We have a house... without a mouse!!

OMG i cannot believe how much of a cliche 50s housewife i become when faced with a mouse in my house. Admittedly i doubt many people have had their 2 year old proudly try to show mummy the dead mouse they found in their play kitchen. My worst nightmare! I was on the phone to a friend when a little voice says in my ear "look what i have mummy" i turn to see her holding out a dead mouse literally inches from my face. and. i. screamed.... ( i may have to pay for some hearing tests and remedial assistance for my poor friend on the other end of the phone) i screamed and ran to the other side of the room, flattening myself against the front door. Elianna now suitable freaked out tries to run towards me whilst still holding the mouse... so i scream again before yelling to her to drop it. she finally drops it and runs to me very confused. i ran her into the bathroom (giving the mouse a wide berth) to wash her hands a thousand times over, momentarily contemplating whether it would be considered abuse to wash her hands with a scourer and boiling water. EW EW EW EW EW EEEEEEEEWWWWW! Of course i was not lucky enough for it just to be the one, later while bathing Eli i saw a very large one slink past on its way to the kitchen. Dissolving into tears i ring Steve (who is of course in Melbourne so the most geographically undesirable person who could help me) who advises me (most sensibly) to call one of my in-laws to help. beautiful brother-in-law to the rescue!! while waiting for the mouse buster to arrive poor Eli is watching me most concernedly saying "you alright mummy?" "do you have a poorly tummy again""Eli kiss it better?" which of course makes me cry harder, she's such a beautiful little girl! Brother-in-law set about 5 traps in the kitchen and put out 2 lots of Talon mouse bait for good measure. i have to say i got a perverse sense of pleasure (mixed with a healthy dose of freak out) when i heard the mouse tucking into its lethal evening meal... sorry mouse. No signs of mice this morning or this afternoon but tonight just after putting Eli to bed it ran past me on the lounge, less than half a metre away, and under a flap of rug. since then i have been hearing it squeal which my cheeky mother insists is it talking to its friends and calling them over, but my more considerate husband assures me is its death throes.... feeling a tiny bit guilty now :( I cannot believe how much more at ease i feel about moving, knowing we have somewhere lovely to live once we get to Melbourne. while i have loved our house purely based on the fact that its ours, we did buy it based on the idea of the worst house on the best street concept. It has gaps in the walls where extensions were put on, an incredibly difficult backyard to mow (resulting in mouse encouraging long grass) which has made it ultra susceptible to visitors of the rodent variety. Our new house (rental) is in Point cook which is a newer yet well established development in the western suburbs of Melbourne. Google maps estimates it will be about a 25 minute walk to a sizable shopping centre (point cook town centre) 2-3 blocks away from a medical centre with "all your medical needs" (lol), a block away from a lovely park, 5 minutes walk from a local shops. 25 minutes to a train station which is only a quick ride from the city. The house itself looks awesome, 4 bedrooms plus study, lots of large living area and outdoor entertainment area. i think we'll be quite happy there. eli is really looking forward to her "big girls bed" that we promised she could have when we get to our "new house" i showed her a picture this evening after her bath and she said "i like my new house"- so cute! Best thing of all... NO MICE (hopefully the current mouse plague in victoria is not affecting this area lol). the movers are booked for next tuesday when they will come and start packing and then will load everything into shipping containers on wednesday before it all makes it way to melbourne for a Monday arrival. Steve will follow it down, flying out on wednesday night, as he has to be back at work for the rest of the week. Meanwhile Eli and I will remain with a good friend and her family until saturday (thus minimising the time spent in temporary accommodation and hopefully minimising the disruption to Eli's life). All of this means that by the 16th of may we will all be sleeping in our new place, beginning the Melbourne chapter for real.

So it begins

Today marks the end of one chapter and the begining of a new one in the story of our little family. Woke up this morning for the last time with out whole family under this roof. Steve has headed off to Melbourne today to start his first week at the new job. Had a few tears as i waved him off to the airport (Eli saw and gave me an enormous squeezy cuddle saying "its all right mummy, i kiss it better"). He's on a mission today to find us the perfect house in the perfect location with access to shops, playgrounds and public transport, before he starts work tomorrow. Not impossible but certainly not easy either, especially since most of the real estates down there seem to be disinclined to do mid-week rental inspections and you must inspect the house before you can apply to rent it. But if anyone can do it, Steve can :) In the meantime i am wrapping up lose ends up here. my mission is to get the Newcastle house into an appropriate state to rent. So my week will be Cleaning, rubish removal, hiding all our crap so the Agent can take photos sometime this week (YAY! ... not), plus of course entertaining one confused little girl, saying goodbye to all my gorgeous friends up here and generally getting my mind into a state of acceptance that this is really happening. Oh well i guess i should get to it... P.S. On the plus side the morning sickness seems to be easing a bit this week (14 weeks + 1day) and the evening sickness is fading too so at least some things are becoming easier. Can't wait until i can feel this little bubba move so i know things are progressing well inside there, hopefully it won't be much longer.