5th of July

What a busy weekend! I can hardly believe it's Monday again already, and I haven't blogged since last Monday. Whoever said "time flies" wasn't kidding. I guess I've been visiting some of the new blogs I'm following and neglecting my own stuff...I just have to find the right balance and stay on top of it all. I'll touch on the highlights and try to keep it brief. Warning: "keeping it brief" rarely works for me!
Tuesday 6/29 Mike & Aaron had their semi-annual dentist appts. Marching band practice was cancelled for Aaron since the a/c was out at the high school, but he still met at his section leader's house for a modified rehearsal. They were playing "Rock Band" on some video game system when I went to pick him up. I guess that's sort of considered practicing, huh?
When I stopped by my mom's house to pick up my nephew, Xavier, (who happens to be my daughter's best friend since I watched him since he was 5 weeks old and they were practically raised together), my grandmother (Grandmom) hopped in my car and buckled up as well. She just turned 92 and has dementia. She recently moved in with my parents because she was getting too forgetful to live alone. Was I going to tell my own grandmother to get out of the car? No I was not. She came on over to the house, too. Xavier and Alisa played for a while & when it was time to pick up Aaron, we all loaded back up in the car so I could deliver Grandmom and Xavier back to my parents' home after a trip to the pet store. When all was said and done, Grandmom returned to my home with her overnight bag packed. She told my mother she was going to spend a few days with me! Wow, this was news to me. I mean I'm not working right now, so it was okay, and Grandmom really isn't much trouble, but I should be studying for my Board exam for my nursing license at some point.
The following morning, Wednesday, 6/30, Alisa & I had our dentist appointments, so I dropped Grandmom back at my mom's house. Later that evening, my mom dropped off my 5-year-old niece, Sasha, around 5 p.m. I had already made the arrangements with my brother and sister-in-law to take Sasha to a singing dinosaur concert that evening and then let her spend the night. I guess mom dropped her off so we would avoid another "Grandmom hopping in my car to go, too" incident. That's about the time the rain started coming down. I held out hope that it wouldn't last and the concert would go on as planned, but I had no such luck. Sasha & I ran a couple of errands and then stopped by the Levitt Pavilion at 7:20 just to make sure the concert was indeed cancelled. It was. So, we returned home, cooked and ate dinner. We had cupcakes for dessert and then popped popcorn and watched "The Little Mermaid" (one of my favorites).
When Thursday July 1st rolled around, I was planning to attend the Carabali concert at the Levitt that evening. Aaron was at band practice, and Alisa didn't want to go, so Mike and I swapped Grandmom for Alisa and the three of us enjoyed the "salsa & merengue with energy" under the stars. I admit that I have 2 left feet, but still the music made me want to get up and merengue with the rest of the crowd. I had no willing partners, though.
Early Friday morning, 7/2, my grandmother's sister and nephew arrived in town from Chicago. My mom called and asked if I would bake a cake for Grandmom's birthday celebration on Saturday. 24 hours notice? Really? I felt like Larry the Cucumber on the intro to VeggieTales.
Bob: "Go on out there" [and play the tuba]
Larry: "But I'll look silly!"
Bob: "It's for the kids."
Larry: "Well, okay, but they better not laugh!"
(My kids have outgrown VeggieTales, but I still love them!) So, back to the grocery store I went trying to decide what kind of cake to make for Grandmom's birthday: strawberry or lemon. I decided on lemon cake with fresh strawberry filling and lemon buttercream frosting. The filling was a little on the runny side, but it tasted great, like stawberry lemonade.
Saturday morning, Aaron had to be at the high school at 6:30 a.m. to get ready to march in the 4th of July parade. I wanted to crawl back in my bed for just a little while because the parade didn't start 'til 9 a.m., but I figured I'd better make my buttercream frosting so all I'd have to do was assemble the cake after the parade. Grandmom's birthday luncheon at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen was scheduled for 1:30, and I wasn't sure how long the parade would last.
Although it had rained earlier in the morning, the weather was actually very pleasant for the parade. My cousin Barrett joined Alisa and me for the festivities. A little senior citizen set up camp right next to us and proceeded to talk incessantly throughout the parade. His wife was home sick. He has 2 beagles, named Honey and Sammy. He lives across from Lamar high school and watches his neighbor's dogs on occasion. He's a runner and also rides a bicycle. I thought to myself "bless his heart" and listened intently, excusing myself to snap a picture every once in a while. I could tell he really was a sweet person even if a couple cards shy of a full deck.
I rushed home (after stopping by Pep Boys to get a bulb for my front headlight which I just noticed was out) to decorate the cake and flat iron Alisa's hair and get myself read for our lunch date. We arrived only 7 minutes late, and that was because I missed a turn and had to circle around the construction on I-30 & Collins. North Arlington is like another city to me where I rarely venture.
Lunch went well. Aunt Ruth, Cousin Maurice, mom, dad, Barrett, Lorenzo Jr., Shannon & her crew, my sister-in-law, Renee and my kids and I all joined Grandmom to celebrate. Then we headed back to Mom's to have cake and open gifts. I think everyone was about stuffed to the point of being uncomfortable after Pappadeaux, so I served small slices of cake. Grandmom opened her gifts: beautiful cards, a night gown and several sets of bath and body stuff. What else do you get someone who is 92 and has recently moved in with someone else and has limited space for "stuff"? Consumables and gift cards, I guess.
Sunday, July 4th, I had to serve at 10 o'clock mass, and the kids wanted to go to early service, so Barrett picked them up and I went by myself. After mass, I stopped by my mom's to pick up the kids, and ended up visiting for a while with my Great Aunt Ruth whom we call "Ruthie Dear." Although she still uses words like "colored" and repeats the "N" word when quoting things her grandfather said, I just love to hear her talk about her mother, her Papa and her grandparents. Such a rich living history! I just try to take it all in because I know she won't be around forever to recount such stories. I guess that kind of counts for my "cherish the moment Monday."
Later that evening, my family headed to my sister's in-laws for a cook-out. Ed made the big, old-fashioned hamburgers with all of the trimmings. There were also hot dogs & hot links, assorted chips, fruit platters laden with grapes, strawberries and the best watermelon and canteloupe I've had this summer! I brought deviled eggs and my mom brought a cherry frosted cherry chip cake (I was off the hook for a change!). We left a little after 9 o'clock in search of a place to watch fireworks, and ended up in the parking lot near Steak N Shake watching the fireworks from The Highlands. It was the kind of carefree day that a holiday should be!
I'll try to keep my blogs a little shorter and more frequent so as not to bore my faithful followers to tears. I'm also going to post some yummy recipes from time to time as well. Thanks for stopping by...until next time!

Keeping up

Well, folks, the temperature says we are definitely in the dog days of summer (yeah, right, it's only in the 90's!). I'm wondering who is sneaking in and deleting my blogs! When I log on and see that my last entry was the first day of summer I wonder just what happened to all of the wonderful stories that are missing.

For instance, on last Sunday, June 6th, we (Mike the kids and I) plus Shannon & her two kids, Lorenzo, Reanna (in town for a brief visit from Columbia University in New York) & Tia met at Levitt Pavilion for a free outdoors concert to hear The Arlington Jones Trio. The weather couldn't have been more pleasant once the sun went down. I made "stuffed strawberries" for the occasion. They attracted a visitor (a tiny Asian woman who introduced herself as Audry) who was so impressed she came back for more. Arlington Jones (that is his real given name, and he only lives in Arlington but is not from Arlington, TX) showed out! He plays the piano with such enthusiasm and zeal that it truly is an amazing sight to behold.


On Monday, 6/7, Mike, the kids & I were all home together. We made some progress in catching up dishes and converting the "workout room" (i.e., room right off of the garage that houses a couple of raggedy pieces of workout equipment that nobody uses and where lots of stuff is stored and dumped when cars/rooms are "cleaned") to my craft room. Mike and Aaron moved the big shelf with bins of craft stuff from my office to the craft room where it belongs.


Tuesday, 6/8, Mike got up and dressed and left the house saying he'd be back in a little while. He mentioned the night before that he needed to gas up his car before heading back to work on Wednesday, so I thought that is where he had gone. The kids and I were all excited thinking that Mike would pull his usual "surprise" and be back in about half an hour with a full tank of gas in his car and a box of Shipley's donuts. One hour passed, then two hours...Around noon I went ahead and fixed lunch. We were all in kind of a foul mood, because we had all been looking forward to the soft, dough-y, sugar glazed pastries and we hadn't heard a word from Mr. Mike. I had to go out and run some errands-ACA, credit union, Aldi grocery store, library, etc. When I returned, Mike & PaPa (my dad) pulled into the driveway right after me with a GO-KART in the bed of PaPa's pick up truck. Okay, blog viewers, that all caps "go-kart" is not because I was so excited about the new toy, but more like WHAT THE HECK ARE WE DOING WITH ONE MORE APPARATUS THAT REQUIRES A PLACE TO STORE AND GAS TO RUN? I tried very hard not to be livid. Try as they might, the boys couldn't even get the thing cranked; then PaPa broke the spark plug. To my knowledge the go-kart is parked in my backyard and hasn't cranked since. Deliver me, Lord!

Wednesday, 6/9, I took Alisa to get her hair done. We scrounged up $1.07 worth of change out of the car and the bottom of my purse to share a bag of "Chicago Mix" popcorn from the Popcorn Stop in the same shopping center where we get our hair done. Xavier spent the night with the kids. I fixed them dinner and then went out with Lani, just the two of us. We ended up at Habaneros (also in the same shopping center as The Popcorn Stop and The Cutting Room). Lani & I agreed that the food was okay, but it probably wouldn't make it to the top of our most favorite Mexican restaurants anytime soon. Their habanero salsa was tasty (as it should be since it's their namesake), and so was the tomatillo salsa, but their "traditional" one tasted like tomato paste.

Thursday, 6/10 I fixed funnel cakes for the kids-read all about that in my other blog. We enjoyed another concert at the Levitt. This time it was Cedric Watson and Bijou Creole (old school creole from a talented new master). This group, too, was awesome. I wish I had endless amounts of money to donate to the Levitt Pavilion to keep the free concerts coming and to support the artists who perform there. In time...Alisa missed the concert and spent the night with Xavier instead.

Friday, 6/11, I watched Xavier and Sasha for Tia who had to clean the church and meet some friends for lunch. Leyla stayed behind with her PaPa. Xavier and Alisa did a pretty good job of keeping to themselves (mainly to avoid having to deal with Sasha). Sasha was a big help to me in the kitchen. We scrubbed the coolers and put them outside to dry. We cleared some stuff off of the kitchen table. We gathered Missy's bath stuff and ran some water in the big Rubbermaid tub outdoors so the sun could warm it. Aaron entertained Sasha a bit with a game of checkers and "Barney's Fishing Game." Sasha helped me bathe Missy, and then I bathed Sasha and washed her hair before returning her to Tia's house in time for her parents to pick her up.

Saturday, 6/12, Mike's alarm woke me up at 3:15 a.m., and he was still snoring in bed next to me. He mumbled something about switching shifts with a coworker and not having to go in until the afternoon. So, I prayed that he wasn't just dreaming or talking in his sleep and turned off the alarm and crawled back in bed. I decided I would fix pork chops and grits for "breakfast" and send Mike packing off to work with a full stomach. As it turned out, we remembered we needed to vote and Tia called to see if one of the kids could come over and "sit" at the house so Grandmom wouldn't be alone when she woke up. Mom and Dad were going over to Grandmom's trailer to finish hanging mirrors and making minor repairs in preparation of selling the home. I threw the chops in the oven and rice in the rice cooker (figured it'd be better to have the rice already done than to have to stand & stir grits for 20 minutes since we were running out of time) and told Alisa to keep an eye on them. We stopped by the junior high to vote and empty several bags of recycling from the back of my car, then cruised by PaPa & Tia's to deliver Aaron before returning home. The thin-cut pork chops were tasty but well-done by the time I got home and took them out of the oven. Thank goodness Alisa had at least turned the oven off! I put broccoli on the stove to steam and chatted briefly with Lani who had stopped by to pick up a coupon. We ate, and Mike headed off to work. I left Alisa getting ready for her friend's b-day party and went to Kohl's to get a gift. The little t-shirts I found were on sale to begin with. When I got to the checkout they were even more discounted because of "early bird specials" AND I had a save an additional 15% coupon, too. Talk about a great deal!! I was too excited. As much as I hate shopping, it's experiences like this that make me think shopping under the right circumstances may not be so bad after all. I even remembered to get gift receipts. I dropped Alisa off at the party for 3:00 then my mom and I ran some errands until almost 5 p.m. Mike worked late, and Aaron & I about finished rearranging the craft room into the wee hours of the night.

How could I have possibly NOT blogged about all of that? I sure thought about it enough. Probably everytime I was about to blog, I encountered someone on my computer checking their facebooks or watching Kate Plus Eight! Anyway, I'm almost caught up. Gotta go and get some stuff done so I'll have more productivity to include this week! Until next time....