Another first year anniversary…today is the day a year ago we
arrived here in Artesia to begin our journey into retirement. What better way to start it off than attending church?After the church service, we attended a Mexican luncheon in the activity center of First Baptist with Edith, Ernie, and Billee. Then it was back to the house to enjoy the rest of a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Around 6:00 we wandered over to Jerry and Nancy’s where we ate supper with Jean, Jerry, Nancy, and Becky before learning a new game, Anybody’’s Guess, or something like that. Jim, Becky and I were a team and…to put it mildly, we got whipped badly by the others! I thought Jim knew a lot of trivia, but Nancy had him beat that night!
What a wonderful ending to this day…
Monday, July 2
Jim and I met Becky at the Artesia natatorium at 6:30 this morning to begin our trek back to healthy exercise. Jim and I used to start the work days (for a couple of years) in Liberal by joining the Shumates and Brenda Regier at the 1st Baptist swimming pool and exercise room each morning and always enjoyed it…so decided to give this a try while we’re here. It is a great way to start the mornings.
After the swim and aerobic session, we did some mowing and other odd jobs around the place…but the heat finally sent me inside for a nap while Jim continued to putter around…he even ran over a snake of some kind while he was mowing the strip outside Jean’s fence line…said he never found the head or the tail so has no idea what kind it was.
That night Ernie came out to help Jim install a trailer hitch on the cycle for the cargo trailer. Jim had done a lot of the work during the day, but finally came to the point where he needed some assistance. What the guys thought would be an hour’s job extended into several. Billee and I occupied our time by visiting and making oatmeal cookies (and sitting out a thunderstorm that appeared from nowhere).
Tuesday, July 3
After swimming this morning, we went over to Edith’s for Jim’s morning cup of coffee. We had decided yesterday to see if she would be up and ready for morning visitors, and she said she would be. It just seemed like a perfect opportunity to visit while we were in town.
Just as we arrived back at Jean’s, Jerry and Nancy were heading out to work. Nancy asked Jim if he really killed a snake yesterday with the lawn mower…Jim said yes. Then she related the funniest incident…It seems that while she was outside one of the neighbor children told her, “Your lawn boy killed a rattlesnake yesterday.” Jim quipped to me, “Well…I don’t mind being called a lawn boy…I’ve been called a lot worse! (He’s thinking now that he’d like to be upgraded to pool boy, but we don’t know anyone with a pool.
Once home, Jim was determined that Big V was due for a major cleaning attack. With less enthusiasm than he, I agreed it was a chore that we had sorely neglected…so it was down to some serious cleaning for us.
With the 4th being on Wednesday, Susie was coming over today to work so it was a Chaos day for lunch. Edith decided that since she was coming out to Jerry’s and Nancy’s for the 4th, one outing a week was enough and she didn’t join us this time.
Since Becky’s softball team (the Methodists) was playing the Baptists, Jim and I joined Jean, Nancy, and Jerry in attending to root on Becky. Becky even got an RBI in the first inning to help the Methodist take a solid 7-0 lead. Way to go, Beck! As in any sport though, the lead can dwindle and unfortunately it did in the very last inning and Becky’s team wound up on the short end of a 14-13 game. It was quite a game though and a good time was had by all.
Wednesday, July 4
After piddling around the house and doing some last minute yard work, we met with the Terpening side of the family at Pizza Hut for a leisurely lunch before the big horseshoe tournament that Paul and Karen set up last year.
At the appointed time, with lawn chairs in hand, we all gathered outside to begin the contest…
Teams were…
Karen and Jim (2006 champs)
Susie and James (2006 2nd place winners)
Becky and Me (2006 3rd place winners)
Jean and Nancy
Paul and Connor (Connor is Karen’s boyfriend, new participant this year)
Jerry and Warren (Warren is Barbara’s fiance’…she wasn’t able to come this year because of work)
As the photo above shows, after a lot of close matches, Karen and Jim remained champs seizing the 2007 aluminum foil horseshoe Paul made last year. Becky and I snuck up on everyone and squeezed out a 2nd place finish. Now, the 3rd place position was really in question since the play off game Susie and James versus Jean and Nancy had to be forfeited…we ran out of time and Nancy had to go set up the kitchen for the 27 or so people who were coming to dinner. So…3rd place went to Susie and James by default….we really must start this tournament earlier…or we need to be able to play better so the games won’t take so long…:)
I didn't take photos of everyone at the 4th celebration, but did make a collage of Jean's family who were there.
Top left: Karen and Conner............................Top right: Warren and Paul
Middle left: James and Susie......................Middle right: Jerry and Nancy
......................................Center: Jean...................................
Bottom left: Paul.................................................Bottom right: Becky
Among the guests invited to Nancy and Jerry’s 4th celebration dinner were Edith (Jim’s mom), and Ernie and Billee. Jim and I were pleased that they came out to join in the fun and were pleased when Edith decided to stay for the fireworks. 
Collage of the Little family on the 4th of July at the Terpenings…
Thursday, July 5
After the late night, Jim and I decided that sleep was more important than swimming! (We were awakened at 2:00 AM by a heavy rainstorm and realized that we had left the awning extended…so we jumped out of bed and fought the rain and wind to get the awning retracted without damage. When will we learn????)
Jim spent part of the afternoon figuring out how to tie in the wiring between the trailer and the motorcycle while I went into town to do some shop-looking and visit Edith.
It was early to bed…we were thoroughly “whupped” from all the activities of the last two days.
Friday, July 6
The morning swim and early visit with Edith left us feeling refreshed and ready to venture out into the world. (Well…after we piddled the morning away on the computers.) Therefore, we headed to Roswell where we intended to do some serious shopping! Our main goal was to find a Tote Cart, used to haul black water to the sewer, so we wouldn’t have to pack up Big V every time we needed to dump. After checking several places, we eventually found exactly what we needed, even if Jim thought it was a little pricey for the job it was to perform…but when he thought about the hassle of moving Big V, he changed his mind!
Also, had a baby gift to buy for a great-niece’s shower (Gary’s oldest)…browse the used bookstore, etc., etc. Roswell has many different stores that aren’t available in Artesia, but give us the small town traffic for our main living! Sure is nicer than having to travel 4 hours to shop like we did in Liberal.
We enjoyed a lengthy visit with my sister Carol and her husband Cal while we were in town, too. It is really nice to be able to see my sisters so much more than I did in the past years…Of course, while we were visiting, we realized that sister Nancy and husband Tom were packing the last minute necessities and jumping on their cycles for a trip to Branson, MO. Jim and I had planned to go with them, but after giving it deeper thought, we decided that our bodies and checkbook needed a rest. It was hard to make that decision, but one we felt we had to make. :(
We journeyed back to Artesia around 5:00 to join Jean and the rest of the Terpenings for a Mexican dinner at Jean’s house at 6:30. After dinner, Nancy dug out the Chickenfoot game and we spent the rest of the evening bantering and playing. Jim couldn’t catch a break this night and soundly finished last much to Becky’s delight, since she was right behind him scorewise.
T’was another fun way to end a day.
Saturday, July 7
Strange day today…Barbara woke up about 4:30 this morning; I woke up a few minutes before 6:00, but couldn’t get in gear…dozed on the couch until 7:00 and then crawled back in bed and slept until nearly 9:00…don’t know what was wrong with us.
I finally got going and once again attacked the wiring on the motorcycle. With no diagrams furnished in the manual, it was a lot of guesswork…did have to make a run to an auto parts supply store to get some splicers, fuses (I grabbed a hot wire while working on the trailer lights on Thursday and blew a fuse (and left a little burn mark on one of my fingers), and a couple of replacement bulbs (not my fault this time…just old age – the bulbs that is, not me).
Barbara spent most of the day creating maps of the major trips we took during our first year of retirement. Thanks to Jerry T., we now have a software program that will take the location data we feed it and generate maps of the routes we took. It has been time-consuming for her, but the maps will make a great addition to the printed journal. She did take a bit of a break to go into town and see Mother…then it was back to her map-making.
This evening – work on the cycle for me…complete this week’s edition of the journal and create a new blog entry for Barbara.
And that’s the latest from the Littles, at home for the second consecutive week in Artesia.
Jim & Barbara
“Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!”...Amanda Bradley
