Now known as The Brats

I really love being with my kids on vacation. I love the fact that they play together and mostly get along. I love that they go along with Gene and/or me to play little jokes on each other. I love that they enjoy watching birds and climbing on and collecting rocks and searching for lizards. I love that they appreciate the beauty of mountains and canyons and get excited over tumbleweeds and cactuses. I love that they get that a road trip allows them to see things they'd never see if we took a plane to our destination. I love that their favorite state is Oklahoma. Then we come home and the neighbor kids come over and my kids turn into different people. The neighbor girl is only 7, but she has turned into a nasty little brat. She's a gum chomping, hair twirling mean girl and I can't stand her. She is terribly jealous of everything Kaylin does and is constantly throwing fits and going home if she doesn't get her way. Middle boy is a disrespectful little brat. He constantly talks down to me and talks back. This afternoon Kaylin and I were in the car, getting ready to pull out to take Duncan down to the river. Middle Boy came and stopped me and demanded I go find his little brother's stuffed monkey toy. I told him I didn't know where it was and he basically accused me of stealing it. I started the car and pulled out of the driveway. Seriously? WHY would any adult want a toy monkey? I really dislike these kids! Youngest Boy hasn't been bothering me too much lately because he's so afraid of Duncan he hasn't been coming inside. When the neighbor brats are over, my kids get disrespectful to Gene and me and fight with each other. It's totally boys against girls. On the rare occasion they do all play together, Brat Girl finds some tiny thing that isn't going her way and throws a fit and quits the game. Ugh. That is one bad thing about warmer weather- the Brats are over all the time! -- Logan's final flag football game was this morning. His team never won a game. I'm pretty sure they were scoreless for their first 4 games. Logan scored the only touchdowns for his team both last week and today. It was cool to see him all cocky and proud of himself. Watching him high five the coach and his teammates was priceless. He's embarrassed by all the attention, but at the same time loving it :) I hope he'll play "real" football in the fall. I think he'll really like it. Gene took Logan to the Chiefs home opener this afternoon so Kaylin and I took Duncan down to the river. I let him off leash for the first time and he did really well coming when called and not wandering off, but he rolled around in every dead fish he found. Some were bigger than him. He found a catfish that rivaled the gigantic ones at aquariums! I rinsed him off with the water spigot at the boat ramp and then gave him a real bath at home. One great thing about having a little dog is that I can bathe him in the kitchen sink. Nice and easy on the back! I go back to work tomorrow. I'm caught up on laundry and housework, but I could use one more day to recover from our trip. I am still exhausted. I'm glad the kids have an extra day before they go back to school.