Teddy Bear Stories

Pie Crust Art - as dictated by Spaulding

2011-12-02T16:52:00.000-05:00

I baked pies for a few months. Mommy helped, since fruit juice stains bear fur. Anyone, who has ever baked a pie, knows slits have to be made in the crust or the steam has no way of escaping. The first few pies, I slit like normal, but that got boring and I'm a very artistic bear. I decided to make art on the pie crusts. Here are my temporary works of art.

First, I did a self-portrait on a blueberry pie, but this represents all the bears in the family.

Well, if you're making a self-portrait, it's just polite to draw family members next, so I drew a doggy on the next strawberry-rhubarb pie to represent my wife Lady, my daughter Dee, and Lady's dad Axlerod. (Okay, not so much Axlerod, because he's a basset hound, and I was drawing spaniels, but we must keep the in-laws happy too, so I included him.)

I know. Pie art is hard to see, so I've drawn the outline on it, so you can see it better.

Well, if you know anything about Teddy's wife, Valentine, you know she likes to be included. (I'm not saying she's pushy. I'm not stupid.) So, this peach pie has a bunny rabbit on it.

Again. Sometimes hard to see, so here's the outline.

Then our baseball team, The Phillies, were doing very well, so I drew a Phillies logo on the strawberry pie.

That upset the two cats in the family - Tee, Teddy and Valentine's son, and Lee, Phil's wife - so I drew a cat on the peach piecrust.

And, that's hard to see, so here is the outline again.

Which left one more family member, who needed her portrait done. I know we haven't introduced her, but we have a stick pony in the family now. Do you remember the horsey's with a stick, instead of a body? Kids used to climb on the stick and gallop around on their ponies. Santa gave us our own pony last year, but she became part of the family. Her name is Nelly, as in "Whoa, Nelly!" Here's her portrait. (To make up for forgetting her so long, I wrote her name on top of the strawberry pie, too. She liked it.) I think it came out clear enough. What do you think? If you can't see it very well, maybe I'll outline another time. She's looking left, if that helps.

About this time, Bob T. Bear alerted us it was Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day. I made a pirate to celebrate, but Mommy couldn't help me post, so it's a bit late. Yeah, this one really does need to be outlined.

Here's the outline, but I think his beard came out right, so I didn't fill in all those lines, too.

And, what goes better with pie than a cup of coffee? Mommy doesn't drink coffee, so she forgets how much we need coffee. This was a gentle hint about our need. Do you think it's the perfect artwork for our first apple pie of the year?

I have to admit, I wasn't thrilled with pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. I mean I love pumpkin pie, but no piecrust on top to draw on. Oh well. We're done making pies until Christmas. Hope you liked my artwork. I hope the new medium catches on.

Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day

2011-09-19T12:19:00.008-04:00

Bob T. Bear reminded us today is International Talk-Like a Pirate Day. Argh, my maties!

We know little about pirates past Johnny Depp's Captain Sparrow. But we tried it.

Lately, Mommy has assisted Spaulding in baking pies. Now, if you remember anything about pie-baking, you know you have to slit the top. Ever see the slits people make for pie tops? Boring! So, Spaulding took over and started inventing his own piecrust art.

What does that have to do with Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day? Well, that explains why we'll be late on bringing our own slant to the day. Spaulding made a pirate to top our pie and Mommy has been kind enough to take photos of all of his artwork. But (there's always a "but"), we need both Daddy and Mommy's help to upload them. Spaulding's computer (although Mommy thinks it's hers) won't accept the camera's memory card, so we must wait for Daddy to upload it onto Teddy and Phil's (although Daddy thinks it's his) computer, and then transfer it to Spaulding's computer. (Daddy has had insomnia for a while, so it's best to ask him, when he's not in a mood.) And then, Mommy has to work on the images in the photo software program, because…well, have you ever seen a photo of something tan on tan? It just doesn't show up well, so we have to enhance the photos so you can understand what you're seeing.

(Did we mention Spaulding has been doing piecrust art for a while now? We have several photos of his artwork, but, honest, today he made a pirate on the piecrust.)

So, since there's no way of doing this today, we'll tell a pirate joke, instead.

Phil dressed up as a pirate for Halloween (his birthday, too), last year. A lady answered the door and told him how cute he looked. (Do people not understand pirates are fierce, not cute?) Then she asked him, "Where are your buccaneers?"

"Under my bucking hat!"

The Teddy Bear Brothers' Most Excellent Adventure

2011-03-15T09:47:00.018-04:00

Okay, as you know our typist (Mommy) has been too busy writing to help us type. Well, finally, she's listening to us and is combining her writing with our stories. Now the bad news is that she's doing this on that site that caused her so many problems last year. The good news is, so far, she's still on it.

With that, we're going to add the links, so you can read everything, including comments from folks reading them. (They don't know it's real, and Mommy is playing along. Grown-ups are weird that way.) If, some time in the future, she can't go back again, we'll just put it all up on here. Being Internet Savvy Teddy Bears, we know Google will think someone is stealing writing. They don't know any better. It really is us dictating one of our adventures to Mommy.

Now it's something called "an epic," which means it's a long story. That means it will be told in parts for a while, so come back and check to see if the next part is up yet. So far, we're averaging an update every 6 daysish. So, here are the links. Hope you enjoy it as much as we are.

(Good thing about Teddy Bear World. We can spend time in People World, and then slip right back into the Teddy Bear World whenever we want. We really are telling the story as it happens, so wish us luck. And, if you're a stuffed animal and want to join us, just let us know. We'd love to run into some of our buddies while we're having our most excellent adventure.)

Part 6    New March 20th
Part 7     New March 30th
Part 8     New March 31st
Part 9    New April 3rd
Part 10   New April 9th (hold your stuffies close.)
Part 11 New April 14th
Part 12 New April 20th
Part 13 New April 22nd
Part 14 New May 2nd (Phil wants it understood, he's just pretending, despite what the story says.)
Part 15 New May 13th
Part 16 New May 15th
Part 17 New May 17th
Part 18 New June 6th
Part 19 New June 9th
Part 20 New June 16th
Part 21 New June 18th
We interupt this story for a special video of our garden.

Part 22 New June 23rd
Part 23 New June 30th
We missed it, but Mommy and Daddy had their own adventure in the garden on June 30th.
Part 24 New July 2nd
Our adventure isn't over, but, you know how we've been telling you that Mommy is too busy to type for us on our blog? You know how we keep saying she's going to write books about our adventures? (Well, we're telling, but she's typing.) We're finally doing it! Yippee! But, it takes place in a park near our home and Mommy doesn't know the area we like to hang in, so she came down to look at it with us a couple of days last spring. She wrote about her misguided (hey, she didn't listen to us) adventures in search of where we hang out and took us and the camera with her.
It's a two parter, and we're adding it here so the parts to our epic adventure don't get lost in blogging order. (We can't change the dates for this entry.)
Part 1 of In Search of a Novel Setting
and
Part 2 of In Search of a Novel Setting

(As we write this, we're in search of another prompt that helps us tell more of our epic adventure. Sometimes prompt givers don't give prompts that help. Don't give up though.)
Part 25 New July 16th
Part 26 New July 19th
Part 27 New July 22nd
Part 28 - The Finale New July 25th

It feels good to be home! (Now, how do we talk Mommy into writing for us some more?)

Mommy's been Busy, But...

2011-02-22T09:26:00.000-05:00

We found a great post, even if the author missed the point.

So? Who's been vacationing in Australia or The Ritz-Carlton? (-o:3

Bear with Us

2010-11-15T22:49:00.000-05:00

We tried to post something fun. Blogspot is a bust. We're waiting for Google to get back to us. We're probably moving back to our old blog again. Sorry for the problems. Blame some of it on Google/Blogspot.

Garden Tea Party by Tine and Dee

2010-06-24T14:58:00.002-04:00

The rest of our family got to have their own time in the garden, so Grandma let just the two of us - The Garden Girls - have fun all by ourselves.
Well, there are so many living in our garden, there really isn't any "all by ourselves," but we didn't get stuck with boys, or even have to be watched by our mommies, so we did what we wanted to do.

So, first we had a garden tea party with our good friend, Dandy. Dandy has brothers, too, but they didn't want to play, so they just watched. Here we are together. That's Tine, Baby Doll, Dandy with her pet Snail, and Doll Baby in front of Dee. (Doll Baby can't sit up by herself yet.) We had a lovely party with lots of hotdogs, teacakes, and coffee. (We're Abearicans, so drink coffee, not tea.)

Now, of course, Dandy loves our babies, so she volunteered to babysit after our coffee klatch. She also volunteered her brother's chair for a bassinet. Tehehehehehe

We wandered over to the other coffee cup on the table to see what is growing. This is a campula, which will be full of blue cup-shaped flowers later in the summer.

While sitting high on the coffee cup, we noticed how tall our rosemary has grown. Also, the English Lamb's Ear is blooming beautifully. We went for a climb. (It felt strange not to bring our babies.)

We heard a friendly voice we haven't heard for a while. Chief Gnome, our oldest gnome, called us over.

While visiting, another old friend stopped by, Fuzzy Wuzzy. Fuzzy Wuzzy is our topiary teddy bear. He laughed and told us he needs some help. We give him a trim every year, but he needs some more work. He looks like he's wearing a dress, and his head is becoming unstuffed. Topiaries need help like that occasionally. (When we came in, our brothers volunteered to help him this summer. They don't think it's funny that a boy looks like he's wearing a dress. What's wrong with dresses?)

While visiting Fuzzy Wuzzy, we thought we saw some buds on the Butterfly Bush, so we climbed over. We like climbing, too.

Chief Gnome reminded us to visit his brothers, so we found Jerzey Gnome. We adopted him (or he adopted us), when we were on vacation at the Jersey Shore. Now, like any good gardener from New Jersey, he protects our tomato plants.

But, he has help. Tine visited another guardian. He's so fierce; he has his own sign, "Watch Out for Bears." (The sign is hidden by snap pea leaves.) Of course, we watch out for bears! Half of our family is bears.

Near the tomatoes, we climbed down to visit our newest members – Mama and Baby Bear. Baby Bear was sad we didn't bring our babies, so we climbed back up to check on our kids, and brought them down to visit, too. (Grandma had a Pepsi break, so forgot to take a few pictures. She's like that some times.)

Sunny invited us into her favorite hiding place. It feels like a fort.

We heard another young bear call us up to the Basil. Here's another Mama Bear with her cub in a log. They protect our basil.

Since we had climbed so high, we climbed over to our shelves next to our basil. Our brothers visited Mrs. Turtle and her children a while ago, but she hid from them. They came out and spent some time with us. We're special.

On the way down, we stopped off to visit Chief Gnomes' other brother, Sleepy Gnome. He's a'posed to protect the beans. He was sleeping when we visited, but the beans look good, so he must be doing something right.

Once we visiteded everyone, we inspected the garden, but those pictures are gonna be posted another day. That's it for today!

The Nightmare by Spaulding T. Bear

2010-06-06T14:33:00.002-04:00

Nightmares are strange things. Most the time, when you tell someone about it, it sounds so funny; you're not sure why it scared you. Of course, as a teddy bear linked to Mommy's mind, it's often hard to tell who had the nightmare. Both of us know it's scary, until we talk it over. Two nights ago, our nightmare was so bad; neither of us thinks it is funny.

Mommy and Daddy were walking home with me in my special traveling bag. It was beary late and they were tired and lost. Now, everybody knows that Daddies don't like to stop for directions, so Daddy kept walking past a diner, and Mommy stopped in to ask the cashier how to get home. My traveling bag was heavy, because there was a laptop in it with me, so she set it down against her leg, as she often does. All of a sudden, she forgot where we lived, and I couldn't tell her, because stuffed animals can't be heard talking in public. Daddy came in to get her, so she went to pick up my bag. It was gone!

Sheer terror! Our biggest fear is being bearnapped and I was bearnapped!

Daddy and Mommy ran out into the parking lot, and saw this 12-year-old kid trying to look innocent. Do you know the look? The "who me?" look that gives it away immediately? Yeah! That look!

He started to run away, but Mommy caught him by the collar. His buddies were a few feet behind him and looked like deer caught in the headlights. The boy gave Mommy attitude because she insisted on getting her teddy bear and laptop back. He had one of his friends bring a bag out behind one of the parked cars. (That's why this dream was so scary. In most dreams, the scenery and people switch around, but this made sense from beginning to end.)

When his friend handed him the bag, he pulled out a different teddy bear and laptop, and thrust it at Mommy. (Scary thing – the bear looked just like my good friend Marlowe! I'm glad this was a dream, or he would have been bearnapped, too!)

"That's not my teddy bear or my laptop!" she yelled.

He said that he had already gotten rid of hers, so he was giving her those instead.

"I need my bear! I want my laptop!" she yelled.

(Hurray, Mommy, but you should have experienced the thoughts she was having. Something about "how can I live without Spaulding?" And, "what do I do if I can't type on his blog anymore?" Seriously? You'd think scarier thoughts would be flooding her mind besides this blog, wouldn't you? I'm bearnapped, never to return! How could either of us live after that? How did this blog get into her dream….errr, my dream? Okay. Maybe some of the dream didn't make sense.)

One of the boy's friends gave her my traveling bag with me safely in it – and the laptop was there, too. (Kinda weird, since we haven't used a laptop since I was young.)

She grabbed my bag and let the boy go. He ran away across the parking lot with his friends, and then threw a rotten apple, hitting Mommy in the side of the head.

Mommy and Daddy were so tired that they planned to let him go, until he did that. Daddy was so tired, he still wanted to let those kids get away, but Mommy was beary angry. She went back into the diner and reported the crime to a woman police officer. (The woman was actress Shohreh Aghdashloo.) The policewoman was upset that Mommy was reporting a solved crime, and Daddy was upset, because he was tired.

Mommy decided she had enough of this nightmare, so woke up. We grabbed each other and cried.

We've had other nightmares before, but Mommy has never cried over one. We’ve been afraid to go to sleep ever since. I may never go out on another adventure in our traveling bag again. Some nightmares stick with you for a long time.

The Drive-In

2010-05-30T10:28:00.016-04:00

Hello, I'm Phil T. Bear and I'm one and a half! And, last night, we went to the Drive-In for the first time in my whole life, even if Spauld and Ted have gone before.

What's a Drive-In? Same thing I asked. A Drive-In is when you take your car to the movies, but you stay in it and watch the movie on a really big screen in front of the car. (If you're seeing the screen out your back window, you've parked wrong.)

There aren't many around anymore, so this one is an hour away. It was also the first time I left my home state, too. We drove over a really big bridge with a river under it. The Delaware River's so big, I'm not sure I could swim across, but Spaulding told me no one wants to swim across it there.

And, wow, I'm telling you, if you've never been to New Jersey, you're missing a magical place! People in New Jersey must be really rich. They're houses aren't even attached to their neighbor's houses. They got these things called "side yards" and these other things called "front yards." And they have grass all over the place, and trees, and bushes, and sidewalks, not just for everybody to walk on, but special sidewalks that they walk on to avoid grass when walking to their front doors. Why have grass if you don't want to walk on it? But, anyways, it's amazing to see!

And some of them must be really, really rich, a'cuz they don't even have neighbors! They have woods and fields! And, there's nothing in the fields but shrubs and tall grass. Nothing at all!

And, and, and, they have these thingies all along the roads called "strip malls." And, they have to drive to them, because everyone has so much land, and who's gonna walk that far with so much space between houses? And, once they get there, they can park their cars, drop off their laundry for something called a "dry cleaner." Imagine! Someone else doing your laundry! And, then you can walk to the next store and rent a movie. Imagine, renting movies without a mailbox! And, then you can walk to the beary next store and spend just a dollar for anything in the store. I wonder if they have hotdogs?! And, and, and, then you walk to the beary next store and buy a pizza. Yeah! I'm telling you! Strip malls have pizza parlors in them, just like we have on street corners.

Now, we did have Mommy and Daddy stop in one strip mall. (There's a whole lot of them in New Jersey.) Well, they had to stop. We had driven a good 15 minutes, so we were hungry, and it had a Weiner joint. You know you're in fancy place when people call their hotdogs "wieners," but we weren't fooled. They were hotdogs. We ate them all.

And another 15 minutes later, Mommy and Daddy stopped for dinner at a diner. At least, New Jersey has dinners, too. So, while they ate, we were hungry and went into the kitchen. Apparently, every diner knows my brothers. They didn't even ask to be introduced to me, until the hotdogs were grilling. AND, they had one of the kids (who was really, really old) take the truck to buy more hotdogs, a'cuz they knew we were going to eat all they had. And … we did. Yummers!

So, we were stuffed afterwards, but we're always stuffed! We're stuffed animals, after all. And, 15 minutes later, we stopped off at a WaWa. Did you know a WaWa is a convienent store? All this time I thought it was a morning coffee, but the coffee was named for the store. (I also thought the store was named for the coffee.) We polished off the WaWa hotdogs, too.

So, we finally got to the Drive-In! It was a bit dicey until dark. There were people walking around checking out cars, and we were afraid they might bearnap us, until Mommy s'plained they were making sure people paid extra if they brought their own snacks, like we did. Apparently, the cost to see the movie is collected by the studios and the movie place's moneymaker is the snacks. But, we brought our own popcorn and muffins, a'cuz popcorn at the movies has too much salt and fat. BUT, when Mommy and Daddy weren't looking, we polished off the hotdogs there too. We would have polished them off twice, but we only stayed for one movie.

So, before the sun went down we watched people throwing all kinds of stuff – baseballs, footballs, and even these things called "Frisbees." That's sorta like a pie pan made out of plastic. Matter of fact, Daddy taught us that they were pie pans when people started throwing them. And, we saw why Americans rarely win soccer games. (I know, that's "football" everywhere else, but, if you ever saw an American kid kicking around a soccer ball, you'd know we have to call it something different. It's just not the same.)

And, and, and, the movie sound came over our radio, so we had to listen to the right channel, and we bears got our floppy on, when dancing to the oldies before it got dark out.

But, of course, we came to see The Prince of Persia and then Robin Hood, so it was really exciting when the Star Spangle Banner started playing, until … another car pulled in next to us. Our radio turned to static. We forgot someone stole our antenna, again. We don't need the antenna too often, a'cuz we have a CD player, so we forgot.

Mommy volunteered to go rent a radio. We couldn't hear any of the Previews while she was gone. We collected out quarter when she came back and used colorful language. We tried to get her to use more colorful language, but she's wise to us, and just smiles, before handing over the money. She wanted to leave. It seems people wait until the last minute to get their snacks, too, and there isn't a separate line for rented radios and chairs. It was a beary long line!

BUT, Daddy saved the day. He inched the car up a little, and we got sound. Later on, we found out it was only beary loud sound. We didn't care. The quiet sound was the two main characters talking mushy stuff. We were there for the action. And there was lots of action – sword fights, battles, chase scenes, and even a special kinda race. (I'd tell you more, but don't want to give any of the plot away, but they weren't racing like you're thinking.) AND, it had magic in it! What else could a guy want to see in a movie? Oh, wait – no stuffed animals and there was yucky kissy stuff. Still, it's a beary good movie for the whole family to see.

It wasn't over until close to midnight. Mommy and Daddy decided to go home before seeing Robin Hood. We would have complained, but we were falling asleep. I was a bit disappointed, a'cuz I hoped to see more of New Jersey on the way home, but they don't have something over there that we have – streetlights! Well, they only have streetlights if we're coming up on an exit, so there was only darkness and the road.

That's the last thing I remembered seeing. I fell asleep before going over the big bridge again. I woke up with my honey, Lee in my arms. It just doesn't get better than that.

"Elder" Explorers as told by Spaulding, Teddy, and Phil

2010-05-23T18:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, our sons referred to Teddy as an "elder." We need to clear this up. Spaulding is ten, Teddy is eight and Phil is one and a half. Ding is nine and Tee is seven. So, whooooooooooooo are the "elders?" Just saying!

So, anyway, as "elders," we have to be more productive when we explore the garden. We're still kids and teddy bears, so we're having fun, but we're productive in our fun. We explore to see how everything is growing. Our Garden Gals need full reports, even if they come out every day to check, too. So, here is what we do in the garden.

This is fun to climb, but we're checking out the asters. The leaves are nice and soft when they're little, kinda like Lamb's Ear. These asters are called "Wonder of Staffa." We've had them for two years and are still wondering who or what Staffa is.

Another good excuse to climb. Our pea vine is starting to bloom. Too bad it's not a bean vine. Who knows? We could find a giant at the top.

Can you see the flowers by Phil's left foot? They smell as pretty as Sweet Peas. The peas start popping out right out of the flower. We took this picture last week, and ate the two snap peas in a stir-fry last night. We would have showed you the peas, but it's been rainy. More flowers and peas are coming now, so, if it would quit raining, we can take a picture, eventually.

Underneath our pea vine are tomatoes. Spaulding is demonstrating how tall our one tomato plant is. He can hide under it.

Here are our other tomatoes. We bought all five tomatoes on the same day, but these aren't as tall. We found a couple surprises though.

Phil is looking at our first tomato flower. It's right above his left paw.

Teddy is showing what else we're growing in that container. He's touching one, while pointing at another. We bought onion sets this year, and are hoping the onion smell will discourage squirrels from eating our maters. That and onions tasteses good, too.

Remember how Phil saved some dill when we were weeding? He has become the official dill keeper now. That's Phil's dills.

And, since Teddy's wife is Valentine, the stuffed bunny, Teddy has to check on her carrots, too. They sure look ready to eat to us!

We have a swing in our garden. Well, it's not a regular swing. It holds our patio tomato, because we don't have a patio. Phil's swinging and checking the tomato's progress.

Right below the swing is our Red Romaine lettuce. It's now big enough to make a soft landing, when Phil jumps off the swing.

It finally got warm enough at night to bring out the aloe. Aloe isn't supposed to be that big, but Mommy left it away from direct sunlight for too long, so it grew into the sunlight. After this picture was taken, we cut back its roots and transplanted her babies. She had three more babies last winter. We also checked out the bay and other herbs.

Spaulding checked out our English Lamb's Ear. We bought it last year, and it didn't do anything, include grow. Now look how big it is! And it's about to flower. Regular Lamb's Ear doesn't bloom magenta flowers. (We're married, so we've learned girlie words for pink.) If you look closely at the top of the stalks on the right, you can see the one ready to bloom.

He came back out two days later to have his picture taken with the blooming flowers. (Okay, something weird is happening. The phot os prepared to fit horizontally through out photo fixing program, but when we upload it, it keeps uploaing vertically, ans side way. We can't fix it, so look at it side ways. Sorry.)

Two days later, it was ready to rain, so Daddy took this picture without Spaulding coming out.

And that's how "the elderly" explore our garden.

Young Explorers as told by Ding and Tee

2010-05-22T18:35:00.001-04:00

We take after our parents. We like exploring, too.

We explore the tall jungles.

Some times, we take our elders with us, when we explore dense jungles.

The denser the jungle, the more we like it.

Yes, we're really in there. See?

If it's over our heads, we like it.

It doesn't have to be thick.

We like discovering cool things when we explore. See whom we found in the Jade?

They're hiding, but to Tee's left is Mrs. Turtle and her two children.

We introduced you to who we found yesterday – Sonny, the Hide N' Seek loving teddy bear, in our garden.

Not all bears are teddy bears. This is Mama Black Bear and her child in the basil and dill. (We don't know if her child is a boy or a girl. We don't want to insult a black bear by asking.)

And, not all the creatures in our garden are bears. We introduced you to Sleeping Gnome yesterday. Our Daddies found him in the woods on a vacation years ago. He was Woodland Gnome back then, but we've renamed him, for obvious reasons.

Now do you know why we needed to rest yesterday? Exploring is hard work.

Hide N' Seek with New Neighbors

2010-05-21T17:45:00.002-04:00

As you know, we own a hotel – Hotel NOLA – for wayward, lost, homeless, or visiting animals. We've built and maintained it through our own money. Money we collect from our Jeopardy winnings or from charging People on TV (or Mommy and Daddy) for using colorful language.

But what happens to our guests, if they need a new start? Warm-blooded animals can start in our park, since our Hotel exists in Teddy Bear World, right smack in the middle of FDR Park, in Philly. (Come and visit, if you're an animal. Sorry, if you're People, you can't see it. That's how Teddy Bear World works.)

If our guests are stuffed animals looking for a new home, we discovered groups of People, who are always looking for stuffed animals to give to children in crisis. (This is true in People World, so, if you need to find new homes for some of your stuffed animals, clean them up and send them to these People. They always need more.) Firefighters, the Police, and Crisis Counseling Centers give stuffed animals to scared kids. (Smart ones give them to scared grown-ups, too.) Think how important those Stuffies become to their new mommies and daddies.

But there are more kinds of lost, homeless, and wayward animals than these. Some are figurines, statues, and Christmas tree decorations. We don't discriminate. We take in all kinds of animals.

We've been bringing home many of those lost and wayward animals (and some gnomes) through the years. You've met our Christmas tree neighbors during the holidays. Others guard our garden. We consider them our neighbors and play with them. Today we played Hide N' Seek with some old and new neighbors.

Here we are sitting with Yankee, Dandy, Doodle, and their pet, Gauge, the Turtle. Gauge used to be a rain gauge, until his glass tube broke.

Meet our newest neighbors – Mama Bear holding Baby Bear, with Sonny and Sunny next to them. This is where they stay in storms. We've invited them in, but they prefer outside. You can tell it was cloudy out. That's when the Tradescantia blooms the most.

But that's not how we first saw them on our garden. At first, we exploring the garden, when we discovered Mama and Baby under our Hens and Chicks. We sat with them to see how they were doing.

Our sons got bored and decided to relax in the Hens and Chicks. The black cat is Teddy's son, Tee, with GI Ding in his action-figure carrier. The Teddy Bear is Spaulding's son, Ding, with GI Ding in his action-figure carrier. (They told us to make sure everyone knows "they are not dolls! They are action-figures." If their sisters "borrow" them, they like to play dollies with them.)

Ding and Tee got bored of relaxing, too, so they hopped over to the next container – our spinach. They heard someone counting, so they peaked over and met Sonny, ready for a game of Hide N' Seek.

They shouted, "Hide N' Seek!" We did what comes nature for Teddy Bears; we hide. Is Sonny peaking?

Spaulding found a good place to hide. Well, he thought it was a good place, until he found Sunny counting. She likes Hide N' Seek, too.

"I tried here next, but I don't think it's a good place to hide, if Mommy can take my picture." Sleeping Gnome isn't hiding. He sleeps.

Teddy and the boys tried here, but had the same problem. "It can't be a hood hiding place, if Mommy takes our picture."

Spaulding tried another spot. "It's tough being so big!"

"This really is a good hiding place! Grandpa was just taking a picture, and never saw us."

We hide behind the broccoli. It was a great place to hide, until Spaulding shouted when he spotted the chamomile starting to sprout.

We'd show you our really good hiding spots, but then Mommy would just take pictures of us, the next time we played.

We love our new neighbors. They're lots of fun. We'll show you how else we play in our garden, too. Until next time,…count to ten! Kehehehehehe

Vegetable Progress

2010-05-20T18:50:00.002-04:00

We've been telling you that our garden is mostly for fresh veggies. We worked all day to dig out our photos from the last month. Living in the city, we can start gardening earlier than anyone around the city, so we're doing all right already. (Excuse the messy photo layout. Blogspot is a pain to get to work right.)

Our bush beans didn't sprout very fast for some reason. We also had an extra container, so started a new batch of beans a couple of weeks later.

Here's our lettuce. On the right is our Butterhead Bibb lettuce. On the right is Rare Red Romaine. (Honest! It's rare. It said so on the seed package!)

Our bulb onions are in the back, and last year's green onions are in the front.

We sowed 16 peas. One pea plant sprouted. It's doing well though.

Here is our spinach.

Here is our tomato container on the right and Valentine's carrots on the left. We didn't buy the tomatoes until the beginning of of May, but we already sewed the carrot seeds in that first photo.

We'll show more ASAP. Stay tuned.

Exploring as told by the Garden Gals

2010-05-14T18:13:00.001-04:00

Mommy is slow. We're fast. We're beary, beary fast, so Mommy couldn't catch us planting our garden; however, we slowed down enough for her to take pictures of us exploring it. This is the first year for Lee in our garden. She was adopted for Phil on Christmas, so we've been introducing her to everything gardening. Now, Daddy took the great pictures, but some of these were taken by Mommy, too. It's been a few weeks since these pictures were taken, but, like we said, "Mommy is slow."

Daddy found us climbing the Clematis. Can you see all three of us?

Here's a closer look. Lady is in the leaves below Valentine.

Daddy checked the photos to see if Lady could be seen, and found out it was hard, so he took our pictures individually. Here's Lady.

And Valentine.

And Lee. (We told you Daddy took the great pictures!)

Our Tradescantia is blooming. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it more beautiful with such lovely Garden Gals in the middle? Here's Lady relaxing.

Valentine was playing with the leaves.

Lee tickled her toes.

We found our chives blooming, so we took a sniff. The flowers are pretty, but smell oniony.

We had to smell something better, so chose these bellflowers, next. The aroma is light, but pretty. Much nicer than chive flowers. Valentine is sitting on another plant that will flower later in the year – foxglove.

We felt like someone was watching, so we climbed into the next container. Who's this? We have a new garden protector. She's a little bear, who likes to play hide n' seek, too. She's a bit shy, so hasn't told us her name yet. But, where is Valentine?

Being a bunny, Valentine's mind is always on carrots. This is our carrot container, but the seeds were sown the week before, so we didn't expect carrots yet. BUT, Valentine is attentive.

Can you see what she saw?

Sorry. Our camera doesn't do really close, close-ups, so the picture is blurry. Still, those little green blurs are the carrots coming in. Valentine is bouncy with excitement.

We fed the birds, too. Most of our birds are house wrens. There are other birds, who think they're hiding from us. They did hide from us, but Mommy took a picture of them. They're the pigeons on the fences. Three of them on our neighbor's fences, so they don't think they can be seen. They're a little too big to hide.

More pictures coming. Keep checking back.

Garden Odds and Ends

2010-05-12T14:59:00.002-04:00

Last winter, we couldn't play outback, because of the snow. We know! You'd think a snowstorm would make a great time to play outback! But, it was two 24+ inch snowstorms with a couple of 12 inchers thrown in, so we couldn't even see above the snow! (Mommy did tackle it a few times to feed the poor birdies.)

Well, we weren't sure if the snow and salt, (since you need salt to melt ice), damaged any of our plants. We're happy to report little damaged. We're sad to report our favorite container didn't survive though. We had a coffee cup container that we loved. The snow broke it.

Here is a photo of our old coffee cup.

Fuzzy Wuzzy took some damage, too. He's our teddy bear ivy topiary. He's a little browner than usual, a'cuz many ivy leaves have died. Anyone know if we're a'posed to remove the dead leaves? Ivy leaves aren't a'posed to die, so we don't know.

Sixty inches of snow were removed from our front steps last winter. Every time snow was removed, we added salt to the steps, so our postman wouldn't slip. As you can tell, we don't have a front yard, so 60 inches of snow from our steps had to land on this container. We were worried the plants would get too much salt, but they haven't! That bush is our forsythia. (We bought it last spring, so this was its first winter with us. We got a tiny branch of flowers, but it went straight to leaves. Beary strange!) The plant hanging over the front is our ground phlox blooming. The leaves sticking up behind it are our Stella D'oro daylilies. Everything survived the big snows!

Our Welcome sign fell down again. It does that sometimes, but we didn't have time to put it up quickly, so Mommy flopped it under a table. Why are we showing you our composter? Because of what she found under the sign when she moved it after it rained – worms! So what? Did you notice our garden is on cement? Worms don't come to our yard often. We found one last summer, and stuck it in our composter. We think it was a mommy and had lots of babies. We placed all those worms into our composter, so now we have a full-fledged worm farm! Now, we have to compost. Kehehehehe

We also lost a decorative watering can in the winter. The spout fell off. It's below the Clematis. (That's the big flowery vine.) We're still getting around to gluing the spout back, but that was the extent of damage over the winter. Cool, huh?

The Clematis was really blooming, so we have lots of pictures to show. We'll show some with other beauties climbing on them, the next time we blog. But we wanted to show this beautiful bloom now.

And speaking of pretty flowers, here is our flower container this year. Mommy got worried that we didn't have enough flowers last summer, so bought a mixed container of flowers to continue all summer. She's made a new tradition for our garden. (We've always had flowers in our garden. She just gets worried. Kehehehehehe)

But, mostly our garden is to eat fresh stuff, so we wanted to show you something we will eat – spinach! It's not ready yet, and was a bit naked in the middle, so we sowed more seeds. Last fall, (yes, you can grow spinach twice in one season 'round here, just as long as it's not too hot), this entire container was filled, giving us enough spinach for one dinner. Kehehehehehe But, how else are you going to get kids to eat their spinach, if you don't show them how to grow it?

Oh, and we just had to show this picture! This isn't in our garden, but Mommy likes these bare bears.

That's it for the day. More to come.

Garden Guys

2010-05-10T23:15:00.003-04:00

We haven't been on much lately, because we've been busy opening the garden for the season. Of course, that means we're behind with our pictures, too, so expect our stories to be a bit behind.

This one is from back in mid April, when we weeded for our gals. A few years ago, weeding wasn't that hard, since we garden on containers.

The weeds have finally found our containers. This use to be a pretty flower last year. Phil worked on that one, while Daddy planted onion sets in the background.

Spaulding and Teddy got the big weeds and dumped them into an empty pail. No weeds for our composter.

Then Phil pulled out the remaining weeds.

He was confused by these weeds. They smelled so good. Do weeds smell good?

Our dill sprouted all over, so we kept the ones in the basil grill.

And transplanted more into a black container.

It's growing all over the place. Here's some behind last year's scallions.

More photos of how the garden is growing to come.

Third Place in an Important Writing Contest

2010-05-06T16:52:00.002-04:00

Recently, I, Spaulding T. Bear, won third place in a writing contest. The prompt for the contest was to tell the story of a muse. Mommy oh-fish-early entered the contest, but I told my story to her. Here is my real story:

My Muse's Story

Most writers' muses are in their minds. Come and visit my writer and you can see me, talk to me, and get a loving bear hug from me. I came in a care package for a hurting woman, comforted her, made her laugh again, and changed her back to a writer. Most importantly, I changed her to Mommy. My name is Spaulding T. Bear. The T stands for "Teddy."

I didn't know her when the pain first came. I didn't know her when she went through that surgery to stop the pain. I wasn't around when she kept going back to her doctor's office and I didn't live through the months it took her to convince the doctor she was worse than before the surgery. She tells me he kept saying that she was recovering. Back then, doctors ignored patients when they complained of severe pain, but her nagging forced him to relent and send her to a specialist.

Some specialists like to prove how smart they are in front of student doctors. Her first specialist announced what was wrong without telling her what it meant. She asked one little question that annoyed him. "Shouldn't I get tested to see if that's the right diagnosis?"

He scheduled some tests, and told her to come back to see him afterwards. When she went home and researched the diagnosis, she discovered it couldn't be diagnosed until all other possibilities had been eliminated.

Mommy has told me all this as often as she needed to say it to me. That's what teddy bears do, listen and comfort.

She told me of the months of agonizing pain, before I came along. She told me why I came along. In those months of pain, when she wasn't lying down on her stomach crying, she would go to a chat room online and write to a friend, telling her what was going on and begging for prayers. I came from that friend with prayers.

That friend sent a whole big box, a care package, of goodies for Mommy – a doll, candy, cookies, brownies, a chocolate cake, nice smelling candles, a gold friendship bracelet, the most beautiful stuffed doggy in the whole wide world – my wife, Lady – and me, a lanky, golden-brown furred teddy bear. The trip through the mail was long, so Lady and I ate the cake...and a lot of the candy and cookies, too. Hey! We were hungry and I dare you to try to travel three days next to chocolate cake without eating it all. I've apologized to Mommy and she's forgiven us. Better yet, she's told us she would have eaten everything in the box, so we were nice to leave her some.

Now, I know what you are thinking, "Teddy bears are for children."

That's what Lady and I thought too. (The doll didn't talk to us. Dolls can be rather peculiar creatures.) Imagine our surprise when a 43-year-old woman opened the box and laughed. We even thought she'd give us to her child, but she put us on her lap as she emptied the rest of the box. She laughed a lot. Her husband, who would become our Daddy, laughed, too. They ate homemade cookies with Hershey's kisses in the middle, as she emptied the rest of the box. (I told you we were good. Would you have left any Hershey Kisses cookies, if you traveled next to them for three days?)

As we sat in her lap, watching her take one thing out after another, we sensed something was wrong with her. She seemed both happy and sad. The living room felt gloomy, like no one had laughed in years. And then we felt her pain. Stuffed animals can do that, you know. Mommy calls it "empathy," but we just feel whatever our parents feel, just not as much as they feel it. That's a good thing. If I ever felt all her pain, I don't know if I could do my job well.

What's my job? I thought I told you. I listen and comfort. I've learned to do more, but that was necessary to give her comfort. She was laughing when we first arrived, but even her laughter seemed sad. Well, laughter can't be sad, but something underneath – the pain – dampened the happiness she and Daddy were enjoying at that moment she emptied that box.

She tells me that all her doctors – she gave up on the one after he decided his diagnose was still right, despite it not fitting all her symptoms – had two things in common: they like sending patients for lots of tests and they don't give patients anything for pain, because it might mask the tests' results. They frown when patients ask for pain relief between tests. Frowning doesn't make pain go away.

Scheduling for the test and then scheduling an appointment to find out test results took about six weeks. For all that schooling doctors have to go through, proving they are smart, not a single one ever figured out relief from pain could be given while she waited. Sometimes she nagged enough that they would give her a dozen pills to last that six weeks, as long as she promised not to take them a week before the tests. They were gone long before the test.

But that first day we met, I was put to work the moment I left the box. Lady was kept downstairs to hug and I was taken upstairs to hug, while she laid in bed on her tummy. She had to do that all the time, when we first met. No pain pills back then.

After Mommy emptied the box, she needed to lie down again. I know I heard her coming down the steps, before she opened the box, so she must have been lying down before, too. She wasn't sleepy, so she turned on the radio and laid on her tummy, holding me tight next to her. She squeezed every time the pain got worse, but I'm strong, so hugged her the best I could. She noticed my foot. I was born with beans in my paws, and my right foot got wet before I met Mommy. It swelled up, making it stretched taut, and I used to walk around with a limp, before that terrible time she sent me to the teddy bear hospital and had the beans removed. Terrible experience, but that's another story. I mention it now, because she took to squeezing that particular foot whenever she was in great pain. She hoped to squeeze the beans enough to shrink them again, but it never worked. It was kind of her to think of me like that, though. The foot never hurt, it was just harder to walk on, because it was so round.

In those first few months, I listened and hugged constantly. She still thought I was just material with stuffing inside. Most grown-ups think that. Children know better. It was easy for Mommy to come up with Lady's name; after all, she looks like the cocker spaniel from "Lady and the Tramp." Since Mommy still considered me an inanimate object, she had trouble hearing me telling her what my name was.

That changed during one of those times she was lying on her tummy listening to the radio in dire pain. She was in such agony. She was near tears, but, by then, she had decided that crying made her sorer. The latest test results were negative again. Doctors couldn't figure out why she was so sore. I had to do something and a disco song came on the radio.

Did I mention I love to dance? I'm an excellent dancer, and better yet, I make Mommy laugh. I climbed out of her arms, when she wasn't squeezing too tight. I did one of my favorite dances – the King Tut, made famous by Steve Martin's version, but mine is better. Boy, was she surprised! I got my floppy going, flopping my arms and legs all over the place, during the stanzas, and did the King Tut during the chorus.

Mommy tells me she isn't laughing at my dancing. It's my serious face while I'm dancing. I can't help the serious face. I was sewn with a down curved mouth, so I just look serious. I'm a very happy bear. But it worked. Not only did she laugh at me, she finally stopped thinking I was material and stuffing. She saw me! And she laughed! It doesn't get any better than that when a fellow achieves his career objective so soon. And I've been working at my career ever since.

It wasn't long after that, when we all watched a movie called Castaway, with Tom Hanks. In it, Hank's character became best friends with the only inanimate object he connected with on his little island – a Wilson's volleyball that he named "Wilson." Finally, Mommy heard me tell her my name is Spaulding, after the other sport's equipment manufacturer, Spalding.

And, as doctors continued to try to find out what was wrong with her, Mommy and I got useful. We read books on how to deal with pain. There aren't too many ways to deal with pain, but all the books agreed on one thing that helps – do something, anything, to get your mind off of it. It lessens if you stop thinking about it.

Now Mommy and I are reasonable. She learned already a bunch of things she couldn't do anymore, because they made the pain worse. We weren't going to take her mind off of it through jogging or vigorous housework (you're missing that joke, because Mommy has never liked doing housework to begin with) or anything very physical, so what could she do?

I gave her that idea, too. As you might have noticed by now, I like talking about me. I like telling anyone who will listen that I am very real, not just cloth and stuffing. I'd tell people face-to-face, but grown-ups often don't hear stuffed animals, because…because…well, I don't know why, but they don't. So, how do I tell everybody about me? I wanted my own blog.

Now, we complain…oh, sorry. It's "we" now. Lady and I had two kids. Daddy became sick afterwards, and he needed a teddy bear, so my first brother was born. Well, let's just say the family has grown to twelve of us now, so it is "we." So, anyway, we complain that keyboards aren't made for paws, but that's a good thing. We tell Mommy what to type, and she types for us. That takes her mind off the pain.

Once the doctors figured out what was wrong with Mommy, they told her it couldn't be fixed. She needed a lot of comfort then, but not as much as you would expect. It took them nine months to figure that one out, and by that time, we sort of knew that she might be disabled for the rest of her life. The good news though is, once they figured out they couldn't fix her, they got gung-ho about making her as comfortable as possible. (Okay, maybe they weren't too gung-ho, but three weeks after I was adopted, a new law came into affect forcing doctors and hospitals to treat pain. That helped a lot.)

She tried acupuncture. It made it worse. She tried an epidural. It felt like someone bashed her in the back with a two by four. She tried self-hypnosis. It doesn't do any better than taking her mind off the pain by writing. She tried many things along the way, before settling for the one thing she and her doctors didn't want to settle for – drugs. She even tried 24 different kinds of drugs, before finding one that cut down the pain. I know, I helped her keep a list of what she tried, so she didn't have to try the same thing twice.

But, now knowing it can't be fixed, I've taught her other things to do that keep her mind off the pain. She takes photos of my family and me doing stuff to put up on our blog. Lots of the pictures are from our other hobby – gardening. Matter of fact, April 15th is the first official day we can plant, so we're hoping to finish this before then, because we'll be busy afterwards.

And, yes, we've been blogging for about ten years now. And, she writes stories about my family. We're working on a series of books about me…and my family. We have two stories written already, and another one in the works, but we need to make the blog famous to prove to publishers that teddy bears aren't only for kids.

And, I really got Mommy writing now. Not only does she write stories about us, she writes grown-up stories, funny stories, and strange stuff. She's joined this site to meet with other writers. I'm here in her right arm helping her to write. I'm always with her in the house, unless she's doing boring ole housework or paying bills. And all of this, because she remembered – teddy bears are very real!

So, sometimes muses are heard and seen, like me, Spaulding T. Bear.

The Impasse

2010-04-22T17:43:00.003-04:00

As Mommy admitted in public, she gave most of us a b-a-t-h. Some things are hard to forgive, but we've come up with a fair plan. We're going to tell everyone Mommy's deepest, darkest secrets in public. So grab a cup of coffee and enjoy the expose'.

-Mommy cries when she listens to the end of The 1812 Overture, and she knows it's not an American composition.

- Mommy belches. (No, not burps – belches!)

- The Philadelphia International Airport calls us, on occasion, to ask us to keep the noise down. We have to wake Mommy up to stop snoring.

- Mommy squeezes too hard, sometimes, when she hugs us.

- Mommy has killed an air plant – twice!

- Mommy is too scared to watch The Wizard of Oz. (This is a true scandal, since that means we cannot watch it.)

- Mommy doesn't like Elvis, Gone with the Wind, Titanic, or liver.

- Mommy likes Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Angel. (Yes, they were beary good TV shows, but we've rented the entire series, twice – at least – and Mommy still misses Buffy and her friends.)

- Mommy couldn't garden beary well, until the Garden Gals took over for her.

- Mommy has been seen eating raw batter for muffins. (We should be eating it!)

- Mommy has big feet.

This didn't make us feel better, so if there is anything else you can think of that you would like to know about Mommy….

Mommy Note: Don't ask. I think this is more than fair, considering people need to take a bath more than once a year.

Silent Teddy Bear Family by Mommy

2010-04-22T05:22:00.004-04:00

It has been very quiet here the last few days. I gave just about everyone a bath. (They look and smell much better.) Since Lee is new, she didn't need one, so she is the only Stuffy talking to me.

Unfortunately, her sentences usually start with "Phil says to tell you..." or "Teddy says to tell you...."

I asked if we could go back to their blog when they are finished being angry with me. I had to give them a plate full of hotdogs, before they nodded their heads.
Lee informed me that meant "yes."

We will be back, as soon as they're done being angry. ;)

Beary Good Week

2010-04-14T20:16:00.005-04:00

Whoa! What a week we're having!

Okay, so our lilac bush started blooming last week.

Here's Mommy in her annual lilac bush pose.

But here are our honeys in our annual lilac-bouquet for our honey's pose. From left to right are Lee, Valentine, and Lady. (This is Lee's beary first bouquet, so she's beary, beary excited.) They love bouquets from their always-consider hubbies – us!

And, as you might guess, our garden has a teddy bear, children's garden theme. We have several little bear figurines around the garden, but Mommy has been trying to find teddy bear statues for our garden on Ebay for five years. Our garden is only 16 feet by 16 feet (about 4 meters by 4 meters), so they couldn't be too big, but big enough.

You'd think that would be easy to find on Ebay, but most garden bears are black bears, not teddies. Finally, we found two that go together. Mommy got so excited that she placed three max bids on them. She kept changing her mind how high she would go to pay for them. It ends up that she didn't even have to pay as much as her first bid was. Great deal! We won!

Here are our new garden family members. Guess what they like to play? And, they're between Teddy and Spaulding's height, so they are perfect!
And, as if this wasn't exciting enough, guess what we got in the mail? That's right! We, The Teddy Bear Family of Philadelphia, PA, got something all for us, with our own names on it, in the mail!

And, and, and, it is allllll the way from Australia! The Melbourne Zoo! And, and, and from a new friend, Berrie Penguin from BearPlace.net, a stuffed animal community we joined online.

And, and, and, it's a postcard to us with a picture of giraffes – a mommy and baby giraffe – because Berrie askeded all the Stuffies which animals they like the bestest and our wives said "giraffes." (We said "elephants," but everybuddy knows wives are always right, so we knew then that we were wrong, and Berrie musta known wives are right all the time, too.) Thank you, Berrie! We're mostest excited. We don't get mail often and it's "beary pretty." (Our wives' words, we think it's cool!)

So three great surprises this week – and it's only Wednesday! Beary good week!

Ruining a Good Time as told by Spaulding

2010-04-12T00:00:00.005-04:00

I love my Mommy beary much and I would do just about anything for her, but some times, it isn't safe near her. Two times come to mind – paying bills and balancing the checkbook. She can get beary grumpy if things go wrong.

Now, don't get me wrong. We're beary brave and beary helpful. One time, Teddy and I helped balance the checkbook for her. Mommy laughed and took our picture.

Why? We used a scale and everything!

But, we're not crazy. If we help pay bills, we have to give away our money. Would you do that, if you didn't have to?

So, anyways, today Mommy balanced the checkbook her way and I stayed away, claiming a little alone time with my Lady! (hubba hubba)

When she was done, she wasn't grumpy, and suggested we make banana-nut muffins together. (I let her help me.)

It must have been easy to balance the checkbook, or she wouldn't wanna bake, too.

So, we were having a good ole time. I added the dry ingredients and let her add the wet ingredients. (If I get goop on me, she insists on giving me a b-a-t-h, and I'm allergic to that.) And what happened? An egg squirted a little when she opened it up and landed right in front of my paw.

Mommy checked my paw to make sure nothing landed on it, and then she said, "Oh, well. It really doesn't matter. I'll be giving you a bath soon, anyway."

What a mean thing to say! Ruined the whole mood. I told Daddy, because I thought she should be spanked for such disrespectful words, but Daddy just chuckled. What's wrong with grown-ups?

Even a nice warm muffin didn't make me feel better.

Happy Birthday, Tee and Tine

2010-04-10T16:34:00.008-04:00

Today is Tee and Tine's 7th birthday. We've been busy celebrating, so thought we'd bring out an old story that Mommy and Tee wrote, again. It was written for Tee and Tine's 6th birthday.

Dee and Ding are in the back and Tine and Tee are in the front.

Happy Birthday, Tine and Tee

by Tee and Mommy

After another day exploring and mapping the woods around the park, Tee and Ding have one more thing to do before going home.

"Would you help me gather a bouquet for Tine?" Tee asked.

"What if they see you?" Ding asked, always ready to protect his cousin.

"Then they see me. Today's Tine's birthday too, and she likes bouquets as much as our mommies do. She doesn't get her own personal bouquet often," Tee answered.

"OK. Just making sure. Not many flowers this early in the season," Ding said as he scrutinized the ground of the woods.

"The trees are flowering. Do you think their branches will be OK in a vase?"

"I'm pretty sure we picked flowering tree branches during some spring," Ding said.

"Yeah, down the shore?"

"Oh yeah, our vacation a couple of springs ago," Ding said.

Both boys were already walking towards the nearest flowering tree, a weeping cherry.

"This will look nice hanging down out of the vase. She likes pink!" Tee said.

"Don't all girls?" said Ding.

They chuckled and cut branches with the scissors Ding carried on his back, behind his backpack, whenever they went exploring.

The next flowering tree wasn't drooping at all.

"I should get them. I'm her brother. Can I borrow your scissors?" Tee asked.

"Just let the branches drop when you cut them. I'll collect them down here," said Ding.

After searching, climbing and cutting, the boys inspected their collection.

"Is this enough to make a full bouquet in Grandma's pink vase?"

"I think so, let's go. Don't want to be late for dinner," Ding said.

The two small stuffed animals ran back to the family boxcar, next to the hotel. They were about to climb in when Tee stopped.

"Wait! Got to trim the bottom leaves and flowers off, or it won't look like a proper bouquet," he said. They laid the flowers on the ground, spreading them out to grab each branch easily, taking one at a time to pull off the flowers and leaf buds off the bottom half of each branch, and then putting the finished branches in a pile on the front seat of their box. The Garden Gals had taught them, at a very young age, that flowers and leaves in the vase's water made the bouquet wilt quicker.

A pile of flower petals surrounded them, just as the three bullies came out of the hotel from an afternoon swim. The bullies harassed Tee about picking flowers, but they were ignored. The bullies kept chiding the boys, trying to get some reaction. When the bottoms of the branches were cleared, the two cousins gathered them together, wrapped them in an old paper napkin from the floor of their vehicle, and then placed the bouquet carefully in the back.

"Come on," said Tee, "that hot wind is going to wilt the bouquet." Ding smiled at the bullies as the two cousins leapt into their boxcar.

The boys flew their vehicle home, anxious to see if Tine would like their gift.

Life, as We Know It, is Over!

2010-04-05T18:47:00.000-04:00

We are huge Eagles' fans – Philadelphia Eagles. American football. All our lives (and longer), Donavan McNabb has been the quarterback for our team. They traded him! McNabb! Donavan McNabb! Now what do we do?

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-04T19:46:00.007-04:00

At first, we were disappointed when we woke up this morning. No Easter Baskets! But Valentine felt something crunchy under her and pulled out a note from her distant relative, the East Bunny! It said we had to work for our loot. We had to go to the garden and search for eggs.
We've heard young Peoples have to do this sometimes, but it was the first time we had to do it. We weren't sure if it was a good thing or bad thing. It's called "an Easter Egg Hunt."

Were we bad last year? It felt like it when Mommy and Daddy made us put on our bunny ears, until our honeys told us we looked cute. So off we went to the backyard.

We're ready.

Axlerod got excited. This is what an excited basset hound looks like. He's with his two buddies, Pez, the plush Pez Dispenser, and Christmas, the polar bear Pez dispenser. (We googled him and his name is Christmas.) Pez and Christmas were bummed when they found out the basket is for the eggs.

That's not fake grass from an Easter Basket. That's Valentine with her daughter Tine finding an egg in our chives. We've already had some fresh chives in homemade pizza. Yummer! Some of these eggs have candy in them, too. Yummer! Better yet, some have money, and some have both – money and candy!!! We weren't bad!

Phil and Lee found their first egg together.

Spaulding found an egg under the Rosemary. Lady found a purple flower on the Rosemary. Can you see it? It's above the egg and right above Spaulding's head.

Valentine thought the Tradescantia was blooming bluish purple flowers already. Teddy knew it was an egg.

Garlic? Not the smell Ding and Tee expected on Easter, but the garlic chives are growing well already.

Dee wanted to visit Fuzzy Wuzzy, our pet teddy bear topiary. Her Mommy and she were rewarded with an egg.

Finding an egg on the lavender requires lightweights. Axlerod inhaled the aroma while his buddies collected the egg.

"What's with pungent smelling eggs?" asked Tee.

"Our green onions made it through the winter," laughed his Mommy, Valentine.

"Be careful, Ding," Lady said. "There's rose cane all around to keep the squirrels from digging in this container."
"It worked, Mommy! The two pea seedlings are growing."

"Two? We sowed 17!"

"More room for the vines to grow," Ding laughed, as he grabbed the egg.

Teddy's a good Daddy. He gave no hints where the egg was. Tine figured it out, eventually.

Spaulding helped his daughter find the egg in the marjoram. He also felt like he was sitting on something.

Guess what he was sitting on.

The little girls took their Aunt Lee to the clematis. They found this egg and some buds. Clem will be blooming soon.

Lee's nephews took her to a dark part of the garden, but she liked the log.

Valentine showed Tee what wasn't growing with the Hens and Chicks.

"Hens make baby Chicks, not eggs," she explained. Tee looked at her to see if she was kidding. She wasn't, but he didn't understand that those plants were called Hens and Chicks.

Uncle Phil decided climbing was as fun as collecting eggs. Tee and Ding agree.

Pez and Christmas discover an egg in the Bee Balm. Axlerod loves Bee Balm. It smells like basil, but grows tall and has red mop head flowers later in the year.

Pez and Christmas bring the egg up so Axlerod can see it.

Tine and Dee take Uncle Phil to see the egg they found. They like to climb, too, but the only tall plants are the climbing roses. Too thorny!

Axlerod wanted a picture of him with his grandkids. Pez and Christmas joined in. Buddies forever.

Lady wanted a picture with her stuffed animal Daddy, too. Christmas and Pez found the egg in the watering can.

Valentine saw something orange in her old carrot container. She was sad that it was only an egg. Teddy comforted her, but didn't let Mommy take that picture.

But Mommy did catch this picture of Spaulding and Lady snuggling. No, he didn't like being interrupted. Can you tell?

Phil and Lee have only been married since Christmas. They didn't care if Mommy took their picture.

When Teddy comforted Valentine, he noticed a special egg. It was bigger, shinier, and lavender. Mommy explained that the Easter Bunny likes to hide one special egg with the best loot inside. He called his brothers over.

The Easter Bunny is a wise guy, hiding the egg in the Prickly Pear Cactus.

We're wiser! All the eggs had sugar-free candy (Mommy and Daddy can't eat sugar, so we can't. Does that seem fair?), change, or both. This one had four whole quarters, plus candy. Jackpot!

Here we are with all our eggs. We'd show you what was in the eggs, but we hide away from Mommy and Daddy, so they wouldn't take all our loot. We meant to save them some candy, but it was one coin in the bank, one candy in the mouth. We didn't know there were more coins than candy. We did manage to give them one piece of candy each though.

Hope you get to your candy before your parents find it, too.

And, after our Easter Egg Hunt we made a trip to the living room. We all watched church service on Webcast. (Mommy and Daddy can't sit in church too long either.) Even better than loot in Easter eggs – today we celebrate that Jesus rose again from the dead – and that's in People World, not Teddy Bear World!

Happy Easter – all year long!

Easter Bunny Sighting

2010-04-03T23:11:00.000-04:00

Valentine T. Bear, wife of Teddy

As you know, bunnies have lots of family. I just heard from distant relatives. The Easter Bunny is coming. Time to go to bed. Now!!!

Big, Real Life, Announcement!

2010-04-01T16:41:00.003-04:00

Our family has been talking about this for quite some time. Not online, of course. Well, not "of course," cuz grown ups don't like to tell people this stuff until they figure it all out.

Anyways – big announcement! We're moving to Lindale, Cumbria, England in two weeks! It's in "The Lake District" of England, so close to good fresh water and saltwater fishing spots, since it's close to Morecambe Bay. If you don't know England well, it's in the northwest, below Scotland.

It is a little warmer than where we live now, although it does rain more often, and can snow occasionally. Of course, that makes it a better place for a garden, and they don't get hurricanes too often.

At first, we'll stay in The Lymeherst, but we'll be looking around for a "lovely little cottage." (Mommy's words.)

We have to learn how to talk metric, figure out money, and learn the difference between pants, knickers, and trousers. We're not even sure we can say "breeches" over there. Do we have to complain about the Prime Minister all the time, or are we s'pose to complain about the Queen. (We don't know either, so we can't even guess what to complain about!) And, Mommy already isn't the bestest driver in the world, so, look out England – she's gonna have to remember to drive on the wrong side of the road!

Isn't this exciting? Whad'da ya think?

Need Some Eggs

2010-03-27T14:48:00.007-04:00

This is Teddy's son, Tee, with his action figure, GI Ding. The following is a story Tee and Mommy wrote together about an errand he ran.

* * * * *

"Going to Rite Aid for eggs. Do we need anything else?" I asked as I put on my shoes.

"Can I go, Grandma?" Tee asked.

"If you want, but we also need dishtowels and a nightlight. Can you manage all that?"

"I'll take my wagon," answered Tee, as he headed for the door.

"Want some money?" I asked, holding up a 20.

"Oh, yeah!" he laughed. "Ummm, Grandma, how much are dishtowels?"

"I don't know. Haven't bought any for a while."

"Ummmm, how much is a nightlight?"

"Same deal, I don't know. Do you think you might need more money?" I asked, trying not to give away familiarity of his game.

"Ummmm, can I buy something for us, too?" Tee added, as he drew a circle in the air around his family on the sofa.

"Here's 40, but don't buy anything big."

He smiled, grabbed my money, and stuck it down his shirt and into his pants.

He slipped through the mail slot, jumped down the first two steps, turned right, jumped over onto the large container next to the steps, grabbed hold of the Kale Walking Stick's dried leaves, swung down off it like a Tarzan rope, and grabbed his little red, Radio Flyer wagon behind the planter.

His wagon rattling behind him, off he ran, carefully calculating the ruts, cracks, and missing pieces of sidewalk, so he didn't have to yank his wagon out of such traps. As he turned the corner, he knew he was in dangerous, but fun, territory. Sam, from "Sam's Music" shop, had the sidewalks repaved along the entire side of the block that he owned.

Ut-oh, possible catnappers coming!

Tee took his wagon to the opposite side of the trees, along the curb, as the teenagers walked by, unaware. After the danger passed, he pulled his wagon onto the new cement, climbed in with just one leg out, and rode it down the small downgrade, like a wide scooter, left leg pushing. The wheelchair access ramp is the best hill, but pulling it up the other side of that small street, spoiled the fun. Hiding behind the Rite-Aid's sign pole, he waited as more People passed. He knew which People could see him, and all others couldn't.

The Rite-Aid door was opened!

Yippee! Spring is coming! I don't have to sneak in around People going in and out!

As he pulled his wagon through the store, the perfectly level tiles kept it from rattling, giving him the stealth needed for such work. He knew the store, Stock People, and cashiers, so he was fairly safe, but no one at five inches tall is ever safe in a world full of giants.

Maneuvering around feet and carts' wheels, he ran up the aisle where the dishtowels were supposed to be. No towels. He hid his wagon under the shelving at one end of the lane, so he could run up and down one more time. Definitely no towels, but he did find the toy section. He pulled the trusty climbing rope with the safety pin hook out of his backpack, and twirled it up to the shelf with the balls. Once up, he checked out the different size footballs and baseballs. They were fun to play with, but he already had some at home, so wouldn't waste his money on them. As he started to climb down, he noticed nightlights across the aisle.

Most of them were plain – some clear and some frosted.

Boring!

Then he spotted the good ones. Some had pink balloons and ribbons, but one had stars and a crescent moon. He forgot to check prices, but took that one. It clunked into his wagon, as he barely grasped the handle, to run down the lane where the eggs were. Someone was staring at the assortment of cereals, so he waited for the danger to pass. People were more apt to see stuffed animals walking around, if they weren't in such a hurry to get somewhere.

When it was safe, he propped his wagon up against the glass door of the dairy section, pulled out the rope and hook, climbed to the eggs shelf, and opened up the top carton. He danced a soft-shuffle across each egg, to make sure they moved. No movement meant egg goop was stuck on the carton, so an egg was broken or would have to break to be used. He smiled when the soft-shuffle worked on the first carton. Pushing a carton off other cartons was tough to do without breaking more eggs. At times like these, he was always glad that Grandma had crocheted a huge safety pin at the end of the climbing rope. He adeptly pinned the carton shut, right in the middle, and carefully lowered it to the floor. Once it had slid off the refrigerated section onto the floor, he slid the other end of the rope underneath a half-gallon carton of milk, and climbed down. With a flick of his paw, he pulled the rope out from under the milk, like magicians pulled tablecloths out from under dishes, without dropping a single dish.

The wagon was pulled off the door, and the eggs were loaded in. Just across the middle aisle was his favorite section – cookies! He loaded the rest of the wagon with animal crackers and vanilla wafers, and rushed off to the cashier. It was dinnertime for most People, so he didn't have to wait. She didn't notice him, though.

"Eh-hmmm! Eh-hmmm! Down here!" He yelled.

A face peeked over the counter pass the rows of candy. "Oh, sorry! Didn't see ya, Tee," the woman responded. Tee tried hard not to grimace.

"I'm sorry. I'm stuck at this end of the counter. Do you mind if I give you a bag to put everything in?" she asked, as she showed him a plastic bag big enough for his purchases.

"Nah, toss it down! Do you mind if I catch a ride up?" asked Tee, always happy when People didn't treat him like baby.

The floating bag landed on top of him, but he had it opened and was loading everything in it, almost before he got out from under it. Once everything was in the bag, he pinned it with the safety pin, and tossed the other end of the rope up onto the counter. He climbed on, holding the bag's handles like a swing, and inhaled deeply as he passed the chocolate and peppermint candies.

As the cashier emptied out the bag's contents and rang everything up, Tee turned his back to her, and pulled the money out of his secret place.

"That will be $18.29, please!"

Tee smiled, knowing Grandma and Grandpa would be happy that he only had to break one of the bills. He stepped on the edge of one bill to make it easier to pull the two bills apart.

The phone behind the counter rang, as he handed her the one 20.

"Oh, nuts! The computer is down! They're rebooting. Can you hold on a minute," she asked politely.

"Want me to fix it?" Tee asked, already climbing over the chocolate-covered cherries wrapped in red aluminum to get to the main computer. "We're excellent computer techies! It's part of our jeans!" (Try to explain "genes" to stuffed animals.)

She laughed, but not at him. "No, that's OK; it's already almost done rebooting. Thanks for the offer though. I'll remember that."

Tee sat down on a chocolate-covered cherry, and swung his feet, as he looked back. A line had formed behind him.

Ut-oh! What if any of these People are catnappers?

He tapped his chest to make sure the money was still safe, and made a mental note to run home quickly, just in case.

Here's your change, sir, and would you like me to lower your bag for you?"

"Yes, please! That's always fun!" he answered with a big smile. He glanced down to make sure no one had accidentally stepped on his wagon. It was still safe, although it had been kicked under the counter.

She reached as far as possible over the counter, and lowered Tee and the bag together, just missing the wagon.

"Thanks!" he called up, while loading his wagon. He felt many eyes staring at him.

I will never understand why so many grown-ups are always surprised by a walking and talking stuffed animal. What is wrong with their brains? They saw us walking and talking when they were kids! Gotta be becoming a teenager! How would they like it if I stared at them? Humph!

Tee felt the flush of anger on his skin, but fear took over, and he ran out the door as quickly as possible. Instead of immediately turning left to run home, he ran straight down the wheelchair access ramp, before turning left. No one ever looked for stuffed animals along the gutters.

More People were walking along the sidewalks, by the time he got to the next block, so he continued along the gutter, until he came to the container of ivy. He used the hanging ivy as leverage, while he pulled up his loaded wagon, and then waited for all the People to go away. Popping out from under the ivy, he enjoyed the newly cemented sidewalk again. On the last section of that sidewalk, he fell into a two-inch deep hole.

How did this gorge end up on the new sidewalk? What do People do to sidewalks?

After he climbed out and dusted himself off, he watched where he was going better. Once home, he called in for some help. He grabbed the vanilla wafers, Ding grabbed the animal crackers, and Uncle Spaulding brought in the rest of the groceries, while Daddy hid the wagon behind the container.

As Ding and Tee climbed up the sofa, Grandma smiled and asked, "I thought I told you not to buy anything big?!"

Tee gave her the patented blank stare, before he answered, "these aren't big, Grandma!" He held up one animal cracker and one vanilla wafer, before he added, "See?" I can hold one of each at the same time, and they're still smaller than me!"

How To Train Your Dragon Widget

2010-03-19T14:56:00.003-04:00

We're not here all the time, so we could use help raising our new pet. Please, use your fireproof clothing before letting him warm up. (He warms up really HOT!) He likes food, even if it's not hotdogs. (We have cats in the family, so accept non-hotdog food.) And tell him a good joke, before letting him respond. He enjoys the company.

If you feed him, don't forget to let him exercise. He can fly. Please, help us raise, dear, sweet Terrible Terror! He's our precious little dragon.

He's also a herd kind of dragon, so, if you raise your own egg, let us know, and we'll come to help you out, too. Thanks.

So, What Happened? And, What's Happening?

2010-03-16T14:21:00.002-04:00

No doubt, you've noticed we haven't been around for a beary long time – even on our other blog. And, now, here we are on this old one. What's going on?

Well, as you know, Mommy is our typist. True! They still haven't made paw-friendly keyboards, so we need her fingers to type for us. But, Mommy got sidetracked. She found a social network for writers, and she's a writer. Now, we didn't mind, since she was writing stories about us anyway, but she only has so much time, so didn't have time to do both. Ends up, there are some beary mean people on that site, and she decided to fight them. But, those mean people run the site. They don't own it, but what they say is more important that the truth and her fighting got her banned from the site. Good – it was making her not like our usual nice Mommy and she's glad. And, she now has time to help us again.

Of course, it's been months since we came back, and we still haven't written much, so we bet you're wondering why. Well, we switched blogs again for a reason. We have our own domain (URL), and our old blogging platform wouldn't let us put our blog on it. (We tried to use Word Press, but it was too hard to teach Mommy how to use it. We're Internet Savvy. She's NOT!) So, we went back to our original blog, but it's been seven years, and Blogger was sold to Google somewhere in there, making this all new, too. (Again, we're Internet Savvy. Mommy is NOT!) So, it's taken us some time to teach Mommy how to use this thing, now.

She finally figured it out, only to want to do the obvious thing – add our wonderful faces to the top of our blog. Well, guess what now. Good thing we're Computer Savvy, too, because we'll have to help Daddy work on Spaulding's (Mommy's – no Spaulding's, but Mommy decided, suddenly it's hers) computer, because it lost the drivers required to make the photo just right, or even use the DVD drive needed to reinstall the photo program. We're photoless, unless we use old photos we already place on the Net. Of course, Phil has joined our family, and most of our old photos are from back when we didn't have our little brother, so that's not fair to him. So, yet another delay.
But, we are back – minus these little problems – and we're going to try some new things on here, now. Instead of only telling about our always-exciting lives, we want to tell some stories, so, Mommy can write. First, we want to add the long story Mommy told on that beary mean site. Most people there liked it, of course, so we know you will.

Then, we want to try something different. We're asking our fellow bloggers to go on an adventure with us online. We'll even give you the privilege of being a co-writer on our blog with us. (Mommy says that's "giving them privileges," but we all know it's a privilege, too.) In People World, it's called "Role Playing," like Dungeons and Dragons. We are our characters though, and, in Teddy Bear World, it's beary real (except we get to stay home at the same time.) We all join together for a common quest (like going off to visit someone like Puff the Magic Dragon or a centaur, or some mystical creature to play with or finding something important, like Winnie the Pooh did when he discovered The East Pole – but we can figure out the quest together) and each of us tells what happens with us as we go along.I know it sounds weird, but we just came back from one, although it was Spaulding's adventure, even though he came up with a pretend name. (We'd show you, but are having problems seeing it ourselves anymore. Beary weird!) If'n you still don't understand what we're talking about, here's Wiki's description. Okay, so lots of it is boring technical stuff, but check out the beary violent example.

This brings us to a problem that we couldn't deal with, after all. Teddy Bears are nonviolent and role-playing tends to be beary violent. So, that's where you come in. Our fellow bloggers and friends aren't violent either, so if we come up with an adventure together, we can skip the violence and just enjoy ourselves. And, we're not prejudice, so you don't have to be a stuffed animal to play. Warm-blooded animals and People are invited to join us. And, People can pretend to be any thing you want, just as long as it's nonviolent, can move on its own, and communicate. (Yes, you can use your hairbrush, if your hairbrush can walk and communicate. I hope your hairbrush has arms, though. It's got to be tough exploring without even arms. And, yes, we're telepathic, so your hairbrush doesn't have to be able to speak. Kehehehehehe)

Interested? Let us know. And don't think we're experts, cuz we're not, so we'll have to figure this out together. The only rules we've figured out, so far, is the characters cannot be all-powerful, they cannot be violent, and it's really nice to pay attention to each other or else the story gets too weird. And, we're expecting beary weird, twists, and turns, unexpectedly, since our telepathy only goes but so far.But, finally, don't dessert us (but feel free to leave us desserts. Yummers!) We'll still tell what's new in our lives occasionally. We figure, we'll have different rooms on our den (our blog is our new Teddy Bear Web Den) to do different things in – sorta like our old den, but with more interaction and variety. And, we do want more interaction. (That's computer talk for letting others play directly with us.) How's that sound? We'd even like to open it up to our buddies. If you've had anything you want to share, let us know and you can be a guest blogger on our blog.

Of all the things, we've discovered in the last year, we've discovered having friends is the bestest thing! (Okay, maybe second bestest, but you don't really know how wonderful our family is.) We've missed everyone.

And, feel free to let us know what you'd like to join in doing with us. We have more plans, but don't wanna scare you off by telling them all. Kehehehehehe

2010-03-01T04:18:00.000-05:00

Still learning our way around the new and imporved Blogger. Thought we'd add this picture, just because.

We're Back!

2010-02-20T18:45:00.000-05:00

Well, we can understand html, but Mommy couldn't. Mommy types for us (all this time later, and they still haven't made paw-friendly keyboards!), and it just got too complicated to try making our new blog on our beary own website, so we decided to come back to blogging, where we started - here on Blogger.

Now, we were Bloggers way back when Blogger was its own company, but, since we last posteded, it's been bought by Google. So what? Well the whole thingy has changed on us, and we're having problems (Mommy again, not us) figuring out what to do, so give us some time to get orgamized.

For now we gotta tell all our buddies we moved back and then we gotta tell ya what's new and improved (besides this is prettier.) So, if'n you get bored while we (Mommy - seirously, we're Internet Savvy, so Mommy is holding us back, but we love her anyway) reorgaminize, check out our other pages (if'n you can find them.) Somewhere we have a list of fellow stuffy bloggers, (one missing in action - horrible, just horrible!), so you can check out their stuff too.

BUT, important thing to know - we're back! Mommy is gonna let us blog again. (We'll tell more of what happened the next time we write. We were NOT bad boys, like some might think.)

So....be seeing ya more often again! Yippee!!!!

New Location

2004-07-13T18:05:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to let our readers know that we've moved our Blog to the address above. Granted, we're having problems with that one too, however, we hope that Bravenet will fix the problems shortly. Helpfully Yours, Teddy and Spaulding

Equanox

2004-04-04T17:53:00.000-04:00

Teddy: As you know, we had a big celebration when Daddy stopped taking the treatment that would make him sicker to make him better. Spaulding: But, on that beary weekend another amazing thing happened that our Beary Buddies enjoyed, while we celebrated something different! Teddy: It is called the Spring Eknox. Spaulding: Even if we didn't go, we were most excited to hear about it, and all our Beary Buddies told us what happened on our magical message board! Teddy: We don't want you to miss the fun, so, instead of telling you about us, we want to show the different messages our Beary Buddies wrote about their fun! Spaulding: So you understand what is happening, the planning started right after our fancy Teddy Bear Ball, so that's the party they are also writing about on this message. From: VeryBestestBabyBear Sent: 3/14/2004 4:27 PM Whut a lovely party! The girls all looked so pretty! Of course, I though Buns looked prettiest, 'specially when she was in my arms! It was good to see old frends and new frends too. We met Christopher's family. Now Paddy Penguin thinks he wants to be a policepen and Sammy thinks it wuld be fun to be a horsey. We just stopped writing to hug, becoz Mama is cold. She burned too much herbs today and had to open all the windows. Peoples! Anyhows, t'other bears forgot to mention the chocolate flowers, flowers whut bears eat, and flowers made of honey too. I danced with Buns (not on my buns, Spaulding!) in the tall flowers and we hugged close and spun around and around and the stars spun wif us and the moon smiled at us and the smells of many flowers made us dizzy. Then Rocky danced with us too. Then others joined in and soon we wuz all dancing 'round a circle and stars dancing too and lights like silver and gold were all round us. And we sent the lights home to our peoples. We were all beary happy and full of hugs. Yes, Elfis made the little bears sleep with the flowers! Gnomes do lots of magics and especially with plants and stones, so it just comes nat'rally and he doesn't think about it. He takes green sparkle dust from his cap and sprinkles it round and flowers go to sleep. so they grows at nite. But by using the yellow dust, he made everyone think the sun wuz back again and so the bears woke up with the flowers. Elfis was rather embearassed and just kept saying, o dear, o dear, o dear! but he is ok now! So, when is the next party? Next Sat a day is called the Spring Eknox and Mama saided daytime and nitetime will be the same time. I thnk thats what she saided. But, our furrys, specially Rocky and Peabody, want to watch closly and see if it is so. But it means that spring time is here again! Weell we must go now. Hugs and hugs, BabyBear From: Teddy and Spaulding Sent: 3/15/2004 12:25 PM Beary Buddies, Finally, Mommy has done enough chores that we can start working on our journal! We're so far behind, we have two entries to catch up on (the Fabulous Teddy Bear Ball at the Flower Show AND the biggest Rass'lin show of the year--Wrestlemania XX!) We'd love to join you all for an =nox party, but two beary special things are happening here on that day, that we must decline to have our own special celebration! The first day of Spring has become bearry special to us, since Valentine joined our family, because it is the only time of the year where her voice means something beary important (verses a good hopeful message)! The only thing she can say in peoples' voice is "Hi, Bunny, hop along with me! Boingboingboingboingboingboing Hoppy Spring Time! Boingboingboingboingboingboing", so we must celebrate the first day of the year that it is absolutely true, of course. AND, as important that is, the other reason might be the mostest important thing that ever happens in our whole, long lives--Daddy's last day on treatment is Friday, so he will probably feel pretty good for the first time in, not only the 24 weeks of treatment, but the two years before he knew why he felt bad all the time! The first day of Spring will be the first day we meet the new, healthy Daddy in a few years!!!!! We didn't know how sick he was before, but if our calculations are right, Uncle Teddy, Aunt Valentine and the kids have never known a healthy Daddy! Lady and I were only one years old, the last time he was healthy! We don't know how we will celebrate, but it must be a beary big, happy celebration somehow, even if he doesn't feel perfectly good! I hope you aren't upset that we can't spend time with all of you for the Spring =nox, but I hope you all don't give up on getting together just because we can't come! I don't know what has become of Brownie, Holly, Mawson and his family and Radar and his family (hoping they went for vacation), but the rest of us still had fun, so we hope just because we can't come, that you all don't give up on having a celebration! Well, gotta go dictate to Mommy! Pen in Pawlingly Yours, Spaulding From: CountryMouse22 Sent: 3/15/2004 2:23 PM Dear BabyBear and Everyone, We have things going on here too, on the =nocks! It's Cat'r's birthday! Plus some kind of little special =nocks thing. We will see if we can sneak out in the evening. :-) Plotting... Teddy, who now needs another nap. From: CountryMouse22 Sent: 3/15/2004 2:24 PM Eek! Everyone is yelling at me! They said I didn't say, "Hooray for Spaulding's and Teddy's Daddy!!!" They are all very happy about this! Forgetfully yours, Mousie From: mawsonbear Sent: 3/15/2004 9:29 PM Dear Teddy We are very pleased to heer about your Daddy. All the hugs and napergys and People-mudicine are working. Now stay close coz yor Daddy wont be yoosed to feeling better. And he may still need bears close by. Fellow bears wot a grand party yoo had. We have been looking at all wot you did. Scotland was away on a big advenchure. I woz away too on a small wun. And tthe other bears here,, Well well they played so much in the hole house by themselves they forgot about the brite box. We will come back to tell of the places we went too. Hugs Mawson From: VeryBestestBabyBear Sent: 3/16/2004 6:29 PM Helllo Bearfriends!! O such wonderful happy news from Spaudling and Teddy! How happy yoo all must bee!! And Mawson is home from the minding place and Scotland from the little Orkland place! Mama saided that when it is spring here, it is autum in Ostralia, because it is upside down from Abearica. So, I was pondering, for the eknox, praps some of us can go to Mawsons howse and watch it become autum and some of Mawsons fambly can come here and watch it become spring wif us. then, we can splain whut both are like for everybody! and no body will miss either one. Do the strailyin bears like that? Hugs, BabyBear PS - Mama just saided we can haf strawberrry jam!!! From: mawsonbear Sent: 3/19/2004 5:26 AM We are getting our baskets redy, Babybear, to visit the noxes. Are noxes like boxes? Is that wot to look out for when we get close. Scotland asked coz he is a navigator. He most likes being it and wants to navig again. This time to find the noxes. He says he needs directions and sygns. HUgs Mawson From: Spaulding and Teddy Sent: 3/19/2004 5:42 PM Horray, horray! So many cool things happening! Hope you all enjoy the cross-world-=nox! Don't forget to tell us how it is. We wanna know too! Horray, Mawson and Scot are back! Didn't know you lefted for some place, so feared you were sick! Did you go to summer vacation, or, as they call it in Canabeara, "holiday?" You missed a wonderful Teddy Bear Ball, but, even if Mommy hasn't had time to update the pictures with me yet, we have told about it on our Journal page in our web den! Speaking of updating pictures, CMouse, can we borrow your photo of your delightfully, debon-eared, decked-out Teddy Bear group picture for our journal page? We can make it link to your site too, if you want?! Now that we had to add The Attic room, we are considering revamping our whole den! We want it to be a regular home, with different rooms and stuff. but, if we keep up with all these ideas, it will ended up being a mansion, instead of a den. kehehehehehehe We bought Daddy a present to sell-e-brate his victory, but he is sell-e-brating in true Teddy Bear fashion--he's napping like a bear in winter. Kehehehehehehe (HE'S CHEATING BY SKIPPING THE BEARY LAST DAY OF TREATMENT, SO DON'T TELL ANYONE! SHHHHHHHH) I think, I think our real Daddy is coming home! We've had sick Daddy for so long, we can't wait to see real Daddy again! Teddy peaks deeply into Daddy's eye to see if anyone is in there and finally reported to us all this afternoon that he might have seen a wee light in there! Well, just stopped in to catch up, so gonna go check out the other posts! Whirling and twirling, hopping and jumping, glad and Happy, Excittedyly Yours, Spaulding PS we just added a guestbook to our contact page, so drop on by our den, even if it's not all the way built yet! From: VeryBestestBabyBear Sent: 3/19/2004 11:21 PM Eknoxes are more like walls than boxes, Mawson. Or like long ropes. On one side of it is dark and on the other is light. Eknoxes make there be the same amount of dark as there is light. Then, after spring eknox, light gets bigger and after autumm eknox, dark gets bigger, till they go upside down and are the same amount again. So Scotland shuld look for a wall or rope thing with light on one side and dark on thother. And we will be there. And our fambly whut comes to yor homne will look for the same ting in Ostralya. We do not know who is all going and who is all staying, but I will stay heer to feed the strawberry jam to those who fly in. Rocky wants to see the autum eknox and Kwall wants to see Koolala, soo she will go with Rocky on the cushion. Paddy Penguin might go too as he says Ostralya is near the south pole, where penguines are, tho Paddy came from Dublin, the country of rains all the time. Scotland will haf to show us how to navigain! I cant wait to see the ekcnox and I know we will all find it. Hugs, BabyBear From: mawsonbear Sent: 3/22/2004 7:07 AM Dear Bears, Sigmund Here It is grand to see fellow bears all over the place. Mawson and I were just Napping when Rocky flew his cushion in with Kwala. Wot a fine cushion. It landed so nicely. Kooala couldnt remember wear Kwala was going to be. First he went away with Rumple's basket, then they rushed back in time when they remembered. Rumples said they didn't really go away - he just forgot to put his ears up and they didnt go anywear. But Kooala felt very important saying he had to rush back from the other nox and Kwala was so impressed. So Rumples looked about and didn't say anyting. We showd them our Nox and Rocky was most impressed. He said he never nu it was so HOT on the other side of the the curtain. Something has gone rong with our Nox curtain and all the days are hot on BOTH sides of it. And our Peoples are falling over and turning on wetcool - machines and drinking everyting and eating icrecream for lunch. It's much to hot for us bears too. But Rocky said it all felt strangely just rite for him. I must consult my notes about this. Now the Gurlz, Little Amy and Ooora and Little Vernice and Happy Hippo, they all went to the other Nox to see you. They said they was so sorry to miss the dressup ball, but they are taking their best bonnets and ribbons to the Nox. They're with Scottie on Tassled Burgundy. Scotland is looking for the rite curtain with Ropes. I expect you've seen them already. Are yoo shore you have enuf jam, Babybear? Now then Spauld and Teddy, it is the grandest thing when our People are unsick. We hope you have lots more nu fun with them. We will visit yor own den and GuessTheBook wen everyone has stopped flying about these Noxes Quite so, Sigmund From: VeryBestestBabyBear Sent: 3/22/2004 10:50 PM Ah, what a lovely hot Ek Nox in Ostralya! I took off on my cushion with Kwalla and Paddy, but befor we culd land, Paddy had to turn round and go back. He said it was far tooo hot for penguins but becoz our springnox was also broken, and it gave us snow, he was happy to go home again. Kwalla became impatient, as she was beary anxious to see Koolala again. But before we culd leave home again, Tiny Red and Snoopy decided they must come and see the Ostralya nox too. Yes, Sig, I must say the hot was good! It is a rhino thing, you see.The Ostralya nox was most impressive and it is always good to lie in the sun with the stralyan bears. Kwalla is chirping away now and it is getting hard for a rhino to heer himself think, so I will give sum Puter time to her now. While BabyBear waits patiently, as he often does. Hugs, Rocky Rhino Yes, yes, so good to be in A Stralia! We hav been seeing pichures on the storybox lately telling peoples to come to A Stralia and it always shows koolwalala bears hanging from trees. My dearest Koolala was beary busy pressing and flying and made special time to come and be there with me! We climbed a tree and did not pay much attention to the noxes, but watched the peoples and bears below as they got beary hot. I got a bit upset when peoples looked up at us and shaked their fists and said naughty things about the hot, but Koolala made me feel better when he splained that they were not really looking at us or yelling at us. This was good becoz I didn't know how to stop the hot! But, I kinda liked the hot too. Specailly with Koolala there... Hugs, Kwalla The Spring Eknox was grand! We found a wall that had dark on one side and light on the other and it even had a window! We saided goodby to our friends who flew off, then hellow again, then goodby again. This was beary tiring so we napped after that. Then, we waked up and there was Scotland and all the pretty girls! Whut a nice site to wake up to! Such pretty girls! They showed off their bonnets to our girls and talked about where to find them and how to powt just rite so peoples will buy them. Scotland told us all abowt the hot nox back home and wuz beary brave to fly from the hot to the cold. Cold is good for bears tho and we all hugged a lot. We had plenty of strawberrys jam and before too long, we all had strawberry noses! We don't think our Eknox was supposed to snow, but Mama says that March in Pennsyldelphia can do anything. It was beary nice to see Scotland and the pretty girls. And to hear all abowt the Ostrayla Noxes when Rocky and the others got home again. Hugs, BabyBear From: CountryMouse22 Sent: 3/24/2004 8:52 AM I didn't go anywhere for the noxes. I don't think the rest of us did either, but I was napping, getting ready for Cat'r's birthday! There was a lot of bright flashy light and big crashing sounds when the nox came, though! Does it always do that? I don't remember it doing that before... We haven't been getting many hugs and no kisses lately from our Peoples--they are all sneezy and coughy and say they don't want us to get it and if we did, we'd have to go into the big whirlpooly machine and then the hot-dry machine. So they smile at us and talk to us and carefully pick us up, but no kisses right now. We are trying to bear up. Teddy From: VeryBestestBabyBear Sent: 3/24/2004 6:57 PM Spaulding, we readed your blug about the flower show party and it was beary good...but...I don't haf a bruther! If I did, I wuld haf to dull him now for dancing with my Cuddle Buns! Mama wuz glad yoo wrote all about the night and she had talks to with Jingles and Elfis about it. Elfis feels better now, he told Mama all about it and she told him how much we love his magics. And Jingles now has a spechul dance, the Jingles Twirl, whut she can show Ding and anyone else next time we all meet. The rest of us are still napping over the noxs. Hugs, BabyBear From: Teddy and Spaulding Sent: 4/2/2004 12:33 PM Oh, it was beary good finding out all about the great E-qua-nox celebration from all over the world! One of Mommy's memories that I can tap into was when she was a little girl and got up early on her grandparent's farm. (They let a farmer rent the fields. They didn't actually farm on the farm. Beary odd!) She was on the second floor, and looking out the window she could see long fields of corn, that was probably a mile long! That wasn't unusual, obviously, but that morning she got up early and saw that rope you talk about, BabyBear! On the far side was dark and on the side she was in, it was light! She actually saw the end of the night that day! It was beary much like a wall, and, if she watched closely she could see the night leaving the corn fields! Of course, being a little girl, she didn't have the patience to watch it that long, but she still remembers it! I was wondering, since we did miss the adventure, could we copy and paste to our journal all the story from your rememberings that you wrote down in this message? It was grand to read about the hot and the cold and the dark and the light and the girls and the boys and the rhinos and penguins and all the opposites told of such a bear special day! We are most sorry, for boo booing about BabyBear's non-existing bwuder! We just consider everyone in our family as relatives, even if they didn't come from the same store, or even the same species! Somehow, although Axlerod is Lady's daddy, both Lady and Axlerod are both Mommy's kids. And, although Lady is Daddy's daughter too, Axlerod is his bwuder. It is wrong to do that in People's World, but beary true and normal in Teddy Bear World. kehehehehehe UnBEARably Happily Yours, Spaulding and Teddy PS Teddy joined in writing this when I had already started, so we really did mean to have it in the beginning using "I's" and towards the end, using "we's." From: VeryBestestBabyBear Sent: 4/3/2004 6:42 PM Yes, Spaulding and Teddy, yu can use the story of the Eknoxes in your jornal - that is the same as yoor blug right. How xciting to see the light and dark on the corns. Do yoo think your Mommy knew that if she stood on the xact line at light and dark she wuld haf seen teddybears dancing there? Mama once seen the line on an airplane. In the sky. She was going to the place whut rains all the time and she looked out the window and seed that line with light on one side and dark on dother. Nature is full of magics and allways has sumthing to make us smile and laff and cry too. Yor story of bear famblies made my people smile. It is beary confyoosing, she saided, unless peoples come from wes v--- um, Mama stopped me and saided we must not finish that thought. I am confyoosed. Hugs, BabyBear Teddy: That's all! That's what Beary Buddies told us about the =nox! Cool, huh? Spaulding: Never thought we could talk so little, but...until next time....

Catching-Up!

2004-03-30T18:30:00.000-05:00

Spaulding: Now that we found an easier way to make our web den... Ding: ...and Country Mouse, our good online people buddy, has taught us how to upload photos to be clear and using little space... Teddy: ...we may have gotten a bit too caught up in making our web den! Valentine: Is that possible?! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: What we're trying to say is, although we have still been going on several adventures, we haven't had time to keep our journal up to date, fix up our web den, do all the chores need doin' and take care of Mommy and Daddy! Spaulding: So, to get up to date, BUT still show off one of our favorite adventures... Lady: ...The First Annual Teddy Bear Ball at the Philadelphia Flower Show... Spaulding: ...we're going to tell about all our latest adventures as quickly as possible! Dee (feeling kind of embarrassed mentioning this): Ummmm, but please remember that we DO love talking! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: The first adventure we had after the Ball was also one of our favorite things to do-- Valentine: Rass'l-main-ee-a XX! Axlerod: "XX" means "20" in Roman Numerials! The Rest of the Family: Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, that's why they kept showing two x's, but saying, "20!" Lady: Aren't we going to mention the St. Patty's Day parade we went to in Philly, before going to Wrestlemania? Spaulding: OK. We went, but it was rather boring, so we left early! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: To be fair, it did have Irish dancers and Irish music, but there is but so many curly haired lasses dancing to River Dance and simply walking as a big group electricians... Valentine: ...the electrians' union sponsored the parade... Teddy (nodding in agreement): ...and other large groups of dressed-in-green groups meandering around in a beary slow walk, anyone can take! Ding: Soooooooo, we went early to New York City to try to meet the Rass'lers and get autographs... Dee: ...they have a brunch for special fans... Ding: ...and who could be more special then the T. Bear family? All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Rikishi stopped by to ask if his pants... Valentine (rolling her little eyes): ...if you can call them pants... All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy (still smiling): ...if his pants made him look fat! Spaulding: I told him that the extreme size of his bottom and all those dimples on it made him look fat! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Lady: Thankfully, he was joking to begin with, so we still have Spaulding in one piece! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Ding: Dee and I were the ones who talked honestly with Kurt Angle! Dee: He's right that someone who lies, cheats, and steals shouldn't be a hero... Ding: ...but Eddie Guerroro's past as a drug abuser and homeless guy shouldn't be counted against him... Dee: ...AND, most importantly, sucker punching him and cheating him, made Kurt no better then Eddie! Ding: He looked like he was listening, but I don't think he really was! Spaulding (wrapping his arm around Lady as they both beam with pride): Aren't our kids just so smart and grown up--in a kid kinda way?! :::::::::Dee and Ding blush, but also seem to appreciate the compliment.::::::::::::::: Axlerod: I tried talking to The Undertaker, but he was so bent on beating up his brother, there was no talking to him. ::::::::::::::after reflecting a moment:::::::::::::::::::: Axlerod: Then again, he beat up his brother beary well and his brother did deserved it! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Valentine: Teddy and I met Mick Foley, and tried to talk him into retiring again for the sake of his family! Teddy: We like him a lot, but saw a video called "Behind the Mat" and saw how scared his wife and two kids were to see him get so hurt! After he saw what they looked like he retired, but I guess he likes rass'lin' a whole bunch, cuz he came back! Valentine: I'm pretty sure, since he and The Rock lost their match, neither will rass'le much more. :::::::::::::::::All nod in agreement.::::::::::::::::::::::: Axlerod: How about, to shorten this up, if we just run down who won and lost?! Just the oes we cared about! :::::::::::::::::All nod in agreement.::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: John Cena beat the Big Show to win the United States Championship. All: Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Lady: Evolution defeated the The Rock and Mick Foley, who were called the Rock ‘n’ Sock Connection All: Booooooooooooooo! Dee: The ladies gowns were a bit too tight but... Ding: Torrie Wilson and Sable won. All: Eh. Teddy: One we didn't like was Chavo Guerrero winning the Cruiserweight Championship. All: Boooooooooooooo! Lady: But one we DID like was Goldberg smashing Brock Lesnar! All: Kehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: But, we don't like that Brock left right afterwards to try to play in the NFL! Spaulding: BUT, we also think he's too old, at 26, to get a position, so will be back this Fall. Lady: Scotty 2 Hotty & Rikishi kept the WWE Tag Team Championship! All: Yay. Ding: One I liked was that Eddie Guerrero cheated Kurt Angle to keep the WWE Championship! OK, so even if Guerrero lies, cheats and steals, since Kurt was so nasty to him, I'm still glad Eddie remains the champion! All: Yaaaaaaaaay! Dee: One that was a bit too creepy for me, but I still liked was The Undertaker beating his brother, Kane! All: Yaay?! Axlerod: And, of course, Chris Benoit defeated Triple H and Shawn Michaels to win the World Heavyweight Championship! All: Yaaaaaaaaaaaay! Teddy: Of course, we wish that Chris would come back to Smackdown!, but he won't! Valentine: That's what happened next! Wrestlemania XX was titled "Where It All Begins Again"... Ding: ...which really means that Vince MacMahon changed everything around and some who used to be on RAW, are now on Smackdown!... Dee: ...and vica versa! Spaulding: Some of that we like, but others...we don't! But, to catch up, we have to not go into such detail about rass'lin! Teddy: Can we tell the beary good news then?! :::::::Everyone smiles and nods in agreement, knowing that, out of all of them, it's really necessary that Teddy tell the news!::::::::: Teddy (actually standing up to make this important announcement): Daddy -- OUR Daddy -- is O-fish-earl-lee off his treatment! No more drugs to make him sicker! :::::::::::Dancing and frolicking starts and last a good half hour, before they all settle down again!::::::::::::::::::: Axlerod: I guess I should tell the not so good news though... :::::::::::::::::::::::All look doown forlorn.:::::::::::::::::::::::::: Axlerod: The treatment worked, BUT, since he was sick for so long and taking all those key-moe-thair-rap-pee drugs, it will take some time for his body to get rid of all the effects of the drug AND some time for him to regain his strength back! Spaulding: We know that. He knows that. He forgets that, and keeps getting frustrated that he's not back to normal! ::::::::::::::::::All nod in solemn agreement.:::::::::::::::::: Valentine: Still, he's not as sick as he used to be, so Teddy isn't working as hard as he used to and can actually sleep with us more often. Lady: Daddy would be sick day and night, so Teddy slept, quite often, out on the sofa, during those hours when Daddy could sleep. but we never knew if Daddy could sleep at night, so Teddy had to take care of him then too. Valentine: We were all so beary happy when Daddy's treatment was finally over, we decided to celebrate by having a family picnic at The Lakes. Teddy: We even gave up a party with our beary friends to celebrate the e-quo-knocks on the upper and lower part of the earth! Hope they had a good time! Dee (feeling pleased to be included in the grown-up conversation): The Lakes is what every one around here calls Roosevelt Park, because it has a big pond in it with geese and ducks and fish... Ding: ...and LOTS and LOTS of goosey poo along the shore line! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: But, the weather didn't cooperate! It was supposed to be the first day when the temperature hit 70 degrees and sunny, but it decided to rain instead! Teddy: We waited for a whole week for a good day for a picnic, but it was either clear and cold or warm and rainy! Beary frustration! Axlerod: It worked out well though! Daddy still wasn't feeling up to something as adventurous as a picnic, but had the strength to go out for lunch with Mommy. Valentine: And, for the half day Mommy and Daddy went for their celebration, it was sunny and warm enough that we did go to The Lakes and have our picnic! Dee (looking directly at her brother, Ding): And SOMEHOW, we don't know hoooow, Petey the pigeon and Sammy the squirrel and their families found out and joined us! Ding (not embarrassed in the least): I just climbed out onto the window air conditioner, like Daddy does when he visits Petey, and shouted to the world what why and where we were celebrating! Spaulding (not sure if Lady would be angry with him for doing something that Ding would copy and could get hurt doing): Ummmmmmmm, Ding, you shouldn't climb up on an outside, second-story air conditioner without an adult with you! ::::::::Spaulding gets the courage to glance at Lady, who is simply nodding in agreement with him. Now feeling more confident, he continues.::::::::::: Spaulding: On the other hand, good idea telling our outdoor buddies about our plans, it made for a great big celebration! Dee: I knew pigeons ate pizza, but I always thought they got it out of the trash! I was shocked to see them fly in with brand new boxes of pizza! Teddy: Beary useful, since we forgot about the food part of picnicking! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Lady: I didn't! We did bring a few cases of hotdogs with all the fixings! Spaulding: And, even if we forgot about food, we did bring charcoal for the grill, although there was no reason to grill the pizzas! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Valnetine: I didn't know that you could grill acorns and chestnuts! Teddy: Well, if you eat nothing but nuts, you're bound to find different ways of cooking them! Although, you're right! Sammy and his family sure taught us a few new ways to eat nuts! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: But, remember, our goal here is to catch up on this journal, so we should move on to the next adventure! Ding: Well, the next adventure was near The Lakes, anyway! Dee (bursting at the seams wanting to tell this part): We got to see our stadium... Ding: ...the Vet -- Veteran's Stadium... Dee (showing the word with her arms): IMPLODE! Axlerod: "Implode" is the opposite of "explode." Instead of exploding outwards, if imploded properly, the building comes down in on itself, causing much less destruction to neighboring buildings. Spaulding: Of course, this being Philadelphia, the city of "how cheap can we go?", we have actually seen one of the few implosions that didn't bring down the entire building! Teddy: The Dominos Sugar tower! Dee (looking at the older Teddy Bears as if they had lost thier minds): ANYway, it was soooooooooo cool--the building was obviously round, and they set a whole bunch of dynamite all around, so it boomed, boomed, boomed, boomed, boomed, boomed, boomed...in one second intervols, section by section, about 30 or more sections... Ding: ...and it had about four to six towers, and the towers took a little longer to fall down then the seating sections, so they looked like they were going to not fall down, but would fall down about three sections later--Boom! So cool!!! Spaulding: It wasn't much fun for people though, because they kept everyone far enough away that they could hardly see it... Teddy: ...unless, you bought a seat for $10 at the Holiday Inn next door to watch, like we did! Lady: ...and Axlerod's magical time thingy came in handy too! We were there to watch, but Mommy had trouble sleeping the night before, and would have been woken by the noise, if it weren't for Spaulding! Spaulding: I came back in time to wake Mommy up and let her think it was by accident. She woke up one minute before the implosion, so we all got to watch it together on TV too! Dee: AND, they had some cameras mounted inside too, so we got to watch it over and over again, from the inside AND out! Axlerod: It still struck me as sorta humorous... Spaulding: ...probably more so, had it not been that Mommy was born and raised over there... Axlerod: ...that all the dirt and smoke went over to New Jersey! Teddy: Anyway, some other stuff has happened in Mommy and Daddy world, that causes them both to be beary busy, AND so, giving them less time to help us do stuff like keep up with our journal and give us new ideas on where to go for our next adventure, so, the only new thing we've done since the implosion is have Mommy go to the library and get us some cool books to read. Lady: It's hopefully going to be a new tradition with us. We are also planning on reviewing them and starting a room in our web den to find our reviews. Valentine: She also borrowed a few videos to watch, which was fun too! Spaulding: That's where we found "Behind the Mat," the video about the behind-the-scenes of rass'lin! Teddy: As soon as she doesn't have a gazillion errands to do, Mommy is going to take us to the library to pick out our own books, and hopefully take pictures of that adventure. Spaulding: She has to get permission from the library to do that, of course. Axlerod: But, that's still in the future, and we have, finally caught up with our journal! So, it's now o-fish-earl-lee time to say it-- Dee and Ding: Until next time... All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe

The First Annual Teddy Bear Ball at the Philadelphia Flower Show

2004-03-11T16:24:00.000-05:00

Teddy: Sometimes, living in Philadelphia is a beary good thing! In the middle of March, right before the first crocuses pop up, Philadelphia holds the beary biggest and oldest Flower Show in the whooooooooole world! Spaulding: This year was their 175th show, so you know it's beary old and beary big! Teddy: It's one of those things Mommy and Daddy have always wanted to go see, but, between their allergies and the cost... Spaulding: ...it cost $22-$26 per person! Are they kidding? Only rich people can afford such things!!!! Teddy: Ummmm, or beary special Teddy Bears! Spaulding: Kehehehehehe And beary special Teddy Bears don't have to pay anything, we are all just cordially invited! :::::::::Both stand taller and smile broadly, knowing exactly how special they are.::::::::: Teddy: Once again, our Mommy and Daddy spoiled us wonderfully! Spaulding: They called The Philadelphia Hord-a-cult-u-earl Society... Teddy: ...the group of peoples, who created and hosted the Flower Show ... Spaulding: ...to include a beary special Black Tie and Tails Flower Show Teddy Bear Ball for us and all of our friends! Teddy: Mommy said that they weren't going to do it, until she convinced them to visit our message board's photo albums. Spaulding: Remember? Peoples just have the hardest time believing that stuffed animals are real! Kids know, but some grown ups forget. Once they see us really writing to one another, of course they have to believe again! Teddy (knodding in agreement): I was so pleased to have an op-pour-tuna-T to get all decked out in a tux with tails! I didn't get the opportunity at the Grand Race last year at Mawson's house, because I was dressed to race! Spaulding (turning around to twitch hia little tail): I already have a tail, but I'm glad that Lady, Valentine and several of the Need-To-Be-Adopted Teddy Bear like to sew, or it would be difficult to make such grand outfits in so little time! Teddy (head held high and posing as if in a tuxedo ad): We did look so sauve and debon-ear, didn't we? Spaulding (matching Teddy's pose): We certainly did, and the gals...wow...the gals were just sooooooo... ::::::::::::Lacking the words to describe his feelings, Spaulding pats his heart with his paw and then makes a very dramatical swoon. Teddy nods in agreement as he catches his brother with an equally dramatical flare. The family, still here to tell about the Ball, has been patiently waiting for a moment to join in. Dee, impatient with the grown ups theatrics, and still feeling mighty important in her beautiful lacy gown, is the first to break into the conversation.:::::::::::::: Dee: I have never seen so many beautiful stuffed animals in allllllllll my life! The guys were ever so handsome in their tuxes and uniforms, and the gals were elegant past what seems even possible! Surely, even Di and Charles' wedding paled in comparison! Ding (speaking to Dee): I have never seen you look so grown up and pretty. There was more then one boy trying to get the courage to ask you to dance! Dee (blushing, but also having the confidence to know her brother was right): I must have danced with 20 different boys, and even then, we spent quite a long time playing Hide N' Seek together! Ding: Didn't you notice how many boys were chasing you while playing Hide N' Seek? Spaulding (confused by the angst he harbored at the thought of so many boys chasing his little girl): OK! OK NOW! I mean. ummm, err. uh-hum, we've gotten ahead of ourselves already! Lady (smiling quietly at her husband's overprotective reaction, but only because she knows that Dee truly is too young to think of boys in that way): Yes, we are ahead of ourselves, but....ummmmm, isn't anyone going to talk about the gals' outfits some more? ::::::::No one will laugh at that moment, knowing that Lady's feelings would be hurt, but they all had to quietly smile, knowing, since she designed many of the outfits, that she wanted her recognition. One other, out of the group, understood that the most, having created some of the outfits on her own too.::::::::::::: Valentine: I truly think we out did ourselves this time, Lady! The guys all looked like gazillionaires in thier suits, and the gals all looked like they belonged in a huge southern mansion during the biggest ball of the year! Velvet material and ribbons, lace, little silk flowers and satin bows, all adorning the most lush, soft and feminent satin and silk in the whoooooooole world! What you made... Lady (so beary please to be complemented by one with equal abilities to herself, had to share the praise): ...what WE made... Valentine (now a bit embarrassed to be included, but trying to overcome her shyness): ...what WE made, was just, ...just, ...just gorgous! The only thing that could possibly top what we made were the flowers themselves! Lady: And, at the Ball, you took some of those flowers and DID teach us how to add them to our gowns so they were the beary, beary prettiest things in the whoooooooooooooooole wide world!!! ::::::::Knowing how important it was to give the ladies their complements, but not knowing how to describe the beauty itself, everyone else listened intently to the two wives, agreeing with nods all along, and, once satisfied that what they said described how they felt, they knew it was now fine to continue describing the night.::::::::::::::::::: Axlerod: We did get to the Convention Center by our helioplaneship boxcar, and they had valet parking inside the building 'specially for stuffed animals! Teddy: Once they drove our vehicle away, a horse drawn carriage, of sorts pulled up to take us to the center of the Ball! Spaulding: The carriage was huge, and looked quite a bit like a pumpkin, except it was all silver! Valentine: It was drawn by horses, but the horses looked strange...something mousey about them, but I couldn't quite put my paw on it! Lady: The coachman looked beary mousey, but he was supposed to, since he was a stuffed mouse! Axlerod: Inside we found a beary, tiny high heeled shoe made of glass... Lady: I'd so love to sew the same pair of shoes out of glass, in my size, but Mommy told me that you just can't sew glass!!! Beary disappointing! ::::::::::::Ding and Dee both have their mouths opened in amused shock, but aren't quite sure if they are being teased.::::::::::: Ding (the bolder of the two): Are you all saying that you didn't recognize that carriage at all?! ::::::::::::::Axlerod sneaks a wink towards Ding and Dee, while the four other grown ups are confused, realizing that they are supposed to be knowing something at the moment, but totally unaware of what it could be. Not wanting to give themselves away, any more then they already have, they try to pretend to know what the kids are saying.::::::::::::: Teddy (with a false knowing smile): Sure we do, but, go ahead, you want to think you are the ONLY ones who know...tell everyone! :::::::The other three grown ups murmur and smile to agree with Teddy's game. Axlerod hides his face behind his ears as his whole body shakes in quiet laughter.:::::::::: Ding: Pumpkin carriage? Mouse horses? Glass slipper? Ring a bell? ::::::::::::The grown ups are so lost, they can't even pretend to know now, and look blankly at Ding and Dee.:::::::::: Dee (breaking out in her beary bestest mousey voice, starts to sing): ~Cinderella, Cinderella, ...dadada Cinderella?!~ ::::::Another awkward moment passes, before the light above their heads lights up.::::::: Teddy, Valentine, Spaulding and Lady: Oooooooooooooh, Cin-der-rel-la's carr-iage! Duh, now! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: I wonder what became of Cinderella?! Dee: She married her Prince Charming and didn't need the carriage again! Probably bought a minivan when the children came. All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Valentine: When we got to the middle of the Teddy Bear Ball we were greeted by many, many well dressed stuffed animals! Lady (while thinking of Holly, Sophie, Buns, Hope and BerryAnn's gowns): All the gals were dropped dead gorgeous! Dee: "Dropped dead gorgeous!" Rather a strange compliment! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Ding: Jingles looked so pretty, I was expecting to see a halo over her head! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Ding: Now, don't get me wrong--Hope looked like she belonged with the flowers themselves in her Spring Fairy gown, and, if Martin didn't look so serious, I'm sure I would have checked out Sophie some more... All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding (not at all sure if he wants his young son noticing women so much, but also glad he does, like only a father could be, decides to change the topic and finds a great moment): Speaking of being startled by Martin, did anyone else notice Uncle Teddy's reaction when he saw Martin in his uniform? Valentine (rather embarassed she even noticed): I noticed how handsome he was in his policebear's uniform! Teddy (shocked first that Spaulding mentioned anything about the incident, and then surprised to hear his wife's reaction): Wait a minute now, was anyone else expecting to see a cop at the Ball? Spaulding: Yeah! All of us, since we read the message on our message board! I did think it was funny that you tried to hide when you first saw him! What did you think you ever did illegally?! Teddy (blushing as he rubs his paw in a circle on the floor): I dunno! I just felt guilty, and I don't know why. It was reflexs... Ding (smiling, as he thinks he still is one of the grown ups): Maybe guilty for all the times you pinned Daddy in a Rass'lin hold?! :::::::::Spaulding holds a questioning look on his face towards his son, as Teddy, behind Spaulding's back, smiles widely and nods his head in a very strong "YES!"::::::::::::: All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding (as he looks from one to the next in his family): When did Teddy ever pin ME in a rass'lin hold? I ALWAYS pin him! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Dee (feeling a bit uncomfortable laughing at her father, but not wanting to offend Uncle Teddy either): Uncle Teddy didn't hide long before he walked right over to Mr. Martin and shook his paw! Spaulding (trying to save face again): ...And asked him lots and lots and lots of questions about being a policebear! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: I had to find out why bears even need police, and got interested in becoming a policebear! Valentine (some what afraid of the answer): Do you? Teddy (taking his wife's paw into his and kissing it gently): And be away from you, my Honeybun? Never! All: Awwwwwwwwwwwww! Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Lady: And Honeybun, err, ummm, Aunt Valentine was brilliant when she wandered away, giving Uncle Teddy time with Martin, as she gathered some flowers to add to her dress! Teddy: She looked just like a flower when she came back! She is always the most beautiful gal in the world for me, but she found a way even to make perfection that much prettier! All: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Valentine (blushing with pride towards her husband): All the gals seemed to like it, so we all gathered more flowers and made every gal there that much prettier--some times with a whole flower dress, and some times with a cor-sodge! Spaulding (while looking at Lady as if she still wore the gown, says whiskfully, as if caught in a dream): Yes, perfection made better! :::::::::::::::::::Lady blushes!::::::::::::::::::::: All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod (as he remembers all the sights, and smells and sounds of the night): It was one of the bestest nights ever though! ::::::::::::startled back into their original conversation, they all look at Axlerod, fade into their own memories and seem to come back from them at the same time, knodding in wholehearted agreement with Axlerod!:::::::::::::::::: Dee (as she holds out her dress and swings softly to imaginary music): I don't know who Strauss was, but I bet he was a Teddy Bear! He wrote such pretty music to dance to for our Ball! ::::::::::Spaulding and Lady join in and start dancing. Teddy and Valentine, without prompting, grab each other tighter and start dancing. Axlerod grabs Dee with one paw and Dng with the other, as the three of them rock softly back and forth in a circle, then swirl slowly like a small pile of autumn leaves caught in a gentle breeze.::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding and Lady (still swaying to the imaginary music): I could have danced all night! Teddy and Valentine: We almost DID dance all night! Dee: The floor of dancers was so pretty, it looked like something right out of Fantasia! Axlerod: The magic flowing from so many sources, it might well have been right out of Fantasia! I never noticed how many special powers so many there had until that night! Lady: Babybear's family seem to have a lot of magic... Axlerod: ...not so much like a lot of magic, but much magic for the beary place we were that night! They have a great amount of Gardening Magic! Spaulding: Sure wish we could borrow some for Mommy! She doesn't seem to have much gardening ability! Axlerod (having known Mommy the longest): She's getting better! When she was young, she was so bad at gardening that killed air plants! Ding: What's an air plant? Valentine: A plant that only needs air to survive and grow! Ding: Then how can you kill an air plant? :::::::::::All look up at Mommy for an answer, but only see her shrugging her shoulders as she smiles!::::::::::::: Axlerod: Yeah, but remember last summer? Out of all the flower and herb seeds she planted, only two grew, BUT by the end of the summer, we had lots of basil and dill weed and lots of impatients, because she kept watering the weeds, which ended up being the same plants she had grown the year before! We had enough basil to use the sause on our hotdogs and on their pasta three times each!!!! And, still, even though they didn't start flowering until September, the front pots finally looked like flower pots! That seems much better then killing air plants to me! ::::::All look at Mommy with sympathetic smiles, as they quietly nod in agreement.::::::: Teddy (trying to get away from this moment of embarassment they thought Mommy might have--but didn't since she knows she will keep trying): Babybear's family used elfin dust to bring in the moon and stars, and even brought in an early summer evening breeze! We might have been in a convention center, but we were also outside with all those flowers! Valentine: Boy, oh boy, didn't Babybear's brother, Teddy, get his wish when he said all he wanted to do was dance around in the flowers with Buns?! Lady: They were a beary cute couple! So were the other Teddy and BerryAnn and Holly and Brownie and Christopher and Hope... Dee: ...so many cute couples dancing! Even some of the Need-to-be-Adopted bears made cute couples, whiich is never what my mind thinks of when I think Adoptees! Spaulding: Did you see Sophie and Martin too? Great dancers! All of them! Ding (who was never too keen on the dancing part, once Jingles pleaded that she couldn't dance, so wouldn't dance with him, but who really enjoys watching magic at work): What made the dancing so cool was the elfin magic that made beary buddies so light that everyone really was dancing on the tops of the flowers--circling around from one plant to the next, like some kind of musical chairs game without the music ever stopping! Dee (who was so happy to be asked to dance by so many boy bears, but was still under the impression they were just dancing with a kid sister, but understanding her brother's opinion of dancing, gladly opened the door to the next part of the adventure--the part her brother, started and loved): Speaking of being on top of flowers, that Hide N' Seek was so beary fun too! Ding (feeling important now): Well, all the grown ups were dancing and eating hotdogs, but all the little guys needed some fun too, besides eating chocolate and honey flowers! With that many displays and flowers, Hide N' Seek seemed like the bestest kind of fun to have! Axlerod (with his old, wise smile): Well, for the young'ns it was! We older stuffies found this cool treehouse in one of the displays, flew up to it and spent most of our night hypothesizing on how that lovely smell from the orchids is made, and how best to use the different pixie dusts for gardening. Elfis taught us so much, it's a shame he had the need to get back to his beloved flowers so quickly! Ding (not quite sure what to do or how to react when his grandfather gets in these moods, listens carefully, and then jumps right back into his tale!): Yes, the treehouse was a great place to hide, but apparently everyone thought so, since I was found up there quickly, but it took quite some time to find out we had a problem that we couldn't handle without grown ups finding out! Dee (jumping to the defense of her brother): It wasn't your fault! There were so many little ones, we just didn't know them all! Ding (feeling both defensive and guilty): I knew Kwalla, and I knew most of the other lost little stuffies! Dee: Yeah, but there were so many of us! And, we didn't know how powerful Elfis was! We didn't know he was putting plants to sleep for the night! Lady: It's all right, Ding! No one got hurt and you didn't do anyting wrong! :::::::::Unaware how scared he was until that moment, Dings eyes mist over as he buries his head into his Mommy's arms.::::::::: Dee (feeling the strong need to explain now): Elfis didn't do anything wrong either! Nothing bad happened, we just all got scared because we thought something bad did happen, that's all! ::::::::The back of Ding's head nods in agreement, as he slowly gets the courage to come out from his Mommy's chest.::::::::::: Dee: I don't know how many games of Hide N' Seek we had played, before we noticed that some of the little ones didn't return when the game was over. At first we wandered around ourselves, searching for them, and when we were far enough away from the dancing grown ups, we even called out their names to find them, but... Ding (with panic still in his voice): ...But no one answered! No one came out from their hiding places! They were all so little! I was afraid one of the carp in the pond had eaten them, or that they were even bearnapped! I was one of the oldest little ones, so it was my responsibility! Spaulding (softly patting his son on the shoulder and then rubbing his shoulders to relieve the tension): No, Ding, all parents know that WE are responsible for our kids! We never gave you our responsibility, and had we known you took it yourself, we would have let you know then that you can't take it! Teddy: Even Babybear and Elfis weren't ever angry with you, nor did they ever think it was your fault! Valentine: Poor Elfis! Teddy: When the kids came to tell us what was wrong, I just happened to be facing Elfis, and saw something flash in his eyes--a thought, but I didn't really notice it until later! Spaulding: We all walked around at first, calling out, but no answers came! Teddy: We quickly grabbed all of our vehicles to fly around the area to go faster and see higher up! Valentine: Most of the flowers were taller even then Babybear! Axlerod: Obviously, we older stuffies heard the commotion and came down to find out what was wrong! When I heard, I immediately started looking for Elfis! Spaulding: Why? I was on the other side of the display, so don't know exactly what happened! Axlerod: Elfis might not be as old as I am, but he has a wise old spirit about him, and knows so much about gardening. He was with us for a while in the treehouse, but left, because he said that he needed to put the flowers to sleep for the night! Lady: What does that mean? Axlerod: The whole idea startled me too, but I remember Mommy talking about some plants she saw in one of her walks called a Morning Glory! It's called that, because it closes up--sleeps--for the night, then opens up again the next morning in all its glory. Many flowers do that, and it ends up that Elfis is the type of creature that does just that with his magic! Teddy (still confused): Yeah?! Axlerod: Well, think about it! What other type of creature likes to sleep often too?! Teddy: All creatures do! Axlerod: Not all! Sometimes Mommy hates to have to take naps or go to bed at night because she gets in the middle of something she really wants to do! Spaulding (smiling sheepishly at Mommy, before responding): Ummmmmmmm, you mean like right now, as she sits there typing away, but wants to find out about our Ball too much to go take a nap?! :::::::::All sheepishly look at Mommy, who cocks her head and smirks, as if saying, "Oh, well! I'm caught!"::::::::::: All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: Ex-act-ly! So, what type of creatures DO like to take naps and sleep whenever possible?! ::::::::::Mommy must nudge them all awake after they ponder a little too hard, but realize that their very action gave away the answer::::::::::::::: All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Ding: OK, so stuffed animals like to sleep, but what does that have to do with the lost little ones? Axlerod: Elfis' magic is powerfull! Think how high the flowers were. What better place to hide then in the middle of a tall flower?! :::::::::::A series of hesitations hit the rest of the family as they feel like the answer is right there before them, they almost grasp it, but not quite, all being innocent enough and naive enough to not quite grasp any concept that could even just be used to be sneaky:::::::::::::::: Axlerod (being so much older and having lived in Peoples World for several decades, isn't as naive, so does understand): When Elfis put the flowers to sleep, he also put the babies in the flowers to sleep! That's why none of the lost ones even knew they were the cause of any commotion! ::::::::::Finally, the light flicks on and stay on in their innocent minds::::::::::::::::::::: All: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Now we get it! Ding: I thought they were just being brave when they all came back into their family's arms! They slept through everything and didn't even notice there was a problem! Thank God, I didn't hurt them at all! Lady (exasperated by her son's inability to forgive himself for something he didn't even do): If they did know they were lost and did get scared, you still wouldn't have hurt them! ::::::::::::::Ding tries hard to leave the guilt behind, knowing he did nothing wrong, but not yet feeling it. He gives everyone a quiet little smile, knowing they would understand his dilemma.::::::::::::::::::: Dee (giving her brother an affectionate pat): How's Elfis doing? Axlerod: He felt as guilty as Ding is feeling, but we also talked to him. Since he is older then Ding, he seems to be taking less time to get rid of that fake guilt then Ding is! Ding: Fake guilt? It's real! Axlerod: I don't mean fake, like unreal, but like there are two kinds of guilt--the first one comes from committing a sin, and is very real. We are guilty of that type and should feel guilty for it. But, the second kind just comes from a feeling, not based in doing anything wrong, or committing any kind of sin. That's fake guilt, and can just be ignored, because it's undeserved. Spaulding: Yeah, like sometimes if Mommy stubs her toe, I say that I'm sorry! Ding (still confused): Why? Spaulding: I feel like I caused it, even if I was on the other side of the room! Ding: That's silly! Axlerod: No, that's fake guilt! Doesn't feel silly at all. Feels beary real, however when you look it over and discover you did nothing wrong, then you know it's fake, and just ignore it until it leaves on its own! Spaulding: If I dwell on it, it will stay with me, and I remain with that yucky feeling. Ding: But, if we start ignoring it, it leaves?! ::::::::::::All the grown ups smile as they realize he understands!::::::::::::::::: Ding (with a big relieved smile): Cool, then...gee, the Teddy Bear Ball at the Flower Shower was just fantastic, wasn't it? Not only the real flowers, but the chocolate flowers and the honey flowers! Yummy! What else could stuffed animals want? ::::::::::The two married couples grab each other and start dancing again.::::::::::::::::: Teddy (singing in his beary best Teddy Bear voice): ~I could have danced all night, could have danced all night....~ :::::::::Dee grabs her brother's paw and her gradnfather's paw and starts dancing together to Teddy's singing.:::::::::::::::: Ding (to the reader as he continues to dance): It was a fantastic night. Until next time... ::::::::::::::::::::::All continue to dance until they fall asleep.::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The Terrible Accident!

2004-03-05T17:05:00.000-05:00

Spaulding: My biggest fear in life almost happened! Teddy: It was an accident! I thought I lost my bwuder! Spaulding: Well, it wasn't THAT bad! Teddy: You don't know! You didn't see! You were unconscious! I thought you were DEAD! Spaulding: I was unconscious?! I remember sitting on Mommy's lap as she leaned over and then the next thing I remember was being scooped up and having Mommy quickly check me over as she wrapped my paws in face clothes! I WAS WET! Teddy: That's the part you missed! As Mommy leaned over, you accidentally hit Daddy's cup with your feet and you and the cup fell to the floor! The cup splattered most of the way across the room! I yelled, "His paws! His paws! Don't let his beans get wet!!!" Spaulding: Oh, I vaguely remember that! Then Mommy grabbed me, even before I was fully on the floor... Teddy: ...she was sooooo fast, I thought she had become the Road Runner... Spaulding: ...come to think of it, as she threw me across the floor, I had a moment to think that it couldn't be Mommy, because she doesn't move THAT fast! Teddy: I couldn't believe it was Mommy either, because she DID throw you across the floor! Spaulding: Right before she grabbed me, my face was about to hit in a puddle of soda! I put my paws out to stop the fall, but my beans got wet, so I'm beary glad she did grab me and throw me before they got wetter! Teddy: Yeah, but WHY did she THROW you?! :::::::::::Both look sheepishly up at Mommy, not wanting to sound ungrateful, but not knowing why she didn't simply just pick him up?!:::::::::::::: Mommy (willing to speak out loud, to try to defend herself this time): I don't know! All I thought was "soda...wet...beans...puffy paws...must stop!" I threw Spaulding before I bothered finding out if I was wet from the soda too. The only dry spot I saw was across the room, so I made sure Spaulding got into the dry spot as quickly as possible! ::::::::Both consider her words carefully, yet, even still a bit hyper from the accident, they are able to stay awake, as they decide Mommy did the right thing under the circumstances. Then, thinking of the possible alternatives, they stand up on Mommy's lap and give her a hug!:::::::::: Spaulding: I remember my neck crunching into something that wasn't soft, but wasn't real hard either, and that was the last thing I remember until I was in Mommy's arms! Teddy: Mommy threw you against Daddy's leather notebook holder. It's not as hard as the table, but with paper inside, it's still not soft! That's when I thought I lost you! I saw you ram into it so hard that your entire head rammed into your left shoulder, and then you fell into a heap, like...like...like (Teddy is trying to hold back tears) like a rag doll! You didn't move, even when I called to you! You didn't answer! And Mommy quickly ran out of the room to grab towels, but I didn't know why she didn't pick you up right away! Spaulding: What was Daddy doing? Teddy: He was doing two things at once! He grabbed me to hug me as he picked up his cup, so no more soda could puddle out! I think he was afraid what was left, might get all the way over to you! He moved beary quickly too, but Daddy is more like that then Mommy! ::::::::::::Both smile sheepishly, knowing, if they were talking about anything other then almost getting their beans wet, it would have been a full fledged laugh.:::::::::::::: Spaulding: How long was Mommy gone? Teddy: The bathroom is just the next room, so no more then two seconds! Spaulding (with a mischievous smile): Mommy getting to the bathroom, grabbing a hand towel and grabbing me in two seconds?! Did Axlerod do his magical time thingy?! Both (relieved that they can laugh again): Kehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Wow! If Ax had been in the room, he could have stopped this all from happening! Spaulding: It still turned out all right anyway! Teddy (nodding in agreement): Mommy didn't slow down after she grabbed you with that hand towel! Spaulding: That's when I woke up! I remember she wiped me down all over, then sat me down in the chair as she took off my clothes... Teddy: ...your clothes were wet, and she didn't want that wetness to hit your body... Spaulding: ...then, without ever leaving me, she checked my paws to see if any of them were wet, while she ran back into the bathroom for a few washclothes and hand towels! Teddy: Your hand-paws WERE wet, so she had to act quickly! She wrapped your paws up in faceclothes as she dropped the handtowels onto the puddle! Spaulding: And then she said something to Daddy that I will never forget and will love her forever for saying... Teddy: ...and I loved Daddy's answer too! Spaulding: ...as she dried my paws as thoroughly as possible, while rubbing the puddle with a handtowel below her bare foot, she said to Daddy as she laughed, "Gee, I guess this shows where my priorities are, huh?" Teddy: Doesn't it feel good when you are more important then a soggy carpet?! Spaulding (nodding in agreement): And don't you like Daddy's reaction? Teddy (smiling with his best "I'm loved" smile): Yeah, he said, "Of course, that's how it's supposed to be!" Spaulding (in his loudest whisper): YOU KNOW, THE REST WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED, IF WE HADN'T WATCHED "THE APPRENTICE" THE NIGHT BEFORE! Teddy (with his wry smile and his very best whisper too): OOOOOOOOOHHHH, THEN IT WAS ALL OMAROSA'S FAULT? Spaulding (matching Teddy's expression, but dropping the whisper): Well, not ALL her fault! I did learn the technique when Mommy accidentally knocked me out of bed one night! She guilts easily! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Mommy AND Daddy like to take beary good care of us, but Omorosa on "The Apprentice," that show about those young peoples trying to win a job with Donald Trump, sure knew how to milk an accident for all its worth! Spaulding: I don't know too many people who haven't been beamed in the head by a small chunk of drywall or plaster! Teddy: Well, we also don't know too many people either--but Mommy and Daddy both said they've had that happen to them, and it is no big deal! Spaulding: But, Omarosa got hit by a small chunk and milked it for all its worth... Teddy: ...waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy past its warrantee! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: She got out of all sorts of work milking that accident, AND got so much attention, even if no one else believed it! Teddy: She did take it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too far when she called it "a concussion" to Mr. Trump though! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: That's when we found out that he got to watch all the tapes of what everyone has been up to during the series. Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Are you saying you've been acting a bit like her lately? Spaulding (sheepishly): At first I wasn't! I was beary, beary scared! You know how scary it is that our beans can get wet and then grow beary big! My one paw is much bigger then the others! Teddy: Your limp is bearily noticable! Spaulding: It doesn't exactly hurt so much as it feels like I bearly have enough fur to cover my beans! Your beans are in your tush! How scary would it be if they puffed up! Teddy (shivering at the thought): Yeah, I was beary scared for you! Spaulding: So those first hugs and cuddling I got from Mommy were beary, beary needed! But then.....then I remembered Omarosa and the chunk of drywall, and watching her have too big a headache to help fix up the apartment, but not so bad that it stopped her from playing basketball with the neighborhood kids! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Teddy nods as he listens:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding (meekly): I'm not sure when it went from needing Mommy's attention to simply wanting Mommy's attention. Teddy: Did you need your head wrapped up? Spaulding (trying to be honest): I liked Mommy rubbing my head! She made it feel better! I dunno about needing it wrapped though! I know I liked it when she took me into the bedroom, bandaged my head and tucked me in all by myself. She took such care of me and it felt great! But then she left and I was all by myself! I didn't like that! Teddy: When she came back in here, she grabbed Pez for you! Spaulding: We should tell who Pez is again! Teddy: For Christmas, Santa gave us a plush Pez Dispenser that's also a Teddy Bear. Pez lifts up his head whenever we want a piece of candy, but he's also here to keep us company when one of us is left all alone while Mommy and Daddy do things around the house and our family is still in the bedroom. Spaulding: We've adopted him as a member of the family, but he's kinda like a pet for us! He doesn't talk at all, but he seems to like Axlerod the best, but still likes staying with us to keep us from being lonely. Teddy: Then Pez did stop you from feeling lonely? Spaulding (sighing): Yes, but I was booooooooooooooored! Teddy (suppressing a giggle): Yes, we could hear you moaning all the way in here! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding (in his beary best Omarosa voice): But I was being a real trooper, not complaining too much! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Mommy smiled when she saw us all climbing off the desk! She knew where we were going! Spaulding: Wow! You were all going to make the hike to the bed without Mommy's help? You guys really love me! Teddy: Of course we do, although it sure was easier when Mommy took us all! Spaulding: Why did you all stand at the bottom of the bed? Teddy: We were afraid that if we walked near you, our steps would make your head hurt more! Spaulding (grabbing his head like he does whenever he wants attention now..... :::::::::::Both stop in mid-conversation, after reading what Mommy just typed, look at Mommy, then look at Spaulding with his paw still rubbing the little knot on his head. They break into a full fledge laughing fit, as they realize what Spaulding has been doing, without even realizing it. Spaulding takes his paw from his head and sits on it to remind himself to stop doing that as a sheepish smile comes on his face, followed by another laughing fit from the two of them.:::::::::::: Spaulding (now trying to control his laughter): Seriously! There still is a little knot on my head where I banged my head, and when you came to visit me yesterday, it was big and did hurt a little when anything moved, but just a little! Guess I like the attention! I really, really like the attention everyone gave me after getting hurt too! ::::::::::::::Teddy quietly smiles and nods in agreement.::::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: Mommy was so sweet to keep checking on me for the last couple of days. You guys came in and actually read to me and kept me comfortable while you all hung next to me and even napped with me! Daddy wants to hold me with you while Mommy goes downstairs to make lunch or dinner and he's beary, beary sick himself! Teddy: He was just as scared for you as I was when you got tossed! That's why he grabbed me! He wanted to save you, but there just isn't enough room for two people and a Teddy Bear to occupy the same spot, so he grabbed me to make sure I stayed all right! I'm Daddy's beary own Teddy Bear, but you were the Teddy Bear they both fell in love with enough to have this family continue to grow! You are beary loved always by every one in this family--stuffed or people! Spaulding: I really do know that, but occasionally, just occasionally, it's beary nice getting such loving attention from my family! I sure wish Omarosa gets that from her family, because she certainly can't expect to get it from people who are competing against her or from her potential boss! Teddy: You know how we act when we want our coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee and Mommy and Daddy forget to give us some for a while?! Spaulding (shyly looking down at his paws): Ummmmmmmmmmmm, do you mean when we act like I've been acting the last couple of days?! Teddy (with a wide smile and a twinkle in his eyes): Yeah, like we are about to die any second from lack of coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding (Now mirroring Teddy's smile as he boldly looks at his brother): Yeah?! Teddy: Isn't it the same thing? Don't you think we all like a little extra attention every once in a while?! Spaulding: Yeah?! Teddy: Don't you think it would be much easier to just ask for what we want? :::::::::As Spaulding thinks this over, Teddy looks at Mommy for an answer.:::::::::::::: Teddy: If we simply asked for some cuddling time, or a much needed hug, or for a cup of coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee or a story, would you give it to us? ::::::::::::::::With a big smile, Mommy barely needs to nod.::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: That's beary true, BUT...isn't it more fun to pretend we are actors annd do a grand theatrical performance....like I've been doing the last couple of days?! Teddy (after being awaken from thinking about Spaulding's question): Good point! ::::::::::::As if on cue, both turn around, look at Mommy, melt down into their seats with shoulders hunched over, and faces drawn and downwards...:::::::::: Both (in quiet little voices, sounding very much like they may pass out at any moment form the strain of talking): Coffee......coffee....must...have....cof-- :::::::::::::::And finally, as if out of their last moment of effort, they dramatically swoon as if stuck in a small tornado, before falling down, as if in a coma. Mommy laughs and ask, if, just maybe, they might like a mug of coffee. Both jump up as if sprung out of a jack-in-the-box with huge smiles on their faces.:::::::::::::::::: Both (while handing Mommy their coffee mugs): Yes, please! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Well, it's coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee time, so gotta go! Teddy: Until next time... Both: Kehehehehehehehehe

Flexing Our Internet Savvy Muscles

2004-03-01T08:39:00.000-05:00

Teddy: Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! We've finally did it! Spaulding: Almost, anyway! Teddy: Well, it won't ever be completely done,... Spaulding: ...because we want to keep up with it this time... Teddy: ...but it IS up and running! Spaulding: Do you think, maybe we should tell everyone what we're talking about now? Teddy: As much as we've been talking about it lately, don't you think everyone will know we're talking about our brand new and improved web den?! Spaulding: Yeah, you're probably right! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Since web sites shouldn't take this long to make, maybe we should s'plain why it took so long! Spaulding: We don't want people to think we are NOT Internet savvy! Teddy: That's our beary description of all we do online! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Well, it really started about four years ago, when Mommy wanted to make a small web site for her new business! Spaulding: It was a typing business... Teddy: She says it was a "Sek-it-tear-rio Services" business, because, along with typing, she also created resumes' and newsletters and corrected boo boos in peoples' term papers! Spaulding: Hoping she might get some customers from across the country, she advertised with a web site. Teddy: It was right before we were born! Spaulding: Well, right before you were born! I was already here, but didn't know much back then! Teddy (eyes widen): Wow! You're OLD! So, what happened? Spaulding: Like I said, I was here, but didn't know much back then. Mommy didn't even bring me to her computer in the basement back then! ::::::::::::::::::Teddy is shocked by this news! He imagines Mommy at a full fledged desktop computer, instead of lying back in her recliner with her laptop. He can't even imagine where a computer would fit in the basement with all those Need-to-be-Adopted Teddy Bears living there. He tries to think of Mommy working, but, finally, has to be awaken to continue.:::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Teddy: Well, Mommy doesn't like to talk about that experience much, but she says it took four months to get that site up sorta right! Spaulding: Having that kind of business, Mommy relied on Microsoft's Office programs that included FrontPage, but she always hated using Frontpage, because it's sooooo hard! Teddy: Sounds like we could have made a whole bunch of money being near Mommy when she made web sites with that program! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Daddy started a beary profitable home business for us a while ago! Any time he or Mommy use bad words, they owe us twenty five cents! Teddy: Fifty cents if they say bad words about themselves, because no one says anything bad about our Mommy or Daddy! Spaulding: And only twelve and a half cents if they use another word when they mean a bad word, like when they say "Shhhhhoot!" or "Dangit!" Teddy: That's how we get enough money to go where ever we want to go! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: So, to cut down on cost, Mommy and Daddy decided to switch our Internet Provider from DSL to dial up again... Teddy: ...we liked DSL, but using the old fashion method of dialing up is always cheaper! Spaulding: Doing that though, meant that we would lose our old web den... Teddy: ...which was no big deal though, since our old IP was bad enough that, when we lost our page and asked for help to get it back, we received no response in the four months Mommy kept asking for help through e-mails! Spaulding: The only way we ever got it back was by pure accident. It just started working again one day?! Teddy: Still, it's much quicker to upload photos through DSL then through dial-ups... Spaulding: ...and our old service was nice enough to give us an extra month free, when they heard we wanted to leave... Teddy: ...so Mommy had it in her mind to have our web site up and running before that free month was over -- on February 20th! Spaulding: She also had it in her mind to use GeoCities through Yahoo! because it's free, even if she feared it meant having to use FrontPage again! Teddy: But, we checked out all the links for GeoCities and found something called "My SiteBuilder,"... Spaulding: ...which is their own site building tool,... Teddy: ...or, so we thought! Spaulding (nodding in solemn agreement): For six weeks, we helped Mommy make a beary cool multipage web den using that program! Teddy: But, when we tried making something specifically for that program though, it told us to download another part of the program. Spaulding: When we went to download it though, it was going to cost money! Teddy: Our whole mission was to make a free web den?! Spaulding: We wrote to ask for FREE help, but they weren't beary helpful! Teddy: We now had ten days to make a web den before we had to upload using dial up! We knew we were switching services way before we did! Spaulding: This would test Mommy's patience... Teddy: ...or make us beary rich! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Still planning to use GeoCities, because it was one of the few free services Mommy found, she decided she would calmly... Teddy: ...knowing it's beary hard to understand the directions,... Spaulding: ...and also knowing we were here to help her... Teddy: ... dust off and open up her FrontPage! Spaulding: You can also upload it to use in GeoCities! Teddy: Once again she helped us make a five page web den that looked sooooooooo cool! Spaulding: With just two days left to upload it using DSL, we were making some last minute arrangements to make it look even nicer! Teddy: We were also e-mailing help people at Geocities for little questions again, but not getting helpful answers. Spaulding: And finally, at the end of that day it happened, after working on it for five whole hours that day! Teddy: We couldn't believe it! Spaulding: All we wanted was for each page to have our two pictures and our den title! Teddy: So Mommy copied it from our home page to paste it onto another page! Spaulding: And when we went back to our home page, Teddy's picture was gone! Teddy: That was bad enough, but since we hadn't done anything else with that page, we figured if we closed it without saving it and then opened it again, my picture would be back! Spaulding: BUT, when we opened it again, his picture was STILL gone! Everything was ruined! Teddy: Can't have "Spaulding and Teddy's Web Den" without Teddy! Spaulding (nodding in agreement): We were so shocked and upset that we didn't know what to do! Teddy: That was probably a more grown up reaction then Mommy's, although I understand what Mommy did next! Spaulding: Being able to read her mind, I watched as all the efforts of the last seven weeks... Teddy: ...including triyng to keep up with the housework and everything else we did... Spaulding: ...flashed through her mind like a beary quick photo projector... Teddy: ...and then she did it! Spaulding: Most embarrassing! :::::::::::::::::They both get the courage to look at Mommy to see if they are in trouble for what they've said or if she wants them to stop. Since Mommy does know it was a very bad moment, she is willing to let them continue, but certainly isn't angry with them for what they've said.::::::::::::::::::::::: Teddy (embarassed for Mommy): She went running to her bedroom to cry! Spaulding: Something about having this one fun little project that she wanted to do for us in the midst of all the hard work she does. Something about fun turning into something beary bad. Her thoughts were beary jumbled and hard to understand, like she was thinking too quickly for me! Teddy: One thing we DID understand... Spaulding: ...and got five dollars for keeping track of all the words... Teddy: ...was her language! Spaulding: Boy, oh, boy, was she upset! Teddy: We didn't know what to do! Spaulding: She did tell us that she wasn't angry with us, which made us feel better, but we were still upset that she ws upset! Teddy: ...and upset because it looked like we'd never have a web den again! Spaulding: But Daddy saved the day! Both: Yippie!!!! Teddy: Daddy saw what happened and immediately searched for free web sites that had their own building tools! Spaulding: The only reason we had our last web den was because that DSL service included an easy to make web building tool with it! Teddy: Not only did Daddy find a free web site place, but he found one with that same web building too! Spaulding: The free web site place is called Tripod, which is through a place called Lycos. Teddy: The so-easy-to-use-even-Teddy-Bears-can-use-it web site building tools is called Site Builder! Spaulding: To make our photos "web-ready" we need to use our photo organizing/fixing program called Microsoft's Pictureit! 2002... Teddy: ...which, although easier to use then FrontPage, tends to freeze up every third try at doing something! Spaulding: So, between Mommy needing to do chores and go grocery shopping... Teddy: ...and Pictureit! 2002 being a lousy program... Spaulding: ...we still didn't have our web site up by the time we lost our old DSL, although we got many of the pictures uploaded! Teddy: BUT, we finally taught Mommy how to make the pictures beary small before uploading them... Spaulding: ...by saving them as "web-ready" pictures... Teddy: ...so it still didn't take too long to upload the rest of our pictures AND... Spaulding: ...AND, it helps us have more space to save our pictures for our site when we do upload them! Teddy: Like, before when we uploaded the pictures, one picture would sometimes use about 345,285 k's of space,... Spaulding: ...but now the same picture only takes 90ks! Teddy: Since Tripod gives us 11 mgs to work with that means we can use lots and lots of our pictures now! Spaulding: And, what's beary weird is that they don't look any smaller?! Teddy: We were done making most of our six room web den in three days! Spaulding: We're still waiting to see if someone can help us with our Blog page though! Teddy: Now, you would think that once we are done our web den that we have finished working so beary hard on it too, right?! Spaulding: Well, we still need to accomplish one beary important part of having a web den! Teddy: We want lots Teddy Bears and people to visit us! Spaulding: We need to advertise our Web Den for Teddy Bears to find us! Teddy: We've developed a four part plan to do that! Spaulding: First, we started learning about WebRings... Teddy: ...which are rings of web sites about similar things. Spaulding: At least, that's sorta the idea behind them! Teddy: In order to do our second part of our plan,... Spaulding: ...to start our own ring of web dens made by other Teddy Bears or stuffed animals,... Teddy: ...we have to prove to the people who give us rings that we know how to put the rings on our page! Spaulding: They're rules are that we have to join at least three webrings before they think we are smart enough to run our own! Teddy: We're Internet savvy! We can put rings on our den! Spaulding: Still, the first ring is to actually join these webring people, so that one seemed fair! Teddy: And it's also obvious that it is for new webringers, since its name is "My First Webring." Spaulding: Mommy had to work hard to understand the directions, but we were there to help her! Teddy: We got it right our first try, although we thought we didn't! Spaulding: Then we searched the directory for other rings we might want to join! Teddy: We spent hours and hours going through different possibilities and then agreeing with Mommy on which ones to try next! Spaulding: There were a few Teddy Bear Webrings, but they were full of Teddy Bear makers, not Teddy Bears, so we didn't take any of them! Teddy: BUT, we stumbled on a ring called "Adorable," Spaulding: ...we're too cool to be adorable, but Mommy still is always calling us adorable, so we figured it would make her happy! Teddy: We've also been approved to join "Once Upon a Time" Webring, which is for stoires for kids. Our lives are our stories and kids will probably like reading about us! Spaulding: As we write this, we've been approved for all three web rings, but the codes are doing weird things to our page... Teddy: ...we've contacted the ring masters though and should have it straightened out soon! Spaulding: The "My First WebRing" will bring us some visitors... Teddy: ...that's called "bringing traffic"... Spaulding (nodding in agreement): We're Internet savvy, but we don't expect everyone who reads our journal to be Internet savvy, anymore then they should expect us to understand everything about Peoples, but, my bwuder is right, it is called "bringing traffic." Teddy: That first ring is fine, but the other two aren't exactly what we want! Spaulding: "Adorable" has our good buddies at Bear Jest, so that's cool, but I don't understand how selling supplements or a the web site for a French radio station are considered adorable?! Teddy (shrugging his shoulders): I'm not sure how listing web rings or selling jewelry is adorable either? Spaulding: And then I'm really not sure how a ring made for kids to read some books online is so full of summaries for parents to buy books for their kids or detailed information about the writers of children's books only?! Teddy: Still, they are the closest we've come to rings that are similar to ours and we have to prove that we are mastering the coding! Spaulding: We can figure out which we want to drop, once we start our own webring! Teddy: And our third thing we've done is to join a Teddy Bear Search Engine! Spaulding: THE Teddy Bear Search Engine, which we've added to our den and have spotted Mawson's web den on that engine too! Teddy: We're trying to convince the engine owner to add a new choice because he doesn't cover Teddy Bears with their own dens yet! Spaulding: And finally, we will be going from search engine to search engine to promote our site! Teddy: "Promote," another word borrowed from other places that Internet Savvy bears use too! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: You can get companies to do that for you... Teddy: ...but that cost money! Spaulding: We have money... Teddy: ...but we like spending our money on important things... Spaulding: ...like hotdogs and coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee... Teddy: ...unless we can talk Mommy and Daddy into giving us some... Spaulding: ...or buying tickets into museums or rides and stuff... Teddy: ...unless we can talk Mommy and Daddy into giving us those things... Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: ...so, once we can get these webring thingies done right, we'll be tackling engine submissioning! Teddy: So, basically, our web den is done, but we're not close to being done yet! Spaulding: And still, we are forever searching for other Teddy Bear dens made by bears. Teddy: Once we get to the part where we form our own ring, we want a list of bears to contact to see if they'd be interested too! Spaulding: It's hard but we're doing it! Teddy: So, if you still don't see us much, at least you know what we're up to! Spaulding: But now that there is no rush, we can relax a little,... Teddy: ...but still vacation season is coming, so we might not relax. Spaulding: No matter how fast we go, this I know... Spaulding: Until next time... Both: Kehehehehehehehehe

A Little Extra

2004-02-24T13:19:00.000-05:00

Teddy: After we publish our Blog we peak at other's blogs! Spaulding: Found this link on another Blog... Teddy: ...the one above... Spaulding: ..and tried it! Teddy: It's to figure out where your accent says you are from in the USA. Spaulding: It's for people, but since we speak like Mommy and Daddy, we did it with Mommy. Teddy: Strangely, some of the answers didn't apply! Spaulding: Like when we write, sometimes we say, "Y'all," but in real life we say, "You guys!" Teddy: That wasn't an option! Spaulding: Anyway, we ended up being only 50% Northerners! Teddy: Didn't even qualify as "Yankees" and we've never even visited the South! Spaulding: Have some fun and try it out! Teddy: Meanwhile, we have to get back to catching up on this Blog! Spaulding: So, until next time...

A Beary Special Valentine's Day!

2004-02-15T12:27:00.000-05:00

Spaulding: Considering that Mommy and Daddy have always intentionally ignored Valentine's Day... Teddy: ...they say that they show their love for each other every day and Valentine's Day is merely a greeting card company ploy to sell more stuff in an otherwise dead month for greeting card sales, so they refuse to go along with it... Spaulding: ...Valentine's Day has become quite an event in our little Teddy Bear World! Teddy: It started last year, when Spaulding and Lady decided to celebrate the day, even if Mommy and Daddy aren't big fans! Spaulding: We made plans early, which included having Axlerod and Teddy watch the kids while Lady and I had some private time, just to cuddle and talk. Teddy: But they also decided to give each other romantic, specially made for the other, cards that Mommy helped them make! Spaulding (blushing so much he looks like a crimson bear): Oh, yeah! I remember her card! And I can't believe how close she came to my card for her! ::::::::::::::::::::::::He continues to blush with a big smile on his face, knowing that it was such a special thing between the two of them that neither were going to go into any detail of what those cards were. Lady, who is here to help with the journal entry along with the rest of the family, is also blushing as much as Spaulding. Fortunately, the kids are more interested in helping with the journal, so they don't notice enough to ask anything about what's happening.:::::::::::::::::::::::: Teddy: Now Daddy was watching Mommy helping Spaulding and then Lady make their cards, so he got to thinking about his own cute, sweet, and beary special, little Teddy Bear--ME! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe :::::::::::::::::Teddy, in shock, looks at the others for an explanation for the laughing. It brings more laughter, which he simply doesn't understand. He has all the confidence of a "beary special" Teddy Bear, so doesn't consider what he says as boasting, which is exactly why everyone is laughing.:::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: Since Mommy and Daddy don't celebrate Valentine's Day, it was no big thing for them to go out grocery shopping on Valentine's Day, last year. Lady (still blushing a little): Actually, I think they went out that day to give us some alone time too! ::::::::::::Spaulding thinks for a moment, and then nods in agreement while the blushing rises a little more again.::::::::::::: Teddy: Hey, Valentine, you were there, why don't you tell the story? Valentine (delighted to tell the story, but a bit bashful with everyone suddenly looking at her): I was sitting on a shelf in the "Seasonal Aisle" with all the other Easter decorations, particularly other stuffed bunny rabbits, lambs and chicks, when a huge hand pulled me off my shelf, turned me all around, as the beary big person... Teddy: ...Daddy!... Valentine: ...yeah, but I didn't know much at that time, not quite being born yet! I think he was checking to see if I had any flaws! Teddy: You're perfect though, so he didn't find any! ::::::::::::::::::The whole family smiles as they nod in agreement.:::::::::::::::: Valentine (blushing more now and looking at her long feet): Well, he rushed me over to Mommy... Teddy: ...even though you didn't know she was Mommy yet... Valentine (nodding in agreement and looking into Teddy's sweet face): ...and asked her if she thought I would be a good size for someone named Teddy! Dee (trying to be helpful): Oh, you're perfect for Teddy! Valentine (blushing again): That's what Mommy said, even though I didn't know who or what a Teddy was back then, not being born quite yet! Teddy: Daddy was sad to see me without someone special on Valentine's Day, so he had to buy me someone to love for all my beary own! The way Mommy tells it, they really rushed to put the groceries away, looking forward to seeing my face when they sprung this surprise on me! Ding (having experienced a few crushes of his own, so early in his young life): It was a great face you made too! You smiled so big, I thought the two ends of your mouth were going to meet on the back of your head! Axlerod: I was afraid that Daddy was going to drop her, when she started speaking her first words... All, in unison): "Hi, bunny! Hop along with me! Boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing! Happy Springtime! Boing boing boing boing boing boing boing boing!" Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Lady (to explain to those who read this journal): Valentine is the only one of us to have the ability to speak out loud in Peoples World! Teddy: The minute I pulled her out of that bag, she became officially born! Axlerod: And you officially fell in love with her! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Valentine (suddenly finding her courage): And I fell in love with him too! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Lady: We were nice enough to let her get to know everyone without rushing in on her or overwhelming her though! Valentine: I dunno about that! On the shelf, we were often handled by little kids, so we used to think we were all going to homes with kids in them. Sometimes the kids were beary little and tried to suck on our ears or foot. Sometimes they would be grumpy and toss us clear across the aisle. Most of us wanted to grow up with little kids,...or, at least figured we would grow up with little kids! I never expected to belong to another stuffed animal! Never heard of such a thing! Teddy: Well, if it helps any, officially you belong to Mommy! Valentine (again feeling shy, but also bold enough to say what's on her mind): No, I belong to you, Honey! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Valentine (over her shyness again): But still coming to a new home and meeting so many stuffed animals at once was scary! Good scary, like going down a sliding board for the first time, but scary! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Dee (feeling very grown up like compassion): Did we make it easy on you? Valentine: My memories are fading of before being born and of being newly born, but I do remember three things that made me realize I was home and beary loved. Dee: What were they? Valentine: The first was you giving me your summer dress to wear, so I wouldn't be cold. It didn't fit so well, but it made me feel like part of the family. ::::::::::::::::::::Dee blushes as Valentine looks at Teddy.:::::::::::::::::::::: Valentine: The second thing was waking up one of those first mornings and finding myself leaning against your shoulder as you held my paw so nice and warmly! :::::::::::::::::::Teddy now blushes.:::::::::::::::::::::: Valentine: And the third thing was Mommy actually ordering, just for me, my beary own special snaps for my beary own overalls, complete with the pink calico, so no one would mistake me for a boy, even if I wear overalls! That's when I knew I really belonged and wanted to live here always--kids or not! Ding (puzzled and glanicng towards Dee): Aren't we kids? All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Valentine (with her big smile that mirrors Teddy's smile): Of course you are, but I meant the Peoples World kind! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding (after listening to this story, remembers why they all came to add to the journal this day): We will also be talking about this Valentine's Day too, right?! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Sure, but we had to start at last Valentine's Day to s'plain why this one was so beary important! ::::::::::::::::::::::All nod in agreement.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Dee (feeling just a little more connected with the grown up stuffed animal gals at the moment): This year, we all had something special in mind! Ding: Last year, we were still too little to know much about Valentine's Day, but with watching what happened when Aunt Valentine joined our family... Spaulding (with a proud Poppa smile on his face): ...and my son having a couple of crushes in the last year... :::::::::::::Everyone smiles at Ding, but know if they laugh, he will lose his confidence altogether.:::::::::::::::: Ding (blushing, but feeling a bit more connected with grown up stuffed animal guys at the moment): ...and watching our parents showing affection to each other all our lives.... Dee: ...and watching Uncle Teddy and Aunt Valentine fall in love so quickly and then getting married with our parents on Easter last year... Ding: ...this year we all wanted to make the day doubly special--in celebration of Valentine's birthday and as a day that we show how much we love each other! ::::::::All applaud Ding and Dee's little speech with geniune agreement and joy.:::::::::: Lady: We each had our own little ideas of what we wanted to do for one another. Valentine: We had so many plans that we were afraid that we would get all crossed up with the plans if we didn't tell everyone else. Axlerod: Being the patriarch of the family.... Teddy: "Patriarch!" Good word! Dee (not ashamed to ask at all): What does it mean? Spaulding: Every family has one person they look to for guidance, or to make a decision if no one is in agreement.... Lady: ...Generally, it's either the oldest or one of the oldest members of the family, because they have experienced more over the years, hopefully knowing all the other members beary well and basing their decisions on that knowledge.... Teddy: ...If that person is a gal, then she is called the "matriarch," because "matri-" means "mother.".... Valentine: And, like in this family, if that person is a guy, like Axlerod, then he is called "patriarch," because "patri-" means "father." :::::::::Ding and Dee think this over and are awaken shortly afterwards, so they don't miss anything.::::::::::::::: Axlerod (smiling at his grandchildren as he realizes how much they are like the rest of the family): Well, being the patriarch of this family, I was the one everyone was seeing for advice and ideas. It didn't take long before I noticed that some of these ideas were conflicting with other's plans. :::::::::::All look at him with confusion and surprise, not realizing, that each of them wasn't the only one to go talk to Axlerod.::::::::::::: Axlerod: And, since I often go to Mommy for help too, we both found out it was getting more complicated then we originally planned. We had to do something quickly, or there would be hurt feelings on the day of the year when that just isn't supposed to happen! :::::::::Axlerod and Mommy look at each other and nod solemnly.::::::::::::::::: Axlerod: Mommy knows that for some strange reason, we don't always like telling Mommy and Daddy our adventurous plans! :::::::Glancing at Mommy, Axlerod knows she is about to explain why, even if she hates interferring with their journal entries and prefers just to be the one who takes down all they say.:::::::::::: Axlerod (quickly to stop Mommy): Actually, we talked that over too, and figured out that we stuffed animals hate to tell Mommy and Daddy our adventurous plans because we don't want them to feel badly because they can't always come and we don't want them to worry too much about us while we're gone, even if I stop time while we're gone and they don't know we left! Spaulding (kind of embarrassed to say this, but feeling the need to say it so his children know that he knows this too): Also, we just like to go places without feeling like having our Mommy and Daddy HAVE to go with us! It makes us feel more grown up! :::::::::::Ding and Dee, knowing the feeling well, drop their jaws as they discover their parents know it too.:::::::::::::: Axlerod: So, before everything got out of hand, I had us gather for a family meeting last Wednesday night, after Teddy and Spaulding finished their last entrance into this journal... Teddy: ...and after dinner, of course! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: You need surprises for Valentine's Day and for birthdays, so I divided everyone's plans into two parts:... Lady: ...the first part was the surprises that we could keep even after agreeing on the second part. Valentine: And the second part was stuff we would all be doing together---like who's making dinner and where we were going to eat! Axlerod: That was the problem developing! The gals wanted to surpirse the guys with a specially made hotdog metloaf, but the guys were planning on taking the gals out for dinner! Then there was also the problem of what to do. Since it is such a beary special day this year, we had to go somewhere and do something, but could we do that without worrying about taking care of Mommy and Daddy?! Teddy: I particularly didn't want Valentine to make dinner, since it was her birthday too, so she should be treated like a queen for that day! Valentine (with her very biggest smile): As if you don't treat me like a queen every day! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Dee: I already planned to help my Mommy and Aunt Valentine to make dinner, so I offered to help my Mommy more, so Aunt Valentine didn't have to cook at all! Valentine: BUT, I wanted to do something specal for Teddy for Valentine's Day... Ding (speaking to the readers): Are you confused yet?! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: That's when some of the secrets everyone was telling me came in handy! Several family members had secret plans on where they wanted to take others, but Valentine was one of them, and she wanted to have a picnic, of sorts, at the Alice in Wonderland exhibit in the Please Touch Museum, which is a museum in our home city of Philadelphia, PA specially created for kids! Dee (also speaking to the readers): Stuffed animals, no matter how old they become, are always kids! My grandpa, Axlerod, is a kid, a beary old kid, but a kid still! He's just an older then me kid! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: For Valentine's birthday AND for everyone else to celebrate their love for one another, I decided, with everyone's permission, that instead of Valentine contributing to the day by cooking something special for Teddy, we would all go to The Mad Hatter's Tea Party, on behalf of Valentine! Valentine: Sounded good to me, if it sounded all right to Lady. I did promise to help make dinner! Lady: And I felt funny having the birthday gal make her own dinner on his birthday, so it sounded great to me too! Dee: I figured that I'd be able to help more with just Mommy cooking, so I liked it too! Ding: What was beary cool about that meeting is that we all could keep our individual surprises for each other, without having to tell everyone ahead of time! Dee: We all had surprises too! Ding and I were in charge of making a card for Valentine's brithday and a card for everyone for Valentine's Day! Axlerod: Everyone knew they were the card makers, so the only other one to make a card would be Teddy for his wife! They were all great cards too! Ding: It took two tries before we made cards that could be printed, and colored and given! Dee: At first we went to my favorite web site for paint-by-numbers... Ding: ...and the two of us painted a beary fun Valentine's card all by ourselves... Dee: ...only to find out that we couldn't print it!!!! Ding: We worked quite a while on that, and since Grandma... Spaulding: ...Mommy, as the rest of us call her... Ding: ...was helping everyone with their surprises, we only had a little while to make up for it! Dee: Grandma helped us search the Net until we found Ding's favorite coloring pages and then helped us color a birthday card from all of us... Ding: ...Uncle Teddy made his own personal beary special card for Valentine with Mommy's help... Valentine (with great delight): It said that his life was great before me, but now that I'm in his life, his life is soooooooo incredibly GREAT! Can you think of anything nicer to read?! Dee: Did you like our card too?! Valentine: Oh, it was gorgeous--and colored so beary well too! My favorite colors for a birthday cake and balloons! :::::::::::::::::Ding and Dee blush but smile with delight.:::::::::::::::::: Ding: We also found a great coloring page of a box of chocolate in the shape of a heart that could be cut out and taped under what looks like a real top for a box of chocolates! Dee: It was a lot of fun to color too! Did everyone like it?! Lady and Valentine: It was perfect! Thank you! :::::::::::::::Everyone else, including Grandma, nod in agreement.:::::::::::::::::::: Teddy: Spaulding gave me the idea of what to give my Honey for her birthday---the only birthday I know where the WHOLE world celebrates with us! Spaulding: It was an easy idea, since we still had all the stuff needed to do it, after making Daddy his magical key chain and Teddy his macho bracelet, both with their names on them! Teddy: Mommy bought a kit that we can make bracelets, keychains or necklaces with plastic beads and string, and a whoooole bunch of square beads with letters on them. Spaulding gave me it, and it still had enough letters to make Valentine a waistlet... Valentine: ...like a bracelet for my waist... Teddy: ...she really likes it and it looks great on her! ::::::::::::Everyone, including Valentine, nods in agreement, as Valentine rubs her paws along the letters of her name.:::::::::::::: Spaulding: I didn't want to spoil the specialness of Valentine's beary own birthday, but it was also Valentine's Day, and I wanted to do something special for my Laaaaaaaaady! While Mommy secretly measured Valentine's waist, I had her measure the crown of Lady's head too! I s'plained to Mommy the headwear that I wanted her to make my dear, sweet Laaaaaaaaaaaaady! ::::::::Lady steps out in front of everyone, like a model down a runway, and shows off her new light green ear warmer. Everyone ooh's and ahhh's in admiration.::::::::::::: Spaulding (still happy with his choice): I asked Mommy to make it wide enough to be used as either an ear warmer or as a head band to pull her ears back a little, but that it had to be a light green to go along with the light green trim around her faux fur coat. As usual, Mommy made it perfectly! ::::::::::::::::All nod in agreement as Mommy blushes.:::::::::::::::::: All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: There was one more group decision to be made before we celebrated together! All: Which day would we celebrate Valentine's Day on?! Axlerod: Yeah, we know that sounds like a no brainer, but in this family sometimes we have to organize everything according to how Mommy and Daddy feel! Lady: There is one day, every week, where Daddy has the energy to do something fun! Teddy: And since it coincided with Valentine's weekend, Daddy announced earlier in the week that he would take Mommy out for brunch to celebrate Friday the 13th! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: I told you that they don't celebrate Valentine's Day! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Axlerod: Since Daddy and Mommy were going to need all our napergy on Valentine's Day, we all decided to celebrate our special day on the same day as Mommy and Daddy! Valentine: I sure am glad we aren't surperstitious! Teddy: Superstitious?! Who are you kidding? You don't go anywhere without your two rabbit's feet! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe ::::::::::It takes a while for them to all settle down after that laughing fit!::::::::::: Axlerod: We went to the Please Touch Museum's Alice in Wonderland exhibit, while Daddy and Mommy were out. Lady: I brought a beary big hotdog meatloaf just in case others would be joining us! Valentine: Since the Mad Hatter and March Hare were home when we went to their place for our tea party, I'm glad you did! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: We found out why those two are considered crazy! Spaulding: Know what they have at their tea parties? All: Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee!!!! Kehehehehehehehehehehe :::::::::::Again it takes a while for them to settle down after that laughing fit!::::::::::::: Dee: They also had NeHi in the frig, so Ding and I could also drink something while we eat. Ding: We're too young to drink coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee. We usually drink milk, but on special occasions, or during special dinners, we are also allowed to have one beary big NeHi of our choice! Lady: OK, so, Teddy Bears only drink and eat in Teddy Bear World, which is a pretend world, but still, I'm a mother, so just can't cotton to the thought of my kids ALWAYS eating bad things for them, even if we do eat them all the time! I'm a Mom. I can be like that! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Valentine: The children, who were going through the exhibit as we came in, stayed and celebrated our party with us, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. Axlerod: With Mommy taking care of the housework and all, plus trying to help us create our beary own web den, it's been so busy lately that we never had time to tell our Beary Buddies about are party! Spaulding (embarrassed and sad): I'm sorry, Beary Buddies, but we will catch you the next time, even if the next brithday in our family is in August! We're getting the Web Den finished and haven't seen you enough lately, so will be making plans to get together as soon as our Web Den is published! We didn't even have time to tell our neighbors downstairs, or the Need-To-Be-Adopted Bears in the basement! Teddy: Still, it's not every day that you have a party with book characters! We're going to have to start considering adventures back in the Astras soon, instead of in Peoples' World! ::::::::::::::::All nod in solemn agreement.::::::::::::::::::: Valentine: It was sad when the party was over, but we did get back home before Mommy and Daddy did! Axlerod: Since Mommy and Daddy were out, I only slowed down time, instead of stopped it! Spaulding: That gave us ample time to nap with them when they did get home! Teddy: Just because the party was over, didn't mean our celebration was over! After dinner that night, still had to show off our secret projects--like the cards and presents! Dee: And I got to show off my beary secret project that no one but grandma knew about! I made two birthday cakes---one for that day, and one for the following day, so Aunt Valentne could have a birthday cake... Ding: ...that looked just like the one in the picture that we drew... Valentine: ...except the one in the picture didn't have hotdogs in the middle... All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Dee: ...on her REAL birthday! Spaulding: Good thing she made two too! Teddy: We managed to eat all of the first one that night, so there would have been no leftovers the following day. Spaulding: It's Daddy's fault! He gave us a small cup of coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee late, and what goes better with coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee then birthday cake?! All: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Valentine: My beary first birthday was beary, beary special! Thank you, everyone! Lady: And Valentine's Day was also beary, beary special! Axlerod: Out of all we made and did, the best part was still being together and knowing we are loved beary, beary much! Teddy : And for all reading this, who have Teddy Bears, let it be known... Spaulding: Even if your bears don't say it out loud... Dee and Ding: "Remember, you are beary, beary loved all year long!" Lady: And, if you don't have one--what's holding you up? Go get yourself a Teddy Bear! Valentine: Or any kind of stuffed animal! Teddy: Soooooooo, until next time...

Big Help from Little Teddy Bears

2004-02-11T16:18:00.000-05:00

Teddy: We've been beary busy lately! Spaulding: We're swapping Internet Providers, and so, are working on a new web den! Teddy: Since Mommy has to help us... Spaulding: They really need to make keyboards that have big enough keys for Teddy Bear paws to use! Teddy: ...we have to help Mommy do chores! ::::::::::::::::::::Mommy speaks to them quietly:::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: Mommy says that she wants everyone to know that we don't have to do any chores at all, since our main job is to take care of Mommy and Daddy. Teddy: Mommy and Daddy feel badly that they have such trouble keeping up with chores because of their disabilities, and so, feel terrible if they catch us doing any chores! Spaulding: Something about "being little kids" and "enjoying playing and having fun," but she doesn't seem to understand that we only do things that are fun to us! Teddy: And, even for little Teddy Bears, playing house with a real house IS beary, beary fun! Spaulding: Since Mommy and Daddy don't like us doing chores, we either do chores when they aren't looking... Teddy: ...or ask if we can help when they are doing the work! Spaulding: They usually let us help if we ask, because they give us the fun parts of what they are doing! Teddy: If Daddy is making meatballs... Spaulding: ...or Mommy is making meatloaf... Teddy: ...they get all the ingredients in a bowl... Spaulding: ...and let us squish it all together! Teddy: We put our magical chef's gloves on so the juices won't get our beans wet! Spaulding: It's fun to squish ground meat with our paws! Teddy: Kinda like making mudpies, but we're actually making something that can be eaten later! Spaulding: Mommy has recently let me really help prepare the potatoes to be boiled to make mashed potatoes! Teddy: Mommy keeps saying she has two speeds: slow and reverse! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: At first, to avoid getting my beans wet, Mommy just let me contribute by singing while she peeled the potatoes! Teddy: He'd sing The William Tell Overture! Spaulding: No! I'd sing The Lone Ranger's Theme! Teddy (with an understanding smile): Yeah, it's the same thing! Spaulding (with the light bulb turning on over his head): Oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: It helped Mommy go beary fast! Spaulding: BUT, last week, she let me take the next step... Teddy: ...using magical chef's gloves, of course... Spaulidng: She let me peel the potatoes all by myself! Teddy: And then she let him cut up the potatoes all by himself! I'm just so impressed! Spaulding: Welllllllllllllllll she didn't want me to cut myself, so she gave me a butter knife to cut them, instead of the sharp knife that she uses! Teddy: Yeah, but that means she knew you were strong enough to use a butter knife, and she was right too! ::::::::::Spaulding looks back at Mommy. A big proud grin lights up his face after Mommy nods her head.:::::::::::::::: Spaulding (flexing his muscles): Cool! I also had to rinse the potatoes and then add water to the pot! Teddy: Wasn't it heavy to carry the pot full of potatoes and water to the stove? Spaulding: I weigh less then a pound and that had to weigh 14 BILLION pounds! It was beary hard, but Mommy helped me! Teddy: Out of all that we did this last week, what were you the proudest doing? Spaulding: I think making those mashed potatoes, since making bread crumbs was so hard, I gave up midway through it! Teddy: Bread crumbs? How do you make bread crumbs? I thought bread crumbs were what was left on our plate after eating several hotdogs! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Last weekend, when you were taking care of Daddy, Mommy got a moment of being domestic... Teddy: "Domestic!" Good word! Not usually associated with Mommy though! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Don't worry, it didn't last too long! Even she said that it would be the last time she made homemade bread crumbs! Teddy: Why? Spaulding: I told you--it's beary hard! Teddy: How do you make them? Spaulding: Mommy had been saving the end pieces of loaves of bread! Teddy: End pieces of loaves of bread are much bigger then crumbs!? Spaulding: That's just how you start! She let them dry out on a table and then saved them in a plastic bag. When she had a bunch of them, she pulled out the blender! Teddy: That reminds me! What is green and red and goes round and round and round? Spaulding: What? Teddy: A frog in a blender! Get it get it get it?! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: She had done this before, so knew it would be difficult to grind them down from big pieces so she got out big bowl and the potato masher and asked me to smash them down to smaller sizes, but I didn't get beary far! Teddy: Did she do it? Spaulding: It was beary, beary hard, and she couldn't do any better then I did! Teddy: So, then, what did you do? Spaulding: We had to break up each piece by paw or hand, and then when we had enough to fill the blender three quarters of the way up, we would make the blender pulse a whole bunch! Teddy: What's "pulse"? Spaulding: Looks kinda like the blender is hiccupping! You turn it on for a moment, then tun it off! Then you keep doing that over and over again until all the pieces of bread are gone and replaced by ground crumbs! Teddy: Sounds messy! Spaulding: Down right crumby! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: So how was that hard? Spaulding: Mommy did about five batches like that, and, after 20 minutes on the fist batch, I gave up when I smelled hotdogs upstairs! Teddy: Oh yeah! That's when Daddy and I were watching that PBS special about HOTDOGS! Enough hotdogs seen on that show that I'm sure Mawson, who lives waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy on the other side of the world, could smell hotdogs! Spaulding: While we slipped into the TV and got a few dozen hotdogs each, Mommy finished up making the crumbs! Teddy (blushing): I was thinking so much about hotdogs, I even forgot you were telling about bread crumb making! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: That's the advantage of living here! Mommy and Daddy prefer that we just have fun, instead of helping them, so Mommy didn't even get a little angry that I didn't finish helping her! Teddy: I do remember Mommy telling Daddy that it was cheaper and easier to just buy bread crumbs from now on, since it took so long to make them, but we have enough to last us a while! Spaulding: What was the chore you did in the last week that made you the proudest? Teddy: I'm beary good at taking care of Daddy, but I don't consider that a chore as much as a passion! ::::::::::::::::::Both nod in somber agreement:::::::::::::::::::::::: Teddy: With Daddy not feeling well and me taking care of him night and day, I can't do chores so often, so, I think I liked balancing the checkbook with you the most! Spaulding: Mommy really, really hates doing that, so I'm glad she smiled so big when she caught us doing that! Teddy: I don't quite understand how she's been able to do it without a scale before! :::::::::::::::::::::both shrug their shoulders in confusion:::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: Her Mommy must have been a Teddy Bear lover too, since she gave Mommy that perfect Teddy Bear size scale! :::::::::Mommy quietly explains that it was from a trip her Mom took to Pennsylvania Dutch country, and was for Mommy's dolls when she was little::::::::::::::: Teddy: Dolls?! Weird! Spaulding: I'm glad we have our money calculating baseball caps and big enough mugs for coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee to keep us alert enough to balance the checkbook and the coins! Teddy: I can't remember exactly how much the checkbook weighed! Spaulding: Me either! It was something like four quarters, a nickel, two dimes and some pennies! Teddy (whispering is best loud whisper): I WAS AFRAID TO USE OUR MONEY TO BALANCE THE CHECKBOOK, BUT MOMMY DID LET US KEEP OUR MONEY! ::::::::::::::::::::::::::Both nod with big smiles in solemn agreement:::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: Balancing the checkbook was easy! I don't know why Mommy hates it! Teddy: Mommy doesn't drink coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee! Maybe that's why! Spaudling (again feeling the light bulb go on over his head): Oooooohhhhh, that's got to be it!!! Teddy: I'm sure glad we could fold laundry together though! I never knew how hard that is! Spaulding: I like that Flipfold thingy! Teddy: Mommy and Daddy needs lots and lots and lots of material for their clothes.... :::::::::::::::::::Teddy stops in mid sentence, suddenly realizing that Mommy might think that means that he thinks she is fat! Fearing that she will be upset, he quickly finishes the sentence before looking at her reaction:::::::::::::::::::::: Teddy: I-I-I'm meaning that they are much taller then Teddy Bears not that they are fat or anything, just that people are so much bigger, but not in a fat way, then Teddy Bears that their clothes need a whole bunch, well, a bit more, material to make then tiny, itty bitty, adorable, Teddy Bears! ::::::::::::::::Spaulding has a large smile as he watches Teddy trying to get out of trouble and trying not to hurt Mommy's feelings. He's been watching Teddy back peddle and watching Mommy's reaction the whole time, knowing that Mommy did understand, and finally, nods his head to let Teddy know it is all right to look at Mommy. Teddy finally notices that his seat, Mommy's right leg, has been bouncing up and down since he started his sentence, and looks up to see Mommy suppressing a huge belly laugh, big enough to shake her whole body, including the two Teddy Bears and laptop that are on her lap! During her laughing fit, she does remind them that their parents ARE, not only bigger then most people, but are also bigger then they should be, or, although she never wants their Teddy Bears to be so cruel as to use such language, FAT -- over-weight, being the preferred term. Teddy sags in relief, then smiles widely as he hugs his Mommy:::::::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding (aware that Teddy had lost his point, continues for his brother): The Flipfold thingy is even more helpful for us then for Mommy, because we can get all tangled up in the cloth, and the Flipfold let's us do most of the folding, just by flipping its parts! Way cool! Teddy (already having forgot his mistake): And that's beary good since actually climbing up to get the piece of laundry and dragging it to where it needs to go, is tough since most of the laundry is bigger then we are! Spaulding: I'm glad you helped, or I couldn't have done it myself, but you really should have been catching up on your sleep while Daddy was napping! Teddy: I want our web den as much as you do, so wanted to help! Spaulding: But falling asleep getting the next piece of laundry proved you needed a nap! Teddy (smiling sheepishly): Ooooooooooooohh, that's why I don't remember doing the rest of the laundry! I did like waking up in Valentine's arms though! Both: Kehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Well, along with working on the web den and doing chores, we also have to prepare for Valentine's Birthday! Teddy: I can't get believe how the whole world seems to know about her birthday! Everything on TV lately is teaching us how to make cards for her, and cook dinners for her and what to buy or make for her presents! Spaulding: And all the stores are having sales for her birthday---wellllll, car dealers and furniture stores are anyway! Teddy: Valentine's first birthday! We've been in love for almost a whole year now! I can't wait! Spaulding: Truth is, Valentine shares her day with another peoples' tradition--one day a year when every one HAS to show their love ones how much they are loved! It may be Valentine's birthday, but if I don't do something special for Lady, I'm in trouble! Teddy: Well then, we better go get ready for Saturday then! Spaulding: Soooooooo, until next time...

Health Care Reform

2004-02-07T15:05:00.000-05:00

Spaulding: We hear a lot of Peoples' News, but don't understand much of what it is talking about! Teddy: Like we kept hearing about something peoples in the United States seem to need, but we didn't understand, called "Health Care Reform." Spaulding: On Wednesday, we found out what that means! Teddy: Mommy went to see a doctor and he definitely needs reform! Spaulding: And we are definitely the stuffed animals to do it! Teddy: He did TWO things that were beary mean... Spaulding: ...although Mommy tried to tell us why it was needed. Teddy: We didn't understand that part. Spaulding: He gave Mommy a test that should be beary easy to pass! Teddy: When she came home, she gave us the test and even we passed it! Spaulding: BUT, Mommy is taking some drugs so she doesn't hurt so much, and the drugs make her brain not work as well as it used to do! Teddy: Mommy failed the test, even though she could do it with our help later on! Spaulding: And she got so upset that she started crying! Teddy: I KNEW we should have gone with her! We could have kicked that doctor in the knee right away! Spaulding: But, that is NOT the Teddy Bear way! We don't physically hurt anyone for any reason! Teddy: Some times that is a hard rule to follow! Spaulding (nodding in agreement): But, Mommy wanted us to have that time to be with our stuffed animal family, so while she was crying we were playing Hide N' Seek with our family! Teddy: That mean ole doctor wasn't done being mean either! Spaulding: Next he had Mommy lie down on that table thingy as he poked at her sore spot! Teddy: The center of her sore spot is right below her right ribs to the right and down midway from the breast plate! Spaulding: She says that all her doctors like to poke at that area, and it is beary sensitive, but THAT doctor pressed so hard, she thought he was trying to rip out her back bone through her front! Teddy: And, as if he wasn't being mean enough, he asked her to try to relax that area! Spaulding: I liked Mommy's answer to that request--"Sure, move your hands away!" Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: No, wait! That wasn't really funny! ::::::::::Both look at Mommy to see how she reacted to their laughing. Smilimg, she quietly tells them that it was meant to be funny. Sometimes people like to make bad situations better by laughing. They ponder that idea, and after being nudged awake, they continue on dictating their journal entry.::::::::::: Spaulding: Well, after she told us what happened, we decided to get back at him-- Teddy: Teddy Bear style, of course! Spaulding: Mommy and Daddy needed us that day, so we took care of them while the rest of our family packed for our moonlight trip! Teddy: I gave them a list of things we needed to take, and Axlerod was in charge of getting everyone to B.J. Max to buy the things we didn't already have. Spaulding: It was more then we usually take on our trips, but all necessary. Teddy: Ax gave me the list back, so here it is: coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee, honey, hotdogs... Spaulding: ...we needed to keep up our strength... Teddy (nodding his head in agreement): vaseline, a beary soft candle, ashes from Mommy and Daddy's ash trays, glue, and garlic paste! Spaulding: I'm glad Mommy taught me to cook! I took a few cloves of garlic, smashed them with the edge of a wide knife, and then smashed the smashed pieces some more in our mortar and pestle! Teddy: Then we put it in one of Mommy's empty pill holders and into our backpack! Spaulding: We put the ashes in a small medicine container too, as well as, the glue, and vaseline. We cut the beary soft candle with a chunk big enough to do what we wanted, but small enough to fit into our backpack! Teddy: The only things that didn't fit were the coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee, honey and hotdogs, but our helioplaneship boxcar is magical, so they all fit in easily with us. Spaulding: Mommy and Daddy went to bed early that night! Teddy: Mommy was so sore, it was the only thing she could think to do to make herself feel better. Spaulding: Stuffed animals have an ability that even some peoples have. It's called "M-path-E!" Teddy: When we do this M-path-E, we sim-path-eyez so well with someone that we can feel just like they do, but on a smaller scale. Spaulding: Since Mommy was hurt that day, we all M-path-E her so much that we all hurt a little! Teddy: Fortunately, being Teddy Bears, we can spread the M-path-E around so we all only felt one seventh as badly as Mommy! Spaulding: It hurt each of us, but not so much that it stopped us from going ahead with our plan! Teddy: Now, remember Spaulding saying that some peoples have this ability too? We were fortunate enough to have been adopted by two peoples with that special ability--Mommy and Daddy! Spaulding: That's not always a good thing to have though! Daddy is already sick all by himself, but... Teddy: ...BUT, on that day, Mommy told him what happened and he M-path-E her, making him both sick AND sore! Spaulding: Now the problem with M-path-E is that it's not just feeling like the other. Teddy: The feeling part comes from thinking how the other must feel, so it's a thinking thing too! Spaulding: Since we can't exactly know how the other is feeling, we probably add to the feeling by thinking about the other constantly! Teddy: If you're a Teddy Bear, that much thinking leads to naps! Spaulding: If you are a peoples, it causes the pain and a beary tired brain! Teddy: Daddy went to bed early that night, not only because he was sick... Spaulding: ...BUT, with M-path-E with Mommy all day, his brain was so tired we could hear the static! Teddy: Remember?! We also have tell-lep-path-E, so we always know what Mommy and Daddy are thinking! Spaulding: Sometimes people think so much their mind shuts down and all we can hear... Teddy: ...and all they hear too... Spaulding: ...is static! Teddy: We were glad they went to bed early, because they felt so badly and we kept M-path-E them! Spaulding: We M-path-E them so much, Axlerod had to freeze time in that first sleep, so we could rest well and recover a bit from hurting too! Teddy: Ax started time again... Spaulding: ...although he made it go beary slow, so we could do all we wanted without worrying about running out of time... Teddy: ...and woke us all up around 1 o'clock! Spaulding: We wanted to make sure Mommy and Daddy would sleep through the night! Teddy: The family had already loaded up the helioplaneship boxcar and were sitting in it waiting for us! Spaulding: Axlerod had peaked at Mommy's follow-up appointment card to find the address of this beary mean doctor. Teddy: We got there so fast that we didn't even get cold! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: We worked so well, it was as if we had practiced it all before hand! Teddy: The kids... Spaulding: ...who don't even drink coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee... Teddy: ...set up our brand new coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee set that we got for Christmas, making sure that the bottomless coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee pots were warm and full! Spaulding: The gals got to the office kitchen and grilled up a huge bunch of hotdogs for everyone! Teddy: Axlerod, Spaulding and I got out all the supplies we needed and grabbed some paper and pens to or-gan-eyez our plan. Spaulding: While we had our picnic on that mean ole doctor's desk, we talked over our plan. Teddy: And giggled often as we pictured the doctor getting caught in all of our traps! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: We separated into three different teams-- Teddy: Spaulding and I were one team, Lady and Valentine the second, and Axlerod and the kids were the third team! Spaulding: Axlerod, Ding and Dee made a great team! Axlerod is big and the kids are short, so they would use Ax to climb when necessary, and their weight wouldn't hurt Ax! Teddy: They were in charge of hotdog horrors! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: What? You thought we just brought the hotdogs to eat?! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: They got next to the coat rack where the kids could reach the bottom of the doctor's white coat, broke the stitch on the side of his bottom seam and slipped in several hotdogs! Spaulding: When the doctor put his coat on, the added weight would make it constantly fall off his shoulders! Teddy: AND, once the hotdogs cooled off, they would start to smell something, but not figure out what! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Next, they went to the closet in the doctor's office and pulled out his working shoes! Teddy: Axlerod is strong enough to flip the shoes over and... Spaulding: ...the kids used the bottom of his shoes like it was an iced-over pond... Teddy: ...and the hotdogs were their skates! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: The doctor's shoes would slip allllllll day! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Now the rest of the things we planned to do were divided into two areas-- Spaulding: Lady and Valentine were in charge of his office... Teddy: ...and we were in charge of his examination rooms! Spaulding: The gals got the honey and administered it liberally. Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: They put some on his telephone, on his keys and on the speakers to his speaker phone so it would be harder to hear! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Also, they put a coating of vaseline onto his pager window, so he would think he was losing his eyesight! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Meanwhile, we were having some fun in the exam rooms! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: I opened up his bottle of handsoap and mixed in the garlic paste! Teddy: I wish we could watch as he washes his hands! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: I mixed up the ashes with some vaseline. Doctors have this instrument where they look in peoples' ears or up their noses... Spaulding: Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Teddy (suppressing a laughing fit): ...we smeared the ashes and vaseline goop around where his eye goes, so, when he uses it, it will look like it gave him a black eye! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: And, we glued the fingers together of the next six disposable rubber gloves, just to drive him a little nutty! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: We're hoping the last thing we did wouldn't go over the line of not being violent. Spaulding: We wanted to get him back for hurting our Mommy, but we didn't want to cause him any harm. Teddy: UNLESS, welllll, ummmmm, do you think having someone rip out his own ear hair is violent, or harmful, or nasty?! Spaulding: It made Mommy and Dadd laugh when we told them what we did! Teddy: Yeah, but they are peoples, so can lean towards being mean on occasion, even if they usually aren't. Spaulding: Well, we did do it, so we can only hope it didn't cross over and break any stuffed animal rules! Teddy: We took the chunk of beary soft candle and lit it! Spaulding: We aimed the falling wax over the earpieces of his stethoscope. Teddy: Because it was already a beary soft candle, we hope it will attach itself to the doctor's ears when he uses his stethoscope and, well, ummm,... Spaulding (too excited to contain himself anymore): ...we hope, when he takes it off, that it will take some of the hair in his ears too! ::::::::::::Both blush and turn around to see Mommy's reaction. When they see her suppressing her laughter just to keep typing, but then no longer holds it in when they pause, they feel greatly relieved. Remembering what they did and then picturing how it will all work out, they don't even try to suppress their laughter.:::::::::::: Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe ::::::::::::::::::::Finally, after a good half hour of laughing so hard that their paws are sore from holding their sides, they can continue, sorta.:::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: It's been a few days since we did that, and still Mommy hurts from that mean ole doctor! Teddy: She doesn't hurt as much as she did the day he did it though! Spaulding: And we did make Mommy and Daddy laugh beary much when we told them what we did! Teddy: And we didn't really hurt the doctor, just made him have a tougher then usual... Spaulding: ...more interesting then usual... Teddy: ...day. With that, we hope it will make him think before he does something so mean again! Spaulding: Or, since we are pretty sure he won't, we at least have taught whoever reads this to never, ever mess with the peoples Teddy Bears love! Both: Kehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Soooooooo, until next time...

Super Bowl--ads and game

2004-02-02T16:00:00.000-05:00

Teddy: We did watch the Superbowl, although, we apparently missed something because we didn't watch the halftime show! Spaulding: They're so dumb, thinking everyone loves hip hop and that other loud, lacking-much-soul soul music! Teddy: At least last year they seemed semi-aware that there were a variety of generations watching the halftime show and included Aerosmith for the older folks, InSync for the bubble gum music set, and some others for in-between! Spaulding: But this year, they put on the halftime show for as small a generational set as they could muster-- Teddy: Valley girls and preteens! Spaulding: And, even doing that, they screwed up and put on a striptease! Teddy: I doubt thirteen year old girls... Spaulding: ...the group most interested in that obnoxious halftime show... Teddy: ...enjoyed P Diddy's girls doing a strip or Janet Jackson exposing her little pasty! Spaulding: And, dumber still, Justin Timberlake thought we'd buy his lie as he stood there with defiance in his eyes! Teddy: Teddy Bears can be innocent and gullible, but even we aren't THAT gullible! Spaulding: But, as we said, we missed the halftime show because we didn't like the garbage passing for music! Teddy: BUT, we did watch the Superbowl! Spaulding: For the first one and a half quarters, the only interesting stuff happening were the commercials! Teddy: We agree with John Laraquette, who said that TV shows are just there to give breaks between commericials... Spaulding: ...and the Superbowl shows that in it's finest glory! Teddy: For $2.6 million per minute, you'd think they'd do better for commericials! Spaulding: I liked some of the commercials a whole bunch! Teddy: Me too, but got nervous with that first set of commericials! Never did find out what the name of that red car was in the first commericial passed it being a Ford! That was a waste of money! Spaulding: I also hate when they talk about a drug in a commercial, tell everyone to ask their doctor about it, but never tell what it's for! Teddy: Like the cialis ad? Spaulding: Yup! Teddy: The Florida orange juice commercial and constant commercials for the All-Star Survivors show were hardly noticable too, but I just didn't like the AOL high-speed commercials, just too nerdy! Spaulding: Daddy liked them! They made him laugh! Teddy: I liked the husband watching the game as he put the clothes in the dryer and accidentally put his McDonald's hamburger in also! Spaulding: I didn't know peoples could smell food on each other! Teddy: The smell on his wife made him kiss her beary well!!! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Which was your favorite commercial?! Teddy: I liked a few of them! Spaulding: OK, then what were your favorite three?! Teddy: Well, obviously I liked the bears who found the leftovers in the cabin and went out to buy some Pepsi to go with them! Spaulding: I think the ID looked beary much like the grizzily! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: I looooooooooved the Clydsdale donkey! He reminded me of Teddy Bears--we can convince anyone of doing whatever we want them to do! Both: HeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeHawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!! Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Hmmmmmmm, I can think of a few others I liked beary much too! Spaulding: But, you can only choose one more! Teddy: Then I have to go with the quarterback who touched the beary soft towel that was really some Charmins' toilet paper and he got so distracted the play was ruined! Spaulding: Because of the Charmins' bear in the commercial?! Teddy: Of course! Do you think the bear did that on purpose?! Spaulding: Of course! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: At least the bear uses toilet paper instead of...well, you know! Spaulding (whispering so Valentine doesn't hear): INSTEAD OF USING RABBIT FUR?! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe (Mommy note: This is in reference to one of their favorite jokes, one they try not to tell since Teddy has married a rabbit. It goes like this-- a bear was walking in the woods and came across a rabbit. "Mr. Bunny," the bear asked, "when you 'go' in the woods, does it stick to your fur?" "No," the rabbit replied. "Good," answered the bear, right before he 'went.' When done, the bear grabbed the rabbit and used him as toilet paper.) Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe ::::::::::Both go into a long fit of laughter, lasting several mintues before they are settled down enough to continue.:::::::::::::: Teddy: So what were your three favorite commercials?! Spaulding: I really liked the three you said, but, so we can add a couple more to our list of favorites, I'll pick others! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Obviously, I liked the one with the Muppets and what's her name! Teddy: Jessica Simpson?! Spaulding (shrugging his shoulders): OK! I also liked Bill Parcell, Warren Sapp, and all those other football players singing, "The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow," but that was just from the NFL, so I'm not sure if it cost $2.6 million! Teddy: With so many famous people in it, it might have cost them that much anyway! Spaulding: Yeah, but all those people were employed by the NFL, so it might still have been cheap for them! Teddy: That's true, now what's your third choice?! Spaulding: Yeah, that's a tough one! There were a couple of commercials that really hit home with their points like the one for AIG at the end that said, "This game is almost over, but your life isn't," and went on to talk about their retirement plans. Teddy: Is that your third choice? Spaulding (with a sly smile): Nope! And then there is the commercial for a Pepsi contest, where you can win free downloaded music and the background music was "I Fought the Law and The Law Won!" All those kids who got arrested for pirating music online telling about the contest! Teddy: So many young kids with criminal backgrounds for stealing music! It's shocking! Is THAT your third choice? Spaulding (with the same sly smile): Nope! But I know what Mommy thought was the commercial that everyone would remember for a while! Teddy: James Marshall Hendrix deciding Pepsi or Coke, and becoming famous because the Pepsi machine was in front of a pawn shop with an electric guitar in the window, instead of the pawn shop with the accordian in the window! Spaulding: Yeah, "Foxy Lady" doesn't sound as good on an accordian! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: But your THIRD choice?! Spaulding (with a huge smile): OK! Drum roll please! Teddy: dididididididididididididididididi-BLAM! And the winner of Spaulding's THIRD choice is-- Spaulding: Homer Simpson getting groceries at the MiniMart--$25! Both hairs cut--$20 and, as he sits at Moe's drinking a Duff's, "Getting home early to spend time with his family--.... Getting home early to spend time with his family--... Getting home early to spend time with his family--" And then Homer saying, "OK! I heard you already, geesh," then going out the door to go home to his family--priceless! Teddy: "Visa! Don't leave home without it!" Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Should we tell runners ups?! Teddy: Mommy wrote down every decent or special commercial made for the Superbowl, but it would take forever to mention all the good ones! Spaulding: Then we aren't going to mention the one with all the kids sucking on bars of soap like Paul Heyman after losing to Cena? Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: We liked that one, except it teetered on that line of decency that so many commercials crossed on that day! Spaulding: I have yet to see a full picture of the car it was promoting, BUT the little bit I did see almost makes you wanna say, "Holy Shhhh!" Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Didn't it feel like Janet Jackson wasn't the only one crossing the line of decency during the Superbowl?! Spaulding: We got more and more upset with all of Bud Light's commercials. The first one just hit the line itself with the two men and their dogs. Teddy: The first guy told his dog to fetch and the dog brought back a cold Bud Light, but the second guy told his dog "Bud Light" and the dog bit the frst guy in his privates, which made him toss his Bud Light! Spaulding: It did make us all laugh, but part of that was because the first guy was all snobby. Teddy: But, each following commercial got grosser and grosser, if "grosser" is even a word! Spaulding: If it isn't, it should be! Teddy: Sedgwick, the Entertainer, getting a bikini wax was funny! Spaulding: That was just on the line too! Teddy: The first one that passed that line was the horse who passed gas, causing a the woman holding the candle to get burnt. Spaulding: I like potty humor, but that was gross! Teddy: The one that simply creeped me out was the chimp hitting on the girlfirend as his Daddy left the room! Spaulding; That could be the only thing that made the gassy horse seem less gross! Teddy: Were there any other gross or just plain mean commercials? Spaulding: The old man and woman fighting for the bag of Lay's Potato Chips was both--gross because the old lady held on to the man's dentures and just plain mean when he'd all but step on her to get to the potato chips! Whatever became of sharing anyway?! Teddy: I dunno! Spaulding: Which ones do you remember, but weren't so good anyway?! Teddy: The heavy set waitress giving a broken hearted man a Pepsi to get over his break up and the guy cooling off under his kilt by standing over a steam vent--both silly and didn't make the wanted point for Pepsi or Sierra Mist! Spaulding: I did like 7 Up's slam dunk hoop on the back of the van he was driving! Teddy: Sure didn't stop anyone from trying to get nothing but hoop! Spaulding: I like the 7 Up commercials! Teddy: Me too, but it's getting towards where we should talk about the game too! Spaulding: Well, it was beary, beary boring for the first one and a half quarters like we said before! Teddy: Sure got interesting quickly after that! Spaulding: Well, even that first touchdown by the Pat's didn't make it much more interesting for some reason. Teddy: That missed field goal was surprising though! Spaulding: I bet the Panther's kicker is still kicking himself after that one! Not like it was a beary long one or anything! Teddy: I thought the Pat's touchdown would be the first and last one in the first half. There was only three minutes left, after all! Spaulding: Obviously, Panthers disagree with you with their answer and still one minute left! Teddy: Then there was no doubt it was an exciting game, since, by the time the half was over the score was 10-14 with the Patriots ahead! Spaulding: For a minute there, I thought the Panthers brought their bought-off refs, until they were the ones who were cheated out of a complete, when the refs called it incomplete! Teddy: And they knew they were wrong but refused to use the loop hole to correct their mistake... Spaulding: ...they didn't want to set it up so others could use the loop hole in the future! Teddy: No fair just closing the loop hole for the future... Spaulding:..Not like this wasn't the LAST GAME OF THE SEASON, so they had enough time to change that rule! Teddy: Duh, now! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: The refs also missed a Pat's player punching DeHolmmes in the stomach after he passed off an 85 yard touchdown... Teddy: ...the longest pass ever in the Superbowl! Spaulding: They keep stats for EVERYTHING! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: I bet the Panthers could kick themselves twice for trying two point conversions twice instead of the simple extra point! Spaulding: The Patriots got theirs the one time they tried, when... Teddy: ...in the fourth quarter with a little under three minutes to spare... Spaulding: the score became 22-29 and the Pats were STILL winning! Teddy: Mommy thought that was the end of the game! Spaulding: I have to admit that I was impressed with the Carolina Panthers when, with just a little over one minute to go, they scored a touchdown and didn't go for the two point conversion! Teddy: That made the socre even, but New England kicked, and made, a 32 yard goal with four second left in the game. Spaulding: It was over with a win of 29-32! Teddy: Pretty good considering how boring it started! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Of course, that means that the Eagles are only the third best team in the NFL. Teddy: Mommy still doesn't think it matters and considers them chokers! Spaulding: We tried for two weeks to convince her that it's just a game, but haven't gotten beary far! Teddy: Peoples! Can't live with them... Spaulding: Can't shoot them! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Well, that was our SuperBowl! No more football until next August, unless... Spaulding: UNLESS, we start watching Arena Ball... Teddy: ...inside football, with Jon Bon Jovi the guy who bought a franchise for Philadelphia this year! Spaulding: Next weekend The Philadelphia Souls play against New Orleans something another. Teddy: We'll find out next weekend, since Daddy can't give up on anything remotely like football after all this! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Soooooooo, until next time...

The Royal Rumble!

2004-02-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

Spaulding: We did go to The Royal Rumble the night after Teddy and Daddy's birthday, as planned. Teddy: We took the helioplaneship boxcar, not because the Wachovia Center is so far away, but, being shorter then peoples, we were afraid we wouldn't be able to see anything from ground level. Spaulding: The kids wanted to leave early, hoping to see some of their favorite stars as they came into the building. Teddy: We also took Mommy's first crocheted ski cap and scarf, because she made it so big that only someone like The Big Show could wear it... Spaulding: ...unless you like having a cap covering your whooooooooooooole head! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Unfortunately, we missed him, so we still have the cap! Spaulding: If anyone knows someone with a beary, beary, beary large head, who has trouble finding a ski cap big enough, bmail me and I will get Mommy to mail it to ya! Teddy: This commerical brought to you by.... Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: We did see Jamie Noble and Nidia, but should have been surprised when Jamie kept walking but Nidia stopped to give us autographs! Teddy: Axlerod noticed immediately, but we were checking out her fur coat to make sure it was faux fur, so didn't notice. Spaulding: Nidia was blinded by Tajiri last November, when he sprayed her eyes with his mysterious black goop that he spits at the end of many of his matches! Teddy: How could a blind peoples sign autographs? Spaulding: But, since she's been blinded, her supposed boyfriend, Jamie, has been mean to her, throwing her into the ring to beat her up, and then blaming his opponents... Teddy: ...usually Mysterio, who is too nice of a guy to do that to a woman.... Spaulding: ...after the match! Teddy: After the matches, when Jamie's not around, Mysterio did go to her to apologize and tell who did do that to her, but she always seemed so beary a'scared, and didn't seem to listen. Spaulding: But, we got ahead of ourselves again! Teddy: Oh yeah! After getting autographs, we flew in and hovered over seats in the beary back row, so most wouldn't notice live stuffed animals watching the show! Spaulding: Long ago, Mommy helped us make poster, just our right size, to show off during different matches. Teddy: Since some wrestlers have turned into bad guys and others have turned into good guys since then, we also made some of our own too! Spaulding: If you've ever watched Ras'lin, you have seen how many signs are shown in the audience. If you go to this link, The Royal Rumble, and click on "Click here for Photos," you can see some of the pictures with the audiences' posters all around! Teddy: Since we were in the back though, you can't see ours! Spaulding: Well, also, since we are small... Teddy: ...compared to peoples... Spaulding: ...our posters are big to us but small to peoples! Teddy: BUT, as we tell about our adventure, we'll tell what our posters read! Spaulding: The first fight was the Dudley Boys against Coach and someone else, but since we don't watch RAW too often... Teddy: ...and because we like hotdogs... Spaulding: ...and the kids wanted something to eat... Teddy: ...even if we DID eat just before we left... Spaulding: ...we flew to the refreshment stand and missed that match! Teddy: Boy, oh, boy, do they have beary expensive food! Next time we bring our own! Spaulding: Didn't we say that the last time? Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: They do know how to make hotdogs though! Spaulding: BUT, they don't sell any NiHi! Teddy: Well, truthfully, NiHi isn't sold in the Northeast! The only reason we drink it is because Daddy liked it when he was young, so keeps importing it in for us by the truckload! Spaulding: That, and the fellow, who sells us hotdogs, buys enough to keep his favorite customers happy! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Anyway, the first bout we DID watch WAS Jamie Noble against Mysterio! Spaulding: For that bout, we pulled out our "619" poster! Teddy: Mysterio is also called "619," because he's from San Diego and its area code is "619." Spaulding: We like him a LOT! Teddy: He's one of the shortest, smallest ras'lers, and beary quick and gym.gym.gym-nas-cycle?! Spaulding (shrugging his shoulders): If it's not a word, it ought to be! Teddy:(nodding in agreement): He does flips and twist and turns, often yanking much bigger opponents to the floor by swinging around their necks with his legs, after jumping off the top rope! Spaulding: We think he might be a Teddy Bear in disguise! Teddy: And he's always in disguise, wearing a leather mask over his head, covering up everything but his eyes and mouth! Spaulding: And he wears beary light blue... Teddy: ...almost white!... Spaulding: ...contact lenses, so he is always in disguise! Teddy: As usual, the fight went back and forth, sometimes looking like Jamie might win, and sometimes like Mysterio might win, but we knew... Spaulding: ...even if there was a two count.... Teddy: ...that no one could win, until Mysterio did his famous 619 move! Spaulding: And this time the set up was way cool! Jamie was on the side of the ring near Nidia, and poor blind Nidia yanked his legs out from under him, making him kneel, while leaning against the bottom rope facing towards the audience! Teddy: That's the only position that Mysterio can do his 619 move, since it's when he gets a big running start from the other side of the ring, grabs the second rope with his top hand, the bottom rope with the other hand, swings his body around through the ropes,... Spaulding: ...like a gymnist on parralel bars, but side ways... Teddy: ...and then smashes his opponent with his legs, kicking the opponent backwards, flat on his back! Spaulding: That night it was Jamie, so Mysterio got his three count! Teddy: Boy, oh, boy, was Jamie upset with Nidia! Spaulding: That's when Axlerod told us that he was pretty sure Nidia did that on purpose! Teddy: On Smackdown! last night, we found out how right Ax was! Nidia can see again and set Jamie up for another whooping! He tried to beat her up in the ring again, but then it was obvious that she could see and Mysterio whooped him some more! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: The next bout was one where we needed our "Lie, Cheat and Steal" poster! Teddy: We were really rooting for Eddie Guerrero, because his nephew and partner, Chavo Guerrero, has been acting like a baby lately, complaining that Eddie gets the audience to shout his name, but they never shout "Chavo!" Spaulding: No fair thinking it could be that Eddie is more charismatic! Teddy (with utter shock): Charismatic?! Gooooooooooood word! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Both of them openly admit to lying, cheating and stealing to win their bouts, but that night, Eddie fought without cheating, and whooped his nephew to a bloody pulp! Spaulding: He also beat up his brother, Chavo's Dad, too, since he was trying to help his son cheat, AND Eddie's brother helped his son beat up Eddie the week before on Smackdown! Teddy: Eddie tried to keep the peace in his family, but when that became impossible, he whooped his nephew quite well! Spaulding: I thought you were gonna say, "real good!" Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: The next bout was so good, it was hard to believe it wasn't the main bout! Spaulding: For that bout we needed our new sign for Brock--"You tapped out!" Teddy: Brock is one of the guys who used to be a good guy and is now a bad guy! Spaulding: "Tapping out" is when your opponent has you in a hold that's so painful you tap your hand to the floor several times, which means you give up. Teddy: Brock had spent several years as a champion, who never ever tapped out, until last autumn,... Spaulding: ...it was against Kurt Angle, and he tapped out! Teddy: Ends up that he hates it when he is reminded of tapping out, so the audience chants it now, AND he's tapped out a couple of more times since! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Right before we started watching Ras'lin... Teddy: ...yes, we didn't ALWAYS watch Ras'lin! Hard to believe, huh? Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: ...there was this rass'ler named Hardcore Holly, but he was taken out of action when Brock broke his neck! Teddy: We hate to admit knowing this... Spaulding: ...we prefer Teddy Bear World Rass'lin, which is equal parts reality and pretend... Teddy: ...but sometimes it is necessary to explain which parts are real and which are pretend... Spaulding: ...so kids know that it's beary hard to do what the rass'lers do without getting hurt... Teddy: ...so the kids don't try to do the same moves and really get hurt... Spaulding: ...and, even though the Rass'lers are trained to do what they do.... Teddy: ...it's still dangerous to do what they do, even for them... Spaulding: ...to the point that a few years ago, doing a stunt, one of the Rass'lers was killed, and that's for real,... Teddy: ...not Teddy Bear world real, but peoples' world real! Spaulding: But all that to say that just before we started watching Rass'lin, Brock Lesner and Hardcore Holly had a match... Teddy: ...and Hardcore Holly really did get his neck broken by Brock! Spaulding: It was a stunt gone wrong, and, in Peoples' World, Brock didn't mean to do it! Teddy: And, although obviously, it's beary bad to have your neck broken, Hardcore wasn't paralysed... Spaulding: ...neither was Chris Benoit's when his neck was really broken either, although that's not part of this story... Teddy: ...just want everyone reading this to know that, if you have bones in your body... Spaulding:...we don't so don't have to worry about anything worse then a seam getting ripped Teddy: ...which is beary scary if you're a stuffy... Spaulding: ...that you SHOULD NOT try those moves on your own! Teddy: Anyway, back to Teddy Bear World s'plaining of what we saw! Spaulding: Hardcore Holly wanted revenge so The Royal Rumble was when he got to fight against Brock! Teddy: Brock's been getting surprise attacks from Holly for a few weeks by the time The Royal Rumble came along, so he was a'scared of Hardcore, although he'd never admit that! Spaulding: We don't know much about Holly other then having seen the footage of when he did break his neck... Teddy: ...which was yucky... Spaulding: ...and his ambushes on Brock, so we do like him! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: It was a great fight, and we saw Holly getting close to winning a couple of times, and Brock F5ing... Spaulding: ...Brock tosses his opponent over his shoulders, spins him quickly, lets go, which makes the opponent twirl parrarel from the floor, before falling, beary hard, onto the floor! Teddy: Hardcore is only six foot tall, 235 pounds, which is small for a Rass'ler, kinda, but Brock has done his F5 on The Big Show too! Spaulding: The Big Show is five feet tall 700 pounds! (Mommy explanation: Because the kids have trouble conceiving of people being taller then two feet tall, although their Mommy and Daddy are two inches away from six feet tall, either side, that, although announcers keep saying, "The Big Show is seven feet tall, five hundred pounds," they keep hearing "five feet tall, 700 pounds!" We just go along with it now, since they can't even hear the difference, if we try to correct them.) Teddy: We had a little accident that stopped us from seeing the end of the match! Spaulding: We all had our NiHis on the edge of the helioplaneship boxcar, but Axlerod got an itch that needed scratching on the bottom of his back paw. Teddy: He has short legs, so he can't reach his back paw to scratch, and asks us to scratch for him. Spaulding: The helioplaneship boxcar is magical! If peoples see it, it looks like a box just big enough for me, with Teddy on my lap, and elbow high, but when peoples aren't looking, we all fit in, along with all we need for any particular trip. Teddy: For that trip, we just had the cap and scarf that Mommy was hoping we could give The Big Show... Spaulding: All 18 of our posters, and extra napkins to clean up with after we ate. Teddy: We're not quite sure, who caused the accident, but Spaulding pulled Axlerod's back paw up for me to scratch, and when I scratched... Spaulding: ...it tickled Axlerod, so he jumped... Teddy: ...With Axlerod being the biggest stuffy in our family, he also kicked and ran into me.... Spaulding: ...then Teddy ran into me, and I ran into someone else....and, well, ... Teddy: ...we don't know who exactly did it, but there was a chain reaction with every single soft drink being knocked over... Spaulding: ...some inside our vehicle and some outside! Teddy: We were glad we were in the back above empty seats, or we might have had more problems! Spaulding: Once again, the stuffed doggies saved the day, by licking up the mess! Teddy: We helped, but I wouldn't lick under Axlerod's paw! Spaulding: That's all right, Dee did! She's a good stuffed doggy! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: We looked up, when we heard the ref start the three count, and Brock won, but we don't know if he cheated! Spaulding: Since he became a bad guy, he cheats more then the Guerrero's ever did! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: We do occasionally, watch RAW, but, we chose to go out and dry out our vehicle... Teddy: ...by flying it upside down... Spaulding:...when Triple H and Shawn Micheals fought, but we heard the crowd's reaction when Triple H won. Teddy: Finally, the title match started--The Royal Rumble! Spaulding: Paul Heyman hates Chris Benoit, because Chris beat up Brock, the keystone to Paul Heyman's concept of Smackdown! , Paul made Chris the first player for the The Royal Rumble! Teddy: The Royal Rumble is 30 guys, 15 from Smackdown! and 15 from Raw, fighting in one ring to find out who gets to fight against the champion at Wrestlemania, the biggest event of the Rass'lin year! Spaulding: It starts with two Rass'lers, and adds another every 90 seconds! Teddy: You stay in the match, until you are knocked out of the ring with both feet hitting the floor outside of the ring! Spaulding: Quite often Rass'lers get pushed over the ropes, but they hang onto the rope and neither foot hits the floor! Teddy: It was so exciting, we all had our elbows leaning up against the edge of our vehicle holding up our "Toothless Aggression" poster to root for Chris Benoit, and it felt like we were almost pulled right down into the match! Spaulding: Almost! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Bodies were flying left and right! Spaulding: At one point Brock joined the group and F5ed Goldberg right out of the ring! Teddy: Brock is the champion, so he wasn't supposed to be involved! Spaulding: Goldberg is on RAW and Brock is on Smackdown!, so that simply had no reason to happen! Teddy: Goldberg now wants Brock's blood! Spaulding: And the rest of him too! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: The match took 62 minutes and the last opponent knocked out of the ring was The Big Show, BUT... Both: ...CHRIS BENOIT WON!!! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: We were so beary happy for him, until later this last week he announced that he wanted to have his match against Triple H! Spaulding (so upset that he's almost sputtering): He LEFT Smackdown! Teddy (shaking with frustration): Now what will we do? ::::::::::::::::Mommy speaks to them quietly. They calm down and smile.:::::::::::::::::::: Spaulding: That Mommy is soooooooo smart! Teddy (nodding in agreement): On Friday nights, when nothing else good is on TV, they have a show called "The Bottom Line" that we've started watching. Spaulding: It recaps what happened on RAW, so we don't need the longer version, but can keep up with who's doing what over there. Teddy: Mommy says we can watch that, which will help us figure out what's up with Nick Foley too! Spaulding: He seemed to have chickened out on a match a few weeks ago, and the guy he was supposed to fight has been calling him a chicken and taunting him to come back ever since! Teddy: He finally showed up... Spaulding: ...when Stone Cold Steve Austin insisted he come... Teddy: ...and seemed willing to fight the creep again, but, since it was during The Royal Rumble!, it wasn't a good night for that. We're looking forward to find out what's happening with him! Spaulding: Axlerod thinks that Goldberg might come to Smackdown! soon too! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: The good thing about going in our helioplaneship boxcar is how quickly we could leave the place! Spaulding: By the time the first people leaving got to their cars, we had already left, stopped by our favorite hotdog stand for a pick up, and flew home! Teddy: With the magical time thingy, Mommy and Daddy didn't even know we were gone! Spaulding: We did save them a few Teddy Bear hotdogs, although they don't taste them too well! Teddy: Well, now that we've caught up on our journal, we got to get ready for the Super Bowl this evening! Spaulding: We're remembering it's just a game... Teddy: ...which is beary easy since the Eagles aren't in it.... Both: Kehehehehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: ...but the commericials are a great part and we saw a preview of one with Bears in it! Teddy: That's gotta be the best one! Spaulding: So, time to go.... Teddy: Soooooooo, until next time...

Teddy's Birthday!

2004-01-26T15:22:00.000-05:00

Teddy: Two days ago, was the anniversary of THE most important date in all of history... Spaulding: ...if you happen to be a fan of Teddy or Daddy! Teddy: Two days ago, Daddy and I became a whoooooooole year older! Spaulding: January 24th is Teddy and Daddy's birthdays! Teddy: Mommy remembers why she bought me, but not exactly when, other then just a little while after Daddy's birthday, so we have chosen to celebrate my birthday on the same day as Daddy's! I'm almost as old as Daddy! Spaulding: Wellllllllllll, Daddy turned 57 and Teddy turned 2, so they're almost the same age! Teddy (looking at his big brother with pure joy in his eyes): AND, I'm catching up to being your age too! Spaulding: That's true! Three days ago, I was three times as old as you and now I'm only two times as old as you! Eventually, we'll be the same age! ::::::::::::Both nod their heads in agreement, marveling at this scientific fact.:::::::::::::: Teddy: With so much going on around here all the time, sometimes we can make a great deal out of celebrating birthdays, and sometimes they are just quiet little celebrations! Spaulding: Now that the holidays have been over for a while... Teddy: ...and, although it's snowed occasionally, it's not always good snow.... Spaulding: ...and, with Daddy being so sick so often, we need good excuses to have some fun... Teddy: ...and because my big brother is the bestest brother in the whoooooooooole world... Spaulding (taking the time needed for the blush to run its course): ...and because I came up with the great idea--we decided to celebrate Daddy and Teddy's birthday by renting Dunkin Donuts for four hours in the middle of the night on January 24th/25th from midnight to 4 a.m.! Teddy: Because we drink so much Dunkin Donut coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee... Spaulding: "We" meaning Daddy, Teddy, me, Lady, Valentine, and Axlerod... Teddy: ...the kids are too young to drink coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee, so they drink NiHi... Spaulding: ...we used to drink mainly Starbuck's Sumatra, but, for some reason, Daddy's treatment is making his tummy beary sensative, so now we drink the milder Dunkin Donuts for the first part of the week and have one mug of Sumatra at the end of the week... Teddy: Anyway, because we drink so much Dunkin Donut coffeecoffeecoffeecoffee... Spaulding: ...just for us, and just for this one time, Dunkin Donut broke their rule of not ever renting out the place for parties and special occasions, to let us have our party there in the middle of the night! Teddy: They're usually open 24 hours a day, so to close up for that brief time was beary special! Spaulding: They also gave us free reign of the place, since they do their daily clean up at 4 a.m., and that means they cover up the donuts, dough and extra stuff... Teddy: ...like frosting, fillings and jimmies... Spaulding: ...and then they just hose the whole place down, watching all the dirt, grease and spilled jam swirl down the big drain in the middle of the floor! Teddy: They were even nice enough to let me do the squirting, since it was my birthday! Spaulding: Now I didn't get this BRILLIANT idea until two days before his birthday, so, although we invited all of our Beary Buddies online to come... Teddy: ...as well as Petey, the pigeon, Sammy, the squirrel, all of their families, our neighbors downstairs and the Need-to-Be-Adopted Bears in the basement... Spaulding: ...the only ones who saw the post were Babybear and his big family and Mawson and his big family! Teddy: ONLY! That makes for a beary big group! Spaulding: For a change though, because it was his birthday too, we also invited Daddy... Teddy: ...and Mommy! Spaulding: ...but he didn't feel up to it, so we've promised something special when he feels better! Teddy: We're hoping for a vacation, but it depends on what's happening then! Spaulding: BUT, we did have a beary good time! Teddy: Spaulding forgot that The Royal Rumble was in Philly, and the announcers on Smackdown! said it was supposed to be on Saturday night, Januray 24th, which was the same day as my birthday party! Spaulding: I thought it was supposed to be on January 25th, but since we promised to take the kids, I couldn't break my promise, so we went before Teddy's party, planning to have Axlerod stop time, in between, so we could nap and enjoy some time with Mommy and Daddy! Teddy: We did go the whole mile to the Wachovia Center, but no one was there for The Royal Rumble! Spaulding: It WAS on Sunday, January 25th, so we went back last night, but still had time to enjoy Teddy's party, nap and visit with Mommy and Daddy! Teddy: Because Daddy feels better towards the end of the week, Spaulding, Mommy and Daddy decided to celebrate our birthdays on Sunday, in hopes that Daddy could truly enjoy it and think of something he'd like to have for dinner! I didn't find out until Sunday morning, when everyone, except Daddy, showed me the card we would give him and what we made for him! I just thought the party was my birthday present! Spaulding (in his usual loud whisper): MOMMY HELPED ME MAKE TEDDY'S PRESENT THE NIGHT BEFORE HIS BRITHDAY, AND THEN HELPED ME MAKE DADDY'S PRESENT! DADDY AND TEDDY WERE RIGHT NEXT TO US, BUT THEY THOUGHT WE WERE MAKING A PRESENT FOR THE OTHER ONE! ::::::::Teddy is startled by this secret, but grins with delight when he realizes how nicely he was fooled.:::::::::::: Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: They MADE me a beary handsome bracelet that says "TEDDY" on it, and my birthday card had The Rock on it! How cool is that?! Spaulding: And we gave Daddy a special magical key chain that we made and it had "Daddy" on it! Teddy: It's special because Spaulding made it all by himself! Spaulding: It's magical, because it unlocks napergy even if we aren't right next to Daddy AND it gives out our love every time he looks at it! Teddy: Mommy's presents weren't as magical, but still, Daddy liked them! Spaulding: And she's STILL waiting for the gift certificate to come, that took her 16 months of reading advertisements online to get enough points to get! Teddy: But Daddy knows it's coming, and, he might even feel better by the time it gets her, so he can enjoy spending it! Spaulding: But, back to the birthday party! Teddy: Snoopy brought the lampshade, but we all took turns wearing it to play Marco Polo! Spaulding: Axlerod, Proffessor Sigmund Furred, and Rocky tried to s'plain how Teddy and I aren't really catching up in age, but their lecture was spoiled when Scotland, the Brave, flicked a jimmy at Jingles, but it landed on Rocky's horn, making everyone, including Rocky (whew!) laugh! Teddy: I'm glad he laughed, cuz you don't wanna make a rhino angry! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: There was a HUGE vat of grape jam that the beary little stuffies... Teddy: ...like Dee, Ding, Krismis, Kwalla and Koowla, Tiny Red, Scotland the brave, and Amy were skating on, just using their soft paws and feet for skates... Spaulding: ...but Rumples wanted to join in too... Teddy: ...and most of us didn't know what would happen next, or we would have stopped him... Spaulding (with a gleam of mischief in his eyes): ...maybe... Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: ...but when Rumple climbed onto the skating rink, it became a swimming pool of grape jam! Spaulding: Everyone fell in!!! Teddy: I thought it would take all the stuffed doggies weeks to clean up all those who fell in! Spaulding: I thought Rumples was going to eat his way out of that vat! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Again, Axlerod, Proffessor Furred and Rocky tried to s'plain about water mall-lick-cools, hyper, hyper, hyper...something in other, that stops small stuff from falling in, but not big stuff!!! Spaulding: I thought I understood for a moment, until I remembered it was grape jam, not water!!!! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Jingles was there, and so beary pretty too, but she showed us how nice she was too! Spaulding: After getting permission from all of the Mommies... Teddy: ...and all the Mommies joined in the fun too... Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: She started a make-over party in the kitchen! Teddy: She brought the powdered sugar, strawberry jam, blueberry and grape dough, and green frosting together, to show all the gals how to use them as make-up! Spaulding: I didn't think Lady could look any better then she always is! Teddy: And Valentine was so, so, so BEARY Beautiful! Spaulding: BUT, the kids ended up putting too much on and looked like clowns! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Boy, it's good to be able to laugh out loud now! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: We didn't want to hurt their feelings or embarass them, so we smiled with the only smile a loving parent can give, then showed them how the stainless steel cabinet doors can be used like mirrors! Teddy: Thankfully, they took it well, immediately coming up with skits in their new clown faces, like how many clowns fit onto a donut! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: They were beary good clowns too! Teddy: Ever notice how quickly time flies when you're having fun?! Spaulding (nodding in solemn agreement): You'd think it would be even more time, since Axlerod, Rumples and the older stuffies can stop or slow down time too! Teddy: Maybe, we just all became keenly aware of the need for a nap that ended the party! Spaulding: Between falling into the vat of grape jam and finger...ummmm, PAW painting with different color frosting on the walls, you'd think you would have had a bigger challenge in cleaning up! Teddy (with a sheepish grin): Stuffed doggies aren't the only ones who like to lick up sweet things! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Beary Buddies had to wait for you to clean up, but I'm glad we invited them over for a nap before heading home! Teddy: After the problems we had from celebrating the New Year all around the world, we discovered that it's beary important to be well rested before flying home after a big night out! Spaulding: I'm glad Mom put all her sewing material down in the basement! It made great beds for Beary Buddies! Teddy: I can't believe we all fit in the basement! Spaulding: It was so crowded that Dusty, Frosty, and Pinky ended up having one of the bestest places to nap... Teddy: ...on top of the clothes in the dryer right after the dryer finished drying them! Spaulding: So nice and beary warm! We should try that after going out and playing in the snow! Teddy: But the clothes Mommy made us, and the magical clothes Valentine and Lady made us, are so beary warm, I'm never cold after coming in out of the snow! Spaulding: True, but it's still a great place to nap! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: Anyway, we did get to go see The Royal Rumble last night, and we'll have to tell about that in our next journal entry! Spaulding: Some of it was good, and some was beary bad! Teddy: Yeah, but...(he puts his paw to his mouth and blushes) Whoops! Almost told what happened already! Guess it's nap time! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Spaulding: Soooooooo, until next time...

It's JUST a GAME!

2004-01-19T17:55:00.000-05:00

Spaulding: Well, they did it AGAIN! Teddy: It's so beary hard to be a Philadelphia Eagle fan! Spaulding: Harder still to be an Eagle PLAYER! Both: Kehehehehehehehehehe Teddy: We could have won, if we knew how much to pay the referees! Spaulding: We counted three times that the refs simply didn't see penalties! Teddy: OR, intentionally didn't see Panther's breaking the rules! Spaulding: The time that hurt us the most was the three-seconds-after-the-whistle-blew hit on Donavan McNabb, our quarterback, that hurt his ribs enough to eventually knock him out of the game! Teddy: The most obvious one was the time our player got called for Face Mask, but the ref didn't see that BOTH players were face masking each other at the same time! Spaulding: AND THEN, some of our players simply forgot how to do their jobs! Teddy: Duece Staley! Duece Staley, of all people, MISSED a pass. He just simply didn't catch it for no particular reason! Amazing!!! Spaulding: He's now officially a free agent. He thinks management already has him on the auctioning block. I wonder if that had anything to do with how he played?! Teddy: Duece Staley MISSED a pass! Unbelievable! Spaulding: Daddy wants Coach Reid to fire the whole team and start from scratch! Teddy: Mommy doesn't want to care even if they make it to the playoffs again next year! Spaulding: That one silly fan screamed at the TV camera that "The Eagles ruined my WHOLE LIFE!" Teddy: Some guy was crying! Spaulding: Do you think that was to get on TV?! Teddy: I sure hope so! It seems silly to get THAT upset over a simple ball game! It's JUST a GAME, Philadelphians! Get a grip! Spaulding: The players accepted it quickly. Teddy: I don't know who those guys were out of their football uniforms, but they seemed to have the right idea-- Spaulding: They were going home to spend some time with their wives and children! Teddy: I bet they needed their Teddy Bears too! So many upset people over a GAME!!!! Spaulding: Yeah, if they have Teddy Bears, the Teddy Bears will hug them and remind them that they still have one of the funniest jobs in the whooole world-- Teddy: ..to PLAY a GAME and make lots and lots of money doing it! Spaulding: It's just like us playing Jeopardy! Teddy (with wholehearted agreement): Yeah! The same thing! It's just a GAME! Yeesh! Spaulding: It did prove something that Mommy said when that guy died last week! Teddy: Tugger? Spaulding: Yeah! (Mommy Note: 1980-1981 was a special time for Mommy and Daddy. They got married the same day the Phillies clenched the eastern division pennant, and were home from their honeymoon in time to watch the Phillies go on to win the World Series. The scene etched on anyone in the Delaware Valley area--the area in and around Philadelphia, PA--was the last pitch of the last game of that series. People around here still remember that the batter was Willie Wilson from the Kansas City Royals. Mommy remembers him, because she kept his stats when he played baseball for the Summit HillToppers at Summit H.S. in Summit, NJ in 1974, right before he was signed for $50,000 a year to play in the farm team for the Royals. Anyway, the pitcher became one of Philadelphia's most loved celebrities, Tug-Tugger to his fans--McGraw, who struke Willie Wilson out, jumped up and down with his arms straight up in the air, was jumping to homeplate after the strike out, when he suddenly jumped facing third base! On third base was one of the best third basemen of all times, Michael Jack (Mike) Schmidt, who promised Tugger that he would run to pitcher's mound the second Tugger won the game for the Phillies and jump on top of him! Tugger faced third base in preparation for that jump, and sure enough, the photo in the local paper the next day showed Mike flying in the air onto a group of Phillies, as if he were joining a mosh pit, and the only sign that Tugger was there was Tuggers arm next to Mike Schmidt! Oh, the very next season for football--1980 -1982-- the Eagles actually made it all the way to the SuperBowl--the first time ever--and last time! Of course, we could tell by the stunned awe on their faces as they came out onto the field that The Raiders would win, and they did, but the Eagles at least made it to the SuperBowl that one time. Anyway, back to Tugger. If the name Tug McGraw sounds familar, but not as the name of a baseball pitcher, he also happens to be Tim McGraw, the country singer's father, and, of course, therefore being Faith Hill's father-in-law. Unfortunately, last Spring season, as Tugger was down in Florida with our Phillies, he suddenly got sick, was rushed to the hospital and found out that he had a brain tumor. Despite having John's Mom and brother die from brain tumors, being blindly optimistic most of the time, I assumed, as did the whole city, that when he got out of the hospital minus one tumor that he would be fine. He was for half a year, but died last weekend at his son's house in TN. The newscasters all reminde us of his favorite saying that seemed to be the mantra for that glorious season in 1980--"You Gotta Believe"--and seemed to suggest if we all live by that it will be a prophecy. Tugger died at the young age of 56! If anyone could conquer cancer by beliving in "You Gotta Believe" it would have been him. Fortunately, even though sometimes it doesn't seem "fortunately," God is in control of the universe and, no matter what we think that is considered positive or negative thinking, he works all things out his way, not Man's way. OK, back to Teddy and Spaulding, who are giving me that "are you done YET?" look! LOL) Teddy and Spaulding: Done, Mommy? ::::::::::Mommy sheepishly smiles and nods her head.:::::::::::::::: Teddy: The Phillies winning the World Series happened RIGHT before we were born! Spaulding (nodding in agreement): Obviously a whole area of the country "You Gotta Believe"ing didn't make the Eagles win on Sunday! Teddy: Even though we weren't born yet in 1980, we liked Tugger too! We're praying for his family, cuz we know how horrible it must be to lose your Daddy! Spaulding (nodding in agreement again): Then again, this IS Philadelphia! It seems this area has two mindsets! We always think our teams are going to win the championship game every year AND... Teddy: ...we always KNOW, every year, that they will choke or just plain be lousy and disappoint us again! Spaulding: You know what's weird? Teddy: What? Spaulding: The rest of the world isn't like that! Teddy: Hmmmmmmm, who's right and who's wrong?! Spaulding: We're right! We're right when we say... Both: It's JUST a ball GAME, Yeeeeeeeeeeesh! Kehehehehehehe Teddy: Soooooooo, until next time...