As I mentioned in my most recent Thankful Thursday post, we have been more than ready for a break around here lately. Though David hasn't been traveling much (just a recent short trip to California), he's been slammed and working long hours/weekends for several weeks. Well, God answered our prayers and gave us just the rejuvenation we needed in the form of an absolutely wonderful long weekend. It was a serious breath of fresh air and a blast. I don't want to forget a moment, so here goes:
The excitement about this weekend actually began at least two weeks ago when I cooked up (ha!) a plan to make David and Audrey a big Valentine's Day feast. As the menu was coming together in my mind, I realized it was looking very similar to our traditional Thanksgiving fair. I decided it didn't matter, though, because David would be ecstatic about that. Furthermore, I had wanted to cook that type of meal around the holidays and just never had the time or need to do it. So, with David clear across the country, I set about shopping and preparing to surprise him with a giant Valentine's Day/Thanksgiving/I'm-so-grateful-you're-getting-some-dadgum-time-off/I'm-so-grateful-for-YOU dinner. Groceries were bought, recipes were pulled, a roasting pan (for a turkey) was borrowed. His flight was due in Friday afternoon. It was on.
On Thursday, I cleaned the entire house from top to bottom. Truthfully, this was more of a present for me than David. He couldn't care less how the house looks (I know, I know. My OCD is completely wasted on the guy.) However, I wanted us to have a carefree weekend and, though I do the majority of the chores, I didn't want to have to ask him to help with anything for a few days. So on Friday, with the house all cleaned, the cooking began. I had done some research on cooking a full turkey and concluded that people make way more of a deal out of it than they need to. (You see where this is going already, don't you?) I pulled it out of the refrigerator where it had been thawing for the appropriate amount of time. I rinsed it and patted it dry, just like Butterball.com recommended. I removed the gravy packet. Then I looked for the neck and giblets. And looked. And looked. And looked. No one told me there was a flap of skin that needed to be lifted/cut in order to locate them. NO ONE. (Okay, maybe David's Grandma had hinted about it a while back, but apparently it didn't stick.) Why on earth would the neck be between the legs anyway?! So, deciding that since this was a small, young bird only weighing 8 lbs, I...well, I don't know what I thought. That 8 lb turkeys don't have necks? I'm not sure what my line of thought was, but I concluded after sticking my hand ALL up inside that bird and finding nothing, that there was nothing to be found.
After rubbing it with a little vegetable oil, I placed it in a well-floured oven bag, cut slits on top, put it in the roasting pan, and loaded it in the preheated oven. The TWO different time charts I consulted said to cook that size bird for 1.5-2 hours. (Are you sensing my bitterness yet?) Being Heather "I-like-to-have-a-plan-B-C-&-D"Sinyard, I allotted almost three hours of cook time and set about preparing the other dishes while Audrey was napping.
David came home around 4pm that afternoon, found the table that Audrey and I had decorated with handmade hearts, and read the sappy love note I wrote before drooling over the cheesy menu card I made. We sat down and caught up for a few before Audrey woke up from her nap. In passing, I explained about the giblets and he shrugged it off too.
Fast forward to about 5:45pm (the turkey had been cooking for two hours already.) I pull it out of the oven, place it on the stove, and holler at David, "Welp, I think I found the giblets." It. was. disgusting. This gigantic bulging bubble of what looked like a mixture of brains and bowels was protruding from one end of the turkey. David comes in, takes one look at it, and, no doubt drawing from his years at Georgia Tech, concluded that yes, indeed, that's what the bulbous mass was. We decided it wouldn't hurt to just eat the breast and stay away from that..ahem...region. So, I start checking it with a thermometer in the inner thigh without touching the bone, as instructed by my sources. It's not giving me a number I like. I put it and all it's disgusting glory back into the oven to cook some more while I throw the rest of the last minute stuff together.
Thirty minutes later, everything else is on the table, Audrey is in her highchair whining for food, and I pull the turkey out, trying not to gag. The thermometer still wasn't quite registering what it needed to. It was close, but if you know me, you know I have a serious fear of consuming undercooked meat. Becoming impatient, we decided to attempt to carve out the breast meat and cook it in the microwave. We start eating the rest of the meal while the microwave groans and pops in the background. It's as if I can hear the dang bird weeping for what we've put it through. When it beeps, I pull it out, flip it over, and cook it some more. Just in case. Finally, I put it on a plate and, after poking and prodding it, determine it unfit for human consumption. David "I-have-an-iron-stomach" Sinyard decides to try some. I, ever the supportive wife, warn him that I'm not cleaning up barf this weekend. He takes one bite, puts on his best lying face (which I imagine looks pretty close to Mother Theresa's lying face), and concludes, "well, it has an interesting flavor." That was all I needed to hear. There was NO way that we were going to risk food poisoning on THIS weekend. NO WAY. Not even for $15.88 worth of our grocery budget. I drew on my Economics 101 class, decided to count it as a sunk cost, and threw the entire thing in the trash. We had a lovely dinner of side dishes.
As David played with Audrey, I began preparing his favorite dessert: homemade peach cobbler. I usually buy fresh peaches and peel them, but decided that since they aren't in season anyway, I'd try a shortcut and get canned peaches this time. However, I apparently didn't drain them as well as I thought I had or maybe I was attempting to overcompensate and put in more than the recipe called for. Whichever it was, I thought, "Man, this dish sure does look more full than it usually does" and promptly shoved it in the oven. Twenty minutes later, instead of the house smelling of cinnamon and peaches and general goodness, it's starting to smell like burnt, charred dessert. Which is a heartbreaking smell. I rush to the oven and attempt to scrape off the black liquid pools that are forming on the bottom of my oven. This only causes the cobbler to be shaken and in I-Love-Lucy-chocolate-conveyor-belt moment, it's dropping liquid as fast as I can clean it up. I pull it out of the oven, finish cleaning up, carefully drain off some liquid, and put it back in. But the smell has already permeated the entire house. Fortunately, it didn't effect our taste buds and we managed to eat more than our fair share after putting Audrey to bed.
On Saturday morning, we woke up after an incredible nine hours of sleep to a house that only slightly stunk. We gave Audrey breakfast, got dressed, and ran a few errands. We stopped by Toys R' Us to let her look around and play with the toys. We don't ever buy anything when she's with us, so she probably thinks it's just a toy museum. We're going to try to keep that up a little longer.
We ate lunch at a local mexican restaurant (I had sworn off cooking for the day) and went home to put her down for her nap. We did our reading and homework for our small group and then took a nap (we were exhausted after 9 hours of sleep the night before.) When she woke up, we got ready for church, (yes, on Saturday night) and headed over. We were excited about going, especially since it had been a few weeks since we'd been. As we pulled into the parking lot, we commented on how crowded it seemed. When we walked in the doors, we were overwhelmed by the masses. We walked over to the nursery and were promptly recruited to work. Truthfully, we both hadn't served in so long that we didn't mind. Two hours, ten toddlers, and a drive home later, though, and we were pooped. We fed and bathed AJ, put her to bed, and crashed in front of the TV with our Digiorno pizza dinner at 9pm.
On Sunday, we woke up and lazily lounged around. David entertained Audrey while I spent a solid hour catching up on a Regis and Kelly episode, clipping coupons, and making a shopping list. (It's the little things that you miss when you're solo parenting.) We got dressed and made a run to Target. As we were out and about, I was again struck by how awesome it was to have David to help dress, load, unload, chase after, and just generally parent Audrey. I'm so blessed that he's a hands-on Dad!
We came home, walked around outside for a little while to soak up the sun, and then ate lunch. I cleaned up the kitchen while David built block towers and played sticker scenes with AJ. She went down for her nap and I worked on a few projects while David "watched" golf (a.k.a. napped). His mom came over just as Audrey was waking up so that she could keep her while we went out for a dinner date and to our Small Group. We left our rosey-cheeked angel with her Grandmom and slipped out for a magnificent dinner full of uninterrupted conversation. We were trying to save some money and had just had a night out on the town last month, so we went to Longhorn and split our favorite chicken finger entree. Afterward, we dropped in the bookstore to pick up a book I wanted. Since we knew we were going to the Aquarium, we decided not to do gifts for each other this year. We did allot each other a $15 "treat" budget. I got the book and David got a Blu-Ray DVD on sale at Target earlier that morning. We know how to do it up!
After a great Small Group meeting (for those that don't know, this is a contemporary version of Sunday School for a lot of churches nowadays. Most meet off of the church campus during various nights of the week), we went home, put Audrey to bed, and visited with David's mom for a little while. Later, as we got ready for bed, we were almost giddy about David not having to work the next day! Forget "almost"...we were giddy!
We woke up and scrambled to get all three of us ready, fed, and out the door. We cruised down the interstate in the HOV lane, feeling sorry for the poor drivers around us who were headed to work. We blared Keith Urban (which AJ loved), held hands, and talked excitedly about the day ahead. Once we arrived at the aquarium and found just the right parking lot (it has to be the perfect balance of price and sketchiness, without too much of either), we unloaded and went in. As we pushed Audrey's stroller into the front entrance and passed the huge glass walls of fish, we hear a tiny voice exclaim, "Oh my goodness!" Her amazement never stopped. We went from exhibit to exhibit, tank to tank, and she would alternate between saying that or "this way" or "more fish". The beluga whales and the penguins were her favorite. Well, other than the steps, of course. There is one huge observation area with amphitheater-type seats/steps. She must have crawled up and down those twenty times while David and I vainly tried to point out the amazing whale sharks, manta-rays, etc. in front of her. So, steps were the best part, but the exhibits were a close second. Thank goodness kids under two are free.
After about two hours and several dozen pictures, we headed back to the car and over to the Varsity. For those that don't know, it's an Atlanta institution. They're famous for their chili dogs, fast (and poor) service, and frosted orange drinks. And it's a heart attack waiting to happen. I'm betting the grease traps haven't been changed since they opened their doors and it makes for the most delicious onion rings on planet Earth. While David ordered our food, I unpacked Audrey's lunch and started feeding her a sandwich (I'm pretty sure it's illegal to feed a kid that junk.) We did let her have a few bites of onion ring and frosted orange, for which she was very grateful. She's a fan for sure! We took pictures of her modeling the adorable paper hat and with each of us holding her in front of the famous sign out front. Then, stomachs churning, we drove home. I read books aloud to her trying to keep her from falling asleep. She was exhausted from her exciting adventures! We pulled in the garage just in time to get her out, change her, and put her down for her nap. I worked on going through and editing all of the pictures I'd taken and David read and watched TV until she woke up.
After we fed her a snack, we drove over to the park to let her play on the playground and soak up the unseasonable warmth. She loves to swing, so we did that twice and let her do some climbing and sliding in between. We came home, ate dinner, watched Wheel of Fortune, and gave her her Valentine's Day present (a mailbox with candy and a book) before bath time. As we were bathing her, David was talking to her about our big day and all that we'd done. He asked her if she remembered what she'd seen and the things we did. She was quiet for awhile and we both wondered what, if anything, she recalled. Then, she looked up at us with a huge smile and said, "Aldigator" (alligator - one of the first things she'd seen at the aquarium.) Melt my heart.
Thank you, Lord, for a perfect weekend. Though no one part of it was anything grand or special, collectively it was so wonderful. I didn't take a single moment of it for granted and I'm very thankful for the respite.
I hope your Valentine's Day was as lovely as ours.
