April 22, 2013

  • Really Missing My Sis...aka Bratfink

    TALES FROM THE BRAT FARM

    I heard from Bratfink again today.  We just talked about some items that she and Sheldon had discovered when they were going through some of his mother's things that were still in the house she shared with the stepfather when he started suffering from *old timers* and had a problem with falling down a lot.  They brought the bins over and started going through them and were kind of surprised at some of the things they discovered were in them.  Nothing amazing but Sheldon found a lot of sentimental things to him.  I told Bratfink that I hope he puts them into an album.  He can always leave them to his cousin's son since Sheldon doesn't have any kids.  They are family items and should be passed along.

    We are both suffering from missing each other and being able to talk online.  I confess that she helps me decompress when I am pissed at the Beast.  Since she knows him, she really DOES understand and that helps out.  I think I helped out when she was ticked off at Sheldon, too.  At least, I hope so.  I know him and like him but I know how weird he can be at times.  And how infuriating he can be, too.  He just doesn't THINK sometimes.  But he can also make you laugh when you least expect it.  Like Bratfink often says, he makes her laugh every day for one reason or another.

    Bratfink was telling me that she finally saw a really old (antique) wardrobe.  She was shocked at how BIG it was.  Just HUGE.  What upset her was it was hauled in and was sitting in their living room when Sheldon was bringing home all the family antique furniture.  She said it was beautiful but she had no idea where they were going to put it.  I know her though.  She will eventually figure that out.

    The Beast bought home a quart of really nice strawberries and I cut up a couple and mashed them then cut the rest of them up, added sugar and a little water and put it in the fridge overnight.  Today they were just perfect and we put some over our ice cream that we had for dessert.  Since the Princess came to pick up Chewlee, I was glad that I had given her a bowl of them to eat (she prefers them alone) after she ate her sandwich.  She is always hungry when she gets here after school so I try to make her eat something that is not just a snack.  She gets no snack items or treats until she eats a sandwich, a hot dog or some soup, spaghetti if we have it here....you get the idea, I'm sure.  Then she can have her snacks.  Things like a popsicle, chips and salsa, strawberries, an ice cream cone (we always have ice cream here and now we have both sugar cones and waffle cones) or just some gum. 

    Today she was a little bit of a stinker when she found out her mother was coming to pick her up so no sleepover.  She sneaked out of the house and went next door because she wanted to PLAY with someone and Ian was home.  I had to go over there once we figured out she wasn't hiding in the house.  It explained why Baron was trying to get into our neighbors house.  He had to have seen Chewlee go in and figured if she could, so could he.  LOL.  Guess HE wanted to play with their dogs.  She hated having to leave and get ready for her mother to come get her.  She told me she didn't like me because I wasn't letting her stay so she could play and sleep over.  I told her she would have 3 sleepovers in a row on Thursday.  It still didn't make her happy.  What did that have to do with TODAY??  LOL

    I wanted to make us some baked chicken today but the Beast was hungry and didn't want to wait (it was only 4pm).  He decided that he wanted me to make these flatbread pizzas (which weren't bad, BTW) he'd bought.  I told him that tomorrow, it's chicken or he goes hungry.  I figured making some mashed potatoes, the chicken and our asparagus.  I can wait another day, however.  I'll just start it earlier.

    The Beast went over to his buddy's house...the one that is so ill from his allergies and damn near died.  The golden pollen that has plagued us the past couple of weeks seems to be diminishing.  Anyway, he went over with the John Deere to take care of mowing the lawn and he hit a rather large ants nest above the ground.  I told him it sounded more like a termites nest but he said ants flowed out of it so I guess it might have been a large fire ants nest.  He said he had backed away from it so he didn't see if it was or not.  What it did, however, was screw up the bearings on one of the cutting blades.  So he was out in our driveway fixing that after he found the parts.  He decided to buy two new blades at the same time (they needed changing).  Once he got it all back together, he mowed our backyard and discovered just how dull the old blades were.  His John Deere seemed to glide along instead of feeling like it was dragging.  Guess it might have been getting ready to fall apart and the ant hill was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so-to-speak.

    Oh, have to tell you....I told you how Chewlee has been telling everyone that our flower box is now HERS because all the flowers are HERS since she planted them (well, almost).  Today when she was going to ride her bike, when I sat down on the steps out front, she grabbed the hose then went to turn on the water and started watering the flowers.  I told her not to water them until she asked Papa if he had already done that (he usually does in the morning but I couldn't remember if he had or not).  She looked at me and said, *Grandma, all you had to do was put your finger in the dirt and you could tell they hadn't been watered yet.  Since they are MY flowers, I HAVE to water them or they will die!*  I told her I didn't think they would die if they weren't watered one day or even two.  She gave me the most disgusted look and said, *Did you see these flowers here?  They were drying up.  I could tell!*  They weren't but how do you argue with a 5 year old and win about something like that?  To her, they might really have seemed to be drooping or some such thing.

    Early to bed tonight for me since I don't have to worry about getting up at 5:30am to get Chewlee off to school.  I'm sure the bus driver will think we slept through our alarm when we are not out front waiting for him.  But he will see her after school when she rides home (here).  Her mother will be picking her up again but a bit later tomorrow than she did today.  I'll have to make sure that she's bathed and in her pajamas since her mother has to take a final for her class but knows it won't take her 3 hours to finish.  Her mother is a good test taker and will probably be out within an hour.  That will get her home early enough that Chewlee will be in bed at her regular time.  And it's another day I won't need an alarm clock to wake me up.  But I will kind of miss her curling up with me since I have gone to lay down with her when she goes to bed for the last week.  I wake up after a couple hours but I go back after I do my blog and then check my email out.

    Love you all.  Hope your week started out nicely and continues to do so.  Just remember, roll with the punches.  It is what it is.