Stockpiling for the Winter

I am always calling my crew monsters, or munchkins or little people . . . they respond to lots of things.  Believe it or not, one the best responses I get is when I request "good listeners."  When I need everyone to come to me or to pay attention, I simply say, "I need 5 good listeners right here" and then I count them as they come and miracle of miracles it pretty much always works.  I have NO idea why or how, but some things you simply do not question!

Tonight I am thinking I may have to amend their calling card to Squirrels . . . or maybe Chipmunks.  Hmmm, yes I think I prefer Chipmunks.  In all fairness, I really only have one Chipmunk, but this little critter was putting up quite the stockpile.

Today as I passed a new end table we have in our living room, I noticed there was something under it.  I assumed a toy and went on my way as I was on a mission to clean the bathrooms!  Mission complete!! (I have to pat myself on the back for the small victories some days.  Though Clint did just inform me that our bathroom toilet stall still smells like pee so maybe the victory is still out of reach.  With 3 boys (and honestly the girls contribute too), there is inevitably pee around the toilet in our bathrooms.  The master bathroom smell is the worst because the toilet is in a very small, closed off area.  I am open to suggestions on how to get rid of the smell because I have tried cleaners and I have even tried a 50/50 bleach/water solution.  I don't smell it after cleaning, so maybe it's all in Clint's head . . . . anyway, I think I'm going to go in there with vinegar and baking soda in a minute.  If THAT doesn't work I'm out of ideas, so bring them on!)  Now that I have veered WAY off topic . . .after finishing my semi-successful bathroom cleaning, I again noticed something under the end table.  This time I stopped to fish out the assumed toys so I could put them away.  What I found instead was FOOD!

Okay, so all moms of small kids find a wayward fruit snack under the couch cushion and a lonely goldfish or five under the chair . . . maybe even a few petrified marshmallows, 2 batteries, a couple of glow sticks and some velcro teeth that go with a build your own monster puppet under the oven (these items may or may not have been found when I pulled out the oven to clean last night), but this is not what I am talking about folks.  I found: 3 crackers, half of a peanut butter/nutella sandwich, a fourth of a hot dog with bun, a piece of bread and part of a homemade waffle!!  My little chipmunk means business!  In retrospect I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the loot.  This find made me laugh, I mean really, why?!

I had two suspects.  At the top of my list was Westin.  Westin is a terrible eater, so you might think that I assumed him because I thought he was trying to get out of eating meals.  WRONG!  All of the foods I found are among his favorites, so that theory is out the window.  I honestly don't know exactly why I suspected Westin, I just did.  For some reason it seemed like something he might do.  Next on my list was Brooklyn, because . . .well, because she's Brooklyn and as unfair as it might be, anytime I discover some totally random mess, she's my go to girl.  Brooklyn is the queen of random acts of mischief, so she's pretty much always on the suspect list.  Plus, these are my only two that eat peanut butter/nutella sandwiches . . . so that narrows it down too.

After asking several times, Westin finally admitted to his chipmunk-like escapade.  I still have no idea why he did it and he really couldn't give me any reason either.  Just something random to do I guess.  Maybe he overhead Granna talking about how the news says this is going to be a brutal winter with lots of snow and ice . . .and how they are recommending making preparations by freezing food and stocking up on water and non-perishables.  See, he was just trying to be prepared, though he missed the mark on non-perishables!  I will never know why he did this, but it will always make me laugh!  I don't really know exactly how long this has been going on.  Today is Tuesday and I made waffles on Sunday, so at least that long, maybe even a few days longer.  The end table has only been in our house for about week, so that narrows it down considerably, but still even 2 or 3 days worth of food is pretty hilarious!  I'm so glad I found it before a family of bugs moved in!

Until the next adventure . . .