Mousey Cam

Well, you can't say that our two indoor cats have a boring life...us either for that matter! Lets start from the beginning though. A number of months ago, the boys and I were visiting Grandma in Albany and Jim found a little white mouse in our cabinet below the sink (where we have our garbage can) He caught the mouse and released it, but we figured that since it was white, it must have been somebody's pet that escaped. Story over, right? NO. Lately, we started noticing that Milo & Missy had been spending alot of time looking into the heating vent under the cabinet. So what does a security guy like Jim do? Install a "mouse cam" of course.

What did you expect? ....Nana, you HAVE to come over and see what your son has done now.

My kitchen has wires and extension cords running all across the floor and counters so all of us *and the cats* can see the mouse better. Not only has Jim installed a tiny little camera under the cabinet so we can record the mouse (and see how many there are), but it is hooked up to our TV and we can watch it all on TV, like a show. The vent cover has been taken off and replaced with a clear plastic see-thru cover securely screwed in and complete with air holes so the cats can smell and hear the mousey but the mouse can't get out. There is a permanent night light running off an extension cord so it can shine light into the space under the cabinet for better lighting . This is what we, and the cats, see from the outside:

Jim has constructed a little "toy" for the mousey. It is a plastic dome hot glued to a piece of wood for the bottom, and has a little hole no wider than the size of his pinky finger that the mousey can crawl into and out of to lick up all the peanut butter that is inside. All this busy work Jim does is done AFTER I've gone to bed, mind you.

Here is what the "Mousey Cam" sees: Remember, this is all under the cabinet. You can see the mouse's head squeezing out of the little hole in the plastic dome and the two cat faces in the background.

These cats have no idea how lucky they are. Look at Milo just sitting there watching the little mousey as it comes right up to him on the other side of the plastic barrier. Its like the mouse is in a zoo. Brave little thing...either that or he is a smart little thing, since he's figured out that the cats have no chance at getting him. What a tease!

I told Jim this morning that I feel like we are all so lucky to have him. Jim, that is, not the mouse. Our lives would be so boring without him and all of his little ideas and projects. He said to me that "Oh, we would just find other things to entertain ourselves with..." True, but they would be regular, normal, boring entertaining things. Nothing like we're used to having!


While this has all been SO MUCH FUN watching the mouse cam, we discovered that there are TWO little mouseys and have ordered little "no-kill" traps to catch them in and let them go. We are not allowed to kill animals in our house (click HERE for the "no-kill" spider story), but Jim did say that if we had a ton of them he would have no problem killing them to get rid of the FILTHY little things. Thank the Lord for that.

Busy, busy, busy.

We've done quite a bit in the last couple of weeks. I spent three weekends in a row away from home, the first weekend was snowmobiling with the boys. The next weekend just Brayden and I stayed at Grandma's in Albany and helped her paint and pack. We visited a bunch of nostalgic places in Corvallis before moving my mom to Bend the next weekend. Brayden was very happy to have me all to himself and was a super angel spending all that time in the car that weekend. We ate breakfast in a bar, HA! What bar allows minors until 2pm and has crayons?

Then Jim had the boys run more wires under the house. These guys have run wires for tv's, computers, the security alarm, outdoor cameras, you name it....and Jim has yet to crawl under our house - the boys have done it all for him!

My third weekend away from home, we helped my mom move and I think it was the easiest move ever. Jim backed the truck right up to the front door and out we went. Couldn't have done it without Jim's brother Brandon, my mom feels so loved and lucky to have these "two sons" she never had.

See- right up to the front door, perfect. I can't tell you how nice it is to have both my mammas in the same town finally :)

Then everyone in our entire family got sick with a terrible cold. Poor Brayden was basically asleep for three days, I spent my first weekend home in three weeks in bed the whole time and I still don't feel good..........

Can You Raed Tihs?

My Aunt and Uncle sent this email to me today (Hi There!) I have gotten a similar email to this a long time ago and have thought about it quite often. The way the brain makes it's right and left hemispheres work is very curious and intriguing to me. Probably because I am kind of ambidextrous, kind of. I am left handed, but only write and hold silverware with my left hand. I throw right handed, and dribble, golf, bat, play tennis, heck I even do kartwheels right handed. I have a really hard time deciding which leg should go first if I were to do something slolomn like snowboarding, even thinking about it right now -I think I'm leaning towards the right foot forward but its a really hard decision for me to make!

So why only two tasks left handed? Well, now wait, make that four tasks. I change diapers left handed, the boys (and anyone else doing the changing of their diapers at my house) were always confused about which way they were supposed to lay on the changing table. And even though I am comfortable using the computer mouse with my right hand, I am even more comfortable using it on the left side of the keyboard, which means I use the opposite fingers to click than right-handers use. This is also something people get confused about when using the computer at my house.

Here is the email:
Only great minds can read this. This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearhcer at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are,the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit apboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!