January 20, 2003
Well, there are congratulations due, note from Michael and Beth:
BIG NEWS from Windham, Maine. After much screaming, whining, and begging,
it finally happened. Beth is pregnant.
The first people to find out were Beth and I, on the morning of December
24th. Thank goodness. It may have made me a little uncomfortable to hear
it from Derrick, my next door neighbor. The news was then broken to Uncle
John, Mom and Dad on Christmas morning. Dad was Dad. He just sat back and
grinned. Mom was Mom. She got red in the face and gave us the “OK” sign.
John was a little more vocal than the other two. Big congratulations all
the way around.
At that point it was still a little too new to be letting everyone in on the
secret. We held off telling others until last week. We’re now about 8-9
weeks along and our first doctor’s visit is today.
We’re very excited, as one may guess. Beth is already looking at baby furniture.
My in-laws made sure they gave us our first baby gift. It was a
bib, of non-gender specific color, that said, “I Love My Big Sister”.
Speaking of big sisters, Molly is absolutely tickled. She couldn’t wait for
the day we could start telling people. She utilized Show and Tell as her
venue. She had nothing to show but a whole lot to tell. Michaela has
expressed a strong desire to baby-sit for the little one. I think they will
both make excellent big sisters.
Well, that’s about it from here. Any congratulations and donations can be
sent to mmcvetty@disabilityrms.com or bmcvetty@disabilityrms.com.
Mike
January 15, 2003
Charlie and I teaching at YES (Youth Engineering Society)
Note from a friend:
Some things we keep…
I grew up in the forties and fifties with practical parents – a Mother, God love her, who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it, then reused it; a Father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.
Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress, lawn mower in one hand, dishtowel in the other…… It was the time for fixing things – a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.
It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, reheating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant there’d always be more.
But then my Mother died, and on that clear summer’s night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any ‘more’. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up
and goes away….. ……never to return.
So ……..
while we have it ……. ……………….
it’s best we love it …………………..
and care for it ……
and fix it when it’s broken …….
and heal it when it’s sick.
This is true …………….
for marriage …………………………..
and old cars ….
and children with bad report cards ………………
and dogs with bad hips ……………………..
and aging parents ……….
and grandparents.
We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away – or – a classmate we grew up with. There are just some things that make life important……………….people we know who are special……………. and so, we keep them close! Let them know just how special they are, you know who they are.
January 14, 2003
Note from Amy:
Hey dad!! That online slide show is great!! It looks like you had a great time!!
Sarah LOVES her tricycle…she’s figured it out already!! She can truck along pretty well as long as there’s no hills!! Steering is another issue, however 🙂
I love you,
Amy
Note from Stephanie:
Hi,
I thought you could put this on the website to let everyone know what I’m up to! Thanks! Stephanie
Hi Herrick Family. I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season. Mine was very hectic, with getting ready for my move from Seattle to California and hiring people to replace me at my job. For the last few months I worked at a salon and lived with my best friends’ parents saving up to move. I became manager at the salon and had a boyfriend, but it has been my intention to move for about a year now. Even though it was really sad for me to leave my mom, brother and friends this was something I was very excited for.
My best friend (Michaela) and I drove down with the help of my dad and brother, and our other best friend Justin came down for the ride. We have a couple of friends here who we stayed with a week until we found an apartment. It is a beautiful apartment with everything brand new in West Hollywood, between Santa Monica Blvd and Melrose Ave. I go to college 10 miles away at Santa Monica College. Right now Michaela and I are job hunting.
Last week was my 21st birthday and my boyfriend came down for the weekend to celebrate it with me (since Michaela is not 21 yet she couldn’t really go out on the town with me!)
I hope everyone is doing well, I just wanted to update you all on my new life!
My new contact info is: (on the Family Data Page)
Love, Stephanie Herrick
January 6, 2003
Slide show of my first day in Vermont. (a fast connection is recommended).
It would be neat if everyone could set up a web cam at their home so that in addition to the weather as is shown below, we could all see what is going on outside each of our homes! (or inside if you wished!!) that will be years in the future as even I do not have a full time connection anymore.
Well, it has been a long time since I updated this page, it has been a very busy time. I was working 60 plus hours a week (including weekends) and had no time to myself. Then I went to Sue’s and relaxed. I tried at first to connect and update the page, but as they have no power available most of the time, and they only log on at a time they do have excess power, it made it inconvenient to them for me to try to do it. So, I will now!
Al is to the left cutting a tree, this is the load of wood I had already loaded.
Mom dog trying to “help”
The 4-wheeler Sue and Al let me use while I was there, I kept my camera in the saddlebag.
Sue & Al’s home
I have about 600 pictures and movies I took during my vacation, if anyone is interested I will put them up so you can download them, or burn a CD for you; I burned a CD for Sue and one for Michael containing all of them.
Here are a couple links to samples:
(the mpeg takes a while to download)
http://www.herrickhomepage.com/downhill.mpg
http://www.herrickhomepage.com/view.jpg
| 2002 | Dad’s | February 2 |
| 2003 | John’s | 1st week in May |
| 2004 | Donald | |
| 2005 | David and Jean’s Housewarming party, Pocomoonshine Lake, Princeton, Maine | |
| 2006 | Darrell & Marilyn | |
| 2007 | Dan | |
| 2008 | Sue and Al |