Toomey Times
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This year we fenced
in our back yard (to keep Heather 
from escaping), helped plant trees in the new city park across the street,
began taking family bike rides, went ice skating together in our hockey jerseys,
and enrolled in Tae Kwon Do as a family. The boys even pooled their money
and bought a Nintendo game on ebay.
Isn’t family togetherness great?! We did a lot of things
as a family this year. We attended the Winter Olympics and festivities in
our home state. At Paradise Canyon Resort, in
The following are individual highlights for 2002:
David (14) is actively involved in Boy Scouts.
This year he was inducted into the Order of the Arrow Boy Scout Service org.
He has also been busy in Tae Kwon Do, achieving his yellow belt in September.
David was released as Deacon’s Quorum President
after serving over a year and now serves as secretary for the Teachers Quorum.
He has grown a good half-foot this year, standing 5’
7” tall (almost as tall as Mom), and he even has his own mobile phone thanks
to the T-Mobile family plan.
Jonathan (10) has been busy in Cub Scouts this
year earning both his “Faith in God Award” and his Webelos Badge. He also
attended a week-long Boy Scout Campout with Harold and David at Flaming Gorge
reservoir and worked right along side the Boy Scouts in completing requirements
for Totin’ Chip and Firem'n Chit. He has been working hard in Tae Kwon Do,
which paid off this month when he earned his yellow belt.
Jonathan excels in Science and Art (his drawings are excellent), and gets mostly ‘A’s in his other classes too. In science his raw egg contraption resulted in one of the few eggs that did not break when dropped off the school’s roof. He also invented a really cool eyeglasses case.
In May, Jonathan gave Mom and Grandma some
excitement when he crashed on his bike and had to have 27 stitches in this leg.
It’s a good thing for Mom that Grandma drove to the hospital because after all
the stitches Mom got so pail she almost fainted.
Andrew (7) is his mother’s dream student. He gets excellent
grades and does his homework without even being asked or prodded. His favorite
“subject” remains recess.
When asked what he really wanted said about him in this letter he mentioned five things:
(1) He can now hang up side down by his toes on the monkey bars.
(2) He really liked the Star
Wars starship he got from the “Good Fairy” on Halloween for trading in his
candy. (Thank you, Robert and Jana, for introducing us to the “Good Fairy.”
Andrew has a sweet tooth like no other.)
(3) When Mom and Dad were in
(4) He is working hard to earn
his yellow belt by February.
(5) He wants to grow up to be a
doctor.
Heather (3) can often be heard at the top of the stairs, calling
like her Mom, giving her brothers only seconds to get upstairs, “10, 9, 8,
4, 7, 1, 0!” Yep, she runs the household pretty well.
Heather loves
to cook and is Mom’s little helper. She likes to read and often has Mom read
so she can repeat after her. She also loves singing her favorite songs (especially
into a microphone) “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “Old
MacDonald.” She loves jumping on the trampoline and playing outside.
Recently Heather found a long-lost binky, and the two
of them are now almost inseparable. She continues to talk even with the binky
in her mouth, but will take it out when Daddy says, “Heather, take the cork
out!” Her vocabulary continues to grow. Mom’s current favorite word from Heather
is “delicious” ‘cause Heather sounds so cute when
she says it.
Holly is uncertain as to which direction
she is moving—backwards or forwards. She began the year as a Cub Scout
Bear Den Leader, then moved to Wolf Den Leader,
and is now serving as the Boy Scout Committee Advancement Chairman.
In February she surged forward when she had lasik eye
surgery a week after Harold had the same surgery. Her vision went from nearly
blind (20/800 or –10) to 20/20. The doctors are so proud of the results!
As to highlights, Holly says it’s a toss-up between
her children’s successes, being in Tae Kwon Do again (after a 21 year break),
the miracle of 20/20 vision, and snorkeling with Harold in
Harold lost 45 lbs. this year, which doesn’t
include the appendix he had removed two weeks after Jonathan received his
stitches or the tissue removed from his eyes when he underwent lasik eye surgery
in February.
Ten days after his appendectomy, Harold decided to
beat his body up even more and attended a couple of week-long campouts—first
with his Boy Scout troop at Flaming Gorge, then to Wood Badge Training. After
surviving that, he hiked to the top of
Harold now serves on the Scout Committee as the
Outdoors Chairman. In his spare time he
works on finishing the basement, wiring the house, and helping neighbors with
their computers and math tutoring.
He continues to travel frequently to “exotic” lands.
The two most interesting places his work took him this year were
Contacting
Us
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Times Archives)
Email: <first
name>@toomey.org
Harold, Holly, David, Jonathan, Andrew and Heather
Original Microsoft Word 2000 Document