Dead Mouse

The other day Emily and I woke up to find a mouse in the mouse trap.

WONDERFUL!!

Except...

The mouse I saw was white.

This mouse was brown.

Uh oh.

There's a Mouse in the House!

The first time we walked into our new apartment, one thing was obvious: roaches.

The first time we slept in our new apartment, something else was obvious: a rodent.

We could hear it scratching in the walls, crawling in the ceiling, and rummaging through the bottom cabinet.

We made sure to keep the cabinet doors closed so that it couldn't get into the house, and when we realized that there was a gap in the sheet rock in the hot water heater closet, we made sure to keep that door closed as well.

And then, two nights ago, I came home around midnight to find the water heater closet door open.

Oh no!!

How could we?? Who did it?? Was it me?? Was it Emily?? WHY???

I closed it, hoping that the rodent of unknown species had not escaped.

And then, yesterday, as I stood in the living room ready to practice my violin, I saw it.

A tiny little white mouse running along the wall.

I nearly jumped but had to stop myself from doing anything drastic with a valuable stringed instrument in my hands.

I put my violin away, put on some shoes, and grabbed the broom in hopes of sweeping the creature out the front door.

Needless to say, I was unsuccessful. That little guy is fast!

So, as much as I hated to do it, I bought mousetraps.

It's so cute. I hate to kill it. But it leaves me no choice.

So now we wait.

And watch.

Poor little mouse.

Snow Days!

Recently, we had FIVE, yes, FIVE snow days!!

That may not be such a big deal in Massachusetts, North Dakota, or Ohio, but in TEXAS that is HUGE!!

So what did we do?

We had snowball fights!

We made snow angels!

We made little snowmen!

And of course, we studied.

It really was wonderful though, because we had plenty of time to catch up on school work, and spare time to visit neighbors, play with the kids in the apartment complex, and enjoy living at Lavender Pines*

The day before the snow was playing with the Iraqi family that I usually visit, when we saw that there was a little girl in the window of an apartment nearby, watching us. I waved for her to come out and play with us, and after a little prodding, she eventually did.

So on the snow day, my Iraqi family said, "let's go get our new friends!" So we knocked on their door and assured them that the snow wouldn't hurt them, and finally convinced them to come out and play. They weren't shy about joining in the snowball fights!















Then I taught the little girls how to make snow angels:















Our snowman was pretty pitiful, but we had so much fun making it:



















We could hardly believe how much snow we got! Remember, this is Texas!



It was such a blessing to spend so much time getting to know neighbors, healing relationships between children of different ethnicities (there's a longer story there), introducing Iraqi Muslims to Iraqi Christians, praying for healing for a family in need, and sharing Christ with our neighbors!

Praise the Lord for snow days!

*Not the real name :) I don't want any stalkers!