Potato fiasco

Don-Mike had another name for this, it kind of rhymed with potato. I repeated it, tickled with the words, saying I was going to use it as the name of my blog entry tonight. Now, of course, I can't remember it. I hate the short term memory loss. This will bug me for a while, what was that word?

Don & I take turns cooking dinner on Sunday. Don fixes lasagna 0n the first Sunday of the month & it has come to be known as Lasagna Sunday. So, when I was planning menus for March I saw there were 5 Sundays. If we continued to fix dinner every other week, lasagna would no longer be served on the first Sunday. So, I had a scathingly brilliant idea. Don-Mike could fix dinner on the fifth Sunday! I also had an alternate plan. We could have potluck, where everyone would pitch in with something, or we could have a potluck potato bar.

Don-Mike thought about it a while & decided he would take the 5th Sunday challenge. He thought about it, planned it & shopped for it. Funeral potatoes was the main dish of his meal. I went shopping with him & we did not get any potatoes. Why get potatoes? We had a 50 lb. bag of potatoes in the cellar that had never been opened. He went down today to get the potatoes & they were soft & sprouted. They were in 3 feet of water. The sump pump had not been plugged in. None of us had even thought it had been warm enough for the cellar to flood like it does every year.

I suggested dropping back & punting, but he had planned on fixing "funeral potatoes" for dinner today for a month. I told him the closest open grocery store was Logan. I could drive down & get some. He suggested I ride down with him.

Only the big box stores are open in Logan, Wal-Mart, Smith's & Albertson's. We went to Wal-Mart. Don-Mike got potatoes & I got bread, milk & some frozen burritos. The frozen burritos were to appease Nick. He had a huge melt down today after I got home from church. He came to the front room door with 2 cans of tuna that I had bought last night for Don's tuna noodle casserole tomorrow night & asked if he could have them. Don said no, it was for supper tomorrow night.

He put them back & then came looking for a fight. He said we NEVER have food in the house. I told him we have food in the house. He could have the d***d tuna. He was raging by then. He said he didn't like just opening a can of vegetables or fruit or tomatoes. He wants to open something to eat & not have to fix it. All we have in the house is INGREDIENTS. He doesn't want to have to MAKE something to eat, he just wants to get something to eat.

I went out & there was no bread in the bread box. I went to the freezer & almost had heart failure. I couldn't find any bread. Then the box of ramen noodles was empty, but hadn't been thrown away. The last egg had been used last night, but no one had told me there was not another dozen in the extra fridge. All the milk we had was in the fridge in the kitchen, there was not another gallon in the other fridge. He was right, there was no food in the house.

Then I started raging. My usual response is "Your lack of planning is NOT my emergency!" Well, today, it was my emergency. I could have got the milk, bread, potatoes & either more ramen noodles, spaghetti-os (sp-os), frozen pizza or burritos here in town & not have to run clear to Logan. But we knew there were potatoes in the cellar. We just didn't check on them yesterday to find that they had gone bad. I had asked as I left for the grocery store last night, "What do we need?" knowing the closest open grocery store on Sunday is 25 miles away.

Don-Mike's meal turned out delicious. It was nice to have someone else fix the meal & do the planning. He fixed enough for everyone to fill up. They are such hearty eaters, many times there is not enough to fill them up. No one went away hungry. I gorged myself. We have punch every Sunday. Since the diabetes diagnosis, they give me water to drink, instead of punch. Last week Don-Mike suggested I buy some Crystal Lite so I can have punch too. I said the water was great.

I'm still tryng for an 11:30 bedtime. Last night I went to bed at midnight, but was up this morning at 7:15. I have to copy the ward bulletin every month on Fast Sunday

First Sunday in Lent

Ok, Sundays do not count as part of the 40 days of Lent. Why? Is Sunday a free day? I'll still report on my progress or lack of.

Last night I got to bed at midnight. I woke up at 7:05, & finally forced myself out of bed at 7:30. It's Fast Sunday, the first Sunday of the month & so therefore the ward bulletin had to be copied & collated. I didn't do it yesterday & they wanted it first thing this morning. I finished it at 8:30 & put the stack of bulletins in the chair outside the clerk's office.

I checked today at church & they were there when they were needed.

Decluttering, ummm, nope. It didn't happen, sigh.

February already

The second Sunday in February no less, also Feb. 8.

I received a legal, also known as a public notice, at work (local newspaper) yesterday. It was for a meeting set for the second Monday in March, also known as March 2. I laughed over that, then decided I'd better see if it was saying what I thought it said, so I grabbed the lady that had numbered that legal for me. She laughed too & said that I would probably be calling on that first thing Monday morning. I said I didn't think I would, I don't like the guy that submitted it. Now that was petty & I knew it, I'll definitely be calling Monday morning.

We found out last Sunday that Mother has a compression fracture in the middle of her back. Our neighbor, Paula Gordon, told me that Instacare is open 7 days a week. Mother has been so miserable. It's because of that fall she had Jan. 10. Why it took so long to surface I don't know. But she didn't feel like going to get her hair done today. She hasn't had a bath or a shower for about 4 weeks now. The doctor at the wound clinic doesn't want her getting her leg wet. So, she's just had "spit" baths, I call them.

Mother spent most of the day crying. Nick went to check on her this morning & she asked him to send his mother over. Don-Mike had told me when he came this morning that she was "terrible" & wouldn't let him fix her any breakfast. And she didn't want Tim (Brother Golightly) coming today, she didn't want to have to get up & answer the door.

Don-Mike wanted to know why Tim would be coming today. I said he wouldn't be coming today, it was Saturday. So, then he wanted to know why Tim would be coming tomorrow, it wasn't Fast Sunday(1). I told him that the priests(2) had skipped Mother last Sunday when they were taking the Sacrament(3) around to the shut ins. I had called Tim & he had promised to bring her the Sacrament this week. If I remember, I'll remind him tomorrow.

Brother Golightly is in the bishopric(4) & I guess he's the one that takes the priests around to administer the Sacrament to those who can't make it to church. They do it once a month on Fast Sunday.

Tonight I fixed chili at Mother's. OMG, it's the worst chili I've ever fixed. Nick wouldn't come & eat because chili didn't sound good. It sure did to me, but I have felt like crying ever since I ate. I think the big problem though, was the whole package of sugar free chocolate peanut clusters I ate on the way home from Smithfield. It wasn't nearly as good as the real thing. The chocolate was so sweet & I felt like sicking up even before I ate the chili.

I went to Smithfield to the dollar store to buy some mugs for our DUP(5) camp meeting. We were supposed to have the meeting at Mother's on Tuesday, Feb. 10, also known as the second Tuesday in February, but we were worried about parking. Mother lives on the main highway into town & there is basically no parking unless we park in the street & the drain clogs up right there. That's where Don-Mike lost his new phone the first of January, trying to unclog that drain. We didn't want the ladies getting their cars hit or having to wade through the water. My friend, Jean Carter, said she'd just park out by the canal & hope someone would come along & run into her car like someone did Don-Mike's on Christmas Day & then she could get a new car, LOL.

I told her we'd already changed the venue & we are having it at Jeanne Cutler's. She doesn't live on the main highway, she lives on a corner & has a double driveway. Even with snow there is ample parking. I just won't get behind Beth Gunnell this time. We had meeting at Jeanne's in December & I told Mother to wait for me. I would go move the car because I had parked behind Beth & Beth wanted to go. I told Mother I would come back in for her because I had some stuff I was going to pick up. She says she didn't hear me. I even told Ray, Jeanne's husband, to tell Mother to wait for me. Well, Beth hurried Mother out & was bringing my stuff & dropped my spaghetti ladle on the cement in the driveway & broke it. I was so upset & in tears, not because of the spaghetti ladle, even though it was brand new, but just because I was feeling overwhelmed.

We've been told we can't serve lunch or a meal, just refreshments, at our DUP meetings this year. Well, I have diabetes & I can't have the sugary stuff unless it's sugar free. I decided long before I knew I had diabetes that I wasn't going to serve "refreshments" anyway when it was my turn to be hostess. I was going to serve tomato soup & little triangles of grilled cheese sandwiches. The soup is red & we're having it Valentine's Day week. Now, I know that other things have carbs & you're not supposed to have lots of carbs either. Mother wanted to serve punch & cookies. She's co-hostess.

Anyway, I've been thinking about this for months & finally decided I'd better get the soup mugs. Well, they had some really pretty mugs, but I was going to have to buy 12 & that was $12. I was feeling that I really wasn't being very economical. There are other things I NEED & I only WANTED soup mugs. I decided I'd pull up my big girl pants, swallow my obsession with pretty soup mugs & use styrofoam cups. I could get a package of styrofoam cups for $1, a package of pretty Valentine napkins & matching cups for water for $1 each for a total of $3. Besides, I wouldn't have to wash styrofoam cups or even find a place to store them once DUP was over.

I'm going to get some cans of Campbell's family size soup, milk & buy some cheesy breadsticks from Pizza Villa. I'll make the soup up & put it in the crockpot & it can heat while we have our meeting. Maybe Don-Mike can order & deliver the breadsticks for me, if he doesn't have to work.

I still haven't written up the minutes for the last 4 months, argh! I'm the secretary of our camp.

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Footnotes:
(1) Fast Sunday - Generally the first Sunday of the month & because we "fast," or go without food, it certainly doesn't seem to go very quickly or fast.
(2) priests - young men who bless the Sacrament
(3) Sacrament - could probably be likened to communion in the Catholic Church
(4) bishopric - the bishop & counselors
(5) DUP - Daughters of the Utah Pioneers