Yesterday was the kids first day off from school for the Thanksgiving break, and I had visions of spending an entire day of fun with the four children. It didn't exactly go as planned. The day started poorly when I woke up, and noticed it was snowing really hard. That's not a huge deal, but still a pain to drive around in and get babies in an out of the car in a blizzard. While feeding Nicholas his morning bottle, a very loud ear piercing alarm started ringing somewhere in our house. I discovered it was coming from the basement where our water softener and well pump are. Apparently it was the grinder pump, which is for the basement bathroom that we never use. The plumber said that he could come out and look at the pump sometime in the afternoon. That blew our day for leaving the house. A bummer, but still not a huge catastrophe. We would just postpone until Wednesday.
I decided to make some brownies and as I poured the oil into the measuring cup, I knocked the bottle of vegetable oil over and spilled 1/2 the bottle all over the counter, down the cabinets and onto the floor.
The three girls went outside to play in the snow. Shea decided to come in after 30 minutes, which started an argument on the deck. I had Shea watch Nicholas in the house so that I could go outside to play with Taylor and Isabella. I went down the sledding hill one time. (I have to admit, it was really fun.) Shea ran out on the deck screaming for me, which sent my heart into full panic because I thought something happened to Nicholas. Nicholas was fine, but we had a mouse running around in our living room. Now, if you want to send me into full freak out mode - put a mouse in my house. I turn into a complete lunatic. When I got inside, he was hiding behind our T.V. I could not find a mouse trap anywhere in our house, so I drove to the corner gas station/mini mart. They don't carry mouse traps. I didn't want to drive 10 minutes farther into town because I was waiting for the plumber to arrive, and I didn't want him there alone with the kids. Taylor was extremely pleased that I had not bought a trap being the animal rights activist that she is. I googled "How to humanely catch a mouse", and there were several hits. Can you believe that???? Taylor and I set up a complicated contraption with a cardboard ramp, toilet paper tube, cracker and peanut butter, and a tall bucket. Then we waited. Taylor stuffed towels into every crack of the entertainment stand so that he couldn't escape. The entire time, Taylor commented on how cute he was and that when we caught him we should keep him. I think she watched far too many Disney movies as a child. In my head, I continued to curse the little S - - T for having the misfortune of entering my home. Two hours went by and we still did not have a mouse in our homemade "humane" trap. We also had not heard from our plumber yet.
I had promised Shea that she could go to the basketball game with her friends at 4:00, so I left the house with 3 children and told Taylor to watch the mouse and make sure he didn't try to bolt from under the T.V. I called the plumber and told him that I would not be home for the next 45 minutes, and took off in the blizzard to drop Shea off at her friends house. I bought 2 traps at the drug store on my way home and was confident that he would be dead shortly. When I got home, the mouse was no where to be found. Spectacular!!! The plumber arrived shortly after that and told me that the pump was broken. I mentioned previously that we never use the bathroom, so how can a pump be dead in 3 and 1/2 years? It appears that when a pump is not used enough, they go bad quicker. Go figure! And how much is it going to cost to replace, I ask? $800!!! Is it under warranty, I ask again? No! Not as of 5 months ago!! So, he fixed the pump for the bathroom that no one uses, and I scurry him out of the house so that I can leave again to meet Shea at the middle school for her teacher conferences. Back into the blizzard I went with Nicholas. Isabella stayed with Taylor.
As of today, we still have not caught the mouse. Taylor woke up at 4:30 in the morning and said that the mouse ran out of her room into the hallway. Is it possible that a tiny mouse can hop up an entire flight of wooden stairs? Or do we have more than one? Or did Taylor dream it? Nevertheless, I will be purchasing several more traps today, and will be setting them in various places around our house. This mouse is not going to survive another day in my house.
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