Sunday, September 12 – Saturday, October 9, 2010
You know sometimes life serves you lemons one day and you make lemonade; other times you forget what to do with the lemons and you just suck on them letting the bitterness soak into your system. That’s basically the way things have gone around East Texas for a while; so we decided that the better part of valor at this time is just to lump four weeks into one journal entry.
So many blessing have occurred…
*I (Barbara) was re-baptized on Sunday, September 12th, for all the right reasons this time! And…that same Sunday our friends Heidi and Curtis Hays (Heidi was the pastry chef at Toccoa and I was her right hand (ha!) when we volunteered there. Now the Hays family lives right here in East Texas! Small world!) attended church with us and their daughter Hannah played the offertory. Boy, is that girl talented!
Edith and TJ also attended the service this morning in support of Barbara as did Bob and Mary Royar from Holiday Villages. David really likes it when we are involved in something special at the church because we bring so many visitors with us.
Edith and TJ decided to not join the gang for lunch and returned to Mineola for the afternoon, but Bob and Mary, the Hays family, and us all went to the clubhouse at Holiday Villages to sample their delicious Sunday specials. After eating, we took Curt, Heidi, and the kids to Big V to show them Our Little Lot and did some reminiscing about our camping adventures at Toccoa. Later, we gave our guests the grand tour of Holiday Villages.
*Mike and Kelly found out that they will be having a baby girl sometime in February!
*We have reconnected with many students, friends, and family members through the dreaded facebook. Barbara has found many of her students from her Lubbock days even remember aspects of their time together. Kind of a cool thing!
Not only did we find former students and friends; but we found that by checking out fb, we could see photos of our family that we hadn’t seen before…such as this one of Keylin, our great-niece who lives in Cleburne!
Or…how about this one of granddaughter Randi in San Antonio sitting in a field of bluebonnets!
*Heidi and Barbara found time finally to have a girls’ lunch day.
*Jim has spent many an hour out at the lake getting the yard into the shape he wants it to be!
*Jim has spent many an hour out at the lake getting the yard into the shape he wants it to be!
*Between having Sophie come spell us with Mother and At Home Health Care Services, things are moving smoothly around her house.
*Jimmy Clint served his time, and more, and was released to go to CRTC. But, before he could get there, he wound up in the hospital with major problems in three areas…heart, nerves, and internal. They have done every test they know to do so now it’s a matter of waiting for results to come back from Mayo Clinic. Until then, he cannot go to CRTC and was released to Home Health Care.
*Bible Study for Barbara started back up in September with an in-depth look at the 23rd Psalm. Wow!
*We’re getting to use our love for media by making CD’s for Barbara’s Bible Study class. Last night (10/08) were up until nearly midnight burning cd’s, using RealPlayer. I had it installed on my computer and once I figured out how to do the burning, we installed the system on Barbara’s computer and we were in business.
We needed 16 copies each of two master discs, so even with the 24/1 burn rate, it took a couple of hours. I managed to finish first, but only because I was doing disc 2, which was 29 minutes, while Barbara was burning disc 1, at nearly an hour in length.
When I finished my share of the burning, I moved to the desk in the bedroom and started up the label printing part of our production. There are surely better and faster ways of doing all this, but our “Little Media Productions” is still a mom & pop (or should we say, Grams & Gramps) operation.
*We’ve gone to the club house twice for Bingo and each time either Barbara or I have won a game, visited with friends, and gotten a Wal-Mart gift card and the thrill of yelling, “B I N G O!”
*Gene and Michelle made a flying trip down here from Kansas and brought us homemade blackberry wine which Jim has enjoyed (it really was for Edith, but since she’s been on antibiotics, she hasn’t gotten to participate yet.) and some apples from their orchard. Michelle gave Barbara instructions on how to make applesauce and she was able to make 3 pints which we’ve all “forced” ourselves to eat with relish – well, maybe with gusto, since we don’t have any relish!
*Gene and Carolyn have come over several times for short visits which always brighten our days…AND Gene and Jim even got to go dip some worms in the lake one day!
*Jim started a new crop in the front yard…haven’t figured out what to do with this bounty; but did make a good photo! In fact, we decided that maybe we’d sell them to Roswell, NM, since they are the “alien/flying saucer” capital of NM. They could package them as miniature saucers!
*Our Sunday morning breakfasts at church have been fun and well attended…in fact, attendance at these functions have increased immensely since the first one offered! There are always all kinds of wonderful food and the most popular line is the one by Mike, who graciously spends his morning whipping up the omelets!
There’s always something new and different to discover there, too. In fact, Barbara learned that these awesome peach and strawberry jellies that everyone loves and that are furnished by Shirley, is, in fact, made with figs and either peach or strawberry Jell-O! Now how cool is that…and delicious, too?
Shirley says that next year when her fig trees start to produce, she’ll holler at us so that we can try our hand at this awesome treat. Who knows…maybe with all this country influence, we might become quite the cooks!
*Jim’s aunt, Glennis, from Florida was here for two weeks. The three sisters got to spend some quality time together, sharing meals, coffee, and just good old reminiscing time!
* We all attended a Sunday morning reunion at the Smith Family Cemetery between Big Sandy and Hawkins. (That’s clear as mud now, isn’t it? Now, I still haven’t figured out the Smith angle since they are Faulks and Davenports. But…since the ancestors are buried there, I guess that’s all that is important! And…as we found out during the shared meal time, everybody there was related to everybody there one way or the other…even if it was 4 or 5 generations back! Still, it was a fun time for the sisters and that’s what was important! Edith even got to ride over there with TJ and Glennis which was quite a treat for her.
*Edith’s cousin Martha Jo and her daughter and son-in-law came over from Rockwall one day for a cook-out. Jim was in charge of the meats which he cooked out on the grill while I took care of the indoor veggies. With the food the others brought, we had quite a spread!
*Ladd and Madalyn joined us (Angela was working); so with the sisters, there were 10 for lunch that day.
*With the help Edith is getting from Home Health Care, she is getting more and more independent every day. It’s a very slow process and sometimes the Parkinson’s gets in the way; but…inch by inch we’ll take what we can get!
*Edith and TJ had a hen luncheon over at TJ’s. It’s the first time in many months that she’s been able to get out like that. Though she slept the rest of the day, she declared the whole experience quite fun!
I didn’t attend; but Jim took a pic of Edith and me as we were getting ready to leave the house to take her over to TJ’s.
*After getting the cycle out of the cycle hospital, Jim spent many man-hours pampering her!
*Edith had a biopsy done on spot on her wrist that came back as squamous cell cancer; so she and Jim had to go to Quitman to see about having surgery on it. The surgery is scheduled for October 25, the same day that Jim goes back to the same dermatologist for a check-up and review of his procedures. Edith didn’t let the business of the day slow her down a bit! (Especially since in the right top pic she was headed to her chair where she and Bonita could take a much needed nap!
*Barbara and I finally got to take a long awaited motorcycle trip after we attended See You at the Pole in Yantis on September 22. We went up to Arkansas and Oklahoma and rode the Talimena Skyway. 477 miles…which Barbara says gave her not only the sense of freedom but a tired butt and swollen ankles!
When we left Mineola on Tuesday, we went straight to the lake and Big V, where we got to spend the night! It was super to be home.
The next morning, Wednesday, we took time to show off our See You at the Pole shirts which we decided would be our travel clothes for the day.
*See You at the Pole was a wonderful start to what turned out to be an even more wonderful day! Chandler, who is a senior at Yantis High, did a great job at involving the kids. Something we had never seen done before was having chalk available and letting the teens write down on the sidewalks a prayer, things they were thankful for, whatever…
*Another very touching moment about that morning was the fact that a young lady arrived with tears running down her cheeks and students rushing to meet her. Her father had died the night before; but she didn’t want to miss this morning of showing the world that she loved the Lord and was relying on His strength. What a silent message she sent this day to all who were gathered there.
Once the students and teachers scrambled to their classrooms, Jim and I spent a few minutes visiting and jawing with David and our friend, Mary. It was David’s idea for Mary to sprawl down in front of the cycle in an attempt to capture Jim running over her! T’was great fun! And…it was really nice of David to take photos of us getting ready to leave.
Obviously, our attire doesn’t qualify us a Motorcycle Mama and Papa of the year; but it really just doesn’t matter…all that mattered was that we were “on the road again!”
Actually, we didn’t make it too terribly far before we had to stop as we had to make a Wal-Mart run in Sulfur Springs to get a tire pump. Ours died the night before and Jim was NOT a happy camper. But…we found one, he aired up the tires, and who pulls up beside us…David. His wise remark was something like…Boy, you guys didn’t make it very far, now did you? Duh!
Once on the road for good, I entertained myself enjoying the different scenery (once we got off I-30) and trying to take photos of myself through Jim’s helmet. It’s amazing how difficult that is. I still don’t have it down to perfection; but hope I get many more opportunities in the future! (No, in the top left photo I am not saying, “Halt!”…that is supposed to be a wave…)
The day was absolutely perfect for a cycle ride as the puffy white clouds show!
And…of course, no trip would be complete without a stop or two for road construction. Wasn’t that bad this time since the weather was cool and the sun was covered by the clouds. On a cycle when one has to stop on the pavement for any length of time, the feet and body can become quite hot if the sun is blaring down!
We revised our travel plans as we went since we had spent so much time in Yantis and then the Wally stop; so we would stay in Oklahoma the whole way. However, the navigator…me…made a slight, or maybe not so slight mistake, and the next thing we knew we were lost on some country road!
Jim mentioned turning around; but, I took a page from Mike’s (Jim’s son’s) book and said…”No turning around! We’ll come out somewhere and what does it matter?” So…miles and miles later we wound up in Arkansas! Oh, well…we weren’t in a hurry.
And…as the top left photo shows, Jim always takes me to the fanciest places to have a picnic! Since we didn’t know the roads and what might be ahead, hunger won out and we just pulled over by a lake or stream or something we couldn’t quite see for the trees.
Eventually, we ended up on the Talimena Scenic Byway and took some very gorgeous view shots.
The Talimena ride was fun and interesting, but it wasn’t something we plan to do again. For one thing, unlike rides through the Rockies, the Blue Ridge Parkway, or the Shenandoah Valley, the views never changed much, and none of them were extraordinarily dramatic. After stopping at a couple of pullouts to admire the scenery of the valleys below us, we realized that they all looked the same,,,nice and green, but not much variety.
Still, it was more about the ride than the scenery, and with partly cloudy skies and a semi-cool breeze most of the time, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
After completing the Arkansas section of the Byway and riding a few miles through the eastern Oklahoma section, we decided we’d change our original destination, leave the Byway for a faster road, and return to Broken Bow to find a place to spend the night.
Almost as soon as we got back on a real highway we ran into a little thunderstorm, but before we could decide whether to stop and put on raingear, the rain stopped. We rode a little farther and then decided we need a comfort break…found a little country store with all the amenities we needed except that their drink machines were all out of order, so we did what we stopped to do, got a couple of almost cool drinks out of the ice chest, and then headed down the road toward Broken Bow.
It wasn’t very long before I noticed that the gas needle, which had shown more than enough fuel to get us to Broken Bow, suddenly dropped like a rock. I didn’t mention it since Barbara tends to get nervous about such things, but at some point she looked at the gauges and saw that the needle had bottomed out and we weren’t seeing any signs of gas stations ahead.
Fortunately, we made it to a small community about 8 miles north of Broken Bow and found a quick stop place where we could have a little break and take on a tank of gas before finishing our ride for the day…just another blessing along the way!
After a quiet night in Broken Bow, we took our time getting around before saddling up and heading back to Wood County and Holiday Villages to spend another night in Big V.
While at Our Little Lot. Barbara got to see Linda’s paintings before they are taken to a museum in Winnsboro to be displayed. Linda, as one can see, is quite talented!
I, in the meantime, worked the land which brings me much joy and comfort. Barbara likes to mow the front, back, and side portions of our lot; but after that she’s ready to hunker down, read a book, and watch the birds from our patio. (You’ll notice that we look quite rough in many of these photos during our time away from our daily duties; but enjoying our life, our time together, and the freedom to plan our days was much more important than whether we looked like fashion plates! No Ken and Barbie are we!
The lot is gradually taking shape again after a grueling, hot summer. There was no way we could afford to pour the water to it that was necessary to keep it looking the way we’d like, but cooler weather has helped make it easier to maintain it. Like any home, Big V and the lot just need attention, and we’re just not able to give it as much of that attention as we’d like. But, we enjoy the heck out of it when we are there…there’s certainly no chance that we will be taking it for granted!
As was mentioned earlier among our blessings, our friends Gene and Michelle were back from Kansas for a few (very few) days. We haven’t had an opportunity to visit them in what seems to be forever, so to night we took a step toward correcting that by riding with them to Sulphur Springs and enjoying a great meal and lots of conversation at Chili’s. It’s been so long since any of us have been out in civilization that we weren’t sure we’d know how to behave, but we managed to pull it off okay.
After our “big city” outing, we returned to Holiday Villages where Gene and Michelle dropped us off at Big V. As soon as they drove away Barbara remembered something she was supposed to get from them, so she drove over to their lot while I went inside and got Big V ready for the night…it looked like a perfect night for sleeping with the windows open while the fresh air wafted gently through the room…another wonderful blessing!
On the last day of our “mini-vacation,” we got up early to enjoy the sunrise while I sipped a cup of hot coffee and Barbara started her day with a Diet Coke while we sat beside Big V.
When it was light enough and some of the fog had lifted, we went for a long walk around our “neighborhood,” During the walk we got a chance to try out one of our latest gifts from the property owners association, a set of binoculars that is also a digital camera. They are good only at distances of 40 feet or more, but they worked really well for what we were doing this morning. The park is very beautiful and quiet that time of the day!
Still, the cool evenings and the crisp mornings are a welcome relief from those continuous days of 100+ temperatures and humidity readings that almost matched the temperatures. We know that in a couple of months we’ll wish we had some of those days back, but we are gladly accepting what we have now.
We’ve written about the lemonade we’ve made over the last month; but what about those lemons we chose to eat raw? Well, we just spit out the seeds and turned everything over to the Lord who is better equipped than we to handle the disappointments, hurts, and feelings of inadequacy.
“Life is full of ups and downs. The trick is to enjoy the ups and have courage during the downs.” – Unknown
From Mother’s house in Mineola,
Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams
Happy Birthday shout-outs for this edition of the journal/blog go to:
Wednesday, September 22 – Mary Royar at Holiday Villages
Wednesday, September 29 – Francisco Camacho in Puerto Rico
Friday, October 1 – Jaycie Colwell in Lubbock (now a teenager!)
Sunday, October 3 – Cousin Cindy Wright in Tallahassee, Florida
