Friday, July 4, 2008

The Best Laid Plans

We have looked forward to this weekend for a month or more, I had looked up all the special July 4th events going on close to us, (remember the stacation article), I found some awesome buys on steaks at our local Food Lion Store, http://foodlion.adplexonline.com/StoreLocator.aspx?&checked=1
Click link to find your local store and while you are at it sign up for their "Shoppers Companion Newsletter", It comes once a week to your in box, has coupons, whats on sale, weekly contest and much more, I love it. So I buy ground beef for burgers, NY Strip steaks, for half price, baking potatoes, salad mix and then start calling to invite my family for a good old fashioned cook out. Including my family of 7, we had 16 confirmed for the party, and then we were going to all make a caravan to the park for rides, games, bands and of course fire works. I prepped on Thursday, and had everything ready to go for the 4th.

Well when I called my sister morning of the 4th to make sure she if she was going to have any of her Grands coming I couldn't get her, called her hubby's cell only to find out her MS is acting up and she is in bed for the day, I should have know then that Murphy's Law was about to kick in.

Everyone was supposed to be here at 3, the first car pulled in at 1:45, just as I was getting naked to get a shower, I told the girls to entertain them until I could get the skunk off, and get dressed.
Meantime 3 more showed up at 2:10, my brother and his family, Larry came in to tell me they were here, "good I say, they can entertain each other", Larry was making a quick trip to the store to get the paper plates, I had forgotten. I had no sooner got out of the shower, Larry who was supposed to have already left for the store comes in and says your brother just left, OMG! Why, said he was sick, 3 more gone. I have food prepped for 16, now all of a sudden, I am 5 + with Sissy's Grands that are usually hooked to her hip like Siamese twins, she normally has at least two of them with her everywhere she goes.

I am thinking what am I going to do with this food, I send my daughter up to my neighbors, would she like to come eat with us, she is leaving for her daughters for a cook out, call my friend who has a family of five, she is going to the same cook out, as she is friends with neighbors daughter. By now I am wishing I had been invited to that cookout. I look out and my grill has not been set up before Larry left for store, so I go get the charcoal in, my 3 o'clock meal plan is gonna be an hour delayed, I take my burgers out to put on the grill, and you would have thought I had added gasoline to the grill, flames shooting up everywhere, I know the coals were right, there was just more grease in the meat than stated on package. So I move my burgers to the holding rack, to wait a little longer. About that time Larry got back from his "quick", hour long trip to the store. I put the burgers back on, and still my grill has dragon breath, so I decide they have enough flavor from the grill and bring them in to finish cooking on my griddle, and put the steaks on to cook, thank God, they cook perfect.

Now today just happened to be the hottest day in a week, and by this time, I am so hot, and sweating so badly, I can't see, because my eyes are full of sweat. I finally get the last steak off and come in shaking like a leaf, I had gotten so over heated. I looked at the family and say no way are we going to the park, until later when it is not so hot. Meantime I get everyone fed, including me. Well the food made me sick, because I had gotten over heated.

Now we are waiting for the sun to go down a little so we can head out for the park, I am talking to one of my guest, and all of a sudden, BOOM! BOOM! Well the perfect end to Murphy's Law, here comes the rain! Well at least I know it's going to cool off now, LOL. I look at Larry, and say, "I'm going to go see if I can find some fire works, Forget this.

Well all was not lost, we got a nice pack, started the grill back up, let the kids roast marshmallows, and light sparklers, Larry set off our fireworks and we had a wonderful time, right in our own back yard, one of the neighbor kids came down, and was so happy to get to participate, he even got his own box of sparklers, so I had another happy kid on my hands. We even got our dog Sassy in on the festivities , she got some marshmallows and a big sugar rush, running back and forth like a young pup. It was so funny to watch.

So what started as a potential disaster of a day, turned out to be another happy memory moment, for us and our children. Now to see what tomorrow brings, one thing about it, our lives are never boring.

Talk to my heart, what adventures did you have for the 4th of July, 2008 edition?

1 comment:

Moon Dog Star said...

Well unlike you to have a plan for the 4th I had NO PLAN...I didn't make any special lunch nor dinner...just typical food...later that evening we popped fireworks in the back yard...((ohh gonna have to blog that event-tree nearly caught fire *over & over again*)
& we were all in bed before midnight!
Just regular typical us.

Happy late 4th though
**kiss kiss**