Yesterday I mentioned keeping my cousins 10 month old daughter and 2 year old son. I only had to keep the 2 year old till his aunt could get off work to get him, but the 10 month old stayed over night. Bath and bedtime were a breeze, and she slept all night waking about the same time we normally wake at our house! All went amazingly great! She's a very good baby!
About the time I'm dressing her, her mom calls. They were on their way. I looked at the clock; the book mobile was on it's way, too. I hurried to get everything together and by the door. I had just gathered the books when the book mobile pulled in the drive. We get on, get to checking in and checking out, and up comes my cousin.
I pass off the baby to her daddy, make a few trips in and out of the house for all her stuff, and then we just stand there talking. I can't figure out why the book mobile hasn't left yet, so my oldest volunteers to check and see what's wrong. He discovers that in the midst of the hustle and bustle dealing with the baby's stuff we forgot our entire crate of books on the bookmobile! The woman has to be the most patient person I know! and sweet as she can be! She didn't act like she was in any hurry at all! I felt bad b/c with baby on hip, I headed off the bus, and had told my oldest to pack the crate... he never heard me. teens don't hear much, do they? lol!
Once my cousin and her family leave, as does the bookmobile, we head back in the house to finish up the morning chores. My oldest had a project to finish up, so he sits down to conquer that task. I sit down, too! I thought I'd take a quiet moment!
Not...My daughter runs in hollering about something being in the neighbors yard. So off I go again... thinking what now?
"Mom, something is in there!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't you hear it... MOOOOM!!!? Listen to the dogs!"
"What?"
"LISTEN!"
"I can't your yelling!" lol!
And so... low and behold I hear a familiar sound... it's our missing cat! Well, the newly adopted stray cat that is!
See... he made our house his home on Monday or someone else made our house his home when they dumped him. I'm not so much a cat person, but good for the cat, my kids are. They couldn't help but fall in love with him. Then...he goes amiss! After being gone nearly two full days, they were sure he'd never come back.
Now what is that I spy with my little eye... it took a lot of spying to figure out where he was, but I spotted him al'right! Blending right in with the bark... he's got a unique pattern (something like that of an occelot), so I could barely make him out fifty foot up that pine tree! The neighbor's squirrel dog wins again... cept this time, he's done treed himself a cat!
We call the neighbor cell phone, move the dogs from one part of the fenced in area to the other area, and call that cat over and over and over again! After a while I give up which makes me look heartless to my kids or more specifically to my 14 year old!
"Come on, we're going home!" I say.
"But, Mom... It can't get down! I have to climb the tree!"
"You're not climbing the tree!"
"I can use my climbing stand or those things dad has to hook on your boots!"
"I don't think so!"
"Mom! It is NOT going to climb down!"
It got up there, didn't it!"
"But there aren't any branches...It can't jump down!"
"It will get down!"
"Mom, it won't!"
"It will figure out the dogs are penned up, and it WILL get down! I promise!"
"Mom, call the fire department!"
"No!"
"Mom it's gonna die up there!"
"I've never seen a dead cat in a tree before!"
"MOM!!!"
"COME ON!" I hollered waving him toward the gate.
Now during the time we're going on and on fussing about this cat, we're supposed to be getting ready to go to my mom's work place for her birthday lunch. My daughter had already left the scene when her nose started bleeding. Dry air does it to her sometimes. I had instructed her to do the usual stuff, but when I got back to the house, she was still having issues.
Her brother, who knows everything, told her...
"You know if you lose too much blood, you'll die!"
That's all it took! She was convinced, she was dying! Crying frantically doesn't really help too much when you trying to stop a nose bleed! I get to looking at the clock and think... we can't do this anymore. I call the doc's office, and we end up loading up to see the doctor. By the time we drive there, wait in the waiting room, and see the doc, the nosebleed stops. Seriously my kinda luck! Not that I wanted her to be bleeding like that forever, but I so hate sitting in a waiting room full of sick people! lol! ... nothing like going to the doctor well just to get sick, ya know!
We get the all clear, and then head on to my mom's office! Just so happens they are serving Gumbo! Oh... yum! We love Gumbo...or should I say my gumbo. We use beef sausage and chicken. This was chicken and sausage gumbo...but it was pork. We don't eat pork, so that was out. The other options was squirrel gumbo... and that was most definitely out! rofl! I'm from the country, but I don't like it that way! ugh...
My daughters exact words were, "Mom, I think I'm going to be sick!" lol! I thought, "Me, too, honey! Me, too!"
I think she wasn't so much talking about the gumbo, though I am sure that was the icing on the cake...so to speak... btw we did eat a piece of that! :) Baby, bookmobile, blood draining down her face and throat, thinking the cat was going to die up the tree, being convinced by her brother that she was going to bleed to death, and then seeing squirrel parts floating around in a pot... a little too much for one little girl all before noon! She was exhausted!
"Can we just go home? I want to go to bed!" was the next thing I heard.
"Me, too!"
