A Gecko Adventure

Noah's little friend.

Not long after Noah finished his homework today, he came running into the hall. "Mom, there's a gecko in my room!" he yelled.

We haven't had one in the house in a long time and I don't think we've ever had one in his room, so I had to check it out. Sure enough, there was the bugger under his bed, looking as if he had turned to stone. The poor thing.

In case you don't know much about geckos...they are fast. They can run across any surface faster than you can catch them. Noah tried to grab it, but it ran behind his chest of drawers. When he tried to chase him out with a long piece of cardboard, it ran underneath the chest of drawers.

He grabbed it by the tail, but it fell off - in two places! I guess they fall off in self defense so they can continue to run away. I'm not sure if the tail grows back, though. After numerous attempts of getting him from behind or under the chest of drawers, Noah finally got him out far enough to scoop him up in his hands. We put him in a plastic box and then I had Noah put him outside.

A couple of gecko tail pieces
(a little blurry)

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on
you...the gecko is in a green plastic box.


Geckos are harmless except that they poop a lot. All you have to do to verify that is go outside on our lanai. Our window frames are completely covered in gecko poop. When we had some pest control people come to our house for the first time, I asked the guy what kind of poop it was. He said it was gecko poop. I told him it looked like mouse poop to me. He explained in great detail how you can tell it's gecko poop - it will have a little whitish bulb on one end. I can't imagine having a job that requires you to know the "ins" and "outs" (no pun intended) of poop.

An example of our gecko
problem outside - check out
the bottom one and you'll
see the white bulb.

My New Job

When I started this blog I said I would post frequently and now look - it's been over a week and I haven't posted. Life has been pretty crazy since we got back from the mainland. My days have been busy with Noah sick two different times, catching up on my "to-do" list, and my new job. Yes, that's what I said - my new job.

Today was the official first day of my new job as part-time accountant for Hardware Hawaii. I will be assisting the controller with items that he doesn't have time for (in other words, things he doesn't want to do). That's okay by me because I'm just thrilled that I actually got a job and so fast.

It all started with a click of a button just three days after landing in Honolulu after New Year's. I killed some time by browsing some employment agency websites. One, Altres Staffing, happened to have a posting for "various part-time jobs". On a whim I uploaded my resume, filled out the online registration and clicked the send button. All that personal information about me floated in space and magically landed in readable form in Altres' computer system. Someone happened to read it and liked what they saw. That got the ball rolling.

I had to take four tests - advanced accounting, Excel, general office/clerical, and a personality profile (I hope I passed this one). I met with a staffing agent last Monday, interviewed for my job on Wednesday morning and was hired on the spot. So, here I am, back in the accounting world after a six-month leave of absence.

I have been out of the workforce longer than I ever have before so I'm a little anxious starting this job. Today was easy since most of the morning consisted of filling out human resources paperwork, watching a video and sitting around waiting for my computer to get setup properly so I could log-in to e-mail and the main software package.

Shifting from being a stay-at-home mom to working every day, even if it is only 4 hours a day, is going to be harder than you think. When I wasn't working, I didn't have to worry about what I was going to wear. I woke up, showered and threw on a t-shirt and shorts. Now I have to actually think about my "wardrobe" - which is pitiful if I do say so myself. I know some women love going through their closet, matching pants to shirts and socks, etc. Not me. With me it's more like, "which pair of pants don't have mold on them and which ones haven't I worn yet this week". I guess I'm not a fashionista and never will be.

So, if there are lags in the entries in this blog and you are giving up on me, I beg that you keep checking back. I will post, but it may take me awhile to get back in the swing of things. After all, the time I used to devote to the blog will now be consumed with me staring into the pit of darkness -- otherwise known as the closet.

Back to the battleground

Noah sledding on the side of Grandma's condo.

We're back from our two-week trip to the Mainland. We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends and playing in the snow. Noah had a blast playing with his cousins and friends in Idaho. He continues to talk about them daily and I know he already misses them a lot.



Noah and his best buddy, Ryan in
their Black Spidey outfits.

Noah and Jacob. Too tired
to do a full-out Spidy pose.

Visiting Ace & Aurora.

We really lucked out in SLC. We had snow on the ground when we arrived and a storm brought about 5 more inches of snow on Christmas Eve. It was so pretty! Tom and Noah built a snowman, a snowbear (which later became a bunny - don't ask), and a snow cave. We must have been so whacked out when we were moving to Hawaii because we didn't pack coats or anything for winter. I had one pair of jeans, Noah had no pants, and Tom had two pair of jeans. I had to buy Noah pants and shirts. Tom and I each bought new jeans and I enjoyed buying some long-sleeved t-shirts at Target. Boy, did I love shopping at Target since there aren't any in Hawaii - at least not until 2009.

Noah loves his snow bear.

Only Noah could fit in there.

The problem with taking a trip back home is that it makes it even harder to come back. I know some of you can't even fathom how it could be hard to go back to "paradise". All I can say is visiting Hawaii is one thing. Living here is another (insert verb and noun here).

We weren't sure what we would face in our house after having the front windows closed and no fans blowing for two weeks. When we first walked in it smelled musty and it was a little damp from the humidity. On the surface, everything looked pretty good. It wasn't until I started cleaning and moving things around that the reality of living here came back to bite us in the butt.

That first weekend back Tom had the idea that we should move the long couch away from the wall and windows so we could vacuum any bugs that were making their home back there. Actually, there weren't quite as many bugs back there as we thought. However, we discovered that mold had taken residency on the back of the couch in a couple of places. I was so mad I just left the room.

As the week progressed, I discovered mold all over, but mostly concentrated around the kitchen and dining area. You know, just the places you want mold to be living - where you cook and eat!

Here are some of the places I found mold:

On all four seat cushions at our kitchen table. Those were hurled into the garbage can as were a few grumblings under my breath.

All of the cloth place mats that had been nicely stored on a shelf near the table. Out those went, too, along with more under-the-breath grumblings.

Two wooden spoons that were kept on the counter in a big pot with other kitchen utensils. Into the garbage they went. At least they were old, but sometimes the old ones are the best ones. Sigh.

Underneath a place mat that had been buried by Christmas cards and mail before we left for our vacation. I picked up the place mat only to discover not only mold on it, but all over the table where the place mat had been. The entire table was cleaned off and scrubbed clean. ARG!!

On top of my dustbuster, which I keep handy right by the kitchen table. What's up with that? Mold on plastic - a vacuum? I can't figure this stuff out.

And, the mold discoveries will probably continue. Tom and I have each had to throw out a pair of leather sandals we kept outside our kitchen door in the garage. They were completely encased with mold. I still have visions of putting those on and the mold slowly creeping up my legs and taking over my brain, kind of like an episode of X-Files. Maybe if they took an MRI of my head they'd find some mold in my nasal cavities, in the back of my eyes, and floating around my brain. That might explain a few things, but it still won't explain why I packed our coats and boots in the back of the storage unit. I did that before we moved here.