COTTLE MISSION NEWS: Week 24

Our week began at the USO, but first we drove to the Naval Station and dropped off a birthday cake for Jerald LaGae who is celebrating today. At the USO we began helping Cheryl Vandiver with preparation for tonight’s “No Dough” dinner. Pam supervised several volunteers from JEA who were cutting up vegetables for the tossed salad. Joyce Schellhorn (Director) had me doing a number of little projects around the center. I also set up the salad and dessert bar areas. At noon I grabbed Pam and we went for lunch at Whataburger and also made a deposit for Joyce and filled up two natural gas tanks for the grills. Back at the USO we continued setting up for dinner and around 4:00 pm volunteers began arriving to serve and at 5:00 pm the dinner began. We didn’t have a big crowd, but those who came seemed to enjoy the meal. Pam and I worked at a giveaway table where children could pick out toys, games or stuffed animals. Joyce had boxes and boxes of those items and the kids loved touching each item, trying to decide which one was just right. At 7:00 pm Pam and I took food to the gate guards at the Naval Station and then returned to the USO and helped clean up and put away.

On Tuesday we returned to the USO at mid-morning and Joyce Schellhorn (Director) put us to work. The main event of the day was peeling potatoes left over from the dinner Monday evening with the hopes of turning them into mashed potatoes for the next dinner. It was quite a job. Pam and I spent two hours on the potatoes and finally got them done. As we got them peeled I ran them through a shredding machine and cut them into potato bits and bagged them and put them in the refrigerator. We’ll see how they work out. A community service worked came just as we finished and helped us clean up. At 2:00 pm and we said our goodbyes and came home. Just as we got out on the road a tremendous thunderstorm hit along the Wonderwood road with torrential rain, wind and thunder booming every few seconds. Thankfully the traffic wasn’t bad as we moved along at about 25 mph. By our apartment the storm had let up, so we stopped at Arby’s and got some lunch. Pam spent the afternoon fixing dinner for tonight. The Lance & Stephanie Jarvis came for dinner and we enjoyed their visit. They arrived at 6:00 pm and we sat down to a wonderful meal—Ginger Chicken! They are a fun couple and have been married for a year. Lance is on the USS Philippine Sea which is in drydock across the river and we see his ship everyday as we drive to Mayport. Stefanie is currently unemployed but is working on several potential jobs. She is qualified in child development and has taught special education so it’s only a matter of time. She is from Rifle, Colorado so we have talked about our drives through her town often. Lance is from South Jordan and they met in a YSA Ward in Salt Lake. After dinner we sat in the living room and visited for another hour and Lance taught a home evening lesson on “Gratitude” and we had some good discussions. It was an enjoyable evening.

Wednesday morning began at the doctor’s office. I had an appointment (to make up for one I missed 10 days ago) and needed an INR test (clotting factor) done. We were also having lunch with Alexis Connelly and Tyler Gneck at noon on base. At the clinic a nurse took us into a treatment room and did the INR test—1.7 (normal is 2.0-3.0). When Doctor Hoffman came in we visited over the low number and she asked me to make some changes to my meds for a week and then return on the 1^st of August for another test. Both Pam and I got meds ordered and then we drove to the USO and dropped off a cake Pam made for Joyce Schellhorn (Director). Pam said Joyce was eating a piece as she left. We drove on base and found the Subway restaurant and met up with Alexis and Tyler and had a nice lunch with them. They are both enjoyable to be around and are actually doing a few things together. We returned to the USO at 12:30 pm and spent 2 hours working on children’s book bags for Joyce. Another volunteer helped us, and we put together 25 bags before we left. While there we witnessed another terrific rain storm with lightning and thunder, but it was pretty much done when we left.

Thursday morning, we opened the USO this morning and there were some bread and pastries, but not nearly the amount we usually had. We tabulated the value and then opened it up for patrons. An air conditioning man came shortly after we arrived and spent the morning going over the system throughout the building checking flow rates, etc. Pam took care of the office and I worked on the bookbag project again. The bins of items were all mixed up so I sorted them and then filled another 20 bookbags. Pam was busy keeping up with the calls and guests at the front desk. We had a couple of other volunteers come to work, but they mostly talked and not much work. Joyce Schellhorn (Director) finally arrived about 3:00 pm and we turned things over to her and left. We drove to a new pizza place call “Your Pie” and it was good. Reminded us of “Mod Pizza” in Provo and Denver.

Friday, we did not work at the USO, so spent time doing housework and laundry. I moved all the furniture to vacuum and found several roaches (dead) so the bait seemed to be working. Pam cleaned the bathrooms and started laundry and by noon we had the final load in the washer. We went to Freddy’s for lunch and passed through a couple of heavy rain storms coming and going. Back at the apartment we took care of the laundry and were done for another week. I sat at the computer and went through our list of military contacts and began calling every number to try and locate people. I spent about 3 hours doing this and made substantial progress and resolved several questions about location. I talked with several people from out of the state who had transferred and enjoyed visiting with them for a few minutes. Pam spent the afternoon making cookies to distribute next week to our families.

Saturday was supposed to be rain free, so we drove to the Alexander’s house at 10:00 am and Tara was home with her kids. Wes left on deployment last Wednesday, so we hope to be of service to her. I mowed their lawns and Pam visited and helped Tara inside. Pam sprayed me liberally and I didn’t have any issues with bugs, even the bees seemed to evade me. Wes has 4 hives in his back yard and I could see them around the boxes, but they didn’t come my way as I mowed. When done I joined them inside and we visited for a few minutes and then returned home for a quick shower. We drove to the Naval Station and took a plate of cookies to the LaGae’s and Clive was doing much better. The family was heading out to the zoo, so that was a positive sign. We then drove to an apartment building to try and see Angie Trejo, (another military single mother) but couldn’t get through the security gate. She won’t answer her phone, so will have to try something else. We had lunch and did a little shopping before returning to our apartment.

We attended church today in the Jacksonville Beach Ward. As we entered the chapel we noticed President Lee was there and it was nice to visit with him and he sat with us. Tyler Gneck, the Jarvis’ and Shay Tuttle were in attendance and the meeting was excellent. Alexis had a migraine this morning, so she stayed home. Following the meeting Sister Jennie Black, a new military wife, came up and introduced herself to me. I had talked with her on the phone yesterday and was happy to see her. Her family moved from Newport, Rhode Island and her husband is on a pre-commissioning team for a new DDG in Pascagoula, Mississippi. They will be a nice addition to our military families and live on the Naval Station. We visited with Sister Knudsen and Everhard and decided to meet them at the Beach for dinner on Wednesday instead of them coming to our home. During the last hour rain started coming down in buckets and standing in the foyer looking outside I wasn’t sure we would get to our van. Finally, in a lull I raced out and got an umbrella and came back to the chapel and Pam and I made it to the car. The rain is an amazing thing here in Jacksonville and I’m not sure we will ever get used to it. This morning when we left the apartment we set off two “Bug Bombs” in the bedroom and living room and upon arrival they were done so we opened the windows and turned on the AC again and left it that way for an additional 2 hours. We hoped it would do some good.