The Lighter Side of Life

Yesterday's post was DEEP, man, so I thought today, I'd share a couple of my adventures with Mother Nature over the last week. First, it was the frog, then the spider, and finally the cockroach.

It started last Wednesday. It was about 10:30 pm, and I was getting ready to go to bed. But, like any other average person, I decided to go to the bathroom before bed. Well, I lifted up the toilet lid and noticed something high up on the side of the bowl. Inspecting further, I discovered it was a frog that was about two inches long. Being the lover of God's creation that I am, I tried to flush him down the toilet. He stuck tight to the side of the bowl. So, I used the toilet brush to try and push him into the water so I could flush him again. That failed miserably, and he was able to get between the seat and the bowl and get outside the toilet. Being the calm, cool, collected person that I am, I immediately screeched. That must have scared him because he jumped off the bowl and onto the floor. I jumped the same time he did! Once he was on the floor, he didn't really move, so I went to the kitchen for a cup. After a couple of tries, I was able to get the cup over top of him. So now I have this frog in a cup on my bathroom floor. I thought about just leaving him that way, but then in the morning, I'd have a shriveled up dead frog on my bathroom floor. Not a good thought. So, I searched through the house and finally found a piece of thin cardboard to slide under the cup. (Sorry, Nathan, you're not getting that free ice cream at Chik-fil-A.) I was able to slide the cardboard under the cup and pick it up. Now, I'm holding this thing like the frog is going to fight its way out. (See why I hate nature?) I first planned to let him go out the front door, but I had left the light on outside, and there were a number of moths. Not wanting to fight the moths, I decided to use the back door. I opened the door, and I was just ready to open the glass door when I looked up and realized a HUGE spider had made a web across the door. Weighing my options, I figured I could handle the moths better than the spider, so I headed back to the front door. By now, the light had been off for a while, so most of the bugs had left. I was able to stand on the front porch and fling the frog across the yard. Hopefully, he found his kind and will not return to our house. I still check the toilet now every time before I sit down!

Then, the next morning, I had my adventure with the cockroach. We get these huge roaches down here. I was told they were called tree roaches, but I've also heard them called palmetto bugs. Here is what one looks like. I was sitting on the bed drinking my coffee when Matthew came in and said "Mommy, why is there a big bug on your carpet?" He flipped the light on, and we watch this huge bug run across the rug to underneath the dresser. We pulled the dresser out, but he was gone. I figured he had squeezed into a crack by the floor and taken off. We weren't sure, though, because the cat still seemed pretty interested in what was going on. I sat back on the bed to finish my coffee, and Jeremy says, "There he is behind you!" I jumped off of the bed, because I thought the bug was on the bed. He was actually on the wall, but he could move!! We grabbed one of my old flip flops to smack him, and we discovered he can also fly! He flew off the wall and onto the back of Jeremy's shirt. He was able to shake him off, and then hit him a couple of times on the floor. So, unlike the frog, this poor guy went to roach heaven rather than back to his friends. Of course, if he had stayed outside rather than inside, he would have had a long and happy life.