Ready for a gross story??

Ack. I still have the heebie-jeebies after this one.

Our usual afternoon schedule involves the boys and I picking Jessalyn up from school. We all pile out of the van...eager for our afternoon snack (yes, I said "our"). I change Owen's diaper and put him in his bed for a nap, and the three "big kids" and I snack away on something usually quite un-healthy.

Today was no different..at least at first. I was in the living room changing Owens diaper while Jessalyn and Luke perused the pantry for something to snack on. Luke decided that he wanted "spicy chips" (a usual Lukie favorite). Jessalyn was helping him and when they opened the bag I heard nothing but shrieks.

Jessalyn and Luke then come running in to the living room. Jessalyn had this look of terror..along with tears and screaming..and proclaimed "theres a rat..or a mouse...something brown and big.....". As I'm finishing the diapering process I was certain that she wasn't over-reacting because she had a genuine look of fear on her face. I tried to get a better story out of her while I talked her down a bit. She told me that the bag was laying in the middle of the kitchen floor and she didn't see the creature run out of the bag.

I headed into the kitchen and from as far away as I could I bent down and peaked into the bag. Sure enough...a little tail...attached to a little mouse. The best part was that it was STILL MOVING. I'm pretty sure it was close to death because I'm sure if it had been a healthy mouse it would have run out of the bag when it had a chance.

The smart thing for me to do would have been to close the bag and throw it outside...but that would have required way more contact with the bag than I was actually up for. I just grabbed the bag..and threw it out on the back porch. Its open. If the mouse is still alive, it will likely crawl out..and then come back in the house. I hope it dies first.

Seriously. I'm still getting goosebumps as I type this.

I'm thinking of all the horrible ways that we could have found that mouse. If they hadn't actually LOOKED in the bag first...who knows how long they could have eaten chips before realizing the mouse was there??? (ACK!!!!!). Or...even worse, they could have reached in the bag and actually grabbed the mouse! Or even worse than all of that...it could have been ME that reached in the bag! I'm quite certain I would have reacted way worse than Jessalyn did.

I'm going to wait till Josh gets home and then make him go through the pantry to get rid of anything that was open at all. I'm pretty sure that most stuff in there is sealed shut...probably a couple other bags of chips got put away without a chip clip.

Now everywhere Jessalyn turns she thinks she's seeing a mouse! I don't blame her. I'm kinda doing the same thing..although I'm trying to hold it together a bit so I don't freak her out even more!

Luke describes it as "a mouse that's a little bit dead". I love that.