Christmas 2009 Photo Slideshow

This is a new way to show slideshows on our blog. Let me know how you like (or don't like) it.

Mary's note to Santa on Christmas Eve

It says: "The carots are for the rain deer Santa. 1 per a rain deer."

Mary playing with Legos

Merry Christmas to everyone!

At Pt. Reyes Lifeboat Station

Today we watched Baba and some other Marine Mammal Center staff release 4 sea lions back into the ocean. Meg even got to open the cage out of which one of the animals scrambled.

John and Aunt Tappy

Golden Gate Bridge

View from Marin Headlands

Brunch at the Market Bar

The Beier, Sathe, Gwynne and Ferris families having brunch in San
Francisco.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Mary performed "Rudolph" at her piano recital last week. It wasn't perfect but she did a nice job. Then earlier this week, John and his classmates sang "Rudolph" at their Christmas program. Here's a bit of a mash-up of the 2 versions of the song.

Christmas program

John and his classmates sang "Silent Night" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" at the St. Nicholas Christmas Program today. Silent Night was a bit, er, silent. But the kids belted out "Rudolph" with gusto.

Christmas medley with the Ferris Family elves

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

John does all his own stunts!

Check out John doing a
crazy jump in a Mini Cooper.

Decorating the Christmas tree

The snow didn't stick too much last week, but Mary played and played outside while it was falling. John lasted about 10 minutes -- but this is the same kid who doesn't like ice cream because it's too cold.

Here's a picture of Mary and John decorating our Christmas tree. We leave for California next week to celebrate Christmas in the Bay Area.

Explain this, Al Gore!

It's snowed in Houston 2 years in a row.

John and Mary at Memorial Park

Painted faces

Lightning Boy and Pirate Wench

Meeting Minnie

This morning, Mary and John met Minnie Mouse and other cartoon characters. We're at Epcot today, after a wonderful day yesterday at the Magic Kingdom. Both kids slept like champions last night. Weather has been perfect: sunny but not too hot. Lines have also been mercifully short.

Meeting Buzz Lightyear at Disney

"You are a toy," John told Buzz.

Dragonfly, vampire and knight

Happy Halloween!

A creepy couple of vampires

The Scariest House in the Neighborhood

Chris, Meg, Mary, John, Ellis and Sully took a walk to visit the scariest house in the neighborhood. As you can see, it's pretty spooky -- even during the day. We'll see if the kids are willing to go trick-or-treating there tonight when it's dark.


Happy Halloween everyone! We'll post some photos of the kids in their costumes later tonight.

BTW, I just loaded the video to YouTube so it may load a little slowly. It should improve later tonight. Oh, and the song is "Ghost Town" by the Specials.

Getting into the Haloween spirit

Check out our photo slide show from Flickr.

We'll post more photos (and maybe some video) this weekend. Happy Halloween!

Mary and her friends before school

Mary as a bride, Cason as brain freeze, Graham as a fashion model,
Griff as a werewolf, Sully as a cheetah girl, Zoe as a fairy and Zack
as a Power Ranger.

The Beckham Experiment: Houston

I got to the Dynamo/Galaxy game a little early and managed to snap a photo of David Beckham. There was a crush of fans crowding against the barricades but everyone was polite and excited.

Whenever any shadow emerged from the dressing room every person stood on tip toes, cameras raised.

Beckham didn't do much. He nodded and walked onto the field for warm ups. What I thought was cool was that most fans waited an extra few minutes to catch a glimpse of USA star player Landon Donovan.

Now go Dynamo!!

Super John

John sporting his new Superman shirt at the park.

Mary's photo of a spider web in our back yard

Friday Night Fun with the Ferris Family

The four of us goofed around last night with the Photo Booth application on our new iMac. The results, which were pretty silly, are below:

Video from Lake Conroe

Let me preface this by saying I absolutely love the Mac iMovie software. Cutting this video and adding music was a breeze. Enjoy!

Here's the photo again

And earlier this evening Mary lost her second tooth! Always seems to
happen on vacation.

Mary and John at the pool

We're spending the weekend at a resort on Lake Conroe. It's lovely here -- nice weather and not too crowded. We may go on a boat ride before dinner.

Sent from my iPhone (so please excuse any typos).

Video of our Trip to CA

Better late than never, right? Here's quick video recap of last month's trip to California.

Tennis lessons follow up

Mary has many wonderful qualities. She is warm, kind, thoughtful, smart, silly, loving and sweet. But athletically gifted she is not. So I was a bit worried when she started tennis lessons last night.

Before she recieved any instructions from the coach she was told to drop a ball, let it bounce and hit it over the net. This was not an easy task for Mary, although she kept at it.

Rather than hover over her I decided to take John to the adjacent playground. He and I returned to the courts about 25 minutes later. By this time Mary had clearly gotten some direcion from the coach. She was standing with feet apart, two hands on her racquet and eyes on the ball. She wasn't able to hit the ball every time. But her form was generally correct and she looked like a little tennis player.

I realized that whatever Mary may lack in physical coordination she can make up for it with her good listening skills and willingness to learn. She said she liked tennis and can't wait for next week.

Meanwhile, while waiting for Mary's lesson to conclude John decided to return a stray tennis ball to the courts. The fence in front of him was about 15 feet tall but he was determined to lob the ball over it.

He tried overhand, underhand, running starts, standing close to the fence and standing back. He probably threw the ball 25 times.

But he finally got it over and turned to me flashing the biggest, most satisfied smile I'd ever seen on his little face.

Mary ready for her first tennis lesson

John pointing to the map in his room

Sully & Mary making (and eating) snowcones

Polaroid photo of John

John blowing bubbles

Mary & Sully working on their short game

One more picture from California

Because what's cuter than kids taking a bath and puppies?

Thanks to Aunt Tappy for the photo.

Mary's first day of second grade

Chris, Meg and John walked Mary to school today for her first day of second grade. Mary's BFF Sully is also in Mrs. Connelly's class, although they are not sitting next to each other (which is probably a good thing).

All of Mary's folders and school supplies (which we purchased last spring) were already in her desk and labeled with her name. In fact the whole classroom looked like it was set up by Office Max -- everything was organized, filed, color coded and labeled. Meg could not have been more excited. I think part of her wished she were in Mrs. Connelly's class too.

Mary's only complaint was that she didn't get to see Ms. Gates. But we hope she'll have the chance this week to visit the only teacher she's ever known at Horn.

Photos from trip to California

We've just posted 20 new photos from our trip to California. It was a wonderful vacation with lots of great family time.

John and Mary were happy to be home, but keep talking about all the fun things they experienced in California: swimming in the pool; going to the Jelly Belly factory; playing with their cousins; seeing all their grandparents, aunts and uncles; checking the chicken coop for eggs; going to the doll and train store; and visiting the Marine Mammal Center.

We can hardly believe it, but Mary starts 2nd grade on Monday!

John playing with his Etch a Sketch on the flight home

Thanks to everyone for a wonderful vacation.

With Baba at the Marine Mammal Center

Big Rig, Meg and Mary around the fire pit making smores.

(Finally got this photo uploaded!)

Grandma Trish, John and Mary on a road trip

Mary sorting through Grandma Trish's dollhouse furniture

The Perils of the Pixies

John and Mary have recently become fans of the Pixies' song "Gigantic." This pleases me to no end. For those who don't know, the Pixies were a precursor to a lot of the alternative/grunge bands that popped up in the 1990s. Kurt Cobain was a huge fan of the Pixies and borrowed their song structure or quieter, slower parts of a song coupled with louder, faster parts. "Gigantic" is a great example of this type of song.

So last night John was thrashing around his room to "Gigantic" as if he were in a mosh pit. He got so into the song he bonked his head on the floor and immediately burst into tears. He was fine in a few minutes but had clearly learned the perils and rocking out to the Pixies. I just wonder if kids will still be having mosh pits when John is old enough to go to his own concerts.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Happiness is chasing bubbles

John running around our front yard in pursuit of bubbles on a summer
evening.

Jump!

Mary and her friend Sully jumping into the pool on Sunday evening.

Making a bracelet for Meg

Photos by John

I'm playing around with other ways to show photos. This little album was created with Picassa. Let me know how you like (or don't like) it.

Photo Albums Working

The photo albums on the right side of the page are now working. After you finish looking at them, just push the "back" button on your browser. Eventually I'll include a link in the albums themselves to allow you to return automatically to the main page of the blog.

Enjoy!

Sunday fun time

Mary seems fully recovered from the flu. She went to Sully's birthday
party yesterday and is at Jackie's right now.
Despite a lingering cough, John also seems fine. He is enjoying
himself at Suvir's birthday party at the Children's Museum.

Meg and Mary Ferris' Day Off

Meg and Mary are both still home today, although Mary seems a little more lively than yesterday. She woke up closer to 7 and was dressed and fed not long after that. She is essentially asymptomatic other than feeling a little more tired than usual.

The two of them have been reading together and running errands while some work is done around the house (mostly painting some of the interior rooms).

Also, happy birthday to Baba, who turns 69 today. And a belated birthday to Big Rig who marked his 79th birthday on Sunday.

Mary still at home

Mary seemed to be perking up yesterday – she even had her friend Sully over for an extended play date. Sully’s parents were fully briefed on Mary’s health status before sending her over. The fact that Sully had the flu several weeks ago probably had a lot to do with their allowing her to come over.

This morning, however, Mary was verrry sluggish. She didn’t fully wake up until after 9 am. So Meg is still at home with Mary and they’re going to take it a little easier today.

Thanks again for all the thoughtful calls, e-mails and text messages.

Aunt Lex finishing a Triathalon in Seattle

Way to go, Lex!

Mary doing OK

Mary was a little sluggish this morning, but she's always sluggish in the morning. (John has said to her on more than one occasion: "You look like you need a cup of coffee, Mary!") But overall, Mary seems OK. She is not back to her old self, but is light years better than she was on Saturday. She is still taking Tamiflu twice a day, but has not needed any Tylenol as her fever has not returned.

John does not seem to have any flu symptoms, although his bark-like cough is persisting. He was complaining about not feeling well this morning, but he doesn't have any fever either. To be safe, Meg will likely take him to the doctor today (she's staying home as per instructions from Mark Kline).

Update on Mary

Mary spent all yesterday afternoon in bed - sleeping and being read to. She didn't really eat anything and had a high fever most of the time (around 102 or 103) despite Tylenol. When Meg gave her Tamiflu in the evening she threw it up.

Meg was in constant contact with Mary's doctor and Mark Kline. We were worried because her fever was not going down and eventually spiked at 103.4.

The only good sign was that she was sleeping a lot. We checked on her about 1 am and managed to get some more Tylenol in her - which she managed to keep down.

So we were surprised this morning to be awakened by Mary's voice in our bedroom. It wasn't just that her voice didn't sound sick; we were amazed that she was able to walk into our room under her own power. Chris had been carrying her around the house most of yesterday.

Mary just ate a good breakfast and seems like her old self. Of course, she started yesterday like this as well.

The rest of us so far aren't exhibiting any flu symptoms, although John has a cough and runny nose. Meg has been told to stay home from work since she comes into contact with so many doctors and other health care providers. We will also keep John home from school so he doesn't spread the flu there.

It's a strange feeling wondering and waiting to see when/if the rest of us will get it. We do have a supply of Tamiflu on hand for the next victim.

Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts and words.

Sent from my iPhone (so please excuse any typos).

Mary has the flu

Mary woke up last night with a high fever and threw up the children's Tylenol Meg gave her.

We were not surprised since Mary's camp is closed next week due to cases of H1N1 flu. We took her to the doctor this morning and he confirmed the flu in our girl.

She seemed ok most of the morning but as we were driving back from the pharmacy she cratered. Mary is in bed now having taken her Tamiflu and some Tylenol (both of which she has kept down).

The other Ferris family members are also at risk for the flu so we'll be monitoring our health as well. We're hopeful that catching it early will make this a little easier on all of us.

Welcome - UPDATE

You've been invited to see the new Ferris Family web site. If you don't want to get e-mail updates when we publish to the site, just post a note in the comments or e-mail Chris at chrisandmegferris [at] earthlink [dot]net.

UPDATE: Whoops, the photo albums on the right aren't working right now. We'll get that fixed soon.

Welcome to the New Ferris Family Online

We're bailing out of the old web site and converting to a regular blog. This will allow us to update the site on the go -- from Chris' iPhone or Meg's Blackberry. For example, the two photos below of Mary and John were taking with Chris' iPhone and posted immediately.

We'll still post longer photos albums (see the links on the right) as well as videos to YouTube (those links are also on the right).

You can get regular updates on the blog by becoming a follower (on the lower right). I think you have to have a google account to follow in this way. You can also subscribe using an RSS feed from the far lower left.

Or, of course, you can just check the site regularly if that's what you prefer. Please make sure to leave comments so we can know how you like the new format.

Mary posing

Having pizza for dinner

New car!

Mary and John posing in front of our new car.

Blog post

Testing blog post from my iPhone.

Sent from my iPhone (so please excuse any typos).

La Pelicula de Zarpuder

In their continuing efforts to prove themselves the sorest losers in all of international soccer, the Mexicans acted like punks after the game. Mexican assistant Paco Ramirez slapped US defender Frankie Hejduk as the teams walked to their locker rooms after the match. Univision analyzed video tape from the incident as if it were the Zarpuder film from 1963:



My Spanish is a little rusty, but I think the commentators were saying:
"I'm actually embarrassed to be associated with the Mexican team."
"Yes, I am too. Maybe we can move to Argentina."

Same as it ever was

World Cup Qualifier between US and Mexico? Check.
Played in Columbus, Ohio? Check.
Mexican players playing like punks? Check.
Mexico once again losing 2-0? Big ol' check.

Michael Bradley knocked in a rebound during a corner kick scrum, then scored the second goal after a break-away lead by Landon Donovan. Really the Mexican goalkeeper should have saved it to keep it to a 1-0 margin, but that's the way things go when Mexico plays the US.

It's kind of like when the Patriots had the Colts' number for so many years during the past decade. The Americans are totally in the heads of all the Mexican players, coaches and fans.

I should be more excited, but I fully expected the US to win. It's actually getting to the point where beating Mexico isn't such a big deal anymore. 10 years ago, no soccer fan would have believed we'd get to that pont.

8 Years Ago

US Soccer has posted a video with highlights from the US/Mexico match of 2001. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this was a significant turning point in the history between these two teams.

2-0

2-0. Or, in Spanish, "dos a cero." That has been the score of the last two US-Mexico qualifying matches played in Columbus, Ohio (the site of Wednesday's game). The US also defeated Mexico by that score in the 2002 World Cup, knocking "El Tri" out of the tournament.

For more on the recent history of US/Mexico games, as well as a primer on the US players to watch, read Ives Galacrep's column on ESPN.com.
The photo above is of Oguchi Onyewu, a US defender, staring down one Mexico's former star players, Jared Borgetti, in 2005. This image is a favorite of US fans as Onyewu completely owned Borgetti in that game.

"But there is no hate."

ESPN.com has a column with a little more background on the US/Mexico rivalry. The piece closes with a comment from U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati: "But there is no hate."

Having watched nearly every US/Mexico match from the last decade, either in person or on TV, I have to ask Sunil: Have you been hanging around with Michael Phelps?

The Mexicans were the top dog in North American soccer for decades and futbol is the most popular sport in Mexico. Throw in the very complicated cultural, historical, economic and political relationship between the US and Mexico and you've got a combustible mix.

Bottom line: The Mexican players hate losing to the US. And their fans hate it even more. And despite recent US dominance (there's no other way to describe the last 10 years) the Mexican players still think they are the superior team. But the US seems to have Mexico's number these days and that drives the Mexican players and their fans totally loco.

The road to South Africa

During the 2006 World Cup, I created a blog for friends and family to read my commentary on the games, the US team, and other soccer related news. (I'm using a different blog program b/c I wasn't crazy about Yahoo's tool.)

As the US starts gearing up the final round of qualification for the 2010 World Cup, I've decided to start a new blog to follow the team along its journey.

The road to South Africa and World Cup 2010 starts next week as the US takes on Mexico in the final round of qualifying matches.

Now, some say Duke vs. UNC.

Others prefer Yankees vs. Red Sox.

Still others will offer Cowboys vs. Redskins.

But for my money, the single best rivalry in all of sport is in soccer: US vs. Mexico. There is palpable hatred present at all of these matches. And there are no butt slaps before the games, no hugging or praying afterward. Just two teams that openly despise each other.

And the latest battle is coming up in less than a week on Wednesday, February 11 at 7 pm ET on ESPN2. If you're a sports fan, there's not reason not to watch this. NFL season is over. Baseball hasn't started yet. The NBA is stuck in the middle if its Bataan-Death March of a regular season (which will be followed by a nearly-as-long post-season). March Madness is still weeks away.

For a little background, the US was the whipping boy of Mexico for decades. Then, things started to turn in the 1990s. Perhaps the most significant game came in 2001 as the US and Mexico played in a World Cup qualifying match in Columbus, Ohio.

Mexico entered the typically confident -- even arrogant. But the temperature at kick-off was in the 20s and the Mexican players didn't come out for pre-game warm ups.

Typically, the game was pretty rough and two US vets (Brian McBride and Claudio Reyna) went out with injuries in the first half. But the two subs, Josh Wolff and Clint Mathis, rallied the US 2-0 past a shocked Mexico team.

That game, of course, let do the US qualifying for the 2002 World Cup where they met Mexico again in the elimination round in S. Korea. More about that game later.