39 Comments

Listen, the writer in me very much appreciates how you did not give me a happy ending after all (the setting scene of the mice family and business associates is chefs kiss.) However, the permanently scarred by mice infestation person in me is very upset and would like a resolution, thank you very much.

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Feb 14Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

"I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised to see one fly out from underneath the refrigerator on a tiny, toy motorcycle." Made me laugh! We had a mouse in January. It casually came out from the bottom of the dishwasher while I was working at the kitchen counter. I LOST MY MIND. We set a trap and finally caught one two weeks later. It bugs me that I don't know if it was the same mouse. I'm on high alert now!

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Feb 14Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

Molly I’ve been excited for this mice story since you mentioned it on the podcast and it did not disappoint 🤩 So creative, funny and deeply relatable—the inside of my head sounds very like yours and my husband is the stability to my spiralling. Loved it!

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Feb 16Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

Love this story, Molly! I didn’t tell you this story at the time, when you were telling us about the mice and his associates at Christmas, because I didn’t want to worsen an already terrible time. So I’ll tell you now. 😆 One time, early in my marriage, there was a mouse in the house. Rich was gone and it was running around like it owned the place. So I attempted to sweep it under a bowl, so Rich could take care of it when he came home. Instead, the mouse ran straight toward me, so what did I do? I screamed (yes, Jake!) and jumped. My bare foot came down on … the mouse. I swept it onto the front porch, waiting for it to move. It never did. 🫣

I hope your mouse tales (tails?) 🤪 are behind you, friend. And that they’ve taken their business elsewhere. 🐭

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Feb 15Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

I woke up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night (didn’t turn on any lights, kept my eyes closed to try to keep myself from waking up) and was sitting on the toilet, heard splashing underneath me. Turned on the light to see a mouse swimming in the toilet. Yes I screamed, yes my husband came running and flushed him for me. Four years later I still check the toilet every time I sit down.

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Ok, Molly, would it make you feel better if I told you about the time I discovered a mouse in our kitchen? I was in there with my six year old when it came running around the corner and straight for me. I screamed at the top of my lungs and ran out of the kitchen LEAVING MY DAUGHTER BEHIND. My husband still teases me about how I abandoned our daughter to fend for herself 😂😬.

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Feb 15Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

The guinea pig queens 😂😂😂 Loved that moment

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You tied this all together so beautifully. I loved how you kept coming back to truth—what are the true stories and what are the untrue ones we tell ourselves? So good, Molly. Thank goodness for the people we love who perhaps have better “big-picture” mindsets than we do.

(We had mice too last year. It was horrible. You have my deepest, heartfelt sympathy because truly, it can feel very all-encompassing.)

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We had mice that crawled around in our walls in our ranch house in Wyoming. I was very pregnant, and very hormonal, and one night I dragged myself to the bathroom, not bothering to turn the light on at first. Then for some reason I needed to turn it on, and I almost STEPPED on the mouse! At 1 AM. I shrieked of course, my husband came running still half asleep, knocked the mouse dead with my proffered flip-flop, chucked it out the door into the field, washed his hands and fell back asleep immediately. I… did not fall back asleep immediately and continued to be haunted by the mice that would audaciously run across our kitchen floor when I was trying to have a respectable third trimester midnight snack. When we moved out of that house a few months later my 2 year old sobbed and sobbed because he had to leave the dead mouse that he had found outside behind. “Goodbye mouse”, he sniffled as we drove out…

I was sad about many things, but leaving the mice was not one of them. 😆

To all the unphased husbands who calmly listen to their spiraling wives and remind us that we can do it, we have before, we will again — so thankful!

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Feb 14Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

I remember when my parents had mice in their pantry. Not great! But this was a fun read and I love the way you incorporate humor. I have a 3-year-old boy and I felt "Don't put your butt there" deep in my soul.

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Feb 18Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

So well written, Molly! I have to say, it couldn’t have been me with those nice 😂. Brought me back to college days when my best friend and I found a mice living in our dorm room. 🥴

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Feb 15Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

So much to relate to here. I too have an irrational fear of mice. I'm completely unfazed by spiders and other bugs; I even once happily stayed in a hostel where geckos roamed the walls. But mice induce blind panic in me.

We all get attached to the stories we tell ourselves. Are the mice out to get me, or are they just doing what they know how to do to survive? Is my husband trying to hurt me, or is he simply operating from a different vantage point? There is so much here. And you capture it beautifully!

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Feb 15Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

Got all teary eyed reading this. Love it!!! So well written and love the way you tell the story of you and your husband seeking to connect ❤️

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Feb 14Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

Love the listening feature! And also in our house it’s ants, not mice. So I suppose I should be grateful they are sizably smaller. 😅

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Feb 14Liked by Coffee + Crumbs

Oh my goodness! I feel your stress here with the mice! We had them when I was a kid and let’s just say I had one particularly terrifying evening and I’m forever scarred haha

Such a fun read! Thanks for sharing Molly!

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