Tuesday, Bloody Tuesday

Well, bloody at least for my bank account. The plumber came today to replace the sewage pipe and guess what, the car we bought for our daughter to use at college and has been piece meal fixed finally got fixed and came due $$$$ today as well.......AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH.

Will post more about the wedding, the picnic, the birthdays and everything else in between later.
Ciao.

The Church Picnic

Today was the day of the church picnic. I am on THE committee. Need I say more? The church provided hamburgers and hot dogs and A-M did dessert and N-Z did side dishes....oh, did I say NO ONE with names ending N-Z showed up? (I lied, there were a few, very few). So we cooked hamburger and hot dogs and invoked the feeding of the five thousand asking Jesus to show us how to make a few side dishes feed 116 people. Forgot the camera, so no pictures, besides I was too busy to take any anyway. So, after eight hours of feeding, cooking, clearing up and generally looking at a bunch of babies that are too cute for words (Hi Miss Lexi and Miss Gwen) I am now home. And to sleep, perchance to dream.

Thursday - the Ordeal is Over

Okay, yesterday I ended with Thursday wasn't looking so good. Well, I came thru the other side of the ordeal this morning and things are looking up again. To those of you not 'in the know', I had a hearing this morning regarding my former employer appealing my unemployment. I knew I did everything I could correctly and my original filing was approved, but they appealled it making statements that were inherently false and I was upset with the possibility that they could and would make similar statements at the hearing. I got there, signed in, said a prayer, and waited to get called in. When I went in, only the mediator was there. NO ONE showed up to represent the company. We waited a few minutes and began. The mediator told me IF they showed up during the hearing, he would take testimony, but if they didn't, mine would be the only one of record. He asked me a few questions then let me go. I do not know WHY they blew it off as they had tried to file a last minute (end of last week) continuance and it was denied so they knew someone had to show up, but I am grateful that I don't have to go thru the waiting again as the appeal was made by their side, not mine, so I fulfilled my end by showing up. The final determination is to be made as soon as possible and hopefully this one will be un-appeallable (is that a word?). Thank you for all of you who said a prayer for me today, and here's a shout out (can you do that on a blog?) to Yvonne, who emailed me at 7 a.m to tell me she was praying for me. Just knowing that made me more confident and calm in an unknown setting. You, dear lady, are a God send and an all around good egg, and like the Proverbs 31 lady, your family is blessed to have you!

Now, on to brighter topics. I NEVER found the original recipe for PIP, but remember this chant people, Google is your friend. I typed in ingredients and came up with 3 or 4 similar recipes. I mishmoshed them together and came out with something, that may not have been recognizable, but was hoovered up by the masses....In the picture of the PIP offerings, it is the bright orangy/yellow rectangle to the left (to those of you whose goodies weren't included, maybe next blog pic will have yours - don't bunch your knickers). Instead of rice crispys, I cut up a watermelon we had that needed to be eaten, so all was good.

Okay, here is the 'recipe' for Creamy Chicken Burrito Bake:

1 1/2 packages of bean and cheese burritos (the cheap ones that come 8 to a package, although you can use the individual ones) - you can substitute chicken burritos.

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 cup of sour cream

1 cup of shredded cheddar

1 small can of chopped chilis (can substitute 3-4 Tbsp salsa verde, or as I did, just add some Jamaca Joe hot sauce)

Layer the burritos in a 13x9 baking dish. If they overlap a little who cares.

Mix soup, sour cream and chilis and pour over burritos

Cover with cheese and bake for 30 minutes at 350.

I think the original recipe called for boiled and diced chicken to be added to the sauce, but there was enough 'chicken taste' to the soup to still maintain the name and it WAS cheesy....so. Besides, although I love to cook, some days the kids at these functions don't want real food, they want as much junk as possible and they only eat it at home, so why make an exotic concoction only to have it end up either on the ground at the park or in the garbage. So, to you purists who say 'I NEVER use canned soup, or I wouldn't be caught dead using prepackaged items (like the burritos), do you like watching your effort and $$$$$ get tossed? I thought not. That and at least I know they are eating something that somehow passes itself off as real food.

Now, off to scrounge the pantry and freezer for dinner. His Majesty has decreed I must feed him tonight, so who knows what the freezer monster may belch forth for me to tame into some semblence of a meal..........

-ginny

Life in General

Wednesday. Well today is PIP day, so I must get my act together....I found a recipe for a casserole using premade burritos from the grocery store. Looked interesting, I knew the 'non-gourmets' would love it's prepackaged taste and it was inexpensive. Bought the stuff I needed NOW I can't find the recipe!!!!! Curses. I, at least, located the dessert recipe....Neopolitan rice crispy treats. I'll fix them, then post the recipe dependant upon the 'ooooh yummy' or 'what is this dreck'....responses. Hopefully this time, I will take the camera and get shots of all the goodness that is PIP.




Also, I can now finally finish the wedding present for Wesley and Rochelle.







Being the uniquely odd person I am, I try to make gifts 'personable' as well as practical. When Wes' sister, Erica, got married four years ago, I made a similar present to represent what their live together should mean.







Before I go much longer, let me explain, Wes is the same age as my eldest son and the first person to show up on our doorstep when we first moved here 12 years ago. Wes, then 12, welcomed us with open arms (and a little thankful I think that he was no longer the youngest kid on the road). He is a delightful human being and cannot at any time be considered an average individual.....not only does he march to the beat of his own drummer, but often is the case he wrote the music for the whole drum section. Wes fell in love with Roshelle at his telling, 8 years ago. He always carried a torch for this darling child, even while he was in college and she was finishing high school and then college. They met at church and I believe that Wes never really 'courted' anyone else. He prayed for a perfect mate and to most of us who have seen them together, believe that God answered his prayers. For this couple, a gift card from Target just isn't what you give them for a wedding present.


Now, back to the present. I crochet, or at least attempt to, so I decided to make them an afghan. Erica, Wes' sister, got one entitled (or at least the pattern was) Christmas Snow....since they are planning to become missionaries I wanted it represent the Birth of Christ, and the newness of His life together with the newness of their union. For Wes, who is more of an evangelist, I saw the perfect pattern.....Dogwood. To those who do not know the story of the dogwood blossom, the flower is supposed to represent the Cross of Christ, with the four points, blood stained on the ends and a crown of thorns in the middle. To this, I add a package I made up using a quote from my favorite movie of all times "It's a Wonderful Life". In the movie, when the Bailey Building and Loan helps the Martini family finally afford their new home, Mary Bailey makes a presentation of three items: bread so they will never know hunger, salt so they will all have spice in their life, and wine so they will always have joy. To this I add mustard seeds to indicate their faith (made all you who haven't looked in your Bible in a while go look up the passage this relates to, didn't I? ) as well as two wine glasses. I have to finish putting it together and ask Wes' mom when does she think I can catch him somewhere (anywhere?) before the big day. I hope he likes it and knows how much love and appreciation for him as a human being went into this.

Maybe they will be at PIP, who knows. Anyway, have a blessed Wednesday. And pray for Thursday. It doesn't look too good from where I sit. More later.

-ginny

What's Goin' On.......

Since I last posted about the joys of July 4th, July has come and gone (almost) and it has definitely not been a good month. From the highs to the lows..........Vacation Bible School ran the week beginning the 13th. I was lucky enough to be able to take the Mighty Matt and the Curiously Cute Christian with me. We picked up the boys before dinner, fed them took them to VBS and then Mommy picked them up. It was wonderful having the little darlin's but it kept me running. The down side is that the Lovely Lucas couldn't (or wouldn't) come or that week would have been complete. I worked in the crafts for the week with the Kindergarten thru 2nd grade. Not a bad bunch of kidlets, but some of the teachers I seriously considered laying hands on and NOT in the pentecostal manner! We put together a quilt top made of hand prints to send to the missionaries that we sponsored that week, now my task, and one I am dreading, is trying to get someone to actually quilt it for me.

In the middle of this, the sump pump went belly up. Now those of you who have sump pumps, KNOW what happens when that happens. Our sump also handles sewage, so we were just thankful that it went when the tank was filled from laundry drainage and not, well, you know. We actually had to have a plumber in (much to Joe's chagrin, he likes to think he can fix ANYTHING). We were upset as it had failed earlier (6 years ago) and we thought it should have had a longer life span. We called a different plumber and found out that the last installation was with a rainwater sump, made only to pump out ground water, not sewage (no wonder it burned out) and when he replaced it with the RIGHT pump, everything worked better than it had after the last installation (no wonder) and he charged us $500 for the pump and his service time (if any of y'all live near me call RL Mu th - they rock) and 80% was the cost of the pump. The last guy charged almost that amount earlier.

Also, I FINALLY got another set of wheels. A '96 Jeep. Nothing fancy, but it gets me where I am going. We are also acquiring a '90 Chrysler New Yorker. Seems that Jamie will be doing student teaching soon, so alas, we will have another driver in the family. At 18, she will finally be getting her permit and learning to drive (this was 'our' decision -or should I say her father's decision, not hers). Now to sit on pins and needles to see what the results are for her loan applications for school. We need to get this taken care of ASAP, but other things kept coming up sorta like mushrooms in the dampness, you think you got it all taken care of, then more pop up.

Now the worst part. Baby boy, the Mighty Matthew, ended up in the hospital this weekend. He went to the local and they sent him to Children's Hospital in Philly. He had an intestinal blockage that needed to be surgically removed. Now dont' get me wrong, CHoP is THE finest children's hospital in world as far as I am concerned, but my grandbaby shouldn't have to be hospitalized. I cried and I prayed and bought him stuff. He was lucky, they removed the problem and sent him home, so I didn't get to the hospital, but was able to go by the apartment and give him all the little books, cars and toys I bought to keep him occupied (ie: "still" - yeah, right, he's five). In the interim, I also found a knapsack for school for him "Lightening McQueen'.....and that now opens a whole 'nuther can of worms.....My baby is starting kindergarten!!!!! (baby Matt in his penguin hat)

More when the eyes stop leaking.

The Weekend Is Past!!!!

Okay, I waited until I was over the weekend to post this so I could get my scrambled thoughts together.

The weather here in the eastern section of Pennsylvania was gorgeous on the 4th. Mid-70's, low humidity and NO BUGS!!! Yeah.

We put up the screened tent in the yard, borrowed a long table from the church, asked everyone to bring chairs and anything else they wanted to and prepare to have a good time. We only had two 'no's' to our invites. Hubby's eldest sister, the chiropractor/carnival worker (don't ask, too long and weird to explain) would be in Maine at a fair, but she at least sent regrets. His youngest brother and family, decided to go elsewhere, information I pried out of them on Friday night...Look people, I don't have a problem if you don't want to come to my party, I can put on my big girl panties and deal with that, all I ask is that you let me know enough in advance that I don't buy too much food..... which turns us to another subject.

Food. HE said, don't buy too much. We were having 20 people. I bought 40 pre-made burgers, 24 pre-made turkey burgers (we have a few chickatarians here) and 5 lbs. of Italian sausage (put in crockpot with peppers and onions), I made shish-ke-babs using 5 lbs of cubed beef interspaced with peppers, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes. 3 lbs. of popcorn shrimp (picture 1 is of shrimp on the grill - please don't look at hubby's tummy overhanging the grill) and 3 lbs. of jalapeno poppers (picture 3 is of the poppers recipe compliments of the Pioneer Woman's website thepioneerwoman.com), 10 lbs. of potato salad, 5 lbs. of spaghetti salad, devilled eggs made from 48 whole eggs and a vat of 'Mom-mom's pudding' (see this referenced in rec.food.cooking's archives for a full definition of Mom-mom's pudding). Hubby's baby sister brought a huge bread bowl filled with spinach dip, her middle daughter and fiance brought a tray of soft pretzels and dip, and his sister-in-law brought an apple cake. Eldest son, the TRAINED chef, brought a bowl of jello (don't get me started there). We had very few left overs.


Interesting tidbits:

Baby sister's eldest daughter brought her fiance for a first time meeting with the 'whole' clan. Since her dad died suddenly a few years ago, her two uncles in attendance decided they would have to 'check him out' to see if he was good enough for 'our little girl' (she's 26 working on a Masters). Stan and Ollie soon found out that Carlos was probably nuttier than they are and they informed darling niece that he would do.......her younger sister who also had a fiance in attendance was left to fend for herself, since fiance, my hub (her oldest uncle) and her Pop-pop had all been/or currently are firefighters so they bonded over telling war stories and how 'real' Rescue Me is...the rest of the nieces just terrorized my youngest son as he was the only 'boy' in attendance.

Eldest son came with his fiance and their little boy. His ex-wife came with their little boy and her other little boy. This way a very greedy gramma can get to see ALL her grandbabies and the family can ooooh and aaahhhhh over all of them. My eldest grandson has a vendetta against hubby's middle brother's baby girl....Ash is 16, Matt is 5, both had water guns and water balloons.....imagine the rest (photo 2 is Matt firing on Ash with help from his Daddy).

Games were played (softball with the migrating bases), food was devoured, kidlets played in the pool (picture #3 of all grandbabies and Uncle Josh), people got wet, it got late, they got tired.....everyone went their merry ways around dusk to their various destinations. Some to fireworks displays (the grandbabies), some home to sleep off their dining escapades (BIL and FIL) and the engaged nieces spent the rest of the evening with their respective intendeds. ;)

I crashed on the couch at 10 o'clock. No fireworks, no clean-up (that was for the next day). My holiday was complete however, when on Sunday night I called my widowed father-in-law to see that everyone from the lower end (Lower Bucks County to our Lower Lehigh County) got home okay. He said he went to church that morning and lit a candle of thanksgiving that we all came together with no sickness or death pulling us together and we had a safe and happy time. I was touched. I took that as a sign that I did have a great Fourth of July party.

And by the way, since there must be some indication of cheese and ooziness in this blog......the cheese didn't ooze from the poppers, but Carlos quite literally oozed home. I was told he still was full on Sunday! I take that to mean I did good.

Note: please pardon the placement and mismash of how the pictures are posted, I'm just getting the hang of this blog thingy.

Getting Ready for the Fourth

Got to get my behind in gear, as there are only 2 (if you count what is left of today) more days until my house is invaded by relatives, friends, friends of relatives....that is IF any of them RSVP me!!!! Only Sister-in-law, the Darling Debbie, and Erica, mom of my eldest dearest grandbaby Matthew and his brother the Curiously Cute Christian, let me know they were coming....The rest of them, feh.......I guess they figure I'll always be here, so if they don't get any better offers, they'll show. If it wasn't so late, I would let those know who said they were coming that I changed locales. Let the rest of them get here and find no one home!!!!! Aren't I bad? You know I would never do it, but it is soooo nice to fantasize about.

Bought four tubs for ice to put drinks in....only bought 20 cases of soda, one case of beer, one case of wine coolers, three case of water and a whole bunch of food (I haven't gotten that far enough in my plans to have actually bought it yet - gotta clean out the fridge to make room).

Dinner tonight, sausage and peppers. Big whoop of a recipe, parboil hot and mild sausage links, plop in crock pot, cover with sliced bell peppers and onions and let go....eat from rolls. I plan on dinner on the fly tonight as I have to go to Bethlehem to take Joshua to scouts......I know, I hate going there, but poor, poor, pitiful hubby doesn't feel well (can't you see the pity I feel 'oozing' from me?)......Oh well, I'll leave him in charge of getting the girls motivated to help me get ready.......that should fix his red wagon. Enough for now........maybe tomorrow.