Spice, Little Girls Are Made Of

Spice!  Sugar and spice.  Remember that nursery rhyme we grew up with?

"Sugar and spice and everything nice
is what little girls are made of."

Raising all these boys I was used to the opposite,
"Snips and snails and puppy dog tails,
that's what little boys are made of."

Spice is nice.  It's a change.  It's sugary soft around the edges.

The spice part is what I thought about when Darling Hubby came home grinning and telling me his latest story.

You know he's a new school bus driver, right?  And he makes two runs every morning and every afternoon, so he transports all ages.  The older kids tend to nap or stay focused on their cell phones, but it's the little ones that delight him.

Today it was obvious he was glad to be back at work after a week off due to fall break.  There's something mind-refreshing about getting a break from your job.  And then, there's something reassuring about going back to work.

"Oh, she's just a jewel this Johanna!"  his eyes twinkled when he told me about the little elementary girl, "She came up the three steps, stopped at the top, rigid back, arms to her side and said, "I went a whole week without going to school.  It was a tragedy!"  And we busted a gut!

Then there's Miss Lilly, our 2 y.o. granddaughter.  I'd turned on the under-counter CD player with Amici Defined inserted.  Amici is a popera group.  Popera is a term for pop and opera combined.  The next song to play by Amici was The Prayer.  Miss Lilly was way past the family room and down the hall, a good 40 feet away.  Miss Lilly has excellent hearing, LOL.

Use your higher pitched, little bitty girl voice, and imagine the pitter patter of little feet as she comes to us quickly.

"I hear it," she declared.

"I cumin," she further stated.

We asked her what she heard, and where was she going.  But she didn't answer.  She only answered to the music.  She tottered up to the kitchen counter, and tilted her head, and stood stock still as she gazed at the CD player and listened to The Prayer.

It was a sweet moment, a sugary soft snapshot in time.

Slipped A Joker In Your Deck

“Somebody slipped a joker in your deck.”   I laughed out loud.  Detective Tibbs of the TV series In The Heat Of The Nighthad just said that.   

I laughed because it reminded me that Darling Hubby is always saying, “What matters in life is how you deal with the hand you’ve been dealt.”  Good advice.  But then there’s that wild card, the joker!

The other day I cut out material to sew together some plastic grocery bag sleeve-type organizers. I'd forgotten how much I like sewing.  It stirs up the allergies, but I take precautions.

One of the bag organizers I didn't get to finish.  It had a small brown spot on it; so I used a Hint From Heloise and applied salt and lemon, then set the material in the sunshine.  On the picnic table in the sun is where it was left to dry.  Well, that material disappeared.  

Yep, like a laughing joker in a grab-and-run, that thing was gone.  I searched and searched.  I quizzed Darling Hubby, “Did you think it was a rag?”  “Did you toss it in the trash tote on your way to the curb?”  

Under cars, at the base of trees where wind blows trash, around the corner of the house, we searched. Then we went walking the property.  It was nowhere to be found!   The joke’s on me.

Off it did fly

Like a witch in the sky,

Upwards and onwards,

Black cat arched high!

One time we had a haunted house in our garage.  Gray engraved tombstones were sunk in the side yard.  One tombstone read “Here lies Dawn Under”.  Orange plastic tea-lighted pumpkins lined a walk leading to a tunnel of blankets on a clothesline.  That led to the entrance to the garage through the backdoor.  Inside, the first room was a mad scientist’s lab. Second room was a body smashed by a car. Turn a corner and there’s a vampire coffin, and some dropping spiders, and a lot of glow-in-the dark hands that look like they’re coming at you, and a funny mirror and some spooky stairs leading into the house.  

Actually, the stairs led right into the kitchen where we had refreshments for all the visitors.  The haunted garage was such a hit that the neighbor kids would go through more than once.   Darling Hubby, dressed as the grim reaper, scared one little girl so badly she cried, "I hate you!" 

It wasn’t too surprising; yet, the joke was on him!

Boo-hiss to you!

Pranks not a few,

Halloween’s coming,

Yep, trick or treaters, too!

Speaking of treats and tricks, last night we played Euchre.  It’s become a new thing, Euchre on Thursday night.  Sometimes I cook, sometimes the others cook, sometimes we just catch as catch can, but always someone makes a pitcher of iced tea and someone else makes a pot or two of coffee and the games begin.  

We killed ‘em! Daughter-in-law and I were partners and we killed 'em.  Darling Hubby and sis were partners. We won 3 games; the last one was 9 to 1 before the kill, LOL.  DIL laughed her head off because her hubby Clint told her before she left their house to "knock ‘em dead”.  His prophetic joke was on us all.

The gnats abound

Their fruits surround

The windshield’s no longer clean

After wipers crossover

 “That’s me all over,”

The ill-fated bug did scream!

And don’t the merchandizers slip jokers in our decks?   I guess it’s them.  Or do we blame the governments for their lack of forethought when they designated the holidays?

Darling Hubby wanted me to go to town with him, which I normally don't do because of my broken-yet-healing foot.  It was feeling pretty good so I went.  

What a surprise!  The garden center still had plants for sale and most of the plants were 50% off.  Halloween was well displayed in the center of the store with rag-tag witches, and squinty-eyed jack o’ lanterns.  AND CHRISTMAS WAS SPROUTING EVERYWHERE ELSE!   Ugh, three holiday events in one place.  Such an onslaught of the senses!  I wasn’t ready.  

“No merging!” my mind begs, “No bleeding over from one event to the other.”  Division, definitive borders, a start with a finish, that’s more appealing.

Time to deal! When I have to deal with all those holidays at once, I feel like someone’s pulling a joke on me!  Time to deal with the cards dealt, including that joker!

Plants for sale

Ghosts that wail

And Christmas up the wall

Instead, to be frank,

We should pull a prank,

A joke can be fun after all!

Morning Wake-Up Call, "Donuts!"

This morning's wake up call was "Donuts!"  Yes, for some reason I had dreamed of a big pink empty hinged box that could've held 2 dozen donuts.  But, happy, happy, tucked into the far left corner with caramel glaze there was one last one.  And it looked delicious!

That sure was better than the wake up at one a. m.  I smelled bleach!  Yep, you read that right, I smelled bleach.  So much so I got out of my comfy, warm, soft, apricot puffy coverlet bed, and went downstairs to see if someone was up and using bleach.

Humpth, if anyone ever says you can't smell while you're sleeping, they're wrong.
And, if anyone ever says you can't dream in color, they're wrong!

You think it strange that I'd come downstairs at one a.m. to check out that bleach smell?  Not.  Darling Hubby had a bad cold for four weeks, and during that last week had many a nosebleed.  We used bleach to clean it up.  So, there was every chance that smell was beckoning me to come investigate a possible emergency.

Emoticons, Emoji, Smiley Face, whatever they want to call it, we were putting them on our homework, and teenage love letters in the '60's, am I right?  Come to find out, if you read the history of Smiley Face, he's been around since the hieroglyphics of 1700 BC.
They all make you grin.  They all make you feel mushy inside.

If anyone ever asks if God has a sense of humor, I think he does.  At least my dreams think so.

Last Spring I was worried about the graduation party.   There was no need to worry.  Despite the rain everyone had a good time.  Yet, I did worry.  After having worked on it for months ahead of time, readying the house, landscaping the yard, planning fun activities and gathering goodies for the party,  I wondered if the weather would cooperate.  I even prayed about it.  Well, the next morning before pulling up the eyelids, I saw this little smiley face emoticon off to the left bouncing up and down!  Happy, happy, happy!  I laughed out loud!

"Follow the fellow who follows a dream, I'm off to see the wizard..." uh, forget following a dream, I'm off to find a donut!