Deep Fried Mouse, Anyone?

     As a wedding present in 1998 my husband Brian and I received a deep fryer.  I never specifically asked for one on our registry so I was surprised we got one.  I was a new wife who was not very talented with cooking in the kitchen.  I welcomed any gadget that might help create something edible and different to eat at the dinner table.  I was excited to try it out. 

This is exactly what my deep fryer looked like.

     We never had a deep fryer growing up.  My mom would toss french fries or tater tots in the oven instead.  We never complained.  We ate them and enjoyed it.   It was what we knew.   I read the instructions of our deep fryer tried it with french fries.  I was impressed on how crispy and tasty they turned out to be. Even the color was that of a golden hue.  It was a lot better than fries coming out of the oven that is limp and squishy and of pale yellow in color.  I used it quite often instead of the stove and it didn't heat the whole house up which was nice in the summer time.  I had my special metal slotted spoon to help dish out the fries as I placed it in a paper towel lined bowl.  I felt that my cooking skills were really something special with my new deep fryer. 

     In 2004 we moved up to Osceola County from Allegan.  Of course my precious deep fryer came with us.  It has been used much in the 5+ years that I had had it and it started to show.  Part of the flimsy lid melted one time as I set it too close to the hot deep fryer.  The lid still did it's job for the most part when it wasn't in use.  Or so I thought.

     One summer evening Brian and I were fixing hot dogs and tater tots for dinner.  I fired up the deep fryer.  It wasn't long after that a foul smell perfumed the area.  We couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from.  We began to think we picked up a bad batch of hot dogs from the store as we were boiling them.  We would walk over to the store and smell over the boiling pot but the smell wasn't coming from there.  We walked in circles around our kitchen with our noses up in the air trying to locate them foul order but we just couldn't do it.  It seemed like it was from all over.  We tried to grin and bare it the best we could. 

     I put in a handful of tater tots.  In a few minutes I pulled them out and dumped the golden tots into the glass serving bowl.  I tossed another handful of frozen tots into the hot oil.  The hot oil crackled and snapped as it cooked the tater tots.  I grabbed for my silver slotted spoon and fished out a few tots.  I stuck my spoon in again and recovered some more tots that were hiding under the oil.  As I pulled out the spoon I looked down at the tots.  Lying across my metal spoon was a dead mouse.  The little bits of fur on it was soggy from the oil.  I gasped as I stared down at this deceased little mouse trying to think of how it met its demise.  He must of been hiding out in my cupboard and probably ran across the top of my deep fryer and slipped through the side of the lid and eventually drowned in the oil.  It didn't look like it happened that long ago as he wasn't too badly decayed. 

     I walked over to Brian and showed him my mouse discovery.  He wasn't as interested in seeing the deep fried mouse as I was.  Right away he started dry heaving.  Trying not to vomit Brian said nauseated,   "Get....rid....of....that....MOUSE!"

     Looking around the kitchen I had no where put the hot deep fried mouse.  I couldn't toss him into the garbage because the oil on him would melt the bag.  I didn't want to toss him in with the already cooked tater tots.  It just didn't seem right.  I wasn't sure how to dispose of him.   Brian couldn't handle the sight of the mouse on the spoon anymore and he quickly grabbed it out of my hand and tossed it back into the deep fryer.  He unplugged it and wrapped a towel around the deep fryer so he could pick it up without burning himself.  He yelled for the door to be opened.  In a mad dash he ran out of the house holding the deep fryer, complete with mouse, and ran it across our field and tossed the whole deep fryer as far as he could. 

     Window's were quickly opened in the house and dinner was cancelled.  Just looking at the frozen bag of tater tots left an ill feeling in our stomachs.  Even though the tots in the bag were good, mentally we couldn't eat it even if we did put them in the oven.  We tossed everything out.  I knew we would never use our deep fryer again.  The memory of the mouse was too horrible to try to reuse it.  I was crushed because I really liked my deep fryer.  It was hard for us to eat anything deep fried for a long time.  The word deep fried reminded us of that darn mouse. 

     I think maybe a year or two later my husband purchased me another deep fryer.  This one is far better than the old one.  The lid wasn't of flimsy plastic but of a hard lid where a person has to pop a button to open it up.  It was larger and bigger than the old one and it had temperature control along with a timer.  I was eager to put it to use.  It took us a while to deep fry tater tots again but we used it for french fries, egg rolls, corndogs and homemade chicken nuggets.  This one is surely mouse proof. 

Oh, Those Rodents!

     It was February 2004.  We lived in Allegan.  Our children just received money for Valentine's Day and wanted to go shopping.  I told the kids (aged almost 7, almost 6, 3 years old and 1 year old) they can buy what ever they want with their money at the store.  I loaded up the children and headed towards Meijer's in Planwell, Mi..  We walked around the toy aisle as the children debated on what to get.  As the older children looked I would see what toy James (the one year old) would like to have as well.  Nothing seemed to grab my or the kids attention. 

     We walked around the store for other ideas.  Then we walked past the small animal area.  It was like magnetic beams shot out of their eyes and dragged them across the aisle to look at the birds, hamsters, guinea pigs, and the multitudes of fish.  Oh no!  I dreaded.  The older two looked at the prices and the money they had in their hands.  They didn't have enough.  Whew!

     Moments later Christian and Beth approach me with a smile across their faces.  "We know what we want,"  they said, "We want to buy a hampster!"

     "Oh no!"  I reply back.  "You don't have enough money."

     "Yes we do, "  Beth chimes back, "If we all put our money together then we have enough to buy 2 hampsters"  she says excitedly.

    "No! No! No!"  I firmly said.  "We already have a dog.  We do NOT need a hampster!"

     "PLEASE?????"  the 3 begged beautifully.  James would sit in the basket of the cart pointing over at the rodent's in the glass aquarium.  "You said we can have ANYTHING in the store?"

     Mental note to myself at that moment:  NEVER say the words ANYTHING IN THE STORE ever again to my children when we go shopping!   

     I looked down at their angelic faces.  I know deep down this novelty will wear off in a week and I would be the one cleaning the cage and feeding and watering it.  Drats!  The kids pinned me in the corner when I said that.  It was their money and I did say anything.  I think just the brillance of them realizing that they can combine their money to get a larger priced item at that age made me give in.  "Okay.  Beth and Christian, you both pick out one and Ashton, you pick one out for you and James."   I chipped in the rest for a cage, food and a ball where the hampster can run around the house in.  Sadisticly, I envisioned one of the hampsters running around in this plastic ball and our dog (about 5 years old) chasing it and trying to flick it around the house where the hampster was at the mercy of the dog.  Okay, I was ready to bring the hampsters home now.

     We brought the hampsters inside and I was giddy to see our dog's reaction.  He sniffed them a few times and left them alone.  I had the kids pick out their names.  Beth and Christian agreed on Pinky because a crazy cartoon Pinky and the Brain.  Ashton picked the name Lilo for her black and white hampster after the movie "Lilo and Stitch" which was a popular Disney movie at the time.  Sure enough, a few weeks later, the kids paid no mind to the hampsters anymore and I was left to tend to their cleaning and feeding.

     Fast forward 5 to 6 months.  We ended up moving to a small town in Osceola county (See Spontaneous Life Changing Decision April 18, 2012 blog  http://ymaout.blogspot.com/2012/04/spontaneous-life-changing-decision.html  on that story).

     It was a warm night.  The children were in bed fast alseep.  We were watching a movie in the living room relaxing.  I was on the couch and Brian was stretched out on the floor.  Suddenly Brian jerks back, "What the hell....?"

     I look over at him confused.

    "Something lifted up on that vent!"  The heater vent was right next to the TV.  We both stare at it for a moment.  Nothing happened.

     I sit up and Brian joins me on the couch and we resume watching the movie.  We both heard a sound coming from the vent.  A loud scratching sound.  We picked up the remote and hit the mute button.  We both stare at the vent and listen to the fumbling, scratching sounds.  The vent lifted up again and a head stuck out from the vent.  "A RAT!"  Brian shouts.

     "A rat?"  I wanted to make sure I heard him correctly.

     "We need to kill that rat!  We cannot have rats in this house!"  Brian commands.

     We quickly unloaded a medium size box to use as a trap.  We planned on waiting until the rat comes out, lay the box on its side for the rat to run into and then tilt the box upright to capture the rat and then killing it. 

     We watched the vent intently.  We were on a mission.  I stood off to one side so the rat would run in the other direction where Brian was holding the box waiting for the rat to run into.  The vent started to lift up and down.  We were curious as to why the rat could lift the vent but neither one of us wanted to get a closer look.  The vent was lifting higher.  We could see his head.  His head would stick out and then go back in.  I look up at Brian with delight.  We were going to catch us a rat!  His head popped back out again.  The rat decided to make a run for it and fully came out of the vent.  He ran for the box and our plan was set in motion.  Brian was able to scoop up the rat with the box and the rat was trapped.  "There wasn't a tail on the rat!"  I shout out.  "It's tailless!"

     "Sometimes rats will get their tails caught on something and they lose their tail.  It's quiet common."  He assured me. 

     Brian went to look for something to end this rat's life.  "I want to take a closer look."  I say to Brian.

     "Why?  They are nasty rodents that we must get rid of!" 

     "I never seen a rat in real life before.  I want to see it before we kill it."

     "Be my guest."  Brian says back motioning with his hand for me to go to the box. 

     I look at it.  Cute little thing.  I think to myself.  I take a closer look at his nose.  There was some fur that has been rubbed away at it.  "Honey, I don't think this is a rat."   

     "What makes you think that?"  Brian inquires.

     "His nose.  There is fur missing from his nose.  I think this is Pinkie."  Pinkie had a habit of gnawing at the wires of his cage so much that he rubbed away the fur from his nose.

     "There is only one way to make sure."  Brian walks over to the hampster cage in the other room and peeks in.  Pinkie was missing.  Brian goes back over to the box and looks at the rodent in the box very carefully.  "You are one lucky hampster!"  He picks up the hampster and places him back into his cage. 

     Sadly, a year later Pinkie's life came to an end.  His cagemate Lilo had already passed on earlier.  They are both buried outside next to a tree that the kids like to play on.  I don't think they kids think much about the hampsters but I have learned two lessons:  Be care of what you say and always look twice before killing something.  It could be a pet. 
      

Spontaneous Life Changing Decision

     The year was 2004.  Tax season was upon us.  Being new to the owner operating side of trucking we were sharing the delightful task of adding up all the fuel receipts, tolls, scales, repairs, and other numerous receipts late one evening after our 4 children were asleep.  Actually it wasn't delightful at all.  It was tedious and tiresome.  He was on a dedicated run from Ionia to Detroit and was home most weekends.  Every now and then he would do an extra run somewhere else.  Each receipt would open up a memory of what truck stop he was at or what load he was under when a breakdown occured. We needed a break.

    We enjoyed looking up Realtor.com on the computer just to see what is out there.  We lived in the city of Allegan but we wanted to buy some acres with a house.  At that time housing prices were soaring.  People from Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo were moving closer and closer to Allegan County causing the value of homes to increase.  Under the search engine we clicked on an area 75 Miles from Ionia since we were doing that deadhead anyway.  We put it a minimum of 3 bedrooms, 1 bath and what our top dollar was.  We started scrolling through some houses.  Then we seen a farm house with 5 acres.  We looked at the price and thought there must of been a typo and that it was too low for 5 acres let alone a house.  We looked at the location.  Sears.  Sears?  Where was that at?  We never heard of it.  We quickly grabbed a Michigan map and looked it up in the index.  Sure enough there is a town of Sears.  It would be an easy drive to head to Ionia from there.  We couldn't do anything more about it since it was night but we agreed to call on it the next morning.

     The morning came and I drove our two oldest off to first grade and kindergarten at a private school in a neighboring town.  When I came back I woke up Brian so he could call on the house.  The price is what was listed.  The realtor said we were free to check out the house anytime and it was unlocked.  We decided to keep the kids home from school the following day and drive up to look at it.

     The drive was long but we enjoyed long drives.   We entered Osceola County.  We kept a close eye on the addresses.  We were getting closer and closer.  Far off in the distance we could see a white dot on top of the hill.  I jested to Brian, "Wouldn't it be neat if that was our house up there?"
   
     "We are still a ways away.  That can't be it"  he answered back.

     We came closer and closer to that white house off in the distance.  The addresses were getting closer to the one we were looking for.  To our amazment the house on top of the hill was the same house we were looking for.

     It was plain and needed some TLC.  There was a drive available for Brian's truck too.  There were traces of snow still left on the ground where down in Allegan it was already melted.  We walked around the boarder of the property and looked at the inside of the place.  It certainly had potiental and we all were quite excited about it.  We drove into the next town of Evart to see what the town was like.  It was small and cute.  Modest homes and nice looking schools.  Were we ready to call his place home? 

     We called the realtor, put in our bid and on our oldest son's 7th birthday we signed papers on the house.  We had to wait another month so the kids could finish up their school back in Allegan County.  It was scary and exciting at the same time.  It almost didn't seem real.  We are taking on an adventure to head up north, away from family and friends, to a place where we really didn't know a single soul and to call this new place our home.

     A year later the auto industry was on life support.  Our dedicated run was no more as factories closed down and they didn't need our assistance.  We leased our truck on to a different company and now run coast to coast and boarder to boarder.   It will be 8 years at the end of April since we took this bold decision in moving our family.   Sometimes we wonder in this slow economy if this was the best thing to do.  Jobs are not easy to come by up here.  We wonder what the future will hold for our children.  But for right now we call this place home.  And it all just happened from taking a break while doing our taxes.