Don't You Wish You Lived On The Big Brown Lawn?

So if you have been keeping up you know that we tend to enjoy living here in our "Little Plastic Castle" on our "Big Brown Lawn". Our house is old and quirky, but it is filled with much love, and our yard is wide open for exploration and adventure. As you have seen in previous posts our quiet little neighborhood is great for growing a plentiful garden and having good times, that is of course except for the odd chance when weirdness aligns and A Winnebago Drives on through the yard or this year's maternity leave "You Won't Believe It Story".

It was a mellow Friday evening and Mason had woken up from a long nap so we decided to make it a movie night. Josh bought a new movie on iTunes. It seemed to be a good choice to go along with their excitement with cooking, Ratatouille. We started watching and to my horror the opening sequence scared me a bit to think of a huge colony of rats hanging in my ceiling, but I got over it as the animated critters were becoming entertaining enough for me to fall asleep to. Mason on the other hand was wide awake until 2 am. This led to a late start to Saturday and a lazy day around the house. We had plans that evening and as the day went on we needed to motivate to create a birthday gift for our friend, Max. Josh had a gig in Davis that we would drop him off at and then meet up again after the party. After spending a couple of hours creating a father/son cookbook and ingredients to go with, the party gift was ready and it was time to pile into the car and head west.

Josh went outside to start loading the car and I tried to finish wrangling the kiddos and gear. Moments later, Josh returned saying....

Readers - wait take a deep breath you are going to need it.

"A rat or something got into the car and there are poops everywhere and napkins are all shredded and I don't even know if it is still in there."

"WHAT!"

I could not comprehend the creepiness of it all. I was completely grossed out and didn't even want to see it, but somehow I was drawn to it. I had to see it to believe it I guess. Mason on the other hand was fearless and ready to help anyway he could. He grabbed his shoes and the vacuum hose and ran outside, "Daddy I've got my vaccum!"

I peeked in the windows of the car and sure enough there were poops and bits everywhere. I suddenly had flashbacks of the year I went back to school to set up my classroom and mice had taken up residency in my good ol' portable. Lucky for us there were plenty of toys and things in the car to make the clean up that much more exciting. I am sad to say some things made their way into the trash, if you can't be sanitized in the washer, you're a goner.

We recently attended a parent meeting for Mason's preschool where they discussed children his age and how they don't get freaked out about such things until we show them it is something to be "freaked out about". I kept trying to keep this in mind as I wanted to go crazy. It was so true. He was out with Josh at one point while I went in to calm down and feed Ellie and he came in saying, oh so matter of factly, "Mommy I might have rat poop on my hands and maybe on my body."

"WHAT!"

This is what I wanted to scream, but instead I said, "Are you sure?" Which of course led to a completely confusing conversation with a 2 year old ending in, "Let me go ask Daddy."

I went inside, washed Mason thoroughly and went to grab a spray bottle and gloves to help with the car and somehow it was unscrewed and the dang thing dropped and spilled all over my shorts and shoes. "Mason was right there by my side saying, "It's okay Mommy we'll just clean it up."

Ellie was not creeped out at all, she used this time to stay out of the way and catch some zzzzzs.

Needless to say we did not make it to the party or the gig.