Valentine’s Day around these parts means Chinese food. Every February 14th for almost 12 years now there’s been Chinese food. Usually take – out, always yummy. Emily used this year as an opportunity to try crab and lobster, in the form of seafood soup. She loved it so much she asked if she could eat it for dinner every night from now on.

The next night was not as yummy or healthy. I was expecting the in – laws for dinner so I thawed a huge amount of stew beef to make a Hungarian Goulash. I had planned on serving it with a nice salad and Italian bread. Then it became apparent that they weren’t going to arrive in time for dinner, and I had nothing else at the ready. So it was off to McDonald’s so I could save myself the effort to cook and clean up the kitchen. The older girls wanted chicken nuggets……so when I pulled up to the drive thru I ordered chicken nuggets. Or at least I’d swear I did. But Emily heard “cheeseburger”, and so did the nice lady at the window. And I can’t say truthfully that this is the first time this has happened to me. My blonde has been showing a lot lately. I swear I’ve said or heard something but everyone else around me says otherwise. Either it’s a well organized plot to convince me I am senile, or I truly am losing it.

So anyway I handed my two girls their happy meals and as I am driving away it becomes clear that these meals are actually not happy because they are the wrong damn thing. I apologize and tell them I’ll somehow make it up to them. Emily assures me it’s ok; she’ll enjoy her fries and chocolate milk and have a snack of some sort when we get home. This sounded reasonable. I agreed to her terms. Then I asked Neve if that sounded ok to her. No. It was most definitely not ok.

“I want you to turn around right now and get me my chicken nuggets”.

That’s my Neve.

No, I did not turn around. I don’t let her boss me around. Much.