Tuesday, January 1 – Thursday, January
31, 2013
Tuesday, January 1
Happy New Year!!!
Today was a
major house-cleaning day...no TV, parades, or bowl games to get in the way as
we single-mindedly tackled the dusting, sweeping, and mopping chores that we hadn’t
gotten to during all the Christmas rush.
The highlight
of the day was receiving this photo of John and Carol...a great New Year’s
present.
This evening
we dug out a couple of DVD’s that we had thought about watching before, but
just hadn’t gotten around to doing anything about them.
Can you tell
that we are big New Year party animals?
Wednesday, January 2 – Friday, January
4
These were
our “basic routine” days. Barbara had
heart rehab on Wednesday and Friday, and Thursday I tackled the stack of papers
and folders that had piled up in the desk in the last few weeks. Those of you who ever had the opportunity to
see my desk at school know my basic filing system...everything is in the pile
somewhere. Well, by the end of the day,
nearly everything was filed away in folders and placed in an order that anyone
could decipher. Now, we’ll just see how
long that lasts.
Friday
afternoon, after seeing Mother at lunch in the nursing home, we ventured out a
whole 11 miles to Lindale to do some shopping.
Saturday, January 5
We took care
of some household chores this morning and then attended a showing of Les
Miserables this afternoon at the historic Select Theater in downtown
Mineola. The Select Theater is the
oldest continuously operating theater in East Texas and under the current
management is showing first-run movies nearly every weekend.
I’ve listened
to cast recordings of Les Mis for so many years that I’ve just about memorized
all the lyrics, but we’ve never had an opportunity to see the show. We both thought it was a wonderful production
and I had no problem with the singing of Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe...I
thought their voices, while not Broadway-trained, were perfect fits for the
characters they played.
We both
thoroughly enjoyed the movie and, we’re not ashamed to say, were moved to tears
by more than one song or scene. What a
great afternoon for only a $4.00 ticket!!!
Our next goal is to purchase a CD of the soundtrack as soon as it is
available locally.
Sunday, January 6
After a brief
visit with Mother, we drove to Yantis to celebrate the first Sunday of the new
year with our church family. We were
pleasantly surprised at the number of folks who were present this morning, and
thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the service.
The praise
and worship group has continued to grow...there are now eleven of us on the
stage...and this morning we were particularly in the groove. What a wonderful way to participate in the
worship experience!
After an
afternoon nap at home and another visit with Mother, we returned to YFBC for
the evening service.
We really
love watching and hearing David do his teaching thing on Sunday nights. Not only is he a great preacher, but is also
a wonderful Bible teacher, as the Sunday night regulars have come to learn and
appreciate.
Even when the
sermon/lesson is over, the praise and fellowship continue spontaneously until
David has to run everyone out the building.
Monday, January 7
Today was
another heart rehab day for Barbara. I
dropped her off at the clinic in Quitman and then went out to Our Little Lot to clear some more brush
and prepare for another burn-off tomorrow.
When Barbara
was finished with rehab, we returned to Mineola, had a short visit with Mother,
and then returned to the house for lunch and a long-delayed session to begin
getting caught up on journal/blog entries.
Some of our
faithful readers had made a few comments about the lack of entries for the past
three months, and one in particular, one of our church friends, shared with
Barbara on Sunday that she really missed hearing about our lives. So, Barbara made the decision that we needed
to renew our efforts and get the journal/blog up-to-date. With that in mind, she started work on
October at the same time that I began writing about November. Luckily, we had kept track of our activities
in our daily calendar, and our photo files were (mostly) in order. Armed with all the data we needed, we went to
our separate seats, fired up the laptops, and began writing...and
writing...and...
Tuesday, January 8
While Barbara
stayed at home to do some household chores and continue her work on the October
journal/blog, I went to the weekly prayer meeting at YFBC and then to Our Little Lot to see how much work I
could get done before the promised rain appeared. Luckily, the weather held off long enough for
me to gather some more brush and burn off one of the piles, but the rain
started coming down around 10:30, so I put away the tools, made sure the fire
was out, and returned to the house to listen to and watch the rain while we
both continued our journalistic efforts.
We were
blessed with 1.6 inches of rain at the house today...what a great start for the
new year!
We were also
blessed with a short visit from our friends Gene and Michelle Young, who had to
come to town on some business and stopped by to see us.
Gene and Michelle still maintain their farm
in Kansas, but are wintering in their home out at Lake Fork.
Wednesday, January 9
The rain
continued to fall today, so there was no chance of getting any yard work done
at either the house or the lake lot.
Barbara had her morning rehab session at
Quitman, and while she was doing that, I drove out to Our Little Lot to see
what effect, if any, the rain was having.
With so much
of the gully cleared (not that there isn’t much more to do), it was easy to see
the water coursing through the little stream that runs next to our property as
it moves on its way to Lake Fork.
After I
picked Barbara up at the clinic in Quitman, we went to the nursing home to see
Mother for awhile and then returned to the house to rest a bit before driving
to Tyler and an appointment with Dr. Dennis at Azalea Orthopedic Clinic. Dr. Dennis went over the results of my MRI
with us and we discussed possible treatments.
One option was to get injections in the knee to kill the pain. While that would have immediate effects, they
wouldn’t be long-lasting, and wouldn’t address the real problem of a torn
medial meniscus. Instead, we opted for
arthroscopic surgery to clean the cartilage pieces out of my right knee and
repair the tear. All that was left was
to determine when it could be done, and for that, we had to wait for a call
from the clinic once a surgery date and time could be determined.
We’ve
mentioned it before, but while we rarely eat out at a nice restaurant, Red
Lobster is one of our favorite places to go.
It was late and still raining when we finished at the orthopedic clinic,
but we took the time to stop at Red Lobster to buy a couple dozen of their
biscuits, one of our favorite treats.
We then drove
back to Mineola, stopping at the nursing home to visit with Mother and TJ and
share some of our biscuit bounty with them before returning to the house for
the evening.
Oh, yes...the
rain gauge showed another 1.9 inches of rain for the day...a whopping 3 ½
inches over the last two days!!!
And in other
good news of the day, we received photos of Little Jimmy and Ava from their
parents. We are so thankful for the technology
that allows this kind of sharing, and for the kids taking the time and effort
to send us the current photos!
Thursday, January 10 – Monday, January
14
We don’t know
what happened with the camera for these days.
There were some photo-ops, but we don’t have any photos to show for
them.
Mostly, we
just worked around the house and yard, wrote and posted a couple of the
journals, went through the daily routines, visited Mother, attended church on
Sunday, and in general, just faced whatever life brought us (including
receiving another ½ inch of welcome rain on Saturday.
As our
constant readers know, some days are just days.
Tuesday, January 15
Happy ??th Birthday to
Barbara’s sister, Nancy Hargrave!
A sharp
change in the weather was predicted for today, but we didn’t have any idea of
how sharp and sudden it would be.
I got up
early to go to prayer meeting at Yantis and then spend the morning clearing and
burning brush at Our Little Lot. Imagine my surprise when I came out of the
church to find the air full of big, fat snowflakes falling from the sky and
sticking to everything!
I went on to
Holiday Villages of Lake Fork to check on the lot and found that there wasn’t
any snow, but there was some very cold rain and a little sleet coming down
there. Obviously, there wasn’t going to
be any work on the lot today, so I got back in the car and drove back home to
spend the day in a warm house.
Wednesday, January 16
Happy ??th Birthday to
brother Jerry Little!
I took
Barbara to Quitman for her heart rehab this morning and drove out to Holiday
Villages to check on the property. But,
as I was driving up to the gate at HV, I received a call from Barbara saying
that rehab was cancelled for the day due to a computer crash. So, I turned around and went back to pick Barbara
up and return to Mineola to see Mother for a few minutes before going to the
house for the rest of the day.
Tonight was
our Wednesday to handle the nursery at YFBC and a chance to stay in touch with
our Grams and Gramps skills by watching Jeremiah, the youngest son of our youth
director Jeremy Durig and his wife, Emily.
Jeremiah is one of the most good-natured youngsters we’ve ever
met...such a joy to spend time with him!
Our Wednesday
night routine is to spend some time together with Jeremiah and then take turns
walking through the buildings to take photos of all the different youth
activities that are a major part of the mid-week worship and praise
experience. It has been such a wonderful
blessing to watch our youth group grow over the past year and a half!
Thursday, January 18 – Friday, January
19
While Barbara
worked in the house these two days, I decided to tackle the flower bed that
runs along the north side of Mother’s house and beside the driveway out to the
street. Since there’s a fence on the
north side of the flowerbed, the area naturally catches all the leaves and
other trash that blows in from the south, and it is a constant battle to keep
it cleaned out so the planted flowers will grow. It took two days to rake everything out and
haul it away to a trash pile in the North 40, but it sure did look better when
the work was done.
The before
and after photos show a pretty dramatic change in the looks of the area
Barbara
reached a milestone in her heart rehab today when she finished her 16th
session...only 20 more to go until her next cardiac evaluation!
Saturday, January 19
Today was
another big day in our social calendar.
We can count on the fingers of one hand the number of movies we’ve seen
in a theater the last six years, but today we joined Gene and Michelle and Gene
and Carolyn at a first-run showing of “Lincoln” at Mineola’s Select
Theater. When the movie was over, there
seemed to be some sharp differences of opinion as to whether folks liked it or
not, although we were all agreed that is was well done. It seemed for the most part that the men
thought it was a great movie, while the women were somewhat disappointed in it.
After the
movie, we visited with Mother and TJ for awhile at the nursing home and then
drove out to Gene and Michelle’s house at Lake Fork for supper and visitation
time.
Sunday, January 20
Today was an
extra special day for our family. We
began by getting ready for church, visiting Mother, attending services at
Yantis FBC, and then driving to Cleburne to see Leah and Ryan baptized tonight
at Nolan River Road Baptist Church.
Because my
knee has been giving me fits lately, we decided we’d stay at the local Best
Western in Cleburne, rather than having to negotiate all the stairs at the
kids’ apartment. So, we got checked in
and let Leah and Ryan know where we were.
Leah also called Nancy and Tom to let them know we were in town.
When everyone
had gathered at the motel and shared hugs all around, we followed Tom and Nancy
out to their new land “The Hargravian Compound,” outside of town, where we got
the grand tour of their new dream.
When we got
to the place, Barbara and I gave Tom and Nancy a large “Welcome” post as a
house-warming gift.
Tom and
Nancy’s new dream property is situated on several acres of wooded land,
providing them more than enough opportunities to develop it as they want.
Or, as one of
their friends told Tom, “Your honey-do list just grew big time!”
After
spending time looking over the property and listening to Tom and Nancy talk
about their ideas for developing the place, we all hopped back in our vehicles
and returned to join Brandi, Tom and Nancy’s daughter, and Keylin and Eva,
Brandi’s daughters for a meal at The Cotton Patch. Later, Paul, Brandi’s husband joined us for
dinner and a nice family visit.
It was soon time for all of us to depart for the church, where we took part in the informal evening service and then watched as Leah and Ryan were welcomed into the church and fellowship with Jesus Christ as their personal savior as they took part in Believer’s Baptism.
In a rare
twist, we found when we got to the church that the kids’ new pastor has close
ties to Mineola and is friends with our closest neighbors, Addie and John and
Wanda. It really is a small world!
When the
church service was over, we said our goodbyes to Tom, Nancy, Brandi, Paul,
Keylin, and Eva, and we returned to the motel.
Leah and Ryan came by later with a couple of big boxes of photos,
letters, and other memorabilia that we went through for a couple of hours.
One of the
items Leah found is a letter from Barbara and Henry; written to her when she
was first adopted by them when she was four years old...it is a much treasured
artifact.
After such a
busy Sunday and a late night of visiting, we took our time getting around this
morning. We met Leah at the Waffle Hut
for breakfast around 10:30, had a good breakfast and another nice visit, and
then Barbara and I headed back up the highway toward Mineola, stopping at the
outlet mall in Terrell to do some serious shop-looking.
Tuesday, January 22
Happy Birthday to
daughter Leah McQuitty!!!
Happy Birthday to
daughter-in-law Kelly Little!!!
We managed to
get back to our regular routine today.
While I went to prayer meeting at church and then to Our Little Lot to clear and burn brush,
Barbara stayed at the house to dust, clean, cook, and work on the December
journal/blog. One thing is for sure,
between keeping up with Mother’s house and lot and Our Little Lot and Big V, there is never a shortage of things that
need to be done!
Wednesday, January 23
Today was
pretty much another routine day. I took
Barbara to heart rehab in Quitman and then went up to Our Little Lot to do some more cutting and raking. After I picked Barbara up at noon, we visited
Mother and I checked with some of the nursing home staff about doing an
evaluation of Mother’s current condition.
We are very concerned that her appetite seems to be dwindling and her
verbal skills diminishing. It’s not
unusual for a person with Parkinsonism to experience these conditions, but we’d
like to know, if possible, what the prognosis is for continuing diminution of
her physical and mental skills.
Once back at
the house, Barbara got busy working on an invitation to Mother’s 90th
birthday celebration in February. Though
Mother’s birthday is February 11, we were not able to arrange transportation
from the nursing home to the house that day, so we will be hosting a
come-and-go tea at the house on Wednesday, the 13th.
Because it is
a 90th birthday, we have put out a call to family and friends to
send at least 90 birthday cards to honor Mother on this special day.
Thursday, January 24
Happy Birthday to our
special friend, Jesse Fairfax, who got us started on our first church-building
experience seven years ago!!!
One of the
purchases we made at Kitchen Collection in Terrell on Monday was an apple
corer/peeler. We knew after our
applesauce-making experiences in November and December that there had to be a
better way to prepare apples for cooking.
We broke out the new machine this morning and, after reading all the
instructions two or three times and playing with it a bit, finally figured it
out and found that, yes, this was a much better way to get the job done. Many thanks to friends Gene and Michelle
Young for telling us about this amazing machine!
Unfortunately,
we were both so busy working with the corer/peeler that we forgot all about
grabbing the camera to record the experience.
Oh well, there’s almost always a next time.
We went over
to the nursing home to show Mother the invitation to her party and have her
approve the arrangements. She was very
pleased that we would be honoring her in this way and gave suggestions for the
menu and reminded us of some other folks that she wanted to invite.
As we returned
to the house, we drove around Heritage Square to check out the progress of the
new assisted living center that is being built on the back side of the North
40. Not only is the complex taking
shape, the looks of the North 40 are changing daily as brush is being cleared
and trees are being trimmed. Our little
neighborhood hasn’t been very quiet lately.
It won’t be
long until the traffic will begin moving around the new complex and residents
will start moving in.
Tonight was
rehearsal night for the Lake Country Symphonic Band. We are now well into the preparations for our
St. Patrick’s Day Concert on March 17.
Friday, January 25
We took our
time getting around this morning and then suddenly got busy as Barbara had to
prepare for her rehab session in Quitman.
As usual, I
drove out to Our Little Lot to see
what, if anything I could do in half hour that I had to work in while Barbara
was doing her cardio bit. I did manage
to pull up some more weeds and reeds to put on the burn pile, and then headed
back to Quitman.
We had
already decided that we would make a run to the lake together when rehab was
over; I wanted Barbara to see the progress cleaning out the gully and
streambed, and we wanted to deliver a couple of Mother’s birthday invitations
to some friends. Our first stop was at Our
Little Lot, which Barbara hadn’t seen for awhile. Barbara took some photos and then we drove
over to see our friends Bob and Mary Royar to give them an invitation. Bob was working out back, so we didn’t get to
see him. But we did share a few minutes with Mary.
Another stop
we had planned was at Gene and Michelle Young’s house. Barbara had checked with them before we left
Quitman to see if they would be around.
Not only were they at the house on this cold, misty day, they invited us
to join them for lunch, a barley soup/stew that Gene had made. It was, of course, delicious, and we took the
time during the visit to get the recipe and make sure we knew what we would be
doing with the barley.
After a fine
lunch and good fellowship with Gene and Michelle, we headed back toward
Mineola, driving through more mist and fog as we crossed the 154 bridge over
Lake Fork.
Since it was
definitely an “indoor” day, we returned to the house and settled in for an
afternoon nap before I went over to see Mother.
We closed out
the week doing pretty much nothing except watching the Monk series on Netflix.
Saturday, January 26
Happy Birthday to
son-in-law Jim Farnham!!!
Other than
Jim’s birthday, this day was most unmemorable around our place. We each went to our own corner to settle down
and pay bills...very exciting!
Sunday, January 27
Today was another adventure day for us.
We got ready for church, visited Mother for a few minutes, and then
drove out to Yantis for another inspiring message from Brother David Bagwell,
and a great time of worship and praise with fellow church members.
As soon as the sermon was over, we sneaked out of our pew to get in the
car and head as quickly as possible to Rowlett to see a high school production
of Little Shop of Horrors. Our purpose for the trip was twofold...I had
directed the pit orchestra in a production of Little Shop when I was band director at Liberal High School, and
I’m always interested in seeing how different groups stage this unique show. On
the other hand, it was an opportunity for Barbara to become reacquainted with
one of her former elementary school students from Lubbock. Ana Cray and her family now live in Rowlett,
such a relatively short distance from us that it seemed a shame to not go see
them.
Barbara: In the words of Monk,
“Here’s what happened.” Through facebook, I have reconnected with many of my
former students from Wheelock Elementary in Lubbock. One of those students Ana
has a 15 year old daughter (quit trying to count how many years ago I must have
taught her…I’ll tell you…it was 1986…now count!). Anyway, when I found out that
Ana lived in Rowlett and her daughter was in this play, I asked Jim if we could
go see it/and Ana.
Imagine my surprise when we got to the high school to find not only Ana
and her family, but her brother Ezekiel (who I also taught) and his family as
well as their Mother. What a day of rejoicing that was! I found it remarkable
that Ana’s daughter, Ariel, and Ezekiel’s son, Ethan, reminded me so much of their
parents when I taught them.
We had stopped on the way to buy flowers to give Ariel after the performance. It tickled me, that Jim immediately took charge of that by selecting ones that looked like the Audrey II plant!
We had stopped on the way to buy flowers to give Ariel after the performance. It tickled me, that Jim immediately took charge of that by selecting ones that looked like the Audrey II plant!
What a fun day!
Monday, January 28
The doctor
wasn’t going to be available at ETMC Quitman today, so Barbara’s heart rehab
session was cancelled. Instead, we took
advantage of the “day off” and did some serious house cleaning, including
cleaning out the laundry room closet that hadn’t been touched in about three
years. It’s amazing what we found in
there that had not only been moved here from Artesia four years ago, but had
also been moved to Artesia from El Paso at least ten years ago!
One reason
for the cleaning spree was that with my upcoming knee surgery, neither of us
would have the time or inclination to do serious house cleaning over the next
couple of weeks, so we figured we’d better do all we can while we can.
Tuesday, January 29
Happy 6th
Birthday to step-great-grandson Rhett Johnson!!
While today is Rhett’s birthday, his party won’t happen until sometime this weekend. But, we did send him a birthday greeting and checked with John later in the day to see how Rhett was doing.
It was a beautiful
morning out, so we opened the house to let in some fresh air. Bonita, being the princess she is, decided to
move from her customary pillow in front of the television set to a spot of warm
sunlight streaming in through the storm door. And there she stayed for the
better part of the morning...is a dog’s life really such a bad thing?!!!
The clearing
of the North 40 continued today with a lot of activity close to the house. We have found now that the developer that is
building the new assisted living facility has purchase the entire 18-acre lot
that we have referred to for several years as the North 40. They have decided to do some landscaping and
are currently tearing out the dead trees and unwanted brush (including huge
stands of poison ivy and poison oak) all around the area.
While we have
enjoyed the privacy that the nearby stands of oak and cedar have provided for
our part of the neighborhood, we had to admit that things are looking much
better, even if the space is more open.
One great side benefit of the clearing is that Mother had a huge maple
tree just outside the back yard that had developed a vertical split down the
trunk and was threatening to fall across the fence into the backyard. The brush crew took one look at the tree and
decided they could bring it down and haul it away for us as part of the package
they are doing for the developer...now THERE’S an answered prayer!
Gene and
Michelle Young came over this evening to visit and try out a quiche recipe that
Barbara had gotten from Michelle the other day.
The food was, of course, wonderful, as was the company.
During the
course of the evening, Barbara mentioned to Gene that we were considering
selling the 18’ car hauler trailer that we purchased in Liberal when we
retired. The trailer has been very
useful over the years, hauling the cars and motorcycle rig all over the
country, but with our current situation, and the fact that we haven’t used that
trailer in over three years, we’ve decided to explore other options.
Gene
suggested listing the trailer on E-Bay, but we had one E-Bay experience several
years ago and decided then and there that we would never do that again. Gene then said that they had had some good
responses to their lake property by posting on Craigslist. We didn’t have a clue how to get started, but
good old school teacher Gene (becoming a superintendent hasn’t destroyed his
teaching skills) guided us through the process, and within an hour or so we had
a posting of the trailer up on Craigslist East Texas. We didn’t have a good picture of the trailer
handy, so we posted without one and decided that we could get a photo later if
necessary.
Wednesday, January 30
While Barbara
went to rehab this morning, I drove out to Holiday Villages of Lake Fork to
uncover the car hauler and get some pictures to post on Craigslist. Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t find the
trailer, even though the lot had been thoroughly cleaned and straightened.
After a brief
visit with our property manager, Jim Anderson, I found the trailer “on loan” to
one of the men who is doing the mowing and bush-hogging for HV/LV. Lonnie and I visited for a bit and have
temporarily struck a deal for the sale of the trailer, but there are some
issues to be resolved over the next few days...this will be a continuing saga.
Meanwhile, I
did get a couple of pictures of Our Little Lot as it will appear until I can
get back out there after the surgery to resume clearing and burning brush and
weeds.
Thursday, January 31
The last day
of the month found us busy preparing for a trip to Tyler and knee surgery for
me tomorrow.
After getting
up and ginning around, I took Bonita to the Doggie Hotel, went to the post
office, and then came home to help pack the few things we would be taking with
us.
Later, we
visited Mother and reminded her of what we were doing and why we were doing it,
and then left her in the caring hands of the wonderful staff at Wood Memorial
Nursing Home.
We got to
Tyler in time to do a little shopping that we had talked about for some time,
and visited with folks at both Sprint and AT&T about a new cell service
plan. We didn’t settle on any deals yet,
but something will be forthcoming in the near future. Our problem here is that Wood County is a
black hole for nearly all electronic communications, particularly cellular
service, so we want to be sure that we have the best possible provider for our
situations here in town and out at the lake property.
We checked in
at a Best Western hotel on South Broadway, walked about a block to order a
couple of Sonic meals, and then settled in for the evening.
Unfortunately
for both of us, my knee gave me horrible fits all night. Not only that, but I had contracted some kind
of sinus congestion to the point where I felt my head was going to explode. It got so bad that we even left the hotel
around 11:00 to go across the street to a Walgreen’s store to get some nasal
spray to try to open up my sinus passages.
All in all,
it was a miserable night for both of us, but particularly for Barbara, who
should have been able to sleep, but couldn’t because I spent the whole night
tossing, turning, and walking around to try to get the kinks out of my
knee. The night could have probably been
worse, but I don’t know how it would have been possible..
The one high
point of the evening was when we received a text message from Mike with this
photo of granddaughter Ava...something to brighten up the darkest evening!
“A hug is worth a
thousand words; a friend is worth more.”- Jasmine Fitzwilliam
In Tyler,
awaiting knee surgery tomorrow morning,
Jim/Dad/Gramps
and Barbara/Mom/Grams
