One Crazy, Busy Week!

I hit the floor running on Monday morning and haven't stopped. But, I've certainly gotten a lot accomplished. I'm hosting a shower here on Saturday along with Connie, Karolyn and Nancy. We've had it planned for a couple of months, divvy-ed up the jobs and have it under control.

Margarita was here on Monday. The house was clean since we were out of town last week, so I had her do some work outside---clean up the chipmunk mess on the front porch (they dig in my lovely planters, scattering dirt all over), water flowers, and polish a silver tray. Little did I know that the kitchen would end up being a wreck. If anything can go wrong, it will---not my personal philosophy, but it does seem to be true at the busiest times.

Morgan called to see if she could have friends over. I warned her that it would be okay, but that there better not be a mess since I was having the shower. They showed up around noon---7 of them---boys and girls. They ended up making mac and cheese for lunch and then baked brownies. You might think you know where this story is going, but you would be wrong. They did clean up---although I'm the one that had to apply the elbow grease to the boiled over mac & cheese water on the stove. They were here 8 hours!!! Yes, you got that right---EIGHT!!! I sort of have a love/hate relationship with having them here---glad they feel welcome, happy to know where they are and what they're doing, fine with all the food and drink consumed, but at the same time, wish they would go somewhere else, mess somewhere else, leave after a reasonable time, bring their own towels, etc.  But what really got to me this day was that I was searching for one of my Starbucks insulated cups. I have two. When Steph and Mindy stopped by after work, I asked them about my cups. They didn't know anything. It never occurred to me that they were out at the pool. Here's the result of that:

Somebody BROKE one of my cups! Morgan is paying for that. I've figured out what really bugs me the most when they are here---is that feeling of having no control. I want to seem like the nice "grammy" so that they really do want to hang out here. But for crying out loud, I've got to get this figured out. About the time I set a "rule" with the girls, something else pops up that I didn't think of. Rule #259---no using my cups! I think by the time I hit rule #300, they'll give up and quit coming.

Now back to the story of why the kitchen is a wreck. Here is the email that I sent to my "shower cohorts" on Wednesday morning:

Okay, I'm trying to remain calm, cool and collected. It's hard.

Yesterday, my dishwasher flooded my kitchen. That's a slight exaggeration---it only flooded the part between the counter and island all the way down, sopping the rug. I cleaned up that mess.

Butch thinks he can fix it. He has the entire dishwasher torn apart---I've never seen so many parts. Then he brings in the hose from outside and has me turn it on. I went on record saying I didn't think that was a good idea. It wasn't---you can figure that one out.

Anyway, what a HUGE mess. All I can say is FTS (or DFTS---"double"---Nancy and I made that up for really extreme situations). 

I think I just need to leave and hope everything is all cleaned up when I get home.

PS Not a word to your hubbies. It would not be good for Butch to think I have no confidence in his appliance repair abilities. The Maytag man he is NOT.


End of email. Now I have to eat crow---he did get it fixed and cleaned up the mess. Still, it seems like I need to give the kitchen a thorough cleaning---seems a little grubby now with all this activity and foot traffic.


Wednesday afternoon, I went to the grocery store and started my cooking. I decided that since I was going to be in the kitchen anyway, I'd get a jump on food preparation for our family vacation next Saturday. We'll be at the beach from July 2nd to the 9th.

I put on my showtunes, poured myself a glass of wine and began chopping Vidalia onions (the best) for my spaghetti sauce. Despite my Italian heritage, when I cook Italian, it's an event. I go all out. I've got toasted ravioli and Italian bread in the freezer from St. Louis. We'll have a nice Italian dinner at the beach.

I make really, really good sauce. My mom made good sauce too---not so much in my opinion, but everyone else loved it. It never had enough meat to suit me. I use 4 lbs. of ground chuck. I like it thick. I think it's better than mom's, but I've never made it for any of my siblings, so they might disagree. It seems kind of sacriligeous to criticize your mom's cooking, especially when she was "full-blooded." But, oh well. I'm just glad to have this done and in the freezer ready for our trip.

I also made the spinach balls for the shower and made a second batch for vacation. Just a little planning is all it takes to stay on top of things and save me some valuable time next week. 

I cut the hydrangeas for the floral arrangements. I'll make them tomorrow. Annabelle hydrangeas are so easy and beautiful. Just cut, put in water and let the vase run dry. They will dry to look exactly like this. The leaves will wither, but the flowers remain beautiful. I'm going to add some nandina and whatever else I have in the garden to make the arrangements.

It was a fun, relaxing couple of hours in the kitchen and I'm ahead of the game for Florida.

This morning, when Mindy was here for breakfast, Butch showed her this little thing he made to save a buck. Butch, Mindy and Stephanie have joined a running club in preparation of a 5K in August. Butch saw something similar to this and then priced it. It was $18.00 which he thought was outrageous. Did he forget my Starbucks cups were $15.95 each? Mindy thought it was hilarious. Can you see the zip ties? It just hooks on your hand while you run without you actually having to grip it. 

He showed it to Stephanie this evening when they went running. She got a laugh out of it too. Then he showed her another that he found at Academy Sports for $6.00. He's going to give Mindy his "homemade" one. Now, to my way of thinking---he could have gotten each of the girls a $6.00 one for the cost of the $18.00 one. That's why he has more money than me!

One last thing. This morning I went for my regular nail appointment. I finally found someone I really like---Christine---her American name---I can't pronounce her "real" name. I have an 8:30 standing appointment and have been to her at least a half dozen times now. She wasn't there when I arrived. I was only waiting a couple minutes when a girl walked in and said hello to me. Thinking it was Christine, I got up and started following her. She looked at me real funny and said, "do I have you?' I say, "are you Christine." She says, "no." I say, "oops, sorry." I really do have to start paying attention! That was pretty embarrassing. You know what I'm thinking---I don't have to say it---it's much too politically incorrect!!