a devoted little sister, confused - but devoted

I sat in the dentist office, wishing I was home napping - or even better laying on a lounge chair at our local pool napping.  It was a 90 degree day at 1:15 in the afternoon and Mini and I were 30 minutes early for our dentist appointments.  Boo.  Following protocol and making dentist appointments well in advance sucks because there is always some conflict that arises by the time the appointment pops up on the calendar.  

Today it was a hot day - perfect for a trip to the pool.  Since Lad had puked in my car on the way to traffic court earlier that morning, I felt like I needed a break from life in general - including the dentist.  The pool was calling to me.

Life with 4 drivers and 3 cars leads to people being late, early, ticked off, or a combination.  My cell phone rang as I sat there waiting for my appointment.  I was early.  Ticked off too, but that had nothing to do with being early.

I snapped this pic in a rare moment when all 3 cars were home, because we had just arrived home from our friend's lake house where we were for July 4th.  Sadly our garbage cans hosted hundreds of maggots while we were away and are thus in a time out on the driveway.  You can see our minivan - pretty standard, Mazda tribute- for the teen drivers, and Chevy Express 12 seater -looks like a painter's van except ours has windows.

Curly had just arrived home after the earlier block of dentist appointments.  She wanted to alert me to the fact that she didn't thing that Laddie should drive back to the doctor's office right around the corner from the dentist for his college sports physical.  He was throwing up again.  She felt his ability to drive was unsafe.  I assured her that he could figure it out and said good-bye.  

She called back 10 minutes later.  We repeated our conversation.  This 9 year old was full of empathy for her oldest brother.  I was not.  

Just before the dental hygienist got started on me, I called home.  I knew that Lad needed to leave for the physical right away if he had any hope of making it there on time.  Curly answered.  Nope, he hadn't left yet.  I told her to give him the phone.  'He's in bed,' she informed me.  I assured her that it didn't matter.

'Get your ass out of bed, and get to your appointment NOW!  Hand Curly the phone.  She is going to tell me what you are doing until you have left the house,' I growled into the phone.  I pointed out to him that I never would've allowed him to drive home from the dentist if I thought his hungover self
wasn't going to return to town for his physical.  

Curly gave me the blow by blow.  'He's getting a snack.  He's getting a bottle of water. He's walking out to the car.  He's going down the driveway.  He's driving away.  There.  He's gone.  PRAY FOR HIM!'  

My youngest kid was displeased that Lad was driving, citing once again that she felt it was unsafe.  Later I grilled her about whether or not she had seen him puke.  Nope.  Had she heard him puke?  Nope.  That's when she caved and admitted that Lad had told her to call me to try to get him out of having to go to the doctor.  

I told her to NEVER lie for him again.  This kid had crossed a line making his baby sister lie for him.  Yes, he would definitely require prayers after I was done with him.