McCracken.com
Contents
Pictures from 25th
Anniversary
Pictures from our 10/23/2004 weekend
with Dad
News
6/15/2007 Molly
graduated from Kindergarten yesterday.
The festivities were great. I’m going miss Mrs Collins and Mrs
Kathy. Thanks for all your hard work and
congratulations Molly! – pictures!
8/11/2006 Some
professional shots from Mike Cammeron - pictures!
7/29/2006 All Evan’s
hard work just paid off! - pictures!
Evan cleaned up
at his first bodybuilding competition. He won 1st place in the novice
division and placed 2nd overall to a 39y/o that was much more massive than
him. This was around 15 competitors. There was good
competition. Evan's smile, posing and body won the crowd over. We
were all there making noise for him.
At the
pre-judging, they move you around in the line-up so the judges can compare you
to everyone else. In the overall division they moved Evan right to the
middle on the first switch. He never moved after that. They just
put the other guys next to him to compare. It was amazing. Once
they decided a winner from each of the classes the winners would pose down in
front of the crowd. Even did this twice. Once in Novice and once in
the Overall. The place was going nuts!
He brought home
three 1st place trophies and one 2nd place trophy:
1st place Novice
class 2
1st place Novice
overall
1st place Open
class 2
2nd place Open
overall
Truly an amazing
accomplishment. 22 years old, his first competition and he blows folks
away. There was a women watching the pre-judging behind me. She
started calling out his number and encouraging Evan. She'd never seen him
before. After the round was over she yells out "Who gave birth to
that boy?". I turned around and said "I did ... uh ... I mean
my wife did!". She laughs, gives me a high five and says I was half
of it then.
We were all
whooping and hollering and whistling, Evan was moving around the stage posing
like he'd been doing it all his life. The kid really was in his element.
It was a great day.
8/19/2005 What a great
bunch of kids we have
25 years ago on the 16th
of August two kids got married. Most of
the attendees of the Wedding said they would never make it; the poor souls
being only 16 and 19 and pregnant. Those
two kids were Andrea and myself. In the
25 years that have followed we have literally grown up together. We’ve been through a lot of good and a lot of
bad but we’ve always been together. I
love Andrea more every day we are married.
She is my heart and my soul.
However, the product of this union is our real treasure; 10 wonderful
kids. Well, the first 6 of these
children decided that they would put together a little surprise party to
celebrate the events of that day so long ago.
They worked very hard to organize the event and keep it a secret. We had a great time! Here are the pictures. Thanks Kids…
7/8/2005 Just when you
think you are dealing with things…
Evan bought me a copy of
Pearl Jam’s “Rear View Mirror”. This is a
great collection of their best music. As
I was listening to the two CD set I heard a song I don’t think I’ve listened to
before called “Man of the Hour”. Anyway,
the song hit me pretty hard. Here are
the lyrics.
Tidal waves don’t beg forgiveness
Crashed and on their way
Father he enjoyed collisions
Others walked away
A snowflake falls in May
And the doors are open now
As the bells are ringing out
Cause the man of the hour is taking his final bow
Goodbye for now
Nature has its own religion
Gospel from the land
Father ruled by long division
Young men they pretend
Old men comprehend
And the sky breaks at dawn
Shedding light upon this town
They’ll all come 'round
Cause the man of the hour is taking his final bow
G’bye for now
And the road
The old man paved
The broken seams along the way
The rusted signs, left just for me
He was guiding me, love, his own way
Now the man of the hour is taking his final bow
As the curtain comes down
I feel that this is just g’bye for now.
Pearl Jam
5/30/2005 Closure II
Here are some pictures of
Dad’s gravestone. The stone was put in place on Thursday. Mom shows us once again that she has great
taste.
5/25/2005 Liam’s
Spring Tea
Andrea had the great
pleasure of attending Liam’s Spring Tea at the
11/06/2004 Closure
Warm summer
sun shine kindly here
Warm southern wind blow softly here
Green sod above, lie light, lie light
Goodnight dear heart, goodnight, goodnight
On the stone of Eleanor McCargo, poem by Robert Richardson
Recited at the grave of George E. McCracken 1931-2004
by his beloved wife of 52 years Delores E. McCracken
10/6/2004
Here is Dad’s obituary that
ran in “The Barre Montpelier Times Argus”: http://www.timesargus.com/
|
George
E. McCracken |
|
|
11/03/2004 Pictures
Here are the pictures I have from our 10/23
get together up in
10/25/2004 A blog for
Dad
Many of you know that Dad
was diagnosed recently with Pancreatic Cancer.
I’ve created a web log at: http://georgemccracken.blogspot.com/. I’m thinking this would be a really good
place to share information and updates from home. Log on and check it out.
02/06/2003 Chinese New
Year
Last weekend Casey and his
fellow students at 4 Seasons Kung Fu
traveled to
11/03/2003 Kung Fu
Video
Yesterday Casey and his
classmates at 4 Seasons Kung Fu
traveled to
8/26/2003 First Day of
School!
Ahhhh. Andrea got to wave goodbye to Casey and Aidan
as they started school today. Always a
good feeling. They were both quite
industrious this summer. Casey worked
for a custodian at a local School painting classrooms and cleaning. Aidan joined Meghann babysitting for a couple
in
Brigette will start next
Tuesday and Kallen will have his first day of Kindergarten 9/8. Generally, Kallen is looking forward to
school. He will be attending the
Andrea and I celebrated our
23rd wedding anniversary on 8/16.
We went out to eat and spent some time alone. As you can probably imagine that doesn’t
happen too often. Aidan babysat for the
four little ones. She did a great
job. Thanks Aidan!
I traveled to
My diet continues to go well
if slowly. I’ve lost a total of 35lbs
now. I’m down to 200lbs for the first
time since the early 90’s. I think 15lbs
more will do it.
4/15/2003 TAX Day!
Casey and five other
students of his Kung Fu school
competed in their first tournament. They
were amazing. Five of the six students
earned first place in for their open hand forms. The sixth student finished 2nd
behind a fellow classmate. Casey earned
two trophies; 1st place 12 – 14 Advanced open hand form and 2nd
place 12 – 14 Intermediate weapons form.
Check out the competition
page at his school’s web site.
2/6/2003
Finally another update J
I’ve got to get a
scanner. I have the best pictures at
home. I’ll find room in the budget
somehow. Maybe after the taxes get
done. As soon as I do I’ll update the
pictures section.
Casey has made amazing
progress with his martial arts training.
His interest has only grown since he began his studies almost a year
ago. Sifu Chris says “Casey is one of my
best students” and “he has tremendous potential”. If only we could get Casey to pay this much
attention to his homework J There are 8 belts in Kung-fu: White, Gold,
Greed, Purple, Blue, Red, Brown and Black.
Casey tested for and earned his Purple belt just this past
Saturday. In his first year Casey has
covered the Crane and Tiger forms as well as staff. One part of his testing was to complete the
three forms back to back without pause.
As a purple belt, he is now studying Snake and Broad Sword. Here is a picture of
Casey with Sifu Chris. Way to go
Casey!
Aidan joined ski club this
year. She is taking up snow boarding at
our local Ski Hill: Bradford Ski Hill. It’s a nice little place to learn to love the
slopes. Aidan is having a great time
learning and making new friends in the process.
Evan and Brigette have
started classes at
Even will be traveling to
Roary has found a job he
really likes. He is apprenticed to a
plumber and loves the work.
Emma is going to be 5 months
old in a little over a week. She is
growing so fast and is a really good natured baby. When she cries you know something is wrong.
Kallen will be starting
school this September. He’s the first of
the last four to leave the nest so to speak.
Liam potty trained! Molly is
doing well too.
Meghann is still busy as
ever.
I started lifting
again. In late November I started doing
the Atkin’s diet. I’ve lost 25lbs so
far. I’ve got at least another 15 to go.
9/18/2002
Emma joined us
yesterday. She was born at 12:35PM
weighing in at 7lbs 5oz and 20” long.
Emma’s entry into the world went very well. Due to her being breach (oh no, another
daughter with no sense of direction J), the delivery was done via Cesarean Section. This means a longer recovery time for
Andrea. I’ll be taking the rest of this
week and all of next week off to help her through the early part of her
recovery. When I left the hospital last
night, both Andrea and Emma were doing great.
Because Emma didn’t descend
through the birth canal, she looks like a baby a week or so old. She is truly beautiful. She has deep blue eyes that seem to know who
she is looking at. She loves the sound of my voice and follows my face when she
is awake. Another smart one, that’s all
I need J
We are beside ourselves with
joy over the arrival of our newest child.
Five of our six oldest plus Andrea’s mother got to see the two of them
last night. Casey had kung fu class and
a lot of homework to get done, so he won’t see them until tonight. Meg took the day off from work and
babysitting to watch the kids for me (Thanks Meg!). That let me spend all but a couple of hours
at the hospital with Andrea and Emma.
We’ve hung up our baby
making tools now. Andrea had her tubes
tied while she was on the operating table.
We feel very fortunate to have been blessed with ten healthy
children. Living in this large family
has brought us so much joy and fulfillment.
I can’t imagine living any other way or without any one of them. I really feel that we are the luckiest people
on the planet.
4/16/2002
Here is an update on what
everyone is doing.
- My job is nuts just now. We are trying to cover customers from
- Andrea and I are going to have one more
child. I guess we just like round
numbers. This will be #10. We are taking suggestions for
names. So far Kiley Shea is out
front but we haven’t made up our minds yet.
- There is a complication… Andrea has a fibroid
tumor in the wall of her uterus. It
is at the top in the rear of the uterus.
Her Obstetrician isn’t worried just yet. She believes that the placement of the
tumor will not present a problem for the baby. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.
- Meghann is 21 now. Just how old am I anyway? In addition to attending classes at
- Roary (19) is back from Framingham State College
for a semester. He is taking a
little time off to decide what he wants to major in. He plans to go back in the fall. In the mean time he is earning money as
an Assistant Manager at a local sporting goods store and working his off
days for a commercial landscaper.
Hey Dave, Roary is becoming quite a good drummer. I guess that gene found its way to him.
- Evan (18) is a Senior at
- Brigette (16) continues to do well at home
now. She won’t be going back to
High School and is instead enrolled in a GED (High School Equivalency)
program. With luck she’ll have this
done by the end of the summer and she can begin college prep courses in
the fall. Her social life is back
on track and she seems to be resuming her life again. We’re all very happy about that.
- Casey (13) is finally a teenager now. He has recently begun to take martial
arts classes. He loves it.
- Aidan (11) was a member of the bell choir and took
up the clarinet. We had a clarinet
hanging around from when Brigette played in Middle School so she picked
the right instrument.
- Kallen (4 this past November), Liam (3 on 5/9)
and Molly (15 months) are growing every day. The three are inseparable. They are three little lights in our lives
that make the days busy but a lot of fun.
Liam is about three pounds heavier and as tall as his older
brother. Kallen is the ringmaster
in this little circus.
- Molly did one of the cutest things I’ve ever
seen the other day. She came into
the kitchen where Andrea and I were sitting at the table talking (a rare
occasion in itself). She looked up
at me and said “pipa pipa” (pronounced pipe-a). This is what all my kids call their
pacifiers. Now, she already had one
in her mouth. When I pointed this
out to her she says “yiam yiam” meaning her older brother. She wanted one for him. I gave her one of his and she turned and
walked back into the parlor to her brother who was sitting on the couch
and handed him the pipa. Then she
went to the other side of the living room and got him his blanket. I turned to Andrea and said, “look,
she’s mothering them already”. I
wonder how long Kallen will continue to be the ringmaster…
1/3/2002
Wow, it’s been almost a year
since I’ve updated this page. Where does
the time go? Here is a list of what’s
been going on recently:
- Brigette came home from the hospital 11/29. She is doing real well. Thanks to all those that sent cards and
prayers.
- Molly just turned one on New Year’s Eve.
- Christmas was its usual smashing success. Santa hit a home run with everyone
again.
- Andrea is taking Yoga classes now. She loves it.
- I’m still working at Integral Access. It’ll be three years in March. Not bad for a startup.
3/23/2001
Ok, it’s been a while… I’ve
been busy…deal with it J Finally I’ve gotten around to putting up the
pictures I’ve been promising. There are
three sets available: Roary’s prom,
Christmas 2000 and Molly’s birth. Enjoy J
1/9/2001
On December 31st
2000 at 7:47AM Molly Catherine McCracken was born at
Andrea woke up at 1:20AM and
saw some signs that could have indicated trouble. The trip to the hospital was rushed. It had snowed much of the day and the roads
were cleared but icy. Flying down Rt 113
we got pulled over by a Groveland MA cop.
He ended up giving us an escort from there. By the time we got to the hospital we had
picked up a rear guard from the Newburyport Police Department. Thanks again to both the Groveland and
Newburyport Police Departments for their help! After all was said and done we
had Andrea in a hospital bed at the
After an initial exam, Dr
Newhouse reassured us that there was nothing to be alarmed about (It’s somewhat
refreshing to find out that there are still things about having babies that we
don’t know J). Then we settled in to wait and see if labor
followed. Sure enough at 5:00AM Andrea
started with regular labor pains and it took less than 3 hours for her to
deliver Molly at 7:47AM.
Later that night we tried to
make it to New Years Eve together but were both falling asleep in her hospital
room by 9:30PM. I went home and crashed not
caring to see Dick Clark make his 29th annual migration to
True to form, Andrea
insisted on coming home to be with “her kids” the next morning. She was home by 1:00PM roughly 36 hours from
the time she left the house in the middle of the night. A much happier return after an anxious departure.
I plan to publish pictures
of Molly and the kids shortly. Look back
for the addition of a pictures page!
Molly’s Pictures
Christmas 2000 Pictures
Roary's Prom Pictures
Family
We
live in
The
kids are gonna kill me, but here is a summary of all of them:
Meghann
Ann 22
Roary
Michael 20
Evan
Patrick 19
Brigette
Lynn 17
Casey
Sean 14
Aidan
Elizabeth 12
Kallen
Thomas 5
Liam
Joseph 4
Molly
Catharine 2
Emma
Kiley 1
Contact Information
E-mail address
dennis@mccracken.com
Last revised: April 16, 2002