Dedicated to THEA

Today is Thea's 18th birthday so today's blog is dedicated to her. As the youngest of four children Thea was always the last of an era. The last bottle to feed, the last diaper to change, the last one to attend elementary, middle and high school. The last one to be driven to seminay and the last one to teach how to drive. I have a tendancy when I know that something is the last time to not want it to end. When Thea was a baby Marla and I would just hold her and rock her until she fell asleep. We knew that it would be better for her to learn how to go to sleep on her own, but we didn't care. We knew she would be the last of our babies we could hold. She wasn't potty trained until she was three because there would never be diapers again after that. ( That actually wasn't so bad.) We moved to Gardnerville when Thea was three. She had been very sickly and only wieghed 39 pounds which is underwieght for a three year old. We took her to a lot a different doctors who wanted to do a bunch of different tests that we did not feel good about. It turns out that she was just anemic and needed some iron that was easily handled with a multi vitamin. Thea was the tag along child. Marla was very involved with the high school band as were the older kids. So Thea spent most of her pre-school years in the band room with lots of teen agers. I think she thought she was just a half sized teenager herself. The high light of her pre-school band career was when she had her own pint sized band uniform and let the band in the Nevada Day parade. Her picture made it on the front page of the Record Courier Newspaper the next day. (Much to the dismay of her older sister Jesse, who was the actualy drum major and leader of the band.

In grade school all of Thea's teachers loved her. We got tired of going to parent teacher conferences and just hearing how wonderful she was. What more could we do? She was very involved in theatics and acted in school plays and even community children's Shakespeare group. Junior High brought new friends and challenges and horses. She finally convinced me to made good on a ten year promise and get some horses at our place. I rode Zana and Thea rode GS (short for the Golden Snicth) That horse loved that girl and would do anything for her. We rode every Wednesday afternoon with our friend Sharon Blanks, a great cowgirl and horse lady. We learned a lot from her about horses and horsemanship. I mostly enjoyed the time together with Thea.

High school brought puberty, homones, teenagerhood and all of the accompaning challenges of the same. Thea sang, debated, skied, had lots of friends, dated, studied, fed horses, and found Tobie. Tobie is a great dane / labrador black mix mut. I have never before seen a dog so attached to a girl and a girl so attached to a dog. High school also brought driving. I spent lots of time in the car with Thea behind the wheel. It only took a few months for her to stop asking me which was the go pedal and which was the stop pedal. Driving did not come a naturally as riding a horse. She did get her drivers license and is a very good driver now.

I have enjoyed my time with Thea. From the rocking chair, to the band trips, to the fishing derbies, to the horse back rides and driving lessons. We have spent time singing at the piano. (Thea has perfect pitch) We have skied together for 7 years on the ski club. She is a good girl, never in trouble. She is loving and smart, beautiful and talented.

Next year she'll be at the Academy of Art University in San Franciso studying Photography. We will miss her terribly but treasure the time and memories spent together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY THEA!!!!

Love Dad