I think she has my blood
Jemma has really been wanting to sew this summer. I’m so excited. She made rice heating pads for Bill and my dad for father’s day.
Happy Father’s Day, Mr. Incredible
You are an incredible dad!
Another pinterest idea completed.
My garden flag was looking very old. Of course I found an idea on pinterest. I have more ideas on pinterest than I could ever get accomplised in one lifetime.
Jemma helped me make it. We made it with reversible since it sits on the corner of our house.
Tis the season for camp
Last week while Bill and the boys were on the Wichita Work Camp mission trip to Wichita, KS, I had a sewing camp for Jemma and her friends.
Maddie made shorts and Kayla made a bag. We sewed in the afternoon, since one girl had band camp in the morning.
Jemma finished a big duffle bag she started last fall. One afternoon we went to a movie when we were done sewing.
Jadyn made a backpack purse.
Jemma and Kayla had a little extra time so they made an alphabet pillow. I’ve had the pattern for the alphabet pillows since I was in middle school. The pattern cost $1.50 back then. A pattern now will cost around $18.95.
Being Appreciated
On Secretaries Day in April, my school’s speech therapist wrote thank you in several different languages on post it notes. Then she stuck them all over my work space.
I got flowers from the staff and administration. They sent all 3 of us secretaries to Charleston’s for lunch and we got to sit and enjoy our time.
I also got lots of cards from the students.
A decorative touch.
One of the things my principal wanted to have done for our school this year is table clothes for when we have awards assemblies. Our school had 3 during the year. I made and embroidered 2 tableclothes for the last award assembly.
Cleaning up from the tornadoes
Thursday, Justin, my dad and I went to Moore to help in the tornado clean up. We helped a homeowner named Julie. We moved rubble, looking for vaulable or keepsakes. Justin fished her dead Kooi fish out of her huge pond and helped bury them. The smell was really bad. Justin was afraid he was going to throw up at one point. She was in the neighbor’s underground storm shelter when the tornado went through.
My dad helped cut up this tree that was in the neighbors yard, but had fallen into Julie’s yard. Dad wasn’t sure where the tree had come from originally since he couldn’t see the roots. Julie’s house was about 10 houses west of the Moore Medical Center that was in a lot of national media coverage. Dad also helped take some of Julie’s things to a storage unit and to her Papa’s house.
There is towers in the middle of the picture. To the left of those towers is where Plaza Towers Elem. was that lost 7 children. That school is where the children in this neighborhood attend.
This was the destruction 1 mile west of Julie’s house.
Friday I took Justin, Jemma, a friend of Jemma’s and myself to a farm 3 or 4 miles west of Julie’s house. We spent most of our time walking through a pasture picking up any debris. Cattle or horses were supposed to be in the pasture, but couldn’t due to the debris that could injure an animal.
There was as many as 45 people walking through this field at one point in time. The farm owners are in their 80′s.
Justin got to drive the golf cart around for about 2 min. emptying the buckets of debris people picked up.
The grandson of the homeowner had 65 head of cattle delivered the morning of the tornado. He found 32 after the storm, 11 the next morning and had to put down 11 at some point in time. Two horses lived on this farm and survived.
This is a 2×4 sticking out of a shedd on this farm. About the last hour we were there Jemma, her friend and I helped back up household items and put into tubs. This woman, her name is Melba used to sew. I helped back up her sewing machines and lots of fabric.
On Friday night parts of central OK got as much as 10 inches of rain. This creek that runs through the farm was 1 1/2 feet over it’s banks. So Sat. brought another set of problems for this farm.
Devastation and how things used to look.
Bill and Will went to Moore, OK yesterday to help with the tornado clean up. I will be taking Justin and Jemma on Thurs. and Friday to work. Will has a full time job for the summer working for OC.
In this house Bill and Will helped the homeowner find the belongings they wanted to keep.
More tornado damage.
Here’s part of the group from Memorial Rd. church of Christ that went with Bill and Will yesterday cleaning up someone’s backyard.
This is part of the Orr family farm. It is a big agritourism location. They had 2 small trains, fishing pond, 1974 carousel, animal barn, pony rides, zip lines, pumpkins in the fall and a hay maze. It was a 106 acre working horse farm. I read in the paper they only have 3 horses, 2 ponies and 1 donkey that survived and didn’t have to be put down. They are planning on being opened in the fall. There website is www.orrfamilyfarm.com. They have lots of school groups that go out there. All the buildings sustained heavy damage.
This is the track they use for training the horses.
This is Justin and his friends riding the train at the Orr family farm in the fall of 2007.
This is Justin’s 4th grade class at the Orr family farm in the fall of 2008.
This was a the Orr family farm hosting a Girl Scout day in the fall of 2011.
With 2 elementary schools in Moore suffer heavy damage and the loss of life at one of them, it was a hard week. On Monday afternoon while the tornado is racing through Moore, 251 children were checked out through the office at the school I work at between 2:30-3:30. I was fortunate that Bill works close to Justin and Jemma’s school so he could make sure they got home safely. None of the schools I or my children attend have storm shelters or safe rooms. Seems terrible in light of the fact that Oklahoma is in tornado alley and tornado season is March 15th to June 15th. Of course, OK has seen tornadoes in Feb. also.
One of the parents at my school sent a letter to my principal saying how pleased she was at how quickly, efficiently and calmly me and the other secretary were handling everything during that crazy hour on Monday.
Graduation creativity
I needed some graduation gifts this year. Some gifts I made from other people’s ideas, some gifts I added to them. This is a towel wrap that I made. It was fun finding some ribbon to go on it.
One of the graduation parties we were invited to, I had already embroidered a towel wrap for this student from someone else. It took me a while to come up with a gift idea. I decided on a laundry bag, but after just putting the initial on the bag I thought it was a little boring. So I decided to add ribbon to the bag.
History Part
Our next stop was Betty Lou’s flower shop. Devonne’s parents own it. Devonne coordinated our trip and is the leader of our Girl Scout troop. I didn’t get any pictures there. It was Sat. before Mother’s Day, so they were very busy.
Next we went to the Moore-Lindsay Home. It is the oldest standing home in Norman. It was built in 1895.
Jemma decided to take over the picture taking responsibilities.
Since we have been to so many museums, the girls are starting to recognize things we have seen before.
This is a square piano. They didn’t make very many of them and they are very heavy.
This house has 2 windows like a ship would have. One window is this color and the other window was red.
We’ve seen several fainting couches at museums.
Jemma was really interested in the washstand and everything that goes with it.