Showing posts with label Jean Carter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jean Carter. Show all posts

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Gratitude: Days 12 & 13

Nick gave me a free photo book for Mother's Day & he reminded me I have to use it by Dec. 1, so I've got to get hustling. I thought I'd use it for the construction of the addition of the house, but ... I've decided I'm going to use it for the first couple of years of my blog.

Saturday, Nov. 12: Cell phones. I've already listed the internet last Saturday when I was without it. Nick is obsessing over a new phone & new carrier. He is so obsessed, I took my frustrations to the Lord today. I actually knelt down at my bed & told Him all about my concerns. When Nick & Don came over to talk about it,  I was able to come up with something I feel was truly inspired. Anyway, I LOVE cell phones. Yesterday, Saturday, when we went to Logan I forgot my cell phone. When I remembered it in Franklin, 6 miles from home, I was very tempted to ask Nick to turn around & go home to get it. I figured I could do without it, but I felt like I was half dressed all day. I kept patting my pocket.

Sunday, Nov. 13: Food. Today it was my turn to cook Sunday dinner. I always agonize over what to fix. But today I did a fairly simple meal, pulled pork sandwiches on hard rolls, Pineapple Apple Coleslaw w/a recipe I got from allrecipes.com & made my own. I seldom follow a recipe exactly, olives & Jean Carter's mandarin orange cake. OMG, it all turned out so good.

Last night when Don & I were shopping, I saw some barbecue sauce from KC Masterpiece called Smoky Bourbon. I don't usually buy KC Masterpiece because it's more expensive, but earlier in the day we, actually Don & Nick, had been having a play on words on Suburban, 'Burban & Bourbon. I thought it would be fun to use it. Actually, it was really good.

Mother & I listened to Fannie Flagg's book, Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, earlier in the week. Aunt Elner had a near death experience where she met Neighbor Dorothy, a friend who had a cooking radio show. Dorothy gave Elner some cake & tea. Elner said how Dorothy's cake was always so moist. Dorothy said the secret was to preheat your oven to 375° & then turn it down to 350° to bake it. So, when I went to bake my cake, I remembered this & thought I'd try it. Don't know if that was the secret, because when Jean served the cake at DUP on Tuesday, hers was moist.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Tuesday, May 12

OK, maybe I have to renege on my comments yesterday about DUP. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Yes, I was as unorganized as I thought. Yes, I was nervous ... very. I even took my sweater off & sat there in my tank top with my "funny" underwear hanging out. But it was warm ... my inner child was having a field day with the matches. But ... the audit went ok. I came out with the right amount.

One of my friends, Jean, had a hitch hiker. She brought her husband Glen's pickup truck to DUP. I asked her to take Mother home, while the DUP finances were being audited. When they went out to get in the truck, a little stray cat that has adopted them, jumped out of the back of the pickup, across the street & into the middle of the block. After Jean took Mother home, she went home & she & Glen drove back to where we had DUP. Jean walked through the backyards calling the cat. It didn't come. Now she's worried about the poor cat. At least she didn't kill it.

Mother said maybe the cat would go home. Well, Jean lives on 4th South & 4th West. Beth lives on 2nd South & 3rd East. That's a long way for a little cat to go. We had a cat that I gave away when we were moving from Woodruff. I wasn't going to make the same mistake with the Woodruff cats that I made with the Grace cats. Just abandon them. I gave Miss Piggy & her kittens away. We took them to a ranch about 15 miles up Monte Cristo. One day, a few days later, I saw a black cat dead on the side of the road almost to the Mountain Fuel Subdivision. I know it was Miss Piggy because there were no houses, ranches around. She was almost home.

Anyway, speaking of pickups. Nick & Don-Mike went to Rigby this afternoon to trade Nick's '69 pickup for a Corvette. It's mid-'70's, they think. The guy doesn't know what year it is. I have a picture of Nick's pickup on the flat bed, perhaps I'll share it later this evening. They are trailering it up. I really liked that pickup. It was classy, but it wasn't a 'Vette, sigh, so therefore, not classy enough.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

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.


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