Hooky and a Stowaway

Nathan thought he was sick this morning.
He didn't touch his breakfast.
I even convinced myself that he was looking a little pale.
Even though I am quite the nazi-school attendance mama, I decided he needed to stay home today...just because Pat and I have had a little bit of a stomach bug over the past couple of weeks.

By 10:30am, he decided the whole being confined to the couch and/or bed was just not working for him, and he was chasing his sister, Bekah and brother, Samuel all around the living room.
About 10 minutes later he told me he wanted to go to school.
It was obvious he really wasn't sick, so we got ready to go drop him off...

After buckling the last kid into the van, and hanging up the phone after a phone call with a friend, I needed to go put the phone back inside.
I happened to leave the side van door open, and ran back inside to hang the phone up.
Pat called right then to see if I was going to head out to his work for a "lunch date" after dropping Nathan off.
We ended up talking for a few minutes, and then I told him all of the kids were already buckled in and I needed to go.

I shut the van door before heading over to the driver's side, and headed for the school.
About 3/4 of the way to the school, I heard one of my kids say in a surprised tone, "Fee-nah!" (Translation: Athena, our cat).
Then I heard it again, from another child, and heard a forlorn "Meow" as our stowaway cat tried to figure out what was going on.
She was extremely restless while we were driving, and it was a trick to get in and out of the car without her escaping.
There is a reason that they make cat carriers for transporting felines...especially since she decided her favorite spot in the car was right next to the gas and brake pedals.
Thankfully, we all made it home in one piece, even if my legs had some claw marks on them.

Definitely an interesting twist to a slightly abnormal day.