Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Girl Who Came to Dinner

Lexi asked me if her friend, Brooke, could stay for dinner tonight. Ordinarily, my response is, "Sure! The more, the merrier." However, Brooke had never eaten over here before. She only has one brother who is twenty years old. I glanced at Clay who was supposed to be setting the table. He had a stack of plates on his head and he was purposely walking into the wall.

"Are you sure you want to have Brooke stay? Maybe she should leave now while she's still sane."

"What, Mom?"

"I said, maybe she should leave now before it rains."

Brooke ended up staying, but I don't think she was prepared for the insanity chaos lively dinner conversation that goes on in this house.

After taking a bite of his pizza, Clay jumped down from the table, ran to the garbage can, spit his mouthful of pizza in the trash and exclaimed, "This tastes like a raccoon!" I don't know where Clay's been eating lately, but I'm pretty sure raccoon's never been on the menu at my house.

This made Lexi's friend crack up. Because my kids had a captive audience (Really, we tied her up so she wouldn't run away, screaming.), they took this opportunity to act like barbarians show off um, entertain her.

Lexi's friend, Brooke, was talking, telling us how she scraped her arm. She'd been hiding behind a tree, waiting to jump out and scare Lex and Clay. When she jumped from behind the tree, she scratched her arm on the trunk. Brooke continued, "My mom says that's karma."

Clay asked, "What's karma?"

Brooke started to explain. "Karma is when you do good things and good things happen to you. And when you do something bad, bad things happen to you."

Austin knew what she was talking about, but feigned ignorance just to be a pain tease her. "What? You get caramel if you do something good?" he asked.

"Not caramel," Brooke corrected him, "karma!"

"Ohhhh," Austin said as if he understood her now. "Caramel. So, if I do something good, will you give me caramel?"

"No!" Brooke squealed.

Clay piped up. "What's caramel?"

"Have you ever had a Twix bar? It's what's inside. Caramel," she explained.

"I'm going to do something good so I can get some caramel!" Clay said excitedly.

I sat there, shaking my head at my sons who were purposely teasing Lexi's poor friend. "I'll tell you what karma is, boys. It's when you tease a little girl and you don't get to watch TV for a week."

"Ohhhh, that kind of karma!" they said, finally enlightened.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn was taking us on a trip to the zoo with assorted animal impressions. "Baaa baaaa."


I noticed that something was written on the inside of Savannah's wrist. It looked like a tattoo. "What's on your wrist?" I asked.

"It says love". Savannah held up her arm for me to see.

"Interesting. So, who do you love?" I asked.

"No one!" Savannah insisted.

"What? You don't even love me?" I inquired, all sad-like.

Lexi jumped up and said, "I love you, Mom! I love you more than hot chocolate!" (Everyone knows that's the highest honor, of course.)

Clay started singing. "Sail, sail, sail three ships, gently on the sea!"

Brooklyn interrupted. "We learned a song at school! There are witches in the air...

"...the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria..."

"...on Halloween night..."

Lexi joined in the sing-along. "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now I need..."

"...count them, one, two, three."

"...Boo!"

Brooke looked from person to person and declared, "Your family disturbs me."

I don't think she'll be coming back for a while.

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14 comments:

WeaselMomma said...

My family and your family can never have dinner together. The chaos would be enough to rip a hole in the time/space continuum.

Risma Hutabarat said...

Sounds like you have an active amazing kind of family which is wonderful! If she can't fit with you all, then it will be her lost. LoL
Risma

Anonymous said...

Nope, never a dull moment :D

Unknown said...

Can't you just imagine Brooke going home telling about her dinner at your house. LOL
You didn't tell us tho if when she got done eating if she 'RAN' out the front door....hehehe

It reminds me a time when I was little and my Mom was sick so a neighbor asked the 4 of us kids to eat dinner with them. Everything went great at first and then they all started throwing mashed potatoes everywhere. What a mess that was....... glad I was too little to help clean up.

Ps..... just wanted you to know Dawn that Sonic closed 3 stores near me without notice. Just locked the doors and closed up for good. Run fast Dawn and get your cravings fulfilled as it might come your way ......

Donna from NE Indiana

Robin said...

Poor Brooke! LOL!!

Chris Davis said...

Is this why Savannah had "Love" written on her arm? http://www.twloha.com/

Unknown said...

I have been looking for a way to make these sleepovers stop. I think I may have found it. Thanks, Dawn!!

dark_chocolate said...

Oh, yeah, welcome to my family. That is the reason I am afraid to invite ANYBODY to a family dinner. Unless I don't want them to be my friend, than I guess this method would be great to traumatize, overwhelm, and disturb the people I don't intend to keep as friends, ensuring they will never come back. LOL. Not very nice, though, I guess.. :)

Paula71 said...

Oh my that poor little girl. SO, have her parents called yet? Have the people with the fancy jackets with the really long arms showed up? LOL I only had 2 sisters and mealtime at our house was a riot. I can't even imagine what the boys do that we don't hear about. I laughed so hard when I read this I needed that. Thank you

Anonymous said...

Stormimay beat me to my question, but if that (TWLOHA) is why Savannah had love written on her wrist, good for her! It is awesome to see kids her age embracing such an excellent cause!

V1nce said...

You should sell tickets to dinners at your house! I bet lots of people would enjoy all that free entertainment you have every single day. Why keep it all to yourself?

Bwa-ha-ha!

Carmen said...

Well, I think that she got to experience what she is missing by not having a big family... You never know, she may be back soon!

I have missed your posts lately... I was glad to see a new one today.

Dayna said...

Brooke will definitely have some stories to tell her parents when she gets home.

Too funny!

Unknown said...

Oh, how I love your blog. It just reassures me that every home with children (if done right) is chaotic and messy. God bless 'em, but these kids are going to be the death o' me.

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