Change for Change - Holiday Basket Program 2006

The kids' school has an annual one week "Change for Change" fundraiser to help needy families in the local community, and Stacey is chairing it this year. She has come up with a number of improvements and incentives, and so far participation from students and administration has been very good! We're really proud to see Christopher offering a couple dollars (not just change!) of his own hard-earned money every day! Kelly has not been moved in the same way, but she's definitely contributing as well. Last year it took literally months to count all the change - this year, with Stacey's initiative to get a generous donation from the local Albertson's market, all the change will probably be counted the same day the event ends!!! Hope you have something local you can do to take your mind off yourself and help others out as well.

A Giga-Thanks Giving

Thanksgiving Day - we got together with the Montheiths at their home in Orange County, CA - great food, great fellowship, and "giga-exhaustion"! We decided to break out one of the prizes our kids won from the recent school fundraiser many of you helped us with - the GigaBall! 2 hours (or more) of pumping action (25 or more chambers the size of large beachballs), and voila! Kids climb in, roll around, run like hampsters, and more. Only one small hole in it by the end of the day. They had a blast, but between pumping and pushing, Robert probably got the biggest workout from it.




Kelly, Emily, Christopher and Elizabeth in a rare still moment.

The First (Grade) Thanksgiving

Tuesday, one class of Pilgrims and one class of Indians / Native Americans met to share the First (Grade) Thanksgiving Feast. The parents put on a great spread for the kids, and a good time was had by all - hope your Thanksgiving gave you plenty to give thanks for this year!

What is Meadeumms?

Some of you may be asking yourself, "Self, why did the Meade family choose such a bizarro link for their blog? What is a blog? Why am I talking to myself?"

Well, if you asked these or other questions, you're in good company. Referencing the title, I will only be answering the first question. Wikipedia claims there are over 60,000,000 blogs, each with a unique name, so pretty much all the obvious choices have been taken. However, I was able to come up with 3 finalists:

PancakeORamaFest - Pros: friendly, yummy sounding, exciting. Cons: references activities of a past life, somewhat longish.

Meadean - Pros: serious, semi-palindromic. Cons: not yummy, sounds like something involving road kill.

Meadeumms - Pros: friendly, yummy sounding, stammering in a folksy way. Cons: None, so it won!

Although the die is cast, if you want to vote for one of the others, or if you've the 60,000,002nd best choice for a name, add it to the comments!

Welcome to Blogdom

Hi - I've been talking forever about starting one or more blogs, so here is the inaugural posting. I've loved reading the blogs of other friends and acquaintances, so it's time to share the love. Let us know if you stop by, or if you use the incredible RSS feed to automatically receive updates.

Big news - we're printing the 6th annual family newsletter on good old fashioned paper once again as I type. I'm sure that how you found this site (if you're reading it in 2006, that is), so welcome!