Ping, Cling & Sing

I was up early Sunday morning in an effort to make sure that anything going on at work was taken care of before 8am. Turns out, things were going rather smooth. For that I was most thankful. When I heard Landon begin to stir, I rushed upstairs to fetch him. Again, my goal was to let Mindy sleep in. Like Saturday, he did quite a number in his diaper, only this time it was way up his back. Ugh!! Is there no God?

Not aware of any diaper changing pad nearby, I kept his rear and legs elevated with one hand while I cleaned the entire surface all the while having Rocky watch on in horror. J Once safely in a fresh diaper he began thrashing around just like he does every other time I do the duty. He didn’t want his jammies back on, but I was insistent.

I lead he and Rocky downstairs where we pretty much followed suit with Saturday. I made coffee and waffles. Mindy was up on her own around 8:15am. That enabled me to walk Ykraps. When I got back, Mindy was ready to get Rocky & Landon baths. They were gonna attend church with her this AM. I didn’t leave for my run until they left the house offering up my help with all the prep.

My run went quite nicely. I was home by 10:50am. With the house all to myself, I took care of a number of smallish chores. For one, I cleaned the master bathroom, vacuumed the family room, and unloaded the dishwasher. Mindy and the two kids were home from church just after 12noon. We were heading to brother Craig’s for Sunday dinner around 1:30pm. Something I hadn’t pondered, Mindy said we’d have to take the minivan since there would be 6 of us. Ugh!

She left to fill-up and fetch some oil around 1pm. Oil? For what? She said that she put a quart in yesterday but it still wasn’t enough and the engine was pinging. Uh-oh! The quart she put in yesterday just barely registered on the stick. I was certain that she’d be fine for one trip. We left the house around 1:30pm. We still had to pick-up Jacob & Bella at Jimaken’s place up by Don Scott air field. We took Riverside Dr. The minivan was ticking/pinging and the oil light was going on and off. I suggested that we stop and get oil after all. To that end, we pulled into the Wal-Mart at Sawmill and Bethel. I dropped Mindy at the door and went to park. I told her we’d be out in the middle somewhere. In the meantime, it started to sprinkle kind of hard, and several minutes passed and many other customers came and went. Was she making the oil or what?

I couldn’t see the store entrance/exit as our view was blocked by a much larger SUV. Mindy showed up 20 minutes later madder than a hornet. She ripped into me for being unfindable (is that a word?) and parked out so far. I let her go off. She said she wandered around the lot for several minutes looking for us. I guess that I would’ve been mad too, although I still believe her anger was misdirected. But in the end, I love my wife more than I love being right!

I checked and then added one quart of oil to the van before we left. I couldn’t help but think that the two of us make way too much money to be living like this. I felt like I did when I was 21 and working on my car all the time. It was already after 2pm and we hadn’t even picked up J & B yet. Oh yeah, by the way, the ticking was as prevalent as ever and the oil light continued to blink on and off all the way to Jimaken’s. Uh-oh! In fact, it sounded as if it might blow up anytime – literally.

We arrived at Jimaken’s 10 minutes later. The kids were waiting outside. I took the opportunity to check the oil again. Level wise, it was fine. I surmised that the damage had already been done. Honestly, I questioned whether we’d even make it Craig’s, but we continued on anyhow. We took old Rt. 315 all the way up. Pretty drive. We arrived around 2:45pm. No surprise, we were the last guests to arrive.

Along with all the family members, their friends, Jeff and Wendy, whom we met last TG, were there. In addition, their neighbors, Matt, April, and their son were there too. I was a little apprehensive having the two little ones with us. I knew that I couldn’t relax like I normally do at Sunday dinner. I still managed to pour myself a rum and Coke, even though I spent a great deal of time chasing Landon around. Everyone was more than friendly and the food smelt terrific. By the way, we were having City Barbeque. We socialized for an hour or more before dinner. Come to think of it, it was more like two hours. The kids were having a ball running around, playing the piano, and tinkering with the animated Xmas characters. Craig & Jeff don’t often contend with so many wee ones running around their finely appointed home at one time. I was worried that they might break something and stayed on full alert throughout the visit.

Their home was fully decorated for Xmas. By my account, there were three Xmas trees along with many other holiday decorations. In fact, the entire Thompson clan likes to decorate for the holidays, and not just Xmas. Craig let the young ones sit and play on his baby grand player piano all the while it spewed forth some lovely christmas music. I was surpirsed and delighted that he did. We even chimed in with some singing here and there.

Dinner was self service and ready around 4:30-5:00pm. There were all sorts of City Barb-q treats. All of it was tasty. Meanwhile, Mindy and I had to tag team Landon. He was all over the place. That got old quickly. On top of that, Rocky was a tad wild too. Like many people do, he really took to Katie. I guess it’s fair to say that she’s one of those people that everybody loves. Actually, watching Rocky cling to her incessantly reminded me of when I was a small boy and clinging to my Aunt Char’s friends. How embarrassing!

We must’ve stayed and Craig & Jeff’s until just after 7pm (guess). We had dessert shortly before departing. Gloria made fudge. I made a cheesecake. Somebody else made another dish.

It took a while to coral and winterize the four children. Rocky was especially wound up. I worried about our trek home in the Quest. Turns out, my worry was unfounded. We made it home just fine. However, soon after we left the pinging and rattling was more severe than ever before. Mindy asked if the van might be in something other than Drive. It was. I somehow had it in drive-2. The indicator light is out on the column. I couldn’t see it. After putting the van in Drive the pinging lessened.

Jacob and I walked Ykraps together. He wanted some Jimmy time. I kindly discouraged Rocky from going along. Save for our bus stop waits, I haven’t had much one on one time with Jacob lately. The kids had a late snack before going to bed. I made another drink and ventured Yahoo to check the outcome of the Vikings game. I had somehow avoided the score all evening. I had no idea whether they won or lost. Gleefully, the won easily – 35-14. Suddenly my team is looking good at 9-5. SKOL Vikings SKOL.