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.
The following websites showcase her work? http://www.flaming-kimono.bravehost.com/,
http://youtube.com/profile?user=KirraInuyasha
http://keyara-inuyasha.deviantart.com/gallery/
2020 only the third one works. I am glad it does! Left the other two up as I like her originality of site names!
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.
Myspace. notify us to add you
criscollrj.com Main site [2010 note, this is now blog, and has a link to older web sites on it]
Criscoll’s Cottage . Older main site, not updating [2010 note, this is now purged as Geocities folded.] 2020 elsewhere I did log the name of oocities where a mirror of this exists…. http://www.oocities.org/dorifam/
flickr.com/. picture gallery
Photobucket picture gallery, videos
Christmas newsletters [2010 note, this may have dead links – still lots of work to do!]
vimeo.com
2020 – just left all these here as the namings, etc., are definitely interesting and many still have content.
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:
Untitled from Dori H on Vimeo.
Mary’s Song
Luke 1:46-55
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)
VIDEO I put together to “Mary, Did You Know —
