My top 10 list from Mouse Invasion 2009

10. Getting to talk to your sister for 2 hours in the wee hours of the morning while you mouse hunt...thanks for the moral support Natalie!!!

9. Gives me something to blog about...(not that Joel's birthday bash was a total blast!!! I'll do that one next)

8. Having a conversation starter....example..."Hey Amber, how are you doing." My response, "Oh, fine. My house is just being over ran by mice...yada yada."

7. Having a good story to tell..."Do you know what happened to me last night!!! I was sitting in my recliner in the living room facebooking when mice started to pour out of my kitchen!!! I was shocked. I got a flash light and started to investigate. I left my computer on the recliner chair arm when a mouse went flying through the air and knocked it on the ground!!! The mice were everywhere!!!"

6. I use to like Ratatouille the movie...but now it just creeps me out.

5. This is the extreme that I have to go through to have my Mom come and stay at my house!!! Eat your hearts out Jennifer and Natalie!!! Jealous!!! I have a great mouse killing machine of a mother.

4. The feeling that I can eat whatever I want...including pre-mature Halloween candy because "I AM IN A CRISIS" I think I eat my way through problems my some times. Ohhhh, and Azteca Nachos yesterday.

3. My son Drew thinks that helping me "find" and pick up the mouse traps in the morning is like a great Easter Egg Hunt and says "Mom this is the coolest"--kind of weird

2. My house is cleaner than EVER!!!!

1. Getting great feed back and support from everyone of you!!!! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I have loved the phone calls, messages via blogger and facebook! Your personal stories and advice/comments made me feel like I would make it through the mice invasion of 2009 and guess what!!!! I THINK IT IS OVER!!!!

FYI: Wednesday night only one trap was set off my a mouse but he got away injured...Last night I caught a three footed mouse...making me believe that he was the last one...hopefully!!! I will continue to set traps for a while...but I think I am out of the woods!!!!! YEAH!!!!

And just because....last night I took Jenna to her soccer practice/scrimmage game. I told her that if she scored a goal that I would buy her a chocolate ice cream cone. (Bribery never hurt, right!?) Well, during half time she raised her hand in the team huddle and told her coach, "Coach, coach!!! I think I am going to pray to Heavenly Father that I score a goal!!!" It is times like these that I wished we lived in Utah. Ohhhhhh the faith of little children!!!!

Divide and conquer

I consider last night a success. After putting the kids to bed, Joel, my Mom, and myself took ourselves downstairs to watch The Biggest Loser. I had set 20 traps in the kitchen, laundry room, and pantry. Within about 20 minutes we had a mouse caught. Within another 20 minutes another!!! It looked like this was going to be a good night.

Anyways, after TBL Joel went to bed and my Mom and I waited in the living room to see if we could spot some action. I mean, after last night how could we not!!! Sure enough two mice jetted their way across from the island to the fridge. But to tell you the truth it was really slow (that is sooooo good). Especially since I fixed a hole in the wall in the laudry room that some of the mice might have been living in. While we were sleeping we caught two more total making our total for the night: 4 mice.

That is exactly half the number caught last night, meaning we are dividing and conquering!!!

FYI: I feel soooooo much better today. I got a whole nights sleep. My mom helped sooo much and bagged all the mice. What a Mom, huh!!! I just know that the problem is almost fixed!!! I am happy!

Because you are probably dying to know...

final count of dead mice last night: 8

total since mouse invastion: 10

total hours of sleep last night for me: 3

number of exterminators met: 1

number of mouse traps set: 20

my sanity: zero

fyi: my mom is staying the night to be my moral support since last night was so horrible. the exterminator came out today and basically said I am doing everything that they would do and that major concerns are black widows and hobo spiders...whatever. The hole is the side of house in closed...hole in laundry room fixed...let's hope they come out tonight and see the presents I bought them today...nothing like handing the grocery store cashier and arm full of mouse traps and saying "it is as bad as it looks."

Mice invasion 2009 update

Well, we spent all of today cleaning and cleaning some more. You know the fun stuff like under the washer and dryer, behind the refridgerator, etc. We found quite a bit of mouse poop and our house is spick and span clean. Now we can trace the mice so we can sucessfully set traps.



Just a note: I am sitting down in my living room facing the kitchen. I have just witnessed three mice run across my kitchen under the refidgerator. I have noooo idea what to do. They gross me out like nothing I have ever experienced before. My stomach is in knots. One is peaking around the corner like they know that I am here. It is sooooooooooooo sick. Joel says to just let the traps do their work. I feel helpless and totally intruded upon. I think that one is stuck on a trap. One just made the corner to the laundry room. I feel like the old lady in Ratatuoille. You know what I mean????



Anywho, I just woke up Joel and set four more traps. I just hope the kids don't get up in the middle of the night. Poor Joel, he has to get up soooo early to go to work and I am keeping him up with these mice!!!



We found the hole that the mice came in out side and filled it with steel wool. Steel wool. Sounds like a good rock band. Hope, hope, hope that it works. Then we filled it with insulation spray. I am loosing it. Because to tell you the truth...day is good, night is horrible. From Dark until Dawn...dark until dawn baby. Thanks for the support though.

A trap just went off...got to go!!

Hickory, Dickory, Dock...

and you know the rest...let's just say that I have a new perspective on this guy. It started around 11 o'clock on Joel's birthday when we had our good friends Mike and Marianne over. We were sitting in our living room when Mike spotted a mouse in our kitchen. I could not believe it. But sure enough out he came again. We was running through a hole by our dishwasher and coming thorough a hole under our sink (where the garbage is). Anyways...my Mom was keeping our kids for the night at her house for Joel's birthday so Joel and I ran down to Wal-mart and bought one trap because that is all that we had...one stray, random mouse. SOOOO WRONG!!!!

Last night, Sunday evening Joel and I were enjoying Desperate Housewives when I heard a sqweak. Then there was scratching. I thought I was just being paranoid...because I now am. I investigated more closely to find a mouse behind our refridgerator, a mouse under the sink, and a mouse in the laundry room (all surrounding one major wall). This wall was also scratching--that is right MICE IN THE WALLS!!!! Joel and I were soooo creeped out!!! Joel went to Wal-mart again and bought multiple traps. He came home, set traps, and we got back to our show. I was googling mice invasions, of course, and Joel looked over at me to see a mouse run right behind me!!!! FREAKING OUT!!!! We got out a broom and tried to kill it but it was jumping and sooo fast! We tipped all the couches over in the living room and it looked like a war zone...worse yet...we scared it down stairs!!!! I watched it jump all the way down stairs and chased it but it was too late. So now we have one downstairs and a bunch in the laundry room wall.

To make matters worse...Drew is allergic to cats and peanut butter. Peanut butter is the most effective way to set a trap and cats, well, you know. We tried to have Rocky chase the mouse...but no luck!