The Snake

I hate snakes!  Hate them.  They give me the heebie jeebies like nothing else.  Because my parents live next to a field, they sometimes get snakes in their yard.  The other day the boys and I were at their house and we were out looking at their garden.  I saw a snake creeping through the plants, I screamed and took off running.  Nathaniel got excited to find it and my dad came over to help.  My dad caught it and put it into a plastic jar.  The boys were all pretty excited about it and carried it around, in the jar of course.  I kept reminding them that the snake was not coming home with us.  When it came time to leave, my dad said he had told them they could keep it.  ACK!  For some crazy reason I consented but told them that the snake would stay outside and would not be let out of the jar in our yard.  Luckily we had the truck so I told them the snake was riding home in the back.  When we got home they climbed right into the back of the truck to retrieve their treasure.  "Mom! The snake is gone!"  WHAT!?!?!?!  I was just imagining this creepy, crawly snake slithering around the garage and working it's way into my house.  Not happy.  I need to add that there were boxes of garbage in the back of the truck from cleaning out the basement.  The dang thing could be hiding anywhere.  At this point they decided they needed the protection of rubber gloves because "snakes are covered with germs mom".  The they went about searching the back of the truck until Nathaniel saw the snake go down a drainhole and out the bottom of the truck.  Great!  Luckily Caleb jumped out and caught it as it headed for the floor.  So we got the creature a nice, new, secure home in a bucket with a lid and poked tiny, non-escapable holes in the top.  Need I add that by this point I was completely creeped out and wondering what in the world I was thinking in letting them bring the thing home.  I was sure I was going to come across snakes slithering around my house.  I am shuddering just writing about it.  I made them take the bucket into the backyard while we ate lunch.  Later they went out to find that the poor thing had met it's demise in the hot summer sun.   Hopefully they've had their fill of snake fun because I don't think they will persuade me to repeat the mistake of bringing home a pet snake.  UGH!  Oh, the excitement of being a mom to all boys!