Only at the Manship's ... our uninvited squatter.

Eli and I were picking up the house in anticipation of Luke's party while Dad was prepping the outside of the house and Luke was taking a little cat nap ... we took a couple of quick trips upstairs together to put away clothes and toys.  On the third trip, I sent Eli up with a car to put away ... task accomplished.  On the fourth trip, I sent Eli up with another toy ... a few seconds later I heard a horrible scream!   Thinking Eli fell down the stairs, I ran to help.  (Meanwhile, dad entered the house.)  Between sobs, Eli said, "There's a snake upstairs."  Thinking we have a boy with a wild imagination, I gave him a big hug and Dad said he'd go check it out and scare him away.  Seconds later, Daddy returned with all color drained from his face.  ELI WAS RIGHT!!!  We had a 1 1/2- 2 foot garden snake IN THE HOUSE on the SECOND FLOOR!   We tried very hard to maintain composure .... honestly, I think Eli was the most calm.  Daddy had leather gloves, a trash bag, his cell phone and a broom ... he stared down that snake for 45 minutes before grabbing it.  Meanwhile, mommy frantically called Orkin who referred her to a snake specialist answering service (actually turned out to be a man in Dallas who is a magician/illusionist/stand-up comedian/snake deterrent professional ...hmmmmm) and then a local Critter Control who services Hancock County.  The Critter Control man - SO NICE - drove from Portland, IN to Greenfield to help us.  He inspected the whole house (w/ his cute 5 year old daughter who was braver than all of us), didn't find any others and believes we're tightly sealed so we must have brought this sneaky squatter in the house some how.  (The only thing we can think was after our garage sale a few weeks ago ... UGH!)  We've asked him to come inspect us often b/c we can't stand the thought of this ever happening again!  (And, because he noted that we probably do have pretty good odds of bats being in the attic ... Can't wait to see who our next squatter is.) 

Oh, by the way, that snake won't be bothering us anymore thanks to Daddy.  And, we had to go buy a new broom!