Tuesday, May 1 – Wednesday, May 9,
2012
A “Little” Overview
Because of
our plans for May, we decided to do several separate entries for the
month. The first nine days, while very
busy for us, were not particularly newsworthy, but did have their moments that
we share here with our faithful readers.
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May 1-4 Tuesday-Thursday
Barbara: These days found us scrambling trying
to get both houses, Edith’s and Big V, cleaned and ready for company as well as
our departure. And, of course, this meant that we also had to do the lawns as
well. It seemed as though between the nursing home, Walmart, cooking, cleaning,
and yards, the days were over before they began.
May 5 Friday
Jim’s Bugles Across America uniform finally
arrived and we went out to his Uncle Harry’s gravesite so he could once again
play Taps in his honor. Harry was the recipient of the Purple Heart as well as
many other medals for his service during 3 wars. Then it was off to see Edith
and give her a glimpse of the “new” bugler, Jim. Edith and Joe gave Jim his trumpet 54 years
ago when he entered high school band. In the bottom left photo, Edith is
wearing the TAPS 150 shirt we bought for her so she could participate on the 19th
with us.
Leah and Ryan arrived and after a getting
their dog, Princess, and Bonita settled, each agreeing to stay in their own
corners, the kids went to see Granny while Jim and I dog sat. Once they returned home, we ate and played a rousing game of 99 before calling it a night.
May 5 Saturday
Heidi, Curt,
and the kids were planning to get away from the real world for a while and to
do that they were going to stay in Big V. Since we wanted Ryan to see all the
improvements we’d made out there, we started the day off with a trip to Big V.
(Wonderful way to start any day if you ask us!) I find it hard to believe that
we didn’t subject Leah and Ryan to more photos; but we didn’t that day. Wonder
if they appreciate that?
These were the best shots of the super moon that Jim could get.
May 6 Sunday
After warning Edith that we would not
be by to see her this morning, we took the kids to church in time for the
breakfast. While they went to Sunday school, I had the honor of keeping
Jeremiah in the nursery. It was fun as he is now walking and we marched to the
song, Onward Christian Soldier as well
as several other songs on the children’s DVD. Thought it was interesting that I
“taught” Jeremiah the actions to Zacheus and then in church, it was part of
David’s sermon...Just interesting. Jim played a medley of Morning Has Broken
and This is My Family’s World, and Fairest Lord Jesus.
After church, we quickly ran home,
changed clothes, grabbed the meal out of the oven and hustled over to the
nursing home to enjoy lunch with Edith. TJ joined us. It was a week early but
Leah and I had decided that this was an official “Mother’s Day…Part 1” for
Edith.
Once we returned
home, it was time for us to say good-bye to the kids. A wonderful time was had
by all!
Well…seems as though I did two collages for
this event so I’m going to use them both! Waste not, want not! .
May 7 Monday
Jim: Monday nights have been a traditional
time for several men from the church to go out on Lake Fork for some fishing,
fun, and fellowship. This afternoon I
drove out to Our Little Lot to get my
fishing gear from the storage shed before heading to the lake.
On the way to
Mary Parker’s house (where the fishermen meet), I got a call from Jeremy saying
that he and David would have to cancel this evening. No problem...there would still be Charlie
Duncan, Gary Long, and maybe one or two others.
When I got to
Mary’s house, I found only Charlie waiting.
It seems that everyone else had to cancel for tonight. But, we decided that since it was still early
in the afternoon and too hot to do any serious fishing, we’d wait for another
hour or so before getting in the boat.
I went back
to the lot and raked and seeded a large part of our yard, hoping against hope
that we would get enough rain in the near future for the centipede grass to
take hold and start spreading.
Later, I went
back to Mary’s house and Charlie and I did some serious fishing (but no
catching) until a thunderstorm blew up and we had thunder and lightning all
around us. That was enough for us, so we
shut things down, returned to Mary’s house for a light snack, and I went back
to Big V
.
I was going
to spend the night at Big V and then go to prayer meeting Tuesday morning, but
with the storms raging all around, I buttoned down the place and returned to
Mineola, arriving at the house just as the skies broke loose and the rain
poured down.
Wednesday, May 9
Today was
ultra busy for the Littles. Not only
were we busy doing all the last minute things that needed to be done for our
3-week trip that would begin sometime this afternoon, this was also the day we
were having Mother come home for the family “Mother’s Day” dinner. We try to get Mother home at least once a
month, and this was the only day that worked out for everyone. It was chaos, but more or less planned and
semi-organized chaos.
We were
fortunate that Wood Memorial was able to transport Mother earlier than usual
today. By 11:00, Mother was at the house
and settled in for a few hours and our guests, TJ, Ladd, and Angela began
arriving. We had all decided that a
Mexican Fiesta was in order. For various reasons, Barbara and I wound up with
KP duty which consisted of refried beans, enchilada casserole, Spanish rice,
chips, dips and salsa. As we’ve said many times, we don’t mind the cooking and
it’s always a treat to see Mother chow down!
A good time with good food and good
company was had by all. Ronnie was
supposed to pick Mother up at 1:00, but it was closer to 2:00 when he finally
arrived. We were getting a little
perturbed, since everything was supposed to be working on a schedule, but the
late arrival of the transportation van made it possible for a couple of our
neighbors, John (across the street) and Addie (next door) to come over and
visit with Mother for a few minutes.
When we had
said our goodbyes to everyone and Mother was headed back to Wood Memorial
Nursing Home, we did the absolute last minute things that needed to be done to
close the house for three weeks, double-checked to see that we had everything
we needed in the car, and at 3:00 pm we pulled away from the house for a
three-week adventure of visiting family and friends and going to Washington, DC
and Arlington National Cemetery to participate in the TAPS 150 event
commemorating the 150th anniversary of the writing and first
sounding of Taps.
"Family means too much, friends are too valuable, and life is too short to put off sharing with people how much they really mean to you." Unknown
From Mineola,
Texas,
Jim/Dad/Gramps
and Barbara/ Mom/Grams
