Thought I would write a couple of cute stories about Randy as the Creme Brulee for two is baking in the oven.
Today we have been married 15 years.
Since that day, there have been numerous memories, some so precious to write about, some a little humorous. There was the “memory” of driving down the Dallas Tollway that comes to mind. Randy was going to meet me at the car dealership, where I would be leaving my car for some work to be done to the air conditioner. As we were walking out of the house, he told me to go ahead, because the phone rang and he would follow after me in a few minutes. Yes, it was one of our kids, probably needing money, but I went on and was headed there thinking that since i would get there first, how was I going to explain what the air conditioner was doing, because men just have a better way of doing things like that. All of a sudden, going 60 miles an hour, the locks on my car began to go up and down, up and down and everytime I would look at them, they would quit. I continued to drive, now wondering how in the world I would explain this to the repair dept, when, there they went again, up and down, lock and unlock, over and over. Well, my head is going back and forth from the driver side to the passenger side, starrng back and forth, trying to decide how in the world I would explain this. I exit the Tollway, stop at the light and there, right behind me is Randall in his car, holding up the extra set of keys. He had been behind me, hiding behind a car, locking and unlocking my car with his set of keys. He was just cracking up laughing at me. He said that my head just kept going back and forth, watching in amazement at the door locks and he could just imagine what was going on in my mind. Let’s just say that the rest of the day, well, I did sign us up for a “what’s wrong with your marriage” seminar.
Then there was the time that he asked me to ride with him to get donuts for his office for the next morning. I already had slipped my jammies and robe on and taken my makeup off for the night. It was around 10 p.m., but since Krispy Kreme was open 24/7 I told him ok I would go with him, but I would just stay in the car. When we arrived, there was only 1 other car there and he parked right at the front door. After a few minutes I saw the salesgirl look out my direction and wondered why in the world would she be looking out at me. I saw her hand Randy a cup of coffee and a donut while she packed up the 15 dozen he was buying for his office. In a few minutes, here he comes, all smiles, loading all the donuts in the trunk. He gets in the car and proceeds to tell me that he got a free cup of coffee, thanks to me. When I asked him how in the world did I get him a free cup of coffee he tells me that, well, let him tell you what he told her.
“The young lady asked me what in the world was I going to do with 15 dz donuts and instead of telling her the boring story of buying them for the office, I decided to tell her that the donuts were for you…but that you were so big that it was hard for you to get out of the car, so I would just come and buy them and then you had your donuts for the rest of the week. I think she felt sorry for me so she gave me a free cup of coffee.” So that was why she kept starring out at the car. Then there was the time that he waited to long to buy tickets for the car races, and when the lady at the other end of the phone said that all they had left were seats at the very top, he asked if there was any possible way that we could have seats lower, as his wife was so big that I couldn’t climb to the top and if it were possible, “could we be on the end, because people, sitting behind us would get mad because it was hard to see around his wife,” we get to the races and there were our seats, 3rd row, end seats. Now i’m sure that if the opportunity arose today, surely Randy’s “spiritual side” wouldn’t let him do that anymore. I prefer to think that he would
only use my age, as a means to get us better seats, not my weight…But I’m just not sure…..will let you know tonight to see what kind of present he brings home to make up for all the “cute little memories” that have given us many hours of laughs and stories to tell our kids….
Seriously, thank you Randy for the most wonderful years and am glad this is my blog so I can write anything I want and not about the little “memories” I have given you. You are the love of my life.

I am totally depressed. Not only do the grocery stores in California NOT have Sister Schubert rolls, which are totally necessary for dinner parties, they are short on a few items necessary for this butter queen to bake like a true southern belle. We are having company for dinner tonight and took the menu straight out of Southern Living Magazine which is right next to the Bible in things I would take with me if my house caught on fire. I notice that the recipe that I have chosen, calls for a chocolate cookie crust and chocolate covered York mints. So I grab my purse, head for the grocery store only to discover that the grocery store doesn’t stock chocolate graham cracker crusts. That’s ok, I will just buy chocolate graham crackers and make my own. I walk excitedly to the cookie isle thinking how proud I will be when I have to announce that I made my own crusts because the store didn’t carry the prepared kind I needed. That is when I discover that low and behold, they do not carry chocolate graham cookies. That’s ok, this is even better, now I can brag that I had to buy chocolate cookies and use those since there were no chocolate graham cookies, but….feeling my heart beat faster as I comb the isle going back and forth looking for chocolate cookies other than oreos or fudge marshmellow cookies, I discover that there are no chocolate wafer cookies. I head over to the butter isle just to be sure that there is real butter, pick up a stick to smell it to recover from my fainting spell…I did come to the grocery store, and not the hardware store, right? I look around and see the bottled water, the salad fixings and take a deep breath. Yes, I am in a grocery store. Well, I decide that I will do the only thing I can do, I buy a package of chocolate chip cookies to use for my chocolate cookie crust. At least they had those. But York mints, no, don’t have those either. I have to buy several little boxes of Jr Mints, which were not fun to try to dice. So I buy a few more items head to the check out counter and pay for my groceries. Still fuming that they do not have items that are considered “stationary grocery items in Dallas” I am walking out to the door, trying to decide who I can call and complain that these California grocery stores are just not going to cut it in my “southern butter belt” cooking world, when all of a sudden I hear a young lady yell, “ma’m, ma’m”. Is she talking to me? When I see everyone looking in my direction, I decide that she is and I turn around to see the sweet young checker who is proably not over 13 years old, running to me holding up a magnifying glass telling me, “oh ma’m, you forgot your magnifying glass”…..I quickly told her that that was not mine, that I had perfect vision; why I could even clearly see the tattoo on her ankle without even bending over. I am not going back to the grocery store, I am now ordering on-line and having groceries delivered. The whole experience was just too much for me, am even having my anti-depressants delivered, not going to take the chance of going to Walgreens, they might think the “Depends” coupon on the floor is mine.

FYI….for those of you who are like me and like to send food instead of flowers, I have found the perfect cake that is delicious and so easy to order and always gets rave reviews from the recipients. Janies Cakes out of Tyler Texas. I found them in the back of a Southern Living Magazine years ago and ordered one when for a friend who lived out of town and had had surgery. Since I couldn’t be there to bake for her, I ordered one of these cakes. She was just so excited to receive one of these wonderful pound cakes that she wrote me and told me that she had much rather receive one of these than flowers any time. So began my relationship with Janes Cakes. Throughout the years I have ordered them for “thank you gifts”, just having surgery gifts, or birthday gifts. You will never go wrong in sending these delicioius cakes which have a most awesome filling in the hole of the bundt cake….just go to http://www.janescakes.com and check out the different types of cakes. You might even order yourself one when you are not in the mood to bake. Am having my daughter and son-in-law one delivered today. Can’t wait to hear from them how great it will be tonight to sit down after they get the kids to bed and just enjoy the wonderful chocolate flavor of their Janes Cake. Wish I had a piece right now.

It has been a week today that I got back from Texas. It is beginning to feel like home. We got up this morning and went for a walk, which is all uphill on the way back, I might add, so it got our hearts pumping pretty good. Randy is outside washing his car, and I am inside having just made cream puffs for our company tomorrow night. We will be going today to buy a lemon tree for the patio. Everyone here has lemon or lime trees planted in yards and they just look so Californie (yes that is a word, in my world, anyway). So we will be off to explore the nurseries and buy a few plants for the patio today. We started to wonder what we should serve tomorrow night and Randy wants an “all junk food weekend” so we are having sloppy joes,salad (yes, the people out here always have a salad, no matter what they serve, fruit (we had to have fruit instead of chips because everyone out here does that) and cream puffs. That is our way of “meeting them in the middle, fruit instead of chips). Our new friends don’t know that we have a stash of chips in the den, so will be making several trips to “check out the game scores” in the den. I will just have to remember to take a napkin in the den to wipe the chip off our faces before coming back into the kitchen. Tonight instead of partying down with the stars down in the Grove, Randy and I will be looking for great hiding places to stash our chips, french onion dip and Dr. Peppers. No one out here drinks anything but bottled water or Chrystal Light. We will let you know if we get caught, sneaking our Texas trash food. If we do, we will just pretend that we are “under the influence” of Dr Pepper and we couldn’t help ourselves.

As I have mentioned before, one of my most favorite nighttime activities is to look through old Southern Living magazines. It is amazing to see how recipes will either look apealing or “doesn’t get a second look” at different seasons of life. Food likes and dislikes change with the seasons, as other aspects of my life. During the kids “growing up years” the only recipes that looked appealing to me were recipes that included the words, “fast & easy”. As the years go by, I became enthralled with recipes that looked foreign to me, giving me a challenge. Now, I find that with the kids grown, entertaining friends, and having more time to be in the kitchen, I am drawn to recipes that either bring back memories of a special event, or that look “pretty” on the table, or recipes that require just a little more thought and make me feel proud that I was actually able to cook and….almost look like the picture of it in the magazine. With that, this recipe today is one that I had never noticed when first receiving the March 2005 SL. It is called, “Laid Back Sunday Dinner” and sounds and looks delish! If any of you decide to make this menu, please take pictures and send it to the blog. This Friday evening we are having 3 couples over and it is going to be my menu, with the exception of the dessert. All week, I have been having visions of homemade black forest cake, so will end the evening with that instead of the citrus tart. Am saving that for another time. The menu is:Lexington Style Grilled Chicken, Spinach and Strawberry Salad, Three-Cheese Pasta Bake and Oven Roasted Asapagus. Recipes to follow.

It feels so good to be home. I’m back in my own bed, not living out of a suitcase and with my hubby, who I missed so much. Was gone 21 days, which seemed so much longer.I wanted to thank all of you who has been praying for my dad, who had a stroke and is in rehab, as I write this. Thank you for all your well wishes also. Because I had no computer, I was unable to blog, but wanted to begin today. I missed writing and sharing good recipes so that resumes today. Thanks for your patience and for reading my blog. It brings so much joy to me to share great food ideas. The one I am posting first is Shrimp and Pasta which my son, Jason made me one night when I was at he and Tracy’s house. Was truly restaurant gourmet quality. He made it look so easy and he has a passion for cooking, I don’t know where he got that, ha…….it is so good to be back to my home, my hubby and my kitchen. All were greatly missed.

Will be in Texas, leaving tomorrow, so since I will be at my moms (without internet) it will be a week before I can post a blog. Look for new recipes beginning March 12th!

No recipes today. Actually we went out last night to try a new mexican food restaurant. Was pretty good, but still just a little shy of being our greasy Tex Mex we love so well, but since I had to go get cholestrol checked this morning, I guess skipping on a little grease was a good thing. It has been a very emotional week. My dad had a stroke and I will be leaving to go to Corpus to see about our next step in caring for he and my mom. This has shown me just how much Christs makes a difference in my life. The outpouring of friendship has been overwhelming to both Randy and I. Old friends have called us, emailed us, had prayer for my mom and dad, and texts began to come in at 4:45 a.m. a couple of days ago just to let me know they were praying for him and us. An added blessing has been the kindness and love being shown to us from people here in our new church; people who have only known us for about a month. Some have already said that they will be having Randy over for dinner or did I need a ride to the airport? What could they do to help? Others have called everyday to check on me and how I was handling this situation. This has truly touched my heart to see how the Holy Spirit reaches out to us, through precious people who open their hearts during times like these. Thanks to each of you who have prayed, called, emailed. It has made me realize how I need to be better at reaching out to others when they are going through tough times. This has been a real learning time for both Randy and I. We have learned that not only were we so blessed in Texas, but God did go before us and sought out “those whom would answer His call” to encourage us and to bless us. We love and appreciate each of you and thank you for the love you are showing us. Today, Friday, I have given praises and thanks to the Lord for precious friendships, old and new….Trudy

Feel led today to just update you on what the Lord has been doing in our lives. As you know, we have moved to Pasadena, Ca because my husband took a job here in November. We have been here for two months which on some days, have felt like 2 years and some days, has felt like 2 weeks. We came, knowing that we had spent many hours in prayer about this. We knew that just because we were leaving under God’s direction, that there would be times that we would experience lonliness, sadness for friends and family not being close by, sadness for not knowing anyone and no one knowing us. There would be days when we just wanted to see a familiar face, or having someone know who we were, really. At our age, that process of building history and memories is harder than when you are younger and have children to bond you to other couples or events that bring you close to other people. Knowing this, it was only in trusting in God and knowing that He truly was leading us to a new place, that we are now, in California. We have experienced all of the above, but not only that, we have experienced God in a whole new way. We prayed that He would lead us to a Sunday school class where we would feel loved and welcomed, and that’s exactly what happened. The first Sunday we walked in to the Disciples class, everyone, not just a couple, but everyone came over to us and some hugged on us and then took us around and introduced us to everyone there. They immediately told us about the class party that was going to be held last Sat night and we went. We had a great time and in so doing, meet a lady who was not at class that week. She has since invited me to a ladies Bible study on Thurs mornings and is meeting me there to introduce me to the teacher. We are living in a place where we have meet all 5 of our neighbors and have already been invited in to two of their homes for a little get together. Today, I have been invited to a new friends house for dessert and to play Mexican Dominoes with 3 other ladies. All of this has been such a blessing. That God, in His infinte wisdom knew exactly what we needed. We are adjusting well to California and although we miss everyone so very much, we also are excited to see how God is going to use us here. We might not know many people and people might not “really” know us, but God does and that is what we give praise for today!