Critters

So a few nights ago, at 3:30 in the morning, we woke up to an intense scratching noise from within our wall. Kind of coming from beneath our house. Austin used the moment to emphasize that this is the reason that we can't let stray cats live under our crawl space. I was convinced. The cats needed to find a new home. But how does one go about getting rid of an animal? We didn't konw.

So who did we call?? Our local hunter and trapper, Ryan Lidholm.

Ryan came over that afternoon and set a trap for our cats.
Austin and I eagerly checked the trap all through the evening but found nothing. This morning, we woke up to a loud "meow-meow-meow..." We thought for sure we had trapped the culprit. Austin was going to take it to a different area and let it go. We thought we'd send it off with a full stomach so he went and got our 2 day old pot roast to feed it before the relocation.

As Austin approached the trap, a surprise awaited him. Look closely.
A raccoon!

What was confusing about this is that the meowing was coming from our crawl space still. We are thinking that the trapped raccoon outside the crawl space was freaking the cat out.

Anyway- for some reason, Austin decided to feed the raccoon the pot roast by dumping it on top of the cage. The coon wasn't too pleased about this. It kinda lashed out on us. Understandable. I can't think of many mammals that would appreciate being caged and then food dumped on us.

So at this moment, there is a trapped raccoon in my front yard, a very upset stray cat under our crawl space and a very stressed out dog (Sophie) in my house from all the critter noise coming from the front.

My gracious.

Stay tuned for more updates on our critter extermination.

Meow

The biggest battle in the Conner household is this:

Do we let the stray cat (and cute kittens) continue to live peacefully in the crawlspace under our house?
OR
Do we brutally force them out and block off the hole leading to their only hope of survival through the winter?

You can probably figure out where I land on this debate.

A Striking Resemblance

You know that game you play where you try to figure out if a person were an animal, what would they be?

My husband would be Kevin (the huge bird).
Just watch it. You'll see.

My relaxing day off

Mondays are usually a day of rejuvenation for me. Since Sundays and Tuesdays are my busiest days, I carefully guard my Monday activities. However, today, control of my comfort was taken out of my hands. Here's how it went down.

Sunday afternoon: Come home from church. Heat not working.
Sunday night: Heat still not working. House getting colder. Polly getting stressed.
Monday 7:30am: House is 58 degrees. Austin leaves for work. Polly cold and agitated.
9:00am: Austin calls and suggests Polly turn off and relight the pilot light on the furnace. (as if I know how to do that!)
9:15am: Polly successfully lights pilot light without blowing up the house.
9:20am: Polly even more agitated because furnace still not working.
9:30am: Austin makes an appointment with Company #1 to come look at furnace.
10:50am: Company #1 shows up. Figures out problem. Says its going to cost over $700. Suggests we just buy new furnace because ours is old and will have future problems.
11:00: Dilemma. Put a lot of money into something that is going to break? Put A LOT more money into something we will only use for 5-6 years. Much deliberation.
11:20: Polly calls her father for advice. He tells her some more questions to ask and to call another company for a second quote of the broken part.
11:25: Polly calls Company #2 who says they can fix it for $400. (a little relief)
11:45: Conners make decision to fix the old furnace rather than buy a new one.
12:00: Polly has to call company #1 and tell them they suck for trying to rip her off. (in nicer words of course)
12:45: Company #2 shows up and installs new part.
1:30: See ya $400 bucks.
2:00: House is warm!!!!!
2:00-4:30: Polly is still on edge for many reasons ($400 bucks-gone, making all these decisions, talking to all types of repairmen pretending to know what she's talking about, cranky from not getting a relaxing day, etc.)
4:30: Austin gets home. Polly eventually starts to chill out and enjoy the evening.
6:30: Polly and Austin make a veggie pasta dinner. Delicious.
7:00: Polly and Austin start clean up process.
7:10: Polly rinses something down the garbage disposal.
7:11: Polly flips switch to garbage disposal
7:11: Garbage Disposal not working.
7:11: Defeated laughter

Wicked

For my birthday, we went to see the play, Wicked. I have been wanting to go for years! It was amazing. I just love musicals. I love seeing raw talent all combined together with music, lights, awesome visuals and costumes.

I thought this was funny.

Moo!

Since October 10th

Some things that have changed since we tied the knot:

• I eat more meat
• I watch more TV
• To double check to make sure the toilet seat is down
• Don't leave leftover hair in the shower drain (it grosses him out)
• Twice as much laundry
• More stinky laundry
• There is now cheese, beer, bacon, ranch dressing, and 2% milk in the fridge
• The budget is in full force...kinda
  

Some things I've learned since we tied the knot:

• How to play the wii
• Sports knowledge
• That I'm more of a snot than I anticipated
• Cereal and yogurt are not a sufficient meal for a male
• Austin likes a house project if it can somehow involve a power tool
• No matter what you have in life, there is always a sense of discontentment
• No other relationship can sanctify you more than a husband/wife
• Always have frozen biscuits in the freezer
• Grocery shopping together can be hazardous to the relationship
• I have no poker face
• I can always love more