Ain't A Holiday Without A Brawl

Thanksgiving was spent with my family in Oklahoma. My family is great but they can wear you out. The time is never spent just sitting.

We usually participate or organize our own Turkey Trot run, go to movies, go shopping, cook, and play endless games of Mexican Train (dominoes) and card game 31. Then there is the Annual Turkey Bowl football game. The game sometimes includes us girls but usually we poop out early and its just the boys. Big boys and little, old and young.

It was a sunny day with temps about 55. Cool but nice. My sil and I had already walked once around the block and would then stop to watch the game. This time the guys had split Dads aka "The Trashtalkers" against the boys. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until I hear yelling and the word"Fight!"

Much to my dismay, it is my own two boys who are going at it. The 16 year old was bleeding copiously from the nose and the 21 year old has got a strangle hold on him. The hubs is telling the older one to get off and the 16 year old is squealing. I begin yelling at the older one to stop. Okay, I am frantically yelling for him to "STOP! GET OFF OF HIM!!"

They separate. The younger one marches passed me pinching his nose, blood streaming down his arms. I yelled something at the older one about reigning in his testosterone. Then I followed the younger one to help stem the flow of blood. If there was an Olympic competition in nosebleeds this child would have already won a gold. When his nose bleeds, it gushes, pumps and pours.

Running into the kitchen, I grabbed paper towels and went back out. He was very upset and I asked what happened. I was told that Child #1 was a jerk. Yes, he can be and he outweighs this one by about 60 lbs. Then I was told that the older one was talkin' smack and blaming missed tackles on this one and he'd had enough.

About this time, the older one comes up and he is quite upset. He takes me off to tell me that he was just holding his brother because he didn't want to get punched. That's when I realized that the younger one had gone off on the older and I had yelled at the wrong kid. I apologized and explained that I didn't realize what had happened and simply reacted to a bigger kid hurting my other smaller, younger one.

You would think that with three boys we would have this happen all the time. But we don't. My boys are pretty far apart in age which has kept most physical fighting to a minimum. But, this middle child of mine has lost his temper before and we have had to literally pull him off of his brothers. Its happened all of twice in his lifetime. He has a slow fuse but once you get him there, then look out.

They both apologized to each other - I was hugged by each and the day went on. The brawl went unmentioned for the rest of the weekend although I did notice that the middle child gained a bit of street cred with his cousins. I believe the younger ones must have been forbidden to speak of the "incident."

Like I said, it ain't a holiday unless there's a good family fight.

Off the Top of My Head

I am so behind on posting so will have to combine many thoughts/topics into one post. Hang on!

1. Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama!! What an exciting night Nov. 4th was! Someone (who happens to be a snarky Republican - not all are but this one sends out mass emails that are insulting to the black side of Obama) asked me if I celebrated. Well, as a matter of fact, a friend and I toasted his win with champagne.

2. Fav recent quote: "Her house was a moratorium to her daughter" (the word I think the woman meant to use was museum.)

3. Recently, during a pedicure, the woman next to me had such thick, scaly foot skin, they broke out what I swear was an industrial sized cheese grater and started shaving her feet. It was nasty. It was all I could do to keep my eyes glued onto my People mag!

4. If I had a daughter, I would never allow her to wear pants/shorts with the word "JUICY" on the rear. Parents! Step up and be in charge! Yes, that is a brand but have you ever heard of a double entendre? Look it up.

5. What drives me crazy? People who don't give good voicemail. Instead of a bit of detail such as the purpose of the call all they say is, "Hi its "blank", call me back." Or even better, the ones who call and don't leave a voicemail at all. It will show as a missed call on my cell but I usually don't return those calls figuring, it musn't have been that important, right? I have had people say, "I called you. How come you haven't returned my call?" Whatever.

6. Walking into the wrong bathroom. This seems to be a theme in my life right now. No, I have not walked into a men's room, but I did have a man come in while I was in a stall and he used the one next to me. How did I know? Well, the distance the "water" traveled was my first clue....oh, and he didn't shut the stall door. I have a friend who used the ladies room one time, not realizing it until he came out to wash his hands. Then another who did the same thing. Its an epidemic.