The Aftermath

We have had a great Christmas! It has been so good to have a break I haven’t even thought much about getting this edition of the newsletter out.

THE JOY OF CHRISTMAS, The kids actually woke up late on Christmas morning. I think the social schedule had worn them out. We were even wondering if we would have to wake Ben up to open presents. The largest gift they got was a race track. Boy, those little cars will move! You can’t go wide open or they’ll jump the track. One of the biggest hits was the whoopee cushions. If you come to visit, check your chair before sitting (and you may be asked to sit on one for them). The kids also got The Incredibles on DVD. I think Ben could probably recite the script by now. Of course, our two young Jedi apprentices are keeping themselves busy honing their light saber skills.

After our three tornados had made their way through the living room we had to start getting ready for church. Vicki was ironing our clothes when she noticed Jenna and Ben going from window to window. They told her they were looking to see if Santa had put up a basketball goal to go with the ball Jenna had gotten. This brought a smile to Vicki’s face. (Maybe they’ll get one next year!) Some of Jenna’s other gifts include a Princess Diaries 2 DVD, Legos, several books and clothes.

MY NEAT STOCKING STUFFER. I reported a few weeks ago that Nate had disabled the CD-ROM on the computer by sticking paper clips into it. After looking up the price of the part I decided I’d tear the computer down once more before considering replacement.

One of my stocking stuffers was a tiny pocket flashlight. This light has one of those LED bulbs so it is really bright for its size. I used this light when looking into the CD-ROM and spied a small spring that didn’t look like it belonged where I saw it. It turns out this was the “elbow” end of a safety pin. I missed that a few weeks ago when looking with a larger flashlight (it was too large for what I needed it to do). Thanks to my $5 light our CD-ROM is working and Nate’s name is not as high on my bad list.

THE CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE. Our schedule got rearranged a bit because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. Kenny and Lori had their annual Christmas party in their barn on Thursday evening. It was especially fun this year because all the kids are old enough to fend for themselves (but I think Morgan did help Nate with his plate). Saturday morning found us at Mrs. Connie’s house for breakfast. I ate way too much. That night we had our Christmas Eve service at church.

Christmas morning we opened our presents here at the house and then rushed to get to church. Brent’s back was feeling much better and the choir did a slightly condensed version of their musical. That night we all went to Pauline’s for supper.

SIGNS OF ABUNDANCE. To be perfectly honest, it really is quite embarrassing to look around the house and see just how blessed we are this holiday season. And this isn’t limited to the material things. We have really packed away the food! When we were clearing the table after supper at Pauline’s Vicki picked up a bowl and asked Aunt Mar if she wanted to lick the serving spoon. With the look of slight discomfort in her eyes Aunt Mar replied, “No thanks, my licker is full.”

PURE ENJOYMENT. The other morning Vicki and Nate were the only ones at home. Vicki was getting out of the shower when she heard Nate say, “Mmmm, that’s sooo good!” She could just see him sitting in the middle of a bunch of candy wrappers before she took a peek out the bathroom door but was relieved to find he was simply enjoying his second Pop Tart.

A PRAYER REQUEST. I have not reported this before. Aunt Mar is getting to where she falls more and more frequently. I have gone over there several times over the last few weeks to help her back on her feet. Last Wednesday afternoon she fell and sprained her wrist when she stuck her hand out to break the fall. It is getting to be very frustrating to her that she cannot trust her legs as she moves around her own house. Please keep her in your prayers as she deals with these limitations.

Joe

We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Seasons Greetings! And with all the controversy over holiday greetings and the recent ruling regarding intelligent design and knowing we are politically incorrect -- We also wish you a Merry CHRISTmas!

LISTEN TO CHRISTMAS is the title of the musical our choir performed. As I said last week our schedule revolved around preparing for it. The tech crew met early in the week to get the sound, lights and set ready and then we had two nights of full rehearsal. We had our choir party Friday night and were scheduled to perform Saturday and Sunday evening.

We had a good time at the choir party. We usually play Dirty Santa. Mom stole a chicken that walks around, flaps its wings and does the Funky Chicken dance. She took it while saying the kids would really enjoy it. Vicki and I told her, much to Aunt Mar’s chagrin, that the kids would enjoy it at THEIR house.

Brent, our Minister of Music, didn’t make it to the choir party. He was in extreme pain from a muscle spasm in his back. He went to the ER and they drugged him up pretty good to get him through the weekend. He was no better by Saturday evening and we had to cancel that performance.

Brent was able to be up and about by Sunday evening so we went ahead with that performance and the choir did a great job. I’m glad they got one night in because the musical was one Brent and Cindy put together. One of the nicest touches was three personal testimonies scattered throughout the program.

CHRISTMAS BREAK for Robertson County students begins tomorrow. Jenna has been counting down and I must confess I have been too. I am ahead enough on my contract to take off the whole break and I am looking forward to it. We’ll be off until January 5!

JENNAISMS. Jenna got sick last week. There was a stomach virus going around. We had to get up in the middle of the night and clean up after her. She got up a couple of times after that but always had a bucket available. The last time there was nothing left to expel so she had the “bee hives” as she called it (dry heaves).

A few days later, when she was better, I went to pick her up at Mom and Aunt Mar’s where she gets off the bus after school. We had to go to the grocery store before going home. Our little super market recently changed ownership and is now a Piggly Wiggly or “Wiggly Piggly” as Jenna calls it.

PEBBLE POOP SCARE. So Pauline was changing Nate’s diaper the other day when he reached down, picked up a little brown ball and put it in his mouth while she was frantically trying to stop him. Her horror changed to laughter as she realized he was not spitting it out. He was in fact enjoying a chocolate chip that his kind brother had delivered to him after raiding the cupboard.

Joe

The Holiday Rush Has Begun

I feel like this past week has been the calm before the Christmas storm. Our church musical is this weekend and our schedule will be filled with rehearsals and such. Since I spent most of the evening at church preparing for our musical this will probably the shortest newsletter I’ve ever sent out.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO VICKI! Vicki celebrated her 36th birthday on Saturday. I took her out to eat at The Depot which is right next to the railroad tracks on Main Street in Springfield. Their food is really good and the atmosphere is cool. We also caught the opening night of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

A MOVIE REVIEW. We really enjoyed Narnia. This series of books is a favorite of mine and Disney really captured the essence of the story. It was beautifully filmed and the special effects lived up to my imagination. I hope it does well enough for Disney to go ahead and put Prince Caspian into production. We highly recommend it to everyone!

A GREAT PERFORMANCE. Springfield Baptist put on the Broadway style musical The Christmas Post this year and we went to see it on Saturday night. My supervisor from work had one of the lead roles and he did a great job with his part as did everyone. We (Vicki, Jenna, Ben, Pauline, and Mom) all enjoyed it very much.

BOYS! Sometimes, even though I love my boys dearly, I could just scream. This time it was Nate. He crammed several paper clips into the CD-ROM on the computer and now it won’t work. Given that it is four years old it will cost more to fix it than the computer is worth. I just have to keep my focus on the future. One of these days they will have kids....

Joe

Decorating for Christmas

It feels like we just put the Christmas decorations away a few weeks ago. Here we are pulling them back out again. We spent last Sunday afternoon putting our Christmas tree up. Other decorations in the house went up throughout the week and the outdoor stuff went up Saturday. All we lack now is the tree at Aunt Mar’s house.

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY. Pauline’s niece (through marriage), Carolyn Markham, passed away this week. Carolyn and Pauline are about the same age and Pauline considered her a best friend. They maintained their close relationship with frequent phone calls after Pauline moved here in 2003. Carolyn’s health had been failing her. Vicki and Pauline drove to Camden for the funeral yesterday morning and got back in time for church last night. Among Carolyn’s survivors are her husband, Clifford, her mother, Corrine, 3 siblings as well as 3 sons and their families.

CHILDREN’S CHOIRS. Jenna and Ben are both in children’s choirs at church. They both had rehearsals yesterday afternoon and performances last night. The preschool choir dressed in costume as a singing nativity scene. Ben was a shepherd. He really sang out and, thanks to Pauline, looked great. The children’s choir didn’t do costumes but sang well. Jenna has practiced very hard here at home and I think she enjoys singing a lot. Nate didn’t let the fact that he is too young to be in choir stop him from singing where he sat (stood, twirled, climbed, wiggled, crawled. . .you get the idea!)

A CHRISTMAS PARADE. We went to Cross Plains for their annual Christmas parade on Saturday. It was cold and drizzling rain. Now there’s one thing you have to understand about a small town parade--there’s not much to put in the parade. To make up for this you get all the emergency equipment for all the surrounding small towns to come so it’s really loud. (I’ve always wondered who would be on call to fight a fire if one broke out in Orlinda.) And, to make up for the length you either have everyone drive by at 2 MPH or have the parade circle the block and run them back through a second time (as they did in Adams last week).

To get to my point, we stayed in the van until all the fire trucks and police cars went by. While in the van someone mentioned that we would need to get outside so that people riding in the parade would throw candy to us. That’s what made Nate go up to the window and shout, “Hey, fwo candies oveh here!”

If there is an adult present Nate is good about asking if he can have some candy. (It is another story entirely if he stumbles across some candy and no one is around.) What is interesting is how he asks permission to indulge. Rather than asking “Can I have it?” like most kids he holds up the candy and says, “I wanna put it in my mouth.”

AN EMBARRASSING MOMENT. I think I have mentioned before that all the kids at Jenna’s school get to take part in leading the morning announcements on the intercom. Each child gets to do a part like the pledge to the flag, the moment of silence, etc. As they come to the mic they introduce themselves first, giving their name and homeroom teacher. Jenna goes “on the air” tomorrow so Mrs. Phillips had her and the others involved rehearse in front of the class. That’s where Jenna messed up. She started her part by saying, “Hello, my name is Mrs. Phillips...” The good thing is that she had the grace to laugh at herself along with everyone else.

A TIRED THERAPIST. Tonight Ben came up and started scratching my back. I was really enjoying it but after a while he stopped and said, “Daddy, I’m stopping now. I’m worned out.”

Joe

A Fun Thanksgiving Break

This Thanksgiving has been wonderful. Not only did I get a much needed break from work but Will, Darice, Cameron, Zachary and Emily came in to visit. We’ve all had a lot of fun being together. They got in late Tuesday evening and left yesterday. I guess the only negative part about the holiday was that I battled the crud (most likely a sinus infection) the whole time.

THE KIDS HAD A BLAST! Thursday morning Cameron and Zachary came over and played with our kids until it was time to eat our Thanksgiving dinner. About halfway through the morning Vicki commented on the noise, or lack of it. They were playing together so well that we hardly heard any unhappy sounds from them. That night, after eating at Pauline’s, Cameron and Zachary came back over and spent the night with our kids. Nate happily stayed in his room while the other four took over Jenna’s room. They wound up spending Friday night here as well.

EMILY IS PRECIOUS. She has changed the most of all the kids. Of course, she is only one year old. She’s walking now and tries her best to keep up with the rest of the pack. Jenna, glad to have another girl around, was always happy to entertain her.

Emily is actually quite a flirt. I caught her making eyes at me or someone else frequently. Will and Darice are very blessed to have a precious little girl along with their two smart and handsome boys.

THE SCRABBLE TOURNAMENT. Where my family likes to play Spades, Vicki’s family likes to play Scrabble. This is a very frustrating game to me as I find it difficult to use the letters on the board and in my hand to make words. Vicki’s family is also more competitive than I know how to be or can even understand. Naturally she and Will resurrected their old friendly argument of who is the best player. From Will’s point of view he is the best player because he had the most points from all the games they played. Vicki takes a different approach. She says that you should look at overall performance and give points for how you placed at the end of each game (4 points to 1st place, 3 to 2nd place, etc.) Using this method Vicki was the better player overall. Darice sided with Vicki and Pauline stayed out of it. Personally, I think they will be arguing this for years to come.

WHAT A SPREAD! We ate our Thanksgiving meal at two o’ clock and boy did we have a spread of food on the table. If anyone went away hungry it was their own fault. We had ham (instead of turkey), dressing, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs and green beans just to give a partial menu. Then Pauline had about four desserts to choose from.

EARLY BIRD/NIGHT OWL. Vicki and I are very different when it comes to our internal clocks. I get up with the roosters, she likes to burn the midnight oil. Not being a morning person she likes to hit the snooze button on her alarm clock a few times before getting up. I’m not sure how it happened but her clock must have gotten knocked to the floor sometime because something has happened to make the alarm sound a little sick. The other morning she mentioned this when I came into the bedroom. Not wanting to let an opportunity like this pass by I told her the clock was hoarse from beeping too much.

Joe

A Taste of Winter

This week started out with pleasant weather. On Monday I went to work in a short sleeve shirt. By midweek it was pretty brisk with lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s. We’re getting an early taste of cold weather. It has warmed up a bit since then. It was pleasant enough to work in the yard yesterday and once I got moving and a fire going to burn leaves I had to come out of my sweatshirt.

PATIENT PROGRESS. Mom is still coming along with her recuperation. One thing that is making some days really hard for her are frequent cases of the “fidgets” (Restless Leg Syndrome). She’s had this as long as I can remember and it isn’t making things easy now. She had her hair fixed on Thursday and when I picked her up from the beauty shop she said she felt 1000% better. Still no change in hairstyle after 40 years.

Mom went to church today. Everyone was really glad to see her out and about. I think she was glad to get out too. I’ll have to say one thing about our church--they have really taken care of Mom and Aunt Mar. They have not lacked for food at all.

One piece of great news is that Pauline’s doctor (the orthopod) discharged her from his care. We are all proud that she is able to walk around and carry on a normal life.

PRE-HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES. This is the week when all the holiday activities get started. On Wednesday we had a Thanksgiving lunch at church for the boys’ Mom’s Day Out program. We went back for another Thanksgiving dinner that night. Thursday night the Cross Plains Heritage Commission had their annual covered dish Thanksgiving supper. On Friday Jenna’s school served a Thanksgiving lunch. Tonight we went to the community Thanksgiving service. This year it was held at Orlinda Baptist. We ate after that too. I’m stuffed already.

I do need to tell this on myself. I got confused and thought Jenna’s school was serving Thanksgiving lunch on Thursday. I decided I’d go out there and eat with her. I called Vicki and she thought her class went to lunch at 11:25. It is 16 miles from my office to East Robertson Elementary so I had to rush. I got there right on time, or so I thought. Jenna’s class was just leaving the cafeteria. Her teacher allowed her to go back and sit with me while I ate. They were serving corn dogs (one on my least favorite foods). Vicki has told me that my selective hearing would get me.

ANTS IN HIS PANTS. Benton cannot keep himself still. Sitting in church with him is an exercise in practicing patience. He also never thinks his actions through. We really have to stay a few steps ahead of him all the time. It’s just those times when we are not with him like the other evening when he was brushing his teeth before bed. His learned that evening that the toilet paper holder is not strong enough to support his weight.

BASKETBALL SEASON. Jenna is signed up for basketball. This time she is playing in an Upward league. This league puts focus on athletic skills, sportsmanship and spiritual growth. There will be a devotion at each practice and game. They also do not keep score at the games. Jenna went to her first practice on Tuesday. They spent time with each player to evaluate their skills. Their practices start next month and the first game will be in January.

MORE ON JENNA. Jenna is an avid reader. She doesn’t just have her nose constantly in a book but she does read a lot. She just finished Anne of Green Gables and has started on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I think she also carries a lot of rapport with her friends. The mother of one of Jenna’s friends was telling us her daughter was getting ready for school one morning and said, “I wish Jenna was here.” When the mom asked why the girl said, “Because she always gives such good advice.”

Joe

Much Needed Rain

This week the kids have enjoyed playing in the newly fallen leaves and we had all enjoyed record breaking high temperatures. And now, after months of almost no measurable precipitation, we are getting rain!

The only bad thing about this week was that Vicki and I both had the 24 hour stomach bug. Fortunately she was getting over her case when I came down with mine. Nate has also been a bit under the weather.

MOM’S PROGRESS. Mom has come a long way in her recovery this week. Last night I caught her walking around without her walker (just where she can grab hold of the kitchen counter). As I said before, pain has been her biggest problem but I think she has found a way to handle it and it is beginning to diminish some.

NATE IS A LITTLE MESS. So the other day Vicki hears Nate rustling around in the bathroom. Figuring she’d better check this out she spied on him through the crack in the bathroom door. He was standing on the counter admiring his reflection. She wasn’t there too long before Nate turned and spotted her. He grinned at her with blue lips. Coming on in the bathroom she asked Nate what he had put on his face. Pointing in the closet he said, “This... and this, and this, and this and this.” In his run down of products he identified two sticks of lip balm, a stick of sun screen, a stick of Elmer’s glue and a blue permanent marker. (I have no idea why the glue and marker are stored in our bathroom closet.) Fortunately, Nate had used the marker last and it never penetrated the other stuff to stain his skin. Everything just wiped right off.

Then there was yesterday when Jenna brought Nate to me and said she had stopped him trying to eat a marble. Figuring I’d use a little scare tactic I said, “Nate, you shouldn’t eat those. They’ll make you sick.”

“Make me sick?” he inquired to make sure he’d heard me correctly.

When I said yes he stuck a finger deep in his mouth in an attempt to gag himself. After stopping him I asked if he had already swallowed one. He nodded. Now we are checking his diaper for marbles.

A FUN EVENING WITH THE KIDS. Yesterday morning Vicki and Pauline attended a women’s missions brunch at church. Their meeting lasted until noon. After they got home Vicki and two friends headed for Christmas Village at the Nashville Fairgrounds. This left me and the kids together all day. We hung out around the house until after lunch. When Pauline came home we sent Nate over to her house to nap and spend the evening. Then Jenna, Ben and I left for a little outing of our own.

Our first stop was the movie theater where we saw Chicken Little. The kids really enjoyed it. From there we went to McDonald’s and then to pick up a couple of things at Wal-Mart. The three of us simply had a great time together.

MY VIDEO CONVERSION PROJECT. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I was starting to convert our home videos to DVD. I am about halfway through the seventh one right now. It’s neat to see Jenna and Benton when they were the same age that Nate is now.

Jenna’s memory blows me away. I was working on a DVD when Jenna walked by and looked over my shoulder at a scene that was paused on the computer screen. It showed a two year old Jenna standing in the doorway that separates the foyer from the living room. The only evidence that it was a Christmas scene were the stockings in the background and the title I had just typed in. As soon as she saw this she said, “Oh, that’s the Christmas when I got the Sesame Street train.” When I scrubbed forward in the footage, lo and behold, a train with Sesame Street characters came into view! You now see why we go to her when we want to recall something.

I’ve also enjoyed seeing the church when it was under construction. Back then I would go and film around the construction site every few weeks to capture the progress. I am pulling that footage out to combine it all on a DVD later. Maybe, after adding a few other clips related to the construction project, we’ll see it in the church library in a few months.

HOW’S THAT AGAIN? Speaking of Jenna’s memory, we were talking at lunch today when Jenna, referring to a past event said, “You know, it happened back then when now was the future!” She’s absolutely right, but we had to think on that for a minute or two.

Joe

Fall Fun

This week has been beautiful. The weather has been great (with a few days hitting record highs) and the trees have looked surprisingly vivid in spite of a very dry year. To look on the bright side about the dry weather, the farmers have had an easy time getting the soybeans in. Larry and Tommy Pinson cut Mom’s beans this week.

MOM IS HOME NOW! I brought her home on Thursday. I am pleased with what she is capable of doing as she can get up and down from a chair or bed and walk around with a walker. She has some difficulty on the up and down part but I’m proud she is capable of getting around the house and taking care of herself without major assistance at this point. Vicki or I are staying there at night and we check in on her during the day but we simply aren’t able to stay there 24 hours a day and I really don’t think she needs that any way.

One thing I never dreamed I’d ever do is give Mom a shot. She is taking Lovenox (to prevent blood clots) for the next couple of weeks and it has fallen to me to administer this medication. Of course, I’m not letting an opportunity like this go by without a mock sadistic comment. I am all the while getting the “evil eye” from her. I enjoy “poking” fun at her in this way!

All the nurses and therapists who have worked with her have said she had a top notch surgeon and that she is progressing nicely. It’s just going to take time to heal. I think the roughest thing for Mom right now is pain management. Please continue to pray for her.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE CANDY. With Monday being Halloween we made our annual, three hour Trick or Treat run. Jenna dressed up as a sensible princess (sensible because she wore tennis shoes). She curled her hair and wore real lipstick for the first time and she asked at lots of our stops if her lips still looked good (they lasted the whole night even through sampling her goodies). She was so pretty. We wondered how she’d look in 10 years for her senior prom.

Both of the boys were Superman. Ben’s costume had a red Speedo sewn in it. He asked Vicki what it was and she said it was Superman’s underwear. He quickly covered his privates as he looked at Vicki with shock and embarrassment. (He got over it but Vicki enjoyed the moment.) Nate enjoyed dressing like his big brother. They were quite a pair.

Last year Nate was pretty much just along for the ride. This year he got the hang of it pretty quickly. Starting with the fourth house we visited when walking through Cross Plains he would turn to Vicki and say, “More candy, Mama!” He couldn’t explain why but he knew he had hit the mother lode and he wasn’t complaining. By the end of the night his bucket was so full his little arm was shaking. This year was a good year for chocolate. We’ve got so much candy now that I really don’t even want any when I see it.

I think the best costumes I saw were on Ross, Donna, Rachel and Betsy Swann. They all had white tee shirts with a large “P” painted in it. They had also painted black face paint around one eye. That made them the black-eyed peas!

NOT CHRISTMAS ALREADY! It’s bad enough that all the stores have their Christmas wares on display but we noticed one of our neighbors had their tree up the day after Halloween. That really takes the cake! Last night Vicki and I went to Applebee’s for dinner. As we were driving down Fifth Avenue in Springfield we passed several houses with inflatable Santas and snowmen in their yards. We were pleased to see that one house had the guts to go against the grain with an inflatable turkey.

We’re actually behind the times. With Mom being in the hospital we never got around to carving our jack-o-lantern until yesterday. Ben had bought a pumpkin from Steve Freeland and he was going to carve it or bust. He picked out his pattern (a pirate’s skull) and even cleaned out all the pumpkin’s goo and seeds. He is very proud of it and has it on the floor by his bed.

Joe

How’s Your Mama and Them?

I mentioned the fall colors last week. We have had more spectacular years than this one I think the dry weather is the culprit. My favorite tree is doing its best to make a showing in spite of the conditions. It is a gum tree located really close to Lakeview Market on Highway 49. It is in a woods but there is an opening where you can easily see it from the road. Its leaves turn a to a deep red and when I am coming home from work the sun hits it at just the right angle. If I ever run off the road at this spot in October you’ll know why.

We have had our first frost this week. And Bill Chatman, after dealing with a couple of mechanical problems, has gotten the wheat sown.

ABOUT MY MAMA. Mom has done really well since her surgery. They had her sitting up and taking a few steps the next day. When I went to see her on Wednesday afternoon she asked me to hand her some of the chocolate that had been brought to her. When I placed the candy in her hand I noticed that the heart monitor started beeping a little faster.

I took off from work again on Friday to move Mom from NorthCrest to Skyline Medical Center where she will have about a week of rehab. Everything went very smoothly and we are pleased with the facility. She will be in therapy every day until 3:00 so if you call or visit before then you won’t find her. What was very encouraging was that the occupational therapist said she was in good shape for a knee replacement patient three days after surgery. She’s had two days of therapy already and is finding it much harder than she expected. We appreciate everyone’s prayers.

CALENDAR CONFUSION. On Friday Aunt Mar looked at the calendar, not realizing it was on the wrong month, and thought it was Halloween. She panicked because she had no candy. She had decided she would put coins in little bags and hand that out as long as it lasted until Kenny called and in their conversation set her straight. Morgan has since fixed her up with candy (she and Aunt Mar even have it in little bags so it will be easy to hand out) and Mac carved a jack-o-lantern and brought it over.

TACKLING A BIG PROJECT. I am like the plumber who is so busy that he has no time to fix his own leaks at home. I have wanted to start converting our home movie footage to DVD for quite some time and have finally begun last weekend. After counting video tapes I estimate that we have over 40 hours of footage.

One tape I converted was filmed when Ben was born. Ben had never seen this before and really enjoyed it when we showed it to him. He did not know he was in a TV commercial when he was born and thought that was really cool (I included this footage on the DVD).

SO, HOW IS YOUR MAMA AND THEM? This question all got started by Jeff Crawford, a fellow I work with. He goes to church with the secretary at our office, Sherri Traughber. One weekend their church youth group went on a trip. Jeff was one of chaperones. Now Jeff is one of those people that likes to keep some kind of fun going on all the time. On that trip he called their pastor’s wife (who had stayed home with her kids) and asked, “How’s your Mama and them?” By the end of the trip just about everyone had called her and inquired about her mama and them (and I am sure the question was bounced around all the people on the trip as well).

Jeff was laughing about that with me the Monday after the trip so we have just continued the joke ever since. I’ll even call him up after leaving Krisle Elementary where his mom is the financial secretary to report that she’s okay. (Save this thought, I’ll come back to it a it later.)

I WORK WITH GREAT PEOPLE, however, I’m sure our secretary is trying to figure out what she can do to me right now. She used to have an alarm clock on her desk and occasionally I would set it to go off during the day. One day back in the spring I sat down in my office and heard this strange ticking noise. A quick search revealed the clock hidden behind a picture on my window sill. I recorded the ticking and emailed the sound to her to let her know she had been found out. A few days later I pulled the same trick on her except that I taped the clock to the bottom of her chair. It took her several minutes of crawling around in the floor to locate it. The clock has also found its way inside her computer before it made an abrupt disappearance. (Rumor has it that it is still keeping time in the ditch somewhere along Highway 431.)

Somehow our toy collection picked up about 100, three inch, plastic balls. They are in an assortment of colors. In looking around Sherri’s office this week I decided one of the wall cabinets above the counter would be the perfect place to store all those balls. (I actually used about 30 balls and rigged the top shelf of the cabinet so that everything would come out when the door was opened.) It was also a great place to store an alarm clock Jeff happened to have. I’m not really sure how that clock got set to ring at 3:45 Thursday afternoon.

On Friday, when I took Mom to Skyline, I had thought I might work that afternoon. As I was driving back from Madison I could tell I was too late to get a half day in so I called Sherri to let her know. When she picked up the phone I could tell from the laughter in the background there were several people in the office. When she heard my voice she immediately said, “We have something to talk about!” When I asked what it was she said, “Balls!”

A bit later in the conversation I heard Jeff’s voice in the background. I asked Sherri if he was talking about me. “Oh yes,” she replied, “He’s telling our pastor and his wife all about your tricks.” Not wanting to miss this opportunity I told Sherri to let me speak to your pastor’s wife. When I heard a strange voice say “Hello” I said, “You don’t know me but I just wanted to ask how your mama and them are doing?” Jeff told me later that he and his pastor got a good laugh from her reaction after they found out what I had asked her.

So on behalf of my mama and them,

Joe

Touches of Color

We are back in our routines now and last week’s vacation seems like a distant memory. The one really nice thing about this week is seeing the trees change their colors. It seems like our trees are normally more colorful by now but that may due to all the dry weather. Anyway, all the green is being replaced with yellows, oranges and reds.

DEALING WITH DISAPPOINTMENT. One morning Vicki walked into the kitchen. She found Ben and Nate at the table eating their breakfast. Nate looked really sad. His bottom lip was stuck way out. He was struggling to keep his composure. Vicki asked what was wrong. “It not my birthday,” was his reply. He and Ben had been arguing about this before Vicki came in the room and since he was so distressed Vicki asked, “Would you like to pretend it’s your birthday?” When Nate failed to answer Vicki looked at Ben and shrugged her shoulders. Ben returned the shrug and offered, “I guess he just likes cake!”

LIFE WITH A TWO YEAR OLD. For those of you who have lived through a two year old child you know there are days when you just want to pull your hair out. This was the case Friday morning when Vicki came out of the shower and found permanent black marker scribbled ALL OVER the bathroom door. After trying a multitude of products that failed miserably, Vicki accepted the fact that sanding an painting was in her future. Fortunately, a trip to Wal-Mart found “OOPS!” . . . this with a lots of elbow grease removed most of his artwork.

It seems like Nate has been on a “Search and Destroy” mission here lately. Maybe I just don’t remember it being as intense with Jenna and Ben but I’d almost be willing to bet that Nate has more of a desire to get into stuff than they did. The other day I caught him in the “catch all” drawer in the kitchen fishing out a screw driver. He had a look of purpose as he was walking away from the drawer and sure was mad when I took the tool away from him.

The pantry is also a battleground. I’m sure Nate thinks he is just being considerate by not bothering us when he wants something to eat. Our self-sufficient little boy solves the problem of unattainable foods by dragging a chair into the pantry to assist him in his quest. This has happened a few times and we are trying to break this habit. Tonight I heard him rustling around in there and said, “I hear a large rat in the pantry!” He came out, pointed at himself and proudly exclaimed, “That’s me!!!”

This morning he found a cassette tape and had pulled several feet of tape out of the cassette. I have warned him about this before. This time I took him to his room and warned his back side. After I was finished dealing with Nate I overhead Ben say to Jenna (they were in another room), “Yeah, I knew he’d get a spanking for that one.”

A VISIT WITH COUSINS. Uncle Paul’s birthday was Monday (he’s 93) and Jackie’s birthday is tomorrow. When we went to visit Uncle Paul on Monday Jackie was there and told us all his grandkids would be over to visit on Sunday. This afternoon I took Jenna and Ben to Uncle Paul’s house to play with their cousins. Judging by all the whooping and hollering I’d say they had a great time together. Ben is always glad to be with any group of boys but it just works out that Jenna is the only girl a lot of times. This is the same boat her cousin Bonnie is in as she is Uncle Paul’s only great granddaughter. They have really hit it off well with each other.

GROSS BUT CUTE. Nate has a mild case of diarrhea. Of course changing his pull up diaper is a painful experience. Early on when his skin was mildly irritated I got a good laugh because he was raising his head and attempting to blow on himself for relief from the sting. As his condition progressed he stuck to screaming in pain. What made our hearts melt was his bedtime prayer last night. Usually his prayer is simply a roll call of family and stuffed animals (and he might thank God for the food even though we aren’t at the table). Last night he told God how much he hurt went he “goes potty” and asked to be feeling better. He is doing much better today.

A PRAYER REQUEST. Mom’s knee replacement surgery is scheduled for Tuesday. Unless we hear differently we are to be at NorthCrest Hospital by 6:00 am. Please keep her in your prayers.

Joe

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An Update on Mom
Tuesday, October 25, 2005

I have just gotten home from the hospital and am about to leave for Aunt Mar’s. The doctor said Mom did very well in her surgery. She had a typical knee replacement plus he inserted a piece inside the bottom of her femur (the place where the marrow would be is hollow in adults) to strengthen the bone to help prevent a potential fracture. He also shaved the knee cap to a thickness of 12 mm and added “cement” to strengthen it as well. They will get her on her feet tomorrow.

Mom is doing well but is still pretty drugged up. She is just glad the surgery is over.

Vicki or I will be staying with Aunt Mar at night until things get back to normal or we feel they will get along fine.

Joe

Our Traveling Adventures

I am proud to report that we had a wonderful trip to Florida! We put over 1800 miles on the van and, except for hitting the tail end of Nashville’s rush hour on the way home, the driving was smooth. We also had excellent weather! Here’s how the trip went (please forgive the length)....

WE LEFT EARLY on Sunday morning and drove straight through. The only time we took a major stop was to eat supper in Gainesville. We were to stay in a condo in Poinciana which is near Kissimmee and about 30 minutes south of the Disney World area. We could not have asked for three kids to travel any better!

At one point we were driving down Highway 192 (which is just south of the Disney property) and the kids were pointing out all the weird things they saw on the souvenir shops. Vicki called attention to a store with a 50 foot mermaid on the front. Jenna didn’t see it at first and asked “where?”. Pointing Vicki said, “Right there. She’s huge!” Spotting it Jenna said, “Oh, she’s VERY huge.” Without missing a beat Nate said, “She’s VERY cute, too!”

We used our timeshare points for our condo which was basically a two bedroom apartment. The room the kids stayed in had a queen bed and a love seat with a pullout single bed. We had intended for Jenna to have the single bed but when we checked on the kids before going to bed ourselves we found Ben had crowded into the bed with Jenna. It seems that Nate’s little legs have a lot of kick in them. Needless to say Nate got the pullout for the remaining nights.

A DAY AT THE BEACH. Jim took two days off work to be with us for part of our visit so we met him, Dianna, Alex and Chris at the beach on Monday. We went to the Spessard Holland South Beach Park in Melbourne Beach. The park is kept up well and there is no commercial development nearby. We had a great time playing in the sand and water.

Nate was scared of the water at first and was content to sit under an umbrella and play in the sand. Once he learned not to take his sandy hands and rub his eyes he had it made. The rest of us waded and played in the surf and the kids tried to build a sand castle but it was below the high tide line and the water took care of their efforts pretty quickly. When Nate did discover the water he was very sad to leave. Fortunately, the showers the park provides for rinsing off were a great diversion.

For supper we drove back into Orlando and met Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda at Dixie Crossroads which is in a mall near Universal Studios. We had a good time eating and visiting.

A DAY AT THE AMUSEMENT PARK. Tuesday found us at Universal’s Islands of Adventure! I think the Pteranodon Flyers was the biggest hit with all three of our kids but Jenna also liked Dr. Doom’s Fear Fall a lot. Ben had a hard time deciding which he liked best but finally settled on Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls (for those who remember this is similar to Opryland’s Floom Zoom). It is also etched in his memory that the T-Rex almost ate him on the Jurassic Park River Adventure (and he refused a second ride). We all rode the Popeye and Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges (this is similar to Opryland’s Grizzly River Rampage) and none of us survived it dry (except for Jim, Dianna and Nate who did not ride). Vicki, being a roller coaster connoisseur, took in all they had to offer and I think she would be hard pressed to have a favorite ride. She did say, after riding The Hulk twice, that it is a lot more fun to ride it while screaming. We are not sure if Jim has permanent hearing damage because of this.

It was here that Jenna’s penny pinching characteristics came to the surface. Before our trip we had emptied all the kids banks and rolled up the coins. Each one had $50 of spending money. Ben had already hit a souvenir shop and bought a couple of things that he wanted. Jenna simply could not let her money go. She finally did buy some candy for less than $2. Nate found it the next morning and ate just about all of it before he was discovered.

Since the park closed at 6:00 Jim and Dianna suggested we all go out to eat for supper but between three tired kids and being soaked to the bone we declined. This was a good thing because the kids were asleep before we got on the interstate and didn’t care a thing about supper when we got back to the condo and went straight to bed.

A LATE START. By Wednesday we were worn out and were very glad we didn’t have a full schedule. We stayed around the condo most of the morning and relaxed. We left at 11:00 and drove to Jim and Dianna’s house in time for lunch. Aunt Linda and Uncle Bob also came over and visited a while (but not nearly long enough).

All the kids had a great time playing together (and swimming in the community pool) and the adults had a good time visiting (we saw Jim for about an hour after he got off work). I had to laugh at Nate. Jim and Dianna have a small library and in that room their boys’ large collection of Thomas the Tank Engine stuff was stored (the wooden kind with the magnetic couplers). When Nate found this he simply closed the door behind himself and started in. I later found him in the middle of the biggest mess of train cars and track, happy as a lark.

After supper we visited a bit longer and left for our condo. As we were driving out of their subdivision I heard Ben sniffling in the back. When I asked him what he was crying about he managed to whimper, “Good-byes are sad!”

ANOTHER LONG DAY ON THE ROAD. We got up early Thursday morning and hit the road. We drove with a purpose and the kids all traveled very well again. The reason we drove so hard was that we had made reservations to stay in one of the railroad cars at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and we wanted to have a little time to explore when we got there. They have a bunch of old passenger cars which have been converted into hotel rooms. This was a big hit.

After checking in we hit the gift shop, ate supper and wandered around their garden. The boys made a slalom course out of the columns that hold up the roof over the old passenger loading platforms and after being cooped up in the van all day we let them run.

SIGHTSEEING IN CHATTANOOGA. Our hotel package included tickets to several area attractions. After breakfast we visited the large model railroad that is on display at the hotel. Then we left for the Tennessee Aquarium and a film at the IMAX theatre. The film was a 3-D safari to find elephants, white rhinos, lions, leopards and Cape buffalo in southern Africa and was really good. The aquarium was also fun but since it tends to feature a lot of fresh water fish it isn’t as spectacular as the one in Gatlinburg which has all colorful, tropical, salt water fish.

When we had seen everything we had tickets for we got in the van and headed home. This was a very traumatic experience for Ben. I’m just glad he slept most of the way. We got home right after sunset.

BACK HOME, BACK IN THE FAST LANE. It is unlike the boys to sleep past 7:00 but they did yesterday morning. As a matter of fact, we all took it easy. It was at lunch that Vicki remembered that the choir retreat was that afternoon. Choir members had to be there at 3:00 to hear and practice the upcoming Christmas musical. While they were rehearsing the kids and I went up to Steve and Connie Freeland’s to try out their corn maze. Then we joined the family pot luck supper at 5:30.

All in all I’d say we’ve had a great Fall Break.

Joe

Ready for a Break

I used to be amazed at how quickly the weeks roll by. I’m over that now. That’s because the months are moving along at a good clip these days. It seems like we just started school a couple of weeks ago and now I look and the first nine week grading period has ended and we are starting our Fall Break.

BACK ON HER FEET AGAIN! That’s the good news from Pauline. She walked into church Sunday morning and to the church picnic that night. She has even driven her car this week! We are very thankful she is getting back to normal before Mom’s surgery.

SPEAKING OF THE PICNIC. We had a really fun time Sunday evening. We are beginning a new campaign to focus on retiring the debt from building our sanctuary five years ago and to expand our ministry. The picnic was one of several events to kick this off. We had live entertainment and all kinds of things for the kids to do. It was very well organized and from what I could tell everyone there had a great time.

SNACK SNOB. Vicki took Mom back to the Red Cross yesterday to give another pint of blood for herself. Thursday evening Mom called our house and asked Vicki if we had anything good in the pantry. We didn’t (but Vicki was about to make cookies). Then she kept asking what other sweet stuff we had. This made Vicki ask Mom if she was just desperate for something sweet to eat. It turns out that Mom wasn’t too impressed with the snacks the Red Cross served last week and wanted to pack her own food. Vicki brought her some chocolate oatmeal cookies to help speed up her recovery!

THE BLAME GAME. One day this week Ben was building some big Lego project. When he got done he pushed his creation toward the kitchen to show it off to Vicki. Somewhere in the hall his structure fell apart and crashed to the floor. Right after the crash Vicki heard Ben exclaim, “NATE!”

Vicki said, “Benton, Nate is in the kitchen here with me!. He didn’t knock that down.”

After a short silence Ben, refusing to let Nate off the hook, said, “I know...but he did it with his magic!”

SOWING SEEDS OF KINDNESS. Vicki was visiting at Jenna’s school yesterday and noticed a little girl in Jenna’s class who had a very joyous smile. Vicki made a comment to Mrs. Phillips about the girl and got quite a story. In all of this Vicki learned that none of the other kids really pay much attention to this little girl, except for Jenna.

Mrs. Phillips continued to tell about another little girl in the class who Jenna has befriended. Jenna takes it upon herself to look after this girl and help her with her class work. It turns out that this little girl will not talk to anyone but Jenna, not even Mrs. Phillips!

We feel pretty sure both little girls have a rough time in life right now. Their friendships with Jenna may very well be the closest thing to a normal relationship either one of them have. Sadly, this is the case for way too many kids. I don’t think anyone will ever need to explain to Jenna what Jesus meant when He said, “You are the salt of the earth,” and I am humbled to see my daughter spread her salt where it is most needed. What’s really neat about Jenna is that she has all kinds of friends and she doesn’t seem to draw any lines on who can be her friend and who cannot.

VACATION PLANS. We are leaving for Florida in the morning! We plan to make the trip to Orlando in one day and we hope everyone is a good traveler. Vicki took the kids to Judy DePriest’s for haircuts and Ben was telling Judy all about our upcoming trip. When she asked Ben what he planned to do in Florida he said, “Spend money!”

Joe

Fall is Here!

We are moving into that time where the days are warm but the early mornings are really crisp and cool. Steve and Connie Freeland have set up their pumpkins in the front yard and even have a small corn maze in a field behind their house. The Pinsons have been shelling corn and have about half of Mom’s corn harvested. Fall is here!

CATCHING UP WITH OLD FRIENDS. This has been one of those weeks where we’ve had something to do every night this week. Brent and Sabrina Freelend have been in to visit all their family and we wanted to do something with them one evening but with our schedule and three of their four kids getting sick (they were up all one night and even went to the ER for medication) it never worked out. I did get one chance to visit with them and really enjoyed it. All their kids are really cute. Seeing Brock was like seeing a three year old Brent again some 35 years after the fact.

Brent is a chaplain for Corporate Chaplains of America. One of the neatest things about talking to him is hearing how he has been able to minister to those he works with. He been able to introduce a lot of people to Jesus in his ministry!

GIVING BLOOD. I took Mom to the Red Cross in Nashville Wednesday afternoon to give blood for herself for her upcoming surgery. I have given blood twice in my life and both times, while it was emotionally rewarding, I went into shock over the loss of blood. The second time I waited an extra long time to make sure I was stable and still almost passed out when driving myself home. Now, if any of you need O- blood I’ll come through for you, but after those experiences I don’t make regular donations. I have digressed. Anyway, I took mom so that she wouldn’t have to drive back from Nashville. She did a lot better with her donation than I ever did. She donates again on Friday (there isn’t a 56 day wait when donating for yourself).

...SING WITH ME! Nate is learning the ABC song. Now, he doesn’t know all the words/letters and hums through a few parts of the song but he is learning. Nate can also count to ten. Unlike singing the ABC song he will not do this on demand, you have to be lucky enough to catch him at it.

I have seen it up close for three kids now and I am still amazed at how kids learn to talk. The funny thing is that it seems to go in stages--like some concept about talking takes a while to cook in their heads and then when they finally do put all the pieces together for using the concept their speech changes overnight. Nate has moved from 2-3 word sentences to putting longer strings of words together to better express himself.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PAULINE. Friday was Pauline’s birthday. We celebrated with a dinner over at her house last night. Vicki made homemade spaghetti & meatballs and my personal favorite chicken/spinach lasagna. We also invited Derek, Amanda, Riley and Harper over for supper so it was a really fun evening. One of the best things is that the kids are getting to the point where they don’t all need constant attention anymore.

Mom brought three old photo albums over and we saw pictures from 1975-1977 that I had not seen in at least 20 years (which means Vicki had never seen them). That really added to the evening!

Speaking of Pauline, she is really doing well with her walking. She is starting to put her wheelchair aside and use her walker more. She plans to walk into church tomorrow which will be the first time she has done so in three and a half months!

FURNITURE, FURNITURE, FURNITURE. We went on a little outing today, stopping by a fall festival at a church in Springfield which was raising money for missions, visiting the park, etc., and while in town we stopped by a furniture store that was having a sale. What was so funny was that when we walked in Jenna got this starry-eyed look on her face and said, “This is beautiful! I wish this were my home.”

MRS. WHITTEMORE. Mrs. Venita Whittemore used to teach a Bible class and Mom would go to it on Fridays when I was a kid. Aunt Helen, Mom’s older sister, attended as well. When I wasn’t in school I was taken along. It was hard to leave for Bible class and see the Freelands riding their bikes as we left.

Most of Mrs. Whittemore’s teaching was way over my head at the time but one of the neatest things was her model of the Tabernacle. It filled a large table and her lesson was to set it up while explaining what each part of the structure meant. In 1976 my birthday was to fall on a Friday and after Bible class one day I slipped up to Mrs. Whittemore and asked if she would bring the Tabernacle for my birthday. When Mom found out she tried to tell Mrs. Whittemore not to do it because Mrs. Whittemore was about 80 at the time. With a sparkle in her eye she told Mom she would be glad to bring it and she did. Brent and Steve Freeland were my guests that day (I can’t remember where Brian was). It really made my 10th birthday special.

I have been thinking a lot about Mrs. Whittemore lately. The reason Mom dug up those old photo albums was because I asked if she had a picture from that birthday. I’ve also done a bit of research on her as I remembered that she taught several weekly Bible classes around Nashville. What I have learned has been most impressive, and humbling. Those who attended Mrs. Whittemore’s classes loved her dearly. I remember her lecturing and several ladies, Mom included, would tape her lessons. She was even on the radio with a weekly show named The Bible Class of the Air. When I called the station, WNAH, I learned that she had been the station owner’s Sunday school teacher and had been on the air from 1951 until her death in 1988. Transcripts of her shows were made available in booklets and I remember these at the Bible class. Mom and I got to digging around in her book shelf and found several hundred (with very few duplicates). These were distributed all over the world! The neatest thing I’ve learned is that there is a group of Mrs. Whittemore’s former students who meet every Monday to fill orders for these booklets. These things still go out all around the globe. To date over 61 million booklets have been sent out! They have even been translated into other languages.

Mrs. Whittemore never put her name on any of her booklets as she wanted all the glory to go to the Lord. She also never asked for money for her ministry, she just prayed for it. Those who continue her ministry still follow that model. I found a small web site about Mrs. Whittemore’s Bible class with a sample of some of the booklets on it. The “Listen to Venita!” links don’t work but the text is there.

Joe

Indian Summer

It has been pretty warm, even hot in the afternoons this week. The big difference between now and a month ago is the nights are getting cooler. I'm just glad to see the heat go.

PROGRESS. Pauline went back to the doctor on Friday. He increased the weight she can put on her foot to 50 lbs. She is due to see him again in a week and a half. At this rate she may be tossing the wheelchair and walker by Thanksgiving!

THE TRACTOR MOTIF. Ever since Jenna has moved upstairs and Nate has moved in with Ben we have been redecorating the boy's room from the Raggedy Ann and Andy look to tractors. We had bought several John Deere things to put in the room but we still have the mural on the wall with Raggedy Ann and Andy sitting in a swing which is hanging from a tree branch. We hadn't done anything about that because we didn't want to repaint that room just yet. Last week Janice Hellmann loaned us a bunch of things (sheets, bed spreads, etc.) to use in the boy's room. Stephen, her son, is now into "army stuff" so she had redecorated his room and thought our boys would enjoy Stephen's old John Deere and Case-International stuff. There's even a wall hanging that fits in with the decor and covers Raggedy Ann and Andy very nicely. Ben is so proud of his room that he makes up his and Nate's beds each morning without being asked! Their room is so cool I almost want to spend the night with them.

A DOUBLE TRAGEDY. Speaking of Janice Hellmann, she was thrown from her horse yesterday and broke her shoulder. It seems she was riding in a field with tall grass and came up on an electric fence that neither she nor the horse saw which caused the horse to throw her off. She is at St. Thomas Hospital and had surgery this morning. This is the second accident she has had with her horse, the first one was more serious than this one. Knowing Janice, she will ride again.

Janice's parents, Carl and Mildred Swann, are out of town this weekend. Being fans of Jimmy Carter they are in Plains, Georgia, to hear President Carter teach Sunday School. This is their third trip down there. They know about Janice. What they don't know about is the barn fire. Mr. Carl had a tobacco barn to burn down last night. Dark Fired Tobacco has to be cured with smoke and if you ride around Robertson County right now you'll see lots of tobacco barns with smoke billowing from all the vents under their roofs. Occasionally a farmer's worst fear is realized and the barn itself catches fire. Mr. Carl had about 4.5 acres of tobacco in this barn. Just estimating that the tobacco would have weighed in at 3000 lbs. per acre and sold at $2.00 per pound you can see that the loss in gross income is around $27,000. Then there is the loss of the barn as well....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO WILL. Wilson Swann turns five on Wednesday but Kenny and Lori had his party yesterday. They hosted it at their house. One of the cutest things to watch was all the kids playing out in the driveway. They have two battery powered toys, a Gator like ours and a tractor, as well as several bikes and all the kids were riding around the turn around at the back end of the driveway. I think Nate ran at least one battery down. They had a piñata which actually busted open pretty quickly. (I keep remembering one we bought for Jenna's birthday several years ago. It seemed to be so tough you could have run over it with a car and not hurt it.) After the party we stuck around for hamburgers and such. It was a fun evening.

A GOOD FRIEND. One thing I am really proud of Jenna about is her friendship with Mrs. Vallie Douglas. Mrs. Vallie goes to our church. She will celebrate her 97th birthday this Wednesday. When she is able she drives from Springfield on Sunday mornings. One morning about 2-3 years ago Jenna and I were leaving for church and Mrs. Vallie drove by. Jenna recognized her and I told Jenna who she was and suggested that she speak to Mrs. Vallie when we got to church. She did and it has been so neat to see the two of them become friends ever since.

CONGRATULATIONS to Jonathan and Sheila Leach. Their third daughter, Sophia Grace, was born Friday evening. We are really happy for them!

Joe

Has it been another week already?

Last week sort of slipped right on by and here we are about to start a new week. Here's the news.

PUTTING A LITTLE WEIGHT DOWN. Pauline went to the doctor for a check up on her foot Friday. He told her she could begin to put about 25 lbs. of weight on her foot as she used her walker. She has also gotten her diabetic shoes. While Pauline was hoping that she would be able to put all her weight on her foot and start walking again, the rest of us are happy she can start doing this much.

PEARS, PEARS, PEARS. Our pear tree has really produced this year. While the crop was overwhelming Pauline and Vicki did put some of them to good use. Their preserves turned out well but I think they'd had enough of pears (and each other) after a long day of pealing and cooking. Vicki, poking fun at herself, says it is a good thing she was not a farmer's wife 100 years ago.

A BAD DAD. Vicki and I have always had the philosophy that our kids are always welcome to melt down and have a good cry whenever things don't go their way--as long as they go to their room to do it. Jenna has grown out of this and Ben has pretty much left this behind as well. Not Nate. But Nate is to the point that you can tell him to go to his room when he starts to cry and he will. I think this works because their bed becomes a comfortable refuge when we have to enforce the rules and become public enemy number one.

One day I came home from work and Nate was wanting something out of the fridge. It was 20 minutes until supper and Vicki told him no. He melted down and would not close the refrigerator door. I walked in and told him to close the door and go to his room and stay there until he got control of himself. This he did. Then I got busy and he got quiet. Some 10 minutes later I hear this little voice coming from the boys' room saying, "I wanna get up," over and over again. That's when I realized he didn't hear the last part of his instructions and that I had forgotten him. I sure felt bad about that.

STICKING UP FOR LITTLE BROTHER. Tuesday night Pauline invited all of us (including Mom and Aunt Mar) over to eat. She is more and more able to do things for herself and decided to try her hand at cooking a large meal. Not only was it good but I am proud of her accomplishment. Now to the point of the story...

We have always tried to get our kids to do a fairly good job of eating before they can get the occasional dessert. We're not perfect at this but our goal is for them to have a healthy meal and at least try everything that is there. Nate is at that hardheaded stage. Tuesday night he wanted the fudge pie but did not want to finish his mashed potatoes to get it. Every time he mentioned the pie I would say, "Two bites of potatoes and the pie is yours." He always replied with a cheerful "No." Ben finally said to me, "Dad, quit being so hard on Nate and let him have some pie." I got a good laugh but Nate didn't get any pie. (He did get a slice the next day.)

BARBECUE. The Heritage Commission had their second annual Barbecue supper yesterday evening. Like last year we had a good turn out. People attending the supper enjoyed entertainment from the Friendship Baptist Church men's choir and a small band who called themselves "Barely Pickin'." (Friendship Baptist is a black church. All the men were dressed in purple striped suits. I don't think I could pull of a suit like that, but they did look sharp.) The choir sang several old time spirituals, a cappella style. The band consisted of several guys from the community who enjoy playing guitars together. Their repertoire consisted of more modern ballads and songs. The weather was nice. The food and music were good. It was a fun evening. (And the Heritage Commission made over $3000!)

IS THIS MY BOY? Speaking of fashion, I do not like to wear a necktie. I do not like to wear a sport coat or suit. It is in my genes to wear jeans. So you will understand my concern now that Ben has actually asked to wear a tie for the last two Sundays. I'm not sure where that comes from but it wasn't from me. To each his own.

TRUE APPRECIATION. The boys had gotten up from the table and gone to play after lunch today when Vicki and I broke out some Little Debbie cakes for dessert (Jenna went out to eat with Mom and Aunt Mar). Ben happened to come into the kitchen at that time so we only had to call Nate. He didn't respond to our calls until we mentioned chocolate. When he got to the table he looked at his Swiss Cake Roll for a moment, then he looked at Vicki and with sweet sincerity said, "Choc-kit, thank oo!"

ROLE REVERSAL. Most men love to watch sports, either in person or on TV. Not me. To be honest I am totally lost on the finer details about how every ball game works. The biggest reason I am remotely interested in hockey is that no one else in Tennessee really understands the game so I am in good company. When Vicki turns on a Titans or Vols football game, even the Super Bowl, you can find me anywhere else in the house doing anything else. What was funny was that when Vicki flipped on the Titans game today she and Jenna were in there rooting their team on. (Jenna did wonder why most of the players are brown.) The boys followed them in there but lost interest after about five minutes. Ours is not a typical home.

Joe

New and Old Memories

It feels like nature is switching gears now. The days are still warm enough but the nights are starting to get a little cool. We are hearing the cicadas less and crickets more. Bill Chatman has been cutting his tobacco this week while other farmers are getting a head start on harvesting their corn. We are moving into one of my favorite times of year.

SLEEP WALKING. One morning this week I got up and as normal went to the bathroom to take a shower. Still half asleep I felt my way as I wasn't really ready to see light yet. That's when I stubbed my toe on a strange mass on the floor in front of the toilet. Squatting down to take a closer look I found Nate curled up in a little ball there, dead to the world. I carried him to his bed, put his bear in his arms and didn't hear from him again for an hour and a half. I have no idea why he was there but I vaguely remember him coming to my side of the bed and looking at me during the night.

GOOD IMPRESSIONS. Nate has a good friend at church and Mom's Day Out. His name is Ian. They play together really well. Ian, at this point, is more of a talker than Nate. His mom recently told us that Ian never stops talking about his buddy Nate. He even prays for him when they bless their food and at his bedtime prayers. It is neat to see little friendships develop between kids at this age.

SMOOTHEST EVER. I mentioned before that Vicki is in charge of organizing PTO volunteers whenever East Robertson has major events. Grandparents' Day on Friday was the first event of the school year. They sold around 450 tickets to grandparents who came to eat lunch with their grandchildren. Vicki had to organize people to handle guest check-in, serving and various other duties. Later that day I had to call the school regarding some data we had received. One of the first things that was said to me on the phone was that Vicki's organization made this the smoothest Grandparent's Day ever. That's my wife! Vicki said she wished she had worn a pedometer and comfortable shoes.

LABOR DAY COOK OUT. Before you decide I am reporting this a bit late we had to postpone our cookout to Friday night because Ben was a little sick on Monday. This year we expanded our guest list to include Jimmie and Suzanne Pitt, Ed and Connie Coleman and Scott and Elizabeth Budd and their daughter Alyssa (it turned out that Scott was unable to come). We had a blast. After supper the kids and several of the adults got in the floor and built a train layout that went around Pauline's couch. It was very sad when we had to put the train tracks away and everyone had to go.

REMINISCING. Last week's train ride reminded me and Vicki of another train ride we took several years ago. It was our third anniversary and we were vacationing in Ft. Meyers, Florida. Overall we enjoyed that trip. Two of my favorite memories were touring the homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford and picking up sea shells on Captiva Island. Our anniversary was a disaster.

We had planned all kinds of fun, touristy things for our special day. Our activities started with lunch which actually went pretty well (I assume it did because I don't remember it). After lunch we took a train ride to see some of the local scenery. The sights next to the railroad tracks in Ft. Meyers is no better than it is in Nashville. On top of all of that the passenger car we were riding in rocked badly. I asked the lady about it and learned that the suspension on the car was not designed for low speeds. Unfortunately, the speed limit for the tracks we were on was low because it was an urban area. We were seasick by the time we returned to the station.

After our train ride we drove down to a marina where we had planned to have a nice dinner and take an evening cruise on a sailboat. We were rear-ended on the way there. At least the damage to our car was hardly noticeable.

I cannot remember how we heard about the restaurant but it was right on the water and the boat we were to sail on was within view. Their air conditioning was broken. I'm sure our queasiness from the train ride, the accident and the lack of A/C had something to do with it but the food was terrible.

Once we choked supper down we boarded our boat. The brochure told of a cruise around Sanibel and Captiva Islands with dolphins jumping around the boat, capped off with a beautiful sunset. We got everything but that. The crew tried raising the sails but the wind was too light to be of any use and they eventually switched to the engine. This was a relief to us because the waves, small as they were did nothing to help two people already feeling ill from the train and bad food. While "at sea" Vicki thought she saw the dorsal fin of one dolphin. The sunset, obscured by a thick haze, was far from spectacular. We found out the next day that a sandstorm in the Sahara Desert had lifted a lot of sand into the upper atmosphere which had blown across the ocean over the skies of southern Florida. Not even Jimmy Buffett could soothe us because their stereo was broken. We were very glad to get to the condo that night, take some Pepto-Bismol and lie on a bed that was not moving.

Joe