Fiona Florentine Ford, A Fairy Princess Grandmother

  

Fiona Florentine Ford.  That was my name last weekend at my granddaughter’s 4^th birthday party.  It was a fairy princess party and I was asked to read a story and dress up like a fairy princess grandmother.  I was so excited and spent at least  a week “getting ready.”  I had a wand, a crown and fairy dust in a silk bag.  I even had a fairy princess costume.  I read a book called “Fairy Princess Party.”  I had so much fun .  Did you know that fairy princess grandmothers like gold Tory Burch sandals?  They looked best with the gold woven belt.  This was no ordinary fairy princess, this one was from Italy and was originally from Florence.  She married into the Ford family and was very high fashion.  Well, as far as fairy princess grandmothers go.  I had most of the little girls fooled except for my granddaughter.  She knew exactly who was in that costume and she wrinkled up her nose and let me know.  “You’re Cici”.  I don’t think a sheet from Target is my best look. 

   

Double the Fun

 

January 27, 2010

Just got the canvas in of some darling twins.  One boy and one girl.  I photographed their mommie when she was little and then photographed her bridal portrait. You cannot imagine what a pleasure it is to capture such precious images of precious people.  Take a look at how ladylike Addison is and how “boyish” Logan is.  He was hanging on for dear life.  The netting around Addison is her mom’s bridal veil.  Logan is in our new handmade baby hammock.  I had so much fun.  Addison and Logan’s grandmother and I can’t quit laughing about how different they already  are.

Burt Orange Love

Wow! After nothing for four months, here I go again! Maybe it has something to do with sitting around waiting in an airport or sitting on an airplane with few distractions. ; ;>) As I travel to watch the Horns, I just had to tell you how I became a Longhorns fan.
41 years ago, I had my first introduction to UT football. Gary and I were newlyweds and in college (Yes, I was married in college and, no, I didn't "have to" get married! Ha!). We were attending Texas Tech close to home for reasons relating to finances and parental wishes (At least in those days, when you got married while still "just a kid," you paid more attention to parental wishes). I have always been a football fan with some of my favorite memories being the Amarillo High School Golden Sandies football games. But, I was not prepared for what a Horns' fan I had married (Even if he was a TT student; sorry Red Raiders!). Turns out that Gary had been a die-hard Horns fan since age 10 when his first boyhood sports hero, Amarillo Sandies running back David Russell, left Amarillo for UT and the Horns football team.
The Horns came to Lubbock and we were in the stands. Gary told me before the game that the Horns fans will put their "Horns up" and sing "The Eyes of Texas." I didn't quite get this "Horns up" thing but, boy, was Gary right. Even visiting Lubbock, the Horns fans had their Horns up and yelled loudly! That night began a lifetime of being a fan of the Burnt Orange.
A year later, we were driving into Austin for Gary to begin law school and me to continue undergrad at UT. As we approached Austin and the Tower came into view, I must admit my love affair really began. But, did I love UT football or did I love even more the man who loved UT football?
As students at UT, we attended all the home games and even some away. I still remember like it was last week James Street's pass to Randy Peschel in the Big Shootout with Arkansas. The mob scene on the Drag in Austin that night was wild and crazy and so much fun. A few years later, as grownups with jobs and a little boy, we were sitting in the end zone with 2-year-old Curt watching the Horns with Earl Campbell. As Earl took off on a long touchdown run from near our end of the field running away from us, 11 guys in the other color jerseys were chasing him. Curt stood up and yelled, "Where is that man going?" Earl even came to visit my students when I taught at Lee Elementary. What a class act!
The "raising kids" years always involved driving from Houston to Austin on many Fall Saturdays. Gary's 50th birthday weekend celebration included a surprise party with friends and family in Houston on Friday night, a Saturday morning trip with friends and almost grown kids to Austin to watch the Horns play Notre Dame and fifth row seats to a Jimmy Buffet concert later that night. I had tracked down Jimmy's personal assistant and told him that we would be at the concert and asked her to ask Jimmy to wish Gary "Happy Birthday" from the stage. AND HE DID! "Happy 50th birthday, Gary Crofford, you old fruitcake”, he announced from the stage. I was ecstatic! And my husband was overjoyed! My son had assured me that Jimmy Buffet would not wish his dad happy birthday from the stage and I was wasting my time by calling. To this day, Curt says that I taught him a lesson about perseverance and having the audacity at least to ask!
That 50th birthday weekend celebration convinced Kristen that she wanted to be a Longhorn student. She was there during the Ricky Williams years and we, along with two 80+ year-old grandmothers watched from the stands as Ricky set a record and the Horns upset the Aggies. Kristen graduated from UT in 2002 and one of Gary's proudest moments was giving her a Lifetime Texas Exes membership for graduation. That and watching her receive her degree from beneath the Tower and singing "The Eyes of Texas" that beautiful moonlit night.
Four years ago, Vince led the Horns to Pasadena and the Rose Bowl for the championship but we had a grandbaby due at the very same time. When it was a girl, all my friends wanted her to be named “Rose.” “Bowl” was optional! Now, here we are four years later and Colt and all of the Horns have worked their way back to Pasadena. The funny thing is that we have two more new granddaughters this time and one of their middle names is “Rose.”
So, this year, the path seemed clear to head to Pasadena to watch Colt and the Horns but tickets were hard to find at anything close to a reasonable price. We, or rather I, had resigned myself to watching on television. But not my Longhorn-loving husband! So, we threw all caution to the wind and made last minute arrangements to go. Here we are leaving some of the coldest weather in years in Houston and headed to sunny Southern California!
My #1 grandson has become a huge Longhorns, and Colt McCoy, fan. For Christmas, we gave him a full Longhorn uniform, including an orange #12 jersey. When he woke up for kindergarten at 6:30 this morning his dad asked him what day it was. He replied, “it’s Longhorn Day!” The torch is passed! And, I would love a grandson named “Colt!”

Hook ‘em and Joys Ahead,
Cindy
P.S. Here are a couple of photos from the Rose Bowl. Please keep in mind that Gary took these from his I Phone!

I can't believe that it's been 4 months since I last blogged! I guess that my long, multi-part "Dearest Isabella" blog took care of my creative writing itch for a while. Or all of my creative juices were used on photography during the busy Fall.

I DID have a busy Fall photographing both old and new friends. And now a wonderful holiday season celebrated with friends and family has come to an end. Christmas celebrations included FOUR grandchildren for the first time as Isabella, born in June, and Leah, born in October, joined Jack and Sarah. What a joy!! As I write this, we are about to get on a plane to Southern California to watch the Longhorns play Alabama in the National Championship game. Lots of orange in the gate area getting ready to board this California-bound airplane. Hook 'em Horns! Do us proud Thursday night.

Check out the new Cindy Crofford Photography Facebook page for some cool videos put together for me by my able and talented assistants. Thanks to Dena, Carlie and, especially, Jean Marie for all of the help on this project.

During January, I am celebrating all of you females with a "Girls (of all ages) Just Wanna Have Fun!" event. Come by the studio and see the display prints and the video on the monitor or watch the video on Facebook or my blog to see how much fun this can be! Then get a few of your favorite "girls" (of any age) together for one of these flirty, fun-filled sessions. Guys, one of these sessions is a perfect Valentine's present to your Sweetie. And girls, a print of you havin' fun and lookin' fabulous will make a wonderful Valentine's present for him. Thanks to Isabella, Kristen, Sarah, Rosalyn, Ann, Keri, Kellie, Linda, Laura, Yvette and Tatum for modeling for my test shoots. YOU LOOK FABULOUS!! Book a session and have as much fun and look as fabulous as these "girls" (of all ages) did.
Joys ahead,
Cindy

Dearest Isabella, Part 10

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a greatcloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let’s pretend that this is my final letter to you. I say pretend, because I know that there will be many more letters to you, Jack, Sarah and “Cupcake.” By the time that you read this, you will know “Cupcake’s” real name and whether Cupcake is a girl or a boy. Several months before you were born, Coach and I were in Dallas and having dinner with your Mom and Dad and your Uncle Curt and Aunt Margo and your cousins, Jack and Sarah. It was the evening that Aunt Margo and Uncle Curt shared the good news with your Mom and Dad that Aunt Margo was soon going to have another baby and that you would have a new cousin just a few months after you were born. That evening, Sarah announced that “Aunt Kristen’s baby” (That would be you) was going to be named “Queso” and that new little brother or sister –to –be would be named “Cupcake.” I often laugh about “Queso” and “Cupcake.”

So, as I said, there will be many more letters that I write to you, Jack, Sarah and Cupcake but this is the last of your “Isabella Rose McGee has been born” letters. I have found great joy in writing to my sweet, adorable grandchildren. (Now I am sounding like Grandmother Beryldine again.)

As I took these few weeks to write to you and recall the strong women that have been in my life, I couldn’t help but pull it all together with a verse from Hebrews. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run the race that is set before us.” The funny thing is that Coach used this verse at your Mom and Dad’s wedding. When the minister asked, “Who gives this woman to be married to this man?” Coach did not answer with the typical response of “Her mother and I do.” Because he believed that many people had invested in and enriched your mother’s life, he had a different answer. He referenced the great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1. Coach referenced that great cloud of witnesses that surround us and proceeded to list the people that supported and gave away your Mother to be married to your Dad. He said something like this: “Her Grandfather Curtis, her Grandmother Doris, her Grandmother Beryldine, her Papa Tom, her cousin, Heather, her brother, Curt, her sister-in-law Margo, her nephew Jack (Sarah wasn’t born yet, but did attend the wedding in your Aunt Margo’s tummy) and (big breath) her mother and I do.” No one was expecting this and you could hear the people in the sanctuary. It is something that I hold very dear to my heart. Coach practiced and practiced and we all had a visual picture of all of those that had gone on before us that were gathered that day to celebrate with us. I hope that when you get married, Isabella Rose McGee, (and Sarah Margaret Crofford and Jackson Bailey Crofford and Cupcake Crofford and all your other little brothers or sisters and cousins to come) you will feel and think about this story of all the people that have loved you through the years and supported and encouraged you as you have grown up and are gathered to give their love and support to you as you marry.

But what writing this has done for me is that it made me list some of the great cloud of witnesses that are cheering me on as I run this race. I no longer have this nebulous (big word for ‘not clear’) picture of the crowd, but actual faces that are lined up as I run the race that has been put before me. One time, Sarah was cheering for Jack at a soccer game. She would jump up, bend her arm, pump it back and forth and say, “Go, Jack, Go!” I got such a kick out of her precious little smile, tow headed blonde bouncy hair and cheerleader style rooting for her big brother Jack. Now I see Connie, Dixie, Hays, Rella, Bessie, Mrs. Prescott, Brickey, Mildred, Iris, Marylou, Grandmother, Aunt Evelyn, Grandma Beryldine. And, my Uncle Luke, my Uncle Glenn, my Daddy. Others that I didn’t meet until I was almost an adult like your other two great grandparents – Coach’s parents, Grandma Doris, who is still with us, and Granddaddy. And, a host of others that I have failed to mention. All waving their arms and shouting, like Sarah, “Go, Cindy, Go!” This verse has come alive to me. Isabella, you and I will cross that finish line together someday, along with all the people that have come into our lives, and finish the race.

“Go, Isabella, Go! Go Jack, Go! Go, Sarah, Go! and Go, Cupcake, Go!”

Joys Ahead,

Cici/Çease

Dearest Isabella, Part 9

Thomas Jackson Lynn: Well, this could also fill a book. My dad, Tom or sometimes TJ, if Mother was flirting with him, grew up in the Great Depression. Again, I’ll let Coach tell you all about that later. His mother died when he was about six from tuberculosis and he was raised by his older sister, Mabel. They were very poor and he remembered living in a tent, traveling to Florida for work and watching his dog disappear down the road because they couldn’t take the dog with them while he sat in the back of a pick up truck, and having the only quarter in his pocket that his family had at the time. He noticed that the men he admired the most were men that were involved in church. He chose to pattern his life after them and he was an elder in the First Christian Church in Amarillo for as long as I can remember. He had more sayings than you can imagine. At the time, I thought they were bothersome, but now I would love to hear him say them again and tell him how smart I think he was. When we were leaving on a trip he would say, “Now would be a good time to get those things you forgot.” Not long ago I heard Uncle Curt tell Jack and Sarah that. When I complained about steak being tough, he would say, “I’ll tell you when it’s tough, it’s tough when you don’t have any.” He always looked out for people that were less fortunate than he was and when he died, friends made donations to the Salvation Army. One of my favorite memories is that he called my mother “My Lady” and “Honeychile” My mother bought some silverware that was called “My Lady” just because of its name. Maybe someday you, Sarah or Jack will have it. I love to think about them when their love was new and before the war took such a toll on him. Mother said he was never quite the same jovial man after the war. When I would ask him about WWII, he would shake his head and say “It was awful. It was awful.” He did manage to secretly tell my mom where he was on a ship in the South Pacific. The government censored the letters but he managed to tell her to tell the new girl Callie something or other. Dona you remember her or something like that. He was in New Caladona and mother figured it out. I have attached some pictures that were taken after the war. Mother and Evelyn were beautiful and Daddy and Uncle Luke were handsome and dashing. I sometimes see my dad in your Uncle Curt. He used to regularly send Grandmother Beryldine flowers, but Grandma Beryldine stopped that and said they needed to save the money. He graduated from Amarillo High School, the same high school Grandma Beryldine, Coach and I graduated from, when he was 21. Talk about perservance. He never had a college degree but he managed to save a considerable amount of money on a very modest salary. He used to charge me a penny when I left the lights on and to this day, I turn off lights when I leave a room….or at least most of the time. If your mom or Uncle Curt would save some money, he would match it and put it in savings. He was frugal, but generous. One of the funniest stories was when he ask Coach to go with him to do his shopping on Christmas Eve. Coach remembers going into a Rexall drugstore right before they locked the door. He looked up and down the aisles and settled on a bottle of Great Body Hair Conditioner. He said he didn’t know what it was, but he knew it was good because it was expensive. Your great grandmother was perplexed when she opened it and said she didn’t know whether she should rub it on or drink it. Before you are too harsh on him, remember Grandmother Beryldine took back a mink coat that he bought her. Note to Isabella, Jack and Sarah….love the gift and love the gift giver. The night he died, I called him and told him I loved him. We had a good talk and he said he wanted me to call again the next night. I said I would try. Later that night he had a massive heart attack and was gone quickly. I wish I had said “Sure, I will call you.” Grandmother Beryldine said that she wished she could have told him one more time that she loved him. When it’s all said and done, Sarah, Jack and Isabella, the greatest of these is love. He was a good Daddy and I’m so happy that Jack bears his name.

Dearest Isabella, Part 8

Just a few other people to mention. There seem to be so many, but I am going to limit myself. You may continue to receive e-mails over the years of people that I have thought of and want to tell you about. Right now, I will limit it to four more people.

Glenn Davis Broaddus My mother’s brother and prank player deluxe. I have heard more stories than I can count about the pranks that he played on my mom. He loosened the cinch on the saddle of the horse that my mother and Uncle Glenn road to school. Mother would get on and promptly fall off as the saddle came off the horse. He figured out a way to hotwire the seat of their old Model T Ford that they drove to school later on and would shock my mother. He laughed how he would watch her squirm. Again, not a complainer, Mother never said a word. When I ask him to sign my autograph book, he wrote “To the little girl that needs a moving van every time she goes out of town.” Apparently, this characteristic was begun early and one of the first “discussions” Coach and I had was all the luggage that I took on our honeymoon. When the valet man at the Village Inn in Lubbock opened the truck, he looked at Gary and said “All of this?” You never know when there is going to be a formal and I wasn’t going to be caught short.

Luther Earl Sheldon Aunt Evelyn’s husband from Des Moines, Iowa. I could write a book, but will keep it to a few lines. The way he treated Aunt Evelyn stands out most. While he was in the war, he arranged for a florist to send her flowers every week while he was away. He always bought her the prettiest gifts at Christmas and I admired their 50 plus year love affair. One time I remember him drilling Mollie and I on the state capitals while we rode a jeep up a narrow mountain in Lake City, Colorado. Why that stands out, I don’t know. He just expected a lot out of us and helped us achieve it. There were family vacations in Colorado and holidays in San Angelo or Amarillo and a two week vacation to California with six people in a small car. Mollie and I were promised a motel with a swimming pool the last night of the trip. When we would get unruly, my Dad would say “Do you want Uncle Luke to ‘lay down the law’? I didn’t know what that entailed but I was pretty sure I didn’t want to find out. He worked for Phillips 66 all his life in San Angelo, was a elder in the church and was a community leader. I can’t pass a Phillips 66 station without thinking of him.