Tag: Humor

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Senior Hotel Shenanigans

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We have returned from our quick trip to San Diego, where we met some of our kids from Texas and inlaws. Our son had invited us to come for a couple of days while they were there visiting our DIL parents, who keep their sailboat there in the marina in San Diego. Looking back, we are so grateful we didn’t stay any longer than 4 days. We might not have lived to tell about our adventures.

We were both excited to be able to go and spend time with our kids and Sevy, our grandson, who is quickly learning how to navigate the sailboat. But…let me begin at the beginning. We checked into our hotel and were offered assistance with our luggage, but Mr. “No, we can handle it just fine” (AKA, he doesn’t want to have to tip anyone else that day.) decides that we will just park at the back entrance and, after all, how hard can it be? We both have rolling cases, with hanging travel bag with too many clothes in it so it won’t close properly and then cases with toiletries. We park and proceed to unload our bags. So far so good. I have my hanging bag with clothes over one arm, my roller suitcase behind my right side, with my toiletry bag hanging over that and look over and Randy is trying to get his roller bag behind him so he can pull it across the parking lot, when I see him loosing his balance. I quickly drop all my things, trying to help balance him when he falls completely over me, knocking me to the ground. We looked like dominoes that someone pushed the first one and they just kept falling. We sat there, trying to figure out what to do. He couldn’t find anything to help him get leverage to get up, and he was on top of me, so I couldn’t get up to help him. I finally scooted my garmet bag over so he could kneel on that (poor thing, his knee was bleeding pretty bad) and thus would allow me to get up. Looking back, over that, I can only imagine what I looked like, with my rear in the air, trying to get up, then trying to pull him up. We couldn’t help but laugh thinking about what the man watching the security camera must be thinking. They probably watched us over and over with, “oh man, wait till you see these old geisers, not only does the guy fall, but he falls over and knocks her over! It’s hilarious”

We do like to provide entertainment and laughter wherever we go. We were so proud that we were able to still walk with our heads held high into the hotel, even though we had gravel in our hair, blood dripping down his leg and dirt marks all over my white shorts. Luckily we have no boating incidents to write about but then on Saturday, we woke up. We should have just stopped right there. But, I was thirsty for my Dr Pepper and Randy wanted a cup of Starbucks coffee. As he was stepping into the shower, I yelled at him that I was going to go downstairs and buy a Dr Pepper from the hotel gift shop and yes, I would bring him a cup of coffee. I grabbed my phone (thank the Lord, I did take that), the room key and my wallet. After paying $10 for a Dr Pepper and a pack of gum, I stopped at the Starbucks counter and bought my sweetie pie a cup of coffee. I jumped on the elevator and proceeded to our room. As I reached the room, I realized that I didn’t have a hand free to use the key card to open the door, and after knocking, realized that he must be taking a little longer than usual shower, since he didn’t answer.

The key didn’t work. I realized that, after trying to call him, he must still be in the shower, so I didn’t have a choice but to pick up the coffee off the floor, grab my Dr Pepper and ride back down from the 10th floor and ask the clerk to reactivate the key card. We have had that happen many times, that after about 3 days the key has to be activated. So back down I go and she hands me 2 more cards after having to show her my ID. I thanked the Lord that for some reason I had picked up my wallet, which I really don’t know why I did, because I was just charging everything to our room anyway, but I guess God knew I would need my ID. So back up to the 10th floor I go. When I get off the elevator, I am thinking to myself, that his coffee is probably cold by now, when I try the new key and IT doesn’t work. WHAT? OK, i put everything on the floor and try it again, still doesn’t work. I begin to bang on the door for Randy to open it and he doesn’t. I am now running out of patience. How long of a shower is he going to take today? I call him and he answers. In a not so nice voice, I ask him why he is not answering the door when I am banging on it. He said he didn’t hear me knock. You are kidding me. I bang on it, just to let him know how loud I have been banging on it just to prove my point. My cell phone rings and once again, I have to put his coffee on the ground, to have a hand to answer it. “Why are you calling me, when you should be answering the door?” He informs me that he did answer the door and no one is there.  I had gotten off on the wrong floor. I hurriedly pick up my drinks, and run down the hall before the people in that room decide that the crazy lady at their door at 7:30 a.m is just not going to go away, open the door to see what I am wanting. When I got to the elevator, I looked and I had got off on the 6th floor. How did I do that, I know I punched “10”.  When I walked into our room, I couldn’t help but just fall on the bed laughing. If  indeed they have security cameras in the halls, the camera guy must have been cracking up.

On our trip home, I ask Randy if he thought we were just odd or did the Lord just always allow funny things like this to happen to us so I would have things to write about. He just looked at me and said, “well, all I know is that over the past 21 years, we have certainly had our share of funny stories that has brought lots of laughter for us and for others and for that, we should be thankful.”  Easy for him to say, he wasn’t the one on the hotel hall security camera!

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Memory, Depression & Cholesterol

Chocolate Castles6 Comments

Today was a rude awakening for me. Just returning from the doctor office, I have some great suggestions, some new insights and some new thoughts. First of all, if you are under 40, just go read a different blog and don’t waste your time reading this.  While you are still “fit” and young and can eat anything you like without worrying about wearing sleeveless blouses, or wondering if the Twinkie you are devouring is going to be your last one until your birthday, when you are allowed to have a treat, this blog is not for you.

Upon entering the doctor’s office, I was given a sheet of questions, such as:

Are you depressed, or lack motivation to participate in normal daily activities?

Do you have trouble falling or staying asleep? Well, I didn’t until now, when I will probably stay awake wondering if I passed this stupid test.

How many times have you fallen in the last two months? Really? So the fall that I had back 3 months ago, I can forget about.

Well, I aced that test! I was able to mark NA on all of the awful questions except one. I did walk out of the bedroom the other day forgetting I had just mopped and as soon as I hit the wet floor, I fell, butt first and landed on my elbow. But…because I eat (not drink) lots of milk by consuming my weight (a girl doesn’t get to be this size by just eating veggies and salads) in cakes, puddings and milkshakes, I guess I have great bones.

So I bounced (ok, maybe waddled a little) into the doctor’s office with a little smirk on my face leaving the old folks back in the waiting room, as they probably thought to themselves, “wow, look at her go, she is spry and doesn’t even need to wear orthopedic shoes!”   I was ready to defend any question the Dr might have for me.

But before the dr came in, Donna Nurse walks in and sits down in front of me and informs me that today “we” meaning me I guess, will have a memory test. No sweat. I will show this little teeny bopper I still know what year it is and also still remember who is President, even though it’s been several months since the election. Well, Nurse Donna gives me a list of 5 items which she said she will ask me to repeat. Ok, no problem, I am repeating them over and over in my mind. Wait…what did she just say? She is going to read me a story before asking me to repeat the 5 items? You are kidding me. I missed the first half of the story still trying to keep the list of the 5 items straight in my mind. So I had to ask her to start the story over as I wasn’t concentrating because of the first 5 things I was trying to remember. OK, I missed the lady of the stories name, and when ask to repeat the 5 items, I forgot “pie”. How could I miss the word pie, I bake one everyday for Pete’s sake. So then she tells me I have to give her the number she will give me, in reverse. She says, “78” then I say “87”. So far so good. UNTIL…she gets to 8,753. Im suppose to repeat that as 3, 578. I couldn’t do it. I got the 3 right, and ended with 3,something 5 something. Donna Nurse takes a couple of notes and says “the dr will be right in”…

I had forgot that the other day a friend of mine said that she was given a memory test when she went in for a physical and they ask her to repeat the alphabet backwards. She said, “if you are smart, you will write it on the inside of your hand so you will be able to repeat it to them. I had totally forgot to do that so was so thankful I had a different test.

So now the doctor comes in and sits across from me, writing notes on his computer. When he looked up at me, he told me that all my blood work had come back normal except, and here it is folks, cholesterol. I was WAY over 200 and according to him, I guess I shouldn’t wait on filling out a Living Will paper, as he sent for one for me to fill out. So my suggestions to the medical personal is this:

Wait until after the doctor visit to have us fill our the sheets that ask about depression or lack of interest in daily activities. I came in feeling great and left with a sense of doom and gloom. I came home and threw away the firm bananas, as I probably won’t live long enough to see them ripen. I have now lost any desire to pursue daily activities as “why bother, since he had me fill out my LW, I probably won’t live long enough to finish painting a picture. Or, why get involved with the new season of Designated Survivor, I probably won’t live to see the last episode”.

Instead of telling you how bad your health looks and then telling the nurse to go get a living will for the patient to sign, maybe just have the LW in a packet of papers and suggest that we might go home and read over and think about what we might want. I felt that if I didn’t sign it before leaving, I might not get the chance to make the decision as apparently he was worried I might not make it home.

When I inquired about having a hearing test done, he told me that maybe I didn’t really want to hear better, as I might not want to hear what he had to say about diet and exercise. He is such a smart alec.   He ended up telling me that because of the new guidelines, he has to ask me a couple of questions that will make me wonder “what business is it of his” but I told him to proceed. Here are the questions he ask.

! What type of heat do we have in our home, gas or electric?

2. Are there any guns in the house. I told him no, that I had a rolling pin and didn’t need a gun when I had rolling pin that was perfect for pies and combat. He looked at me and told me that maybe that was why my cholesterol was so high.

I guess that the medical professionals are now worried that when we leave their offices they want to know if we have a gas oven or gun in the house in case we are so depressed when we leave, we take our Living Will paper and go stick our heads in the oven. I would have except I have to wait until the cake I baked is finished baking. If i’m going out soon, why bother with dieting.

After I got home I was able to go over all the details with Randy and we both decide that it is so good that old folks are already retired. We would never be allowed to take off work as much as we needed to go have all these awful tests done. After reading all the tests that he is sending me for, more depression and gloom set it. So now I guess I have to call and make another appointment to see if I can get a prescription for an antidepressant. But wait, then I will have to go have more blood tests done to be sure that medication is not effecting my liver….and so it goes!

And they wonder why we put off going to the doctor? I think from now on, I will just go on line and google my medical questions.  You aren’t required to do a memory test. As long as I can remember how to google, I’m good!

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Anniversaries Bring Annoyances

Chocolate Castles3 Comments

April Anniversaries, ah….makes the month go by so quickly when I spend the first 2 weeks of April trying to plan something special for Mr. Romance. The 3rd week we spend celebrating and the 4th week, is usually spent taking back all the gifts each other has bought for the other and promising that the next year we will just plan a trip instead of trying to buy gifts for each other. So here we are in the last few days of our special month. Leading up to the 18th was really a little different this year. Because last year, Randy was not able to travel or go anywhere due to a dislocated shoulder and broken bones in his arm (and no, I didn’t get so annoyed that I hit him) and told me that he would NOT go out to eat until he could cut up his own food, we celebrated at home for our special day. This year, he wanted to make up for the past year, so we began our day at Starbucks then went shopping until we dropped. We did come home for a few hours to rest our achy feet and then drove to Scottsdale to have dinner at Houstons, where we chowed down on some of our favorite dishes, ending the night sharing a piece of their famous Key Lime Pie AND….he ordered one to go so we could have it again the next night. It was a grand day. But…because the years sometimes bring out those little bitty things that we just didn’t happen to notice about the other in the first 15 years of marriage, we have discovered that we are still learning things about each other. For example, I have learned that my darling husband considers it thrilling to wait until he is driving 65 MPH down the freeway before trying to fasten his seat belt (remember he still doesn’t have full use of his left arm and has to drive with one arm). Today when I had to grab the steering wheel to bring us back over to our lane, I told him,

” Randy, this is just a thought and maybe I”m wrong, but just maybe, wouldn’t it be fun to fasten your seat belt BEFORE leaving the driveway?” His response to me was, “it wouldn’t be as challenging” I told him that his next challenge might be trying to keep the back of a one size fits all hospital gown that only fits people who weight less than 130, closed as he walks down the halls, if he continues to do that.

My next annoyance came the other day as we were headed out to run errands. When I ask him if he took Oliver out before we left he quickly responded with , “shoot, I forgot I have a bag of poop in my pocket”! What? oh my gosh, here we are headed to the grocery store and my husband, who now goes by the name Mr. Poop Pocket, has a zip lock bag of doggie poop in his pocket. His usual routine is that after walking Oliver, he throws the small bag of you know what in the garbage before coming in the house. But for some reason, that day he forgot. I informed him that if he ever did that and I ended up throwing his shorts with poop in the pocket in the wash, well…all I can say is that it would take him more than a day of  taking me shopping and a dinner at Houstons to make up for that.

Since that day, I am getting better at checking his pockets before throwing them in the wash. I’m also learning to remind him to fasten his seatbelt before leaving our driveway. I would write to tell you about his annoyances with me, but he assures me that even after these 22 years, he couldn’t think of a thing. That’s my story and this is my blog and I will write whatever I want.

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24

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There are many out there who remember the television series 24. We were so hooked on it that we used to have dinner parties with friends  at the beginning  and end of the season  so that the show became quite a huge tradition of watching this great show with close friends so that when we got together, it certainly gave us much more to talk about than the latest doctor visit. As you remember, each hour of 24 was marked with a tragic happening that could only be saved by one man…..Jack. Each hour was so jam packed with the CTU  task force trying to “rescue” certain folks or trying to figure out plots which would destroy the world. Well, this weekend was our own little 24 show. It has been a while since we babysit for a 4 year old for over a few hours. All I can say is that we are ready to call in Jack.  Each hour, I felt so lucky if I could come up with a chore that Noah could help with. His mom had told me that Noah loves to “help” so I thought of the chores which take me the longest, thinking that this might help me gain some time to cook (or even just brush my teeth.) if precious little Noah could go dust, water plants, or vacuum. maybe I could at least get the bed made or toast a piece of bread without having to go change the TV channel, turn on the bathroom light or come see  the 357th bird he was drawing. How can one four year old, drain you? By the end of our 24 hour assignment, I felt like I was my own CTU task force, but reinforcements nor Jack ever came.

On Friday evening we even considered going to both the 4 and 5:30 Good Friday service since the church was having the nursery open for kids 5 and under.

On Saturday, we broke a promise to ourselves that we had made years ago that we would  never, never go near another Chuck E Cheese, EVER! We stayed for 2 hours. Then at lunch, the cute little hostess at Chick Fila finally had the courage to come tell us that they needed our table after we had sat there for over an hour. We told her she had mistaken us for the people before us and that we had just arrived. Truth be told, we were still searching for Noah’s shoes in the play area that he had taken off  the minute we arrived and didn’t remember where he put them. I told Randy that I was not going to climb up the tunnel slide to retrieve the shoes!   This time it was his turn to do that. Besides, last time I got stuck and the  manager had to come rescue me from the tunnel.  That incident  reminded me of the slogan “a moment on the lips is forever on the hips” and why it should be my motto.

I love grandkids as much as the next Nana, but I’m thinking that we might have just discovered the idea behind Martin Luther King’s famous quote by the end of our 24 saga. As we drove away from dropping off precious little Noah (and yes, we did wait until his parents were home to do that although we were tempted at one point to just give him some Benadryl for a possible runny nose and sit him in front of a 4 hour movie at his house to wait for his parents to come home. Instead we bribed him with  Baskin Robbins every Saturday for the rest of his sweet angelic little life if he would just let us lay down for 15 minutes!), I looked over at Randy who “put the petal to the metal” as he began the famous speech, “free at last, free at last, thank God we are free at last.”  I just wonder how many grandkids MLK had kept the day before that famous speech?

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Bonding With Brussels Sprouts?

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

The morning began like most others with me sitting with a cup of Earl Gray hot tea and talking to one of our daughters as she drives to school. Most mornings, she uses me to take up her time driving. She had shared with me before, that she calls me to get the “guilt” of talking to her mom out of the way so that is one less thing she has to do as the day goes on. Actually she calls me since she knows that all she has to do is dial my number, set the phone down and she can drink her coffee, eat her bagel and get the “required” phone call out of the way without having to really say too much. So I guess you could say that I “talk” her to school. s (hum….I’m remembering that as I just typed that that Cameron use to tell me the same thing).

Isn’t it so sweet that she feels she can just be totally honest with her mom. Well, this morning was no different. Half way through the conversation, right after she tells me how great the pasta salad was that I had dropped off to her yesterday, she interrupts my “oh honey, I just knew you would love it and that’s why we brought it to you” with….the following:

“Mom, this reminds me of what I wanted to share with you. You know that I want a really close relationship with you, and I know that you show your love with food. BUT….I want a relationship with you that doesn’t make me fat!” What? what did she just say? She went on to tell me, “you know that I love to eat the food you bring over, but maybe we could change the kind of food you bring over. Instead of bringing a huge bowl of pasta salad that, yes, I ended up eating all of, maybe you could bring over a cucumber or cherry tomatoes or maybe a stalk of broccoli” (will be back to finish posting in a min, I have to go take out 4 Kentucky Butter cakes out of the over, oh maybe you know who would like one of these this evening…nope forgot, now she only wants the moldy cucumber that is half eaten in the fridge) OK, I’m back.

So the conversation continued. She began to tell me that she just doesn’t have any will power when I bring over the cakes or cookies, or left over roast and mashed potatoes. Most of you who know us well, know that Randy, aka Mr. MUST HAVE NEW FOOD EACH MEAL, doesn’t eat left overs, so our scraps, oops, I mean left overs, usually go to the kids house. who we nicknamed The Mikey Household, because they truly will eat anything (because they didn’t have to cook it) Anyhow, said daughter goes on to tell me that she knows I usually don’t keep a lot of fresh veggies or fruits in the house because the pounds of butter and cream cheese in the fridge just don’t leave a lot of room for those kinds of foods. It is at this point that she tells me that maybe I could just stop at a local produce market and buy a orange or stalk of celery if I feel like I just have to bring food over to get that warm loving feeling that I get when I take food to people.

Maybe she just doesn’t realize that when I sit and watch her eat the pound of chicken fried steak with left over mashed potatoes and gravy, its not the warm fuzzie feeling from just giving food to her. As I sit there and watch her eat all these great left overs, my mind wanders to “oh yeah, sweetie, just keep eating like that and you will be in stretch pants before your 45. and that loose skin under my arms that you kid me about, well, missy, keep eating like that and we can have contest in a couple of years to see which one of us can wave the longest with that loose skin.” So, I admit  maybe just maybe I have had an ulterior motive in my sharing of food. What she doesn’t realize yet is that there is a method to my madness of sharing all the fattening food. “Oh honey, you gained a pound or 5 having the left over stroganoff I brought over the other, night and you need to borrow my stretch pants? Well of course, I’ll bring them right over, oh and I’ll stop and get us a chocolate frappachino in case you need a little something to cheer you up. ”

Now the conversation will be a little different I guess, “sure, I’ll stop and get you a bag of brussels sprouts and we can sit and have a giant glass of water” Man does that sound like fun; I can hardly wait for our next visit. In the meantime, I think I’ll go have a piece of the Kentucky Butter cake I just took out of the oven and smile just thinking about the fact that as long as I have a chubby little face, my wrinkles will stay filled out and won’t show near as quickly as Ms. Brussels Sprouts skinny little face. Oops did I just type that out loud?

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Blue Bell & The Beast

Chocolate Castles4 Comments

This past week Randy and I had made our 3rd trip of the week to Walmart for the things we forgot the first two trips. On our way, I happened to mention that I wonder if the guys working the security camera have names picked out for us as we walk in the store. “Oh here comes the couple who must not have enough doctor visits on their calendar to keep them busy. They either both have alzheimers and cannot remember what they came for or they eat so much they don’t have room in their house or fridge to buy everything they need in one shopping day. We should give them a name like, “Triple Trips” or “Shopping Cart Sweeties”.  Seriously, I can only imagine the conversations that go on in the camera room. “oh my gosh, look at what they are putting in the cart, and they wonder why their butts are bigger than our aisles.”  or “do they really think they can put on that $3 t-shirt and look like they walked out of Target? Please lady, put back that sleeveless shirt and walk away, your arms are still moving from you stopping the basket 5 minutes ago. Just head on over to the sweaters and cover up those awful upper arms with as much material as you can stand in the heat.”

As we arrive at the store we do out best to find a parking space that will help us get to 3000 steps on our Fitbit. As we head down the frozen food aisle, there is the end of the rainbow. Randy does a double take and comes to a screeching halt. There, down in the middle of the aisle is a man who is unloading a pallet of Blue Bell ice cream. The look on Randy’s face told me that his dreams of finally having BB back in Phoenix has come true. He doesn’t have to wait any longer. We stroll over to the freezer trying not to act like our lives have had no meaning for the year we have lived here. There, in the freezer compartment just staring back at us is the ice cream that is like no other.  I tell him to just take it all in. Look over all of the flavors and pick out his favorite flavor. He looks at me and informs me that “no, he doesn’t want to put it in the basket just yet.” Why? why is he not buying the thing that keeps him writing to Blue Bell once a month asking when are they coming back to Arizona. He told me that he will finish shopping, pay for our groceries then before we walk out the door, he will come back to the ice cream aisle and get his precious treasure, pay for it and then, we will leave.  Truly I thought he was joking. It was at this point that I began to tell him that he didn’t take this much time picking out our wedding rings. Things began to escalate. Thinking that I could go ahead and grab some items while he stayed and drooled over the ice cream section, I walked away just shaking my head. Seriously, I began to remember us picking out rings 22 years ago and remembered that as I was trying to pick out just the perfect ring, he stood beside me and coaxed me to pick out the ring that didn’t make my butt look big.  His sense of humor has always been a little off.

But here we were, finally completing our third trip of the week and all checked out. He pushed our cart to the part of the store where I usually stop on our way out and buy a huge bag of popcorn at the Subway counter before exiting the store. He told me to “take a load off”  (man is he getting so romantic now that he has his Blue Bell back) and he would be right back. So I sat and wondered just how many half gallons of Blue Bell he would come back with.  I watch him, as he goes to the self check out (which he will NEVER go to when I want to hurry) with his precious half gallon of The Great Divide, which for those of you who are not Blue Bell groupies, is half chocolate and half vanilla.  He walks quickly toward me with his ice cream in hand and tells me to hurry and lets get the groceries loaded and get home before any of the ice cream melts. I told him I had not seen him move this fast since…well, actually ever!  For those of you who know my sweet husband, you know how slow he walks.  We speed home, yes, speed home,  not even worrying about a possible ticket, and he grabs the ice cream from the back seat and as I’m hauling in the groceries, I walk in the kitchen to see him standing over the half gallon with the biggest spoon we have. His life is now complete. His Blue Bell is back and life is back to normal. He just took the whole container to the den and told me that he was not to be disturbed. I told him, I thought he was already disturbed.

Yes, life is good and I once again have a sweeter and more gentle husband. All it took was a gallon of ice cream and a flavor called The Great Divide. Maybe I’ll take him to look at new wedding rings. He might be in a little more of a shopping mood than he was years ago.

 

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All My Ex’s Live in Texas

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

When I think of the word “ex”, I think about something that I truly loved and knew I couldn’t live without all the time I had it. We just returned from a two week trip back to our grand state of Texas to visit family and  friends. While there, I also attended a Women’s Conference which encouraged me to quit using “ex”cuses for not moving forward and not allowing God to use me where He has planted me.

On our two day drive across the desert, our conversation alway turned to which of our favorite restaurants we will visit while driving around Dallas. Which stores, that I do not have here in Arizona, do I want to spend our kids inheritance, while in Texas. How many Whataburgers can I consume in a 2 week period? How many times will I get to sit and listen to hymns sung by a choir (yes, I know this gives my age away) before coming back to services which end with drums, guitars and electric pianos?

Yes, I do admit that I do have one ex-husband which is still in Texas. Since he has never married in the 23 years since our divorce, I gather that I either ruined him on the idea of marriage or he figured that he would never be so blessed a second time; I like to think that is the reason, rather than the first. Not sure he would agree, but on to the story.

As we left Texas in the rear view mirror on Wednesday morning, we drove with anticipation as we neared the New Mexico border, getting us closer to home. We had had such a great time with our families and dinners with friends. Our favorite Tex-Mex restaurant had been crossed off our list twice in a 5 day period. We feasted on Texas barbecue, Whataburger more times than I care to tell you (yes, even had one for breakfast one day) and even talked Randy into driving me to my favorite Steinmart.

We sat in church Sunday morning and relished singing hymns that we both knew. After church we stayed around talking to old friends and then stayed just a little longer to listen to the music again as the second service started. It blessed my heart to hear one of my favorite songs being sung last Sunday, Every Praise is Due Our God; yes, every praise is certainly due our God. He had given us a great trip, watched over us as we drove, with a dog   in our lap, going and coming for the 1000 mile trip.

Randy was the chauffeur on the trip back, since I guess all that Mexican food, Whataburger and barbecue gave me bronchitis. I slept and had lots of time to think. Randy enjoyed the peace and quiet as each time I did try to talk, I would start coughing, so he told me to just be quiet and not try to talk. He assured me that he was just trying to take care of me. Yeah, heard that one before. I was able to muster under my breath that I had left one ex in Texas, I might be leaving another one there very quickly.

So, as we approached Phoenix, I really began to think about some of the things I had heard on the CD I had bought from Debbie Steward at the Women’s Conference last Saturday. One of the topics she had talked about was that we are always consumed with “are we in our sweet spot” rather than our “sent spot”. As I listened to her talking about where God sends us sometimes, as being our “sent spot” and how are we allowing Him to use us, it dawned on me that this is where He has me now. In a new community with new friends, a new church, new places to adventure. And what a great thing. How blessed Randy and I have been to be able to live in 3 different states and capture the new adventures which beckon us in each new “sent spot”. As soon as we arrived home, we had phone calls, a neighbor came by and several texted to check on us to see if we had made it home ok.

That is far more valuable than living by what we have always considered the best Mexican Food this side of the border. Will I ever return to Corpus to eat at Kikos, probably not, but I have the memories and the constant challenge of trying to duplicate their enchiladas ( I think I almost have it). Will I ever be able to live by any of the other grandchildren? I have no clue. But what I do know is that wherever I am, I want to finish strong. I want to be used by God to fulfill His purpose for leaving me here. Dallas will always have such a special place in our hearts, but even more special is the fact that we know that He has brought us to the place where He has placed us and we know that He is a great God….not only is He faithful, but we have a Whataburger 20 minutes away and am having a ball trying out all the different Mexican food places here. One of our favorite houses which we hated leaving in Texas has now become an “ex” as we have a new favorite house, here.

We continue to learn that “ex”citement can come with a new found joy of knowing that we are in the place for this season of our lives. We can now add precious friends who we already love and care about to our grateful lists of blessings.  Yes, we have lots of ex’s in Texas and California, but we look forward to the days ahead when we have a whole new lists of special memories and places which move us forward to a greater faith and a greater desire to live our lives for His purpose!

 

 

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Dumpster Diving Days Delayed

Chocolate Castles5 Comments

Im so thankful for computers, chocolate and Castle reruns as I won’t be sticking my head out the door for a few days. After yesterday, it will be awhile before I show my face out in our neighborhood. Let me start at the beginning. Our community has a garage sale every year. It was so exciting to think that we could get rid of all the “treasures” that we don’t have room for since moving here in May. I had already begun to imagine the new chairs, lamps and Christmas decor which I would be able to buy after making a fortune on Saturday from selling all the goodies. On Friday morning, I ran to a store here to look and pick out new chairs that I just knew would be in my future after closing up the garage sale yesterday. That way, all I would have to do yesterday afternoon is walk in the store and point and say, “I’ll take that and that and oh yes, I have to have that cute little table decoration. And please box up all those wonderful lamps which I just cannot live without”. Because I get a little (ok, maybe more than a little) impulsive sometimes, I did come home Friday with the back end of our crossover  loaded with a new chest of draw4rs and a small buffet because what if,”there had been a huge crowd showing up at the store and bought them out of these two precious chests, (at least that was my reasoning when unloading them out of the back with Randy standing there just shaking his head.) and I would have had to settle for something that was just not “perfect” for our new house. Heaven  forbid! ok, back to Friday night preparing for Saturday morning garage sale…I unloaded the new “just had  to have pieces” and Randy says that he will take the big boxes to the dumpster which is located in the back of our neighborhood. He takes off on the golf cart and I proceed to bring in the newfound treasures. When he comes back a few minutes later, he walks in the house and says, “well, I am officially my dad now, I just picked up something that was sitting beside the dumpster because I thought you might like them; come outside.”. So I did. There sitting beside the golf cart were 3 lanterns which hold candles that add charm and sophistication to the American home. I said, “you mean to tell me that someone just left these at the dumpster? I’m so proud of you for bringing them home. I will just paint them black and set them up on the porch and buy new candles for them.”

To celebrate our new obtained Dumpster Decor, we decided to celebrate and go get a. Pizza so my energy would be spent on taking the rest of our stuff outside for the sale, which would start at 7 a.m.

When we were pulling back into the driveway with pizza in hand, I had had time to think that maybe  painting the lanterns would be a lot of trouble. So I told Randy that instead of painting them, I would just sell them in the garage sale. After all, If I could get $5/ea that would allow me to run to Hobby Lobby and get one gigantic black lantern. So, I marked them with little yellow stickers and set them out to be oohed and Ahhed over, just knowing that they would be the first thing to go. Sure enough, a neighbor stopped by at 7:30 and said, “oh that would look great on my porch, I will buy one. So after taking her money, I turned to Randy and smiled, being ever so confident that I had made the right decision.  About an hour later, a sweet new friend and her husband stopped by to see if we had anything they could not live without. Teresa lives the next street over and we have already become quite good friends. For those of you who know Carol Loper, Teresa is the Carol of Arizona.

Teresa looks over at the lanterns and says, I just saw one that looks just like those on Judy’s front porch. I said, yes, she stopped by earlier and bought one. She then looks at her husband and says, “those look just like the ones you took to the dumpster yesterday” at which time, she looks at me and says, “I had better go home to check and see if anything is missing from my house since you were at my house the other day.”.  By this time, we were laughing so hard we were both crying.  Randy looked at me and said, “I told you that out of 800 houses here, expect the person that threw these away to see them here at our house being sold.”.  Well, between the laughing and the embarrassment, it was just too much. She texted me and told me that she was not going to hang this sin over my head forever but she was certainly going to get some mileage out of it. I had to promise her that I will support her grandson’s first 2 years of college if she would keep quiet. Apparently that wasn’t enough, because she texted me this morning and said that they told everyone at the patio party last night. AND encouraged all our new friends to not ever let me house sit for them, as they might come home and find an empty house with me selling all their worldly possessions in a garage sale.

My dumpster diving days are now behind me and the new adventure of not stooping lower than garage sale finds is ahead.  I assured Teresa that I would at least tithe from the money I profited from the sale of her lantern. Maybe I need to give a little more than 10% to get me out of this one.