Sophie's World

8:16 PM (Randall posting): We are home from our trip to Virginia. Seems like we were there for weeks. I guess that means it was restful and much-needed! It was a great trip and really good to see Susan's mom and grandmother, who is in declining health. A handful of neighbors (who remember Susan when she was Sophie and Elisabeth's age) stopped by to visit, and that was nice as well.

Our trip home was as eventful as any in recent memory. This morning as I was packing up the car, I noticed that our portable DVD player was not in the car. Unfortunately, we had not moved it into the house and sometime during the night, someone came up to the house and stole the DVD player, several DVDs, our CD case with nearly two dozen CDs inside, and (most outrageous of all) a can of Pringles. We were way out in the country and never thought that locking the door was a necessity, but there you go. It just goes to show you that you can never be too cautious (unfortunately). It was not a good idea to leave the car unlocked, but if they really wanted what was inside (the Pringles) they would have broken a window, I suppose.

So, our drive out of town included a stop at Target where we picked up a new portable DVD player (nice to have on car trips but especially nice to have for clinic visits). Susan bought the girls some popcorn and strawberry milks at Target as well. Back on the road again, about an hour into the drive, Elisabeth started to complain about a stomach ache (not a good sign). I asked if we needed to stop at the next major town (Danville) or if we could wait another twenty minutes or so. Elisabeth insisted she could make it another twenty minutes. She made it another nineteen and a half minutes. As we were pulling into the McDonald's parking lot in Yanceyville, North Carolina, Elisabeth said she was going to be sick. I got her window rolled down just as I pulled into a parking spot and THANK GOD for power windows--half a bag of half-eaten popcorn and twelve to sixteen ounces of curdled strawberry milk poured out the window and down the side of our brand new car.

We got Elisabeth (and the car) cleaned up, got some fresh air, took a potty break, threw out the rest of the popcorn and Sophie's strawberry milk and traded them for some waters and went on our way. Elisabeth seemed to do okay for the rest of the trip, but she complained every now and then about stomach upset.

We stopped in Garner (just outside of Raleigh) for dinner and ate at Chili's, thinking a sit-down meal might be better for Elisabeth than fast food. We sat down, ordered our meals and waited hopefully for a smooth evening. At one point, Susan acted like she was about to sneeze (closed her eyes and held her hands up to her face). I thought I would be cute and reach across the table to spook her. Well, let's just say I really spooked her, because my hand caught the top of a fresh, full, cold glass of ice water, which cascaded quickly across the table right into Susan's lap.

She screamed bloody murder. For a long. Long. Long. Long time. Fortunately, the servers heard her screaming and several came to attend to us. Also fortunate was the fact that since we were traveling, Susan had a change of pants in the trunk of the car. We haven't laughed so hard in the longest time. I'm sure the girls were wondering why we don't laugh so much when they spill a drink, but it was all so hilarious (the screaming in particular) that we all got tickled. I'm certain that everyone in the Chili's in Garner (and maybe in the McDonald's next door, or maybe even in the Best Buy further down the road) heard Susan scream and the rest of us break into hysterics.

The rest of the trip home was pretty boring by comparison (thankfully). Cats were fed when we got home, house was still standing, air conditioning worked. We got unloaded and started to get settled. I've got a sermon to finish up and bulletins to print up for tomorrow morning, but I suppose after what we've been through today, a normal Saturday evening sounds pretty nice.