One For The Road

It's official, I hate moving. Well, my Daddy always told me it was wrong to hate. I was only allowed to strongly dislike. I STRONGLY, STRONGLY, STRONGLY dislike it. Somehow I had totally forgotten just how much until this day of misery arrived. Maybe it because it is the culmination of a week of semi-torturous sorting, packing, organizing, washing, painting, washing, washing, did I mention washing? I told my friends, who must truly love me (or be gluttons for punishment) who were gathered in my natural disaster of a bedroom tonight that moving was like giving birth. During the process you can't imagine that you would ever forget how horrible it is, but somehow you do and before you know it you are doing it again and brought to tears by your inability to find a place for a screwdriver, starch can and a hairbow. (Um, I'm just referring to moving there, not labor. :) It just becomes too much!

I know Josh has lost it. I kept asking him when I was packing clothes if he had something to wear tomorrow and he kept saying he didn't know. We gave him a hard time about not having any clothes to wear and he said he'd just go naked and asked us what we thought the new church members would think of that. We assured him that while preachers usually have what is known as a "honeymoon period" during the early days at a new church that we are pretty sure that is not what it means!!! Dear Lord, if nothing else goes right tomorrow, please help all of my family members to have clothes on. They don't even have to match or be clean. Amen.

We are planning to leave by 9:00 at the latest in the morning and I still have that random "where the heck should this go?" packing and cleaning to do. You are probably asking yourself why, then am I blogging? Because honestly at this point I will do ANYTHING to avoid cleaning out my fridge. Do ya hear me? ANYTHING. About an hour ago I got in the Jeep to head to Jerry's to raid the drink machine. Y'all, for a second I pretended I was actually leaving for Florida. I pretended y'all! Have you ever had moments where you realized, "I am actin' like a stinkin' 3 year old. I'm not even kidding. I have been some kind of whiny, tempermental and fussy. I've done everything short of doing the new Kate thing and clenching my fists and saying "I don't want to!" The truth is I do not think this packing and cleaning marathon will ever end. As soon as I see a light at the end of the tunnel the next thing I know there is a box springs blocking it. So, I am taking a minute to chug some Diet Coke and regain what is left of my composure. Ahem.

So, yesterday was our last day at Montrose Baptist Church. I actually did pretty good Sunday until after the service Sunday night. Two of our sweet girls who are sisters greeted me outside crying their eyes out. One is Sarah's BFF and I bent down to hug them and the 3 of us just bawled our eyes out. We were for sure doing the ugly cry. Breaks.my. heart. I just can't explain the way I love these people. Especially several of the girls in the church who just captured my heart and became my own.

Okay, well I've gone from throwin' my little fit to sinking back into my sadness so I better move on. The real reason I am writing is to share my very last mouse blog. Can you believe it? Barring one of our furry residents joining me on the floor at the computer tonight, these last two stories I'm about to share were my last encounters with the Montrose mice. One of my sweet blog readers, Patty, shared on her blog that my mice stories were giving her nightmares. I am so sorry! Please, if they affect you in that way, you do NOT want to hear these. But, if you can take just one more, here goes....

So, a few days ago Sarah and Eli were getting there coats and shoes on to go outside and play. Sarah gasped and said, "It's a mouse!" I assumed it must be dead, but she said she didn't think so. I got up and walked across the room only to find this....

For the love of cheese, the mice are now cuddling with our stuffed animals!!! Apparently I have caused them such emotional damage that they need the comfort of a furry, stuffed animal. I thought it must have crawled up there and died because no matter how close I got or what I moved around it he did not move. So yes, I took a picture. I think some people have questioned my stories and think I just make a lot of this stuff up but I PROMISE I DON'T! Have you ever seen such a thing? Well, turns out it was not dead and did escape as soon as I got the dustpan out. He ran off and I couldn't find him. Well, later Eli saw it just hanging out next to the couch. It seems they get into the poison and start acting all goofy and drugged. I got the dustpan again and y'all will not believe what I did. For those of you who remember the first mouse story of me following Josh around the playroom with a broom in my hand and a towel on my head, I have come a long way! I put down a glue trap and only one of his feet stuck. I got the dustpan and tried to get him on there but the dustpan stuck to the trap! So, I picked up the dustpan, with the trap hanging off the side and the mouse hanging off 0f it. I ran outside and tried to throw it out the door. Well, the trap would not come off so I kept slinging it. Still the trap would not come off, but the mouse went flying into a tree!!!!!!!!!!! I killed the mouse with my own hands!!! (And a dustpan). I cannot even tell you how traumatic it was for me. I was sad for about 7 minutes. :(

Then, three days later I was headed down our hallway and there sat another mouse. Right in the middle of the hallway! Just sitting there. He was halfway between the laundry room and the girl's room and I had just cleaned their closet out. I'm thinking he was confused about all of the packing and changes and was sitting there going (as Kate would say), "What's in the world?" He must have been very drugged because no matter what he never moved. Okay, brace yourselves for what I did. It was the most appropriate ending to my mouse stories. But you won't believe it. I got a box and got that mouse into the box!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I caught a mouse for real!!!! I went running out to the storage shed where Josh was working to show off my feat. He looked at me sympathetically in a "I promise we will get you the help you need" kind of way. I was so excited. I couldn't get over the fact that I had done it. Well, after the trauma of personally killing that other mouse by way of tree force, I took the mouse out to the field and let it go. Okay honestly, I kind of flipped out and dumped him and he probably suffered a concussion if not instant death, but I felt like I had done the right thing.

So, those are my last mouse stories. Who knows what stories this next season will bring. Next time I write I will no longer be in my house in the country. It is still not sinking in. I hope you all will join me for the next chapter of my life, but until then....here's one for the road!!