Summer Break?

Apparently, just a bad sprain.

FYI- Sporting crutches loses its cool factor after you turn 23, especially when your injury is from something as old lady-ish as missing a step.

Eeek! The update.

YES, of course Jared got rid of the mouse! He had it disposed of by the time I decided to venture home again (2 hours later) with a sack full of traps. I don't know exactly what he did, but I do know it involved the brick I left on top of the bowl.

If you know Jared, he is an animal lover. In many cases he loves animals more than many of the people he meets. He has no difficulty putting an animal "out of it's misery" because he can't fathom letting the poor creature suffer. I'm not kidding. He once teared up a little because he inadvertently ran over a prairie dog. But when it comes to mice, he has no mercy.

He used to care about them a tiny bit. When the mouse was trapped in the washing machine (2 years ago) he tried to catch it by the tail. It was too fast. I stood at the top of the stairs yelling for him to just turn on the water. He refused. Instead he turned on the spin cycle and then took the dazed and dizzy thing out to our neighbor's yard and set it free.

It wasn't until that same summer when he was sleeping in the downstairs bedroom that he changed his mind about the whole situation. We had been catching mice in the garage and laundry room all summer. And since he works nights, and since it is significantly cooler downstairs, he would sleep in the spare room during the day. One day I heard him jump out of bed and come bounding out of the room. He got his flashlight, tore the covers off the bed, moved boxes out of the way, and cleared the nightstand looking for a mouse. He never found it, but he swears to this day there was a mouse trying to pull the covers off the bed while he slept.

He never slept in that room again and if he even sees a mouse in the yard he's out there with his air soft gun trying to get it.

I'm glad we're finally on the same page-- as long as he's the one doing the dirty work.

Don't judge.

I find myself asking everyone to withhold judgment on several of my blog posts. This is because I judge all too quickly, and because I share too much information, stories I know are similar to everyone, but that everyone is afraid to share. The following post is one such story.

I traumatized Kitty. Totally and completely. Here's how it happened...

I was busy downstairs (ok, I was reading blogs) and she was upstairs getting her shoes on for school. I hear her begin down the stairs and then I hear a timid, "Mommy?"

"I'm down here."

"Mommy? Mommy. Mommy!"

"What? Come down here."

"Mommy, I'm scared."

So I begrudgingly start up the stairs and see her frozen in the corner with a worried look on her face. She gestures slightly to the opposite corner where I have a rattan basket by the front door. I glance quickly and see a little curled up mouse sleeping on the lid of the basket.

I screamed. I screamed loudly and shrilly.

She screamed. She screamed loudly and shrilly.

I froze and she continued to scream with more urgency and terror.

The sleeping mouse continued to sleep.

"Come here Kitty."

She shook her head, sobbing. The mouse was between us. As ashamed as I am to admit it, I hesitated. I leaned as far over as I could and grabbed Katherine and carried her passed the rodent and down the stairs.

We escaped through the garage.

Once we were safely in the car I called Jared.

"Get rid of it!" he said, "You can't let it stay in the house! Get a shovel, brick or something and just kill it!"

"I can't." (And if you want the truth, it wasn't because I would be killing it, it was because it might jump on me.)

"Then step on it."

I hung up, grabbed a shovel and got as far as the bottom stair. I couldn't do it, I could barely look at it, let alone kill it. What if I missed? Then what, I let it dart off to some unknown location in my house? Or worse, jump into my hair?

I called Bogda, she would know what to do. She wasn't home. I knocked on my other neighbor's door, he wasn't home. Then I came up with a solution, cover the mouse with a bowl and leave it for Jared to take care of when he got home.

It probably took me at least 10 minutes to work up the courage to get close enough to put the bowl over it and then put a brick on top of the bowl.

This is not our first mouse experience. Many of you know about the one in the washing machine, I am still getting over it.

Suffice it to say I am skittish in my own home-- again. Especially blogging at night in the basement. Time to set the traps-- again. We went for almost a year with no problems, but it was bound to happen, everyone on our street has mice issues.

Birthday memories...

I spent at least three of my birthdays in the desert of Utah. It was a memorable way to celebrate my birth. I was usually dirty, stinky, grouchy, and exhausted, but when it came to my birthday my attitude shifted.

My first birthday in the field was spent in the Hall's Creek Narrows of Capital Reef National Park. My feet were wet and I had sand in my shoes when Dr. J offered me a horse. I got on bareback and rode the rest of the way out (because it was my birthday). I even remember Dr. J's horse slipping on the rocks and my professor struggling to keep his cool, "Whoaa, Whoaa there". It was really funny. When we got to camp I hopped off the horse and immediately fell down. My legs gave out-- I wasn't used to riding for hours on end, or riding at all for that matter. I practically crawled into camp. When we got back to our base camp later that week, we celebrated both Dr. J's and my birthdays with cake and soda-- total luxuries.

This picture is from my second birthday in the field. This time we were at Paradise Flats, a remote section of the park full of jumping cactus. Curse you jumping cactus! We spent my birthday recording a massive panel of rock art. I think there were at least 45 images total. It is difficult to see in the photo but there is one image that looks just like a cake with candles, how ironic that it just happened to be my birthday!

My third birthday celebration in the field was a few years later when we were surveying the areas surrounding the Lampstand Ruins near Capital Reef. I remember Rich let us sleep in until 7:30 that morning. It was heavenly. We hiked up a huge hill and recorded a huge site on top. I walked to the edge and took a picture of myself. When we finished and climbed down to meet Lane's group they surprised us with a trip into Boulder, UT for milkshakes at Pole's Place. I couldn't have asked for anything better!

My Mother's Day Miracle

Several things happened that made this a Mother's Day to remember. There was no breakfast in bed, no husband telling me to stay in bed all day while he did the dishes and laundry, no weepy card from my children explaining how much they needed and appreciated me, but it was the best day I've had in a long time.

I woke to both kids running in with a small bouquet of flowers that Jared gave them to give to me. That was pleasant. I got up to have Kitty eagerly present me with her gift. She picked it out special for me... The look on her face as she handed it to me was so pure. Jared took her to the dollar store to pick it out. He said she went up and down every aisle looking at everything and then suddenly stopped and pointed to this, the perfect gift for me:

John declined the trip to the dollar store because he had been working on something all week at school for me. Because he was sick on Friday he hadn't finished it and was very disappointed. He didn't bring it home today, maybe it will be ready tomorrow. I can't wait.

I couldn't believe when we visited my parents that the two kids played outside for about an hour TOGETHER. That in and of itself was a blessing.

Since both kids had been sick this week I decided not to fight the battle of church. I felt a sense of dread as I thought of the rest of the day couped up-- it usually means trouble. But yesterday as I lay on the couch with both of my children I realized I was actually ENJOYING my time with them.

I was actually looking forward to spending time with them. Don't get me wrong I love my kids, but I have been looking for every opportunity to have a guilt-free break from them since I can remember. It sounds terrible but it is the truth. I am tired from the struggle and this weekend the struggle was significantly minimized. Minimized to the point that I found myself enjoying both kids. It was amazing and precious.

I finally got to taste another of the bountiful fruits of being a mother. This one was tender and sweet. I don't know how long it will last but I am savoring every moment.

Nothing much.

Don't read this if you want substance. I already know that this post is going to lack focus and coherency. This is the result of thinking about updating the blog all day.

Today Kitty was jumping off the stairs into the big pile of laundry shouting

Cow-wa-fornia!

I ran to get the camera and realized once I looked through the viewfinder that there was no way I was taking a picture. Not only was the mountain of laundry absurdly huge, but the mess above on the landing was obnoxious. I considered getting a creative shot (because I wish I could be one of those bloggers) of just her feet in midair or something but even then I would undoubtedly find a mess in the background. That is just the way my house is on any given Thursday.

Shortly after the laundry got sorted (thanks for the help Kitty!) I received a call from John's school. Since it was Debbie, a woman I've never heard of, I knew he wasn't in trouble, but was probably sick.

Yep. A fever.

When I picked him up they informed me he wasn't allowed to come back until 24 hours after his fever diminished. In my mind I quickly thought, "Here's to an extra long weekend..."

But when we got home I could tell this wasn't any old fever, this was a sick, feeling miserable kind of fever.

He described it as:

My classroom was really warm because it is a really nice day but I started shaking and not normal shaking, but feeling really uncomfortable and yucky shaking like I was cold, but it's not cold, it's a really warm day.

It was like he couldn't reconcile the shakes with the warmth of temperature. The world doesn't make sense when you have a 103 degree fever. You might hallucinate and see Darth Vader and the light bulbs might change colors. At least those are my memories of a horrible fever when I was his age.

I could tell he wasn't feeling well this evening when he was asleep and I thought I heard him cry out (which he does nearly every night) but when I went in to calm him he was sitting up laughing. He is NEVER laughing when he gets startled awake.

So that's it. Kitty has an annoying cold/cough and John has a raging fever. Both of them combined probably constitute a case of swine flu, although the nurse at the Dr.'s office told me they aren't testing for it unless it's a "high risk" case. I wasn't asking for a test, or even a consideration, all I wanted was cough medicine with codeine. But since they decided to take the day off to learn their new computer system we have to wait for the relief that is codeine.

Do you like how I tried to compensate for the lack of creative pictures? I know, colored text and fancy fonts only go so far... so here is a picture of sweet kitty having fun for those of you who need pictures.