A Mouse Tale

Yesterday afternoon, the boys were ready for some down time, so me being the mom I swore I'd never be went to plug them into a movie so I could have my own quiet time. Yes, at some point in the day a movie is in order to keep mom at some level of sanity. I got their snacks and drinks and Andrew and I headed down the stairs. Caleb insisted on carrying his own drink and snack, so he lagged behind. Andrew and I got down the stairs, I got the movie started and Caleb was yelling for help from the top of the stairs. Being a good mom, I went to help Caleb only to take one step up the stairs and shriek. There was a mouse in the middle of my stairs!!!! Only moments before I must have walked right over the top of him and not even known it! Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a rodent or reptile person. Of course with the shriek Andrew comes running over to the stairs to see what's going on and Caleb starts crying because I told him to stay at the top of the stairs. So, now the picture is Caleb sitting on the top step crying and Andrew and I at the bottom of the step with me trying to keep Andrew away from the mouse that he felt he must get a closer look of. Now what to do?? I didn't want to ignore the mouse and let it have free reign of the house, but how was I going to catch a mouse...a live mouse at that? Finally, I dumped toy tools out of a bucket, had Andrew get a book to help me scoop the mouse into the bucket. So, now I have the mouse cornered in the step, the bucket trapping the mouse there and the book on the step above. I slid the bucket and mouse up the side of the step to the next landing, where I have the book ready to push the mouse into the bucket. WooHoo!!!! I caught the mouse! I truly thought this whole experience was going to put me into labor, but we made it through labor free. Andrew had to see mouse several times through the afternoon as we waited for Ryan to get home from work to dispose of the mouse, which was still alive when he got home and set free by the golf course.

I should have prefaced this with the discussion Ryan and I had when we got home from our camping trip. I was unloading the trailer, using the kitchen door to the garage so it was propped open. I was just about finished when our neighbors came by and we were visiting. Ryan asked if the door was closed at which I said it was. Well, evidently, it wasn't as closed as I thought so then Ryan said we probably had a mouse in the house. I was hoping he was wrong and hadn't seen any sign, so thought nothing else of it. Well, honey, you were right. A mouse did make it into the house, probably because I kept the door to the garage open. But on the bright side, I cleaned up my own mess on this one!