Abby’s Saturday // One Hundred Ninety-Six

 Highlight of the Week

We’ve had quite the mouse-problem recently. So, the mouse-infestation isn’t really the highlight – but the getting rid of them definitely is! A few weeks ago, we began suspecting that we might have a mouse, but we really didn’t have any hard evidence to back it up. We found something that looked like it might have been mouse-droppings in the drawer under our stove where we keep our pots & pans. We have a gas stove though, so there’s char & dirt that’s always in the bottom of that drawer, so we kind of wrote it off (plus, we only saw it the one time). Well, fast forward a few weeks & one night while Derrick was watching TV & I was working, he heard something very obviously stuck in that drawer under the oven & scratching all around. Needless to say, we set up some old mouse-traps that night & didn’t catch a single thing. The next day, after work, Derrick stopped at the store to get some better traps & the next night, we caught 3 mice. THREE! Talk about freak out mode! That sent us on a crazy hunt to find where they were coming from & stop them from getting in. Derrick has sealed multiple holes around our kitchen (that we didn’t even know where there) and finally, on Wednesday (after catching 2 more mice), he found what we suspect to be the main spot they were coming from. It’s now sealed up & we haven’t caught anything since then! YAY for being mouse-free!

Yes, This Happened

• So, the night that I got home from spending a week in NEPA (spending time with Derrick’s Mom), we had a bit of a freaky situation occur. Around 3 in the morning, I woke up: I could hear a little voice saying: “Mom”. It sounded like Braelynn in the next room. I waited, because I was hoping she was just talking in her sleep & would stop, but at very regular intervals, the voice came again and again: “Mom.” “Mom.” “Mom.” So, I dragged myself from my lovely warm & comfortable bed to see what she needed. I went into her room & walked up to her & she was dead asleep – definitely not talking. So I came back into our bedroom & sat on the bed – and I heard it again: “Mom.” Really confused, I looked out our window – the sound was not coming from Braelynn’s room, so the only thing I could think of was that it was coming from outside. I heard it again: “Mom.” Now I’m getting freaked out & worked up – is there a little kid, wandering around outside? I heard it again, but this time it just sounded like a moan. Completely freaked out, I woke up Derrick, “Hey, shh shh listen.” We both listened & heard it again, and then again. I explained I had already checked on Braelynn, so he got up to look out the bathroom window (which overlooks the street). At that point, we heard it again, clearly: “Mom.” He yelled back at me: “You’re going to have to call 911!” (heart is racing, anxiety thru the roof) He ran down the steps & out our front door, while I waited, phone in hand. A moment later, I heard him come back in and come back upstairs: “There’s nothing out there.” “Nothing?!” “Nothing. Have you heard it again?” “No, not since you went outside.” We sat there for a few more minutes, waiting & listening, and heard nothing. We slowly laid back down & rationalized that it must have been a bird (an owl?). A quick Google search of “PA birds that say ‘Mom'” came up with nothing. And we never heard it again.
  It was really creepy. But thankfully, we’ve never heard it again. I was just thankful that Derrick actually heard it (& heard it clearly) to verify that I’m not crazy!! Because, at one point, I was definitely feeling pretty loony. It had to be a pretty loud sound though to wake me up (I mean, I’m a Mom, so things like that wake me up) but still – weird.
• Counting last weekend, I’ve shot 1st year portraits, 5th year portraits, maternity photos, and 3 engagement sessions. Needless to say, it’s been busy! That also means that Ruby has officially started babysitting for me again! Normally (especially this time of year), it would be fine & I’d slowly chip away at things. But this weekend is our first “big” wedding of the season, the first that Derrick & I will be shooting together in 2018, and our first destination wedding of the year! That simply means that I need all of my Compact Flash cards to be empty & available to use (because I can already tell you that I’ll be going overboard shooting this weekend!)

Feeling Blessed

Okay, let’s talk about this week’s Abby’s Saturday picture. I’m quite obsessed with it. I’ve had this specific picture in my head for about a month & was just at a loss for how to make it happen. I have all the equipment & know-how to make it work, the problem was I didn’t have the space. We live in our house and we don’t have any large empty rooms I could cover the windows & use. I simply could not get this picture out of my head though, so I figured the room that was the largest & had the least furniture to move around was our dining room. It was quite the production. I took all of the leaves out of our table & collapsed it as small as I could (and shoved it over into the corner). We pushed all of our chairs into the kitchen & moved Braelynn’s little table & art supplies – it was a little crazy. I love how the photo turned out though!! Probably one of my favorite Abby Saturday’s to date!