Sunday, February 14
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Happy Chinese New Year!
What a busy and fun day this turned out to be!
First, we got around earlier than usual to get Mother’s breakfast ready and get us cleaned and dressed to go out to Holiday Village to meet Bob, Nell, Rod, and Ruth for breakfast at the clubhouse. They reported that they had a good night’s sleep in Big V and awoke rested and refreshed.
After Sunday school, I went on to the choir room to get ready while Barbara and the others located a pew for us to all sit in. The church was nearly full for David Bagwell’s sermon in view of a calling to be the new pastor of First Baptist of Yantis.
The service itself was extremely moving…the music, both the congregational and choir selections, was top notch and David was in rare form as he delivered a sermon entitled, “Moving from the Ordinary to the Extraordinary.” It was a sermon that we had heard him preach in Liberal a few years ago, but it had new meaning and spirit this morning.
When the service was closed, the visitors and non-members left and the rest of the congregation was called into a special business meeting to vote on the search committee’s recommendation to hire David. Of the 84 votes tallied, 83 approved the motion to call, a resounding mandate of the church to accept David and his family to the church and community. We were, of course, absolutely beside ourselves with excitement about being reunited with our former pastor and his family. The only downside to the morning was that David and his family, according to custom, left the church before the vote and Mike Smith, one of the deacons, was unable to get him on the cell phone to notify him.
Between the service and the business meeting, we left the building for a few minutes to share hugs and say our goodbyes to Rod, Ruth, Bob, and Nell. We had earlier thought of going to lunch together, but we didn’t know how long the business meeting would run, so they decided to get on down the road to their worksite in Louisiana.
When the business meeting concluded and we had visited with a few friends, we headed back to Big V, but decided that rather than staying there for the afternoon and getting some work done around the place, we’d just go on back to Mineola. It was gray and cold outside, so working in the lot wouldn’t have been fun anyway, so I reset the thermostat on the furnace, locked the place down, and we drove back to Mother’s house, arriving just in time to see T.J. as she was getting ready to leave after bringing Mother home from church and the church dinner.
Around 5:00 we drove back to Yantis…scouted out a different road along the way and crossed Lake Fork on a bridge that we didn’t even know was there. It’s a big lake with several crossings…guess we’ll have to write up a history of the lake one of these days.
When we got to the church, we joined quite a few of the members at the Valentine’s Day meal and reception for David and his family. As would be expected, it was a great time of fellowship and meeting some of the folks we didn’t know yet… not to mention it was a great time to enjoy the good food that was brought in for the occasion.
The highlight of the evening was the coronation of the 2010 Valentine King and Queen. Surprise, surprise, surprise, David and Lorri Bagwell were named as the royalty for this year…now what would possibly be the odds of that happening on the very same day that they were called to be the new pastoral family?!
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Too soon we had to say goodbye to everyone and head back south on a very dark highway to return to Mineola and Mother’s house for the night.
Monday, February 15
There was nothing particularly interesting or exciting about this day…just business as usual around the house during the morning.
This was the day for the monthly treatment for the puppies…Barbara gave them their heartworm medicine and I gave them their flea and tick application. Both puppies are very easy to deal with and this process, which I had never done for them, was pretty simple.
T.J. went to Tyler this morning to pick up Arianna, one of her granddaughters, to keep for a few days. When she got back to her house, she called me to say that she couldn’t unhook Arianna from her child-restraint seat in the car and that she was driving over so I could help her with it. It didn’t take long to get it figured out when she got to Mother’s house and soon they were on the way back to T.J.’s place.
I spent the afternoon and evening getting our tax documents printed off and put in order…it took about eight hours to get everything done, but by the time I was ready for bed, I had all but a few documents, receipts, etc. in order and ready to submit to a tax preparer (whenever we find one down here).
Tuesday, February 16
It was another quiet morning around Mother’s house. It was too cold to work outside, so we just stayed inside and took care of the daily chores that go with living anywhere.
Barbara had her Bridge Club meeting at the church tonight, and I rode with her as far as Holiday village and worked around Big V for a couple of hours while she and the ladies were meeting. The recent snow storm caused a number of branches in our trees to break and fall, so I took advantage of what sun was left to pick up branches and haul them to either the wood pile or the burn pile.
When it got too dark to see what I was doing inside, I went into Big V and started scrubbing the bathroom area and vacuuming the carpets…like with any house, there are always things that need to be done.
When Barbara returned from her meeting we gathered up a few more things that we figured we would need at Mother’s house, turned down the thermostat, shut the place down, and returned to Mineola.
Wednesday, February 17
Happy 62nd Birthday to brother Ernie Little in Harrison, Arkansas!!!
While this was the morning for the women’s Bible study group at Yantis, Barbara decided that she just wasn’t up to attending this morning as we had planned. It was still cold and yucky outside, so I couldn’t have gotten much done at the lot anyway. Barbara called Marla at the elementary school to see if she needed to come out and help a couple of kids with their reading, but Marla said they were making up their Jump Rope for Heart Day that was missed due to last week’s snow storm and that there was no point in Barbara coming out today.
Unable to do any outside work, we decided we’d sweep and mop the floors inside. We’re hoping to have guests over tomorrow and thought we shouldn’t wait until the last minute to do the housecleaning.
When we had Mother’s birthday party last week, one of the guests was one of her oldest and dearest friends from her childhood years in Mineola. Elmer Bunn is just a few months older than Mother and they hadn’t seen each other for many years until Mother moved back to Mineola a year and a half ago.
Elmer and his wife, Jennie, brought a small envelope of old, faded photographs that were taken of the two of them in 1934 when they were just eleven years old. One of the photos was of Elmer and Mother with Elmer’s mother and another was of the two of them with Mother’s mother, my grandmother Mom Faulk. I asked Elmer if he would mind leaving the pictures with me so I could scan them into my computer and see if I could get them cleaned up a bit. He was happy to do so and this morning I spent several hours scanning, manipulating, and printing new versions of those old photos. Barbara even came up with a collage using one of the 1934 photos and a picture from last week’s party.
After we ate lunch, we decided we’d go out to the lot to do some yard work. The sky had cleared and it was warming up quite a bit…a perfect afternoon to be outside doing something useful.
First though, we gathered the pictures that Elmer had loaned me and the copies we made and took them over to Elmer’s house, just a couple of blocks down Sycamore Street from the house that my great-grand parents lived in for many years.
Elmer was delighted that we came to visit him and was very happy to receive the enlarged and much cleaner copies of the original photographs. He had us sit down with him in the living room and he shared stories about Mother and him back in their younger days. His parents were good friends of my grandparents, and we’re sure that more visits with Elmer and his wife will be a treasure trove of memories of “the good old days.”
After leaving Elmer, we drove to Holiday Village and I immediately set to work raking leaves from the yard around our concrete slab and then carrying them to the burn pile. Once the burn pile was underway, I filled the spreader with weed and feed fertilizer and set out to cover as much of the lot as I could. In a couple of hours the place was looking pretty tidy, although there is still much to do before we can appear as the centerfold of East Texas Yard and Garden magazine.
As we were closing up Big V, I noticed hot water pouring down from the outside panel that covers the water heater…not a good sign. I crawled under Big V, unfastened the panel door, and found that the pop-off valve was leaking all over the place. It was evident that the minerals in the water had corroded the valve to the point that it wouldn’t seal the way it should, so I shut off the water supply until I can find another valve and get it installed.
On the way out of Holiday Village we stopped to visit with Gene and Michelle Young for a few minutes. They are ardent fisherman and had spent the entire day out on the lake, but had nothing to show for it but sunburns. They both agreed that the water was just too cold for the fish to be nibbling. They invited us to join them for burger night at East Fork, but we had to beg off and return to Mineola in time to feed the puppies and get Mother some dinner.
Thursday, February 18
We then returned to Mineola and made stops at Medicine Chest to pick up some prescriptions for Mother and at Walmart before heading back to the house to fix lunch and get ready for guests this evening.
The late afternoon was so nice that I decided to fire up the motorcycle and go for a short ride. Unfortunately, both tires were low, so I got out the trusty (I thought) foot pump and started pumping away. I realized after a bit that the needle in the gauge wasn’t moving very much and then when I got close enough, I heard the hissing sound that let me know air was coming out instead of going in. The long story short is that the hose had a rotten place in it and by the time I figured it out, there was less air in the tire than when I started…not a good sign.
I went to Walmart to get another pump, but the service at the check-out counters was slowed to a complete stop, so after several minutes I just put the pump back on the shelves and returned to the house. When I got there, I thought of the little electric pump that I had bought once upon a time and decided to give it a try. It took a while, but finally both tires were up to pressure and ready to go.
The initial ride of the season was brief, just a few miles through town and around part of the loop, but it was satisfying. If it’s nice enough to ride, can spring be far behind?!
Gene and Michelle came to town this evening and we spent time visiting and then pulled out our Rummi-Kube game. I’m sure we haven’t played the game since we lived in Liberal, but it soon came back to us and Gene and Michelle were quick learners (although we did resort to reading the rules when it came to scoring). Gene and Michelle gave us a thorough shellacking! Now what kind of guests were they?
The evening was a lot of fun and another reminder of how fortunate we have been to make new friends through our travels.
Friday, February 19
We did a little housecleaning this morning and then I took the motorcycle for a ride to the post office. It was a beautiful morning for a ride and I thoroughly enjoyed taking the long way back home.
Our friends Gene and Carolyn, who we met at the Mineola Civic Center RV Park a year and a half ago, are back in town after a lengthy road trip in Arizona. Therefore, we invited them to visit this afternoon so we could get caught up on their travels.
When they were visiting in Arizona, Carolyn got a bunch of fresh lemons and brought them back to make lemon pies. She brought one of them over today and we had fresh homemade lemon pie and coffee as we picked up from our last conversation a couple of months ago and got each other up to date.
The evening was nothing exciting as we just hung around the house talking, printing pictures, and messing with the computers.
Saturday, February 20
After fixing a light breakfast for Mother, Barbara and I went into full “chef mode” to prepare a big family lunch. Heather, Andy, Alexander, and Abby were coming to visit today, as were T.J. and Arianna.
Our menu for the day included Heather’s recipe for macaroni and cheese (we were so impressed with it at their house that we wanted to try it ourselves), baked chicken in mushroom soup with herbs and spices that struck my fancy, baked potatoes, cole slaw, homemade bread, and Apple Dumpling Dew topped with ice cream for dessert.
It took a lot of effort and teamwork, but by the time everyone started arriving at noon, it all came together beautifully. We even broke out a set of Mother’s good china, glasses, and cups for the occasion.
Multiple conversations flew all around the table as we talked and ate and got caught up on each other’s lives…what a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.
After eating and getting the first load of dishes going, we retired to the living room to have a birthday celebration. Alexander’s birthday was December 27 (we’re just a little late on that one) and Abby’s birthday will be March 7. Of course, there was also a little something for T.J.’s granddaughter Arianna, so she wouldn’t feel left out.
Mother stayed involved in most of the conversation and kid-watching while we were inside…she even passed on her afternoon nap to sit in the living room until everyone left at 5:00…what a sacrifice!
Alexander and Abby have developed an interest in the Voyager, so when Abby came in and asked if they could sit on the big red motorcycle, we started making the arrangements, including letting them try on the helmets and riding boots…looks like Alexander is going to be a great Easy Rider and Abby will be a Motorcycle Mama!
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“Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.” – Unknown
From Heritage Square in Mineola,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
