How I know that my children love me…

Last night I set a mouse trap.  I know, you thought we were done with that whole ordeal didn’t you?  ::sigh:: me too… but unfortunately, when the weather spiked way far down, the mice took shelter… in my house.

I know mice are inevitable, I live in the woods.  But that doesn’t make me like them.  And really?  I know that they are cold and hungry and I wouldn’t mind sharing my space with them if they would LEAVE MY FOOD ALONE!!!! and use the toilet like any other guest in my home.

But they don’t.

Last night, they wore out their welcome.  Well, wore it out to where I was ready to do something about it.

In addition to figuring out, once again, where they were coming in at… and thank goodness I actually saw them flee this way or I would never know that a little hole to the outside world was even there…we set a trap.

The kids looked on, praying that I wouldn’t snap it on myself.  It snapped twice while I was trying to set it up but, fortunately, not on my fingers.

After it was set, I asked Matthew to please check it in the morning.

This morning, as I made Matthew his new found love of the peanut butter, banana smoothie, I asked him to check the trap.

What I didn’t tell him was that I knew that at 12:13 am, the mouse met his fate.  I heard the trap go off and then I thought I head little squeaks… I’m sure I did, because Rhoda also sat up in the bed, ears perched to hear the little noises.

Sure enough, he found a mouse.

I walked away.  “Get it out, please.  Put the gloves on, put it in a Kroger bag and get it out of my kitchen please.”

All of a sudden from the back of the house we hear, “WAIT!!!  I want to see!!!”

It was Sam and she wasn’t going to be happy unless she got to participate in the dead mouse removal.

As I’m sitting on the couch, awaiting the all clear so that I can return to my kitchen, I hear…

“Wow, he died with his eyes open.”

“Awesome!  Got ‘em right on the neck.”

“I’m glad Papaw’s not here, he’d make us pick him up with our bare hands.”

“Oh just pick him up by the tail and let’s go.”

Gross, right?

Finally, I screamed from the comfort of my couch, “Please just get rid of him.”

And so they did.  Together.  It was beautiful how they worked as a team to remove our latest unwanted house guest.

After, I packed them up and sent them out the door, I kissed both of them and said, “I love you…” to which I got the response… “You only love us because we do your dirty work…”

I smiled and said, “And I know you love me because you took care of it.”

“Well, duh…” Samara said.

And that’s fine.  I’ll gladly do all the laundry and dishes if my children will continue to get rid of the mice for me.  It’s a fair trade in my eyes.

Until next time…

Heather