Chipmunk in the House!

(LONG STORY - sorry :))

I feel as this is a repeat of what happened a few months ago 

with the mouse in the house

but this time it was a CHIPMUNK 

and the story is even a bit more dramatic,

 since the chipmunk was alive and spunky, instead of half dead!

It was Sunday after lunch.

Actually it was somewhat of a bad lunch in the fact

that Avery did NOT want to eat anything and was throwing a fit

and Aubrey kept wanting to play pretend family 

and I was sick of it!

I told Steve to take the girls and play in the living room

while I cleaned up lunch.

For some reason I was just in a bad mood

and the girls were making matters worse,

so a little alone time cleaning up was much welcomed.

I was just sweeping up the mess of lunch that was still on the floor 

when Steve calmly walks in with both girls.

"Don't freak out but I just saw a chipmunk in our house."

WHAT?! 

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!

WHAT? A chipmunk?!"

He says yah, or maybe a ground hog!

I immediately get ticked!

I already was in a bad mood and now I just

can't handle this!

So, what are we supposed to do - where did it go?

WHY IS IT INSIDE OUR HOUSE?!

So I wanted to just go run down stairs and hide

BUT Steve was yelling at me that I had to help.

I AM NOT GOING TO HELP!

Are you kidding me?!

I've got two crying girls and me makes 3

so I need to go hide.

That's when Steve got upset!

He raised his voice, "You NEED to help! So, I KNOW

he went behind the TV so STAND THERE and KEEP AN EYE ON IT!

And make sure you watch where it goes!"

That's why I lost it - are you serious?!

I am not going to keep guard of the rodent while he devises a maze

to corral him out the door! NO WAY!

I said NO...but I lost. He made me! 

So I got out a chair and stood on the chair in the dining room

(just barely keeping an eye on it)

holding Avery and yelling at Aubrey to get out of the way.

Aubrey was getting scared so I told her to stand and keep guard too.

This was ridiculous!

Why wasn't I making a trap and STEVE guarding it so he could 

whack it when it would come out!

What was I going to do?!

Run away and say HEY he's getting away?!

Meanwhile Steve is rearranging the WHOLE HOUSE

to try to trap it and guide it to the outside.

COME ON!

It had been several minutes when the nasty little critter

comes barreling out of the corner and crawls right under my chair.

I scream and make a bee line to the kitchen with Avery

and leave Aubrey in the dining room bawling!

I asked her if she saw it and she said 

in between sobs, YES - he's over there!

And now all 3 of us are on a chair in the kitchen practically crying!

Where is Steve...still devising a plan and frantically running around. OH. MY!

That's when Steve was smart and told us to go hide downstairs!

THANK YOU! FINALLY!

So, here were are again (just like the mouse incident last time)

hiding on the couch, under a blanket, reading books and

listening CAREFULLY to the banging going on upstairs!

YIKES!

Of course the book Avery chose to read was all about animals.

There were all sorts of critters and Aubrey cries,

"Is that what's upstairs?!" - a chinchilla...nope!

"Is THAT what's upstairs?!" - a guinea pig...nope!

Meanwhile I hear running and whacking and running

and then a door slam.
Aubrey makes the comment that "Daddy is sure brave.
Thank goodness we have a brave Daddy!"
I agree, Aubrey, Daddy IS brave.

We freeze...."I GOT HIM IN THE GARAGE!" yells Steve!

PRAISE THE LORD!

About 30 minutes from the first announcement that we have a runaway critter

we feel relieved....somewhat. We hope there was only one!

I ask Steve to retell what was happening while we were hiding! 

I was right, he was in the dining room 

and he went back and forth in those corners a bit

before trying to climb up the basement shutter doors.

Steve said the little guy was jumping up and trying to get downstairs.

OH MY! If he would've come downstairs, I WOULD HAVE DIED!

OR SOMEONE else may have ;)

Steve then whacked him off the door and it rounded the corner

and Steve whacked it a few more times and out the door it went!

HMMMPPHH!

What an ordeal! I guess his maze worked. He went right on out

with some force. 

Why do these ridiculous things always happen to us?!

The unsettling thing is we really don't know how it got in.

We had the screen door open and we know he lives under the deck

but still, not sure.

So, we had to google "chipmunk" to show Aubrey closely

what was really roaming around un-welcomed in our house.

THEN, of course I made Steve search the upper level

with a flash light to make sure there wasn't anymore in hiding.

There wasn't. 

THANK GOODNESS.

Then, we all took a nice long nap :)