Weekend of Madness

This weekend, we were crazy busy. My sister is leaving tomorrow morning to enter the MTC, and I’ve been overly-emotional about the whole thing.
I wish I had the ability to cry like a normal person. I don’t get emotional very often, but when I do… it’s ugly. It’s literally ugly.
I look horrid.

Sure, it’s only 18 months.
Sure, it will go faster than I think.
Sure, sure, sure.

Sure.

I know all this, and I’m sure I’ll be okay with it 17 months from now. In reality, I’m super excited for her and all of the adventures she’s going to have. Think of the ways she’s going to grow! I just wish I could text her, you know? Check up on her, you know? Message her pictures of my kids when they cover each other with clothespins!
As it is, I’ll have to settle with real letters, packages absolutely STUFFED to the max, patience, and prayer.

A few months ago, my sister took me to an amazing Greek restaurant. A few weeks later, I found a recipe online for less-than-authentic gyros, and we decided to make them together. Then we forgot to remember to do until until last week, and that’s when everything started going crazy. Tonight is our last chance. I’ve got most everything to crank out a delicious dinner (and a fat cheesecake, of course), and I’m looking forward to having my family gather around my table tonight.
I’ll miss eating with my sister -food is something we bond over, and given that we both love cooking, we have some pretty awesome adventures.
In a year and a half, she’ll be able to teach me how to feed my family for a week using one fish… I bet.

I was thrilled when she text me one morning asking if I’d like to trek to Denny’s with her for an early morning breakfast. She promised to have me back before my husband went to work. As luck would have it, my husband had to go in early, so I pushed back our breakfast date a few days.
Saturday morning, we did it. 6:45 am we left town and headed for the nearest Denny’s.
Breakfast is our favorite meal.

Years ago, when I was in college, I came home to visit and I woke my sister up ridiculously early. We threw on sweaters and drove to Denny’s for hot chocolate.
It started something of a tradition for us. A few months ago, we woke up early and drove an hour and 15 minutes JUST to eat breakfast at the nearest IHOP (a sort of dream for the both of us).
Saturday, we went for the last time in 18 months. Thank goodness she thought to ask me.

(Notice the cantaloupe pushed to the side.  We were afraid of The Deathly Poison.)

We pull out all the stops for our breakfasts, and we order radically. French toast with a side of hash browns? Yes, for a few hours on those early mornings, the menu is our oyster and we take it for everything it’s got.

Our goal this Saturday was to convince the waitress we were traveling using only our appearance.
As we grabbed to-go boxes, she handed us some extra plastic silverware.
“You’ll probably end up needing this,” she said, kindly. We thanked her and grinned like idiots… it looked like we’d fooled her. Our tourist costumes were flawless! A couple seconds later, our waitress came back and gave us a big plastic bag.
“You’re going to want this bag while you’re on the road. It makes all the difference,” she said.
Our idiot grins turned into full-blown laughter and we got the biggest kick out of ourselves. We were genuine tricksters.
And yes, we are THAT easily entertained.
Want to see our costumes?

It turns out if you want to look touristy, all you have to do is wake up, but tennis shoes on, grab a sweater and resist any and every urge to better your appearance.
I didn’t even brush my teeth because I’ve learned the hard way that Colgate aftertaste absolutely RUINS a tall glass of orange juice.

I must big goodbye to my sister breakfasts for 18 months.
I don’t want to, you know.
But my sister has bigger things to do right now. I’ll have to settle with mailing her tiny packages of Krust-eez pancake batter.
I can’t think about that now, though. I’ve got a house to clean, (cleaning day!) bread to make, (pita bread is expensive to buy!) and a meal to put together (opa!).

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