A Schoeb Thanksgiving

We started spending Thanksgiving with the Schoeberlein's our second year in Michigan. The first year we were here we traveled to Plimoth Plantation and had Thanksgiving where the Pilgrims actually experienced it 400 years ago. The next year, we had met a great family that invited us to Thanksgiving with them and we've done it every since.

Our Thanksgivings have changed some as other families have moved away that we shared that first Thanksgiving with. It was that first Thanksgiving at the Schoebs that Misty Wagner told me about a little school called CSA and it was only 4 months later that my kids were enrolled in that very school. Something we thought we would never do as a family but something I would receive such a blessing from.

We've learned games like Killer Bunnies and Nertz from these Thanksgivings and played more competitive versions of Wii games than I could ever imagine at the Schoebs.

The next few years brought Zac and Libby and I had my first ever Thanksgiving prepared by a professional chef. AMAZING!!!

But the last two years it has just been my Howell family of the Schoeberlein's and Jayson's mom and brother who I am also blessed to call family. I don't know what I would do with out all of them and I will always think of them at Thanksgiving and every other day of the year, and be thankful.

Here are some pics from our fun Schoeb Thanksgiving 2008.

The Conclusion of Bedford Falls

The girls participated in Community Theatre of Howell's production of "It's a Wonderful Life" this month and it turned out to be an outstanding show.

Here are some pics from the show.

Happy 14th Birthday Abi!

Paw

Celebrating the life of my grandfather this last week was one of the top days of my life. I am so proud to have called him grandpa and so proud to be his granddaughter. I have been so blessed by his life and was overwhelmed by those who filled the auditorium to pay their respects to his life. It's been 5 1/2 years since my grandpa knew who I was but that didn't stop him from calling one of the random aides at the nursing home he lived in following his stroke, "Jacki". When I went to see him he didn't know how much I loved him or how much it broke my heart to see him the way he was but on Wednesday we all got to share how we remembered him and we laughed and cried about our memories. It was a great day!

Dr. Doug Melton, pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church (my mom and grandma's church) read the following at the funeral:

Alvin Standish Pierce died October 25, 2008 at the age of 89. Al was affectionately known by his family as “Bus,” and to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren as PawPaw Bus. "Bus" became short for Buster, which was a boyhood nickname. Al worked at Tinker Field but was self-employed most of his life doing outboard motor repair on Mercury motors in a shop he built next to his home in Wheatland, OK.

He was a member of the United States Army Air Corp where he served in Puerto Rico during World War II. His duty station in Puerto Rico sparked two life long interests: learning Spanish and flying. He earned his private pilot license in the late 40's. This interest was placed on hold until his girls were raised when he once again started flying, then earning his commercial and instrument ratings. He served as a Search and Rescue Pilot in the Civil Air Patrol, and implemented a program to assist in search efforts that was featured on a local news station. He was very proud of flying in formation with the Civil Air Patrol over a Fourth of July parade in downtown Oklahoma City. His family truly enjoyed all of the countless airshows attended throughout the state of Oklahoma. They did not need to be able to hear the commentators, they brought their own with them as he could describe every maneuver being performed.

He was a member of Southern Hills Baptist Church but also attended Knob Hill and Kentucky Avenue Baptist Churches. He became a Christian after his oldest daughter Linda, came home from church as a preschooler and asked him if he as on the Lord's side or the devil's side, and was baptized at Rockwood Baptist Church by Vernon Cavendar, who was a very special person in his life. He was an ordained Deacon and taught men's adult Sunday Schools classes for decades.

After he retired he renewed his interest in Spanish, and went back to school to further expand his knowledge. From that time until the time he suffered a stroke in 2003, he read his daily Bible readings in Spanish. His interest in Spanish led him to being part of partnership mission programs with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. After retirement he took two mission trips to Spain and a trip to Hondorous. He taught Sunday School in Spanish at The Good Shepherd Mission in Oklahoma City for many years.

He was active in the Brotherhood and served in Lay Renewals all over the state of Oklahoma and Texas and one in Georgia. There is a picture of Al and Bro. Cavender at a Rockwood reunion in the video. He was an ordained Deacon and taught men's adult Sunday School classes for decades. He served as a counselor at the last Billy Graham Crusade held in Oklahoma City at the Myriad.

At Knob Hill he was part of Evangelism Explosion, and a very sweet memory for his daugher Alana, is serving on an Evangelism Explosion team with him. Alana also has a very special memory of her Dad receiving a call from another Deacon at Kentucky Avenue on a Saturday night telling him that the church was on fire. Al's initial reaction was to say, " Good, the church needs a good fire under it," until he realized that it really was burning.

Even after Alzheimer's had claimed a major portion of his memory. He would still stop and ask a blessing for his food before he ate.

He loved to water ski, fish, hunt and travel. In most of the family pictures, Al can be seen with a camera in his hand. He loved to take pictures and video of the family and wasn’t afraid to make them all go to great lengths to get just the shot he wanted. Al began taking movies, and then videos in 1958, and the life of his family is chronicled on miles of movie and tape. The first year that he was not able to take videos at Christmas there were no pictures taken. It wasn’t on purpose, it was just that the family was so used to him setting up the video camera in the corner of the living room and taping all of Christmas morning, that none of the family even thought about someone else taking pictures. He was proud of visiting 48 states, many of which he visited with his wife, daughter and grandkids.

There is nothing Al could not fix and he would try to modify everything that might have needed fixing even if you didn’t think it did, sometimes sending suggestions to manufacturers on how they could improve the product.

He was an exceptional joke teller, and remembered every thing about every joke he had ever heard, except how many times he had already told it.

He loved his wife. That is such an understandment. There is one thing his children knew and that is that he loved their mother. Al kissed Ann good-bye and hello every time he left the house. Which might not be so special unless you remember that he worked in the back yard. He repeatedly told his family, and anyone who would listen, "I just don't know what I did for the Lord to allow me to have the woman that I got."

He is preceded in death by his parents, four brothers, six sisters and a daughter, Jackie who died at birth in 1951.

He is survived by his wife Ann, daughters Linda Pierce of Seattle, WA; Alana Stephens of Oklahoma City; granddaughter Jacki Minney and her husband Kurtis of Michigan and grandson Max Stephens of Oklahoma City. He has five great grandchildren which where his favorite five little gumps: Abigail, Grant and Paige Minney of Michigan and Tyler and Brookelyn Stephens of Virginia.