Finding Flik

Over my last twelve years of Motherhood, I can almost guarantee I've seen just about every "big" Disney, Pixar, or similar kid movie.  Some of them have been sweet and funny.  Some have positive life or character building lessons.  Some have been filled with inappropriate suggestive humor.  And some have been real yawners.

One of my favorites was A Bug's Life by Disney/Pixar.  I'm not sure if it's one of my favorites because I watched that movie the most times, or if the message of the Little Guy/Underdog overcoming life's challenges spoke to my heart.  Regardless of the reason, I found it quite amusing and entertaining.  I grew attached to that group of ants.  We even had a Flik toy in the house.  We cheered for the "Bugs" when they defeated the mean, overpowering Grasshoppers.  Back in the day, our oldest even befriended a grasshopper.  Dear Grass-Hopper lived with us for a short while, until he died while we went on a vacation.  The death of Grass-Hopper was one of the saddest childhood days for our oldest.  I can say it was the only time I was asked by one of our kids to organize and perform a funeral service.  We had a headstone and a burial plot for 'ole Grass-Hopper.  It felt a little cheesy, but it soothed the sting of death for our then, little guy.

Despite my fond memories of A Bug's Life, I've not grown any fonder of real bugs.  Over the last year and a half, I've found four black widows in and around our house.  And over the last two to three months we've been invaded by little determined ants!  Those Buggers!  Every morning I wake up and in a "Where's Waldo" fashion, I seek out the latest invasion.  They've appeared in our kitchen, all over the cat food, in our living room, in the master bedroom closet, in the master bathroom, in the kids' bathroom, you get the idea...they're everywhere.

Thankfully, we have a neighbor who's an exterminator.  He's really a bedbug expert, but he offered to spray around the exterior perimeter of the house.  Wonderful!  No longer are ants coming in the house, but those who are already here continue to BUG me!  They've decreased in numbers, but the few scouts are still found here and there.  I'll be so glad when I no longer awake to find a trail to a lone Cheerio that was left on the floor under the kids' chairs.

Oh no, just in...as I'm typing one of the kids just says to me from his room, "Mom, I think the ants have found our room...get the vacuum up here!!"  Ugh!  I guess we found our Waldo for the day.  Back to work.