It recently came to my attention that a family member, who shall not be named at this time, nearly lost "her" license to operate an ATV.  It seems she was a distance from her house when she somehow accidently tipped over her vehicle.  Rumor says she was going slow and as she they started to tip she said to the ATV, "I think we are going over."  And over they went.  Luckily, the driver did not end up under the machine and except for some scratches, both machine and driver were OK.  The person who came to her rescue did threaten to take away her license to operate.  A lesson to all - "Lets be extra careful driving these machines."

Submitted by the Matriarch

The adage, "No news is good news" seems lacking with family interactions. Even though your daily interactions may seem irrelevant to others don't always assume. Sibling's daily meanderings are always welcome but what's missed is listening in to the trials and tribulations of the "grandchildren", right Mom. Myself, I'm limited to remembering just whom my nieces and nephews are much less to what grades you're in, or if you have graduated what are you now occupied with, or if you are engaged and getting married, or if you are already married, or if you are married and now have kids, or if one or more of your kids attends school, or if one or more of your kids whether they have entered school or not has done something interesting or even not. You can see from what I attempted to say, there is a lot of family news that's not being shared. As we(I) are interested, please take a minute composing for this blog. Myself, I have devised a way to map our family, not including the grandkids kids. Attempting to formulate, I use this word because "remember" doesn't work. I go back to when your parents were born or as in the cases of my latter siblings, approximate. I next guess the year of the adding of an "in law" and add a year or two for a niece or nephew. Attempting to keep the sequences straight, I think this is correct,(girl-girl-boy, girl-girl-boy, I can't count puppies that reside almost 3000 miles away, girl-boy, boy-boy-girl, girl, boy-boy-girl), I now add two years between births. Give me a break for the need to include my own kids. These give me the guide to count either forward or backwards from. Now I need some way to map out a system for my own grandchildren, much less the rest of yours when they finally arrive if they haven't already. Sally, patience is a virtue.

RESCUE NEEDED

Dear Gavett Family,

This baby needs a home.  He was left in the middle of our street.  He is a fabulous baby cat - and we should know, we've raised several!  He is very attentive to house rules - he is already letterbox trained and has just started on solid food.  We've been taking him outside too, and he loves frolicking in the grass.  He's not much of a climber and is inquisitive but not as aggressive as other kittens we've raised.  Purrrrrs like crazy and loves to snuggle in your neck or lap.  He is quite lonely and our other cats DO NOT welcome a new addition.  He must get a kind and loving home - so we're appealing to family and friends first - does anybody need a beautiful new kitten?  Please hurry, Ben is getting very attached.

All you wonderful photographers in the family will have to excuse these shots - this baby wan't very cooperative!

My previously called postcard moment might be known to you as a Hallmark postcard moment. Sorry, probably an old age brain cramp.

Looking out from my front porch today I witnessed a post card moment. In just a few words I can't possibly give it the justice it deserves. Maybe though you can pick up some of what I am blessed to feel.
The new flowers display their first round of beauty which is always their finest. The snap dragons are uniform with all the bottom buds open and no dead ones subtracting. Petunias beam their brightest colors without the stringy vines appearing. Marigolds boast a half dozen or more fragrant moons of yellow and orange. Roses in such abundance they bend their thorny branches with a definition of beauty. Many other flowers accent the beauty of these. Late spring grasses dense and deep green gleaned from abundant spring rains. Branches sport full leaves thus erasing the many months of barren limbs. The ponds deep blue water ripples from a warm breeze.
This isn't something that happens only at our address. While the physical view is probably not the same, the enhanced mental calm nature offers is. Do you take advantage of it? Enlighten us with your postcard moment.

Keep up the good work Skip - I think a few of those brain cells are regenerating as we speak (post).

There is this add on AOL that states you can learn a new language in just ten days. I remember my two years, I was asked not to attempt a third, of Spanish in good old WCS. The only thing I learned way back then was that a new language was always going to be foreign to me. So forget me learning a new language, I would be lucky to learn a new word in just ten days. That's what I thought, but I was so wrong. Sit back and let me tell you how this miracle, a miracle might be stretching it, happened to me.

A couple of evenings ago we experienced a warm evening and I was determined to finish repairing the netting over our blueberry patch. I say finish because Mike (Katie's husband) they haven't been married long enough for me to call him a son-in-law, helped me with a bit of this chore on the weekend. He thought we were almost finished when we broke for dinner. I let him think that in a way you would a young child helping you with a chore that you could do faster by yourself. It's all about the self-esteem issue or the lack of it. Anyway there I was reaching over my head, about a foot or foot and one/half, using one of those plastic fasteners that you insert in a slot and pull. I'm not going to complain about not having two legs but imagine trying to stand on your tiptoes and keeping your balance when you can only get pressure on one foot. I would say try it sometime but you would be better off not, trust me. Not having fingers was the problem, I do have fingers just short ones, on one hand. Picture this, I'm reaching over my head and with one hand pull the torn bird netting together and with the other short fingered hand fish the fastener up through one side of the tear in the netting and back down through the opposite side trying to guide it with a free thumb. Now without letting the netting pull apart I slide the end of the fastener strap through the slot and with sweaty fingers or short fingers pull the slippery plastic strap taunt. Mike, forget what I said about you, where are you. No, forget it, that was just a weak moment! It is now approaching dusk and I'm a long ways from being finished. I hear tiny sounding voices coming from the direction of the pond. Mind you, I'm not able to understand their language but can hear the voices as they enter my blueberry patch. With both hands up in the air, above my head, and occupied as described earlier, I feel the first bites on my shirtless belly and bare leg. "Mommy, is this the feast you promised us?" I now understand this foreign language perfectly. "Eat good kids, a meal like this only comes around once in a lifetime." I refuse to give in. It's getting darker now and the slot to thread the strap through is getting difficult to see. I figure I only have seven more to go and I'm not going to quit now. The bites have moved up my arms and a few brave ones are on my hands. Between the fastenings I swat and attempt to brush my bare skin clean but the darkening skies makes each fastening repair take even longer. This allows for the feast to continue. I listen to the smacking lips and the sounds of contentment as one full belly after another gets its fill of blood. A younger sibling then quickly takes its place. Two more to do I think. To add insult to injury I hear a voice of disdain. "It tastes just like chicken to me." Then I get it, I laugh because I know, he was feeding on my prosthesis.

Wow! Trying to get on to post is most difficult, for me anyway. First I went to the Blog, studied it diligently in a vain attempt to find the word POST. From my shallow brain came a command, "Go in a different direction." I see the words Sign In and even though I supposed I was already signed in I click on this. Another page appears and I would guess that clicking on those words signed me in because I carefully perused the entire page and I could not find a command asking for my password. Mind you, this doesn't mean there wasn't one, but for my concern there wasn't. Another command comes from the orb sitting atop my shoulders. "Assume you are signed in and look for the word Compose or some symbol that may signify this procedure." "Aha, I found something!" As I yelled these word something jumped and I could hear it running up the stairs to the second floor, our cat I hoped. I did leave the garage door open last night. Closing it this morning I noticed the door between the garage and basement was left open. We leave the door going down to the cellar open just in case one of our two cats decides to use the litter box. All this means is I'm not at all sure it was a cat I heard running up the stairs. What was I talking about....I remember, posting. Forgive me, that was one of my senior moments. They have been happening for twenty plus years now. Lucky I can even concentrate long enough to get words out without losing my train of thought. Yes, that's right, I discovered the symbol of pencil. I clicked on it and lo and behold a blank box appeared with the title of compose on it's top left hand corner Any of you trying to get on and send a message I hope this helps. Not seeing many posts, now you don't have an excuse. I also see an orange box that says Publish. When I clicked on that last time it erased my entire post, everything disappeared. Well here goes nothing.

I'm back! No time to chat, but wanted to inform everyone that I am back on the blog (after changing my password for the 35th time). Going out to work now, though. If you get a chance, give Sonja a quick call. She's feeling lonely.

Hi everyone, on this drizzling Saturday, at least here. I've got great news, for me anyway, Vicki has let me back on the Gavett Blog! It's hard being insane and harder yet when I'm not able to express it through my caustic, dry wit. There is better news, for you readers, I'm on a long(lifetime) probationary period with a short, short leash. I've been given only thirty complaints and then I'm silenced forever, at least on this blog. Don't fret now, the complaints will add up fast and if Nancy is doing the adding, oh well..... If not I give myself somewhere between two and six months before I'm banished for good, that's if I really watch myself. So here goes....

Vicki, think back to when you where in high school and looking at "older" graduates nearing their time to celebrate a 50th year reunion from high school. You being the senior member of our seven kids and having a better system of completing your years in school than your next younger sibling, have only five more years until "it" happens. Looking back maybe you shouldn't have skipped those early years and/or applied yourself in your studies. If you had worked it right or as in my case not worked you could still have almost ten more years, but, what's done is done. At this point in time, how much younger do you feel and look, at least to yourself, then what you remember the "older" folks looking like back then. See, now you don't feel as bad.  I'll keep that relieved feeling short lived. But, and it is a sad but, what do suppose this years graduating class think of the former graduates approaching their 50th reunion?

Wow, it worked! The sun is shining. Thanks

We all know the Thompson Clan, (that's us), is extremely creative.
Also, we need to feed our kitty.
With this in mind we are holding the Thompson Family Home Made Basket Competition.
Please put together an interesting basket, box, etc. for our auction.
We would like the main item to be home grown or homemade.
Some suggestions from previous auctions that have done well:
dried food
canned food
pies/breads
eggs
wood products
artwork: fabric, photo, paint
plants
I am sure we can think of lots more.
All of the names of those participating will be entered in a drawing for a prize.
Also, everyone will be voting on “the most unique presentation” and
the winner will receive a prize.
Have a fun time with this. We can't wait to see all of the baskets

Tracie Shower

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