A mouse in the house?

Well, today Carson and I took a break from painting and unpacking to shop! We had a great time :) It was SO nice to get out of the house for a while and enjoy a beautiful day in our new city! We explored a few new shopping spots that I will be returning to very soon :) Yay! I actually had the best time at Tuesday Morning :) They had a HUGE one in Chesterfield and I found several cute things...I'm dying to go back and buy more! haha Carson's favorite spot was the outdoor shopping center at Lake St. Louis. He loved riding around outside in his stroller :)

After a long day of shopping we got home and plopped down in James' recliner to relax. Shortly after that I heard a strange noise coming from our bookshelf in the living room. Aw, probably nothing I thought. That was until Chloe walked over trying to figure out what it was....I kept listening...Oh.my.gosh....Yes, it must be a mouse! Why am I assuming its a mouse you ask? Well, I've seen one in the landscaping out back and James saw two the other night climbing up the side of the house! EEK! I guess this is the price we pay for backing up to the woods???? Of course James is at a "work" thing (Cubs vs Cards baseball game with customers, yeah I'm jealous.) so I'm going to have to deal with this situation by myself. I call my dad freaking out... His advice is to try to catch it, kill it with a broom or something, or sick Chloe on it. Thanks Dad but none of these were very appealing. I am a 100% city girl... I've never caught a mouse, touched a mouse, or seen one in my house, nor did I ever want to. So, after hanging up with Dad I had to call James and interrupt his work dinner...When he answered I immediately started crying, "James! I'm sure there is a mouse behind the book shelf! WHAT DO I DO?" Poor James, he felt bad for me so he told me to rig up this little contraption:

Once my little mouse barrier was built I opened the front door, grabbed the LONGEST broom I could find and started banging around on everything inside the barrier with the hopes of scaring the little guy/girl straight out the front door. Never saw anything. I feel sure while I was outside grabbing the boxes he/she slipped right out. That's what I'm telling myself anyways. Just in case I'm keeping my head up tonight and trying NOT to look down at the floor, and oh yeah, I'm not going anywhere near that bookshelf.