When I say that it I know it brings to mind all sorts of crazy times of your youth doesn’t it.  I know it does for me.  Hanging out down by the river as teenagers hoping to not get caught with our smuggled beer. (Sorry Mom and Dad but you had to know I wasn’t always wearing my halo.  But I survived it just fine.) Skinny dipping in downtown Austin in Zilker Park in the middle of the night. (Ok, I was still in my bra and panties… I have my limits and the water was FREEEEZING!) (Again, sorry Dad….Mom, I know you would understand.)  Or hair pinning around corners on Lake Travis with the Sheriffs department lake division on a call to a boating accident with possible drowning.   (At one time I had a lot of friends in the Sheriff’s department and got to go on a lot of ride alongs.  One day I’ll tell you the story about how I almost went into law enforcement.) (Why do all my crazy wild nights have to do with water? I’ll ask my shrink later about that one… Oh wait! I don’t have a shrink. I’ll ask my dog, he’ll know.)

All very crazy times in my life, and this newest episode rates right up there on the crazy scale.  But this one is definitely more befitting my age…. I guess… Is 35 too old to skinny dip?

Last night, while sitting in bed alone (hubby was hiding in his office), I start hearing this odd noise coming from my nightstand.  At first I thought it was just the same noise I’ve always been a little startled by which is the rustling sound of the power cord on my Iphone (which I’m glued to still at night) brushing up against the liner in my trash can.   I know, scary huh.  But this time it happened while I didn’t move.  I start thinking theres a big bug or something on the prowl, so I go on the hunt in my drawers.  I was stirring the drawer with a spoon, cuz I’m not touchin’ a bug, I brought it up for some nighttime yogurt eating. Exciting…I know.  But then I heard the noise in my bottom drawer.  Hence, I start digging in that one.  Nothing.  ???? Then I get the wise idea to remove the drawer completely.  Good idea…but OMG!!!!

There it was!!! The most massive, most disgusting, most beady eyed creature.  And he looked an awful lot like this:

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In my mind he was as big as a cartoon street rat but in reality he was just your typical teeny tiny mouse. Cute by any kids standards.  Creepy and disease laden by adult standards.  BLEH!

And he was lookin’ at me. I had him trapped….Or so I thought.

Because, now I’m starting to wonder if he wasn’t truly the reincarnation of Houdini. Because one minute he’s staring me down and the next… POOF!  Can’t find him anywhere.

So I do what any normal person, and redneck gal, would do.  I go find my cat.  She’s a good cat.  I rescued her when she was very young and I think she replaced me as her momma.  She’s very dedicated to me.  Her only real quirk is if she gets wet she has to come running to me and start yowling till I dry her off. That and her tendency to bring me “gifts”. Her name is Krispie and she prefers to sleep under my neighbors bird feeders so she might grab herself an afternoon snack.  And she’s a great mouser.  So I knew she would save my bacon.

By this time my husband is also sitting in bed watching all this holding his tongue like a good man trying not to say anything while I shove my cat into the open space where my drawer was.  She picked up the scent and I could see she got agitated.  Yay! The hunt was on!

This is where I go back and take the upper drawer out of the cabinet. I set it down and stir it up a bit, with Krispie watching the whole time, and BAM, just like that, there’s the evil critter staring at me. And BAM just like that! My cat snatches her!  Yay!  Good kitty!

Except…. Like all good kitties…. She also likes to play with her dinner. Sigh.

So she LET IT GO!!!

It scurries under our bed and disappears.  Krispie is yowling. I’m crawling around on the floor with a flashlight praying it didn’t go into our box spring.  My husband is barely keeping himself from busting a gut laughing at me….

So what do I do… I start opening his nightstand.  Hubby says, “He couldn’t get in there, its closed up tight. You always had your drawer hanging open.” WHATEVER! We were dealing with Houdini here remember! So I start looking through his drawer and what do I find to my disgusted glee…. Mouse poop! Take that hubby! He violated your drawers too! So I pull out the top drawer… Then pull out the bottom… And again hiding under the drawer was the creepy crawly mouse!

BAM, Krispie strikes, and this time comes up with a winner.  She’s running around the room with it in her mouth.  I’m trying to get her to a least leave our bedroom with it.  And, of course, what does she do?? She lays down…A foot away from it. SIGH!

And yet again…it scurries away.  Into my husbands closet! HAH! Take that you laughing hyena from your bed side perch!  I follow the mouse and my cat in to the closet and close the door.  But not before grabbing an empty cup that I had on the dresser.  Why I grabbed this I will never know… but I’m glad I did.  So here we are in the closet, the mouse is jumping from one shoe to the next (I realize this man of mine has more shoes then I do!! I’ll address that later.). My cat is jumping all over the place.  The mouse is running back and forth scurrying from one hidy hole to the next.  I think it may have run over my foot a few times but I’m trying not to dwell on that idea. I’m stirring up piles of shoes and clothes trying to root out the mouse.  Screaming over and over. “Krispie, GET IT!” I’m still locked in the closet with this wild beast!  I can only imagine what it sounded like to my husband on the outside.  And then suddenly it gets stuck between me and the cat on the floor.  It’s looking back and forth for an exit and that’s when I strike! BAM! Just like that with the cup. I trap him!

WINNER! I caught the mouse! Under a cup!!!  I yell out to my hubby to find a piece of hard paper or cardboard to slip under the cup, and manage to get the nasty rodent to the front door without dropping him, and deposit him outside! YAY!

End Scene.

Krispie missed her dinner but got a bowl of milk as a reward for helping save us from the evil critter. I got to shove all my husbands shoes back in place, in random order of course.  He gets to at least help fix the damage. I go to bed grinning and on a high!  It was a lot of excitement for this housewife.

I caught a mouse in a cup!

Open curtains to this morning:

Krispie has brought me a present.  A dead mouse.

SIGH!

Meet Krispie.  She may have a tendency to drop her dinner but she never gave up. And she gives gifts too.

SIGH! :

As my nice night progressed, after the cat tired of EJ and found her safe hiding spot (tucked into the corner of the couch where “no one can see me now” ) we sat on the floor and played as she smacked me in the arms with her plastic “hand clapper thingy” that you get at sporting events.  I hope you know what I’m talking about.  It’s plastic hand shaped thing that you  flap back and forth and it makes clapping sounds.  She loves it!  She will shove it at anyone close to her so they can make it make sounds for her.  Oh, and it’s mighty tasty to chew on too.  That occupied about another thirty minutes of our evening and by then it was time to settle down and start our beddie bye routine.  Bottle, baby crack, and bed with some singing and LOTS of snuggling. She’s not much of a rocker to sleep type of kid.  She prefers to sit and snuggle and just drift of to la la land.  We let her do this since she usually falls asleep around the same time every night and yes, she then sleeps alllllll the wayyyy through the night.  We are talking 10 hours here people.  Other moms out there, please don’t hit me.  I know how lucky we are and we are well aware that the next child we have will probably be a tyrant that never sleeps, never eats, and poops all day long.  

So there we sat watching our baby crack and mommy crack (American Idol, I admit I like the first few episodes each season where people make asses of themselves) and EJ just kept looking up at me with that I love you baby look that I can’t describe and you just have to be a mommy to understand.  She refilled my tanks last night.  I’ve been overloaded with family, holiday, organizing my tennis teams and, just in general, life is too busy.  You would think what I needed was a little quiet time alone to regroup.  Even I would have said that this is what I needed.  Until she gave me that look that spoke volumes and made it all better.