Stirrings

I hate to post this because it's embarrassing. But for the past few weeks we have had a problem with mice. The weather turned cold and inside my pantry they did roam, and munch... and poop. I thought at first that I may have been dealing with chipmunks because my pantry is in a fairly odd place outside the kitchen on the way up to an addition put onto the house at some earlier point in time. It's a very cold storage spot and it almost feels like it may have access to the outside- thus making me think more along the lines of a chipmunk. I mentioned this problem to a friend and they oddly suggested I see the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. "It won't solve your problem, but the movie is adorable!" said she. I caught a few moments of it during my Christmas wrapping week on HBO. Cute? I guess. Not helpful for my problem though, as she said. In the pantry there was a fairly large box of minute rice with an opening for the rice to pour out exposed to the 'elements' as it were. I had a hunch and decided to pour the rice out into a bowl. I found the mother-load of stashed away food in there. Spaghetti noodles, M&Ms (that really got me going!), almond slivers. I quickly called an exterminator. I didn't want to be dealing with whatever this was over the holidays. Lloyd has come out now about 3-4 times leaving his expert traps full of blood thinning poison for the mice. Yes mice do this hoarding says Lloyd. I have learned all kinds of things about mice. Like (and maybe you don't want to know this... if so stop reading now) mice can jump 3-4 feet into the air, squeeze through a space the size of a nickel (a flat nickel!) to get in where they want to go. I saw a mouse run across the floor in front of me the other day while in the laundry room. It seems they are downstairs too- getting into the food storage. I think I am going to be sick. I cleared out everything I thought they could get to easily and then found more evidence tonight. So much for Lloyd and his traps. Lloyd, if you are reading this I want my 160.00 back please. I am now forced to 'cowboy up' like the true cougar that I am and put up 1/4 inch screens in my pseudo pantry. With staple gun in hand I will conquer. I wish T were here to do the dirty work. I set 3 traps tonight and swore the s word each time I got the boogers scared out of me when the things would snap in my hands while placing them. I repented after each time though so it's all good.

This among other continuing troubles in the T household have caused me to lose my sense of well being lately. Could it be that having my kids home from school being bored and irritable with one another is also causing me to hear the scratch scratch scratching of insanity inside my head. I have been over the side too many times at the end of 2008. (aka over the edge). When I feel this way. This swirling of the dark abyss that only gets worse before getting better I know what need be done my friends. I need to forget myself and go to work. Prioritize what is important and let the rest slide of the ducks back if you will. Ride easier in the saddle. These are the things I know, yet the doing is much harder. Getting more sleep would help me and I continually stay up past 11:30. I need to repent and shoo the symbolic rodents of unusual size from my lifestyle. So I now close this post at 11:16 and start tomorrow with a renewed commitment to do what needs to be done, and try to settle the uneasy stirrings about my home.