Let's do brunch!

My morning... actually, let's back this up... Last night... I could not sleep. I've been dying to meet other MilSpouses and be involved on base somehow. I've emailed the Ombudsman several times and haven't heard back from her. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt because there may be a situation going on that I'm not aware of, but at the risk of sounding like a jerk... isn't she supposed to be available, to give some direction, especially to newbies like me? Any suggestions??

Anyway, the two Sunday's we've been down here we've gone to the same church. Normally I would like to "play fair" and visit all of the same faith as us in the area and then compare them (you got it, on my spreadsheet haha) to narrow them down and then do another round of visitations until we decided on one. BUT... the first one we visited really resonated with us. The preacher was amazing! I described him to some as a heavy-hitter. He speaks the Word in boldness, not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, but also in humility. He doesn't water it down, but he also doesn't add anything. Something important to Ben and me. He also has a great sense of humor! The music was amazing, almost like a free concert without the performance aspect since it was very unified. There's even a full orchestra! Playing pro's and con's, it's a pro that it is so large that they can have special ministries but it can also be a con that it's so large. They now have 4 Sunday services totaling 2100 people. Yeah. That large. But that's where it's our responsibility to get involved in their Sunday morning Bible studies to be involved in a smaller group setting. Because of the 6 yr age gap between Ben and me, it narrowed down which group we'd attend if we want to go together. So this Sunday, we're going to visit a group with 21-40 year olds.

What does all this have to do with not sleeping?? The first Sunday we visited the church, we filled out a guest card. Some people visited the apartment to welcome us and give us some literature on things that might pertain to us since we checked the "would like more info on..." boxes. And then the beginning of this week, I received a postcard inviting me to a brunch Thursday at the church... just for military spouses! AH! I've been wanting to meet others! (don't get me wrong, I'm so grateful to find MilBloggers here, but you know what I mean about meeting them in person). I tossed and turned and stared at the alarm clock all night. I was so excited for the brunch that I couldn't sleep!

It said to bring a favorite dish and that I could invite friends. Ha! I don't know anyone down here yet to bring, but I love to cook/bake so the other part would be fine. I put the postcard on the fridge, wrote the info on our calendar, and made sure I would have the car (it's been Ben's week to drive since he's been carpooling with a shipmate who lives near us). I decided since it was a brunch and I was new, I wouldn't go too crazy in the kitchen. Since I had some bananas that got over-ripe faster than I expected, I decided to make some banana nut bread. To me, that's always good no matter what time of day so I figured it would work, especially if I made it in the morning so it would be nice and warm when I arrived. 

I usually start with creaming soft butter and brown sugar together and then going from there. What did I do? I was so nervous this morning that I threw the mushed banana and the butter together without paying attention. And on top of that, the butter wasn't as soft as I thought so now I have chunks of butter in my mush. I thought well, maybe I can still pull it off and added the brown sugar to that. Nope. I was off my game and decided to give up on it. Maybe it still would have worked, but if you read this blog you've probably already gathered my perfectionism. I had already cracked the eggs in a separate bowl, about to beat them, when I decided to stop.

Now what can I do that can use those eggs? I was running out of time to make a different bread, so I decided on brownies (something the hubster said he's been craving last night). It might not be a traditional brunch-y food, but I figured the majority of MilSpouses are women and what woman doesn't like a good chocolate fix. I made peanut butter/chocolate chip brownies that turned out perfect, grabbed a serving spatula (Pampered Chef, of course), threw on my sandals, and decided I was ready to go with 5 minutes to spare. At second thought, I decided to grab the post card since it said which room to go to and I'm still finding my way around. That's when I noticed under the word "Thursday" was the date "June 10th."

Are you kidding me??! Well, at least Ben will get to have some brownies! 

Any ideas on what I should make next week???