Meet the Cleavers

Yesterday, around 4:30 PM - Leah and I arrive back home after a long day of church, meetings, and visiting with the grandparents. I make several trips back and forth between the car and the house by way of the garage, unloading clothes from a consignment sale and all of my miscellaneous stuff. I finish the unloading and begin laundry.

Yesterday evening, around 7:00 PM - Scott comes home from watching a basketball game with his friend. Leah is asleep on a blanket on the floor while I sit next to her folding laundry.

Last night, around 11:00 PM - After bathing Leah and getting her to bed, assembling bottles for the night, and doing other necessary things, I sit in the recliner for a few minutes to relax before going to bed. Scott doesn't feel good, so I tell him to go to bed and that I will handle Leah all night.

Last night, around 11:05 PM - Scott moves toward the bedroom to go to bed. He stops in his tracks and utters a sound of extreme surprise.

Last night, around 11:06 PM - Scott tells me there is A SNAKE in the hallway.

A SNAKE.
Yes, it was small (I think it was a baby - and about maybe a foot long), but it was a SNAKE. In. My. House.

Scott went in the kitchen while I clutched Leah; he got a meat cleaver (don't even ASK why I have a meat cleaver) and whacked the snake. Pretty much decapitated the thing, and put it in the kitchen sink. I went in later - like a half an hour later - and he was still alive. His head, which was barely attached to his body, was still moving, and he was still opening and closing his mouth. When Scott went in to finally kill it, the snake snapped at the cleaver. Freaky.

Scott got online to check out what kind it was, because we were both freaking out. We couldn't think of how on earth it had gotten in the house, and we were terrified that it might have been poisonous. He found out it's a ring snake, and it's harmless to humans. Thank goodness, but then we were both nervous wrecks, thinking of all of the "what ifs."

What if he had been poisonous? Leah had been sleeping down on the floor! I was sitting on the floor!

What if he hadn't found him? The snake was literally in the doorway of our bedroom. I can't imagine to think of finding a SNAKE when I got up in the middle of the night with Leah. Now, too, I'm all paranoid, wondering what else is in our house!

What if he had surfaced when Leah and I were here by ourselves? I SURE wouldn't have wanted to hack the thing. I don't think I would have known what to do. I found a snake in the garage one time, but that's different.

The only thing we can figure is that the snake came in the door leading to the garage when I was unloading everything from the car earlier. He must have been right outside and slithered (ew) up the step, through the laundry room and kitchen, and into the hallway to our bedroom. He was still pointed in that direction, but how on earth did we not see him earlier? It's just so gross and scary, you know? Makes me feel all vulnerable. I don't like it one bit.