Thrifty Saturday

Since it is no longer January, I am free to thrift shop again!

Sadly I did not find all that much of a turnover from the end of December.

But, I did find these three adorable plastic angels who will someday find their way into a shadow box.

Aren't they cute? And I LOVE the color. They were still tightly tied into the box they came in.
THGGM found this NEW lamp shade. We have several lamps around here in need of shades. This one will be going into the guest room. He also found a shirt, but clothes were 'buy one get two free', so someone else will be getting two shirts.

I also found four books. One of them "Poems of the Midwest" by Carl Sandburg. I don't think I really like Carl all that much, but the book was the right color, and I am seriously looking to increase my knowledge of poetry. I read a lot of Sandra Boynton and Dr. Seuss now, so I feel I need some balance. I also came home with two Pearl S. Buck novels and Kathleen Norris' "Amazing Grace".

I also found this really cool school chair for Baby Boy. His daddy built him shelves for his books, and now he will have a little chair so he can use the bottom shelf as a table.

I found two Baby Gap shirts for him also.

Let's see...what else...

Oh, I got a terrific piece of upholstery material. A yard and a half of cream on cream for 75 cents. Another 99 cent arpon on which I can embroidery something cute, and a salt shaker.

And now I will add a little note. When I got up this morning, there in my mouse trap were two mice. TWO. In the same trap! However does this happen? Really. We have plenty of traps for everyone, but this looked like it just may have been some sort of lovers suicide. Once it turned bitterly cold here two weeks ago, those little buggers have found a new way in. I would not be surprised if they had keys.

What Have I Done Wrong???

(please, if you know me, do NOT answer that questions!)

Again, I find myself in the middle of a mouse fiasco.

At times, I wonder if I should just wander out into the garage and bring in the old hamster wheel and start feeding these things by choice.

THGGM thinks mice are cute.

From the outside, our home must look like a giant slice of swiss cheese to these mice. At least, it is THAT easy for them to get in.

It isn't that we are not catching them. Oh, are we EVER.

I just asked THGGM, "How many?" and his reply was, "I am NOT counting!".

Last night, he emptied two traps as he left the house at 7. At 7:10, two traps went off at once. I nearly shouted "Jinx! Buy me a coke!" Yes. I am that weird.

Youngest Son and his girlfriend were in the kitchen last night making caramel brownies. I didn't mention the carnage a mere inches from their domestic selves. THGGM took care of it when he got home. And, again when he got up in the morning, and there are several more waiting for him when he wakes up from his bliss-filled nap.

Yesterday there was a squirrel sitting on a table on my front porch looking into my living room. Right into my eyes. I'm sure it's eyes were saying, "Excuse me, ma'am, but could you kindly unlatch the front door and let me in too, please?" Then, when crossing my front yard last night, a very large bunny ran in front of me. Need I remind you that I live in a parking lot? There are not woods, fields, meadows or even Mr. MacGregor's vegetable garden near by.
No garbage is left out side, no piles of leaves are left laying around. I'm totally stumped.

In the entire time I lived at home with my family of origin, I remember only ONE mouse episode. ONE. My sister remembers the day clearly, because I announced to my family one Sunday afternoon, "LOOK! I am reading my Sunday School paper to my NEW friend!". Apparently, the mouse had appeared between the cushions of the couch I was sitting on. Later that night, they killed my 'new friend' but he did not go down when flushed, which I discovered on my way to bed that night. This was a horror of great magnitude and caused me (and my long suffering mother) much trauma. I refused to sit down on a toilet for YEARS.

Last night, as I entired the kitchen to load up the dishwasher, there was a small mouse running around on the floor, in a weird sort of formation. I screamed. It LOOKED at me. Then, it ran under the stove. And, kept peeking out at me. Like, "Is the big screaming lady still out there? Yes, yes, why I believe she is." Then it would check again. On about it's fourth peek, I was no longer there.

In the morning, it no longer was.

She Who Dances on the Couch...

Were you to drive past my home last evening, you might have wondered what sort of weird party was going on.

Yes. That was me in the green cardigan dancing wildly on my couch, in front of a large curtainless window, no less.

It's on account of the fact that I was given a gift last night. Well, actually TWO gifts. No, THREE.

My first gift arrived in the early afternoon in the form of a migraine. Jupiter must have aligned with Mars or something. Oh wait. I think this one was brought on by weather, hormones and the simple fact that I keep forgetting that I have to eat (you would not know this from looking at me - because WHEN i remember to, i remember good!).

The second gift was a WONDERFUL gift from THGGM, who answered my pleas for help. He removed everything from my lazy susan. Because why, you ask? Because I could hear something in it. Something that refused to be caught in the trap. Something that chose to defy the term 'quiet as a mouse'. And, as luck would have it, he caught it in a trap!

My third gift came from my favorite pet. Barb is now my favorite pet because he is my only pet. Barb likes to spend his free time with me. He likes to be in every picture I take. And, he likes to surprise me with gifts.

Like many people, myself included, the gifts that he likes to give are actually gifts that he would like to receive, not ones chosen with the likes and dislikes of the recipient taken into consideration. If that were the case, he would have brought me a rubber stamp, or peanut M&M's

Yes. He brought me a live mouse. I should have known. But I had a really really nasty headache and was not thinking clearly. I should have known because just a moment before the gift was delivered, he had lept off the couch, flown through the air and made that strange sound cats sometimes make - which sounds somewhat like gargling.

He returned shortly. And, at my feet he dropped a very disoriented mouse.

I did NOT handle this well. No. Not well at all.

I screamed and jumped on the couch, were I continued to dance and call out the play-by-play.

THGGM was in NO hurry to come to my aide. He was on a different floor, even. Deeply involved in his new favorite TV show, Dancing with the Stars.

I actually heard him say "Well, what am I supposed to do?"

Dear Knight in Shining Armor, you are supposed to rescue me from things that go Squeak in the night. In the day. In the afternoon. In the lazy susan.

The mouse got away, not before THGGM chased it around for awhile with a tiny paper towel. Barb is big into the 'catch and release' program. He caught it and released it many many times - got bored with it and curled up on the couch.

I took my headache and went to bed.