Just A “Little” Overview…
The first two weeks of August kept us hopping almost 24/7. We began the month with five days of Vacation Bible School at Yantis First Baptist Church. I was in charge of the kitchen and refreshments while Barbara was the official photographer. By the time the week was over, I had helped construct edible taxi cabs, towers, and ice cream floats, to name just a few goodies the kids enjoyed and Barbara had a folio of over 500 photos of the various activities and had organized many of them into a couple of video disks that would eventually be given to all the students who were enrolled in VBS this summer.
On the Saturday following VBS, we drove to Rockwall to meet Stacy and Cathey, and to pick up Jaycie for a short summer trip to Branson, Missouri, a place that has been much-recommended by family and friends, but somewhere we had never been.
Mother continues to be mostly in good health. We had a comprehensive care conference with Wood Memorial staff on the 4th and reviewed all aspects of Mother’s care. It is the opinion of the staff that Mother has settled into a comfortable routine with the staff and is doing much better. Light physical therapy will continue, especially since Mother is now requesting it and is participating at a higher level.
During the meeting, we reiterated our request that Mother be moved to a private room as soon as possible. That request was already on file, but we wanted them to know that we were still interested in that option when it becomes available. The staff agreed that it could be a good thing for Mother to have her own space, but again reminded us that private rooms do not open up very often and that it could be after the first of the year when that might happen.
So, imagine our surprise when, upon returning from our trip with Jaycie, we got a call on Friday, the 12th, that a private room had just opened up and would be available on Monday, the 15th. We immediately visited with Mother to see if she wanted to make the change, and when she said she did, we started making the arrangements.
The major change in the picture is that Mother is now under fulltime hospice care through Heart to Heart Hospice of Tyler. In addition to the regular services of Wood Memorial, Mother has an aide who comes in five days a week to attend to personal grooming and cleaning, a hospice nurse who checks on her a couple of times a week, a client care representative, and a chaplain who will come in and visit a couple of times a month. Hospice also provided a special bed and chair that provide much greater comfort and ease for Mother.
As a very pleasant surprise, when we met the chaplain, we found that we had common ties to Toccoa, Georgia, and the Georgia Baptist Conference Center that is located there. The world just keeps getting smaller!
The business of life continues as we work to maintain Mother’s house and property and Big V and Our Little Lot at Holiday Villages, all of which is time-consuming, especially during the “growing” season. The job of yard maintenance has been problematic this summer as we have almost nightly visits from our neighborhood armadillo. The armadillo’s den is in a wooded area in the North 40, but is well-protected by thick brush, including poison oak and poison ivy.
Spike and Bonita have their own established routines, both daily and their scheduled visits to the veterinarian. We are very fortunate to have such a good veterinary facility, including a very nice “doggy hotel” for the times we need to be out of town.
Between taking care of houses, yards, and puppies, keeping up with our church activities at Yantis First Baptist Church, my work on the transition committee at Holiday Villages of Lake Fork, and our efforts at maintaining the journal and blog, we have managed to keep ourselves quite busy this month, but have still had time to enjoy our time here in East Texas, even in the midst of one of the hottest and driest summers in recent history.
Monday, August 1
We have really enjoyed watching the many different kinds of birds that come around Mother’s property, especially after the birdbath and the feeder have been restocked. Barbara went out today and found this guy drinking and bathing in the same spot…I guess he got it all in the right order.
It’s a lot of fun to watch the birds as they fly to the edge of the birdbath and then plunge in and splash around for a few minutes. At first, they seemed a little wary of us, but that soon wore off when they learned that we were just interested in watching.
Monday, August 1 – Friday, August 5
Nearly 70 kids and a bevy of teachers and older youth converged on Yantis FBC each morning this week to participate in the annual Vacation Bible School. This year’s theme was Big Apple Adventure, with all activities, lessons, and treats centered on NYC landmarks. Barbara was all over the place taking photos of the different sessions while I spent most of my time heading up the crew that prepared the daily treats for students and staff.
Saturday, August 6
We visited Mother for a while this morning and then drove to Rockwall to pick up Jaycie and begin a summer adventure, a trip to Branson, Missouri, to find out for ourselves what it is all about.
We drove to Durant, Oklahoma, and then across U.S. 69 until we connected with I-40 east. Our first stop was at the Arkansas Welcome Station, where we broke out the camera for the first of many photos of the week.
We spent the night in Fayetteville, Arkansas, home of the University of Arkansas. We had talked of taking a drive through the university campus, but decided when we got to the motel that we were tired and hungry. We drove downtown to find a friendly Target store, did some shopping, and then returned to the motel (stopping first for McSupper).
Sunday, August 7
Since we weren’t in any great hurry to get to Branson today, we just lazed around the motel this morning. The combination of Jaycie and a camera made for some interesting moments.
When we got to the hotel, we found that the electricity had gone off on that end of town, so we had to cool our heels around the Grand Country complex for a couple of hours while we waited for the electricity to come back online and the computers to re-boot so we could get registered and into our room.
Our first big adventure of the trip was an evening at the Dixie Stampede, just down the street from Grand Country. During the course of the evening, we enjoyed an amazing juggling show while snacking on soft drinks and popcorn, followed by a fantastic arena show featuring feats of horsemanship, music, comedy, and patriotism…not to mention a meal that was beyond fantastic!
Monday, August 8
When we planned the trip to Branson, we left a little time and money available for optional adventures. We allowed Jaycie to make a choice between a trip to the Titanic or going out for a zipline adventure. I was really pleased when Jaycie made the choice of the zipline adventure, because that’s something I wanted to try.
Yesterday, we drove out to find Branson Zipline, mainly so we would know where we were going and how long it would, and take to get there, and also to make our reservations.
When we arrived, we had time to wander around and take a few photos before joining our group, getting some basic instructions (like “go to the bathroom before we go downstairs to get the gear); then, it was time for the group to trek down to the back of the building to the shop, where our gear was all laid out and waiting for us.
With a little assistance, we were soon geared up and climbing into the personnel carrier to make the short, but very bumpy ride to the top of the first tower and bridge.
After receiving further safety instructions, like, “Never, NEVER, NEVER, reach up and grab the steel cable with your bare hands while in motion!”, we prepared to hook up to the cable and make our first run, which was, it turned out, as easy as falling off a tower, but far more fun and exhilarating.
The rides through the trees were fun and exciting and Jaycie and I both agreed that it was definitely something we would try again of the opportunity arose!
We had a surprise rain storm this evening. We’d almost forgotten what rain looks like, but we managed to get a few good shots of it with Jaycie enjoying herself out in the parking lot.
Tuesday, August 9
Jaycie wasn’t feeling well today, so she spent most of her time in the room. After getting her settled in and as comfortable as she could be considering the circumstances, Barbara and I went out to take some more pictures of the area. After all, we would be leaving Branson tomorrow morning to return to Mineola and there was a lot we hadn’t seen. We started by checking out the Grand Country Water Park, an indoor/outdoor facility open to all guests of the Grand Country hotel.
Wednesday, August 10
Today was a travel day as we left Branson and drove back to Mineola, this time driving to Little Rock, Arkansas, and catching I-30 back to Sulphur Springs before turning south for the final leg of the trip.
Thursday, August 11
We all got up early this morning, loaded Jaycie’s things in the car, stopped at Wood Memorial for a brief visit with Granny, and then headed toward Rockwall to return Jaycie to Stacy for their trip back to Lubbock. We found out later in the day that Jaycie got even sicker after she left with Stacy, delaying their return to Lubbock until the next day.
As for us, we returned to Mineola to get settled back into our normal routine.
Monday, August 15
When we got the call last Friday that Mother could be moved to a private room, we immediately started making arrangements to decorate it and move things from the house to the room. We spent most of today getting the room set up with new window dressings and some wall hangings from the house, a picture and three framed handkerchiefs that had been sewn by my grandmother’s and my great grandmother. We were going to move Mother’s lift chair to the room, but the nursing home left two recliner chairs in the room and we decided that we would need the lift chair at the house whenever we could bring Mother home for a visit.
Friday, August 19
We got up early this morning and drove to Yantis to help with the annual Teacher Appreciation Breakfast that is sponsored by our church. Having participated in many such breakfasts over the years, it was fun to see the event from a different perspective.
In the first of the collages, church members are involved in the preparations.
The second of the collages shows the Yantis school staff who attended the breakfast and related welcome back to school activities, as well as their interactions with our church members. Several of our church members are also school personnel, including some teachers, the high school principal, and one of the school board members.
This evening, we enjoyed a visit from our friends Gene and Michelle Young, who were back in town taking care of some personal business. The Youngs also are property owners at Holiday Village and once served as administrators in the Dodge City, Kansas, schools…Gene as the superintendent and Michelle as an elementary principal.
Monday, August 22
While Barbara stayed home today to take care of the house and watch the puppies, I had a Patriot Guard mission to Pittsburg to honor the service to his country of Emmitt Starrett, aged 80, a retired USAF master sergeant who spent 20 years and ten months on active duty. In a poinant moment during the graveside service, Sgt. Starrett’s grandson, an active duty USAF sergeant, received the American Flag on behalf of his family when it was presented by an honor guard from Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.
I guess I was feeling a bit nostalgic this evening; maybe because tomorrow will be the anniversary of the day in 1966 when I was in the barracks at Amarillo AFB and received a visit from the a chaplain with the news that Daddy had been washed away in flood waters south of Artesia and was missing. When I got back from the funeral this afternoon and had a chance to rest a bit, I got down Daddy’s old footlocker to see what was in it. I could be wrong, but I believe it probably hasn’t been opened since Mother packed it in preparation for her move to El Paso a year or so after Daddy’s death.
There were a great number of treasures in the chest…mementos of Mother and Daddy’s earlier years and the appearance of us three boys along the way. At the top of the contents was a paper bag that just begged to be opened. Inside it I found three pairs of cowboy boots and a note indicating that they were the first pairs of boots that had been bought for each of us. Why they had been saved is beyond me, but they were certainly an interesting find and something that each of us will be able to pass on to our own children and grandchildren in future years.
Tuesday, August 23
I got up early this morning to go to prayer meeting at Yantis First Baptist Church and then worked for a few hours at Our Little Lot, making the final preparations for laying the new water and electric lines to the storage shed.
Meanwhile, Barbara stayed at the house to take care of business there. At noon, she connected with our friend Heidi for a girls’ day out lunch at Yes, one of our local Chinese restaurants.
When I came back to town and went looking for some connectors I needed for the water lines, I stopped off at Yes and took some pictures of Barbara and Heidi as they enjoyed their time together.
Wednesday, August 24
We had a nice little rainstorm this afternoon. Most years, that is not such a big thing, but with the dry summer and blistering heat we have been experiencing, this change in the weather was noteworthy for us.
Thursday, August 25
Cousin Cindy from Florida was in the area today working at her new job. She was traveling throughout East Texas, but staying at the Hyatt Regency Hotel at DFW. Since we hardly ever get to see Cindy, we got all our business taken care of at the house, visited a bit with Mother, and then drove to Dallas to spend the night and visit as much as possible.
It was quite an adventure to get from our hotel to Cindy’s hotel and back, but the time we spent with her made it all worthwhile…and, it isn’t often that we have ever entered a hotel where the rooms can go for as high as $800 per night (not that that’s what Cindy’s room cost her), but the price list certainly put this hotel out of our range.
Tuesday, August 30
We have spent nearly every evening this month trying to figure out how to eliminate our armadillo problem. We know about where he hides during the day, but his hiding place is well protected from humans. John and I have tried chasing him, but he is way too fast for us. We’ve set traps all over our yards and the North 40, but haven’t had much luck, even though we have been out at various times during the nights and seen him moving around in the yard and drilling out the lawn.
Since we don’t have a decent picture of the armadillo, we’ll just end this month’s pictorial segment of the journal/blog with a photo of the trap sitting in the front yard and baited with some of Walmart’s juiciest night crawlers.
Family birthday wishes for this month go out to Cousin James Wright in Florida (13th), Cousin Madelyn Thompson in Mineola (23rd), and Paul Boley in Cleburne (29th).
Happy Anniversary to Jerry and Nancy Terpening in Artesia, New Mexico (23rd).
“God’s whisper of comfort quiets the noise of our trials.” – Our Daily Bread
Still under the armadillo siege in Mineola,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams
