The party's OOOOOVER

It went well! I didn't get EVERYTHING done that I wanted (don't think that will EVER happen) but the house looked nice enough. Drew, Michelle and Val really helped out a lot these last few days. Not as many people showed up but that's ok, it was a really decent size crowd. I have a good bit of leftovers and learned a few things for next time that will make things easier and better. I got a lot of compliments on the spread. :o)

We had....

BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches
Hot meatball subs
Italian Sausage
Green peppers and onions
Salt Potatoes with real butter
Baked Beans
Salads
Fruit
Pasta
Tossed chef
Macaroni
Potato
Coleslaw
Snacks

I bought a full sheet cake from BJ's Wholesale Club which was very good.

What we didn't cook...

2 pork loin roasts (20lbs worth)
6pkgs hot dogs
80 hamburgers
1/2 the meatballs still in the freezer
2 lg pkgs of sweet and hot italian sausage in the fridge I forgot about

One of the things I learned is in this heat you HAVE to ice down the fruit and pasta salad. And I should have put them out in smaller batches. I love fruit and pasta salad because of the lack of safty concerns. The pasta salad did ok but I could have had leftovers of that if I had managed it differently. I ended up dumping a ton of it because all of it was out all day. The fruit salad is what really surprised me. By the time I got a bowl of it about 4ish the salad was starting to turn sour. Granted the container was almost empty but there were quite a few bowls left in there still. Also if I had had this yucky bowl of salad...so did other people. I threw away my bowl and broke out the second huge container of it. By the time we brought THAT one in at night it was starting to turn. That container wasn't so empty though. I would have LOVED a bowl of fruit for breakfast this morning *sniff sniff*

I didn't tend to things like I normally would since I was tired, it was extremely hot and just because I'm pg and it's hard to move! LOL While the salads were safe they weren't kept as iced as I would have normally kept them. So most of the salads that were out were dumped at the end of the evening. Luckily I did put those out in small batches so we have leftovers of those...not tons though...just enough.

I think next time I won't bother with the 18qt roasters, crockpots, electric warming trays. It's just too hard to maintain a reliable outdoor electrical supply. We had so many things to plug in that we kept tripping the power strip and the circuit breaker. The things in the chaffing dishes with sterno kept the food HOT with minimal effort. All we had to do was change the sterno cans ever 2hrs. So I'll be using the chaffing and sterno method more often.

The pool wasn't totally clear but everyone went swimming anyways. It was so hot that they even went in with jeans on! LOL I was tempted to jump in with my skirt on but the thought of hoisting myself up out of the pool....or better yet having to have someone else boost me out stopped that thought. (We never got the inside pool ladder thrown together) I still haven't found a pair of shorts to wear, although I also haven't tried to look for them very hard.

The end of this week has been a huge hot blur but I'm glad everything was done. I keep thinking...I'm THAT much closer to getting my nesting done for this baby :o) It's nice to start looking at the house and think of something besides doing the basics. I still have a lot of things to get done around here before the end of the summer though. I may even get some sewing started but not this week or so...have tons of dentist and doctor appts.

We did a bunch of work Thursday morning and headed out to grocery shop around 5pm. I was worried that it would take me ALL night long. It lasted about as long as a regular whole shopping trip takes..5hrs. Trying to find a place for everything was a chore though.

Friday was Tom and Drew's turn to run a bunch of errands and I sent them with a list of things I forgot. Unfortunately they forgot a few key ingredient for dishes and I had to send Drew back out for them. It delayed me a little while but that was ok because it was when the house was the hottest. I stayed out and visited with Tom and watched the kids go swimming (my 3 neices were here also). Due to the delay though I was up WAAAY longer then I wanted to be. I finally made myself go to bed around 4:30am. I was back up on Saturday around 8 or so and right back at it. I finally took my shower while my sister cleaned out the huge coffee pot around 1:45. Luckily only a few people were here for me to be rude toward.

Amazingly I felt decent during the party! I even played a 20min round of DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) on the Playstation2 around midnight. I drove a group of boys home around 2am and then sat with the girls before they headed to the 24hr drivein at McDonald's around 3. Tom and I finally went to bed around 4.

I've been dragging all day today and my feet are the biggest they've been. Luckily not too much needed to be done. I did drive the girls to the mall so Michelle could spend some of her graduation presents. She was/is in desperate need of some new clothes. We pretty much just hung out and ate leftovers all day.

That brings me to my pregnancy and insulin needs. I have NO idea what is going on!!! In all the commotion of the last few days I haven't taken any insulin or done my meds (which doesn't help my swelling any). I ate cake, candy, whatever I wanted and tested my glucose well within an hour after eating most of it...it was 97!!! Same thing today. (sssshhhh...I had my first soda today since Christmas) I even woke up to a fasting of 83 this morning. I'd be really worried if this baby wasn't moving around so much but she's pretty active. I'm really not too sure what I'm doing or going to do. I need to take a few kids to the dentist in the afternoon. If I do my insulin and need to start fighting lows all day that might be difficult. Not to mention driving could be dangerous in that situation. UGH!!! This is driving me crazy! My peri appt is Tues but I want to cancel again, although I'll probably be a good girl and go anyways. I wish I could just call the OB, have them take a look at me, tell me what's up and be on my way! Of course I don't have many numbers to prove what I'm talking about either. I guess I'll just have to call and talk to the OB in the AM.

Well I'm extremely hot, tired and my blood pressure is a bit up. So heading off to bed in my air conditioned room now. I don't know what I would have done this pregnancy and summer without my new A/C! Thank you Grandpa!