Sunday, November 4
It was a get up and get moving morning as we were taking Alexander and Abby out to breakfast at McDonald’s before we all headed over to the Special Events Center in Garland for Randi’s cheer competition.
With breakfast out of the way, we drove over to the activities center where we found John and Carol inside (Randi was already warming up somewhere with her team). Since we were a little speedier than we expected, we eventually took the kids outside to run around. They found the bars around the sidewalk irresistible and had much fun crawling from one side to the other.
Once we were back inside, we went to the staging area where Randi and her team had just entered. After giving Randi a quick hello, we headed back to our seats by John and Carol. It’s just amazing to see what these girls can do athletically! It is not at all like watching the cheerleaders at a Friday night football game…instead their whole routine to music is round-offs, tucks, and a bunch of other maneuvers that the granddaughters have told me about, but that we still don’t understand…to us, gymnastics was tumbling and cartwheels…just shows our ages! Anyway, Randi’s team did super and Randi personally nailed all of her stunts.At the same time that we were in Garland watching Randi, gr
anddaughter Jaycie was performing at a competition in Lubbock. Though we missed her this week, we’ll drive to Lubbock this coming Saturday to watch her in another competition! I can’t even begin to imagine what our schedule will be like when Alexander, Abby, and Little Jimmy begin taking part in whatever activities grab their fancy! Anyway, thanks to the speed of the computer, we were able to have a photo Jimmy Clint sent me showing Jaycie at her meet. Jaycie is the one on the top left cheering because they nailed this difficult stunt!Alas, even though both girls and their teams did well, both came up just hundredths of a point from first. Not a shabby job!
As soon as Randi came upstairs and we hugged, visited, and took photos, Jim and I and the kids left to meet Heather and Andy at a nearby Sonic where we would exchange cars and children!
Jim and I then pointed the Vibe toward Cleburne where we intended to attend the Sunday evening Prayer, Praise, and Communion service with my younger sister Nancy and her husband Tom. As it turned out, we arrived early enough to fit in a visit before church. All I can say about the church my sister’s family attends is that it would be our church, even though it’s not Baptist, if we lived in Cleburne! Jim was itching to join the ensemble they had playing du
ring the Praise time.Luckily, Brandi, Nancy and Tom’s daughter, and her family also attended church tonight so I was able to get their photo before they headed home. Keylin is growing up so fast…she’s a first grader and on the cheer squad, both of which are important jobs…just ask her!
Nancy and Tom took us to somewhere to eat…probably shouldn’t say this…but…cooking isn’t her bag even more so than mine! Guess Carol was the only Susie Homemaker in our family! After dinner, it was back to the house to have a photo op session and look at the kind of coat I should get for riding the cycle in cold weather! Since I couldn’t decide which picture I liked the most, I just decided to add them all together! Nancy has really lost a lot of weight and looks great!
Monday, November 5
Nothing to write about…we drove from Cleburne to Artesia in record time, arriving at Edith’s at 3ish. After checking in with her and then later with Jean, we called this day over!
Tuesday, November 6
Happy birthday to my brother-in-law Cal Crenshaw, who lives in Roswell, NM!
This was just a wonderful ordinary day doing ordinary chores around the house! How great it is to sleep in one’s own bed for a change!
We did get a really interesting and exciting email from Cousin Danny’s wife, Cindy. (Duh, she’s 
the one in the hat!) She said I could add it to our journal so that’s what I’m doing! What a fun opportunity she just had!
Cindy wrote:
I have had a fun couple of days. HBO is shooting a movie about the 2000 presidential election in Tallahassee called "Recount". I was cast as an extra and worked as a "hippie protester" Saturday and today (Tuesday). Both days were long, but it was a lot of fun getting to be a face in the crowd for a movie that is about such a divisive time.
Part of the time I was a Bush supporter and part of the time a Gore supporter, so it will be fun to watch the movie to see if I can tell which time I was what, and to see if it is obvious. It wasn't just me that they had switch; a lot of us had to for the "people mass" they needed at any particular time.
Kevin Spacy is starring in it, and was on the set both days I worked.
And you thought nothing exciting happens in Tallahassee!
Cindy said that this HBO special will be aired sometime between March and May. Someone with HBO will have to tape it for us since we don’t get HBO. That’s pretty cool, huh?
Wednesday, November 7
We’re back to the Wednesday routine of meeting with the clan for lunch; however, today we tried the new Chinese restaurant downtown.
Other than that, it was the sameness that is common for most folks, but not us. We revel in this sameness! (at least for a while)
This seems to be the week to catch up with family that we haven’t seen lately. Whitney and Jim sent 6 months photos of Little Jimmy.
Whitney wrote:
Jimmy celebrated his first Halloween both as Baby Darth Vader and as a penguin. At his 6 month check-up, he weighed 20 lbs, 2.6 oz, and was 27.5 inches long. He loves carrots and sweet potatoes, but thinks rice cereal is boring. He sits up by himself but hasn’t crawled yet because he can roll to get to anywhere he wants.
It will be another month before we get to see Jimmy, but it's quite obvious that we're going to enjoy every moment of getting to be around him!
the one in the hat!) She said I could add it to our journal so that’s what I’m doing! What a fun opportunity she just had!Cindy wrote:
I have had a fun couple of days. HBO is shooting a movie about the 2000 presidential election in Tallahassee called "Recount". I was cast as an extra and worked as a "hippie protester" Saturday and today (Tuesday). Both days were long, but it was a lot of fun getting to be a face in the crowd for a movie that is about such a divisive time.
Part of the time I was a Bush supporter and part of the time a Gore supporter, so it will be fun to watch the movie to see if I can tell which time I was what, and to see if it is obvious. It wasn't just me that they had switch; a lot of us had to for the "people mass" they needed at any particular time.
Kevin Spacy is starring in it, and was on the set both days I worked.
And you thought nothing exciting happens in Tallahassee!
Cindy said that this HBO special will be aired sometime between March and May. Someone with HBO will have to tape it for us since we don’t get HBO. That’s pretty cool, huh?
Wednesday, November 7
We’re back to the Wednesday routine of meeting with the clan for lunch; however, today we tried the new Chinese restaurant downtown.
Other than that, it was the sameness that is common for most folks, but not us. We revel in this sameness! (at least for a while)
This seems to be the week to catch up with family that we haven’t seen lately. Whitney and Jim sent 6 months photos of Little Jimmy.
Whitney wrote:
Jimmy celebrated his first Halloween both as Baby Darth Vader and as a penguin. At his 6 month check-up, he weighed 20 lbs, 2.6 oz, and was 27.5 inches long. He loves carrots and sweet potatoes, but thinks rice cereal is boring. He sits up by himself but hasn’t crawled yet because he can roll to get to anywhere he wants.
It will be another month before we get to see Jimmy, but it's quite obvious that we're going to enjoy every moment of getting to be around him!Thursday, November 8
Jim spent yesterday and today just working outside on Jean’s land. This activity soothes his restless spirit and fosters a sense of doing something worthwhile. I, on the other hand, have cleaned almost every cabinet, closet, and bin in Big V. One thinks we have very little space, but you’d be amazed at what all we can collect and store!
We had an email from Cathey about Jaycie that is worthy of remembering…
Cathey wrote:
We just wanted to share some news with you all about Jaycie. Over the past few months she has been training and timing herself at school to make the Murfee Cross Country Team. Everyone interested trains at school for the one mile. It’s for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. They take six boys and six girls. Her fastest time has been in 6 minutes and 31 seconds!!! She’s a fast little thing even with her short little legs J Anyway, she made the team!!!! They had their first cross country meet Tuesday. Of course the weather has been in the high 70’s and low 80’s except on Tuesday…it was 54 degrees!!! Brrrrrr!
The boys ran first. Then it was time for all the girls. There were 200+ girls from all LISD schools lined up and ready to run the mile.
One of the big challenges was the “hill” they had to run up and then back down as they headed to the finish line. We were able to take the kids to Mae Simmons Park to train so they could get a feel for the route. Well, the gun went off and there they all went! It was great! Jimmy and I waited at the bridge ¼ of the way into the race. We cheered Jaycie on. She looked like a deer caught in headlights but she was booking it as best she could in the congestion of runners.
When they made it to the hill going up everyone pretty much dwindled down to a single file line. Jimmy ran up the hill ahead of them to cheer Jaycie on! (Ask him how in or out of shape his is..hee, hee) When the girls were up on the hill running we could spot our Murfee girls and they were doing great!!!! They were holding places in the front and Jimmy said Jaycie was passing a few girls.
Then they came around down the hill into the finish gate lined with cheering parents and our principal! Our Murfee girls did amazing! We had 6 girls run. Jaycie and Shelby were our 4th graders and then we had four 5th graders. Our 5th grade girls placed 6th, 11th, 29th and 45th.Jaycie placed 36th!!!! The other 3rd grader placed 21st. We were so proud of her!!! She had a great time and is already talking about next year and she wants to win!!! It’s pretty funny!
She also plays her basketball championship game tonight for first place!!! Her team is the Red Hots and they have played together for the last 4 years. Last year they won the tournament and they have an awesome chance to win tonight! They’re undefeated. (Jimmy wrote later that for the second year in a row Jaycie’s team won the championship. The score tonight was 37-16, and Jaybird played a great game!!!!)
Then she has a cheer competition Saturday which if they stick everything they need to, they could win as well! Needless to say we have been very busy, or should I say Jaycie has been very busy!
Thanks for letting us share our stories about Jaycie! We are truly proud of her and are blessed to have her as our daughter.
Jerry called and invited us to a trip to the Cottonwood Winery after they all got off work. Since we had never gone out there and the company sounded inviting, we decided to join them. Jim and I didn’t realize that NM has become quite a wine state and enjoyed the history lesson as well as the atmosphere of the place. It’s definitely a place we will want to go again.
Next on the agenda was a trip to the Pizza Inn out at the bowling alley…another place we hadn’t been. Just a night to visit different places, I suppose. There we enjoyed the buffet and more good company before returning to Big V and calling it a day.
Friday, November 9
A teacher I taught with in Liberal has a son, Michael who is in Farah City, Afghanistan, and he was pictured in an article describing the work he does there. It was quite interesting, and we wanted to share it in our journal.
http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news/news_show.php&id=12448
Jim spent yesterday and today just working outside on Jean’s land. This activity soothes his restless spirit and fosters a sense of doing something worthwhile. I, on the other hand, have cleaned almost every cabinet, closet, and bin in Big V. One thinks we have very little space, but you’d be amazed at what all we can collect and store!
We had an email from Cathey about Jaycie that is worthy of remembering…
Cathey wrote:
We just wanted to share some news with you all about Jaycie. Over the past few months she has been training and timing herself at school to make the Murfee Cross Country Team. Everyone interested trains at school for the one mile. It’s for 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. They take six boys and six girls. Her fastest time has been in 6 minutes and 31 seconds!!! She’s a fast little thing even with her short little legs J Anyway, she made the team!!!! They had their first cross country meet Tuesday. Of course the weather has been in the high 70’s and low 80’s except on Tuesday…it was 54 degrees!!! Brrrrrr!
The boys ran first. Then it was time for all the girls. There were 200+ girls from all LISD schools lined up and ready to run the mile.
One of the big challenges was the “hill” they had to run up and then back down as they headed to the finish line. We were able to take the kids to Mae Simmons Park to train so they could get a feel for the route. Well, the gun went off and there they all went! It was great! Jimmy and I waited at the bridge ¼ of the way into the race. We cheered Jaycie on. She looked like a deer caught in headlights but she was booking it as best she could in the congestion of runners.
When they made it to the hill going up everyone pretty much dwindled down to a single file line. Jimmy ran up the hill ahead of them to cheer Jaycie on! (Ask him how in or out of shape his is..hee, hee) When the girls were up on the hill running we could spot our Murfee girls and they were doing great!!!! They were holding places in the front and Jimmy said Jaycie was passing a few girls.
Then they came around down the hill into the finish gate lined with cheering parents and our principal! Our Murfee girls did amazing! We had 6 girls run. Jaycie and Shelby were our 4th graders and then we had four 5th graders. Our 5th grade girls placed 6th, 11th, 29th and 45th.Jaycie placed 36th!!!! The other 3rd grader placed 21st. We were so proud of her!!! She had a great time and is already talking about next year and she wants to win!!! It’s pretty funny!
She also plays her basketball championship game tonight for first place!!! Her team is the Red Hots and they have played together for the last 4 years. Last year they won the tournament and they have an awesome chance to win tonight! They’re undefeated. (Jimmy wrote later that for the second year in a row Jaycie’s team won the championship. The score tonight was 37-16, and Jaybird played a great game!!!!)Then she has a cheer competition Saturday which if they stick everything they need to, they could win as well! Needless to say we have been very busy, or should I say Jaycie has been very busy!
Thanks for letting us share our stories about Jaycie! We are truly proud of her and are blessed to have her as our daughter.
Jerry called and invited us to a trip to the Cottonwood Winery after they all got off work. Since we had never gone out there and the company sounded inviting, we decided to join them. Jim and I didn’t realize that NM has become quite a wine state and enjoyed the history lesson as well as the atmosphere of the place. It’s definitely a place we will want to go again.
Next on the agenda was a trip to the Pizza Inn out at the bowling alley…another place we hadn’t been. Just a night to visit different places, I suppose. There we enjoyed the buffet and more good company before returning to Big V and calling it a day.
Friday, November 9
A teacher I taught with in Liberal has a son, Michael who is in Farah City, Afghanistan, and he was pictured in an article describing the work he does there. It was quite interesting, and we wanted to share it in our journal.
http://www.dvidshub.net/?script=news/news_show.php&id=12448
Jim went to the Artesia Bulldog/Goddard Rocket football game tonight with Jerry, Nancy, and Becky. Tonight's game was for the district championship, with both teams coming in with 7-2 records on the season. When it was over, Artesia claimed its seventh consecutive district football championship and earned a bye in the first round of the NMAA football playoffs by defeating goddard by a score of 56-28.
Saturday, November 10
We were on the highway to Lubbock by 6:30 AM as we were supposed to be there by 11:30 TX time to see Jaycie’s cheer competition. We made it with time to spare! I’ll let photos do the talking at this point…
Since the kids had other plans after the competition, Jim and I did some shopping as we waited for my friend, Becky, to finish singing at a wedding. (as she quickly informed me, she was singing with a choir…not solo!)After an hour of visiting at Starbucks, Jim and I drove on to Hobbs where we were joining the Terpening/Francis clan in a celebration of James’ birthday.
We eventually arrived back home in Artesia at 11:15 pm and were ready to call this day over!
“When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all.”...Lois McMaster Bujold, A Civil Campaign, 1999 US science fiction author
