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.