Cats and kids

This morning, I walked the kids to the bus stop for a ride to school. This is Allie's fourth year and she's never ridden the bus to school, ever. She has always gotten a ride from one of her parents. But eventually, I'll get a job. And it probably won't be in town like I had before. So the girls will probably have to ride the bus to school, or I would be dropping them off at school too early. Thus the test run.

Allie, not unexpectedly, thought she was going to throw up. She actually did throw up from nerves on the first day of school, so I took her feelings today in stride. The school hasn't called me requesting another set of clothes, so I'm assuming she made it OK. If things went well, I'm going to have the girls ride the bus tomorrow also and then I'll go back to driving them until I can no longer do that.

When I got home, there were pieces of chalk on the kitchen floor and a cat on top of the kitchen counter. Last night, one of the cats ate most of Julia's only piece of chalk. Stomach ache, I guess. I picked up the pieces and put them on the counter when I saw them and now Simon the cat had obviously been at them again. Our cats are so bold about getting on the counter after we've gone that I've, at least three times, come back into the house to grab something immediately after stepping out the door and caught a cat on the counter.

I yelled at Simon and he jumped down. I picked up the chalk again, threw more pieces in the garbage, and put the last little piece that was left inside Julia's chalkboard box. Then I turned back and I had two cats on the kitchen counter!

That's when I noticed that Allie's bug cage was on the counter, with the large fuzzy yellow caterpillar inside that she caught and made a home for last evening. Oh! I get it now. Damn cats. Get off the counter!