Two bits of information

Oh my, we have had a problem in our house off and on for the last year.  IT…  IS… NOT… GOOD..  We’ve tried different things.  We thought we fixed the problem, but we hadn’t.  This week it got worse. The problem you ask?  Mice.

About a year ago we noticed a little black thing on the middle door shelf of our pantry.  We looked at the items a little closer and realized something had been snacking on some items leaving shredded plastic in its wake.  We cleaned and found more stuff.  Guy set up some traps and nothing.  Then we got a trap that used peanut butter.  After a day or two we found a little mouse in the spring trap.  YAY!  We set some more traps and didn’t catch anything.  Problem solved.  Or so we thought.

When we arrived home from our trip to Atlanta and Tennessee three weeks ago I spotted a shredded candy wrapper.  Are you kidding me?   Ughhh  Last week I got some traps.  Guy got more traps.  Nothing.  A few mornings ago I went to walk into the master bathroom and was confronted with a mouse by our shower door running AT me!  It scurried into our linen closet while I let out an escalating girly yelp.  The kids came running to check on me. lol   I saw him again in there two days later.  This or these mice are NOT taking the bait or getting trapped.

When feeding Landon two nights in a row I thought there was a noise coming from under the other couch but wrote it off as being paranoid. We pulled the couch out and found fluffy tufts of carpet a mouse was playing with.  It was a hole Guy had created from under the house to put an ethernet cable through.  Guy got out the foam we used to insulate the windows and filled that hole right up!  One entry spot down.  Now we’ve seen the evidence of a mouse in our pantry and seen a mouse twice in our bathroom.

This morning I woke up and knew today was important in the mouse hunt.  Landon was yelling for me in his crib so I grabbed him and a bottle.  We headed back to my room so I could rest my eyes and pretend sleep while he ate.  With him in my arms I approach the bed which is right by our bathroom.  The mouse is there.  We have a bit of a stare down.  After quietly setting Landon down and grabbing a towel I advanced on the mouse who needed to run towards me to get into the linen closet.  He did and it was on.  I tried to wield the towel like a weapon and get him.  It was far too soft and unsuitable to do anything as he made his way past me into the closet.  Darn.

The twins woke up about 10 minutes later.  We all headed into the kitchen to get some breakfast.  I put Landon on the floor and the twins clamored around me to begin the morning ritual on cereal days to pick their cereal with me.  As I opened the door there was the mouse sitting on top of the Stinkin mouse trap.  REALLY?!?!  He’s supposed to go get the yummy peanut butter in it!  He sees me and runs.  But then..  I see that he is just behind a box of soup cans and hasn’t gone into the wall somehow.  Wow, what weapon would work.  He’s sitting there still frozen so I contemplate my choices…

Could I drop the large plastic bottle of olive oil on him?  No, too big and only one shot at getting him.  There’s an array of boxes and containers.  Box of crackers? No  Container of raisins? No  I finally settle onto a large plastic container of chocolate baking powder.  I stealthfully make my move for it.  Once it’s in my hands I move closer and closer.  As soon as it unfreezes I go in for it.  Miss.  Miss.  Miss. Miss.  Get a little.  Get him a little more.  The kids are all paying rapt attention with Blake yelling, “Go Mommy!” and Madison making little exclamation noises and Landon in the I’m about to go check this out myself pose.  The mouse goes under a box that’s perched over other items.  I can’t quite reach.  Move it.  Miss.  He’s gone behind the box of water bottles.  He’s got to be gone into the wall somehow.  I move pull it with my left hand and he’s still there!  He runs at me zigging and zagging as I pound down the container.  Chocolate powder is puffing from under the lid clouding in the air.  I get him!  Again. Again. Again.

He is dead!  Oh the relief.   Now we just have to keep something by the bathroom and hope it was the same mouse running from hole to hole under our crawlspace and not multiple mice.

While my heart was still pounding from the adrenaline, we called Guy {working off duty w/Scotty} on the speaker phone.  Blake excitedly told daddy that mommy killed the mouse.  We recounted the story to him and he laughed with us.  He might also have made fun of me for still being all ramped up.  I informed Guy that while I had killed the mouse it was his responsibility to remove it from our pantry floor.  He told me how I could do it.  Nope.  He will do it.  My job is done.  Magnificently I might add. lol

The kids are so adorable.  The twins are all about imaginative play.  The funniest play right now is how they assign all of their cars into family groups.  Some are moms and dads and some are children.  We often hear them saying ‘Hey mom’ ‘hey dad’ or other things not talking to us at all.

They got this cool ride on car for Christmas.  It’s technically Blake’s.  He always gets in to drive first.  Then Madison starts telling him what to do, where to go or how to do it.  He gets annoyed with her and says, “You drive, Maddie!”  They happily change places and are off.  

We let them take Landon for his first ride.  As long as they run at the slow speed and drive smoothly he loved it.  Guy stayed within easy reach of him to make sure he was ok on hard stops or take offs.  He laughed and loved it.  I ran off to grab the camera and came back just in time to get this last OK expression before he decided the ride was not his thing.

A funny cute image of the twins eating.

Guy has been working off duty at Garner High Schools sporting events since taking the school resource officer position.  He’s gotten to know Scotty McCreery through working many off duty events Scotty was a part of.  He was in most of the footage American Idol showed of Scotty’s home town visit.  When he first came back for his senior year there was a bit of hoopla and a lot of people trying to get on the school grounds to meet Scotty.  The kids have heard of Scotty a lot and yell out, “It’s Scotty” every time one of his songs come onto the radio.  I finally took the kids to one of the high school games last night where they got to get a picture with Scotty.  Not sure what Maddie is doing, but all three of them look great!