TIMMY'S, DEAD RATS AND A CLICKER

I certainly have to add my thoughts on this matter. David and I woke up with Laura handing us both a Tim Horton's coffee (extra large, one cream). After our two weeks vacation, we arrived from BC the night before and so it all made sense...our little girl missed us!!!! Or so I thought. Turns out Laura loved having the house to herself! What she was actually doing with the Timmy's was simply getting the day off to a good start.

We were expecting Jamie and Cam for lunch (Dave had to work so he couldn't make it....we missed you Davy boy!!!). Once they arrived, the girls prepared us a delicious lunch. Afterwards, they marched us to the front of the garage, handed us this tiny little package. David unwrapped a remote control and voila! The double car garage door opened like magic!

I think I screamed for at least a full minute (that's what I do when I am really excited. I can imagine how loud that came out 'cause this time I was REALLY, REALLY excited!!!! Jamie got it all on video. Oh, joy.

Certainly David was the most surprised.

To help ya'll put this into proper perspective, you have to understand that when the garage door opener broke over 4 years ago, David was heart-broken. Afterwards, every time he drove up to the garage, he would click the remote control, remember that the mechanism was broken and then.... let out a big sigh. Sad really. I don't think he ever quite got over it. He could have bought another one right away but as every home owner knows, there is always something needing fixin'. And so he prioritized which means that this beloved do-hicky would have to go on the bottom of his honey-do-list...and I mean WAY on the bottom. So for the past four year, he had to open and close the door MANUALLY. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.

And now, fast forward to the present. David and I were so surprised and thrilled with this gift that the kids had to point out that they had done more than buy and install a new garage door opener. They had also cleaned, patched up, and painted the entire double car garage...which was no small feat. The old freezer was also painted and new window coverings were added along with new wooden frames for the windows.

I had wanted to do just that for a number of years but the task was simply to much. Besides, it was just a garage, right? As long as it's clean and organized, what else do you need? A GARAGE DOOR OPENER AND A NEW PAINT JOB!!! And what a difference it makes. I still walk in there and the first thing I notice is how PRETTY my garage is....and it still smells like fresh paint. Oh my! Guys go nuts over a new car smell...I never did understand that...but now I got my very own new garage smell...especially now that Laura found and got rid of those two dead rats....yuck.

You have to understand that Laura won't even kill a spider so finding and actually touching the dead carcasses and tossing them in the waste can was undoubtedly a giant act of selflessness.... she can clean, she can scape, she can paint, she can organize, she can do a full course load in university plus a couple of extra courses to boot and still have time to kill, she can travel the world and back.... all that comes easy for Laura.....but the strange thing is I could never get her to kill her own spiders. As Davy boy would say, true dat. And so, having to actually touch a couple of dead rats, well, now that is love.

Thanks Laura. How you came up with the most perfect gift for us is absolutely astounding. We had no idea you were so in-tune with what we wanted. Double wow. And then getting your brothers and Cam to help out was significantly wonderful because you allowed all of them to participate in this awesome gift-giving!.....not to mention that you could not have done it alone in such a short time especially when we know you went to Fanshawe to teach every day. Excellent ma belle fille!

And so I end this blog by saying thanks to my boys and my daughters, Dave, Jamie, Laura and Cam. This was certainly an unforgettable day for pa and me. We must have done something right for ours kids to have gone to such great length to bless us like this. The most precious moments for parents is when kids give back to them. Jamie, David, Laura, you have given us plenty of moments of joy, moments when we were proud of each one of you. But this tops them all because it was such a surprise to both of us. And now we have another daughter to add to this blessed time in our lives....Cam.

Cam, you have chosen to enter into our family which has warts and all. David and I are the first to admit that our family is, like many families, and to say the least, somewhat imperfect. And in spite of what you've seen so far, you still married Jamie!!! Thanks for seeing the best in us.

What happened last weekend is one of those family moments pa and me shall never forget. This kind of love can indeed cover a multitude of crazy and imperfect stuff.

We shall never forget this act of love from the four of you.

Bravo.

written by Therese (Therrie) Grant

A Fantastic Gift

WOW!!! Jamie, Cam, Dave and Laura really outdid themselves this year for Therrie and my birthdays. They did a complete garage makeover. New garage door opener, new track system for hanging up stuff, new blinds for the windows, fresh coat of paint (including patching up tons of holes), and even a fresh paint job on our freezer.

It took countless hours and lots of elbow grease to get the job done and they did it while Therrie and I were on one of our greatest vacations ever sightseeing in British Columbia.

Apparently this was Laura’s little brainchild but everyone pitched in and went above and beyond my wildest expectations. Not too many gifts truly surprise me but boy did this ever shock and delight. They even put on a fabulous lunch to go with the already great gifts.

What else can we say?

Thanks for the super fantabulous gift.

Love,
Ma et Pa

Kindness

I was pleasantly surprised several weeks ago by an act of kindness from a perfect stranger. Therrie and Laura were on a shopping trip to Toronto when our car broke down. Thankfully they were able to stop in a relatively safe place and had road side assistance.

I have a great mechanic friend here in London and its always annoying to have to trust a mechanic that you don’t know. The answer for the girls was to get towed to Canadian Tire in Toronto because that is all that my particular plan allowed for. It would mean me driving to Toronto to pick them up. The car wouldn’t have gotten fixed that day so I would have had to go back on another day. No big deal, just an annoying waste of time and money.

It turns out that the tow truck driver was an immigrant from China. On the way to Canadian Tire he found out that they had been to China. On hearing this he pulled some strings and managed to work it out so that he could tow our car to my mechanic here in London at no extra cost to us. It also meant that Therrie and Laura had a ride back to London.

That was the greatest act of kindness that I have experienced in my life.