The Cat in the Hat

Or should I say backpack. I always debate about whether to go out. I really need a break but it's a gamble for what I'm going to come home to. There was a women's retreat this last Friday and Saturday at my church. They decided they would attract more women if we didn't have to pack up and go somewhere. On Friday night I had made everyone dinner and was trying to get dressed and put my face on. All of a sudden I hear screaming. I come running downstairs and here's Romania crying with a bright red mark on his face. I don't have the whole story, but apparently he and Egypt we outside on the patio and he was playing basketball. Egypt was picking up and tossing these chunks of Christmas tree trunk (that's another story: my big plan was to turn them into rustic-looking candle holders). She hit him pretty hard, but I can't see how she could have that good an aim. She clobbered him in the cheek - nice red mark and a scratch that was bleeding.

So I have to put getting ready on hold and attend to the victim. Egypt was so upset she even went upstairs and got him a bandaid for his cheek. I told Super-Hero there was no way he could take the three of them for a walk in the woods (right behind our house) because there was no way to tell if they would ambush each other. That statement caused a chain-reaction: now Holland is crying hysterically because he had big plans for taking backpacks and having this hiking expedition. Romania is crying from being hurt and disliking his sister and Egypt is crying because her brother's hurt. And I'm supposed to leave like 10 minutes ago.

They were all asleep when I got home so I didn't even care what happened while I was gone. But I was planning on staying only half the day on Saturday. Holland was still planning on his explorer hike. I got a message on my pager from Super-Hero a couple hours after I left. Apparently Holland decided to pack LuLu, one of the cats, in his backpack to trek along with them. And if you know that Super-Hero is deaf, this becomes so much more comical. Now any normal hearing person would have nixxed this right away. But because he can't hear anything, he had no clue that a cat was being transported in a backpack. I just can imagine all the meowing and cries coming from that backpack. It wasn't until he started walking behind the kids, that he saw the cat poke her head out of the pack. They immediately turned around and came home.

Super-Hero had all these plans for the rest of the day: he was hoping to get gravel from someone giving it away off of Craigslist; he wanted to install these landscaping light fixtures; he wanted to go to the zoo. He didn't get the gravel (what a surprise with three kids), he didn't install the light fixtures (big surprise with three kids) but he did go to the zoo (big surprise with three kids). I really thought he was nuts to do this. Especially after the cat-in-a-backpack incident. What if one of them decided to stow-away a cat to the zoo? I'm not sure about all the happened, but I did get a report that Holland retrieved some money from one of those wishing ponds. I am now picturing what that looked like and wondering what Super-Hero saw (or chose to ignore, more likely).

I left just before the last meeting and came home to a quiet house. Which I immediately felt the need to clean. I should have taken a before and after picture. It's quite amazing how fast a place gets messed up. The other day I commented that it looked like a tornado came through. Egypt looked at me and said "a tornado is a big wind!". That's exactly right - a big wind blew through the family room.