Category: Daily Thoughts

Daily Thoughts

RC & TK’s Bed & Breakfast

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We have had out son-in-law, Eric, here this week, having just left this morning. Rushing into the guest room, I pulled the sheets from the bed and began to clean the bath room to get ready for our kids that are coming in from Florida tomorrow. This week has been so much fun, having the opportunity to cook for more than just 2, it has been a delight to shop for the 4 yr old that will be here tomorrow. Instead of the usual basketballs, dinosaurs and Matchbox cars, we have in our basket at checkout, for our 4 grandsons, we had fun picking out cute little coloring books with pink ponies on them, blanket throws with Frozen characters and books about fairies. What fun it will be to serve pink frosted cupcakes out of pink dishes.

Last night, Eric had been taken out to dinner by some work vendors, as was the case the night before. When he came in last night, we began to talk about the two different steak houses that he had been taken to. We ask him which restaurant he liked the best. He thought for a minute and said, “you know, actually the food was pretty much the same, but what made the difference was the server. At the first restaurant, our waiter acted as though he was so glad we were there and made attempts to visit with us and participate in some of the conversation, as he would come back to help replace drinks or bread. The second restaurant’s food was good as well, but the server had no interest in us at all. He acted as though it was just his job and he did the minimal task that was required of him.  No warm conversation, and nothing extra. Just did what was necessary.”

That made me stop and think. How do I treat people that come into my home? Do I go the extra mile to make them feel wanted? Do I just do what is necessary to check off a list of required tasks?

Both Randy and I have always felt that we are so blessed to have homes through the different seasons of our lives that allowed us to entertain friends and family. I remember one lady whose house we bought. She had told us that she was selling the house because she would have liked to entertain, but that house was simply too small to have anyone over. We bought it and had numerous people there all the time. We had groups of 12-16 there for dinners and I was so excited to host luncheons for ladies from church, which numbered sometimes 30 plus. We found out from one of her new neighbors that she never entertained in the new home either.

What I am saying is this. When we like to do something, we find a way. Don’t use the size of your home, apartment or condo not to open up to people. The times around the tables are some of the best memories you will ever make. I pray that anyone who visits our home, will feel that they were served with the kind of hospitality that made them feel so welcome, that they can’t wait to come back. They might not remember what you served them, but they will definitely remember how you treated them!

Daily Thoughts

Blue Goose Visit

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Last night, we were treated to Mexican food at Blue Goose by our son-in-law, who is in town from Phoenix for a conference. Since Eric stays with us and had told us that one night while he was here, he wanted to go have Tex-Mex, which he doesn’t get in Arizona. So last night, off we went to his favorite Mexican food place. Randy and I had never been to Blue Goose, as we always wondered how good could Tex-Mex food be, cooked by a blue goose, but we are always up for an adventure, (and knowing that Randy wasn’t going to have to pay, which always makes him agreeable to go anywhere) so off we went.

Please do not get me wrong, we so enjoyed our time with Eric and the 2 hours, that it took to get our food delivered correctly and straighten out the check, well…all I can say is that maybe they might want to think about hiring some people of Hispanic descent, instead of blue geese to cook their food.

I won’t bore you with all the details, but this one story I have to relay. We saw that on the menu was printed instructions of putting a goofy picture which you take, while there, and posting it on Facebook or Twitter, will get you a free order of sopapilla’s. Well, I am certainly game for anything if it gets me a free dessert. So I whip out the ole phone and start shooting pictures of Eric and post them. I got one bite, white Eric and Randy devoured the whole plate, while I was busy posting. But the best story of the night was that when the young man delivered the sopapillas to us, he also brought a side order of guacamole and set it down beside the dessert. We all looked at him and looked back down at the bowl of dip. At first we thought it must be a bowl of fudge sauce to dip the little sopapillas.  But we looked closer and sure enough it was a small bowl of guacamole. When we ask why he was bringing guac to us, he replied, “well, I noticed on the ticket that you had ordered a side dish of guacamole, so here you go.”

We started laughing and Eric told him that, no we never ordered that and even if we had, it was over an hour too late, as it should have been delivered with the meal.

I came home and had a piece of key lime pie. Which brings me to a second thought today. It has come to my attention that it really isn’t my fault that I have a weight problem. It is all the company that we have. Each set of company which comes to visit always has different requests for me to make, and because I am such a great host, I certainly don’t want to serve anything without first trying it out. So this week, I have HAD to sample, “pork roast, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs and key lime pie. And it is only Tues. We have more company coming in Fri, which will MAKE me have to eat the chocolate cake and chocolate chip cookies that they have requested. Eric also reminded me that just in case his plane gets delayed and he is stuck out on the tarmac for hours, he needs to take snacks with him. Just took out more butter to make extra cookies, but will certainly need to sample them, heaven forbid he eat a bad cookie and get sick on the plane. Two of our grandkids have birthday parties this weekend, which means that I do NOT want to hurt their feelings by turning down birthday cake from them. What kind of grandmother would I be? We also promised our kids coming in Friday that we will have homemade peach ice cream. My daughter-in-law, Mandy requested that I make potato salad for 30 for the birthday party for the one year old. I LOVE POTATO salad. How could I not eat a huge plate of it when I am stirring in the pickle relish and chopped egg?

Randy and I figure that by the time our lease is up here in Texas in early spring, we are moving to Italy where we know no one. Our plans, Lord willing, will be to stay over there a few months so we can eventually fit into something other than our bathrobes.

We aren’t going to invite anyone to go with us or tell anyone where we are staying. No company, means no sampling. No sampling means that maybe, just maybe, I will get my cholesterol under 400. Ok, just one more complaint today.

Randy goes to get his yearly check up last week. I’m not saying that I am glad his “numbers” are all well within the normal range, but how, when we eat the same food day in and day out can his cholesterol be 207 and mine is always way above 300? When I told him that I was mad that he was so healthy, he told me that he is sorry that he is in such good shape…I’m glad we agree on something!

I just don’t understand why men don’t have cellulite or as I like to call it, “angel dimples”. How can he still wear the clothes he wore when we married and the only thing that I still fit in is my earrings?
When I get some answers to all of these “life questions” I will share them with you…until then, I have to go sample some of the cookie dough to make sure it is ok before baking it into cookies. I wouldn’t want Eric to come back after a hard day at his conference to a house with no dessert. All this sampling and cooking is wearing me out, think I will just sit for a minute with a piece of key lime pie before going to bake. You know what they say, “sugar gives you energy”, why am I not the most energetic person around?

Daily Thoughts

Retirement Isn’t For Sissies

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Twenty years ago, I remember Randy and I talking about when he retired, all the wonderful things we would do. We would travel to far away lands. We would adventure out while at home, going to all the restaurants that we hadn’t had time to explore. We would have time to get up early and go walking to keep our cholesterol down from all the wonderful foods we would be sampling. There would be no store to far for us to go to find just the perfect little item that we just knew we couldn’t live without.

Fast forward to reality. Yes, we are retired and yes we still talk about all those wonderful bucket lists of “wants”. But we find ourselves frequenting the same 2 Walmarts that is within a 5 mile radius of our home. All those great new little restaurants? Well, we did venture out to a new Costco to see if their $1.50 hot dogs were as good as the Costco by our house.

Last night, we ran to Walmart (for the second time that day) to pick up some prescriptions. We received a phone call about 6:30 p.m. and were told that if we didn’t pick them up, they would be put back, as they had been there for 6 days already. If we had known they were ready, we would have picked them up, but either we received a phone call and forgot, as is probably the case, or they were old and forgot to call us. Either way, if we had known, we would have gone to that particular store in the first place that morning, instead of getting out of our comfort zone and venturing out to the Wally World that is a little further away. But, seeing that we are “retired” and have lots of time, we hustled over after dinner to pick the meds that promise to keep us younger, longer.

When pulling into the parking lot, I remembered a few items that I had forgot earlier in the day, so I told Randy that I would go in with him. He went over to the Pharmacy while I went to buy some cards.  We met over by the candy aisle, where he told me that he had found a shirt that he thought would go with his new red shorts that we found at Macy’s. ( I tell you that so you will know that not all our clothes do not come from Walmart). So off we go over to look at the shirts. He shows me the shirt and I had to agree it was actually pretty cute. So we find his size and off to the checkout counter we go. I am telling him all the way there that if our kids comment on his new shirt, what ever he does, DO NOT TELL THEM it came from Walmart. They will never invite us out to eat, for fear we might be wearing a Walmart outfit. Ok, back to the story. We stand in line behind 3 other customers, when Randy remembers that he forgot something. He tells me that he will be right back and I suddenly feel something on the back of me. He has hung his shirt that he is buying, which Is still on the plastic hanger, on the back of my shirt, for me to “hold”, while he goes off to get the forgotten item. I am quickly trying to get the hanger out of my shirt, but it gets caught on my collar. People who are inline behind me begin to giggle as I have my arms up in the air trying to unhook the stupid hanger from inside my shirt.

By the time, Mr. Retiree returns, I am not a happy camper! He walks up grinning and I am wanting to throw his cute little shirt at him, but just smile, so the people in line will just think, “oh how cute, look how much fun they have”.

I tell him to walk quickly out after paying for our goods. After this, I think we will have to get out of our routine and find us a new store for awhile. It seems to me that in retirement, there are less and less stores that we are able to return to. What happened to the man I married, that hardly went anywhere without a 3 piece suit or briefcase? Oh, I remember, he is retired and has found that he likes red shorts and Walmart shirts.

I guess all the trips to the store yesterday wore him out. I’m not saying he slept late, but when the first thing he says when coming downstairs is, “what’s for lunch?” it tells me that we might need to go back to the pharmacy to get some energy vitamins. Might wait a few days just in case they remember us from last night. Retirement is wearing us out. Think we might need to look for a part time job to rest up.

Beef · Daily Thoughts · Meats · Soups

Cincinnati Chili

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Why am I looking at a soup cookbook and for some reason thinking that chile sound good? I’m not really a chile person, but when I saw this recipe it reminded me of a really great day when Randy & I went to a chile place in Burbank, CA that everyone out there had told us we needed to go. It was called Chile John’s. and the only reason I agreed to go was that I figured that if I went there for him, he would go to Stein Mart for me. So we found Chile Johns, which has been there since 1946, and waited for a place at the counter to await the famous chile. You can get it served over spaghetti, which is something that was so foreign to me. But thinking that anything served on spaghetti must be good, I ordered the mild and ate every bite. It was simply delicious. When I saw this recipe for Cincinnati Chile, it brought back a great memory of that day. It is always so much fun to go out and experience some of the places that towns are known for and this was no exception. The chile was really good and it was fun sitting on stools around the counter, talking to the guys dishing up different types of chile.

I know it is summer, but some nights are just meant for “comfort” foods, no matter what temperature it is outside. Just turn down the thermostat and dig in.

FYI….he did take me to Stein Mart but after eating all the chile, I wasn’t in much of a mood to buy clothes…found that I would be needing a little larger size after that lunch. Does he know how to plan our my shopping days or what?

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

4 medium onions, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 cans (16 oz each) kidney bens, rinsed and drained (I will use pinto because I simply don’t like kidney)

1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup vinegar

1/4 cup baking cocoa

2 tables chile powder

2 tables Worcestershire sauce

4 teas ground cinnamon

3 teas dried oregano

2 teas ground cumin

2 teas ground allspice

2 teas hot pepper sauce

3 bay leaves

1 teas sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Hot cooked spaghetti

Shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, chopped onions for topping as desired

In a Dutch oven or soup kettle, cook beef, pork, onions and garlic over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Drain. Add the beans, tomatoes, vinegar, cocoa and seasonings; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours.

Discard bay leaves. Serve over spaghetti or in bowls. Garnish with toppings to your liking.

Serves 6 to 8

Daily Thoughts

Dishwasher Madness

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(I know in the scheme of things  this certainly does not rank up in the top 1000 of things that I should be writing about or even admitting that emptying the dishwasher is just one of the things that drives me crazy. But it does. I don’t mind loading it, but I put off emptying until I don’t have any more room in the sink to stack dirty ones; leaving me no choice but to empty one of man’s greatest inventions. But…here comes the good part, I have devised a plan that makes me not dread opening the door, seeing all those sparkly glasses shining back at me, just begging to be put up. Maybe you have already been doing this, but smart moves have taken me a little longer than most to learn. I have to interject something here about one of my son-in-laws, who I won’t name, but lives in Arizona. This sweet man, who leaves his socks, shoes and empty glasses all over the living room floor, is the same man who comes unglued if I don’t load the silverware in the dishwasher at their house with all the spoons together in the same little divider, the forks all together and the knives all together. But being that I pride myself on being a “wonderful MIL, (mother in law) I play his little game while visiting. But sometimes, I rebel and when he isn’t looking, I put a fork in with the knives. .

1. I pull out all of the top rack and just place them on the counter where they go, then I empty out the bottom rack, repeating the same procedure. Then the worst part, the silverware .ugh…do not get me started. Why do I let the small things like this get me so down, I have to just jump in the car and head to the mall and buy myself a little something? Because, yes, in my way of thinking, I deserve a gift. After all, I just emptied the dishwasher.

2. Back to the chore at hand. The silverware.  I have found that laying out a clean dish towel on the counter and just turning the silverware holder upside down, allowing them all to empty out on the towel is my “go to” method. That way, I make a game of picking out all the knives first and putting them in the drawer. Then next the forks, then last,,,,my favorite utensil because it is what I use to eat ice cream and chocolate cream pie with a 2″ layer of whipping cream.

So there you have it, my tip for the day. Try it and see if you don’t think it helps alleviate the depression that comes with a most dreaded chore.

Will be thinking of a spiffy way to clean toilets, that won’t send me running to catch a cruise ship. Oh…I just thought of one; let Randy handle that one.

Daily Thoughts

Memories & Memorial Day

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This past year has brought some new feelings regarding Memorial Day. Besides Randy’s father, who served in WW2, I had really never had any connections to anyone who had served in any of the wars. This year changed my thoughts of gratitude towards people who had served and sacrificed so much for all of us. Let me begin with a few years back.

All of my life, I knew that the father who raised me was my adopted dad, as I was 8 months old, when my mom and dad, (Carl) had married. My mom had always told me that my real father was just not a good man and I never realized how much her feelings for him had influenced my feelings for a man who I never met. After years of her telling me that after they had married, he had impregnated a lady in California and she had told him (his name was Gene Gipson) that she never wanted anything to do with him or never wanted to see him or have him see me. So I never got to see my dad.

In 1976, she finally admitted to me that they were never married and that Gene had come back and tried to convince her to marry him, but her pride would not allow her to give him a chance and she had married Carl because she felt he would make a good dad for me. And a good dad, he was. He was one of the most gentle and patient men that I have ever known. He was a devout Christian who volunteered with the Gideons.  From time to time, she would reminisce about Gene and what a selfish, no good man he was and how glad she was that she had never married him. As I grew up, married and had children, there was always the desire to find out information about Gene. I knew that he had died in 1973, but I also knew that I had at least 1 half sister, which I wondered about. Were we at all alike? Did we share any of the same characteristics? Because I was an only child, the desire was greater than if I had brothers and sisters. Because my mom had shared with me some time ago that she had really never forgot Gene and often wondered what life would have been like, should they had married. She was never a happy person and really struggled with her marriage, she didn’t ever speak positively of either Carl or Gene.

Because of the continued curiosity of wanting to find out any information that I could find about my birth father plus wondering about any half siblings, I began to seriously search. This past year I finally found the obit that listed facts about him and also found that besides the half sister, I had 4 half brothers. The article stated that Gene had been a pilot in the Navy. He had married and had 4 boys and was the owner and operator of a golf course in Peru, Indiana. He was a member of the Methodist church.

Truly I am so sorry that I never had the chance to meet my birth father or any of his other children. It made me think of how many others might be out there, with stories of parents, or siblings which they had never met. After reading the obituary, it began to dawn on me that indeed, both of my fathers, had served in the military and even though neither served in a war, I’m sure that there were sacrifices made.

Thanks to each person who has served, given us our freedom and so many opportunities that we would not have had otherwise.

Here’s to both Gene and to my dad, Carl, both of you in your own way, were heros! Just wish you both were alive for me to tell you thank you for your service not only to our country, but to your families. It made me sad that I had allowed my mom’s emotions and feelings to be my own towards him for all these past years.

Daily Thoughts

Trudy’s Travel Truths

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As Randy and I were driving back to Texas from Arizona the past two days, we reflected on several things that I thought might be fun to share. Driving through the desert in Arizona and New Mexico, one has LOTS of time to think, especially when someone falls asleep the minute he is the passenger and I am the driver. After I reminded him that I was very considerate in being sure I talked to him the entire time he was driving to assure that he didn’t fall asleep, I was told that yes, he is aware that I do talk the ENTIRE time and there isn’t a chance of him falling asleep, even thought he would love to do so…just to get some peace and quiet. Maybe we had a little too much time in the car together this trip. But…it did give me time to ponder some of the new wonders and sights that we found driving though the cactus thriving desert that goes on for miles and miles and miles. So here are the Travel Truths that we thought might be of some interest to you on your next car trip.

1. Remember to always pack your CD’s or books on tape, because without them, the miles seem endless, especially when you have no one to talk to because they are sleeping, while you drive.

2. Keep a bag of peanut M&M’s on the console to snack on, chocolate makes the time go so much sweeter. I finally figured out that Randy kept handing me candy, even while he was driving, hoping that it would keep me from talking if I had my mouth full. Didn’t work. I am so talented that I can talk, even with a mouth full of candy.

3.New Mexico has the best Mexican food EVER! To prove our point, we saw lots of people there that had muffin tops, on top of muffin tops. (just an observation, and we did our fair share of trying to get our 2nd muffin top going by the 3rd day of eating nothing but Mexican food)

4. The Indian Reservations have the most beautiful old Catholic churches I have seen this side of Italy.

5. The cheaper the hotel, the lousier the free breakfast. Why hadn’t I thought of that before booking? Worth a little more to at least have butter to put on those free pancakes.

6. Just like always getting in the line at the store, which is moving the slowest, we seem to always get the hotel room which is right beside precious little teenagers who are up all night, slamming the doors going in and out to visit with their friends who are on the other side of our room. How does this always happen?

7.Get off the highway to find the mom & pop restaurants, they have so much better food than the fast food chains. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone of hamburger joints. We have found several places that we count as “favorites” now along the highway between Texas and California. Have met such interesting people getting off the highway. Also learned a few new recipes from these great out of the way places.

8. No matter how much you want to get to a certain restaurant before it closes, do not, I repeat, do not, speed through Ruidoso, NM. The $75 speeding ticket made our “smothered in green chile sauce soppapilla” not taste as good as it usually does.

9. Do not eat green chles two days in a row, as you will really notice the lack of rest stops going through the desert.

10. The Border Patrol’s need to hire a few more agents, we found alien after alien2015-05-17 09.20.23 up and down the streets of Roswell!

11, Last one, truly everything in Texas is bigger!!!2015-05-17 09.29.14

2015-05-17 16.21.56

Daily Thoughts

Aquatic Exercise vs Baking

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As I have shared with you, we are in Phoenix with our kids and have experienced quite a few new things this week. First of all, my daughter drug me to her aquatic exercise class yesterday morning. So not only did I show up in my old lady bathing suit, (you know the one with the skirt, but try to disguise it by getting the loudest print available) but it has been over 30 years since I have shown my face at any type of exercise class. It was embarrassing enough to walk up with her introducing me to her friends who have a collective weight of probably 200 lbs total from the 4 of them, but when I realized that I was the only one there that had skin so white that it glows in the dark, well…lets just say that this is one of the reasons I hide in cooking classes and art class. I never have to show up in a bathing suit. After reminding the instructor that I was almost 65 and had been years since doing anything but walking back and forth between the fridge and the table, I felt fairly certain that she would make it easy on me.

It started off well. Actually it started off great. Under water no one can see the hail damage on my legs, nor could they see parts of me that weren’t meant to be seen until I am laying dead on a table being examined by the coroner. The warm up began and we were off. “walk in a circle ladies and after each lap, walk it a little faster each time around. Ok, this is good, I’m a fast walker anyway, so I had this…smiling to myself, I thought, how hard can this be? I found out after about 5 more minutes. We were instructed to do jumping jacks up out of the water. Ok, I’m still doing pretty swell. Then when she told us to dog paddle with our arms coming out of the water like we were pushing a weight up and out, I almost drown. I fumbled back into the water, swallowing water and Jodi reached over and pulled me up. After a minute of coughing the water up, I imagined that surely we had done enough jumping jacks and swam back and forth that it must be time to QUIT!. But no, it had only been 15 minutes. Now came the part of the class where the wheat is separated from the tares. Teacher tells us to come grab hold of the wall and alternately swing our legs up out and over the side of the wall. You have got to be kidding me. Is she crazy? I thought the last time I had to get in this position was during labor. But here I was, trying to lift up my leg, when I happened to look over and see Jodi doubled over laughing so hard at me that I got ticklled, thinking what a sight I must look like. When we both caught our breath, we rejoined the class and I decided that maybe I should juist modify what I attempt (like the teacher suggested I do), rather than try to keep up with the other ladies. After what seemed like 4 hours, the class was finally over.

By nightfall, I could barely walk. This morning, I had to be pulled down the stairs and Randy had to put my shoes on me. Jodi just informed me that tonght we are off for a family adventure. I was hoping for either a movie where I could just sit in the dark and eat popcorn or maybe a trip to the ice cream store. No such luck. We are walking a mile to the Ranch House where the Wednesday night farmer’s market with food trucks arrive so the community can eat dinner on the lawn while the kids feed the ducks in the lake. I realize that this sounds fun, but  this means that not only do I have to inch my way down on the lawn, but then I have to get up off the lawn. If I succeed at being able to do this, I am going to reward myself and come home and have a huge slice of the strawberry chocolate cake I just made. It’s funny, I never remember having sore muscles from baking.

In the morning, Jodi has told me that the best thing to get me un-sore is to go back to the class. I’m not proud of the look I gave her or what I was thinking. The only reason I am going along with this is that one day she will be the one taking care of me and I want to be sure that she remembers to bring me cookies in the retirement home. She says that she’s not worried about having to do that as she doesn’t think I will live very long anyway. The way I bake everyday and never exercise, I probably won’t live long enough to be any trouble. Just for that, I’m going to go to her silly exercise class after breakfast, as soon as I finish my 3 egg omelet with extra cheese.

Tomorrow if I survive the class, I will celebrate by coming home and finishing the rest of the cake. So much easier on the ole body.

Daily Thoughts

Magical 65

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Last week I learned something very important. While visiting my mom in Corpus Christi and taking her to the doctor’s office, I have never felt so young.

Having always heard that being around youngsters keeps you young and being sure that you include people that will keep you challenged would keep you thinking young, I thought that that was the magical formula. But, after last week, I have a new theory.

You don’t have to be around people younger than you to feel young. You just have to go to a Doctor’s office that treats the elderly and you leave with a whole new sense of vitality. While sitting there waiting for them to call us back into the room, I glanced around to see that I was pretty much the only one there (out of about 20 people) who did not have a walker or wheel chair. Most of them had either a cast or limped or needed help in getting out of their chairs to go back to see the doctor. I was definitely the only one there that did not wear orthopedic shoes, so I was feeling pretty feisty. We were called back and they immediately took mother into the x-ray room to see if her wrist had healed. As I was waiting in the examination room, the nurse came in and told me she liked my hair. I told her thank you and that I had felt that I had to do something to get me out of “turning 65” depression, so I had it cut and colored the previous week. When she heard me say I was turning 65, she told me that I certainly didn’t look anywhere close to 65. Well, that was the best news that I had heard all week. As we walked out of the office, I was walking a little taller and smiling a little more, feeling that well, if I didn’t look 65, maybe this turning 65 wasn’t going to be so bad after all. But then I got to the rental car that I was using during my visit. When I wheeled my mom to the car, I realized that I had no one to help me get her out of the wheel chair and into the car. (the nursing home had brought her there but I told them I would bring her back) But, really how hard can it be getting a 130 lb dead weight 92 yr old lady out of a wheel chair into a car be? I am use to moving furniture and am still strong. Let’s just say that I am so thankful that I was not on Candid Camera. After I had mustered the strength to lift her out and get her into the car, I looked and she was only half-way sitting up and her body was slumped almost half-way to the floor board. I had to crawl into the back seat and grab her under her arms  (dealing with going around the head rest) and try to pull her to a sitting position. After 3 attempts she was almost sitting all the way back in the seat. The seat belt was just going to have to keep her from falling forward, I couldn’t lift her anymore. Now it was time to fold up the wheel chair. Surely, I could do this. But after trying about 10 min and being unable to fold it up, I left mother sitting halfway up in the car, swallowed my pride and went in to the Dr office and admitted that I could not fold up the wheel chair. One of the sweet ladies behind the desk offered to come out and help me. After she worked on it another 10 minutes, we discovered that you have to take out the extra pad that covers the alarm, which goes off should my mom try to get out of it. So when we take off the pad the alarm begins to go off and you can hear this alarm all over the parking lot. It is then that I discover that the rental car doesn’t have a trunk. So I get in one side of the car and the receptionist gets in the other end. As she pushes the finally folder up wheel chair  into one side of the back seat, I am on the other side of the car pulling it in.

I drove around for awhile before taking mother back to the nursing home, just trying to catch my breath and building up strength, knowing that I had to do this all over again, once we reached the nursing home. Actually, I bought us both a Whataburger feel that  maybe eating something would build a new muscle before I had to lift mother out of the car.

When we got back to the home, I began building the wheel chair with it’s alarms  (and yes, the alarm started going off again)and wires that have to be tied on to the back and then tied on the extra pad and was now ready to try to lift mom out of the car. This was the moment of truth, could I do it one more time? After several attempts of trying to get the wheel chair not to roll as I was trying to get her in a seating position, I looked down to see the breaks that I should have had on. Ok, now I had the breaks on and I was able to get behind her and pull her up to an almost sitting position, enough to at least roll her into the nursing home. When we got inside, we saw the driver of the van that delivers the residents to the doctors offices. When I told her that I almost dropped my mom in the parking lot because I couldn’t lift her out of the car, she told me, “I was wondering if you were going to try to do that by yourself, that surely you knew that it takes 2 people to lift her out of the chair. That is why we take her in the van that we just roll the wheel chair up the ramp and she doesn’t have to get out of the it.”

It was at this point that I discovered that no matter how cute a hair cut you might have, and no matter how young we might look, at 65, there are going to be some things that will make us feel like we are 80. This was one of those times.

Also, I cannot figure out why when you tell people you are 64, they don’t say, “oh my, you don’t look 64.”. But when people learn you are about to turn 65, you constantly hear, “my goodness, you sure don’t look that old.”   This tells me that 65 is the age that people begin to look at you in a whole new light. I think that when they learn that you are 65, they expect you to be in orthopedic shoes and eat dinner at 5:00.  The minute I turn 69, I’m going to say I’m 70. Would rather people think I look good for 70 instead of them thinking I look pretty bad for 69. It’s all in the out look!

Daily Thoughts

Ya Ya Sisterhood

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

Last night some of our kids came over for dinner. We invite them to come  quite frequently because they have our 10 month old granddaughter. That, my dear friends, gets them a lot of homemade dinners. For some reason, last night Princess Payton decided that she just wanted me. It was glorious. She even went to me before her dad..I loved it. When Cameron was trying to get her to say, “ya ya” she did so and quite clearly. When I heard her say it, I thought to myself, “why that sounds so much cuter than Honey, which was what I had told them I wanted to be called, when Payton was born.. So I told them that I wanted to change my name from Honey to YaYa. That way, not only does it sound so cute, but she can already say it, which makes it even better. The kids started laughing at me and telling me that I cannot change my name AGAIN! Apparently, they think that just because I have gone from Honey Nonnie, to MiMi (but decided against that since my mom was called MiMi and I thought it might be confusing). The kids told me that it was no more confusing that me changing what I wanted to be called 5 times before Payton turned 1. But I decided that I really do like YaYa and I’m sticking to it. So now the grandkids in Phoenix call me Nana (which I tried to change but they said “NO”),  our 10 yr old grandson, which lives here calls me Nana and our granddaughter In Orlando calls me Honey. I won’t mention what Randy calls me. But back to the story. I figure that as the grandkids get older, I will be able to bribe them by telling them that if they will call me a cuter name than Nana, I will buy them stuff. So as of today, I am Nana Honey YaYa….oh my, that kinda has a ring to it. Maybe I should go with all 3 names….NanaHoneyYaYa!  Will take them awhile to learn to spell it, but by then I will probably have found a new cuter name anyway.