(no subject)
These past few days have been so physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting that I can barely stand thinking about posting about everything.
First off, the staff at work have been doing such a great job the past few weeks that I decided to cook them dinner Friday night. I made a big pot of spaghetti and some green bean casserole. I wanted to do something nice for them to thank them for a job well done, but they all decided to pitch in and bring food as well. We had baked macaroni, ribs, baked chicken, homemade eggrolls, guacamole, two cakes and chips. We ended up with so much food that I had to practically BEG people from other departments to come and make to go boxes to take home!
In order to bring my kick-ass spaghetti to work, I had to spend half of Friday in the kitchen. Since Sunday was my parents' 29th wedding anniversary and we were having a dinner party for them Saturday evening, I decided to do all of the cooking for both events simultaneously. WOW! Making enough spaghetti and green bean casserole for 15 people was daunting enough. Add to that the 3 meat loafs I had to make to feed 15 more people for the dinner party, along with MORE green bean casserole (this shit is the BOMB and one of my mom's favorite things to eat) and 10# of mashed potatoes and a cake. Good thing I came up with a system!
First thing, I cut up 12 onions, 8 green bell peppers and 2 heads of garlic. I had 4 pots on the stove with various combinations of differing amounts of the three seasonings (my personal Holy Trinity) for the various things I was preparing. While that was going, I mixed the meats and seasonings for the meat loaves, formed them and stored them in wax paper in the fridge. I set up the three casseroles next (three because I made an extra small one for Tim because he loves it so much) and put two in the fridge and left one out for later that night. Then I worked my magic on the spaghetti sauce and let it slow cook for the few hours I was able to sleep before having to get up and get ready for work. Thank God Tim thought to go make the spaghetti noodles or I would have been late for work!
After a successful party at work I went straight to my mom's house when I got off and kicked her out of her own house. Then me and my sister got started peeling the potatoes for the loaded mashed potatoes and icing the cake. I took a brief nap while she cleaned the living room and swept/mopped the kitchen. When I got up, we put everything in the oven and got to decorating. We had black and red table cloths and small vases with glass beads in the bottom holding two red roses in each. We had glass candle holders with tall red candles and elaborately decorated place cards for everyone in attendance. We put pictures of my parents everywhere and a few of the whole family. Megan bought some balloons that were shaped like Champagne flutes that said "Cheers" and we had them in various places around the living room. It was REALLY nice. My parents absolutely LOVED it and, after dinner we gave them a card with the confirmation from a hotel in the CBD for them to spend their anniversary night in style in the city!
Unfortunately, since we used my sister's boyfriend's CC to reserve the room, he had to go with them to check in. After my parents packed their bag, they jumped on their motorcycles and headed across the river to the hotel. After Derek got them settled into the hotel, he went back home to meet up with my brother to go out. He never made it home. Instead, he was hit by a woman who turned left on a green light but then failed to stop at the redlight she turned into. She just kept going through the intersection and threw Derek and his bike about 30 feet with the bike landing directly on top of Derek's right leg. Luckily for Derek a cop was at the redlight already so he saw the whole thing happen and rushed to his rescue within seconds. Derek said he was laying there yelling for help because he could not move the bike so the cop picked it up off of him but lost his grip and it fell right back on his already broken leg. OUCH!
He was rushed to University Hospital where they performed emergency surgery to reset his leg. He decided NOT to call anyone and let us know what was going on. My sister only found out because she had a break at work and called him and the doctor answered and told her he was on his way in to surgery. I didn't find out until the following afternoon when I woke up and responded to a "Call Me" text message from my dad. His left eye was all gross and stitched up and his entire right leg is in a cast - from his toes to his hip. He will be in the hospital at least until Thursday and after that will be in physical therapy for who-knows-how-long. He just started his job so he doesn't have medical insurance yet. Hopefully the woman who hit him's insurance will be enough to cover all of his medical bills. His bike is totaled but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It is probably worth more to him totaled than before! Now he can get a better bike with louder pipes so hopefully in the future, even if someone can't see him they can hear him and won't hit him again. Loud pipes do, in fact, save lives.
Anyway, so Sunday and the first half of Monday were spent in the hospital trying to take care of my sister who was a wreck trying to take care of Derek. When I got home Monday from visiting, Tim and I took Benjamin outside to play. We stayed outside for about 2 hours watching him run around like crazy! Then Tim cut the grass and we went out to dinner, came home, watched Wall-E (btw, probably the CUTEST Disney movie EVER) then passed out. Now its almost 5:30 in the morning, I woke up and I can't get back to sleep. Tomorrow is another busy day of hospital visits, grocery shopping, aquarium trips and midnight showings of Harry Potter.
I can't wait for my 3-day weekend to END so I can get back to work!
First off, the staff at work have been doing such a great job the past few weeks that I decided to cook them dinner Friday night. I made a big pot of spaghetti and some green bean casserole. I wanted to do something nice for them to thank them for a job well done, but they all decided to pitch in and bring food as well. We had baked macaroni, ribs, baked chicken, homemade eggrolls, guacamole, two cakes and chips. We ended up with so much food that I had to practically BEG people from other departments to come and make to go boxes to take home!
In order to bring my kick-ass spaghetti to work, I had to spend half of Friday in the kitchen. Since Sunday was my parents' 29th wedding anniversary and we were having a dinner party for them Saturday evening, I decided to do all of the cooking for both events simultaneously. WOW! Making enough spaghetti and green bean casserole for 15 people was daunting enough. Add to that the 3 meat loafs I had to make to feed 15 more people for the dinner party, along with MORE green bean casserole (this shit is the BOMB and one of my mom's favorite things to eat) and 10# of mashed potatoes and a cake. Good thing I came up with a system!
First thing, I cut up 12 onions, 8 green bell peppers and 2 heads of garlic. I had 4 pots on the stove with various combinations of differing amounts of the three seasonings (my personal Holy Trinity) for the various things I was preparing. While that was going, I mixed the meats and seasonings for the meat loaves, formed them and stored them in wax paper in the fridge. I set up the three casseroles next (three because I made an extra small one for Tim because he loves it so much) and put two in the fridge and left one out for later that night. Then I worked my magic on the spaghetti sauce and let it slow cook for the few hours I was able to sleep before having to get up and get ready for work. Thank God Tim thought to go make the spaghetti noodles or I would have been late for work!
After a successful party at work I went straight to my mom's house when I got off and kicked her out of her own house. Then me and my sister got started peeling the potatoes for the loaded mashed potatoes and icing the cake. I took a brief nap while she cleaned the living room and swept/mopped the kitchen. When I got up, we put everything in the oven and got to decorating. We had black and red table cloths and small vases with glass beads in the bottom holding two red roses in each. We had glass candle holders with tall red candles and elaborately decorated place cards for everyone in attendance. We put pictures of my parents everywhere and a few of the whole family. Megan bought some balloons that were shaped like Champagne flutes that said "Cheers" and we had them in various places around the living room. It was REALLY nice. My parents absolutely LOVED it and, after dinner we gave them a card with the confirmation from a hotel in the CBD for them to spend their anniversary night in style in the city!
Unfortunately, since we used my sister's boyfriend's CC to reserve the room, he had to go with them to check in. After my parents packed their bag, they jumped on their motorcycles and headed across the river to the hotel. After Derek got them settled into the hotel, he went back home to meet up with my brother to go out. He never made it home. Instead, he was hit by a woman who turned left on a green light but then failed to stop at the redlight she turned into. She just kept going through the intersection and threw Derek and his bike about 30 feet with the bike landing directly on top of Derek's right leg. Luckily for Derek a cop was at the redlight already so he saw the whole thing happen and rushed to his rescue within seconds. Derek said he was laying there yelling for help because he could not move the bike so the cop picked it up off of him but lost his grip and it fell right back on his already broken leg. OUCH!
He was rushed to University Hospital where they performed emergency surgery to reset his leg. He decided NOT to call anyone and let us know what was going on. My sister only found out because she had a break at work and called him and the doctor answered and told her he was on his way in to surgery. I didn't find out until the following afternoon when I woke up and responded to a "Call Me" text message from my dad. His left eye was all gross and stitched up and his entire right leg is in a cast - from his toes to his hip. He will be in the hospital at least until Thursday and after that will be in physical therapy for who-knows-how-long. He just started his job so he doesn't have medical insurance yet. Hopefully the woman who hit him's insurance will be enough to cover all of his medical bills. His bike is totaled but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It is probably worth more to him totaled than before! Now he can get a better bike with louder pipes so hopefully in the future, even if someone can't see him they can hear him and won't hit him again. Loud pipes do, in fact, save lives.
Anyway, so Sunday and the first half of Monday were spent in the hospital trying to take care of my sister who was a wreck trying to take care of Derek. When I got home Monday from visiting, Tim and I took Benjamin outside to play. We stayed outside for about 2 hours watching him run around like crazy! Then Tim cut the grass and we went out to dinner, came home, watched Wall-E (btw, probably the CUTEST Disney movie EVER) then passed out. Now its almost 5:30 in the morning, I woke up and I can't get back to sleep. Tomorrow is another busy day of hospital visits, grocery shopping, aquarium trips and midnight showings of Harry Potter.
I can't wait for my 3-day weekend to END so I can get back to work!