Eeek! A Mouse!

First, let me preface this story with the statements that my house is clean. I vacuum almost daily, keep everything neat and tidy, and by most standards my house is EXTRA clean and not cluttered. That being said, read on:

Last Fall, shortly after moving in to our new house, we had our first mouse. Monte was away at logging camp, and late one night a mouse appeared while I was watching television. I usually watch tv at night with one small table lamp on, and at first I wasn't even sure I had really seen it. It ran out from under our very large entertainment center, to the middle of the room about 3 feet, and then turned around and went right back under the tv. It was like a bird in a cuckoo clock, and it took me a few seconds to react. A mouse in my newly built house is NOT something I ever expected!
The first thing I did was jump up and stand on the couch. It was dark, and Monte's not home, and I hate mice. When I calmed down, I went to the phone and called, who else? My dad. "There's a mouse in my house!" I yell through the phone.

"Yeah, so?" he says rather calmly. Nothing like, "I'll be right over," or "How can I help?" Nope, just a nonchalant "Yeah, so?"

Forced to do it myself, I ran to my parents to borrow a mouse trap. It was hard to go to bed, I had the urge to stuff a towel under my bedroom door. Then, I thought about my kids sleeping in their rooms, and figured it wouldn't be fair to seal my door and not theirs. Or, worse yet, what if the mouse had already moved on to a bedroom? So, I reluctantly went to bed and left my door open.

Over the next couple of days, the mouse proceeded to eat everything I left in the trap, no matter how hard I pressed it on. Finally, after Monte reset the trap Friday, we caught our mouse.

We assured ourselves that the mouse had snuck in through an open door, and about a week later I'm just starting to let go of my fear, even though every little twitch out of the corner of my eye set my heart racing. Just as things calm down, what should appear, but another mouse! Nearly the same story: late night tv, out from the entertainment center, only this time Monte is home and he's very cranky when I wake him up yelling about a mouse.

Griping about how I'm such a wimp, and it's "only a mouse," Monte sets the trap. The next morning, I get up from bed to find the trap gone. "Did you catch the mouse?" I ask Monte. He's cranky because I'm waking him up about the mouse AGAIN, but he insists that NO, he didn't catch it. Now I'm really freaked, because the trap is nowhere to be found. After searching all day, we finally find it behind our dryer, the mouse still inside and still alive. (Ewww)Monte takes care of it, and all is back to normal.

So, what does this have to do with anything? Well......

At 5:30 this morning, it's me who's being woken up by Monte yelling "Mindi, where's our mouse trap!?" My first groggy thought is "Oh No." Plus, I have no idea where the trap went since last Fall. "There's a mouse in our couch," Monte yells.
"Are you sure?" I ask him.
"Yes I'm sure!" he yells as he looks for the trap, "The little f***er just ran across my stomach while I was sitting there!"

Monte ends up leaving for work without finding the trap or the mouse, and I toss and turn until 6:30 convinced that I'll feel that mouse on my covers any second. When I get out of bed, I find Monte's work gloves forgotten on the floor, the coffee table pulled out of place, and the couch pillows tossed aside. Well, well, well, looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't like mice! I'll be buying a mouse trap on my way home today, that's for sure!