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Thursday, December 24, 2009
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Merry Christmas!!!
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On the eve of the celebration of one of the most significant events of our history, here's wishing a great Christmas to one and all, from the entire Fetafilter staph. There is still time to do a bit of decorating, so click the link below for a craft that the kids will love!! CRAFT!! |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 3:32 PM | |
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Monday, December 07, 2009
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Vacation outing...
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So last Friday we decided that we would take Ted, Ray and Tessa into the Boston Museum of Science for the day. I was on vacation, but ended up going into work for a meeting for a couple of hours anyhow. So we got a bit of a late start, but managed to be at the museum right around noontime. We have always really enjoyed this museum and have had a membership there for quite a few years. It is a great place to spend a day. We have not gone much for a while, as walking around for a good part of a day has gotten to be a bit too much for Ray. After a few hours it becomes very difficult for him to comfortable and he ends up exhausted. That has become the case for lots of place we go, so a short while ago we ordered him a wheelchair to make getting around a bit easier for him. This is all a bit of an adjustment for all of us. The museum trip would be only his second outing with it so we planned to just go and see how he did with the whole thing. Once at the museum, we parked on the 5th floor of the parking garage. We of course needed to take the elevator down to the ground floor, so headed over to it and pushed the button. It arrived empty and we went in. Tess started pushing Ray in his chair but he was insistant that he propel himself. The doors closed and we rode it down to ground level with no stops. The doors opened. Now I'm not sure why this is, but people seem to tend to crowd up the the unopened doors of elevators for some reason. As if they really want to be the first ones in, but somehow neglect the fact that there are likely people in there that need to get out first. This day was no different, and the doors opened to a few people, all squished up to the door. Ray starts rolling himself forward out of the elevator. He bumps into a guy standing by the door. The guy steps aside and apologizes. Ray continues on with the rest of us right behind. A while later, while navigating the eating area, Ray sort of crowds a kid standing in the isle, the kid's mother pulls her kid aside and sternly tells him to get out of the way. And so it went until after 6Pm. We tooled around the place, saw lots of cool stuff and generally enjoyed ourselves. Ray did really well, propelling himself about and having Tess push him along when he needed a rest. All in all it was a very nice outing. We all had fun and Ray got to enjoy the place without getting exhausted for the first time in a long while. But the high point for me came as we were leaving. There is a very long straight hallway that leads to the elevator to the garage. Ray picks up his feet, and Tessa goes zipping down the hall at a trot, pushing Ray ahead of her. Ray is laughing like crazy, Sue cringes. Sue and I arrive at the elevator in time to hear Tess say to Ray: "You know Ray, you totally rule with this thing. Did you see that, you banged into that guy, and HE apologized! Then you almost bumped into that kid, and his mother yelled at him! You're awesome!" A conclusion that Raymond had to agree with. I can only hope that one day when Raymond is a bit older, that he can fully appreciate how fortunate he is to have an older sister who can make having to ride in a wheelchair feel like a bonus. |
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| thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 4:13 PM | |
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Saturday, December 05, 2009
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Ted's Topper
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I forgot to pick up the cherries last week when I went out food shopping. Tessa needed cherries for her special Christmas cookies that she bakes. Alan graciously offered to pick some up at the food store for her. It was a gracious offer because a winter storm is heading our way and everyone knows that; when you are getting 2-4" of snow overnight with a 40 degree day the next day, that the food store will be mobbed with panicked shoppers buying milk, bread, and lottery tickets. The anticipated Christmas holiday has been almost too much for Teds to bare. We picked out a tree earlier this week (got it from a guy names Fat Head), put it in the stand in the music room, and then left it there until this morning to decorate it when everyone was at home. Teds has always worried that we didn't have a proper star for the top of our tree. Over the years various kids had made stars that were basically taped to the top of the tree. Charlie was especially an expert at making stars pronto; cut, colored, and attached, all in under three minutes. Teds made one last year. I think over the years our tree has been one step above the original "Charlie Brown's Christmas tree". This year we decided not to put on any ornaments that had macaroni glued to them. This morning, anticipating decorating the tree, Teds was worrying about the star again. He really wanted one that lit up. He told me that we could certainly order a star on-line and have it shipped by Christmas. I thought that might be a bit expensive so I put that idea on hold. As Alan went out the door he told me he would look for a star for the tree. He came home with a Walgreen's "21 Light Tree-Topper Professional Series" star for $5.99. What a hit! Did that ever make Teds' day! Teds decided on having it steady burn instead of flashing, and the light was installed. Something about it made Charlie want to sing Feliz Navidad. We all got a kick out of seeing a real star on top of the tree. It's funny how Teddy, being the last of the six kids, will never remember the poorer times that we lived in. He won't remember unwrapping single serving cereal boxes for Christmas, or sleeping five kids to a bedroom. His memories will be different. He has, however, a lot of great role models to look up to, and a great spirit of joy that we all would be fortunate to have. It's funny how a funny light up star could make such a difference to a kid, but it did. |
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| thus voiced Mrs A @ 2:50 PM | |
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