even cinderella had mice...right?

I've spent the majority of today working on my homework for the week. I wanted to get the near 200 page reading assignment, creation of a book evaluation checklist (based on cognitive, linguistic, social, and personality factors), and review of 5 books against said book checklist done early because I'm skipping outta town on Friday. And, my friends, I did. It all. Today. I'm pretty much ready to scratch my eyes out, but instead, I'll revert to my other form of stress relief: mindless writing (for a change) via a random post about mice.

We've had a lot of little visitors at our house lately. To name a few: your average black ants, who found comfort in the doorway, in a hole in the bedroom, and in the bathroom; your not so average teeny, tiny reddish-brownish baby looking ants, who make a pretty uniform trail on the kitchen counter top, over the pile of mail, and inside my purse; and lastly, your average non-threatening field mouse the size--no joke--of a Pink Pearl eraser.

I was sitting on the couch on Sunday, playing with my fun new phone. Ben was gone and was expected to return shortly. Out of the corner of my eye, I see said mouse scurrying across the floor, into a folded up piece of carpet once used as a rug. I jumped up because, well, let's face it, I'm a total girl. And what's the next most logical thing to do? Call Ben, of course, because, you know, he can do so much from down the street!

BEN: "Hello?"
ME: "There's a mouse in the house!"
BEN: "Ok." (there's real positive, emotional support for ya!)
ME: "Come home and catch it."
BEN: "It's not gonna hurt you."
ME: "Hurry home."
BEN: "I'll put a trap out tonight, but it's not the first mouse we've had...just because you haven't seen them doesn't mean they aren't there..."

Well, that made my day.

I stayed on the couch curled up little until Ben returned home. The little mouse vacated the carpet and ran into our dinning room...and hasn't been seen since, though there is a trap with peanut butter behind the washer.

Ben (and my mom...and his parents...) had to convince me that it isn't a matter of cleanliness that the mouse (and the two variety of ants) are in our house; it's normal, they say. Whatev. It's still icky.

I spent Monday vacumming ants out of the holes and setting a few ant traps around the house. I think I've managed to kill the baby ants on the kitchen counter by inundating them with upside down traps (they're too small to climb on top, so I turned them upside down!). The regular black ants are slowly moving on...I think I sucked them all out of the holes they were coming from. And, as I mentioned, no mouse has been seen since Sunday and the trap still sits as is.

I just keep telling myself: Even Cinderella's castle had mice, right?