life happens...

Sam was supposed to be here this fine morning, all hopped up on coffee from his long drive through the night from Washington, D.C. But when he went to sign out last night, at a few minutes after midnight, his leave packet was lost. There was not a thing he could do. So he went to bed. This morning, it was found, and he's getting on the road right about now. I told him that God must have thought he needed to find some irritation in himself, and he said, "ha ha, Ben told me the same thing."

Life happens. Day in, day out, things don't go the way they are supposed to go. Flipping out about it isn't going to help, but knowing for certain that God causes all things to work together for the good for those who love him is a help.

Now when these horrible things happen like the shootings in Orlando, I have no answers. I cried, when I first heard. I cried when I read the texts from the young man hiding, texting, "Mommy, I am going to die." It breaks my heart. It's just awful and sad.

There is a lot of sadness in this world, things I can't do anything about. But the things I can work on are the little things in my life that come along, chances to live what I believe.

So yesterday...we went to the doctor...and Camille got her boot off!

We're happy! She has to take it easy. The doctor said she isn't allowed to run around or beat anybody up yet, but she can swim, which is excellent news, as we are going to the cabin in the woods, in four days!!!

After our appointment, the whole slew of us filed out of the waiting room...Evelyn, who had a half day of school, Kathryn, Jonathan, Char, Cam, and Davian (Davian didn't want to leave yet, he wasn't done reading his magazine). We had to go to the grocery store, with Cam hobbling around saying how "weird" her foot felt, Jon asking if we really needed so much stuff, the little girls guilting me into buying them those cute little miniature pies, Kathryn helping Davian pick out some bubbles...two carts full of stuff...because tomorrow night, we are having a graduation party for Kathryn with the church youth group, and because Sam is going to be here, and he'll want to see all of his friends...

It's crazy to have a party in the midst of packing. Simply crazy. Packing is just on the back burner, and I'll resume Thursday, as I also do all the shopping for next week. I have to compartmentalize things, and just deal with cleaning up the house and planning for tomorrow. I have to bake a cake, marinade the meat, clean off the grill, and don't get me started about cleaning up for company...our kitchen table is the packing dumping place, and it all has to be moved now.

But here I sit, ha.

I drove Evelyn to school this morning for a New York state regents exam and have to pick her up in a few hours.

The floors have been swept, laundry hung up and more put in the washer, and the living room straightened up. The pool filter is on, the basket cleaned out, and I took the dogs out and fed and watered them.

But anyway. After our grocery shopping expedition yesterday, it was time to take the cats in to the small city for their rabies immunizations...the dogs are still good until next year. Of course Old Kitty was no where to be found. We looked and looked, but he didn't show up until after we were resignedly headed on our way with just Kettler kitty.

The line for shots was all the way to the sidewalk, probably 40 dogs and maybe 40 cats there. The dogs were all tugging and barking and sniffing, well most of them. There was one huge fat lab, as calm as she could be. Our own kitty was stressed out, she just watched everything from the carrier.

Charlotte Claire liked carrying the kitty carrier, but once the buckle on the strap came undone, and down went kitty, carrier and all. oops. It was a slow fall though, slipped through her hands as she tried to catch it, so she slowed it down to a gentle THUNK.

Anyway...it took a few hours, then we were home again. I stopped and got the kids ice cream on the way home because they had been so good and helpful...


Home. I hadn't had dinner, and opted out of an ice cream cone, although I did end up finishing Char's, couldn't waste it, ha. I made a few salads with chicken on them, and we had an eight o'clock supper...Joseph and the other kids were at soccer, and Paul had eaten all by himself. Crazy days.

After dinner, I decided to get a start on cleaning up for company, so I vacuumed the couches, between the cushions, then the stairs and foyer, and here and there...as I put the vacuum cleaner away, I smelled something horrible...the little girls smelled it too, so we started frantically searching for a cat poop...but oh no, it was Suri! Bad dog! She had rolled in something! Oh disgusting! I had to give her a bath, and I had just sanitized the tub! Camille had just finished wiping down the leather couch, which stinky Suri was lying on. rrr. So into the tub she went. By the time she shook herself off all the way from the bathroom through the kitchen on the way out to the deck, we had lots of water to wipe up. Finally I got to sit down and put my feet up, at nine o'clock, after throwing a whole 'nother load of towels in the dryer from cleaning up the mess.

But Suri is glossy and sweet smelling. I tried to lure Duke into the bathroom for a bath after Suri already totally messed it up, but he wasn't falling for it, no way no how, even when I told him, "Treat! Treat!" He just sighed, and put his head on his paws.

And I wasn't in the mood to drag his butt in there.

This morning, I am thankful for coffee, as I have been awake since 0-dark-thirty, as Emily likes to say. I am thankful that I am going to be with my family next week. Aaron is flying in to Boston Saturday morning and driving up to the camp. I am like a little kid at Christmas....