Sleep Deprivation and Home Invasion

I completely understand now why my parents always got such joy from dragging me out of bed early every day. It's payback for when you're very young and never let your parents get a decent night's sleep! I'd say with confidence that I've gotten a good, continuous 8 hours of sleep less than 10 times in the 4+ years since Ashleigh was born. Seriously; I'm not exaggerating. In the past two weeks I've been up for the day before 4 am more days than not. Well, up for the day until I do something silly like sit down to put my shoes on and then fall asleep. Then I'm late for work. OR I don't fall asleep but my girls lose their minds, turn the morning into a game of "let's make Mommy crazy" and I'm late. Or I'm on time but so tired I can't even concentrate on my work.

So, when they're older and want to sleep late on the weekends, guess what? I'm going to be the mean woman gleefully dragging them out of bed. So HA! I will get my revenge. And by then they'll be able to earn their keep a bit by helping with things like washing dishes and doing the never-ending laundry.

(I feel the need to point out to anyone who doesn't know me well, I love my children and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. But is a little decent sleep too much to ask?)

Now for the Home Invasion part. Ugh.

Their are mice in our house. I thought I might have seen one a few weeks ago but wasn't sure and figured it was my imagination because I've never found any evidence of mice. I SAW THREE THIS MORNING!!!! Oh my goodness, I almost had a heart attack, especially by #3. And doesn't that mean there are like, a million in the house or something? Laugh if you want, but I am truly distressed. I mean, those things are GROSS! They poop everywhere and gnaw on everything. And ewwww, I saw on tv that they constantly chew on things to keep their teeth worn down because their teeth never stop growing. Ick! And I find myself wondering where they can go. Can they get into my dishwasher and contaminate clean dishes? Will they get in the cabinets and on the counters? YUCK YUCK YUCK! I find myself wanting to take everything from the house and dump it into the yard this weekend and clean everything and make sure they're gone and never come back. I know this is irrational and I won't have the time or energy for that. But how do you truly get rid of them? Forget humane or environmentally friendly--I want those suckers DEAD AND GONE BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. But then I don't want dead mice in my house either.

Any suggestions on either problem will be greatly appreciated! :-)