Our Mansfield Thiots
Brooklyn turned 8 years old on Tuesday. What a wonderful day and week this has been. Becky and Harper got to go have lunch with her on her birthday at school and they brought delicious cup cakes for the class to share. What a treat that was. Then for dinner, Graypa, Grandpa Gr-8 and I met them at Chuy's for a tasty dinner. The weather was incredible, it was 80 degrees and we got a table on the patio. Who would have thought that January 27th could bring that nice of temperatures. Only in Texas. Saturday was her baptism day and it was one of my favorite days in my 57 years. There is something amazing about firsts. Brooklyn is our First grandchild and hence, our first 8 year old grandchild to be baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. She was so well prepared and excited. Becky did a perfect job of arranging everything and let Brooklyn help in planning the program and choosing refreshments. Brooklyn asked Skyler to speak about Baptism and she invited me to speak about the Holy Ghost. Brooklyn wore a sweet dress to be baptized in that I had made from my mom's beautiful white nightgown. With some heavenly help from my mom, I was able to ensmall it to Brooklyn size and it made me so happy to see Brooklyn wearing it. I hope all of my little granddaughters will get to be "wrapped in Gigi's love" as they are baptized. Her daddy did an awesome job of performing that sacred ordinance and gave her a beautiful blessing as he confirmed her a member of the church and gave her that special gift of the Holy Ghost. It was the best to have four generations of our family there. My dad, me, Ricky and Brooklyn. I loved that Aunt Lani was able to come too. She had a crazy busy week last week, but repacked her suitcase and headed our way. Everything is always better with Lani there. After the baptism we got to hear Miss Addie Mae read her first two books. Oh my goodness, how I LOVE new readers! Thank you Addison!
Our Charlottesville Granges
I'm so glad to report that our Charlottesville Granges are feeling better. Mister Max is still sporting a runny nose, but the throw up bug has moved on to greener pastures and we hope doesn't return any time soon. It's funny how we take feeling good for granted until we feel so bad. It was preschool at Penny's house this week and she always loves that. It was letter O this week and they had fun learning all about O's and loved painted a whole page of them using an empty roll of toilet paper. So stink'n cute. Then they made a delicious O treat with Cherios, marshmallows and butter. O my, they looked good enough to eat for sure. Max loves it when Preschool is at their house as he gets to participate as a junior preschooler too. He does a fine job.
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| this is how I am picturing Charlie's family's move |
Our Carmichael Thiots
The Carmichael Thiots have been on my mind and in my prayers all week as it has been moving week. If I think of some of the hardest parts of my life, I think moving would come to the top of the list every time. No matter how prepared you are, how much time to prepare you have, it doesn't seem to be an easy way to do it with maybe one exception. When my parents moved after I was married, they only moved three streets down the hill. My mom made moving look fun. She would move one room at a time. First the living room. She would have the furniture moved, then would hang all the pictures on the wall, add in all the accessories, pillows, centerpieces, etc and when that room looked perfect, she would move to the next room. I remember being amazed at how she made moving look fun. Go Mom! Good luck Carmichael Thiots!
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| Adelaide and Stacy had a fun day at Disney Adventures with friends! |
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Pierce at work doing a night edit in Argentina
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Our L.A. Thiots
Pierce is back in Argentina this week and will be until next Saturday working on the commercials for gatorade. He was blessed to fly business class this time which means you get a reclining seat and can hopefully sleep on the way as he had to hit the ground running when he arrived and work work work. I'm sure Stacy and Lady are lonesome at home. We are thinking of you two and hope this week passes quickly for you. Stacy sent us the cutest video recently of her asking Adelaide to say her name. Adelaide says in the sweetest voice, Addie. I loved that but what I loved even more was the sweet, tender way that Stacy speaks to Adelaide, Stacy, you have the cutest mommy voice. I just love to hear you and I watch that video over and over.
Our Dallas Thiots
Last Sunday night, Sky and Kara came to dinner with Grandpa great and me. We cooked burgers on the grill and then did some crafting together. Everyone was a good sport. For the past several years, for my mom's birthday, I have made birthday cards for her to send to her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and her siblings. That number has grown into quite a big number about 70 cards. Dad has carried on mom's tradition of sending the birthday cards with a sweet note and so to help him with this BIG job, we made the birthday cards on sunday night. I had learned to "Emboss" on some tags I made for Brooklyn's baptism Suckers and couldn't wait to try it again. We had an assembly line. Skyler was the stamper, he stamped the Happy birthday to you on each card. Then he passed it over to me who would sprinkle the magic pixie dust on top, I passed it to dad who would take a fine brush and brush away the excess pixie dust and then pass them on the Kara who had the heat gun and would melt the pixie dust and make the magic occur. It was so much fun and in just over an hour we made 71 birthday cards. Way to go Crafters and thank you for your help.
We Plano Thiots
With a crazy mix up at the airport last Sunday night, Dick was given an extra night in California. It kind of started his whole week out not so right. He has almost recovered from lack of sleep and an over abundance of work. He was able to take a couple of hours on Thursday afternoon and go with Dad and I to the Sixth Floor Museum in Downtown Dallas. They have made a museum of the book depository where Mr. Oswald is presumed to have shot President John F. Kennedy from fifty years ago. They have done an outstanding job of telling the story through photos and a recording that you carry around with you on a head set. I thought it was very well done and even though dad wasn't excited to go, I think we all enjoyed it and remembered that day long past. One of the things dad has always wanted to do is to go to the General Motors assembly plant. It seems like each time he has been, they are not open for tours. uggggg. Maybe next trip dad.
This past two and a half weeks have gone by way to quickly. Probably not quick enough for dad but way to fast for me. I have so enjoyed having him here and getting to spend so much time with him. He has been a great helper at fixing things. Let me see if I can remember them all.
- Unclogged the drain in my sewing room sink
- fixed the shower on off switch
- scrubbed the stains off the carpet in the sleep over room from when Penny painted it with diaper rash cream. (I kind of liked the memory of Penny)
- fixed my ice maker so it once again get ice cubes and water out of the door dispenser, yahoo
- painted the rust stained bottom panel of my garage door
- fixed my 3 hole paper puncher
- fixed the broken bannister on the stairs.
I'm sure there are more, he is one great worker man and is always willing to help. When we talked with Uncle Mike one day, he asked if Dad could come and stay at his house for a few days as he has a list of things that need to be fixed. Dad would love it.
My favorite project this week happened on Wednesday when we went to my writing class together. Dad wrote the story of his first car that he bought. We had all those photos that we found of cars like he has owned printed and put them into a little book. I have loved hearing the stories about them and I'm delighted that we got the first one typed up. He read it in our class Wednesday and everybody loved it and encouraged him to write one each week and publish them into a book for the generations to come who may also be car lovers. I think we could do it over the telephone. I hope he doesn't disconnect his phone so I can't continue to bug him for stories. I love you dad, thank you for coming.
Things we did this week
Monday: Institute Class and Thanksgiving Dinner
Tuesday:Brooklyn's Birthday Dinner at Chuys
Wednesday: Writing Class and Dinner at Cousin Pammy's
Thursday: Tour of the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas
Friday: Temple Day and pick up Lani at 1:23 at the airport. Dad and Sky helped Dick with a moving project Friday night until way late.
Saturday: Baptism Day for Brooklyn
Cousin Pammy invited us to her house for dinner on Wednesday night and we were treat to the yummiest teriyaki meat balls I have ever tasted. I brought rolls and grandpa great was on milk shakes for dessert. He is getting quite famous around these parts for his milk shakes. Miles and Oliver had a contest to see who could eat more of my rolls. I was quite flattered that Oliver at 5 an Miles came in a close second with 4. Yikes! Grandpa Great shared his car story with them and they loved looking at all the photos of his cars. Thank you Pammy!
Saturday night Dick and I were invited to the wedding for Lacey Elizabeth Taylor. What a fancy evening it was. It was fun to get dressed up and go with Dick looking so handsome. Lacey had the prettiest lace wedding gown and looked gorgeous. So glad we could be there with the Taylors who have played such an important role in Dick's growing up years. wow, this is LONG. I want to add the story that dad wrote on the bottom here in case you would like to read it. SLY Robynn
The Three Lives of my 1929 Chevy
By Orval Jay Birks
January 28, 2015
In 1944, my older brother Howard was drafted into the United States Navy. When he left, his paper route became available and I wanted to take it over. I needed a car, my first car, to be able to deliver The Idaho Daily Statesman newspapers because it was a country route which required lots of driving to deliver to all the farmers in Canyon County. The paper route was a fifty mile round tripper. I found a 1929 black Chevrolet at Showwalters Dealership in Nampa, Idaho that I was able to buy for $35.00. That was a lot of money. I had been saving my earnings from my paper route in town, The Idaho Free Press, that I delivered on my bike every morning. This car served my sixteen year old self well.
One Sunday morning when I was almost finished, only two more papers left to deliver, I had stopped at a little store, (this was before 7-11 stores) and bought a bag of Boston baked beans, one of my favorites and I had them sitting in a bag between the bucket seats in my car, I reached over to grab a handful and when I looked up, a telephone pole was right in the passenger seat of my car. It had moved right in. It broke the telephone pole right down to the ground. The pole was still hanging on the wires. I was so frightened, I didn't dare report it to anybody and it continued to hang on those wires for about a month until someone came to replace the pole. That was the best kept secret. I went home and got my hammer and some nails and pounded the top back down into place.
Later on, early one morning, I was driving my route and swung deep into the neighbor’s yard to porch his paper, as he preferred it, and when I pulled up, I straddled the end of bridge which had a rise of about a foot, and the car fell right into the ditch. Yes, there was water in the ditch. Having no cell phone to call a tow truck, I found a neighbor Johnny Gray to call my dad. My dad brought his old truck out and we hauled my car home. Once again, I had to pound the top back on, but we were back on the paper route shortly.
A year later on a Sunday evening, two friends and I were going over to Marsing for a social activity. On our way, we were driving down a little two lane country road, we saw a car approaching us, he was driving towards us in our lane. I pulled over to the side of the road as far as possible and he hit us and knocked us into another ditch. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in my car. The other car had two guys and two gals inside. They hustled out of the car with bottles of whisky and hid it in the corn fields before the police arrived. The police took those folks to Caldwell and sent a wrecker truck out for me and my car. The wrecker delivered that 1929 Chevy back to Showwalters Chevrolet where I had purchased it just a few years before. I was in need of another car. A 1931 blue Chevy Roadster would become my next ride. But that is another story for another
day.
