Unexpected dinner guests

The arctic air has thrown us for a loop here in Southeast Texas, and we are all glad to see that it is finally warming up a bit with temperatures tonight only expected to be around freezing. Luckily our pipes are okay, but many people did not fare as well. We did lose some plants even though we covered them up. Sadly, the Beaumont Enterprise reported the other day that someone had left their dogs outside in the cold causing one of them to die. Being the dog person that I am, that breaks my heart. It makes what happened tonight with our dogs so insignificant, although at the time the boys did not think so at all.

All of the kids have been dragging lately with colds and coughs, so when they got home from school today I told them they could wait and do their homework while I tutored. Nicholas turned on the TV (Katie went to her room to listen to music and read while Andrew started his computer game)and much to his delight the movie "Shark Boy and Lava Girl" was beginning. Nick claims he has never seen the whole thing through, and that "it only comes on once a year!" So when thirty minutes later I told the boys it was time for them to go to the back of the house and do their homework, Nicholas burst into tears. This was not because of the homework, but our TV in the back does not get the channel the movie was on. Pete was home by then, so I let him handle it.

After I was finished with my tutoring, Pete and the boys came back to the front and Nicholas rushed to turn on the TV. The movie was ending, but the network was going to show it a second time. So being the softy that I am, I let the kids eat out in front of the TV, which we usually only do on Friday or Saturday nights. We spread a big blanket and the boys eat on that, while Katie sits at the table in front of the couch. We have one big room, so our kitchen table is right there and Pete and I can watch TV, too, if we want. But we began talking about the pipes that had burst in the neighborhood, some simply from icicles, and that prompted Pete to go outside and investigate to make sure our pipes were still okay. Can you guess what happened? The dogs barged in when Pete opened the door (they were out while we ate) and before you could wink, they had gobbled up all the food on the boys' plates. Can you blame them? Nicholas was more upset than Andrew, but after replenishing their plates and putting the dogs back out, everything returned to normal...for now.