WE HATE BATS!!!!!

Ok so we had yet another bat - this one put our bat count to 7 in our house. It all started about a week after we moved in. We came home from the Sinclair's house to find one in our bedroom hanging from the curtain rod. Then we had one inside our screened in porch. Bat 3 somehow found its way into a crockpot I had sitting in the basement. Needless to say we no longer own that crockpot. Number 4 would be the one hanging from the ceiling in our kitchen. Bat 5 would be the one that had me trapped in the basement all the while screaming my head off until Jake came down and told me when it was safe to run upstairs. Number 6 would be the one that inadvertently was hiding inside the washing machine. This was a fun one - I washed a load of laundry and then when I opened the lid to put the clothes in the dryer I had a conversation with myself out loud that went something like "Hmmm I don't remember Jake having a sock that color...that is the weirdest color brown or is that black" at which time I proceeded to (like a complete idiot) reach in and grab this thing. About the time I touched it and it was NOT a sock I slammed the lid and screamed all the way upstairs. I wanted to burn the clothes but Jake insisted that washing them again would be fine. I think it was 3 more times on HOT water with LOTS of soap. Then tonight as we were sitting on the couch relaxing there was this thing swooping around our heads. I immediately grabbed onto Buster dove to the floor and closed my eyes. It was reminiscent of a little kid who plays hide and seek and thinks if they clothes their eyes they somehow disappear. I don't even know why I grabbed onto Buster - I figured if it came too close he would get it but he was shaking more than I was. So once Jake could get up off the floor to get outside he got our trusty bat tools. You see when we had the bat on the outside porch I called a professional. The one in our bedroom we got out (oh a sight to behold) and only because Jake would not let me get a hotel room. So since it was outside and I knew it would stay out there I called a bat guy who came and simply walked up to it with bbq tongs and put it in a bucket. So we armed ourselves with a fishing net and bbq tongs (pictured above). These are our Bat Tools. So tonight, long story short - I called our Chuck (brother in law) who happens to live in North Carolina and asked if he could come over and help us get this bat out (because he helped us get bat #4 out of our house in May). But Miki told us he was out and couldn't come help. He's off our Christmas list this year :) Jake got the bat trapped on the floor under the net. It wasn't pretty and he might have screamed like a girl but none the less he had it trapped. Now its time to grab it with the tongs. I am again far away and clutching both Buster and Ava (who are both shaking now). Jake tries and can't do it. So I said I thought I could get it outside but then I was throwing both the Bat Tools as far off the porch as possible and running back inside. Well then my loving (aka big chicken) husband says "Yeah right you can't do this!" To which I said "Oh Yeah!" So I grabbed the tongs. My heart was racing so fast I can't even tell you - I grabbed the handle of the net - got ready - grabbed the bat through the net and gave it a little turn so when I lifted the net up he wouldn't fly away...ran outside as fast as I could and put him down on the driveway and ran back inside. Jake took over from there but we'll just say the bat met his maker tonight and leave it at that. Needless to say I will be (after 17 months) calling the Bat Guy tomorrow and setting up an appointment for him to come and "bat proof" our house. My poor heart can't take much more of this stuff :) Now I a going to go eat a big bowl of vanilla ice cream with lots of chocolate syrup and make myself feel better :)