Ever since we left Louisiana 16 years ago, Ray has been wanting to have a crawfish boil! Since this was our last kid to be born in LA, we decided, no better time than now, but I told Ray, he had to be in charge of the crawfish boiling part, that was not my area of expertise!! So, Ray got online about a month before the party and ordered the crawfish (and shrimp, just incase some people were grossed out at the thought of pulling those suckers apart and sucking the brains out)!! We had about 50 lbs. of fresh LIVE crawfish and shrimp coming our way arriving the morning of the party. We wanted them to come the day before, but the company we were using insisted that this is how they do it and guaranteed they will be fresh!! So ok, we went with the recommendation, gave them our credit card, and off we go!!
We planned all the rest of the food to go along with it, lots of finger foods, but the main event was going to be the crawfish and shrimp from the Bayou!! As time grew closer, Ray went to Atwoods and bought a HUGE outdoor boiler and by the morning of the party, we were sitting on go. As the guaranteed time of 10 am came and went, I began to get a little nervous, but decided to relax, and knew that these people do this all the time and they would make good on their promise. Ray was at the hospital and wasn't even thinking about it, until on his way home, at 2pm, he received a phone call. They said they weren't sure what happened but last they heard our delivery was stuck in Memphis!! By the time Ray got home, we went into full "back up and punt mode"!! We had plenty of finger foods, but what was the main course gonna be? After discussing crockpots full of little smokies, platters of coconut chicken from Thai Cafe, and peanut butter sandwiches, wouldn't be great, but better than nothing, Ray decided that he would just go buy every bag of shrimp in Stillwater, and we would just explain to our guests what happened and why there was no crawfish.
An hour later when he got home, believe it or not, he had 50 lbs of shrimp AND crawfish, all from Walmart!! I never knew, and about half the price of what we had origanally ordered it for. He went to work boiling all the shrimp, crawfish, potatoes, and corn, and as our guests arrived, no one was the wiser, unless we told them. It turned out great, we all ate to our fill, and enjoyed celebrating our middle daughter and all the graduates.
The next morning however, after I called the company and requested our money be credited back, which they did do, I asked them about the pending late arrival of the crawfish and shrimp. She told me that surely FedEx would not deliver 50 lbs of dead crawfish after 48 hours. Well 30 minutes later, guess what was on our porch, stinking up the entire place and calling every varment in from all of Payne County?! As my dad used to say, "Gag a mother maggot!!" It was the worst thing I have every smelled. Needless to say, we got rid of the fish, and the smell has returned to somewhat normal, though ever once in awhile, I get a whiff of something still lingering in the air.
No great spiritual lessons here, just another typical Ford adventure that something had to go wrong. Well, except, for the brief moment, I started to panic, but figured, we don't have to have crawfish to love on people and make them feel welcome. Then God gave us the crawfish anyway!! A dear friend of ours' mom used to always say, "A house is to bless, not to impress!" And I was thinking, it's the same with crawfish or anything else we serve our guests!! No impressing here!! But all's well that ends well, and Esther felt loved. God is good.
Yeah graduates of 2019,
JJ
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