Well, the past few days have been crazy. It’s as simple as that…one crazy thing after another. Honestly, my life would make an GREAT sitcom…or comedy movie.

Sunday morning the girls and I got up and got ready to go to church. It was Valentine’s day and we were all just kind of down. I didn’t make a big deal out of it this year and they seemed OK with that, but the sadness was still pretty bad.

As we were getting ready for church, I noticed a strong odor. In my mind, I thought great…what is it now? But, we needed to hurry and get to church so I didn’t really investigate it right that moment. Well, when I walked in the door from church I almost threw up! The smell that hit my nose was nauseating! I can’t even describe to you how bad it smelled. It was just horrible…HORRIBLE!

The girls had went to see Momo and Papa after church, so I was by myself. I gathered a few things together and went up to Amy and Kyle’s because I could not stay here. Kyle and the boys came down here and crawled under the trailer thinking they would find a dead cat or possum or something like that…but they didn’t. They looked everywhere and couldn’t find anything….but the smell was enough to make them all light headed. It was terrible! No, it was HORRIBLE!

We decided that something must have gotten between the insulation and the flooring. I told Kyle I would ask Hunter and Daddy to come and maybe they could find it tomorrow. I camped out on their couch Sunday night and the girls stayed at Momo’s house. It’s a good thing they love me…!!

Yesterday, I came home to take a quick shower and get some things that I needed. The smell was so bad that you could smell it on the porch before you ever got close to the door. During all of this, I also lost my voice. It had started coming and going Sunday night, but by noon yesterday I could barely whisper. I guess the fact that I couldn’t talk really didn’t register with me, because I got so mad when I walked in that I picked up the phone and called Daddy. He didn’t answer…so I called Hunter.

I think he was able to make out some of what I was saying, because he said he would ride up here after lunch. I ran to the gym and did a quick workout; then I ran up to Walmart and bought gloves, goggles, and nose masks. We were gonna find whatever was dead and get it out of here and that was all there was to it! I had HAD it with this smell…and whatever was causing it.

Well, Hunter has the most sensitive nose of anybody on Earth. I warned him that he might throw up because it was so bad. He said that we would find whatever it was and get it out. He never threw up, but he gagged a lot!

When Hunter walked into my living room and said, “I smell a dang rat. Are you sure it’s not in here somewhere? Have you looked in here real good?” I told him I had not, because I was convinced that whatever “it” was had to be under the house. No rat (any mouse…no matter how small…is considered a rat to me) that I had ever smelled in my life had smelled this bad. I just knew it had to be a larger animal of some kind.

Hunter climbed under the trailer and looked all under it just like Kyle had…only it was now pouring down rain and the water had run under the house. Poor Hunter was covered in mud by the time he said it had to be inside of my house. Can I just tell you how big of a panic attack I had at that moment? My brain truly cannot handle the thought of a dead animal inside of my house! I’m famous for saying I don’t want anymore jaw bones living on our hill…meaning animals. They are OK if they are someone else’s, I just don’t want them myself. And I for sure don’t want rats…dead or alive!

Hunter and I proceeded to move the furniture, look under the cabinets, move the curtains, shake the face jugs, and stick our noses against every possible surface we could looking for the dang rat. He told me that when he lived in a trailer one time with a friend of his that they would sit on the couch and shoot the rats with BB guns at night. Obviously, he knew what they smelled like and he was sure that there was a dead rat somewhere in here. He is nine years younger than me, so I guess he didn’t remember how freaked out I get about rats. It’s bad people!

After tearing the living room apart, we moved into the kitchen. Hunter looked down the edge of the refrigerator and said, “I think I see part of a tail”. I was like..”what?!” He ended up having to pull the refrigerator out and when he did he said…”Yep, this is it! And, it is huge!” I started screaming and he started laughing! Then, he started gagging….and I kept screaming….and he was laughing and gagging at the same time. I ran out the front door and told him he better not show it to me. He said, “Emily, I’m not kidding…it is HUGE”. I said, “well then I am moving OUT of here TONIGHT. I am NOT staying in a rat infested house. I am NOT”.

He asked me to throw him something that he could use to pick it up with and so I grabbed a spatula…clearly I was irrational because it was a good one that I would to have to throw away! Then, I told him he better NOT show that thing to me. Well, he held it up anyway and now I am scarred for life. I think I blacked out actually. I can not handle rats. I just can’t. Some people can’t handle spiders…I can’t handle rats!

Well, the way the refrigerator was pulled out I knew I had to help Hunter. There was no way that he could get to the sink to wash out the rags by himself. I took a deep breath and told myself I just had to do what I had to do. We Pine-Soled, bleached, and Lysoled the floor and the walls behind the fridge. I had my gloves on and tried not to keep screaming while he laughed and talked about how huge that thing was as he worked. I was so freaked out that I literally kept moving my feet and looking around to make sure another one didn’t magically appear. OK, I screamed a few more times too…I just couldn’t help it!

It took us a good twenty minutes to clean behind the fridge. The rat had apparently ate some of the rat poison that I spread out everywhere in order to avoid having them…and it had gotten inside and died anyway. Apparently, it had been dead for a few days at this point. Once we got everything  cleaned up, it wasn’t too long before we noticed the smell wasn’t as overpowering. Today, you can’t smell it at all.

I am still freaked out this morning. I woke up at 3:00 and listened to make sure I didn’t hear another one. I also kept the lamps on so I could see the floor all night!I didn’t go back to sleep until a few minutes after the girls left for school. I dozed for about thirty minutes before getting up and starting my day. I feel like my whole house is crawling with rats. Hunter said that it looked like it was the queen…and when the queen dies everything else does to. It makes sense to me. I hope they all die…every last one of them!

I guess the only lasting effects are the quick steps I take passing the fridge…and the shudders of horror when I remember seeing that huge thing on the end of the spatula that Hunter was holding. My house can NOT get finished fast enough for me. This trailer has now been invaded by a rat…and I can’t handle it!

On the bright side, Jed is here with his crew today and they are putting wood in the ceilings. I am super happy about it and can’t wait to take some pics later today. I hope you have all had a good laugh at my expense. It was funny…but not really. Hopefully I will be able to take a nap in little while…and NOT dream about dang rats!