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?

Do You Have Stacation Plans?

We have already talked about the price of gas, and everything else going up. Apparently a lot of us are in the same boat this year, enough in fact that someone has created a catchy little name for what we will be doing, "Stacation." I happen to like this name, it makes me feel like I am doing something interesting. Instead of telling someone I am staying home and doing nothing this year, I can tell them, "Oh we will be on Stacation!" Now doesn't that sound much more interesting? I have already started our Stacation plans. The children love the great outdoors, fishing, camping, swimming, birdwatching, catching butterflies and lightning bugs and all the things that go along with this fun activity. Well we have all of that and more in our own back yard. We have two decent sized tents, so a few weeks ago when the kid's wanted to "Camp out" I allowed them to set up the tents. They have used them twice since then and as a matter of fact, as I type they are camping tonight. I have decided it makes them so happy, I am letting them make it a permanent fixture for the summer. Swimming? I bought a large 41/2x18 ft pool from Sam's last year, now if my hubby can get the green out, (his current honey do), they will be swimming by the weekend. Fishing is a bit tougher, my Beta who's name is Cleatus, is watching me type, so I have to be careful what I say here, shhhhh! Most farmers will not let people fish their ponds anymore, because a lot of people abuse the privilege, leaving trash, or tearing up the fields with their cars/trucks. I guess we are lucky because the children's Aunt has a nice fishing pond, and her sister who lives beside her has one too, so we can go there to fish, and we will be doing that this Saturday, but it does take about 20 minutes to get there, much better than 4 hours to other places though, and straight shot from our house. I am teaching all 5 of them to be good fishermen, they even put their own night crawlers on. The last time we went we caught 70 + bass and bream, then I had fun cleaning them, with a little help from one of my Grand daughters, Lauren. Then we had a fish fry, oh they were so yummy. We use House Autry fish breader, best on the market, we think. We have already grilled a lot this year, burgers, steak, shrimp, veggies I love cooking anything on the grill. We have a burning ban here because of the draught, so I came up with a way we can still do smores, and roast marshmallows outside. I have the kid's to gather our kindling, and small branches, we put it in the grill on top of the burnt coals, and start our fire in the grill, works just as well as a campfire and no chance of it getting out of control, and burning all the dry grass and such around. The kid's can empty a bag of marshmallows in ten minutes, they love them. The rest is easy, God has provided the birds to watch, butterflies and lightning bugs to catch, and He even throws in the lizards and pill bugs that my 3 youngest love to put in a container to display. We have Bluebirds nesting in a birdhouse on our back deck, and I have three humming bird feeders hanging up out there too. I got hubby a telescope for Christmas, so he and the kids can see the stars up close and personal. When the kids get too hot during the day they can get in their cooling station that I got a few months back, from a Good Deal Alert, from Anjies newsletter you can join here....
anjie-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
It is a big blow up playhouse like thing, that you hook the hose to, and it sprays fine streams of water. It retailed for $129.00, I got it for $9.99, I got my Grandchildren who live here in town one too, now I am kicking myself for not ordering more, but I think at the time I could only get the two. because of my budget. Less than $25.00 for both with shipping, and the kids are loving it.
This week is July 4th our very favorite time in the summer. Thursday, we will go to the local park, where they have activities planned most of the day, rides, bands then fireworks when it gets dark. Friday, they will have a parade in the morning, then open the park back up at 12 for more fun, with things going on all day, then more fireworks Friday night. We are having family and friends over on Friday for a cookout, then we will all head for the park around 4 and stay until after the fireworks show. Sat. we will go to the kids Aunts house, do some fishing and cook out again. Then the kids have an invite to stay the rest of the weekend at her house, that will give me and hubby a little much needed time alone. Our house is usually full the whole summer, our 5, then one or more of the kids usually have a friend spending the night, well more like the week, which we don't mind, it keeps ours occupied, helps the other parents out, who have to work and what is one or two more anyway? Then we have 3 of our Grand Daughters coming in on the 12th, when they get here, the 3 who live here in town will more than likely come too, they all get along so well, because they are so close in age, so then we will really have a house full, it is also possible that our other 2 from out of town will come during that time too. They keep me hopping when I have them all here like that, but I love every minute that I get to spend with them. They grow up so fast, and the ones who live away, only get to come a couple of times a year, I miss out on so much of their lives, so I make up for it in the summer, every chance I get. Now you may think I am just one of those prejudiced Mom/Grand mom's, and you can think what you like, but I have the most awesomely wonderful, beautiful, talented, sweet children/grand children in the world, if you don't believe me, just ask me, LOL.
That's it for this installment, Talk to my heart, tell me if you have any Stacation plans for the summer, I may need some more ideas before it's over!