Bed Bugs in My this and that

Today I am thankful for how well my husband is doing at school! He is SO smart, and I think he's enjoying school. He just told me he got 92% on his last test. I was always a very average student, so I'm thoroughly impressed.

So bed bugs. Where to start? I got home yesterday and a notice had been slipped under our door that bed bugs have infested the apartment below ours. So as a precaution they will be fumigating all the apartments surrounding that one, including ours.

If you've ever done this before (and I have, this same situation happened to me about 6 years ago), you know it's about as much work as moving. You have to pack up all your cupboards, closets, book shelves and everything into boxes. You have to bag all your bedding, clothes, towels and fabric stuffs. Then you have to move all the furniture and everything 2 feet away from each wall (my apartment isn't that big and I have a lot of stuff so this is a near impossibility for us). Then they will check our apartment to make sure we prepped it correctly. If we didn't, we get a $200 fine.

Then they fumigate. They say people with respiratory problems should stay away for 12-24 hours. That would be me. I'm debating what I should do.

I am convinced that the bed bugs are not in our apartment. Neither Ben nor I have noticed any weird bites or itchy bumps on ourselves. However, I do not want to take any chances!

So I am debating grabbing all the clothe items (clothes bedding etc) and heading to my parents for a day or two. I can use their washer and dryer to do clothes and towels and sheets... and Mom said she will keep me company in town at the laundromat to do the bigger bedding. She also said I could bring Jake along. I want him out of the house for as long as possible because I don't want him ingesting any chemicals.

I just called to find out if my Insurance would cover the costs of having to prepare for this, and of washing everything, maybe a hotel and finding a place for the cat to stay. "No." Just flat out. Seems weird. I mean, this would be a SMALL insurance claim for them, where as for me it's quite a large (and feels unnecessary as I am pretty positive we aren't infested) expense being forced upon me.

I keep flipping between feeling like "I can handle this!" and "I'm so overwhelmed!"