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Monday, September 30
As we said at the end of the September post, it's our journal, and we have to write it the way we see it. Our September activities ended on the 29th, and then we had a transition day (today) in which we packed the car and drove to Lubbock to be with Barbara's sister Carol while she had some medical procedures done.
We were getting a little hungry about the time we got to Eastland, so we pulled off I-20 and found a new (for us) eating place, Heff's Restaurant, a place with great appeal and even greater food. We'll be stopping here again on future trips
When we got to Lubbock we checked in at our hotel and waited for Carol and her daughter Teresa to arrive from Roswell. After everyone was settled in, we began our time together with game night in the hotel lobby.
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Tuesday, October 1
Hospital time for the families means a lot of waiting time...and thats' what we had today as they did all kinds of tests and scans on Carol before they got to the surgery.
Tonight we received a photo from Mike and Kelly showing Ava, Jack, and Benjamin wearing their new Texas shirts that we ordered for them after their visit last month.
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Wednesday, October 2
With Carol's surgery behind her and the next procedure scheduled in a couple of weeks, we checked out of the hotel, went to the hospital to visit awhile, and then started back home...or so we thought.
We had driven about 50 miles when we got a call from Nancy that they had discovered some new problems with Carol's leg and were going to have to do some emergency procedures, so we turned around, returned to Lubbock (and luckily were able to check into the same room at the hotel), and prepared for some more hospital time.
With all the craziness going on around us, no one got any photos, which is probably just as well since we were all moving targets and the photos would be as much a blur as the day was.
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Thursday, October 3
I had a band rehearsal scheduled for this evening, the last one before the weekend concert, so I was up and about early this morning to drive back to Mineola with plans to return on Saturday to pick Barbara up. The rest of the day was all about Barbara, Carol, Nancy, Teresa, procedures, and waiting. Thankfully, the procedures on Carol went well and she was up and about (after a fashion) by evening.
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Friday, October 4
As we said, we thought Carol would be in the hospital another day, but just as I was getting ready to go outside and do some yard work, Barbara called to say that they were going to send Carol home today. So, we quickly made arrangements for me to drive to Crowley (at Leah's insistence), and Leah and I would drive to Lubbock, pick Barbara up, and start back home. As it turned out, after Carol's successful surgery,
Nancy said she would bring Barbara to Post to meet us, which shortened the trip and made it possible to get all the way back to Crowley to spend the night with Leah, Ryan, and Kaiden.
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Saturday, October 5
Barbara and I were itching to get home, so we got up early, said goodbye to the kids, and headed home as fast as we could (without doing any serious damage to the posted speed limits).
We made it safely to Our Little House in Mineola, unloaded the car, unpacked everything, and settled down for some serious rest. The small travel trailer salt and pepper shakers on the left of the collage were from sister Carol.
After getting some good nap time, we took advantage of a beautiful afternoon to get in some Taz Time...still on the highway, but not the same as driving a car.
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Sunday, October 6
The first Sunday of the month found us back with our church family at First Baptist Church Yantis, where we presented a Children's Sermon...
Spent time with good friend Jeanetta, who had posted on Facebook that she had lost her marbles. We just happened to find them while we were in Lubbock; so we returned them to her. Boy! Was she surprised!!!
And then we headed to the Historic Select Theater in downtown Mineola for the Fall Concert of the Lake Country Symphonic Band.
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Monday, October 7
This morning we drove out to Yantis so I could help with the money count and make the weekly deposit for the church. While I was doing that, Barbara was taking pictures of a group of folks in the Family Life Center who were preparing wreaths for Christmas decorations. When I finished at the bank, I joined the others to help as I could...
We had only one casualty during the work session...that was when Janice Parker, wife of our interim pastor, managed to get some hot glue on herself...luckily, Barbara was there to play nurse and help Janice...
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Tuesday, October 8
Today was a "piddle around day" until this evening when we had another band concert.
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Wednesday, October 9
We put a lot of miles on the car lately, so it was time this morning to take it in for service and tire rotation.
When that was done, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful Fall weather and drive out to Lake Hawkins to see if anything had changed since we were last there.
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Thursday, October 10
Unfortunately, today was the day to take Taz to the motorcycle hospital in Tyler for her third "surgery" of the year...hoping the third time is a charm.
On the way home we stopped at Uncle Bubba's Grillhouse in Mineola to see what they had to offer, and then stopped for an impromptu visit with Sophie, who helped take care of Mother back in the day.
Tonight we experimented with some ideas for handouts for our childrens' sermon on Sunday, but didn't get very far with them.
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Friday, October 11
today was "crunch time" to get our children's sermon prepared for Sunday...we had a lot of fun with it, but sure did make a mess on the table!
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Saturday, October 12
This morning we proofed and made final revisions to the children's sermon script for tomorrow, practiced it a couple of times, then got everything packaged up to load in the car tomorrow.
This evening we met friends Keith, Whitney, Aubrey, and Rivers for dinner at pizza Hut, and then joined them to watch the kids enjoy rides and goodies at the little carnival that was set up at the Civic Center park. A good time was had by all!
Later, I joined Cousin Ladd and a group of local men at a special men's fellowship at Northside Baptist Church.
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Sunday, October 13
As usual, Sunday morning means a children's sermon to begin the service at First Baptist Church Yantis. Our sermon for the kids this morning was taken from Mark 6:34 and was titled, "The Good Shepherd."
JIM: The Bible is such an
amazing book! Almost every story in it
can be used to teach different lessons.
A couple of months ago we used Mark 6:34 to learn how Jesus cared enough
about the people to perform a miracle by feeding a large crowd with only a few
scraps of food. This morning we’ll use
that verse to teach a different lesson about how Jesus still cares for us today
and wants to lead us in the right way.
BARBARA: I can still remember
the days when I taught kindergarten, and I’d read nursery rhymes to my
students. We’d read about Humpty Dumpty, who sat on a wall, of Three Blind Mice
who could run, or Little Miss Muffett, who sat on a tuffett. But, one of their favorite nursery rhymes was
about Little Bo Peep. You know that one,
don’t you? Little Bo Peep has lost
her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them; Leave them alone and they’ll
come, wagging their tails behind them.
Then,
we’d stop and I’d say, “Wait a minute!
“Leave them alone and they’ll come home.” Do you think that is good advice? Would you leave a favorite pet somewhere and
just hope it would come home? Of course
not, you would go out and search until you found it and brought it back home
with you.”
Well,
in today’s Bible verse that Mr. Little will talk about. Jesus used an animal to
talk about his people. Do you know what He compared us to? Yes, he called us
His Sheep. And, He called Himself our shepherd!
Do you think Jesus would leave us and wait for us to come home? In fact,
sheep are mentioned in over 200 verses in the Bible. He even said the good shepherd lays down his
life for the sheep.” So sheep must have been very important to Jesus.
JIM: In our Bible verse
this morning we find that Jesus and his disciples had been traveling and
teaching so much that they didn’t take time to eat and rest as they
should. Jesus said, “Come with me to a
quiet place and get some rest.” Therefore,
they got in a boat and went to a quiet place…but it was filled with people who
wanted to hear Jesus and learn more about him.
Jesus could have said, “Look folks, we’re pretty tired and hungry, so
why don’t you just go on home and come back in a day or two.”
But
Jesus didn’t do that. The Bible says he
looked at the crowd and was moved with compassion. That doesn’t mean he just felt sorry for
them. It means that Jesus saw that the
crowd was like a flock of sheep without a shepherd, without anyone to guide and
protect them, and he was moved to action.
Do you remember what Mrs. Little just told us? She told us that Jesus said, “The good
shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Leave
them alone and they’ll come home, wagging their tails behind them? Not Jesus!
Not our good shepherd!
Mrs.
Little, what do we have as a treat and reminder for the children this morning?
BARBARA: Well...what do think we’d have to remind you
that We are the sheep and Jesus is the shepherd. Think....yes! We have a sheep
for you. Always remember that Christ will never leave you because He is our
great Shepherd. Mr. Little will you close us in prayer, please.
JIM: Heavenly Father,
we thank you for sending Jesus. We are
thankful that he never leaves us lost, wandering, and alone, without a shepherd
to guide us. It’s in His name we pray,
Amen.
A beautiful Harvest moon rose in the east tonight. Like many others in Wood County we went for a ride to find the best place we could to get photos, but one of the best parts of East Texas, the miles and miles of beautiful woodlands, is also a negative for shooting the night skies. Try as we might, we couldn't get the shots we really wanted, but it was also a beautiful night for a ride. As luck would have it, we did get these two shots as we returned to the house...nothing spectacular, but still nice.
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Monday, October 14
This was a plain vanilla day...no trips, nothing on the schedule...just work around the house and yard. This was the kind of day we've needed.
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Tuesday, October 15
And now we're back to the stuff of our lives...I went to Yantis to count money and make the church deposit this morning. We both went to the store to pick up some necessary items, Barbara got her glasses fixed, and then had an appointment with Dr. Martinez this afternoon in Quitman. The highlight of the day was a meal at Jalapeno Tree...some of our favorite food with enough leftovers for a couple more meals.
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Wednesday, October 16
Most of the day was spent in preparation for a meal for Pastor Danny and Janice this evening...we didn't get any photos of the preparation OR the meal and our guests, but we did end up with this shot of one of Barbara and one of her world famous trifles.
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Thursday, October 17
We were up and about early this morning for a short trip to Quitman so Barbara could have a stress test at the hospital.
When the test was over, we had a "Whatabreakfast" and then returned to the house to start work on our handouts for the children's sermon on Sunday. Our task today was to convert miniature plastic traffic cones into megaphones...not as easy as one might expect...and it sure made a mess in the garage!
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Friday, October 18
Heartaches come in a lot of ways, but for us, one of the worst things that can happen is the loss of one of our former students.
We both taught Justin and Jessica Cook, fraternal twins, in Liberal, Kansas. Barbara had them in her classes at West Middle School, and they were both valued members of "That" Liberal Band at the high school.
We go word this week that Justin had been killed and there would be a visitation and funeral in Henderson this weekend. Our Saturday schedule was already planned, but we were able to drive to Henderson this evening for the visitation and to be there for Jessica and her family As sad as the occasion was, it was good to see the beautiful woman Jessica has grown to be, and we also got to visit with one of her best friends, Pam (Williams) Bell, also a former band member at Liberal.
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Saturday, October 19
Today was a huge day in the life of First Baptist Church Yantis...our annual Fall Festival, complete with food, fun, fellowship, games, hayrides, and yes, Taz rides for some of the "young at heart" crowd. Also a stop at Our Little Lot at Holiday Villages to pay a visit to Big V.
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Sunday, October 20
For the most part this was just another Sunday. We drove out to Yantis, gave a children's sermon from Matthew 28:!9-20, "The Great Commission."
BARBARA: Have you ever helped
plan a party? The first step in planning
is to make a list of all the people you want to invite. Next you send invitations to everyone you
want to come to your party. Your
invitations might look like this one. As
you can see, it has a name, address, and stamp on the envelope.
When
you are finished with the envelopes, you take them to the post office and put
them in the mailbox. It is then their
job to deliver the invitations. The post
office doesn’t decide which invitations they deliver and which ones they won’t;
it is their responsibility to deliver all the invitations that are mailed. They don’t say, “Well, we’re pretty busy
today, but if we don’t deliver these invitations, maybe someone else will tell
these folks about the party.
What
if it’s raining? Are the workers at the post office going to say, “It’s raining
today and if we go out to deliver these invitations, we might get wet, so we’ll
just wait until it’s better weather?”
No, of course not, the invitations have been given to them and they must
be delivered, rain or shine. If they
wait until the weather is just right, the invitation might arrive too late.
JIM: Mrs. Little, did you know that Jesus has sent
these children, and everyone else in the building today an invitation? His invitation says, “Come! Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever
wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” The invitation is addressed to “Whoever wishes
to come.”
But
the post office isn’t in charge of delivering this invitation. In Matthew 28:19-20 we read what we sometimes
call the Great Commission. Jesus told
his disciples and is telling those who have accepted his great gift of eternal life
with him, to go everywhere and tell everyone about his love for them. Jesus sent the invitation and has given the
job of delivering it to us. Busy or not,
rain or shine, we must deliver the message before it is too late.
Mrs.
Little, what are our gifts for the children this morning?
BARBARA: Our gift this morning is a megaphone, a tool
to help shout out to people so they can hear your message about Jesus. Clipped to the end is a messenger who
represents you, and inside is a bag of Teddy Grahams because evidently there
aren’t any cookies shaped like people…but we all know that Teddy Bears are
people too, right? Mr. Little, what is
our message?
JIM: (Holding megaphone to
mouth)…“Come! Whoever is thirsty,
let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of
life.”
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you for Jesus who came so that we
might have eternal life. We thank you
for sending the Holy Spirit to be our comforter and guide. Help us to be faithful in telling others
about your love for them. In’s in the
name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
When church was over we went back home, had lunch, and took our traditional Sunday afternoon nap (it's much like our other afternoon naps, but on Sunday, lol).
It was a beautiful evening, so we decided we'd ride Taz to church, and then go to Our Little Lot to spend the night in Big V, since I would be going back to the church Monday morning to help Mary with the money and bank deposit.
That's where things started to go a little haywire. We were all settled in for the night in BIg V when the skies opened up and it started pouring rain. Now, the rain was no problem, but then the wind got into the act. We decided to check the weather channel to see what they were saying, and found that we were in the middle of a group of cells that were spawning severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. We decided that the better part of valor was to quickly get our things together, wait for a break in the storms, and get back to our sticks and bricks home in Mineola. We managed to catch a good break that gave us only light rain on the way home (not the best night travel on Taz, but it worked), and arrived in Mineola just as the bottom fell out again...God does protect his fools!!!
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Monday, October 21
After only minor damage the storm blew out in the early morning hours, leaving us with a bright and beautiful day. I drove out to church to help with the money and then returned home.
This was an early voting day, so we took advantage of the weather to ride Taz to Quitman to vote, and then go visit Juanita, one of our church widows, to wish her a belated birthday.
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Tuesday, October 22
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Wednesday, October 23
Our family expanded today with the early arrival of Peyton Rylie O'Bryant, born to granddaughter Randi (Colwell) O'Bryant and her husband Nick. Peyton weighed in at 6 pounds and 14 ounces, and is 19 inches long. She is a cutey, and is destined to become a beauty!
As soon as we heard about Peyton, we began planning a quick trip to San Antonio to see her. With obligations we had on the horizon and all the kids are going to face in the near future, we decided to drive to San Antonio tomorrow, visit Peyton and her family at the hospital, stay over tomorrow night, and then drive to Crowley to see Kaiden in a band performance. We were going to go to Crowley anyway, so what's a few more hours and miles anyway?
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Thursday, October 24
We pretty much threw what we needed together last night, so all we had to do this morning was gather some last minute things, load the car, go to Wally World for gas, and head to San Antonio via Dallas and I-35.
Traffic was kind and the weather was generally cooperative. We had a quick lunch from McDonald's at Italy, and then motored along toward Waco, stopping at the I-35 Rest area north of Waco for a stretch break.
Texas has for many years done an excellent job with their rest areas, but they have outdone themselves with this one. Not only does it have spacious restrooms, but it also doubles as a free museum of culture of this art of the state.
We went to the hospital as soon as we got to San Antonio and visited with Randi, Peyton, and Carol, and eventually Nick and John. As you might guess, these collages represent only a small percentage of the pictures that were taken this afternoon.
Randi was wrung out after nearly three hours of visitors, so we said our goodbyes, promised to be back early tomorrow morning, and made our way to the hotel, arriving just as a major thunderstorm and heavy rains hit the area. As we always say, "Timing is everything!"
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Friday, October 25
We didn't have to rush around much this morning since we had to wait for visiting hours at the hospital. That gave us plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast and more than enough time to repack and load the car before checking out of the hotel.
Once we were able to get into Randi's room, the photo shoot began all over again. And again, far more photos were taken than appear in this journal entry.
Too soon we had to say goodbye, hike back to the car, and take off for a few more hours and lots of miles from San Antonio to Crowley via U.S. 281 through Blanco, Johnson City, Burnet, and Lampasas...not a route we have ever driven, nor one we are likely to drive again, unless maybe on Taz.
We got to the kids' house in Crowley just in time for Leah to provide transportation service to the football stadium where the middle school bands joined the high school bands for a special band night performance. The bands played well, but it was cold, windy, wet, and rainy...everything I always disliked about marching bands, and swore I would never attend again after retiring. Lesson learned...be careful what you swear about! (Leah had to loan us coats! Talk about unprepared for cold and wet. And, yes, we did check the weather; but they certainly were off base tonight!)
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Saturday, October 26
Today was a school fair day at Kaiden's school and the band was playing a couple of times. While Leah made breakfast for us, I gave Kaiden a euphonium lesson.
Later, we went to the school for a few hours to hear the band and choir, and roam through all the arts and crafts booths.
We said our goodbyes before Kaiden's last performance and headed back to the car to begin the last leg of a long journey that would take us back home.
When we got home,we found that Randi had sent us photos of Peyton all dressed and ready to leave the hospital and go to her new home. Barbara made the collage out of them. Thanks, Randi!
It was a l-o-n-g trip in a short time, but more than worth every minute and every mile!!!
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Sunday, October 27
We had a funeral scheduled in Gladewater early this afternoon, so instead of going to our church in Yantis, we attended Northside Baptist Church near the house with our Mineola family. It was a special day for the family as Jon and Madelyn joined the church, and their two sons, Rhett and Rexton were dedicated.
After the service we boogied across the country to Gladewater where I sounded Taps for the third member of Lynn and Kathy Alexander's family to pass away in the past six weeks. This one was for Kathy's brother, who died three weeks after Lynn. These funerals are never easy, but they are especially difficult when they are for friends and their families.
We got back to Mineola in time to have a late lunch at Jalapeno Tree, go home and change clothes, and then drive out to Yantis for a Sunday night church self-study led by our interim pastor, Danny Parker.
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Monday, October 28
We've said it before, and will probably say it again, that some days are just days...and this was one of them.
A trip to Walmart and a drive to East Texas Optical to Barbara a new pair of glasses were not only the highlights, but also the totality of the day. Ho-Hum.
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Tuesday, October 29
Today was slightly more interesting than yesterday. We had to go to Tyler early for Barbara to have a consultation with Dr. Miller about some blood vein issues with her legs.
On the way home we stopped at Dollar Tree in Lindale to shop for some Halloween goodies, just on the off chance that someone might drop by Thursday night.
Other than than, the day was just plain vanilla.
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Wednesday October 30
Today more than made up for a slow yesterday. I had my annual physical exam at 9:00 am. That was followed by haircuts for both of us and some toenail fashioning for Barbara at 10:00. This afternoon found us back in Tyler for a Veinnous Doppler procedure for Barbara, followed by a late lunch at Red Lobster, and then a stop at Dollar Tree to find some items for the children's sermon for Sunday.
No photos for the day, but lots of activity!
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Thursday, October 31
Happy Halloween!!!!
We ended the month with a most unremarkable day. I baked some bread bowls while Barbara worked on the children's sermon for this week. Tonight I had band rehearsal while Barbara stayed at home to take care of any trick-or-treaters who might drop by.
We did receive this photo from Mike and Kelly showing Ava, Jack, and Benjamin with some special loot.
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From Our Little Home in Mineola, Texas,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsie
