Driver training Thompson style

We start them young teaching them how to drive at Grandma's grandchildren paradise--even throwing in some flight training.

Of course, there is some parental supervision.

Grandpa's famous sauerkraut roast served on homemade Betsies with lots of different breads is always a favorite with the drivers and fans.

Grandma's is still a favorite place for the grandkids to hang out and have a great time bonding with each other. Grandma has lots of pictures of the two days of Thompson and Wilcox fun but still needs to learn how to get the pictures from her phone to the computer so you can see them.

Eating on the Veranda

Now that we have one of the porches cleared off, we've started eating breakfast and lunch on the veranda, Southern plutocrat style, on the patio furniture we inherited from Wendy and Daniel.

Forever Family

On Saturday November 7, Roger Dodger (me) was sealed to his parents Viv and Bob in the Orlando Temple.

The proxies for Bob and Viv were son Rob and wife Caroly.

Here's me Roger Dodger at about the same age as my father Bob in the picture and my son Rob. Can you see any family resemblance?

Visit to Wendy's

Last week we spent at Wendy's in Baton Rouge, first to bless Tessie (I forgot to take my camera so this will have to do):

then to do house repairs so they can sell their house and move to Saudi Arabia for several years. I built a frame around the wall air conditioner, rehung the gate, repaired and painted doors, and painted trim.

The morning we left we surprised Wendy with a "healthy" birthday cake substitute; a farmer's omelette with 32 sausage candles and half a watermelon with 32 real candles to blow out.

We then packed the car with everything they didn't want to sell before going overseas. We'll store the stuff under the stairs.

October project update

This month we worked finding a place for everything and putting everything in its place. Aurelia before she left on her mission to Hong Kong helped grandpa put up shelves in the pantry as a surprise for grandma while she was in Minnesota tending grandkids. It now holds a 3 month supply of food, all the cookbooks and place mats, various cooking things like waffle irons, bread makers, toasters, electric fry pans, ice cream makers, all the picnic and BBQ supplies, and serving platters and pitchers with room for more

There are now more shelves in the walk in closet in the jungle bedroom.

But most of the time was spent sorting through nearly 100 boxes of books and family treasures from the shed that you saw on the porch in the September update. We had to sort each box carefully, one item at a time to make sure we weren't bringing bugs into the house. Here you can see grandma busy at work, the kitchen table that held the bug free contents before they were put in their proper place in the house, and the library filled with books, pictures and family history things waiting for grandpa to do the next stage, sorting, categorizing and thinning things out so he and grandma can start up again the creative and intellectual projects that have been on hold for 6 years. Grandpa is especially excited to find all his language books so he can brush up on his languages.

We have reclaimed the porch so we can have overflow eating at Thanksgiving!! Y'all come!

Rancher upgrades

Kim continued her upgrade of the Florida ranch hands. Here I am with my hat to keep bugs away when mowing and otherwise working outside. Sorry that you can't see the new boots but we wanted you to get the full effect of the bug screen.

Here is grandma with her new hat and boots to keep her feet dry when feeding the animals, especially when it rains.

Grandma has lots of fun pictures she took with her new phone but we haven't figured out how to download them to the computer yet.

September building projects

The goal is to be done with the inside of the house by Christmas--though all this rain is delaying things because I cut and paint boards outside. This is what I've done so far:

Closets: I've put shelves in the walk in closet in the jungle bedroom.

Stairs: I've varnished the stairs, added wood carving accents and a butterfly mobile that Debbie and I created.

Shed: With mom's help I started to organize the shed to create a tack/feed room for the animals and a workshop for tools and building equipment so I can convert our master bedroom closet from a tool shed to a closet for clothes, and create a storage area for recreational supplies such as camping gear, bicycles, scuba gear, and volleyball nets. This hasn't gotten very far since it has rained every day so I can't take things out of the shed to sort them before taking them back in. The boxes that were in the shed are now on the back porch waiting for the rains to stop so they can be sorted through to make sure we aren't taking cockroaches into the house.

Mom got half of the boxes on the porch sorted out before the rains started and she had to leave for a month of grandchild bonding first at Wendy's with her new baby and then Chrissy's while Randy and Chrissy are in China for a couple of weeks. We've discovered all sorts of fun things in the boxes so far. We can hardly wait to see what is in the rest of the boxes.

Library/creativity room: To make room for the books and the art supplies, I've been putting bookshelves up in the library. The rain has really slowed this project down since the spray painting and the sorting of the boxes from the shed have to be done outside. Here is what it looks like so far. Do the colors get your creative energies flowing?

Next month the plan is to finish the trim on the windows and doors downstairs and finish the closets so there can be a place for everything and everything in its place.

Rain, rain, go away!

You can expect rain every afternoon in the summer in Florida. But this last two weeks, it has rained nearly all day--1 to 4 inches every day. The weather report says it has only been fractions of an inch, but I measure the rain every day in the feed buckets so I know the real amount. The fields look like I am irrigating my fields like my grandfather in Post Falls used to do.

Instead of complaining that all this blowing rain is keeping me from my projects, maybe I should just put on my bathing suit and play in the water like I did as a kid at grandpa Thompson's farm.

Deb and Eric Beach Combing

Debbie and Eric brought Teddy and Oliver to spend a week enjoying the Florida beaches and springs, eating Steak and Shake burgers, and having fun with their cousins.

Oliver taught his cousins the best way to eat cake.

Don't cousins Teddy and Cooper look like twins?

Can you guess grandma and grandpa's reactions to all these visitors?