Mouse Turd and Public Urination (Dec 2008)

Before Christmas we went to look at Christmas lights. Taylor was really crying in the back seat of the truck. Apparently he needed to take a wiz. I found a suitable side street, pulled over and took him out of his seat. He ran to the side of the road, pulled his pants down to his ankles and enjoyed a nice long pee. When he was done he gave a long satisfied sigh. When he pulled up his pants and walked back around the truck he said, "Thanks Dad'.

Jill discovered a ton of mouse droppings in our van sunday before Christmas. Even in a water bottle so the mouse had to be kind of small. Not sure how long it was in there. The kids wanted to trap it with some cheese. I told them absolutely no. We didn't even have a trap. About a half hour later Ella runs in the house telling us Caden put cheese all over the van. All we had was grated cheese so the goofball spread it all over inside to "trick" the mouse. There is a compartment at the back where the jack goes. I said,"Caden did you put cheese down there too?" "yes". "How much?" "I don't know, I didn't count it" Meaning the pieces of graded cheese. (Jill gave me some perspective when she assured me we would laugh about it later). Jill put out traps the day after we found it ( I was on call). Well it walked all over the sticky traps and ate the peanut butter. The next night snap traps were put in there and again it ate all of the peanut butter. It even started pulling up all of the old Mike and Ikes from the bowels of the van that my scouts had dropped through a vent years ago. I was really starting to get spooked that we were dealing with some sort of super species of mouse ( supercharged with all that PB). I was half expecting the rodent to leap for my face when I opened the door. The ever enlarging turds didn't make me feel any better about the situation. On day number five of the nightly trap saga we finally ended it with some sensitive snap traps. I ran in the house on the 26th yelling, "It's a Christmas miracle" (and meaning every word of it). Jill cleaned up the van really well so now we are back to two cars again.

We blessed Zachary today. I had to ask the Bishop two minutes before start time if we could wait and do the blessing after the sacrament. Only had one brother in law there. Ended up with at least ten in the circle but the only thing later than Mormon standard time is Bingham standard time.

I was in the NICU all December. Had a good experience my last week. Got called to the OR for a 31 week expected delivery, a transfer from a nearby hospital. They were attempting a vag delivery. After reading in the chart I realized I knew the couple from our last ward. They delivered a healthy down syndrome boy with duodenal atresia (problem with the gut). I had the boy on my service so was able to help care for him. On day three of life he was to have surgery to correct his atresia. After doing my exam and writing a note the dad asked if I would help to give him a blessing. It was a pretty choice experience being able to participate in a blessing for one of my patients.

We had a wedding reception yesterday for one of Jill's sisters. It was a backyard reception. I was signing the register book and I turned around and Taylor had his pants around his ankles taking a leak by the decorative arch. I need to keep a closer eye on that kid. He's really getting a liking for public urination.