Ms. Marie Therese Tessier Jones 1931 - 2009 - Obituary - Tributes.com

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Ms. Marie Therese Tessier Jones 1931 - 2009 - Obituary - Tributes.com

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Marie Therese Tessier Jones

July 6, 2009 approximately 9:00am Marie Therese Tessier Jones left this earth and her soul rose to a better place. She is comfortable and released now, free of the body that has imprisoned her for the last four years. She was my Godmother and a parent, she raised me just as my mother did, freely and with no expectation of compensation and I love her for that.
My Godmother, further to be known as Bear, was afflicted with an uncommon disorder that made these last few years very difficult for her and my mother. It is called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and it is as devastating to the patient and their family as many more common disorders, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimers, but not as well known or researched. I know there are many people who knew and respected Bear, she was a teacher and school administrator for a long time and many of her students were my acquaintances and friends. Therefore, I appeal to those who knew her to donate to the cause to support research in this little known but very maleficent disorder so that fewer people have to experience what my mother, as her caregiver, has had to experience in the slow and prolong loss of a friend and companion.
If you would like to make a donation in Bear's name or get more information about Progressive Supranuclear Palsy please visit: www.psp.org

The truth about Autumn

So we have been very lucky with our little puppy. She has always been healthy, well trained, smart, active and full of life. Never would we have imagined that she would have any problems but our poor little puppy has been growing old and as all living beings age there are always problems. For the last two and half weeks we have been dealing with a dog that hates being indoors, being on bed rest in the hopes that she would heal. However, she did not and today she had x-rays revealing that apparently she has been playing too much football! A torn CCL (Cranial Crutiary Ligament) is the verdict. So our beloved puppy will be going in for surgery in the next few days and hopefully all will be well. Unfortunately this does mean that she will be out of commission for a while and that she will miss our annual bounce fest in the snow =( So sad! Please send Autumn your good thoughts for a safe surgery and good recovery and we will continue to do the best we can for her! Thanks!

Update!
So we have come to the rehabilitation stage of surgery. The surgery only took a few hours and she had an overnight stay in the Vet Hospital. Autumn is now home and happily dozing in her bed with us! It will take 8 weeks for some normalness to return but we are mostly happy that she will have little to no further pain in her knee. We are looking forward to her improved movement and hope that she will be bound through the snow by next December!

We voted and then watched History happen!

We voted and then spent the evening worrying about the results. We are not completely out of the woods yet here is California but for the nation we have some relief. Barack Obama is our President-Elect and I am proud to be a part of this historic event and to be able to say that our country may be moving into a new and positive direction if Mr. Obama is the man we have come to know him to be! I am excited to see...

Times they are a'changin'

So today was the time change (for those in states that do not do this time change, it is the time when we lose 1 hour). When Isabel was first born I was asked many times if I found it difficult when the time changed. She was born in February so our first change was in the spring when she was about 2 months old, didn't notice anything, but that was probably because she had only just figured out the whole night and day thing and was just starting to sleep at night more than during the day. The next change was in the fall when Izzy was about 9 months and we were just starting to get her to sleep in her own bed and she was still having trouble sleeping through the night because of that change. There was still very little structure to her sleep and waking and she had two naps in the day still. So I do not remember it being that influential on any of her sleep or affecting our sleep that much. This Spring, there was nothing that could affect us, being that we were barely keeping up and Isabel still had two naps a day so we filled our days with sleep rather than activity. This change in the time, however, has had a significant affect on all of us. Isabel gets up at the crack of dawn every morning and this morning was more crackin' than usual as she woke at her normal time in a time of change!!!! So we were off whack by an hour all day. She napped early, she ate early, she needed to be exercised and tired out early and because of all of this, she went to bed... late? Well, Earl said we should push her bedtime to a little later and that appeared to work but it has been an insane day of change!

It takes a village...

When you think of the say "It takes a village...", do you think that because the village is going to pitch in and give you some relief that you, as the actual parent, are going to freed from some responsibility? Or do you think that maybe because you are not all knowing, all seeing and all doing that maybe, just maybe you might need some help? I take issue with both sides and here is why: Those that feel that are devoid of responsibility are shirking their duty and letting the village deal with their manipulative, out of control offspring and those that do not allow the village to help and feel that the village might corrupt their offspring are doing them a disservice by not giving them every opportunity possible! What ever happened to people being in the middle of the road? The more parents I am exposed to the more I realize that my little bubble of friends and acquaintances from college do not appear to be the majority or even equal to the amount of people who feel that their children should be raised in a bubble and then release them to the wilds of the world as a teenager and expect them to survive! Isabel bit a child last week... the next day she was bitten in return, knowing Isabel and her consciousness of consequence (even at the tender age of 20 months), she will probably hesitate the next time she tries to take her frustration out on another child by biting them (she will probably smack them instead)! I do not believe that she would learn this lesson, and many more, if I did not give over her care to another in the village for a portion of her day. On the other hand, I DO NOT expect her teacher or any of the other adults at her school to do my job as a parent, then are not responsible for transporting her, for feeding her during the times that she is not at school, for making sure she is clothed and given shelter, to take her to doctor or even make me take her to the doctor (unless it is a mandated reporting situation). These things are my responsibility and later, when she has homework and other school duties these too, are my realm of responsibility. Earl and I are in charge of helping her grow up and keeping in touch with her teachers and her friends and her friends parents, etc. Not the random (though sometimes wonderful) people in the village that I leave her with during my days of work, I am still her parent and we parents made this choice, consciously hopefully, to be responsible for this life. How is it, then, that I work in a school where I am expected to take the role of the parent for 300 odd teenagers that already have parents? When did it become the responsibility of the village to discipline the children that they are not responsible for? Why are there people/parents in this world who feel that they are not personally responsible or social responsible for their childrens' lives and behavior and schooling and upbringing? Our kids are already entitled as it is, why do we have to deal with parental entitlement too! I have found myself evaluating my own parenting (reminder, my daughter is only 20 months) and find myself is fear and horror that this is how I will be when Isabel is older. So engrossed in work and trying to lead my own life that I forget that I chose to devote my life to raising another human being. Our roles as a parent never end and I cannot understand the attitude that village will corrupt the baby but when we are finished with the teenager that is the villages problem to fix. Come on people... man-up!