Elder Christopher Faria

Currently serving in the New Hampshire Manchester Mission, I realized that Chris was not represented on our family's blog. I've posted what I hope are a good representation of his time in Maine and New Hampshire. You'll notice the smiles and smirks on his face? Classic Chris!

Loose People In the House

Marianne came to town! It was very exciting. I don't get to visit with her as often as I'd like and it was delightful to waken each day and see her lovely face. Oh, Brittany, Rachel, Richard and Sam came with her. She has, cleverly, posted a history of the visit from Sam's point of view. Sadly Charlie is asleep and unavailable for comment. You'll have to suffice with me.

It was the week of "www" for the kids; Wii, Wall-E and Water World. Well, maybe a "wwww" since Water World is two words. It was games, games, games... you get the picture. The video games got a workout while children sat sluggishly mesmerized in the pixelated glow of the television screen. Thankfully no one grew mushrooms on their person. Michael and Allison were terrific 'cruise directors' as they coaxed the troglodytes from the cool basement and engaged them from time to time with cards and board games.

Sam and Charlie enjoyed playing vigorously. The first day they ran, literally non stop, for three hours. They took a break, ran for another two hours, slept all night, and ran for three hours the next day. Emma, the frisky fem fatale Westie next door, didn't know what to think of this strange dog distracting Charlie from their daily runs up and down the chain link divider. Sam did eventually, with much coaxing and bribing, use the dog door. When cousin Sam left Charlie was a little sad and lonely not having anyone to chase. And, thank you, Sam, for teaching our self sufficient pup that it's much more fun to eat out of your owner's hands. We've decided not to indulge that fantasy.

Mom, Marianne, Allison and I were all into reading in the few quiet times we found. We could be talked into playing games but really enjoyed relaxing together. We old women, those 45 and over, got out Helen's old collection of ancestral pictures and made a huge pile for Marianne to scan and burn onto CD's (both mine and Helen's computers have disabled burners at the moment). Sadly they are still sitting in a box in Michael's bedroom. Now I have much more incentive to repair my computer. Oh, and BTW, Michael kind of enjoyed his room smelling like Bath & Body Works after she left.

There are too many fun things to describe so I'll list: Alli, Em, and Rach deciding the last night to make peanut butter cups, Rachel loving seeing the X-Men trilogy for the first time (Rachel has a new love in Hugh Jackman), shopping two days in a row at our favorite antiques mall (the Brass Armadillo), watching the doggies play (Charlie loves the new toy Brittany... made from the rubber part of an old cow milking machine), watching the children descend on the kitchen like locusts at meal times, Emily wearing the same PJ's almost every day (sparkly red Valentine's boxers and a black Men's Choir T, both from Chris), learning 'Killer Bunnies,' Rachel and Allison playing jacks with me,... I could go on but I'm tired of it.

Now I'm looking forward to Dean and Renda coming here (yippee!) next Thursday to pick up Mom. It's been requested that we have cookies and candy and be ready to play some serious cards. Yes!!

Lessons Learned Revisited

Charles Fitzwilliam has been an adorable addition to our family. However, as my sister Marianne states, it is like having another baby. Eight months old when we brought him home, almost a year ago (thanks Lyndsey-Gayle and Tara Lee!) he won us over in a big way. Easy going, cheerful, playful, cuddly... he's fun.

Early on we learned that we had to watch what we left lying around. Still a puppy he liked to chew. We didn't pay attention to the fact that his rawhide bone was gone and one afternoon found many artifacts in the backyard; a destroyed tissue box, a chewed "Arizona Highways," a descimated hair clip, etc. Yet, still, we were careless. Helen, frantically trying to finish Christmas stockings for new additions to the family, came in to find her work lying on the ground. Not unraveled but the still attatched yarn ran out the dog door. She followed it and found her ball of yarn. He improved but still made off with Michael's iPod nano once, thankfully only the earbuds were hurt. Allison has lost a glasses case but, thank heavens, not the glasses.

We had heard that his sister, Minnie, was much smaller but able to leap onto the counter in JoLynn's kitchen. Charlie had never! So it was a surprise to us at Halloween when Helen and I were in the sunroom and Charlie was frenetically dashing in and out of the dog door at 30 second intervals. I stood, looked in the dining area and caught him red-pawed on the table stealing candy. Outside, tucked under the concrete rain gutter diverter, we found ten candy wrappers. Mostly Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and a few Almond Joys thrown in. At least he has good taste.

You'd think we'd learned, but sometimes we forget. One Sunday afternoon we were relaxing in the sunroom and saw Charles chewing on something strange in the backyard. White, lumpy and too big for his mouth. It was a hamburger bun. Now, we have barbequed burgers as a Sunday tradition every week after church (a far cry from Helen's linen, silver and china set dinners of roast or fried chicken) and we wondered how he'd gotten a hold of it. Then I remembered... I had purchased two packages of buns and we'd only taken one from the table. In the back we found an empty plastic bag. Eight hamburger buns! We felt good that at least he had only dispatched with seven. Later he came in the house and uncharacteristically had to be strongly coaxed to sit with us on the couch. Once on my lap he kept his head diverted. Yeah, he had another bun in his mouth. We were down to six. Another search of the yard yielded one more hunk of bread. So, only five. Worry over the effect on his health and weight were put to rest once his cousin Sam visited and they ran for three days straight.