A Busy Weekend

Lots of distractions the last few days, and our house took a bit of a 'back seat'. Wednesday Roger and his dad spent the day 'playing in the dirt' in the back yard. In reality they were locating our septic tank and in the process found a line that was beginning to collapse. The result: one 'found' septic tank, one 'repaired' line, one very messed up back yard and a massive blister on the palm of Roger's hand, which brought all other work to a halt. So it goes.

Got a bit of painting done on Thursday, but spent most of the day removing the final bit of wall paper out of the master bath. What a chore!

The evening was taken up with providing taxi service for the grandkids - and finally an MRI for me for my shoulder. Now that was an experience I don't want to repeat! It was an open MRI - which is good - but being stuck with a needle 5 (count 'em - five!) times is not so good. It seems new federal law requires they take blood before they start the MRI if they are going to do a 'contrast' injection. Then they have to put a 'brace' (it's a cousin to a torture device) on my arm to hold the shoulder in the correct position. He starts telling me to position my arm this way and that - and I remind him that's the reason I'm here in the first place . . . my arm/shoulder doesn't move like it should! So he says, "Oh, they should have told you to take pain meds before you came!" Then after I laid there over 30 minutes while they did 9 scans - without moving a finger - the guy comes in to do the contrast injection. After three attempts to hit a vein in my left arm, he gave up and called the tech in. The tech said "Why don't you just use the site where I took blood?"

When it was over, I must have had the look of a 'wounded animal' - for a lady in the waiting area asked if they had 'put me under'. At that point, I just wanted gone! I shared with Roger that all I had been thinking of during the last scan was how good a Braum's 'mix' would taste! Since we had a bit of time to 'kill' before picking up Wes, we found a Braum's and that mix tasted every bit as good as I thought it would!

Hope to have the results by the first of the week and will know what lies ahead for me.

Friday was 'baking day' in preparation for the Peninger Family Reunion near Enid, Oklahoma. Trying to fill my mom's shoes, I decided to take hot rolls, noodles and a German chocolate cake. I make the cake from scratch - and had it baked in no time. I 'cheated' a bit on the hot rolls, and used the Rhodes frozen kind. Put them out to rise all day and popped them in the oven about 3:00. My boys must have smelled them baking for both Russ and Randy rolled in just about the time they came out of the oven. In true Peninger/Phillips tradition, out came the butter and we feasted on hot from the oven bread and butter. There's nothing better!

And knowing how much Shelly and the boys like bread, I bagged up some for Randy to take home for their supper. So now I had to either go buy rolls for the reunion - or make some more. Decided to put out another batch before going to bed and let them rise overnight.

That evening, while making the frosting for the cake, Roger 'caught' me 'sampling' it. He reminded me that if I didn't quit 'sampling' there wouldn't be enough for the cake! I always get nervous when I do this cake, but it always ends up looking just like Aunt Juanita's (but it never tastes the quite the same!), so I guess I do it right.

Up at 5:30 Saturday morning to bake the rolls and make the noodles. By the time we left the house about 9:30, I had put in a full days work. Had made a few too many noodles to fit in the crock pot, so we all had a breakfast of noodles before loading up and heading north.

Ended up giving away my 'secret' recipe for my hot rolls to my cousin, Fontaine. She was lamenting that she couldn't 'knead' bread - and I said "I don't either! I just buy Rhodes frozen dough!" (I think the 'secret' is using Mom's old muffin tins!) Talking to cousin, Barb, and she said, "You know, when the grandkids want my recipes, it's going to be a list of the 'brand names' I buy!" Must be our generation, for my sis (Sandy) always has said, "It's not knowing how to cook, but which box to open!" Which reminds me of the time I called Aunt Juanita to ask for her 'recipe' for her German Chocolate cake. What a surprise, when she told me it was right inside the 'box' of the German chocolate! And sure enough, it is!

Later that afternoon, as everyone scattered, we headed east to Bixby with Russ & family to catch the 2nd round of high school playoffs. Our team has been ranked high all season and we had hopes for winning the state title again, but it wasn't to be. As our other favorite (the Oklahoma Sooners) was losing to Texas Tech in Texas, our Titans also lost. A disappointment - and it made for a long drive back home - but there is always next year. With both of our teams, win or lose, they are always fun to watch! Pulled in to home close to 1:00 a.m. and think we were all in bed within about 15 minutes!

Chose to forgo breakfast and sleep in an extra hour before making it to church. Opted to have
brunch' at our usual breakfast spot after church - and then headed home to spend the afternoon watching football - and for me, a long nap. When I 'rejoined' the world, Roger shared that some friends (KOA owners, of course) from New Hampshire had called - and were headed our way.

What a treat to have them stop. We gave them a quick tour of our 'home in progress' and then took them up the hill to meet our kids, grandkids, and grandpuppies. Then we headed out for a late supper and sat talking until they began to sweep the floors and stack the chairs.

Came home to find a call from Randy that he has 'scheduled' us in for this evening to do some drywall and tile work on our house- so it's back to work for us this morning. He gave us 'marching orders' for what to have done by the time he gets here. Just maybe we will be in by Christmas!