The Epic Tale of the Muskrat

So the Thursday before Valentines Day, I was in the kitchen baking desserts for our V-Day fundraiser dinner.  When what do I hear, scurrying and scratching coming from??? I thought perhaps the living room or room under the stairs.  So I had Jake set mouse traps all around.

Friday evening I went down to the crawlspace to find an old apron from my waitress job to use at the dinner while waiting tables.  So as I am digging through a box of old clothes I hear a russling on the plastic floor behind me.  I freeze and then slowly turn.  There slowly sneaking is a varmit of some kind.  I slowly start freaking out, barely avoiding a scream until I get up the ladder to the main floor of the house.  Where I proceed to excitedly tell Jordan what I just saw.

"It was the size of a CAT! I think it's a marmot!"

Jake's 2 cents were to laugh hysterically and "Well, those mouse traps won't do any good!"

Jordan was amused but my ever hero, he went and got a pair of work gloves and Jake got a buoy knife.

Down into the crawlspace they went with my words following them, "If that thing is in my box....UGH!"

Shortly I hear from Jordan down in the hole.  "Oh, look.  There he is, in the box."

Bah!!  So Jordan tried to fish it out of the box only to have to throw it down when it went to bite him.  Jordan could tell by the tail that it was a muskrat.

As it took off running behind a board Jordan went right after it and with quick grab, nabbed the little bugger.

Jake had a pillow case handy and Jordan threw it in.  All in about 3 minutes.  The boys dealt out a somewhat swift execution that I was forced to witness, to my shrieking dislike.  Weapons of choice? Tomahawk and buoy knife wielded by Jake, sushi chef style, as Jordan held the pillowcase against a tree.

So how did it the little creature get in? through the air to air exchange tube, which it eventually had to chew through, landing it in our crawlspace.  Which we later figured he stayed for a few days up to a week.  It must have been pretty close to starvation and desperate when we found him.  We found that it had shredded the insulation all around the foundation road.  Ugh.  So now we have a few repairs to take care of.  And one less house guest.

Thank God for my two brave men :)

Milestone - 1 Year Anniversary

what a better way to celebrate than super bowl! :) no not really.

we decided to let ourselves enjoy our anniversary.  We got a hotel room at the Captain Cook hotel and had planned on going to Sullivan's Steak House but we didn't realize we had forgotten our present from jake, a gift card, until we got to anchorage.

So we decided to go to suite 100 instead.

So we walk into the hotel, very nice, you can tell it's an older hotel, but more so in the charm and almost antique feel all mixed with an updated modern feel.  I loved the elevator with the wooden panels and brass accents, made me feel like we were in a ship, which i think was the purpose.

waiting for the elevator i asked jordan what floor we were on.  he just smirked and wouldn't tell me.  we got in the elevator with another lady and jordan didn't make a floor selection until she got off.  as soon as she did on the 11th floor jordan pulls out a key, puts it in and whoosh we are off the the 17th and top floor!  we got a corner room on the Captains deck.  it was so much fun!  beautiful rooms and  a big lounge just for our floor with a gorgeous view of the inlet with free refreshments and breakfast and horderves.  we had a lot of fun with it.  we felt so grown up and important :D

it's been a great first year of marriage.  it has definately hat its challenges and stressful times.  but its also been so blessed and so full of fun.  we are really looking forward to our next year together.  we got to talking about what the next year could hold.  and it is so wide open, we have no clue what it holds but we know God's got alot in store.

Right now we are working towards raising funding for our trip to Ireland next month.  We are still about $2K away from what we need.  But we know God will provide.  I'm really looking forward to this trip.  what a dream come true, Ireland!!  And we found out we'll be in Dublin on St. Patricks day.  so that will be a fun experience i hope.