Sunday, September 23
How nice it was to get back into our home church in Artesia!
After attending church and Sunday school, the five of us…Edith, Ernie, Billee, Jim and I…went to Pecos Diamond for a leisurely lunch before heading home to spend the rest of the day lounging and relaxing. After the late night Saturday, it was just what the doctor ordered!
Monday, September 24
Since I had received a phone call for a former friend here in Artesia about the 50th anniversary of Clark Memorial Methodist Church (Daddy’s first solo assignment back in 1961), Jim and I took over a picture of Daddy for their scrapbook. As crazy as it sounds, one of the former pastors threw away all historical records for this church as well as photos, etc. Therefore, they wanted a photo of each pastor and anything else we could gather. That’s all I had to offer, but my sister Carol was able to email copies of all the records Daddy kept while he served there.
During our visit with Pastor Jean and her husband Dennis, we found that a portion of this small church has been turned into the Marie Chase Community Center. The MCCC’s role in the community is to furnish clothing, housing, food, and help to the needy. One hallway was crammed with bags, furniture, etc. needing to be put away, especially since the Bishop and Superintendent are coming for the 50th anniversary ceremony this Sunday.
Since it was mid-day and we hadn’t been over to Edith’s, we told Jean that we would return another day to help in any way that we could.
By accident that night, we found on PBS a documentary by Ken Burns on World War II and immediately settled back for a real history lesson. Only problem is this is a 7 or 8 part series, each two hours long… Of course, the educators in us wondered why in the world schools aren’t using this to teach the history of WWII. Definitely a must see!
Tuesday, September 25
We awoke with a real sense of purpose today…we were at MCCC by 9:30 raring to go! We certainly didn’t expect Jean’s reaction though…she was shocked to see us. According to her, people always say they will be back and never are; so she put us in that category and didn’t expect to see us again.
Without going into great detail, I will just say that by the time we left there at 12:30 the hallway was cleared, the clothing room was in tip-top shape and Jim and I were tired, but pleased with the progress. And, Jean was in a state of shock! The whole process seemed so daunting that she couldn’t see that it could be done quite so quickly. That was cool.
Over to Edith’s for a short visit and then it was back to the house for some cleaning of our own.
Jean called later that night and suggested we all go to Kwan Den’s for Chinese. Sounded great to us! So…we spent a good evening with her.
Wednesday, September 26
Jim took off early over to his mother’s to start the wash as I piddled around the house. Later, it was off to Chaos for our standard Wednesday lunch with the Terpening/Francis clan.
While I finished off the clothes at Edith’s, Jim worked at the MCCC on some computer cabinets that needed to be put together. When I returned to get him, I found him surrounded on the floor by screws, bolts, cabinet parts, etc. It is obvious that this is going to be a time consuming job; so we decided that it could wait until tomorrow!
We spent another night of watching the WWII series. I have learned more about the US and it’s involvement in the war than I ever learned at school! The one thing that hit Jim and me pretty hard though watching this series is the fear that the American people today wouldn’t be willing to make the sacrifices that the ordinary citizens made back then. We are all so spoiled and worried about our “rights” that if a President ordered gas rationing, food and heating rations, would we be willing and ready to do so???? Scary answer…
Thursday, September 27
Before I begin today’s journal, I want to clarify the Clark Memorial Methodist Church and the
Marie Chase Community Center situation. In the picture on the left, is the east entrance to the small Clark Memorial Church.Since the membership has declined in the years after Dad, what were once the classrooms on the west side of the church are now used for the Marie Chase Community Center.
First thing on Jim’s agenda today was to go to the Center and put together a computer cabinet. Actually, there are four of them, but we take things in small steps! I
eventually went over in the car after doing some household chores, and found Jim on the floor with a semblance of a cabinet in front of him…
By the time we left to come home for lunch, the pieces were being to come together quite nicely. Though we had all the inside rollers, drawer, keyboard tray, and shelves still left to do.
After finishing the cabinet that afternoon, we went over to Edith’s for our usual daily visit.
Since we were going to the store and Edith needed a few things, we combined our business to each of our satisfaction.
Since Jerry and Nancy’s daughter Amanda and her family were in town, we all went to Kwan Den for supper before calling this day over.
We received an email from Jimmy with a movie of Jaycie giving her speech for public relations student council representative for her school, Murfee Elementary. However, we couldn't get it to open on my computer...finally, we were able to watch it once Jimmy sent it to Jim. Later, we got it on youtube...you can click on this link to see her great presentation! (She was the only 4th grader elected...the rest were 5th graders! Way to go, Jaycie!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFSxTY_TO0U
Friday, September 28
Something we hadn’t taken care of in all our travels was finding me a new pair of tennis shoes, so we decided that today was the day! We would journey over to the big city of Roswell and do some shopping.
While there, we enjoyed visiting with my sister Carol and her husband Cal as we ate the sandwiches she prepared for us.
Shortly after our return, Nancy called to see if we wanted to go to La Fonda with them for supper and then play a round of Apples to Apples. That sounded like a winner, so we quickly took her up on the offer.
While we were playing the game at Jerry and Nancy’s house, we all kept an ear to the radio to follow the Artesia Bulldogs / Carlsbad Cavemen football game. Tickets for the game were sold out early, so we decided we would just stay home and listen. Carlsbad threw a scare into the Bulldogs and led 10 – 7 at the end of the first half, but Artesia came back strong in the second half with 21 unanswered points and won the game by a score of 28 – 10. The hometown Bulldogs are now 5 – 0 on the season as they head into the meat of the schedule.
When we got back to Big V, we found out that South Florida had upset West Virginia, the Red Sox and Cubs had won their respective division races in Major League Baseball, and the Yankees had lost their game. A quick check of the online edition of the Wichita Eagle let us know that Liberal defeated Garden City in their WAC game…what a great night!
Saturday, September 29
Happy birthday to daughter-in-law, Cathey!
LAZY morning! Yea!
Jim joined Jean this afternoon to help her snap fresh green beans as they watched Kansas State upset Texas and Colorado beat Oklahoma in key Big XII football match-ups.
Jim decided to bake a couple of loaves of bread to send back with Zeke, Amanda, and the boys. All afternoon Big V was filled with the sights, sounds, and smells of our home bakery as he prepared a loaf of jalapeno bread and one of regular white bread for them.
For some reason, I wound up with a stomach bug; so Jim joined Jean, Nancy, Amanda, Becky, and the boys for a hotdog cookout (Jerry and Zeke went to Lubbock for the Tech football game).
Otherwise, it’s been an uneventful day.
“The only routine with me is no routine at all.” ~Jackie Kennedy
Still home in Artesia,
Jim & Barbara
