Stir Fry Week: Tuesday

This stir fry used the same sauce as yesterday, but I used rice and shrimp with my Giant brand stir fry mix. MrC has decided that adding the sesame oil to the sauce is what makes this stir fry sauce so good. I'm gonna use a different sauce tomorrow so we can have a taste test.

Do any of you use frozen veggies in your cooking? As you can see, I love them! The bags I get are $1.50. The big freezer bag holds about 4 bags of veggies ($6). It's cheaper than buying all the veggies in the stir fry mix separately and it sure saves a lot of time. Yesterday I bought the sliced red, green, and yellow peppers and a diced onion and green pepper mix too. I saw they had a bag of chopped onions for $1, which I should have gotten since I hate chopping onions. Anyway, have any frozen veggie mixes that you like? Any particular brands that you enjoy? 

Stir Fry Week: Monday

I have declared this week stir-fry week. Tonight I made quick and easy stir fry. I never have all the ingredients. I used rotini noodles chicken, and the frozen Giant stir fry mix. It was so yummy! Stay tuned for tomorrow's variation.

Randoms...

There is a business in our work building that didn't pay their rent, so they've been locked out. Is it wrong that I'm trying to figure out how I can get the building managers to give/sell me 2 of the leather armchairs in there? They would look awesome in my house!

 

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I have peaches, cherries, and watermelon, but of course I'm craving pineapples today. Perhaps I'll go grab a pineapple Italian Ice after lunch.

 

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Crap. There may have been a critical error in our plan. I guess we'll know soon enough.

 

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Making jokes about somebody is one thing. Being overly critical, unforgiving, and judgemental is another. We'll just stop talking until you can learn to let people's mistakes go.

 

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My officemates have started taking bets on what time I'm going to show up at work.  These heffas are rude. I walked in the room and one of them said "dag, man." For real? LOL

 

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Man, summer time means drinking more water, which also means waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Makes me angry!

 

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I'm still working on my 30 before 30 list. And my birthday list. And can somebody tell MrC I really don't want to go anywhere for my birthday this year. I just want a house. I keep saying it, but I don't think he can hear me.

 

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I have a design book for my house. When I think of decorating ideas or see something I like, I put it in the book. I'll probably share some of the stuff I have in there eventually. Anybody else have a design book?

 

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I love it when people that live paycheck to paycheck tell me I'm cheap when I refuse to pay $400 to rent a cabin in the woods, even though I realllllyyyyyy want to do it. Realllllyyyyyyy want and reallllllyyy need are two different things. I want a vacation, I need a house. Pay attention, you just might learn something.

Answered Prayer...

MrC have been failing miserably at our pray together every night in June goal. I've still been getting your prayer requests in though :)

 

Anyway, we've had a few prayer requests answered lately, and it's been kind of cool. The first one was a few weeks ago. My car was making this awful grinding noise (it wasn't the brakes) and of course my dad, the king of doom and gloom, was all dramatic and acted like I was gonna die if I drove my car and told me it would be thousands of dollars to fix. Well we don't have thousands of dollars sitting around to fix a car, so I was praying about it. One night I had a dream. In my dream I was in the parking lot of my apartment complex and I was helping some angels fix my car. I was handing them the tools and they were working under the hood. My car hasn't made that noise since. They also seemed to fix my oil problem. We used to have to add oil to my car every week. Ever since my dream, we haven't had to add oil yet.

 

Prayer request 2: We've been talking for a few months about needing a bigger fish tank for our turtle, Marberry. He has been throwing tantrums lately because he is getting too big for the tank. One day I'm convinced we had a show down. I went over to talk to him (I told MrC I need a dog for when he goes out of town. I get crazy in that house by myself) and he was sitting on his floating island. When I came over, he jumped off the island and, of course, hit his head on the side of the tank. This crazy turtle looked at me, and then started tearing up everything in the tank. He pulled the dock off the side, he flipped over his underwater shelter, attacked the filter, and started flinging rocks at me. I was standing there looking at him and then he came up to the front of the tank and just swam there looking me in the eye. Y'all, I think Marberry was cussing me out. Anyway, we were looking around for tanks for him, but we weren't trying to spend a lot of money. The week before last, I prayed about it. Last Saturday when we came home from the movies, I looked over at the dumpster and I see a huge fish tank. Of course my doubting Thomas husband gave me 52 1/2 reasons why he wasn't about to get that tank from the dumpster. I was tired and cranky, so we actually got in an argument over the dang tank. When I woke up from my nap, he had the tank on the patio :) I'm sure it was me hollering, "see, God answers our prayers and you won't even accept it!" that made the difference, lol. MrC filled it with water on the patio to make sure there were no leaks in the tank and put Marberry out there in it. I must say, he is really enjoying having a long tank! MrC put the same fish that he's been trying to catch and eat in his small tank for months, and within the hour, Marberry was able to catch and eat them! Now I'm praying for a stand for the tank :)

 

So what about y'all? Any answered prayers lately that you feel like sharing?

Ain't this a doosey (doozey? dooz-e? doosie? doozie?)

My officemates and I sit and talk all day long. Three women in a room together probably wasn't the best idea. Well lately the talk of the office has been babies. CC's two sisters are pregnant and due within days of each other, and our other office mate just became a great- aunt (at 31!) yesterday. This morning I came in and this story happened. It's a story in a story, so please keep up folks.

 

CC: I have to tell you something. But I'll wait until you go get your breakfast, cuz you're gonna fall flat out.

Me: *ohhhh, she must be pregnant too! Oh no, then she would be crying, hmmm what is it*

CC: Ok you ready? So last night Renny (her 34 year old sister pregnant by her 24 year old boyfriend. They both live with her mother) and her boyfriend were sitting on the couch talking because they just found out the sex of the baby.

 

          Renny's Mom: So Boyfriend, are you excited about having a girl?

          Boyfriend: No, because I don't like girls.

          Renny's Mom: *shocked face* Well you should be excited because it's your first child.

          Boyfriend: No, Renny should be excited because it's Renny's first child. I have a child in Honduras...and another pregnant girl here that is due any day now

          Renny: *Shocked. Speechless. All of this is news to her*

          Renny's Mom: Renny, you handle this *walks away*

 

CC: So Renny and Boyfriend go to bed, and apparently Renny said to him, that he needs to let her know if he still wants to be with her or not. What kind of idiot is she? Doesn't she see that he is using her? My mom said he can't stay in her house, so she's kicking him out today since Renny is too stupid to do it.

 

Is that not completely crazy!? I want to put the disclaimer out there now, that MrC betta not ever tell me a story like that and then be stupid enough to fall asleep next to me. In fact, he should probably join the witness protection program if he wants to stay alive and with all his current body parts.

 

 

Wall Art

On my computer monitor at work I always have a post-it with my current favorite quote or Bible verse. It's been "Every day is the best day!" for the longest time thanks to Lovegirl. Now that I've finally made that a permanant way of thinking, I've changed my post-it to Isaiah 65:24, "I will provide their needs before they ask. I will help them while they are still asking for help." I love that verse, it was in the Bible study I read this morning. God isn't dumb and he isn't mean, he has my back even before I know what I need! Very comforting.

 

I'm currently making up my artwork for our house (no, we don't have one, YET). I love words, so I think I'll have a lot of quotes around. If I thought MrC would let me, I'd be like True Jackson's momma and needlepoint a bunch of quotes on pillows. I think "Every day is the best day!" is gonna have a spot on my bedroom wall, or maybe the bathroom. I also want this written in Greek:

 

Love...

bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things

 

and yes, it has to  be in Greek.

 

I sure hope we have a lot of wall space, because I keep thinking about verses I want to use. By the time we move in, I'll have a stack of artwork already framed and ready to put up. We might not have any furniture in the rooms, but I'll have my quotes up!

 

Do you have any words on your walls? Are there any verses/quotes/lyrics that you would hang on your wall?

Wedding Recap- no pictures yet

The wedding on Friday was lovely! I was so tired from all the running around I did, that I slept most of the day on Saturday. So many highlights from the wedding, but I don't have any pictures yet because I was too busy to take any and they haven't popped up on Facebook yet. Here's a brief recap:

 

 

Secret Agent:

Thursday night was supposed to be the bachelorette party. I was texting the stressed out bride and she was telling me she didn't want the party. I told her to cancel it, but she was too scared to hurt her friends feelings because they put work into it already. I'm one of those people that live by "what the bride wants, the bride gets." Brides don't have to do anything they don't want to do, which I told her over and over again. I decided to call the other bridesmaid and say "ohhh, we should check with Bride and make sure she's not too tired to have the party. We don't want to keep her up the night before. I don't think she's feeling well." So she called the bride and asked if she wanted to cancel. Two minutes later, I got an "I love you! You're the best!" text from the Bride for getting her out of that. I cancelled my bachelorette party too, so I could definitely relate.

 

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Funniest Moment Ever:

One of the bridesmaids drew on a beauty mark. She was standing next to the MOH during the ceremony. The MOH turned around to look at her, did a double take and this happened:

MOH: "Oh! You have something on your face!" *licks finger, and proceeds to wipe off her beauty mark during the middle of the ceremony*

 

Thank God, I didn't see that happen, because I would have rolled down the aisle laughing.

 

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My favorite moment:

The bride and I were sitting in the bridal room and she asked me to teach her about being married. MrC and I were the first of our close circle to get married, and they're the second. She asked me really intimate questions and we sat and whispered with each other and I answered them honestly. It was one of those bonding moments that make you really close. Now we're on to planning our couple vacations!

 

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Trifling award:

Our friend was supposed to sing at the wedding. The wedding was supposed to start at 7. It didn't start until about 7:25. The singing heifer showed up at about 7:45. The ceremony was just about over. Now the next time somebody asks me why I don't really care for her, I'll bring up this event. {Now I can stop bringing up how she kept trying to make me lose my virg.inity in order to keep MrC even though he never said he was going anywhere.} {And how she RSVP'd for my bridal shower and didn't show up} {And how she RSVP'd for the Brides bridal shower and didn't show up}

 

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I take it back:

I previously said that kids shouldn't be in weddings. Jameil pointed out that the rule is no kids under school age. I wasn't even convinced that school aged kids should be in weddings, but now I'll change my rule to kids 7 and up can be in the wedding. The girl that yelled "the bride is coming" was the cutest thing I've ever seen. She skipped, twirled, and waved her hands in the air the whole way down the aisle. Her parents should rent her out. Adorable!

 

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Wedding crashers:

There were 3. One was a complete stranger. One was a cousin that wasn't invited. One was a crazy family friend that found out about the wedding on Facebook. I had to check her a few times. She was a helpful crazy lady though. She was helping them fold the chair covers at the end of the night:

CrazyLady: Come here baby girl and help me fold and count these.

Me: Yeah, ok, but I'm actually just going to walk away.

Later...

CrazyLady: Come here pretty girl and help me do this

Me: Well, I'm doing something for the bride right now. And I probably won't be coming back to help you.

 

Seriously? I didn't read that in my bridesmaid handbook that I had to break down the reception afterward. Especially when she paid those people good money to do it for her.

 

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Finally:

MrC's friends call me mean a lot. It really hurts my feelings, because I try to be really nice. I think they finally realized that I'm not mean, I just don't stand for being trifling or not keeping your word. If you are my friend, then I will darn near kill myself to make sure you have what you need. I was running around helping out with wedding stuff on Friday (cuz her wedding coordinator wasn't the best) and the guys finally realized that I was a pretty nice person, and that half the time, I'm joking. When I was lining everybody up to go into the reception (really? nobody knows that you enter the reception in the same order you went down the aisle? you didn't know that they read your name off, so you need to be in order? geez, watch some tv), one of the groomsmen was staring at me. I asked what was wrong. He was like, "nothing, your facial expressions are funny. But you should be an event planner, you're good at this, and you don't even get frustrated." I really thought people were going to be mad at me for taking over, but instead, they kept telling MrC how nice and sweet his wife was :) Something was wrong before the ceremony and they were all sitting there looking at each other because nobody knew where the coordinator was. One girl said "Let's just ask MrsC cuz she's probably the only one that will get it done." Five minutes later, it was done, with a smile, and no hurt feelings. I know the dudes were getting tired of me knocking on their door though. After a while, they would just say "come in MrsC" because they knew it was me. I liked the look of fear on their face the first few times I went in to tell them something. I think his friends thought I was going to yell at them because they hadn't done what I asked. I walked in, they all froze, and even the pastor looked at me like I was about to go off, I guess my facial expressions are really that serious. I smiled and politely reminded them they forgot to set up their band equipment and that the ceremony would start as soon as they were finished. I even held the door for them. Why? Because I'm not mean! I only yelled at them once in my life, and that was almost 2 years ago at my wedding rehearsal, get over it!

Wedding Bells!

Are you supposed to take gifts to the bachelorette party? It's just 10 girls sitting in a hotel room probably watching the Basketball game. What do you think? She already got a ton of lingerie at her bridal shower. What should I take? I'm gonna take it and leave it in the car, lol.

 

Yesterday night was the rehearsal dinner. Let's just say I'm not the most sociable person. Let's also say, I don't know any of the bridesmaids, but they've all been friends since elementary school, so I was quite uncomfortable. I just hung with the groomsmen because I know them. MrC kept running off doing craziness, and left me sitting all alone looking stupid. I was so mad at him! I'm pretty sure that he agreed to be my sidekick in our vows. We didn't leave there until 10:30 because I ended up helping the bride with her to-do list. Then we went to the store to get the chicken I need to make for tonight's party. We got to my parent's house around 11, and I started fixing the chicken so I could leave it there. We got home around 1am. Thennnn, I had to pack my stuff because I'm not going home tonight. Sigh. Long story short. 3:30 a.m. bedtime with a headache that I prayed wouldn't be the death of me. Tried to wake up at 8, but my head was still hurting so I went back to sleep. MrC brought me some meds at 9:30, and by 10 I finally got out of the bed.

 

I still have some last minute running around to do including these wretched eyebrows, so I need to get up from this desk to "go to the bathroom" for 30 minutes. Maybe I should get some food while I'm "in the bathroom." Yep, excuse me, I'll be right back.

Keeping Busy

It is really slow for me at work right now. I know July/August will be really busy, but right now I have nothing to do. It's driving me insane. Seriously, reading blogs for 8 hours is a bit much, even for me.  I'm pretty sure I fell asleep at my desk yesterday. Today I have some errands to run, but even those will probably only take an hour. I brought a book to read today so I won't have to spend the whole day surfing the 'net.  

 

Tomorrow we have the rehearsal for the wedding we're in on Friday. There was no mention of a rehearsal dinner. Do I have the right to protest and act a fool if I have to miss 1 1/2 days of work to be in this wedding and there's no rehearsal dinner? Thursday night is the bachelorette party. 10 girls, I only know one of them, and it's a potluck. That's why I didn't have a bachelorette party. We don't drink, we don't club, and I for dang sure don't want some half naked man flinging his male parts around me- so what's the point? I will go show my support and smile and have fun with her (although she specifically said she didn't want to go out the night before the wedding, but I guess they changed her mind.) After the bachelorette party my sister is doing my hair for the Friday night wedding. That means in the next 48 hours, I need to decide on a wedding hairstyle. I'm pretty sure I'm the only natural chick in the wedding, and I'm not trying to be the busted natural chick, so I have to outfly them ;) My mom thinks I should straighten my hair still. But it's going to be 90 degrees and the wedding is outside- seems like a pretty horrible idea to me!

 

Alright, I have some checks to right to get rid of 2 of my loans :) Have a great day!

They will know us by our love

Last night, I worked the nursery at church (what else is new?) There were 3 people on the schedule, none of them named Mrs Count. I was the only person that showed up. No worries. I put on my game face, asked could I have a teen so I could open the nursery, and got to work. A 12 year old and me and 11 babies under 2. We were so over our quota, but we were handling it quite nicely because she was awesome! Even when a lovely 14 month old peed all down the side of my shirt (parents, don't buy cheap diapers!) we still had the room quiet and under control. About 30 minutes into service, another teen came down and helped. Then somebody who works the nursery, but this wasn't her week, came to drop of her child,and said she'd stay when she saw the staff I had. The kids were great (all 14 of them) but, as usual, I was disheartened about how people can commit to a ministry, but never bother to show up for it. I always try to recruit some of the parents to sign up, but everybody is too busy. 

 

Last night after church I stopped by the grocery store. MrC has been out of town all week so I wanted to surprise him with his favorite meal tonight when he comes back. I left out the grocery store sometime after 10pm and hopped in my car to go to the gas station. As I started driving, I noticed something was wrong with my car. I get to the gas station and as I get out I hear:

 

OldManBill: You have a flat tire ma'am

Me: Yeahhhhh, thanks

OldManBill: You have a spare?

Me: I don't know. I'm gonna call my husband

OldManBill: Let me know if you need any help

 

Me: Babe, I have a flat tire

MrC: How did that happen?

Me: *silence* I came out of Safeway and it was flat

MrC: Well call AAA. You still in the Safeway parking lot?

Me: No. If somebody was trying to kill me, I'm not gonna stay in the dimly lit parking lot. I'm at the gas station. Where they have people, cars, cameras, and an old man that's trying to help me.

MrC: Call AAA. That's what we pay them for

Me: mmhmmmmm

 

OldManBill: I see you have a spare. Let's change this tire

10 minutes later, tire changed.

 

Me: Here let me pay you

OldManBill: Absolutely not

Me: Please! I'm so grateful, you didn't have to help me, but you did anyway

OldManBill: Ma'am, it's my Christian duty to help people. You have a good night and be safe.

 

And then I cried like a baby.

 

⁸ Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; ⁹ not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

1 Peter 3:7-9 (New King James Version)

What happened to my clothes?

I am down to only one pair of good dress pants in my closet. I do have another pair that, once I get taken in, will be good again, but two pairs of pants probably won't cut it. I need to fix this problem immediately. So I'll ask y'all: who makes your favorite dress pants?

Fun Times

How was your weekend? I spent time with my momma, argued with a man over a taco ($3 extra for soft tortillas?!), almost had to slap a man in Home Depot over his foot fetish (you have really pretty feet, can I take a picture?), and feared for my life while my momma used power tools. All in all, a great time.

 

We're making a card box for my friends wedding. My momma is doing too much y'all. I had a pretty elaborate idea that required boxes, and fabric, and scissors, and glue, and ribbon. Her idea requires wood, and power saws, and nail guns, and staple guns, and paint, and nails, and locks, and hinges and embroidering machines. Apparently watching Tim "the Toolman" Taylor and Steve Urkel at night has given me an irrational fear of power tools. I was terrified my momma was gonna shoot me in the hand. Or a nail was gonna bounce back up and hit me in the face. Or I was gonna step on the nail gun and get nailed to the floor. My ma was laughing so hard because I kept guarding my face and standing in the chair.

 

Me: BE CAREFUL! YOU MIGHT SHOOT ME IN THE EYE!

Ma: Silly girl, get down! It only shoots if my hand is on the trigger- look.

Me: DON'T POINT THAT AT MY FACE! I COULD DIE!

Ma: I carried a gun for 28 years, I am not going to accidentally pull the trigger. Come on.

Me: Famous last words. Now be careful. Don't shoot me in the hand.

 

Then one time I thought I got shot with a nail in my hand (my hand was really close, like an inch away, but it was just the air pressure because the nail went through the wood). I almost blacked out. Picture this: 24 year old. Jumps back. Holds up hand. Screams "YOU GOT ME! YOU SHOT ME!" realizes she didn't get shot "YOU ALMOST GOT ME. YOU ALMOST SHOT MY FINGER! I ALMOST GOT A NAIL THROUGH MY FINGER." Mom apologizes to her crazy child.

 

Don't even get me on that dang power saw. She kept trying to make me use it. All I could picture was losing control and sawing my knee off. Absolutely ridiculous. My tool belt is going to have all manual things and a mini pink power drill. All that big stuff is not for me. I'd rather take an hour and saw it by hand.

Help me brainstorm

Yesterday I stayed home from work so I could nurse myself back to health. I needed a day to just rest since I hadn't been getting much sleep. I slept until 10. When I woke up my sister texted me that she got the job! So now she'll be moving back up here in 1.5 weeks :) I was so excited and I told her to come over and I'd take her to lunch. My ma decided to get in on the free lunch action and they both came up and we tried out a Mexican Restaurant. It was pretty good. I'll probably go back with MrC so I can try out papusas. I went back home and stayed in bed for the rest of the night.

 

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The person who makes the schedule for the nursery just emailed me the June schedule. Yeahhhh, it doesn't look like I'll be seeing the inside of our sanctuary all month. I am now on a mission to find some faithful workers. I'm going to make a t-shirt since they don't want to advertise for workers in the church announcements (they're scared crazies will come, even though we have to go through background checks). Hmm, what could I put on my shirt? Let's brainstorm.

 

Front: Don't you hate kids that talk back?

Back: Then volunteer for the nursery, our kids don't talk yet!

or

Front: *picture of an angelic brown baby* Isn't she cute? Volunteer for the nursery!

Back: *picture of a crying baby* By the time they get like this, we can give them back!

 

Maybe this is why I don't work a creative job-  I suck at ideas. But I seriously will make a shirt if somebody gives me a good idea. They keep putting people on the schedule that they know don't show up! Maybe I should get the pastor to do a sermon on honoring your commitment. Or maybe I should offer door prizes to people that show up on time. Or maybe I could provide breakfast/dinner for the workers that show up on time. And maybe during our monthly meeting give a reward to the person I feel served without grumbling and complaining. Hmmmm, I'm open to suggestions.

 

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I'm about to go out and get some cough drops and minestrone soup. I hope when I come back you guys have given me lots of ideas on how to get adults to act like adults and show up and do what they signed up to do.

Let's shake some things up!

Last night MrC and I were looking at houses online last night. Throughout our whole house hunt there hasn't been one house that we both saw and liked and could even come close to affording. I'm much more finicky than MrC.

 

MrC doesn't want a condo and if it's a townhouse he only wants an end unit and he doesn't want to live on a busy street.

 

For me, the house has to have at least one of these three features: a front porch, a fire place, or a bay window. I really want to stay in our county, and I don't want to move more than one beltway exit away in either direction from where we are now . It has to be in a good public school district, even though we'll probably move again before our kids start school. There has to be street parking available in case we wanted to have a lot of company at once. Preferably within walking distance of a store/shopping center.

 

None of the things on my list matter to MrC, but because our pastor has so wisely taught him "happy wife, happy life" he is trying to not argue/debate with me as long as I have a good reason for everything I request. My list of desires is a lot longer than that short paragraph, but the other things aren't essentials, and I could still be happy without them (like my gas stove, a walk in closet, a garage, and a soaking tub).

 

Last  night we finally saw a house that we both liked. We both liked it so much that we actually saw ourselves buying a house. We even started taking steps to research how you buy a house. MrC sent texts to 2 young friends of ours that bought a house, 2 older friends, that are homeowners, and his sister (dumb move) to find out about their realtor/loan process/down payment information. We got a lot of good information from everybody (except his sister who can't answer simple questions, she's too smart for her own good) and found out that a deacon at our church is a realtor and she will help you out a lot, especially if you're young and starting out. She told our friends about so many programs and helped them apply and everything. I think this is the first time I've actually envisioned us going through with the process and not just talking about it. We aren't looking to move for another couple of months, so there's no guarantee that this house will be there but last night I really felt like God was encouraging us to keep looking and to not give up. The house He has for us is out there and when it's time, it will be ours.

 

MrC has also started applying for other jobs. It seems as though his company doesn't want to keep good workers. They spend so much money sending folks (yes plural) to rehab, but they won't pay the good workers they do have. So we'll see what happens with this job hunt.

 

Since we're anticipating so many changes over the next few months, MrC and I committed to praying together, out loud, every night before bedtime during the month of June. Hopefully we'll be able to make it a lifetime habit, but we have to start somewhere, so we started with this month. Last night was the perfect night to start  because Kisz4tj needed extra prayers and so did Travel Diva's daughter, Princess Cara. If you have some prayer requests, leave them in the comments or email me so we can include you too! We don't want our prayer time to be all about us!

Four day weekend!

I had a lovely 4 day weekend :) My client was closed on Friday, so I "worked from home." Did you know that if your client isn't working, they won't send you any work? It's a beautiful thing, lol.

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While I was working from home, I managed to go to Walmart, Target, Home Goods, Marshall's, Ross, BJ's, Harris Teeter, and Giant. It was a very productive day.

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Saturday I was so tuckered out from my Friday, I did nothing but stay in the house and clean and rest.

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Sunday I was working the nursery. Fifth sunday is always interesting because people seem to forget that they're on the schedule. I got there at 8:15. All of Children's Ministry prays together before service. Prayer wrapped up and I went to set up my room. My teen helper for the day came in and helped me set up. Around 8:45 (service starts at 9)I went down to check on my other room (I'm over the 0-24 months section, which is broken into two classrooms 0-14 months and 15-24 months) and I see a parent standing outside the door with his child. I went in the room and NOBODY was there. Since the baby section is on the other side of the church from all the other children's ministry classrooms, I had to close my class and tell them to send everybody under 24 months to the same class. I went in the sanctuary to see if I could find any workers. I couldn't find any nursery workers (we have to go through background checks, so I couldn't just grab random people).  Around 9:20 the first scheduled worker showed up and apologized for being late. We started calling folks and half of them were asleep so we politely asked them to get up and get to church. When people decided not to pick up the phone I left them messages like this: "you are on the schedule, you should have looked at it. I would fire you, but I need you today, so come on and get to church." We finally had both classrooms open around 9:30 and by 10:00 everybody showed up (except one lady who was in Ohio). Jameil and Rashan wrote me a song that I'm going to start singing on people's phones when I call them on Sunday mornings to wake them up. I bet they'll be on time after a few mornings of me singing to them.

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We had a 4 person cookout at my parents house. I bought the food so this was the menu:

20 steak shishkabobs

20 shrimp shishkabobs

20 steaks

8 chicken breasts

broccoli

carrots

zucchini

potatoes

macaroni and cheese

 

Yeahhhhh, I shop like I'm part of the Duggar family.

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Monday my mommy came up and we went and saw "Just Wright." I liked it, but I kept trying to recast the movie in my head. I really think somebody else should have played Common's part. He did alright, but an actual actor would have been better (or at least somebody tall), I think. I couldn't figure out who I wanted to play that part. Can you think of anybody?

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My mommy and I went to BJ's and stocked up so we could split some things. Since we live in an apartment, I can't always buy the big packages I like because we don't have space for it. My ma always makes fun of how I shop until I pointed out some things to her. I only buy laundry detergent twice a year. $30 for a years worth of Tide is a good deal. I buy that huge jug that's normally 17.99, but I get it on sale. The jug I got in January is almost gone, so I got another one yesterday at BJ's and it had a bonus 14 loads in it  which is a whole month of laundry for us, and I had a coupon! I buy my floor/counter cleaner in the big concentrated jugs and just dilute it as I need it. $2.50 a year for kitchen cleaner is a really good idea. I filled up some vials with concentrated cleaner for my mom so she could do it at her house too. I like when I can convince people to stop wasting money.

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After I woke up from my nap yesterday I decided to be productive in the kitchen. I decided to try some things that were new to me, but old news to everybody else. I divided up the raw meats I bought  during my grocery store trip and seasoned them according the meals I was going to cook before freezing them. I now have a bag of ground turkey for stuffed peppers, a bag with 7 turkey burgers, pork carnitas, spicy pork carnitas, pork for pork fried rice with the veggies already measured and put in the bag too and our breakfast sausages in individual portion size bags. I feel so prepared! I also made a batch of granola that is so delicious. Real Simple had an article about freezing all your food flat so that it takes up less space and stacks easier. I'll take a picture when I get home, because it made the freezer look so neat! I was really proud, I felt like an old woman.

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My sister is flying home tomorrow for a job interview! Everybody pray that she gets it!