My Sister Is Awesome!!

I thought I was a Polly Anna...Dreamer has me beat at that!
Last night was utterly surreal for me, Dreamer made it better -- THANK YOU.

We had our Thanksgiving last night because Dreamer is home and leaving for her new place ON Thanksgiving Day. She told you about the grocery shopping - it was followed by some interesting activity in the kitchen...

I wake up late, as I'm want to do on Sundays because being a caregiver often beats my ass up and exhausts me.  I talk to Dreamer and it sounds like she and mom have things under control.  Mom has already marinated the chicken, tossed it in breadcrumbs and is ready to bake it in a while. Salad is simple, so is the boxed stuffing, so it's easy peasy and don't sweat it she tells me. Cool, no need to rush, right?

Nothing describes the degree of mom's disease more than being all up in her kitchen...I  should have gone over earlier to help my sister put dinner together, really.

We cleaned out the fridge not too long ago, so that's ok.  But...go ahead, try to FIND something...a pot, pan or utensil, go ahead....But I digress...

 I arrive at mom's, husband with me.  I check out the chicken and ask Dreamer "Where's the rest of the chicken?"  We'd purchased 2 packs of  8 or 9 thighs each.  I saw the equivalent of one pack.

At the same time I noticed mom had put a loaf pan filled with muffin mix in the oven and there was a sauce pan in the oven too...hmmmm.  The muffin loaf was obviously done so I took it out of the oven along with the sauce pan that had nothing in it.  Mom stores her pots & pans in the oven when it's off....muffin loaf...ee gad. She buys muffin mix, later thinks it's cake mix, it goes in a bread pan and that's how you get muffin loaf lol...go ahead...FIND the muffin tins, lol!

Back to the chicken...
we look in the rest of the fridge - nope.  Freezer? Nope.  Basement freezer? Nope.  Garbage?! Nope. Both package wrappings were in the garbage...8 pieces of raw chicken thighs had vanished, literally vanished.  Oh god I thought, at some point this week, it's going to SMELL of dead chicken in here and then we'll REALLY have to find it, all of it.  Hopefully it really did vanish and I don't have to follow a smell...omg.

I look at my sister, she gets her coat, I get my jacket.  "Where are you going girls?" mom asks.  "Just to the store mom, we forgot olives" I said. Lying is our friend some days.  In the car, we laugh and almost cried. "What the HELL did she do with 8 raw chicken thighs?!" we both exclaimed. I know that both packages were in the fridge, I PUT THEM THERE.  We had to go get more, we had relatives coming over.  Feeding them would be nice.  We bought olives too, both green AND black - how festive.

Back at the house I began to set the table.  Paper plates would make things that much easier, and we forget to get some at the store. "Try looking in the basement pantry girls" mom said.  She had an upset stomach, so Dreamer and I took over for her. Hubby and I go downstairs...found the muffin tins on the way to finding the paper plates, brought those up too, just in case she might want to make brownies in them - ya never know...Finding the most right pots and pans was a game of hide and go seek but we made it work.

This is soooo NOT like my mom.  She ran an organized kitchen, could find everything, and cooked well.  She LOVES to cook and bake.  Now it's a real struggle.  And it's sad.  So now, it was our turn to give her a Thanksgiving.  One that she could simply enjoy..and it was starting to put me on edge, the edge of tears.

I start setting the table and it became clear to me that I had to rinse the silverware.  I remembered that I saw her do something last week.  She started the dishwasher, but then interrupted it when we left the house to run an errand.  She never did restart that load of dishes, she forgot.   I fought back tears, while telling Dreamer I didn't think it was going to time out properly.  All of it hit me at once, the shopping, the cooking, mom changing. Nothing would ever be the same.  Mom had a shampoo bottle next to the drinking glasses.

"It'll work, easy peasy!" she told me. It did.  We high fived and fist bumped!  Food was good, company was great.  It was sooo good to see my cousins and my aunt.   They brought the happy with them, for that I'm very grateful. 

Could not have done it without Dreamer, thanks for keeping me sane girlie!  As mom says "You are quite a little dynamo!"

Voyageur