Bread of Life, August 9, 2009

Well, another Sunday has come and gone. We headed out to 8 o'clock mass this morning and Fr. LeDoux spoke more on Jesus as the Bread of Life. This theme has been recurrent for the past few weeks. I prayed for the Banks family that they will cherish these last couple of weeks with their unborn baby and then have the courage to allow him or her to rest in Jesus' loving arms when the time comes if that is God's will. I had to pray silently because the tears were already flowing freely and I couldn't speak around the lump in my throat even if I wanted to. Talk about faith!

We returned home by 9:45-ish. The game plan was for the kids to change clothes and have a bite to eat before I delivered them to Aunt Shannon's house around 10:30 a.m. Shannon & her family had invited A & A to tag along when they went to the free tour of the Dallas Cowboys' new stadium which was open from noon until 4 p.m. I wanted to go along, too, just because I figured I'd never see the inside of the stadium any other time, but I had "chores" to do in order to be ready for the PaPa, Aaron, & Trey dessert buffet at Lani & Lorenzo's home this evening. Barrett decided to stick around and borrow the computer while I combed Alisa's hair (actually, I flat-ironed her hair because she had worn it in braids to church) and helped her and Aaron get ready. Meanwhile, I put together and baked the crust for the Texas Panhandle Yum-Yum dessert Aaron requested for his birthday so it would have time to cool while I was shuttling kids across town. We finally headed out around 11:15. I was in no particular hurry because when I called Shannon around 10 o'clock, she and Derrick were just getting up and in gear. Derrick was on his way to the grocery store to purchase their weekly rations, so I figured I had a little time.

On the way to Shannon's my air conditioning went out in my van. It was blowing fine one minute, then I went to adjust the temp and the entire thing went out. Barrett tried to convince me that I had accidentally hit the off button. I stressed to him that I did not in fact inadvertently turn off the air. The panel still read "auto" indicating that the A/C was indeed on; it just wasn't doing anything. Then, it started blowing again all on its own, but the air was warm and getting hotter. We rolled down our windows. Alisa suggested we turn off the A/C before something burned up, and I agreed.

Upon our return from Shannon's I kind of rushing Barrett out the door. He had asked if we would be back from Shannon's by noon and it was about ten after, so I really thought he was going to be late for work-he still needed to stop by home, gather his lunch, and change his shirt and shoes. Only after he left did I realize he probably didn't need to leave home until just after 1:00 in order to clock in on time at Tom Thumb for 2 p.m. Sorry for rushing you, B.
Even if Barrett wasn't rushing I felt like I was. The birthday bash wasn't until 7:00 p.m., but I still had to put together the layered pudding dessert (aka Nancy's delight or Texas Panhandle Yum-Yum), make the frosting and decorate the birthday cake. I also wanted to catch a nap and clean up my kitchen before leaving. The kids were at Shannon's, so I didn't have to worry about feeding them, but Mike & I needed something to eat, too, since the gathering was desserts only.
I managed to finish everything except clearing the dishes in the kitchen. I even got to lie down for about 30 minutes. We made it to Lorenzo & Lani's about 20 minutes past 7:00. Lani had everything set up nicely. The table was adorned with a red velvet cake with huge white chocolate curls on top, sliced watermelon, white chocolate dipped pretzels, cookie cups (chocolate chip cookies baked as a shell in a miniature muffin tin and filled with a cream cheese and powdered sugar filling-mmm!), a bowl of nuts and the cutest miniature "hamburger" cookies (nilla wafers with real sesame seeds on top for the "bun," a peppermint patty for the "meat," green tinted shredded coconut for the lettuce; she even rolled out orange starbursts and cut squares for the cheese and little strips of fruit roll ups for "bacon," and red & yellow icing to kind of hold them together and represent ketchup and mustard--again, too cute & tasty, too!). Tia made banana pudding (a favorite of Trey's). I added my birthday cake and layered pudding dessert. Oh I almost forgot...Trey made really good chocolate chip, toffee bit & walnut cookies, too. I didn't think I'd be able to look at anything else sweet for a while. Leyla sat on my lap and ate a whole slice of watermelon by herself. All of the usual guests were present: Our hosts, Lorenzo & Lani, of course, along with Trey, PaPa, Tia, Ed, RoseMary, Grandmom, Uncle Mark & Delores, Shawn, Renee, Sasha, Shannon, Derrick, Xavier, Leyla, Mike, Aaron, Alisa & me. I mentioned before that Barrett had to work. Everything was tasty! Well done, Lani & Lorenzo. Thanks for hosting the get together.