Tag: Humor

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Traveling Hoarders

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We have just returned from a trip to Texas where we have kids and friends who we are blessed to have. BUT….going to Texas means one thing: weight gain. In the 10 days we were there we ate Mexican food 8 times. Because it was cold and rainy every day we were there, everyone knows that our mouths begin to drool, thinking of all the Tex-Mex food we can’t get here, the minute we cross the Texas State line. The day we drive in, we make a mental list of every restaurant we just “have to” eat at. I begin to make list of every store that I miss here in Arizona, to buy things we don’t see here, Of course that means that besides all the clothes we take for 2 weeks, the presents that we take to leave to thank all the host for housing us, our snack bag (actually it is more like a snack suitcase) gifts for the grandkids, we pack so that we have room to bring back all the things we cannot buy here. So to say our car is loaded is truly an understatement. On our last day in Texas, before leaving early last Wednesday, we just “had” to go by Weirs Country Store to get boxes (yes boxes) of their popcorn and a small bottled real Dr Pepper. Randy says there is just something about those little bottled Dr Peppers. Probably because they are cheap, but don’t tell him I said that. We run by MiCocinas to buy chips and salsa for the road trip back. We have to have one last Whataburger (yes, I actually ate one for breakfast before leaving Dallas). They do have a couple of those here but they just aren’t the same. We have to always stop at Eatsi’s for their tiramisu and Italian Cream Cake. El Fenix for cheese enchiladas, Spring Creek and Rudy’s for barbecue. Nordstrom for white chocolate bread pudding with raspberry sauce. And we wonder why our car looks like a low rider!
This trip was a little more disorganized. We split our time between 3 different groups of family. If you are ever at someones house and you would like for them not to ever invite you back for a visit, there is a easy solution. We will probably never be invited to one of our kids homes anytime soon. All you have to do is start a fire in the kitchen. Yep, simple as that. Being the wonderful mother in law that I am, I told the kids that they could take the morning off and I would make breakfast. Cameron had told me they had never had homemade popovers and so I made them. As they were in the oven, I fried bacon. When I looked over at the package and decided that there wasn’t enough bacon to store, I decided to just fry up the entire package. The bacon that was already cooked was on a paper towel/plate of which I laid over on the gas stove to finish laying the rest of the bacon. Well, next thing I know fire is all over the paper towel and getting higher and higher. At first I try blowing out the fire. For petes sake, I am use to blowing out 60 some odd candles on my birthday cake; how hard can this be? Didn’t work! I scream. Cameron comes over and tries to throw the plate in the sink and the flames just kept getting higher and higher. Payton (the 3 yr old) starts to cry and finally Cam finally gets the plate in the sink and runs water over it. Charcoaled bacon isn’t all that bad. They loved the popovers and crispy bacon. The kids reminded us that they had invited us to come help them unpack boxes, not burn the new house down. I informed them that if they would have let the fire go a little longer, it would have taken care of some of the unpacked kitchen boxes. They didn’t appreciate my humor.
So back to the trip. Every time we had to pack up and leave one house to go to another, it was pouring rain and cold. We didn’t take the usual time to load the car. We began to open the back doors and just throw suitcases and clothes in. Each time, it just got junkier and unorganized, Randy looked at me and said, “I bet if people look in our windows they will think we live in our car and are hoarders.” By the 3rd house where we stayed for the last 3 nights, it was a lost cause. I couldn’t find anything. It was easier to go to Walmart to buy a pair of pants and shirt than try to find them. When we got home, we agreed that it was going to be scary to see what was under all the piles of clothes, suitcases and bags of things we had brought back. Randy brought in 2 pair of my shoes that I was never able to find the entire trip. He found them in our first snack bag that never got thrown away when the handle tore. Randy had said, we would use it for a trash bag, but I thought I remembered we had turned it into a bag for all the things that wouldn’t fit in our suitcases by day 5.

We left on the morning that there were ice warnings. What an adventure. Going home by a different route meant seeing signs we had not seen before. There was a beauty salon called, “Texas Big Hair” Salon. Randy looked at me and ask, “is that where you go”? I threw a 3 day old donut at him that I found under the seat. We passed a most impressive motel named, “It Will Do”. Not in this lifetime will it do. Randy said that if the ice got any worse that it might have to do. Fortunately, the ice road scraper was in front of us so we mossied along at 35 mph for 200 miles.

We have pinkie pinkied we won’t go back to Texas in winter ever again. As Randy gets older (I haven’t begun aging yet, but Im sure soon I might) his tummy might not let him eat mexican food 8 days in a row, and we don’t want to waste our visits in winter when all we want is Mexican food. So think we will go in summer when, oh wait guacamole always tastes so good in summer along with chile con queso. Ok, maybe the season doesn’t matter, but until our car gets rid of the smell of popcorn, chips, salsa and Whataburger, I think we might just stay home for a while. Besides, until the kids forget about the fire, we aren’t sure we are welcome.

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Snazzy Senior

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This morning as I was getting all dolled up for the day, (which incidentally takes a little longer each year) several things dawned on me. For years, I use to criticize all the “old” ladies who painted their eyebrows on. Why, for Pete’s sake did they do that? Why not just enhance the brows they had? This morning, as I was examining myself in the 7x magnifying mirror to see if any new wrinkles had landed on my face during the night, I seemed to have found the answer to my question. There, staring back at me was my eyebrow, with oodles of gray little hairs sticking out from above my head. So as I “enhanced” my brown with my auburn eyebrow pencil, the gray hairs that truly must have been 2″ long were so noticeable sticking out of the “enhanced” auburn brows. I sat there and just stared at my face. Not only were there new wrinkles that I know were not there yesterday, but now I had gray eyelashes and gray eyebrows. In the past, the gray eyelashes were easy to disguise. Brown mascara always did the trick and wa-la, I would look in the mirror and think to myself, “no one will ever know I’m past 60 now. But what was I going to do with these awful gray eyebrows. If I pulled them out, there would be so few eyebrows left, guess who would now look like one of the old ladies with just painted eyebrows? That was not going to happen. So I just painted a thicker layer of the eyebrows pencil, hoping that whatever was in the pencil would help hold the gray ones down.
How can I call myself a snazzy senior when I now have this to worry about? No amount of cute little capris or blingie sandals would help. Maybe if I apply a heavier line to the eyeliner it will draw peoples attention away from my brows. Nope, tried that just now and I look like a cat burglar. Or Lady GaGa wanna be.

Feeling a little down about this season of unsnazzines (is that a word), I sprayed on a little more perfume than normal, put on the biggest hoops earrings I owned and walked out with the Lady GaGa eyeliner with my capris and diamond studding (not real of course) flip flops. Randy looked at me and ask me if we were going to a costume party? or was I taking up a new profession? He then informed me that if it were the latter, I might make more money if I charged by the pound. Apparently he doesn’t remember that he will be in the car with me for 20 hours in a few days. I told him that those 20 hours are going to be the longest 20 hours he has had in quite a while.
So today I’m off to shop. Shopping and chocolate…always a pick me up for us
“no so snazzy seniors” Will be shopping for larger sunglasses to cover up the new wrinkles and the gray brows. Think I will eat dried apricots, boiled eggs, pinto beans and a cabbage salad the night before our car trip. That will make Mr. No More Mike Ditka Look Alike sorry he spoke to me like that. Ah….the joys of growing old!

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Princess On The Porch? Or Golf Course

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Well, this past Monday, I found myself with a dear friend, joining our community golf team. We are called the Hits & Giggles, and upon going and playing, I understand that this is the perfect team for me. Many more giggles than hits. It had been more than 15 years since I had picked up a golf club (I don’t count the times I picked one up to threaten a grandkid or Randy). But when Teresa called last week and said that she had been thinking that we had, at most, 20 years to fulfill some things before leaving this world, I began to think about that. How many years had I told myself that I wanted to get back to golf, but always had an excuse. Excuses like, “will bending over to pick up my golf ball make my butt look big?” or “What if I get on a team that doesn’t have to pick up their balls because they actually don’t need 8 times to get to the green” Or my favorite, “what if I am actually good and they want me to go on tour, how would I manage being gone all the time and leave poor Randy at home?” I decided to take a chance, leave my rocker on the porch and go for it.
So off Teresa and I go to buy some cute clothes for our first day. We both decided that because we would be so bad, that if we looked cute, maybe the others wouldn’t notice how bad we hit the ball, if we indeed did hit the ball.

We arrived at the golf course and was immediately put on separate teams! WHAT? We had counted on riding the cart together and at least knowing that we were playing together so as to have at least one other person who was as bad as each other. So off she goes to play with some friends we know. I was teamed with a lady who is 82 and has hit 2 holes in one and plays 3 times a week. Plus 2 men who play every week, for years. AND…guess who is on team 1 and is the first to hit? Yep, me. You are kidding me. I had just bought new clubs last week and had never even had them out of the box until Sunday night. And I am up first on the tee box. Well, they always say, “look confident like you know what you are doing and that is half the battle.” oh my gosh, how do I look confident when it has been 15 years. People do lie. It’s not like riding a bicycle. You do forget how to do it. It took me 5 minutes to get the stupid tee in the ground. So here we go. I bowed my head and prayed and promised God that I still had some good years left and I would gladly go to Africa to be a missionary if He would just not let me miss the swing at the ball and it would go farther than 10 feet. I leave next month for Africa. IT went about 30 ft.

About the 3rd hole, I went to get my driver out of the bag and it wasn’t there. Had I inadvertently put it in one of the other bags. So after accusing the other 3 members of not looking very good in their bags to find my driver, here comes a golf cart driving up to where we were with a man holding my driver saying, “did anyone leave this on the ground back there?” What had I done? Had I in a fit of rage thrown it down without realizing it? Had I dropped it? No, that is impossible, how do you drop a driver without knowing it? So I guess I laid it down on the ground to take the flag out of the hole. Senior moment, I never could remember why or how it was left on the ground.

All in all, I didn’t embarrass myself too much so that I am excited to go back next week. Have had little sensors put on my clubs so that if I leave one behind again, my phone will alert me. Went back to Costco for more golf shirts. I didn’t improve enough this past week not to have to look cute when playing.
Neither Teresa or I won any of the “closest to the pin or longest drive” but if there would have been a prize for dressing the part, maybe we would have at least been in the running. Thank goodness for cute golf clothes!

Friendship Follies
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Friendship Follies

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We were in Puerta Vallarta for 10 days. Each day brought so many memories, some with laughter, some with thoughts of past experience between the 6 of us. These couples who we are here with, have become like family to us. We have traveled to Doyle Sprigs together, San Diego and now Mexico. The evenings of going out to eat at different restaurants and discovering new places has been a joy. Relaxing in Dee and Jeff’s room to snack on guacamole and curried dip and our new favorite snack; jicama with Tejin seasoning sprinkled over it, before going out at night was something each of us looked forward. Each evening after dinner, we sat around a table in their room to play cards. Eagerly, each evening we would stand outside waiting to see what size cab would arrive to pick the 6 of us. Jeff, who is 6’7″,280 lbs and my hubbie, at 6’1 and 260 would draw straws to see who would get to sit up front, all the while getting “kneed in the back” by the one who had to sit behind him, since the front seat would have to be pushed all the way back, allowing for their knees to even just be in the car. We all laughed at the thought of their legs having to just stick out the windows of the small taxi cabs since sometimes the taxi door would not even shut completely because of their size. We actually got pretty good at trying to figure out 20% tip in pesos.
The adventures we had just trying to guess what the bus route was which was written on the bus window made us all make a goal of learning a little spanish before returning the next year. After getting on the wrong bus and having to ride in certain areas of town that, should I say, was a little “sketchy” made us decide that learning Spanish might be to our benefit. But, sitting around the pool, talking about our kids, our season of life, how the Lord was growing us and sometimes allowing us to go through certain trials, these are the days we remember the most. The times when we open up to each other. The stories which we hear from each of us just draw us closer as we know that we will be praying for one another.
Each day we found ourselves not only laughing at the new aches and pains which seem to accompanied us down to Mexico, but realizing that we were still all so blessed to be able to do what we were doing. Yes, we were still able to waddle out to the poolside and enjoy the sunshine. We had eyes that allowed us to watch whales out in the ocean (and some poolside, but I won’t go there) and read. We had ears to still hear the songs being played by the Mariachi Band that had such a strange version of “I Did It My Way”. We were still able to walk and spend our husbands money on new blouses and silver earrings. Dinner might be followed by lots of Rolaids, but the heartburn was so worth it as beautiful lobster or shrimp was set in front of us alongside a huge plate of guacamole and chips. It was wonderful to still be able to jump and run when a large iguana came close to our pool side chairs.
Knowing that we love to come home to our own beds, it was still so hard to leave these precious friends. It is amazing to think about how friendships seem to thrive when new memories are made together. The laughter, the praying together, the sharing of meals, all tasting each other’s food; exploring new places,these are just some of the things that make new memories so special. It is also what gives us more reason to do these things more often. We came home thankful for this special time we had together. The rooms are already reserved for 2019, when we will, Lord willing, once again descend upon Puerto Vallarta. Our list of restaurants which we never made it to this year is written down for next visit. We are going to venture out to a new little town about a hour away from PV. Zip lining is on my list for next year.
Friendships are so special. Wishing each of you a year of new memories with endearing friendships….it is what brings us lives of joy and blessing.

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Fall Prediction

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Some of you out there in Blogville who are wishing that Fall gets here quickly will SO love this prediction. I really think it is only days away. (I won’t say how many days because I don’t want to look foolish). But when you hear my reasons of why I KNOW it must be close you will totally understand why I do not need a weather person to tell me when it will arrive. First of all, my first sign that it will be here soon is my desire to grow my hair (no, not the hair on my legs, I’m actually so old that there’s not much of that left). For some reason, by this time each year, my love of short hair is disappearing. All I can think about is “wonder how long it will take my hair this time to get to one length?” Each year, it’s the same thing. Blaming it on the nights that is still too hot to go walking or exercising, I sit and look through old photos, which includes pictures of previous Falls and Winters when my hair seemed to be headed toward growing out from it’s summer short cut. So when that desire to let it grow comes over me, I can rest assured Fall is almost here.

Another sign that Fall is close, is my desire to rearrange furniture. Sitting there in the evenings I begin to look around the room, wondering where the Christmas TREES will go this year. Notice I said trees, not tree. If there were only one, I wouldn’t have too much trouble, but because I like to have one in each room to enjoy the lights of the season, I realize that we will be moving furniture around. When we sit at night and Randy sees my eyes looking around the room, he says, “oh no, you are thinking again. What and where are we moving?” He also has learned that when I start that, it will be impossible for me to go to sleep until I have moved what I have imagined the whole evening. So he gets up, goes to the cabinet and gets out the sliders. We are not talking about hamburger sliders, we are talking about the most wonderful invention, little cushioned plastic backed pieces which allow me to slide any furniture anyplace. IF you are strong enough to lift a piece of furniture so that the slider is scooted under it, you can move it. We have had these sliders since around 1996. When we first married, Randy traveled quite a bit. Most of the time I went with him, but if he was going to boring cities, I stayed home and rearranged furniture how I wanted it to be without him looking over my shoulder and throwing his two cents in of where he thought the couch should go. One of these evenings when he was out of town, he called me from the hotel. He said that he had the TV on and had seen something that he just knew I would love. As newlyweds, my mind began to wonder. TV…advertisements, close to Christmas; had he ordered me a new car? had he been watching the shopping network and had seen a beautiful diamond bracelet that would look perfect on my skinny little arm? (ok, maybe it wasn’t skinny, but it was definitely much smaller that it is now and there were not wings hanging from the underside)My imagine ran wild. He wouldn’t tell me what the surprise was. He sounded so excited that he had seen this and knew immediately that he wanted to buy them for me. So I would just have to wait. Well, in a few days, the wait was over. I came home to find a package on the front porch. Excitedly, I threw down my purse and began to tear the package open. There looking back at me were four sliders. Does he know how to win my heart or what?
Mr. Romantic! So to show him my appreciation, I moved every piece of furniture in the house before he got home. When he arrived back in Dallas and walked through the front door, his reply was, “I’m so glad I didn’t come home drunk, or I would have broke my leg falling over the newly placed furniture.” Call me crazy, but if I had a husband who drank too much, this system is certainly a lot cheaper than therapy. Just keep moving the furniture around. Keep em guessing. That’s my motto. OK, back to predicting Fall.

Last, but not least is my drink. All summer long, I was addicted to Ombre’s at Starbucks. Well, last Sunday, on the way home from church, I ordered my first Pumpkin Latte. There, that is the one true tale tale sign. When I no longer order cold drinks, but switch to Lattes, well, you might as well get that sweater out and start wearing your gold jewelry. Why is it silver jewelry just looks better in summer and gold looks like it belongs in Winter? You can trust me on this, it happens every year. So when you see me walking down the street (well, actually that would be a miracle in itself, as I don’t walk anywhere) with a Latte, wearing gold jewelry with long hair, you can turn the fireplace on, Fall is here. No need to watch the 6:00 weather!

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Fall Is Falling Upon Us Quickly; Tidbit Tuesday

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IMG_5833Oh my gosh, I can’t believe that I remembered that Tuesday is posting in bullet points…on Tuesday instead of 3 days later. So maybe all those vitamins are working! Or maybe it is the notes I have plastered all over the house to remind me to Tuesday Bullet Post. Whatever, at least I remembered to look at the reminders and didn’t just past by them, thinking that they were tags that were placed on furniture for which child gets what when they cart us off to the nursing home. But since it is Tuesday, I will stick to my promise and post in bullet points instead of paragraph form, which does make me look oh so hip. Speaking of hips:

1. I have noticed that when I get down on my hands and knees to clean up anything; lets just say that my next Amazon order will include a life alert!

2. This week, everyone around me is talking about getting all their Fall decor out of storage. I purposely have them on speaker phone so Randy can hear them talk about all their decor and how they might be tired of what they have and are going shopping for new items. I give him the look of, “see what a good wife I am? I use mine until the fake pumpkins look like they are ready for pumpkin graveyard and the wreaths are totally withered” He gets the message. One of my dear friends has 3 storage cabinets and an off site storage for all her decor. You know who you are! One of my favorite reminders to him when I want to go get new decor, is telling him that at least we no longer have an off site storage unit and that everything we own is right here so if we don’t buy the 24 roll of paper towels at Costco, there is a little more space under the bathroom cabinet that would fit a few more new Fall items.

3. This brings me to buying Fall decor. We ventured into Big Lots after a recent visit to DSW, down the way. Their pumpkins were arriving and were being put on the shelf as we walked in. After I promised Randy that I would be very selective in my new purchases, he left me alone (which scares him since I carry a credit card with me at all times) with an empty basket as he ventured off to go see if anything in the store interested him, while I mosied on over to the Seasonal aisle. All I can tell you is this, you need to hurry over while they still have a great selection of really pretty fall decorations. As soon as my basket was full, I went looking for Mr. Relax in Any Place He Can Find in a Store. There in the furniture aisle, was my husband on a fake leather couch, with his feet up, pretending that he had a drink in the cup holder. In no uncertain terms, I motioned for him to get up and I made him promise never to even think about bringing one of those home. But if he ever did, to just expect me to put up a velvet painting of Elvis on the wall over it. He quickly got up. Run, don’t walk to Big Lots! But don’t take your husband, they might bring home more than you bargained for. i.e. couches which take up more room than all my boxes full of Christmas decorations!

4. This week showed me that I am my mother. We ran around all day Saturday and got home about 4. After we rested our feet, we began to talk about where to go to dinner. We decided upon Mexican food and I went to get some nicer clothes on when I looked in the mirror and noticed something not quite right. As I looked closer, I realized that all day long, I had been out with a black shirt, black flats, black purse, back earrings and…navy blue shorts! And….Randy had let me out looking like that. I ran back into the living room and said, “do you see anything wrong on me?” He took a moment and said, “uh…you didn’t roll your hair the same way?” Quickly I reminded him that he is suppose to “be his brother’s keeper” and not let me out of the house without earrings or unmatched clothes. He reminded me that there have been occasions when, after being out all day, I look over to him and say, “personally, I wouldn’t have worn that shirt with those pants.” He always ask me why I wait until we get home to tell him that and I tell him I didn’t want to hurt his creative side so early in the day, so I just wait until we get home to hurt it. Isn’t marriage grand?

5. Had bunco at the house last night and served Ice Cream Cake. You need to make this cake. Isn’t it wonderful to have friends and family gather together to visit and eat? That is truly one of the greatest joys of life. Friends, Family and Food….so as we enter the time of year when (soon, hopefully very soon)temps begin to fall and pumpkins are showing up everywhere, don’t wait for Thanksgiving to gather. Make something simple or buy a Marie Calendar’s pie, if you don’t enjoy baking. Make a phone call and have someone over. It will bless you both!

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Tuesday (actually Thursday but I forgot on Tuesday) Tidbits

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Why can I not remember that I have said on Tuesday I will post in bullet points? Actually, I was out of town and did not have a minute to sit down and post on Tuesday, so will do that today. We were in California for 13 days, but came home last night. What a wonderful time we had. OK enough paragraphs, here are the bullet points.

1. California ranks in top 3 places I like to visit.

2. Love that i can have my hair cut and colored for $100 and love the experience of visiting a old fashioned salon where there are still hair dryers along the back wall. AND…the stylists always have cookies or candy and there is always coffee or sodas. (Debbie if you are reading this, thank you for putting up with me, and my humor.)Poor Jerry, the guy who does my hair never knows what color I’m going to ask for every time I am in town. I take him brownies to make up for the trouble I cause.

3. Traveled to Doyle Springs where we stay in a house that is built over a waterfall and stream. There is nothing quite like sleeping with an open window that allows you to sleep with the sound of water cascading over rocks. LOVE IT!

4. Found out that I cannot eat homemade ice cream 4 days in a row, steaks, grilled chicken, ice cream pie, Lebanese food, chile rellano casserole, two nights of Panda Inn and not expect to only fit in Moo Moos and maternity pants.

5. Played Hand & Foot with 5 ladies while having lunch. Great laughter and fun playing cards…

6. Went crazy driving down interstate 5 frantically telling Randy we have to turn around and go back so I can take pictures of all the deer I saw on the side of the road. After he let me go on and on about never seeing so many deer out like that so close to the road, he finally tells me that they weren’t real.

7. Learned that I do like British Programs, got hooked on The Crown while staying at a friends house. Even Randy loved the series. Cannot wait until November when the next season begins. Have now watched all 10 episodes.

8. Came home in a mood to bake. So just finished baking a tuxedo cake, my favorite. It will be for dessert tomorrow night when 4 couples come over after we go eat at Singing Pandas. Yes, back to reality. Laundry, trying to decide what to make for dinner…but, was wonderful sleeping in our own bed last night. Nothing quite like being home! We love to go but always wonderful to get home and start planning the next adventure.

Thanks to our precious friends in California who always treat us with love and make us feel so welcomed. One of these days we might need to find new places to stay, I think we stay in the Smith, Duncans and Welches houses more than our own.

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Birthday Bash Blues

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Even though July comes in the middle of the summer, filled with lots of hot temperatures and stops at many McDonald drive thoughts for glasses of iced tea, this month has been a great memory. Since July is one of my favorite months of the year, due to Randy’s and my birthday making it such a fun month, we had several things happen that just made this July a very special month.  Jamin, my boy who travels for work constantly, had a job in Phoenix, so he came and spend a week with us, bringing along our 17 yr old granddaughter. He came bearing gifts from M&M world, for me, which just made my birthday that much more special. Before he and Ashland left, our daughter, Christi and our 5 yr old granddaughter, Kenley arrived and the celebration continued. We had a week of exploring Butterfly Wonderland and the Childrens museum. We got to see Christi have her first In & Out Burger and her first Ombre from Starbucks.

Since Randy and I married, we have had a tradition of having Trudyfest from July 3rd through the 11th, the day of my actual birthday. When we married, my mom told him that I was his responsibility now and he could take over Trudyfest. That meant that he was now responsible for giving me little gifts each day of July up until my birthday on the 11th. Since Randy’s birthday is July 2nd, I was kind to let him have July 1st and 2nd be about him before starting the grand festival of my birthday celebration, well…just because I’m nice like that. But come July 3rd, it’s all about me for 9 whole days. Did I mention that I’m an only child? Bet you couldn’t have guessed that.

This year was such a great day of birthday celebration. It began with Kenley and Christi presenting me with gifts and cards as soon as I got up. We planned our day around Kenley  since we don’t get to see them as often as we want since they come all the way from Florida, so we wanted to focus on them.  After all, it would have been a little embarrassing to tell a 5 year old that we couldn’t go to Butterfly world because her grandmother would rather go shopping at Hobby Lobby instead. So to butterfly world we went, where the air is hot and the hair style quickly disappears due to the 80% humidity so the butterflies are comfortable. We came out starved and headed to Portillos for hot dogs (where yes, we saw another first,;Christi had never had Portillos) before coming home. That evening we joined our kids which live here and took C & K to Rustler’s Roost for a birthday celebration. If you are in Phoenix and have little kids, you need to experience this place. Not only does it have spectacular views of the valley, but the kids love the giant slide which they use to enter the restaurant. Well, the kids and me. I love that silly slide. I have to tell you about last year when we went there with our other kids. I was headed down the slide when I look down in front of the slide where a man is standing, waiting for his kids to come down. It is such a long slide, you wonder if you are going to be able to stop or would I be sliding feet first right into this man’s belly, Apparently, he began to wonder  that also, as he quickly  moved to the side, right before my legs hit the end of the slide. That little episode made me realize that maybe I was a little to old to be going down, so this year, I left it to the younger kids.

This years birthday was so different from previous years, but it was one of my most favorite of birthday memories. No I didn’t have my 9 days of “glory” and little gifts each day from Randy, but the gifts I got were so special. The gifts of wonderful memories with family. The laughs of watching the butterflies only landing on Randy and watching a butterfly landing on Christi’s phone apparently trying to take a selfie. My 15 yr old grandson even took a picture with me, in public! The cotton candy that the “big kids” (Eric, Christi and Randy) used to make funny faces. All the cards and text and phone calls from friends added to the celebration and some unexpected little gifts from friends that arrived that day. This year showed me that it truly isn’t the gifts that bring us joy, but the times spend together with family and friends that bring us the treasured times of our lives. The birthday blues did come. But not because the day of getting gifts was over, it was because the kids had to leave to go home. Was just so thankful that this year I was so blessed to celebrate with more family than usual. It was truly the best birthday bash!

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Poo Poo Chart

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IMG_5285Last week, we returned from a visit to our kids in Dallas. What a great time we had as we celebrated two of our grandchildren’s birthdays. Sevy who is now 13 and Payton, who just turned 3. The trip was a success as we had lots of time this visit with our sweet families and actually made it to almost all of our favorite restaurants which we always want to visit before returning home where there is no Tex-Mex enchiladas ANYWHERE CLOSE TO US!. But upon arriving home, I told Randy that I had seen something in the bathroom at one of the kids homes that made me think of what I will do for him as he ages. Driving through the desert for 2 days after sitting in Abilene for 4 hours waiting for a new battery to be installed in our car, gave me a lot of time to think. As you drive down the highway in the heat, most people see imaginary water on the road in front of them. Not me, I see food. I imagine where I’m going to stop for the next meal. So while Randy sleeps and I drive, I not only think of different meals which we might have on the road, but what will I be writing about on the blog as soon as I get back. It was on one of these “thinking, driving while he sleeps” times that I came up with this great idea.

If you are like us, you probably remember always kidding about talking to your aging parents and when calling them to see how they are, they would sometimes tell you, “well, I’m good today. I had a good bowel movement, remembered to take all my meds and am just sitting down to watch the Wheel” . I have told Randy that I truly never care to hear about his bowel movements, no matter how old he is. So when I saw this chart on the bathroom wall, I instantly thought to myself, “this is great. Randy can just put a sticker on the chart any time he goes and that way I never have to hear about it. I like to think ahead. What if he began to loose his memory and forgot that he had told me that he had a good bowel movement and thus repeated himself 4-5 times a day. This way, he can just put a little sticker on the chart and we both can relax, knowing that nature has taken it’s course.  Really, if 3 year olds can have poo poo charts, why can’t 90 year olds?

Our kids are so blessed to have us as parents! We try to think of everything to help them be able to put up with us as we get to that wonderful age of having to share our daily activities…all of the activities!

You’re welcome!

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Bullet Blog

Chocolate Castles4 Comments

I’ve been noticing some of the blogs are being written as bullet points so those who are in a hurry can just glance at the posts and hurry back to what ever they were doing.  So instead of my usual very wordy posts, I thought I would try it to see how it is received and maybe that will give you more time to text or cook or work or read a novel. So here goes!

Trudy’s Tuesday Tidbits.

*making breakfast for 6 ladies tomorrow

*sitting here watching  RC shampoo carpet while I blog

*mentioned I liked the smell of vinegar to RC and he told me he would buy me a bottle of that instead of perfume for my bday and save money since I liked the smell of it so much! He’s very romantic like that!

*Excited to make a veggie dinner tonight with Brussels sprouts, collard greens, honey carrots and mashed potatoes with sliced tomatoes and corn bread (oops see I’m already getting wordy and I’m only on the 4th point)

*trying to talk myself into going to the pool but just looking at my bathing suit makes me wonder if, by the time I get it pulled up am I going to have to pull it down to go potty!

*enjoyed a new friend coming over yesterday to learn how to make scones (recipe is on blog under “cream scones”)  We sampled them and visited   Lovely morning!

*watching my hubby pack up our new cordless vacumn to take back and feeling very blessed to have such a precious husband who will do anything in the world for me!

*looking forward to watching AGT tonight with a slice of chocolate cake in front of me! (The perfect chocolate cake (recipe is on blog under that title) trust me…it is the perfect chocolate cake and I have friends who will vouch for that!

*got my AZ DL yesterday so guess my new fav flower will now be a cactus instead of a magnolia blossom!

That’s my thoughts for today! Go and be a blessing!!!! Trudy