The Family Appreciation Thread

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I appreciate my family, because they didn't lock me up, or put me in a special school. I also appreciate my family, because they were always really good to me, around Christmastime. Another thing that I appreciate about my family, is that my parents never beat me, and my sister never called me ret*d. I appreciate my Aunt and admire her, for fighting her sickness, for as long as she did. I appreciate my two older male cousins for playing with me, when I had no friends my age, before I started Pre-School. I appreciate all of my Grandparents and Great Grandparents for loving and spoiling me, when I was really little. The thing that I appreciate the most, is how my mum was able to let the Austin Powers-type CockneyRebel go, and embrace me, as the emerging Punker, that I am, today. That's what I appreciate, the most.

If you love your family, as much as I love mine, than this is the thread, for you.

I appreciate my biological family as well, for putting up with me. My mother is the strongest person on this Earth, she gave up so much for her family. I admire someone like that.

I love my family to death. They are the only people I have (real life) social interaction with. I feel I was placed with them for a reason. I'll appreciate them one by one:

Mommy: My guardian angel and best friend. She is always patient, kind and protective over me. We are never apart. If it weren't for her, I would have been dead a long time ago.

Daddy: Sometimes playful and fun, sometimes serious and full of wisdom, always loving and compassionate. He and I have had our misunderstandings in the past, but those times are long gone.

Mindy (sister): She lives in England so I don't get to see her often, but we love each other.

Molly (sister): She and I used to argue a lot and say bad things behind each other's backs, but now we're on much better terms with each other. We visit with each other a lot since we live in the same house now.

Chris (brother): He and I are great friends. We share all of our secrets with each other and have a ton of inside jokes.

Nana: She and I have a great relationship.

My 6 nieces and nephews: Their ages range from not even born yet to kindergarten. I love to play with them and they love to play with me. They are very precious and I am happy I get to watch them grow up.

Here are a list of nice things my mother did for me or said to me or about me:


When one of my preschool teachers told my mother to get rid of my favorite stuffed bears because I was too obsessed with them my mother didn't because she found that kind of cruel.


My mother also didn't take my bears away from me even if she thought they were causing my bronchial asthma because that seemed cruel. She also heard that kids with bronchial asthma shouldn't drink milk but never forced me not to drink milk and I heard her tell someone on the phone that she didn't want to put me through that torture.


Once when I left my favorite stuffed bear in the pharmacy my father went to pick her up and brought her home; he reached into his jacket and pulled out my bear.


My mother decided that my favorite bear, Charity, was getting old but knew she couldn't replace her. She got me another one like her and named him Lars, not Charity. After this little bear in a book she read me at the children's library. I remember us sitting on the bed and she said "Let me hug little Lars" and hugged him, then we sat him beside Charity and she exclaimed that they looked like twins; they were twins!


My mother would let me sleep in her big bed sometimes and she would sleep on my smaller one and she would bring Charity from my room into hers for me to sleep with. Once when I asked for one of my bears and she asked which one and I said any one, she went to my room and brought back Charity probably because she knew she was my favorite.


She promised to wake me up when Mr. Bean came on when I was taking a nap once.


She watched America's Most Wanted with me to spend time with me.


She got me a subscription to the America's Most Wanted magazine without me asking for it.


When I liked being woken up in the morning with the teddy bears she would do it, pretending to be them and talking like them.


Sometimes shwe would take one of the bears if she came in and I was sitting or lying with one and kiss me with it.


When we went to the Salvation Army once when I was 10 she let me get all these dresses for Charity and a suit and shirts for Lars.


She tried to understand my love for my bears, saying that she guessed I needed a friend.


When she went with some of my other relatives to a store where she got clothes she came back with clothes for Charity and Lars as well. Without me even having known where she was going.


If she was straightening out my room (without me asking or wanting her to) if she saw baby/doll/bear clothes lying around and a naked bear or a few naked bears, she would dress the bears. Once we laughed about her putting a dress on Lars, which happened quite a few times and it was so cute and funny.


A lot of the time she would talk to me using the bears. Sometimes we did roleplay with the bears, and twice she started it.


Once I was in bwed and my mother was getting ready for bed and she saw my bear lying somewhere, on her bed or something, and she said "Chubby Yeesha... you can sleep with Chubby Yeesha and I'll put the others over here..."


Once when we were at the Salvation Army she let me get three "Charity" bears. Another time there were two "Lars" bears there and she let me get them. My father took the trouble to ask "And what are you going to call these two?"


My mother one said she felt less alone when I put a bear on her bed or brought her a bear when she was in bed to sleep with her.


My mother once gave me Charity to sleep with and said "Here's Charity, nice soft Charity."


When I named one of our cat's kittens, a little white one, Charity and got attached to her my mother let me keep her when all the others went to the pet store. My mother once remarked that the name Charity suited her because she was so empathetic and friendly and gentle and cute and nice.


My mother helped me make clothes for Charity and Lars once.


My mother would wash Charity and Lars and once she dressed them after washing them.


She called Charity beautiful after I dressed her in cute clothes and made her matching earrings out of beads and string.


She noticed that my cat Charity now slept with my bear Charity and played with her and said in a cutesy voice to the cat, "Charity and Charity!"


Once I was sitting with Charity and picked her up to look at her and "pay attention to her and spend quality time with her" and she said "You like your little bear, eh?" and commented on how sweet I had looked for a second looking at my little bear.


She said she knew Charity was precious to me.


Once she was talking about fire safety with me or something and said leave everything behind and just get out and I said "What if my tedy bear turns to ashes?" and she said that they would "get me another Charity or Lars exactly lke it." Remembering that Charity and Lars were my two favorites.


All this is about my bears, but there was a lot more too.

I adore my brother, but he's a monumental pain in the arse.

When I was a kid and also last year my dad took me to about 100 movies, including The Lion King, Pocahontas, the Miracle on 34th Street, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Gladiator, Planet of the Apes, Legally Blonde, The Time Machine, America's Sweethearts, What A Girl Wants, all 3 Lord of the Rings movies, Jurassic Park 3, Titanic, the first two Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Analyze This, The Matrix, Artificial Intelligence, Reign of Fire, Indian in the Cupboard, Babe, Rocketman, and Mask of Zorro.He also introduced me to lots of computer games including Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, Quake, Doom, Tomb Raider, Mech Warriors, Riven (and I got obsessed with the Myst series), Breakout, Minesweper,and the Dr. Fun Pak including Rodent's Revenge, Packrat, Campaign, Superbal, F-Godmom, and others. He introduced me to my favorite screensaver, the Johnny Castaway screensaver.


My dad also loved my bears; he would make them talk in a cute bearlike way and if he found one lying around he would often sit it somewhere with a book or newspaper and put a hat or sunglasses on him if he saw some lying around. He told me once that if there was a fire to just grab my bears and get out. Once when he was telling me something as he was passing by the couch where Charity and Lars were sitting, he said "Right, bears?" When I called him Mr. Bear in kindergarten he said that it was embarrassing to be called that in public but so that I wouldn't be sad I could call him Mr. Bear when we were at home. Once he tucked me into bed and I had Charity and Lars on the bed with me; I had brought them into my room with me, and he told me to go to sleep and made little bear noises and moved the bears in a way that looked and sounded like the bears were getting settled down and going to sleep. My mother said she loved my bear Charity because she loved me. My dad also made a nickname for these dances I would make my bears do, calling it the bear barf dance, which he said was a dance bears did when they were about to barf. Once when he was vacuuming and I was sitting reading with my bear Byron, and put him on the floor like he was being a naughty little bear and trying to block the vacuum cleaner or chase it, my dad jokingly started to vacuum his head; it was so cute. Another time when I did that he just ruffled the bear's hair/patted him on his head. When I brought my bears to kiss my parents with me they would kiss the bears too. My mother once said when she slept on the couch in the living room and I put Chastity, my bear, where she slept, and dressed her in my mother's too-small shirt like it was Chastity's dress, and she was there for a while, she said that she found that little Chastity comforting; there was something comforting about her. A few times when with me she would pick up Charity and hug her and once I asked what she was doing and she said "Nothing, just hugging Charity." She said she was so glad to have me and Charity and that she couldn't see anyone but me with Charity. She meant it as though I was unique in a special cute way, not in a bad-wierd sort of way. Another time she said, without Charity being anywhere in sight, that she would miss me and Charity and we could stay with her as long as we needed. Once I was in bed with my bears and she came to sleep in the same bed and she said "Oh, the twins!" or "Little bearies..." or "And there's little Charity... or Lars, don't know which one... then turn over and say, "I shouldn't be turning my back on her." Because I put them in her place in the bed for her to sleep with. I looked forward to her comments about my precious bears when she came to bed!


I always looked forward to her comments about my beautiful bears! She commented several times about Charity, "She's sitting up like a real person" or "It sits up like it's real."


My mother took me to Titanic and the first Mr. Bean movie.

I appreciate my family, especially my siblings and grandparents. They're genuinely nice people who always make me smile and lift my spirits.

My dad also took me to see Free Willy, the second or third one, and Antz. He sent me to sailing camp when I was 13, 14 and 15, sent me to private school in grade 7 and 8, sent me to Europe in grade 11, got me a big box of Lego for I think my 8th birthday, introduced me to computers when I was 5, drove me to school and once around on Halloween night,surprised me with Myst III: Exile one summer day when I was 13, enjoyed my stories of what went on in sailing camp every day and the adventures I had nearly going into the rapids or drowning or something, said several times that it could be arranged to live with him if I wanted, got me Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire for my 14th birthday and also a Hedwig journal and a Hedwig bookmark, he gave me other stuff too. He upgraded my computer several times, gave me a brand new computer, got me Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation as a surprise once during the Christmas holidays when I was 13, gave cute nicknames to my bears when I was 3 (Stinky and Inky), took me to restaurants, took me out for dinner on my birthday, sent me lots of money when I was in Brockville and he was in British Columbia, gave me a birthday card with $20 in it, said he'd defend me to the principal if I had to punch someone in school in self-defence, listened to all my talk about Nintendo and Miss Kelly yelling at the class and how my friend's mother's boyfriend was probably that fugitive from America's Most Wanted. He said I could talk to him about anything I wanted and that when he tried to talk to his parents about stuff they just yelled at him (but often he did the same thing but other times he was good at listening). He said his place was my home, I could go over whenever I wanted, he listened to the stories I wrote and gave feedback on them, he listened to my talk about funny stuff that went on in school or at sailing camp or during the trip to Europe. He talked too about the things I liked to talk about; he didn't just say "Mm-hmm" or "Uh-huh."

I appreciate my family [mothers side] for nearly always trying to do whats best for me, even if it hurt me.

My dad would make comments about my bears and I loved it. He nicknamed Sirrus Rusty because of a stain on him, Chastity Perfect because she was the bonly one who was perfectly-made and didn't look odd in some way, Charity was Inky and Lars Stinky, Byron was Thready or something, my mother called Yeesha Fatty once and Fat Yeesha and Chubby Yeesha another time. He also made fun comments on how I dressed them. He said Lars looked like the tough kid on the block, Yeesha looked like she had jsut come from a church revivalist meeting, etc. I wish I could remember the other comments.


Charity always had clothes. Well maybe not always; I remember her being naked once when I was really young but I also saw a picture with her in it when I was around that age and she was wearing clothes. Even when she wasn't wearing clothes, she always HAD clothes. My mother would often give me shrunken clothes that were no good for us to wear if she thought it might fit one of my bears, rather than just giving or throwing them away or using them as rags.


My mother once commented that she loved the rope around Arianna's neck, and that that bear was so nice and soft, and I said she was the newest one, Arianna, and she said in the sweetest voice "I like Arianna."


When I got Chastity, Byron and Yeesha from the Salvation Army and we were bringing them and our other stuff home on the bus, she said she would name one of them Byron, after Lord Byron (not knowing Byron actually meant bear as well). She adopted Byron as her bear and made cute comments about his thready nose, and he was the softest of the ones I had then, too. I had called him Byron even before she had chosen that one to be hers and she liked to use him as a pillow (we had a shortage of pillows) and would look for him to use as a pillow. She clled him "my Byron" and when I used him to mop up some spilled beer by making him frolick in it she said You beered my bear!"


She would comment on nice earrings I made for Charity and said that Charity reminded me of her, old and worn out, and Chastity, "the brand new one", reminded her of me, all new and young and smooth and not shrivelled.

I appreciate my family because they're all quirky and intellectual.

My mother once got me some earrings for Charity. My dad also put plastic rings from my ring toss games in Charity and Lars's ears and sealed them shut with a lighter to make sure they stayed in after cutting them to put them in. Thy were just the right size for the bears, in proportion to the other parts of them. My mother also once sewed a sequin onto Lars's ear as an earring.


My dad listened to my make-believe talk about what my bears were doing, how this one had the chicken pox, that one was the adopted father of these ones...


My mother took the time to tell me stories about my stuffed bears, particularly the polar bears whom I decided would be siblings-- Charity, Lars, Polar, Polar bear, and Chocolate.


My mother named my stuffed groundhog Hemingway. I thought it sounded nice even then, but now that I know who Hemingway is it's even nicer.

I appreciate my family because they respected my intelligence, even though I was different.

I appreciate my family because they instilled in me a love of animals.

I appreciate my family because they began traditions that were a great source of comfort to me.

I appreciate my mother because she started me on a lifetime love of reading.

My mother got me a lot of books I liked and said once when I was 8 that if I got all 1s on my report card she would get me something big like a bunk bed, if I got all 2s she would get me something like a doll or a teddy bear, 3s like a chocolate bar or two and 4s I dunno, like a pencil or something but she'd still get me something lol.

I'm closer to my family than ever before, and it's all thanks to the events that took place for the last year and a half.

I appriciate my family and get on really well with my brother.