Saturday, April 1
It's April Fool's Day!!!
No foolin'...after yesterday's Ultra-Violet bombardment for Jim's scalp, today was the first of a few days of enforced seclusion inside the house...no sun...not even blinds open where the sun could hit Jim's scalp. So, it was essentially a day of nothing...at least, nothing worth reporting.
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Sunday, April 2
Happy 23rd Anniversary to Us!!!!
Another day of staying indoors and out of the car, so no church for us today. Still, we made the most of it to celebrate our 23rd anniversary.
First..the photos that we posted on Facebook to announce the occasion.
From Barbara to Jim...
From Jim to Barbara:
Jim preparing anniversary breakfast...pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage balls...while he jams to the music on his iPhone!
This afternoon brought the first of the April, 2017 showers...
Which also gave us an opportunity to showcase the Crown of Thorns plant that neighbor Wanda gave us several years ago...
And then our anniversary dinner...grilled club steak, baked potatoes, green beans. slaw, and Red Lobster biscuits...YUM-YUM!!!
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Monday, April 3
Last day of being home bound...We can survive this!!!
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Tuesday, April 4
Finally...Getting out of the house for a bit. Jim took these photos of dawn over Lake Fork as he went to the weekly prayer meeting at Yantis First Baptist Church.
This afternoon we tackled the task of preparing special gifts for the children's sermon for Palm Sunday. This was our first effort at baking crowns of thorns to give to the kids. What we learned was a way to NOT do them...back to the old drawing board...
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Wednesday, April 5
Happy Birthday to Aunt TJ!!!
Our day began with a visit to Leslie at Naturally Nails for haircuts and pedicures...Jim's first pedi...the jury is still out on whether there will be another one.
After getting all gussied up, we went to Jalapeno Tree to meet Ladd, Angela, Maddey, Jarhett, and TJ for a birthday dinner.
And then to the house for a caramel-sea salt ice cream cake that Barbara made for dessert...
And some photos of the Thompson crew...
After all that, it was time for a nap (but no photos of that😀).
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Thursday, April 6
The high point of the day was still ugly. We made yet another trip to the dermatology center in Lindale to have stitches removed from Jim's cheek. Scars, bruising, and a week's worth of whiskers were not a pretty sight, but as Jim always says, "Truth is truth...it has no other qualities."
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Friday, April 7
Leah came in late last night to spend the night before leaving for Van to join Kaiden for a day of activities on his school field trip.
After breakfast, we drove out to Yantis to help put up the sets for tomorrow's Resurrection Drive-Through production at First Baptist Church.
When we were finished at the church, we drove to a restaurant on Lake Fork to have lunch with Leah and Kaiden before they went back home.
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Saturday, April 8
We spent a large part of the day preparing for our children's sermon for tomorrow. A trip to Walmart got us the supplies we needed, as well as a surprise visit with our friend Pat, who had driven down from Winnsboro to do some shopping. Pat and Barbara were cardiac rehab buddies several years ago, and have become fast friends.
When we returned home, we found a message of thanks and a photo from Knightly, one of our Snowball Express kids, showing that she had received a package we sent her.
And then we tackled the preparation of twenty crowns of thorns to present to the kids after the children's sermon tomorrow. Our gifts this week would be a crown of thorns made of braided bread sticks and slivers of chocolate twists, a crown of thorns bracelet made of chocolate twists, and a card to color.
As if we hadn't been busy enough already, we realized that we needed to make a dessert for dinner with friends' Monday so we teamed up to make Barbara's newest treat sensation, a caramel/sea salt ice cream sandwich cake.
This evening we drove out to Yantis to take photos of the Resurrection Drive-Through Pageant. At least, that was the plan. We took a bunch of photos of the participants getting ready and then moved out to the street to shoot the scenes before the cars arrived. All of a sudden, I was pressed into service to be Jesus getting his feet washed by Mary, so Barbara was left as the sole photographer. Sometimes, the best laid plans are just well-laid plans!
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Sunday, April 9
The high point (for us) at church this morning was a presentation of "I Can Only Imagine" by our own signing group, Hands of Praise. While they were signing to the music, videos of various church members holding pictures of loved ones who had passed away were shown on the screen. We chose to participate and honor the memory of Jimmy Clint Colwell by having a short video of us holding a collage of Jimmy's photos.
Our Children's Sermon this morning was based on Acts 2:29-35, with the theme of Jesus as Lord and Messiah.
BARBARA:
You can tell a lot about a person by the names people call them. In fact,
sometimes people say that someone wears a lot of different hats. What do they
mean by that. I think I can explain what they mean if I give Mr. Little this
bag of hats. Mr. Little, what hat are you going to wear this morning?
Bugler…oh, Now this isn’t just Mr. Little, he is also Bugler Jim when he plays
Taps for military funerals. Do you have another hat to share? Can you guess
what he’s called when he wears this hat? Right! He’s Chef Jim when we volunteer
in the kitchen at the Georgia Baptist Convention Center in Toccoa. One more
hat…Oh, my! Now that’s a silly hat to see him wear, isn’t it? When he wears
this crown, he is isn’t a king or a princess…no, he’s Gramps, being silly with
our granddaughters.
Jesus,
who we study and talk about every Sunday, also has several names. He is always the same, but the names he has tell
us about who he is and what He does. Or,
in modern words, the hats He wears. However, we only know the most important hat
that Christ ever wore was a crown of thorns. In our scripture today, Acts 2: 36, states
that Jesus, who was crucified, was also made both Lord and Messiah by God.
JIM:
Since we are getting close to Easter, we’re going to talk this morning about
just a few of the names that Jesus has that describe who he is and what he does
for us.
Jesus is
the first name of the man we are talking about.
Jesus was a common name in those days, but we know our Jesus is the Son
of God.
Next, Jesus
was born to be the Christ, or Messiah, who the Jews believed would be their
savior and their new king.
We know
that Jesus lived and died as a man, except that he lived a perfect life. But, when he was crucified, buried, and rose
from the dead to live forever, he also became our Redeemer, Lord, and the King
of Kings.
The many
names tell of the different kinds of the work and character of Jesus. At all times, He is Jesus, our Christ, Savior,
Redeemer, Messiah, Lord, and King of Kings.
Our gift
to you this morning is a crown of thorns you can share with your family to
remind you that when God, the Father, raised him from the dead, Christ also
became the Bread of Life for all who accepted him as their Lord and Savior.
Let us
pray…
Since we were having a five o'clock church supper this evening, we just drove down to Our Little Lot at Holiday Villages of Lake Fork for the afternoon to get some rest and do some tree trimming around the place.
Then, it was back to church to join our church family for fellowship and a delicious fish fry with all the trimmings, including the usual array of Baptist desserts.
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Monday, April 10
Vehicle insurance renewals are coming up soon, so I spent the day fumbling through policies and proposals with one hand, while holding a phone to my ear with the other.
After brother Ernie passed away last month, Barbara sorted through a ton of photos and created a memory book for family members. The book arrived today, so we took a couple of photos of it to share with Billee, Candace, and Cari so they would know what to expect in the mail in a couple of days.
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Tuesday, April 11
Sometime early this morning a huge storm rolled in...high winds, thunder, lightning, and oceans of rain. Of course, this was also the morning that we had to get up at 4:00 to get dressed and drive to Tyler for Jim's second cataract surgery. And, this was also the morning that the electricity went out in the garage, where we have a deep freeze and a refrigerator-freezer. We checked all the breakers, but everything was as it should be (except for the electricity to the appliances part), and decided we'd just have to deal with it when we got back home.
First things first, a dark and rainy drive to Tyler, where we found the recommended route to the surgery center barricaded because of high water and fallen trees and branches. However, we finally got to the surgery center in time to start the procedure.
Since Jim was the second surgery of the morning, the wait wasn't nearly as long as for the first surgery. Everything went well and in about three hours, the patient was ready to go back home.
When we returned to the house, we checked the ground fault indicator behind the refrigerator and found that it had been tripped, so it was an easy fix to get the appliances up and running again.
About the time we got settled in, neighbor John called to say that his freezer had also blown out and asked if he could store some things in ours until he could get a repairman or a new freezer...no problem, 'cause that's what neighbors are for around here.
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Wednesday, April 12
When we went into the guest bathroom/laundry room this morning, we found water on the floor. Apparently, the strong winds yesterday had blown rain into the skylight and water found it's way down onto the floor. We checked with neighbor John about a recommendation for a roofer, and then called our friends Jerry and Diane, since Jerry is very good with construction and repair issues.
Later in the day Jerry and Diane came over. Jerry and I climbed up into the attic and found that the decking was dry, which was a relief, and that the problem was most likely a skylight cover that had a crack in it. We couldn't do anything about it today, so we went back down and joined Barbara and Diane in the kitchen for some lunch and delicious ice cream cake, which we just happened to have since our Monday night plans got cancelled due to illness.
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Thursday, April 13
With the medical restrictions still in place, working outside was not an option today, so we stayed inside to plan and prepare our Easter children's sermon and the special gifts and reminders we would hand out. We have found that getting down to the final point of the lessons is much more complicated than one might think...lots of think-tanking and teamwork involved before we give the lesson to the kids.
Barbara had to blow an egg out of the shell which I had never seen so while she was "bragging and showing me the end result," she dropped the entire egg liquid on the floor! Oops!
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Friday, April 14
Another busy day as we prepared for Resurrection Sunday. This morning we drove to the church in Yantis to help a group of volunteers fill plastic eggs with candies for the big community Easter egg hunt scheduled for Saturday morning.
Then, we drove back to Mineola to put the final touches on our children's sermon and take care of some odds and ends around the house before the Easter weekend.
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Saturday, April 15
Happy Birthday to Aunt Glennis Wright in Marianna, Florida!!!!!
Happy Income Tax Day!!!!! "The crime in taxation is not in the taking of it, it's in the way that it's spent." - Will Rogers, March 20, 1932
We decided that since we'd be spending so much time at church activities this weekend, it would be best for us to take a few things to Our Little Lot and set up for a couple of days, rather than adding a bunch of extra miles to the car.
First up this morning was the drive to Yantis to help supervise and photograph the community Easter egg hunt sponsored by First Baptist Church. We had a good turnout of kids and parents, and a great time was had by all!
When all the eggs were gathered and the debris was cleared away, we drove back to Our Little Lot and Big V to settle in for a productive day of cleaning, weeding, and tree trimming...oh yeah, and more than a few photos.
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Sunday, April 16
Happy Resurrection Day, Everyone!!!
After packing the car and closing Big V, we drove to Swearingen Park at the north end of the Highway 154 bridge on Lake Fork to join members of YFBC and their guests for a sunrise service. The morning was gorgeous, and we enjoyed a beautiful message from our pastor, Craig Vance.
April 16, 2017 (Easter Sunday): Romans 6:4 – New
Life “…just as Christ was raised from the
dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life.”
JIM:
Good Morning! Today we are going to talk
about some things that Jesus did that painted pictures for us. First, before he began his public ministry on
earth, Jesus chose to be baptized in the Jordan River. Baptism then was a picture of repenting and washing
away sins. Jesus had never sinned, but
he wanted to be baptized to give a picture of the example we need to follow. While others didn’t know it at the time,
Jesus’s baptism was also a picture of a time three years in the future when he
would be crucified, buried, and then resurrected after three days to live
forever as our redeemer and Lord of Lords.
When
someone comes forward in our church to accept Christ as their lord and savior,
we call that a profession of faith. The
next step usually is to ask to be baptized.
We’ve all seen when our new brothers and sisters in Christ enter the
baptismal pool with Brother Craig. He
lowers them into the water, which is a picture of burying them, and then raises
them back up to walk in a new life, just as Jesus was raised from the dead to
walk in eternal life.
BARBARA:
Just as baptism is a picture of our
accepting Christ to live in our hearts, there are other pictures of new life.
When a mother hen sits on her eggs for a few weeks, do
you know what happens? That's right, the eggs begin to crack open and a little
baby chick comes out. An egg means new life. It reminds us that
there is a new life inside that can come out.
We celebrate Easter Sunday because that is the day that Jesus came out of the grave and He was alive.
We celebrate Easter Sunday because that is the day that Jesus came out of the grave and He was alive.
This morning I have brought what I call a
real Easter egg. I will show you why I call it a real Easter egg.
(break the empty egg shell) This egg is empty. That is why I call
it a real Easter egg. It reminds me that on Easter Sunday, when Jesus'
followers went to His tomb, the tomb was empty. An angel was there to
tell them, "He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. The grave is
empty, Jesus isn't in there.” Jesus is alive, and because He is alive, we
too can have a new life in Him if we believe in him and call him our lord and
savior.
This morning, our special gift to you is this note that says. “No bunny loves you like Jesus.” Also, to help you remember that no bunny loves you like Jesus, we also have some bunny finger puppets that were made by Miss Lois for the Wednesday night groups.
This morning, our special gift to you is this note that says. “No bunny loves you like Jesus.” Also, to help you remember that no bunny loves you like Jesus, we also have some bunny finger puppets that were made by Miss Lois for the Wednesday night groups.
JIM: Now let us pray. Heavenly Father, this morning we celebrate the resurrection and eternal life of our savior, Jesus Christ, and the joy of a new birth that is available to all who accept him as lord and savior. Strengthen us to tell others of our new life and show them a picture of what you have done for us. We pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Great music...
And a wonderful sermon...
After church, we returned to Mineola to meet TJ, Jon, Maddey, Jahrett, and Ladd for Easter lunch at Paredes Restaurant...(Angela had to work)
And then we headed back to the house to unload the car and spend the rest of the day napping and lounging.
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Monday, April 17
After lots of rest yesterday afternoon and a good night's sleep, we were up and at 'em early this morning. First thing on our agenda was to make the kolaches that we've been planning to do for several weeks...
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Tuesday, April 18Another busy day for the Littles...I went out to Yantis for prayer meeting early today and then spent until noon working on Our Little Lot...mowing, trimming, raking, etc.
Meanwhile, Barbara fired up the oven and range top to prepare portion control meals for freezing until we need them...meatloaf and breakfast muffins...
As well as a large batch of her signature chicken salad. She also prepared a bunch of baby gifts that we will mail later.
We finished our chores about the same time, had some lunch, and then took a well-deserved (and much-needed) nap.
Later this afternoon, I went out to mow and trim the front yard...glad to be able to get outside and work again!
Leah texted tonight with a couple of photos of Kaiden. They had auditions for next year's sixth grade band at his school, and Kaiden auditioned for both trumpet and euphonium, but his first choice is trumpet...wonder how he ever got an idea like that...???
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Wednesday, April 19
This was just a normal day of working around the house...nothing of particular interest to report. However, Leah did send us this collage of Kaiden enjoying some the Easter children's sermon gifts that we sent him...
I had praise band rehearsal tonight in Yantis, so we decided we'd just drive out to Our Little Lot to spend the night, and prepare Big V for a trip to Mineola tomorrow for the annual inspection and registration.
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Thursday, April 20
Happy Birthday to daughter Whitney Farnham!!!!!
When we woke up this morning, the plan for the first three hours was clear and simple...disconnect and close up Big V for travel...drive to Mineola, get her inspected, and return to Our Little Lot to put her back under the cover and hook everything back the way it was. Sounds simple enough, right?
Well, steps one and two went pretty much as expected, and it felt great to be back on the road again in Big V...
But, when we arrived at the inspection station at the Ford house, things turned a little sour. The last item on the checklist was the brake lights. I was pushing the pedal, but the lights weren't coming on. The man who was doing the inspection said he couldn't go any further with the process until I got the lights fixed, so we pulled around to the back lot, shut Big V down, and began searching for answers.
I checked all the fuses under the dash, but nothing blown there. Next, I went back to the rear of the coach and disconnected one of the light assemblies (managing to drop both screws into the gravel on multiple occasions), but no answers there.
While I was re-assembling the light group, Barbara was checking through the manual on her iPhone and found that there is an additional fuse box under the hood that serviced some of the lights. We popped the hood, then popped open the fuse box (the most difficult part of the procedure), and sure enough, there was our blown fuse.
We didn't have any spares, so we started walking down to the parts department, but along the way we met a man who told us to come into the shop and he would just give us a couple of fuses. Wow...best news we'd had all morning. We got the fuse back in place, got everything buttoned down, pulled back to the inspection station, and finally got signed off for another year. It wasn't as easy a project as it should have been, but it all worked out, and that's the important thing.
With everything done, we fired up Big V and headed back to Holiday Villages of Lake Fork to get her back in place and set up again.
When we finally got back home, we had some lunch, watched another episode of Person of Interest (our latest series of choice), took a short nap, and then began work on our special gifts for Sunday's children's sermon.
At first glance, one might think the sermon would be about baubles, bangles, and bright shiny beads, but Barbara had a method to her madness that began to take shape once we figured out what we were doing.
It became apparent that this was not a job to be completed in one sitting, so we worked on and off during the evening and then voted that we'd have to finish sometime tomorrow.
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Friday, April 21We worked off an on early this morning to finish the children's sermon gifts. Barbara finally finished it up while I went outside to mow the North 40...no shortage of things to do around here.
While I was mowing, Barbara came out to tell me that our friends Gene and Michele were going to be in town and wanted to know if we could meet them for lunch at Pizza Hut. We decided that would be a great idea, so I continued mowing until it was time to clean up and see our friends...the rest of the mowing would just have to wait!
We always have a good time visiting with Jean and Michelle, and today was no different. We just picked up where we left off the last time we saw them...
When it cooled down a little this evening I went back outside to finish mowing while Barbara took care of paying bills and keeping our finances straight.
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Saturday, April 22
Happy Birthday to grandson Jimmy Jim Farnham!!!!!
Granddaughter Randi, who will be graduating from TAMU San Antonio in May, has been going through some of her things that have been stored away. She found these two photos, straight out of the Wayback Machine, that captured us with her more than a few years ago...
Today was mostly about getting ready for church tomorrow. We edited and recopied our lesson, finished the last of the gifts for the children, and had everything in the car before we went to bed tonight.
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Sunday, April 23Sunday morning at First Baptist Church of Yantis...what a great experience with our church family!!!
Wonderful music from our praise and worship team...
Our Children's sermon...
April 23, 2017: Spiritual
Gifts (God’s Toolbox) 1 Corinthians 1:7 – “Therefore you do not lack any
spiritual gift…”
JIM: I have a tool box full of tools. Why do you think I need all these different
kinds of tools? It’s because each one of
these tools has a different purpose.
There isn’t any one tool that can do everything. If I needed to drive a nail into a board,
what tool do you think I would use?
Right, I’d need this hammer. If I
wanted to put together a set of bookshelves that needed screws to hold them
together, what tool would I need? You’re
right again, I’d need a screwdriver.
Okay, if I needed to measure something, would I use this pair of
pliers? No, I’d need this tape
measure. It’s very important to have the
right tool for the job!
Christians
are the tools in God’s toolbox. The
obvious tools in His toolbox are the pastor, teachers, and musicians. However, did
you know that there are many more tools that we don’t even think of? For example, Ms. Mary is our church
secretary, and she has many jobs, large and small, that she does each day to
help our church. Ms. Kathy works hard
and cheerfully to keep our buildings nice and clean. And Mr. Charlie and his group make sure that
our buildings and property are kept in good shape so we can use them. We even have a group of people who meet every
Tuesday morning to pray for our church and community.
It
doesn’t matter if you are young or old, or what your talent or gift is, God has
a job for you, and he wants you to be in his toolbox, ready and willing for him
to use you.
BARBARA: Can you read this book? (Bible) No, why not? Right.
You haven’t learned everything you need
to do that yet. The same is true with learning what spiritual gifts you
have. As a child, you have to be taught about spiritual gifts and then
gradually find what you are best at. For example, we’re talking about the
spiritual gift of serving today. One way to serve that you children can do is
to pray. Therefore, Mr. Little and I made you these prayer reminder cards with
beads (and candy) to help you develop the skill of praying. See the white bead…it
stands for praise and thanking God for your many blessings. The Orange is to
pray for others (friends, family, the world), Red…personal confession and
prayers for forgiveness. Green…prayers for personal concerns & guidance.
Blue…invite the Lord to work within you and your life. Purple…stay silent,
meditate, and listen to God.
Praying
for others is a beautiful gift, and it’s never too early to start. And like many things, the more you pray, the
better you will get at it.
JIM: Let us pray: Father God, we thank you that you
have given each of us a set of special abilities to serve you. We pray that when you need us, we will be
ready and willing to do what you need us to do.
We pray this in the name of Jesus…Amen.
And a challenging sermon from Brother Craig to top off the morning...YFBC: The place to be on a Sunday morning in Wood County!!!
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Monday, April 24We scurried around this morning taking care of several items of business before a short road trip with some friends. While Barbara did the packing, I took some packages to the post office and went to the tax office to get the new registration sticker for Big V.
By 11:30, everything was done that was going to get done, and we drove to the Mineola Civic Center to present a program to the local Rotary Club.
After a delicious lunch, I gave a talk about the Patriot Guard Riders, and Barbara followed with a talk about one of the favorite projects of the East Texas Patriot Guard Riders, the Annual Snowball Express.
We must have done okay with our presentations. When we were finished, one couple gave a $100.00 donation to the ETPGR Vest Project, and another, a local author, gave us a signed copy of his book, My Brother Jack, the story of his brother, a Medal of Honor recipient during World War II, and his family during that time. To say we were greatly honored would be a huge understatement!
We returned some of our "props" to the house and then drove to Emory to meet with Jerry and Diane for a road trip to Bartlesville and Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Jerry and Diane are big fans of the Pioneer Woman, so we decided we'd just go see what the Pioneer Woman and the Drummond Ranch were all about.
At our first rest break, Barbara and Diane discovered some pink cowgirl hats and just had to try them on. Jerry and I weren't interested in the pink hats, but did have a photo made of us holding up one of the columns at the front of the building...
When we got to Bartlesville, we checked in at the hotel, rested for a bit, and then went over to the local Freddy's Restaurant for supper.
After a wonderful meal, we returned to our rooms at the hotel, did some computer work and reading, and then settled in for a night of sleep.
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Tuesday, April 25
The new day dawned bright and and beautiful, as if had been made just for us and our adventures of the day.
After a good breakfast at the hotel, we got into the car and headed off to Pawhuska, about 27 miles outside of Bartlesville. The company was great, and the scenery was beautiful.
The heart of Pawhuska is the Merc, or Mercantile Building, owned by the Pioneer Woman family. It contains a restaurant that serves 6,000 meals a day (in a town of a little more than 1,300 people), as well as a large shopping area and a bakery upstairs.
It seems that Barbara and Diane just can't get away from those western hats...
And there was plenty for everyone to look at (and wonder if we really needed it)...
After an hour or so of browsing through the Mercantile, we headed out of town to the Drummond Ranch, a family-owned operation that comprises over 400,000 acres, and is home to the family.
This group of young steers was as interested in us as we were in them...
The Lodge is a focal point of the ranch. We went inside to see the kitchen where Pioneer Woman is taped for The Food Network, as well as some of the other sights in and around it.
When we had seen what there was to see on the ranch, we drove back to town and the Mercantile to have some supper. We timed it just right, getting there before the evening rush. Our meal choice tonight was the chicken fried steak, and a half order for each of us was almost more than we could eat. Desserts were also over the top...
That much food demanded some more walking around and shop-looking...and buying...
And a little local sightseeing...
When we returned to Bartlesville, we took time to look at some of the architectural designs in the downtown area...
We finally found our way back to the hotel to begin packing for the trip home tomorrow. We got settled in just as a monster storm hit...thunder, lightning, and tons of wind-whipped rain...a good night to be indoors!
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Wednesday, April 26We were up and about early this morning...had breakfast at the hotel...loaded the car...and then headed home...in the rain.
Jerry drove all the way until we got to Sulphur Springs, where they needed to go to the kennel and get Kipper. We took the front seat from Suplhur Springs to their house outside of Emory, changed cars, and headed home.
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Thursday, April 27Another trip to Tyler this morning. This time we were back at Dermatology Associates for
an ultra-violet bombardment of my face. I thought I was prepared for what was going to happen, but found that it was far more painful than when they did my scalp, and the "sunburn" effect was much more obvious.
We returned home, closed the blinds and shut the door (no sunlight, direct or indirect, for 36 hours...at least that's what they said).
While I tried to get comfortable, Barbara played with some new goodies that we found at the Mercantile in Pawhuska this week...sets of Mason Jar styled zip-lock storage bags...
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Friday, April 28I was good for as long as I could be, but we had planned a trip to Dallas this weekend to see granddaughter Abby in a musical, and grandson Alexander in a soccer match.
In a concession to the doctor's orders, I donned one of my motorcycle head wraps and put on my biggest and floppiest hats, to make the trip as safely, if not comfortably as possible. I call this my "urban bandit" look. Barbara kept threatening to wave her hands and yell help so people would think I was kidnapping her! Thankfully, she didn't!
We heard on the news last night that the main building at Splash Kingdom, just east of Canton, had burned. Barbara had her camera ready as we went past, and sure enough, it was burned and destroyed! This was a great place to take grandkids when they visited in the summer...sure hope they can get it going again...
We made one more stop along the way...this time at Whatabuger in Terrell, so we could have lunch...Whatawoman and me!
Our next stop was at the Hilton Gardens in Dallas, our layover for the night. We checked in, got unpacked, and then mapped out our route to the downtown area and Theater 3 in the Quadrangle, the site for Abby's performance tonight.
We stopped along the way to find a little bunch of flowers to give to Abby after the performance and then found our way, surprisingly enough, with a minimum of traffic and trouble to where we needed to be.
First on the agenda when we got there was finding a place to eat...a Thai restaurant was the clear winner!
We strolled a bit after dinner and then waited in the car until 6:30 to go into the theater. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see Abby and get any photos before the performance, and the theater was so dark afterward that we were able to get only one usable shot of Abby with a couple of her friends that Heather had brought to the performance.
But that didn't stop us from doing our proud Grams and Gramps bit as Abby wowed us with her acting, singing, and dancing
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Saturday, April 29The forecast for this morning was heavy thunderstorms, but they didn't materialize, so we got up, had breakfast, packed the car, and headed up the highway to Plano to join Heather, Andy, and Andy's parents, Len and Marilyn, to watch grandson Alexander play in a soccer match. What we didn't know until we got there was that Alexander was also the team captain for today's match. Alex (which is what he likes to be called now) scored the first goal of the game and helped lead his team to victory today.
We're sure that part of the reason for Alex's stellar game was his enthusiastic cheering section...
The winds really kicked up toward the end of the game, so we said our goodbyes to everyone and hurried back to Mineola before the predicted bad weather materialized.
The bad weather hit in a huge way in East Texas tonight. A devastating tornado was on the ground for 42 miles from Canton (30 miles southwest) to Emory (30 miles northwest), causing multiple deaths and incalculable destruction.
A cell with heavy rotation was headed toward the west side of Mineola and the area was under a tornado warning, but the cell suddenly shifted to the south of town, sweeping around us and then moving on toward the northeast. This was the first time that we literally hunkered down in the hallway and followed all the rules regarding tornado warnings!
Fortunately for us, the storm activity decreased in intensity and the rest of the night was calm as a Saturday night in Mineola could be.
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Sunday, April 30We awoke to a calm, but cool morning and went through the usual Sunday routine...Sunday school, church, and praise band at Yantis First Baptist Church (no Children's sermon today since this was a Communion Sunday), and then a return to the house to rest and relax for the rest of the day (except for working like crazy to finish the journal/blog...except that it didn't get finished).
We did have a nice, long telephone with niece Candace in Arkansas. She wanted to know how I was doing after the latest U-V procedure. Barbara quickly took a photo and sent it to her to show that I'm not back to my normal face just yet.
What a terrible way to end a blog entry!!! Let's move on to some grandchildren pictures that will serve to finish out the article on in a nicer way.
First, a photo of Abby that Heather sent us...
And one of Ava and Jack that Kelly shared...
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From soggy Mineola, Texas,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsy
