Things I Forgot and Another Recipe

I'm in St. Louis. On the trip, I always think about everything I brought to see if I forgot anything. I usually do---even with all of my lists---there's something I forget to put on the list. As I went over everything, I was congratulating myself on not forgetting anything this trip. When I'm going to be gone for 10 days, I have a lot of extra stuff to bring.

Turns out I did forget a few things. This time, it was my camera cord. I had it laying on my desk, so I'm not sure how I could forget it. Plus, I don't think I did. I just might not remember where I put it. But it's not with my other cords, so I must have forgotten it. Not a huge deal except I can't post any pictures here.

On Friday night, as I was making the grape salad (recipe below), I was going over everything in my mind that I needed to bring to Jennifer's for the shower. It hit me! Oh My Gosh!!! I forgot the petit fours!! They were so cute---with blue baby booties---still sitting in my freezer at home. I couldn't believe it. I called Jennifer right away---it was already 8:30. She and Janice were heading to Sam's, so they picked up a pre-made decorated cake. It was ugly, but better than nothing---I guess. To make matters worse, Janet and Janice "tacked" it up further with some crappy plastic baby decorations---rattles, booties, baby bottles. All I could do was make an announcement at the shower about how I was responsible for the lousy cake.

After, Jeanne had a good suggestion. I called Pam and am having her bring the petit fours to the scrapbook retreat we're going on this weekend. At least Jeanne and Janet will get a chance to see how cute they are and especially how delicious too.

The rest of the shower was nice and the food was good. I introduced all of the family and other St. Louis people to grape salad. They loved it.

Grape Salad
2 lbs. red grapes
2 lbs. green grapes
Wash grapes and remove from stems.

1-8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix together until smooth. Mix with grapes. Put in serving bowl. Top with:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans

Delish!

Then, Saturday night I realized I forgot my poker money. Dang, I lost 2 bucks. I'm been on a losing streak ever since "cashing in" my winnings and buying that Brahmin bag in New York. Jeanne says it's not that. She says I'm losing because I bragged too much. Maybe that's it!

One thing that was NOT forgotten was my birthday! My sisters (and that includes my sisters-in-law---they are sisters) had a surprise 60th birthday party for me. I was totally surprised and didn't even "get it" for quite awhile. My cousin, Judy came in and said she stopped by because she knew I was here. That didn't surprise me because her daughter lives nearby. Then she said she was going to another party at Chrissy's. She was giving her husband a 70th party. I told Judy that I would come and crash it. That's when my sisters said, "oh, you're going to leave your own party to go to another?" I looked all puzzled and said, "what?" About that time, Jeanne pulls out a cake and I finally start to realize what's happening. I'm so blind, I didn't even notice the counter FULL of presents. I do like presents. Darn, if I only had my camera cord. Anyway, sisters are the BEST! I love them.