Big Eating Randomness

The "process" continues! I wish there was a conclusion to report. On Tuesday, 10 traps were put under the house. The bait?? Peanut butter! And if that doesn't work, they add a chocolate bar to it. Seriously. How can something so despicable have such refined taste?! They are coming to check all the traps on Monday morning, unless we hear one trip before then. Brad thinks he may have heard one last night, but not positive. So we will most likely wait until Monday. One cool thing...the guy that is now taking care of the trapping is a man Brad and I have known since before we were married. We love his family, and haven't seen him in a long time. Now we feel like we are in the hands of a professional and the hands of a friend at the same time. Phew! We have also been sleeping with a fan on in the room, so if they are active we can't hear them. We just needed sleep. I feel like since we are now paying to have it be someone else's problem, we can at least sleep at night!

Enough about rats eating perfectly good peanut butter and chocolate...the other big eater in this home is my son! He's 7 months into his teen years, and people have asked if his appetite has grown. To a degree it has, but lately...sheesh! He has easily added the equivalent to an extra meal lately. Comes home from school hungry. And he EATS! Now, I know, I can hear some of your thoughts: Alex has always been a big eater. But now it's turning into this primal, testosterone-driven man hunger...this kid needs constant protein. Yesterday I had made pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips for Beth's Brownie meeting. I had a bunch of extras sitting on the counter, and suggested that he have a couple of those and milk. That's what I would go for! He instead was wanting the full bowl of leftover re-fried beans. A warm pumpkin muffin, or re-fried beans? To each his own!

And he has begun the interesting behavior, that we all stumble into at some point, of staring into the refrigerator for several minutes. As if by looking long enough, something more appealing will appear. Then he opens a cabinet and stares. Then back to the fridge.

Mom: "What are you looking for??"
Alex: "Hmm...I'm not sure. I think I'll know it when I see it."
Mom: "But you've seen it all."
Alex: "Yeah. But nothing has looked right yet."

Yeah, I get that. Can't say as I haven't been there myself a time or two. Or three or thirty.

And we are now 6 weeks away from the big eating of Girl Scout cookies! I am the cookie mom for Beth's troop, which means that starting in 6 weeks when the cookies come in, my van is going to have the constant aroma of thin mint cookies. And my living room will be lined with cases of cookies. (Imagine the staring that Alex can do then!) Today we begin taking pre-orders, and cookies will be on the brain continually. I wish this didn't come so closely on the heels of all the big eating we did during Thanksgiving. And birthdays. And Christmas. And New Years. And last night for no reason. But today I've been good. I had my oatmeal with flax seeds and blueberries. The day's not over yet, but so far so good. Anyway...

And Brad has, once again, given up his nightly ice cream indulgence. I'm proud of him. He decides something and just does it. Doesn't complain about it, or make everyone else suffer with him. (Like some other adult in this home!) Just quietly does what he's decided to do. His cholesterol crept back up a bit since last Spring, so he is determined to bring it back down before his check up in April. He'll do it. I've known him more than half my life, and he still is the most disciplined person I have ever met.

That must be where Brenna gets it. She is the only one in our house (including pets!) that I would not put into the "big eater" category. This girl LOVES M&M's. Loves them. It was on her birthday list, to have a giant bag of M&M's. So Alex gave her a huge bag. She also had saved out all her acquired M&M's from Halloween, and traded other candy for additional supply. She's such a collector! So she has dumped all these candies into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag. She keeps it in her room and eats 5 everyday. Just 5. She gladly shares them if asked. Doesn't hoard them, just savors them. So sweet. I could never let Beth keep that much candy in her room. She would plow through them! Alex too. But Brenna is just that way. She savors. Love that about her. I want to be more like Brenna when I grow up.

So, I've probably bored you with this. Truly just random thoughts on big eaters, with a gentle update on our crawl space visitors. In fact, I did it so gently that I didn't even itch. I better be careful...I'm getting there again!