See Ya Later Alligator

Yesterday we decided to check out the Texas back country and headed out to Brazos Bend State Park. We were lured by the promise of seeing Alligators in all of their bad bayou glory. We were not disappointed. It was a sweltering 38 degrees and, to be frank, I wasn't expecting to be impressed by the park but I was pleasantly surprised by how beautiful it actually was. Hanging moss, cranes, alligators, frogs, turtles, blue sky, canopy trees, buzzing insects and unusual vegetation made us feel like we were walking through some old Southern movie. All-in-all, it was a melt-your-skin-off great day.

A ten month old Gator Baby

Ken's favorite tree

The Bayou

Lurking Alligator

We have a video if an alligator that we got a lot closer to that I'll post later. It was pretty cool.

J

R.I.P. - Rest in PIECES!!!

You know how there are big, scary bugs called cockroaches that live in Texas?? Well, yesterday when I went into Russell's bathroom, I turned on the light and sitting there on the counter-top by the sink was a big, fat roach the size of Russell's hand (I love to wax hyperbolic). EEEEEKKKKKK! I picked Russ up and instantly ran away from the bathroom screaming my lungs out!! Then, once I had calmed down a bit, I went and found the can of Raid and readied myself to enter the dragon's den. I opened the door with my foot and sure enough, there was roachzilla right where I had left him. I quickly sprayed the insecticide on him and he instantly went berserk. Man, cockroaches are fast!! And, of course, I slammed the door (as if that would contain it) and ran away screaming again. Russell had no idea what was going on but he didn't cry or anything. He just gave me this knowing look that said, "I always knew you were nuts." When I went back into the bathroom, the roach was nowhere in sight. I was completely paranoid the whole day though. I just kept thinking that cockroaches were lurking around every corner ready to scare the living crap out of me.

Fast forward to this morning. I'm getting my swimming stuff together to go to the pool and I need to go into the "roach bathroom" to get a swimming towel...ugh...awful. Anyway, I work up the courage, open the door, turn on the light and...phew...no roach by the sink. I grab a towel from the cupboard, turn around and....AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH...ROACH!!!! Roach on the wall right behind me now scurrying very quickly!!AAAAAHHHHHHH!!! I slam the door and run away. I quickly got my stuff together and got out of Dodge!! At the gym I swam 75 laps (Russell was in the child care center) and it was so relaxing because I didn't have to be paranoid aboutRoachzilla. I took my time at the gym because I wanted Ken to be home by the time I got home so he could be my knight in shining armor and kill the big, bad bug.

Fast forward to when Ken got home. I tell him my terrifying story (he hadn't seen the roach yet) and he peeks into the bathroom and sees in the mirror that the roach is still on the wall behind. He even got the shivers from it. So I tell him to trap it with the toilet plunger...haha...I know - great idea eh?? But it works and he traps it. Man, he's so amazing! But then what?? The roach was trapped but how could we get it out of the apartment and then kill it a thousand times?? So I went and got some cardboard and we slipped it under neath the plunger to trap Roachzilla. Phew it worked. Ken took it outside (while Russell and I hid in the house not wanting to be anywhere near the beast) lifted up the plunger and stomped on it a bunch of times. Man, those things are resilient. Finally, it was dead!! Then Ken took a picture of it so we could show people how big it was...bleh. The horror!

Don't judge me people. I'm a tough gal but when it comes to roaches...I turn on my Valley Girl and head for the hills.

J

P.S. That's a dime, just in cased you were wondering.

P.P.S. It looks a lot bigger when it's moving creepy fast.