I Am the Little Red Hen

I had a difficult day yesterday that turned out to have a pretty happy ending.

The part that made it difficult was the unreliability of other people.  Do you ever feel like other people take care of your helpfulness and no one is willing to step out and help you?  The Little Red Hen would understand what I'm going through. 

The first thing to throw me was when a friend called last minute and asked me to pick up her daughter from school.  She got stuck at work and couldn't get there in time.  I absolutely didn't have time to do that, but I surely wasn't going to make her daughter stand out in the cold for 40 minutes.  So I drove her across town, which made me ten minutes late to pick up Big Sis.  That's the kind of person I am.  Yes, I ended up putting out the teacher and my daughter in the meantime, but I had to step up and help when necessary.

Last night was a big event I organize every other year.  I teach all teenage girls in my club, and their mothers, how to make homemade pies.  It's a huge ordeal and it's expensive.  I have to haul trunk loads of stuff up to the church, sterilize and cover tables, wash dishes that have been stored for two years, print recipes, and instruct the class.  Each mother is supposed to work with her daughter, listening to my instruction while helping her with technique.  Every year, there are moms who can't make it.  I get stand-in moms who come out and team up with a motherless girl.  It seems like those helpers bail out on me every time.  I ended up calling my lifelong BFF and asking her to fill in last minute.  She was a peach who jumped in to help, but I needed more help.  You would not believe the number of people who flat out told me no.  People just aren't willing to help any more.  I never did find enough help and we had to make do with what we had.

I asked Son #1 to go to the church to help me set up tables.  He pitched one of his teenage hissy fits and I was in no mood to argue with him.  I stormed out the door and did it myself.  That task resulted in me carrying 8' tables up a flight of stairs.  No fun.  Thankfully, I didn't drop any of them or hurt myself, which I thought was likely to happen.  Finally, someone gave Hubby word what I was doing and he stormed right up behind me and yelled at me for doing it myself.  He helped with the last couple tables.  I vented my frustrations to him, using a word I rarely use, "People suck," I said. 

I did have one helper show up early.  She was a tremendous help, as was one mother who was somewhat early.  The two daughters of the early mom fought and screamed at each other, which made me a nervous wreck.

The instruction went pretty well.  Of course, there were the people who didn't listen to anything I said and messed up.  We end up wasting a lot of ingredients because people don't pay attention.  When it was over, there were the people who left without cleaning up after themselves.  It blows my mind!  I found one of our bowls filled with apple chunks and juice that someone just left for other people to take care of.  There was flour and juice all over the floor.  There were Crisco covered measuring cups that no one even tried to clean.  I looked at the giant mess and almost cried.  One of my helpers stood around, watching everyone else clean up.  She spent most of the time texting.  Yes, this is an adult.  I couldn't quite figure out why she was still there....moral support, maybe? 

Then there are the angels....those who stay until the very end.  One in particular, named Elizabeth, whom I barely know, was one of those angels.  She's a woman whose daughter started coming to church and she really fought her about it.  She wouldn't attend with her and really limited the daughter's attendance to certain events.  Maybe a year ago, the mom started coming a bit.  Now, she comes every service and is nothing but a joy!  I really developed respect and appreciation for her last night.  I plan to get her a small gift and write her a note of deep thanks. 

Then the icing on top of the cake was 14-year old Abby.  As she was leaving, she turned to me and said, "Best night ever!"  It's reasons like that.  Happy ending indeed!

The Hiatus of She

Ever since my grandma passed away in March, life has been a whirlwind.  I normally start on my April and May obligations much earlier, but my late start was the major cause of my stress.  My April event was, to put it nicely, not so good.  I kind of dropped the ball and felt horribly guilty.  At the last minute, I had to confess that I wasn't able to pull it off and requested help.  Another person had to totally fill in for me and do a lot of work because of my failures.  She assured me that she understood and reasoned that everything turned out great.  She's kind.

I wasn't even there for the night of the performance.  We had our vacation scheduled that week and Hubby wasn't willing to end it early.  I don't blame him at all.  We had a super fabulous time in the mountains and I spent so much time relaxing!  I can't even remember if I highlighted my trip on my blog.  I drank hot tea on the deck in the mornings and soaked in the hot tub in the evenings. Afternoons were spent reading, shopping, and eating!  I started and finished The Help, which now joins my favorite books list.  McAlister's Deli is my favorite vacation lunch spot, as we don't have them here.  We also found an awesome pizza joint and a superb Japanese steakhouse.  That's my kind of eating, people!

Next, we move on to May, when things became extremely hectic.  The last two weeks, I figured out I was working an average of 7 hours a day on my banquet!  Whose great idea was it to hand make all the dainty crafts and favors???  (This lady!)  Our theme was From Paris with Love.  It was so easy to go overboard with decorations!  Now, you all know that I'm an aspiring photographer and I snap pictures of anything and everything.  How many photos do you think I got of all the beautiful decor?  Zero.  What an idiot!  I was way too busy to enjoy my camera that day.  One of my assistants was photographing everything with her phone, so I'll ask her to forward those to me.  The displays were definitely Pinterest worthy.

I wrote the play and all the songs for the banquet.  I made crafts, favors, decorations, and costumes.  I organized the seating chart, fought with the banquet coordinator of the restaurant, and took the reservations.  It turned out to be fabulous, but there were some quiet moments of the play when I expected laughter.  Oh well, not everyone gets my goofy sense of humor.  My great friend, who sat all the way on the side of the room, was actually disturbing the actors with her laughter.  That's why we're such close friends.  When I finally get the video edited, I might try to upload a snippet here.

At one point of the production, I stood in front of the microphone (which I hate doing) and said, "Twenty-five years ago, my mother welcomed me to my first Mother Daughter Banquet and said she was so proud to have me there.  This year, I'm going to do the same thing as I welcome my little (her full name) to her first banquet.  I'm so glad to have her here with me!"  Having Big Sis at the Banquet for the first time was a great blessing for my mother, the former coordinator of 30 years, who lost her mother a couple months ago.

So, that's basically what I've been up to in my absence.  I went on a pontoon boat, celebrated another year of marriage, gained a teenager, and washed A LOT of loads of laundry.  I spent Memorial Day with my entire extended family, really missing my grandmother.  I helped out with Field Day at Big Sis's school and even got my house clean.  I am so ready to enjoy the upcoming Summer!  Hubby was off two days last week and we really enjoyed spending time together and getting things done.  I'd love to spruce up my patio this summer...anyone handy with bricks or willing to donate a built-in grill?  I love my backyard and can't wait to spend countless hours out there.

AND- we started another business recently.  We now own a photo booth.  It's something portable that we can transport to fabulous events.  We had our first gig Saturday, which went incredibly well.  It's actually a lot of fun to see people ham it up in the booth.  My next chore is to finish the website and host it.  It's a little over my head but I'm getting it.  Managing this blog has definitely helped there.

OK, now I realize I'm babbling.  I guess it's been too long.  So for now, I bid you adieu- from Paris with love.  (Yeah, that was our closing line.  Hee hee!)

Monday, Monday

I need to tell you about my Monday.  It was an incredibly exhausting day, which is why I'm just now getting around to writing about it.

First of all, Monday is grocery shopping day.  I met up with my coupon friend right after we dropped the kids off at school.  I was kind enough to bring her an iced sugar cookie that I kept back from the church's bake sale Sunday.  (My kitchen was still a disaster from baking all day Saturday.)  At store #1, I spent $39.98 and saved $30.30.  Yay!  At store #2, I spent $67.76 and saved $49.42.  I'm getting this coupon thing down!

Baby Girl and I did not get home from shopping until 1:00.  We ate a quick lunch, she threw a quick fit, and I put her down for a quick nap.  She is still messed up from the time change so it was like she was taking a nap two hours late that day.  I then prepared for my evening.

That night, I instructed a group of 26 people in homemade pie baking.  I've done this before, maybe 3 times, but I still get nervous every time.  This was part of my teenage girls group, but with a twist.  Each girl brought her mom (or grandma) with her.  Only two girls didn't have a partner so I found each of them a sweet lady from the church to work with.  Dear Hubby spent his Saturday setting up the fellowship hall at church.  I stood in front of the room and demonstrated, while the mothers worked with their girls.  Each team of two made both an apple and a cherry pie.  They took them home to bake.

One of my friends, who was in the class, slapped my rear-end with a flour coated hand.  So I got her back.  This may be what raged the flour war.  It was mothers against daughters, friends against friends.  It made me feel more in-tune with what the Civil War was to America.  Well, not really, but it was fun nonetheless.  Then my right-hand man asked to have her picture taken with me.  Right before the shutter snapped, she picked up flour from my cutting board and threw it at my face.  Yeah, she's one of my best friends and now I can't remember exactly why.

Everyone had a blast and I was so happy we put this event together again this year.  My Facebook wall is lighting up with photos and thank-yous.  It took forever to clean up, but I had some good help.  As we were getting ready to leave the building, the security system began screaming at us.  Apparently, the system thought it was an hour later because of the time change.  We called the Pastor to let him know what we did and waited patiently on the police to arrive.  Somehow, the fire department ended up responding.  They just waved and smiled. 

It was an adventurous day and I slept really well that night.  In fact, Hubby said I was talking in my sleep all night long.  At one point, I patted him on the back and told him it was going to be OK.  I don't feel too bad because he talked in his sleep the night before.  He mumbles though so I can't remember what he says to tell him later.

And my pie- wowzers!  It was amazing!  Yeah, I know pie is not on my diet plan, but I don't even care.  You guys will forgive me come Saturday.

Randomness

I took my girls group "Booing" last night.  We filled five paper sacks with candy and treats.  My artistic assistant skillfully painted the word BOO on the bag along with a stencil of a pumpkin.  Adorable.  She tied them with black curly ribbon.  Inside, we included a picture of a friendly ghost with this poem:

The Halloween Phantom haunts you happily from now through Halloween,

And was delivered by a friend who was not seen.
The spirit of the neighborhood has come to wish you well,
Someone, somewhere, selected you to receive this happy spell.

You must display the Phantom on your door so all can spy
That you’re already haunted by this happy little guy.
Then fix 3 sacks with goodies like the one given to you,
Ring someone’s bell and leave a bag and make them happy too!
Happy Halloween!



I forgot to take a picture...these are last year's bags.


We picked five favorite families from the church as our victims.  In groups of five, the girls quietly approached each house.  They placed the bag on the porch, rang the bell, and bolted.  We were waiting down the street in a van with the lights off.  The funniest line of the night was from one of our Seniors who said, "I've got nervous pee!"  We had a great time and don't think we were ever seen.  This is a great tradition to begin in your neighborhood!

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This week is Spirit Week at the kids' schools.  Of course, the themes aren't the same for both schools.  The boys had Crazy Hair Day and Big Sis had Crazy Sock Day, or so I thought.  She was all dressed and we were getting ready to walk out the door.  Suddenly, she noticed her planner said today was Team Shirt Day.  She's a girly-girl.  She doesn't have a team shirt.  So, into brother's closet we went.  We borrowed a college football jersey that is probably too small for him anyway.  She actually looked quite adorable in it with a red shirt underneath, a red bow, and gray striped leggings under her skirt.  Team Shirt Day actually triumphed over Crazy Sock Day.  It's all good.

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I am now dreaming about coupons.  That can't be good.

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We have some new friends that we've really enjoyed getting to know lately.  I've been promising to have them over for some time now but I haven't found the right opportunity.  First of all, I haven't been able to get my house clean enough.  For regular friends, it's fine.  But for new friends, I have to portray the image that I'm one of those good housekeepers.  (I'll hope they'll still like me when they find out I'm deceiving them.)  So, Friday night was the night.  We had a Fall Festival at church and I invited them over for dessert afterward.  I made two pumpkin pies (one for a pie contest that I did not win) and pumpkin cupcakes.  The house was not Company Clean but it was acceptable.  This family also has four kids so I knew they probably wouldn't judge too harshly. 

I wasn't quite prepared for the evening so I was running around doing things after they arrived.  (Actually, they had to bring me to my own home because Hubby disappeared without his phone but with my car keys.  I was stranded and super embarrassed.  If that guy wasn't so cute, he'd be out on his ear.)  I made a fresh pitcher of sweet tea and was placing it in the fridge.  Hubby had just removed the drawer that the pitcher sits in to clean it.  He did not put it back in properly.  When I set the pitcher down, the shelf collapsed and and entire gallon of sweet tea exploded in my kitchen.  It drenched me, all the way to my hair.  It trickled down into the lower living room.  It seeped through into the basement.  Imagine my sheer horror!  My new friend was on her hands and knees in my kitchen, cleaning up the spilled tea.  It became a sticky mess so I had to get a bucket and actually scrub the floor.  Let's hope they come back again.

Black Monday

Every other Monday during the school year, I direct a group of 7th through 12th grade girls at my church.  I've talked about it before on here and thought it might be a good idea to share some of the activities we do from time to time.

Last night, we had Boutique Night and it was amazing!  For the last few weeks, I've been hitting up stylish women in the church to donate unwanted clothes, shoes, and accessories.  Most of them clean out their closets this time of year anyway.  The response I got blew me away!  I expected to receive 8 or 10 bags of clothes.  Each girl could probably walk away with 4 or 5 free items.  But my friends came through!  Four of us spent two hours sorting and setting up all the clothes.  Here is a picture of the result:

On the left is the accessory table.   We had purses, clutches, hats, and headbands.  Past that was a table of XS and S tops.  The tall rack was filled with shoes and scarves.  The next several shelves were skirts sorted by size, from 0 to 16.  The hanging rack you see in the middle is all size medium clothes.  The rack on the right has XS to S clothes on the left and L to XL clothes on the right.  Out of the camera's view is another table filled with M, L, and XL tops.  I am still in awe looking at this picture again!

We started off with all the girls sitting in the chairs.  We laid down some ground rules:  1.  No complaining or acting embarrassed about your size.  God made you the way you are and you need to be happy with yourself.  2.  Be courteous (which I knew they all would be).  3.  Take one accessory at a time so everyone has a chance to get something.  4.  Don't make a mess. 

I must say that they followed the rules very well.  I had a hard time getting them to sit still and pay attention.  Their eyes were wandering and they had difficulty focusing.  Wouldn't you???  Finally, I said, "Play Ball!"  They all jumped up and made a mad rush for the racks.  One girl said it reminded her of Black Friday.  So we started calling it Black Monday.

In the end, each girl took home approximately 2 shopping bags full of clothes.  A few of them took home full garbage bags.  We still had quite a bit left so I invited their mothers to browse when they came to pick them up.  One mom outlasted the rest.  She is an avid eBayer so I told her she could take some things to sell.  She ended up with 2 garbage bags and kept saying, "Are you sure?!?"  We loaded up the remainder in garbage bags and were about to load them up into my van.  Another youth leader who happened to stop by was still there.  She offered to take everything else to a resale shop and donate the profits to our group.  I was thrilled I didn't have to haul away all the bags on my own!

It was so much fun and it felt great to give back.  I was so exhausted when I got home and I'm still feeling it today.  I told all the girls to let me know whenever they wear something new to church.  What better feeling is there than getting new, free clothes?  Well, seeing 20 ecstatic girls running around giggling out of sheer happiness rates right up there.  This morning, I received this message:

Thanks for all your hard work last night. It was really fun! you guys are the coolest people on the planet! (: seriously! I love you guys. thanks again!
 
That made my day!

Respectful Vandalism

The teenage girls group that I head up started up again last night.  They range in age from 7th to 12th grades.  Yesterday happened to be our Youth Pastor's birthday so I knew we had to do something big to acknowledge our appreciation.  Also, he's my first cousin so I know him pretty well.  I wanted to do something on the line of TPing (rolling, whatever you call it) or Forking, but I didn't want to do anything that would be difficult to clean up.  My fabulous assistant suggested Chalking.  That's it!  That's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

About 20 of us loaded up on the church's passenger van and headed over to his house.  We were sure he was out for his birthday so we had plenty of time.  The girls also made an ugly sign that they decorated with scribbles and mud handprints (they were so creative last night) to announce to his upscale neighborhood that it was his birthday.

About 5 minutes into the job, my mom happened to call and mention that The Birthday Boy was five minutes from home when he decided to stop for ice cream.  Knowing what we were doing, she asked if he would drop ice cream by our grandparents' house to try to stall him for a bit.  It worked out perfectly and we finished just in time.

My girls had a blast and the photos are all over Facebook now.  I love meetings like that where I really feel like I connect with the girls and show them a good time in a safe community.  I also hope this program is still going to be around when my girls are teenagers.  I'll do my best to make sure that happens.