Happy Fathers' Day!

I'd like to introduce you to my Daddy.   Everybody, this is James.  Daddy meet everyone out in cyberspace.  Not only is my Dad a father, a grandfather and a great- grandfather, he is, without a doubt, the most intelligent man I've ever known.

He's smart, witty and has a tendency to talk your head off.  I say that in love Daddy (daughter smiling).  I received the "talk your head off" gene from him.

Some other things about my Dad....

His mother died in 1933 when he was only 8. It was tough back then for my grandpa to raise 4 young children by himself. The youngest, Aunt Wanda, was sent to live with their Aunt Nettie and in 1934 Daddy was sent to Hollis, Oklahoma to live with his cousin George Gould. One of Daddy's and George’s playmates was Darrell Royal. They would play ‘WW I in the trenches’. One day “Darrell got his teeth loosed [sic] and was eating dirt for 6 days”.

Grandpa re-married in 1937 and Daddy & Aunt Wanda returned home to be raised by their step-mother. Daddy was in elementary school during the Great Depression and the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Every hour the teacher and all the students would have to wipe their desk tops clean of all of the dirt that would settle on them. Each day Daddy would go home from school with red dirt all over his shirt sleeves. His step-mother would say, “Isn’t there any way to keep your shirt clean?” and my daddy would reply, “well, I have to write”. I wonder if that was considered sassing back in those days?

Daddy served in WW II, graduated from the University of Arkansas, married my mother and here we are!

I can actually remember looking at photos of him when I was really young and thinking, "my Daddy's so handsome".

One year he was traveling so missed my birthday. He typed me a birthday letter on the hotel stationery and brought me a little stuffed figure that was about 6” high.  He was a “Prisoner of Love”.

I still have him.  He's been doing time for almost 50 years now.

Our 4th of July's were always fun as kids.  When we were real young the only fireworks we were allowed to set off by ourselves were sparklers and snakes.  During those years Dad would put on a fireworks show for us.  He got a 4’ x 6’ plywood board and covered it by nailing pinwheels all over it and lit them all at once. Another thing he did for us on the 4th was create a chute for us to set off our pop-bottle rockets.  He took a six foot 3-sided piece of aluminum tubing and buried about a foot of it into the ground, at a 45° angle.  We would place the pop-bottle rocket in the tube, the long, delicate stem resting on the ground.  Then we’d light the fuse and it would shoot out of that tube like, well… like a rocket!!

He taught me how to write cursive.  I can remember sitting at the dining room table and he would place a piece of paper in front of me tilted to the left at a 45° angle.  He'd then give me a pencil and have me draw ovals, tracing them clockwise over and over; just to demonstrate the correct slant I should have on my cursive.

I remember him chasing me upstairs with the belt because I sassed him.   Yes, he eventually caught me and gave me my due.

It was probably Dad who made me take Algebra II in my senior year of high school.  I did not need to take the course in order to graduate.  I do recall Dad did not want me to drop the class.  Did I mention I did not get my Dad’s ‘smart gene’?  One night we sat at the dining room table until 1:00 in the morning; Dad starting at the beginning of the text book explaining it all to me.  I still didn’t get it, but thanks for trying Dad.  Oh, and by the way..I dropped that class... wouldn't be good to have an "F" on my transcript....sorry.  And, just as I expected...I did not need that class to get through life.

My love for cooking and food largely came from my Dad.  My allergies and hay fever come from my Dad.  And did I mention I got the "talk your head off gene' from him?

Happy Fathers' Day Dad!

Love you!!

 

Happy Mother's Day Mommy

I love this photo of my mother when she was a child.  I love it for so many reasons.  First of all, she is just so darn cute.  I love it that I see my niece & my nephew when I look at that face.  I see her eyes in everyone of us London kids.  I have her mouth.   I have her ears.

I love her bangs in this photo; I'm sure she was squirming when her mother was trying to trim them, just like I used to squirm when she tried to trim mine.

I love that little curl above her ear.  I love that her buttons match her scarf.  And you know, I love that great wallpaper in the background.  I'll have to remember to ask her if she recalls where this was taken.

I just love my momma.  She was gifted with the most beautiful singing voice that she passed on to her granddaughter.  She is the reason I love classical music, Broadway musicals, poetry, and the arts as a whole.  She taught me to not judge people just because other people judged them for some reason or another.

She came to my rescue and helped me through times when I couldn't figure things out for myself.  Thank you mom for loving me unconditionally and so completely.  I love because you taught me how to love.

Happy Mother's Day everyday...not just today.  I love you more than anything.
Love, Jamie

A Springtime Outing

Last weekend Lovey and I took a road trip down the highway towards Waco.  It was a lovely day and was perfect for mixing pleasure and business.

Our first stop was at Burgundy Pasture Beef Boucherie for a burger.  Sorry I didn't get any photos.  The minute we pulled into the parking lot I began salivating and foaming at the mouth and completely forgot everything except getting in there and gettting my burger.  It is family owned and they fire up their grill several days a week.  Seeing that it is a little over 50 miles south of where we live we don't get down here too often.

This is such a great place.  They raise their own 100% grass fed beef, pork and lamb.  The animals are raised holistically in pastures with no hormones, antibiotics, grain feeding or any other artificial circumstance.  They use no herbicides, pesticides or synthetic fertilizers on their pastures.  All the meats are cut and packaged at The Burgundy Boucherie - with the USDA stamp of approval.  Then they make us hamburgers (actually 3 - we half the 2nd one). 

Their cuts of meat having been appearing on menus of Fort Worth and Dallas restaurants.

Tummies full, we roll back in the car and head for Homestead Heritage Crafts Village north of Waco on a 510-acre homesteading community.  They have blacksmithing, woodworking, pottery, a gristmill, fiber crafts, a great gift barn and a café and bakery.  The coolest thing there is The Ploughshare, which is an institute for sustainable culture where they teach you all sorts of agricultrual skills like raising bees, cattle or chicken to mention a few.   They'll also teach you how to build furniture and spin cotton, flax and wool then weave your yarn into all sorts of things.  That's just touching the surface.

Lovey had some business at the forge and the woodworking building so I walked around the property and enjoyed the beautiful weather. 

The wildflowers were in bloom.

Indian Paint Brushes

Bluebonnets

Love the Texas Bluebonnets.  They're my favorite.


Evening Primrose


California Poppies

I spent a little time and money at the Grist Mill.

  

You can watch them grind the red wheat.  Even though these people are hard at work they are so willing to share their knowledge with you.  On a past visit they were nice enough to walk us through the whole process.

You can buy the whole grains or purchase the meals and flours ready to use.  I usually buy their pecan waffle mix which is tasty, tasty, tasty.

 

I sauntered over to the Forge to see how Lovey was coming along.  It's really warm in there.

Partly because of this.

The bellows

Tools of the trade

One of the anvils in the shop

Our last bit of business was at the woodworking shop

We watched this demonstration on making dovetail joints

You can take several woodworking classes and make your own rocker, like this.

When I come here I dream of living like this; I'd work in the grist mill and raise bees.  But my life is back up the highway; with Lovey and an office in a high-rise.

WO-HE-LO

Today marks the 102nd birthday of the Camp Fire Girls organization.  It was founded in Vermont in 1910 by Luther Gulick, M.D., and his wife, Charlotte Gulick, as the first non-sectarian organization for girls in the United States.  WO-HE-LO is the 'watchword' for Blue Birds and Camp Fire Girls. It stands for WOrk-HEalth-LOve

In the '70's they started letting little boys into Camp Fire and it became Camp Fire Kids.  I say PHOOEY on that!  Why not let the little boys have their boy organizations and let the little girls have their girl organizations.  They're going to have plenty of time to spend together when they get older.  I'll move on and not get in too deep on that rant.
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My life as a Blue Bird began in the 1960's while attending Paul Revere Elementary school in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  We did all sorts of fun stuff and my favorite was when we would go to state parks and camp out for the weekend.  I do remember one Fall when it was cold and we actually stayed in cabins.  I was shocked and simply didn't understand why our Leader took the electrical unit to my electric blanket away from me.  We dug our own latrines which I thought was really cool until I realized that was what I was going to have to do my business in.  One of my comrades and I decided we needed a "seat" and connected a branch between two trees with rope from our bedrolls so we could sit on it.  Uh, huh, snapped right in two that branch did!

Cooking over the camp fire was the best.  Prior to our trip we made paraffin fire starters with tuna cans, melted wax, and corrugated cardboard.  We learned how to cook almost anything by wrapping it in aluminum foil and throwing it into the campfire.  Our specialty was a Hobo pack with a hamburger patty, potatoes and carrots.

 
I absolutely loved the beads.  You earned beads by completing different tasks in different areas.  Each area was symbolized by a different bead of a certain shape and color and when you earned 10 of one type of bead, you received a large bead of the same.  We had navy blue felt vests that you sewed the beads onto; in any design you could think of.  I'd rather marvel my beads in a big pile as in the picture above.  They were just so pretty!

When I was active these were the beads we strove to earn:
red - round balls for Sports and Games
yellow - angular for Business
green - 4-sided beads for Creative Arts
brown - little logs for Outdoors
orange - cylindrical for Home
sky blue - flat ovals for Science
red, white & blue - triangular for Citizenship

 This badge was tucked among all my treasures that I've hoarded over the years.  It obviously never made it to the vest.  I hope my vest with all the colorful beads on it is tucked somewhere high up on a shelf in a closet at my parents' house.  This particular badge was for attending summer Camp Fire Girl camp in our state.  Each summer they made the badges a different color.

The camp I attended during the summer was Camp Waluhili.  I loved Camp Waluhili and the summer I loved the most was the one I had with “Miss Bunny” as our cabin counselor.  The years I attended are very sketchy; some time during the mid-1960’s.  I would love to see the camp today.  It was beautiful and even as a youngster I remember loving how wooded and lush it was.  It’s located on Fort Gibson Lake in Oklahoma.  Each cabin had a different Indian name.  Everything in Camp Fire Girls had an Indian name; even I did; but I couldn’t tell you what mine was.  Today it would be Runs With Wine.

We canoed a lot and I think that was my favorite activity.  And my favorite camp song was A Boy And a Girl in a Little Canoe

Just a boy and a girl in a little canoe

With the moon shinin' all around

And as he plied his paddle

You couldn't even hear a sound

Well, they talked, and they talked

Til' the moon grew dim,

He said "You better kiss me or get out and swim"

So watcha' gonna do in a little canoe

with the moon shinin' all a-,

boats floatin' all a-,

girls swimmin' all around,

Oh yeah!

I actually made a video of me singing the song but trust me, be glad I attached a You Tube version.  I'm just sorry you can't see the hand motions we had with the song.

So, congratulations Camp Fire Girls (or Kids or whatever you go by these days). I leave you with the Campfire Goodnight..

CLOSING SONG: Campfire Goodnight-- by Kathryn Court, copyright by Camp Fire
Now as the sun sinks slowly,
And birds are going to nest,
All of the Camp Fire maidens, too,
Must take their rest.
Then as the fire grows fainter,
And we go into the night,
Good Great Spirit guard us
And guide our steps aright.

Now our camp fire fadeth,
Now the flame burns low.
Now all Camp Fire maidens
to slumber land must go.
May the peace of the lapping water,
the peace of the still starlight,
the peace of the fire lit forest
be with us through the nite;
the peace of our fire-lit faces
be with us through the night.

It's a Bake Sale!!

Last week was the Annual Valentine Bake Sale at work.  It is put on by the volunteer group at work as our big fund raiser.  This is really a H.U.G.E. project for us and provides the funds for all of our volunteer work for the next year. 


We sold hundreds of valentine cookies  and valentine cookie bouquets that are made by the volunteers.  I wrote about them over here. 

In addition to the cookies we also sold these cute Hershey Kiss Roses.

You can buy them arranged in valentine-themed coffee cups or

as lovely bouquets, ready to present to your dear heart.

Another really fun part of the bake sale are the Executive Bake Off and an Employee Bake Off.  The entrants are judged and awarded fun prizes and bragging rights.  There is also a People's Choice award. 

The most important part of the bake off is the money that is brought in.  Bid sheets are placed in front of the baked goods and employees bid on them throughout the day.  A prize is given for the baked good that brought in the most money.

This is what I made.  No prizes or awards here but I think it brought in $40-$45.  It was a Pear & Raspberry Heart Pie.  Sure hope whoever bought it thought it was good.  It was a recipe off of the Martha Stewart Living website and it's the first time I made it.

Here are photos of some of the entries that I thought were clever.

This is called "That's Amore".  Yes, those are spaghetti and meatballs.  Huh????'.  I'll bet squeezing the tube of icing for the spaghetti was fun.

Then you see this sitting on the table next to it and you get the valentine connection.

"You're a Reel Catch" - there is actually a fish in the bowl; you can't see it because my photography stinks.  The cake is baked in a porcelain baking pan, which goes with the cake to the successful bidder. 

That is partly what brings in big bucks on some of these baked goods.  The bidders will actually bid for the cake stand or beautiful platter.  Whoever bought mine got themselves a $45.00 Pyrex pie plate.  I must do better in the creativity department next year.

"Wild About U!" - Remember Mandy in my cookie post?  This was her cake.

"Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake" - This won the "Most Likely to Appear on a Wolfgang Puck Menu" award.

"Hunt Wheels" - We have a large cycling club within our company.  This cake won "Best Company Theme".

This is another cake that contended for the "Company Theme" category depicting a frac job.  For those of you who are not in the oil and gas industry, a frac job, or fracture stimulation is a technique used by engineers to create a crack or fracture in the rock that contains oil or gas. This crack is then filled with sand or a artificial proppant (ceramic beads, sintered bauxite, or glass beads) to allow the freer flow of oil or gas from the rock to the wellbore.

Did I mention this was an educational site?

 “The Hunt Eagle Ford Peace of Mind”- This fondant covered cake won the judges' "Best Homemade" award in the Executive category as well as taking home the "Peoples' Choice" award.

I lusted after this platter but was out-bid.  Each set of 4 little cups contained Tiramisu, Mango Cheesecake, Carrot Cake and fresh berries and cheese.  Y.U.M.

"Buche de Valentine"

"Glaze'n Chocolate" - Look how shiny!  Think there are many calories in this?  this cake took home the "Best Homemade" in the employee category.

Too cute!  A salute to the company softball team.

"Take My Heart" - This beautiful cake won the "Best Procured" award in the Executive Category.  However, let me note that it was homemade by an employee and the executive paid her to make it.  So, I believe they were both winners!  I was fortunate to taste this.  A friend who paid $85.00 for it shared it at the office.  The cake tasted as good as it is beautiful!

Well, that was our humble bake sale this year.  I can hardly wait to see what people come up with next year!

Good Night Mrs. James

I've loved Etta James' work for many years.

Etta James passed away today of complications from leukemia.

Here are a few that were my favorites; that make me revel in sentimental fondness.

Good Night Mrs. James.  Your music will live on.

On The 12th Day of Christmas...

my true love sent to me,

12 Drummers Drumming

Traditionally, the 12 drummers drumming refers to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed.  This is a devotional in itself.

1. I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth
2. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord
3. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary
4. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell
5. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father
6. He will come again to judge the living and the dead
7. I believe in the Holy Spirit
8. the holy catholic Church
9. the communion of saints
10. the forgiveness of sins
11. the resurrection of the body
12. and life everlasting

In case you want more, here is the devotional for the 12th Day of Christmas.

I have enjoyed walking through these 12 Days of Christmas.  Tomorrow you may take down your tree and all of your decorations.  Amen.