ERIC AND LESLIE’S FIRST ANNIVERSARY DINNER AT THE WHISNANT’S
This morning (February 03, 2007) rather early, Charity and I got up, and Charity had to be at the Bakery around six a.m. This morning the weather has been cold, winter has finally come to Portsmouth. All week the weather has been snowy and cold. But we managed to get ready and I drove Charity to work.
This week Charity tells me has been a very busy week at Union Mills Confectionery.. This is late January, with snow on the ground all week, and you would think people would stay home. But people just can’t do without those birthday cakes and pies.
Earlier in the day, the wind was blowing, not as hard as in Florida , thank the Lord. One of the customers at the UMC came to pick up a full sheet birthday cake for a person at her church who was going to be ninety-nine years old. She told us this spunky little lady of 99 still wears 2 ½ inch high heels to church! As the customer was going out the door to her car, a big gust of wind came across her path, and the cake was history. Out of her hands went the full size sheet cake and on to the ground. There goes the birthday party..... A customer saw what had happened and mentioned what he had seen to Debbie. Debbie ran out and helped the lady pick up the upside-down cake box, and told her to come in and sit down. She would have Tammy decorate another cake for her. This time they both carried out the cake to the car and the wind almost got another one!! But they held tight! The party will go on! Wasn’t that great? Yes, because we are eating the broken pieces of upside down cake, and I am telling you their cakes are just wonderful.
(I usually don’t tell what goes on at the Bakery, because I don’t know a lot. I do know the cakes, and pies, and other great pastries are out of this world.)
Charity and I left the Bakery around 1:30 p.m. and Charity hit the house running, well not really, but rather fast, and started getting the dinner ready. I had already done most of the work. I put the sweet and sour sauce on the meat balls and put them back into the oven. Yep, I had done the hard job.
Today my son Eric and his wife Leslie and our grand-dog Zippy came for Eric’s birthday dinner. Charity was fixing a great meal, and had invited her mom and dad and sister. As usual the food was very good, ( well the potatoes were good but a little hard) and the meat balls were just wonderful. I did a great job putting the sauce on the meat balls.. Eric has loved that sauce since he was little. We were living in Mansfield, Ohio and my boss’s wife had invited us for dinner and made this sauce for meatloaf and gave the recipe to Charity. The rest is history.
The dinner was pleasant. Cold. But pleasant. No, not the food--the house. We like the rooms to be cool, well cold, and the Temples’ like the house to be hot. But the conversation was warm and funny. So was the singing. Happy Birthday to Eric. Happy First Anniversary to Eric and Leslie. And "I’m My Own Grandpa" and "One Meatball" all sung by Grandpa Bob and video taped by Leslie and Eric.
Earlier before lunch, Eric gave me lessons on how to use the VCR. That’s right, and no funny remarks either. Eric also gave me lessons on how to lift 72 pound weights, without using my back. Now I can lift those weights rather well, but Eric said I need to use my knees. So Eric says "Bend down and then place your hands on the weight bar and lift up with your knees." He demonstrated this process. So I started to bend my knees, you know like Tiger Woods when he is looking over a putt on the greens! You know, that is not easy! Even if I could bend my knees to the position where I could lift the weights, I could have never lifted the weights from the floor. I was very appreciative that Eric was not laughing at me while I was trying to do this procedure. He gave me a few other suggestions how to lift the weights. Take off the weights. Funny.
I mentioned to Eric that I could lift with the top of my hands over the bar twenty times, but I could not lift the weights with my hands under the bar and lift up. So he proceeded to do it about ten times. Show off. And I could lift the weights about to the top of my waist. Eric said when I was better I could lift the weight to my chest. Which he demonstrated several times.
Then we sat down and talked for a while. That was good. Then they had to get back to Lexington for the Kansas basketball game, against Texas A &M
This iPod that Eric has is something else. He has downloaded some 3,100 songs. Who would want to listen to 3,100 songs? Eric. I said 3,100 songs would be like one of my sermons, don’t you think? Now if I had that iPod, and could download John MacArthur’s sermons, that would be cool. Then I could listen to the sermons rather than listen to ESPN when I am in bed at night.
It’s now 9:00 p.m. Charity has cleaned up the kitchen. We cleaned up the downstairs rooms in the house, and we are upstairs. She is in her place on the couch, with the snowman fleece blanket that Chad got her. She is reading a magazine while I am over here typing this article, which she will have to check before I send out.
To all a good night, and a good day and evening it has been for us.
Drafted by Charles E. Whisnant, and additional comments by Charity Whisnant 02 03 07
