Not a creature was stirring...

Not even a mouse. Well, I wish this was the truth.
The truth is, we had/have a mouse/mice. Yep, you read that right!
I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this. I mean it's not like we have piles of trash in our house, and we live in a new house. Where are they coming from? Where are they coming in?
So, a few weeks ago I went in the pantry and grabbed the Rolos. This is when we determined we had a mouse. Apparently it liked chocolate. A lot.
Andy went and purchased a live release trap, basically a tunnel like contraption that captures the mouse and holds it until release. Abbie named our mouse Madeline. Madeline only made it until the next morning before we found her in her "tunnel." Being the no kill type of person I am, I decided to go release Madeline in the country. Abbie & I took her after school. We picked a nice field in the middle of nowhere. I opened her tunnel and away she went to frolic in the fields with her friends.
I wish that was how the story ended.
So, last week I go into the pantry and notice mouse droppings. Um, yeah, GROSS! We have a rather big walk in pantry....like our deep freeze is in it, our wine cooler, and lots of shelving. Essentially it's a small room. I spent FOUR hours bleaching that pantry down. FOUR HOURS! Let me tell you, had I seen that mouse while I cleaned up his lack of bathroom manners, I would have killed him myself!
Later on after I calmed down, I reset the live release thingy. Andy was in Chicago for the night. I never sleep well when he is gone. I checked that thing ALL NIGHT! In the morning I found the peanut butter outside of the trap and no mouse. Oops! Apparently it hadn't been baited since Madeline and the peanut butter was old.
This brings us to Friday night. Andy loaded up the tunnel again with PB and set up the trap. He woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me "it" was captured. He got up to get a drink and heard it scratching in the trap.
Here's where the story gets good...
Saturday morning I hear Andy yell for Abbie & Will to come in the pantry. I had a feeling he was going to somehow try to show them the mouse. I had to stop him. Only I wasn't fast enough. I got in there just in time to see him release the mouse into a SAND BUCKET! Are you kidding me??? It's like 7 inches tall. This mouse can climb shelves and scale walls. What in the world made my intelligent husband think the mouse would kindly sit in the bucket for a spectator show? Really?!?!? Needless to say, mouse jumps out, runs across Abbie's feet, dashes under a shelf, then darts into the kitchen under the fridge. Abbie screams, I scream, Andy is laughing, and Will is standing there with his mouth hanging open. I'm not going to lie, after my initial fury that this mouse was now still loose in my house, I laughed. A lot! I still can't wrap my mind around how Andy thought this was going to work! I called both of our parents. I had to share his lack of thinking. At least we all got a good laugh.
Soo....then I was mad again. I mean I just spent forever cleaning. I got the broom. The kids were sent to get ready for a bath. I told Andy we were moving the fridge and he was going to beat that mouse. Well before we could get it moved he darted under the dishwasher.
Nevertheless, we reset the tunnel. We were away last night to a bed and breakfast. When we came home today, we had our mouse! Andy and the kids took him and released him in the country. Now I just wonder if there are more?