Happy Birthday to the two of you!!

Today is the happy day for Porter and Phoebe.  A couple of my favorite people.  

 

I enjoy being able to interact with Porter on a pretty regular basis.  He's an earnest and hard-working young man.  We have watched him grow and mature - and it's a delight to behold.

It was a special day indeed when our wonderful Phoebe Elizabeth joined our family - after much prayer and great desire, I might add!  Her name means "light" and "gift of God."  Pretty apt I would say!

 

Phoebe is fond of saying, "I'm here.  The party can begin!"  And she's right - I think she brings the party with her!

Hope you both have a great day - and a wonderful year ahead!!

Fabulous Phoebe!!

We joke that when Phoebe comes in the room, the party can start!!  And she has always made everyone smile.

But it's more than just being charming and fun and full of life and good ideas.  Phoebe brings the life to the party.  She is full of energy and enthusiasm - and she always pitches in and gets things moving.

She's been that way since I can remember.  She would organize her friends when they were playing.  She was always in leadership at school and served as student body president in middle school and high school.  School projects became larger than life.  Halloween was great fun.  And when costumes were required, she always came up with a great one.  (She had some memorable moments in the plays and musicals during her high school years too!)

And she always knew how to charm her Grandpa Clayton.  Even if he did say, when she was born and we told him her name, "I'm going to call her Betty!"

He always called her Phoebe!

Funny the things you remember!

It's funny how a photograph - even one that's not especially clear, focused, or well-composed - can evoke such a string of memories.

This is Phoebe in 1978 - the year before we moved back to California.  We still lived in the Cook Apartments in Centerville.  Shortly after this we moved to our duplex on Main Street and then finally to our new house - only to move out of our house after less than 6 months there!!

Don't you love her Saltwater Sandals??  This was in the hall of our apartment.  Phoebe would walk around picking things up and basically hiding them.  One time Harry F's hardwood handled Fuller Brush hairbrush went missing.  He loved it and was disturbed that it was lost.  I got smart and rifled through the wastebaskets - sure enough, Phoebe had dropped it into one of them.  After we found it the first time, she continued to drop it into other wastebaskets.  If we didn't close the bathroom door, she'd drop it into the toilet!

This little green dress had been a baby gift from a good friend Susan - who only had boys and claimed she didn't know how to shop for frilly clothes!!

The Cook Apartments always make me think about Emergency, the T. V. show - we watched it every day!!

Long ago and far away - but the memories are easily retrieved - thank goodness!

Lost -and Found!

Grandma Terrill taught me to always count the silver!! And it's good advice. I've been known to "count" lots of things - puzzle pieces, parts to games, Fisher-Price people to name a few. A couple of years ago, I bought a set of every day stainless. It is pretty nice, and it wasn't cheap. So I took to counting the pieces every so often, and usually the numbers came out right.

A few months ago, a teaspoon came up missing. Dad sometimes takes spoons with him to work, but he didn't have it. I looked through all the drawers. I kept my eye out for it. But all to no avail.

And tonight, while making frosting for some St. Patrick's Day cupcakes, I found it - in the bag of powdered sugar. Don't ask me how it got there - I was just tickled to find it after all these months.

It reminded me of another time when something was lost - and then found. When Phoebe was a little girl, she walked all over the house, picking up things and putting them down again in the wrong places. We lived in a small apartment while our house was being built, so there weren't too many places she could hide things. We usually found everything she got her hands on.

But one day, Harry F.'s hairbrush came up missing. You can see the aforesaid hairbrush in his right hand in the photo above. It was a gift for his 4th birthday - a genuine boar bristle hairbrush with a cherrywood back - just like Dad's! A gift that delighted him, by the way!!

We hunted high and low. I don't like to lose things, so I was getting pretty frustrated. Then I thought of looking in the wastebasket - sure enough, Phoebe had dropped it in there! The hairbrush was found, just like my errant spoon. (Harry still has the hairbrush - in case you were wondering.)

After I found the spoon, I counted the rest of the service.

Now there is a fork missing!!

Sigh!!!!

Birthday Buddies!!

Happy day to a man who knows his noodles - fits right in with all the Noodle Queens and Princesses running around in our family.

And birthday wishes to my girl Phoebe - she of the year-round bronze glow - did she use up all the beautiful skin genes or something? Is that why my skin is dry and flaky??

Have a great day - and a great year ahead!!

More on Bontober and Octphoeber

There are not lots of photos of just Bonny - seems like we always photographed a group!! This is summer of 1973 - and our first garden!!

Phoebe was like an "only" child in some ways - and trundled around with me while Bonny and Harry were in school. We often hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Clayton.


Another shot of Bonny and Phoebe. Phoebe's hair was just like Bonny's had been - but she wasn't a towhead!

I wonder what it would be like if I had pictures of myself holding Donna and Leslie - because I certainly have memories of "tending" them.

Guess those memories will have to suffice for now - until they have cameras that can take the pictures in your mind!