Just another day in Paradise.....

*****I have to post a warning before you start reading....this is going to be an extremely long post....but bare with me it's worth the read! *****

First let me start this posting off by saying Karl and I are extremely grateful for the house we are staying in. Karl has the most incredible Boss and it's a blessing that we don't have to pay two mortgages while we are trying desperately to sell our house in Michigan.....BUT on the other hand you would not believe some of the things that we have encountered since we have moved in.

Just to name a few things;
~ Septic was not working when we got here, basically we had no toilets
~ The fridge was extremely diplatidated....I mean literately held on my duck tape
~ We had many broken windows, I think 5 to be exact
~ Who ever lived her before must have had an obsession with nails because there were about 5 million in each and every room....some just painted over
~ Speaking of paint there must have been about 10 different shades of gray in every room, except for one and it was Smurf blue
~ The dryer didn't work
~ The floors look like someone stripped them and then let a pack of angry dogs run through AND THEN put some varnish on them....

BUT please don't get me wrong I am SOOOOOO thankful that Karl and I are here. He loves his job, we don't have to struggle financially with two mortgages, and most important of all we have a roof over our head and food in our bellies...so with that I have to say a big Thank You to Mr. Ench and Hopewell Nursery!

In case you are all wondering where I am going with this we had, hmmmm how should I say this.......an adventure last night. Let me set the stage. Max is in his swing taking a little nap, Karl is watching the Sci-Fi Channel (or as The Nuthouse's little gal would say the Skee Fee channel), I am sitting contentedly on the other couch knitting a scarf (I know, like a scene out of Leave it to beaver...).

Anyway. All of a sudden Karl goes oh sh#* there is a bat in the house. I look up and say what (I was in a zone knitting like crazy). He says again oh so casually, "there is a bat in the house, duck." This is what I said not so casually.....WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At that moment the real show started. The little winged critter starts flying through the hall way and I am flattened on the couch like a pancake and Karl starts running through the house trying to figure out where it has gone. As I am still in pancake mode I hear Trigger (the 24 pound Cat) running around trying to catch it....can you say Rabies! Magoo is instantly aware that something is up and starts running around trying to catch the 24 pound cat......my husband is running around trying to figure out how to get rid or our little winged friend. Max is still sleeping in his swing.

The next thing I know Karl says that the critter is in Max's room....great, just where I don't want him to be - but I am slightly thankful it's not in my hair. Karl closes the bat in and I ask where the cat is, Karl answer oh so casually "in Max's room".....WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tell him he has to get the cat out and he says "then I have to go in there".....ok what happened to my big bad husband that is not afraid of anything??? Has anybody seen him?

Finally we manage to persuade the cat out by feeding him (he is 24 pounds and now you know why!). Karl closes the door and I instantly ask him how he is going to get it out and he says he doesn't know....again with the WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then he tells me that they used to get them in their house at home and I say well how did you get rid of them and he says that his Dad told him to throw a sheet over it....so he goes in the basement brings up every single mis-matched sheet we have from painting and proceeds to spend the next half hour trying to throw the sheet into the bedroom and HOPING that it will land on the bat (who is chillin on the wall, attached to some cute little pictures that are hanging above the changing table.) Finally I point out that his sheet tactic is not working and I tell him he has to try something else. So he decides to get his pellet gun out and decides that he is just going to shoot it.....in case you all forgot where we are let me remind you.....in the house, in Max's room.

While he is trying to figure out how to shoot the critter without breaking the window or putting a small hole in the wall I proceed to get on the phone with my mom trying to figure out how they used to get rid of bats that would show up in my Grandma's house....I am on the phone laughing my butt off with my Mom and Jim and Karl is still trying to figure out how to shoot the critter. Let me point out that there were many times Karl would open the door and then suddenly come flying out back into the hall way because the critter had taken flight.

FINALLY the critter lands on the top of the window trip and Karl decides that this is his moment, he picks up the pellet gun, takes aim and shoots.....I am cowering in the kitchen still on the phone with my mom and I hear him say...."I got him!". I come running down the hallway and he is standing inside the door but Mr. critter is nowhere to be found. So I ask is he sure, yes he's sure he just don't know where he is.....I look down and I see a pair of shoes I had left in there that I had taken off while playing with Max and I scream "is it in my shoe!". Karl assures me it's not and finally he finds him laying very close to my other shoe. Karl proceeds to take one of the sheets and scoops up poor deceased critter and ties it in a garbage bag, I say good-night to my Mom & Jim and we head out to the living room to finally relax.....and Max is still sleeping in his swing!

The point of this whole story is that we never knew when we decided to come to the east coast that we would have such an adventure!!!!