform the dr. is gone to go to the emergency vet. Thankfully, a brand new emergency vet has just been built by our house. We call ahead and rush her up there. We had no idea how long it takes for rat poison to kill a dog and we don't really know what to think in the car at this point. We get there and get her checked in within 15 minutes of her eating the poison. The finally after 3 attempts get her to vomit and she vomits up 2 completely whole bars of poison. So, Clint and I had waited the 30-45 minutes for her to finally vomit and they sent us home. Shelby had to stay until the nausea wore off and they pumped her full of charcoal to adhere to any remaining poison in her body and then she can pass it out. However, the charcoal will adhere to anything in her system so no food or water. She came home late in the night and was SO thirsty. We had to pour out her bowls and close the toilets. She was licking all around our bathtub drains poor baby. Then she laid her head on our bed and cried. Well, we couldn't sleep with that so then we had to put the shock collar on her. We never even had to beep her (which you do before you press the shock button and that normally stops the behavior on its own) and she just laid on her bed until the morning. Boy it was a sad night for her. This morning she was sooooo thirsty and just drank and drank. Now she is on Vitamin K 3x a day for 2-3 weeks. Whatever, DRAMA!!! But we love her and it's worth it. So, moral of the story- no poison if you have pets or kids- EVER!

You are invited to a cookout...

So our day was super. We ran a ton of errands and got so many great deals at various stores. I checked on my consignment account and made $32 later redeemed some gift certificates. Melanie had gymnastics- she doesn't even need me there anymore. Natalie is starting to enjoy the commotion of gymnastics and wants to be on the ground to wallow around. We headed to Target to replace all bath toys. Now that Natalie is in the bath with Melanie I was much more conscience of the toys in the bath b/c Natalie puts them in her mouth. Well, the toys were pretty gross and needed to be replaced. So, I took my consignment money and bought the girls all new bath toys and came home and threw away all of the old ones. Melanie and I made Halloween cupcakes complete with spiders on the top. We invited Chris and Aileen over for dinner and dessert and then headed for the tub where Melanie was super excited to play with all of her new things. So, you're thinking great, why is she posting...well the day DID NOT end average!

We have been searching for a creature in our backyard. The other day Clint and I noticed a large (about one foot by one foot and about 6 inches tall) mound of dirt on the other side of our fence. We were like what in the world? Who threw a mound of dirt in our yard. Then we started thinking is this from a creature? We have some pavers that our grill sits on right on the other side of the fence. So we got pretty nervous and went and got Chris and began to move and lift up the pavers. I was providing the scary music in the background and Melanie was hiding under her slide. So the boys got the pavers up and realized yes, something dug under our fence, under the pavers and under our back porch/slab. There was a nice little burrow. So, we couldn't figure out what it was so Clint put a brick to block the hole and re-set up our backyard area. Then a couple of days later we re-enacted the whole scene and the little twerp of a critter just went around the brick and was continuing to hide under our house. So Clint took lots of gravel/dirt and filled in it's hole and re-set up the porch area. THEN, LAST NIGHT IT GOT CREEPY! We let Shelby out to go to the bathroom around 10:00. She was circling and whining about the paver/grill area. I told Clint the creature is back and it is there now! So, being funny we were like, "Shelby was it? Go get it." Well, with permission Shelby jumped on the idea. She started circling, crying, scratching, she new the thing was in there. Then she became mighty fixated on the grill, not the pavers/ground. I was thinking, no way, the creature is in the grill!!! So we brought Shelby in, got a flashlight, called Chris so I could give him a play by play on the phone and Clint dramatically lifted off the grill cover and you could hear the creature thrashing around in the grill. It was SO GROSS! I was standing up on the couch armrest inside looking out knowing for sure a bear was going to jump out of the grill and eat me and Clint. Then Clint has the guts to open the grill and the thing got kind of quiet so Clint shined a flashlight in the grill and under the grates was a creature!!!! SO GROSS!!!!! It was HUGE (or at least seemed huge!). It was 6-8 inches long with a LONG tail and beady eyes and little ears. We assume it is a RAT- DISGUSTING!!!! So, I am freaking out (I so don't do creatures) and we are talking on the phone inside trying to figure out what to do when the nasty little creature jumps out and on the edge of the grill and runs in the backyard. I freak out and run to the computer to research what it looks like and I think most probably it is a rat and I read about them and they are full of disease and ticks and fleas and grossness. Clint just wants to set a trap. I want to call in a professional. So I submit a request to our termite people on line b/c they do "wildlife removal." Not to mention the fact that during all of this Clint was attacked by killer ants straight from the rain forest and we have black widows all around that area. So what the heck? I live in creature infestation land. I told Clint I will stop shopping for a month if a professional can rid us of all of our nuisances. All night I felt as if a nasty rat were crawling over me and under my sheets. So, that was the end to our average day...anyone in the mood to come grill out at our house? :)