December 2012

Marshall checks out his new farm

 Tyler and Greerson have been banned from video games until they open presents!

 Bill, Woody and Tommy in deep discussion

Henry checks out his binoculars

 Marshall has his very own tractor

Woody watched Sheryl open her presents with Doyle

 

December was a busy month at the Worley household. We hosted a cookie exchange for our small group Bible Study the first weekend. Daryl tried his hand at making Pecan Tassies with disastrous results, so it was decided that Christa was the cook in the house for Pecan Tassies. She made a batch for the exchange and they were the hit of the party. The next weekend we worked with the Boy Scouts and helped host the pizza and caroling party. Greerson had a Christmas concert with his band. He really enjoys playing the trombone in the band. The following weekend we had Shultz family Christmas at the ranch. It was on Saturday this year instead of Sunday. Christa's dad, Woody and his brothers families all came together and we had a nice visit. Friday the 21st we had our annual progressive dinner party. This was our year for dessert. Daryl cooked all day Thursday and half the day Friday making cookies. We had cutout cookies, cinnamon roll cookies, Peanut Butter cup cookies and Magic middle cookies in addition to a cheesecake. The party was fun, but only lasted until about 2 am this year. We normally meet on a Saturday and everyone isn't quite as tired. Most years it can go until 4am. Saturday Daryl went to meet his sister Sheryl and her family for lunch in Temple, then we loaded up and headed to the ranch for Christmas. Christa's aunt Sheryl and uncle Doyle arrived about an hour before we did. Stephen and Shanda were already there. We played Mexican Train several times throughout the weekend. We opened gifts on Monday afternoon and Brenna was really cute. She looked at one of Marshall's presents and said, "impressive, very impressive"!  Christmas day was fun! Daryl was put in charge of the rolls, so he and Christa worked the dough and them ready just in time for lunch. Along with the family that was already there we were joined by Christa's Grandmother and her brother and his wife and their daughter. Several or Christa's cousins were present also. After lunch and opening gifts we played one more game of Mexican Train then loaded the car and headed into the dark cold night back to Waco.

Thanksgiving 2012

 Marshall and Grandpa Woody wait for lunch to be served

 Shanda and Brenna get a jump on Christmas shopping before lunch

 Greerson was first in line for lunch

 Darlene, Greg and Grandma joined us for Thanksgiving lunch

 Greerson sneaking another roll later in the day

 Grandpa Woody teaching Marshall to play Mexican Train

                                           Marshall likes the trains

We spent Thanksgiving at the ranch with Christa's family. It was a little unusal. It turned out to be Christa's parents and her brother's family along with Grandma and a cousin and his wife. This is unusual since we normally have a houseful of people for the meal. The meal was uneventful, but delicious. The dressing is always worth the trip. We played Mexican Train and Mimi beat all of us. Daryl was a close second followed by Shanda and Christa. Grandpa Woody and Marshall played in between games. He is so cute and so different from Brenna. He loves the tractor and is a rough and tumble boy. Christa and Daryl went home on Friday morning since she had to work, but Greerson stayed and worked with Grandpa Woody on the deer stand. He also nearly wrecked the truck, he was going down the hill and didn't hit the brakes soon enough (we suspect that was due to the Bad Boy Buggy, it stops if you let off of the accelorator), and he and Stephen headed into some brush. Grandpa Woody had him on the tractor and he managed to break the shredder in the first few minutes. He was mowing along and hit some rocks that were hidden by the brush and knocked the wheel off of the shredder. All in all he had a great time, but I am not sure the ranch equipment would agree!

Grandma Hodge's 90th Birthday

 Lois Hodges (Grandma Hodges) 90th birthday

 The table was set for the party using a red theme

 Gary, Doyle, Glynda and their mother Lois Hodges

 Grandma had to cut her own birthday cake!

 I am not sure who the lady on the left is, second from the left is a cousin we had never met (Evie) her Dad was Grandma's brother, next to her is Lois's brother Billy and his wife LaNora and standing behind them is Hubbard her other brother.

The Greers were there also Billie Lou, Ann and Mary

Billy, Lois and Hubbard

 Hubbard and Lois

 Sheryl got a rock from Gary, she was so excited!

 Christa and Stephen sample the food

The cake  was awesome!

 

 Brenna

 Marshall

 The Woody Shultz Family Protrait 2012

 The Hodges, Worley and Shultz families 2012

we all gathered on November 3 at the ranch to celebrate Grandma Hodge's 90th birthday. She was quick to point out that it really wasn't until November 6th. We got everything setup and everybody had a job. Daryl had to get lunch and put balloons out at the front gate. Greerson had to sweep the leaves off of the front porch and Christa had to work in the kitchen. We got everything ready for the 2 oclock start and about 1:30 it started to rain, not little sprinkles, but a downpour. We quickly gathered umbrellas and Grandpa Woody worked the valet service while the men helped everyone in under an umbrella. The party was fun and Grandma had a lot of friends show up. One asked her if she was going to do this again next year and she told him no in ten years she might! We took our family Christmas picture on the front porch it turned out pretty good considering Marshall didn't want to cooperate.

Busy Fall

 Christa and Greerson shared a birthday cake at the ranch in September

 We cooked out on our new cowboy grill for the Boy Scouts in October

 Later in October we hosted the youth group from church at the ranch

The youth prior to their football game at the ranch

 The Odd Couple at Navarro College

the set for The Odd Couple

 

We have been really busy this fall. The Cub Scout Pack sold $27,000 of popcorn and Greerson and Daryl sold two weekends and offered support. Greerson has been busy with the Boy Scouts. He went backpacking along the Colorado river and we all went to the BOB games at the ranch. We invested in a new Cowboy grill and were all set to cook on it and it started to rain. So we moved it under the porch and cooked fajitas for all of the Scouts. The Scouts were excited to be able to come in the house. They had always stayed outside before. Greerson and Christa went scuba diving in Huntsville. They are preparing for a trip to the Florida keys next August to scuba. Two weeks after the Boy Scouts were at the ranch we brought the youth group from our church for a retreat. Daryl and Christa cooked the meals and the youth had a great time. Originally the girls were going to stay in the house and the guys in tents in the backyard, but we had a cold front and after much discussion we decided to put the boys upstairs and the girls downstairs.Christa voted for the boys to stay in the barn, but Greerson begged to differ. September and October were busy for Daryl he directed Neil Simon's The Odd Couple for Navarro College. It opened November 1 for three performances. It was very well received and even the college President attended thought it was great. The final performance was the same day as Christa's grandmother's 90th birthday party. So we were really busy that weekend.

Celebrating the Marriage of Ladson and Billie Worley

This photo was taken in Brownwood outside of their first apartment while they attended Howard Payne College just after they were married September 4, 1949.

Ladson Worley and Billie Galloway were married early Sunday morning September 4, 1949 at the Baptist Church in Afton, Texas. Billie was given away by her uncle Jim since her father had passed away several years before. I was reminded of this with the passing of Jim's wife, Polly last month.

The following is an excerpt from one of Billie's stories from the beginning of their marriage.

On September 4, 1949, at 8:00 in the morning, we were married in the Afton Baptist Church, Afton, Texas. I had grown up in that church, and it had always been my desire to be married there. It was truly a Galloway-Worley wedding. A.T., his oldest brother performed the ceremony; Rogene, the one just younger than him was best man; my only sister, Dorthy, was bridesmaid; Freda, his only sister played the piano, and the only one who was not in the family was the Japanese girl, a college friend, who sang, My Dad’s brother gave me away.

The Saturday after our Sunday wedding, Ladson and I moved our belongings to 801 Booker Street, Brownwood, Texas. We had $40.00 to start the school year, pay the rent, buy groceries, and pay all of the incidental expenses which we knew would be coming up. The Lord had always provided for us, and we were confident that He would lead us to the right place to find jobs.

            But things didn’t work as we had planned. We thought that with both of us working we could live well and go to school at the same time. Never in my life have I walked so much as I did those next few weeks. Nobody needed any help in their business –neither men or women. Financial worries plus adjusting ourselves to married life could have been hazardous had it not been for our faith in our God. We always began our day by reading from the Bible, and talking to God in prayer, and we always closed our day the same way.

            As I look back to that time, I knew that we would get by somehow. Then my only desire was to finish college, and I felt in my heart that God would not send us children, and we would not have to drop out until we had completed that task which lay ahead of us –preparation for our life’s work.

            Fortunately, I had canned about four hundred jars of food, and we had brought a good supply of butter, eggs, corn meal and numerous other items from home. We had a varied diet except for milk and meat. I remember that from February until school was out that year that we didn’t have a drop of milk in our house except the little bit of canned milk which I felt was necessary for cooking purposes. Many times I have almost shed tears as I saw people buying meat for their cats and dogs, when I was hungry for meat, and I knew that there were many families in that city who had much less to eat than we had.

            We borrowed enough money from a neighbor in October for Ladson to buy a cotton sack, and he got a ride out to pull cotton in the afternoons. I was determined that I could do anything he could, so when he got his first pay check, we bought me a sack, too. About that time, A.T., Ladson’s oldest brother, bought an old 1939 model Chevrolet and gave it to us. We affectionately named the wreck of a car, “Eli.”  “Eli” was a life saver, because with a mode of transportation we were able to keep a place to pull cotton until Thanksgiving.

            Rogene, Ladson’s brother who had acted as best man in our wedding was a freshman at Howard Payne that year. We still laugh about the times when we would start home dead tired from the cotton fields, and “Eli” would delight us with a flat tire, or something worse. I trusted “Eli”, though, just as long as Ladson was at the wheel. Surely the Lord was watching over us or we would not be alive today from riding that wreck.

            We were able to save enough money to buy groceries and pay the rent until Christmas. Then we borrowed money from one of my cousins to pay the rest of our tuition, etc. before time for mid-term examinations.

Our relatives and friends worried a lot about us, I know. They just knew that we would starve to death, but we fooled them.!

            All of that time our love had grown and grown until words cannot express how we felt toward each other. I had thought that I really knew and loved Ladson before we married, and I did, but even today I can look back over these few years, and I realize that our love has grown an indescribable amount.

I am so thankful that she wrote these thoughts down so that we can share them today. By the time I was born I had no idea they had been so poor at the beginning of their marriage. I still find it hard to believe that both of them have gone on to heaven, but as each of us know time marches on.

                                                                                               Daryl