Toomey Times


Volume 16                                                                                                                                          December 2002

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 Mesquite, Nevada we learned how to golf from a pro. For family vacation we went to Harold’s 20-year class reunion, Three Rivers, Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, and then to Burley, Idaho for the Toomey Family Reunion where we enjoyed boating, swimming, and pulley rides. We spent Thanksgiving with the Toomey side of the family in our home. AND we all got sick together in December. What’s the saying, “A family who gets sick together sticks together?” Or is it, “A family who sticks together gets sick together?”

 

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 Hawai’i he wasn’t homesick—“I missed my Mom, not my home.”

(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!

Holly is also moving forward in the area of health and well-being. (She is trying to convince herself of this as she sits coughing while writing this letter.) She remains faithful to Tae Kwon Do even though being Mom often takes precedence. Since beginning Tae Kwon Do she has advanced to yellow belt, lost 20 lbs., and over 20 inches. Yee-Haw!

 

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 Hanauma Bay, on Oahu, Hawai’i.

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 Mount Timpanogos for the first time, with the church youth. That didn’t do him in, so he joined the family in Tae Kwon Do.

 

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 Philadelphia and Honolulu.

 

Contacting Us

 

Harold & Holly Toomey

1376 North 1100 East
American Fork, UT  84003-3245

(Internet map to residence)

 

Home:     (801) 492-1526

Mobile:    (801) 671-2345 (Harold)

Mobile:    (801) 671-2351 (Holly)

Mobile:    (801) 859-9292 (Marcia)

Mobile:    (801) 635-9594 (David)

Internet:   www.toomey.org  (Toomey Times Archives)

Email:      <first name>@toomey.org 

 

Harold, Holly, David, Jonathan, Andrew and Heather



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