seriously?

What's the story? Big E was getting ready to go to TaiKwon Do and little J always likes to hop in the car with big J and big E for a few minutes to say goodbye anytime they go places, so little J made his way outdoors first to go stand by daddys car and came back in and:

Little J: Mommy, I scared, I scared of the snake. (calmly and almost jokingly)
Me: What? Let daddy check. (daddy standing by the door watching all along)
Little J: See, big snake, I scared!
Big J: Um, come check this out.
Me: seriously??????what??????


At this point I told big E to get ready it was time to go, and I ventured outside and saw a black shiny skinny snake sticking out from under big J's car! Little J was right!!! He spotted the snake! I guess we've lived here around 6 years now and have never spotted a snake, we live in a pretty big neighborhood with very little woodland around us and this was a little out of place. It was about 3 feet long when stretched all the way out, but it wasn't interested in us OR moving!!


I grabbed the camera and was trying to decide what kind of snake it was because last year there was talk of copperheads in our neighborhood in one specific area.... So, little J wanted to hang out with big J at the door so I ventured out to try to take a picture. It had squirmed it's way right into the crack between the pavement in our drive, and I wasn't going to get too close until I knew what it was! So with the kids watching I asked:


me: What do we do with it?? {intention was for big J/daddy to answer}
Big E speaks up: Call the police!!
Me: ((turned around to avoid him seeing me laugh really hard)) I'm betting the police wouldn't be interested


Big E and big J left for TaiKwon Do, little J and I rounded up one of our neighbors and his wife and we tried to be the snake wranglers... Don was successful in getting it on my broom stick one time, but then the snake retreated into the neighbors shrubs, literally winding itself up in one of them. Unfortunately the neighbor that lived in that house wasn't home yet, so I waited on her and her 3 daughters and told them the snake was in their brush area... it peeked it's head out for her to see almost as if to introduce itself!! No idea where it went overnight... but I can tell you, I'm stepping up the pace on my 'natural area' that I'm working on in the front of my house!! Getting rid of the low shrubs this weekend!!

I took these pictures when it made it to the street, right before it moved into the neighbors shrubs... I didn't get good pictures, but here they are....