Sunday, January 6
We began the morning by going by to see Edith. While there, I realized that she hadn’t used the weekly medicine dispenser Leah and Ryan gave her for Christmas; so I took all of her medicines and with her help, we got everything organized. She has been having a hard time remembering whether she has taken her pills; so we’re hopeful that this will help. That took a little longer than we expected so we missed Sunday school. However, since today was a new service day for our church, we were in time for church.
The church staff finally decided to combine the two morning services into one; so it now begins at 10:15. Unfortunately, we’re not big into the contemporary music, though the first part of the service wasn’t too bad. However, it went downhill (in our opinion) from there. It’s tough sometimes being old, because one is really set in their ways, especially when it comes to the songs in a church service and what makes a meaningful service. I’ll leave it at that.
When we finally got out at 11:45, we went by and checked on Edith and warmed up the meal Jim had put in Edith’s oven while I was doing pills. Once we got her settled, we returned to Big V. On the way, we decided we’d ask Jean if she would be interested in sharing the meal with us.
After visiting and eating, we all agreed it was bound to be nap time; so we headed home to do our part in keeping to this schedule. (Just for the record, the wind was blowing so hard, we had to close up the slide-outs to stop some of the noise! Yucky!)
The rest of the day was spent getting volume 3 of our journal ready for the printers. While Jim did that, I worked on a cover. I knew what I wanted, but for some reason, it wouldn’t print the way I designed it. We finally decided we’d get Jerry’s help tomorrow since he’s a computer guru when it comes to designing.
Monday, January 7
Jim hit the deck running today as he wanted to go to the high school band rehearsal.
Jim: Following up on Tom and Lisa Dillon’s invitation to drop by during band rehearsals, I decided to pay them a visit this morning. The band is preparing an honor band concert to present at the New Mexico Music Educators Association annual conference in Albuquerque Thursday night and I wanted to hear how they were doing.
As expected, the band sounded great on the two selections that I got to hear. I had hoped to visit some more with Tom and Lisa, but they had a band staff meeting immediately following the rehearsal to make final plans for the trip, so I just wished them well and told them I’d see them again soon.
Barbara: Once we checked in with Edith, we visited the printer’s for some advice about cardstock to be used for the journal cover, and then dropped by the funeral home to talk to Jerry. As we knew he would, he spotted the problem with my design and will fix it when we get the pictures to him. Again, we went by Edith’s to make sure she had everything she needed since we had decided to take a short trip to Cloudcroft and then Ruidoso; the weather forecast was for another w-i-n-d-y day and we needed to close up the motor home.
With my camera in hand, we blew down the highway toward Cloudcroft. We had a two-fold purpose in going this way. First, I wanted to practice taking some photos, and we were going to the Country Mercantile to do some pastry shopping since Edith and others kept talking about how wonderful their pies were.
We didn’t run into snow until we got past Mayhill, but even then, it wasn’t much to speak of. Still, I enjoyed the contrasts in scenery.
The little buildings on the right side are our “fixer-uppers”…We decided we could fix them up and live in them when we tire of Big V. J The photo bottom left is a frozen pond! Looks like a road…
What fun the mercantile store was! It was like walking back in time before Wal-Marts, K-Marts, and Targets! With wooden floors, everything dusted and spic and span, it was a treat just to browse around just knowing there had to be something we needed. Finally, we chose to buy Fruit of the Forest pies which were made with just about any berry you could think of as well as rhubarb! Yummy!
Just before dark, we arrived in Ruidoso and drove downtown to visit KFC for dinner to take to the Inn, where we had reservations. Eventually, I got tired of watching the football game; so I went downstairs to play while Jim stayed in the room to watch LSU manhandle Ohio State in the BCS championship game.
Tuesday, January 8
Jim and I were surprised to find that we slept in until 8:30, but since we didn’t have anything on the schedule, we weren’t in any hurry to get moving. We left the Inn around 10:30 and made a stop at Sonic for breakfast on the road. Even though Lydia was coming to clean Edith’s house this morning (one reason we felt we could take this short trip), we wanted to be home in time to check on her and the puppies. Sure enough, when we arrived at 1-ish, she hadn’t eaten; so we fed her before going home to unpack.
Wednesday, January 9
Yea! Today was a Chaos day! It’s always fun to visit with the bunch and enjoy a leisurely meal. Karen Francis is still home for UT’s semester break, so she joined the group today. However, since we had to have Edith over in Roswell at 2:30 for a follow-up visit with the doctor, we didn’t tarry too long.
Since we actually had an appointment, our wait was minimal and we were out feeling upbeat over the great report on her surgery. We had decided that once she finished at the doctor’s, we would take her over to Jim’s brother’s house. There we visited with Jerry and Jane for about 40 minutes…which was quite good for Edith!
I suggested that we stop at DQ for a treat before getting on the highway. Edith liked that idea and began to pull out her wallet. I said, “Edith, it was my idea, we’ll pay for it.” Without missing a beat she said, “No, it’s such a good idea, it could have been mine!” We know she is doing better when she can come back that quickly with a zinger!
On the way home, we witnessed the most beautiful sunset I think I’ve ever seen. However, by the time we got home and grabbed the camera, it was almost dark. I still got two fairly decent shots. But, I was really sorry we weren’t home to capture the true beauty of that’s day’s ending. Since we have an almost unobstructed view all the way to the Guadalupe Mountains to the southwest and the Sacramento Mountains in the west, we get to witness beautiful sunsets most evenings during the year.
Thursday, January 10
After starting a load of clothes at Edith’s and checking on her, we went by to give Jerry a copy of the photos that we want on the cover. To our surprise and pleasure, he took time to do the lay-out in no time flat! Therefore, we were able to take the journals to the printers for binding.
When we got back to Big V, Jim thought it was time (and a good, warm day) to take care of some business around the place. After dumping the tanks, he decided to rearrange all of our “stuff” in the big barn. That involved getting Little Red to pull out the car hauler, loading the ten-foot trailer on the car hauler (I helped by pushing on the back of the trailer while Jim pulled from the front – almost had a catastrophe when he tripped over the rail that keeps the motorcycle in place and fell backwards. Luckily, I was able to push against the trailer until he regained control of the tongue and we finished getting everything in place).
After I helped guide while Jim backed the car hauler into the barn, I returned to Big V and he stayed in the barn to get everything organized and straightened up.
Later, while Jim was over at Edith’s, Billee called to tell him he had a package over there. For some reason, UPS delivered Jim’s Christmas present from Leah and Ryan over there. (They had to back order this special gift!) Now Jim is decked out for outdoor cooking! If only the weather would co-operate! Guess we’ll just have to wait for supper!
Not being in the mood to cook tonight, Jim called Jean to find out if the family wanted to meet us at La Fonda for supper. Becky is going to be in a community play in February and had a rehearsal so she didn’t get to join us.
Friday, January 11
How two people can drag laundry out two days is beyond me! But, we can…finally finished it though, thank goodness.
After talking to Jerry the other day, I decided I wanted to do a slide journal of our retirement so we went to Wal-Mart to buy a photo shop program. I think it will consume my life for the next few days!
Jim received an e-mail copy of the deposition he gave while we were in Florida, so he spent about seven hours reviewing the 195 pages, marking them for corrections, and filling out the errata forms to return to the lawyer.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Jim: Today may have been the laziest Saturday we’ve spent in a long time. After sleeping in until after 7:30, we spent a large part of the morning just piddling around Big V. Barbara worked on the video journal and I read my online newspaper and sent off a couple of articles to some friends. I even managed to work in a little nap around noon.
We went over to Mother’s house to check on her around 2:00. I ironed a pair of jeans while Barbara refilled the medication tray for the coming week; then we came back home where I watched the first half of the Green Bay/Seattle football game as Barbara worked with the new program for creating a video journal. We went over to Jean’s house at halftime and visited for a bit. I stayed there for most of the second half of the game, but Barbara had an inspiration for the video journal, so she came back to Big V.
I made another trip to Mother’s house to check on her and feed the puppies…also took time to iron some pants and a shirt to wear to church tomorrow, and then returned to Big V to watch the Patriots and Jaguars slug it out to see who advances to next week’s NFL AFC championship game.
John sent us some Christmas photos of our great grandson Rhett and our teen-age granddaughter Randi since we weren’t able to be with them.
“We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Heartwarmers
Sending our best to all,
Jim & Barbara
