Philly Area mom, Life forever changed by adoption
On Christmas Eve, Mark’s mom’s mom passed away. She was an amazing woman, a faithful Catholic, a hard worker, and a woman totally invested in and committed to her family. She died in the home her husband built for them in 1938 after suffering from bladder cancer. She will be greatly missed, particularly by Mark’s mom. Grammy was her best friend, and they saw each other daily.
Anna E. Altemus, 93, died on Wednesday, December 24, 2008 at her home in
.
Published in the Morning Call on 12/27/2008
On December 23, 1997, after knowing each other a little less than 4 months, Mark took me to a nice dinner in downtown Bethlehem, all lit up for Christmas, and proposed. I can still picture him standing in front of me on the bridge downtown, smiling ear to ear and blushing as he reached into his inside coat pocket and took out the most beautiful piece of jewelry I have ever seen in my life. I was totally in love then. And, I’m totally in love today.
to sit on Santa’s lap for the first time. Here’s my dad on Santa’s lap. Dad, hope you get what you want for Christmas this year! And, here’s Drew and Ash too. Evan liked seeing Santa but did not want to sit on him for a picture…I can’t blame him. :)
For several weeks now, Evan’s front tooth has been loose. And, when I say “loose,” I mean that it’s been disgustingly loose, the kind of loose that when an adult would see it wiggle, he or she would grimace and feel compelled to look away. Loose teeth can be super nasty. We’ve been trying to get Evan to really wiggle it to encourage it to fall out since it looked so bad, we could barely look at him. But, he hated doing it. One night last week when I asked to see it, he told me that his mouth was a museum and that I could look from a distance but I couldn’t touch or an alarm would go off and I’d be “under arrested.” Interesting concept. So, the next day, when I asked him to see it, he told me that since it was raining, the tooth museum was closed. I came to learn that the tooth museum closes during rain, snow, sleet, and simply the dark. Drew insisted that my car keys could open even the closed tooth museum. But, Evan told us otherwise. I convinced him this morning to let me take a picture of the tooth museum so that I could make him a sign for it. Later today, he was playing with Daddy and out the tooth came without Evan even realizing it. Finally! So, now, we’ve been informed that the tooth museum is under construction. I must say, he looks much cuter missing a tooth than he did with a crazy snaggle tooth!