Friday, July 4
Happy Fourth of July, Everyone...238 Years and Counting!!!
Happy Anniversary to Brother Jerry and Jane Little in Roswell!!!
This may have been a holiday, but it sure didn't feel like one around our place. Each of us had a "Job One" to be accomplished this morning before we could do anything else. For Barbara, it was to calculate what we had spent on the Big V Adventure, reconcile the bank statement, and pay bills. For me, it was to wash a very nasty car and then wash and wax Taz.
The one reminder of the holiday was the flags lining Heritage Drive. They were placed yesterday by the Mineola Kiwanis Club.
We each finished our jobs by noon and began putting away things that didn't get put away last night after we got home from our 17-day trip through Texas and New Mexico.
Later, we started on preparations for hosting a family cook-out to really celebrate the holiday.
I set up the charcoal grills for cooking hamburgers and hot dogs, while Barbara began work on a couple of tubs of homemade Big Red ice cream. We didn't want to be cranking ice cream while we had visitors, so we got started on that project early and when the ice cream was done, we put it in other containers and set them in the freezer.
Of course, before the Big Red went into the freezer, it had to pass the taste test...we didn't want to serve bad ice cream to anyone.
We set up the tables and Barbara started decorating while I went outside and started grilling burgers and franks.
TJ, Ladd, Angela, Logan, Maddy, and Baby Jarhett came to the house around 6:30 for dinner, ice cream, and a great view of the city fireworks demonstration from our front yard.
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Saturday, July 5
As if we hadn't done enough yesterday, we got up this morning to drive to Our Little Lot and finally give Big V the bath she so desperately needed. We hadn't done any of the hookups Thursday when we put her on the pad, so it was easy enough to pull her out on the driveway and go to work. I focused on cleaning the roof while Barbara started washing the sides as high as she could reach.
We finished the job around noon, backed Big V up, got the water and electricity hooked up, and then drove back to Mineola for lunch and a well-earned nap.
After our afternoon nap, Barbara went to work figuring out recipes for the next few days and I went outside to start mowing the North 40 and try to knock down as much of the Bahia Grass as I could before dark.
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Sunday, July 6
We drove out to Yantis this morning for church...I kidded Jeremy Durig, our youth pastor, that if we had missed one more Sunday, we'd be eligible to use one of the visitor parking places.
We stopped at CVS on the way home to pick up some prescriptions and then returned to the house for lunch and a Sunday nap, a staple of our life.
Tonight's church service was cancelled due to the holiday weekend, so I spent the evening finishing the mowing of the North 40.
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Monday, July 7
We spent this morning just taking care of business around the house, then drove down to Southern R.V. between Lindale and Tyler to pick up some parts and supplies for Big V. We found Saturday when we were washing Big V that we had a broken vent cover above the bathroom, so that had to be replaced. The problem today was that there are seven different models of hinges for that particular vent cover and I didn't have a clue which one we needed. I'd have to get a photo of what we have and then come back to match it up. I did get a new fresh water inlet to replace the one that malfunctioned when we were in Galveston, a new water pressure regulator, and a carton of chemical freshener for the black and grey water tanks. Unfortunately, it has been a long time since we stayed on top of all the operating systems on the motor home, and now we were playing catch up.
After spending time and dollars at the R.V. store, we drove back into Lindale to do some shopping at Walmart and get a couple of mashed potato bowls from KFC before returning home.
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Tuesday, July 8
I got up early this morning to go to prayer meeting at Yantis and then to Our Little Lot to do some work on Big V.
I just happened to be crossing the Highway 154 bridge at sunrise and stopped on the north side to capture these sights. My camera batteries were dead, but the camera on the cell phone worked just fine for what I needed.
The weather wasn't the best for yard work, so I went on back to Mineola to find Barbara cooking up a bunch of turkey meat, a Mexican casserole, and 4 dozen peanut butter cookies. Boy, was she ever busy!
Since Barbara was busy inside, I went out to the yard to do the mowing, trimming, edging, etc. that needs to be done each week. We didn't get any photos of me working, but Barbara did have a little photo phun when all was said and done (and I finally got cleaned up).
I spent the afternoon working on the journal/blog, but did manage to tear myself away from journalistic endeavors to cook up a pot of spaghetti sauce to freeze for a later occasion.
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Wednesday, July 9
While Barbara took care of getting meals ready, I went outside and did some weeding in the flower beds.
Later, our friends Gene and Michelle Young stopped by this afternoon with a bag of yellow and zucchini squash and some cucumbers from their garden in Kansas.
We had a really nice visit with them, but learned that even though they had just come from Kansas, they had to return the next day because of a problem with the alarm system at their farm. They'd been burglarized twice, and didn't want to go through that again.
Then, we drove up to Holiday Villages to check on Big V, then to Sulphur Springs to do some shopping at Beall's and pick up some Chinese food at the new Panda Express.
We then returned to Yantis for praise band practice at the church and then back to Mineola to complete a busy day by doing absolutely nothing important for a couple of hours.
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Thursday, July 10
While I've spent hours each week mowing, trimming, and edging the front and back yards and keeping the North 40 mowed, I've pretty much neglected the flower beds that we have in front and back. I decided today to do something about that. In retrospect, I should have taken before and after photos of the various areas, but I think I didn't want anyone to see how badly overgrown with weeds and grasses the beds were.
In any case, today I tackled the long bed beside the driveway on the north side of the house, and then turned my sights on one of the beds on the front of the house. It took about five hours of pulling, cutting, and trimming to get the job done, but everything looked much better and less neglected.
Barbara spent her morning making lists of things that we will need for an upcoming trip to the Dallas area in Big V. It takes a lot of planning to properly downsize our living habits from a house to a motor home, and her planning is what makes it possible.
The afternoon was filled with the humdrum activities of daily living...a mixture of house work and yard work that no one but us would ever recognize as being done.
This evening we settled down to supper and some quiet TV time until almost time to go to bed. At 9:30, we received a call from Wanda, our neighbor across the street, asking if we could drive up to Quitman to pick up their car and drive it back to Mineola. It seems that John had started having some internal pains this evening and, since he was still recovering from back surgery and some heart problems, they had decided to go to the emergency room at ETMC.
We quickly got dressed and drove to Quitman, only to find that the doctors had by then discovered that John was bleeding internally from a mass on his liver and needed to be life-flighted to Tyler.
We drove Wanda back to her house, changed clothes at our place, grabbed a few things we might need, and then drove to the emergency room at ETMC-Tyler. Wanda called her son in Forney and told him what was going on and then Barbara told him we'd keep him posted once we knew what was going on.
To make a long story short, Gary, (John and Wanda's son), decided to drive to Tyler, so we stayed until he arrived around 1:30 am. At that point, they still didn't know what they were going to do with John, so we drove home to get some sleep, arriving at the house a little after 2:30.
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Friday, July 11
Happy 15th Anniversary to daughter Heather and Andrew Dondis in Richardson!!!!
We got up this morning and took care of some chores around the house, chief among them my long-promised repair of the disposal unit under the kitchen sink. I think if I was a plumber, I would have to charge at least $300 per hour plus mileage and meals!
When that little chore was over and the kitchen and I were cleaned up, we drove over to Autumn Winds to see Addie, or former next-door neighbor. We went to Addie's room, but couldn't find her, so we started walking the halls and soon found her in the hallway, surrounded by church friends, some who are also residents and others who came to visit. Any thoughts that we might have had about Addie being alone at Harvest Winds were quickly and happily dismissed.
This afternoon we drove back to Tyler...did a little shopping at Sam's Club and then went to see John and Wanda at the hospital for awhile, and drove back home, stopping first at Southern R.V. in Lindale to purchase a new vent cover for Big V.
By the time we got home, we were exhausted from all the running around, so we just settled in for a quiet evening at home.
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Saturday, July 12
It was a beautiful morning, so while Barbara did laundry and prepared recipes for future use, I worked outside cleaning out the Iris bed on the south side of the house. I got about half of the bed weeded, dug out, and replanted by noon, by which time it was way too hot to continue, so I went inside to get cleaned up and have lunch with Barbara.
We drove back to Tyler this afternoon to see John, who was in pretty good spirits. He told us they would do some more tests on Monday and possibly have a procedure, but that he still hadn't seen an oncologist.
When we returned home, I finished cleaning and replanting the Iris bed, then got cleaned up again so we could enjoy a quiet evening at home.
The night ended as beautifully as the day began; this was a night of the Super Moon, and these are the images that Barbara captured as the moon rose over East Texas:
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Sunday, July 13
Today was fairly simple for us. We drove out to Yantis for the morning service (Jim played trumpet in the praise band), stayed to participate in the Youth fund-raiser dinner (delicious brisket with all the trimmings) and dessert auction (we won the bid on a plate of tasty chocolate/peanut clusters made by Marilyn Coker), and then returned home to rest and recuperate from a very busy week.
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Monday, July 14
Good News!!! We called Wanda this morning to see how John was doing and she said they were sending him home today to await results of some tests. Barbara got to work making a little "Welcome Home" banner that we hung on the fence at the front of John and Wanda's house.
Most of the day we just worked around the house and out in the yard. While I was outside, Barbara paid the bills and cooked up a bunch of chicken that she shredded, bagged, and froze for future use.
Around 8:30 this evening, while I was working on the blog, Barbara came running into the house yelling, "Where's the camera...where's the camera?!!!" I got up to see what the excitement was all about and found her out in front, taking photos of some deer that came out of the east woods and into the North 40 to graze.
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Tuesday, July 15
I went to Yantis for the weekly prayer meeting and then to Our Little Lot to do some work on Big V to get her ready for the next adventure...tires had to be checked (didn't have to add air, thank goodness) and fluids under the hood had to be checked and topped off as necessary).
Barbara called while I was at the lot to say that Leslie could work us in at 2:00 to get haircuts. That was great news because 1. we desperately needed haircuts before Leslie leaves on vacation and, 2. it gave me time to mow the lot before I returned to town.
When I got home, I mowed and trimmed the front and back yards and then got cleaned up so we could get our haircuts. Later, while Barbara went to Beall's to do some shopping for the upcoming trip, I tackled the North 40 and got it in shape for the week.
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Wednesday, July 16
This was a simple and straightforward day...Barbara concentrated on preparing the journal entries for the Galveston portion of our recent adventure with Jaycie and Keaton while I tackled a l-o-n-g overdue project of weeding the flower beds in the back yard.
Tonight was also simple...crash and burn after a physically and mentally challenging day!
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Thursday, July 17
Wow...What a busy morning!!! We got a nice rain, but the last minute was fast approaching for our planned trip in Big V, and that meant we had a bucket load of last minute chores to do, including cleaning the house, taking care of insurance on the house and property (which we had done in June, but then we got a call from our agent yesterday telling us we had to do it all over again...and this took several phone calls and two trips to the agent), deliver some bread to the nursing home staff that took care of Mother, and doing some shopping for little gifts for John and Wanda.
The camera work didn't start until we went across the street to see John and Wanda and present them with a couple of things we wanted them to have. Barbara found a little cross for Wanda and a polished wood Clinging Cross for John as they face some serious health issues in the near future. Barbara received a Clinging Cross when Jimmy Clint died, and it has meant the world to her.
At 2:00, I took the car to the Chevrolet house for its first oil change and service since we bought it in February...it's hard to believe that we had the car six months and had only 7,500 miles on it...that may have been a new record for lowest car mileage for us!
When I returned from having the car serviced, we decided to take a little walk around the neighborhood. We grabbed the camera again, just in case we saw something we wanted to shoot. It didn't take long for the photo phun to begin, as we made a stop at the mailbox stand and got a shot of Barbara...
and a few yards later when I decided to get goofy with my version of a pole dance at the street sign....
As we continued our walk around Heritage Square, we found a flower bed that grabbed our attention. We don't know what the flowers were, but they sure were pretty.
As we finished the walk around the square and approached the house, I decided to take a photo of the North 40 that we write about, especially during the mowing season. This land isn't ours, but John and I keep our respective sides mowed to discourage the critters that tend to hang around when the grass and weeds get too high. In the past, we've had raccoons, opossums,armadillos, snakes, and various breeds of rodents wandering into our yards from the North 40.
We went inside for awhile and the next thing I knew, Barbara was outside with the camera, shooting pictures of hummingbirds. We put our hummingbird feeders out on May 15, the traditional date for the little critters to start arriving at our place, but today was the first time they appeared. We don't know where they've been all this time, but it was fun to watch them flit around and hit the feeders while we sat so close to them.
A little later, I decided to try my hand at getting shots of the elusive little creatures. I did get several very blurry shots, but thought these turned out well. Today, the birds were letting us get very close with the camera.
When I saw a couple of the hummingbirds hitting the feeders again this evening, I grabbed the camera and went outside to try for some more photos. The birds didn't cooperate that time, but I did get some shots of the landscaping on the front and north side of the house.
First is the fern bed on the north side of the garage. It's very pretty, but also a huge nuisance. If I can figure out how to get rid of those things, I'll do it in a heartbeat.
Then there are the birdbath, bird feeders, and the old cast iron pot (now a planter) that Mother and Daddy got from my great-grandfather's old farm near Mineola back in 1958. It was a fixture in Mother's yards except for a few years when Ernie had it sitting in his yard in Hobbs.
The Crown of Thorns plant that Wanda gave Barbara a couple of years ago. It has more than doubled in size (and survived several re-pottings) since Barbara got hold of it.
And finally, views from the garage door. The photo on the left shows our view of Heritage Square to the southeast, while the shot on the right shows what we see when we look northeast across the North 40.
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Friday, July 18
After a light breakfast, we drove out to Our Little Lot to disconnect Big V from the hookups and get ready to drive her to town. Chores involved in getting ready to move include making sure the tow bar is properly attached, roof vents are closed, slideouts are pulled in and secure, levelers are raised (you can't imagine the noise this rig makes if this isn't done...(just don't ask how we know), and all utility connections are disconnected and set aside (again, don't ask how we know that this is a very, very important step).
When all was ready, Barbara pulled the rig forward so I could get the tire mats picked up and stashed in a bin.
Barbara got out of the cockpit and turned it over to me, then she took some last-minute shots of Our Little Lot before climbing into the Equinox and following me back to Mineola.
When I stopped at Brookshire's to top off the fuel tank, Barbara went to the civic center to arrange for an R.V. pad for today and tonight. We got Big V in place, hooked up to electricity, and opened up. I took time to make sure that my new wiring harness for the awning would work, then we rolled up the awning, locked the doors and bins, and went home.
The rest of the day was a time of "last minutes" to prepare for our trip. We did housecleaning, laundry, packing (after a fashion...after all, whatever we packed was going to be carried into Big V and put away), and some last minute shopping for things we had left off of previous lists of necessities. Then, we began carrying "stuff" to Big V and storing it for the trip the next day. By the evening, we had about 90 % of everything moved and packed away and were just awaiting the "real" last minute before taking off.
Tomorrow---a new adventure; tonight---some well earned rest and relaxation.
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Since we moved in several years ago to take care of Mother, we have been blessed daily by our neighbors, John and Wanda, across the street, and Addie, next door. They may have never read the following quote, but they live it 24/7, and through their actions and words, we are daily challenged to do the same.
"All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors." - John Calvin
From Heritage Drive in Mineola,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsy
