Category Archives: Family

Sixth Foot

Leave a reply

This foot was earned earlier in the month, but it took quite a while to get a picture of the sixth foot. First, Eddy lost the foot. He said that he had it in the pocket of one of his pants. The foot could have fallen out or the washer and dryer could have gotten it; either way it was gone forever. This required going in to see the gym teacher to ask for another foot. I was prepared to make Eddy give her a dollar or however much it was going to cost to replace the lost foot, because it was his responsibility, but she just gave him another one. That was nice of her.

The color chosen this time was yellow, which is the first time that Eddy has picked a color that he already had. This is not for lack of there being more choices in colors. While he was picking out the foot to replace the one he lost I noticed that there was a white, purple, and black foot, but Eddy chose yellow.

Fifth Foot

Leave a reply

Eddy got the fifth foot. This foot was actually earned much earlier this month, but this is when a picture was finally taken and a post was made. The choice of color this time was gold. When looking at the picture it is very easy to discern gold from yellow, but in poor light it is very hard to tell the difference.

Christmas 2011

Leave a reply

The children and I set up the tree. The presents started accumulating under the tree. The kids received gifts from Holy Family, which is the Catholic church in Stow. The children got gifts from our family friend, Mary. Grandma and Grandpa Rollins in Maryland sent gifts. There were, of course, gifts from me. Great Grandma even had some gifts for the kids.

When Christmas finally came and Santa had finished putting gifts under the tree there were plenty of gifts to go around. The kids woke up and they knew what to do. They had to make coffee. It was a tradition when I was growing up in my parents house that nobody gets to open gifts until the parents are awake and have had their coffee, and so it is a tradition in my house as well. Coffee and camera in hand they went about dividing the gits into piles.

The first thing they opened was their stocking. The unwrapping of the gifts came next and they were pleasantly surprised with what they had gotten. They both wrote letters to Santa and most everything on their list was to be found in their pile. They both received money and gifts cards this year, and that helps them pick up the odds and ends that they wanted, but did not get. As always all the pictures from Christmas are on the pictures page.

Patty Playing Violin

Leave a reply

Today was the Archbishop Hoban Winter Fine Arts Festival. The talents displayed tonight were the String and Wind Ensemble, Concert Choir, and for the first year ever the Guitar Ensemble. Patty plays violin with the string and wind ensemble who have songs dedicated to just them and other songs where they play with the choir singing.

The performances went from 7pm till almost 8:30 with a 15 minute intermission. It was great to be there and I got to meet Patty’s music teacher, Mr. Kelvington. It is times like this that I am glad that Patty’s Grandmother encouraged these children to pick an instrument in grade school.

Fourth Foot

Leave a reply

Eddy managed to earn another foot, before the years end. That brings the grand total up to four plastic feet. In sort of related news Patty and I told Eddy that we thought it weird that he was wearing his school shoes and then having to change into his tennis shoes to do the walking. He agreed that it would be a better idea just to wear the tennis shoes to school, since he starts walking as soon as he gets there.

This should be the last foot of the year, but we will have to see. There still is another week and almost a half of school before Christmas Vacation.

Christmas Tree

Leave a reply

The Christmas tree was a little bit of a problem getting up this year. First a light went out at the top of the tree and there are no replacements, because the tree is very old. How old it is exactly is unknown, because the tree was in the basement when we moved into the house. A strong indication of the relative age of the tree is that the electrical plug on the lights, that are attached to the tree, are not grounded, which is to say that one plug is not larger than the other. This has been a standard for quite some time, and surely before the children were born.

New garland was purchased and new lights. The old lights were removed and thrown out. The new lights required an extension cable be run behind the tree. With the help of the children the tree was successfully put up and it does not look so bad. Here is hoping that 2012 is a better year and we will have the money to purchase a new, and better looking, tree for next Christmas.

Third Foot

Leave a reply

Eddy is not going to school any earlier than normal. Matter of fact, he has been having to wait for a ride, which is of course as opposed to riding his bike, to school due to a great deal of rain and cold weather. He might have actually been getting to school earlier than taking a ride when riding his bike. Despite this, he has managed to earn himself a third foot.

One thing Patty noticed was that he actually wears his school shoes to school, which means that he must get to the gym, change into his tennis shoes, and then change back into his school shoes when it is time to cross over into the other building to start school. Kind of just locked into a habit I suppose. He decided to get the neon orange foot this time, so it would seem that he is bound and determined to get every color available.

Eddy’s Confirmation

Leave a reply

To nobody’s surprise the actual preparation for Eddy’s Confirmation was extremely easy. All that was required was pressing some shirts, so that he would have a choice in what shirt he wanted to wear, and that was all there was to it. He wore one of my ties. He originally wanted to wear khaki pants, but I was fairly quick to dismiss that, and we were all prepared. Eddy looked pretty sharp. Eddy’s Confirmation was held at St. Paul’s Parish and Eddy’s Uncle Andrew was his sponsor.

Becky had to miss Eddy’s Confirmation, because she was running a marathon in Philadelphia. There is actually a fairly amusing story about car keys and Andrew leaving Pittsburgh, but I am not going to tell that story here. Eddy took the name “Anthony” who is the patron saint of, among other things, lost articles, which is sort of ironic considering the story I am not going to relate here.

Just as we did for Patty’s Confirmation we all went to another room, but instead of having cake and fruit punch they had cookies and cheese cubes. We were all very hungry, so instead of staying for that we just made sure to take a picture of Eddy with the bishop. The bishop of course is the same one who proceeded over Patty’s Confirmation. We all went out to eat and that was a very welcomed end to Eddy’s Confirmation.

Patty’s Confirmation

Leave a reply

I really do not know what happened here. This event actually occurred earlier this year. I honestly thought that the pictures and the event were already recorded on this website, and it became painfully obvious of my oversight when Eddy’s confirmation was taking place and I could not find anything. There was quite a bit of panic at first, because the pictures could not be found. The pictures have been found and I will do my best to recollect Patty’s Confirmation at St. Paul’s Parish.

It took weeks to find a dress and shoes for Patty’s Confirmation. It was very trying, as Patty had very high standards for what she would accept. Her Aunt Becky, and her sponsor, was a life saver in this respect as she took her out and found her the dress and the shoes for the Confirmation. She looked very pretty in her dress and shoes with heels. Patty took the confirmation name “Felicity” after Saint Felicity who is the patron saint of Mother’s. She took that name, because it is the same as her Grandmother’s.

When the Confirmation had concluded we had fruit punch and cake in the basement of St. Paul’s. That was good and then Becky insisted we all go out to dinner together. It was a very good end to a day of celebrating Patty’s Confirmation.

Dead Man Walking

Leave a reply

I remember posting something about how when Eddy and Patty were in the play last year, at St. Paul’s, that I thought for sure that Patty would attempt to do some acting this year at Archbishop Hoban High School. As it turns out, she is involved in the play, but not in the way I expected. She is playing the violin in the orchestra. The play is “Dead Man Walking” and she is playing in the orchestra on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.