Sunday, April 25, 2010

Why Alan didn't go to church today


Just as Alan and I were about to climb into bed last night, I said, “Maybe we should sleep in the guest room; it’s too crowded in here.” Plus there was just too much hissing and fighting going on for sacred space in the queen-sized bed.

So, instead of retreating to the next bedroom, we moved one of the “peeps” to the tree house next to the window, one between us and one on top of me. Snuggled in, we laughed. For about 15 years with four kids we usually had a kid or two in bed with us, waking us in the middle of the night with, “Mommy, can we sleep with you?”

Now we were in bed with some other critters.

This weekend we have been sleeping with one cat and two Yorkie pooches - our dog “Sarah Jessica,” and our granddog “Parker” and our cat “Amanda.”

And during the day we have found ourselves returning to the dilemma of should we stay home, take them with us or get a babysitter?

We have had options of things to do. We could go to a bead show, a play at the Cabrillo Theater to see our friend Wade in the play, “Rumors,” the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books or to dinner at a friend’s home, but we don’t want to leave the dogs home alone. Sarah is still into chewing electrical cords. And we feel highly responsible for taking care of Parker, whom we are babysitting while his daddies are in Los Angeles celebrating their friend Matt’s 30th birthday. (Say, isn’t Matt still in fourth grade with Andrew plotting how to get out of class – like faking illness from a toxic classroom?) By the way, Parker is so well behaved, we are hoping she will teach some valuable lessons to Sarah today – like how not to poop in the house.

Juli came over with Keith and visited on Saturday and offered to take them home with her so we could go out, but we worried that the dogs would escape through her cat door and run away. Besides I think her husband hates Sarah - he might open the cat door for her. (He gets annoyed when she occasionally poops in their house. Hey, I do clean it up.)

Well, those are just excuses. We really don’t want to go anywhere because we are having too much fun. The dogs are hilarious, playing around us, running on the greenway, eating each other’s food, snuggling in our laps, digging up the seeds in my garden and tearing through the house chasing the cat. When we took a drive to get some pizza, the two pooches sat regally together in the baby car seat looking out the window, like this was the biggest treat of their day.

Sometimes it’s relaxing to be trapped at home – a good excuse to finish reading a great book or watching a movie. Alan is using it to stay home from church today.

Perhaps one of you might like to have that feel of being stuck at home, if so, just let me know, I’ll bring the animals over.

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