Category: Random Babblings

Left Overs

*

The best thing about the feasting holidays is the left over food.  We** made hot browns with Jacob’s family today, it was really good.

We had to go to the*** store to get a few needed items for the hot browns, so while we were there we decided to just price check Christmas trees.  We found one that we can like and the price is not too bad.
*  I am writing this well after the fact as though it is current, and pre-dating my post. As it is my site, I reserve the right to do so.

**  By “we” I mean Jacob.

*** There is more than one store, but really when we say “the store” everybody knows we mean WallyWorld.

I Can’t Find It

Sunday we were playing with the laser pointer. That was a lot of fun. But some time on the way home, or yesterday, the cap went missing. It makes me sad, mostly because it means things are out of their order. I looked in my car and out on the ground here and at a friend’s house. So, if any of you that have seen me in the last 2 days sees a shiny little laser pointer cap on the ground, I miss it. Well, I really would like it if it was found, but it just made a dot, so it isn’t the end of the world if I never see it again. But I would think about shedding one tear if it was the Foot shaped cap, now I really do like that one.

Too bad that this story is nothing like the one of the cap I lost at the Grand Canyon from my first laser pointer.

Volleyball Tournament

I am not really all that into sports, but I love to play volleyball and soccer (the true football). Today was the Stake Volleyball Tournament for Church. My friends that are in charge of organizing it called me and asked if I could help out with the sign-in process (Corey had to be out of town, and Hal didn’t want to man it alone). I gladly said “yes,” it was an opportunity for me to practice my OCD coping skills. I would just get the papers in order and some random person would come up and mix them up. Oh well, I can get over it, if I have to, I guess.

We played well. Our young men had fun playing. Our young women were the winners of the Consolation Bracket (in layman’s terms, the looser’s bracket) They only lost one match; they did very well. The youth coed team placed second. Our adult men’s (Jacob) team got first place, as did the adult women’s (mine) team. We had two adult coed teams, team B got first place and team A got second place. Jacob and I were on team A, with his parents, Ally Campbell, David Connelly, and Rob Deveraux. It was a lot of fun.

Funny note: one boy (I am guessing about 12 years old) asked, “What field are we playing on?”

Bippity Boppity Boo

Today I had to make a trip half an hour away, spend my 7 minutes and turn around and come home. It would have only been 3 minutes there, but I had to stop by DQ and get the delicious Pumpkin Pie Blizzards to bring home to Jacob (I had one too).
As I drive I like to listen to the oldies radio station. One of the ads used the Bippity Boppity Boo song from Cinderella. As I listened to the commercial I was singing along with it, and was annoyed very much by the talking over it (however, I can not remember what the commercial was for). Though it did make me want to come home and watch the movie…right until I realized that we do not own it.

We don’t own it because some one I live with, who shall remain nameless, had a bad experience with Cinderella. I have not yet been told, “If you want it just get it.” So if anyone out there has an extra copy of this movie, I know a lady that would enjoy it.

Some Times I Feel Like An Intruder

Last Friday our friend, Howard Kalwies passed away. Today was his memorial service. It was a good service. There were good talks, and beautiful musical numbers. Jacob played the organ and accompanied (on the piano) the violinist, Karen Martin. She played/s so beautifully. It makes me wish I could learn to play.

As I listened to the speakers share their tender memories, I felt just a little uncomfortable. Not that a funeral or memorial service does that to me, but Howard was not a close friend of mine. So, I did not know him as well as those who spoke knew him. And as they shared their stories with us I felt as though I was eavesdropping on a private moment. It made think.

His daughter Catherine is my age, and she and I would hang out at camp. She lived in Illinois, and I in Iowa. There was one summer at camp that we were out “heart attacking”* other campers’ tents. There was thunder in the air, and it hadn’t started raining just yet. It was very late at night, (possibly “early in the morning” would be a better way to put it) and we were trying to stay hidden. We saw headlights, and we dove into the trees closest to us to hide. You would never guess where we landed…that is right, the compost heap. As soon as the cost was clear we headed back through the trees to our camp site. We got there just in time for the car to pull up and tell us that there was a huge storm headed our way and every body needed to head to the lodge to sleep for the rest of night.

The storm came and went, in the morning there were branches all over the place, some tents were blown in (these were army tents), many things were wet. It was an adventure.

We talked about this memory as we ate lunch, and Catherine said it perfectly, “Funerals make great reunions.” It is true, while we may not be able to escape regular life for a birth or a wedding, most people are able to get away and pay respects to the deceased. I am sorry for the occasion, but it was nice to have such a gathering of Howard’s family and friends.

* Heart attacking (for those who may not know) is a friendly alternative to toilet papering. You cut out a bunch of hearts and tape them to the people/tents/bedrooms/houses/cars. You can even write nice little messages on the hearts if you feel like it. A fun idea for Valentine’s day or an anniversary-don’t forget the person’s favorite candy. One other alternative is to use little twigs and paper and make mini-teepees (generally filled with candy-you can use suckers for the posts) and put them all over and leave a note that informs them they have been TP’d (only leave the note if you think they may not understand the pun).

What Parenting Book Said That

Jacob and I actually made a menu for the the week and I shopped off the menu. Go us!

While shopping, I saw a mom that was playing with her daughter in the cart. I am guessing the girl to be about 5 years old. They were playing and I thought about how cute it was to see them playing. Right until out of the blue the mom said, “Back off b****!” Now, I thought maybe it was just a slip of the tongue this one time. No, no it was not just one time. I could hear her from 3 and 4 aisles over, and every time she talked to her daughter she called her this name and told her some negative thing about herself. It made me feel bad for the little girl. I have seen in many people with the effects of this kind of talk, and it is not a good outcome.

On a some what funnier side, I saw a woman walking around the store using her cell phone like a walkie-talkie. At one point she said, “Put the cheese down crack-head.” I have no idea of the back story, but it made me laugh, so I wrote it down.

Is She Hiding In the Stinky Closet

Really, I am not quite sure what or where the stinky closet is.

We had our friends, Jason, Jessie and Aiden over to watch Ratatouille and eat supper. We ate breakfast-for-supper with homemade syrup. We had some extra syrup, so we sent some home with them.

While I was crouched down looking for a container (in the lower cabinet), Aiden calls out to me. She wanted to know where I was. One of the other adults told her I was hiding and to look for me, perhaps upstairs. So, up she went. She was calling out to me, and I answered. That may seem counter-productive, but it isn’t. There is a vent between the bedroom and the kitchen, and it sounds like you are in the same room. She was asking if i was in the closet. At some point she said some thing about my being in the stinky closet. I do not know what she means. Our house only has one closet, and that is where we keep clothes. She looked behind the fish tank for me, in the fridge, in the freezer, under the bean bags, and still didn’t find me. I was standing in the shower, we have a sliding door on it. They told her to look in the bathroom, and she did, quickly and did not see me. They told her to look again. The second time, I slid the door open, and she jumped and had a very startled look on her face for a second, and then she had a big smile. Then it was her turn to hide, and then Jacob’s turn.

Thanks for coming over guys, and especially for letting us scare your kid.

A Real Experience

Yesterday five of us went to St. Louis to do some dry packing of a large food order. It was a new experience for me to go do that . Because we have to drive three hours to get there, and it was a pretty big order, we called ahead and had a set time to do this. We arrived a few min early-yay for us! Because we planned it to be able to get out of there by noon. so we could be home by 3. I agreed to feed the missionaries at 5 and Mary had to be back for a wedding at 5:30.

We went inside, visited the ladies room and went into the packing room to discover that some people just walked in ahead of of and they did not have a reservation. That delayed us a bit. When we finally got started on our order it was going pretty well, we were getting the hang of it, and then we notice that the items we are canning are not on our order. We discover that some people from the area stepped in and put their order in the middle of our order and had us canning their food! (Now, before I start sounding uncharitable, I really was having a good time, but they were not really doing any of the work for their order.) They filled their order and left, we were back onto our order, for a little while. We noticed that some things we had already done were going through the line again….Some other group showed up and started filling their order in the middle of our line again!

I looked at a clock, and at this point, had we left right then, we would have made it home just in time for me to help Jacob finish cooking. However we still had quite a bit left in our order, and then there is the time it takes to check out. So we made a bit of a stink (to the people who actually work in the store house) about being the only ones who had called ahead, having to drive 3 hours to get home, that a couple of us were late by this point to get to our commitments, and how we were using our time not working on our order. So the guy that works there made it clear that we were already late, and needed to get our order done to the third group that came in while were filling our order, and made it clear that we would finish our order so we could get on the road.

It was after 2:30 by the time we got to leave. I missed supper with the Elders, they were just leaving as I got home. Mary was fashionably late to the wedding.

However, I did learn that if I ever go again, I will make sure I have all day to spend doing the canning, and I will take a face mask to wear cause some of the stuff has lots of dust that gets into the air, and at this time I am coughing so hard it hurts to breath. And I have been drinking lots of liquids trying to get my throat all cleaned out.

Before you all go thinking that I am just a whiny person that won’t help other people, let me state that I would have enjoyed staying all day doing that if I hadn’t made other plans (but, as it were, we barely got to leave when we expected to be able to get home). And (this is the grumpy part of me) I think it was very selfish of people (not just one, but three groups did this, not counting the one that got there just before us making us start late) to come in with out making plans ahead of time, jumping in in the middle of our order-having us can their stuff, and then not stay and help us finish our order when they live in the area, and we had 3 hours left on our trip home.

Now, with the complaining out of the way, here are a few pictures of the trip.

Here is a picture off our group (we are smiling because we haven’t started yet) Mary, Karen, Annette, Mary, and myself in the little box, I was the photographer.

This is a pretty picture of Mary, but the purpose of the shot is how empty the shelving was when we started.

First you take new cans

Place them in tubs to be filled

After filling them, place an oxygen absorber in each can (by the way, it was one of the “cut-in” groups that tried to mix the cans together….I bet you can guess what that did to my OCD*)

Put a lid on it and Seal the can with a big noisy machine

Each can gets a label with the date of packing on it (this is why it is important to keep the same food going with out mixing in a different kind of can) This picture does not do her justice, she is beautiful, but the baggy coat and hair net cover that.

Here are 3 of our carts, yes, we had more that wouldn’t fit in the picture

And the Shelves as we left them

*I have not been diagnosed with OCD, though I wouldn’t be out of the running for it, perhaps I am a Type A personality, nah, probably not.

One Thing I Just Can’t Stand

Tonight I was driving home in the dark with my lights on.  I was in the south bound lane.  Suddenly I see two lights reflecting back at me about 5-6 feet off the ground.  I engaged my brakes.  I was with in feet of hitting some guy on a bike.  No reflectors, dark clothes, headed north in the middle of the southbound lane!  And no helmet to boot!  I only saw him because of his glasses.  This makes me so mad!  If you are going to ride a bike wear a helmet.  It will make the difference of life and death.  Also, if you are going to ride in the dark, use lights!  It makes you more visible and helps you see around yourself.

Egg On My Car

I can not say at what time it happened, but I do believe it was while we were out of town.  When we got back from Springfield, we stopped by the house to empty the car.  We then went over to a dress rehearsal for a play Jacob is working on (music, not acting).  Right at the start of intermission, the fire alarms in the building went off. Just great, we stood out in the freezing cold for about half an hour.  We don’t know why the alarms went off…

Anyhow, after we got home from that, I went out to my car to go to the store (yes I went to the store, but it was after midnight and we needed milk and butter 🙂 and Ratatouille  just happened to be on sale-so I got it). I noticed something on the ground that looked like an egg shell.  At the time I didn’t really think much about it.  The next morning I went out to the car again to find egg splattered on my car.  Here is a picture of the splatter on the car and one of the egg shell on the ground.