Ansa learned how to ride a bike

Posted: May 11, 2011 by RickThomasNet in Ansa's Stories

The past four weeks I have been taking Ansa, at her request, to the cul-de-sac to teach her how to ride her bicycle. Logan and Loren, the next door (two doors down) twins are a month older than she is and they have been riding for about two months.

Ansa was properly motivated that it was time for her to learn how to ride a bike.

We probably practiced for 12 or so of those days. Well…yesterday was the big day. Ansa took off and became an official bike rider on May 10, 2011.

Her tongue was wagging and her teeth were glowing as she could not stop smiling as she went around and around and around and around the cul-de-sac.

She only had one little spill that hurt her. She fell off several times on her own. Thankfully it was a tragic free day. She would ride straight for the neighbor’s yard, after jumping the short hump/curb and dismount in the grass. It was sorta cute.

She is stoked.

My back is quite grateful.

Tristen’s First Newsletter

Posted: May 11, 2011 by RickThomasNet in Tristen's Stories

Tristen wrote her first newsletter this week. She was pretty stoked about it. I’m not sure where she gets her ideas for things, but there seems to be quite a few of them.

Last month she started a vacation bible school in an impromptu fashion. She wrote out the lesson plans, created the games, had prayer time, and more.

These things are unprovoked by Lucia and me, which makes me quite glad. It is cool to see what is being provoked inside of her. I respect Tristen a lot.

On the newsletter, she wrote it and picked the pictures. I did some of the formatting as her “oversight” editor. It’s mostly her though. She encourages me soul. Here is the newsletter: Tristen’s Newsletter

Unprovoked Gospel-Goodness from My Daughter

Posted: April 4, 2011 by RickThomasNet in AWANA

Tristen sent this email today to the AWANA Leader at our church. It was pretty cool. Though she asked us before she sent it, I was blessed that she would think of this on her own.

Dear Mrs. Katie,
I’m pretty sure that my grade is going to win the cupcake party this Wednesday. I am going to ask my class if we could give the cupcake party to sixth grade girls. I have a friend in sixth grade named Hannah Suber. She told me through out all the years that she has been in Awana she, and her friends, have never had a cupcake party. And my friends and I won the cupcake party last year when we were in third grade.

So, on Wednesday I am going to ask my class to give our party to the sixth grade girls. If they are willing to give up the cupcakes we need to let someone know on Wednesday night. Would you ask the person who is going to give fourth grade the cupcakes, to ask us if we decided to keep them give them to the sixth grade? Would they be able to delivery them to the sixth grade?
Love,
Tristen Thomas

A funny thing happened on the way to McDonalds

Posted: April 3, 2011 by RickThomasNet in home life

Here’s the irony: I made a New Year’s resolution to stop texting while driving. I proudly (emphasis on proudly) say that I have not texted while driving since late last year. I made the resolution after watching the sobering video.

On February 17th a lady pulled out in front of me and totaled our car. On April 02 another lady rear-ended a car, that rear-ended a car, that rear-ended our car. It was a four car chain.

Lucia got a slight case of whiplash and there may be some damage to the van. I’m sure there is some kind of irony in all of this, though I won’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. I not a “looking for subjective signs” kind-of-a-guy.

It is more humorous than anything else. Cars go to the junk heap. People are more important and in all of these collisions, the people have been okay.

Today was a great opportunity to stand on windy Woodruff Road (maybe the busiest road in Greenville, SC) for two hours serving the three other drivers and passengers who were more shook up than we were.

It was kind of God to let us be there in order to magnify His name to two unbelieving drivers. One of the drivers is a Christian.

Though we made our plans for they day, God always orders our steps. (Proverbs 16:9) Once we realized He was involving us in a traffic accident we were, by the grace of God, able to quickly adjust.

The kids got to talk to the officer and see his taser. That was cool. Officer Mize was a very nice gentleman. The kids also got to see a smashed-in car with a deployed airbag. It was a good time for teaching about God’s kindness to our family and to others. It also allowed us to bring things into perspective for them, without a major liability.

All-in-all it was a good day, though not one we anticipated. This is just another reason why I am thankful that God would regenerate me. I need someone looking out for me and He is a wonderful Father to me and my family.

If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. – 1 Corinthians 15:19

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal… – Matthew 6:19 (ESV0

 

 

The Day the Festiva Died

Posted: February 20, 2011 by RickThomasNet in Rick

Last Thursday on my way to work I wrecked the Festiva. I was almost at the office, heading down Lovett Drive. I was going somewhere between 15 and 20 MPH. As I was heading into an intersection a lady pulled out from her stop sign right into my path. My street did not have a stop sign so I had the right of way. I was so close to her when she pulled into the intersection that there was no way I could avoid hitting her.

It happened in slow motion. I’m not sure how that happens. It was like my mind slowed the event down, frame by frame even though it was in real time. I hit her on the front passenger side. Her front side was knocked in and her tire was bent. My front end was knocked in, pushing the hood up out of place. The passenger side door was jammed as well.

Because my car (really the car Lucia bought when she was single) is a 1992 Festiva, they have to total it. It would cost probably two to three times its current worth to repair it, therefore there was no option but to total it. This is sad.

Interestingly enough, I was praying on the way to work about whether to put the car in the shop. It has been a good car. God answered that prayer. I’m curious as to what God has in mind. We were okay with getting it repaired prior to the wreck. Now that it is wrecked, we’re okay with replacing it, if we choose to replace it. We may just go with one car. We’ll see what He has in mind.

Classic Haydn

Posted: February 20, 2011 by RickThomasNet in Haydn Stories

We pulled into the garage after a couple of hours of running errands. This was a Tuesday, so the garbage can and recycle bin were out at the cul-de-sac. I asked Haydn if he would go get the recycle bin and bring it to the garage. He said, “Okay daddy, but I have got to pee.” I told him to pee outside, a boys dream. He jumps out of the van and runs outside to pee.

Unfortunately, I did not supervise this or give him specific instructions. When I got out of the van and looked outside I saw Haydn with zipper down, walking up our concrete driveway, while peeing a zig-zag line. The drive is slanted upward, therefore he was sort of waddling from side to side while straddling the line of pee he was making up the drive.

Once he had accomplished his artwork, he yelled back at me, “Dad!! Look at what I did! This was a proud moment for my son. His dad was just as proud.

A Typical Saturday

Posted: February 5, 2011 by RickThomasNet in Our Family

Today we got up and put the bread on the front porch. Since November, ’09 we have been picking bread up from Panera Bread to distribute to the poor. We distribute about $3,000.00 worth of bread each month. We have two folks who come to our house to pick up bread to distribute.

We take bread to one of our neighbors. We take more bread to our former neighbors, who now live about five miles away. We also take bread to the gas attendant at Costco, which we did today. I met him one night about a year ago at Costco and felt led to ask him if he wanted some bread. He took some and we have been giving him bread ever since. He gives the bread to about three elderly folks.

The rest of the bread we take to our church on Sunday to feed the children’s ministry workers.

We then went to Home Depot for their first Saturday of every month kid’s workshop. Today the kids built a Valentine wall mount that you can put things on. They won’t put anything on it or put it up. They don’t use any of the things they have built at Home Depot. It’s more about the experience. They love building things and it’s a cool thing to do. They came home later in the day and began painting their wall mounts.

We then went to Mattress Firm to look at some mattresses for the kids. We also went to Trader Joe’s for no particular reason. It just happened to be beside the mattress store. We also went to the bank to make a deposit. We went to BiLo to get food for tomorrow’s Super Bowl party with our small group.

We came home. Jacob, our former neighbor boy who is Haydn’s age was visiting Mrs. Birdie with his dad. The kids saw their van and were stoked that they could see Jacob one more time. By the time we got into the garage, Jacob was running across the cul-de-sac to meet the kids. They played for awhile.

We had dinner. They painted the wall mounts. I downloaded a math game app from iTunes. Haydn played that a ton, which was the hope. We watched Andy Griffith, two episodes, which we do nearly every Saturday night. We also watched two episodes of COPS. The kids really like this. It is a great time to instruct them about right and wrong, obeying, trusting, wages of sin, and more.

I asked Ansa, “What’cha gonna do when they come for you?” She said quite loudly, “Pray!”

They then went to bed. It was another good, low key day, as we enjoyed each other.

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