Lost - Cats and Children!

I've thought so many times in the past several weeks now (almost 8 weeks) that I really should put something out here on the olde blog but yet, just never seemed to find the time (or ambition, as it were) to do it.

It's not that I'm busy working and working and more working constantly, although I have been relatively busy trying to keep motivated with the Avon along with working pretty diligently on an embroidery project of great importance too. The Avon fluctuates a good bit -one campaign fairly decent and the next one, really a flop is how it seems to be going. A bit depressing in that respect but then, I really don't have all that many customers who are active buyers -meaning that they order a good-sized order each campaign. And, I can definitely understand that because if I weren't selling the stuff, I am pretty sure I'd be doing a lot more selectivity in my ordering too!

The embroidery project though -well, I didn't get it finished in time to present it to the young lady friend who because a bride this past weekend but I did note in my card to her and her groom that I am hoping to have their gift from me completed in the next two weeks. Very hopeful I am that I will get it done that quickly! It's a full-sized tablecloth -52 inches by 68 inches with a floral design in each corner as well as a floral design along each side too. In my opinion, it is a very pretty floral pattern -not showy, just rather simplistic, with a single rose in each display with three violets along side of the flower.

I've done other tablecloths this size -as well as a few that were even a bit larger than this one but this one -perhaps because I want it to end up as nice as I can possibly do it since it is intended as a wedding gift -it has been a bit slow stitching it. Either that or my eyes and fingers are just not working up to top speed these days!

I had the grandkids here for almost a full week with both of them but the week's visit for Maya got broken up a bit due to a dance recital down in Middletown (where the kids and my daughter now reside) that Maya wanted to attend. So my older daughter came up the day before the recital and took Maya down to her house for the night and then, she and Maya went down to Middletown the next day so they could both attend the recital after which, Carrie brought Maya back up here to spend the last two days here with me.  I was, initially, supposed to have Kurtis here with Maya that week and then, the next two weeks, have Kurtis here by himself with me. But that got screwed up because he had to return home in the middle of that first week of being here alone to have an evaluation with some therapist for a 4-5 week special summer program he is going to attend in July. But, then we got back on track with the visiting as Mandy and Jeff (her boyfirend) had to take Maya and Jeff's daughter, Cassidy, up to a Bible camp in or near the Poconos this past Sunday where the girls will spend this week. So Sunday afternoon, after depositing the girls at their camp site, they came across Interstate 80 and to this area and left Kurtis here now with me this week! Next week, I was supposed to have Maya here, alone, all week, but that ended up getting screwed up too because of a photo session that got rescheduled until next Tuesday and so, Gram's time with the girl got lost in the mix of that then too!

Bummer, ya know!

Today, was quite the day though -full of a few little "thrills" of a sort, I guess you could say.

It all started when I got up this morning and realized my cat -Miss Pearl the Purrball -was missing! Now how the heck did that happen as she is totally an indoor cat, but I soon discovered that she had become very adventurous and had escaped through a window in my bedroom that was open but which I thought had a screen in it and it turned out, the screen was somehow or other missing too! So, I was more than a bit upset over the missing cat.

Then, a little later in the morning, it seems I was also missing my grandson too! Sheesh -all I could think about then was how upset Mandy was going to be to learn not only had I screwed things up and aided and abetted her cat's escape into the wild blue yonder or green grass and woods but I had also somehow managed to lose her son too in the big (very little) burg here where I live!

As it turned out, what happened with Kurtis is as I was checking my facebook and having my wake-up coffee, he had gone outside -which is fairly normal for him to do that -and I just figured he was out in the yard playing, probably digging big holes for Gram to trip in as she mows the grass eventually. 

So anyway, because I was to go to lunch today with the girlfriends from my high school class -our monthly lunch outing -and Kurtis was going to be going with me, I wanted to take a quick shower. While he was out in the yard, I decided was a good time to get the shower and hurry up and get dressed then so I would only have to make sure his face and hands (and legs too) were clean along with his clothes and we'd both be ready to go to lunch.

Well, when I went out to call him into the house to get ready, imagine my surprise when I got no response from him! I walked around the house, looking in every possible hiding place known to a small child and no Kurtis!

Now where the heck could he have gone!

Since I also had to walk the dog before leaving, I figured okay, I'd take him for our normal walk down the road and look for Kurtis along that way in the process. As I got the dog and out up on the road in front of the house, I looked up the street and lo and behold, what do I see but Kurtis, up by the curve about 4-5 houses from my place, strolling ever so casually towards my house! When he saw me and Sammy standing out on the road he began to run towards me and then I was worrying as I was thinking to my self -"Please don't trip and fall flat on your face and skin it and your arms and legs all up!" But thankfully, he managed to run fairly gracefully -no tripping,no falling -no injuries and he arrived by my side all happy and excited as he exclaimed to me how he had decided to go on his own version of a search and destroy mission, looking for Pearl, the cat!

Sweet intentions on his part, yes indeed. But just about scared the living daylights out of me that he had decided all on his own, without saying a word ot me about this plan of his, ya know!

Although he had no luck in locating the cat, the fact that he had done this on his own and had safely got himself back home then too was good to see.

So off we went to lunch then with Kate, Rose and Jean -three of my old friends from high school. I did ask Kurtis before we went into the restaurant though if possible, could he please not talk constantly about nuclear accidents and nuclear reactors -which are all a huge part of his mind these days as he has been obsessing about Three Mile Island and any thing else he can find online about nuclear power plants and reactors and such! It's amazing to hear him go on and on about this subject -yes, it is but at the same time, after 2-3 months of this being his constant topic of conversation, it does tend to get a little less exciting to hear about it over and over and OVER AGAIN at times, you see!

He obliged me at lunch and was relatively well-behaved and quite sociable with my girlfriends too. He knows Kate quite well as she just lives two doors down the street from us and he knows Rose and her husband too because the kids have been to their house on several occasions with me. (He loves to go to their house because Rose's husband, Durv, has a room with all kinds of wild animals stuffed and on display on the walls and sitting around his "Den!" Kurtis is almost as fascinated with that room as is my older grandson, Alex -who is totally in awe of the collection Durv has there. But, that's because Alex is very interested in hunting -which obviously, so is Durv!

So we got back home and Kurtis wanted to play on the computer then -searching youtube videos about, you guessed it -nuclear reactors and such! Then, before we knew it the time had come for him to get ready to go up to a local church that is sponsoring evening Bible School all this week for the kids in the area. Maya and Kurtis had attended this Bible school last year and they loved it so Kurt jumped on board when I asked him if he would like to attend it again this year! Made me feel very good that he was so happy and excited about attending this and that he really does enjoy being around so many kid from around the area there and learning Bible verses and new songs too.

After I took him up there and dropped him off, I came back to the house and tried again to look around the front yard and back yard for the cat. No response at that time though. So I came inside and while out in the kitchen, decided to try one more time to call for the cat via the back door.

And much to my happy surprise, I heard a noise on the deck, opened the door and there stood Pearl, a bit wet and slightly bedraggled from having been caught outdoors in one or more of the showers we had off and on this afternoon, but other than that, none the worse for wear!

So, my motto tonight definitely is "All's well that ends well!" as I am quite contented having the cat back where she belongs and not having really "lost" Kurtis today -just that he sort of misplaced himself for a while!

Tomorrow's exciting day though isn't going to probably sit all that well with him as it's going to involved the really exciting chore of delivering Avon orders! And to that I say -into each life a bit of rain must fall!