xjwsforChrist

So...what have I missed ??

Lol Tammy! It is exciting yes, and such a wonderful opportunity for me, especially at my age.

I have 2 @ Year 11 groups for 4 sessions a week each, studying for the GCSE English examinations, and currently 12 Drama sessions covering all year groups. There is a lot of preparation required, but it is so wonderfully challenging and exciting to put everything I've studied into good use. The students are from a working class area with high unemployment and low aspirations. I feel it's a real privilege to go and work there and help these kids to achieve, and hopefully help to make a difference. The school has a great ethos.

It's also very encouraging to be surrounded by well wishing and support, thank you. My knees will be knocking but I'm going to give it my best shot.

Loz x

_________________
"This is my son. LISTEN to Him!"

Hello Paul, good to see you, how are things with you?

Loz x

_________________
"This is my son. LISTEN to Him!"

Well, other than the beginning of the week, I think, it has been fairly quiet. People have been busy it seems. End of the summer does tend to do that.


Glad you're back though!


Peace,
tammy

Happy Monday everyone!


Yes, it's been very quiet!
I started a class today and have been working just a little. Had a couple great conversions with an old girlfriend from high school and got to share truth with her. Super jazzed!

All in all, quiet yes! School is in the air!!!!

Love y'all
Justmom

Good morning!

Hubby called from work and woke me up this morning to tell me that someone's uncle had gotten bit by a brown recluse and was in the hospital, up in Fort Mac... for the second time. (lots of forestry.. that is up where the tarsands are, and all the oil work is being done; fort mac is a good 7 hours north of us)

I had to laugh... not that someone got bit, but that he had to call, to wake me up and tell me.

We are having a brown recluse problem, I guess. More than normal, and I was looking through lists of venomous spiders... mainly recluses and widows (those are the only two we get here, though they are extremely rare). But i read that they are not often lethal to anyone other than young children, and the elderly.

Then of course, he left me a present on my notebook a couple of days ago, from the wolf spider he found and killed in the basement, lol. We had about 8 webs outside around the house from 8 different wolf spiders, and though he killed those ones, they are starting to come into our basement. They're not harmful or anything, but they ARE big, and so scary, lol.

They build funnel webs, like those funnel web spiders from australia that are deadly. I know this, because all hubbie said to me was that he found funnel webs outside, and I looked up funnel web spiders. Eyes widened (because I got the funnel web spider from australia, lol)... and then I had to dig through a web outside just to make sure it was actually a wolf spider ; )

Anyway, there is my spider tale for the day!

Peace to you!
tammy

Good morning.

And I don't do spiders very well!
Creepy!
Little ones okay. But the big furry creepy ones. No way

Thanks for those visuals. Lol!!!

Love justmom

LOL... sorry.

But ... um.... here's another one :

At 17, I was renting a basement apartment in my vice-principal's house. I was going home one day, and over the door I used to get into the basement (so down some narrow stairs) was this huge fat bellied spider. For some reason, I got it into my head, that if I ran down and through the door REALLY fast, that I would be safe. Now, had I gone slowly, I probably would have been find. But no... I ran... and just as I yanked that door open, I felt a big plop on the top of my head.

I screamed, ran up those stairs, down the driveway, shaking my hair out like some madwoman, lol. And I had long, thick, curly hair!


I'm sure I gave some of the neighbors a good laugh at least.


Peace,
tammy

YIKESS!!!! TEC!!! (peace, luv!) THAT story gave me the willies! I'm not afraid of spiders (although I don't like when they jump! I don't like anything that moves fast like that!), but that just felt creepy - LOLOL! I'd rather deal with spiders than, say, ants or mice... both of which we have (although I just put out fresh ant stakes down, so that should help.

As for Mr. Mouse, though, I dunno. He came from next door when they gutted that house and he's been having a FIELD day in our laundry room and basement closet (his cousins have rummaged through the garage!). I had dear Hubby put out "humane" traps for him... but I think he just used those for motel rooms. So, we put out poison (in enclosed cases), but I told Hubs this weekend that I think Mr. Mouse thinks those are candy.

I can't bring myself to ask Hubs to put the old fashioned traps in the house (but they WILL go in the garage!) - I don't think I can stand the "snap" when Mr. Mouse gets caught. So... I dunno what to do, really. I don't WANT to live with him... but I don't want to decapitate him, either.

So ANY suggestions for a humane way to rid my house of Mr. Mouse would be GREATLY appreciated!

And no, no... the dogs won't work. Tried that. Although their breed is SUPPOSED to have been bred for the VERY purpose of rooting out vermin of this kind... that gene seemed to have skipped MY three. Because Mr. Mouse actually came into the TV room one day... bold as you please... and I jumped up on the sofa screaming at Louie, who was in there with me "Get him! There her is! Get him!" Rather than immediately look to see what I was pointing at and screaming about Louie didn't even look in the mouse's direction. He just lounged on the sofa, looking at me like, "What the heck is UP with HER??!" Liyah came running in to see what was up but by that time it was too late: Mr. Mouse had quietly sneaked under the armchair (SHUDDER!!!). Layla never even bothered to leave her spot in the front window where she was sunning herself. Of course, I had to come out of THAT room for a bit.

When Mr. Mouse finally came out from under the chair I saw him and screamed again (this time, at Layla, who was with me), "There he is! Get him!" But Mr. Mouse crept right past her. along the baseboard. Virtually right her nose! She didn't even turn her head! I was like, "Seriously?! SERIOUSLY!!?? You don't SEE that mouse??!!!"

Nope, MY prima donnas are like, "Huh, what? What mouse? Where? No, wait... what's a mouse?!"

I'll take any suggestions under consideration. Really. Mr. Mouse needs to GO.

Peace!

Your servant and a slave of Christ,

Shellamar

LOL... thats awesome. (awesome funny... not awesome good, sorry) My ZZ will eat the spiders if he sees them. I don't know what he'd do with a mouse. Of course, as a pup, he was eating ants off the sidewalks, so serious and quizzical!

So... um... I'd suggest a cat, which might be humane as in the mouse vacates the occupied territory,lol, but a cat might not work so well with the three pups. (and not everyone likes cats)

I guess they don't make cartoons about the impossibility of catching mice in the house for no reason.

Maybe someone else has more experience.

We had rats once... but the house had been vacant for a while (this was in Ontario; Alberta does not have rats)... and we poisoned them, but I don't think I could do that again because when we found them after they died, they were all curled up together, and that made me SO sad.

What about an exterminator? One who catches and releases somewhere, and doesn't actually do what he is called unless absolutely necessary?


Peace,
tammy

Not sure about cats, dear tec (peace!), due to pups, yes (two of them are cat chasers... although they scream and turn and run when a larger cat stands up to them - LOLOLOL! - so to bring one in the house - OMG! I don't think I could take the noise, commotion, or stress). Also, there's is a herd of them that "live" at the house just across the street (they're actually feral but the neighbors feed and trap them for the community lady who comes and takes them to get fixed). As a result, MY yard often smells like a cat box, so... I'm thinkin' no on that suggestion.

Not sure I want to spend the money for an exterminator for one mouse... but that IS an option. I'll keep it in mind.



Okay, my heart just "broke" for some rodents... and I don't DO rodents. Low blow, girl, low blow... LOLOLOL! I am SO turning "buddhist" now! LOLOLOL!

Peace... and I'll still take more suggestions...

Shellamar, on her own...

Man... the dog just killed and (tried to) eat a wolf spider crawling across the kitchen floor. He did not seem to like the taste, lol. I bet we've got them in the basement, and they're also starting to come in from outside. So gross, and now I'm going to be jumping at every little shadow or movement I see on the couch, in the bed, on the chair, in the bathroom, etc, etc!! I guess I will just have to set my mind to the 'spiders do not bother me' setting, because there is no way we're going to be spider free. The idea of spiders doesn't bother me actually, though having one next to me will. The thought of spiders crawling on me in my sleep doesn't bother me either; waking up to a spider crawling on me is another matter.

Maybe that is what you have to do, Shelby. Mind over matter. You don't mind mice. You really don't. The mice is your friend... or at least, you are indifferent to him ; )


Peace,
tammy

Shelby, Your descriptions of the mouse sightings are priceless and probably much like I react. I often wonder why we are so afraid or disturbed with a little tiny mouse but for some reason it does creep us out.

We have a mouse or mice here at the new house YIKES. I haven't had a mouse in the house for about 12 years and now we have them. I first sighted one coming out of the brickwork by the fireplace. He seemed flattened and black. I am used to brown/grey mice. My landlord told me it is a mole but now I know its a mouse. I see it everyday now and its has taken to going under the kitchen sink and I see its mouse dirt there. John put out two traps and it ate the peanut butter off the trap but didn't spring the trap??? I see it has bread and pieces of food and poop there but no way is it getting trapped so I told John to take the traps away. I hate traps but like you Shelby I don't know what to do. We live beside a HUGE field so these are field mice and we have a gravel floor crawl space basement so its probably easy for them to gain access.

Last weekend we were sitting on the back deck and John spotted a mouse crawling up the side of the house on the bricks, he (the mouse) was trying to find a way into the kitchen window. John went over with a flyswatter and killed the mouse. Ugh but it was black too so I guess it was a friend of the one I see in the house but not the same one. I am sure we have more than one.

I had mice in my last place, a bungalow. I only saw one, one night when I got up for a glass of water it was sitting in the middle of the kitchen, cheeky as you like, which had me in a right state.

I got a man in to sort it and he said "There is never just the one, there is always a family, and it keeps growing". He came weekly for a while and put stuff down where he thought they were coming in and out. When the stuff stopped being eaten he said they'd all died. Never saw any bodies though, thankfully.

Now the big spiders you describe Tammy, well, they'd really freak me out!

Loz x

_________________
"This is my son. LISTEN to Him!"

This is so true Loz. Had mercy on a mouse a while back and he eventually brought his whole family in to meet us. And they multiply hecka fast, LOL!!!!

I'm all about the humane way and just asking, pleading LOL with them to leave.

One replied, " Then stop providing such a feast for all of us and then we will be forced to go somewhere else ."

NO just joking but its like when he looked at me, that was EXACTLY what he was thinking.

Thought it was funny at the time
Justmom