Since the pile of laundry on the floor in my closet was growing higher and higher, I decided it was time to get to the store for laundry soap. Not that I've not been at the store in recent weeks, but somehow I neglected to get that necessary item. Today I made a bee-line for the soap aisle to ensure getting what I came for. Usually I'll take a quick inventory of the basket contents before getting into the check-out line to make sure I actually did have what I came to get. Obviously I didn't have a specific mission on the other trips when it came to laundry detergent!
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Twila is supposed to be coming for cropping today but our other friend, Caroline, once again has other things on her schedule. She felt badly to always decline but from now on will plan around cropping so she gets to come. Caroline and her husband are prospective members, currently going through the 'instruction' class privately with Pastor. Not only do I like Caroline and like scrapbooking, it is also part of job to incorporate and keep in contact with prospects/new members. One of my favorite things to do!
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For our lunch today, I bought white mountain bread, sandwich meat and cheese to make our own sandwiches instead of having Twila pick up subs for us. I bought the Hillshire Farms sandwich meat which comes with its own Gladware container, because they were less expensive than the store brand---imagine! The store brand soda was also quite cheap so that's what I took for my refrigerator. Justin picked some up for me the other day and it wasn't bad, so I can do it!
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Not wishing to waste a moment, I made my way to the check out, and found only one open. I don't like the self-checking aisles, I like the personal touch of having some one do it for me. The checkout young lady was seemingly new to the job, had the most delightful accent, perhaps from the Islands. In attempting to process my purchase I needed to scan my debit card twice before she got it figured out. But, the young lady doing the bagging, was the low-talker. She must have asked me three times where I got my shirt (one of my postcard looking tops) before I could hear or understand the question. She had dramatic black eye make-up on, jet black hair in pigtails and wore glasses, rather the character, but I never took her for a low-talker! Good thing I wasn't wearing a puffy shirt!
This is a photo taken of me sitting on the ancient rocks in Ephesus, contemplating whether or not I'll make it the rest of the tour. It was 115 degrees above zero, and yes, I was HOT! Notice I am holding a water bottle in my hand, probably one of the only pictures ever showing this. As it turned out, we were at the end of the line for the tour and about to head to the shops area and bus. I bought another bottle of water at the top of the hill, drank some of it, and poured the rest over my head. I was already wet from perspiration so what's a little more? We all kept checking with each other to make sure we were okay and we made it! 
Quite by contrast and only six weeks later, Lynn and I are "on the rocks" at the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska. Twila took our picture with the glacier showing in the background. I bought the fleece jacket on the ship and it served me well on the trip, but look at Lynn in her cropped pants. As Linda would say, "It was probably in the 60's!!!" Layers, layers, layers.....
Here is my friend, Judy, standing against the wall at the Palace of Knossos, once more hot, hot, hot. She is making do in her outfit of borrowed and purchased pieces of clothing, since the entire trip Jerry and she were without their luggage. I didn't have much to share clothing-wise but had a shawl to contribute for formal night and some sun screen given to me by the dermatologist. Our group pitched in as best we could for the two couples who didn't get their luggage and Judy has told me that brown is her least favorite color, but what are you going to do???
