Guess what? Larry got a new job! He will be working for the city, eight hours a day, doing mechanical work and also some upkeep on city grounds. So he will still have time to work at his shop each day, and the pay will doubtless be better than what we’ve been bringing in. Monday morning he had his last interview, and that afternoon the man called and told him he had the job. They’d started with seven men, worked their way down to two, and finally chose Larry.
When Larry had that last interview, he arrived early in the morning. The sun was just coming up, and it was foggy, so he’d turned his lights on when he left home. Now, the building where the city keeps their equipment is on the east side of town, and we live on the west. It is situated on the city’s golf course, Quail Run. The drive takes about fifteen minutes, and, by the time Larry arrived, the sun was up, and the fog was dissipating. He parked his pickup outside the office…walked inside…
…and left his lights on.
When he came back out, his battery was deader’n a doornail. (That is, his pickup’s battery was deader’n a doornail.) So he had to go back in and ask the men--to whom he’d just been divulging his cosmic mechanical know-how--to please come jump-start him. haha They were quite willing to help, although they did have a first-rate laugh over it. (And they probably will continue to, for a good while.)
This week, Hannah crocheted a cute bib with a little stuffed duck sewn right onto it, and also a larger, matching duck, while Dorcas did some pretty cross-stitching on a little pink gingham bonnet, and also sewed ribbon roses onto it, for Kenny and Annette’s baby.
Same as always, this time of year, the piano practicing is taking up much of my time… will I ever get my new arrangement for Come, Ye Thankful People learned? Making up an arrangement is one thing; actually playing it, that is, playing it as nearly perfect as these fingers of mine can, is another.
At the supper table one evening, we were discussing something Bethany (Bobby’s mother) had had a part in at school. Joseph continued his story, “…and Mrs. Wright’s the instigator.”
Caleb nodded seriously. “And she’s the science teacher, too!”
My burgundy fur jacket is all done now, and so is Hester’s dress...finally. While sewing Hester’s dress, I forgot the collar, and had to take it apart at the neck and redo it. Bother. This sort of thing invariably happens when I haven’t sewn for a while. Tomorrow I will start on Lydia’s…unless I decide to bake pumpkins instead; Lydia and Caleb’s are sitting on our porch, reminding me how much I like pumpkin chiffon pie, every time I walk past them.
Teddy and Caleb were playing a new race game on the computer. They discovered, to their surprise, that, when a player gets eliminated from a race, he gets put into ‘general traffic’ on the next game. Caleb wound up in a big green Mac truck, which totally delighted him.
“I’m glad I got eliminated!” he exclaimed gleefully.
Lydia came to see what was happening, just as Caleb’s truck went off the road, up a steep incline, and proceeded to execute a high end-over-end roll.
“Wow!” said Lydia. “How’d you get in a truck?” she asked.
“Because I got eliminated!” Caleb replied happily.
Lydia raised her eyebrows. “What’s that mean?” she inquired.
Caleb shrugged, busily trying to get Mac back on track. “Oh, I don’t know,” he answered with a careless little giggle.
One evening after giving Victoria a bath, I wrapped her in the big fluffy towel Lura Kay had given me for my birthday. It covered her from her neck to the floor, and nearly went around her three times. She looked down at it.
“Oh, this is a really nice towel!” she exclaimed. “Who gave it to you?”
“Aunt Lura Kay did,” I told her.
“Oh, that’s so nice,” she replied. She fixed me with her dark-eyed gaze. “Did you tell her thank you?” she demanded.
“Yes, Miss Bossy Boots, I did,” I retorted.
Suddenly embarrassed, Victoria wrinkled her nose, grinned at me, and shrugged her shoulders up high, her typical gesture when feeling a bit awkward.
Wednesday night after church, Kenny came sauntering in Larry’s direction, wearing his same old up-to-something expression. He said to Larry, “So! I hear you have a new job, shining golf balls at the club!”
Thursday afternoon, I went to parent/teachers’ conference for Hester, Lydia, and Caleb. Their grades were all in the high nineties.
After Jr. Choir that evening, I was practicing Thanksgiving songs with Hannah, Dorcas, and Teddy, who were playing their violins. Teddy handed me his violin, so that I could tune it. As soon as it was tuned, I tucked it under my chin and started playing. (I like to play a violin, but everyone has to cover his ears periodically, when I squawk the poor thing something awful.) I played a couple of songs and embarked on a third, Hannah and Dorcas accompanying me on their violins.
Teddy made a sad, woebegone face, picked up his violin case, tucked it under his chin, grabbed the girls’ music stand, and used that for a bow, while sheet music sailed around everywhere. The girls tried to reprove him, but they were laughing much too hard to get the job accomplished properly.
Later, done with the jam session, Teddy walked past his father, who was sound asleep on the recliner (through all that!). He stopped and looked at him. Then, ever so carefully, he tucked a funny-looking pen into Larry’s outstretched hand. A half-hour later, Larry awoke. He stretched. He lifted his hand and looked at the pen in it, vaguely wondering where that had come from. The littles dissolved into peals of laughter. Larry looked at them, a sleepy, baffled look on his face. The littles roared. Nobody knows why that was so hilarious.
You know, I think the revised prom dresses are going to turn out quite nice, which may not be so nice, after all, on account of the fact that many of my ‘friends’ will think they should give me even more of the dreadful things. Maybe, instead of continuing as I am, I should combine the royal blue and the teal, and also the bright red and the fuschia. And perhaps sew a few gaudy beads on them, here and there, in strategic places. Now, that would give them pause! But I mustn’t be ungrateful. (Or at least I shouldn’t be.)
One afternoon Kitty was sitting in the kitchen, looking peevishly at the dog, who was innocently lying under the table, jowls hanging low, no doubt thinking, “I’d like to eat that cat, and if I did, I’d get the livin’ daylights beat outa me.”
Suddenly, for no apparent reason (unless Kitty has ESP), Kitty stepped forward and with a nasty “Mrrrowwww, fzzzztt!”, she smacked poor Aleutia right across the chops with one small, taloned paw. Aleutia jumped out of her hide, scrambled backwards even further under the table, and squinted her eyes up tight. Hannah snatched up the cat and remonstrated with her.
“Bad! You BAD Kitty!” said she.
“Yrrow,” Kitty defended herself with conviction.
The littles scurried forth to offer comfort and consolation to the unwitting canine, who accepted their love with appreciation.
“Poor, poor doggy!” said Victoria, patting soothingly on Aleutia’s head. Aleutia bumped her head gently against the little girl, expressing her boundless gratitude.
Larry worked about six hours on Friday morning. He had originally been told that his first day would be tomorrow, but they allowed him to start Friday; in this way, our insurance will take effect December 1st instead of January 1st, as would be the case if he waited until Monday. We are thankful to finally have insurance--both health (for the whole family), and life (for Larry) (yes, he’s already warned me that he has hired a food taster, so I’d better not try any monkey business)--but, unfortunately, Hannah, for whom we needed that insurance the most, will not be covered, because she is too old.
Victoria is fond of lady bugs. If we find some when we’re out for a walk, we put them on the backs of her hands…and she rides along in the stroller giggling while they crawl around on her hands and arms.
“Lady bugs are really goofy,” she told me. “They like to crawl on me, and they tickle me when they do that!”
We’ve gone walking nearly every day this week, Hannah, Victoria, Caleb, and I; for it is still a beautiful Indian Summer here. While we are walking, Joseph, Hester, and Lydia play with their cousins, Jodie, Sharon, and Jason, who, if they are not outside already, immediately come out, as soon as they see their playmates.
A couple of days ago, Victoria leaned over and bumped her head good and proper. She popped up, held bolt-still, and then, with enormous eyes, she inquired, “Did I hurt myself?”
A couple of her siblings, although they tried valiantly not to, snickered. So Victoria snickered, too, and went on her way, albeit slightly paler than normal.
Saturday when Larry came home for dinner, Caleb skipped out to the kitchen to greet him, Victoria on his heels.
“Hi, Daddy!” he said gladly.
“Hi, Daddy!” repeated Victoria.
“Hi, Daddy!” responded Larry, in the same happy tone.
Victoria came up close and looked him in the eye. “No, that’s not right. You’re the Daddy!” she told him.
Saturday night, Larry and I went to the grocery store. Larry went into the front vestibule to get a cart. I stood waiting, just inside the door, looking to see what was on sale on the bargain racks there…when, all of a sudden, here he came, trundling along in a wheelchair. hahaha He didn’t notice that a man and woman were just then coming in the door, and you should’ve seen the strange looks on their faces when he sheepishly trundled back into the entryway, parked the wheels, rose lithely to his feet, and collected a shopping cart. I did my best to look dignified and above it all--not an easy task, when one is only 5’2”, and nearly ready to be consumed by a fit of giggles.
I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the man and woman give me a pitying look as they passed. We proceeded on our way around the store, which was somewhat deserted at that late hour. Way back in the dairy section, where not a soul was around, we were getting a couple of gallons of milk and picking up a couple loaves of bread. Larry told me to get the milk, while he got the bread, because the milk was too heavy for him…I kicked at his boot and missed; he asked if I’d been having trouble with my aim lately, and so I slugged him with the loaf of bread---just as that same couple came around the corner, directly behind us. hahaha You should’ve seen their faces then.
"Well, anyway," said Larry, "now they know why I might need a wheelchair!"
Saturday night the police scanner was full of news about the police catching juvenile offenders, tipsy and otherwise, calling parents to come collect them home again. I was thankful that all my teenagers were home in bed, where they ought to be. Halloweens are not nice, nowadays (and never really were); we don’t celebrate it. If it winds up on a day other than Sunday, we bake cookies for the Trick-or-Treaters, because we do like our little neighbor kids, and they do expect me to give them home-made cookies.
Dorcas has been making beautiful grapevine wreaths, covered with flowers and ribbons. She's already sold a couple of them.
One afternoon, Hannah let the cat out. Suddenly, Kitty spotted a squirrel and was off like a streak, silently closing the gap between them, with Hannah in hot pursuit of the cat. As Hannah described it, “When I finally caught the cat, I was stretched out flat on my stomach on the back drive, hanging onto her rear haunches, the squirrel only inches ahead of her, and Kitty was in four-wheel-drive, all feet churning, trying to drag me along with her.” (I think she may have been exaggerating, just a wee bit.)
Saturday evening, I had an enjoyable time practicing with our Senior Choir and also our girls’ group, the one in which Hannah sings alto. This morning, the girls sang an old Fanny Crosby song, All Will Be Well, and in the evening the choir sang one of my favorites, Keep On Praying.
It was Mama’s 82nd birthday today. After church this morning, we took Mama her presents, and I helped her open them. We got her a candle-lamp, frosted, with a cardinal painted on it; pink slippers; potpourri; and a little watering can into which I put clusters of paper roses, pink, burgundy, and ivory. The latter was from Hester and Lydia; Caleb and Victoria gave her the envelopes of potpourri. Hannah crocheted Mama a white glasses case with pink crocheted roses and green leaves sewn on. It was delicate and pretty. I also gave her a calendar on which I had written everyone’s birthday--everyone, meaning, every single church member. My sister-in-law, Janice, and I both gave Mama the same slippers--one pair blue, the other, pink. And I learned from my sister that she had been planning to give her a pair of slippers, too!--but hadn’t gone back to the store yet!
This morning, our street was full of black tread marks from all the wild drivers attending a party at one of our neighbor’s houses last night. Someone even drove between the street sign post and the Douglas fir next to the school, leaving tire prints in the lawn. A few times, the loud hilarity of the party deteriorated to a piercing brawl, and I wondered if I needed to wash my ears out with Lysol in order to ever be the same again. Good grief.
We went for a drive around Pawnee Park this afternoon, where I took pictures of the flowers. The snapdragons were covered with bees, dragonflies, and little butterflies. It was a beautiful sunny, warm day, with migrating birds singing in all the trees. The textbooks say that birds that are migrating don’t really sing; but these birds had evidently neglected to read the textbooks.
Tonight, we had the last three testimonies in preparation for the baptismal service next Sunday night. The Jr. Choir will sing We Worship Thee. We’d been practicing that song for Thanksgiving, but I think it will be entirely appropriate for the baptismal; so we will sing a song called Our Best for Thanksgiving, instead.
Merlin Gehring, Joseph’s Sunday School teacher, and the man who was Teddy’s boss this past summer, told his Sunday School class that in the year 2000, they will celebrate neither Halloween nor Thanksgiving in the White House, because the witch is going to New York, and she’s taking the turkey with her. That was a rare bit of joviality, for him; he’s usually quite serious…but it’s too good to keep, don’t you think?
Keith and Esther brought us two half-gallons of ice cream after church tonight---Toasted Almond Chip, and Peanut Butter Smores. Yummy, scrumptious! We promptly gobbled them both up. It is always a treat when Keith and Esther come--they are enjoyable company--and this time, the treat was literal.
Our neighbor lady, Mary Foreman, gave Teddy all her leftover Halloween candy to bring home--and there was plenty of it, because she only had one Trick-or-Treater. Teddy came home and began doling it out. Several siblings at once were saying, “May I have a piece, please?”
Accordingly, Teddy said, clasping his hands together in entreaty, “Pleeeeez? Can I have a bite, pleeeez?”
And Victoria, without fanfare, and rather uncharacteristically, retorted, “Getcher own.”
After she ate her candy, she got a big drink of milk. She then came into the living room to see what I was doing. Noting that she had a generous milk mustache, I instructed her to trot into the bathroom and wash her face. She trotted.
Coming back shortly, she came to show me her face. “Oh, that’s better,” I told her.
She beamed. “Is it really good okay?” she asked.
And that’s a week at our house. How was yours?
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