I Was Almost Done with the Nighttime Routine...

Yes, I almost had everyone put to bed...

We had read scriptures (had a great little discussion on 1 Nephi 11:17) and said our family prayer in the east room where Joe, Mel, and Hyrum have been sleeping. After giving each of those three a hug and kiss we turned off the light and moved onto the next room - the West room to put Abi, Wes, and Ethan to bed. All three of their blankets were on the floor, which makes me nervous. It was upstairs though, and I don't think bugs can make it up that far easily, except for the tree frogs that jump up on the roof near the window. I shook of Wesley's blanket and put it on him. I picked up and shook off Abi's. One more kid to go. Ethan's was over on the floor tucked under the bed a little bit. And here's where some inspiration came in. A little voice reminded me that the day before I had seen that blanket in the dark corner of the house by the front door that no one uses - our version of a storage area. In the kitchen this week the kids used a towel to wipe up some spilled milk and there was a dead frog in it, so I've been trying to keep large mounds of cloth material (i.e. blankets, towels) off the floor. Ethan's blanket, I think, had fallen onto the floor from having been set on the rocking chair over there (moved there to not take up room space?). So I pick it up Ethan's folded blanket and think I see a little squished tree frog on it. I squeal a little too loudly as I quickly drop it and say "there's a dead frog" - I shake it, tried to flick it off the little squished frog, it either dropped or was alive as it fell into a different fold of the blanket. I flipped it over again, still looked like a squished something (not very good lighting in these houses) and looked at it - it wasn't a tree frog. I yell "Aaahh!!! It's a scorpoin! (trying to look at it but not too closely...) It's dead..." I said and thought as I tried to flick it off with my shoe. I always wear my shoes. And I flicked it, and it started to run across the tile to anywhere where it could get away from us. I scream louder "AAHH!" as I give it a shoe smack trying to kill it. No effect and it's still running. It's reached the wall and turned left and is headed to disappear behind the closet - one more jump on it with my shoe and it sticks to the bottom. "AAAHHH!" as I give my shoe a whiplash to flick if off - it goes flying, hits the wall, lands on the floor, and starts booking it again. The three kids from this room are all on the bed freaking out, the other three have heard my startled yells and are all at the door wondering what's going on - the door is only slightly open and the scorpion has stopped and hunched down right in front of the door. I don't want to open the door more in case that sends it running again. I tell Joe/Mel/Hyrum "There's a scorpion, go get me a cup... don't open the door - just go get me a cup!" They return with a little blue Ikea cup, "No a big cup, a glass cup..." They return with it. I put it over the scorpion. I go downstairs and find something hard and thin to slide under the cup... Wesley's hard laminated ABC book should do the trick. We slide it under, flip it over, and examine our prisoner.

I did step on it twice. Hard. Or atleast I tried to do it hard. I'm thinking maybe it's hurt and is dead. And it looks dead, but it looked dead on the blanket too. The kids keep telling me it's alive. I look. It looks dead. "It's dead".
"It's alive!"

I saw it and then believed the kids - it is alive... every 30 seconds or so it'd briefly push up with it's tail and try to reach out of the cup. Glad it's a tall cup. We've all got the heebie jeebies and everyone wants to go sleep in my bed with me. "NO! - there were 2 scorpions in my room, remember! You don't want to sleep in there..." No, everyone into your own beds. Okay, fine, everyone into JMH's room. But I let Abi sleep on the couch. But first she came with me outside to cannon-shoot the scorpion out of the cup and into the dirt lot across the street. All the dogs came running thinking I had some leftovers. I thought momentarily that I'd like to see what a dog does to a scorpion, but then just throw it. Hopefully it won't find it's way back before Thursday.
Abi pointing a lazer light on the scorpion. Wondering if it will damage a scorpions eyesight to have a lazer shooting straight into it. Didn't seem to phase him.

So, everyone has different opinions - some say a scorpion will kill a small kid like Lily, other say scorpion stings just sting, maybe make you a little numb. Well, hopefully this will be our last scorpion visitor here and hopefully also we'll never get to find out who's right about what happens to ya when you get poked by these ugly guys. Icgh!