Uninvited Guests

In the last week I have:
found two of these (alive!)


and one of these (dead!)







in. my. house!!!

Hey, I'm all for hospitality, but this is where I draw the line. The thing is, we have lived here three years without seeing one scorpion. Now my friend down the road has had them the entire time, but not us, and I thought we were safe. Supposedly they "do not migrate," but apparently they do, because they've decided to come chill in our pad for a while!

The first one was out in our garage. We thought it was just a fluke, one that came in on the leaf blower our neighbors had borrowed. It was gross and nasty, but I was sure we wouldn't see another.

But then two nights later, Griffin announced rather gleefully, "Hey! There's a scorpion!"

Sadly, Mr. Wicke replied, "No there isn't. Now get in there and brush your teeth." (Yeah, we are all about building that high level of trust with our children. Don't worry, we are saving money for their probable counseling.) But the real point is that upon closer inspection, sure enough Griff was right: A full grown, adult, bark scorpion (those are the nasty ones), on the second floor of our house, right outside my baby boy's door! That is not a fluke! (You may still hear the reverberations of my muffled scream.)

But that's not all. Oh no. On Monday night during family home evening, I thought I saw something under one of the bookcases in the living room. What the heck is that? Reading my squinted eyes and confused expression, Thomas interrupted the important point he was making.

"What?"

"Sorry...but could you see what is under there?"

He inspected but clearly didn't want to say anything out loud. Perhaps I have a wee history of over-reacting.

"What is it? Seriously. What?"

That's when he went for nonchalant. "Oh, it's just a dead mouse."

And that's when, no kidding, I started to cry. Laughing because I knew I was utterly ridiculous, but crying nonetheless. In front of our children. I am one smooth operator.

But come on!!! Isn't that just too much for one week? I don't feel safe in my own home, and don't think I'm crawling into bed without a full and complete bed check every night or walking around barefoot in this joint anymore. No way!

Some house guests just make things really uncomfortable!