Things that go bump in the night.....what a slumber party

I have been trouble sleeping lately and so on one of "those" sleepless nights, I tried to think of something to write about. Since it was in the middle of the night I was reminded of what occurred about 21 years ago when both our youngest girls were having a slumber party in our house.

The "incident" happened when Mike and I were engaged and for some reason, the youngest daughter was having a slumber party in our now living room. Back then, it was a large unfinished room with a cave like entrance (yes, it was a hippie cave entrance with a rock wall on both sides separating the dining room and the unfinished room.) The rest of the rooms are on the other side of the house and you can't really hear anything once you've gone to bed. Mike slept upstairs in a sound proofed room and there was no one else in the house at the time.

I got a call around 1 a.m. from the youngest daughter who woke me up from a deep sleep. She was frantic, crying, screaming and swore she and her friends could hear sounds in the house. This daughter and her friends were sure someone was in the house and they were afraid to go anywhere in the house for fear the intruder would "get them". The sounds coming from the phone were sounds of pure fright from 6-10 young girls around the age of 10. So I told them to stay on the line while I tried to call Mike who was sleeping soundly upstairs in the sound proofed area. Somehow, the phone got disconnected and he never answered the phone. He continued to sleep through all the drama that was taking place in the unfinished room downstairs.

I then called 911 and notifed them there might be a prowler in a house full of young children and I couldn't waken the dad from his sleep. I then called a trusted neighbor and asked him to go to the house and see if the girls were okay. Now you have to remember this all happened within a span of about 10 minutes. As soon as the neighbor came to the door, he called me back to let me know he was in the house. The time was now 1:10. I got in the car and drove over to our now current home. When I got here, the police were here, the neighbors were here and Mike was just waking up because of all the commotion outside. What drama!!!!

By the time we got everyone's stories straight (no prowler)and got the girls calmed down, neighbors gone, and police gone, it was 2 a.m. The whole house was awake now and everyone was hungry. I decided to make pancakes and apple compote for everyone. So around 2:30 we had an early breakfast where we all sat around the dining room table, ate pancakes and laughed at how foolish we all were. That night, it took the young girls a while to calm down, but food helped. Soon the girls were giggling and sleeping.

So here's my recipe for the apple compote. Its so easy and you'll want to make it whenever you have pancakes.


You will want to use your favorite pancake mix or batter. I use a simple mix, but I always use an egg (even when the recipe doesn't call for it) and milk instead of water. By doing this, you get a much better tasting pancake.

Apple Compote

4 large gala apples - slice them thinly and place them in a skillet
Add 1/4 cup butter
Add 1/2 cup brown sugar

Stir the apples and the syrup that is made by the butter and brown sugar until the mixture thickens and the apples become semi-tender. Serve over pancakes or waffles.