The Murdock Muse

January and February, 2002
Muse editors: Bob and Nancy Murdock, Baltimore, MD.
Email: murmuse@erols.com.

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:
*HORSES IN THE BACK YARD (Teddie Doane)
*NEW MEMBER OF THE MUSE FAMILY (Cindy Coppolino)
*HALLOWEEN WEDDING (Chip and Rose Martz)
*A FINE COUPLE OF WEEKS (Darrel Murdock)
*A CHANGING LIFE (Missi Howlett)
*TRAUMATIZED TRIO (Meri Murdock)
*LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE (Derek Revilock-Frost)
*POPULAR BABY NAMES (Nancy A. Murdock)
*GREETING THE NEW YEAR (Daniel Leskinen)
*A WINNING PRESENTATION (Natalie Murdock)
*A NEW JOB FOR CHRIS (Angel Howlett)
*OUR THIRD CHRISTMAS HERE! (Scott and Nancy Murdock)
*HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE! (Lori Howlett)
*2001 IN REVIEW (Jeanne Tripp)
*SEASON'S GREETINGS 2001(Orrel and Charlie Frost)
*GETTING ACQUAINTED (Lori Turner)
*HOLIDAY NOTES FROM MUSERS
*FROM FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD (Click here )
*ON TURNING SEVENTY (Gene Murdock) Click here for Gene's Gems

HORSES IN THE BACK YARD
by Teddie Doane

Mike and Katie are renting a house in Barre where Mykaela spends weekends with them. They all love it there! The neighbors' horses are right in their backyard where they eat the pears off the trees and keep us all amused.

Ben is still living on Main Street with Jacob. I have never in my life seen an apartment decorated such as theirs! They have all of the traditional things with the tree and lights (thousands of lights everywhere!) and figurines. A nativity scene sits on a window ledge under a spotlight; they took down half of their ceiling tiles and wrapped them in bright and shiny paper and put them back up and placed bows on them; they even took the pictures down off the walls and wrapped them and put them back on the walls! It sounds overdone but it really looks great and was done tastefully! There will be about 40 of us at their place on Christmas eve.

Mykaela Ryan Doane was born December 24, 1995. [Thanks, Teddie! --RDM]

[Ed. note: For address info on Ben and Mike, contact us at murmuse@erols.com.]

NEW MEMBER OF THE MUSE FAMILY
by Cindy (Schlicke) Coppolino

We would like to announce the birth of our fourth child, Samuel Dominic Coppolino. Sam was born September 7, and joins his brothers Jonathan (8) and Justin (5) and his sister Kate (7).

Happy New Year to everyone!

HALLOWEEN WEDDING
by Chip and Rose Martz

On Halloween 2001, Sarah Rose Martz became the bride of Gideon Anthony Ashcraft. Not only was there a romantic full moon, but it was also a legendary blue moon. They were married in our home with a few friends and family present. The following Saturday, November 3, they had a reception at the Edwards Mansion, a gorgeous Victorian home which has become a popular venue for special occasions in our area.

Her sister Jennifer was her only attendant. Sarah wore an ivory crushed velvet gown that was somewhat medieval in appearance. The poor groom had to make do with a standard tuxedo.

Sarah has taken Gideon's last name.

Another upbeat item of news - We are expecting our first grandchild in early June. Jennie and Cam are the proud parents to be and they are both just glowing with happiness. So are we!!!

[Ed. note: For address info on Sarah and Gideon, contact the Muse at murmuse@erols.com.]

A FINE COUPLE OF WEEKS
by Darrel Murdock

On Dec 22, Jason and Nic came by to celebrate Nic's Golden (22nd) Birthday. We had Honey-Lime Cornish hen for dinner and confetti cake with buttercream frosting and oreo ice cream for dessert.

Then later on we listened to Christmas music and exchanged Christmas presents. But the festivities were far from over.

Because then Lori flew in on Dec 28 for a nine-day visit, which was my Christmas present, and Lori got an 18-speed mountain bike. Two days later I was treated to a Birthday dinner at a fine restaurant where we each had prime rib, fried shrimp and the best BBQ ribs I've had in some time.

We also celebrated New Years together, visited two malls (including the Mall of America), the Science Museum and watched "Island of the Sharks" at the Omni Theater, went snow-sliding on round-boggans and co-grocery shopped for fun meals prepared by Chef Lynx. Lori even learned to play Nintendo 64 golf and achieved immediate greatness -- she won the fourth game with a -2 final score!
She has definitely earned the title of "Lynxette."

I wish everyone a Happy 2002!

A CHANGING LIFE
by Missi Howlett

I've made several major life changes this past year and am glad to have a new year to start fresh!

I had a nice casual Xmas eve at my house this year. We had lots of great food (yeah-like there is ever a Howlett event without great food?) We had sandwiches, meatballs, linguica, salads, desserts and more! Fortunately for me, my boyfriend Jim is a wonderful cook (unfortunately for my waistline though ). I had to finally beg him to stop making pies....because they are too darn good. Since he's moved in, I've indulged in apple pie, peanut butter pie, turtle pie (yes-think of the turtle candies and you got the idea!) and my favorite, grapenut pudding! I hope he knows some light recipes or I'm in BIG trouble.

Jim is also doing wonders with the house. He's already fixed several things and wired several rooms (doing all that Bob Villa stuff that I don't have a clue about). Since he's a computer tech, we will have a wonderful network and server up and running soon. We are getting high speed satellite soon, but my email address will remain the same. I'll just be able to access all of you faster!

I am hoping to have my music room set up soon, so I will be able to start recording music and burning it to cds (thanks to my new four-track and music software). Once I get it down, I'll send you a copy of the cd...but don't be looking anytime soon as I don't even know how to turn the recorder on yet. I'm sure it'll take a lot of practice before I have anything down that I actually want people to hear.

Richie enjoyed his holidays as well. He got way too many toys, as usual. It's neat watching him change from a little boy to a young man. He's playing basketball at the local rec center and loves to play video and computer games. He's eager to play baseball this year since he's moving up from T-ball to little league.

My house is quite a zoo right now, with the merging of two households. We have a dog and six cats...yes- that's six. No...we didn't want six cats, but I had four and Jim had two and we are way too attached to give up any of them! They keep us quite busy, but we enjoy the loveable little critters!

Well...that's it for now. I'll try and check in again soon!

TRAUMATIZED TRIO
by Meri Murdock

My cats were pretty upset when I was gone overnight Christmas Eve. Magic was nowhere to be seen when I returned Christmas morning and did not deem to grace me with his presence until 2:30 a.m. Wednesday. Charlie threw a fit and messed up my room badly, even pushing my tv onto my bed! Kayla behaved herself, thank goodness.

Now, however, all three cats are clinging to me. Magic keeps sitting next to me, Kayla sits behind my head, and Charlie just plain hangs on me for dear life! Every time I get up from my chair, Charlie yells at me. I am not allowed to walk around the house without a parade of escorts - all three cats - every time! I went to the nearby convenience store for about 5 minutes and came home to 3 cats sitting in a row on the couch, glaring accusingly at me.

Later the cats were getting very lazy, so I started a feline exercise program. I found their fishing pole toy and actually got Kayla and Charlie energetic enough to chase each other around the house (I have the scars to prove it). All Magic does, however, is lie on his side purring and gently bat at the toy. Then he tries to eat my watch. Sigh.

LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE
by Derek Revilock-Frost

I have spent a lot of time on the Murdock Muse home page. Great job, Bob and Darrel !! I really enjoyed it and look forward to more virtual editions.

Now that the constraints for time and space have been overcome, I may just get very wordy and verbose, and send a lengthy update of all that we have been doing!! There seems so many avenues for creativity on the web with prose, graphics, sound, video -- so many good things to come.

[Ed. note - Good news! Yes, yes, get verbose! - RDM]

POPULAR BABY NAMES
by Nancy A. Murdock

Social Security Online has a list of the most popular names for new babies in 2001. This doesn't look much like the list would have been when we were naming ours. I see that some of our three generations of descendants are there, though, along with other Musers. And friends' grandchild announcements have some of these names, too. Check it out - it's kind of fun to see which ones match kids of our acquaintance.

(Click here for the list.)

GREETING THE NEW YEAR
by Daniel Leskinen

We had a full day for 31 Dec 01. Carolyn stopped by my office (yes some of us had to work) with the kids. We had lunch at Red Lobster and ate off each other's plate. Carolyn took the girls to Hershey Park and Calder and I went back to my office. The boss let us go early, so Calder and I wentto see the movie Ocean's Eleven.

After dinner we melted lead and cast shadows on the wall to see our future. Annabelle's future shows her sliding down a spiral slide. We visited my In-laws and then walked down to the Hanover Center Square. We danced to the music and watched the Black Rose rise to the New Year. We went back to the in-laws and chatted awhile. The next day was a day of rest.

A WINNING PRESENTATION
by Natalie Murdock

I just want to tell you some interesting news: My friend, Anabel, and I have worked a whole month on a career project and the presentation was today. After making the class roll with laughter and knowledge for 5 minutes, our final grade was given by the tough-grading teacher....A+!! He said ours was the best presentation in the 4 years he's given this project. I feel great!!

In other news, Robert just came up from San Diego and stayed a while - nice visit. He and Sean drove back just an hour ago or so. That's pretty much my day in a nutshell, so I'm gonna hit the sack (currently in Tim's room on account of the coldness in mine, heater or not).

A NEW JOB FOR CHRIS
by Angel Howlett

Things are going good for Chris and me and the kids. Chris has been at his new job since April of this year. He's doing such a good job that his boss got him his own work truck in Sept.

Chris is working for the elevator union. It was a big step for him as his previous job was more with residential chair lifts and his new job is putting in elevators in schools and buildings. His company is sending him to school to learn about the elevators they install.

We are looking forward to getting a house soon because of his new job, which has many benefits like more money. His company has him driving to places like North Hampton and North Adams. It is a long drive so if Chris has to be out in those areas he stays at his brother Dave's house which is in Southbridge, closer than coming home.

We are going to be looking to buy a house in Greenfield which would be closer to where his jobs are. That way we could see him more and his travel time would be cut in half.

I'll have more soon on our Christmas get together here with the whole family and my parents too!

Angel, Chris, Brittany and Gaitlyn

OUR THIRD CHRISTMAS HERE!
by Scott and Nancy Murdock

We hope this finds you and your family healthy and happy! It has been a fairly uneventful year far us here in sunny Arlington, Texas. Surprise, we haven't moved and have had the same address for three Christmases! You probably can write this one in pen in the old address book.

Work prevented us from doing a lot of traveling this year. Scott did manage a trip to Alabama to help his dad pack-up and move to Iowa. He also found time this spring to take two weeks for a trip to South Dakota. As usual for Scott, he stopped along the way to find many old Air Force or military installations in various states of decay. He so loves this, so it was a great trip for him! This summer, Nancy had the opportunity to visit very good friends in the mountains of Colorado. Because she doesn't need to stop and see the sights, she decided to fly. Colorado was cool, by Texas standards, and beautiful, by any standard. She also got to engage in some serious power shopping! Scott also found time at Thanksgiving to visit his family in Iowa. Because Nancy is now in retail (no rest for the weary!), he went by himself and again visited many old Air Force or military installations.

We still have our family of kittens. We have only five now, losing one just before Christmas last year. We have Tigger, Valentina, Shadow, Laverne and Shirley. They're all fat, healthy and sassy, just like cats should be! They have the run of the house and still demand we serve them, which of course, we do. There's a t-shirt we've seen that says, 'The ancient Egyptians worshipped cats as gods. The cat has nut forgotten." Our five live by this.

Scott was still doing the same job he'd been doing for the past four years. On Monday, December 10, 2001, he moved to an entirely now position: something new and exciting for him to learn and conquer. Nancy started working for a large retail bookstore last fall. She started out as their head cashier and this fall moved up to department manager. She's now responsible for all the books and magazines an one side of the store: making sure things are correctly displayed and the people doing the things they should be doing. The saying, "so many books, so little time" certainly applies! The hardest part of any day for her is walking out of the store with no books!

We're looking forward to a great and exciting 2002 and hope you and your family also have a great 2002!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!
by Lori Howlett

I hope this finds you all healthy and in good spirits. This has been a positively uneventful year for us; at least, as uneventful as a family of 7 can be.

Nicolas is a typical one year old; constantly exploring his world (which is a nice way of saying he destroys all that he can reach, including his siblings) and charming all that meet him with a smile. Although, between the big blue eyes and the red hair, the adorable grin is just icing on the cake at times.

Patrick is still Patrick: always on the go and usually getting in trouble for it, poor little imp. We continue to explore different medication combinations and behavioral plans to try and make his life as easy as possible (ours too, of course!) for him to stumble through. He makes slow but steady progress in school; only about a grade and a half behind now instead of the two years he was a year ago. A big positive for him is that he's finally gaining weight, with the help of Pediasure. He's gained about a pound a month for the past 6 months!!

Kayleigh continues to come visit us every other weekend; not enough in our opinion, but we still hope that some day she can come live with us permanently. She's a straight A student in the second grade!

Alyssa is also doing wonderfully in school this year. She made the honor roll for the first time ever this past term!!!! No grade lower than a B. We're all so proud of her; and more importantly, she's proud of herself. Of course, she'd still be happy if school only existed for socializing and comparing the latest fashions (I swear I'm going to throw out those disgusting low cut hip hugger jeans that are so popular, when she's not around). She also continues to love Barbies and babies, especially Nicky.

Amanda is now a full-fledged adolescent female. For those of you with one of these, I know you feel my pain and I yours. In her quest to discover her own identity, she has dyed her hair various colors throughout the year. Currently it's blue; as are her ears from getting dye all over herself. We've taken to calling her Smurf. She's had a boyfriend now for 10 months (I know the exact date because she writes their 'anniversary' on the calendar each month). He's actually a very nice young man, for my daughter's boyfriend. Isn't it a law that daughters can't date until they're 25 or something? If not, it should be.

Michael and I will be getting married next year (finally, as my children complain). I don't know the details yet because I haven't gotten that far in planning. I do know it will be May 18 and will be held in Foxboro, MA. I'll update as I go. On a slightly downer note, the hospital I worked at closed, and so I was laid off. Bad side, it was 3 weeks before Christmas; good side, I get to bond with the kids during the holidays (can you hear the groaning from them?) and hopefully do some holiday cooking and stuff. I haven't been able to f ind the time to do that in several years. I am actively searching for another job and hope for the best. The nursing shortage being what it is, I don't think it will take too long before I find a position.

Well, that's it for our yearly update. I hope the holidays go well for you all.

2001 IN REVIEW
by Jeanne Tripp

Well, this year the new millennium truly arrived, and with record-breaking snowfall in New England, we were wondering if this was a good thing. But, by the end of April, we started to finally see the end of the snow and a beautiful year followed.

In March, Nicole Elisabeth arrived, and while she was a month early, she has been doing wonderfully. She just finally sprouted her first tooth this month, and is beginning to find ways to make us laugh, and is acting out songs she knows well. Samantha turns four this month, and is already a master of "I do it." She is writing her name, and wants to know what letter everything starts with. She LOVES her little sister, and wants to be with her every minute of the day. We wonder if this delight will continue when Nicole can crawl and choose toys...

Dave is finishing up work toward upgradinag his EMT certification, while continuing to work full time and enjoy his family; he hopes to be able to take the state exam in March. Jeanne took a leave from chorus this fall in order to spend more time with the girls, and to make up for sleep missed at night with Nicole, the night owl. She looks very much forward to returning in January to prepare a spring concert and Mozart's Requiem one of her favorite works. The girls' beloved day care provider has been laid up twice with surgery and can't wait to have the girls back at the end of January. It has been a difficult and disappointing year for her, as she loves the kids as if they were her own. At least we were lucky to find another woman to watch the who is almost as dedicated and loving, which is hard to find.

We wish all of you a happy, healthy, and peaceful New Year. We would love to hear how you are!

GETTING ACQUAINTED
by Lori Turner

My son's name is Steven Turner. He is 18 and his birthday is 8/22/83. My daughter's name is Christie Underwood, (she is almost 23 and is married, b/d 3/11/79) and I have a grandson who is 2 � years old - Austin Lane Underwood, my pride and joy. I don't have my pet any more; she was my 6 year old Dachshund but died in November. So no more for me for a long while. :) And I love being a Valentine girl, not many people have that birthday.

Well I am heading to work late this morning as I had the morning off. I work for Albertson's Grocery Store Corporate Offices as an assistant to the VP's. and I also work Part Time nights at Bath-N-Body where I will be in the process of going into Management with them. I will soon leave the corporate world - I am ready for a nice change.

HOLIDAY NOTES FROM MUSERS

Dawn, Kris, and Amber Knox: We sure enjoy reading the newsletter!
Jason Murdock: I just want you to know that I was thinking of you and I love you folks. I hope you have a wonderful holiday. I talk about you, Grandma and Grandpa, sometimes, about how much I admire you and that you give so much and are truly wonderful people. God bless you!

Brad Howlett: Hope this finds you in good health - and a Happy New Year!
Clyde Howlett (on a very well done card he made on his computer): Merry 2001 Christmas, Happy New Year 2002. This card was created especially for your family by CLYDE.
Lois Kamunen: How I wish I could see all of you - but my "traveling" days are over. Be well and happy.

Don Lytle (Nancy's 7th & 8th grade teacher): Blessings to you, at Christmas and always.
Polly & Carl Soberg: We missed having you here for Thanksgiving this year. I hope you had a nice day with no stressful traveling. We enjoyed our day with Rennie, Maria and family. We supplied the dinner and they brought desserts. Christmas is approaching all too fast. We have had a bare Christmas tree in the living room for a week. Tonight we'll decorate! Have a wonderful Christmas.

Donna Estep: Congratulations on your new web site. Very nicely done! Mum is here for the holidays. Please consider yourselves invited to our Vermont homestead when you are headed this way. Someday I want to play Scrabble with you.
Priscilla and Roy Januskiewicz: Congratulations on getting the Murdock Muse on the Web! One can only imagine the work that went into it, and you all did a great job. The animation and color add a new dimension to the always-entertaining contributions. Thanks for sending the Muse mailing list, too. It's very nicely done, and easy to read. Best wishes for the holidays.

(Click here for holiday messages from friends around the world.)

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