Today is my Grandpa
Wray's 90
th birthday! Ellen's middle name, James, is in honor of my grandfather. Grandpa is pretty special to us and a pretty amazing man. He was in the Navy and at Normandy on D-Day. He also graduated from Baylor and is still a practicing attorney. He litigates less now and spends more time writing. He is an inspiration to his firm who sometimes call him "
Matlock". Grandpa is a
Baptist, but the kind of
Baptist who believes in Women's rights! and dancing, and teaches his Sunday school class every Sunday. He and I are the only Democrats in the family. When I turned 18 he sent me a card that encouraged me to remember by duty to vote and that my vote was to be kept in confidence between me and God. He then reminded me that God is a Democrat. When Grandpa write letters sometimes you need Cece to interpret them because his handwriting is hard to read. So is mine. Grandpa used to like to go fishing but his boat broke down a lot. He also makes really great pancakes and
whistles the whole time he makes them. If you dig in the garden by his front door you can find really cool old marbles that he threw at a
noisy woodpecker when my mom was little. I love that he still lives in the house where my mom grew up. I have so many memories of this house. Grandpa used to tend a huge vegetable garden in the back yard and Aunt
Muffy and I loved to help him harvest. If it wasn't for that garden I don't think I would have ever harvested vegetables. One time Grandpa and I talked about my future and I shared that I might want to be a lawyer. He encouraged me to pick a different field. I can't really remember why. Guess I should ask... When I was little Grandpa and I would play in my parent's old den while listening to Burl Ives records. I love those records but my Grandpa can sing better than Burl. When I was in high school, my grandmother got a white toy poodle. My cousin, Maudie, named him
Cottonball.
Cottonball refused to eat dog food and stole things from the house that he horded in his dog bed. He hid pine cones, socks, tooth brushes, ornaments and one time he hid my grandmother's teeth.
Cottonball, or CB as Grandpa called him, really only liked my Grandpa. If anyone else got near him he turned into a snarling ball of fluff and teeth. I didn't get to close but Aunt
Muffy did and cut the hair on his ears very short. He never forgave her.
I am so glad that Ellen has gotten to know Grandpa. She loves him and loves playing the same games with him that I did. They play "Tom Tinker", "Great Big Hawk", and "Got your Nose". We are really looking forward to celebrating his 90th birthday and many more.
Happy Birthday, Grandpa! Love, The Little Bee and her Momma
I swear our Little Bee is part monkey! She takes full advantage of all park equipment and really gives us a run for our money. Daddy was super busy running after her while Mommy caught it all on film. ( and disciplined stranger teenagers who were trying to skateboard down the slide!!! The fact that I did this confirms my "I'm turning into my mother fears")
Wheeee!
Just getting in a few chin ups. Gotta work the guns!
We have so much fun with this little monkey! She has taken to climbing on top of furniture and pretending to be a monkey while saying, "oo-oo, ah-ah". Not sure where she got that but it is hysterical - which means it gets repeated frequently. Our Little Bee will do anything for a laugh.
