Cats in Bags and Mud Pies
Monday, September 11, 2006
Monday brought cracks of lightening and sheets of rain as Collette woke up to the mewing of Ivy’s cats. She and OLeif were to spend Sunday to Sunday at Ivy’s, watching the kitties and eating all of Ivy’s food, of which there was plenty. A full pantry, two freezers, two refrigerators, and a whole wall of shelves in the basement. If they found themselves snowed-in for an entire year, they would only just come to the end of the food supply without having to buy a thing.
Meanwhile, Sunday had brought more screaming babies to the nursery. Somehow Collette always ended up with the particularly unhappy toddlers. However, she did find that the screams subsided rather quickly when the tears were ignored and they were left to themselves. Throughout the two hours waiting for the service to finish, Pastor Ham preached, Todd Akin greeted the congregation, and Dr. Trade-Winds arrived later in the afternoon for the official dedication service.
In Sunday School, the children had been promoted, and little red-haired fella moved into the first grade class. His recent obsession with diamond-hunting had sparked his interest in wearing jewelry. Collette noted that he unashamedly wore a plastic ring from a bubble-gum machine with a jewel dangling off the end. And even more surprising – none of the other boys ridiculed him for it.
Meanwhile, back at Ivy’s that night, while OLeif prepared a piece of good meat for his lunch the next day, Collette chatted with Mom for a few moments on the phone. Somewhere at the end of the conversation, Collette heard a common Mom-gasp, the typical whoa-sound Mom made whenever taken by surprise. Apparently she had been sitting on the front porch and saw a sizeable object suddenly slipped off the roof right in front of her.
“I thought maybe it was a great spider or something,” Mom laughed over the fact the next morning.
Carrie had been on the roof with the fat black Pumpkin and decided to lower her over the edge in a canvas bag.
“Well, I have to go,” Mom said over the phone. “I have to literally let the cat out of the bag.”
Monday, despite the usual, Frances and Linnea operated a mud-pie factory for several hours in the afternoon. Rose ordered a mud pie through the kitchen window. And Carrie took off for her first piano lesson with Annamaria.