Names of the guilty are not being used as I promised that no mention of their names would be used in this post.
There we were, minding our own business at the grocery store when all of a sudden we looked up from the little while powdered donuts that Peter was throwing into the cart. Since company arrives from California tomorrow for the weekend, we were loading up on good quality toilet paper instead of the awful stuff that he makes us use and splurging on Name Brand green beans instead of the store brand. After all, we don’t want to be known as tightwads. We looked up with pride in our eyes that we actually went for all the top notch brands, when there right in front of us are friends we know from our neighborhood. We exchanged pleasantries about what we were all doing for the weekend, when the wife says, (and I quote) “what kind of toilet do ya’ll have?” I answered, “a white one”. She looks at Randy and says, “no, I mean, is it round or oblong?” All I know is I’m the one who cleans it, I never payed attention to what shape it is. She then proceeds to tell us that they are getting ready to buy a new toilet and the salesman at Home Depot told her that men don’t like the round ones because (sorry for the potty talk) it is harder to aim. So he recommends a oblong shape. They, and I mean, Randy and the other two, as I have walked off pretending to look over the type of roast I want to buy, began discussing how hard it is to sit down on the round ones because it doesn’t fit guys butts as well as the oblong. Then the wife begins to tell us that her leg gets a pain in it when she sits on theirs, to which my darling husband says to her, “well, maybe you shouldn’t sit so long on it.” Maybe that is why we don’t have many friends. He always has such cute little remarks that come out before I have the chance to monitor them.
As they continue having this discussion, here comes another friend from our community. Thank goodness, I guess they didn’t want him to know about how they all sit for how long on the potty, so we all said our goodbyes after customers began to glare at us blocking the bread aisle. We walked off and I told Randy, “and that’s why I never go to the store without make up or earrings.” You never know when you are going to run into friends who might need some counseling, even if it’s just about their bathroom habits. Wasn’t it just yesterday that when we ran into friends in the store, we spent the time talking about the latest vacation or showing pictures of our precious grandkids? Now, we run into people and the talk turns to toilets and what brand of heartburn medicine do we buy.

A new season has dawned. We left worried that we might be nearing the end of our ability to use a normal 13″ high toilet. Is the need for the high 18″ toilet in our near future because we can’t bend down that far? If so, I guess pictures on the new toilet will replace the pics of grandkids so we will have something to talk about. You never know when you might run into friends at the grocery store.

We just returned from Flagstaff where we spend several days with some of our kids and grandkids. They invited us along to join in the fun of Fall Break. We aren’t sure if they invited us so we would possibly bring a Handicap Parking sticker with us so that they could park close to all the places they intended to visit, or if they really desired us to be a part of making new memories. When we showed up and reminded them that we did not have a Handicap Parking tag, they let us know that we did indeed need to get one before next years trip, as we were getting old and would be needing one. They are just so caring and thoughtful.

We checked into our room and took a quick little nap, knowing that we would need the extra energy for going to Bearzonia the next morning. That first evening, we enjoyed going to eat at a local eatery, where we enjoyed a meal with the kids, before heading back to their room. Thinking that this would be such a fun night of sitting and playing cards as a family, we were quickly brought back to reality of looking around the room, seeing the kids, each in their own corners with iPads, iPhones or books, when our daughter begins to tell the kids, “get over here and put away the devices. We are going to play cards with Nana and Pawpaw. We don’t know how long they will live and this might be the last time you get to enjoy a vacation with them before they have to go to a nursing home.”

We felt so loved. But play cards we did. I like to think that I’m still pretty alert and have most of my mind, but when the score was added up at the end of the evening, we all just looked at each other after the scores were read aloud. Our 8 year old grandson, Caleb, had beat all of us playing 5 Crown. Now, feeling not only old and defeated, we left to go back to our room. Randy and I talked that evening about Caleb winning. That was his first time to play the game. We play it all the time. What had happened? Maybe we weren’t as alert and smart as we like to think.

Both Randy and I told each other that the next day at Bearzonia, we would show them just how spiffy we still are. We will NOT complain about being tired or how much our feet hurt after walking around for hours. We would not fall behind walking through the petting zoo. We would not complain of heat or cold. We would be the perfect Bearzonia companions. All those resolutions disappeared after about 4 hours. I never made it through the petting zoo. I told them to just take pictures of them petting all those little darling lambs so we could look at them, as i was soaking my feet later that night. After having an owl soar so close to my head that my hair-sprayed stiff hair stuck to one of his wings at the birds of prey show, Randy and I decided that we would just sit at the front gate and snack on the $6 mini bag of popcorn while the rest of the family went off to find the jaguar to take a picture.

As I am sitting here posting about our trip, the news is on. One of the news stories is about a man that was shot and killed in the Walmart parking lot in Flagstaff. We were just there on Wednesday. We had taken Noah to let him pick out some Halloween things to keep him busy while the others were experiencing Flagstaff Extreme Adventure, aka, zip lining and obstacle courses. Do we know how to entertain kids or what?
Looking back over the week, we came home after having made some really good memories. We loved our evening of just sitting with all of us laughing so hard at Family Feud. Watching Caleb beat all of us at cards, was a great reminder of how smart this new generation is and that still, the best times are spent with family. We just hope that we have a few years left to remember all the new memories before we loose our mind. Think we will be getting a handicap permit, if I can remember to apply for one. Maybe that will assure us an invitation to tag along next year.

1. Pies are so much fun to make! Even if you dont like to make the pie crust, there are a couple of tricks that will make the store bought ones taste a little more homemade and flaky!  
2. If you do like to make your own, the recipe on the can of Crisco is still my favorite! Easy and quick,it always turns out great.
3. Before putting the top pie crust over the fruit filling, sprinkle about 1/4 cup sugar over the fruit! (This is if you are just using already prepared canned fruit pie filling) if you are using fresh fruit follow the directions from your favorite recipe and skip this step going straight step 5!
4. If you are making apple or peach, use light brown sugar, all other fruits, use granulated sugar.
5. Dot the top of the fruit with pats of butter before placing the top crust over the fruit.
6. You can use minature cookie cutters (such as the fall leaf in the cherry pie above) to make different themes in the crust! Simply cut the top crust with the cookie cutter before folding the crust to place on top of pie.
7. To use the pieces of dough You have cut out from the piecrust, place them along the outer edge of the piecrust with a little bit of milk to the back of the dough then press lightly into the piecrust edge. ( I just touched my finger in the milk and put it on the edge piecrust and then placed the little fall leaf on top)
8. Bake at 400 until crust is golden brown.