The Weekend

On Friday nights, Stephanie and Mindy come over after work for cocktails. We’ve really come to look forward to that. Butch and I always started our weekends with cocktails on Friday nights as he was usually coming home from out-of-town. It was always a great way to catch up on the week. 

The girls caught us up on their world---Mindy, telling the story of how the COO of their company came by to say, “I knew you reminded me of someone, and now I find out that you and Stephanie are sisters!” This has happened so often to them. Steph works on one floor, Mindy on another. A couple of weeks after Mindy started, one of Steph’s co-workers told her, “Steph, there’s a girl downstairs that could be your sister!” To which Steph replied, “she probably is!” Anyway, we think that is such a hoot as we don’t think they look alike at all. People have always said that about us Zimmermanns too, but I’ve never seen it. Janet says it’s the nose. I’d like to take this time to mention that the family has voted me as having the best nose. High praise from a group whose show of affection is cut downs! I’ll take it.

Anyway, back to Friday night. We started to discuss the plans for the weekend since the Lapps’ would be back on Saturday. The girls wanted a pool day and BBQ. I wasn’t too keen on the BBQ part as the entire house is a wreck---every table-top covered with stuff. I just wanted to pick up chicken or Corky’s BBQ---the girls wanted Backyard Burgers---which Butch said would be way too expensive. Then the girls went back to having a BBQ here idea. I still balked. They said they would do everything. I wouldn’t have to do a thing. Yeah, right. Okay, so we started planning the menu---hamburgers, New Orleans style brats and shish kebobs. The only thing I had to do was make the fruit salad---which was okay by me.

On Saturday morning, Steph and Mindy did the grocery shopping. They got here around noon and were anxious to get outside to the pool. At that time, I tried really hard to bite my tongue, but just couldn’t. I said, “girls, don’t you want to get your food ready and bake the cake so you don’t have to worry about it later?” They looked at each other and said, “No, we want to get this prime sun.” I told myself, “okay, mom, just butt out.” I did. Lapps family arrived about 12:30 and the party ensued.

About 2 p.m. the kids were making pizzas---I reminded them that we were having our BBQ around 4 p.m. They didn’t care. Teenagers eat all the time. It’s chaos around here with them in the house. About that time, Steph CALLS me from the pool---“Mom, would you plllleeeezzzze make the cake? I promise you won’t have to do anything else.” Uh huh, I told you so…..

I made the cake and started on the fruit salad. We all know that Stephanie is NOT a cook. But I never realized she could screw up someone else’s cooking too. She bought a generic brand of fruit cocktail. It had NO cherries in it! Then, she bought colored, flavored mini marshmallows. All of the kids complained---no cherries and the marshmallows tasted funny. I agreed about the marshmallows---ruined my fruit salad. After dinner, Mindy told us how Steph was so excited about the

marshmallows in the store---“Mindy, won’t they be so festive? Don’t tell dad they cost a lot more!” At the time, Mindy agreed with her. We all got a good laugh about it---Steph is taking the rest of the crappy fruit salad home with her. Then I asked what I owed her for groceries---$100. I looked at Butch and said, it would have been cheaper to get Back Yard Burgers! He has no clue what things cost. Eating at home isn’t always cheaper!

The pool party was fun---Jordan is the only one that jumped in---the water is still way too cold. Greg said he was tempted as the temperature reached 94. It was hot. So hot that Stephanie went around the house and turned on all 3 air units. I try to hold off until at least May 1^st but even our friends were telling us on Friday night that they had already turned theirs on.

After dinner, we started playing some games  outside. It didn’t begin well because no one could agree on what they wanted to play. We wound up playing trivia with teams. That lasted about 2 rounds before we realized that no one was having fun. We ditched the games and just talked. With that many, it’s always fun.

About 9 p.m., Morgan and Carson left. I minute or so later, we heard the most horrible noise and thought it was Carson’s car---like the engine was grinding or something. Turns out, it was our air conditioner---the downstairs one. We turned it off and roasted the rest of the weekend. I’ll get my buddy, Tommy out here today. I like being on a first name basis with my “peeps,” but this will not be good….