Teri Parris Ford's Blog

The Ford Crier: 18 May 1997

Last two weeks at the Fords: I am not sure if I will like a bi- weekly format for the Ford Crier. I had a hard enough time trying to remember what happened in a week. Now I have to reminisce back two weeks. Well, bare with me as I play with my newsletter.

Mother's Day has become a big holiday in our home. I really like on the celebrating special occasions and Mother's Day is as special a day calendar as they come. I want pampering!! The day started with breakfast at McDonalds and ended with all kinds of gifts. I bought myself a new file cabinet for my business because it is growing and I need to grow more organized with it. I decided to go all out and buy a solid oak one that looks just fabulous in the living room. Erika made me a wonderful tea pot
picture with a poem and tea bag (School Art). Moni and Jessi bought me a Mary Englebreit coffee mug that says, " Every Mother is a Working Woman! " Jim let me get a Bread Machine. Allowing me to have such a large appliance in our tiny kitchen is as much a gift as going out and buying it for me.
Anyway, who cares who went to the store and made the purchase? It was a Mother's Day gift all the same!

Life has slowed down a bit last week but it will pick up again until I leave for California. I will be in the Sunshine State from June 6-29. I will be on vacation while I celebrate both of my parents birthdays. My mom turns 50 on the 14th and I am planning to see to it that she spends a little money on
herself (ha ha)! My Dad turns 54 on the 28th and he has planned a camping trip for us girls that will probably end up giving him more gray hair but hopefully will be much fun. Erika is eager for school to end and vacation to start. I am just eager for some WARMTH! The temperature around here has
forgotten to turn a few pages on its calendar.

Annoyance of the Week; Now that I have a bread machine, I have been trying out all kinds of recipes. The bummer was my first several loaves were flat. Old yeast in the refrigerator was the root of my failure. I went to the Health Food store to buy some bulk stuff and my loaves got a little better but still were quite dense. I had to finally buy expensive yeast from the grocery store and made my first perfect loaf of bread a week and about 10 loaves later.

Word of the Week; The word for this week is " wean. " That is to accustom a young mammal to
take food by means other than nursing. That young mammal is Monika and how it happened was quite surprising to me. I offered to nurse her a couple of mornings ago while still lounging in bed and she pushed me away with one hand and reached for her NUK (a pacifier) with the other. She quite
contentedly stuck that NUK in her mouth and sucked away. It horrified me, to be honest. It is the end of an era in my life. The cow stage is over, what comes next? I think it is the Mother Hen stage.
The End

The Ford Crier: 05 May 1997

The Last Two Weeks at the Fords: Did I miss a week? It is interesting to see how when I began writing these weekly updates almost a year ago I did then on Friday night. Now I am doing them on Monday! Procrastination is at work. I may go to an every other week format just to ease my work load. I would rather write the Ford Crier every week and do laundry every other week. However, I do not think I could fit that much dirty laundry in the bathroom and still have floor space to still have floor space to stand.
Well, Saturday (the 3rd) was National Scrapbook Day. How did you celebrate I taught a workshop to 30 women and made a nice amount of money doing it! It was probably one of the most rewarding days I have had " Professionally" ever. My only complaint was that I had a cold. Every time I bent over to help someone at a table my nose would run. I caught on quick and learned squat down instead. It would have been great just to stuff my nostrils with tissue, but I know that would not look very professional!

Annoyance of the Week; I went to see Star Wars at a budget theater with Erika and a friend from church a couple of weeks ago We planned to go see The Empire Strikes Back last week but put it off till this week because I was feeling miserable last week. Star Wars played for three weeks, so I assumed The Empire would too. Wrong. Last week was it and now it is not playing! I missed my chance to share the continuing saga with my eldest daughter and feel like I have cheated her out of piece of my rich childhood history! Well, I suppose we could just go see Return of a Jedi and hope Erika does not notice.

Words of the Week; "Cat " I am not sure what exactly it means to Monika, but she calls almost any animal a cat. So at least she is close. She continues to amaze me her eagerness to do things beyond her age capabilities. I am not sure if is because she has a sister so much older than her (Erika is 5 years ahead of her) to guide her. OR if it is because of my three children she is by far the one that has grown up with the least amount of constant adult supervision. Most anything she wants or needs, she has had to figure out a way to communicate it or accomplish it herself!
James Thomas and Teresa Parris Ford