Are We Brats?

Last night Ariana was watching "Supernanny" and she came up to me and said (very earnestly) "Are we brats?"
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I visited the kids at school on Wednesday afternoon. I found Ben in music class. He blushed, as always, when I walked in, but he had no idea how bad it was about to get. They were learning the waltz and his teacher made us be partners! He had the funniest smile on his face the whole time he was waltzing with his mother. He was soooooo embarrassed................but kinda liked it too :)

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We have a new thing. We are playing Uno every night. How fun! Wil is on my team and the other big kids play for themselves. We are really having a good time. The boys get so silly, in ways I haven't seen before. For example....Elijah won, and ripped his shirt off and twirled it over his head while swiveling his little butt. Ben did the same and flexed his biceps. Ana just kind of sighed and William covered his mouth with his hand and giggled. Zac was a pain in the butt--wanted to help but his shuffling and dealing leave something to be desired--or at least leave the cards bent out of shape.
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So you know we have 2 outside cats? Very pretty kitties, beautiful thick fur coats. They never come in the house and are very happy outside as they have been out since we got them. They have a nice heated house of their own in the garage. Anyway they both like to do this "come here to me" thing (that's ana's phrase...cracks me up) where they plop down and writhe on their backs so you think you are supposed to go pet them, but when you get there they run away like they can't believe you thought you could touch them. They do that whenever they see someone approach. So last week when we were getting all that snow, I drove in after a midnight shift and Jamie was in the driveway. She saw me and plopped down to do her come hither routine and then she realized she had plopped into 6 inches of snow and buried herself. The resulting seizure had her about 3 feet in the air and then out of sight so as to save face. It was hysterically funny.

Zac is working on some more molars and he is having a problem that Elijah had also at that age--his cheek is black and blue over the spot where the teeth are coming. It is so sad, poor baby. He has been really cranky. I took him and Wil to Sam's club earlier this week and Wil and I were both embarrassed by how icky he was. He was toddling around belligerently and this old guy saw him and thought he was cute, so he knelt down to Zac and said "Hey, buddy, give me five". Zac snapped his head quick to face the guy and said "NO!" very decisively. I was so embarrassed. And then the guys wife laughed and said "Well, that's good I guess....."

I have gotten into crockpot cooking lately because I figured I need to help some with food prep and that's the only way I can do it very well. The boys love meat and I just am not a meat cook, but the crockpot does a great job. So anyway, Thursday night I prepared a lovely meal to go in the crockpot the next day. I had a whole chicken laying there in the fetal position, with carrots around her, and basil and broth bathing her. This whole thing was in the fridge overnight and in the morning I took it out to put it in the cooker. I set it out and went to do something and came back and Brian was there PUTTING ALL KINDS OF CRAP ON IT. Excuse me! This is MY chicken! How rude. I made him wipe off all the stuff he put on it and told him he is never to touch my chicken. He said it needed more flavor. I asked how he knew that, given that it wasn't cooked and he certainly hadn't tasted it. He said he didn't see any flavor. ?????????? Just little green things? Those would be BASIL like the recipe calls for.

In the end, justice was mine, as he did wipe her off and replace her and leave her the hell alone like I told him. That night we enjoyed a delicious meal of very tender chicken meat. I don't think he'll ever touch a chicken of mine again.