I HATE MICE!

So, how many of you can relate? We have mice-again! We usually get them about once a year, when they seem to get tired of outside or the garage and want to spread their domain to the rest of the house. Although some of you might scoff at my, shall we say, disgust, for these little rodents, they just creep me out. Keith found a dead mouse a little more than a week ago, but it had been in the wall (we have a small area that doesn't have sheetrock) and he was rescuing some toys. He pulled that out too, and wasn't sure what it was, but when he looked closer he threw it down and came to tell me that there was a mouse in the playroom. I thought he was joking, but had Tyson go and check it out. Sure enough, there was a dead mouse in the middle of the floor of the playroom. Now we hadn't played in there for a few days, but I was still surprised that one would crawl there and then die. Had Keith wash his hands really good after that and the next day he told me that it really came from between the wall. Gross, huh?

Then Tyson told me he thought he saw a mouse run along the wall by the fireplace one night, but wasn't sure. Turns out, he really did see it, but didn't want to freak me out. Too late! So we didn't do anything and he left for the slope. My sister stopped by to get some traps from us and share the woes of the mice at her house, and that night, after the kids were in bed, I was down here at my desk, and I heard noise over by the fireplace. I was naive no longer! Not to mention that a few minutes later I actually saw the furry little beast run behind my shelves against the wall. I called to let Tyson know that it was official that we had mice. I then made the time that I spent downstairs limited, because I didn't want to be around them. I did get two sticky traps that we had and put them down here to try and catch the critters. And the next day, the kids said they saw a mouse run against the wall and the shelves on the other side of the fireplace (where Tyson had first seen the beasts). So we bought more traps on Thursday, put some out, and waited for Tyson to get home on Friday so he could rid us of the vermin. Keith loves to check and see and let us know when they are on the traps, but he is still nervous about them and doesn't want to be all by himself. If he does check it by himself, then he has to work up to it. But he walks around the house and when he hears an unidentifiable noise, he says he thinks he heard a mouse. And he has seen a mouse's nose too peek out from behind things. Can you say that his mother's paranoia is rubbing off? I think so. I try to be brave for him, because I don't want to scare him, but it is hard.

So we have removed 3 little, or as Keith says, medium sized, critters from our home. Hopefully the rest will soon follow! I just hate even thinking about them, but thought I would share with you all why I may not be at my computer very much until they are all gone!