A Mouse in my House…???
NOPE. Try in my car. Or maybe as Maija said, “I think that mouse had cousins in here!”
Well, I’ve been composing this blog in my head all day (or maybe even over the past 2 weeks if I have to be honest)…You might think that’s weird, but here’s what I think is funny. I write this blog sort of for my own processing (and I always pray for the encouragement of others.) BUT, I’ve sort of always thought no one else reads this. I find a safety in writing into ‘outer space’ and not feeling like I’m really being heard necessarily…I fear though, that there are a few of you who have had to endure way too much of my stream of consciousness…but get ready for a good one tonight!!
So, here’s another funny thing. I perceive myself in certain ways, we all do, right? Well, maybe my perceptions of myself are totally opposite of what other people perceive…I’m okay with that, but I’m prefacing this blog post with that disclaimer…
I don’t like to complain. (this is where some of you may be thinking…”hahahaha, jewels is so not aware of herself!!”) But, I don’t think of myself as a complainer. I am a ‘cup-half-full, look at the bright side of things- type person’–MOST of the time.
Over the past 6 weeks since Dave has left I have had, what I like to call, a series of unfortunate events (which actually aren’t really unfortunate, they’ve been a great means to see God’s grace and strength in the day to day) BUT, it’s beginning to be sort of comical to me. The beginning of all this was actually very difficult because my Grandma and Dave’s Grandma both passed away within two weeks of each other. These losses have been painful and difficult especially being away from my sweet husband, but again, God has been everything to both of us and we trust His timing.
The hurdles that God has chosen for me personally have been really really hard, some really frustrating and some just really gross. Riah and I have begun a long road of medical evaluations and therapies that will be fairly intense over this next year (more details on that after a big appointment tomorrow), most of my appliances in my house have had to be repaired or replaced (really… my freezer, dishwasher, 2 sinks, my bathtub and ???) But, probably the most crazy-making and blog worthy is the little animal whose taken up residence in my car.
Two weeks ago, I heard a thunk-thunking sound when I turned my car and my heater on. Immediately I thought to myself, “There’s a dead animal in my engine.” The following thought was, “Julie, you are crazy…now you’re starting to make things up!” The bad odor that kept pouring out of my vents, I tried to ignore or explain away by all the kids and their spills….until, my mom drove my car and said, “Jewels, that is a dead rodent smell.” Great. Even better, Mom said kind of eagerly, “Let’s go check it out!…” My mom has always had this strange way with rodents (Mom, I seem to remember the sad end to a mouse with a meat cleaver!!) So, she looked a bit too excited to go ‘check it out’ in my car…well, to my total horror we found WAY TOO much evidence of a mouse or possibly a mouse family in my car. From the front to the back…every cup holder, every rug, under every car seat. It is so disgusting I can barely write about it. We vacuumed and disinfected furiously for nearly two hours!! Thank God for my mom…I just tried not to talk.
The next day I went to my mechanic, feeling a bit strange about asking him to excavate a dead rodent from my car, but he didn’t seem phased by it. You gotta love guys! So, dead rodent gone, smell is almost gone, all is well. Or so I thought.
A few days ago, Evie barfed really bad (actually just as we were pulling into the parking lot of the church for the funeral) in her car seat so I had to disassemble the whole thing and wash it. So it was CLEAN. Today as I set Riah in the car, something made me look closely at Evie’s car seat…and there it was again….in place of the Cheerios, there was evidence of Mr. Mouse getting his revenge for the death of Mrs. Mouse!! I totally understand that my car must be like heaven for these little rodents…a complete shmoregesborg!! (How DO you spell that word?!?!) Anyway, these rodents will not beat me…
By the way, I have no spiritual application for this story, I apologize…but I’m learning sometimes we just need to laugh…and press on.
This Blog post is dedicated to my faithful Mom, who has endured it all with me!! Mom, can you bring your meat cleaver next week 😉 ?!? We’ve got some business to take care of !! I love you!!