Of Mice and Mud

Well, you didn't expect it to be called a country farmhouse without a mouse did you? Now that you've heard about the mud part, it's part two in the saga of Looney Lane.
It all started when the seven of us had just sat down to dinner. As we were eating our tacos, chips and fruit Cade noticed something...

Cade- "Mom, look at that is that a...no...is that a hole in the bottom of the chips?"
Mom- "Yeah, I think it is."
Claire - "What if it were a mouse, wouldn't that be funny?"
Kailyn - "We had enough mice trouble in California!"
Dad - "It probably just got caught on something."

There was nothing to do but transfer the chips into plastic bags so that they wouldn't get stale. And we left it at that. But the next day as we took a fresh bag of chips down from the cupboard what do you know? A bite-sized hole rested in the very bottom corner of the Costco tortilla chips bag. A quick search revealed many more holes in various bags. After clearing out the top shelf we found mouse droppings scattered across our newly cleaned cupboards.
That evening, while we listened to a mouse scrambling around in our cupboard my dad did a great job of comforting our fears by telling us about a mouse who used to crawl through his bed. He said he had eventually killed it by throwing an army jacket over it and stomping on it until it died.
The next day as we opened various cupboards we found mouse droppings in almost every one. We evacuated our cupboards and put mouse traps and sticky pads in them. That night the comforting message of the evening was when my dad said that since there was no food in the cupboards anymore the mice would move up to higher ground: our bedrooms.
After we went to bed we heard a scream! My mom had opened the only cupboard we hadn't guarded with traps and saw the mouse chewing away at our 50 pound unopened bag of rice. By now I am thoroughly freaked out at the prospect of a mouse appearing unannounced around any corner.
The next morning, Saturday morning I wake up at 8:00 to my dad screaming, "We caught him! Come on kids! We caught that dastardly mouse! Come on kids! We caught that dastardly mouse! We caught him!!!" A sleepy trip downstairs reveals the presence of not one but two mice trapped on a sticky pad. I guess you know what happens next...
Our Saturday morning was spent scrubbing out cupboards and hand washing many tupper wares and pans. We've been told that 'it's all a part of country life' but needless to say we're all hoping that we've seen the last of the mice here on Looney Lane...

Living on Looney Lane

I guess you could say I'm a country girl now. We moved into Looney Lane on Saturday so the two acres and the 100 year old farmhouse are probably proof enough. I will say that it is beautiful outside, the perfect place to take a relaxing bike ride, enjoying the scenery right? Wrong! I guess I found that out yesterday...

The house is clean, the majority of the boxes are unpacked, and my mom has sent us outside to burn off some energy. So I get out my bike and am riding around "exploring." Well, it just so happens that there is a creek that goes through the land. It's surrounded with thick green grass and mossy trees that wrap themselves around the bank. It looks like a perfect spot to ride my bike and walk around. So I ride out. WELL, somewhere in between the creek and the road I realize that the beautiful grass is nothing more than a miniature swamp. My bike gets stuck and I'm forced to try to wheel it out, too far in to turn back. By now my shoes are squishing with water and mud. Finally I get to the edge of the swamp. I'm now walking on mud. Aaah...this is better than the swamp. I walk to the edge of the water and then....I slip and am sliding down the bank until SPLASH! I'm in the water up to my waist, with my bike in ice cold, muddy water and I'm standing on something soft and squishy at the bottom! "This kind of thing only happens in movies." I mutter as I struggle, and fail to get myself out. Finally I succeed in grabbing hold of a low hanging tree branch and crawl out. I don't think I have to tell you that I was a mess. My jeans were entirely soaked, mud was smeared along most of my face, my hair was a mess, and I was freezing!
Well, it just so happens that a little hill, slick with mud, slopes down into the creek. I have two choices: Try to drag my bike up this hill (while avoiding sliding and falling back into the water) or dragging it across the bank and through the swamp. Well, I tried fruitlessly to get my bike up the hill and managed to fall in the mud several times in the process when who should come around the corner? My younger brother and sister both on and perfectly in control of their bikes. Cade, biked over and grinned when he said, "Do you need some help, there?"
He managed to get the bike out while I scramble to the top of the hill where Claire is waiting, "Kailyn, you're soaked. How did you manage to get your jeans wet? Did you fall in? How did you manage to do this? Oh, my goodness, mom is going to be so mad! How did you manage to do this to yourself?"
"Claire, would you please just get me inside!"

Anyway, the three of us made a master plan for Claire to sneak into the house and get me some extra clothes, then she would unlock the laundry room door and I would sneak through, change my clothes and throw them into the dryer.
Well, this was all great until my mom finds the muddy, socks, shoes and jeans in her dryer. Although I had given her the rundown of my experience in the creek she was not exactly thrilled to find little muddy rocks populating the bottom of her dryer.

I guess you could say everything ended happily ever after. I cleaned the dryer, changed my clothes and stayed inside. I haven't even caught a cold yet! Maybe it's just me but I don't think the country is the BEST place for me....

Welcome to Oregon!

I guess that since we're moving I don't have an excuse to not keep up on my blog anymore. Well, finally in Portland, Oregon for a couple days. Today we headed to OMSI and hung out for several hours. We also went to a pizza restaurant where we got some entertainment...Portland style. We sat down to wait for our pizza and learned that it was "customer appreciation" night. A...unique man informed us that he was going to be our entertainment for the evening. He showed up at our table with a bag full of balloons and a couple juggling balls. Joe made two hats, a chain-of-hearts, a bow and arrow, and a set of butterfly wings for us, while he told jokes. Now it's back to the hotel for the night! Tomorrow we our first look at Looney Lane. :) More later...