going batty.

Monday nights are one of my favorite nights during the week. On Monday nights my sister, Alyssa, and one of my very best friends, Hannah, come over to watch The Bachelor and eat brownies and ice cream.

This past Monday night was a little bit different though.

We were all sitting in the living room and had just finished up a bowl of cookies-n-cream ice cream and were enjoying the second half of the show when all of the sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I see a BAT fly around the corner and into the living room! I immediately screamed (and I'm not/have never been a girly screamer!) and somehow got out: "A BAT!!" And let me tell you, that thing was quick!

What happened next is funny now that I'm looking back at it. Nothing about it was funny at the time! Alyssa immediately dove under the blanket she was using. I curled up in a ball on the couch with a pillow over my head and Hannah fell out of her chair and onto the ground, covered up in a blanket! As we proceeded into hysterics, Rob stood up and walked into the hallway to find out where it went. He found out quickly as it flew right at him and hit his arm!

The next thing I know, the bat is flying around in circles - either around the loop that makes up our house layout, around the living room (dive bombing where we were sitting - or so it seemed!) or in the office - and Rob is walking around with a snow shovel, opening all possible doors, with his phone to his ear saying: "Uh, Dad, are you busy? I have a strange question for you." (All I could think was: "Quit wasting time asking if he's busy. Tell him there is a BAT in here!") The screaming continued until we finally heard the back door slam and the dead bolt lock (I guess we thought the bat knew how to use a door handle). The bat had flown into the kitchen, halfway down the stairs and out the door into the breezeway. Thankfully Rob was standing right there watching it and could slam the door closed!

The next problem was that the breezeway (1 door to the house, 1 door to the garage, 2 doors to the outside) was entirely closed. Rob went outside to prop one of the outside doors so that it would fly out. It didn't.

Instead of taking the opportunity to leave, it flew around in frantic circles (see blur in right picture) and hung out in the corner. Rob went around the back of the house and propped the other door open. I wish I had given him the camera because I'm pretty sure Alyssa, Hannah and I made a funny picture with our faces plastered to the window in the back door as we watched (and continued to scream if it flew next to our window).

When it wouldn't leave, Rob started throwing snowballs at it. He finally hit it and it fell to the ground. The bat couldn't move...so, here's what happened next.

I was busy trying to take pictures of the bat and then realized that Rob looked funnier than the bat did! He finally swept it out the back door and it took off into the night. I've never been so happy to see something leave my house!

After Hannah and Alyssa left, Rob and I were so freaked out that another one would get into the house so we began to try and figure out how it would have gotten in. We figured out that it probably came in a hole in one of the attic vents. The door to our attic is in our office and the door has a big gap under the door. We figure it probably flew under the door and straight into the living room. Well, we weren't going to have THAT happening again!

So we made sure that another bat was not getting into our house that night - towel stuffed under the door and three social work books on top! We also put a towel under our door that night too! 

On Tuesday night my parents came over to help check out the attic and Rob found out that the rafters on the ends of the attic were open. He took a picture down one of the ends of the house without a flash and could see outside light at the end of the rafter! No wonder bats could get it. He took care of that real quick.

Now it's Wednesday and we've been bat free since Monday night - thank goodness. I never need that to happen again! I'm so thankful that Rob didn't have class this past Monday night and was here when it happened. I don't know what we would have done!

Here's to hoping that the only event of this coming Monday night is us laughing at Michelle and the rest of the crazy girls on "The Women Tell All" episode of The Bachelor!