Tonight we were asked to put on an American Pancake Night activity for the new members of the ward.
I'm a little unnecessarily stressed out about it, but trying to calm my nerves. I did find maple syrup and pancake mix at Sam's Club on Monday. We didn't think they have it here, since once time when Corey was coming down here for a business trip, someone asked him to bring maple syrup. So we just assumed it wasn't here, but they do have it at Sam's, probably for all the American's that shop there. But the syrup and pancake mix both cost way more than they do in the US since they are imported things that aren't in high demand from the locals.
So... our last activity was well advertised and planned, but we only had 6 people come (end of this post), since I'm not counting the people that put it on, which was us (4 people) and the missionaries (4 more). So this time Corey said their eyes lit up when he said what the activity was. We asked a girl to get a count for us, and the count is: 57. And this is pancakes we have to prepare this time, vs. the easy popcorn from last time. Pancakes, with their unfortunately costly ingredients and toppings, plus we'll need to get plates and forks and try to figure out how to cook for 57 people with our one frying pan... don't have a skillet or know anyone here who has one. We're probably a little late searching for help with that. Maybe I'll buy more frying pans. Anyway, I'm a little frazzled there we might have a huge and hungry crowd turn out, but also wondering if it won't be well attended. We'll see. As for now, I'm making another run to Sam's for maple syrup and pancake mix.
I might be frazzled cause I'm not quite feeling myself. Getting tired, I guess I'm getting old. Maybe cause I'm in the long and dreary last trimester. I haven't been sleeping well. I keep waking up to turn over cause my arms go numb - too much blood in my body, it's cutting off my nerves. Plus last night I was dreaming about making pancakes. I'm glad the morning started off great, prettiest sunrise yet. (Cue picture overload)
(Later) ~ Well, I was going to go to Sams and then Walmart, but I decided to go to Walmart first, and guess what I found! Maple syrup! So I was hoping it could save me a trip to Sams and those bottles of syrup only cost $20 reais for a small bottle vs. the $45 reais for a small bottle at Sams, which is better! Still ridulous, but better. Next item - is there pancake batter? No, they had some "panqueca" stuff but it looked like crepes. Maybe we can make them from scratch... if I can find baking soda or baking powder. That one was a gamble, cause I didn't know what "baking powder" in Portuguese was, but there was some stuff called "fermento en po" which was by the yeast, so I took a my chances and luckily it was right! So now I make pancakes from scratch, which will be cheaper than the boxed pancake mix, I experimented with the batter for lunch and the kids all think it's great. That was an "experiment" cause even though I had a recipe, I don't have measuring cups or spoons, so I had to translate "1 tsp" and "3 Tbsp" into "half a spoonful" and "3 heaping spoonfuls" and stuff like that. But it turned out good, so we might survive, I think we're ready to go. The thing I was most offended by during this trip to the store was the plastic plates. I already knew they were totally flimsy, but I didn't know they cost over $2 bucks ($6.95 reais) for a measly 10 lousy plates... I almost couldn't bear to buy those, it was such a horrible price for a horrible product. The plastic plates and cups here are the worst, they crumble in your hand as you go to pick them up. It's okay though, it's okay. Ok, I'm done venting about that, now I should be good for the evening.
