I Need Some Mousie Cheese

Clay was standing at the fridge with the door wide open on Saturday. Joe asked him, "What are you doing?"
"I'm looking for something."
"What do you want? Don't just stand there with the door open."
Clay looked up at him and said, "I want some cheese."
"OK, what kind of cheese do you want."
"I want the mousie kind. The kind that mousies eat," Clay told Joe.
"Swiss cheese? OK, you just want some Swiss cheese for a snack?"
"No, I want to catch a mouse in my room," came Clay's obvious explanation.

Overhearing this, I leapt on a chair with lightning-quick speed and shrieked calmly asked, "Did you see a mouse in your room?!"
When he stopped laughing at me, he said, "No. I want to catch one though."
I wasn't getting off that chair until I was absolutely certain he had not actually seen a mouse in the house.
"Clay, did you actually SEE a mouse in your room?"
"No," he confirmed. I just want some mousie cheese so I can catch one.

So fast forward to last night when Joe said, "You know those tiny black bugs you noticed the other day?"
I had seen a couple tiny bugs (like fruit flies) the other day. It's winter here, so it's just not a common site these days. I thought maybe they'd come with some fruit I had recently bought.
"Yeah," I said slowly, dreading what he was going to say.
"Well, I saw one in the boys' room. I think they may have a science experiment going in there." "Fabulous. Maybe Clay finally got himself a mouse," I replied sarcastically.

Fast forward to today, when I suited up in my level A hazmat gear and bravely entered the boys' room.

It actually wasn't too bad. I straightened up, pulled some things out from under the bed and behind the dresser and put a couple toys away. I didn't find any disgusting science experiments that had taken on a life of their own and were ready to take over the city. Kinda anticlimactic, huh? I know that probably wasn't what you were expecting. Me either. I did find this, however...

It's a pile of wrappers. There were also several dried up orange peels. Maybe Jackson was trying to make potpourri with those. I also found this...

An empty wrapper from some chips stashed in a closed box. But that's not all, oh no...

It's a goody bag of candy stashed in his sock drawer. And next to this was...

My old film camera in his underwear drawer.

Now, I know what you're thinking and I swear I DO clean in there more often than once a year. I make the boys pick up a little every day before bed and I usually clean it once a week (sometimes I skip a week). And I DO feed Jackson, but that kid likes to get up in the middle of the night and grab a snack. I don't think he does it in his sleep; he just gets hungry at night. I don't really care that he grabs a snack because he's so darn skinny. He probably needs it. I just wish he'd eat at the kitchen table and throw his garbage away! On the bright side, I didn't see any bugs (or mice) in there. Maybe one or two just came in with the oranges.

Anyway, since it wasn't too bad today, it only took me a few minutes to straighten up. Just long enough for Brooklyn to do this...

Toilet art - it's all the rage in these modern times. She also had time to do this...

I think it's a pretty good bubble letter "C". I just wish it wasn't on my door in permanent marker! The only reason I have a permanent marker is so Lexi's friends could sign her cast. It's going in the garbage now. Speaking of, here's a pic of her with her new waterproof, glow-in-the-dark cast. She goes back December 23 and will probably get it off then.

Back to my story about cleaning the boys' room. I'm starting to think Joe is onto something with his idea of putting them in a cement enclosure with a drain on the floor...