Sunday…April 15
Since Don Baldwin, the former youth pastor at our church in Liberal, is now here in Lubbock at Bacon Heights Baptist Church, that's where we chose to attend on Sunday morning. Don had told us that the traditional service was at 9:15; so we were up and at it really early! After a very meaningful service, we were able to visit with Don and some teacher friends of Barbara's from years ago.
Next on the agenda was a trek over to another friend of Barbara's, Ann. Not only did we get to visit with Ann, but since Valerie and her baby, Jackson, were there, we got to visit
with them also. Before long, it was time to pick up Jaycie from Chloe’s and head her over to cheerleading practice. The photos on the left show warm up exercises that she does…kind of makes the bones and joints hurt just looking, doesn’t it? 
After practice, Jaycie's friend Kiersten came over to play and help Jaycie prepare supper for Grams, Gramps, and Becky.
Their menu, which came from a child's cookbook, Cooking Rocks by Rachel Rae, consisted of Meatloaf Muffins, Smashed Potatoes, and brownies. The girls got a little distracted, but with a tad bit of help from Grams and Gramps, the meal was ready by the time Becky arrived.
Monday, April 16
Wow! It was a little deja vu for Jim and me this morning…our skills for getting a little one ready and off to school are quite rusty! However, we managed to complete the task except for one little problem. Jaycie forgot her glasses, but later in the morning when she finally found us, we got them to her.
Jim and I had all kinds of business to take care of while we were in town…renew license tag for Big V, insurance, etc., etc., etc. I even had to give up my cell phone since they couldn’t fix the problem. That took up most of the morning and afternoon.
What I hadn’t mentioned earlier is that I found out Saturday that the husband of one of my favorite teaching partners had died on Wednesday. Therefore, Jim and I made arrangements with Kiersten’s mother to keep Jaycie so we could go to Edgar’s funeral at 4:00 on Monday. We had gone by to see Martha on Saturday so she knew we were coming.
Back to the house once we picked up Jaycie where the rest of the night was spent just enjoying her company.
Tuesday, April 17
We had made arrangements to meet Don (youth pastor) at McAlister’s for lunch. Rachel, his wife, and two of their children, Hannah and Noah, joined us. We spent 2 hours laughing, visiting, and getting caught up on each other’s lives.
Today was another cheerleading practice day so much of the evening was spent just watching J-Bird do her thing at the gym.
Wednesday, April 18
Today was a meet Becky for lunch day. Visiting with her just rolls back the years and brings out the memory boxes. Only problem that developed was that before we knew it, we had to return her to work…(she’s a nurse at Texas Tech University Health Science Center).
When it came time to pick up Jaycie, Jim walked since it was finally a beautiful afternoon. Imagine J-Bird’s surprise when she found Gramps waiting for her with her scooter. She rode the scooter home with Jim trailing behind. I didn’t get to go since we were waiting on UPS to bring my new phone and were afraid that even in that short amount of time we might miss them.
At 6:30 Jim and Jaycie left for the airport to get her parents. Once again, I had to stay behind to wait on the phone. We were hoping to leave Lubbock as soon as the phone arrived. Well…suffice it to say that that didn’t happen since when I got the phone, it was totally different from the one I had and they didn’t include a charger. After over an hour and a half on the phone with 7 different departments, it came down to…Tough Luck…go to the phone store tomorrow morning.
Thursday, April 19
For one last time, we took Jaycie to school and then drove over to the phone store. Since we had our books, we spent and hour and 10 minutes waiting patiently for them to open. By 9:15 AM, we were on the road home. We actually made exceptional time coming back to Artesia…2 hours and 45 minutes…since we didn’t’ stop anywhere.
Since I didn’t have the photos downloaded last week, I’ll show you now what we returned to…
If you look carefully on the left at the back, you can see the Mexican Palm Tree that we planted! We also were happy to find that the bird feeder was empty…so guess we’re attracting some birdies.
I also want to share a photo of Jean’s Spanish Daggers…they only flower every 4 years or so. They arereally very stately and pretty.
We were surprised and delighted when Nancy and Jerry dropped by for a short visit since they will be heading out tomorrow for Amarillo to celebrate Daniel's 3rd birthday and we'll be going to Ruidoso to try our hand at an audition for Wheel of Fortune....more on that tomorrow.
Friday, April 20
Well…this was the day for our next television game show adventure…around noon we began the trip to Ruidoso, NM where we planned to join the throngs of people hoping to audition for the Wheel of Fortune Wheelmobile. Yes, they were officially going to hold auditions for auditions to be on the game show right there in Ruidoso at the Inn of the Mountain Gods Resort. Since we had nothing better to do, we decided that this challenge couldn’t be passed up.
However, it was a cold blustery day and getting a good shot of us by the Wheelmobile became our first opportunity to handle problems. The wind blew in our faces and made posing an unpleasant experience…but we were determined to succeed. While we were out there, a lady stopped and asked if we wanted her to take a photo of the two of us. Obviously, we did!Even though all the publicity on this event said, “You don’t have to get there earlier than an hour before game time,” it became apparent when we arrived at 4:00 that we shouldn’t have believed them. The line went almost completely around the Inn, and believe me, that’s a huge place! While we were trying to find a place in the line, one lady told us that she had been there since 9:00 AM! Give me a break! We were an hour earlier than the paper said to be.
Jim brought down the house once we got to the “end” of the line by declaring to all who would listen, “The last time I stood in a line this long, they gave me an air force uniform and kept me for four years!” I think you can get the idea of his feelings about this brainy idea of mine from that comment.
We did have a good time…but, out of the 30 chosen from 1200 wannabes for that hour, we were left in the cold! However, it was an interesting process…we got 4 W of F pens and 2 souvenir DVD’s and we met a few really interesting people. But, once we spent our hour watching the process, we both agreed that once was enough!
Saturday, April 21
My sister Carol and her husband Cal were coming through Ruidoso on their way to Alamogordo to see my niece Lynette and family so they stopped and spent the morning with us. It was great to see them and catch up on family news.
It was once again a cold, blustery day so we didn’t get to wander around as much as we wanted; but with the scenery that Ruidoso offers, one cannot help but feel refreshed. We did finally decide to wander back up to the Inn and maybe go on and get in line; but once there we rapidly changed our minds! We regained our senses once we found the line longer than the night before. Instead, we headed to the buffet and ate before heading back to the motel and our internet service!
From the cool pine country of New Mexico,
Jim & Barbara
“Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.” Sign…Monterey Baptist Church…Lubbock
