Non invasive blood test and - eek! a mouse

I have been meaning to note this for awhile, for anyone that this might help.  There is a new blood test that detects Trisomy 18, 13, and 21.  (Trisomy 21 is Down Syndrome)  This is good news because it can be done in place of an amniocentesis.  (Having an amnio can be risky for the baby.)

It was hard for me to finally agree to an amnio to see if Lilly really did have Trisomy 18, as I was worried about the risks.  (see my posts here and here about it.)  But we did need to know, as many decisions surrounding Lilly's birth depended on that information.

This morning it is dark and gloomy out, and raining.  But I am enjoying the sound the rain makes on the metal roof of our old farmhouse.  Living out in the country is wonderful and peaceful.  Even if we do have uninvited guests.  Little tiny furry uninvited guests with long tails.  Who love pecans.  Look what I found when I took some towels out of this kitchen drawer:

The cabinet next to the drawer had a chewed up pecan bag with very few pecans left in it.  That was a busy mouse!  Or mice ...

So we set some traps.  I will spare you a picture of the mouse that was in one 2 days later.  (I don't want to get a bunch of hate emails from the save-the-mice types.)  But let me say it was the biggest mouse I had ever seen!  I took it outside and let the body fall out of the trap into the woods.  Ick!

Now for a little Bible humor.  Not long ago, I read Hunter the story from Numbers 22:21-39 about Balaam and his donkey.  This is the story where Balaam is riding his donkey and the donkey sees the angel of the Lord in the road and turns to avoid it.  Balaam doesn't see it and gets mad and beats his donkey to get him back on the road.  Finally God allows the donkey to speak to Balaam and the donkey asks Balaam why he was beating him.  Balaam answers the donkey and then he finally sees the angel.  As most kids are, Hunter was fascinated by the whole story.

A few days later, Hunter was helping Frank bring in firewood.  Afterwards, as Frank brushed off Hunter's jacket, Hunter suddenly started yelling "Why are you hitting me?"  He kept saying it and Frank kept saying "I'm not hitting you!"  Hunter finally explained he was making a joke about Balaam's donkey.

:-)