"Success" Garden

Jim has been planning to plant a garden this year in order to help the grandchildren understand what is involved. He enlisted Alexis' help to plan what to plant, and she decided to use it as a Young Women's Project. We had the missionaries help us till the ground, and Mom and Alden raked, dug up grass, and leveled the ground. Alexis then planned a Tuesday evening to help us get the seeds and plant. Her family came along and helped us out. We planted three rows of corn, a row of carrots, a row of radishes, and two rows of peas. Later on we added tomato plants (that Dahra received from a member of her ward who had grown them from seeds), some jalepeno peppers and some green peppers. We took some pictures to document, and Alexis has been coming over on Tuesday evenings to weed, water, fertilize and help. We talked about the fact that people used to have "Victory" gardens, and discussed calling it a "Stimulus" garden, but Alexis decided that was negative, so we decided to call it a "Success" garden instead. It's been a good learning experience for all of us, and even though 90-year-old J.T. (who has a big garden behind us) has a bigger and better-growing garden, we've felt good about ours and are considering it a great learning experience. We'll give updates every once in a while.

Success Garden Pictures

Jim Says "Goodbye" to Students

Because his hip operation was on May 6, Jim's last bus trip was on May 5, 2009. He told his students about the operation and that he would have the "Smiley" sign in the window, and then he took some pictures of some of the students. He said it was sad, but he was glad to be getting his hips fixed so that he would be ready for next year. He asked for the same routes, and one of the parents said they asked for him to be the bus driver next year. It was a good end to a first year of driving the bus!

"Smiley Face" Party

When we found out that Jim was going into the hospital, Lora planned a "Smiley Face" party. She invited all the family from Atlanta to bring a picnic and bicycles for a party in the driveway at Stacy's house. She had everyone sign a yellow poster with a happy face on it. The invitation read that we wanted to wish him a "smiley face" instead of a "frowney face" for the operation. (One of the girls on the bus when he told him he would put a happy face in his window said, "If it's a 'frowney face' does that mean you died?") We had a great time and it was neat for the kids to be there and wish him a "smiley face"!

Smiley Face Party Pictures

Jim Has Blog!

Jim has developed a blog to keep his school bus students informed about his hip operation and to post some pictures of the students and the school bus. If you'd like to keep up with his progress, and see his blog, click on the picture of Jim and Nancy to the right.