So onto our day....
Sunday night I emptied Jackson's food into his bowl and noticed the bag as I was throwing it in the trash.....Do you see what I see? Yeah, right there in the corner...a hole....made by RODENT TEETH!!! They're back!! And just when I was getting so comfortable going in and out of the washroom, even in the dark. I'd even given up the "flip on the light, fling the door open, wait 5 seconds" routine that I'd adopted during our previous visits by Mr. and Mrs. M.
We put out the sticky trap near Jackson's food on the floor on Sunday night and went to bed. THANKFULLY (!!!!) Michael gets up earlier than I do in the mornings. That relegates him to the job of "trap checker". The boys would love that job, but dad beats them up in the mornings. Well, he doesn't "beat them up", he gets up earlier than they do. Maybe I should take that phrase out...does CPS monitor blogs??? (Well, as you read on, you'll find out that I more concerned about ASPCA monitoring blogs......)Man, THAT was a long rabbit trail...back to the business at hand...trapping "mousey". Michael looked in the washroom when he went in to turn on his coffee and there he was...and a big dude! We have a picture, but for the sake of younger (and more female) readers, I'll skip it. Suffice it to say, it was alive and stuck on its side and trying frantically to get off of the trap. Since Josiah was the first one up, he got the honor of being the first to see it. He LOVES that. That doesn't happen often as #4. He made an joking comment to Michael and said "Man, I wish I could shoot it with the pellet gun". Michael laughed and then said, "Sure, want to?". That my friends is what you call a silly question. Josiah made a beeline to the garage and brought out the gun while Michael grabbed the trap (while I looked away!) and took it outside. Josiah came out w/ the gun and 1 pellet. Now, that's confidence. Why should he get more than 1??!! But Michael sent him back to the garage to get some more "just in case". Turns out, he didn't need them.
Do you think this is over kill??? Is this MORE or LESS cruel than letting Mousey die on the sticky trap? Certainly MORE fun to a 7 year old. Well, quickly all the commotion woke Jeffrey who begged for a turn on the firing squad.
You can kinda see the mouse on the trap in the grass. Not an easy shot to miss really. And neither of them did.
Gotta get the Volcano cake there!!
And then went swimming at their hotel. They were staying downtown and the hotel had two pools. One on the roof that offered a beautiful view of downtown and one inside. Our seven kids mostly had the pool and hot tub to themselves. I choose to not think of it as "running everyone off", but hey, whatever! We enjoyed it!
So, about 10:00 that evening, we left the pool to head for home. Can you say super tired kiddos??!! Since Michael left his car at his office, we had to drive by and pick it up and then were preparing for a nice quiet ride home. That wasn't to be!! After Michael got his car and we pulled out the parking lot and were driving down the side street, a HUGE snake slithered rather quickly across the street. I noticed it right after we passed it and said (well, screamed is probably more like it!), "Yuck, that was a snake in the road". The boys perked up immediately, begging "Mom, turn around, turn around!! We want to see it! Please please please!!" Then they noticed that Michael stopped and became emphatic "Dad's stopped! Please mom, please go back! Please!" So, of course I did. When we got there, Michael had run over the snake w/ his front tire and he was out looking at it. In no time flat, all my boys were out looking at it. Once I saw that it was in fact TRAPPED by the wheel of his tire, no way was it coming out, no chance of it getting away and heading in my direction, I did the responsible blogger thing....I took a picture of it.....***BEWARE!!!!!REPTILE ALERT!!! REPTILE ALERT!!!
Oh, yeah, I get really confident w/ the camera when there's a 2000 lb vehicle on top of a snake! Well, this slithermeister was thrashing and striking (when the boys poked a stick at it!) and wiggling so much that it looked like he may have been able to get out. And he was BIG. Probably about 3-4 feet long and 2 inches around...and slithering very grossly!! After a few mintues of ooohing and ahhing (and Michael reassuring me that there's really NO WAY the snake can get out from under the tire!) we all got back in our cars and Michael ran over the snake, several times. It still managed to slither out of the middle of the road and over to the curb. This is what Michael saw when he got to work this morning.
You can see the places where he was run over. You can also see how disgustingly large he is. And STILL the boys don't understand why I have a solid, no way-Jose, "NO SNAKES FOR PETS!!" rule. Who in their right mind would keep such a creep on purpose??!!
You can kinda see the mouse on the trap in the grass. Not an easy shot to miss really. And neither of them did.Well, it had already been quite a morning of excitement and it was only 6:30 AM!!!
Later in the day, we went and had lunch w/ Michael (who had to work, bummer) and went to play at Hemisfair park, one of our favorite places downtown. W
We then met up w/ some friends who were in from Arlington taking a family vacation to SA. Jim was the best man at our wedding. He and his wife have a daughter that is J&Js age and twins who are Jeffrey's age and they homeschool. Lots in common there. And it's always great to see them.
We went and had dinner on the River Walk and ate at the Rainforest Cafe.
Gotta get the Volcano cake there!!
And then went swimming at their hotel. They were staying downtown and the hotel had two pools. One on the roof that offered a beautiful view of downtown and one inside. Our seven kids mostly had the pool and hot tub to themselves. I choose to not think of it as "running everyone off", but hey, whatever! We enjoyed it!
So, about 10:00 that evening, we left the pool to head for home. Can you say super tired kiddos??!! Since Michael left his car at his office, we had to drive by and pick it up and then were preparing for a nice quiet ride home. That wasn't to be!! After Michael got his car and we pulled out the parking lot and were driving down the side street, a HUGE snake slithered rather quickly across the street. I noticed it right after we passed it and said (well, screamed is probably more like it!), "Yuck, that was a snake in the road". The boys perked up immediately, begging "Mom, turn around, turn around!! We want to see it! Please please please!!" Then they noticed that Michael stopped and became emphatic "Dad's stopped! Please mom, please go back! Please!" So, of course I did. When we got there, Michael had run over the snake w/ his front tire and he was out looking at it. In no time flat, all my boys were out looking at it. Once I saw that it was in fact TRAPPED by the wheel of his tire, no way was it coming out, no chance of it getting away and heading in my direction, I did the responsible blogger thing....I took a picture of it.....***BEWARE!!!!!REPTILE ALERT!!! REPTILE ALERT!!!
Oh, yeah, I get really confident w/ the camera when there's a 2000 lb vehicle on top of a snake! Well, this slithermeister was thrashing and striking (when the boys poked a stick at it!) and wiggling so much that it looked like he may have been able to get out. And he was BIG. Probably about 3-4 feet long and 2 inches around...and slithering very grossly!! After a few mintues of ooohing and ahhing (and Michael reassuring me that there's really NO WAY the snake can get out from under the tire!) we all got back in our cars and Michael ran over the snake, several times. It still managed to slither out of the middle of the road and over to the curb. This is what Michael saw when he got to work this morning.
You can see the places where he was run over. You can also see how disgustingly large he is. And STILL the boys don't understand why I have a solid, no way-Jose, "NO SNAKES FOR PETS!!" rule. Who in their right mind would keep such a creep on purpose??!!Well, you can see now why our trip home wasn't quiet. Adrenaline was a-flowin'!!
We're hoping for a much quieter (and less lethal) day tomorrow!!
BTW, anyone know what kind of snake "Mr. Slithermeister" was?? Copperhead? Cottonmouth?
4 comments:
WOW! No one but the Dageraths would have such a day and take pictures to boot. So glad you did. I am sorta glad we only had girls!
Man, I cracked up when I saw the picture of Jeffrey getting a bead on the mouse trap.
The snake looks like a cottonmouth, but I can't be sure without seeing the white mouth...
Well we went over to the Swords for a cook-out but I didn't get to play w/ Jenna. Because in the first hour we were there Lisa took Jenna's temp. and she had a fever. So I played with Luke and Cole. And then since we had night at the muesuem I watched that with Katie,Luke,and David. And we had a little snack of bananas,and apples.
It's always fun to have a snack when you're watching a movie... but sometimes it dosen't always turn out to be popcorn. But I had a fun time anyway.
See you soon.
Love you,
Lauren:-)
I'm exhausted.
BTW, ASPCA called - wanted to know if I knew someone named Dagerath. Told them I'd never heard that name before...and my memory is very poor.
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