Below is everything (newest at top) with "family OR " in its title or subcategories. For a strict listing (matching all categories and subcats), click here PARENTS CAN RELOCATE ON A BUDGET WITH THESE THRIFTY MOVING TIPSfrom 2024 in ( family / home-garden / moving )
Embarking on the journey of buying a new home and relocating your family doesn't have to strain your wallet. This article is designed to guide you through efficient strategies to manage your finances during these significant transitions. You'll gain insights on how to approach the home-buying and moving processes in a way that aligns with y... read more MOVING TO MISSOURIfrom 2024 in ( family / holmes / doug / humor )
The adventure begins. A quiet, unassuming young man and his devoted wife and kids set out for parts unknown, unless you count Missouri as known. titleclick for larger view, if available href/images/meme-leaving-california-9d0b10fb1f8b07c20c... read more GOTCHA DAY AND MERRY CHRISTMASfrom 2021 in ( family / adoption / holmes )
Today we were finally able to celebrate Gotcha Day with our now-16-year-old daughter, Elizabeth. She and I both forgot on the actual day, December 10th. Her mom, Tara, remembered but Elizabeth was working late, Tara knew it would not work out, so said nothing. Elizabeth called that night from work, saying No big deal, but we forgot my Gotcha ... read more KEEP YOUR DOG SAFE FROM DOGNAPPINGfrom 2021 in ( family / pets / dogs / advice )
If you're anything like us here at Breed Advisor, we simply can't imagine life without our four-legged family members. That's why we were horrified to learn that approximately 2 million canines are dognapped each year.Sadly, dog abductions have become increasingly common over the past decade. In fact, American Kennel ... read more COUNTERFEIT SERESTO COLLARS LINKED TO PET DEATHS AND INJURIESfrom 2021 in ( family / animals / pets / safety )
If we can't depend on the EPA to warn the public about something so thoroughly documented, should we depend on the agency...Read the activistpost.com/2021/03/flea-collars-linked-to-thousands-of-pet-deaths-and-injuries-to-pets-and-humans-epa-still-wont-warn-public... read more GET RID OF DOG URINE SMELLfrom 2020 in ( family / pets / dogs / advice )
Does your whole house smell like dog urine? If so, you've come to the right place! If a dog hasn't been trained correctly or is suffering from a health problem, it's likely that it won't be able to control itself in the house. If your dog is peeing in the house, make sure not to scold it, but ... read more HIKING WITH ELIZABETH, PART 2from 2019 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )
continued from /pages/hiking-with-elizabethHiking with Elizabeth The scariest part was when we stopped. Then he stopped. I had my phone in hand, looking at the map. There was a tense moment until he smiled and said, Y'all lost?Just trying to find our way back to the parking lot, I said. He walked on ... read more HIKING WITH ELIZABETHfrom 2019 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )Went hiking with my daughter, Elizabeth, yesterday evening. There's a nice little park in Thompson's Station with fairly extensive walking trails on its south end, near the water tower. We saw an owl, so, with her new birthday-gift SLR camera in hand, Elizabeth shushed and gestured for me to stop while she took pictures. She got some ... read more TAKING ELIZABETH TO SKATING PARTYfrom 2017 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )
Preparing to take Elizabeth to a skating party, I said, Here, take some money. Go ask your mom for more. I thought I had at least a $10, but only had $6. When she returned I asked how much she had now. Forty-six dollars.What?! Yeah, I'll need most of that back.... read more ELIZABETH SKIING FOR THE FIRST TIMEfrom 2015 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth / skiing )
It was father-daughter day (for me, my brother, nephew and our daughters) at northstarcalifornia.com/NorthStar ski resort in Lake Tahoe . See ... read more TARA THE HERO CAT ATTEMPTS TO THROW A CEREMONIAL FIRST PITCHfrom 2014 in ( family / pets / cats / dogs )
titleTara the hero cat hrefyoutube.com/watch?vhtgcssmApwWatch Tara the Hero Cat attempt to throw a ceremonial first pitch . The first pitch video is now missing from the Times, so there's now a link to the original news report, although YouTube has marked it offensive to some ... read more BIRTHDAY CARD FROM GRANDPAfrom 2013 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth / birthdays )
Elizabeth received a birthday card from Grandpa today with $20 inside! She said, I love your dad! Tell him thank you very much! Your dad is rich! I wouldn't have thought such an old person would have so much money!... read more SATURDAY WITH ELIZABETHfrom 2010 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )
As Elizabeth likes to say, she and I were hanging out today while Tara had a girls' day out with Ronica. I think Tara's was a belated birthday thing. Hers was on the 10th. Anyway, once Ronica finally called -- after Tara had started to worry -- I was left alone with Elizabeth. We went to the nash... read more A WARNING TO PET OWNERS WITH KIDSfrom 2010 in ( family / holmes / pets / dogs )
I had to take our dog Chandler (my best puppy, the big man, or Chanva as our daughter Elizabeth used to call him) to animalarkanimalhospital.com/the vet Thursday. I had discovered while giving him a bath what looked like a bloody gash on his throat. I was horrified. I literally gasped in shock (I&... read more AN ENTIRE WEEK WITH ELIZABETHfrom 2010 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )
You will not believe what I've been through! :) Okay, maybe it's not been that bad. You single parents out there are laughing at me, I'm sure. But I went an entire week taking care of Elizabeth, our 4-year-old, while Tara not only had to work all week, but also came down with a cold. So, I've had to start her baths -- El... read more AN ENTIRE DAY WITH ELIZABETHfrom 2009 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )
I can't believe I made it. Of course, it's not over yet. It's only dinner time. It's been a LONG day. I'm at McDonald's as I write this. I tried to get online with their free wi-fi, but you have to have an account already before you can use it. Now I know. For some reason, this McDonald's reminded me of the o... read more DOWN BY THE CREEKfrom 2009 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth / bicycles )
Elizabeth and I went down to the creek this cold fall morning. With all the recent rain, Indian and Mill Creeks both had a lot of rushing water. We walked along the edge of Mill Creek. Usually, we stick to the closer Indian Creek. Elizabeth went as far as she could (or wanted to), then I had to carry her. At one point while carrying her, I slipp... read more ONE HOUR WITH ELIZABETHfrom 2009 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )
We had a list of stops to make. First came AceHardware.comAce Hardware for a clothes line and a no-pest-strip. Elizabeth had rediscovered her Barbie electric guitar earlier that day and brought it with her on this trip. She wanted to bring it into the store, she said, so everyone can hear my music. I... read more WALKING THE DOGSfrom 2008 in ( family / holmes / pets / dogs )
It's something I do every night. I actually stopped for several months starting in May, I guess, when my back problems flared up. Then came my knee surgery, which kept me from walking much. Then I got to where I enjoyed not having to walk the dogs every freakin' night of my life. :) But then they started doing their business in the house... read more MORE PICTURES OF ELIZABETH IN CALIFORNIAfrom 2008 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )
See below.... read more A VERY ARTSY PICTURE OF ELIZABETHfrom 2008 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth / photography )
Just because I liked it, I'm posting it here! :) ... read more FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF DAYCAREfrom 2008 in ( family / holmes / elizabeth )
Elizabeth spent her first official full day at kindercare.com/daycare yesterday. The teacher went on and on about how wonderful and good and helpful she was. I say first official day because Tara took her to a free trial day last week. Daycare is probably a lot like the orphanage, which is why she flo... read more RECENT PHOTOS OF ELIZABETHfrom 2008 in ( family / adoption / holmes / elizabeth )
Elizabeth around the house...... read more DOCTORS SAY SHE'S NORMALfrom 2008 in ( family / adoption / holmes )
Tara took Elizabeth to the international adoption specialist doctors today for a psychological evaluation and another physical exam. They say she is perfectly average/normal for a girl her age. Of course, that puts her well above average for a foreign orphan.We think she's better than any other girl her age, but we might be bia... read more LUNCHEON FOR ELIZABETHfrom 2008 in ( family / adoption / holmes / lunch )
I can't believe how nice my coworkers at Franklin are. On Friday, they had a luncheon at work for Elizabeth and Tara. They invited me, too. :) Great food, several gifts, and the biggest surprise: a money tree. Tara and I were speechless at that. It's not like my coworkers have any more spare money than we do. Don't ... read more SUMMARY OF OUR RUSSIAN ADOPTION EXPERIENCEfrom 2008 in ( family / adoption / holmes )
To sum it all up: We love our daughter. Elizabeth is a wonderful, beautiful, intelligent little girl.... read more STILL IN MOSCOWfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We're in a different hotel, the ihg.com/holidayinn/hotels/us/en/Moscow/mowso/hoteldetailHoliday Inn -- Moscow Sokolniki , for the rest of our stay. This is the one that was originally reserved for our return from Astrakhan. It has a reliable internet connection, costs less per night than yesterday... read more RIDING THE METROfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We're going to attempt to ride the Metro subway to history.com/topics/red-squareRed Square today. Wish us luck. The exits aren't numbered, they are listed by name ... in Cyrillic. Of course, the overhead announcements are in Russian. One helpful thing is that the announcements are in a male voic... read more TO THE EMBASSYfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
Our last stop before the airport on the magical mystery tour is the Google.com/maps/place/EmbassyoftheUnitedStates/@55.7560229,37.576976,17z/data!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x46b54bcacb7fc963:0xc2075a0e27388e24!8m2!3d55.7560199!4d37.5791646US Embassy . They will make Elizabeth a US citizen and a registered Repub... read more UPDATE TO THE UPDATE'S UPDATEfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
I went ahead and paid for the 24-hour internet connection from the room. It wasn't even double the cost of one hour. I also swapped out the flaky cable and that seems to have fixed the connection problem. Wrong. I had to call the techs back to fix it. The hotel sure did send up some techs quickly to check it out. Tara and Elizabet... read more RIDING THE METRO, PART DEUXfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )All three of us went to history.com/topics/red-squareRed Square this time. I'm glad Tara was able to see it. Elizabeth was fascinated, too, but probably won't remember a thing. We then had lunch at sbarro.com/Sbarro in the ht... read more JUST ANOTHER WEEK TO GO...from 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )... maybe less! That cheers me up. That's assuming everything goes as planned ... and it WILL. I believe in positive thinking (when I'm desperate, anyway, because it leads to positive actions, which lead to positive results, or at least your chances are better). I don't always practice it, but I try. It doesn't always work, but i... read more PICTURES OF OUR LIFE IN ASTRAKHANfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
Tonight is our last night in Astrakhan. So, I thought I'd post some pictures of where we've been living for the past 19 days. We've had many battles over clothing. She thinks I put too much clothes on her. In the hotel room, she wears her thermals. But, she loves her boots. So, she often walks around in her thermals with her snow ... read more BACK IN MOSCOW (12/18/2007)from 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We made it this far! The plane ride was terrible for several minutes when we had to fasten our seat belts, which Elizabeth did not want to do. She SCREAMED loudly for quite a while, ticking off everyone nearby. Luckily, part of it was drowned out by the sound of the jet engines revving up and taking off. After that, she pooped her pants (I think... read more SLEEP, WHAT A CONCEPTfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
I slept on the floor most of last night. It's a little after 7 a.m. here. Elizabeth refuses to sleep in her crib, even though we're told that's what she slept in at the orphanage. So, she sleeps with us in our bed. That bed is barely big enough for just me and Tara. Anyway, Elizabeth can go to sleep in the bed, but whenever she wakes... read more NOTHING MUCH TO UPDATE ABOUTfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )She's just driving us crazy. Luckily, Tara is taking the brunt of it. I had to get out and walk around town in the freezing cold, just for the sake of getting out. I was at least useful, coming back with some groceries. Elizabeth's sweet as can be and very playful most of the time, but she turns on a dime. The main problem is just kee... read more THE FIRST HOURS OF PARENTHOODfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
Oh my gosh! She's a handful!Well, we left the orphanage without much incident. She told the orphanage staff that she wanted to leave in the car. But, she refused to let me or Bill hold her hand or touch her other than put her snowsuit and boots on. The orphanage director walked her out and then Vika, our interpreter took her from there. S... read more PICTURE OF US BEFORE COURTfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
titleBill and Tara before Court href/images/bill-and-tara-before-court-ce4654969ca069c70e624f0b52e53253-1229x938.webp ...from several days ago, the... read more LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNELfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We visited Elizabeth again today. We caught her when she was in the music room with all the other kids in her age gr... read more SHE'S WARMING UP TO USfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )We had her laughing, smiling and giggling today. I pushed her around on the three-wheeler, then flew her around th... read more IT'S GOING TO BE A GOOD WEEKfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
That's all I wanted to say. :)We had a shortened visit with Elizabeth today because we had to first stop by the ph... read more WENT FOR A WALKfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
... in the freezing cold, we were THAT bored. I'm starting to hate this place. There's just nothing to do wh... read more AND THE JUDGE SAYSfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
She's ours!It's official! Elizabeth is ours. The court hearing went very smooth. It took about an hour and a half. There was a judge, prosecutor, a rep from the Child protective services, and the Minister of Education. They had a lot of questions about our parenting style, our finances and guardianship of her in the event of both our ... read more BACK IN ASTRAKHANfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We made it to Astrakhan, but I've lost my immigration form that goes with the passport and visa. It's just a little sheet that they have you fill out on the airplane before you land. If I'd known it was so important, I would have stapled it into the passport instead of just sliding it in there. It's not the end of the world, but ... read more IN THE AIR AGAINfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
Sunday, November 25, 2007, 5:00pm CSTWe're in the air on our way back to Moscow. Delta Flight 46. The current in-flight movie is Evan Almighty, which we saw on one of our other flights to or from Moscow last time. You know, when you jet back and forth like we do, you forget exactly which flight it was. :) I guess it's rentable, but ... read more BACK IN MOSCOW (11/26/2007)from 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We made it. The flight was horrible. I think I slept about 30 seconds out of the 11 hour flight. It was not a full flight, and half the people around us were able to take up two or three seats, but we weren't quick enough. The other movie on the flight was imdb.com/title/tt0435705/?refnmflmgact58... read more BACK IN ATLANTAfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We're in the Atlanta airport now! Good to be on US soil, except that they keep mentioning George Bush (... as in the Houston Airport). :) It's 1:45a.m. Moscow time right now (5:45p.m. EDT), but I'm not tired. I'm anxious to catch the flight to Nashville. Customs and security here in Atlanta is sooo much smoother than Russia, th... read more THURSDAY IN ASTRAKHANfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
First things first: Our little girl is warming up to Tara. She gave her a kiss yesterday, I think without even being asked. Now, for some more random thoughts:Before I forget to mention it, I need to tell you what happened Tuesday. I think it was Tuesday. My whole sense of time is pretty messed up. Anyway, it was a momentous day. Yeah, yea... read more LAST VISIT FOR A WHILEfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We'll be leaving in a few minutes for our last visit to the orphanage this trip. I'm practicing asking for my baggage back from the hotel baggage room. Baggage actually sounds like boggage. Please is pa-ZHAL-sta. Fascinating, I know. I thought about getting a parting video shot of the lobby as we sit here waiting for our ride. But th... read more WEDNESDAY IN ASTRAKHANfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We just got back from today's first visit with the child (we're not supposed to mention her name online). We'll be going back this afternoon. In the meantime, Tara's trying to catch up on her sleep. She had woken up around 5 this morning. I was able to sleep until almost 8. The girl (hopefully soon to be known as our... read more SIGHTS OF ASTRAKHANfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )I'm attaching pictures we made of Astrakhan and our room. We are staying at the Hotel Azimut in Astrakhan. They are going through major renovations right now. It's kind of funny to see the interior design mix. The lobby is decorated in Art Deco while the rooms are decorated in traditional Russian decor like lace curtains, handblown gl... read more WE'RE IN ASTRAKHANfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )After a nerve-wracking trip to the airport and getting through the airport security we finally made it to our plane. We were told that our Rep, Galina, would be flying with us. We never saw her until we were already on the plane. She was one of the last passengers on the plane, she saw us and gestured to Bill. He figured it was Galina. Her seat ... read more FIRST TIME IN MOSCOWfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
Well, we made it to Moscow!After a long plane trip, we managed to get through passport control and customs with no problems. And all of our luggage made it!Our CHI Rep and driver were late getting to the airport and we were worried, but they did eventually show up. We got our first taste of traffic, and let me go on record to say -- I will... read more LINKS TO ALL HOLMES FAMILY ADOPTION POSTSfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
This Time Next Week -- I'm happy to say that this time next week, we will be in Astrakhan, Russia! We leave the States on Friday, September 28 and arrive in Moscow on the 29th. Depending upon the schedule of the flights to Astrakhan, we may have to stay in Moscow one night or we will board another plane on Saturday...... read more WE'RE IN MOSCOWfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
We'll be spending the night in Moscow, after all, and flying down to Astrakhan tomorrow afternoon. I was stressed out without an internet or even a usable power connection. But I'm obviously connected now. I had the power converters, but not the three-prong-to-two-prong adapter that I have plenty of at home. We ran into another cou... read more PREPARATION FOR OUR FIRST TRIP TO RUSSIAfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes )
Tuesday morning. Everyone's still asleep except for me, the pug Joey and /images/joey-sitting-on-sunny-6afdc8ccb5326aafb14879a792eb290a-540x960.webpthe cat Sunny . In preparation for our trip, I'm trying to reacquaint myself with the digital cameras, video and still. I would've put Joey's and Sunny&#... read more IN THE AIRfrom 2007 in ( family / adoption / holmes / travel )
28 Sept -- 3:55pm CDT -- We're in the air on our way to Moscow. A little bit of good news is that it's only a 10 hour flight instead of 12 as we had thought.... read more ELEANOR AND LIONELfrom 2001 in ( family / holmes / lionel / obituaries )
Eleanor's back surgery was a success!Everyone warned me against back surgery, she says. But, I'd be in a wheelchair now if I hadn't had surgery!titleThis link IS safe, despite that 'signature' warning some browsers/antiviruses give. href/o-prog.htmlO ... read more |
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