October 13
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
At the house, Collette was greeted first by the ever-red-cheeked Francis.
“I know how to fix my poison ivy problem,” he said. “I just need to get a small power washer.”
In the morning…
Carrie was doing better all things considered… sitting on the couch in her gray leg warmers, and eventually beginning a batch of banana muffins, as much as her strength would allow for the present time.
“It’s Francis’ turn to deactivate my tattoo,” she said later, with a grin on her face.
Francis shook his head. “Nope.”
Francis told the story of how Mr. G had offered Creole an old army jacket. When Creole accepted, Mr. G pulled it off of a hook on the wall in the garage where it had been hanging for years. As he handed it to him, huge live spiders and spider carcasses began falling out of it all over the floor.
“What? Don’t want it anymore now?” Mr. G asked him, handing it over to him.
Collette had to keep Puck from rummaging in the piles of birthday party supplies, including the boxes of Chinese paper lanterns.
Rose was busy trying out OLeif’s old pair of crutches that were enormously too tall for her.
“Francis!” Puck declared loudly. “Onion’s using your hopping things!”
Francis had also taught Puck how to yell ‘Uncle!’ after being put into a headlock, which did not come across as well as first thought, apparently…
“Agh! Francis!”
“What do you say!”
“Daddy!”
And Snuggles was busy eating a plate of scrambled eggs.
In the afternoon…
A small box and a small package, both from Thailand, arrived in the mail addressed to Carrie: leather flower clips and hair ties, an additional Linnea birthday gift.
Puck found his grandma’s cotton candy-pink fuzzy slippers and shuffled about the house in them before hurrying outside with his Lila where they found a turtle on the driveway which Joe had nearly run over.
Somehow Puck got the idea that Carrie was going to eat the turtle.
“It will not go in there!” he declared. “It will crawl out of her mouth!”
Even later, someone had apparently taught Puck how to yell at the moon…
“Go back to sleep moon! It’s the daytime! You shouldn’t be out here!”
And Carrie and Rose sat under the shade of the persimmon tree to catch the gold setting of the sun and the cool light breezes of the late afternoon.
Mom was inside putting together the Mongolian beef for dinner, shortly after which Dad returned from work early, and there was the hurry to depart for church.
In the evening…
Rose was preparing to babysit Hansel and Gretyl after they returned from church.
Mom and Francis were busy setting up the church barn for Linnea’s birthday party on Friday.
And Collette joined Puck as the Toddler supervisor for the evening. For all twelve toddlers. The sheer volume of the children was next to unbelievable. Singing and hand motions with 24 maracas, orange pumpkin faces and purple glue sticks, puppy chow mix, lemonade, drawers and bins of toys, scavenger hunts in the sanctuary, and Veggie Tales. Collette came to the conclusion by the end of the evening that Daisy-Jean had the patience of an absolute saint.