Sunday, May 4
After attending church and going by to see Edith, Ernie, and Billee, Jim and I got the “home” bug in a big way! I started by cooking up hamburger to put in the freezer (8 packages), cooked up chicken to put in chicken salad, and etc. I think I dirtied every pan and dish we have (and that’s without the luxury of a dishwasher!) Whatever was I thinking????
Meanwhile Jim was taking all the junk we have stored under the bed and sorting through it! Then he got in a “get rid of this” mode so we had stacks to throw away, donate, and keep. This place was a definite wreck! Then when I finished my jobs, I felt compelled to do the same. By the end of the afternoon, we had this place and every storage area cleaned to a T!
Then while Jim grilled pork chops outside, I tried my hand for the second time to make potato salad like Margarita and Maria made in Puerto Rico. This meant another call to them as I guess we never wrote the recipe down. Can’t believe we thought these tired old brains would remember it that long! Anyway, around 6 o’clock everything came together and we wandered over to Jean’s with food in hand since we had asked her to share.
Eventually, it was time to call this night over and bask in the glow of some jobs well-done!
Monday, May 5
Jim left around 9:00 to go pick up Ernie as they needed to do some banking business for Edith. Next he had a doctor’s appointment at 11:00 to get a steroid shot in his shoulder since the diagnosis was an inflamed tendon. While Jim was doing all of that, I was straightening up some messes we hadn’t fixed last night and taking care of the bills.
When Jim returned, we went out to take care of a list of errands we had accumulated. One of the most important in my books was to buy a bamboo plant like the one that the George’s had in their home. It grows in water and we decided that I could actually have a live plant! Luckily, we found everything we needed at Wal-Mart; so when we went by Edith’s, I got it prepared to take to its new home.
Tonight brought terrible wind storms with hints of rain (which never materialized)! Unless, you call that brown stuff (dirt) New Mexico rain!
Tuesday, May 6
Since Grammy’s Closet is closed on Monday’s, we headed there first thing this morning to get rid of the bags of clothes and household goods we had gathered on Sunday! The car looked like someone was living in it!
When we dropped by Edith’s, we found that they were showing the house today so we pitched in and helped clean it up. Since Ernie was going to bring Edith out to our house at 4:30, I decided that the occasion deserved a cake which I baked when we returned home.
Sometime during the day we received an email from Paul. This was the day that they found out the gender of the baby they are expecting in a few months.
Jim: When we were at church Sunday morning, I met a couple of men who are members of the Christian Motorcycle Association here in Artesia. They invited me to their meeting tonight, and one of them sent me several emails about the chapter and its activities.
Around 5:45 this evening I fired up the cycle and road into town to the Pecos Diamond Restaurant (which, I thought, was the site of the meeting). After waiting about 30 minutes, I decided that the meeting had been canceled because of the bad weather that was brewing, so I rode back out to Big V, getting inside just as a monster dirt storm hit us from the south. The wind was blowing so hard that everything inside Big V was rattling, so we quickly got the antenna cranked down and closed in the left side slide-outs.
When the wind subsided (which didn’t take long), we decided to go to Wal-Mart to get some necessaries for tomorrow’s trip to Carlsbad. While we were standing in line, we began talking to a man who was wearing a Christian Motorcycle Association t-shirt. Barbara mentioned that I had gone to their meeting tonight but couldn’t find anyone. He said that they had their meeting and that several were dressed in their CMA shirts or motorcycle clothing and he didn’t see how I could have missed them. Somehow it came out that they were meeting in the Pecos Inn, which is the local Best Western Motel. Evidently, when one of the men mentioned “Pecos” on Sunday morning, my brain filled in “Diamond,” rather than listening to what he was really saying.
Then the man in line asked me if I was Ernie’s big brother. I told him I was, and he started asking if I remembered a couple of boys who lived behind us years ago when I was growing up here. It turned out that he was one of our neighbor boys…several years younger than me…it’s a pretty small world some days.
Anyway, I now have the CMA business straightened out. All I have to do now is remember to attend on the first Tuesday of June.
As we returned home, we noticed a large number of pickup trucks in front of a neighbor’s mobile home. It seems that the straight line wind storm that I barely beat home tonight hit their home head-on and ripped the roof off, pealing it back as if a giant can opener had opened it up. Friends and neighbors had gathered to help move furniture and other belongings out until the roof could be replaced.
Wednesday, May 7
Today we received an email from Paul which included several sonogram pictures, one of which clearly showed that Paul and Stephanie will be welcoming a new son. Congrats!
After looking at the weather report and finding that this would be another day of winds in the 30’s with gusts in the 50’s, we tried to talk ourselves out of going to Carlsbad to have the ice maker replaced, but…eventually, we regained our senses and decided to just get it over with. Who knows when the wind will cease?
We arrived at the RV service center about an hour early, but we had beaten the winds! Then to our surprise, they came out shortly after 9:00 and told us to pull into bay 2. Wow! We were thrilled that we were getting it done an hour early since we were going to Seminole next for inspection.
Now this place is the perfect spot to have work done on the motor home since we can connect to the internet and goof off while we wait. And, the wait wasn’t really that long. By 10:00 they came out and said it was in, sign on the dotted line (it’s under warranty), and now you have to wait until the first batch of ice comes out before you can leave. No problem…we will have plenty of time to get to Seminole, get the motor home inspected, and return to Artesia. How lucky can we be???
Well, as it turns out (no pun intended), we weren’t so lucky after all…since the Big V was running on the generator, not electricity, and the fridge had been turned off for 2 hours, it took over 3 hours for the ice maker to turn out ice! By then, it was nearly 3:00 Texas time, the wind was really howling, and we didn’t feel like fighting it; so…it was back to Artesia. The inspection will have to wait for another time!
Once we got Big V settled again and livable, we went over to Edith’s to check in with them. Then another trip to Wal-Mart was made before we returned home.
Billee and Ernie came over around 6:00 to visit which was a real thrill. Other than Nancy, we don’t have many visitors in our “turtle” home.
Thursday, May 8
We are so behind on the journals that as Jim worked on last week, I began working on this week. Lately, I have been doing the skeleton work on our entries and then Jim fills in and finishes them while I download the photos and design how they go in the entry.
Once we have the journal written to Word, I have to fix the blog by copying and pasting the writing, adding the pictures (they won’t just copy in), and format the design before we can send it out. This whole process takes several hours and we aren’t always “in the mood.” And, today was one of those days that certainly didn’t help my disposition! While Jim took a nap, I was designing last week’s blog entry. I had all photos and print in place and then lost the internet which meant I lost all my work! Well, that’s not quite true since I had saved the photos. But, still I had to redo everything when the net came back up. Oh, the trials of journal writing!
Jim: After lunch and an episode of M*A*S*H, we decided to run into town and take care of some business. I picked up a few things at the local Do-It Center, and then it was down to the post office, and out to Mother’s house. Our hearts fell when we pulled into the driveway and opened the garage door…Ernie’s car was in the garage at the same time that they were supposed to be downtown completing the closing on their house.
Ernie came out to meet us and said that there had been another hang-up and that they were waiting for a call just any minute. After a short visit, we left for a visit to Wal-Mart (had to make it an official day) to pick up a few things for in and around Big V.
Ernie called around 4:30 to say that they had finally completed everything on the closing except picking up their check, and they will take care of that tomorrow. Hallelujah!!! This has been a long time coming, and we’re all very happy for them.
After supper we ventured over to Jean’s for a few minutes to see how her day went. Then, we returned to Big V to spend the evening working at our computers and watching television…nothing very exciting.
Friday, May 9
Since my niece Connie is graduating tonight from college in a Roswell ceremony, Jim and I thought we’d hand deliver the gift from Nancy and Tom and us. I had been looking forward to the early morning trek since we were going by Daylight Donuts to get apple fritters…only problem, though, was they were already sold out of everything by the time we got there! Guess you have to get there at the crack of dawn!
Next stop was Carol’s to see Connie since she had practice at 9:00 and should be through, or so we thought. However, when we arrived, we found that we had just missed her since they had cancelled the 9 o’clock practice and moved it to 10:00! Go figure…just weren’t early enough for anything today.
Jim spent his time visiting with Cal and Barney (one of Connie’s sons) in the living room while Carol and I chose to sit in the kitchen and conduct our own conversation. We waited, hoping that Connie would return, but that didn’t happen so finally we had to say our good-byes. Cal was looking so perky and good that we decided we’d take some photos. It’s hard to believe that just less than 2 months ago he was in the hospital fighting for his life! God is good!
After a stop at Happy Jack’s used books, where we unloaded 2 boxes of books, Jim left me at Dollar Tree where I needed to look for several household necessities while we went over to chat with his brother Jerry. Our last stop was at Target which is where we were when Ernie called to say that the realtor had called and they were showing Edith’s home at 3:00. Could they bring Edith over? We hightailed it back to Artesia and made it with 20 minutes to spare! This all worked out great since the wind decided to howl just after we made it home so we were spared the hassle of driving in the wind.
Edith, Jim, and I visited and watched a couple of episodes of M*A*S*H while waiting on Ernie and Billee to return. We all are just thrilled that they are showing the house…maybe soon the right person(s) will view the house and decide they can’t live without it.
Rest of the day was very unexciting, but restful.
Saturday, May 10
Housecleaning day! Enough said…
“Faith and doubt both are needed - not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve.” Lillian Smith
Another week in Artesia,
Jim & Barbara
After a bit, we hopped in Rod and Ruth’s car and drove into Santa Fe to pay a visit to Old Town. It’s been years since we last went to that section of the city, but we thought that little, if anything, had changed. We did a little shop-looking in some of the stores and made a couple of purchases before getting back in the car and driving across town to a Red Lobster restaurant for our evening meal.
Named for the self-taught anthropologist and historian, Adolph A. Bandelier, who came to the New Mexico Territory in 1880, the area now known as Bandolier National Monument had at least 3,000 housing/living sites dating back several thousand years. Archeologists think the Ancestral Pueblo people may have descended from groups of hunter/gatherer people who first entered the region nearly 10,000 years ago. By the mid 1200’s, the people began to gather in larger groups, building villages with as many as 40 rooms.
Thursday, May 1
While Jim helped Ernie move their couch and love seat to Marie Chase, I began the serious project of packing Edith’s library. To understand what a daunting task this is, one would have to realize how many books, videos, DVD’s, etc. she has collected in 84 years of living! We haven’t actually taken time to count the books, but just making a guesstimate, Jim says 1250-1500! This doesn’t include 3 sets of encyclopedias and years of the Condensed Reader’s Digests books. The videos themselves filled over 3 boxes, and we’re not talking little dinky boxes either! While I did the books, Edith shredded paperwork, checks, and etc. from years past. We were quite a working machine..jpg)
What a fun night eating and visiting on the deck of Leah and Ryan’s home! When the night was over, Jaycie returned to Big V with us to spend the night. As usual, once we turned on a movie, Jaycie was out like a light and I gave up, too. However, Jim watched the Bee Movie to the bitter end! 
Cathey decided after the shower that Leah and Ryan needed a baby bulletin board to put in Jameson’s jungle room so the 3 of us made a Wal-Mart run to get supplies while Jaycie and Jim began preparations on the spaghetti dinner Jim was fixing. Ryan was busy out in the garage making Jim and me a washer game to take home with us. (It’s played much like horseshoes, except that I never did hit the board when I tried it earlier! However, Jim and Ryan seemed to not have that trouble!)
Eventually, it was time to call this day over; so Jaycie, Jim and I went back to the Fairgrounds. No one even pretended to watch a movie tonight!
After lunch while the kids watched TV in TJ’s bedroom, we adults were able to visit a little about Edith’s decision on the move to Mineola. 
Eventually, it was time to head back to Richardson. We had mentioned to Alexander that if he slept in the car, it would count as his nap so that’s exactly what he did until we got to Terrell. However, this time we stopped at a public park that offered many opportunities for fun for both Alexander and Abby.
With no more ado, we wound up at the restaurant where Stephanie and Paul were waiting for us.
Paul and Stephanie are expecting their first child sometime in September though one would never really know it by just looking at Stephanie!
Heather provided us with a nice selection of leftovers, so dinner tonight wasn’t too complicated…pork pie and beans as a main dish, and the kids enjoyed some left over chicken nuggets and fries as well.
Top left (bottom collage): Alexander and Aunt Heather (Andy’s sister) dyeing Eater eggs
Barbara: Another blessing that we've had this week is that my brother-in-law, Cal, is doing well at home. It's just going to take time for him to have more strength. Also, sister Nancy reported that so far all tests have come back negative; so it appears her blood pressure is the only thing acting goofy and it can be regulated. More tests will be done on Monday, but we're praying that they too come out well. Again, thanks to all who have remembered them in prayer. 
