Last Weekend—

We managed to survive the weekend! YAY! What a weekend it was, too. I thought I had written about the plans, but I guess I didn’t. Thursday night, we attended Sarah’s Open House Night. What talented second graders we have! I never had that much fun in second grade! I want a do-over!!

Friday night we attended Em’s open house—a preschool open house is a great event. Ice Cream, a cake walk or two or three, playing on the swings and slides, and seeing all the creativity the kids (and especially the teachers) have. We also got the added benefit of being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Nice.

After the open house, I went to The Babysitter’s house to help her with her Spanish project. This project was quite involved; she had to throw a dinner party, serving entirely Spanish food. She had found recipes on the web that were Spanish, not like our local Mexican recipes (I had suggested having Taco Bell cater, but that idea got kicked in the head early).

She had asked for my help, and I had been helping all week but now crunch time was here and we needed to do some extra things. Friday I cooked and planned with her until about 12:30am Saturday. Saturday at noon, I went back to help them finish cooking.

The menu (in English) for “An Evening in Spain”:

Tapas: paprika chicken (chicken thighs sautéed in paprika, garlic and oil, apricot bites (halved apricots with a cream cheese/pistachio mixture in the middles)

Salad: Tomato Basil and Spanish Farmer’s cheese

Main Course: Chicken and Saffron Rice (in Spanish it sounded much more exotic, and tasted great, too), with “Real Spanish Bread”—I made that!

Dessert: Leche Flan, and Spanish cookies

Beverages Included Sunset Sangria (Thank you Rachel Ray!), Fruity non-alcoholic Sangria, and lemonade.

The kids (The Babysitter and her Boyfriend) worked hard, decorated beautifully, cooked terrifically, and hosted graciously. Everyone was very pleased and very proud of our teens. They certainly deserve top grades.

Sunday, bright and early, we got up for our Girl Scouts Road Rally. It was great fun, and at each stopping point, we played some kind of games to get extra points. The stopping points were at parks and schools, and at the first stop, we sack-raced, 3-legged raced, played leap-frog, and wheelbarrow raced. I participated with Sarah in the sack, leap-frog and wheelbarrow races. Dad, my hero, did the 3-legged race. We placed last in all of the events. I fell during the sack race, twisted my knee, but didn’t notice it until later in the evening. We had a great time. The last stop took us to the community’s big park, where a picnic lunch and crafts waited for us.

My home kept calling me, and the dog was hungry, thirsty, and getting in the way, so I walked home with him. I think it may have been a mistake, because by the time I got home and had the clothes sorted, I was ill. My head felt like jelly—thick and slow, my chest felt weighted and nauseaus, my bones and joints all hurt. So just as Scott and the girls returned home, I laid down on my sheetless bed and slept. Then I slept some more. The next thing I knew, Scott had gone to get Poppy for dinner, and made cheeseburgers that normally I love. I got out of bed, sat at the table and stared at the burger for awhile. It just looked wrong. I could not force myself to eat it. So I went back to bed. I felt a lot better by 8:00 or so, and gave Em her bath, got the girls to bed, and ate some yogurt. Instant Messaged with my very good friend Ms. Real Estate Magnate, who thinks my chest stuff is more likely stress than gall bladder or even hernia troubles. After re-reading the above two paragraphs, I think maybe I ought to agree. However, I have no time to be affected by stress attacks. Next post: this weeks plans for Em’s 4^th birthday party.