Tuesday, November 1 – Wednesday, November 30, 2011
A “Little” Overview of November
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November was a month of thanksgiving for us, but it was also a month of somber reflection as we faced the anniversary of the days that led up to Jimmy Clint’s untimely death last December 8. One thing that we remembered clearly, and have regretted deeply, is that the last time we saw Jimmy Clint alive, we were spending a day with him in Lubbock. We had the camera with us, but believe it or not, we didn’t take his picture, probably because he wasn’t feeling well and wasn’t in a mood to have his picture taken. For whatever reason, we don’t have a picture of Jimmy at that time.
There is an object lesson here. Those of you who are good friends and have seen us in action since retirement know that we almost always have a camera with us to capture photos of new friends or to record our adventures. A few of you, who shall be unnamed at this point, have made semi-snide remarks about Jim and Barbara and their cameras. Please know that we aren’t trying to embarrass you or put you through an ordeal…we just want to have a record of the time we spent with you, and we never again want to have to say, “Oh, how I wish we had taken a picture of them that time when…”
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Now, where Mother thought she was is beyond me. Sometimes she thinks she is in the hospital and sometimes she’s just not sure where she is. Almost always, though, she is able to carry on a conversation as if we were sitting in the living room at the house.
There is no set behavior pattern for Parkinsonism. One generally thinks of Parkinsonism in terms of the tremors, but Mother exhibits very few of those. Instead, her form of Parkinsonism is slowly eating away at her brain and killing parts of it. Physically, Mother is quite healthy in terms of appetite, blood pressure, body temperature, and almost all regular vital signs, but she is totally incontinent, will never walk again and will probably lose control of her arms and hands in the next onslaught of the disease, although that is being held at bay currently by physical therapy.
Mother was able to come home for a few hours on the 23rd, and we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with family members. She had a wonderful time visiting with everyone and her appetite was definitely in high gear, but she did get tired as the afternoon wore on and asked to be taken back to her room at the nursing home.
We don’t know what the future holds, but we will continue with our commitment to provide Mother with the fines care possible and to maintain her house, property, and especially her favorite children, Spike and Bonita (the “puppies” who are as old as Mother is).
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Other than that, our daily lives are not unlike those of so many others we know except for the restrictions on being here most of the time to take care of the house and puppies and visit Mother at the nursing home.
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It has been exciting to watch as attendance continues to grow at Yantis First Baptist Church and the activities thrive (well, except for the fishing part). Of particular excitement is the growth of the youth program under the direction of our new youth minister, Jeremy Durig and his wife, Emily. What blessings we have received from our dedicated staff members!
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We were also blessed with several inches of rain during the month. We are still well behind the average yearly rainfall, but every little bit helps, and we can tell the difference by looking at fields that are greening and flowers that are blooming after being dormant during the terrible summer drought.
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Tuesday, November 1Jim: After going fishing last night with some of the men from the church, I spent the night in Big V and then went to the weekly prayer session at Yantis First Baptist Church. When the prayer session ended, I drove back to Mineola. Along the way, I noticed that I had received a text from someone, but didn’t try to do anything about it while I was driving.
As I pulled into the garage and stopped, I looked at my text screen and read, “Armadillo is back with a vengeance!”
Since Mother moved into her new house nearly 3 ½ years ago, we have complained about the lighting in the kitchen. There is a very attractive ceiling light fixture, but it has only two 60-watt bulbs and is located so that anywhere you stand to work at a counter, a shadow is cast in front of you. I’ve often said that when both bulbs are burning, you can almost see the bulb, that’s just how dark it is.
While returning from a trip to Dallas a couple of weeks ago, we stopped at Lowes in Lindale to look at some things for Our Little Lot. While we were there, I checked out fluorescent lighting, since we were going to eventually need some for the new storage shed. As we was looking at the stock of lighting fixtures, we found what we thought would be perfect for the kitchen, so we bought a 2’ X 4’ fixture and four fluorescent tubes and brought them back to the house to wait for a good time to install them.
With time on our hands this morning, I decided I’d tackle the lighting chore. I checked the instruction manual, found all the tools I should need, turned off the power to the current fixture (a very important step), and within a few minutes, I had removed the fixture and had three wires dangling from the ceiling.
The instructions for installing the fixture were not very clear (I later learned that some of the steps really didn’t apply to this particular model), but with some help from Barbara and a balancing act worthy of a circus performer, we finally had the fixture wired and fastened to the ceiling.
Then, it was time for the moment of truth. I gave the fixture one last tug to make sure it was securely fastened to the ceiling, told Barbara to hit the light switch, and hallelujah, the kitchen was flooded with bright light (with NO shadows)!
It took a few minutes to clean up the mess (with my projects, there is ALWAYS as mess), take the trash out, and put the tools away, and then come back inside and enjoy and appreciate the new look of Mother’s kitchen. Now we wonder how we ever survived with the old fixture and low lighting.
The next thing on our agenda for the day was to straighten the house and get ready for visitors. Our good friends and adopted family from Artesia, Jerry and Nancy Terpening, are on a bit of a road trip and had called to see if they could come see us while they were in the “neighborhood.”
We, of course, readily said that we would love to see them, so we spent the day getting ready.
When Jerry and Nancy arrived, we sat and talked for a while, just trying to get caught up on all that was going on with them since our last visit to Artesia. Then, we got into Jerry and Nancy’s car and drove over to the nursing home to see Mother. Jerry and Nancy haven’t seen Mother since late June of 2008, just before she moved to Mineola, but they never fail to ask about her whenever we talk.
Surprise, surprise, we just “happened” to have the camera along with us so we could document this great occasion.
When we were finished at the lot, we made a trip around Lake Fork and then started looking for a good place to eat. Jerry said that they wanted to sample some basic East Texas fare, but we couldn’t think of anything that was particularly “East Texas.” We finally settled on Big Smith’s Barbecue, a place I had eaten with a group of men from the church one night…they have wonderful barbecue and all the trimmings, but the entire time you are eating your meal, you are also watching the front door to see if the health department officers are coming in to shut it down. Let’s just say that they take “rustic” to a whole new level.
Well, we got to Big Smith’s, but found it was closed. While I was trying to find out the operating hours, Barbara made the acquaintance of the next door neighbor. She asked where there was a good barbecue place, and before she got an answer, she got a whole lot more information that she wanted. We won’t go into details here, but the next time you see Barbara in person, just ask her about her first and last experience at Big Smith’s Barbecue…we’ll just say that Jerry and I laughed until we cried at the exchange between Barbara and the neighbor.
We finally decided to continue up Highway 154 to Sulphur Springs and try our luck at Bodacious, a part of a chain of barbecue restaurants in the region. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and the conversations that went along with it, but soon it was well past dark and time to return to Mineola so Jerry and Nancy could find their motel and get checked in for the night.
Wednesday, November 2
Jerry and Nancy came back to the house this morning, refreshed and relaxed after their night at the local Best Western. We fixed breakfast for them and spent an hour or two visiting and talking family matters until it was time for them to say goodbye and strike out on the next leg of their journey. We had such a good time with them…just not enough time, so we’ll just have to go back to Artesia one of these days for another visit with the Terpening family!
Thursday, November 3
Today was beauty shop day at the nursing home. When we went over to make sure that Mother had gotten in for her “do,” we found that she was sitting up watching TV and was in great spirits. Since we had the camera, we decided we’d get a shot of Mother and her fresh new look. The nursing home has a room that is designated as a beauty shop, and Tammy, an area hairdresser, comes in two days each week to get the ladies looking sharp.
Friday, November 4
Today was pretty much a “nothing” day until we got a phone call from our friends Gene and Carolyn Neyer, inviting us to come out to their place near Lake Holbrook to visit and play games.
We first met Gene and Carolyn the summer that we moved Mother to Mineola and they were staying at the civic center RV park on the lot next to ours. Our paths continued to cross (they even spent an evening visiting us when we were living on Jean Terpening’s place in Artesia). Like us, Gene and Carolyn eventually settled down close to Mineola and have a lovely home out in the country.
After getting caught up on each other’s news, we settled in for a rousing game of “Sequence,” a game that utilizes a game board and a double deck of cards. It took a while for Barbara and me to catch on to the intricacies of playing, but we finally got the hang of it and had a few exciting exchanges of cards before Gene and I won the game.
We were much later than we intended when we left the Neyers, but we thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent with them.
Saturday, November 5
Aside from taking care of a few household chores, there wasn’t much going on around our place today.
It was a really pretty day, not too cool or breezy, so I decided I’d ride my bicycle to the post office to check the mail. It’s about a three-mile round trip with a couple of interesting hills, but a nice enough ride on a good day.
When I was teaching in North Carolina, back in the early 70’s, I bought a bicycle and rode it all around the countryside for exercise and fresh air. When we moved to Bovina, Texas, I rode the bike to and from school on occasions (one of the benefits of living in a very small town), and when we moved to Perryton, it was pretty much my primary source of transportation when the weather was even halfway nice. The school was about a half mile away from our house and it was a straight shot, so I would use the opportunity to get in my exercise and have my heart pumping up to speed in time for first period band.
One morning, as I was riding up the street, a lady pulled up at an intersection, stopped, and as I was pedaling through the intersection, she started moving again and ran into the rear wheel of the bike. Luckily, I saw what was going to happen, so I maneuvered to where I could hang on to the bike and not hurt any body parts. Well, that was the end of my bike riding days, since the entire rear assembly of the bike was bent beyond repair.
I don’t remember now whether it was at Christmas or at our spring concert that year, but the band kids surprised me with a brand new three-speed bicycle to replace the one that had been damaged…wow…what a thoughtful bunch of kids and what a great gift that was.
I still have that bicycle, but it was stored in Artesia and I wasn’t able to bring it to Mineola until our last trip to New Mexico.
As I was riding down the street toward the house, I noticed that the trees in the North 40 were beginning to show some fall colors, so when I got inside with the mail, I grabbed the camera and went back outside to take a few shots. The red tree in the center is showing its fall colors. The smaller cluster to the right is poison oak that grows in the area where we believe our armadillos have their homes.
Sunday, November 6
Several weeks ago I arranged a brass trio (trumpet, euphonium, and tuba) for a group of us to play at church. The arrangement was of “It Took A Miracle,” a favorite hymn that I first heard during a youth revival at First Baptist Church in Artesia. One of the students in the church plays tuba, and Aaron, the husband of our choir director, plays euphonium, and I play the trumpet. And, of course, we have our trusted Lisa accompanying us on piano and keeping us on track
Today was our day to perform during the offertory and Barbara was there to document the occasion.
After church, we stopped by “Our Little Lot” to have a short meeting with our good friend Bob Royar, who is our consultant on all things electrical. Bob and his wife, Mary, will soon be leaving the park to go to the Valley for a few months, so I asked Bob if he could stop by and help me make a shopping list of things I will need to hook up the electricity to the new shed and patio.
While we were waiting on Bob, we decided to take advantage of a beautiful day for taking pictures while we were all dressed up.
Monday, November 7
We had more company today as Gary Dan Little, son of my brother Jerry, stopped by on his way from Abilene back to Georgia after taking care of some family business in Abilene. Gary Dan and his brother-in-law, Ed, were bringing a truckload of things with them and arrived in time for a visit with “Granny” at the nursing home. Mother is always glad to receive visitors, but she absolutely loves it when her grandchildren and great-grandchildren come to see her.
After the visit with Mother, Garry Dan, Ed, and TJ all came to the house for a wonderful lunch that Barbara had prepared. Even though the boys had a long ride ahead of them (they were hoping to drive straight through to Georgia), they took the time to sit and talk as we enjoyed the meal (and took pictures)..
Once everyone left and we got the table cleared and the kitchen cleaned up, I decided to tackle a chore that I’ve been putting off for way too long, trimming the big tree in the front yard.
Nearly every home in this addition has at least one non-bearing Bartlett pear tree in the front yard. I’ve noticed since we moved in to take care of Mother and her house, that several of the neighbors have hired professionals to trim back their trees. I’ve also noticed that our lower tree limbs are hanging down so far that I have to duck my head to push the lawnmower under them, but I’m also too cheap to pay someone for what I think I can do. So, I broke out a couple of saws and started cutting away at the lower hanging branches until the tree started looking as good as others in the neighborhood. The sawing wasn’t very easy, and the hauling away to the North 40 of the cut branches and limbs was a pain, but the tree had a brand new look to it when I was finished.
After prayer meeting, I went back to “Our Little Lot” to do some landscaping work, but the clouds suddenly built up and it started raining. Barbara texted to say that Wood County was under a tornado watch for the rest of the day, so I put away my tools, locked up Big V and the storage shed, and headed back to town to spend the day at the house.
Almost any day that we have rain is an occasion for breaking out the camera, and today was no exception as we shot a few pictures to show some of the nearly 3 inches of very welcome rain we received during the day. We even got industrious enough to take the house plants outside for a fresh drink of water.
Wednesday, November 9
This was a day to take Spike to the doggy hospital for his weekly laser treatment for arthritis. When we were finished at the vet’s place, I drove over to the nursing home so Mother could see her favorite son (Spike, of course). If there’s something Mother loves more than seeing her grand children and great-grandchildren, it’s having her “puppies” with her. Bonita is a real handful to take in the car, but Spike is the perfect riding partner, and he loves sitting in his mama’s lap.
We also had a plumber come to the house today to reseal and seat a toilet, but decided that wasn’t anything that we needed a picture of. After all, we do have the receipt for the payment we had to make.
Thursday, November 10
While we were busy doing house and yard chores today, Barbara decided to go to Walmart to see if she could find new beds for Spike and Bonita. Spike’s bed was falling apart from years of use, and Bonita has chosen to sleep either on the couch, on a blanket behind Spike’s bed, or, on the rare occasion, in Spike’s bed with him.
Barbara found a couple of pallet-style cushions that she thought would work…one just the right size for Bonita and the other, a little larger, for Spike. Both dogs seemed to be a little wary of their new beds at first, but it didn’t take Spike long to figure out which bed was his and what it was for.
It wasn’t until later in the evening that we checked on the puppies and found that both of them had crawled onto the little 13-inch cushion Barbara bought for Bonita and found a way to almost fit. These two dogs can sure bring smiles to our faces (sometimes).
Friday, November 11
Today is Veterans Day in the United States of America. It is one of the few “holidays” that is actually recognized and celebrated on the day for which it was originally named, Armistice Day.
Today I send out my appreciation to all brothers and sisters in arms who gave, and those who currently give, honorably of their time and service to protect our country and the ideals upon which it was founded. Many came home wounded in body and spirit and some were shunned and even despised by those whose freedom to express hateful and dissenting opinions was guaranteed by the selfless actions of our military personnel stationed around the globe, far from their family and friends.
I encourage all today to remember the freedoms that you enjoy and quietly offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for the men and women of our uniformed services, past and present who answered the call to service for their country.
“A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America for an amount of up to and including my life.’ That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it”
May God continue to bless America and protect our men and women of the armed forces.
Veteran’s Day was remembered in many ways throughout East Texas today, with parades and memorial services in many of the smaller communities.I went outside tonight and saw a full moon rising directly in line with the flag in our front yard and just had to take a series of photos…not the greatest quality, but still some amazing sights.
Wednesday, November 15
Today wasn’t memorable for very much, except that I had to take the motorcycle to the shop in Tyler. The choke cable finally rusted through and snapped. That wasn’t such a huge issue, since I could manually adjust the choke while starting the engine, but the biggest problem was that whenever I made a hard right turn with the handlebars, the entire electrical system would shut down and the engine would stop. It’s not very often that one makes that kind of turn, but there was obviously something wrong with either the wiring or the ignition switch, and the problem had to be fixed before we could think about riding again.
Barbara followed me to Tyler to make sure I got there safely, and after we dropped the cycle at the shop and finding that it would be three to four weeks before they could look at it, we decided to go across town and do a little shopping of our own. We had just finished looking at things for Thanksgiving in Dollar Tree when the clouds that had been building up decided to release their contents in a downpour of rain. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, we decided to not follow through on all of our shopping plans for Lowe’s and headed back to Mineola as quickly as possible.
The temperatures have been falling quite low lately, so we have moved all our “summer” plants into the garage and set up the heat lamp that we had out at Our Little Lot. The lamp has been so effective that, along with the showers we’ve received, the plants are doing quite well in the garage. In fact, the Hibiscus plant that had quit blooming outside put on two beautiful new blooms today and is showing several buds that should be blooming soon.
Also pictured with the Hibiscus is a Crown of Thorns plant that was given to Barbara by Wanda, our neighbor across the street. The plant had a prominent place on the front porch during the spring and summer and is now brightening up the garage.
We’re also experimenting with a beautiful Peace Lily that Jerry and Nancy Terpening gave us last December when Jimmy Clint died, but believe now that it will have to be kept in the house, rather than in the garage.
Sunday, November 20
Because we were expecting Barbara’s sister, Carol, and Tamra, one of Carol’s granddaughters sometime today, Barbara stayed home from church to wait for their arrival while I went on to church.
When I returned after the morning service, we worked together to get the house ready for our visitors and then found that Carol and Tamra wouldn’t arrive until later this evening, so I went on back to church for choir practice and the evening service while Barbara remained at home.
Carol and Tamra arrived shortly after I returned from church and we began the visit with bringing in their luggage and getting them set up in Mother’s room here at the house. Soon, we were chattering away, getting caught up on all the latest from Carol’s family.
At some point, I decided to break out the camera and shoot whatever I saw that looked like it should be shot. The first photo of the evening was of Spike and Bonita. They had already had their dinner and decided to forego the social activities and just go on to bed. The dogs can’t seem to make up their minds where they want to sleep; tonight they decided to share Spike’s bed, at least for a while.
It seems that no matter which bed they sleep in, Spike gets shorted on the space and has to hang over the edge.
A few minutes later, I got this shot of Barbara helping Carol set up her new laptop computer. It was the Toshiba computer that I had been using, but that was causing me a lot of grief, particularly when working on the journal and blog, so when Barbara ordered the new Dell for my birthday, Christmas, Easter, and whatever other holidays may come up in the next year, I dumped all the data and programs from the Toshiba and we gave it to Carol, who will use it for correspondence and playing games.
Meanwhile, Tamra went to her corner and entertained herself by checking her Facebook page on the Notepad that we got from Holiday Villages.
Monday, November 21
While Carol, Tamra, and Barbara continued their visit this morning, I took care of some of our regular business and then we all went out to the lake to show off Our Little Lot. Carol and a couple of her other grandchildren had stayed out there during a visit last year, but Tamra had never seen either the lot of Big V, and Carol hadn’t seen the new addition. Of course, pictures were called for, so we all took turns photographing each other.
Tamra enjoyed looking around the lot and showing off some of her acrobatic moves.
After showing our visitors the lot, we drove them across Lake Fork, since Tamra had never been here to see the lake. Then, we returned to Mineola and went to Wood Memorial Nursing Home for a short visit with Mother. It has been quite awhile since Carol last saw Mother and Tamra has never met her until today, so it turned out to be a really nice visit.
One of the nice things about taking family and other visitors to see Mother is that we not only get their pictures, we can also have them take pictures of us with Mother…a rare occurrence. Mother was in great spirits today, so we managed to get a couple of really good shots while we were there.
So, after showing Carol and Tamra the motorhome and lot and then visiting with Mother, all that was left to do was take them back to the house, feed them some lunch, help them pack their car and make sure they had everything they needed for their trip to Shreveport, and send them on their way with our best wishes for a great Thanksgiving celebration with Gary (Carol’s son) and his family in Louisiana.
Once Carol and Tamra were on their way, we went back inside to do the dishes, straighten up the house, and not do a whole lot of anything else during the afternoon and evening.
Tuesday, November 22
Instead of me going to prayer meeting this morning, Barbara and I got into the car early and drove to Dallas to watch Alexander and Abby perform with their respective classes at the annual Grandparent’s Recognition Concert at their school, Lakehill Preparatory School, where Heather works as a college-prep counselor.
We attended the program with Mother last year and had such a good time that we were looking forward to this year’s program, but were afraid that it would be on Wednesday. Instead, it was today, leaving us free to go to Dallas and then be back home for a big family Thanksgiving tomorrow,
The pleasure of attending the program this year was enhanced by Abby also being a performer (she is in kindergarten this year…Alexander is in the second grade) and by having Andy’s parents present. They traveled from the Boston area to be with the kids for Thanksgiving this year and were able to be here in time for the program.
Alexander and Abby and their classes did a wonderful job of presenting their musical selections, and we, along with Andy’s folks, Len and Marilyn, had to agree that our grandchildren were definitely the best looking and most talented of all the students on the stage.
When the program was completed, we all went to Alexander and Abby’s rooms to see some of their handiwork and meet their teachers, and then were able to find someone to take a photo of all of us together. Andy, unfortunately, was teaching at his school, so we weren’t able to get the entire family.
After the photo session, we had to leave to return to Mineola to await the arrival of our next round of visitors and start preparations for tomorrow’s family feast.
Shortly after returning to Mineola, Ryan and Leah arrived from Cleburne, their new home after being transferred there from Pampa, Texas.
While Barbara worked on supper, Leah, Ryan, and I went over to the nursing home so they could see Mother and visit with her.
As we were talking and reminding Mother that we would be bringing her home for a few hours tomorrow for the family Thanksgiving, she asked me if I had her credit card. I said that I did, and then she said she wanted to make her apple and pecan salad and that I needed to go to the store tonight to get all the ingredients. She named everything she needed for the salad, and when we finished our visit, the kids and I drove to Brookshire’s to get the things from Mother’s shopping list, along with a few other things we decided we couldn’t live without.
Tonight, we just spent some family time together, with the kids telling us all about how they were decorating their new apartment and how they were getting settled in to their new town and Ryan’s job.
Wednesday, November 23
The alarm went off at 2:15 this morning, alerting me to the fact that it was time to get up and build the fire for the smoker. Luckily, last night I had arranged all the coals in the fire pit and had started soaking a couple of large cups of mesquite chips, so all I had to do was move the fire pit out to the sidewalk along the street, pour on the lighter fluid, wait 3 minutes, and torch the whole mess.
While the charcoal was blazing and burning down to coals, I went back inside to clean and season the turkey and finish getting it ready to put in the smoker. Barbara came in just in time to help me carry the turkey out to the smoker, throw a cup of wet chips on the coals, and set the turkey in the barrel to smoke for the next ten hours.
Once we were satisfied that the temperature inside the smoker was where we wanted it, we came inside and mapped out our plans for the rest of the morning (part of which included getting a nap to make up for the early wakeup call).
The rest of the morning was spent getting our part of the meal ready for the 11 family members we were expecting at 1:30. I got a loaf of jalapeno bread ready and baking and prepared pitchers of various kinds of tea, Leah chopped the apples, celery, and pecans for Mother’s salad, Barbara started working on the potatoes, dressing, cheese grits, mixed squash, pecan pie, and Ryan helped wherever he was needed, especially making the dressing as Barbara gave the instructions and as we moved tables and chairs around to have two dining areas. We put a spiral ham in the roaster out in the garage around 11:00, and then set back and monitored the progress of all the different pots and pans.
At 1:00, Ronnie, the medical transportation driver for the nursing home, brought Mother to the house and helped us get her inside. After Ronnie left, Leah and Barbara sat down with Mother and watched (and helped a little bit) as Mother mixed all the ingredients.
TJ, Aleathea, Arianna, Ladd, Angela, and Madelyn arrived around 1:30, bringing more plates and platters of side dishes and desserts. TJ told us that Rob, Michelle, and Joseph would be late, if they got here at all, because they were still loading things at their house downstate and would be late getting away.
Barbara had decided that this Thanksgiving she would use dry eraser boards as place cards and that each person would write or draw what they were thankful for and share them before we ate our meal.
When we had finished with the conversation starters, I read a passage from Psalm 136, Ladd offered the blessing, and then we started loading our plates from the buffet setup and finding our places so we could proceed to chow down in a manner befitting the finest of Thanksgivings.
Next came the picture-taking session, followed by the inevitable clearing of the tables and washing of the dishes. Even though we used large paper plates, plastic utensils, and plastic cups, there were more than plenty of serving dishes and pots and pans to be done. Angela was our chief angel of the day; taking her place at the sink and preparing things for the dishwasher of scrubbing those items that were too large to fit in it…don’t know what we would have done without her.
At 10 minutes until 4:00, Mother asked Barbara when Ronnie was coming to take her back to the nursing home. Barbara said he was supposed to come at 4:00, but asked Mother if she wanted to call them right then. Mother said that she thought she was ready to go back and go to bed, so Barbara called the nursing home and in just a few minutes, Ronnie was here to get her back in the van and take her back to her room.
The rest of us continued hammering away at the kitchen and dining room until all the leftovers were sorted out and enough of everything was packaged for TJ to take back to her house to serve Rob, Michelle, and Joseph when they returned.
When everything was put away, we shared hugs all around and our guests departed, leaving Leah, Ryan, Barbara, and me to sit down and think of doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the evening.
In the end, pictures say much more than words, and boy howdy, do we ever have pictures for you.
The following photos are included in the above collages, but we thought sharing them here will help our readers identify some of our cast of characters (with “characters” being a key word).
Back: Angela (TJ’s stepdaughter) & TJ
Front: Ladd (Angela’s husband), Mother, Madelyn (Angela and Ladd’s daughter)
Back: Barbara, Ryan, Jim
Front: Leah & Mother
Alaethea, Mother, & Arianna
The girls are TJ’s granddaughters
Mother and Bonita
Thursday, November 24 (Thanksgiving Day)
Ryan and Leah didn’t have to leave as early as we first thought they would, so we were able to enjoy a leisurely morning before we got into high gear. While I fixed breakfast, Barbara and the kids sat at the table and played games with each other on their computers.
Later, Ryan and I left the ladies to do their thing while he and I drove out to Holiday Villages and Our Little Lot so he could see the new addition. Leah saw it last summer, so she elected to stay at the house with Barbara.
When Ryan and I returned to the house, we had lunch, then got their car packed for their return trip to Cleburne, and saw them off, but not before getting one last picture of them in the driveway.
I followed the kids over to the nursing home so they could say their goodbyes to Mother (Granny).
With it being Thanksgiving Day and all the stores being closed, Barbara and I decided that there was nothing to do except spend the rest of the day reading and napping, and that’s exactly what we did!
Friday, November 25
This was a difficult day for us. Had he lived, Jimmy Clint would have been 40 years old today, but he died last December, shortly after his 39th birthday. We couldn’t help but go over the memories, some very happy about his life, but others sad, about a life cut short. Still, we celebrate the wonderful changes in Jimmy’s life as he began a new relationship with Jesus Christ, his Lord and Savior, prior to his untimely death.
This is one of our favorite pictures of Jimmy & Jaycie
Saturday, November 26
Special birthday greetings go out today to son Mike in Midlothian, Virginia. Mike graced this world with his presence 36 years ago at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. Happy Birthday, Son…We love you very much!
After doing some work in the house and garage, we drove to Lindale to have a brief meeting with Carol and Tamra, who were on their way back to New Mexico after spending Thanksgiving in Shreveport. In the oddest of circumstances, we all arrived at McDonalds at exactly the same time…could never do that again even if we planned it.
When Carol and Tamra left and headed west on I-20, Barbara and I got back in the car and drove back to Mineola. It was a cold and wet day, perfect for just hunkering down and doing nothing on a Saturday night.
Sunday, November 27
It is part of our local tradition that TJ takes us out to lunch or dinner somewhere to celebrate Barbara’s birthday. When she called last week to see when we would be available, we said we needed to think about it because of the travel plans we had for the week. We decided that a fun thing that would also include Mother would be to have a pizza party in Mother’s room at the nursing home; so, after our respective church services this morning, we all gathered at Wood Memorial Nursing Home in Mother’s room and feasted on salad and Pizza Hut Supreme Pan Pizza, our favorite item on the menu
With good food and good company, we began a nearly week-long celebration of the 67th anniversary of Barbara’s natal occasion.
Monday, November 28
Happy Birthday today to Barbara Ann Perry Colwell Little, who is officially older than me!
I won’t come right out and say how old Barbara is today, but she was born in Houston some 67 years ago, which would make her, let’s see…okay, I’ll just leave it up to our readers to do the math.
Our birthday present to each other today was to get the Christmas decorations out and decorate the house. Because Mother has so much furniture and a relatively small living room, we don’t have a large tree to put up, but Barbara does a beautiful job of taking the decorations we have (which are quite a few) and really sprucing up the living room, dining room, and the front of the house.
Luckily for us, it was a pretty day outside, so we were able to take out time and experiment with getting the outdoor decorations just where we wanted them and (we hope) where the December winds won’t damage them or blow them away.
The puppies helped by (mostly) staying out of the way, but they had a definite interest in the goings-on. However, their interest in the decorating process did seem to decline as the clock moved closer to din-din time.
Tuesday, November 29
After placing the puppies in the Doggy Hotel, straightening the house, and loading the car, we took time for a portrait (Barbara had taken a bunch of practice pictures to see how things might work), and then headed off to see Mother before we left on a three-day adventure to Shreveport and Bossier City, Louisiana, for fun and shopping.
The trip across East Texas was fun and leisurely, and when we arrived in Bossier City, we sent straight to the Louisiana Boardwalk to check out the place. We had been there once before, on July 4th, but we had John, Randi, and Leah as well as friends Joyce and Gary with us and there were about a kazillion other people hanging around for the day, scouting out places to watch the fireworks display. Today was a much easier and nicer visit. We were pleasantly surprised to find very few people in the mall area, with no crowds in the stores.
Our time today was spent in strolling around the mall to see the sights along the Red River and to scout out the different shops. Since we had a list of things we wanted for specific family members, we decided to go ahead and start buying and found that without exception, the sales people were all very friendly and helpful. Who knows, this Christmas shopping season might be fun after all!
After leaving the mall area, we went to the Spring Hill Marriott and checked in and then went to the race track/casino complex for a short time of fun and a great meal at the buffet. Barbara sampled several items on the menu, but once I found the Cajun section, I loaded up on plates full of shrimp and bowls full of gumbo…meals just don’t get any better than that!
Wednesday, November 30
We slept in late this morning, got a meal from the hotel breakfast bar, and then set out for another day of fun and shopping in the area. Once again we drove to the Louisiana Boardwalk to check out even more stores, since we had added more people and more presents to our list. It was a beautiful day, again with no crowds, so we just strolled around, took pictures, and even found a fellow shopper who happily agreed to take a picture of us beside the river.
We wrapped up our day of sight-seeing and shopping with another trip to the Louisiana Downs buffet. Barbara again sampled from several different stations, but I stuck with the Cajun food, putting away all the shrimp, rice, and gumbo I could hold. Life is short and trips to Shreveport are few and far between, so I’ve learned to make the most of the culinary experiences!
And so ends a month with a specific time of thanksgiving. Our list of things to be thankful for would run many pages, but high on it is our beautiful grandchildren, a gift from God through our children. Pictured below on the top row are Abby Dondis (daughter of Heather & Andy), Jaycie Colwell (daughter of Jimmy Clint & Cathey), and Randi Colwell (daughter of John & Carol). On the bottom row are Ava Little (daughter of Mike & Kelly), Jimmy Farnham (son of Whitney & Jim), and Alexander Dondis (son of Heather & Andy). Not pictured, but forever in our hearts and memories is Jamison Dudley McQuitty, stillborn son of Leah and Ryan (May 16, 2008).
“Love finds a way; indifference comes up with an excuse.” – Anonymous
