Call from the teacher

I'm taking you back to the beginning of February. I was sick. Very sick. I spent a couple of days in bed, which I don't do often, so I was very sick. Poor Autumn. I couldn't even make it out of bed to pick out clothes or do the girl's hair. Yes, I do the girl's hair and pick out the clothes. Autumn can, but would rather not to. She pretty much does everything else, but at least I can say I contribute in those two areas! Back to the story....I was sick. Autumn got the girls ready and took them to school.......peace and quiet.......now I can finally slee........the phone rings. Agghhhh.....I wish Autumn wouldn't call me when I'm trying to sleep. So I answer, and it isn't Autumn.

Me: Hello?

Them: Trinity?

Me: Yes.

Them: This is Mrs. Smith

Oh no........Sister 3's teacher. She must be sick too. Or maybe she's in trouble. Oh dear....it's only 8:15 in the morning and she's in trouble already? That must be bad trouble. Or maybe she's sick. Or maybe I should I listen to what she has to say first.

Me: Hi! Is everything ok?

Mrs. Smith: I was just calling to let you know that A brought something to school today.

Oh dear....this child. She sneaks weird things in her backpack. I don't know why she feels the urge to do this, but she does. Why in the world is she calling me before school starts to tell me this? Usually she just saves the things in a bag until I see her. It must be something bad....Oh great, it's probably a knife or something and she's going to get kicked out of school.

Me: OK......what is it?

Mrs. Smith: She brought a little pink purse/pet carrier thing.

Let me just tell you that I love Mrs. Smith. She was wonderful for A. She is calm, consistent, not shocked by the strange things A says or does........well, until this particular morning....

Me: OK........

I said ok, but I was really thinking: Why would you call me about a little purse thing? Wasn't our system working where you just saved what she brought to school and showed me later? We should have patted her down this morning to make sure she didn't have anything. I want to get back to sleep!

Mrs. Smith: Trinity, the little purse had something in it........

Me: Ok

Mrs. Smith: Trinity, it had a dead mouse in it.

It took me a second to realize what she said because she said it so calm. A - DEAD- MOUSE!!! Are you kidding me?????!!!!!!!!! A dead mouse? Oh gross, oh gross OH GROSS!!!! yuck yuck YUCK YUCK YUCK!

Me: A (pause) DEAD mouse? As if a LIVE mouse would have been better?? I crack myself up sometimes when I look back at a situation!

Mrs. Smith: Yes...they were all playing inside for recess before school and all of the kids were gathered around her, so I went over to see what they were doing, and she was showing them all. I just threw the whole purse away, I hope that's ok.

We probably said a couple more things.......it wasn't funny to me at the time. All I could think about is.....Oh dear, my child needs to go to counseling because she likes dead things! I cried, called Autumn, Bethany and Becky and went to sleep.

Luckily, I had a much better outlook on the whole thing when I woke up. And my friend Michele called me and made me feel so much better. Michele teaches a different grade at the same school, so she knew about it right away. All she could do was laugh! It took me a couple of hours, then I could laugh too!

Really. Think about it. My daughter brought a DEAD mouse to school! Yep, that's funny! The thing is, a COUPLE of days earlier, we found that dead mouse in our house. I think S found it, hollered, and Autumn went and put it in a sack and threw it away. A wanted to see it, but we were so disgusted that there was a dead mouse in our house, that we said told her to not worry about it and get ready for bed! There was our mistake...we should have let her look at it! Apparently she got it OUT of the trash and put it in her purse, waited a couple of days and then brought it to school. How in the WORLD did we not smell that?

So she got home from school and we ask her about it.....she tells us that the poor little mouse wasn't dead! A: I promise it wasn't dead! Cause its eyes were closed and it's mouth was together. (She closes her eyes and sucks her cheeks in and puckers her lips together.) A: Then it was like this. (she opened her eyes real wide and showed her teeth)

They were also reading a book at school about a mouse, so in her little mind she was contributing to helping her classmates learn. I love her little tender heart, even for gross little creatures! And did I mention how much I love Mrs. Smith? I love her....she is absolutely wonderful. And for her end-of-the-year gift, we got her a little fuzzy play mouse! She liked it.

And that is the story of the mouse.