Weekend Report - Grand Lake

Jesse and I went with 12 other ladies to Grand Lake, OK, this past weekend.

The house was beautiful.

Here is the view from the deck.

We celebrated my friend, B’s 60th birthday by spending the weekend at a beautiful house on the lake. The weather was overcast and cold, but we just wanted lots of time together – laughing, talking, playing games – a girl’s weekend. The fellowship time was great. Moving the herd around was not so great. You know, I am a bit of a Border Collie personality, and I tend to bark and nip heels if people are not moving right along. With 14 ladies, it was difficult to restrain my tendency to give orders. That reminds me, years ago, I told my family that I would like to be the cruise director on a ship. My family laughed and teased me. My son said, "You mean drill sergeant!" and then he mimicked a sergeant, "You will play this game and you will have fun!"

Although I would love to tell you all about the weekend and the funny things that happened, it was mostly "you had to have been there" stories.

We did dress B up as the "Queen B" with a crown, scepter, bee wings and antennas – she was great!

Janice (B’s sister) wrote a song for B, and Cara put it to music and sang to B – it was beautiful and a tearjerker.

We played a game, which was similar to Taboo and charades. I drew "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and had to act out the line. I went for the word "Christmas" first – easy. Then I went for "hippopotamus" by holding my arms out like I was big, and then making a hippo mouth with my fists – they didn’t get it. At one point someone guessed "How Great is Our God," which was so ridiculous everyone cracked-up.

In this picture, B and her daughters along with Janice and Lindz are making the "hippo sign," which became the weekend joke. There were lots of other jokes and lots of fun, but what goes on the road stays on the road.

One other game we played was "Finish That Line." We were given a list of lines from Christmas carols, and we had to give the next line. It was much harder than it looked. Examples:
1. Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy-cozy are we…
2. Strings of streetlights, even stop lights, blink a bright red and green…
3. Gone away is the bluebird, here to stay in a new bird…
4. Christmas Eve will find me where the love light gleams…
To find the next line, the ladies would start singing the carol, but then stop where they did not know the rest of the song. Always, someone would continue singing the next line. Then we would all join in and sing the carol. It was a great way to sing Christmas carols.

We also went to the Christmas parade in Grove, OK, which advertised "80 lighted entries!" I think to qualify as a "lighted vehicle" you only had to turn on your headlights. Still, it was lots of fun – a good weekend, but hard on my diet.

Church with the GGs

By the time GBN1 was a year old, she had quite the little personality. Somewhere we have a video of GBN1 whistling, which she did anytime the word "dog" was mentioned or she saw a dog. I remember a time in church when the preacher said the word dog, and GBN1 started whistling. Later people asked me if it were me whistling – she could whistle like a grown-up. Yeah right! I’m going to whistle out in church. It was the baby! I got lots of looks that said, "Sure, Lou, blame the kid." I found this past post, which tells a funny on GBN1

GBN1 is a hard act to follow, but GBN2 is coming in to her own. At first she did everything her big sister did, and she still does, but the real Soph is coming out. Jesse got a video of the GGs dressing up their Crewcraw (Toby) the other day. I hope she posts it, because it is hilarious. Update: here is the video And Crewcraw should get "Best Grandpa of the Year." While we were keeping the girls a couple of weeks ago, Toby came in and gave me a kiss. In her husky baby voice, GBN2 grinned and said, "Ah you meh-weed? My mommy is meh-weed to my daddy." She has such a funny way of looking at things - everybody knows you don’t kiss unless you are married. In Jes' video, GBN2 says "meh-weed" and I think you would find it funny.


So last night at church the GGs were allowed to sit with us – probably a mistake, but lots of fun. During the lesson both girls were fairly quiet and coloring on some paper, which Booboo keeps in her big "Mary Poppins" bag. I left for just a few minutes to take GBN1 to the bathroom, but when I came back I saw that Crewcraw had let GBN2 have a Sharpie highlighter. I NEVER let GBN2 have the highlighter, because she colors herself, the paper, the chair, her tongue, etc. Eventually I got the highlighter from her without any fuss and tried to hand it off to Toby to hide. GBN2 is pretty quick, and she saw the handoff. She demanded the highlighter to which I said no. In a loud whisper voice, she gave me the what-for. I couldn’t really hear what she was saying, but her tone and eyes were enough to let me know that she was mad at me. Although it was funny and very entertaining, speaking to Booboo with a not-so-respectful voice is not a good idea. I leaned down and told her she would behave or go set with her daddy. At this point, her legs turned to noodles, and she collapsed to the floor in a heap. I reached to pick her up, but she crawled under the chair. I tried to pull her out, but she went further. Crewcraw bent over to get her, and she latched her little fingers around the chair. He pulled to no avail. He stood up and pulled her by her legs – didn’t budge. He went down and pried her fingers loose and pulled her out – she was a noodle again. I had lots of thoughts like: How very ridiculous! How very funny! Better win this one. Go get ‘em Crewcraw! What will the preacher think? Etc. I also wondered what Toby was going to do with her once he got her out from under the chair. I know what I would have done, and it would not have been pretty. The situation may have been funny, but it still called for discipline. Fortunately Toby is more wise than I am, and he handed GBN2 off to be disciplined by her father. She was back a few minutes later in Crewcraw’s lap coloring on the same piece of paper as if nothing had happened. Don’t you wish we all had such forgiveness/forgetfulness in us when we have major confrontations?


Eventually, the GGs packed up and left church early. Sometimes church runs late on Wed nights and the GGs get tired – obviously. I was still giggling when they left.

Picture Story Time

These pictures were taken after Thanksgiving, which was a fairly warm weekend. I asked Jesse to take a new photo of the GGs and me on the four-wheeler for my blog. Of course, that meant riding them around the pasture and then some. We rode out to the mailbox and got the mail. On the way back to the house, we were zipping through the pasture and the GGs were squealing and laughing when the mail flew out of the basket on the four-wheeler (I didn’t think we were going that fast…). Without thinking I said, "Crap!" GBN1 laughed and repeated my word. Great - if that gets back to her mother, we are toast.

Here is my favorite photo that will go on the blog. Then we started clowning around. Silly Booboo!

Then the dogs joined us (I mentioned yesterday that Jack, the Red Heeler, is a climber. Then we moved over to the new addition on the house, which was highly entertaining for the GGs. GBN2 was Jesse’s Girl! Then it was time for the GGs to go home :(

Speaking of Jesse, here she is as "Mrs. Clausing" in The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever. She did not like all the make-up.

Wingin' Weekend

In typical Baggett fashion, we went into the weekend without much of a plan, but that is okay. We are known for wingin’ it. Friday night Toby and I both got home about the same time. We were just setting down to tortilla burgers, when I said, "Are we going to Jesse’s play tonight?" We mulled over the possibility of going on Saturday night or the matinee on Sunday. Toby replied that he would rather just stay home. I think the thought of hustling around getting ready for the play and going back into town did not sound very pleasing to him. But then I reminded him that the play did not start until 7:30 – giving us plenty of time to eat and get back to town without being hurried. So we finished supper, which included chilies from our garden roasted on the grill and laid over our burgers. They were hotter’n Hades, but helped clear the sinuses. Then we were off to play to hear Jesse’s one line.

It pays to wing it. When we got to the theater, the parking lot was full due to events going on in the Simmons Center. Toby kicked me out at the door with instructions to buy our tickets while he parked the car. I bought tickets and signed up for the Duncan Little Theater T-shirt drawing. I always sign up, but never win. Toby joined me, and we found some perfect seats directly in front of the stage midway up. Sure enough, Jesse delivered her one line – we would have missed it totally if we had not known her part in the play. We thought that was it and were pleasantly surprised when she came back on stage for another line. Then another, and another. She came on stage sniffing the smoke from Imogene’s cigar smoking in the ladies room. She ran and jumped across the stage hollering "Fire!" sending the kids scattering. Then she came back on stage after the firemen left – and again towards the end of the play. When the play was over and she had taken her bow, I looked at Toby and said, "Hmm, that was quite a bit more than one line. What’s up with that?" As it turned out, another actress could not be there on Friday night, so Jesse did her part. And she did it very well. I was so glad we got to see the play on Friday night. And guess who won the T-Shirt! Me!

We worked on the house out in the cold on Saturday. Bo came out to help us. He said we looked like Eskimos. Jesse took photos to document our progress, which was slow. I hate it when we do something wrong and have to re-do it. Well, we put the anchor bolts in wrong – three times. It became comical. Working with Bo is always a hoot, and he had me laughing at our mistakes. At one point Toby asked for a wrench. Both Jesse and Bo handed over their wrenches. Just as Toby reached for one, both of them pulled their wrenches back. They did this three times – like the Three Stooges. Yep, the Baggett Builders are back on the job.
Here is me and my dogs – Jack is quite the climber. Jesse thought it was funny that Toby was in the background working hard while we clowned around for the camera.
Here is Bo working – He has had that hat since he was on the ski team in RR 15 years ago. I guess head size does not change much.

Tidbits from the Week

It is cold here in OK, but not snowing. I had to move to my heavy duty house-shoes today. Socks and fuzzy slippers were not enough to keep out the cold. Besides, Fightie Bitie Bad Cat/ Frankenstein has turned in to Pepe la Pew when he sees my pink fuzzy slippers. It is difficult to walk with a cat attached to my foot.


I’m having a "me" day today. It is not that I did not do lots of "me" things (like art) this week, but today I don’t have to answer to anyone. Other than being at the beauty shop at 11, I can do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it. I’m even looking forward to going to Wal-Mart to do some heavy grocery shopping, because I am on my own schedule. I do have some errands to run for the Art Guild, and I want to do some other shopping – so I do have lots to do; I’m just excited to be out of the house! Now if I can get ten pounds of stuff in my five pound sack…


Yesterday, my friend Naomi came to paint with me. Naomi is very talented, but a beginner with painting. She had been working on a large portrait of an African child. The light and colors in the picture were beautiful, but Naomi had painted them with tans (raw umber and white) making the painting very dull. We talked about color and skin tone, and I mixed some raw sienna with Alizarin Crimson and some more Sienna with Cad red for different parts of the face. When I put the paint on the face of the child, it was a wild difference from than the tan – kind of shocking at first. Then the light bulb beamed, and I saw Naomi’s eyes light up. She snatched the brush from me and took off on her own. She was so excited about her painting, and the portrait just came alive – as did Naomi. It was so fun to watch – it is what I love about teaching – seeing the spark turn into a fire. I should mention that Naomi is deaf. She does reads lips and speaks very well (in deaf culture she is considered "hearing" because she does speak, but in our culture, she is deaf). I got to do some serious signing and had some one-on-one time with Naomi as a friend and not just a teacher. It was great. Consider how it would be to live without sound – communication with the world would be very difficult. Deep conversation with others (who do not sign) is near impossible. Although Naomi has a large loving family and lives in Sulphur, OK, which has a large deaf community due to the State Deaf School, life can be very lonely. She is such a warm and beautiful person, not to mention talented, I would hate to miss getting to know her. It is one of the reasons that I have been learning American Sign Language.


Jesse had her opening night for "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." Lindz and her family were all there (quite a crew) because Lindz’ cousin was also in the play. They all cheered and laughed when Jesse delivered her one line – as if she were a main character. I'll get pics before the weekend is over.


I had an Art Guild meeting last night, and it went poorly. I won’t depress you with the specifics, but our vice-pres in charge of workshops pulled a "I will quit if you don't do things my way." Personally, I don't like being held hostage and would have turned her loose, but diplomacy won out. But it did make me wonder why I keep doing this. Why do I do it?!


Here are the two paintings I did on Wed. with the Painted Ladies. Although we got started late, I still painted two paintings to their one.

I repainted the cactus, since I sold the other cactus. Then I tried a portrait. It does not look anything like the reference photo, but it was fun.

And Then There Were Grandkids

Years ago:
After nine months and three weeks of being pregnant and a horrible 26 hours of labor, they put Bo in my arms. He was long and skinny. He had eyes way too big for his face, which was bruised and lopsided. He was yellow and seemed to have an awful lot of extra skin – a bit like a plucked chicken. As I looked him over, I thought, "I never knew what love was until this moment." I assume other people feel this same way. Upon seeing his firstborn son, my friend, Bear, called his father and apologized – he had never understood how much a father loves his son until that moment.

And then there were grandchildren…and the feeling was renewed. Last year GBN1 drew pictures of the whole family. She showed me her art and explained each picture in her little four-year-old way. For some reason she colored me purple. When I asked her why I was purple, she said, " Cause you are beautiful, Booboo." Melted butter. After the big dinner on Thanksgiving, I found my way to a bed to take a little nap. GBN1 came in and crawled up beside me. She leaned back against me with her drawing pad in hand. While I snoozed, she sat quietly against me and drew pictures. Good stuff.

My friend, the Junk Diva, has a new granddaughter. This morning she told me that she had rocked Ella from 3 AM to 5AM. She wasn’t complaining. My friend, Janice, has a new grandson. I think her only reason for being on FaceBook is so that she can post pictures of him. Another good friend, Kim, just became a grandmother for the first time with a new granddaughter. Welcome to the Mush Club!

Spiritual thoughts:
According to the Bible, the Kingdom of God is Peace, Love, and Joy. It also says that His Ways are not man’s ways and that His Word is spiritual. I have come to understand that His Peace is much deeper than what the world knows as peace. From 1st Cor. 13, I know that His Love is different than the world’s love, and that God is love. The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart. So doesn’t it follow that His Joy is much stronger and maybe deeper than what we think? If I get great peace, love, and joy from my family, that is good stuff. But there is more, and I want it. May you all be so blessed!