Tag: WalMart

appetizers · Breads · Chocolate · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Uncategorized

Cooking With Ginger

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We have a young chef who comes into our community once a month who is absolutely wonderful. Not only does she bring us amazing recipes, but she is funny and just livens up the people who show up. You come away laughing and in such great moods, it is just a great class to attend. Last week she made 4 really good recipes of which I have already made one. It will be one of our staples from now on. Open Faced Caprese Sandwiches. She also gave us the recipe for Butterscotch Peanut bars, Watermelon-Feta-Basil Salad and a summer mixed drink which I will post tomorrow. But today I am posting the Caprese Sandwiches and Butterscotch Bars.
I bet when you read the title you thought this post would be all about recipes which included ginger. Fooled YA!

Caprese Sandwiches
1 Roma Tomato, sliced into four slices
2 tables chopped fresh basil (or more depending on how many slices of bread you are using)
Fresh Mozzarella log, sliced thinly
4 slices of Italian Bread or baguette
Balsamic Reduction *Found it at some Walmarts and also Trader Joes
Butter and Olive Oil

Preheat oven broiler or toaster oven
Gently spread olive oil or softened butter on one side of the bread. Place in oven to lightly toast.
On opposite side of buttered or oiled bread, with a pastry brush, place olive oil on the dry side of the bread that has not been toasted. Place tomato slices on top of bread. (If you are making more than 4 slices of bread, use another tomato)
Top with slices of mozzarella. Again, use enough slices to make however many slices you need.
Place bread onto baking sheet and place under broiler for 1-2 minutes until cheese is melted and starting to bubble.
Top with chopped basil and sprinkle with the balsamic reduction. You may want to sprinkle each slice with sea salt.

Butterscotch Peanut Bars
This quick and easy bar to make taste similar to a Pay Day candy bar.

Bar
1/2 cup butterscotch flavored baking chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup salted Spanish peanuts or salted peanuts
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Glaze
1/4 cup milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 teas shortening

Melt butterscotch chips, peanut butter and butter oven low heat in small saucepan, stirring constantly 3-5 minutes. Cool 5 minutes.
Stir in peanuts and marshmallows. Pour into a buttered 8″ square pan. Cover and place in fridge 30 min or until set.
Melt chocolate chips with shortening in a small saucepan or microwave until chips are melted. In 15 second intervals. Sir after each interval. Drizzle over the cooled bars and refrigerate until chocolate is set.
Cut into bars and keep covered in fridge.

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Penzey’s Seasonings

Chocolate Castles2 Comments

Even though this is so hard for me to admit, I had never heard of Penzey’s Seasonings. In the last couple of months, we have gained a new friendship with a couple from church and Marilyn loves to cook as much as I do. We have begun to meet her and her husband for lunch during the week and on one of our adventures to Cheesecake Factory, where Randy discovered a Chicken Parmesan Pizza, she began to tell me about Penzey’s and how great their seasonings were. So we planned our next adventure to go eat a Chicago dog at Portillos in Tempe and then head to Penzky’s so she could show me all of the seasonings that she loves. So last Thursday, that is exactly what we did. I discovered that I can spend $50 faster in Penzey’s than Steinhart! As we walked along the aisle, she would point out a spice that “oh this is what I add to my meatloaf, or hamburgers that people always ask me what I did to make it taste so great”, so of course I had to have that one. Then we came to a spice that she adds to any bread pudding, or apple dish, well, you know I had to have that one. Then there was the one that I just had to have to add to veggies or salads and don’t get me started on the dried fresh dill and jalapeño flakes. Randy and her husband, Bob, just stood over by the door, shaking their heads. Upon checking out, Randy learned over and whispered in my ear, “does this mean that you are going to actually start cooking other things besides cakes and pies?” After glaring at him, I told the lady to hold on, I wasn’t through and went and grabbed a few more spices that I didn’t think any home should be without. Randy didn’t have any more wise cracks before leaving the store.  When I posted my new found treasures on Facebook, several of my friends told me that they couldn’t believe that I had never heard of Penzey’s. I informed them that unless they were on the shelf at Walmart, my spice world is pretty limited with garlic powder, salt, pepper, onion powder, you know, the stuff kitchens are known for, but… Now, I have the catalog and my new spice lingo includes words like:

Herbes de Provence, Bouquet Garni, Chicago Steak Seasoning, Beef Roast Seasoning and Sunny Paris.  I hope that by the time we have company and I use the new seasonings, I will have learned how to pronounce the ones with the fancy little names. I have Chicago and Beef and Sunny down, but am working on Herbes, Provence and Bouquet Garni. If I have too much trouble, I guess I’ll stick with just garlic powder. Well, on fancy meals, I’m pretty sure I am good saying “celery salt”!  So, watch out Phoenix, this country girl is practicing her french and is ready to start cooking with her new Bucket Garnie and my new Hurbees dee Pro Vince! Hope it tastes better than it sounds!

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Blue Bell & The Beast

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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.

 

Daily Thoughts · Uncategorized

Dashing Through the Snow

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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

Retirement Isn’t For Sissies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daily Thoughts

Dumpster Diving

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“Randy has hit an all time low. Yesterday we ran to the store to get a few items and while we were out, he told me that there were several sacks of clothing that we needed to drop off at one of the clothes donation boxes, so be on the lookout for one as we drove by parking lots. Well, I spotted one, so he pulled over and since I am such a giving person, I told him that he didn’t have to undo his seat belt and weather the wind gusts that were blowing profusely up to 40 mph. But that’s just the kind of person I am, thoughtful, kind and….well, at least I was until he did the unthinkable. When we were pulling up to the donation box, he slows down to a crawl and says to me, “look, isn’t that just the kind of seat we have been saying that we would go buy for Payton when the kids come over to eat?” I glared at him and said, “don’t even think about it Mister.”

So I got the clothes out of the trunk and placed them in the box. Feeling so very good about us keeping up with our closets this year and instead of putting all the clothes in a bin in our garage labeled, “SIZE WE WISH WE WERE”, we were going ahead and just giving up on that dream and giving the clothes away now, instead of letting the kids burn them when we are gone.

As I began to open the car door to get in, he continues, “just look, that seat is still in the box and it does look like exactly the one that we said would be perfect for our little 9 month old princess.” I reminded him that there are cameras all over the parking lot and if he thought for even one minute that I was going to have my rear end plastered all over a security camera screen in some warehouse somewhere, he was just crazy. After all, I am a author now. Authors don’t go stealing “junk” that sits outside the donation boxes in Walmart parking lots. What if the camera saw us and wanted to use us as examples of “why they ask people not to leave items outside the boxes ‘ and my rear end would end up on the 10:00 News. He told me I watched TV too much and, of course, they didn’t care if items were taken that were still sitting outside the donation boxes. How does he know that? Has he brought home other items that came from outside donation boxes? Does one really ever know their spouse? Maybe that is where he found my new ironing board? or the new lamp that he told me he found that was such a “great deal!”

Well, the new high chair is all sanitized and ready for Payton when she comes over next time. We won’t tell her parents where the chair came from, other than saying, “oh, it was such a great deal and was just exactly what we had been looking for.”  Randy just told me he had some errands to run and told me not to ask where he was going nor could I ask where he had been if he walks in the door with a doll house or wagon; just have the disinfectant out and ready. Wonder which news channel I should watch tonight?

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts

Peanut Butter Candy Cheesecake

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It is so strange that as a child I really didn’t like peanut butter. My mom didn’t like it and I’m sure I probably heard her talk about how awful it was so never even tried it. During one of my pregnancies I developed a love for peanut butter. The older I get the more I enjoy anything made with peanut butter. When I saw this recipe I knew that it would be made the next time we have people over.

Taken from All American Amazing Cakes:

Crust:

1 1/2 cups crushed chocolate graham crackers

1/4 cup granulated sugar

5 tables tables butter, melted

Filling:

4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1 3/4  cups firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

3 large eggs

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1 teas vanilla

10 fun-size (I get these at Walmart, I think you get either 8 or 10 for a dollar) chocolate covered crispy peanut buttery candy bars like Butterfinger, chopped

Garnish: crushed Butterfingers

Preheat oven to 300.

To prepare crust in a small bowl combine crushed graham crackers and sugar. Add melted butter, stirring to combine. Press mixture into bottom and 1″ up the sides of a 10″ spring from pan. Bake for 6 min. Let cool completely.

For filling, in a large bowl and beat the cream cheese, brown sugar and peanut butter with mixer until very creamy. Add eggs and egg yolks, one at a time beating just until combined before adding the next egg. Stir in cream, vanilla and chopped candy. Spoon batter into cooled crust.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 min. Turn oven off and leave cake in oven with door closed for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cheesecake cool completely. Then cover and chill for at least 4 to 6 hours before serving. Garnish with more whipped whipping cream and crushed candy bars.

Daily Thoughts

From Wallyworld to Trumpworld in 38 Miles

Chocolate Castles1 Comment

The weekend began as any other Saturday. We would be doing our usual errands that we do on Saturdays and end up at WalMart to do our shopping for toiletries and a few small food items that we thought we needed to do some “fall” baking. So we jump in Randys car and head out. It is unseasonably warm.  Walmart is about a 30 minute drive from our house. We have found that folks out here tend to shop Target more than Wallyworld, but we just cannot make the switch. Before I start my story that I want to tell you about, I have to tell you about our  shopping at WalMart in Texas. To be honest, we go to WalMart for the fried chicken tenders that they sell. Someone that worked with Randy back in Cowboy and Indian land, had told Randy about WalMart chicken and that you just couldn’t find better fried chicken anywhere. So one Saturday, RC told me he had a surprise for me. So off we go…..now in my mind, I’m thinking, “oh, I bet he is taking me to Neimans to have a piece of our fav coconut cake” or “wow, he remembered that we had our first date on this day and wants to take me where we went that day” or, “oh I just love her so much, I think I’ll surprise her and go buy her a new diamond ring for being the best wife EVER”….so as I was trying to decide which of these surprises we were headed for, we are by this time, in the parking lot at WalMart there in Plano…..I couldn’t figure out why this was a surprise, we went almost every Sat to WalMart. Before getting out of the car, he told me to just trust him and follow, so follow I did. We headed straight to the deli where lo and behold, he grabs a package of Hawaiian rolls and orders 4 fried chicken tenders. I am still looking at him trying to figure out what he is doing and why, of all places was he ordering chicken when I’m sure we must be headed down to Neimans for lunch. But he paid for our chicken and rolls and off to the car we go. He found a shaded parking space under a tree and proceeded to open the rolls and put a chicken tender on it and hand it to me. SURPRISE!!!!!! This was my surprise. A chicken tender sandwich in the parking lot of WalMart. You’ve got to be kidding me. He tells me to go ahead and try it. I figure if I am ever going to get him to Neimans, I should go ahead and humor him, so I did. I bit into it and oh my gosh, he was right. It was the best fried chicken I had had in a very long time. We sat there and ate until all of it was gone. I instructed him that if he ever told any of my Northwood Women’s Club friends that I was eating a chicken roll sandwich in the parking lot of WallMart, I would never forgive him nor would I EVER EVER make him another chocolate pie. So now we had a new tradition. WalMart Picnics! Guess I need to get back to the story I started to write about.

We arrive at WalMart and he parks as far away as possible to give us exercise (like we wouldn’t be getting enough walking in on Sun walking over the entire golf course down in Palos Verdes looking at all the old cars and new cars that was on display.

It is now 103 degrees and as we enter the store, I begin to remember just a “few” more things that I needed than I thought. When I began to throw them into the basket, RC kept reminding me that we are in his car, not mine. His car is a two seater with a small trunk. As I am merrily skipping down the isles throwing in chocolate chips, sugar, cocoa, cream cheese, flour and sugar, he shakes his head. I know, I know, so what if we need to have a little sack of chocolate chips between my feet for the 30 min ride home. I can deal with that. Oops,I forgot, we need paper towels and toilet paper. Since company will be coming soon, we really need to stock up on the large economy size of both thinking we don’t want to have to come back for a few weeks. Oh, my goodness, I forgot, I have bunco at the house on Wednesday, so “honey, lets go ahead and buy some new flowers for the front porch to spiffy it up,” so by the time we get to the check out counter, Randy is off trying to find another basket to roll our “few” items out to the car in. One basket wasn’t enough. So we begin to load the groceries into the car, and quickly run out of trunk space and begin to load items to the inside. Let’s just say that people driving behind us now will know what brand of toilet paper we use. The only place it will fit is in the back window. The flowers, where will the flowers fit, I already have all the chocolate chips and sugar and flour in my lap and one pot of flowers between my legs. Where will we put them? Randy decides that he can drive with the other pot of flowers wedged between his legs. Am posting this picture so you get the idea. We arrive home safely and unload the car. I had to get out first, take the flowers from between his feet before he could actually get out of the car, but we made it. We are stocked and ready for company and cannot begin to think about our day out tomorrow after church,going to the Trump National Golf Course for the Concours DeElegance Car show. The car show that he has wanted to go to for many years and now, we finally get to go. It is great living where you can actually go to some of the places we have always wanted. So off we go to Palos Verdes wearing our “golf course attire”. We don’t want anyone to think that we don’t belong at this classy place, so Randy wears his best tennis shoes with his best tennis socks and his cute little visor he got free when he bought a shirt at a sale up at Big Bear. So we arrive and are so excited to be by the ocean where it is so nice and cool and so many beautiful cars are parked all over the gorgeous golf course. Truly an amazing car show. Randy now tells me that he made us rsvp at the Trump Club house for dinner which is a very nice surprise. But you should see me. My hair is completely flat, the makeup I had on has all sweated off and my shirt is sticking to me because of the heat. We look like two little ragamuffins. Walking into the clubhouse, I felt like the Beverly Hill Billies coming to town. Randy heads off to the bathroom and when he comes back, he is laughing. I ask him what he is laughing at and he tells me he will tell me when we sit down at the table. We are shown to our table, which overlooks the ocean. What a beautiful sight. I begin to relax thinking maybe no one will notice that my hair is flat, straight and sweaty when Randy begins to tell me his bathroom episode. He got tickled thinking that there he was, thinking he looked pretty good in his “nicer” tennis shoes with new socks that came from WalMart and was standing between one man wearing Gucci shoes and the other wearing Farragamo shoes. He finished quickly.

We got so tickled but as we looked out over the beautiful ocean and the gorgeous landscape, we remembered that it just doesn’t matter what brand of shoes you wear, or what our hair looks like. It is such a great feeling to know that  we can have fun with each other,  whether sitting in the parking lot at Walmart or sitting at the Club House at Trump National. It is great being married to your best friend. Thank you Randy for always making our lives so interesting and joyful. You are a blessing to me.

Next weekend we are going shopping for shelves to put all our extra toilet paper and paper towels. I found a package of each when we got home. We don’t need to buy either for at least 6 months.