Volume 1 2011

Dad and Karla:  Dad came to the rescue last week to help Jena and I complete her homework assignment on the periodic table.  (Our version of “call a friend”).  As noted in the post below, he has been working on some family history.  Rumor has it that they might be making a Mesa-Texas trip this spring.

Judy and Gary:  Jessica took a job in Salt Lake and has moved down there this weekend to south Salt Lake.  Good for her, but not as nice for us.

Todd and Lea:  Their lives have been centered around Lea’s family and especially helping with her mom.  I think I did see that Sierra and Lora are back to school.  Good for them.

Mike and Andrea: (facebook)  We heard that yesterday the two of them shared an all-day movie fest with True Grit, King’s Speech, and Black Swans as three of the five movies they watched.  Owen (Lisa and Paul) was in the hospital for four days with pneumonia but is doing better (last we heard)

Robin:  She has also been sick with a sinus infection this month so not anything else to report.

Valerie and Lance:  Valerie said there is no major news from their family.  However she got to pitch her book to a agent over the weekend.  She will post the details so watch her blog or here to learn more.

Lynette:  Missed talking to her as she is spending the weekend with friends.

Rick and Linda:  Katie got accepted to BYU!  Yeah for her.

Scott and Sandy:  Scott got carried away when I asked for a one to two sentence up-date.  I posted his complete message in the post called “Scott’s up-date”.

Ollie, ollie, oxen free

I suppose that was really spelled Alle', alle' ...! When I was a kid, way back in the 30's and 40's that is what you called out when playing "hide and seek" and wanted to bring all the rest of the "hiders" back in.

I had a second Title in mind for this piece, based on a famous childrens book: Where's Ollie? (Actually it was several books, and they were called: Where's Waldo?--but you get the idea). For any Giberson grandkids that may be reading this and don't know who Ollie was, then shame on you parents, because it means that haven't read to you, or let you read, or given you a copy of my life's story. Suggest they take care of that!

I have the hospital birthcertificate that proves I was born Richard Creighton Ollie, and my father was Harry Hollis Ollie. Somehow, we found out that his father was Chester Ollie. (I don't recall HOW we come to know that at the moment). Nevertheless, we have not been able to find any thing about Chester's parents. (A side note, to those same grandkids mentioned in the previous paragraphs, ask your parent to explain the South Dakota part of the family).

Somehow (wild guess, dumb luck, one of my children did it?) we determined that just maybe Chester was born in St. Louis, MO (that's Missouri, you'll).

Guess what the 1880 census for MO shows, in St. Louis? A Clinton Ollie, 27 years old, married to a Kate Ollie, 26 years old, with a Richard Ollie, 5 years old at the time. Clinton, born in Illinois in 1853. Is this the elusive parents of Chester Ollie (my guess is Chester is born in the 1883-86 range.) Of course you know the problem: The 1890 Census of the US was destroyed by fire!

Report on funeral for Lea's father

Since one of the goals of this blog is to be a history of "life as it happens," I wanted to include a copy of the update email that Uncle Scott sent about the funeral for Aunt Lea's father:

"If you haven’t spoken to Lea or Todd since the funeral, a quick update. It seems as though the service went well and was a special experience for the family. I’m not sure if any of you attended, but we were not able to make it. One special part was a quartet by the 4 sons-in-law (including Todd of course). They sang “I need Thee Every Hour” in 4-part harmony. Apparently, 2 of the men are not known to be singers, so there was some apprehension (probably most among their wives) about how that would go. Todd and Lea both described it as impressive and a very touching moment. Some skilled musicians in the audience were apparently “blown away” by the performance and of course the family was moved. Todd sang the high tenor part which surprised me to hear. Lea’s family seems to be coping best they can. Lea’s mom wants to move back to Austin as soon as she can, but they’ll need to sell the property first. "

We hope they are doing well and know it will be an adjustment for their whole family. Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time.

February Thoughts

I guess it was meant to be that we started this in February. It is a natural time of the year that I think about Mom. Not that I don't think of her many times at all times of the year, but in the natural human way, I remember her life at this month of her passing (not my favorite term....).

Anyway, since you might be like me, I thought I would include a piece of writing that was published in the old Relief Society Magazine. I am probably the only one of the siblings and grandchildren who have seen one of those (since Todd and Mike were probably not interested in stuff like that and everyone else is too young) but it came out on a regular basis and had articles and contributions from sisters. Here it is.

ELEMENTAL

by Eileen Giberson

I don't care what anybody says: I grew up in Western Oregon and I love the rain.

The sound of rain is beautiful. It makes me feel cozy, curled up in the chair by the fire. Os snuggled under the blankets in my bed. I like to hear it tapping on the roof and at the windowpane.

The sight of rain is refreshing because the world comes greener, and browner, and newer. And to be out in the rain just for a walk with boots and raincoat and umbrella: ah, that is something very special; that is the feel of rain. How I love it.

My children are growing up in Eastern Washington. The sun is their companion. It stays for the winter to brighten the tan, dry days. It coaxes the crocus into bloom in mid-February. It browns the children by May and in July it sends them to the swimming pool in self-defense. When that sun comes out in the cloudless blue sky, it means a good wash day; it means a good play day. Out here in this flat desert land the sun arises early and stay hot and late. I love it.

(published in July 1966)

Being one of the children raised in the deserts of Eastern Washington, I can totally relate to her description of our growing up. Of course, later in life, we learned what "flat" really meant as we moved to west Texas....and others of us have seen places where the sun rises earlier and stays hot later than even Richland, Washington. It wasn't until I was older that I realized what a switch that was for Mom (Grandma) to go from the beauty of Oregon to the barrenness and wind of Richland. I loved going to Oregon and even thought it was pretty, but Richland was our home and I never thought of it as ugly or barren or too windy. It was just a good place to grow up.

A short note

Just to say thank you to Judy/Valerie for coming up with this idea and getting it set up. I hope the family will take advantage of it.

I really enjoyed the article about Rick. Makes me almost want to hurry through the year so I can read about all the rest of the "Aunts and Uncles."

The pictures add so much. Seeing your mother/grandmother again with her two littlest ones was a tender moment for me.

From Todd and Lea--Lea's father passed away...

Reprint of Todd's email--

Just letting you all know that Lea's father (William Anderson "Bill" Sansing) passed away earlier today.  He had been battling cancer for a number of years.  For the past few weeks he had been in a nursing home under hospice care without being able to communicate much.  We went up there to Athens this past weekend, visiting him on three different occasions but he was sleeping soundly and not able to be awakened.  We last saw him Sunday afternoon, right after attending a stake conference broadcast (the conference was for all stakes in the Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico Area).
The funeral is currently set for next Monday (Feb. 14th).

"Uncle Rick" Feature

(We are going to highlight family members during the month of their birthdays. This year we are going to focus on the aunts and uncles. Although there is much that can be told, we are going to ask each person the same questions during the year. If you want to know more, you can always ask. :))

Uncle Rick

Uncle Rick is number seven of the eight of us. As such, he had all of six of us to mother him in addition to Mom and Dad. We used to fight on who got to hold him next. I remember one of our family night games was to sit in a circle when he was learning to crawl (then walk) and take turns calling to him so he would come to us. Our version of "throwing a ball", I guess.

Now

Rick attended BYU and graduated in Stats. He works currently as a "Actuary and/or Investment Consultant with "Hewitt EnnisKnupp, An Aon Company" Basically, I help corporations manage their pension investments wisely."

Then

Rick lists his hobbies and interests as Architecture. I also like writing, art, games, some sports, and playing on a city rec league volleyball team with Linda.

Favorites:

color Cobalt Blue

food-home Lasagna, eating out Curry

professional/college sport teams You have to ask? BYU basketball/football

vacation spot Oregon (I'd say Germany but that was likely a one-time deal, not like we are going to hop

over there again anytime soon),

game Too many to choose -- but maybe I will say "Diplomacy"

Something you are planning to do this year (before your next birthday) Exercise (more than once a year). Celebrate 20th anniversary with Linda.

Church calling 2nd counselor Bishopric.

With Mom and Scott

A Giberson memory All of my memories are Giberson memories, as I was born with the name. But if you want to go back to old family days, I have very fond memories of various Family Home Evening Theatres.

Rick with his family: Linda, Katie, Tana, Duncan and Thad

He and Linda met at BYU and have been married "Coming up on 20 years!". They have four children--Katie, Tana, Duncan and Thad. They have moved around a bit, but currently live in Grapevine, Texas.

And there you have it. Happy Birthday month, Uncle Rick.

Greetings

As the oldest member of this fabulous group I thought I should see if I could make an initial post. I will have more to say later, this is really just a test. As to a "regular" blog spot or whatever you call them I might have to be reminded.

(P.S. I've already told the powers that be to correct the "spelling" error. If you don't know what it was I'm not going to tell you!)

First Post and Introduction to "giberiginal"

Because of our ever expanding families, we hope to make a place where we can stay connected and use the technology of today to share updates and also create a spot of family history as it unfolds. Valerie and I have lots of ideas about what to do and big plans for this space. We will see how it works. To start with we have a couple of basic items in mind

1. We want to create a list of links which would include all blogs which family members have.
2. A monthly news report of items picked up by Face book, phone calls, emails or personal contacts.
3. A message from Dad on a regular basis.

At the moment, Dad, Valerie and I will be the authors but would be happy to add others who want to blog directly on this site. I have invite Karla and Lisa to be authors as well.

In the future we hope to add a family history section/family reunion blogs and others as we think of. At this point, this blog is an open blog which means anyone can see it. As such don't put private information like phones numbers, birthdays, and social security numbers. As we progress, we can establish a private blog as an add-on if we feel it would be useful.

As yo see, we have a Current Reading list and also a Giberson Game Report. Just send me your contributions to those by email and I will add them to the list. Everyone is welcome to contribute from Grandpa Giberson down to Owen.

One feature we will have this year is a focus on the aunts and uncles. It will occur during their birthday months. This month will be Rick so watch for that.

This is just a beginning. All ideas are welcome.

I chose this particular background because Valerie suggested something Texas-like (stars, red, white and blue) and I thought this looked somewhat old-Texas-town looking along with the yellow flower for Mom. In addition, the work "blessed" appears in the right side and I thought that was a good word for us. We have been blessed to be a part of Gibersons. We can change it if someone finds something better.

Have an awesome week, all you Gibersons out there.