Dear Furry Little Friend:
We have recently learned of your presence in our home. Don’t know if you and your family and friends have been here all year or if you were just visiting, having made your ingress and egress through the small hole the satellite TV installer left when we switched to DirecTV when we finally stopped believing that Dish would add the Mtn to their sports package so we could watch BYU and get Jimmered. But I digress…
Were you here in May when Deanna and Wendell traveled to New York for her graduation from Columbia? How about the few days in July when we went to Kansas City for a family reunion at the Great Wolf Lodge? You might have been startled to hear frequent ringing from Emily’s cell phone. The one she left at home, but thought she may have left behind at stops in Limon, Goodland, Hays, prompting us to stop at Hays, Goodland, Limon and other scenic stops on our way back home.
Just so you know, Emily’s still in Provo, UT, enjoying the social offerings of a college environment slightly more than her part-time job. Ali and Adam are burning through barrels of fossil fuel in the Austin, TX area shuttling children (Clara-12, Emma-10, Hyrum-6, Annie-4) to and from school and church activities. You can follow their doings at Allison Benefield’s Facebook page. Jon and Becky have been busy making improvements to their home in Independence, MO, the evidence of which can be seen on their blog (www.Tolmanitude.blogspot.com), along with Samantha-6, Lucy-4 and Nora-2. You might know Rachel and Ben visit us occasionally from Broomfield, CO, along with Rebecca-14, Spencer-11, and Eva-9. Rachel stopped home-schooling the kids this year and has had time for more frequent blog entries at www.Mys-terry.blogspot.com. They may be relocating after Ben’s graduation from CU in May.
You’ve probably been enjoying our more frequent absences from the house. Wendell had to change his commute from driving to Highlands Ranch to taking public transportation to a downtown office, adding more reading time to his commute. Deanna spends much more time at her medical practice office. If you were a human, you could make an appointment at www.Head2ToeHC.com (but I digress). Our recent invitation to attend Sunday church meetings and weekday social events at the young single adult ward has given you more opportunities to tease Killer (our Chihuahua) and, unfortunately, you took advantage of that situation.
So the week before Thanksgiving, you or one of your colleagues had to take one last bite out of that nylon covered plastic hot water line to the dishwasher. We should have made sure it had a metal covering, but trying to save a few dollars in our tight economy the installer went with nylon. Maybe the nylon is a carcinogen for mice. You guys weren’t such good guests after all. You’d been pooping in the cabinets and under the couch. Anyway, that Sunday morning when we stepped into the kitchen to find a hot water tsunami bubbling from under the sink onto the floor, collapsing the ceiling tiles on the bedroom below, our relationship had to change. Fortunately, for you guys, no one perished in the flood. We shared Thanksgiving dinner at Rachel’s home this year.
It’s too bad you won’t be around to see the new tile floor in the kitchen. The grout should be dry on Wednesday this week. The carpet installers will be here on Tuesday. Let me share a new favorite scripture, Romans 12:19 which reads in part: “Vengeance is mine; I will reap, saith the Lord.” It seems you and your little vermin friends have a fatal weakness for the chunky peanut butter with which we baited the traps. 
We were looking forward to having you spend Christmas with us.
