Standing Together

Melinda went to the National Student Dialogue Conference this weekend. It's basically a Evangelical Christian and Mormon conference where they discuss doctrinal differences, similarities, and try to find common ground. It was sponsored by Standing Together which is an organization started by Rev. Greg Johnson to create understandings between Evangelical Christian and Latter-day Saints. Bob Millett spoke there as well, and we've both enjoyed his works, especially "A Different Jesus?" and "Grace Works."

Here are the highlights (and lowlights) of the rest of our weekend:

• Ian and Miles bought a Lego Star Wars set with the money they have saved up
• I played stay-at-home dad for 2 days
• I have much deeper appreciation for all the work Melinda has to do everyday
  
• Ian got an ear infection on Friday
• Max (one of our mice) died - we were all very sad; especially Miles
  
• Miles was the only one to make it to the primary program; everyone else was sick this morning
• All the kids wanted to be "simpsonized" like their mom so we made a collage

Of Mice and Men

Never, ever purchase male mice. Don't even think about it. Yes, they will look so cute running around together in the pet store, but resist; they smell like mortal sin. They weren't bad when they were young, but they are now adult male mice and they are oh so potent.

We still love our mice, Willis, Jack, and Max, but sadly they have been exiled from the boy's room. Their deadly aroma became too much, especially for me. If you ask Melinda, she'll say I was dead-set on exterminating them. Alas, that wasn't ever actually an option, so plan B was to give them to a good home. That plan failed too. We believe in truth in advertising, so needless to say there were no takers. Let's face it, "would you like a stinky mouse?" isn't a very good sales tactic.

So I resorted to plan C - Operation Rodent Ventilation. So far it has worked out great! No more stink from the boys room! I had been hatching this plan for a while and 2 weeks a go I decided to go for it.

Materials:
1. Flexible dryer vent (we had this already)
2. Small box fan (we had this too!)
3. Duct tape (this I had to buy; the boys go through this faster than toilet paper)
4. Plastic sheeting (from the garage)
5. Rigid styrofoam insulation (this I had to buy, too)
6. Small amount of screen (found it in the garage from an old windows screen)

I moved the mice habitats downstairs to the sprout room (the spare room I use for starting seedlings). Then I ducted tape plastic on both sides of the fan - one to cover their tanks, and the other to attach to the dryer vent.


Then I ran the dryer vent to the windows (one of the old panes was cracked, so I broke it all the way out and placed the styrofoam sheet to the windows, cut a hole in it, attached a screen, then attached the hose. Then I put plastic on the windows, and ducked taped the rest of the vent to keep out leaks.


Below is the vent from the outside. Warning: stay way unless you want your nose hair burnt!


Anyway, life is much better now that the boy's room doesn't smell like the zoo. The sprout room only has the very faintest hint of rodent smell, and even though we still have to clean out their cages every week, I can live with that.

Step on no pets

We've always avoided having pets, but somehow they have squeezed in the door and invaded our peaceful home. Melinda's always been freaked out by pets because 1) They die tragically and 2) they poop. She remembers all my family's tragic pet stories better than I do.

Let's see, there is the time the fish aquarium got moved in front of a sunny window. Then the cat who slept in the engine compartment of the car to stay warm in winter. Then the skeleton of a kitten which was found in the woodpile. The time I let my pet parakeet to fly around the room without realizing there was a sleeping cat in the top bunk bed. Then there were the farm animals; the calf who ate too much alfalfa and bloated, the pregnant cow who mysteriously died, various chickens who were caught in wire fences, the peacock crossing the road and other miscellaneous cats and dogs.

I'm not worried about them dying, but I do have a few reservations about pets. 1) They poop, 2) you have to clean up after then, 3) they poop, 4) you have to make arrangements for them when you leave on vacation, 5) they poop, 6) they smell, and 7) they poop.

So we were first tricked into the pet thing when my sister-in-law Salena moved to an apartment that allowed no pets whatsoever, and she gave us her blue betta in a little fish bowl. It seemed so simple and small, but it was all downhill from there. Lisette named him "King," and she cried for days when he died a year and a half later.

Later we got a fish aquarium and had various fish and aquatic frogs that came and went. We even tried crabs, but they eventually escaped, and we found them much later, dried up under the furniture. We were even given a tadpole from some neighbors who were moving, but unfortunately, he never turned into a frog.

Then this spring, the neighbors brought over their cuddly pet duckling. Suddenly Ian desperately wanted a cuddly pet. He decided on mice, but we kept avoiding the subject and tried not to think about. Then when we could no longer say no, we let him earn money to help buy some mice.

We went to the pet store, and the little mice were so cute running around all together on the wheel. So we decided to get more than one since they are social creatures. We heard that female mice were more docile (and less stinky) but the pet store only carried males. So now we have 3 male mice: Willis (the orange one), Max (white with black spots), and Jack (mostly white). They're very cute, but 3 mice means 3 times the poop. They were all getting along quite well at first, but now it seems a pecking order has been established. Willis is the the most dominant and aggressive. Jack was his friend while Max was picked on and had to hide from the other two. I think Max was a little sick then.

However, the rodent dynamics have been changed and now Jack is the picked-on one. He now has a big cut on his back (where the other mice have bitten him). So the night before last Melinda was all worried about him. (She worries about the mice a lot) So we improvised a separate cage for him out of a wire mesh trash can.

I often find myself thinking, "How did we get into this mess?" And, "How did these creatures sneak into my life?" Funny, but that's the same thing I think about my children sometimes. But I guess I wouldn't have it any other way.