Stranger Danger, Disney-style

I finally pieced two vital elements of Disney's Beauty and the Beast together. 

I used to think it was a story of a young man who was turned into a beast because he was rude and inconsiderate. He had to be saved by learning to love and earn someone's love in return. The end.

While listening to the song Be Our Guest, I realized I had missed an important part of the story. 

"Ten years we've been rusting/ Needing so much more than dusting."

So they had been enchanted objects for 10 years. Ok. That's fine. The Beast should be mid-twenties to about 30. 

But no! The Beast had to learn to love and earn someone's love before the last rose petal fell in his 21st year. 

The Beast was only 21! If they had been enchanted for 10 years, he was 11 when the enchantress came and tricked him.

How unfair! What 11-year-old would know love and let some strange woman into his home!

STRANGER DANGER!! I wouldn't want Aubrey opening the door to some strange old person wanting to come inside and giving her a flower as payment! Even if the person was a beautiful enchantress, I wouldn't want Aubrey letting her inside!

The motives of the enchantress are questionable, at best. She went to the castle, knowing full well it was inhabited by a spoiled prince without supervision from his parents. Her scheme to deceive him was premeditated.

Now I see the story as a boy who was punished for doing the right thing. Sure, he could have gone about rejecting the enchantress a better way, but what boy do you know is polite and professional in the art of rejection?

And furthermore, the poor kid had to go through puberty as a beast! No wonder his room was such a mess!

Catching up

So by now, most everyone knows I am pregnant. Jared put a silly photo on Facebook and most people got the clue. Here is the picture for anyone who missed it. 

The book is titled "Husband Coached Childbirth" written by the guy who started the Bradley Method of childbirth. 

Aubrey is doing really well. She's starting to say some words now, which is great! And I'm always around her, so I'm able to tell what word she is trying to say, even if it sounds like another one. For example, she says "bee" for the actual bug buzzing around. She also says "bee" for "baby." We're all about easy one syllables, and that's the one she chose to use!!

We've moved into our house! Hooray! I had a wonderful sister help clean the apartment so we are pretty much ready to be officially done with the apartment. Aubrey's room is an awesome purple. It's not finished yet, so I won't put pictures up. Our room is a work in progress, but it's not the priority. And there isn't much I can do with the nursery yet. We're waiting to find out the baby's gender so we can paint and such. 

Jared and I love our church callings. I teach the Valiant 11 Primary class. So I have the kids who are 11 turning 12. Jared is in Young Mens now. He teaches the deacons and is so excited to get back into Duty to God. Aubrey is great in nursery. She's always been happy to go. Sometimes I have to change her diaper halfway though and she doesn't understand she has to go back. But I have Sharing Time third hour, so I can walk around with her in the hallway or take her to primary with me. 

I think that pretty much catches us up on life. I'm sure I left stuff out, but I just can't remember what! 

The Pestering Dead

I've come to the conclusion that carpenter bees are members of the zombie community. 

Yes, I am fully aware that sounds crazy and ridiculous, but hear me out. 

Last summer, there were so many carpenter bees buzzing around and digging into the top of our balcony. Aubrey loves being outside, but I wouldn't let her with all the mean bees. 

The pest control our apartment maintenance had come did absolutely NOTHING to help. A friend on Facebook gave me the advice to swat the bees myself with a racket. So I got out Jared's tennis racket (I didn't want to get bee guts all over MY racket) and started hitting away. 

It worked for a little bit. I got most of the males and some of the females. But I couldn't get all of them. It turned cold, they went away, I thought we were done. 

The long winter kept the bees away longer. I didn't see any until a couple weeks ago. 

And then the bees returned! I killed 3 in a week. Feeling pretty good about myself, I didn't keep up my vigilance in keeping an eye out. 

Another bee started burrowing in the balcony! Yesterday, Jared witnessed me killing it with my awesome skill now. I hit it at just the right angle so I smacked it onto the ground and then squished it (with his racket!). 

Once again, feeling confident, I let Aubrey play outside this morning. Even had the door wide open. As far as I knew, I had killed all the bees!

But I just saw ANOTHER ONE! I'm convinced it is the same several bees coming back. Including the bees from last summer I've killed about 10 bees. Either I have the only apartment being pestered by carpenter bees, or they keep coming "back to life."

I saw parts of an episode of Walking Dead before I got grossed up and queasy. From what I understood from Jared talking about the show, there are zombies that want to eat the live people. So the live people run away until they find a safe spot. And then they defended their safe spot from the zombies for a while. 

I've done my running. Every time a bee came by, I would retreat back inside the home and close (and lock) the door. But I've decided to defend my home! 

This zom-bee (get it? zombie + bee = zom-bee) has finally met its match! It will be destroyed and never have the option to pester me again!

Whenever Aubrey sees me by the door, she wants to go outside. Not wanting to risk her safety (the bees are fast and I sometimes have wild swings), I put on a movie to distract her. 

While she watched Veggie Tales, I waited by the door for the zom-bee to take a flying break. Every few minutes it would come out of the hole, buzz around and then go into another hole. Sometimes I would rush out and try to get it, but it quickly went into the hole. Sneaky zom-bee. 

But finally, my opportunity came! I rushed out there, swatted the zom-bee with that perfect angle to smack it into the concrete floor, and I squished it. But this time, I took an extra precaution. Since swatting, smacking and squishing doesn't do the trick, I decided to add another step. Splitting. 

Now, if I see another bee and it's in 2 parts, I know it's the zom-bee!

Wish I had done this last year. I've finally gotten rid of the bees and zom-bees just in time for us to move into our new house in a couple weeks. BUT, if this problem happens again, I know just what to do!





...I'm not crazy....