Operation: Get the Mouse Out of My House

Operation: Get the Mouse Out!

Destination: My house, my yard, my car, my porch, anything that's considered "my area"

Key Players: Hazel and Sucker

Minor Player: mouse

Time Frame: Immediate

Back Story: So we moved to the country. And one thing I think my sweet husband forgot to mention before this decision was made was that there are mice out here. Hungry mice. Was this something I should have been aware of before? He is so protective of me. Thanks honey. My first sign that mice might be around was when we moved in and all the previous people left were: a set of keys, a bottle of shampoo (unused, is this a new type of welcoming gift?) and mice poison. There were these little corn cobs in closets, under sinks, in the lazy-susan cupboard. I thought, "Weird, what are these?", as I am cleaning up the house. Ben laughs. He says, "Oh those are mice poison. The people said they had no trouble with mice once they got a few cats. It should be fine." Inside I about died, but responded with, "Sure, ok, yeah, well once we see signs we'll just get a cat. That's cool. Ok. Yeah, I'm good." Then, PUT THIS OUT OF MY MIND. Oh and threw away all of the mice poison- you can't really leave cute little corn cobs laying around when you have a toddler who is quick, curious and loves food.
So, a few months later, we get out of the car at the library and what does Caleb see JUMP out of OUR VAN? A mouse. Weird. And not so weird that we find napkins ripped up, little poop droppings all over the car and especially around the kids' seats...um.. where are the crumbs are. Annoying. And freaky, it was IN our car. We set traps and get TWO mice in one night, IN OUR VAN. We need a cat. But instead we turn our vents to "cycle air inside only" and forget about it. Oh and my darling man reminds me, "We live in the country babe, we have to expect mice." Yes, yes, I hear you. Forget about this. Two weeks later, mice in the van AGAIN. This time I find the droppings and we forget to set traps, the next day the droppings are BIG and so I text Ben that the mouse is getting FAT by eating our KIDS' crumbs. We set a trap and catch a fat one. Ugh, we should really get a cat. We go looking for cats. Do we really want a cat? We're dog people. We have a dog that is giving me a run for my money, I can't handle a cat too. Plus my hubby reminds me, "It's getting cold out, the mice are trying to find a warm place." Yes, I think, he's right, those cold little mice need a place to be warm and so let's be calm about this.

Current Issue: Now, MONDAY MORNING comes around. I get up to make coffee. I find a half eaten cherry tomato ON MY STOVE TOP. I throw it away and then reality hits me square in the gut as I turn back around and find mouse droppings around MY COFFEE POT. Now this little animal has taken my SACRED morning routine of practically dripping the black stuff straight to my veins and contaminated it. The WAR is on. Droppings are found across the stove, on top of my microwave, on the windowsill. This calls for serious action. So what do I do? I call a friend and cry and she helps me come up with a plan. She reminds me that my vacuum is broken and so for the last few weeks the kids have been creating a mouses heaven. She tells me to take action. So I call in the big guns - Ben's grandma, aka: GG. She will know what to do. She takes me to Petco, we search. She takes me to the vacuum store, we do research. Then she takes me to lunch, we come up with a terrific plan. (Thanks GG! I realized later, lunch was the best part.... what was I going to do?? come home and eat off the contaminated counter??!? No way!!)

Action Steps: Off I went to Sears. I got a NEW vacuum. And I didn't settle on a cheap one.
Meet Sucker -

Then off we went to Petco. We got a mouser. And we didn't settle for an ugly one.
Meet Hazel -

I hired trainers. And I didn't settle for anything less than the best.
Meet the trainers -

Hazel and Sucker still in their boxes, with the trainers.

This is the intense trainer girl.

She's all business, none of this cuddling stuff allowed.

Oh and Ben did some work around the house to ensure that little contaminator would not come back in this house. He set traps and he assured me, he said, "We got this honey." I cleaned my kitchen like a mad woman. And Ben joked that finding a mouse is a really good way to get a really clean kitchen. He's right.

Mission Complete:  We haven't had any mice in the traps. But the mission is not complete until it's been weeks and months without the little poopers. We're on it.

Oh and don't mess with my coffee.

A Struggle

Ok, so here we are a month into school and I am having my first real crisis.
I mean CRIIIIIII-ssEEEEEEEEss.

I'm kind of dramatic though so this might not be that big of a deal. It's just wreaking my world.

It's about this simple question- What is important?

Here's my debate. There are so many things calling for attention and something has to get it. Multi-tasking is such a great idea, in theory. But in reality SOMETHING is actually getting your attention. It's why they make crazy laws, like not talking or texting while driving. "They" are smart enough to know that although we think we can do three things at once, we really can't. Or at least not 100%. Something is getting 99% or 80% or 63.2% and something else is getting only 1%, 20% or 36.8%. It's just reality folks.

As a mom of three elementary students when the spelling lists, fundraising sheets, library books, music show-n-tells, homework to-do's, and volunteer sign-ups come rolling out of the back packs I somehow get lost in the paperwork. But what is actually harder than organizing and making sure that everything gets looked at, is the deciding - What is important?

Here's an example from this week...the kids came home with all the above mentioned papers. And the boys are STOKED about this fundraiser they are doing for school. The deal is that the more cookie dough they sell the more little RUBBER DUCKS they get. Ok, seriously, they are little ducks that go on a lanyard and they can't get enough of these ducks. It's really a GENIUS idea. Get kids excited about a little trinket that they get for selling cookie dough and your school makes a ton of $moo-la$. At first I was like, "Nope, this is not getting my attention." But then the boys come home day after day so excited about the ducks their friends got and I am thinking... "RUBBER DUCKS??!!?" But then I realize they only have to sell three bins of dough to get the lanyard and a duck or two. "It's not that hard, have them call the grandparents and get this done." **Mind you, this means, fundraising for rubber ducks cookie dough, is now getting some percentage of my thinking.** Ugh.

This is where it gets really ugly... On Monday Nathan came home and said, "Mom, I signed up for music show-n-tell and I HAVE to do it. Can I take Uncle Marcus' saxophone?" Honestly, I thought this was a great idea but decided to put it off until Ben got home. "Maybe Nate." When I talked to Ben about it his thoughts were a bit more practical- it's heavy and expensive- two good reasons that this wasn't the best time for Nate to take it to school. But Ben had a great idea - Take a piano book and show the kids that you know how to play the piano! Good idea dad! That meant practicing and taking some time to make this important. But.. time went by.. and it somehow didn't make it to the top of the "important list."

Uglier...This morning Nathan is totally distressed. Should he take the sax and risk losing it or it getting stolen or broken? Or should he take a piano book that he really couldn't, off the cuff, play something out of? (We haven't taken lessons for over a year). He was totally stressed and I was stressed and we both wanted the same thing, but in reality neither Nate nor I had made this important.

He ended up taking the piano book but he was so sad. The whole walk to the bus stop he hung his head. In the heat of the moment I think he felt like he wasn't responsible enough to take the sax and he was settling for second best by taking the music book. The whole way back home I felt like, "Where did I miss the mark here? What was really important to focus on this week? Are there other ways I am missing the mark? Am I putting things at the top of the list that are not important? Am I making unimportant things important?"

Somehow rubber ducks got my focus this week and I think Nathan's music show-n-tell maybe should have been at the top instead. It was a bummer for both him and I this morning. But it did open my eyes to see. There are SO MANY "things" that require my attention. I think I want the little "people" in my life to get that attention first and foremost. I want to get excited about the things that excite them but also want to teach them that we are pulled in lots of directions and sometimes we have to STOP and LISTEN to our hearts and find out what is really supposed to be at the top of our list.

In this day and age I think it takes a lot of self control to do that. I hope that I can exercise this muscle and help them to develop it over time. A good lesson to learn at 33 years old, a GREAT lesson to learn at 8 years old.

Dreaming of duckies tonight....:)

Oh Summer, sweet Summer, where art thou Summer?

We had, seriously, the BEST summer ever. It was long, hot, filled with fun, sweet memories and just plain wonderful.

The most amazing thing about this summer was that Ben did not have to teach summer school. For the past few years Ben has had commitments during the summer that didn't allow us much time to be together as a family. But this year he worked very part time with a flexible boss :) So he was around to play with us a lot more this summer, it was a gift.

We started out by taking a road trip to visit my grandpa and grandma in Weiser, Idaho. There's really ONE main thing that happens in Weiser - The fiddle festival. So we planned our trip around going to that MAIN event. It was a real good time. It was exciting to see family, we capped our time by stopping in to see my Aunt and Uncle in Boise. (We also snuck in a quick visit to some friends of ours from Tacoma that moved to Boise recently - Yeah for the Knesals!)

Road Trip!

The Stoehr great-grands and kids!

My sweet Aunt Tammy! xo

 Arts Camp for Caleb and Nathan and VBS for Alena

Nathan strong and mighty

 HIKING with the kiddos!

Fourth of July was spent with friends, family and...guns. An interesting combination but super fun!

Does it get any better than this? True country livin'.

Trips to the pond to fish and hunt for frogs

Caleb with his frog Beans

Nathan fishing with dad

Riverfront Park!

A visit from our FUN FRIEND WINNIE!!!

Love ya Winnie!

A trip to Wenatchee to see the Sutherland clan; Jocelyn, Ethan and Kyle. Mama Susan hosted us as if we were queens. Love.

Kyle, Ethan, Alena, Nathan

Hello hot tub in 100 degree weather! :)

Lemonade Stands

Little boys keeping it cool

FUN, FuN, fUn, FUN trip to Tacoma - friend, water parks, zoo, etc

Arielle and Alena

Titus adoring Myron

I got to be at the shower for Joc and Hailey!

Mr and Mrs Titus and Ruby Cochran

They are training for the Olympics

PD Zoo with Hippes and Mocks

My gracious hostess

Rainer's game!

Baseball chic

CAMPING with friends - so extremely enjoyable

Lizzy, Alena, Luke, Caleb, Nathan, Isaiah

Da boys

MY boys

Best buds

Swim lessons

Alena waiting for her lesson

Looks like we had a fun summer huh? It WAS a blast. It's an amazing feeling when you get to a spot where you know, "this is our family," the 6 of us. What will we do? One thing we established this summer is, we are a family that has fun together! Good-by to summer for now - I anticipate your return!

I'm baaaaaaa-aaaack!

Ok here's one thing I am not going to lie about - blogging is hard. It takes some time and energy to write and then edit and then pick pictures and then edit and then post and then edit one more time... Anyway, time and energy was not something I had extra of this summer. I gave it all to the littles in my life. And it was totally worth it.

On another note, I left you last with a just one year old boy (who's now almost 16 months old! *gasp) and a big move looming. Well, I will have you know that we indeed did move... to the country!  We are trying this whole acreage-living. Which really goes well with my life theme of simplicity. Seriously.

So, I will introduce you to our new home. (amateur pictures, or should I say immature? Anyway, I don't claim to be a photographer, but maybe it will appease some curiosity nonetheless). And then I might take you back in time (to the summer I talked about where I gave all my time and energy to the 4 littles) and then we will press on.

Without further ado (about nothing).... here is 4202 E Olmsted - The newest Cochran residency.

Handmade signs, watch out I'm getting all crafty on ya! Hahahahaha

Front yard. PS - Everything is dead because <SURPRISE> it never rains here.

Look close....it's the chicken coop.

Our garden and fun cage!

Garth, the most friendly dog ever (and obedient) he visits EVERY morning

Our lunch guest, Lappa, she eats the plums and apples from our "orchard"

Back deck

Our 1/4 mile driveway to the highway

Big climbing tree. The boys prayed for this! Look how the Lord gives abundantly! :)

Going to the pond

 So there you have it folks. 4202. So far we all enjoy it a lot!! It's nothing fancy but I think we like it that way. It brings us opportunity for lots of adventures and space to PLAY. Which we are all really good at.

Happy home, happy hearts.

oNe!

Titus is one!! We celebrated with some family time last weekend and here are some pictures. It was a little bit windy so we didn't get to do an actual "blow out the candle" extravaganza, don't tell Titus.

Give me the brownie already!

Hey guys, really I just want the brownie...

Nom, nom, nom

Ben, his dad Paul, our brother-in-law Devlin put together a little play house for the kids to use while they are at GG's. It is adorable! They all loved it...this fact surprised me a bit because the boys are 8 and I wasn't sure if they would buy into the whole play-house thing. But they did! And all enjoyed it!

GG with the great-grands and the new play house!

Nathan, Caleb, Sonya, Titus, Dominick, GG and Alena

We are in the midst of moving so I won't write much more now, but posts about new house, etc. to come!

~CC

Growing Up

As the school year comes to a close and we celebrate three birthdays this week, growing up is what is happenin' in our home...

Alena is growing up. She is 5 stinkin' years old! Gracious! And she had her last, last ever, forever last day of preschool. And she is FULLY ready for Kindergarten. I agree it seems like the next logical step but golly gee, I hope she misses me. I know for sure I will miss her. She is excited to go to the same school as the boys though and she will be gone 3 full days/week, so two days I will still enjoy the jibber-jabber and endless questions, but still...Kindergarten??!!? How fast they grow.

Alena and Titus on her last day of school (park day!)

Caleb is growing up. This past year has been a little tough for our boy KB (nickname given and stuck). He misses his Tacoma friends and honestly I think he misses homeschooling a little bit (not his teacher aka ME, but more the flexibility of routine, free time, etc). Anyway we have really been praying for him and hoping he can find a niche. Well this last weekend, his GG gave him a little foresight and he took it ALL THE WAY. Picture to follow. He loves being outside, he loves animals, he really enjoys nature. So, I hope that as we make a move to the country, he will find his place in this big world and by the activities from last weekend...I think this isn't too big of a hope.

He even got a book at the library and knows the name of each butterfly!

Titus is growing up! He turns ONE YEAR OLD tomorrow. I can hardly believe that just one year ago I was lamenting, "Please, oh Lord, please have mercy and let me have this child!!" And what a birth it was! A joy! And now I have a one year old. He is not walking quite yet but that child can M-O-V-E. He's so quick. And he loves the stairs. So often I find him upstairs looking around for his Nonni and Poppi and finding the huge bath tub. Yesterday I found him up at the sliding doors looking out for birds and talking like he knew exactly what he was looking at! Titus is a joy!

Mama look, I moved the door-stop, can we please go out to see the tweet tweets?

Nathan is growing up. He reads books like a crazy boy! I love it! Maybe I have mentioned this before but I love to read. So, as a mom, I hoped that my kids would like to read. But as a former homeschooling mom, there's a bit of self-inflicted pressure that comes with that hope. Like I hope my kids read and that I taught them all the right things..etc etc... So there's this peace and joy with a) knowing I really didn't have to teach him to read in Kindergarten anyway because his 1st grade teacher probably taught him 99.9% of all he knows about reading and b) MY KID READS! And he enjoys it. Anyway, last night about 8:45pm Nate comes running out to the living room and about scares me to death because he went to bed 45 minutes ago and I thought he was asleep long ago... and he exclaims, "I finished my book!" He's been reading it for maybe 2 days and he just HAD to finish it last night! Oh so sweet. I slept well. :)

Sweet Nate.

Ben and I are growing up. We both had birthdays this week and you know what? I am proud of us. We have moved away from what we knew, what was so familiar to us. And we are here making crazy steps to get ourselves out of debt and to give our kids what they need right now. It's not easy. I will admit that it is awesome to be near our families and the sun does shine a bit more over here. But moving away from friends and into a new community and putting your kids into a new school and trying to find a new church has been tough. Yet we have made huge strides in getting our family to a more healthy place and I am proud of us. We have decided to follow Jesus and go where He is telling us to go and to move when He says move. We're growing up and it's good. We are flying and it feels freeing. We are running and the wind in our face is refreshing. We are trying new things and He is cheering us on.

Cheers to growing up ~ CMC