Another quick one:

When I was little and in Girl Scouts, my mom always took me out to Hood Bros when I was selling cookies. I would go in and see Uncle Walt with his "Left Handed Genius" plaque on the desk to say "Hi", because inevitably he would tell me to take my order form to Aunt Patti to choose what they wanted. I'm sure they had several other family members and friends who had daughters doing the same thing, but they always made sure we all felt special when they ordered from us.

This may seem like a silly story to some, but it meant a lot to me. While I was at the College for Officer Training, I had really short hair most of the time, but with all the hair salons shut down for COVID, it gave me an excuse to grow my hair out and get in less trouble than I would've normally for that. However, when things started opening up, I still didn't want to cut my hair, but it was considered too long for uniform because it was on my collar. My mom and I were visiting the Hood-Goodchild house at one point, and my mom suggested I ask Aunt Patti what she used to do with her hair when she was at training (she had similar hair length issues back then because of the bonnets).

She taught me how to put my hair in these little twists and pin it up with crossed bobby pins. My mom had to help me with it the first couple times, but then I got it. And I was able to use that hair style until it was long enough to put in a little ponytail and start using a fake bun over it. It all sounds ridiculous to those who haven't gone through uniform inspections like ours, but it meant the world to me that she took the time out of a family visit to love on me like that.

Our family lived with Uncle Walt and Aunt Patti during my third grade year. I have so many fun memories of our time with them, but Christmas was the best! In an age before Pinterest, Aunt Patti went all out. Santa left footprints on the floor and a piece of his pants were caught in the fireplace! As an eight year old it made Christmas morning so exciting…

That same year I attended the elementary school many of my uncles and aunts had gone to and had the opportunity to play the Wicked Witch in my class production of the Wizard of Oz. Aunt Patti sewed my costume and made me the most amazing tall, pointy hat!

During a challenging time for our family, Uncle Walt and Aunt Patti made sure we had good memories to hold onto…