Sunshine started spiralling and the mouse was the trigger. Monday was sort of a rough day for her anyway, so then coming home to two parents freaking out, just pushed her right over the edge. Husband came down after tucking her in and told me that I needed to go back up there and talk her down. He said, "She's spiralling and I can't handle it". It broke my heart because she's me. Thank God I have friends who get me and don't judge. Because of this mouse, I had to call up a friend and have her come over just to watch me take out a bag of dog food. Seriously. I couldn't do it on my own. I got cold sweats every time I went near the bag. She came over and I got the bag, with the huge mouse hole, and took it to the the outside trash. She didn't think I was nuts. She understood. I told Husband I had to have her come over and he didn't get it, especially when I told him that I did myself. He assumed I had her come over to grab the bag for me. The thing about anxiety is, sometimes, you just need to have someone there to support you. Yes, it would have been easier for someone else to do it for me, but I had to do it myself, but couldn't do it alone. So, when Husband said I needed to go deal with Sunshine, I knew what I had to do and it made me sad that he didn't know how to help her. She needed to work through everything on her own. She did not want someone to keep saying it would be OK. Not once did I tell her that. We talked about what would happen if this or that came up. She already knew it all, she just needed reassurance.
This mouse has turned our household into a group of nervous, anxious people (I'm like that always, but more so now). It's taken it's toll on everyone. We have spent 3 days now pulling the basement apart to try to figure out where this sucker is hiding. We have 6 traps and I'm going out to buy more today. The mouse is taunting us by pooping on freshly cleaned off shelves. If anyone who knew me would walk into my house today, they would instantly know something is wrong. My anxiety over this mouse has caused me to shut down. The house is horrible, and I'm not exaggerating. My kids haven't eaten a decent meal since Saturday. A mouse in the house doesn't seem like much, but when it gets your anxiety spiralling, everything else spirals with it. Three of us are spiralling. If we don't catch this mouse soon, everyone in this family is going to be pushed so far over the edge that we can't get back to "normal".
There's also a toad in the garage, but he's another story...