Tag: Starbucks

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Fall Prediction

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

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!

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Birthday Bash Blues

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

IMG_5419

IMG_5561

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!

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Dashing Through the Snow

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

OK, maybe I wasn’t dashing through the snow, maybe it was more like “dashing around the parking lot trying to find where my husband was waiting for me to come out of Walmart”! But it really was “dashing” at least.

We had been out running errands when I realized that we were in a different area than where we tend to stop for some of  our Christmas goodies at our (that’s right, “our” Walmart), when I told Frosty to just pull in to this new Walmart and drop me off at the door to see if they have any of the Christmas spatulas that I have been buying up at all the Walmarts around us. He let me off at the door, as the wind was gusting up to 40 mph and told me that as soon as he saw me walk out, he would pull up to the door and I could jump in. He is just so sweet and thoughtful.

FIrst of all, I have to tell you that these spatulas are just so cute and sell for $1.96. I have bought some from high end kitchen stores for about $12/ea and these are just as cute. I collect spatulas and so am always on the lookout for cute ones. They are my signature little gift for hostess gifts and I attach them with Christmas ribbon to packages or Easter or Valentine…you get the picture, right? So when I had bought all that Walmart had in our area, I went looking on Walmart’s web site and thought I would just go ahead and order some to be delivered but to my wondering eye should appear but “3 spatulas for $18.00?” you have got to be kidding me!!! Do the Walmart people realize that they sell them in their own stores for $1.96? And that is why I decided to just hop out of the car, risk ruining my hair being blown to younder and head in to this new unchartered Walmart. Now back to the story.

I wondered over to the baking aisle and there as big and bright as Rudolfs Red nose, were more Christmas spatulas. So I bought all my arms could carry and started out the door. I did notice that there were carts blowing around the parking lot due to the hurricane force winds. (maybe I am exaggerating just a bit, but I knew that maybe I should have used just a bit more hairspray that morning as mine was only stiff enough to hold in winds up to 20 mph). So before I walk out the automatic glass doors I look down a couple of aisles looking to see if I see Frosty, waiting for me when low and behold, I see him straight ahead down the aisle all the way at the end, about 20 cars down. Clear shot. Knowing that as soon as he sees me, he will hurry to pick me up seeing that I have my hands full and whisk me away to Starbucks to celebrate my new addition to my Christmas Spatula collection. Well, I stood there for just a minute and thought, maybe he is on the phone and just hasn’t seen me walk out the door. So I begin to wave furiously at him, waving both white Walmart bags over my head to get his attention. Nothing…so I begin to walk down the aisle, all the while continuing to GLARE and wave as I continue walking out to meet my darling husband, who in my mind is not so darling right at that moment. When I am about 3 cars away from finally getting to our car, he puts the car in drive and begins to creep toward me. By now, my hair is totally gone, my arms are sore from trying to wave him down and my attitude is not very jolly. When I am seated inside the car I look over to him and give him a “what in the world were you doing that you didn’t see me walking toward you with my purchases” look, he smiled at me and said, “it was you, I didn’t recognize you since  your hair looked different and you had on a jogging suit. I’m not use to you wearing a jogging suit or seeing your hair like that!”

WHAT? I have been in the car with you all morning and you just realized that  I had on the new jogging suit that I bought 3 days ago? All I could say was I was glad I did have on my new jogging suit as at least I was prepared for the “jog” out to the car. And the different hair style? It wasn’t different before I had to walk the 3 miles from the Walmart door to the car? But in hurricane force winds, the hair is always the first to go. We rode in silence to Starbucks! Maybe paying the $18 for 3 might have been worth the money. I would have got my Christmas spatulas, not had to come home and re roll my hair and would not have had to pay for marriage counseling that week. Christmas….it’s the most wonderful time of the year, as long as you keep your marriage counselor on speed dial!

Daily Thoughts

Senior Sightseeing

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

We have had good friends here from California since last Saturday. And yes, we are still good friends. The week didn’t discourage or damage the relationship one bit. It seems that as you get older, it gets a little harder to find couples that you can spend lots of time together with, without feeling like you can’t wait to get back to your routine, or just get back to being the two of you. But this week showed me something. It showed me that blessings sometimes come from the least place you would imagine.

I knew that we would have a great time because we have spent so much time with the friends who were here. They are friends who we have spent weekends with up in Big Bear, California at their home. For a real treat, go to the search engine in my blog and put in Labor Day in Big Bear and read quite a comical essay on our “relaxing” weekend. These are the same friends who almost killed us with “relaxation”, but even then, we came away with a friendship that showed us how truly special good friends bless our lives, if we survive some of the plans they come up with.

Because we hadn’t seen Bonnie and Arnie since October, we welcomed them with open arms and just couldn’t wait to show them Dallas and all the good food that Texas has to offer. Upon their arrival, we headed down to Lover’s Lane to eat at Celebration Restaurant, home of comfort food. We were so excited to be able to catch up that first night over meatloaf, chicken fried steak and baskets of cornbread, it would just be the perfect beginning.

We were seated at the last table available next to a party of about 12 people who got louder with each glass of wine. We couldn’t even begin to hear ourselves talk or think. We just gave up and ate in silence. The food was great but we left with headaches. As we stepped out of the restaurant, we all just stood there and went, “ah…listen, quiet”. It was then and there that I realized that we are now true seniors. As Triple A will tell you, when you are couples riding in a car with the women in the back and the hubbies in the front, you know you are seniors. At the end of the week, we wanted to show them downtown Dallas and thought it would be great to enjoy the first sunshine we had seen all week, so we headed down to the Nasher Scluptur Museum.  We didn’t get there till 4, so not only did we  get the senior discount, but we go in for , “buy one, get one free”, since we got there an hour before closing. Randy is a happy camper now.

But…Randy and I figured that one of the best ways to show off Dallas was to take them into Highland Park and let them see how the other half lives. So we headed down to show them where Jerry Jones lives and the first shopping outdoor mall in Dallas, Highland Park Village. We are acting cool and sophisticated as we tell them that we will go into Starbucks and sit with a cup of coffee watching the Bentley’s and Rolls Royce’s drive up. This is where it gets good. We go into Starbucks and Randy and I tell them it’s out treat. (are we big spenders or what?) So we walk up to the counter and I order a tall Pikes Peak coffee for Randy. The cute little 15 year old, ask me again what I wanted. I repeat the order; a tall Pikes Peak coffee. Randy inches his way beside me and tells the little cutie, “she means a tall Pikes Roast Coffee”. They start laughing and the customer next to us, starts laughing and says, “that was so funny, you just automatically said, Pikes Peak”. I huffed around, wishing that I could grab up her Louis Viton purse and hit her over the head with it. But, I figured that I would just get away from the counter as quickly as possible and go sit with my other old friends. Knowing that we have been to museums all afternoon and my hands could use some cleaning, I see a huge bottle of hand sanitizer sitting right there on the counter by the cash register. So I did a double pump wiping my hands all the way to my elbows back to the table, when I notice people looking at me. Boy, I guess maybe they are looking at my new hair do and how cute I must look. I sit down next to Bonnie and tell her to take some of the sanitizer off my hands, I guess I did get just a little too much. So we are sitting there wiping our hands together when Bonnie says,” my goodness this sanitizer is just getting stickier and stickier.” We both keep wiping our hands together and I think, maybe it is one of those that has to dry but after about 5 minutes.  I can’t stand it any longer, we both get up to go wash our hands when I hear Randy coming back with all our coffees, saying, “everyone behind the counter is wondering why you pumped coffee syrup onto your hands?” OMGosh, why don’t I pay closer attention to labels? As Bonnie and I are walking through Starbucks to try and wash this sticky mess off our hands, people are staring at us and laughing. Apparently they all noticed that I had gone over and used coffee syrup as hand sanitizer. How do I regain “coolness” when I have coffee syrup on my phone and on my drink, I had even wiped my hands on my pants hoping to get rid of some of the excess sanitizer; now my pants were sticky and everything I had touched was so sticky that I had to bring back an arm load of wet towels to wipe everything off. We decided we had best get back to the side of town that allows senior moments to occur without laughing you out of the establishment. So we take our coffees and drink them in the car. We laughed for 30 minutes, remembering now how precious some of our most embarrassing moments can bring laughter and memories that will bind friends together for a long time.

We won’t ever go into a Starbucks again without remembering our afternoon in Highland Park. Some friends might have the memory of shopping St John together, but we came away with a great memory that cost less that $10. It doesn’t take lots of money to make a funny memory. Sometimes, it just takes a good sense of humor and a giant bottle of coffee syrup.

Senior Sightseeing…one of God’s little blessings!

Daily Thoughts

Pumpkins and Frappe

Chocolate CastlesLeave a comment

Fall is in the air, fa la la la la! The white shoes are put away and the matches are sitting upon the mantel, just waiting for the weather to drop below 100 so we can lite the fireplace.  In the meantime, I will perk myself up by stopping by Starbucks and guzzling down a pumpkin spice frappe. September is that month when we really don’t know what to wear or what table decorations to use. It’s still hot to where we are needing to still wear our shorts and sandals, but because we know it is September, our minds automatically just think pumpkins and pies, fireplaces and lattes. It just seems weird to walk into Hobby Lobby to see if there is any new fall decorations that I just can’t live without in shorts and sandals. If it is like the past 60 years, I’m sure that there will be some that I just cannot walk away from. So to truly get in the spirit of Fall, I turn down the air conditioning in the house and car and get out a new fall outfit, stop and buy a Pumpkin Spice Frappe (since I cannot make myself drink anything hot until it is below 50) and head to see just what new shapes and colors of pumpkins they are selling this year.  Peter Pumpkin, (Randy’s name from Sept 1 through Thanksgiving), doesn’t know it yet, but I am thinking about having a pumpkin carved to look like him. I think he will be excited to see himself sitting right outside the front door, with “welcome ya’ll” carved at the top of his face. Things like this just get him so excited about the holidays. He will be thrilled to know that this is the weekend we go to storage to find all our fall treasures.

Last year, if you remember reading (Labor Day in Big Bear) it took us 3 trips to bring home all the treasures that are stored. We have since bought a little bigger car than the two seater, so hopefully we can make it in one trip.
This time last year, we were recovering from hiking down a mountain on Labor Day. Since that time, we have learned to go to Big Bear with “imaginary illness” that would not allow us such hideous activity and also “forgetting” the required shoes it takes to hike. Because of this new wisdom of ours, we actually did a little resting yesterday, instead of participating in something that would require knee surgery or a hip replacement, we sat and watched golf or read. We are learning. We are slow, and it takes us awhile, but we now know how to get out of things we don’t like to do. Lie and fake illnesses. Works every time.
In case you are wanting to drive your adult kids crazy (more than normal), do what we do. We record a really stupid message on our answering machine. It will keep them from calling so much, because they are afraid if we aren’t home, they will have to listen once again to…
“Hello, you have reached Peter and Penelope Pumpkin. Peter is hunting pumpkins and gourds and I’m shopping for s’mores, we’ll give you a call when we walk through the door”. Trust me on this, it will drive them crazy.