Since I have not been cooking, due to being a little under the weather for over a week, I thought I would just share a few thoughts.

Last week, while feeling a little down because I was not up to indulging some of my favorite foods to celebrate my birthday, it became apparent that maybe I was a little sicker than I thought. All week, even though Randy was certainly playing the part of Nurse Norm, I noticed a few oddities. First of all, at the beginning of the week, all I heard was that it was way to hot for us to be outside anyway, that I wasn’t missing anything having to stay in. Then in the middle of the week, he bounces down the stairs with his walking shoes on saying that he is going walking. You are kidding me, it is 99 outside and my hubby who has done no exercising other than bending over to pick up his jeans from the floor one day back in April, is going out walking. Then the next day, he announces that maybe I should at least try to go get out a little to “build up my strength” so off we go to Steinmart. After I walk around for 15 min, deciding that I am just really not feeling able to shop, I walk over to find him picking out cutesy new shorts telling me that it will make me feel better to walk around Dillards, hoping it will perk up my attitude. We get to Dillards where they just happen to have the shirts he likes on sale, so to “perk me up” we find shirts that go with all his new shorts. Boy, did that ever perk me up. I am feeling so badly that even laying down in the back seat of the closed up 115 degree car is sounding pretty good right now. I tell him that it is suppose to be my birthday week, not his and I should be the one shopping. He tells me that even though I am not feeling like shopping for me, he just hated wasting the good July sales events.
You are kidding me.
I finally convince him to take me home and in the midst of him trying on the new outfits (yes I know, he really is a little weird) the phone rings. It is our insurance man returning Randy’s call. When I ask him if I can take a message because he is upstairs, (I didn’t tell him he was up there trying on his new clothes)he informs me that he has the quotes on the new life insurance plan that Randy had ask about for me. OMGosh, am I sicker than I thought? Does he know something that I don’t know? As I thought back over the last week it all begins to make sense…exercising, new clothes, more life insurance…he is preparing for the casserole circuit. Well, little does he know that I have already typed up lists of all the little things that the next wife will want to know.
When he came down to show me all his new “digs” I let him know in no uncertain terms that I had figured out his little scheme. He smiled and told me that he figured that if taking me to Dillards and Steinmart didn’t pep me up, he knew exactly what to do to get me out of my funk. It worked.
We are back to normal, sitting here in the 110 degree weather eating chocolate chip cookies watching Wheel of Fortune in our old outfits, talking about how we need to get out and exercise when the weather cools down. we will save his new clothes to wear when he takes me shopping this week for all my new stuff. He reminded me that he really doesn’t like casseroles anyway.

I’m still trying to wrap that idea around that I didn’t get to have TrudyFest. My very own favorite week of the year when it is all about me. Randy tells me that everyday is Trudyfest but I beg to differ. It all began years ago when my aunt, who could not have children, adopted the idea that she would give me a little present every day from July 1st until July 11th, my birthday. My Aunt Gladys was a great lady who loved life and believed that special days should be celebrated. Of course, I was happy to go right along with that. She kept the tradition of giving me little gifts each day for 11 days until she went to be with the Lord. My mom kept up the tradition. Gifts ranged from candy bars to cards to sometimes a pair of earrings or a kitchen tool, when I had a kitchen of my own. So when Randy and I married, my mom told him that I was his responsibility (her tone of voice suggesting that when she said that made me think that maybe she was very glad to hand over this “fun tradition”) and he was now in charge of TrudyFest.
This was how it all began and this year, at the age of 64, I learned that life is not all about me. As an only child, that hurts just to type those words.
Monday morning of this past week found me sick and not in any way interested in cooking, eating or even shopping. When Randy tried to take me out to tell me to walk around one of my favorite stores, looking to buy me a little something, I just couldn’t muster up the energy or desire to buy anything. He even tried to dangle the credit card in front of my face telling me to grab it and run, but still all I could do was point to an item and tell him that maybe in a few days I “might” want to come back and try it on. For the first time in his life, he was now worried that I was really sick. Never, ever, have I refused to shop…for me! Now he is trying to tempt me with cheesecake and Houston’s Key Lime Pie. All I want to do is come home and lay down. He is beginning to call people telling then he is really worried about me when the doorbell rings. It is the Fed Ex man with packages. He looks back at me and smiles. He realizes that maybe I wasn’t up to shopping or eating some of my favorites, but I still had the energy to shop via computer. TrudyFest might not be the celebrated in the usual way, but it still happened…thank you Amazon for home delivery.

Happy 4th of July to everyone. I am making fried pies to take to a dinner party tonight. But while I wait for the pie crust to chill I thought I would share the story that had us laughing this past week.
Randy’s birthday is July 2nd and this year he received a great present…a new granddaughter, Payton, given to him by Cameron and Mandy. What a sweetheart. She makes up for all the spilled Dr Peppers in the car on the way to Destin (Cameron, I wont mention any names), all the loads of laundry that he used to bring home from college and all the brownies and cookies that I made during those college years. Yep…he is the golden boy right now. Mandy, we are not forgetting you, we are just as appreciative to you as we know that you played a big part in giving us Payton also. We just don’t have anything to throw up in your face. Give us a few years to think of stuff that we can hold against you, since you are the newest member of the family, we will give you a break.
Tuesday, July 1st, Randy came in from retrieving the mail. He walked in the door and held up an envelop and said, “you won’t believe what I just got” He shoved it in my face and pointed out that the return address was listed as “the Duprees”. Both of us just kinda stared at it for a few minutes. Jodi, our daughter, has finally grown up. We couldn’t believe that she actually remembered to mail Randy’s birthday card and he was receiving it one day early. Surely the rapture is on the horizon. For Jodi to remember to buy the card, buy the postage stamp and actually get it to the PO so he would get it in the same month as his actual birthday. Well, let’s just say that we had a moment of silence and just relished the moment. He sat down beside me and tore open the envelop. There it was, a sweet caring card telling Randy how great he was, with all the kids signature. Tears came to our eyes. All those years of harping about being thoughtful, they were finally beginning to catch on. But then our eyes went to the bottom of the card, instead of the printed words saying Happy Birthday, they said, Happy Fathers Day…all we could do was laugh. Had we really truly allowed our selves to go there? That his birthday card would really arrive in the same month as the actual event, much less a day early? Ok, this is what we are used to. He called Jodi and told her that if she would have written “also, Happy Birthday” she could have saved herself the cost of another card and a trip to the PO. We hope to receive his birthday card around Halloween. When he called her, all of us acknowledged that we really couldn’t expect what our minds almost had us believing. So there in the midst of all the birthday cards sits a Fathers Day card…we told her that he will put in aside and keep it for next year as he likes to think that she is just way ahead of next years Fathers Day. But we have to give her some credit, at least he received it in the month that is right next to Father’s Day. She was so proud of that.