A Mouse in the House

I know...my new home and there is a mouse living in it!  Can you believe it?  I think it was because I have been rather 'smug' about Dina having all the mice in her house (my 'old' house!) and just saying, "sorry, Dids, it is now your problem and I am soooo glad to pass it off to you!"  Well, the reason I was feeling particularly 'smug' was because Scott had told me that he "buttoned" up this house good, there was NO way, NO how any creature was getting into this house, it was sealed up good!

Well, surprise, surprise, the first place we saw 'evidence' of this little guy (aren't they so cute on the cartoon channels??) was in the guest bathroom, he/she started to chew up my bath mat...leaving little empty places here and there.  OMG I am thinking that SHE is getting ready to build a nest ( ?  is that what mice build when they are preparing for mice birth?) and is using the really nice soft cotton threads from my very nice bath mat!  Little black poop right where our feet need to be when sitting on the "throne"!!  Hah!!

So you know that I have set many a trap at the other house and have been very successful, however I have been scared a few times when the trap accidentally goes off and smarts the old fingers.  So I am sooo done with setting those traps.  But, will DH set a trap?  NO!  Will he release a trap once it has done its job?  NO!  But I have to get this mouse out of my house and NOW!!  I go to the store and buy two kinds of mouse traps...the cardboard tent kind that has icky sticky stuff on it so that once the mouse sets foot on it, it is there for good!  And just to be on the safe side, I bought two of the traditional traps that catch the mice in the act of going after that yummy peanut butter.  Of course I try the easy tent version and put a couple in the bathroom.  It has been two weeks and I still have NOT caught that little creature, but he/she is still nibbling away at my rug and leaving its evidence behind!  And NOW I start to notice mouse poop in my pantry!  I have plastic drawer bins, but they are not mouse proof, a big gap to allow those guys in and eat at their hearts content!  So I clean out my pantry and discover all sorts of places that he/she has been getting into.  I get containers with lids to seal up my packaged food to prevent the mouse from getting to more food.  I set two of the traditional traps in the pantry, HOWEVER....they were NOT the brand name, they were from Freddies.  And what did I discover the next morning?  Oh Yeah, the mouse had a great time eating that yummy PB (peanut butter!) and did NOT set off the trap!  DEFECT!!

Scott goes to True Value and comes back with an electronic mouse trap (are you laughing your head off now?)  Hey, I am up for anything!  So we put the PB in place and turn on the switch....we are good to go!  the next morning the light is flashing!!  Yeah!!  That means it worked!!  I lift the lid and what do I see...mouse poop and NO mouse!  Scott's theory is that the mouse was 'zapped', but not quite all the way electrocuted (yuck!) and managed to stumble out of the trap and is probably rotting away someplace in the house!  Now isn't that a delightful thought!!

So on it goes, the traps are not trapping any mice and I am still seeing evidence of a mouse in the pantry.  So I go out and purchase the brand name mouse trap, I have Joe set it before he leaves for the day...he puts it just inside my craft room ....oh yeah, I forgot to mention that two mornings there was mouse poop on top of my counter in my craft room!  Now that makes me MAD!  Scott and I go to bed that very night and we are in bed only about 10 minutes when we hear a big "SNAP"  I had to jump out of bed and check cause I was just positive that we caught the little bugger!  And guess what???  WE DID!  We caught him in my craft room!  It has been two full days now and there has not been any evidence of a mouse in the house.

But remember friends, I do live on acreage and mice do live down in the field, so I know they are all around me.  That is fine, they can stay in the field and I am happy about that, just NOT in my house!

P.S.  I placed the mouse in the trap inside a plastic bag and set it outside the front door to have Joe remove it. Later that day, I went to check on it and the whole thing was missing...bag, mouse, trap everything!  That is still a mystery! 

Crazy May Weather

This is one for the record books, I am sure!  We have had more rain in one day in May than we have had all year so far!  And the last few days it has been crazy with hail, then a touch of blue and the sun peaks out, then the sky turns black and we have the heaviest rain and even more hail.

I was driving down the road on Wednesday morning and all of a sudden there was all this white stuff on the side of the road, I thought it was foam from someone washing a  car, or from an oil spill and then heavy rain!  However as I turned the corner the whole road was covered in white and I realized it was all from hail.  OMG!!  This is May, what is going on?  This picture was taken on Thursday and I was over at Dina's house (my old house!) and I popped outside to grab a picture of all that white stuff in the flower bed!  YES, that is a Moose in the front flower bed!!  A donation from Papa Bill's yard.  I think maybe he is trying to 'clean' house and get rid of 'stuff', so he gives it to family members.  We love getting things like this from him!  I was the lucky recipient to get another "Madonna" carving (the first one I received years ago stayed at the old house!) and this new one is currently sitting in front of our garage because we haven't landscaped our yard yet!

Does it look like "Madonna with Child"?  I must admit to some of us thinking it was "ET" because it was back in those days that we received our first carving!  But we treasure it and even more so knowing that it is meant to be Madonna with Child!

This sculpture does not have a permanent home yet, either.  But it is going to sit in front of our house.  It is called "Stump Art" and yes we did pay money for this!  A person in Aurora does fabulous work with stumps and logs that are sometimes flowing down the river and he is able to snag them.  He designs whatever the wood is calling him to produce.  Depending on whether you see the front or the back, it could be several different things to the eyes.  One thought it was a buffalo, myself, I see more like a dog, coyote type creature.  This piece of art grabbed Scott by the collar and wouldn't let him leave until he purchased it!!  So when we get it in it's permanent place, I will take another picture because I think with rocks and plantings around it, it will look fabulous!

Birthdays

Tristan is ONE YEAR OLD!!

His Mommy was so smart to take off his shirt before giving him his birthday cupcake! From the looks of it, he enjoyed it although he did not enjoy getting cleaned up after eating his cupcake!

The Great-Grandparents love being included in the celebrations of birthdays.  Tristan was one on May 1, Lacey was 31 on May 17 and Jalen was 3 on May 20.

Jalen is THREE YEARS OLD!!  Yes, it is a "Monkey" cupcake, aren't all little boys "monkeys"??  They sure act like it!

At Nana's house he got a "Go Diego Go" cake and he was so excited to have that cake, he could barely contain himself and his little fingers from dipping into the icing and grabbing the 'car' that Diego was sitting in.
And Nana and Papa Snook came through with a new bike for him and his own LaCross stick because his older sister Ellie plays LaCross and he loves to do everything that his sisters do!

Arizona Flowers

Do you remember the picture of the cactus that had all the buds?  You would have to scroll down to find it, so I will post that picture again for you and then I will post a picture of it with a lot of the buds opened!  A friend took this picture and sent it to me because I was so disappointed that I wouldn't be in town when it opened.  And sure enough, the morning we left, it opened later that day.

And another random cactus blooming that our friend sent to us...the color is so rich and vibrant...LOVE IT!

The late spring is the best time to see all the cactus blooming...although I guess it might depend what kind of weather the area was having in the winter and early spring.  This year 2010, was a very wet winter for the area and much cooler temperatures than average.  If you want to see the desert in it's full glory, than May is the time to go.  I know that for me, I only thought of the desert as being a place with cactus and rocks and brown looking plants.  I had no idea there was such beauty in this place!  And did I tell you that I spotted a red cardinal this last time?  They are way to quick for me to get a picture, even if the camera was sitting in my lap waiting for me.  But they are so much fun to see!  And we have so many quails too...those little critters will only get up and fly if they are in dire need of saving their lives!  I love it when the babies are born and you see 10 little baby quails following the Mama Quail...so cute!  We did see quite a few bunnies and baby ones too!  We heard the javelinas getting into the trash receptacle on the 13 tee box on night at 10 pm, but we wer already in bed ad didn't feel like getting out and finding the flash light to see them!  Do you know Javelina's?  they are like BIG PIGS, however, no tail and they are more a gray, charcoal kind of color.  And they can be very mean and charge you, so you really don't want to get close to them!!

Our Street name Away from Home!

Another random picture...as we drive out of our 'development' our street address is 90th street.....EVERY other name in this development is 'Roadrunner'...Roadrunner Road, Roadrunner Lane, Roadrunner Circle, etc.  We end up with 90th Street!  I was so disappointed in the name.  No matter.  Anyway, when you drive down to the main road to take you out and about, the road is called Legend Trail (that is actually the name of the Golf Course and the name of the whole development...but within this development, individual builders had a section and named their own group of homes something...our is called Traditions.  Anyway, travel about 1 1/2 mile down the Legend Trail road and you run into Stagecoach Road.  We take Stagecoach to travel to our Mirabel Club to play golf, to swim and to eat some of our meals.  Just off Stagecoach is another road, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of it...it reminds me of home and you will understand when you see the picture!

And HE is the WINNER!

It has really been two full summers that Scott has NOT golfed very much at all.  With spending all weekdays building the house, he was often too tired to play on the weekends.  But now, he is back into it full swing!!  When we were in AZ, he had some lessons and practiced every day.  And it paid off...he played in the final tournament of the season (that is before all the 'snow birds' head home for the spring and summer).  It was called the Men's Three Club Tournament.  So apparently you get to choose only three clubs and that is all you get to take out with you to play the round of 18  holes.  I don't know too much about these clubs, but for Scott, he did bring his putter and then two other random clubs.  And he actually won!  That did a lot for his 'mental' game and feeling like he could get back into it again!  He said, "I haven't played this well in 20 years"!!  WOW!  I am glad that he has this activity to keep him busy and that allows him to do something he loves to do!  There was a time when he was way better than son-in-law Jamie, then with a lot of coaching from Scott, Jamie improved his game.  However Scott always...ALWAYS beat him with a better score.  The last couple of years there would be a time or two when Jamie actually won the round.  I think that might have been a bit depressing for Scott.  However he does understand that he is 60 and Jamie is 34...so there you go!

There are Cactus and then there are Cactus

Do you remember looking at children's magazines and they asked you to find the picture that is "different"?  Well, I think you would probably say this picture directly above is different than the other two because it has buds on it.  And you would be RIGHT!  However, the real reason it is different is because that is a true living cactus and the other two are actually 'CELL TOWERS'!!    Can you believe it?  I think that is such a wonderful way to provide the service, but keep with the environment!  They even have holes in the fake cactus just like the real ones where the birds have pecked out holes and made nests inside!  Have you ever seen a saguaro cactus blooming?  Each of those buds is a white daisy like flower.  It is so beautiful.  Unfortunately, we had to leave before they actually opened up, but it is pretty impressive!