- Notice mouse droppings in the pantry of the old farmhouse you’ve just moved into.
- Convince yourself that it’s probably not recent because no one has lived here for a while.
- Accidentally drop a large piece of pizza between the fridge and stove.
- Forget to clean it up.
- Ask husband if he cleaned up the pizza the next morning when you notice that it is gone.
- Conclude that you definitely have a mouse in the house.
- Freak out.
- Ask friends what they recommend for traps.
- Buy traps.
- Place one glue trap between the fridge and stove to catch the mouse on its path from the pantry to the counters.
- Wait. Overnight, if possible.
- Avoid looking at the area the next morning when you wake up.
- When children insist the trap is moving, call husband out of bed to dispose of mouse and trap.
- Breathe a sigh of relief and continue to enjoy your new home.
- Forget about mice for months.
- While using the step stool to put away spare sheets in the hall closet, decide to finally clean up all the accumulated plastic bags on the floor of the pantry so you can return the step stool to its rightful place.
- Notice mouse droppings.
- Convince yourself that those are leftover mouse droppings from the last mouse because you aren’t a terribly thorough cleaner and you can’t remember how well you cleaned the pantry anyway.
- Collect plastic bags to take to recycling.
- Jump and scream when you move plastic bags and a little mouse scurries across the pantry and disappears into the wall.
- Run to the bedroom and jump on the bed where your 4-year-old retreated when he heard you scream.
- Take deep breaths.
- Convince yourself you can finish the clean-up job without screaming.
- Don gloves and gingerly pick up plastic bags until you can see the floor again.
- Move glue trap to the spot where you saw the mouse disappear.
- Recycle plastic bags at the grocery store.
- Tell husband about the mouse.
- Forget mice exist.
- Get on with life.
- On an unsuspecting day when you’re sitting at the computer and the children are running through the house, scream as you see a grey blob scurrying across the kitchen floor right toward you.
- Freeze.
- Run into the bedroom and jump on the bed with the kids while hubby is getting ready for work.
- Point and shriek when you see the rodent peeking out from behind a chair in the bedroom.
- Watch in horror and awe as your husband tries to trap the mouse in the hall closet.
- Scream again when the mouse escapes into the kids’ bedroom.
- Wonder out loud if maybe it’s time to move again.
- Take husband to work.
- Eat lunch when you get home.
- Let kids play outside so you can wash the dishes that piled up from the day before when you were sick.
- Remove from the kitchen the cardboard boxes for recycling and boxes of donations to take to Goodwill.
- Go back outside and play (which actually means ignoring the mouse problem.)
- Decide to walk to the park and back, which will kill about 2 hours of your day.
- Have fun at the park.
- Invent errands to run when you get home from the park.
- Go shopping at Target for water bottles and the grocery store for canned pizza dough because you wanted to make homemade dough but the kids wouldn’t leave your side.
- Attempt to roll out canned pizza dough.
- Curse and yell at the pizza dough that will not stretch correctly.
- Decide to go out for dinner.
- Eat at CiCi’s pizza.
- Go to another park.
- Return home for the fastest bath times in human history.
- Go to Chick-fil-a early for indoor play time before hubby gets off work.
- Tell hubby about your terrible horrible no good very bad day that also had some good points.
- Let the 6-year-old girl call her grandpa to talk about why she’s scared of the mouse.
- Sing children to sleep.
- Wear slippers to bed.
- Go to church the next morning because it’s Sunday and it’s the best place to be.
- Talk about your mouse problem and how it’s scaring the children (just the children, of course).
- Come home from church refreshed.
- Eat lunch.
- Enjoy family nap time.
- Pretend the mouse has vanished.
- See mouse scamper through the kitchen the next morning while everyone else is sleeping.
- Wake sleeping husband and convince him to put traps on the path.
- Send your daughter to school the next day with hope that the mouse will be gone by the time she’s home.
- Send hubby and son to Lowe’s for manly purchases.
- Clean parts of kitchen with fear and trepidation while they are gone.
- Convince yourself mouse is nothing to be afraid of.
- Let husband and son back in the house as husband points out the mouse scurrying across the kitchen.
- Leap onto the bench at the counter/peninsula while husband resumes attempt to catch the mouse.
- Watch him squeeze himself into the pantry while trying to trap the mouse.
- Sigh with dread as mouse disappears. Again.
- Spend the rest of the day battling big emotions and crying.
- Lie down for a few minutes before picking the girl up from the bus.
- Work together as a family to cook a delicious dinner.
- Put the kids to bed.
- Bait a trap with peanut butter.
- Discover mouse droppings in a place that makes you want to puke.
- Watch Doctor Who to take your mind off things.
- Hear sounds from the kitchen.
- Send husband to investigate.
- Breathe easier when he tells you he has caught and disposed of a mouse.
- Sleep soundly that night, without slippers on.
- Tell kids the good news the next morning.
- Put daughter on the bus.
- See mouse scurrying through the kitchen as you and son prepare to leave for playdate.
- Tell husband to bait another trap, even if it means the mouse will be your problem later in the day while he’s at work.
- Hear sounds in kitchen before you and son leave.
- Tell hubby that mouse may already be caught.
- Leave for playdate and enjoy time outside of the house.
- Return from playdate to learn that second mouse has been caught and disposed of.
- Spend next two days tiptoeing around your house, jumping at slight movements and shadows, ears alert to any kind of noise, unconvinced that mouse problem is over.
- Tell Facebook friends you need prayer because you are going crazy over this.
- Get on with kitchen/laundry chores because it can’t wait.
- Report mouse problem to landlord.
- Wait for landlord’s call.
- Consider getting a cat against landlord’s policy.
- Write longest how-to list on the face of the earth.
- Leave readers hanging in suspense because you really don’t know how this is all going to turn out.