Sniff Sniff …. uh, What's That Smell?
Good Golly, yesterday morning I stumbled out of bed to start the coffee pot (I have miraculously reacquired a hankerin for coffee) and when I moseyed back into my room I was about thrown against the wall by a blast of foul, repugnant, dry-heave inducing Odor. Where could such a smell have come from? From Me? Was this smell my own personal breath build-up? My mind reeled. It seemed humanly impossible for a mere mortal to produce such a toxic gaseous pocket. So I turned on the overhead fan and started wondering if this sort of thing could get me into the Guinness Book of World Records. When I went into my bathroom, the smell got even stronger – this gave me hope. I thought, “maybe it’s just the water”. I made haste and retreated back to try the kitchen water, but no such smell penetrated the kitchen. I was stumped. Could it be my bathroom garbage? Or did my breath just naturally gravitate to the bathroom — ‘sewer smells stick together’? I was really getting nervous. I took out the bathroom trash; I took out my boys blankets (my little boys had slept on my floor); yet the foul fog would not dissipate. I went back into the bathroom and suddenly eyed the vent – when Ryann the Huntress was wiping out the mice colony, at one point she remarked that a rodent somehow squeezed itself into the vent to escape. Had something died in there? And then I remembered that Ryann had also pulled out one of my bathroom drawers and hid a trap against the wall. So with great optimism, I bellowed for the huntress, and sure enough, there was a decomposing mouse wedged underneath the bathroom vanity. What. A. Relief. My bad breath is not nearly as bad as I thought it might have become. In other news, remember my garden square? It is now doubling as a Work Station. You would not believe how many hours my little boys have spent pushing their dump trucks around and building roads for their city.
Lastly, I am enormously excited because Geoff’s mom, dad and sister are coming for Thanksgiving. We would not have been able to make it up to their place because A) their house is still being put back together after being eaten by a Tornado and B) well, really… do we even need a b? …their house was eaten by a Tornado. I was really hoping they would come down; it’s just not Thanksgiving without them. I’m already preparing myself to get slaughtered at pinochle Lastly last, I’m also excited because guess what this Tuesday is? Not today, I mean next Tuesday the 20th. Me and Geoff will be married for 14 years. We were talking the other day about what a ridiculously adventurous life we’ve had. There has never been anything ‘stable’ about our circumstances. Something crazy is always coming up. I think we’ve lived in 11 different places over the last 14 years. But despite our ‘unstable’ circumstances, our foundation – built on Christ – has caused us to grow closer and more ‘stable’ than I could have ever imagined possible fourteen years ago. We both agreed that we would not trade our topsy-turvy adventurous life for anything. We know that we can face absolutely anything … as long as we’re together. I ferociously love my husband and I am glad that God has used our non-boring life to continuously shape and mold us closer to Him and closer to one another. |
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November 13th, 2007 - Posted in Uncategorized | | 0 Comments No Responses to ' Sniff Sniff …. uh, What's That Smell? 'Leave a reply |
on November 13th, 2007 at 9:16 am
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Pinochle!!! Alright! I already claim dad as my team mate. Uh, wait….there's Coie, You, Dad, Me, Grandma Sally, Amy Grandpa… 7 players….Um, I hope Amy doesn't want to play…because I am not willing to sit on Grandma's lap the whole game.
I think I'm more focused on cards than Thanks-giving….:-P
on November 13th, 2007 at 10:32 am
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I do not think ANYONE in all of blogland could blog about a dying mouse and make it anywhere near as interesting as that! ha ha – you are so hilarious girl!
on November 13th, 2007 at 10:58 am
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I would take bad breath, pretty much ANYTHING to keep it from being a mouse!! You're a much braver woman than I!
PS Happy anniversary early. 🙂
on November 13th, 2007 at 11:57 am
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I'm not sure which is worse … dead, decaying mice or live mice. Eeewwwww either way. My husband and I live a totally "unstable" life as well. So much so that we are closing on our house the day before Thanksgiving and we still don't have a place to live. And my husband is between jobs. If you would, please pray for a miracle for us. We need one ASAP. And last but not least, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!!
Blessings ~ Diane
on November 13th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
PS
We get mice in our garage every winter, and my husband and children have been known to attack them with baseball bats and 2×4's. Then one of the neighbor kids picked one up – one of the dead, smashed up mice – with his bare hands. Gross!
on November 13th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Congratulations!
You beat us to 14 years by 28 days.
But I believe we have a tie for eleven residences in that time (if we include our brief uprooting to TN).
Neal.
on November 13th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
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Well, I certainly needed to laugh like that today! The funniest part of reading that is that I can picture myself in the story.
For me it was rancid chicken juice leaking from the back of the fridge down onto the coils. Yuck!!! Talk about bad smells.
I'm glad it wasn't your breath, though.
Happy Anniversary to you and Geoff. We celebrate 13 years in December.
Edited by msmarla on Nov. 13, 2007 at 12:33 PM
on November 13th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
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ewwww. i always put out decon for our rats in the rent house we lived in. the smell was horrific. once one died right above the bathroom vent and one day giant maggots started falling out on the floor. lovely isn't it?
happy anniversary, early!
afamiliarpath.blogspot.com
on November 13th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
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Jen,
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving with your in laws. How wonderful that they can come and visit.
The noxious odor and the dead mouse YUCK! Good thing you found it before you had to spend another night in there.
Ruth
on November 13th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
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Did you ever see the movie FAcing the Giants? This reminded me of that movie… they too were facing a "big stink" that turned out to be a dead mouse in their vent!
on November 13th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
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oooo!!! I have been there with the whole dead mouse thing. I grew up in an old house in the country, and had many nights smelling that smell. We would have mice die in the walls of our bedrooms, and there wasn't a lot of ways to get it out. *Barf*
Hope you have a ver blessed Thanksgiving! It sounds wonderful!
Ali
on November 13th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
another mouse-y stench story
So when Mark and I were younger, skinnier and much more materialistic (read: we bought tons of over-priced junky toys for our kids whereas now we just let the grandparents do that), it was like the first week in January and we were chatting in the basement about the fact that the numerous cardboard boxes accumulated from Christmas just had to go because man oh man were they ever smelly.
More chatting, when all of a sudden I happened to glance under Mark's desk and there, in plain sight was a mouse that had simply keeled over. No trap, no nothing except a rotting mouse corpse. Eeeewwww! So I totally know the smell that you are talking about.
By the way….no Miss Miles book at the library. Bummer.
~Annemarie
on November 13th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
EEEWWW!
There is nothing worse than "rotting rodent"! Ask me how I know….
Stephanie@inspired
on November 13th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
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Congratulations! I understand about the topsy-turvy adventurous life – we've had that too – and I wouldn't trade it for anything. We have great stories to tell the grandchildren! Karen (bensrib.blogspot.com)
on November 13th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Congratulations…
on your upcoming anniversary! You and Geoff were married 7 days before Jms and me!
We have a dry-heave, or maybe not so dry-heave, inducing smell in our bathroom, but it is b/c of the ongoing ick hitting our whole family. Bleh.
on November 13th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Anonymous =
Melissa
http://oursidehomeschool.blogspot.com
on November 13th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
I know that smell~~
I experienced that smell often during the early days of my first pregnancy…the odor can STILL induce a morning-sick-like feeling some 21 years later!!
Congrats on your upcoming anniversary!
on November 13th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
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Oh what a huge relief! Because having bad breath is <i>so</i> much worse than a decomposing rodent carcass in the bathroom…
I've been meaning to plant a garden myself. Your garden square (look at that technical term you're using– I'm so proud of you!) looks like the perfect haven for little construction workers. 🙂
HAPPY EARLY ANNIVERSARY to you and Geoff the Great!!!
Love,
Marshie
on November 14th, 2007 at 1:37 am
Yeah!
I am really glad to hear you will have Geoff's precious family there for Thanksgiving. That is a wonderful blessing and I am very happy to hear it.
I miss you dear Jen. Very much.
Love,
Kate
on November 14th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Oh cool!
Somehow, I had forgotten that we were married on the same day of the same year!! We also celebrate 14 years next Tuesday! Mind you, I don't think we will even see each other on the day. He is at work all day, I'm childminding all day so can't surprise him at lunch or anything, and then when he gets home I'm on my way out for the mandatory first aid course that I'm in the middle of! (Why it had to be five tuesday nights in a row THIS month???) Anyway, I can't really complain since I will have him all to myself for three whole days next weekend after our anniversary – IN ROME!!!!!!!!!! So we will just have to wait an extra 4 days to start 'celebrating' our anniversary! ;o) I think Rome is worth the wait, ya' think?!?! Have a great anniversary you two! And I'm glad you found the mouse! Yuck!!
on November 14th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Happy Anniversary
First..the only mice I like are animated =) so you are way nicer than me to even have co-existed with them!!
I totally know about dead animal smell. Mine happened while I was pregnant and I too thought it was just me…It took three more days before anyone else in the family could smell the squirrel that had died in the wall. I nearly went crazy…"Doesn't ANYONE else SMELL that??!!" LOL
And lastly, Happy Anniversary. It is indeed a special occasion. My hubby and I just celebrated 14 yrs in October. =)
Phyllis
on November 14th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
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Happy Early Anniversary! that's exciting! wow, 20 years! you've almost been married as long as I'm alive. yikes. you're old.
Anyways, no that shirt is NOT yours- there are more than ONE of those Army Shirts in the US. but if you really want it, I'm sure he'd graciously give it to you- well, actually maybe not. I wore it once and I thought he was going to have a heart attack, "that's MY shirt. Go change!! I want it back NOW!". totally serious.
love jess
ps a mouse dying in your vent? that's so gross.
pps thanks for saying I looked pretty. that totally made me feel speckal.
Edited by jess4him on Nov. 14, 2007 at 12:22 PM
on November 14th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Yippee Skippee!!!
Congrats on your up-coming anniversary…just in case I forget next week.
We celebrated our 23rd anniversary in October…amazing how quickly the time passes. It's hard enough coming to grips with my AGE, much less that I've been married that long and how old me kids are! Sheesh…when did THAT happen?!
Blessings from Ohio, Kim Wolf<><
on November 14th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
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Jen,
I just wanted to tell you that it's not too late to enter the contest for the snowflakes if you would like. It runs until Saturday. If you want me to enter you just let me know and post a little something on your blog here with a link back to me.
Let me know.
Ruth
Edited by Ruth on Nov. 14, 2007 at 3:13 PM
on November 14th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Happy Anniversary …Early:)
Wow 14 years! That's awesome! Happy early anniversary! Ewwww a mouse!!! I'm glad you found it! I sure like reading your blog, thanks for posting so often:)
on November 15th, 2007 at 2:04 am
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Oh, I've had that horrible smell here, too! When you've got a decomposing mouse in a trap, you know it! Bleah. I'm so glad it wasn't your breath! LOL Congratulations on your upcoming anniversary! What could be better than to have a foundation in Christ?
God bless you ~ Julie
on November 15th, 2007 at 6:07 am
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just stopping by for a long needed hello. hope all is well at your house. love the garden functionality!
happy thanksgiving soon!
julie
on November 15th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Dead things–ugh!
I still remember a bat or bird that died in the house we lived in in Kenya. In the heat it was awful! We couldn't even stand to be upstairs–where all the bedrooms were, and I didn't like being downstairs–where all the centipedes used to venture in at night. Ugh! Glad you found the source of the odour!
Happy happy Anniversary! I'm saying it early because I would surely forget and be late otherwise. We're on year 12.
Blessings,
Karen
on November 16th, 2007 at 6:16 am
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I missed you all too. I was really looking forward to going. I think that I am going somewhere…..stir crazy!
I guess with Thanksgiving next week, it will have to be the Friday after that. Hey, is your email ever going to work again?
~Annemarie
on November 16th, 2007 at 10:12 am
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So glad to know we aren't the only ones who have those kind of mornings.
Congrats on the car!! I'm so glad for you. We need one of those Lord led car events around here, epecially by next summer.
I can't believe how mature Emiko looks in her canoe picture. She has grown up so much—doesn't look like a little girl anymore. Sorry mom.
Letitia
on December 3rd, 2007 at 3:41 pm
your dad
Hi Hon…Please let me know if something is wrong with your dad. I love him, he is my baby brother…grammagwen