There seems to always be some kind of excitement around our house. With our combined families of children and grandchildren, there is always something funny, dramatic, big, exciting, crazy, fantastic and, sometimes, traumatic going on. Oh, and we can’t forget my wonderful husband, Don. He is one of the “big” kids, too.

One such story is of where one son left his car keys at a place of business not long ago. I title this story “The Car Without a Spare Key.”

As the story goes, he went inside a phone store to talk with someone about his cell phone acting up. He placed his keys on the counter to show the representative what was happening with his phone. After a bit, he left the store to go into one next door.

He left that business, walked to his car and realized he did not have his keys. He turned to go back into the phone store only to see the store had closed. He glanced through the window to see his car keys lying on the counter, right where he had left them.

He called us and told us of his plight, and that he was not going to leave his car there unattended so would be spending the night in his car. Enter “worry and concern” for the parents.

Even though he is grown, and in the military, we still were restless over him spending the night in his car in a shopping center parking lot. He was not safe and tucked in bed as all parents want their children to be, right?

Feeling sorry for him, we decided to take him some dinner, a few drinks and snacks, and a pillow. He was thankful for those. We said our goodnights, told him to call if he needed anything and left.

However, he didn’t stay all night in his car. Although it was one of our cooler nights we have been having in Little Rock, it had rained and was so humid after the rain that he couldn’t stand it, so about midnight, he walked home (about 4 miles away).

The next morning he went back to retrieve his car keys and car, which made it just fine through the night. He immediately went and had a spare key made.

This next short story is about Don, and one of his cooking experiences. I title this one, “How Not to Cook Macaroni and cheese.”

So, I’m sure most of you have prepared one of the small, microwaveable Kraft Macaroni & Cheese cups before. You know, the ones with the plastic lid that you peel off, remove the foil packet of cheese, add water and then microwave about three and a-half minutes. After that you add the cheese, stir and – you have a bowl of instant macaroni and cheese.

Well, one night last week, Don had the munchies. We had stayed up late and his stomach had started growling. He told me he was going to go and see what was in the pantry.

He left, and was gone … and gone … and gone. I couldn’t imagine what he was doing but I was too tired to get up to see.

After a while, I started smelling something burning. It smelled like popcorn burning in the microwave. He finally came back to the bedroom and had his bowl of macaroni and cheese. I told him I thought he had made popcorn because I had smelled it burning.

He said, “No. It was the mac ’n cheese burning.” That got my attention. I sat up in bed, and pursued the remark.

“How do you burn mac & cheese?” I asked. “Didn’t you read the directions?”

“I called myself reading the directions, but I guess I messed them up.” He was laughing. “I didn’t add the water to the macaroni before I put it in the microwave. So the macaroni burned.”

I peered over into his bowl of – whatever it was – and saw some cheesy-looking, yellow water that had hard little macaroni just sitting on the bottom of the bowl.

I told him you were supposed to put the water in first, up to the line, then microwave it. He replied, “I understand that now, but didn’t realize it when I was making it.”

Don is not a wasteful kind of guy – so he ate every, burned, crunchy little bite of that macaroni. This is something I admire about him, because I would have tossed it. I kept telling him I would be glad to go make him another bowl, but he insisted that he would eat what he had made. Even though it was the “grossest” macaroni and cheese he had ever had.

Now for the recipe – but to readers like my husband (those without much cooking experience): if you are not familiar with the stove or microwave, please seek out some help before attempting this.