Cashew Chicken and nightmares...

Yesterday, we had a great time in Washington DC, celebrating Ethan's birthday. Before we left for DC at 10 a.m., I checked with all of the kids about the status of their homework. Did they have any? Could they finish it in the car? Mark, notorious for forgetting about his homework until 11:30 p.m., stated that he had absolutely nothing. I questioned him again, saying that I didn't want him to come walking in at 11:30 and tell us that he had forgotten about some homework. Nope, no homework. Great! We were off.

Saw Ethan, got his glasses fitted, both boys went to the barber, drove to Cracker Barrel, opened gifts, had dessert, drove Ethan back to the dorm, we drive home.

At 11:45 p.m., Mark walks into the family room with his face in his hands and tells us that he forgot that he's supposed to MAKE and BRING cashew chicken to his first hour class in the morning.

Cashew chicken....

Have I ever made cashew chicken? No, that's what Chinese restaurants are for.

Are you kidding? No.

Do you have a recipe? Yes.

Do we have the ingredients? No.

After the initial "I can't believe Mark did this again" thought, I realize that this is no essay that needs to be written, or math problem that needs to be solved. Seriously, if he's going to do this, we are going to be up for hours. Just what we needed after a long, but wonderful, day.

So, Mark heads to the grocery store at midnight to pick up things like fresh stalks of celery, fresh green beans, cashews, onions, carrots and chicken, all of which must be cut into "matchstick" size pieces. Oh, and did I mention that Mark had quadrupled the recipe in order to have enough food for his class?

John, wanting to help, can't get over the insanity of the situation and goes up to bed without picking up a knife. I start cutting.

Did I mention that it's all supposed to be cooked in a WOK which I do not own?

At 1:45 a.m., Mark was salivating over the contents of the pan and after a small taste, proclaimed our first (and perhaps, only) attempt at cashew chicken a success. He went to bed.

Being wide awake now (and still feeling the effects of the caffeine in the Diet Coke that I had at Cracker Barrel), I remembered that I'm still supposed to write in Glo's class journal, fill out absence excuses for all the kids for the day AND go through Glo's weekly homework. Too, I remember that Glo has intramural skiing the next day (or actually, TODAY) which requires snow gear and passes and lift tickets and meal tickets. While filling out the excuses on our computer, Ethan's ex-girlfriend, Jilli, starts writing me on Facebook. You have to understand: I LOVE this girl. Naturally, being the mother that I am, I chastise her for being up at 2:30 in the morning when she has work in four hours. However, I couldn't stop talking to her--she's just too cute--and how often do I get the chance to talk to any great teenagers besides my own?

Finally at 3 a.m., I think "I can go to bed now and wake up BEFORE my usual 6 a.m. wake-up time to make the rice, or I can just make it now." 5 1/2 cups of rice and 45 minutes later, I dump it all in a tupperware and go to bed.

All I have to say is I'm grateful that the chicken turned out okay and I must admit that I'm pretty amazing, putting all of that together (with a little bit of help from Mark). I'm hoping that none of those kids will want to eat it at 9 a.m. and we'll have something for dinner tonight.

P.S. The photo is NOT a photo of our cashew chicken. Honestly, I don't think I was mentally awake enough to even THINK about taking a picture of it!