Mouse Hunt

I'm sitting at the computer at the end of a 95-degree muggy day being eaten alive by mosquitos but having too much fun reading everybody's blogs to quit. This is such a peaceful time of day--no interruptions, freedom to complete a thought. It's worth staying up late and feeling a little tired the next day to enjoy that luxury!

The mouse hunt continues. I'm definitely feeling violated by the presence of furry quadripeds in our new home. For about a week we saw evidence of mice in our kitchen without having actually seen one. Several people had informed us they'd seen rats in the house, but we hoped they were just exaggerating. I hated not knowing the enemy we were up against. Well, that was taken care of Saturday night. Evan and I were on the main floor working on stuff when all of a sudden Jed let out a blood-curdling scream. Thinking he had hurt himself, we raced up the stairs, only to find out he was screaming in terror--he had seen a mouse at the foot of the stairs. I crept back down the stairs (putting my shoes on as I went) and, sure enough, there he was, crawling up a small pipe right by the front door. He wasn't quite a rat, but neither was he one of the cute little 3-inch mice you get at the petstore. Perhaps it was a mouse cross-bred with a rat that was living well off the fat of the land.

Everywhere we look we find more spots the mice can be coming in. We're up against a smart enemy. We put one of the old-fashioned mouse traps in his favorite cupboard, only to find he stole the treat and jumped back to safety in the nick of time, because the trap is there and it's sprung, but there's no treat and no mouse. However, we did catch one in the glue trap in the mudroom. Ha-ha, victory! Maybe we won't need to call the exterminator after all. Anyone have any bright ideas for catching the little varmints?

What are the odds?

About three weeks ago when my parents and my sister Kristi were visiting we all went down to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. Old Sturbridge Village is a fascinating reconstruction of a colonial town. But I'm not here to describe it, though I do highly recommend it if you ever have the chance. Something happened there, though, that I still can't believe. At one point I was walking down a lane when I passed a girl who looked very familiar. It took two seconds for me to place her. I turned around and ran after her, calling her name. She didn't recognize me at first until I explained that we had been in Russia together back in 1992 (she hadn't changed one iota, but my hair was a lot longer then so it took her a minute to remember me). Now get this--at the time we were in Russia together 13 years ago, she was from Hawaii and I was from Washington State. Tell me what the odds are that we would meet in Massachusetts 13 years later, her married and living in Connecticut and me living in New Hampshire??? As Syndrome in The Incredibles would say, "I'm still geeking out about it!"

All Moved In

Horrors! It's been about a month since my last post! I apologize for wasting everybody's time--not having anything new to read whenever you've taken the time to check my blog. We've been deep into packing and moving, but finally we are here in our HUGE, beautiful new house (new to us, anyway!).

Last week the big white parsonage up the road from our old house became "ours" when Pastor Tad and June Sandford left for Thailand. We spent several days painting the kids' rooms. That in itself was a huge task, trying to do it in the evenings, and with one room needing wallpaper removed. One night Lindsay, Amy Partin, and Cherilyn Bright came and gave generously of themselves to help me. The night before we were scheduled to move in I still needed to add another coat to the boys' room but had absolutely no energy as I seemed to be fighting some kind of bug. Well, around 9:00 a.m. I went over to the house to pick something up or drop something off and heard voices upstairs. Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered Lindsay and Amy putting the last coat on! I burst into tears at their kindness. I think they had some idea of what a blessing their gift of time and energy was, but I can never repay them.

Two others who were a Godsend were the Fulones, who took Tucker for the day we moved in, and Cherilyn, who watched Chloe and Jed for six hours. We couldn't have done it without their help, and it was reassuring to know they were all in loving, capable hands.

Derrick, Wesley, and several guys from our church came in the afternoon to help Evan with the heavy stuff. Moving the trampoline was the biggest adventure of all! Rather than trying to dismantle it, the five guys hefted it on their shoulders and carried it across the big field between the old house and new! I wish my camera had been accessible, but it's certainly a mental picture I'll never forget.

So, since moving in we've been loving all the extra space! We went from a two-bedroom house (with a third finished room in the attic) to a six-bedroom house with a den. The kitchen is a dream to work in, the kids have a lovely playroom . . . I could go on and on. Not so nice is the mouse who got into my expensive rice flour in the night last night, but Evan is going to see what he can do about it tonight. I guess mice tend to come with the territory in old houses like this one. So far I'm not too impressed with our cats' rodent-catching ability. It's tempting to stop giving them food. Then they'd have to hunt for it! But that would be cruel. Don't worry, Kristi, I won't be doing that. :-)