I Survived!!

Was just reading my Mom's comment, from my last post, about the weekend, and it made me laugh! Jeanne is right Mom! You would try to paint the moon if you had a ladder tall enough! Ha!

Just thought I should post something of this weekend's outcome, since I'm sure you all are surprised I am even alive and typing today!

I, of course, had to work late on Friday. Always happens that way doesn't it? You have a plan and something comes along and gets you off schedule. Well, guess perfection is still just out of reach for me! That late arrival put me late picking up the kids and late getting dinner ready for our company, Dan's Mom and Dad, who arrived Friday evening. Really do apologize for that George and Sherrill, I had planned on getting dinner on the table before 7:00pm, I promise!

And, my late arrival put other things off schedule, too. Like, finalizing my grocery list, working out this month's budget (Dan and I still haven't finished that!), cleaning the house, getting the garage sale stuff pulled out to at least the garage, and a whole long list of other things I hoped I could accomplish.

But, alas, I am but one person with very high expectations for myself! And you too, honey, I know I hold you to a high standard too, but whether you think it or not, you do meet my expectations almost all of the time! You're a great man and I'm lucky to have you!

So, on to Saturday. I planned on having our garage sale stuff priced and all in the wee hours of the morning with stuff out in the driveway by 7:00am, at the latest. Let me preface by stating that I was only having the sale since my neighbor was having one (I was piggy-backing off of him, he put the signs up, and I would share in the draw of customers! I'm such a MOOCH!)

But, by 6:30am I didn't see Kenny out, nor did I see any stuff. So, I thought, "Well, guess I have plenty of time to get done what I set out to accomplish since we aren't having a garage sale."

At 7:45am I look outside and to my surprise, there is Kenny and there are customers!! So, I run into the bedroom, wake up Dan, telling him we gotta get stuff movin', customers are flocking to Kenny's sale and we're not in on it!

So, one solid push later, and Dan was up and out of bed, ready and rarin' to go! Ha! If you knew my husband and his feelings about getting up in the morning, this would really be funny to you! Then, it was a mad dash to get everything out and assembled into some sense of organization. Clothes would have to be sold at a later date, no time for that, but everything else was out and displayed by 8:30am. Come by our junk, please!!

We were open for approximately 3 hours and made $120. If you ask me, that's a pretty good return on our efforts! Little did I know, that that $120 would last approximately 2.6 seconds in the hands of my hubby who did our grocery shopping. My words exactly were, "Honey, this is why I do the shopping. A $600 monthly grocery budget would not last more than a couple of weeks if you were the one shopping for the family." But, it was a HUGE help to have him do the weekly foraging since I was at home washing, drying, and folding load upon load of laundry, feeding and entertaining little ones, and doing my best to keep the lists in my head from reaching a size no person could surmount not even me with my super powers!

Though, now I have to figure out a way to make $220 last me the rest of the month. Anyone have food stamps they aren't using?!? No, actually, I just looked at the calendar and since we have 5 Fridays in August, I will have $370 to last me til the end of the month! Yay!!!! I'll let you know how that goes. We may be selling babies at a cheap rate if food money runs dry!

Well, Saturday afternoon came and went quickly. There was the arrival of Dan's sister and boyfriend, the juggling of kids from one neighbor's house to another's, the planning and re-planning of the next day's events, an attempt at getting this done and this done and that done, and just general dis-organization for which I was steadily trying to stay on top of!

Late Saturday afternoon, my Mom and Jerry arrived and we were just about to serve KFC's finest, so they were right on time! Oh, and everyone was treated to the birthday cake JeanAnn made for Grant. (Dan's family wanted to celebrate Grant's birthday early since they would not make his actual birth day. Grant received a rocking pony from Nanny and Poppa, yee-ha! Grant likes it, but Griffin likes it more!)

After a quick clean-up of dinner, thanks to everyone for that, it was time to start prepping the food for Sunday. My Mom and Jerry helped me in the kitchen making the party fare for Sunday's Baptism. The tasks were not too difficult, just numerous!!! Though, we did finish by 10:00pm. We were finished, Dan wasn't. He was just starting the smoking of the Boston Butts. Poor guy! I was in bed by 11:30pm.

At 5:00am it was up with Wy Wy, not too much later, a tired Grant peered into the living room. And, not long after that, a grumpy Griffin awoke. Just what I needed tired, grumpy kids for an event-ladened day! Yippee!

Mom and Jerry made their way back to our house for early am help. What a sight for sore, sleepy-eyes they were!

With everyone dressed in coordinating outifits, we were ready and out of the house to arrive at church at exactly 8:45am! Yeah, church starts at 8:45am! Thank God they waited and didn't start without us!! (And thank you sooooo much Bryce, Lynn and the kids for coming to the Baptism even though you had much to do at your own house! I was soooo thrilled to see you all!)

The Baptism went pretty well. There was no crying, just a wriggly, fidgetty, tired and ornery almost two year old who tested my strength and agility when holding him. Grant did not want me to keep him managed! Too bad for him Mommy is stronger than he is (I'm sure this stage will not last long! He's already a tough little guy who tests me daily!) Other than that, though, it was a pretty ordinary event.

Afterwards, on the way back home, I proclaimed that no one would change clothes until we had all had our family picture taken. This seemed like not such a bad idea. But, when we got home, I realized there was no one there to take the photo! Everyone had either gone back to the hotel to check out, or to Walmart to pick-up the cake! Well, crap!

Dan, ever the Boy-Scout, said we could just put the camera on a tripod and take our own picture. I was like, "Uh yeah, we could. Though, we don't have a tripod!" Guess again. We DO have a tripod! It came with the laser level Dan's parents got him for Christmas a few years ago, and it worked for our camera! YAY!

Good idea, Honey. Though, it took so long to get it set up and figured out that Mom and Jerry were there by the time we started taking the first photos. Oh well, it's still nice to know that it can be used in that way!

Once the pictures were taken, it was back to the kitchen and the food. Our menu consisted of a Fresh Fruit Tray w/Honey Yogurt Dip, a Veggie Tray w/Ranch Dip, a Strawberry French Toast Casserole, Bacon-Hashbrown Casserole, Blueberry Cobbler (thanks Sherrill), Coleslaw, Pulled-Pork Sandwiches, and a White Baptismal Cake that read, "Happy Baptism Grant and Wyatt". Thanks Mom for that!

It was a whirlwind of activity, but memory-making nonetheless. Oh, and Dan and I were reminded on Sunday that our church had a swim party at the YMCA that evening. So, after a period of clean-up and well-deserved rest, it was on to that party Sunday night!

I'll say it myself, I'm pooped! And, if I ever plan so much for a weekend again, I pray that Amanda will hide in a tree and shoot me with a tranquilizer dart! Somebody needs to! My poor, poor husband! Oh, and here are some photos from Sunday. Pretty darn good-looking crew, I must say!