December 31st, 2009

Since it is New Year’s Eve, I thought I would write a little retrospective post. I’m going to admit that as a bear, I don’t really spend a lot of time pondering about what I could have done different. It’s impossible to go back in time and redo anything, so why worry about it!

I wish that we had some New Years traditions. Sullivan had a special kind of pastry called ‘oliebol.’ They look pretty good. Here we could go partying, but Mom’s not a big partying person. If we can stay awake long enough, we are going to watch the fireworks that are going to happen over our local park. But this is the first year that is going to happen, so that’s only a possible tradition. Our friend Hammie has made a nice New Year sign—which I like! :-) (Those flowers are as artistic as my mom gets! She’s much more into books and playing on the computer!)

I did make a lot of new friends through my blog, and found the Bear Club and the Bear Place. I’ve met many new friends via those websites. I am turning out to be quite the cyber bear!

December 30th, 2009

I am really glad that Mom found Caleb. I was really worried that something had happened to him. Compared to the other plushies that I know, he’s so small. Robinson has Stegner, but he keeps him tied to him with a bright red ribbon. I asked Mom if I should have a bright red ribbon of my own to tie Caleb to me. She said that Caleb is quite a bit bigger then Stegner and therefore quite a bit heavier.

In celebration of Caleb’s return to me, Mom took some new pictures of us together. Mom is still trying to figure out the new camera. She says that some of the photos she has been taking aren’t very good, but I don’t think it matters much.

I’ve been reading the blogs of different plushies that have been on grand travels over this holiday season. Mabel Bearingsley went to San Diego and met some of her relatives.  (My relatives come from China. Besides Foster, I don’t think I will meet as many of them as Mabel did!) Teddy and Nibs are spending a wonderful time in San Francisco! It led me to think about where I would want to travel. Mom wants to go to England to visit some of the places that her favorite authors lived. I don’t know where I would want to go. I’d go wherever Mom wants to go, of course.

I found another place for plushies to hang out on the internet. I found it through Bernard and Sleepy Hippo’s blog. It is much like the Bear Club. It is called the BearPlace. It’s sort of like a Facebook or other social networking site but it is made especially for plushies. I don’t know how it is going to go—I made my profile, posted a few pictures, and introduced myself on the forum. I added some kind of application that posts my blog posts from here. I would upload more pictures, but Mom says that adding them one by one is too time consuming right now. So I added more pictures to my Picasa album instead. Mom found a program through her Firefox browser that uploads pictures to various photo sharing websites. It’s called FireUploader and she showed me how to use it. It’s very easy and I can do it without much typing—since it mostly uses the mouse! I’m afraid I might go through some of our really old photos and upload them since it’s so much easier now! It goes really fast, even with our old dial-up connection!

December 28th, 2009

Mom found Caleb! Caleb is my teddy bear, and for the past week or so, he went missing! He is almost always near me or one of my friends, so we were very worried. Did the dog get him? Did someone take him? He’s Mom’s travel bear—did he get left behind? Even when I’m doing things with Mom—like helping her with homework, one of my friends keeps track of him—not to mention that he’s certainly able to keep track of himself.

It turns out that he decided to go and explore the other side of the bed. He couldn’t get back up! He admits that it was not the best decision he ever made, but is very glad that Mom found him and returned him to the group. Mom says that maybe he needs to be put on a leash like a little child in large crowds so he doesn’t get lost again! I think she was teasing. He didn’t find it too funny. If he goes exploring again, I may have to agree with her!

December 27th, 2009

It has been a few days since I’ve had time to post. Mom has been very busy with work and Christmas. Her little sister has come home for the holidays, so it has been pretty busy that way too. She did go up north today to be by her extended family, but I couldn’t go with. She had to go to work afterwards and did not want to make me stay in her backpack for that entire time.  I told her that I wouldn’t mind, but she decided that I should stay home anyways. Instead, she said that if it is not snowing on Monday, she will take me outside and we can take some pictures with the snow.

I didn’t get as cool presents for Christmas as some of my blogging friends did, but I am still happy. Besides the costumes I got from Build-a-Bear, I also got lots of candy and chocolate. I like my mom’s new camera. This is a photo of the Christmas tree that is in the parlor. My mom’s mom really likes Christmas trees. We have two big ones and two small ones in the house now. They sparkle with all the pretty lights, so that makes me very happy. Sometimes we sit in the dark and look at the pretty lights on the Christmas trees before we go to sleep. Of all the things that could last all year long, Christmas lights would be the best. Maybe Christmas cookies would be the second best thing to last all year long! Yum!

December 23rd, 2009

We’re going to have an even whiter Christmas then anyone wants this year. I live in Wisconsin, which is the little mitten shaped state near the middle of the country. The Weather Channel website says that we’re going to get anywhere from one to  six inches of snow. My Mom’s sister is already on her way home from Minnesota, so the weather shouldn’t make much of a difference. However, any travel plans for the next couple of days might be messed up. It turns out that my mom’s family is going to gather for Christmas on Saturday—and she unfortunately has to work.  Since she wasn’t exactly looking forward to going, she doesn’t mind—however it will stop my car ride up north! I’ve been traveling with her when she goes up there. I enjoy it—so I’m kind of disappointed. However, I’m sure she’ll go up there again soon!

December 18th, 2009

This is our new friend, Sarina! Mom found her at Goodwill yesterday. She is an unicorn from Build-a-Bear. She joins our four-legged horse family of Zelda, Strawberry, Pirouette, Harrison, and Washington. They came downstairs to greet her and we had a lot of fun.

We watched some television. Since it was our little party, Mom let us chose what we watched. It was hard to agree when there were so many of us. We all like Mom’s Food Network shows, but we thought that since we finally got to chose that we should chose something different. Do you argue with your friends? Our argument never got too angry. We ended up deciding to watch the Discovery Channel. It is hard to decide what to watch when there are both boys and girls—and no cartoons to watch! Sometimes, it’s better when Mom makes the decision for us! 

These pictures are taken with Mom’s new camera. It is a Christmas present from her parents. She says that you can only see the difference between her old camera, which she bought nearly four years ago, and the new one on pictures that are closer up. I like the noises it makes—and the fact that it makes Mom very happy to have a new camera. It also encourages her to take more pictures, and that might mean more adventures!

December 16th, 2009

My mom bought my friends and I a present yesterday. It is a brand new book! It is called Teddy Helps! and it is by a lady named Alison Reynolds and illustrated by Lee Krutop. Robinson, Stegner, Caleb and I read it last night. It is about a little bear named Teddy who does not want to help his friends make a tree house. I won’t tell you the rest of it so you will read it for yourselves. 

Mom lets us read all sorts of books. Do you have a favorite book? I’ve got lots of favorite books! I find it hard to chose just one. My favorites include the Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster, Zen Shorts by Jon Muth, and Toot and Puddle: Wish You Were Here by Holly Hobbie. 

Mom has a lot of books from when she was a little girl that she lets us read. We’ve got a pretty extensive library around here—well, at least for bears it seems extensive. I want to go to the library someday. It is probably my dream trip. Granted, Mom would have to go to the library as well—and she hasn’t gone to a library that has children’s books in it for a long time. (Her school library does not.) Mom says that she does not go to the library because she can never remember to return the books she rented. In fact, she has some books that she must return from the school’s library. I think that is going to be Monday’s must do!

Mom is done with her chemistry class. Her final was tonight, so my job as the chemistry homework bear is done. I must have been a pretty good homework bear, because she is getting a good grade and finished all of her homework.  I am glad for her—while she seemed to understand the homework, it caused her much grief. Now it is done and she can spend more time with us! I know I am looking forward to more time with Mom now that she is almost done with school.  We will get to watch a little more TV. (We can’t operate the remote when she’s gone—too big fingers for too little buttons.) And she’ll buy us more books to read. It will be great fun!

 

December 12th, 2009

I wrote in my notebook journal today. I keep on forgetting that I am trying to write in a paper journal. Obviously, I remember to write here on my blog well enough! Mom says that maybe we have to put the journal out where we see it so we remember better.  I think it is fun to write in the real journal, even if no one really reads it like this blog. I guess that’s the point to writing in  your own private journal.

Mom found Foster some pajamas, so now he’s all decked out like Milton, Robinson and I. We’re all snuggled up and protected against the chilly Wisconsin winter air. Foster was kind of worried about losing his comfortable overalls and shirt that he has been wearing for a while. Mom reassured him that he could wear them whenever he wanted to. It’s just much more comfy to lounge around in pajamas! I am a fan of fancy clothes on occasion, but I admit I am much more happy wearing my pajamas!

We are still enjoying the snow here. Technically, it’s going to get to above freezing later in the weekend, so the snow may not last. Granted, the weather forecasters are sometimes wrong, so who knows what is going to happen. I like the snow! It’s very Christmas-y and makes the cold seem more tolerable! Much more festive! Mom tells me that people don’t like the snow because of what it does to the roads when they drive—so I’m happy that I don’t drive so I don’t have to worry about those things!

Milton, Robinson, and I spend a lot of time sitting on the couch waiting for Mom to come home from work. We talk about different things—and yesterday we spent quite a bit of time talking about something that I mentioned in a previous post—cookies! My favorite cookies—mostly because they’re Mom’s favorite cookies—are double chocolate cookies. Robinson says that he likes molasses cookies, but he admits that it has a lot to do with the fact that he’s a horse—but a horse plushie and rarely gets molasses like most horses do. Milton likes plain chocolate chip cookies. Milton says that he is a simple bear and likes simple things. Do you like a certain kind of cookie?

December 10th, 2009

It has finally snowed in Wisconsin. Well, it snowed yesterday mostly. Mom actually had a day off school. She already had the day off, but they did close the place that she works too!

This is a picture from last year, but it pretty much looked the same outside on Wednesday. Mom says that she is going to try to take more pictures tomorrow when she gets out of work. Wednesday was much too cold to go outside! Maybe I can convince her to let me go outside with her. I’ve got plenty of cold weather gear! I’ll even tolerate being wrapped up in a blanket if it means that I get to go outside for a while.  I love going outside and seeing new things!

We have two new friends here. Their names are Azalea and Heloise. Mom found them at Goodwill a few days ago. Azalea is an orange bear—Mom thinks that she is an autumn bear--- and Heloise is a ‘hip’ hippo. My Picasa folder about my friends says that we are up to 98 friends and family here in Greenville. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by such great friends—and to have my Mom find new ones all the time!

December 7th, 2009

Mom bought cookies yesterday, and today she shared them with us! Milton, Robinson, Caleb, Stegner, and I got to enjoy the cookies. They’re not as good as homemade Christmas cookies, but we’re pretty happy with them! We’ve decided that the thing that makes Christmas cookies better is the frosting and the sprinkles.  Almost anything cake or cookie related is made better with either sprinkles or frosting. We spent some time discussing what frosting we liked the most—and came up with chocolate. Milton likes ‘funfetti’ frosting a lot, while Robinson likes vanilla. But we all can agree on chocolate frosting.

Mom doesn’t think that I introduced Stegner. Stegner is Robinson’s bear. He came from the Mayville Company. He’s supposed to be a dollhouse bear. We’ve collectively decided that it must be a big dollhouse! Stegner is kind of shy, but so is Robinson. He spends a lot of his time quietly watching what happens around us. Caleb enjoys having a bear his size around all the time. They’re beginning to be friends much like Robinson and I are.

December 5th, 2009

When I checked my blogger dashboard today, I noticed that this will be my 100th post! It has taken me nearly four years and plenty of hiatuses to get here! I think it’s a cause for celebration! My first blog entry was on October 25, 2005.  It’s amazing how many things have changed since then. At that point, my plushie family was Chloe, Charlotte, and Robinson. Now I’ve got plenty more friends and Foster came home to be my brother! This is one of the first pictures that Mom took of me. It’s dated October 23rd, 2005. When I came to live with Mom, she didn’t have a camera. This picture was taken with her first digital camera—it was a clearance model she bought at her work. Her current one takes much better pictures! Maybe I can convince her to take a redo of this photo now, four years later!

At that point, I didn’t have any people reading my blog. It was just for me and my mom. Now all you guys read it. I also have made many more friends online. It is a much bigger world then I ever thought was possible! I would have never thought that so many plushies have blogs, Twitter pages, and Facebook pages! It’s amazing what else could be out there waiting for me to find it!

 

December 2nd, 2009

We had a package come to our house today. It was from Build-a-Bear! It contained many different things! The most important is our new friend, Grant. He is a lil chocolate cub—version 2, I guess. Stevenson, another of my friends here, is a lil’ chocolate cub as well and he doesn’t look anything like Grant. Grant is a smaller bear—compared to the 18 inch bears at least. He doesn’t fit the firefighter outfit that Mom found for him. She is going to get something smaller for him later so he doesn’t look like he is drowning in his clothes! He says that he does not mind being a firefighter bear, as long as there are not any fires to fight! As a whole, I don’t think many plushies actually to be anywhere near a fire.

The next things that were inside the box are for all of us, although Mom took my picture to model them. Mom ended up getting the Jedi Knight outfit and a English riding habit. I think they are both pretty cool. What amazed me is that both of them came with tights! I don’t think boys wear tights! Mom says that the riding pants are jodhpurs, not tights, but still!  Do you think that Obi-wan wore tights?! The pants that came with the Star Wars outfit were especially uncomfortable!

Mom told me that I shouldn’t actually ride any of our four footed horse friends in the English riding habit—although Washington has a saddle. At least right now—I shouldn’t go by myself. She says that I could possibly fall off and hurt myself! Sometimes I’m pretty clumsy, so I understand why she wants me to be safe. She said that perhaps—if Washington or one of the other horses doesn’t mind, we could work on a walk around the house or something like that. They’re my friends first, so I don’t want them to have to carry me around!

How is your Christmas preparations going? Our Grandma has been putting up Christmas trees. We’ve got three of them in our house, including one that is nearly bear sized. I do love the Christmas lights. We have been listening to Josh Groban’s Christmas album. It seems not to annoy Mom too much—but makes Robinson and the other plushies who like Christmas music happy. Mom has bought some Christmas presents for her family and friends, but hasn’t wrapped them yet. Some of my internet friends, Teddy and Nibs, have been shopping for Christmas presents. Christmas is getting closer and closer!

November 26th, 2009

Much like my friend here, Buttons BeCause, I’ve decided to write a little post about what I am thankful for on this fine Thanksgiving day. Mom says that it is important to keep these things in mind. We have read  books about Thanksgiving and I know that I should be glad for what I have! I would never be able to live like the Pilgrims did! No electricity!? Not to say that besides the house and outside, none of these things even existed when they were around! I am not meant to be a bear who needs to ‘rough it!’ I am definitely a bear suited to more modern conveniences! (Mom says that she’s a human who is suited to modern conveniences, so it all works out!)

I am thankful for:

• My family—even if Chloe sometimes drives me crazy with her girly-ness and Foster ignores me.
• My friends—makes long days very interesting!
• Princess, our dog!
• Books!
• Our house! It’s much warmer inside!
• Outside—nature, and trees and the such!
• Naps! And blankets!
• The computer and the internet—it brought me to meet all of you!
• Cookies and chocolate.
• Television.
• And many other things!

Can you think of anything else I’ve forgotten? What are you all thankful for!

November 23rd, 2009

My Mom has discovered something new. It’s called a MyLiveSignature and it’s pretty nifty! It’s basically a picture of my signature! Well, it’s not my real signature, but the one that Mom and I chose to be most like it. I’ve seen some of the people who appear in my Google Reader have their signatures.

Mom gathered Robinson and his family downstairs tonight. The picture is Robinson on the upper left, Hyacinth next to him, and then Friday sitting on the first row and Saffron. They have decided that Saffron is Hyacinth’s cousin, and therefore Robinson and Friday’s. We like keeping things straight around here! It does make Robinson the older brother of sorts (he is Friday’s older brother) of three plushies! Maybe I should be glad that I am the middle brother. On occasion, Foster and Mom want me to make sure that Chloe stays out of trouble! Robinson has to watch three! (Mom and all of us other plushies watch all the little folk as a group most of the time!)

Mom is currently on Build-a-Bear.com. She wants the Jedi Knight Star Wars costume. Our BAB is not one of the select stores that are supposed to carry. She says that I can help her look, but she doesn’t want me to know how she is going to pay for it. She says that she sees tales on some of the mailing lists of plushies and other companions buying things with their mom or dad’s credit cards! I would never do that—but I admit it would be VERY tempting!

November 22nd, 2009

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here! Mom found some Build-a-Bear clothes at Goodwill today. Some of them were Santa Claus clothes! I can look like Santa for a while now! I feel very festive in my new jacket! There was a hat too. I even have black boots somewhere—and although I don’t have red pants—I could dress up like Santa! Hm! The possibilities! Maybe I should say ho, ho, ho!

My mom feels better. The ideas that you gave me helped. She likes chicken soup—she said that it was nice that I thought of her! I told her that it was part of my job as her bear and she smiled!

In the bag of clothes that Mom found at Goodwill, there was a very large (at least in bear terms) red sweater. It turned out to be Build-a-Bear. Mom gave it to Charlotte, who is one of the biggest girls that we have here. It has a white heart on it so it’s not suited too well for a boy bear.

What do you like the most about Christmas? I think I like the Christmas lights the most. I hope I get to go here this winter. Mom saw the advertisement while she was at our local mall.  There is supposed to even be a horse drawn wagon ride. I think it sounds great!

Robinson says that he likes Christmas music, while Milton says that he likes all the Christmas trees and their ornaments. Chloe says that she likes the glittery dresses and the shiny tinsel that people put on trees. Our house isn’t set up for Christmas quite yet though. Mom says that it will probably start after Thanksgiving. Our grandma believes in one holiday at a time! Mom says that if it was Christmas all year long it wouldn’t mean the same, but I’m not quite so sure about that. I don’t think you can ever have enough sparkly lights! I think a big part of it is that Mom doesn’t appreciate Christmas quite as much as your average bear due to her years of retail experience! Maybe this year will be different! We can only hope.

November 20th, 2009

My mom and I helped my little sister Chloe set up her own blog on the Bear Club. I wanted her to stop asking me to post things on here—and Mom wanted her to have some place safe to write. She says that it is best for a little girl bear to have some place where things are read over before they’re allowed to be posted. It’s a mom thing, I guess.  But now instead of asking me to post things on this blog, she’s annoying me about checking her blog for comments. Sigh. Sisters!

Mom went to Build-a-Bear yesterday. She bought some clothes for the girls, but also bought me a new jacket. It’s supposed to be related to their Hal and Holly Moose movie. It feels down-filled and very warm. It also came with some very cool goggles. Mom says that they are skiing goggles. I told her that now she has to buy me some skis! She said that we’d wait till there’s snow on the ground and then she’d consider! But with the way the weather is like around here in Wisconsin, we’ll have quite a wait! I think I should get them now and practice skiing on piles of blankets, but she doesn’t think so! (Although BAB does have a snowboard. Hm!)

My mom has a cold. I am glad that bears don’t get colds. She seems to be pretty miserable unless she takes some medicine. I try to do my best to help her, but sometimes she does have to go to work—where I cannot go. Well, I have gone to her work once, but I had to stay in her backpack. (I did provide support, but it’s hard to really help.) I’m in charge of the regular bear duties—like comfort when Mom’s sick, but with the added on task of Kleenex supply. (It does get me off homework bear duty though—she’s in no mood to do chemistry!) What do you bears do to help your moms or dads through sickness?

November 14th, 2009

Things have been pretty quite around here lately. Mom finished uploading all the pictures to the Picasa folder and has labeled everyone. She’s been spending a lot of time at work. I hope that this Christmas season goes by quickly! It stresses her out a lot.

In an attempt to help Mom feel better, we decided that I would share a happy story with you. A few weeks ago, Mom found a Build-a-Bear at Goodwill that looked awfully familiar. On a whim, she brought him home. It turned out that the bear’s name was Gabriel, and he was the long-lost brother of one of my friends in our family, Pamela. They were very glad to see each other! Don’t they look happy! Mom was glad to be able to reunite a family!

It was kind of like when Mom found Friday, Robinson’s little brother—or Hyacinth, their cousin! Mom recently found a horse that might be their cousin as well—they’ve been trying to figure out how they might be related. It seems like a lot of Build-a-Bear plushies are related! Her name is Saffron. Unfortunately, there really doesn’t seem to be a registry for plushies like there is for human births, so they’ve got to somehow figure it out.  I think she kind of looks like both Robinson and Friday and Hyacinth, so I think they’re related. She actually kind of looks like she’s part Robinson’s family and part Hyacinth’s family! What do you think? Granted, it really doesn’t matter! We’re all part of the big family no matter what.

We are making plans for Thanksgiving. Since some of my friends are birds, we really can’t have turkey. We’ve decided that potatoes, stuffing, and other vegetables are good though. Does your family have any plans? Mom and her parents are going to go up north to be with her grandmother on Thanksgiving day. I hope I get to go with like I did at the birthday party. That was grand fun!

We’re currently watching a special on the Food Network about the history behind the traditional meal of Thanksgiving. It’s making us very hungry! Mom especially wants stuffing, while I’m tempted by the green bean casserole. It’s so long until Thanksgiving! Mom says that it’s the same kind of food that they will serve at Christmas, so we’ll get two times to eat all that good stuff!

November 10th, 2009

Mom goes to school on most days of the week. Apparently, school for older people like her don’t last the entire day from start to finish. She’s got breaks in between classes. Today I’ve talked her into continuing on the folder on Picasa with photos of my friends who live her with me. She started last night, but things will go much faster with the school’s zooming internet connection. It’s mostly my Build-a-Bear friends, but it is a start!

She got about twenty of them uploaded. Her two final classes of the day were cancelled, so she came home instead. You have to have a Picasa account to view these pictures—we don’t want just anyone to see our photos. We’re not quite sure what link to share, but we’re hoping this one works.

Mom figured out how to make more pictures upload at once, so it will probably be finished sometime tonight. She says that the captions will have to wait until tomorrow. I’ll find more pictures of my friends to upload later, but these are the first batch. One day a few months ago, Mom brought almost everyone downstairs and took their picture. It was only almost everyone, so there are a few plushies whose pictures I will have to find in a different folder somewhere.

We have been mostly just lounging around. It has been unseasonably warm around here lately. It reached into the high fifties today. We sat out on the porch for a little bit. Mom then wanted to take a nap so we came back inside. I’m hoping that tomorrow after she gets done with school we can sit outside again. I know that it will soon be too cold to spend much time outside—at least without lots of layers of clothes. I guess with the cold will come snow! I do like to play in the snow!

The top photo is a part our World Wildlife Foundation family. Edwin, Eira, Daisy, Garnet, Zelda, and Charlotte are in this photo. It’s missing Lennox the lion and Timber the Wolf (he wasn’t here yet!) though. The second picture is our Kennel Pal family. Lincoln, Clover, Bernard, Harding, and Dutchess are in that photo. Reagan the beagle arrived in our family after we took the photo. Mom really likes sharing pictures of all of us! We’ve got such a big, great family that she likes to share! Does your mom or dad like to share pictures?

November 8th, 2009

Gosh, it’s so nice to have Fred-the-laptop back. Mom is in such a better mood when she’s got a a working computer to play with. She still glares at him occasionally, and saved her last homework assignment on her thumb-drive thing, but she’s getting better. I think she’ll feel a lot better with it all once she gets the portable hard-drive backup program working. Then she won’t worry about losing her work.

Tonight, after doing her homework, she was showing me how to add plug-ins on our Windows Live Writer. We’ve got our Wikipedia link plug-in and I picked a smiley one—but it’s broken. I will try to download another plug-in later.

This is a picture of some apples that grew on one of our trees out front. It was a little tree—probably no more than eight feet tall. It had the largest apples in the entire orchard! Mom took me outside to see them—they were the nicest colors. A lot of the other trees’ apples had worm holes in them. (No one sprays them for that sort of thing.) This tree’s apples were almost all perfect! We ate one—well, I had a little piece because I am a little bear and it was very good.

November 6th, 2009

Ta-da! I shall be posting again. Mom says that I am cursing the luck that we have had with our recovered computer, but I think she’s getting a bit paranoid! It turned out that our computer died because the hard drive failed. Most of her files were backed up on a portable hard drive, but it’s still kind of annoying. The laptop, whose name is Fred, is on Mom’s short list. I’m not quite sure what this means, but Mom seems to glare at it.

Not many interesting things have happened since my last post. Mom’s life has been revolving around school, getting her computer back, and work. I hope to post more pictures and the such. Mom did start a folder in Picasa account related to this blog about my friends. She only has a few pictures in there. As time progresses—and she has time at work and school, she’ll post more pictures!

I think that I ought to let her post this and go to bed. I’m awfully tired!

November 2nd, 2009

This is our new friend, Meredith. I mentioned her in the post from a few days ago. She is a very nice girl bear, but very quiet. Chloe tells me that she is intimidated by all the new plushies. She has never met so many new friends before. Chloe reassured her that we were all very nice, but I guess it will take her a while to really get used to us. Mom reminded me that some plushies come from one bear families and do not have as many friends or siblings as we do. I hope that she will learn that we are all very nice soon! I like making new friends. She seems to like Chloe a great deal, so I guess we can start there.

Mom found a red tree! Well, it’s more of a red bush. They are called ‘burning bushes’ or eastern wahoo. They spend most of their year being an ordinary green bush—nothing too special at all. But then during fall, they turn a brilliant shade of red. Mom found this bush near her school.  It has stayed bright red for quite some time. Mom is very impressed!

How was your Halloween? Ours was pretty calm. Mom had to work during the day, but by the time that any trick-or-treating would have happened, it was raining. I do love candy, but it’s not worth going out in the rain. Especially when Mom’s got plenty of candy here! No trick-or-treaters braved the elements and our long driveway to come to get any candy! We did all get dressed up in our costumes. It would have been a waste to not use them somehow!

What is your favorite kind of candy? We’ve had plenty of different choices in the past couple of days. Grandma bought Nestle crunch bars and M&Ms for any trick-or-treaters, and Mom’s got Dove dark chocolate pieces for herself. I think that I like M&Ms the best—but don’t tell Mom. Her favorite is the dark chocolate pieces.

Most of the leaves are gone on the trees surrounding the house. It’s kind of pretty—in a desolate kind of way. We can also now see the road—which is useful when you are waiting for Mom’s cab. Granted, the evergreens that are in front of the barn cover the view of the road from the direction that they come—so it’s not quite as useful as we’d hope!

November 1st 2009

My  mom is typing this for me. I wrote it down on a piece of paper, and she brought it to work with her so she could send this in via her work’s internet connection. Mom’s laptop is still broken—and the one that we had used to post the last entry isn’t too happy either. Fortunately, Mom took her mom’s functioning laptop to work today—and now our Windows Live Writer is set up.

This is my new outfit. Mom bought it for me so I’d have something different to sleep in. It’s very nice and warm. The label on it said that it was a track suit. I’m not quite sure what I am supposed to be tracking, but Mom says that it doesn’t matter. I think it looks awfully spiffy! Mom didn’t take a picture of any of the girls wearing their new outfit—mostly because she hasn’t had the chance. It’s a very nice blue dress, but I like my track suit more!

This is one of my new friends. He’s not a Build-a-Bear—he’s a Russ Berrie. We decided to post a picture of him because he looks a lot like a friend of ours named Behr. He has a blog that he shares with several other travel bears at New Mexico Travel Bear. My new bear’s name is Coffee. Mom thinks that Coffee is a little bit bigger then Behr, but they share the same maker! I’m glad that Coffee came to our home. He is from a thrift store. Mom rescued him along with another bear.

Mom will post more pictures later. She will at least post some of them to the Picasca site related to this blog. I don’t know when Mom’s computer will come back from the fixing shop, but I hope soon! I miss writing on my blog all the time! I also like reading other plushies’ blogs! I guess some good things have come with the lack of computer. We’ve been watching movies, reading more books, and talking a lot more. Mom says that it is good to break some of our dependence on the computer—but I’m not sure how much fun that is!

October 30th, 2009

I've been away for the week because my Mom's laptop is sick. It's at the computer fixing place right now. On Sunday, it decided that it wanted some time off-- or a trip to the computer fixing place, I guess. Mom says that she doesn't have the patience to make this blog entry pretty with pictures tonight. We're typing this on her mom's old laptop. Tomorrow, Mom says that she will download the Windows Live Writer thing onto her USB memory thing and we can write a nicer entry.

Things have been pretty quiet around here. We did get some new clothes a few days ago that I will share with you when I'm back online regularly. (She bought the girls a new dress too-- so it's all of us!) We have a new Build-a-Bear friend named Meredith that came to live with us from Goodwill. We haven't been on many new adventures-- mostly because Mom's been bummed about the malfunctioning computer.

I'll get back to posting comments on blogs and the such when we're sure we've got a home connection to the internet. This is from my Grandma's old laptop-- and it died once so it got replaced. Neither Mom or I remember exactly what happened, so we're not going to place all of our hopes on it yet.

October 21st, 2009

I have decided—well Mom and I have decided what I am going to wear for Halloween. In tribute to my mom’s upcoming college graduation, I am going to be a graduate for Halloween. At Build-a-Bear, Mom found a black cap and gown for me to wear which will be much like hers! The hat doesn’t quite fit, but I don’t think it would really fit anyone around here—at least without bobby pins and a great deal of luck. Since my fur isn’t really long enough to keep a bobby pin in, I’m going to have to deal with the awkward hat! Mom says that on Halloween, I can wear some of my fancy shoes and it will make it seem even more official!

Mom had her chemistry mid-term tonight. This will give her a weekend off chemistry homework, and therefore a weekend off from my duties as a homework bear. It will give me time to get to know some of our new bears. Mom has brought Taft downstairs today. He told us about some of the stories that he had from previous homes. Taft says that his last home was a very nice place, but the little boy who made him got too old for bears. He said that he used to miss the little boy when he was waiting at Goodwill, but he’s glad that Mom found him. Mom says that he is safe here and will not get sent to Goodwill. She mentioned that she would try to find him a new shirt to wear, and that made him smile. He’s been wearing the same clothes since he came here—but we’ve got plenty to share. A new set of clothing is a good way to brighten up the day!

It’s been raining around here again. Mom made some thoughts about taking me outside, but the weather has not cooperated at all. While I do have a raincoat, I don’t think it would keep my head dry enough for Mom’s liking.  Hopefully the weather will be nice soon and I can go outside and have myself an adventure. Have any of you gone on an adventure lately?