Another Job Description - AKA Snake Wrangler!!!

Well what started out this morning as leaving home on time so the kids could have their 15 mins of play time with their friends before school all went haywire in a few moments. I had asked the kids to get into the car while I grabbed my handbag, car keys and water bottle and while I was inside for 1 minute more than the kids I heard Sienna scream and come running inside. I wasn't worried as yesterday they saw a cat staring at them with green eyes while it was looking at them through the front glass panel on either side of the door and they screamed then.

It was not that shriek that a mother dreads like last week when Sienna screamed and I thought she had fallen backwards from the bar stool in the kitchen, instead she was sitting on the edge of the coffee table which is about 30 cms from the floor and had slipped down off it with the back of her neck hitting the edge of the table. Now that was an "OMG, is she alright scream" as I was running towards the lounge room. So in terms of my concern, the coffee table incident was an 11 out of 10 and this mornings scream was about a 5 out of 10. So I'm not overly worried at this stage and she came racing inside to say that there was a snake on the side of the car. I said "that's ridiculous" or words to that effect, "it couldn't possibly be". In my head in that split second moment I'm picturing a big snake (like what was on Bondi Vet last week, 7 metres huge round scary thing) so I'm thinking there is no way a snake could hold onto the side of the car so it can't be true. Again, she says "no really mum, there's a snake on the side of the car" so I proceeded to investigate and when I walked around to the side OMG it was indeed a snake. I was terrified even though in snake terms it's tiny but it's the closest I've ever been to a snake and this snake was on my car that we needed to drive to school in. By this stage James had hopped out of the car and so there we were, the 3 of us, looking at this snake on the side of Sienna's car window. ummm...what to do, I stood on the driveway and turned around and looked at my neighbours houses and thought, it's 8.00 am on a Thursday morning most men would already be at the office by now so it was up to me to sort this snake problem out asap. Right, first things first, we need a photo, hang on, we also need to get rid of the snake before it crawls onto the roof in which case it's capture would be well out of my league of expertise. I sent James inside to go out the back and get our big outdoor broom. I raced inside and got the camera and snapped these two very quick photos, I even put it on AV and not manual before I got to the car. I then gave my camera to James and told him to carefully take that inside along with Sienna and stay there.

I thought I just have to do this so we can claim our car back so I put the broom on the snake and brushed it hard to the right flinging the snake across the driveway. It got up and started heading towards our front garden so I moved very quickly to sweep it into the gutter. It slithered across the road to the tree on the footpath and it was gone before my very eyes. SERIOUSLY FOLKS..... a mother's job is never done.... so now I can add "Snake Wrangler" to the ever growing list of jobs that encumbers motherhood. Cook, Cleaner, Maid, Taxi Driver, Financial Expert, Photographer, Decorator, Nurse, Grocery Shopper, Gardener, Event Planner, Memory Keeper oh yeh and my new skills as a Snake Wrangler..... I was so scared but more scared if that snake got onto the roof of my car. A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do to protect her babies from the big bad snake, well to me anyway, to someone who is used to these things it would be considered a teeny little snake (Sharon you can stop laughing now, I'm sure you see these every day of the week on your property in far North Queensland) but for a little city girl like myself it was very traumatic!!!

I said to the kids that this is definitely the photo of the day. It gives me the creeps just looking at it however this story had to be recorded as I did not want it to be the one that got away !!! get it (ha ha .... I know, I have to make light of it because I was very scared). Grasshoppers jumping on me scare me, and in fact I scream if those big brown ones come anywhere near me.... cochroaches on the other hand, they don't frighten me but I don't want them in my house either. And that folks is the story of why my kids missed out on playtime this morning. Who needs an exciting life when you can read other people's stories without the danger element.