A few Pictures and an adventure...

First some pictures... I only took two today because I forgot to take them until the sun went down, so the wall color isn't quite realistic. Also, there are still boxes everywhere (thanks Mom and Annie).
Here is the piano from Mom and Dad's house... complete with the wooden trains that Reid's grandfather built on top of it. You can't really see it, but the piano fits perfectly in this space, as the entry-way door frame is just to the right of the photo.

And here is the pine china hutch in the dining room. The left of this photo is the entry way into the kitchen and to the right is the entry way into our bedroom (as none of you have been here yet I know it is difficult to visualize the floorplan). The yellow on the wall behind the hutch is the color that I painted the entire dining room, half of the kitchen and the laundry room (I may post pictures of the big whole snafu of the laundry room sometime soon... and possibly pictures of the new W/D... I know you're all holding your breath for those! :)

Now the adventure... I've told a few of you (mom and dad) that I saw my first mouse in the house yesterday. I had seen "traces" of mice in the craft room upstairs so I left the door open for Isabel (our more active cat) to go up there freely. Clementine (our less active cat) is not interested in mice. She's interested in sleeping on your lap and stealing your salty potato or corn chips. Last night Reid and I heard a loud thud and went upstairs to see Isabel staring at a stack of boxes. Sure enough, we moved it out and sitting behind it was a fat little mouse. By the time we got something to catch it in, it had run into the closet and long since escaped.

Then this evening I sat down to begin posting and we heard another small crash from upstairs. This time Reid went up alone (I freaked out a little bit last night, something to the effect of "I don't think I was meant to be a country wife" or something). And he immediately called down that Isabel had caught one, that she dropped it and that it was still running around. I went up to offer what little help a shrieking, jumping, yelling "Don't hurt it" woman can be, and we thought we had lost it again. We came back down, I again commenced writing this post and Reid went back up with a "hunch" that it was still there. A minute later I hear, "It's still here. I think Isabel might have wounded it." (Side note, after watching what ensued I don't think Isabel hurt it... I think when Reid first saw it, it tried the playing dead trick... it realized that wouldn't work and found it's legs again!). I trek back upstairs, as he heads down the stairs for a flashlight telling me to watch the bed and make sure the mouse doesn't come out from underneath. Mind you, I have no idea what I would have done had it come out. I'm not afraid of mice, so much as I'm afraid of hurting mice. Okay... and their quick movements sort of send me into a little bit of a frenzied panic. He came back and after several jogs for the mouse back and forth along the wall (and a few really pathetic jumps at the corners) Reid managed to trap it under a pineapple sherbet container (don't worry... the sherbet was long gone). We then of course had to slide a cookie sheet under the container, flip the container over and put the lid on it. Correction, I had to put the lid on it as Reid slid the cookie sheet off and I wimpered "I don't want to do this." Right about now, I'm sure you're all thinking that's what humane traps are for... yeah... I guess I agree now.

We then put on our coats, and went for a walk down the road, releasing the little young mouse (not the same one we saw yesterday which was a chunk) onto the other side of the road (sorry neighbors!). And as we walked back, both of us agreed that the mouse was indeed lucky. He might be spending a cold night outside, but he wasn't killed by Izzy or a mouse trap (and most certainly not be Clementine, who slept on my lap/computer chair for the the entire ordeal).

One mouse trapped... surely only twenty or so to go (or at least I'm telling myself that... if you think there are more, which there might be, please keep it to yourself... I like my fantasy world)!