Creature Feature Part II

Okay, so last spring, Amber blogged about the yucky animals they had been having around their house and titled her post Creature Feature. I am now utterly discusted with creatures that have been around our house this summer and so I am posting part 2! I am so freaked out right now that my feet are up on my chair - yes!! Our creatures this summer have not been outside of our house but inside - it's an invasion!!!

It all started in spring when Scott woke me up one morning while he was saying hello to Kalia by aking "Brandi . . . have you left the door open lately?" I responded promptly with "What is it?! I don't want to know!! Don't make me come over there!" But he did, and I saw a little baby frog hopping around in Kalia's room! So, Scott put it in a box and brought it outside. Whew, that was over with . . . or so we thought. The next week I was making my bed, and say something move out of the corner of my eye. I just thought it was a piece of lint that had fallen on the ground, but much to my dismay, the lint hopped, and sure enough it was another frog!! I quickly put a cup over it so it couldn't hop away and called Scott in a panicked voice. However, since he was at work, I had to get rid of it myself, so I slid a piece of cardboard under it, and flung it out the front door. By this time I was wondering where they came from. Two frogs is NO coincidence! A few days later, I was walking down the hall, and hop hop hop in front of me went another little baby frog!! Scott and I could not figure out where they were coming from, and by this time, I started to wear shoes around the house. Then, just when I thought our house was safe from these slimy critters, one sat on my bathroom floor the next week staring up at me. Eww! Now, I normally don't mind frogs, but in the house?!? One is funny, two is weird, three is just plain gross, but four? That's just plain freakish!! Unfortunately, we never figured out where they came from, but fortunately, they haven't come back since.

Anyways, this frog business seems like a walk in the park compared to what I am dealing with now!! A few nights ago, we heard a strange noise as we were falling asleep. I didn't think anything of it, though. I just credited it to our fan hitting a stray piece of paper in the office, or possibly the plastic inside of Kalia's diaper genie unraveling (happens sometimes). However, in the morning I heard the sound again and checked the aforementioned items which were both not the culprit. Then, I realized that the noise was coming from my little makeup room off of our bedroom. I saw some half-deflated helium balloons brushing against my metal garbage can, so I moved them away. The noise continued, and I realized it was coming from the cupboard under the sink. Okay, so we've had a water leak problem there before, so I simply thought that water must be dripping onto a plasic bag or one of my Mary Kay magazines or something. I opened the door - no water. As I closed the door, I saw out of the corner of my eye that one of the magazines was all ripped. That's strange, I thought, I don't remember ripping any pages out of that one. Then it dawned on me - I knew exactly what kind of creature ripped paper - a mouse!!! I am terrified of mice, people - I almost started crying. Luckily, I was going to Winnipeg with my Scott's mom and his fearless sister, Kaitlyn, that day. I called Scott, who told me to call them with instructions to bring some traps. I waited in fear to call until a decent hour (7:45) but Scott had already called there. Help was on the way. So, Kaitlyn set the traps, and off we went to Winnipeg. I went home with them after, afraid to be alone at home, until Scott was done work.

When Scott and I got home the trap was empty. I tried to console myself by thinking that it had found its way back outside, but it didn't really work. However, I felt much braver with Scott at home. He chekced outside to find the problem spot where the critter could have entered the house while I stood WAY on the other end of the house. After a few hours, I was quite relaxed already and so when Erik called Scott and offered him a ride to hockey in the city at 10:00 that night, I foolishly told him I would be okay and he could go. As the dark grew, so did my fear. I ended up sleeping on the couch until Scott came home and - Praise God - found the mouse caught in the trap. He told me to close my eyes, and brought it outside, and thankfully we've had none since (though the traps are still set). I still wear shoes in my bedroom and do NOT go into my little makeup room unless I absolutely have to. ICK!