Dinner Guest #33 - Mr. M. and Ms. L.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

She likes to shop. 

He can’t stand the mall.

She likes the Olive Garden.

He likes to eat at home.

He doesn’t sleep well.

She wakes him up nightly at 1:30 am to move him from the couch to his bedroom.

She wants to go to Disneyland.

He gets queasy on amusement park rides.

She is starting 8^th grade tomorrow and rolls her eyes at most everything her father says.

He’s a hard-working, single Dad raising his 13-year old daughter the best he can.

It’s not a tween sitcom with trendy clothing and laugh tracks.  They are our friends who came over this Sunday for dinner:  Mr. M. and Ms. L.

My main dilemma for the Sunday meal was this:

What do I serve when my air conditioning is on the fritz and the house is hovering around 85 degrees?

Do I dare turn on the oven? 

To avoid heating up the kitchen even more, I deferred to my crock pot.  I’m sure I committed an entertaining faux pas by serving a hearty, winter dish in the middle of a hot Las Vegas summer, however, it tasted good!  We ate crock pot beef stew, sweet potato casserole, hot parmesan rolls, fresh sugar snap peas, grapes, and strawberries.  For dessert, I served peach berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.

Mr. M. and Ms. L. did not stay long as tomorrow is the first day of the school year for all the kids (except Rock, of course).  The backpacks are packed with new pencil boxes, clip boards, and folders.  I set shopping bags of school supplies by the door.  The kids are showered and tucked in bed.

After tidying the house, I sat on the edge of my bed to rub my achy feet and smiled for two reasons: 

(1)    I thoroughly enjoyed our 33rd Sunday dinner guest.  Mr. M. and Ms. L. gave me a sneak peak at what my relationship with Kate may be like in five years.

(2)    I officially survived the summer!

Dinner Guest #32 - The V. Family

Sunday, August 19, 2012

I’ve had all kinds of neighbors.

Good and Bad.

Nameless, faceless neighbors you wave at as you pick up your mail.

Neighbors who leave unfriendly notes on your front door to stay off their driveway.

Neighbors who knock on your door once a year to collect for a particular charity.

Neighbors whose dogs are more familiar to me than the owners.

When we moved onto Middle Earth Street four years ago, we hit the neighbor jackpot.  We moved next door to the V. family.  Not only are they kind, personable, interesting people, they are easy to live by.  They don’t leave nasty notes or have loud, drunken parties.  They don’t have an annoying dog or leave trash out that blows onto our yard.  These are the kind of people you want to live by for the next 20 years. 

We have been the benefactor of great hand-me-downs from the V. family:  a doll house, more Barbie dolls than I can count, clothing, a bicycle, baseball equipment, even a patio table and chairs.  What do we give the V. family?

WINE!

We do not drink, but several times a year we are the recipients of bottles of wine which are always handed over to the V. family.   After delivering several expensive bottles last Christmas, Mrs. V. exclaimed,

“I love living next to Mormons!”

For dinner I served hamburgers on the grill, barbecue potato chips, bow tie pasta salad, fresh corn salad, strawberries, and carrots with dip.  Mrs. V. made an ice cream pie with an amazing candied corn flake crust.

After four years of neighborliness, we know the V. family well.  We have passed beyond the get-to-know- you questions.  Like us, the V. family has three children, however, they have about eight more years’ parenting experience.   Living next to the V. family gives us a glimpse of new teen drivers, first boyfriends, college preparation, and juggling hectic schedules.

 

The real estate market in Las Vegas is often reported to be the worst in the United States.  Home values have dropped so much that most home owners are under water on their mortgage.  Lucky for us, we have no plans to move.  We hope to stay in our home for many years to come.

We really hope the V. family stays on Middle Earth Street too.

Dinner Guest #31 - The M. Family

Sunday, August 12, 2012

In my religion, at the age of 18, single men and women have the option to attend Sunday services at a church designated for singles only.  It is known as,

THE SINGLES WARD

This label is not to be confused with Montgomery Ward retail stores, a psychiatric ward, nor does the building contain people who have been declared a “ward” of the state. The primary goal of a Singles Ward is to help single people meet and eventually get married.

I suppose it’s not the most romantic answer to the question,

“So, how did you two meet?”

I would love to say,

“Well, I worked at the toll booth on Highway 21 for three years and every day Ryan would pass through my lane in his beat up Toyota truck, hand me a dollar, smile, and drive on through.  One morning, instead of a dollar, he passed me an antique, porcelain hand mirror with the words etched into the glass that read, ‘You have the face of an angel, will you marry me?’, and the rest is history!”

The simple truth is, singles wards are the breeding ground of many marriages including Mr. and Mrs. M. and, well… us!

This Sunday we invited the M. Family to dinner:  Mr. M., Mrs. M., and their three beautiful daughters.  I served grilled chicken and vegetable kabobs, au gratin potatoes, sweet potato casserole, and watermelon.  Mr. M. made an amazing gourmet green salad.  For dessert, Mrs. M. brought some tasty vanilla and chocolate-filled cream puffs and I served blueberry cream pie.

After the meal, the kids ran through the house shooting Nerf guns and playing hide-and-go-seek.  We parents sat around the glass kitchen table swapping stories from our Singles Ward days and playing an informal game of “Where Are They Now” with the names of old friends.  I admire Mr. and Mrs. M. for many reasons.  Mr. M. has survived a long, rocky road in his career in real estate and keeps plugging away when thousands have left the industry.  Mrs. M. has amazing leadership qualities I’ve observed first hand in church-related service organizations. She is an organized, industrious woman with a warm smile.

Singles Wards are often scoffed and lampooned as a group of social misfits unlucky in love.  I suppose couples like Mr. and Mrs. M and us would be considered graduates of the Singles Ward program.  Misfits or not, I cannot judge objectively, but this I know, after thirteen-plus-years:

We’re all still married…. 

Dinner Guest #30 - TC and Cat Woman

Sunday, August 5, 2012

“Nobody ever invites us to dinner…”

That was the surprising response I got from Mrs. C. after she listened to the dinner invitation I left on her answering machine.  Lucky for us, she happily accepted and asked what she could bring.  The standard answer I give to this question, for almost every guest, is:

FRUIT!

The reason I ask dinner guests to bring fruit is silly, but here it goes.  If they made some special, international, been-in-the-family-for 100-years-recipe:

1.       My picky children would refuse to eat it.

2.       The specialty dish might clash with the food I prepared.

3.       I am a picky eater too, but would feel obligated to eat something I didn’t like.

For Sunday dinner, I fixed my Summer usuals:  Chicken Kabobs, Vegetable Kabobs, fresh corn salad, Brazilian Rice, Feijoada, and Pao de Quejo.  For dessert I served my current guilty pleasure:  Blueberry Cream Pie.  I love the graham cracker crust, cream filling, and fresh blueberries coated with lemonade concentrate.  Jack and Rock refuse to eat the pie, but I am not offended.   There’s just more for me!

While I learned a lot about Mr. and Mrs. C during dinner, my favorite of their personal stories was learning their nicknames.  During different phases of his life, Mr. C.  has been known as Top Cat, T-Money, and TC.  Mrs. C’s nickname was Cat Woman.

Mr. and Mrs. C. have children around the same age as Ryan and grandchildren the same ages as Kate, Jack and Rock.  We got to hear how they met each other  and fell in love at Brigham Young University in the early 1970’s.  Mr. C. has lived a fascinating life.  He traveled with the USO as part of a singing group, worked on the Las Vegas railroad, ran for political office, and continues to work as a bankruptcy attorney.  Mrs. C. has spent much of her life raising children, serving people in her church congregation, and supporting Mr. C.  I love her positive outlook on life.

I should have explained to Mrs. C. that the reason they are not invited over for dinner has nothing to do with them.  They are kind, well-mannered, interesting people.  I could ask them questions for hours.  The answer to a lack of dinner invitations is simple:

Sunday dinner is a lost art—

An art I’m attempting to bring back into style, one dinner guest at a time...