Another Little Week Gone By

Sunday, February 28 – Saturday, March 6, 2010

Sunday, February 28

We followed our normal Sunday routine for most of the day…the three of us got ready for church and then Mother waited for TJ to pick her up while Barbara and I drove up to Yantis for Sunday school and the morning church service…Brother Kent Pace, our interim pastor, was in fine form this morning and gave a challenging and heartfelt sermon.

We went to Big V after church (after stopping at the clubhouse to order a couple of take-out plates of chicken-fried steak, onion rings, French fries, and salads) and whiled away the afternoon. I worked outside clearing some of the debris from the stream that runs through the gully beside us.

About the time I started working, I heard a hearty, “Welcome home,” and turned to see Linda, our nearest neighbor. She stopped by to see what had been going on with us and ended up visiting with Barbara for an hour or so.

When the visiting was done and I had done about all the sawing and hauling that I wanted to do, we shut the place down and returned to Mineola in time to feed the Spike and Bonita and get a light supper going for Mother and us.

When we finished eating, I started sanding some pieces of wrought-iron that the previous owners left in the yard when they left and Mother bought the house. Nearly all of the wrought-iron has seen much better days, but we are going to work them over with steel wool and repaint them. This introduction to the project took longer than I thought it would, as there was a great buildup of rust and dirt on the four small pieces that I tackled first. There is no doubt now that this will be a continued story.

Monday, March 1

Happy Birthday to Jerry Terpening in Artesia, New Mexico!!!

Wow…the first two months of the year are now history and here we are, wading into March!

March came in like a monsoon this morning with occasional downpours interrupted by bouts of heavy showers…not a good day to begin painting the wrought-iron pieces that I cleaned yesterday.

We called TJ and invited her over for lunch, since she was spending her morning running around town doing errands. Afterward, we decided to drive along Highway 69 behind the Extreme Makeover house and try to get some photos.

That led to the bright idea of trying to find the housing addition that Marge, TJ’s friend, lives in and that Gene and Michelle are looking at as a possible place to build. The bright idea got dimmer and dimmer as we got ourselves totally lost (although we did find the Wood County Airport and the Mineola landfill). Intrepid explorers that we are, we continued making turns onto county roads that we were certain would get us back to Highway 69, and as we made the last turn that should lead us back into town, we saw a sign that said we were now on state road 37 and just 2 miles from Quitman. We have no idea how we managed it, but we were far, far away from where we thought we were!

Since we were so close to Quitman anyway, we decided to drive on up the road a few miles to Holiday Village to check on Big V. Big V was doing just fine, but we noticed that several more tree branches had found their way to the ground and we had about an inch and a half of water in the rain gauge.

We returned to Mineola and Mother’s house to take care of all the evening routines. For some reason we weren’t sleepy when it was bedtime, so we decided to go to Sonic for a late night treat and then around 11:00, we drove out to the Extreme Makeover house to take some pictures.

Tuesday, March 2

After breakfast we went outside to begin painting the four pieces of wrought-iron that I had cleaned and while the first coat was drying, I applied the steel wool and a fair amount of elbow-grease to another piece, a fence section that we plan to move from one end of the flower bed to an area just beside the sidewalk and the front porch.

This was also a house cleaning day. We didn’t have that in our lesson plans, but when the sun came out after all those days of rain and clouds, we could see all the dust that had accumulated on the furniture and floors. But, with a couple of hours of dusting, polishing, sweeping, and mopping, we managed to get Mother’s house looking like a showcase.

Today was Primary Election day in Texas. Since Barbara had her Bridge meeting at church tonight, we decided to leave Mineola early enough to stop in Quitman, our new precinct, to cast our ballots. We just didn’t know how difficult that would turn out to be.

Our idea was that we would just drive to the courthouse and either vote there, or find out where the polling place was. That sounded reasonable enough to us, and we knew we were on the right track when we walked into the courthouse and saw two men, one a State Trooper. We also said a sign telling us to go to the Carroll Green Civic Center on McAlister Street, so all we needed to know, since our knowledge of Quitman is how to find Sonic, Brookshire’s, and the Dairy Queen, was where McAlister Street was.

One of the men in the courthouse said he wasn’t from Quitman and didn’t know anything about it. The State Trooper said he didn’t know where the Civic Center was, but he would call the Sheriff’s office to find out. Several minutes and many questions later, the trooper said he was sorry, but no one in the Sheriff’s office had a clue about either McAlister Street or the civic center…not a good sign.

I then went into the treasurer’s office and asked the receptionist about the polling place, McAlister Street, and the civic center. She just gave me a blank look and said she didn’t know anything about any of those things. The sun was now out, but the day was getting bleaker.

Finally, a woman from one of the offices came out and gave us the directions, which led us to a building behind the Dairy Queen. And oh yes, there’s a large sign on the highway that gives the directions to the civic center, but that’s helpful only if one knows that’s where one wants to go. But now we know.

Once in the center we hustled right on through the process of being certified and getting our ballots. Barbara finished marking her ballot and went on outside to wait for me. When I was finished marking my ballot, it took four tries and a technician before the machine finally accepted the ballot…guess this just wasn’t my day to be a good citizen!

When we got to our lot, I got out and started working while Barbara drove on to Yantis for her meeting. I worked outside until it was too dark to see what I was doing and then went back inside to spend some computer time. The only problem was that I couldn’t get a wireless signal, no matter what I tried, so I gave up and put in the final DVD of Victory at Sea and watched one of the episodes that I hadn’t seen yet. It was kind of like being at home again.

Barbara has been wanting to get photos of the ladies who attend the bi-weekly Bridging the Gap meeting at our church, but neither of us can seem to remember to grab a camera (if you can believe that) prior to driving to Yantis. Barbara remembered it this evening and came up with this collage of the ladies who attended tonight.

When Barbara returned from her Bridge meeting around 7:45, we shut down Big V and boogied back to Mineola, where we finally called it a day.

Wednesday, March 3

Happy Birthday to Barbara Francis Yehl in Victoria, Texas!!!

We went back north this morning. Barbara had her Bible study group at the church and I spent the morning clearing brush and sawing firewood around the lot. We’ve had so much rain lately that the ground around Big V is pretty spongy, but I was able to get down to the end of the gully and cut a channel to one of the two drainage tubes that run under the road to the clubhouse lake. I’m hoping that will ease some of the problem caused by water backing up into the gully when we have the torrential downpours.

This afternoon we went to the Walmart parking lot to catch a shuttle bus to the Extreme Makeover site. With tomorrow as the “Move that bus” day, the crews were all busy trying to get the house completed. It was amazing how much has been done in just a few days, but it was obvious that there was much to do in the next 20 or so hours. We thought we might get to see the furniture move-in, but that was taking longer than expected, so we took what photos we could and then returned to the shuttle bus area.

We did a little work around Mother’s house during the afternoon. Barbara shoveled dirt and sand that had collected at the end of the street (and the base of Mother’s driveway) because of the rain runoff. Meanwhile, I did some touch-up painting on some of the wrought-iron pieces and sanded a couple of others.

Wednesday night is hamburger night at East Fork and tonight Gene and Carolyn joined Gene, Michelle, Barbara, and me for the extravaganza. Conversations and quips were flying all over the place as we talked, laughed, and ate (and ate, and ate, and…). Gene Young got a good dig in at Barbara when he asked her which shop she had taken her computer to. She couldn’t figure out what he was talking about until he told her that he just figured her computer must be in the shop because she hadn’t posted last week’s blog…guess someone really does read these things!

With dinner over, we returned to Mother’s house and DID get the latest blog posted.

Thursday, March 4

Today was “Move that bus” day at the Extreme makeover site, but we didn’t join the crowd. They started running the shuttle buses at 7:30 this morning and stopped the service when the neighborhood was packed. People were told beforehand that once they were there, it would be about four hours or so before they could even think about leaving, so they needed to bring food and drinks. Local television and radio news coverage of the event was suspended around noon in compliance with ABC and Extreme Makeover restrictions.

We wish we could take credit for the photo of the completed house, the bus, and the crowd, but have to defer instead to whoever did get this shot and posted it on a website.

We spent most of the day just hanging around the house and taking care of small chores…Barbara shoveled some more dirt from the bottom of the driveway and I painted some of the wrought-iron pieces. The weather was nice enough that I was able to take Spike on a couple of walks. He likes to go up the street to the mailbox and then walk around the square.

Friday, March 5

This morning we asked Mother if she’d like to invite Elmer and Jennie Bunn and TJ over for lunch. She thought that would be fun, so we called them and they all agreed. At that point, we kicked into high gear to get lunch prepared and the house set up for company.

Barbara’s menu consisted of chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnip greens, green beans, and apple dumpling dew for dessert.

Between dish preparations we also spruced up the outside of the house, setting five of the finished wrought-iron pieces around one of the flower beds in front of the house, and a fifth one, a hummingbird sculpture, at the entrance to the driveway.

The Bunns and TJ arrived about the same time, with a little time to visit before we all sat down to a formal table (well, as close to formal as your likely to see from us) and enjoyed the meal and the conversations. Elmer is quite a character (and by his own admission always has been) and he regaled us with stories from his childhood. Elmer’s parents and my grandparents were good friends even before he and Mother met when they were just small children.

We are able to laugh now at Elmer’s stories about his school escapades, but I told him that if I had been his principal, he would definitely have been on my “frequent flyer” list. To his credit, Elmer said that though he had received many paddlings through his school years, he never received one he didn’t deserve.

When lunch was over and the first load of dishes was churning in the dishwasher, we retired to the living room for even more stories from Mother’s and Elmer’s childhood days…just wish we could have had a video camera to have recorded the stories and the way Elmer’s eyes twinkled as he started a new story.

The rest of the day was pretty quiet and we just whiled away the time by doing not much of anything.

Saturday, March 6

I guess all the excitement of yesterday wore us out, because after waking up this morning and eating breakfast, all three of us went back to bed for some extra sleep time.

It was such a warm and pretty day out that I entertained thoughts of firing up the motorcycle for a ride, but everyone in the neighborhood was our working in their yards and we realized that we had quite a bit of work to do in ours. So, I broke out the new hedge clippers and started trimming the hedge plants that Mother has growing around her yard. I’ve never lived where I had hedges, so trimming and shaping was a new experience for me.

In the meantime, Barbara tackled Mother’s sunroom at the back of the house. After a couple of conversations about what we were doing with the wrought-iron, Mother said that we could take her table and chair set from the sunroom to be refinished and set on the front porch.

When the trimming was done, I raked out the front yard and then moved to the backyard to rake up leaves, sweet gum balls, and Spike’s calling cards, while Barbara set about cleaning and rearranging the remaining furniture in the sunroom. My work resulted in three large plastic bags of “debris” to be set out with the garbage next Thursday, but Barbara’s work produced a cozy little sitting room with a storage cabinet, two rocking chairs, and a little table. Mother brought Bonita out to see what was going on and they even took time to give one of the rocking chairs a test ride while Mother talked to TJ on the phone.

Tonight was Bingo night at the clubhouse, so Barbara and I drove up to Holiday Village to join in the fun and fellowship. We figured that we had already used up all our luck at the last Bingo night when each of us won a game, but Barbara began the night with a win in the first game. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there, but we did have fun playing the game and visiting with the folks around us; and, we walked out with a $10.00 Walmart card for our efforts.

We got a call from Barbara’s sister Carol in Roswell tonight. Cal, who has had severe lung problems for several years, is not processing the oxygen that is being pumped into his lungs. His condition is very severe and he is under hospice care; today they brought a hospital bed into the house to make him as comfortable as possible.

With that news, we ended our week by making mental preparations for a trip to Roswell as soon as we learn that our brother-in-law has passed away.

“Don’t put the key to happiness in someone else’s pocket – keep it in your own!” – Unknown

From Heritage Square in Mineola, Texas,

Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams

Just a final note:

The Extreme Home Makeover was just about the biggest thing that ever hit Mineola, and many community members became involved as volunteer builders, shuttle bus drivers, guides, or just as interested spectators.

All who heard the story of the family who received this wonderful gift agreed that no one was more deserving. Mike and Katrina Carr adopted four young siblings, all of whom have significant physical disabilities, from Kazakhstan. One of the girls has had two legs and one arm amputated, but with the aid of prosthetic devices, has become an accomplished athlete and wants to become a swimmer.

The house they were living in had only one bathroom and it wasn’t handicapped accessible. The electrical wiring was substandard, and they had numerous problems with the septic system.

The new house, with a total of 4,800 square feet and easy accessibility for parents and children, will literally give the Carr family a new lease on life.

The Mineola edition of Extreme Makeover is scheduled to air on ABC in its regular time slot on Saturday, May 9.

A Little Makeover Week

Sunday, February 21 – Saturday, February 27, 2010

Sunday, February 21

John called us late last night to tell us that Randi would be competing this afternoon in a cheer competition at the Dallas Convention Center. He said that Jaycie would also be competing in a different division, so we decided we’d forgo our usual Sunday activities and drive to Dallas to see the girls, knowing that we wouldn’t have much time with them, but whatever time we had with them would certainly be more than we’ve had recently.

When we talked to John last night, we made arrangements to hook up with his family at the convention center. Along the way this morning, we made several phone calls to Jaycie to let her know we were on the way and asked that she let us know where we could meet her. We didn’t get any calls while we were on the road, but that wasn’t unusual since they probably had a late night last night and were sleeping in.

When we got to the convention center and got parked, we called both Randi and Jaycie to let them know where we were. Randi said they were behind schedule at their hotel and would meet us at Section D of the center.

We went on inside and found a place to sit while we were waiting on everyone and continued to try to reach Jaycie to let her know where we were.

We also called Jimmy Clint to see how he was doing, but found that he had been taken to the emergency room at University Medical Center after having a bad reaction to one of his meds…a very unsettling start to our day.

John, Carol, and Randi soon arrived and we went to the concession area to have a bite to eat and to sit and visit a while. The noise in the room was deafening, so I’m not sure what all was said, but we did have a good time.

We tried to call Jaycie a couple of more times to find out when her team would be arriving. It turned out that their team wasn’t scheduled to compete until well after Randi’s team went on, so we had extra time to visit with Randi and her folks about her competition. We thought Randi did quite well, especially since she had been asked by the coach to replace an injured team member just a few days ago and had only a short time to learn the routine that everyone else had been practicing for quite a while.

We said our goodbyes to John, Carol, and Randi and began our search of the convention center for Jaycie and her team. We found some of her team members but they told us they didn’t know where Jaycie was. We then found a room where their team would meet before going off to warm up for their competition, but still no Jaycie.

We had printed some pictures of Jaycie and some materials to use with the latest addition to her American Girl collection and really wanted to hand them to her, but when we decided we might not get to see her, we went back to the room to give the envelope to a couple of parents who we had met before when we were visiting in Lubbock.

We asked Bobby and Janet if we could sneak a peek at Jaycie, but they said she was off practicing with the team but they didn’t know where. As Barbara handed them the envelope and explained what was in it, I saw Cathey standing behind Bobby and talking to another parent. When I said, “There’s Cathey,” she turned around and walked to the center of the room, not looking back, so we finished saying what we had to say to Bobby and Janet and left, feeling bad that we couldn’t see Jaycie for even a short moment.

The trip back to Mineola was relatively smooth and quick, but both of us were lost in our thoughts about what had happened today and trying to figure out why it happened that way.

We got back to Mother’s house around 8:00 had a light supper, got Mother and the puppies taken care of and ready for bed, and then called it a day ourselves.

Monday, February 22

Today we celebrate the birthday of the first president of the United States, George Washington (or as we said when I was a kid, this is George Birthington’s washday…don’t know why we said that, but we did). You can refer to the previous editorial comments on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday to be reminded of what I think of the new manner of recognizing the birthdays of these two important presidents.

Mother had an appointment with her neurologist in Tyler this morning, so TJ brought Arianna over to the house to spend the morning with Barbara while TJ and I took Mother to the doctor.

The drive to Tyler was uneventful, which is always a good thing, and when we got to the medical center, we found only one other person sitting in the waiting room, which was a wonderful sign. Within minutes of our arrival, we were in the examining room and a nurse was checking Mother’s vitals. Not only were all signs well within the normal range, we found that Mother had gained 11 pounds since we moved in with her. She winced a little bit at that, but the doctor was ecstatic. Then when he saw all the vitals' numbers, he told her that there was nothing to change, but he did recommend that she keep on doing what she’s been doing, since it was obviously working for her. When he prepared to leave and asked to see Mother walk, she just picked up her walker and sauntered out the office. At that point, Dr. Cohen (who looks like he should be in high school preparing for prom and graduation) said that he wished that his grandmother, who also has Parkinson’s, could do as well as Mother!

Since we got out of the office so early, we skipped our usual “lunch out” and returned to Mineola where Barbara had lunch waiting on us at Mother’s house. If Mother had second thoughts about eating after learning of her weight gain, she must have set them aside while she waded through a plateful of food, not even leaving scraps for the puppies!

It was obvious when we walked in that Arianna had a wonderful time visiting with Cousin Barbara this morning. She was “hiding” in her fort (a card table draped with a sheet) and toys and books were scattered all around. Of course, the scene called for photos, and we heard the call (and did something about it.

After a busy morning for all and a good lunch, we all decided that it was time to retire to our separate houses and corners to read and nap.

There was no postal service today, so Barbara and I didn’t even bother to get away from the house this afternoon. Instead, we just whiled away the evening working on the blog/journal and catching up on mail.

Tuesday, February 23

On a cold, cloudy, and rainy morning, it was time for another trip to Tyler. This time, Barbara and Mother stayed behind to take care of Arianna while I drove TJ to one of the medical centers to get a shot. She had arranged to get there by 8:00 so they could just walk her through before all the scheduled patients, but sometimes those arrangements aren’t worth much, and today was one of those times.

It was well after 9:00 when TJ finally got to go into the room where her shot would be administered, and 10:00 when we finally got out of the building and on our way back to Mineola. We stopped for a few minutes at Southern RV, located between Tyler and Lindale, to check on a part I needed for Big V. Unfortunately (and unknown to us until this morning) Southern has dropped the Winnebago line, so we’ll have to work with a dealer in Mesquite.

When we got back to the house, we had a lunch of leftovers (still very good) and, after sending TJ and Arianna home and seeing Mother get settled in her room, Barbara and I tackled some of our regular chores…post office, Medicine Chest for Mother’s prescriptions, Walmart, etc.

The afternoon brought a light dusting of snow that lasted just long enough to call it snow before turning back to a light drizzle. I’m beginning to think the local groundhog got it all wrong on February 2.

Wednesday, February 24

There’s not a whole lot to be said about today. This morning Barbara stayed at the house and did laundry and other household chores while Maria came over and cleaned Mother’s room and bathroom. Meanwhile, I drove out to “Our LITTLE Lot” to see if I could replace the pressure-temperature valve on the water heater. It turned out that I couldn’t remove the old valve, but I did get some of the corrosion off of the mechanism and sprayed it with WD-40 to keep it from sticking. After that, I turned on the water and the water heater and let the system pressure up to see if the valve would blow out again. It didn’t blow, so for the time being we’ll just monitor the system and when we take Big V to the motorhome doctor again, we’ll have them change out the valve and replace the electric heating element.

Tonight we went out to Holiday Village to pick up Gene and Michelle and go to East Fork for the Wednesday night hamburger special. We called Gene and Carolyn to see if they wanted to join us, but they were having a new furnace installed in their house and felt that they probably should stick around their place.

The meal was wonderful, as we have come to expect, and we had a great time visiting with the Youngs until it was time to get them back to the park and find our way back to Mineola for the night.

Thursday, February 25

Happy 50th Birthday to Cousin Don Sandley in Birmingham, Alabama!!!

TJ and Mother took Arianna to Lake Palestine today to hand here back to her mother, so we decided to make this a “date day.”

Mother was ready to go well before TJ came to the house, so we took advantage of the opportunity to take her picture with Spike and Bonita. You can tell that the puppies really live a hard life, can’t you?

Before we got away from the house, TJ called to tell us that Ladd had stopped at her place to let her know that the Extreme Makeover-Home Edition crew was coming into her neighborhood today to tear down and replace a home just a couple of blocks from her house. So, before leaving town, we decided to swing through TJ’s neighborhood to see what we could see (but not without stopping first to get a couple of apple fritters at a nearby donut shop).

An Extreme Makeover security crew and several local and county officers were in the neighborhood, but the road wasn’t closed to local traffic yet, so were able to get a look at the approximate location of the new project. We saw a house that was surrounded by yellow crime scene tape and assumed that was the target house, but later learned that it wasn’t the one.

After doing our “drive through,” we pointed the vibe toward the east and Shreveport, Louisiana, to spend the day. It was a beautiful day for a drive and we had a god time while we were there. The only disappointment in the day was the buffet at the Horseshoe…we’ve had really great meals there in the past and were expecting more of the same today, but everything we tried was overcooked, dry, and tough…not what I wanted out of Cajun shrimp and sausages. The only good thing about it was that the meal was free, but it was worth exactly what we paid for it.

The drive home was uneventful and didn’t take nearly as long as we thought it would. We were back at Mother’s house in plenty of time to give the puppies their evening treats and to get settled in for a quiet evening.

Friday, February 26

Happy 41st Birthday to son John Colwell in San Antonio!!!

We seem to be stuck in the monsoon season…this was another morning of waking to the pitter-patter of rain striking all around us.

After breakfast, we decided we’d go over to TJ’s house and see how close we could get to the building site for the Extreme Makeover. As we approached TJ’s, we saw that a security post was set up right beside her house and no unauthorized vehicles were allowed through. There was even a sign that said, “No Walk-ins.”

Armed with our trusty camera, we approached the security guard and told him that we were at my aunt’s house and we wanted to take some pictures of the security post with the house in the background. He said that wouldn’t be a problem, but to be careful and stay out of the way of the traffic.

After we had taken a couple of photos, Barbara asked the guard if we could take his picture also. He seemed surprised to think that we’d want to do that, but agreed and ended up posing with both of us.

When the picture-taking session was over, we asked about the sign that discouraged walk-ins. He said that the only people allowed through were people who lived up the road. We looked appropriately disappointed and then he said, “Well, since this is family property, I think it will be okay for you to go on up and take some pictures if you just stay out of the way.” Then, he radioed the next checkpoint and told them we were coming up there.

With the guard’s permission, we were able to get close enough to take some good photos of the area, but we never did locate the house that was scheduled for demolition today. The area was very interesting, with special tents set up as carpentry shops, industrial-sized dumpsters, and even a temporary RV park. In fact, Barbara had answered a call for motor homes that could be used as temporary housing for some of the workers, but we never heard back from them.

After seeing all that we were allowed to see and photograph, we walked back down the hill to TJ’s house and visited with her for a while before returning to Mother’s house to get things ready for lunch.

With the weather being what it was, we just cooled our heels around the house for the afternoon and evening.

Saturday, February 27

This was just a slow morning for all of us, with absolutely nothing of importance accomplished.

We checked in with Leah to see how she was doing at the Odyssey of the Mind regional tournament. After being on Odyssey teams in elementary school in Lubbock and from the sixth grade through her senior year in Liberal, Leah, who is now a special education para-professional, was asked to be a coach of a team at West Middle School, and now she is learning the truth of the old saw that goes, “What goes around, comes around,” with both the positive and the negative aspects of the job.

We wanted to go back to the homebuilding site, but since we couldn’t get close enough even if we parked at TJ’s house, we went over to Walmart to catch a shuttle bus to the site. Local and area churches volunteered their buses and drivers to carry spectators from Walmart to the building area. To receive this service, people are asked to donate canned goods to the East Texas Food Bank located for now right on the Wal-Mart parking lot.

Once at the area, we were able to walk through the designated viewing area to see what was going on. Unfortunately, a large truck carrying building materials was parked directly in front of the new house (the old house was completely demolished and carted away yesterday, the new foundation was poured last night, and the framing was accomplished this morning…the crew was raising the roof trusses as we were watching).

After taking as many photos as we though necessary, we got back in line to catch the shuttle bus and return to Walmart. Of course, since we were already there, we went inside to pick up a few things to take back to the house.

We were going to go out to the clubhouse at Holiday Village and take advantage of the “Buy one and get one free” hamburger fest this evening, but finally decided it just wouldn’t be worth the time and effort, so we just hung around the house (except for a quick trip up U.S. 69 to take a couple of nighttime photos of the construction site.

Leah called us tonight to let us know that they had placed third in the overall competition for her team today, but because the other two teams tied for first and her team was within six points of first place, all three teams will get to advance to the state competition. Congratulations to Leah and her WMS Odyssey Team!!!

We received additional photos from family members this week as John sent us a picture of his and Carol’s grandson, Rhett, in San Antonio. Rhett was three years old in January.

We also received a couple of photos from Whitney showing grandson Little Jimmy enjoying some of this winter’s bounteous snow in Olathe, Kansas. Jimmy will turn 3 in April.

It's been quite a while since we've been able to see him so we were quite taken with how much he has grown and his face has matured. He's no longer a toddler...rather a growing young boy!

Our arms sure ache to hug both of these precious fellows!

Also, we decided the photo of one of Spike's favorite sleeping positions should join the historical files of our life! He is definitely quite a character!

“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.” – George Washington, 1st U.S. President

From Mineola, Texas,

Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams

A Busy Little Week

Sunday, February 14 – Saturday, February 20, 2009


Sunday, February 14

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Chinese New Year!

What a busy and fun day this turned out to be!

First, we got around earlier than usual to get Mother’s breakfast ready and get us cleaned and dressed to go out to Holiday Village to meet Bob, Nell, Rod, and Ruth for breakfast at the clubhouse. They reported that they had a good night’s sleep in Big V and awoke rested and refreshed.

We finished our breakfast much earlier than we thought we would and our friends decided that they’d like to go to our Sunday school class with us, so we locked up Big V and drove on to Yantis for the morning.

After Sunday school, I went on to the choir room to get ready while Barbara and the others located a pew for us to all sit in. The church was nearly full for David Bagwell’s sermon in view of a calling to be the new pastor of First Baptist of Yantis.

The service itself was extremely moving…the music, both the congregational and choir selections, was top notch and David was in rare form as he delivered a sermon entitled, “Moving from the Ordinary to the Extraordinary.” It was a sermon that we had heard him preach in Liberal a few years ago, but it had new meaning and spirit this morning.

When the service was closed, the visitors and non-members left and the rest of the congregation was called into a special business meeting to vote on the search committee’s recommendation to hire David. Of the 84 votes tallied, 83 approved the motion to call, a resounding mandate of the church to accept David and his family to the church and community. We were, of course, absolutely beside ourselves with excitement about being reunited with our former pastor and his family. The only downside to the morning was that David and his family, according to custom, left the church before the vote and Mike Smith, one of the deacons, was unable to get him on the cell phone to notify him.

Between the service and the business meeting, we left the building for a few minutes to share hugs and say our goodbyes to Rod, Ruth, Bob, and Nell. We had earlier thought of going to lunch together, but we didn’t know how long the business meeting would run, so they decided to get on down the road to their worksite in Louisiana.

When the business meeting concluded and we had visited with a few friends, we headed back to Big V, but decided that rather than staying there for the afternoon and getting some work done around the place, we’d just go on back to Mineola. It was gray and cold outside, so working in the lot wouldn’t have been fun anyway, so I reset the thermostat on the furnace, locked the place down, and we drove back to Mother’s house, arriving just in time to see T.J. as she was getting ready to leave after bringing Mother home from church and the church dinner.

Around 5:00 we drove back to Yantis…scouted out a different road along the way and crossed Lake Fork on a bridge that we didn’t even know was there. It’s a big lake with several crossings…guess we’ll have to write up a history of the lake one of these days.

When we got to the church, we joined quite a few of the members at the Valentine’s Day meal and reception for David and his family. As would be expected, it was a great time of fellowship and meeting some of the folks we didn’t know yet… not to mention it was a great time to enjoy the good food that was brought in for the occasion.

The highlight of the evening was the coronation of the 2010 Valentine King and Queen. Surprise, surprise, surprise, David and Lorri Bagwell were named as the royalty for this year…now what would possibly be the odds of that happening on the very same day that they were called to be the new pastoral family?!

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring a camera along, but Amber, the youngest of the three Bagwell daughters, used her cell phone camera to get a shot of David and Lorri in their royal trappings, and immediately emailed the picture to us.

Too soon we had to say goodbye to everyone and head back south on a very dark highway to return to Mineola and Mother’s house for the night.

Monday, February 15

There was nothing particularly interesting or exciting about this day…just business as usual around the house during the morning.

This was the day for the monthly treatment for the puppies…Barbara gave them their heartworm medicine and I gave them their flea and tick application. Both puppies are very easy to deal with and this process, which I had never done for them, was pretty simple.

T.J. went to Tyler this morning to pick up Arianna, one of her granddaughters, to keep for a few days. When she got back to her house, she called me to say that she couldn’t unhook Arianna from her child-restraint seat in the car and that she was driving over so I could help her with it. It didn’t take long to get it figured out when she got to Mother’s house and soon they were on the way back to T.J.’s place.

I spent the afternoon and evening getting our tax documents printed off and put in order…it took about eight hours to get everything done, but by the time I was ready for bed, I had all but a few documents, receipts, etc. in order and ready to submit to a tax preparer (whenever we find one down here).

Tuesday, February 16

It was another quiet morning around Mother’s house. It was too cold to work outside, so we just stayed inside and took care of the daily chores that go with living anywhere.

Barbara had her Bridge Club meeting at the church tonight, and I rode with her as far as Holiday village and worked around Big V for a couple of hours while she and the ladies were meeting. The recent snow storm caused a number of branches in our trees to break and fall, so I took advantage of what sun was left to pick up branches and haul them to either the wood pile or the burn pile.

When it got too dark to see what I was doing inside, I went into Big V and started scrubbing the bathroom area and vacuuming the carpets…like with any house, there are always things that need to be done.

When Barbara returned from her meeting we gathered up a few more things that we figured we would need at Mother’s house, turned down the thermostat, shut the place down, and returned to Mineola.

Wednesday, February 17

Happy 62nd Birthday to brother Ernie Little in Harrison, Arkansas!!!

While this was the morning for the women’s Bible study group at Yantis, Barbara decided that she just wasn’t up to attending this morning as we had planned. It was still cold and yucky outside, so I couldn’t have gotten much done at the lot anyway. Barbara called Marla at the elementary school to see if she needed to come out and help a couple of kids with their reading, but Marla said they were making up their Jump Rope for Heart Day that was missed due to last week’s snow storm and that there was no point in Barbara coming out today.

Unable to do any outside work, we decided we’d sweep and mop the floors inside. We’re hoping to have guests over tomorrow and thought we shouldn’t wait until the last minute to do the housecleaning.

When we had Mother’s birthday party last week, one of the guests was one of her oldest and dearest friends from her childhood years in Mineola. Elmer Bunn is just a few months older than Mother and they hadn’t seen each other for many years until Mother moved back to Mineola a year and a half ago.

Elmer and his wife, Jennie, brought a small envelope of old, faded photographs that were taken of the two of them in 1934 when they were just eleven years old. One of the photos was of Elmer and Mother with Elmer’s mother and another was of the two of them with Mother’s mother, my grandmother Mom Faulk. I asked Elmer if he would mind leaving the pictures with me so I could scan them into my computer and see if I could get them cleaned up a bit. He was happy to do so and this morning I spent several hours scanning, manipulating, and printing new versions of those old photos. Barbara even came up with a collage using one of the 1934 photos and a picture from last week’s party.

After we ate lunch, we decided we’d go out to the lot to do some yard work. The sky had cleared and it was warming up quite a bit…a perfect afternoon to be outside doing something useful.

First though, we gathered the pictures that Elmer had loaned me and the copies we made and took them over to Elmer’s house, just a couple of blocks down Sycamore Street from the house that my great-grand parents lived in for many years.

Elmer was delighted that we came to visit him and was very happy to receive the enlarged and much cleaner copies of the original photographs. He had us sit down with him in the living room and he shared stories about Mother and him back in their younger days. His parents were good friends of my grandparents, and we’re sure that more visits with Elmer and his wife will be a treasure trove of memories of “the good old days.”

After leaving Elmer, we drove to Holiday Village and I immediately set to work raking leaves from the yard around our concrete slab and then carrying them to the burn pile. Once the burn pile was underway, I filled the spreader with weed and feed fertilizer and set out to cover as much of the lot as I could. In a couple of hours the place was looking pretty tidy, although there is still much to do before we can appear as the centerfold of East Texas Yard and Garden magazine.

As we were closing up Big V, I noticed hot water pouring down from the outside panel that covers the water heater…not a good sign. I crawled under Big V, unfastened the panel door, and found that the pop-off valve was leaking all over the place. It was evident that the minerals in the water had corroded the valve to the point that it wouldn’t seal the way it should, so I shut off the water supply until I can find another valve and get it installed.

On the way out of Holiday Village we stopped to visit with Gene and Michelle Young for a few minutes. They are ardent fisherman and had spent the entire day out on the lake, but had nothing to show for it but sunburns. They both agreed that the water was just too cold for the fish to be nibbling. They invited us to join them for burger night at East Fork, but we had to beg off and return to Mineola in time to feed the puppies and get Mother some dinner.

Thursday, February 18

It was time to take critical action this morning. After looking at ourselves in the mirror, we knew that a trip to Lindale for haircuts was the highest thing on our to-do list for the morning. So, we headed south to get that chore out of the way. While Barbara was getting her hair worked on, I walked over to Lowe’s to get a new pressure-temperature valve for Big V’s water heater. Then, it was back to the Style Shop to have my head shorn.

We then returned to Mineola and made stops at Medicine Chest to pick up some prescriptions for Mother and at Walmart before heading back to the house to fix lunch and get ready for guests this evening.

The late afternoon was so nice that I decided to fire up the motorcycle and go for a short ride. Unfortunately, both tires were low, so I got out the trusty (I thought) foot pump and started pumping away. I realized after a bit that the needle in the gauge wasn’t moving very much and then when I got close enough, I heard the hissing sound that let me know air was coming out instead of going in. The long story short is that the hose had a rotten place in it and by the time I figured it out, there was less air in the tire than when I started…not a good sign.

I went to Walmart to get another pump, but the service at the check-out counters was slowed to a complete stop, so after several minutes I just put the pump back on the shelves and returned to the house. When I got there, I thought of the little electric pump that I had bought once upon a time and decided to give it a try. It took a while, but finally both tires were up to pressure and ready to go.

The initial ride of the season was brief, just a few miles through town and around part of the loop, but it was satisfying. If it’s nice enough to ride, can spring be far behind?!

Gene and Michelle came to town this evening and we spent time visiting and then pulled out our Rummi-Kube game. I’m sure we haven’t played the game since we lived in Liberal, but it soon came back to us and Gene and Michelle were quick learners (although we did resort to reading the rules when it came to scoring). Gene and Michelle gave us a thorough shellacking! Now what kind of guests were they?

The evening was a lot of fun and another reminder of how fortunate we have been to make new friends through our travels.

Friday, February 19

We did a little housecleaning this morning and then I took the motorcycle for a ride to the post office. It was a beautiful morning for a ride and I thoroughly enjoyed taking the long way back home.

Our friends Gene and Carolyn, who we met at the Mineola Civic Center RV Park a year and a half ago, are back in town after a lengthy road trip in Arizona. Therefore, we invited them to visit this afternoon so we could get caught up on their travels.

When they were visiting in Arizona, Carolyn got a bunch of fresh lemons and brought them back to make lemon pies. She brought one of them over today and we had fresh homemade lemon pie and coffee as we picked up from our last conversation a couple of months ago and got each other up to date.

The evening was nothing exciting as we just hung around the house talking, printing pictures, and messing with the computers.

Saturday, February 20

After fixing a light breakfast for Mother, Barbara and I went into full “chef mode” to prepare a big family lunch. Heather, Andy, Alexander, and Abby were coming to visit today, as were T.J. and Arianna.

Our menu for the day included Heather’s recipe for macaroni and cheese (we were so impressed with it at their house that we wanted to try it ourselves), baked chicken in mushroom soup with herbs and spices that struck my fancy, baked potatoes, cole slaw, homemade bread, and Apple Dumpling Dew topped with ice cream for dessert.

It took a lot of effort and teamwork, but by the time everyone started arriving at noon, it all came together beautifully. We even broke out a set of Mother’s good china, glasses, and cups for the occasion.

Multiple conversations flew all around the table as we talked and ate and got caught up on each other’s lives…what a wonderful way to spend a Saturday.

After eating and getting the first load of dishes going, we retired to the living room to have a birthday celebration. Alexander’s birthday was December 27 (we’re just a little late on that one) and Abby’s birthday will be March 7. Of course, there was also a little something for T.J.’s granddaughter Arianna, so she wouldn’t feel left out.

The kids had a great time opening their packages and trying out (and on) their new gifts, but it was also a warm and beautiful afternoon and soon they were outside playing catch and riding scooters. Andy and I got involved with playing football with Alexander while Heather and Barbara helped out with Abby and Arianna.

Mother stayed involved in most of the conversation and kid-watching while we were inside…she even passed on her afternoon nap to sit in the living room until everyone left at 5:00…what a sacrifice!

Alexander and Abby have developed an interest in the Voyager, so when Abby came in and asked if they could sit on the big red motorcycle, we started making the arrangements, including letting them try on the helmets and riding boots…looks like Alexander is going to be a great Easy Rider and Abby will be a Motorcycle Mama!

After a very busy day, we straightened up the house, had a light supper (we were still weighed down by the big lunch) and called it quits fairly early.

While we were standing around late this evening, we saw a couple of deer come out of the woods to the east of the development. We couldn’t pinpoint the deer, but did get this photo of the view from our driveway.

“Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.” – Unknown

From Heritage Square in Mineola,

Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams

A Little Exciting Week

Sunday, February 7 – Saturday, February 13, 2010


Sunday, February 7

We decided that we’d have a Super Bowl party of our own tonight, so before we left for church this morning, Barbara seasoned a large pork shoulder and set it in the crock pot to cook all day.

With the meat underway, we got Mother ready to be picked up by T.J. and then we headed on out to Yantis for Sunday school and church. Our Sunday school class is an interesting mix of couples who were raised in denominations other that Baptist, much like our class in Liberal…that’s bound to be one reason why we like the class so much.

The church service was wonderful as usual, but the structure of the service was certainly different this morning. They might as well have not printed the bulletin, as everything in it was changed, even the sermon that Brother Kent Pate had prepared.

The standard elements of the service were all shortened so that the Pastor Search Committee could address the church body and, for the first time since the previous pastor left in September, announce their recommendation for a new pastor.

We were delighted to hear that our former pastor from Liberal, David Bagwell, was the unanimous choice of the committee to recommend as the man to fill the pulpit and serve as pastor for First Baptist Church of Yantis.

Each member of the committee gave his or her reasons for their choice of David and our excitement must have been very evident as several members of the congregation who were sitting around us commented that we were vigorously nodding our heads in agreement with everything that was said.

I think that when most people move away from a community, they never see their former pastor again except for short visits back to that church. We wonder what the odds are that three and a half years after our retirement and move from Liberal, our pastor or more than 12 years there would move to East Texas and become the pastor of a church that we had already decided to join.

We were going to go eat lunch at the clubhouse and then spend a few hours at Big V, but it was so cold, grey and windy when we got out of church that we decided we’d just swing by Big V, adjust the thermostat, close her back up and go back to Mother’s house for the rest of the day.

Back in Mineola we made a snack lunch and then had our Sunday nap before getting up and starting the preparations for tonight. Gene and Michelle called while we were eating lunch to say that they were in Oklahoma City on their return to the lake. Barbara told them we had some food going at the house and invited them to come over for the evening for the Super Bowl if they weren’t too tired from their journey back from Kansas. Gene said he’d have Michelle call us and she did right after we awoke from our nap. We were delighted to hear that they were “game” for the evening.

Shortly after 5:30 they arrived and we spent the next several hours eating pulled pork (Barbara’s contribution), sausage balls that I made, and various chips and dips, fresh Hawaiian pineapple (Michelle laughingly told us they traded Finley back to her parents for 3 pineapples) and some of Michelle and Gene’s homemade venison jerky.

Luckily, none of us really cared that much about the game of its outcome, and we had a great time visiting, talking about kids and grandkids, and sharing our teaching experiences, even to the point of coming up with more names of teachers, administrators, and even some students that we knew from our Liberal and their Dodge City days.

Monday, February 8

About all we can say about today is that it was very cold, very windy, and very, very rainy all day long!

We did make it out early this morning to pick up a rental car and get the Vibe to the body shop. Doug, the owner of the body shop, told us it will probably take five days to do all the repairs, so we likely won’t see it again until Friday afternoon.

Our rental car is a green (gaudy green) Saturn Ion. The girl who rented it to us said it was all they had left and that people seemed to love it or hate it. My comment was that we probably wouldn’t be asking for it, but since it was all they had, we’d take it.

We spent most of the day inside taking care of minor chores; nothing serious, but things that we’d been putting off, probably just for a day like today.

We did venture out around dark for a shopping trip to Walmart and spent about an hour gathering up the many diverse items on our shopping lists (one for us and one for Mother).

This evening I watched a little of the Kansas/Texas basketball game on TV, but just couldn’t get into it, so I gave up, turned the set off, and we called it a fairly early night.

Tuesday, February 9

One of the things we bought at Walmart last night was a plug-in timer for a coffee pot. Mother has two nice pots, but the automatic timers are broken on both of them. She told us when we first moved in that rule one was to have the coffee ready by 6:00 each morning (although we found out after a couple of days that her waking time was considerately more flexible than it used to be).

Lately, we’ve been sleeping later than usual, so the coffee hasn’t been ready when Mother was ready for it. This morning, with the new timer plugged in, the coffee started brewing right on schedule at 6:00. However, I slept until 7:00, and Mother slept until 8:00…go figure. Barbara, who doesn’t drink coffee, said she thought we were just weird!

With Mother’s 87th birthday celebration looming on the horizon, we decided we’d better tackle a thorough house cleaning. Maria, T.J.’s housekeeper, was scheduled to come and work on Mother’s room and bathroom around 11:00, so we got busy and started cleaning the rest of the house. By the time Maria got here, our bathroom and the kitchen were scrubbed from top to bottom and all the floors were mopped. Barbara even found time to whip up a key lime pie for dessert.

While Maria was working in Mother’s part of the house (Edith's Christmas gift from Barbara and I as well as Leah and Ryan), Barbara and I drove downtown to take care of business for both Mother and us. Shortly after we returned, T.J. came by with a load of Dairy Queen hamburgers, fries, and onion rings for lunch. The timing was perfect and we all enjoyed a nice time of eating and visiting.

The rest of the day was dedicated to not much of anything as we just vegged out until time to go to bed.

Wednesday, February 10

After getting Mother fed and prepared for the day we left the house for a couple of hours. Barbara dropped me off at the lot so I could do some more brush clearing while she went to the women’s Bible Study. She was going to go read to a couple of first-graders at the school, but things seemed to be a little hectic there and she wasn’t feeling all that great anyway, so she came back by the lot, picked me up, and we prepared to return to Mineola.

When we got ready to leave, the rental car wouldn’t start…the battery was dead as a brick. Luckily, I had the battery charger and plenty of extension cord handy, so I got enough charge on the battery to start the car and we returned it to the rental place to exchange it for another, less gaudy Saturn.

The afternoon was just the normal stuff…a Walmart trip, a nap, and just hanging around Mother’s house.

Tonight we had a new culinary experience. When we first met Bob and Mary Royar last summer, they told us about going to East Fork for wonderful hamburgers. East Fork is an old dance hall/restaurant about halfway between our place and Yantis. We’ve seen it probably a hundred times as we went past it, but have never stopped to check it out.

When we were visiting with Gene and Michelle the other night, they said that Wednesday night was “Burger Night” at East Fork and invited us to go out and eat with them. So, after getting Mother and the puppies fed and ready for the night, we drove to Holiday Village, picked up Gene and Michelle at their place, and drove to the restaurant.

We’re not sure what we expected to find, but we did find it to be a very nice restaurant, nicely decorated and quiet, even with a number of the tables already full. We looked over the menu and decided we’d just go with the special, a large hamburger with all the trimmings and a large plate of fries, curly fries, or onion rings, for just $3.95. Wow, it all tasted wonderful and we were able to eat only half a burger apiece because they were so large.

As we were leaving the restaurant, we got a phone call from Bob Brewer telling us that they were planning to get away from the worksite in Marksville, Louisiana (where we had planned to be until we moved in to take care of Mother). They and Rod and Ruth Kunkel will make the 4-hour drive to Mineola and spend Saturday night and Sunday morning with us. We were, of course, thrilled to hear from them and immediately started plans for the weekend.

Gene and Michelle invited us in to their place for a short visit, but the hour was getting late and we needed to get back to the house to take care of the evening routine for Mother and the puppies before getting ourselves ready for bed.

Thursday, February 11

Happy 87th Birthday to Edith Marie Faulk Little Borsberry!!!

Mother was born in Big Sandy, Texas, just 21 miles west of Mineola. Her father, my grandfather, was an attorney and served a couple of times as the Wood County Attorney and as a member of the Texas Attorney General’s staff. She lived in Quitman, Mineola, and Austin at various times before attending college in Fort Worth and then heading west to El Paso, vowing to not return to Texas to live (we see how that worked out, don’t we?).

The big day arrived, not with bells and whistles, but with cold, grey skies and snow showers. Undaunted, we spent the morning straightening the house and doing last minute dusting and sweeping. We had no idea how many folks might show up for the come-and-go party for Mother this afternoon (the truth is, we didn’t even know how many people we had invited), but we wanted to be prepared, just in case the weather held off long enough for friends and neighbors to get out for a while.

While Barbara fixed lunch, I went to Walmart to pick up the cake that T.J. contributed to the cause and then returned to eat and make the final preparations. We didn’t get our naps this afternoon, but we did get the dining room turned into a beautiful serving area and the living room turned into a reception hall. Mother was delighted during this time to receive a phone call from Whitney and Little Jimmy in Olathe, KS. She was even more surprised when Little Jimmy sang, "Happy Birthday, Granny" to her! This special gift gave her bragging rights all afternoon!

We wondered all morning what to do about a centerpiece for the serving table, but right at noon a florist van pulled into the driveway and the girl delivered a beautiful flower arrangement, a birthday gift from brother Jerry and his wife, Jane in Roswell.

With everything in place and the camera ready, we began taking the “before” pictures of the setup, including pictures with Mother, T.J. Barbara, and me.

As three o’clock approached and the snow continued to fall, we began to wonder if the party was going to be just the four of us, but in just a few minutes we spied Addie, our next door neighbor, braving the elements.

It wasn’t long before cars were filling what little available space there was at the end of Heritage Drive, and the living room, dining room, and kitchen were full of visitors who came to help Mother celebrate her birthday. In all, there were 21 guests during the party, a very good size group considering the weather, and Mother ended up with more than sixty cards and email messages from friends and family members. To say that she was happy with the celebration would be putting it very mildly!

As Mother went through the cards and emails, we explained that although she didn’t know some of the folks who sent them, they knew her through our journal entries and wanted to share in the celebration. We went through the cards and notes one by one and told her who they were from and how we came to know them. (Thanks to each of you who either sent a card or emailed her! You made her day even more special.)

By 5:00, heavy, wet snow was falling and the guests began leaving. Soon, we had the house to ourselves (and all straightened up).

Cousin Ladd came over for about an hour or so this evening to give his birthday wishes to Mother. Angela was on call at the hospital in Tyler today, so she had to work all day and then head back to Mineola on the snowy highway. Ladd stuck around and had a light supper with us before going back to the house to wait for Angela to get home.

While Ladd was here we experienced a series of brownouts as ice started weighing down the power lines. After Ladd left, we started having full scale blackouts and, after resetting the clocks three times, decided to just go to bed and forget about it.

Friday, February 12

Today we celebrate the birthday of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

When we were kids and the times were simpler (and before Congress decided to mess with the historical calendar), February was best known for celebrating the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington (a couple of pretty darn good presidents), and for sharing valentines and candy on Valentine’s Day. Now we have, in the words of Stephen King’s Gunslinger, “forgotten the faces of our fathers,” and have lumped two celebration days into a Federal employee day off.

Okay, enough editorializing…on with the story.

We woke up this morning to 6-7 inches of heavy wet snow, something very unusual for this part of the state. As I was getting Spike ready for a visit to his “doggy doctor”, I got a call from Doug, our “car doctor,” letting us know that the Vibe was repaired and ready to go.

With our agenda quickly taking shape, I took Spike to see Dr. Bradford and then returned to the house to get Barbara so we could go get the Vibe and then turn in our rental car…all the while negotiating the very wet and slushy streets and highways.

Meanwhile, we found out that Jimmy Clint was put back in the hospital yesterday after having another dizzy spell. The doctors are still trying to get his meds straightened out so the vascular system will work the way it is supposed to.

When we finally got the Vibe, we decided we’d better make a run to Holiday Village to see how Big V handled the snow.

Our lot was a veritable winter wonderland, but after seeing Big V, I was wishing that I had gone with my gut feeling a couple of days ago and drawn in the slide-outs. We had at least seven inches of snow and it was really weighing down the awnings over the slideouts; but, nothing was leaking and everything seemed to be okay.

After taking a few pictures of the lot and creek, we went to the water and sewer office to let Josh know that the recent rains had uncovered the sewer line where it crossed under the creek. He said that they would try to bring in some fill dirt when things started to dry out. Then, he said he thought I was coming to complain about the water. I told him I didn’t know that there was a problem and he said that they had lost electricity the night before and weren’t able to pump water. The only water pressure in the park was the gravity flow from the storage tank and that they had to order in a generator so they could begin pumping again…kind of made us glad we had a place in town during a time like this.

As we left our lot and drove down Geronimo, we saw a sight that is every homeowner’s nightmare. Late last night an unoccupied travel trailer caught fire…no one knows why at this point…and was completely gutted by the flames and heat. All that is left is the hollowed out shell. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the family is already facing a medical crisis as the wife has been diagnosed with cancer.

After returning to Big V to make sure she was safe from the elements, we returned to Mineola and did mostly nothing for the rest of the day…just too cold, wet, and windy to get out except for a quick trip to the bank and to Walmart for a few things.

Saturday, February 13

Today was no day of rest for us as we got up early to start cooking meals for today and tomorrow. Mother’s church has a lunch tomorrow and Mother asked Barbara to prepare the Johnny Mosetti recipe that we had a couple of weeks ago.

When the Johnny Mosetti was in the oven, we began preparations for our noon meal today. Our friends Rod and Ruth from Virginia, and Bob and Nell from Georgia were on their way to spend the weekend with us and get away from the church-building site in Marksville, Louisiana, for a couple of days.

I put together all the ingredients for Brown-in-Bag chicken and Barbara went to work on a new dessert, Apple Dumpling Dew, a recipe she got from her women’s study group at the church. With two sticks of butter, a cup and a half of sugar, a can of apple pie filling, and a bottle of Mountain Dew included in the ingredients, it was a cardiologist’s nightmare, but it sure was delicious.

By the time our guests arrived, we had the table beautifully set with some of Mother’s fine china and heavily laden with tasty food. Of course, we missed a great photo-op as neither of us thought about getting the camera out until the dining room and kitchen were cleaned afterward the meal…what were we thinking?!

T.J. also came over and joined us for lunch and we had conversations running all over the place as we introduced our friends to our family and talked of our adventures together.

Once the meal was over and the dishes were in the washer, we all adjourned to the living room for about an hour and threads of conversation continued winding around the room.

Around 2:00 we got some things together and led our friends out to Holiday Village, where they would spend the night in Big V. Our first stop was at the sales office to pick up additional tickets for tonight’s POA dinner at the clubhouse. In addition to Bob, Nell, Rod, and Ruth, David Bagwell, our preacher from Liberal, and his family would also join us for the evening meal.

A little after 3:00 we took our friends up to the church in Yantis for the meet-and-greet reception for David and his family. David will preach tomorrow morning and then the church will go into a business meeting to vote on whether to call him to be the new pastor at First Baptist Church Yantis. The reception was lots of fun and we got to meet and visit with some of the church members we had previously known only by face.

When the reception was over, we returned to Big V to visit (it was too cold and wet to walk around the property) until time to go to the clubhouse and wait for the meal to be served. Our first order of business was to rearrange the tables so we could seat 13 in one area. Gene and Michelle would also be joining our group, so we would need lots of space!

When Gene, Michelle, and David and his family arrived, we joined the serving line, got our food, and retired to the main room to eat and visit. The meal, as usual, was bountiful and delicious, and the time of sharing together was wonderful.

When everyone was finished with their meal, Karaoke session started. I’ve never been to one of those, and now I know why. We thought that David and Lorri’s daughters might participate, but they couldn’t agree on what to sing, so we finally called it quits. The Bagwells needed to return to their motel in Sulphur Springs and our volunteer friends (not that they volunteered to be our friends…we met while on volunteer missions) needed to get squared away for the night in Big V.

After a short time of visiting and showing our guests the ways and means of Big V, we said our good-byes and returned to Mineola for the night, realizing that we have been truly blest in having such wonderful friends.

“Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing." – Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President

From Wood County, Texas,

Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams

A Little More of Nothing...

Sunday, January 31 – Saturday, February 6, 2010


Sunday, January 31

T.J. volunteered to have a “sisters’ day” with Mother today, so while they went to church and had lunch together, we got on our “Sunday go-to-meeting” clothes and headed to Yantis for Sunday school and church. I went on to our Sunday school class while Barbara had another in-service session to learn how to run the sound system during the church service. She did very well with her new job and had only minimal assistance from Mike, the guy who has been doing all the sound and recording, but can now join us in the choir.

After church we drove back to Holiday Village and joined our Kansas friends, Gene and Michelle (and their granddaughter Finley) for lunch at the clubhouse. We’re very partial to the chicken fried steak dinner that they serve and once again ate our fill while enjoying a visit with our new friends.

No Sunday seems complete without a short nap, so we went back to big V and slept for an hour or so before getting up to do some straightening and cleaning. I had quite a bit of mail and paperwork to organize and file, and this afternoon turned out to be just the time to get that done.

Around 4:45 we shut Big V down again and drove back to Yantis so I could take part in choir practice while Barbara manned the sound booth again. Since Mike wasn’t there, it was up to Barbara to cue up the DVD’s and play them for us at the appropriate time. When choir practice was over and the evening service started, she just continued with the sound system and ran it unassisted for the night.

Our very pleasant but unremarkable day ended with the drive back to Mineola where we found that T.J. and Mother did quite well without us, even taking care of Spike and Bonita’s meals and treats.

It was a very clear evening and not too cold, so we went outside for a few minutes to catch a glimpse of the night sky. The moon was rising to the east of us and Barbara took the opportunity to snap a few photos of the “Mineola moonshine” using the nighttime settings on the camera.

Monday, February 1

It was another cold and cloudy day around here…certainly not a time for working outside. We spent the morning taking care of minor chores around Mother’s house…just straightening and dusting and occasionally stopping to read and respond to email.

Barbara whipped up a new recipe for lunch today…chicken breasts sautéed and then steamed with peppers and onions and topped with mixed vegetables, and a baked potato topped with broccoli and cheese soup and sour cream. For dessert we had a piece of the butter pecan Bundt cake that Barbara baked early this morning…yum yum!!!
We had invited Gene and Michelle to come visit us sometime this week and remembered this morning that between our schedule and theirs, today would really be the best day to do that. They had some things to take care of in town anyway, so they stopped by around 4:00. After we introduced them to Mother and got Finley settled down, we had some cake and coffee and then started in on a game of Chickenfoot. Gene and Michelle had never played Chickenfoot, but quickly picked up on the rules and strategies and we were soon having a rousing good time.

With a few timeouts to feed Finley, Mother, and Spike and Bonita (along with some finger foods for ourselves…Barbara found a wonderful new recipe for spinach dip), we managed to stretch the game until nearly 7:00. It was great fun for all of us and we later told Mother know how much we appreciated her letting us entertain our friends in her house. Barbara: I couldn’t help but notice that Jim failed to mention that though I was dead last for much of the game, by the end of the game, he and Michelle had pushed me aside to take the last two places. Gene was the winner for the game…and I’ll be kind enough not to reveal whether Michelle or Jim came in on the bottom, just know that for once it wasn’t me!

Tuesday, February 2

Happy Groundhog Day!

We don’t know what the rest of the country was like today, but there was no way the groundhog could have seen his shadow if he came out around here this morning, so we figure winter is about over and spring is rolling toward us.

It looked and felt like a wintry day through the morning hours. We stayed inside the house for the most part, venturing out only when necessary. Barbara came up with a recipe for Polish sausage and sauerkraut that just seemed to fit the day. T.J. came over at noon and joined Mother and us for lunch. In addition to the main dish, Barbara fixed toasted Jewish rye bread and served some cinnamon applesauce that Jean taught us to make…no one went away hungry!

Barbara had her Bridge Club meeting at Yantis First Baptist Church this evening. I rode as far as Holiday Village with her and did a deep-cleaning of Big V for a couple of hours. We are amazed at how much dust collects in such a humid climate. We expect that sort of thing when we’re parked in Artesia for a long period of time, but never thought we’d have the same problem here. Anyway, I got the place dusted, polished, swept out, and almost looking like new.

When Barbara’s meeting was over she came back to get me and we made the very dark drive back to Mineola and Mother’s house for the night.

Wednesday, February 3

We had both planned to go back out this morning…Barbara to her weekly Bible study class and me to clear some more brush from the lot, but Barbara was feeling under the weather, so she stayed home with Mother.

Since Barbara couldn’t go to the elementary school in Yantis to do her volunteer work, I went up there to get some more project materials from Marla, our friend who is a first-grade teacher there.

From the school I drove back to Holiday Village and began cutting more vines away from a stand of trees. It just blows my mind how those little vines can get so out of control and stunt the trees. After about three hours of cutting and mowing, I could see I was getting close to having the “big stuff” under control. Cutting back the vines and fighting the Poison Ivy will be an ongoing job, but at least our lot and the adjoining gully are much better looking than they were a year ago.

I finished what I had set out to do for the day just as it started to sprinkle, so I put the tools and lawnmower away, closed down Big V, and drove back to Mineola to spend a very quiet afternoon and evening at the house.

Thursday, February 4

Happy Birthday today to son-in-law Andy Dondis in Richardson, Texas!!!

We arranged with T.J. for us to have a “date day” today; so, after feeding Mother (and ourselves) a breakfast of pancakes and eggs, and getting Mother settled in for the morning, Barbara and I hopped in the Vibe and headed north for a few hours, leaving T.J. to check up on Mother and join her for lunch.

Since it had been raining steadily since last night, we stopped first at Holiday Village to check on our lot and Big V. The first thing we noticed was that water was rushing down the gully and overflowing the creek banks. Fortunately, the lot itself wasn’t flooding the way it once did. Our efforts at flood control seem to have worked.

The rain gauge showed 5/10 of an inch, which was less than I expected after seeing all the water rushing through the gully, but then I remembered that several lots drain through that area. The pictures show various parts of our lot and how the water was running today.

The pictures also show much more of the gully and creek bed than anyone could see before we started clearing out the weeds and brush. The pipe in the pictures is the main water line for our street. It was completely covered by weeds, tree limbs, and even a fallen tree on one side. Now it is possible to walk along the creek bed from Geronimo Street all the way to the beaver dam that was built on the lot behind us, about 170 feet as the Jays, Cardinals, Sparrows, Grackles, and other birds fly.

As we pulled away from the lot, we took a picture of the sign that marks the property as ours. It was cut from a large cedar tree that had fallen in the gully a long time ago. Shortly after we purchased the lot and began clearing it, one of the men in the park came by and asked what we were going to do with the tree. We told him we had no idea, but if he wanted it, he could have it.

He cut the tree into sections and hauled it away to make furniture out of it. One day he showed up with this piece that he had planed and finished and gave it to us. Another friend in the park cut out and fastened the letters that now proclaim this as Our Little Lot.

With the rain pouring down all around us, we made our way to Sulphur Springs, where we had planned to have lunch at Appleby’s to use the gift card that Mike and Kelly gave us for Christmas. We were positive that we had seen Appleby’s on previous visits, but discovered that what we had really seen was Chile’s…close, but not close enough to use the gift card.

After driving around and seeing parts of the town that we hadn’t seen before, we returned to Big V, ate a sandwich, and fell asleep listening to the rain drumming on our roof.

We woke up around 4:30, closed up Big V, and drove back to Mineola in time to feed Mother and the puppies and fix a little something for ourselves before calling it an early night.

Friday, February 5

We spent most of this morning just hanging around the house and doing nothing of consequence. I cut out circles and strips of colored paper for one of the projects at Yantis Elementary School. (Barbara still isn’t up to par health wise) I can definitely see the value of classroom aides or volunteers for primary teachers…so many things like this that have to be done even before they start working with the kids. I’ve always said that kindergarten and first grade teachers don’t get paid nearly enough!

I also spent a lot of time on the phone trying to track down an insurance agent for information about getting the Vibe fixed. We received a call from Doug at the body shop this morning letting us know that the estimate had been approved. He gave me a couple of names to call to find out whether we were approved for a rental car. Alas, no one in the insurance business seemed to be at work today. We did, however, make tentative arrangements for a rental car for the week and the ladies at the car agency said they would continue making calls to the various agents to try to get everything squared away.

We took Mother over to T.J.’s for lunch today. T.J.’s friend Marge joined us as we tried out a new recipe of pork, seasoned mixed fresh vegetables, macaroni and cheese, and fresh-baked bread, followed by a homemade chocolate pie. We all had a good time just eating and visiting, and before we left I took care of a minor plumbing problem that T.J. was having in her bathroom. It was even a learning experience for me…most everyone probably already knows this, but in case you don’t, and you are faced with replacing a toilet flush handle, you need to know that the mechanism has reverse threads. That bit of information will keep you from over-tightening the nut on the inside of the tank and having to resort to breaking the handle mechanism apart with a hammer and chisel. There is no charge for this advice.

While Mother was taking her afternoon nap, we drove out to Holiday Village to check on the lot and visit with Josh, the young man who sold us our property. We got a letter from the park today letting us know that the Property Owner Appreciation Day for this quarter is next Thursday, February 11. Since we are going to be busy with Mother’s birthday celebration that day, we won’t be able to get out and claim our gift. Josh told us to not worry about it that the gifts were in the sales office and to just go by on the way out this afternoon and pick ours.

What we may or may not have mentioned in earlier writings and what we found out after we bought the property last year, is that at least once each quarter the company that owns the three Holiday Villages gives special gifts to property owners who want them or attend special meetings. In the past, we have received a fire pit, a halogen outdoor heater, and a screened-in canopy. The gifts this quarter are a hammock-stand combination AND a Skytex Netbook with a combined retail value of $457. Needless to say, we thought the trip out this afternoon was well worth our time.

When we returned to Mother’s house (after a brief Walmart stop), we just kicked back and enjoyed a lazy evening. We had a light meal for supper, finished the projects to take to Marla on Sunday, cleaned up our mess, and then watched a little TV before heading to our room to read.

Saturday, February 6

It was just another winter day around here…not that it was winter like many are having, but after all these days of highs hanging around 41-43 degrees, the chill is starting to settle in our bones.

After breakfast and straightening up our room and the kitchen, we started to work on materials for Mother’s 87th birthday party for next Thursday. Barbara designed a cover for Hershey’s miniature chocolates and after getting them printed, we spent a couple of hours with me cutting them out while Barbara glued them over the pieces of chocolate.

We also decided that the party on Thursday probably shouldn’t be a total surprise to Mother, so we presented her with a copy of the invitation this morning. She didn’t say anything, but gave us a “Mother’s look;” you know, the one that says, “You shouldn’t have,” but also shows little crinkles around the mouth and eyes that also say, “I pleased that you did.”

Tonight was Bingo Night at the Holiday Village clubhouse, so we drove out to see some of the friends and neighbors and get involved in a little friendly cut-throat bingo. We’ve had some nights when neither of us came close to winning a game and others where one or the other of us won a game, but tonight was really special…out of the ten games played, each of us won one, and took home a $10.00 Walmart card apiece…not a bad night at all.

After checking on Big V (she sure looks lonely these days), we made the dark drive back to Mineola and Mother’s house where we didn’t take long to get ready for bed and settle in for an hour or so of reading before dropping off into a deep sleep.

“No one is in charge of your happiness but you.” – Unknown

From Mineola in the heart of East Texas Lake Country

Jim/Dad/Gramps & Barbara/Mom/Grams