Camping with Esteban.

Conni is gone to Camp Lachlan.  For three weeks.

She writes a couple of times each week.  Apparently, they have a mouse issue in their cabin.  Mouse traps were procured.  None of Conni's three counselors knew how to set a mouse trap.  They were scared to death of it.  One of them asked Conni to set it saying, "Please don't hurt yourself.  I could get into big trouble for letting a camper do this, if you get hurt."

Conni set the trap.

They named the mouse Esteban.  He took the bait, but it didn't set off the trap.  They saw him the next morning along with a shredded tissue.

"He's really cute.  Too bad he has to die..."



Here's the next letter I received from Conni:

Dear Mom,

This morning it was super foggy.  And cold!  The perfect morning for coffee or hot chocolate...

So, last night, the counselors forgot to have me set the trap, and I forgot about the trap too.   I went to bed.

I don't know how much time passed, but I woke up and all three counselors were leaning over me; whispering to me.

"Conni, wake up."
"There's a mouse and it's HUGE and it's under my bed!"
"Shh."
"We need you to set the trap."
"I"m so sorry we had to wake you up."

I got up and walked over to where we keep the mousetrap.

Anna: "Are you sure you're not sleepwalking?"
Grace: "Please don't snap your fingers off setting the mousetrap half asleep."
Sydney: "Don't kill yourself."

I set the trap; didn't kill myself.  Walked back to bed; fell right back to sleep.

Next morning, Grace said, "Thanks so much for waking up last night to set the trap.  We'll give you candy or something."

Later, at breakfast, she said, "Conni, thanks so much for doing that last night.  I'm really sorry we had to wake you up.  You're so awesome!"

I had sudden inspiration.

"Awesome enough to get hot chocolate?" I asked.

"Sure!" 

So, that was my reward/compensation.  Hot chocolate on that freezing cold morning.  It was awesome.

Love, Conni.

I got such a kick out of this letter.  I loved the way she wrote it.  I do believe this girl will write a book of some sort some day.  She definitely has a way with words.

Two days later, I got this short note:

Dear Mom,

Esteban is dead.  Yay!

We finally caught him last night.  We're going to set the trap again because there's another one.

Love, Conni



We are enjoying hearing from her.  She's having a great time.  Meanwhile, I'm up to my eyeballs in a project I'm pushing to finish before she gets back.  More on that later.

Have a great week.  And, oh yeah.  Teach your kids how to set a mousetrap.  It might come in handy some day.  :)