Catching Mice

Eww. This blog post is not for the faint-hearted. Nor is it filled with happy pictures to make you feel good inside. This is a true, and very ugly story.

We have had a guest living in our house without permission for at least 8 months now. We have tried at least two different traps, poison, and cornering it. Yup, that's right. Cornering it. Yuck. The first time was about three months ago (maybe four). Jaren saw it one night go right into our stove. He was determined to get it. So we both started getting ready for it. We taped three garbage bags together and attached it to the stove with tape. When we finally opened the stove (like 45 minutes later) the mouse was not inside due to a large hole in the back that he would easily have fit through. Yes, exasperating.

Lately, we'd been seeing the mouse a LOT more. It's like he was finally getting really comfortable here. I actually saw him stop a few times in the middle of the room before dashing back behind the entertainment center. (I thought he was cute!!!) But, regardless of his good looks, he's scared the heebie jeebies out of me too many times. I really wanted him gone, and Jaren even more so.

Not last night, but the night before, 24 robbers came knocking at my door. OK, no. And it was actually in the afternoon. I opened the pantry doors to get ready for dinner and the mouse was RIGHT THERE! Yes, probably at chest level, right in front of me! I screamed, the mouse jumped super high, and then dashed to the back of the pantry. I stood for a second, completely mortified. Then I got my head back, closed the pantry, and told my sob story to J.J., who immediately put his sandals on and went to tell Dad. That's how he fixes things you know!

So, Jaren came in and decided that what we needed to do was take out all of the food in the pantry and have the trash can and some cardboard blocking/waiting to catch him. Again, I was mortified. I was sure that the mouse was long gone and that this was a waste of effort while at the same time worrying my head off that he would pop out and scare the living daylights out of me again. Grudgingly, I agreed to help my dh. So, guess who held the trash can and cardboard and who had to reach in and grab the food items one by one with her bare hands? I know, I must be totally insane to let him talk me into doing that.

So we went shelf by shelf until we got to the bottom one. Then, when we (I) was halfway through getting out the food from that shelf, I reached in to grab the vanilla and the mouse jumped up again right by my hand!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! And shiver too. Then the mouse ran into some bottles, so we knew where it was and I quickly put my hand back in the lion's den to get rid of the rest of the food. When we got to the bottles, I grabbed the broom and with the stick part started poking around in there. It got scared and ran around until it ended up in the trash can. Jaren quickly covered it with the cardboard and then opened it to look and make sure that it was in there. It tried to scramble up the side, startling both of us, and he slammed the cardboard back down and ran outside with it (after having to dodge three excited little boys who wanted to be right in the middle of this adventure).

We all went out for a second when Jar started to smash the trash can on the side of the steps. I didn't realize he meant to kill it...what an idiot I am. I was concerned that he let it go far enough away from our house! Silly Melinda. I was kind of grossed out and ushered the kids back inside who definitely didn't need to see that (and neither, of course, did I). He came back in after a minute and told me that after he slammed it a few times, the trash can broke, and the mouse got out and started slowly walking in a dazed manner. Then Jaren slammed the trash can on top of it and killed it. Ewww. He showed me. Double ewww. Then he put it in a bag and stuck it in our outside garbage.

So, there it is. The adventure that made me scream in horror. Hope you enjoyed it as little as I did.

Ryan's 3rd Birthday

We celebrated Ryan's birthday at his Grandma and Grandpa Armstrong's this year since we were already there for his birthday.  After much discussion and deliberation, Ryan decided he wanted a Lightening McQueen birthday party.  (This changed from day to day and varied in themes from ocean to princess - that's my boy!!)
He got this cute tool box from Grandma and Grandpa Ford.
He made the funniest faces while opening his presents.  Ryan was SO excited for this little flashlight that my Grandma Butler gave him. 
He got the same face when he opened up his bike (I think he made this face before he even knew what it was!!!  So funny!)

And he made the face again when he saw the card Grandma Sperry sent him.  He loved it and really had fun picking off all the cute stickers of Lightening McQueen and friends.

I put this picture on because I thought Chase looked cute in it.

Need responses!!!

Please leave a comment with your interpretation of this photo...

We're going to Kentucky, we're going to the fair...

So I know this title has nothing to do with this post...but J.J. got a cd of songs from his Grandma and Grandpa Ford and this song is on it and it's stuck in my head!!  

It's finally park weather here again, and the kids were beggin me to take em.  So, after much ado about finishing their lunch, we went.  Ryan's favorite thing to do is slide, and J.J. is obsessed with the "monkey bars". (Yeah, I know they're rings.)
The most fun thing about the park though was that the sprinklers came on while we were there.  J.J. got a huge grin, so I asked him if he wanted to run around in them.  He was thrilled that I suggested it!!  I'm sure he was expecting me to say no because he was saying thanks a million times over!  So here he is, running around in them.  I was lucky he actually stopped for one pic instead of having his back to me, going crazy in the rainstorm.  I laughed my head off at him, he was too funny!

J.J. and Ryan Are Fighting - AGAIN!!!

I know that sounds bad, but it’snot what you think.  J.J. and Ryan have started playing really well together actually.  But they make ENORMOUS messes.  I wanted to show you one!

They have fights with tons of their “guys”.  They line them all up and have them face each other.  They can play for hours like this.  They have only one problem: Chase!  He’s into everything, which means he is all over their stuff.  If they’re in a separate room from me, I usually hear just after a couple minutes, “MOM!!!  Chase is grabbing my stuff!  MOOOOMMMMM!!”  Then I have to rush in there and grab Chase before he ruins their fight.  

I can’t wait for the day when he can actually play with them.  But for now, I still think it is pretty cute that he wants to be in there with his older brothers…even if the older brothers don’t think it’s so cute!

New website!!!

Hello All!!!  I just wanted to let you know that I've started another blog to house all my crafts, cakes, and other gift type ideas.  It was cluttering up our family blog, so I thought I'd give it a new place to stay!  I actually transferred all of the craft and cake posts I had on this blog to that one...so if you are looking for an old post and it's not here, it's there!  If you want to visit the site, here is the address.

http://stayathomemomcrafts.blogspot.com

Halloween in April

The boys have been paying a lot of Star Wars lately and asked if they could get out the costumes they had. So they played a little dress up and ran around getting the good guys.