Hey y'all!!

I'm so sorry for my unexpected hiatus these past few weeks! Things have been CRAZY here...really, they have.

As of three weeks ago, I've been employed full time at a conventional dairy farm about 30 minutes from my house. It's a far cry from the living history career that I've been pursuing for the last three years, make no mistake. But, it's money in the bank and not a moment too soon, for the federal government is now demanding it's money back...

I'll be totally honest in that I definitely jumped off the deep end when taking this job. I'm working about 50-55 hours a week, 5 1/2 "days" (I get three half-days, and they are staggered), and 6 hours of sleep is now a good night for me.

And let me tell you guys, being sleep deprived and running around the house prepping for a trip is a bad combination.

This past weekend, I was getting ready to go out to Ohio for my dear friends Lia and MK's graduation at the same time my family is prepping to go on a trip in the opposite direction. My brothers were changing the water from our fish tank and they were taking a lot out.

So in my big sister admonishing voice, I told them....


"Don't take too much water out, you'll drown the fish!!"


You can imagine the response THAT got from my family.

About 9 hours later, I told Lia about that...and she laughed a lot. Little did I know the repercussions that little decision would cause.....

So day of the graduation arrives with the usual craziness of creating food trays, fighting corset strings (a friend's dress, not mine!), doing each other's makeup and hair, and enthusiastically greeting old friends. It literally felt like I had never left a year ago....

The exercises start - and so do the tears. In my defense, the drops started when one of the speakers' broke and he winked at his graduate daughter...and then continued during the presentation of gifts to moms ("I Hope You Dance" didn't help matters)....and what finished them was when the last graduate hugged his mother (who had barely survived 2 form of leukemia) after the ceremony. *still crying*

Afterwards, we had a nice brunch and hours of dancing, which included a free lesson! I leaned how to rumba and waltz a little (and want more....). 

My favorite memory from that day...will probably be Lia's graduation speech.

Her speech was sentimental and sarcastic. And you know what she ended the speech with?

"The biggest lesson that I learned is "Don't take too much water out of the fish tank or the fish will drown.""

Wise words, Lia.

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

Hey y'all!!

Forgive me for my long absence! If anyone has that pause button on LIFE ready, will someone let me know??? I could sure use it!

Anyways....

So, back in November (or was it February? I don't remember...), I picked up some blouses from a thrift store while I was on vacation down South.

One of which was this little beauty....

The original blouse. I apologize for the horrid wrinkliness.

It is a nice simple fitted blouse, in a really pretty shade of lavender purple. I LOVE the color lavender and always wanted a nice lavender blouse to go with some pretty spring colored skirts I have. 

There was some nice top-stitching on the front placard and on the collar

That, my dears, is a finished notch. *sigh*

Now, where was I?

Oh yes....day of the anniversary gets here. I think I mentioned in the last post that there was a nice snowstorm outside, so all of us were stuck at home, right?

Not that I sat around and twiddled my thumbs and fumed for most of the day....okay maybe only half a day.

In the early afternoon, I mixed up what was called a Silver White Cake. I broke down and used the mixer even (even though I hate using that thing, I'm a hand mixer to to the day I die...). I even made some frosting (we didn't have enough store frosting....yet another thing we never picked up.)

Everything went smoothly with the cake, and it got stuck into the oven.

Then the realization hits us at 2 pm...as one of the boys asks what are we going to do for dinner...that we realize that Mom and Dad were going to be stuck at home due to the snow.

Talk about an "Oh crap" moment. We did NOT plan for this. Now what in the world were we going to do? No way were we pulling the quick meal option, not that day?! 

Now, it providentially was my brother Tyler's turn to cook dinner that night. Tyler, while a good cook, is still a novice in the kitchen. But, with my mom out of the kitchen, we had a fighting chance.

So Tyler and I made a fast scour through the deep freezer and the pantry. We found a leg of lamb (Mom's favorite), an old recipe for a fancy macaroni casserole, enough vegetables for a salad, and even some biscuit mix.

After we shoved the lamb in the oven, I moved to get the cake out of the pans.

And what do you know.

The durned thing stuck to the pans.

I cried. Cause a stuck cake spelled disaster and crumbs everywhere. It was right about then that I texted Matthew at college with the following exchange:

yeah...I may have been a little stressed out that day.

Mommy came to the rescue though, and managed to save the cake from being a major earthquake (thank heavens for the motherly talent of fixing things!!). Once the cake was safely deposited in the cake tray with minimal frosting cover, I set it aside to juggle macaroni, cheese and biscuit dough.

Somehow, between Tyler and I, we managed to cram all the prepping and cooking for the dinner in 3 hours without any major catastrophes....which was a miracle in itself.... 

In the meantime, my other brothers Anthony and Robert made themselves useful by cleaning up the kitchen and helping me set up the table with a new cloth and napkins. I even opened new white taper candles.

We cleaned up a little, put on some better clothes and all sat down to dinner, complete with soda for the boys and blueberry schnapps for Mom and I. (Boy did I need that schnapps....).

After dinner, I finished icing the cake. The roses were a bit of a pain - blasted frosting was very cantankously warm. I practically had to freeze it in order to get it to shape. But in all, I was very happy the way it came out.

why does it look PINK in the camera?? I assure you, it was cream. Buttercream, to be exact

So, the day ended well. We told Mom and Dad that their presents were coming, and no one was the wiser.

In the three days afterwards, I finally got the greeting card, deposited the rest of the cash in the bank and got the picture of the silver pattern. It turned out to be a pattern that had a fair selection of pieces in stock, to my relief.

In a phone conversation with Matthew, we picked 2 silver napkin rings and placed the order. Processing took about 4 days and shipping took another 5. All of us kids were on pins and needles waiting for that package to come.

But it finally did. I'm sure I looked like an idiot when I shouted for joy in my pine sappy vest and dirty skirt (I was pruning a pine tree earlier that afternoon.....) when I saw it in the mailbox.

From there, it got opened and rewrapped - with the order slip safely stored away where my dad won't find it, LOL.



And so, two weeks late, Mom and Dad finally received their silver anniversary gifts from us kids: a $25 restaurant gift card and 2 silver napkin rings. Complete with official greeting card, and unofficial note attached to the rings...with missing words and everything. *facepalm* You'd think a writer like me could actually write a note to a present with proper English...

And so completes my tale of the disastrous 25th Anniversary celebration scrape that I got myself into. My dear friends, please learn from my mistakes and plan ahead...at least a month in advance. And have a contingency plan in case you deal with a snow storm.

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine