other kansas kid makes the paper

I usually try to get any family members featured on the old www posted to the blog. I've been negligent to post this link to Susan's appearance in the Shawnee paper back in November.

peta caringbridge reminder

I want to remind and encourage everyone to stay up on Peta's recovery by reading her Caringbridge journal here.

Sign up for email alerts and it's so easy to never miss a post. I have really grown to enjoy Rodney's narrative style. He reveals his heart (and hers) with every post. I do wish that the topic were something much less critical. But the posts cause my emotions to flow in both directions and prompt me to pray for Peta occasionally.

kansas kid makes newspapers again

It seems a certain Kansas kid is photogenic enough and active enough to make the local newspapers. This time it was in a series of pictures about space camp at Wonderscope children's museum a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy.

something's fishy in kansas

I don't fish as often as I'd like. Certainly I've never featured myself here on the family fish blog. But when Liv asked to go fishin' Sunday afternoon, I jumped at the chance. So we grabbed our rods and tackle and headed some 70 yards out the front door to our neighborhood lake.

After getting her set up and fishing, my first cast went horribly wrong. My over-zealous throw and late release resulted in a my topwater minnow going straight down about 3 feet from the bank into a hole about 8 feet down with this fella (I think it's a largemouth bass) waiting for it. It was the luckiest bad cast I've ever had. My 6-year old fishing partner took the above picture.

Well, she's never shown any interest in fishing beyond the first five minutes. An hour and 45 minutes later, after neither one of us caught anything else, she still didn't want to leave.

I think she's hooked.

Ses April Update (Only a month late.)

It sounds as though Petra is slowly improving. Rodney has a good support crew in their three children, and I think he has learned to pace himself. We all love you guys.

Things in Colorado are about the same. I am starting to gather up, clean up, and pack up for the move out of the house I've been sitting. The owner returns from Iraq close to July 4. I stopped by a Realty office and asked if there was a need for house sitters. I thought the agent was going to adopt me asking for all my contact information. I plan to check with others as soon as I can put together a little list of services.

I will be making a jog through the central states in a few weeks visiting the Grey's, the Greg's, and the Arkansans. It looks like it will take about 3 1/2 weeks. I know the twins will miss me. (Not Grey and Greg.) (Well, maybe a little.) (Nnaaah.)

Stay strong.

Petra's Surgery - Ses Update

Thank goodness Peta has had the anurism surgery today and did quite well. I feel like we can all sigh a breath of relief even though I'm sure she has a lot of work ahead of her.

Peta's CaringBridge link

Use this link to stay updated on Peta's condition:

CaringBridge

Get well very soon Aunt Peta.

march for babies

Please consider giving to the March of Dimes.

Give here.

The April Sesquipedalian Editor: Mary T.

Who's There?

No, this is not an April fool's joke. I am trying to get this started hopefully to become habit with everyone. It would be so much easier for me to post a Ses on line than to snail mail it. You can add pictures and cartoons as well. Try it.

While I'm at it, you of the next generation could take over a turn at it. With 9 grands and 4 original sibs partaking you would only have to write once a year. The 4 sibs could possibly write one every two months anyway to keep things going.

Ah, Colorado

All my AR (By the way, NBC this morning had the states around the Mississippi tornado identified by their postal abbreviations. Arkansas was shown as AK! The peacock's face should turn red.) Do over: All my Arkansas friends grill me about all the snow I've seen this winter. One, the snow is mostly in the mountains; I stay mainly on the plains. Two, Colorado has been in a drought for some time now. By this date, Denver should have received 50 or more inches, and last night we finally made it up to 20! Trees are dying. Snakes came to my yard looking for water last summer. We have had tornadoes and record breaking warm temps since I've been here.

Visitors from the South

Speaking of snakes, Libby and I took a walk when she and her friend Walt visited us in March, and we saw a snake slithering quickly in front of us and someone on a bicycle. Wasn't expecting that one.

I enjoyed meeting Walt. He has taught high school English among other subjects for 33 years. Gotta respect that. He now teaches English and culinary arts to students at risk. He is taking students to contest this month and noted that he couldn't quite get how to spin sugar to make a round "cage" to hold whipped cream for a dessert topping. I vaguely remembered Mother cooking straight sugar in an iron skillet when I was a kid. We tried it and it worked! Hope Walt's student can use that info.

Keep Checking

One of the problems I have with writing a Ses is that it takes so much time and effort to publish a hard copy all in one mailing. I will try to add to this one during the month of April, so visit the blog to check up on me. If you haven't been here in a while, it may take you a bit of time to read the earlier posts.

I challenge my sibs to try the blog posting instead of hard copies.

Much happiness to all.

reunion web site

NOTE: Avoid the emycrem.com web site for a while. It looks like someone has hijacked it to try and sell you viagra, cialis and a bunch of other stuff you don't want. Check back here and I'll try to make note of when emycrem is safe again.


I especially love the url--emycrem.com. That should have been our blog url. Oh well...

Anyway, check out the site and start planning your reunion.

another fishy picture

This is the picture J.R. sent out with his holiday greetings e-mail. Enjoy!

all-tolleson photo

This pic was taken at Hammond's candy factory in Denver, CO on November 28, 2008.

family blog spotlight

Again, it's been a while since we had any new content, so here is another spotlight on a family member's blog.

If you don't want to know more about the life of a potty training lawyer mother of twins who lives near the mountains two doors down from Grandma, you're probably not interested in C. Jaye's blog, everyone else check it out here. It has recently been facelifted (the blog, not the twinlawyermommy).

My personal feeling is that the words are out of order. We don't yet know if she'll ever be the mother of twin lawyers and I'm pretty sure she's not the twin of another lawyer mommy. Oh well, I guess annoyinglittlesister.blogspot.com was taken.

five year old photographer

Youngest Tolleson (non-twin category) was turned loose at the park Tuesday night with a digital camera. Click here to see Susan's blog post for the slide show.

jtm holt and arkansas state

Another good example of things that should be posted on the family blog:

Story told to Lions Club...09/03/2008: In 1863, our grandfather, J.T.M. Holt was born. He grew up to be a very successful farmer, businessman, County Agent, school teacher, and he spent eight years in the Arkansas State Legislature. Among the bills he authored was one creating the State Junior College System in the early part of the 20th Century. There was one college established in each of the four corners of the state. The one from the NE corner put their football players on a rickety rackety old bus and drove down to College Station, Tx, and on over to Kyle Field last Saturday, where they beat the "snot" out of Texas A&M University! 18-14 Yea..Red Wolves! formerly, Indians!

Thanks Hank

palo duro canyon

Click here for the NY Times article on the "other" grand canyon. Thanks Randy.

the gurdon light

Here's an interesting resource for Arkansas history. Check out this entry re the Gurdon Light.

family blog spotlight

We haven't had much content update lately. So, here's a spotlight on one of our family member blogs. I have found Michelle's blog to be open and honest and interesting. I hope she finds more time to publish more posts.

one dr. holt

This Dr. Holt will make you smile.

Congratulations, Mama Mary!

Click here for the story.