On October 23 Danny and I hit the road again after being home 4 days! This time we drove to Tyler, Texas to attend West Erwin church of Christ's 125 Anniversary and to visit with our dear friend, Linda.

We arrived around 4:30 and met Linda at Jones Elementary School where she is the librarian and media specialist. She wanted to give us a tour of their fabulous new school! This place is as nice as most universities! The library was equipped with an online catalog, a number of computers for research and a media room where computer classes are taught by Linda using a computer generated "Smart Board." They even have a conference room where Jones' students can have live interchanges with students from other countries. Wow! Things have changed since I was a part of Tyler ISD!!

We spent the evening with Linda and her mom who cooked us a delicious meal. I gave them some laughs as I tried to walk a tight rope while playing on Wii. I never have been called graceful, but this was pitiful! We so enjoyed catching up with each other and staying in her home overnight. Thanks, Linda, for your hospitality.

October 23 - In the late afternoon we met Carolyn and Les for supper at Jason's Deli! We enjoyed the meal in spite of tornado warnings for that very area. Fortunately, the tornado passes us by. We followed Les and Carolyn to Silver Leaf Villages (at least I think that's the name of the resort) and stayed with them on Saturday night in their timeshare condo. Good friends to put us up for the night, right? Thank you, Les and Carolyn for hosting us for the evening. Does this sound like we are "free loaders"?

October 24 - Here are some pictures of the 125th Anniversary of West Erwin.

Elmer is still greeting members and visitors alike at the door just as he did when we lived in Tyler. We were so encouraged to see so many of our beloved Christian friends and be blessed with a wonderful worship service of over 800. Jay Lockhart presented another uplifting lesson and the singing was beautiful. The fellowship meal following services was delicious (Brisket and Chicken with all the fix'ns) and gave us another opportunity to visit with our friends.

Love these folks! They mean so much to us!

Maggie, Jay Lockhart, and Cathy Scroggins

Ray and Carolyn Wommack

Julie Ables, Jane and Bob Clemmons!

Jay Lockhart was the minister at West Erwin for around 20 years... maybe longer.

As usual, we were some of the last to leave following lunch.... just so hard to leave those who have meant so much to us through the years.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Abilene, Texas

As planned, we drove to Abilene and arrived on Sunday evening in time to pick up Jason at the University church of Christ building. He was just returning from a weekend youth retreat. Was he tired? You bet! Wouldn't you be after planning, orchestrating the logistics, and leading two retreats (Friday/Saturday for Junior High & Saturday/Sunday for High School) in one weekend? So proud of our son and glad he has chosen to serve our LORD as a youth minister.

Even though we love Jason and Karla so much, you wouldn't know it from the pictures that we took.... none of the two of them and lots of Kaila and Alexa. Go figure....

Any way, here are a few favorite pictures of us with the grands!

Look who went to sleep!

Kaila working on her chair! She's such a doll!

Alexa.... now is she beautiful? She's beginning to interact with you and is such a treasure!

Nana and the Grands, or maybe I should say the wiggle worms! Thought I was going to drop one of them before Papa could take the picture.

Papa and the Grands... Kaila had an ear ache and needed some TLC. Papa could sure help with that!

We had so much fun staying with them and relishing Karla's great cooking! Papa and I even babysat and gave Jason and Karla a chance to get out for lunch one day. On Wednesday morning we headed for home. It was hard to say goodbye knowing that we won't get to see them in person until Christmas. But talking to them on Face Time is wonderful and helps keep us in contact with our children! So glad that Jason & Karla and Courtney & Keith all have the ability to Face Time now! Make the distance so much more bearable....

Well, so long until I post the next blog...