The Trials of a Busy Mom

Month: July 2016

Change of plans–My, what a clean freezer you have

20160722_171645I had the day planned, including picking the Chinese girls up quicklyso we could go up to the Conference center for the King’s Singers concert. I have loved them for a while, especially after they were guests at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert. They were so nice, and even talked to us backstage. And their voices….AMAZING. But even before that concert, I fell in love with this song from a PBS commercial.

I didn’t know who was singing this song, but I loved it. My sweet husband found out that it was the King’s Singers, and he bought me a CD with that song on it. The rest of the songs are kind of hokey, but THAT one..that ONE song is worth it.

Don’t believe me?
Listen to one of my all time favorite Christmas song arrangements. Hearing this one just takes me back to waiting in the stairwell keeping our bells quiet for our entrance in the next song. Every night, I just thought it sounded like angels. I’m listening to it right now and it’s such a calming song! I should make it my ring-tone.

Anyway, they are here with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir again for the Pioneer Day concert. Tonight. Right now.

Rewind a bit to about lunch time. One of the kids mentioned that some things in the freezer were mushy. I didn’t do anything right away, except to say to make sure they CLOSE THE DOOR! Jenna had a group coming over to go to space camp, and we were trying to make sure everyone was here, etc. Once we got that mess figured out, I had forgotten about the freezer. Later, when it was time for me to leave to go and pick up the Chinese girls, I remembered to check the freezer in the garage. Ugh. No WHOOSH should when I open or close it, which tells me the seal is not properly sealing, and things are all mushy and there’s a lot of goo on the floor. But I don’t have time to deal with it.

So, from the car, I called my daughters and asked them to
a-go and get some ice from the grocery store
b-start taking the meat out and putting it in the coolers
c-throw away stuff that is dripping
And I texted Ryan to see if he could come home a little early and assess the situation.

As I got onto the freeway, I got a text from the exchange group telling me that the buses from park city were late, and the students should be about 15 minutes late. Since I was driving to Orem, I decided to run into Costco quickly with those 15 extra minutes. I couldn’t get anything that needed to be frozen or even refrigerated right away, since I still had to wait for the girls.

Then I got to the school by 4:45 to pick up the girls. No Chinese kids. Listen to music, text a few people in my ward, trying to be productive. At about 5:20, they arrived. They had been to the outlet mall in park city, and every single student had at least one bag.

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I had already given up hope that we would be going to the concert, which was good. At least I wasn’t super stressed trying to get home in time. I knew it was a lost cause.

By the time I got four girls dropped off and our two girls home, it was almost 6. Ryan was almost finished cleaning out the freezer. Three coolers full of food were on our counter, with lots of food that didn’t fit in the coolers. Time to start cooking. For dinner, we had cream puffs, taquitos, mozzarella sticks, and fried rice (all from the freezer). Everyone seemed to enjoy our hodge podge dinner.

After dinner, I had the pleasure of putting the food BACK into the freezer.20160722_191442

The funny thing is, that LAST night at book club, Susan, Tess and Melinda were commiserating about their respective freezer thaw disasters. Ugh. I had to text them and thank them for jinxing me.

So, here we are…tired, sticky, a little bit grumpy, and NOT at the Kings’ Singers concert. Maybe I can scrounge up ticket for tomorrow night. If not, I’ll survive. I’ll just listen to my favorite song about 10 times.

Gifting

There is a stack of gifts in the front room. We brought home a car load of gifts from the reception and they have been sitting there waiting for the bride and groom. As the week has gone by, more and more people have brought gifts over. Cards have arrived in the mail.

People are SO generous!

We laugh about some of the gifts we received for our wedding. I don’t remember people being quite so generous. One of our gifts was a blender. There was a card with it, with about 10 names on it. We just laughed. The blender can’t have cost more than $25, and if 10 people went in on that gift, they each gave $2.50? Ok. Another gift was a dishware set for 4. Brown glass plates from the 70’s. Sort of like this. plates

There were also cups and saucers, I believe. The best part was that the box had been opened and taped back up. Was this a gift for their wedding back in 1979 and they regifted it to us? Don’t know. We laughed about that one and thought we would keep that until we had a cabin someday. But my dear friend, Tess, saw that set of plates a year or two ago when she was in our basement for some reason, and she really liked them. So, I gave them to her. Someone might as well use them.

We also got a multitude of Coleman coolers. Popular gift back in 1992.

Some of our gifts got returned, some we kept, but have not used. I still have several fancy bowls still in the boxes. I thought I would have more of a need for fancy glass bowls than I do.

I have one of these party balls in the basement. Never been opened. Maybe I’ll give it to one of the kids to take to college or something.

party bowl

But these cute kids came back from their honeymoon and we had a little present opening party last night at Emily’s house.
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There were piles of presents! It was like Christmas, but all the gift were for them.
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I am blown away with the love and generosity. So many gifts! So many cards, gift cards, and money. I am amazed. And I feel like I need to step it up personally in the gift department. I always buy things when they are on sale, sometimes even with a rebate. I do not spend $50 on wedding gifts, unless it’s a group gift for a niece of nephew. But so many people have given gifts of $25 and even $50 in cash or gift cards. One couple from our ward came up to us at a play before it started and we were chatting for a minute. He pulled out his wallet and said, “We won’t be able to come to the reception, but give this to them for us,” and handed Ryan some cash. $50. Wow!

Yes, it’s been a while since we got married, so I do understand that things are more expensive now, and we live in an area where there are a lot of well off people, but still, I was shocked. And thankful.

The gifts they got the most of? Pyrex dish sets. I think they got 5 of those. And bowls. Plastic bowls, nice glass bowls, heavy ceramic bowls. Lots of bowls. I didn’t, however, see plates. Maybe they already got some plates, or maybe that’s one of the things they will have to buy. They did say they were going to buy a portable AC unit with some of that cash/gift card money, so that’s a good thing. Their apartment is quite hot with no air. They did get a garbage can and a dustpan, which I thought were nice and useful, even a whiteboard and a bookshelf.

I also learned some good wedding gift tips. Write what your gift is inside the card, or even on the envelope. That way, if the card gets separated from the gift, the happy couple can figure out who gave it. Or, one person had stamped their name and address on the outside of the card, so that no one has to look up their address to write a thank you note.

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And even though they registered, they still got multiples of the exact same thing–from the registry. I guess it doesn’t keep track of things bought if they don’t scan it and say it’s from the registry.

As I looked over the pile of presents, I thought, “What would be a really unique gift?” A fire extinguisher. A hammer and tape measure. A level. Command strips. A drill.

Maybe next time.

But, if you sent or brought a gift for them, please know how much we all appreciate you! It’s so nice to see this cute couple get started as a couple and to have the basics.

So much love!

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