Sunday's Adventures

Last night after church Strider let Jenny borrow the family car so she, Pip, the FYG and FYB could go to a student dinner hosted by a couple families from church. Then Strider and family rode in our van to come out to our house for the night and part of today.
The HM had his truck because he'd wanted to get to church at 6 in the morning to get his class ready (he teaches the jr high kids' Sunday School class). He put the LIttle Boys' car seats in his truck to take them home.

The Equuschick had her two in her station wagon.
As we were pulling out of town we got an anxious call from the Equuschick- her cell phone was dying and she'd been trying to call her husband and other members of the family because the car was acting up and she'd pulled in to a rest stop about 20 miles from where we were and about 15 miles from home, and the car died- smoke coming from out from under the hood.

We called the HM, because he was closer to her than we were, and then we drove on to the rest area where we joined them- the Dread Pirate Grasshopper, Blynken and Nod running free in a strip of grass between parking lots at the rest area, and the HM scratching his head over the steam and smoke coming out from under the hood.

Nod was running a little too freely, and he's not remotely good at listening or obeying, so the Equuschick pulled out the Lion 2 in 1 Buddy Harness Buddy (this is SO cool) and strapped it on Nod.  I want one for him for all the time we are outside of the house.  But anyway, if you're keeping count, right now we are at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere with five adults, The Cherub, and five children seven and under, three of them under two, and a smoking radiator.  Add to this the fact that it was past supper time and everybody was hungry, and a man in a wheelchair who mans the rest stop came out to see what was up and helpfully, but loudly enough to be heard across the entire parking lot, gave his opinion as to what the problem was and sent the menfolk to fetch a bucket from his office and told them where to get more water.

Because we pack lunch to eat after church, we had plenty to eat, it was just a hodgepodge.  We had an impromptu tailgate picnic made up of some of the Hillbilly Housewife's garlic bread sticks, grapes (they were .99 a pound!), a carton of organic cottage cheese (marked down at the natural food's store), three apples from the farmstand near the Strider's house, a pound organic green beans from the same place, one can of chili lime almonds courtesy the Equuschick, half a bag of pork rinds, and a couple of water bottles filled at home that morning.  The HM bought himself a Pepsi and a Snickers bar- he found part of the change he needed for his purchase left in the change compartment of the vending machine. We entertained the smallfry with food in the van, and then let them out to run some more.

Then the menfolk decided we had to have the car towed. Strider has a AAA card, but realized it was left in his car, so we called the girls at the student dinnner and asked them to pull out the card and give him the phone number and acct number. They gave it to him, but said they were leaving anyway, so in about half an hour they joined us at the rest stop and we had races, played tag, and Nod pretended to be a wild Lion trying to escape.We greatly amused the young family (parents and a one month old) who parked next to us for a while.   We had potty breaks, and the Strider gave Blynken an impromptu reading lesson with the tourist fliers in the rest stop lobby.  The Equuschick had bought a walker on Craig's List that afternoon, so we pulled it out, put it in the grass, and the babies took turns sitting in it and letting their toes touch the grass. 


Strider suggested we all go home, and he would wait for the tow truck, so the student dinner crew transferred to our van, the Little Boys got back in the HM's truck, and we headed home- arriving about two hours later than intended.
On the way home we learned the Ladybug is not a fan of our singing.  She was screaming (and distressing the Striderling), and we started singing to soothe her, and every time she did her volume and irritation level increased dramatically- and it was already incredibly high.  Poor FYG was sitting between the two babies because she was the only one skinny enough to fit there.  She had to shout to be heard above the din of baby howls.  One of her sisters suggested she might try binging before another such trip.  She merely muttered that she was never having children.

And when we arrived home we discovered the septic system backing up, the pump in the bathroom closet not working well, and we've not been showering or flushing toilets for the last 18 hours.  We just got the septic system pumped (nearly 400 dollars, OUCH), and it's still not draining, so the HM will change out the pump tonight when he gets home from work- a 12 hour day of rearranging one of the grocery stores.

Oh, and when we got home we also discovered our 25 pounds of organic tomatoes also needed to be processed, so Jenny, Pip, and I rinsed, cored, and ran them through the blender and food processor, then put them in the crockpot(s) with spices and herbs to cook on low until we are ready to face them again.

Wheeee.