The Seven Year Itch
Sunday, August 28, 2011
In which the end of things happens and the continuation of other things… continues…
Seven years.
Why did that sound so long?
As Carrie said, “You’ve been married long enough to make it seem OK for you to give marriage advice.”
And six and a half years ended for Sinai and Rosie. It was their last day. Not to mention Judah’s last service, though he and the family would still be living on site in the farmhouse. A few old faces had showed up for the occasion, including three-fifths of the Popples family. And an interim pastor had been provided for the next indefinite period of time, from the seminary.
As applause swept through the last moments of the second service — Collette listening behind closed doors — Sinai was heard to say…
“So does that mean you want another sermon?”
And so, two sermons, two communions, Costco cake and punch, a new Mac, memory scrapbook, and all those tears and applause later… it was all officially ended.
Back on the ranch…
Carrie had prepared a special anniversary lunch: pork chops with cilantro pesto, stuffed mushrooms (a favorite of OLeif), and rich homemade Oreo fudge cake.
Mom was already at Amanda’s baby shower with Aunt Corliss.
Dad was napping.
Frances returned about two hours early from training and immediately hustled into the kitchen for the remains of lunch.
Meanwhile, Puck was snuggled under a blanket between his aunts, Linnea on Minecraft with Collette’s laptop, and Carrie on her laptop discussing fashions, etc., with Rose who was on the opposite side of the room with her own laptop. This included a $250 ray gun statue and bronze flatware from Anthropologie for Rose, and angora sweaters for Carrie. A spread of dresses…
“I think I could pull off a dress,” said Francis, having downed two pork chops already.
“Yeah,” Rose replied, “especially with your hips.”
Then the matter of the crosses given to Sinai and Judah, signed by all the youth… was broached…
“Yeah,” said Linnea, “Francis signed his name huge.”
“It was on accident,” Francis protested.
“Oh,” Carrie mocked, “’I accidentally asserted my dominance’.”
Joe joined the party then, with the various cats and bunny (or ‘Bun-Bun’)…
“You need to give me your birthday menu,” Carrie told him. “We need to know what you want.”
Joe did his best Mom-voice…
“I just want well-behaved brothers and sisters!”
“Aw,” Linnea groaned. “I hate it when Mom and Dad always say that, because they know it’s never going to work.”
“Yeah,” Carrie laughed. “I got in trouble once when I was a kid and Dad said that’s what he wanted for his birthday, and I said, ‘Well, forget that!’”
Then Carrie convinced Puck to sit on Joe’s face in order to be able to play with ‘the squishy egg’.
And Joe had stories of his Saturday on the boat: flying sky-high running through the air like the cartoons while tubing, Wally putting a dead fish down his pants… all that good stuff…
This was followed with teasing Francis…
“Yeah, the other night, Francis went downstairs to go to bed. And all of the sudden we heard I Love Lucy blasting from the basement, because he’d forgotten to turn down the sound.”
Meanwhile, OLeif was joy-riding with a church buddy to Washington. It was about time. It had never seemed to work out until then.
Puck was busy in the dirt.
Linnea had left with fellow teammates to purchase sparkly hairspray and pink dye hairspray to ambush her volleyball coaches heads at their next match.
And a little rain was coming.
OLeif returned in time to be presented with their anniversary card, check, and the ridiculous-scrambled-version of Happy Anniversary. A Snicketts-tradition.
It had been a somehow very-draining weekend.