Home Alone, Day One

This morning we all loaded up to take James to the airport. For some unknown reason James said we would take the dog along. I’m guessing he wanted to have Charlie with him until the very last possible moment, so greatly he will miss the little fuzzball while he’s away. :-) I kept the dog in his bed, cuddled up with a blanket, on my lap the entire time. I was hoping that if he was sitting still instead of being restless and wandering all over the van it might help him to relax—and if there was any chance of him getting carsick it would surely alleviate it, right? Besides, some people get sick riding in the back but are perfectly fine up front. So I kept him up front in my lap and was sure to tell him to look out the window frequently. Ha! Well, you guessed it. About the time we got to the airport the creepy little dog suddenly horked all over my sleeve and the blanket. Bleagh!!! That is just soooooooo wrong on so many levels!!! I cleaned it up as well as I could, secretly wishing we had a baby so that I would have some wet wipes on hand (ha!), hugged my husband goodbye with one arm…

Then went shopping with a pukey arm. Gross!!! But you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. I was wearing a dark brown fuzzy sweatshirt and it’s not like anybody could tell, but the principle of the thing really bothered me. That’s just so wrong! ~sigh~ I left Katie in the van with the dumb sick dog (in case he had any more trouble—I made sure she kept him IN HIS BED to cut down on things to have to wash and clean up later) and the boys went into Albertson’s with me. We had failed to buy everything we needed when we were there yesterday, so it was necessary that we stop and pick up a few essentials. I must say, however, that it was a bizarre feeling standing at the register. I didn’t know it was possible for a girl to feel like a bachelor, but as I looked at the contents of my cart that’s exactly how I felt: frozen pizzas, four cases of coke, and two boxes of microwave popcorn. HA! It was great. :-) It’s exciting to have a selection of soda again after so long. We now have regular Coca-Cola, Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke, and root beer. Pizza parties, here we come!

We got home and I changed clothes and, obviously, had to do a load of laundry I hadn’t been planning on doing. Dumb dog. And, of course, the dog’s face may have been perfectly clean but the thought of it still being nasty grossed me out so I had to give him a bath. While I was blow drying him I decided that the “poof” on his head was just way too long and shaggy (won’t even stand up any more; it sort of parts and falls to the sides in all directions, leaving a little bald spot on the top of his head—Ha!) and I should cut it. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Why in the world would my kids let me decide to do such a thing?! I went a little crazy and, of course, when you’re giving a bad haircut you keep clipping a little more and a little more trying to fix it. Let’s just say the dog has NO poof now and looks royally stupid—even more stupid than a poodle usually looks. Of course, he does deserve it. Dumb dog. I should’ve given him a Mohawk.

The house was getting pretty chilly so I built a nice little fire (it makes me so happy to have a fire) before we dove into school, which seemed to take a lot longer than usual today but I’m sure it’s only because we got such a late start.

5:30 finally came around. Time for our first pizza party. :-) So we all crashed in the den with our Totino’s, sodas and popcorn, and watched Up. I like that movie. Dug reminds me so much of Hershey. The happy-go-lucky, not-so-bright kind of dog. I love that kind. Today I’m pretty sure that I love that kind a whole lot more than the dopey carsick kind. Ha!

We had our devotions tonight and read something that filled the kids with questions for which I had no answers. I kept reading and re-reading, thinking there must be a typo. HA! Not possible when you’re using the Bible as your devotion book. ;-) I called Mom for help, but she doesn’t know either—though she did at least have some ideas to build on. It was when Moses took his wife and kids and headed to Egypt after God appeared to him in via the burning bush. While they were on their way there, it says, “And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.” Oooooooooooookay. ?! Any ideas??? Tomorrow I’m going to look and see what some commentators have to say about it. It’s always interesting to me when there is something that you just don’t “get,” knowing that this is part of the divine Word of God and He put it there for a reason. He intends for us to read it and to understand it.

After devotions I told the kids I’d let them stay up and we’d play a game. After all, it is Friday and it is the first “party night.” I don’t know what came over me, but I agreed to teach them how to play Monopoly. They’ve been asking about it this past week and it somehow seemed like the right time. When James called at 10:00 we were just starting to get some houses and hotels on the board, Joe and Sam set to annihilate us girls in quick order, probably. I quietly motioned the kids off to bed so as to not freak James out too badly. “What in the world are the kids still doing up?!” I could hear it all in my head. Ha! He’ll know now, of course, because he’ll be checking on my blog for all of those things that I tell the general public instead of telling him directly. It makes things more fun that way. :-)

Now it’s nearly 11:00, all three kids and the dumb dog are sleeping soundly, and I’m thinking I’ll head that way myself. In the morning we’ve got to get the house all sparkly clean again because Jason will be here for an Open House from one until four o’clock. What in the world am I going to do for three hours with three kids and a CARSICK PRONE DOG??? If Jason was a girl instead of a guy I’d just stay here. When people showed up we could just walk around the house as if we’re here to check it out, too. “Oooooh, look at this place—it’s beautiful! How much are they asking? Wow, what a steal!” Ha! But alas, Jason isn’t a girl so I’ve gotta clear out. Think, think, think… I’ll come up with something to do. On the bright side, we have an Open House tomorrow! I know it’s the same subject and I’m acting as if it’s a new one, but this time I’m bringing it up as a good thing rather than an inconvenience. ;-) I sort of gave up praying for specifics a long time ago because I just DON’T KNOW what God’s plan is and I have no clue about His time table and what He wants to do when and all that. It’s obviously not in sync with my plans and time table! That means I’ve had it all wrong, I guess. God’s ways are better than my ways whether I ever understand the “why’s” or not. And I must say that there are soooooo many things that I have been learning through this “stuckness” that I wouldn’t have learned had this move been fast and easy like I expected. Anyway, it’s in God’s hands but it still seems like the right thing to do to pray for God to bless the Open House tomorrow and bring lots of people by and, if be His will, to bring “them”—the ones who will actually BUY this place. :-)