The weekend began as any other Saturday. We would be doing our usual errands that we do on Saturdays and end up at WalMart to do our shopping for toiletries and a few small food items that we thought we needed to do some “fall” baking. So we jump in Randys car and head out. It is unseasonably warm.  Walmart is about a 30 minute drive from our house. We have found that folks out here tend to shop Target more than Wallyworld, but we just cannot make the switch. Before I start my story that I want to tell you about, I have to tell you about our  shopping at WalMart in Texas. To be honest, we go to WalMart for the fried chicken tenders that they sell. Someone that worked with Randy back in Cowboy and Indian land, had told Randy about WalMart chicken and that you just couldn’t find better fried chicken anywhere. So one Saturday, RC told me he had a surprise for me. So off we go…..now in my mind, I’m thinking, “oh, I bet he is taking me to Neimans to have a piece of our fav coconut cake” or “wow, he remembered that we had our first date on this day and wants to take me where we went that day” or, “oh I just love her so much, I think I’ll surprise her and go buy her a new diamond ring for being the best wife EVER”….so as I was trying to decide which of these surprises we were headed for, we are by this time, in the parking lot at WalMart there in Plano…..I couldn’t figure out why this was a surprise, we went almost every Sat to WalMart. Before getting out of the car, he told me to just trust him and follow, so follow I did. We headed straight to the deli where lo and behold, he grabs a package of Hawaiian rolls and orders 4 fried chicken tenders. I am still looking at him trying to figure out what he is doing and why, of all places was he ordering chicken when I’m sure we must be headed down to Neimans for lunch. But he paid for our chicken and rolls and off to the car we go. He found a shaded parking space under a tree and proceeded to open the rolls and put a chicken tender on it and hand it to me. SURPRISE!!!!!! This was my surprise. A chicken tender sandwich in the parking lot of WalMart. You’ve got to be kidding me. He tells me to go ahead and try it. I figure if I am ever going to get him to Neimans, I should go ahead and humor him, so I did. I bit into it and oh my gosh, he was right. It was the best fried chicken I had had in a very long time. We sat there and ate until all of it was gone. I instructed him that if he ever told any of my Northwood Women’s Club friends that I was eating a chicken roll sandwich in the parking lot of WallMart, I would never forgive him nor would I EVER EVER make him another chocolate pie. So now we had a new tradition. WalMart Picnics! Guess I need to get back to the story I started to write about.

We arrive at WalMart and he parks as far away as possible to give us exercise (like we wouldn’t be getting enough walking in on Sun walking over the entire golf course down in Palos Verdes looking at all the old cars and new cars that was on display.

It is now 103 degrees and as we enter the store, I begin to remember just a “few” more things that I needed than I thought. When I began to throw them into the basket, RC kept reminding me that we are in his car, not mine. His car is a two seater with a small trunk. As I am merrily skipping down the isles throwing in chocolate chips, sugar, cocoa, cream cheese, flour and sugar, he shakes his head. I know, I know, so what if we need to have a little sack of chocolate chips between my feet for the 30 min ride home. I can deal with that. Oops,I forgot, we need paper towels and toilet paper. Since company will be coming soon, we really need to stock up on the large economy size of both thinking we don’t want to have to come back for a few weeks. Oh, my goodness, I forgot, I have bunco at the house on Wednesday, so “honey, lets go ahead and buy some new flowers for the front porch to spiffy it up,” so by the time we get to the check out counter, Randy is off trying to find another basket to roll our “few” items out to the car in. One basket wasn’t enough. So we begin to load the groceries into the car, and quickly run out of trunk space and begin to load items to the inside. Let’s just say that people driving behind us now will know what brand of toilet paper we use. The only place it will fit is in the back window. The flowers, where will the flowers fit, I already have all the chocolate chips and sugar and flour in my lap and one pot of flowers between my legs. Where will we put them? Randy decides that he can drive with the other pot of flowers wedged between his legs. Am posting this picture so you get the idea. We arrive home safely and unload the car. I had to get out first, take the flowers from between his feet before he could actually get out of the car, but we made it. We are stocked and ready for company and cannot begin to think about our day out tomorrow after church,going to the Trump National Golf Course for the Concours DeElegance Car show. The car show that he has wanted to go to for many years and now, we finally get to go. It is great living where you can actually go to some of the places we have always wanted. So off we go to Palos Verdes wearing our “golf course attire”. We don’t want anyone to think that we don’t belong at this classy place, so Randy wears his best tennis shoes with his best tennis socks and his cute little visor he got free when he bought a shirt at a sale up at Big Bear. So we arrive and are so excited to be by the ocean where it is so nice and cool and so many beautiful cars are parked all over the gorgeous golf course. Truly an amazing car show. Randy now tells me that he made us rsvp at the Trump Club house for dinner which is a very nice surprise. But you should see me. My hair is completely flat, the makeup I had on has all sweated off and my shirt is sticking to me because of the heat. We look like two little ragamuffins. Walking into the clubhouse, I felt like the Beverly Hill Billies coming to town. Randy heads off to the bathroom and when he comes back, he is laughing. I ask him what he is laughing at and he tells me he will tell me when we sit down at the table. We are shown to our table, which overlooks the ocean. What a beautiful sight. I begin to relax thinking maybe no one will notice that my hair is flat, straight and sweaty when Randy begins to tell me his bathroom episode. He got tickled thinking that there he was, thinking he looked pretty good in his “nicer” tennis shoes with new socks that came from WalMart and was standing between one man wearing Gucci shoes and the other wearing Farragamo shoes. He finished quickly.

We got so tickled but as we looked out over the beautiful ocean and the gorgeous landscape, we remembered that it just doesn’t matter what brand of shoes you wear, or what our hair looks like. It is such a great feeling to know that  we can have fun with each other,  whether sitting in the parking lot at Walmart or sitting at the Club House at Trump National. It is great being married to your best friend. Thank you Randy for always making our lives so interesting and joyful. You are a blessing to me.

Next weekend we are going shopping for shelves to put all our extra toilet paper and paper towels. I found a package of each when we got home. We don’t need to buy either for at least 6 months.