We had a rather exciting, wildlife morning the other day while getting the kids ready for school. It started out when I was in the kitchen alone, before the kids got out of bed. I was standing in front of one counter, and I heard something in another counter on the other side of the kitchen. It sounded a bit like plastic hitting plastic. But you know how when you’re alone, and you’re lost in thought, and then you just barely catch this noise, over the drone of your thoughts? So I sort of second-guessed myself about hearing it.

And then Shawn had come into the kitchen, and he is standing in the same place I had been standing, when I first heard the noise. He is preparing his breakfast, and I am sitting at my desk – and we both hear this scratching noise. I didn’t look up, because, I just assumed it was something Shawn was doing. And then he says, “Mom – did you hear that?” And I sorta freaked a little bit, “Omg, yeah, but, I thought you were doing it!” He told me it hadn’t been him, and that it came from ‘that cabinet over there’ – the same one in which I’d heard noises twenty minutes earlier! Yeeeks!

Shawn and I bravely go over to said cabinet and slowly, ever so cautiously, open it up

– AND JUMP BACK!

But there was nothing in there, nothing, that is, but, some pots and pans. So I figure the little guy must be behind the oven. Mark is unconvinced, and we haven’t heard anything since. Shawn and I know what we heard, though! And hell, there are deer across the street – we can watch them from the balcony – we are a lot more rural than Garland, TX – so it wouldn’t be shocking at all. And heck, plenty of people in Dallas get rats in their pools/houses/garages. It just wouldn’t be surprising. But I guess Shawn and myself and our bravado scared him off!

Getting back to our wildlife morning, though – this was one of those mornings that I had to drive them to school. Somebody wakes up late, and that knocks back the whole schedule for everyone, since they all want a turn in their bathroom. And plus that puts them bumping into each other in the kitchen. Staggered awakenings are really a good thing – especially when they work! So, anyway, we get in the car – and the whole thing – ON THE INSIDE – is covered in ants!!! The freakiest part about it is that on the dashboard, there is a swarm of them POURING out of the vents! It looks like some 1970’s horror flick! And if you’re a kid of the 70’s, that’s a freaky thing – scarin’ your inner child and all, you know?

It was nuts, totally nuts, but we wiped away the ants that we could (though they continued to spout out those vents, the rotten buggers) and went on our freaked out, paranoid way.

And not too long before this, Mark and Patrick were vacuuming the basement, and when they moved the big chair – they found one of these guys:

The North American millipede – living in the room that is serving as my living room! That’s living room for people, dude! Not millipedes – now hit it! Sure, they’re not all that dangerous, but, they can do this to you:

OUCH!! And to top it off, later that day, I joyfully discovered that these crazy people I call my family had ‘saved’ him in a little tupperware bucket! Yikes. I don’t know about you, but, to me, there is just something creepy about those things!

And a few days later, they were asking me to show someone the little guy, so I popped off that tupperware lid – Little did I know one of their defense mechanisms is a horrible smell. (And it is horrible!) And I guess when they die, out comes the smell. It was so bad, just lifting that little lid for a second, that the whole kitchen STUNK! We had to open the windows and light a candle!

So that’s a little bit of our wildlife life – just wait till I tell you about the ticks!