Of Mice and Men

Monday's w/ Michael

Jane and I knew we had some mice living in the house with us. We could hear them in our walls. We would find their little droppings all over.

We would also find holes they chewed through various bags.

We knew they especially enjoyed hanging out in our pantry. So, last Friday, I strategically place 4 glue traps in our pantry. Before we went to bed that night, we had caught our first mouse. Saturday morning, I discovered that one of my glue traps was missing. That was it. I had had enough. I decided to clean out the entire pantry, find the missing glue trap, and get rid of our mice problem once and for all. What I discovered surprised and horrified me. (The following paragraphs contain graphic details and pictures. Those of you with a weak stomach will want to stop reading now).

I removed everything from the pantry, including all of Jane's cookbooks. Here are MOST of them on our dining room floor.

Then I decided to move the bookcase. Here is what I discovered behind it!

Once I cleaned up all of the shredded paper, I was still left with quite a mess. The stench of stale mouse urine was overpowering. (See I told you not to read this if you had a weak stomach!) After scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing, we finally got the pantry in relatively good shape. But we didn't put everything back in the pantry just yet. The only thing in the pantry were 8 mouse traps. I still had the 2 glue traps left over and I added 6 kill traps. I used 3 different versions of kill traps. Here are my 4 variations of traps.

The war was on!

Saturday night, before we went to bed, we caught mouse #2. Sunday morning, we discovered 3, 4, & 5. Pictured below are 3 & 4. How stupid can you be?

To make a long story shorter, between Friday night and Wednesday morning, we caught 12 mice! The greatest discovery was this find on Wednesday morning.

Here are #'s 10, 11, & 12. Yep, that's right: 3 mice on 1 trap! And I thought #'s 3 & 4 were stupid!

We caught another one Saturday, so that makes 13 mice in 9 days. I'm still not sure who is winning this war though. I may have killed 13 mice, but I'm left with images and smells that will haunt me for years.

Make it a great Monday!

Uncles and 'Den Pops'

Today, we had the privilege of traveling to West Lafayette to visit Michael's brother Joel who attends Purdue. With much excitement, the majority or what we heard on the way there was "Going to see Uncle Joel?", "Almost to see Uncle Joel?", and with the occasional "See Uncle Ben?" thrown in. In Deacon's mind, they are a couple. They just go together. You can't have one without the other. We were able to enjoy the GORGEOUS day as we walked around campus and Joel showed us where he spends most of his time in various lecture halls. As we walked around, we saw MANY people walking around carrying a HUGE Styrofoam cup. Joel informed us these were 'Den Pops'. So we decided we couldn't leave without trying one. Basically they are fountain drinks that cost only 75 cents. Joel thinks they must sell thousands each day! We enjoyed a pizza at the Boiler Market for dinner. We had such a special day with Uncle Joel and look forward to visiting him again next year!

Uncle Joel and Deacon playing catch with rocks!

Uncle Joel and Finn hangin' out!

PHEW! This is the life: the life of a college student!

We love you Joel!

Forwards

Monday's w/ Michael

I probably should have warned all of you (is it still "all of you" or is it just "both of you" by now) long ago how much I despise forwards. I can be having a perfectly good day at work and then someone sends me a forward and I'm instantly annoyed. The classic "If you aren't ashamed of God, you will forward this to 10 people" really irritates me. Another classic that for some reason people still fall for is the "If you send this to 10 people within the next 3 days, you will receive $$$$." There are a few co-workers (whose names I won't release) who frequently send forwards. There are a few other co-workers (whose names I won't release) that I frequently complain to when I receive one of these such forwards.

I have several reasons for my passionate dislike of forwards. Many of the inspiring "true" stories are actually false according to snopes.com. Others just don't make any sense when you think about it. I received a forward just like this last week.

The email started out by saying "What does it mean to give more than 100%? We've all been in situations where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 101%?" It then went on to say "Here is a mathematical formula that might help answer these questions." Ok, so here is their "formula". First, you assign every letter in the alphabet a numerical value (A=1, B=2, C=3, etc).

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E

11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K

8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E

1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

L-O-V-E O-F G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%

The email ended with "Therefore, we can conclude with mathematical certainty that while hardwork and knowledge will get you close, and attitude wil get you there, it's the love of God that will put you over the top."

I have a couple problems with this email. First of all, I have never heard anyone say, "Go out there and give 101%." Typically, it's "Go out there and give it 110%". This is the classic situation where whoever created this email came up with an answer (the love of God = 101) and created a story to fit the answer.

My second problem with this email is that "we can now conclude with mathematical certainty" that drugs & beer are more valuable than hardwork or knowledge.

D-R-U-G-S & B-E-E-R

4+18+21+7+19+2+5+5+18=99

Make it a great week!

Help Wanted

Monday's w/ Michael

In these tough economic times, there are still some companies hiring. Perhaps some of you would be interested in one of the following careers in sports:

Portugese Bullfighter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2VkQO3CQGc&feature=related

College Mascot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfW69rHtxIo

Basketball Player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XpVuonwpQA&feature=related

Football Referee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVgdFv_NEM4&feature=related

Make it a great week!

Aunt Dorothy

Monday's w/ Michael

One week ago today, my great-aunt Dorothy passed away. She was 95. Since she was 65 when I was born, I guess I always viewed her as "old." You may think, "Well, you viewed her as 'old' for 30 years, you shouldn't be surprised she's gone." But in a way, it almost had the reverse effect on me. I always viewed her as "old", she's been "old" for 30 years, I always thought she would just always be "old". It's actually kind of hard for me to grasp that she's gone.

Dorothy never married, but it certainly never appeared to bother her. I think she viewed it that instead of having "x" number of children, she had 19 "children" (her nieces and nephews) and 86 "grandchildren" (her great nieces and great-nephews). I'm sure some of her other great nephews spent a lot more time at her house than I did, but I have plenty of memories of being over there growing up. I probably played more games of "Ghost in the Graveyard" there than anywhere else. I remember playing Connect Four at her house. I remember eating cookies in her crowded kitchen. I remember the entire family packed into her basement to open Christmas gifts.

I have another 95 year old great aunt who never married named Sylvia. I didn't realize it until recently, but Sylvia and Dorothy have been close friends for probably 90 years. (I can't imagine having a friendship that lasts that long). They used to walk to school together. Jane took Sylvia down to see Dorothy a couple weeks ago after Dorothy had taken a turn for the worse. Dorothy brightened up when Sylvia entered the room. Sylvia talked to her for awhile and then before she left, she told Dorothy "The next place we are going is going to be so much better than this."

I know Sylvia is right. This place hasn't been extremely easy on either of them. Dorothy was born with a limp. It was never easy for her to get around. But I'm pretty sure that at 4:50 PM on Monday, March 29, 2010, Dorothy went sprinting into Jesus' arms. I bet she was fast. I also bet she hasn't stopped running since. She's probably been running all over Heaven with her mom and dad. She's probably been running with the 9 brothers and sisters she had to bury at such a young age. She's probably been running up and down the streets of gold. Running like she was never able to do here on earth.

For a lady who never married, never had any kids, and rarely traveled outside of Adams and Wells counties in Indiana, Dorothy touched a lot of people. I know I was certainly blessed by knowing her. Thanks for everything, Aunt Dorothy. We love you and look forward to running with you soon!

Happy 2nd Birthday Sunshine!

It is amazing for us to think that little Deacon is already 2 YEARS old!!

We have enjoyed many special birthday parties for him to celebrate this 2 year milestone, however, we had our own little "Michael Reinhard Family" one for him last night.

We went to the State Park and took a pizza and had a picnic by the lake.

We put candles in a cupcake for him to blow out, and EVEN let him eat it! My heart rate goes up just thinking about it-it was such a mess!

But he had fun, and it was a joy watching him, and that made it all worth it. Feeding the buffalo was fun and Deacon was not even a bit scared of them. He just stuck his hand right through the fence and I screamed (as you can imagine) because I thought that the buffalo would bite his hand off. Michael informed me that just wasn't so.

We then went over to the wonderful playground they have there, and Deacon absolutely loved the slide!

Finn LOVED the swing!!

God has certainly blessed us by giving us our 'Sunshine'!

We love you!