Saturday, February 16, 2013

Well, this has been a long and exhausting week!  I was in bed last night by 8:40!  THAT is how tired I was!  :D  I didn't actually go to sleep at that time, but you can be sure I was resting!  Jessica called me around 11 with some sad news that the husband of a sweet friend had died at work yesterday.  Praying for her and the rest of the family during this grieving time.  After that call I was back in bed and slept (was in bed) til 9 a.m.!  And I HAD to get up because my back was killing me from laying so long!

Let's see.  What have I been doing all week since I posted last on Tuesday.......

Wednesday is our day to visit Gary Mabe.  I had Tim get me up with him so I could get some grocery shopping done for the meal we would be fixing for the Parks family after Bro. Parks graduated to heaven on Sunday, Feb. 10th. 

Here's the sign we did for the week in his honor.  I guess you can tell I took the picture at night!  :D

Thursday was our trip to the thrift stores, the regular ones and we went to High Point.  We ate at Subway while we were in High Point.

Our evening plans were to go to Bro. Parks' viewing at the funeral home and then go to Olive Garden for our Valentine's meal.  So, we dressed for the funeral home and it was nice to be dressed for the meal, too!  However, by the time we got to Olive Garden around 6 there was going to be an hour and a half wait!  We didn't wait!  We went up the hill in back of Olive Garden to Chili's instead.

I told Tim I wanted to get a picture of us before he stripped out of his suit.  We don't take many photos of ourselves.  Can you tell he has lost about 25 lbs?  He says when he reaches 175#'s that we are going to DQ!  :D

So, after I changed my clothes for the evening, I started mixing my dishes together for baking for the dinner for the Parks family after the funeral on Friday.

First up, green bean casserole (less the FF onions on top).

Next, baked beans.

I decided to use my triple crocks for gravy.  I fixed chicken, brown and mushroom gravy.  Turned out to be a waste of time as not many people ate any.  But, it worked great!

Friday, I had Tim get me up with him again so I could mix up the rest of my food and begin cooking.  I decided to cook the corn in the crockpot.  I added maybe a cup of water.  At one point I was afraid it was not cooking quickly enough, so I cranked the heat up to the high position, which was a mistake because some of the corn burned.  But, most of the corn was eaten!

This is the cheesy potato casserole recipe that I got from Jessica.  A man and his wife from WV told me it was the best potato casserole they had ever tasted!  That made me happy!  :D  It was very good, even if I did cook it a bit too long and the chips on top got pretty dark!  This picture is the before picture.  :D

I also fixed two 10 lb spiral honey glazed hams.  I also picked up 50 pieces of chicken from KFC.  Ilene and her friend baked 4 meat loaves.  The church paid for the meat, bread and beverages.

I think there are 4 tables in each row, plus a round table in the very back.  Plus, we set up tables in the 4 class rooms.  We were expecting ALOT of people to show up as Bro. Parks had a LONG ministry!

Here's the dessert table.

Here's the meat table.

Here's the vegetable and salad and beverage table.

And, here's the people.  Mrs. Parks sitting at the center bottom of the photo.  Not NEAR enough people to eat all the food we had fixed!

So, what did we do with all the left over food?  What wasn't taken home by our people was sent to a women's shelter by one of the Parks girls.  So, I guess it wasn't wasted and contributed to a good cause.


Today we cleaned the church and I have been washing all of the table cloths and runners and dish towels, dish rags and pot holders from our dinner, plus the usual laundry!  That will be going on for several hours still!  Then I can take my headache to bed!  :D