Posted: December 23, 2007 Category:Christmas Comments:1
CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS –
B een busy with working, kids, and holiday events L ife is crammed full as always! E veryone needs to take some time and relax S omeone special will leave gifts for the kids S o tired, mom and dad will fall into bed E ating holiday cookies will be a fun time for all! D ecorating is mom’s favorite thing to do!
S ometimes dad doesn’t get home until late E ventually we all spend some time together though! A ll of the work eventually gets done S eason’s clues begin to appear in the household arrangements O ften mom and dad are up late finishing chores and those gifts N othing can be left out for little eyes to see in the daylight
We wish you True Simplicity and Peace in 2008. That is my motto at this time, and what I am seeking. Life can get truly chaotic with everything you have to do and want to do and need to do. I had to scale a bit back this year in all areas to simply be able to manage everything - and I still can’t manage every single thing! It sure is a balancing act. But Christmas has been very enjoyable in that I am not trying to do everything I used to do. I had to cut way back on cards this year and only sent to mostly out of town immediate family, knowing that you all have email. [I tried to send to most of our loved ones that don't have email - I hope I didn't forget anyone!]
Chris is 17 now, in the 10th grade, and learning more and more skills all the time! After kind of a tough year last year with medication problems (he was switched to a different med in approximately March of 07) he has had a very good school year this year and is more cooperative and compliant and happy.
The last 6 weeks or so everyone has had at least 3 different colds and he’s been a bit miserable with that. I hope we all get over it soon!
Chris is wearing his hearing aid at school - we have one that is lost that we are seeking to replace. Both boys will have ABR’s to retest their hearing very soon as they are due - it was almost 3 years ago they were first tested.
Colleen is 13 and in the 8th grade. She is making videos and animating them herself, and still excelling at art.
Colleen had the opportunity to join the Anime club and is really enjoying that. And playing drums is her next ambition - I need to do some research and make some calls into that to see about lessons, etc.
And wonderfully, baking is a new hobby of Colleen’s, and it’s really helping me out this Christmas!
Ryan is going to be 6 in February and is in Kindergarten in a classroom where he gets a lot of speech help. He is learning to write a lot of words and can count to 30!
The therapist I spoke of last year did come to our house through most of the year and taught us some ways to work with Ryan more efficiently and effectively. She was great! She had to leave her job and we’re going to miss her very much.
Ryan is in mastery of his icon schedule at school and loves to get on the bus. He loves Blues Clues now and has to watch it every night before bed on DVR.
Roger is well into his second full year of Court research and enjoys traveling throughout Ohio and PA. For about 6 months of the year we were busy collecting menus for a sub-area of the company, and that was neat - we often took the kids with us and Colleen made some money collecting menus with her dad. It was fun family time and we would spend some of our profits at times on a nice dinner from an obscure Italian pizza place or a Chinese restaurant. We were disappointed that that recently ended.
But Roger is still busy collecting mortgage data and tax liens, and will probably begin collecting foreclosure files soon.
(Colleen made this for me)
I have finally broken fully into legal transcription again and have hit my comfort zone transcribing for the same court I did in 02! I would like to get my certification in the field. This will involve joining AAERT and studying a guide and testing eventually when they get to an area near me. I have to be a notary as well, which I am; however, I don’t have my stamp and seal at this point. It expires in November of 08 - I need to remember to renew it.
The certification opens doors that aren’t otherwise open, and I think will cement me in the field that I really am happy to be in for my next several working years.
I have been participating on a transcription board and have met many wonderful people on there! One of them is a new boss I have!
The genetic testing for hearing loss that I mentioned in last year’s letter so far resulted in no known cause. Ryan was the one who took the test. So we will see if more testing will be done in the future.
Haven’t had a lot of time for hobbies, but blogging and youtube, and watching a little TV, are relaxing for us in the down times.
With our obtaining FINALLY! a digital video camera as an early Christmas present, we started this video site where we upload a lot of our family videos for relatives and friends to view. Here is a recent one:
And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.” (KJV)
Posted: December 21, 2007 Category:Christmas Comments:0
Yum - I’ve REALLY been wanting a coke and finally got some cans!!! Boy you appreciate what you run out of when you finally get it!
I have been so BORING lately - first I complete NABLOPOMO and then I go to December and hardly post at all!
I have been cleaning and doing projects and laundry and all sorts of things like that. Wrapping is done, shopping is done. We are having our family over on Sunday for Christmas. I believe we are going to Gayle’s for Christmas dinner.
It just came so fast this year - it hardly feels like it should be October let alone Christmas!
Posted: December 13, 2007 Category:Christmas Comments:0
The season is upon us. I am in a whirlwind of stuff and a lot of the stuff is not getting done. But we have our beautiful tree up, and the shopping is done (much lower in quantity this year, but high in quality and as always in love given…)
My to-do list:
Finish 70 minutes of audio of 120 due Saturday.
Schedule kids’ abr’s
Start wrapping gifts
Finish Christmas cards (very short list of mail cards - only to immediate out of town family pretty much.)
Do email Christmas letters
Plan for Christmas party - menu, cookies, etc.
Clean house, do laundry
Try and enjoy the little things.
And immediate goal - get rid of headache I have tonight.
I’ll have to post a pic of our tree decs tomorrow (2 strands of lights still not working - i haven’t had time to pursue it really).
But got breakable ornaments up out of Harm’s (Ryan’s) way today and Rog bought a new star for the top of the tree that I’ll put on tomorrow.
Chris got sent home from school yesterday and Colleen the day before. I took them both to the dr. yesterday - believed to be viruses. They finished their meds for sinus infections last week.
Now Ryan was coughing most of the evening and I’m wondering if he’ll make it to school tomorrow.
So far I’m healthy (knock on wood) but feel very very tired tonight. I did nap for a while. I am going to just go to bed, and hope that Chris goes to sleep (he’s pacing). At least he’s not taking 89 baths like he did Tuesday night!
I am getting a lot of nice legal cases to type - finished one and proofing it now and have another for tomorrow and early next week. Then I received a long speech transcription project for late next week and week after (hopefully they’ll accept it then as that’s when I can do it!!!) that is a referral from a local company I used to work for!! Word of mouth recommendation is nice!
Yawning and my eyes are watering so shall try and sleep and hope Chris doesn’t drag me up over and over again…
Googled for memes and found this one and filled it out –
Favorite Christmas…
* Non-Jesus-related song? “Jingle Bell Rock”
* Jesus-related song? “Mary Did You Know” and the song about the little boy buying his mom a red pair of shoes.
* Santa-related song? “Up on the Housetop”
* Fictional character? The little blind boy losing his sheep (something like that??)
* Dinner’s main course? Turkey
* Dinner’s dessert? Chocolate Silk Pie and Pumpkin Pie
* Scent (pine, gingerbread, candles…)? Candles, dinner cooking
* Animated movie? Polar Express
* Non-animated movie? Christmas Vacation, the Santa Clause
* Personal memory? Playing guitars on Christmas Eve, our Christmas parties at our house with friends and family
* Story/Fairy Tale? ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, the Christmas story from the Bible
I was doing dishes yesterday but Ryan decided THEN was the time to start unpacking all the Christmas boxes I had hidden behind the couch. He also did some of this in the morning yesterday before school –
Posted: December 31, 2006 Category:Christmas, life Comments:3
This is cut and pasted from our actual letter. Hope you all had a good holiday - I didn’t have time to do an actual web site this year, but wanted to send you this letter, in my new journal (posts from 2003-2006 are added from a former journal). Happy New Year 2007! Only change in letter is that I’m now working at home again, just a little. And we got a new hamster! Pictures are on the right at Flickr, taken by us, Brad & John.
CHRISTMAS LETTER 2006
HOUSEHOLD In case anyone missed our news, we moved last fall! Our moving story is here http://www.criscollrj.com/movingday.html and last year’s Christmas newsletter, which never made it to print, is here http://www.criscollrj.com/Christmas05letter.html. Every day we thank God for this lovely house we have been given. It truly is a gift. One of our biggest goals of 2006 was getting a fence for our yard. It was a long wait (end of October until approximately June 24), but with lots of help from family and friends we are the proud owners of this fence.
We also obtained a safety lock for our front door, and sleep easier at night knowing the boys cannot as easily escape the house. We had some close calls early in the year with adventurous boys being beckoned by the lovely schoolyard across the street!
The Lake County flood of July of 06 was pretty astonishing. You can see a picture blog our county made, Read the rest of this entry »
We are introducing Chestnut, who joined our family 12-26-06. He looks like Spice in a way, yet different. This was Spice who passed away in February. Chestnut has more white on him. Right now we’re just trying to distract Ryan from the cage….
More Christmas posting soon - have to clean up right now! Look at Flickr pics though - Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Christmas Dinner at Gayle & Chuck’s (including pics by John and Brad), and the fuzzy ones are from my cell phone…..
We put up our tree Thanksgiving morning - we love this tree - a 9′ prelit we bought when we had our last Christmas in our old house in 2004. We had such a small house that after I bought it (half off, after Christmas) I was having a panic attack over where I’d put it (there would have honestly been NO ROOM in that house!) that it was a joy to put it in our living room in our new house last year. Our house was so much more bare last year as we’d just moved in!! Now I have a lot of decluttering to do to display our Christmas ornaments!
We’re still waiting to decorate it and unpack the rest of our Christmas boxes. The boxes are jokingly in another picture I took on my flickr picture list on the right of the blog. at least 20 boxes! They are still sitting there. I need to start unpacking them tonight since Ryan fell asleep easily at 9 and Chris is very calm!! Then I can take the boxes back up in the attic.
I love Christmas. It just comes so fast. I can’t believe it’s only a month away. I need to finish my Christmas web greeting site and start my Christmas cards also. I feel behind!
“[BOOK I : Psalms 1-41] Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.”
(Colleen made this for me)
