My parents came from Hawaii Sunday night, the same night that Mike left for Denver on a business trip. All was going well Monday morning. My parents got to play with Audrey, they made me a wonderful breakfast, and we were enjoying each other's company. But once they left to run some errands, my stomach started to feel queezy. It turns out that I got the stomach flu that's been going around at church.
After a few hours of battling the nausea, I finally felt a little better. Let's just say the breakfast didn't stay in too long. Then, I took Audrey downstairs to feed her. As I was feeding her, I was thankful that I was feeling better and praying that she wouldn't get sick from me. All of a sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving. I was almost scared to look because I had a feeling that it didn't belong inside our house. Well, I did look and my heart skipped a beat when I realized that there was a LIZARD in my living room, right next to the couch where I was sitting with my baby in my arms! My gut reaction was to panic and repeat, "O my goodness, O my goodness." What was I to do? Why was there an 8-inch lizard in my house? Let me tell you that I did NOT have a gentle and quiet spirit at this time.
I was glad to see the phone right in front of me and called my dad. I sobbed and screamed while I told him my predicament and demanded that he and my mom come home right away. However, they were stuck in traffic and it would be another 20 minutes before they got home. Aaah! After we hung up, I realized that something had to be done. Since the lizard slithered behind the piano, I thought it would be safe for me to leave Audrey on the couch while I got our bottle of Raid Max (as if that would have killed it). I sprayed and it started to come back out. I then ran to grab a bowl from the kitchen so that I could trap him underneath until my parents came home. But, I was grappled by intense fear that it would be too fast for me to trap him, so I gave up and grabbed Audrey so we could go upstairs.
I called my dad again while approaching the stairs and saw that the lizard was following me!! I was screaming uncontrollably on the phone and my mom tried to give me some comfort:
me: AAAAHHH! Please come home quickly! It's moving! It's on the baby's blanket now! AAAAHHH!
mom: Sue, it's okay. It is part of God's creation.
Obviously, this did not comfort me AT ALL. She later told me that she was totally scared too and just tried to remain calm for my sake. However, the whole time, she was thinking of calling Animal Control Services to come and rescue me.
Audrey and I finally found shelter upstairs in her room and I decided to call Mike in Denver.
me: (trying to remain calm so as not to panic him) Hi honey. How are you?
mike: Good! How are you?
me: Uh, I'm upstairs right now...and there's a reason why I'm here.
mike: Why?
me: BECAUSE THERE'S A LIZARD IN OUR LIVING ROOM! (I proceeded to tell him the story.)
mike: Ha ha ha ha ha! Well, you know the lizard can go upstairs too, right?
me: Well then, I'll close the doors.
mike: You know it can go under the doors too, right?
me: Well then, I'll put towels underneath.
By this time, I was exasperated, but I knew that Mike was probably using his sense of humor to try to comfort me. Besides, what could he do from Denver?
My parents finally came home and I stayed upstairs, feeling quite nauseous again and trying to catch my breath from almost hyperventilating. At the same time, I was happy that my dad was here to catch our unwelcome house-guest. I heard him shuffling things around to find him when all of sudden, I heard someone play the piano.
mom: Honey, don't play right now, Audrey's sleeping.
dad: Okay.
me: MOM!
mom: Yeah?
me: WHY IS DAD PLAYING THE PIANO! TELL HIM TO CATCH THE LIZARD! O MY GOODNESS!
mom: Okay.
My dad has been working part-time as an apprentice to a piano tuner for the past few months. I guess since he didn't see the lizard behind the piano, he kind of gave up and decided to start tuning our piano instead. So I came downstairs and begged him to re-start his search for the creature and confessed that I wouldn't be able to come back downstairs until I knew it was gone. Since I was almost crying, I think he understood how desperate I was and started looking for it again.
mom: (while putting groceries away in the kitchen) Oh, here it is!
me: AAAAAHHHHHH!
Fortunately, my dad had a large wooden stick in his hand and cleverly killed it by smashing its neck. After he picked it up and threw it out, I finally felt like I could breathe normally again. The day ended with another episode of the stomach virus and battling a fever in bed, but I was SO thankful to the Lord. He brought my parents to visit from Hawaii at just the right time...so they could catch the lizard and take care of me while Mike was gone. The Lord is good!
Some pics to end this long entry:
Our first real picture together as a family
Proud papa
Audrey with her friend Jack, who was born on the same day, at the same hospital. His parents are friends of ours, whom we met during our lamaze classes.
Audrey has just started to learn how to soothe herself to sleep. She found her thumb!
She's also been very fascinated by her own hands.
Hello everyone!
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