Life in the Journey

Yesterday we found out Chris will be working with a new client, the IRC, doing Sharepoint, which is exactly what he wanted.  It'll be great experience for him & although he's already complaining about how hard he's working, I know he's totally loving it.  Exciting right?  That's what I thought.  So last night, I decided to cook one of his favorite meals, poppy seed chicken w/ fresh green beans.  Well, I freeze our meat, so around 4:00 I took out two chicken breasts & began to let them defrost.  Well, I quickly figured out they wouldn't be done in time for dinner around 6:30, so I decided I'd submerge them in warm water to speed up the process.  Since we don't have a divided sink, that required loading the dishwasher, which, you guessed it, required unloading the dishwasher first.  So, I unload, load, defrost, and then I'm ready to boil the chicken.  Since we only have 1 saucepan, I have to wash it first.  Alright, done.  So, now I'm cooking - the chicken is boiling & I mix together all of the other ingredients.  The chicken finally finishes & I mix it in the casserole, crush Ritz crackers over the top, wash saucepan again so I can melt a little butter in it to drizzle over the top (no microwave, remember).  Finally, the whole thing is in the oven & I can start washing & snapping green beans.  Everything was perfect.  Chris texted me to say he was on his way home at 6:07 & as it takes him 20 min. to get home, dinner was going to be ready right as he walked in the door.  As the casserole & green beans cook, I set the table and get everything else ready.  [The rest of this story you should read in slow motion like some sort of horror story.]  Chris walks in the front door & says it smells good.  I greet him & tell him we're having poppy seed chicken for supper.  Excellent, he says.  I say, it's all ready, I'll just put it on the table.  I take the casserole out of the oven & walk towards the table.  But somehow, about 1 step before my afternoon toil is complete, the pan falls out of my oven-mitted hand, skids across the floor and sprays its contents all across my floor and walls.  ARGGGHHHHH!  In our over 3 years of marriage, I have never done this before, and though I've run this episode through my head a dozen times since last night, I cannot figure out what went wrong!  I was so upset - I wasted all that time, all that money (1 can of cream of chicken soup alone costs $1.60 here people, v. the $.50 I used to pay at Super Walmart), not to mention I was starving & now we had nothing to eat!  Chris, being the sweet husband he is, picked up the pan off the floor, set the pan & little bit that somehow remained in the pan (it landed upright on the floor) on the table, took his fork & got a bite out of the pan.  "Yum, that's really good," he said.   "We're obviously not eating that for dinner" I sadly replied.  I'm somewhat embarassed to admit this, but I totally started crying - I was just so incredibly frustrated that I couldn't go back in time & undo what just happened!   Chris assured me it was not a big deal, started cleaning up, and said we'd just go out to dinner.  However, like everything else, it was a big deal to me and I must admit - this morning, I'm still not quite over it!   But, continuing with the story, after everything was cleaned up, I stubbornly insisted we eat the green beans before we went out & Chris gracefully obliged.  Afterwards, feeling totally defeated, I went out & got some supper with Chris.  So there you have it.  The tragic tale of last night's poppy seed chicken.