Polls Closed!

Hey everyone!

Okay, thanks for voting and giving comments and suggestions! The final result for the t-shirt color is black with lime green writing. The black should fit in nicely with the whole funeral home thing (as someone has mentioned previously :)). Also, black shirts will look fine with kahki pants or jeans, so that should be good too! And, as Aunt M pointed out, we won't have to be blinded by a bunch of bodies in lime green!

Also, due to the fact that the majority voted this way (and also because we don't know how many nights everyone will be able to stay in WA), we are just going to have Debbie put together the cookbook as was originally planned. So, submit your recipes to Debbie through email, or you can add them on the blog and tag it with the word "recipes."

Also, I will start taking suggestions for the t-shirt slogan. Several suggestions were made back in January, and I have all of those. But if you come up with some others, just let me know, either through email or through blog comments! I will create that poll later on. But let's try to get the nominations/suggestions to me for t-shirt slogan by April 11th. That gives us almost 3 weeks, in case the 2 weeks I've been giving hasn't been enough time :).

Also, I pilfered through my family's photo albums over Spring Break, and I have some doozies! I will be sending them on to Uncle Mark for photo compilation, but I will also post some of them here! So here's one for today! Don't you just love Brad's facial expression?

Thoughts from Aunt M

How many people are going to be doing the cooking for these 2 nights of food? I think we need to be sure that we have a place where we can all lend a hand, cuz I would hate to see only a few people getting stuck with too much for them to do. I think it would be a good idea if we organized it the way they do at restaurants where you have someone to chop up veggies, someone grates and or slices up the cheezes, someone tends to stove top stuff and someone else does prep for meats and what not. Let me know what you think about that. Oh yes and then a group to do the set-up for the tables and a group to actually plan decorations and well you know what I mean. Anyway maybe you can throw this thought onto the blog. Let me know what you think.

Love ya Aunt Mounyen

aunt s

elka's memory of aunt s:
ok, because i'm not in the mood to make this tearful...
i was baking cinnamon rolls this past christmas while talking on the phone with her (this has become something of a tradition for christmas morning breakfast). little did i know that this was a tradition that she did each christmas when she lived in seattle. that made me smile. i like family traditions passed down.
turquoise will always be associated with her. i remember when she came down to visit us in tx. we went to the mall. there was this one store that had all sorts of silver and turquoise jewelry. she had found a piece that reminded me of liquid silver.
another story, i literally woke her up while working on the el's deployment quilt. (we are both bears to wake up; if i had known, i NEVER would have called!) she never grumbled and tried to give help with mitered corners.
it's really the little things.
oh, i might as well add that i can't see pink and not think of her. she's a fighter to the core.



Mrs. S's Memory of Aunt S:


Aunt S is great! I remember how she always flew out to see us and to be there when we needed the support. She also is so creative! She made Little M a beautiful pink flamingo quilt as a baby quilt which I absolutely love! Every time we take it somewhere I get so many complements! M also likes to try to pick up the flamingos. I also remember how she crocheted several blankets for me and made pretty jewelery. She is also a fantastic cook and always willing to send recipes and such to us. She's sent us some of our now favorites! I'll also never forget how amazing she was as she went through chemotherapy. I remember calling her to ask how she was doing and she was always so upbeat and at the end of the conversation I found she was the one asking me how I was doing and listening to what was going on in our lives more than the other way around! She is one amazing lady!!!


Nilla's Memory:
Okay, I have a couple of memories of Aunt S. I remember spending the night at her house a couple of times when we were in WA on vacation. I remember she had a motorcycle in her basement. I also remember that one summer, it would have been the summer we were all together, so I guess I was around 7 or 8, I wanted to take a picture of her and the guy she was dating at the time. But I was too embarrassed to ask. So I hid behind the bush in front of G&G's house and took a very dark, almost indecipherable picture of them sitting on the steps out front of the house. I know someone eventually told Aunt S that I was nervous about asking her if I could take a picture, and she told me I didn't need to be. So, I took another picture, right behind Aunt H taking a picture at the same time (I have some of your rear in the picture, Aunt H :)). I also remember that Aunt S also came to my wedding, so that was really neat. There was a picture of her talking, and you can tell someone has said something very interesting based on her facial expression and Tarylyn's. That picture is probably packed away in a box I won't be opening. But it exists somewhere and it's a great one :).

By HP:
She is the strongest person I know. She has always been that way; one who showed strength beyond all others. You should have seen her swim. It was poetry in motion! In high school she had so many friends. I went to one of the CZ reunions a few years ago and EVERYBODY asked me about her. She sews, she cooks, she gardens, she knits and she is always there when you need her. She flew down to Houston (and flew mom and dad down too) when I had a lump removed from my breast. She flew to NJ when we lost Derek. She is like an anchor. She is like a sail. There are not words sufficient to tell you how much I love and respect her. God gave us a great gift when He blessed us with her as our big sister. Love, HP

does anyone remember the circumstances leading to the pictures?

i can't remember.

help!?!

i vaguely remember drink being spewed from noses and lots of laughter, but

WHY???

aunt d

By Nilla
Well, I suppose I could let someone else go first, since she is my mom... But since no one else has yet, I will :). I suppose I could tell funny stories like how my mom would mess up saying things like when she called the characters Mulder and Scully from X-Files "Scullet and Mahone." Or like when she exclaimed to Brad, Christina, and me one afternoon after school around 1996 that "Rapper Shaker" was dead. (Translation: Tupac Shakur had been shot). Or I suppose I could talk about how she used to annoy me by saying, "Patience is a virtue" or when she would sing to the tune of like an Army drill song (in the lovely darkness of 5:30 in the morning) "It's time to get up, it's time to get up, it's time to get up in the morning!" (Yeah, who wants to hear that in the morning when no one should be awake, much less as chipper as she was!). But you know what? I think what I really want to share about my mom is something I'll never forget... Well, a couple things. My mom is selfless. I will never forget how, for my 16th birthday, she spent the night before making a ton of cupcakes for me to take to seminary, Spanish class, and then to the pool afterwards. I'll never forget how, when I was trying to lose weight in 10th grade, she would buy fresh fruit and cut it up for me for breakfast every morning, and how she would buy me all the fat-free and low-fat things, even though they added to the grocery bill. I'll never forget how she dropped everything and flew to Alabama when I was going to get my endowments; and I'll never forget seeing her in the airport in Philly when I had no idea she was coming. I love my mom. And I hope I can one day be even a fraction of the kind of mom she's been, because then I'll know I'm a good mom too :).

by elka (emphasis ka)

paulboRV??? i will always remember that memory. it was the first time i'd ever seen my mom laugh THAT hard. i also remember you being a culprit in the el using all my film taking self portraits, one of which you are in. but you will always be "the good sister" (as put by kenny the loud!)

Tarylyn's memory...

(I haven't been in the family that long so bare with me!)

I'll never forget that time that we went to San Antonio, Texas together on the greyhound bus. I was..what...like eight and a half months pregnant with Saria (and technically on bedrest). It had to of been the worst road trip ever just on that factor alone, but I had mom with me!! She had organized everything and had a rental car waiting for us at the bus depot. Neither one of us had been to this place ever before, and if any of you know Mom, which I know you all do...you KNOW that she's... well...I can't think of a good word so I'll finish my story, and you can tell me what word it is. OK so we find a hotel (it's hard to do this because everyone is in San Antonio this weekend for their loved ones basic training graduation like we are) and we end up having a room with one bed in it, so we have to sleep together, which I didn't mind at all but seeing as how I wasn't even a member of the family yet "officially" and how I was almost ready to pop...you can imagine how comfortable we were. ANYWAY, my memory is this... We were driving on the base, trying to find the place to meet Brad. We had met him the day before and so I assumed she knew where the place was, but here I was looking at this simple hand drawn map that the base provided and I was telling her which direction to go in. So we get to this stop-light and she asks what direction she goes, left or right, and CLEARLY to me the building we're meeting Brad on is the right, and the map clearly states that and so I tell her right, and she says to me "I think it's left" and she goes left. OK so maybe the memory part isn't what's funny...but my inital reaction, and thoughts may be. I was like (in my head of course) "woman, I have a map right here, you ASKED me which direction to go in, and I told you and you STILL went the other way. " I've been in the family for eight years basically, and I giggle everytime I think of that simply because I now KNOW what kind of person MOM is, what's the word?? Delicate? not quite...I think Brad would call her "flighty" sometimes...that's sorta what I'm leaning to, but delicate sounds nicer haha. I also remember on that trip we all went to this HUGE mall (great place for a lady on bedrest I assure you) and we go into the HALLMARK store and sitting there on the shelves are these incredibly cute stuffed bunnies, some are white, some are tan, some are black etc...and I turn to Brad and tell him I wanna get a bunny for Saria so we sit there for ten minutes arguing about which one to get, and finally mom picks the tan colored one, tells us that white will stain, and decides for us. That was a lot of help Mom, thanks!! (Brad named that bunny Fuzznuggets while we were waiting for his bus to come get him and take him back to the base and that is exactly what Saria calls it to this day. I love mom and everything about her, she is the most selfless person I know, and I am so glad she's my mother in law! I love the fact that no matter what happens she's got a cheery laid back, FAITHFUL attitude. I loved how, when I was dating Brad, I would come over to the house and she'd be washing dishes and singing or just walking around singing, she sings a lot doesn't she. I also loved the fact that she was by my side a few weeks ago as Brad and I went through the temple for the first time. I also happen to love all of her offspring!! (ONE more then the others!!!) And I really feel at "home" being around her. Oh, I should add also, that I LOVE her cooking too, but who doesn't right?

Mrs. S's Memory:

I don't have anything specific, but just how sweet and nice I always remember Aunt D being. She was such a great help at my wedding. I remember how much her and my mom would laugh...it almost gave me insight into how they were as kids. I also remember how my mom said that when she was inactive (growing up to before elka was born) she had always looked up to the example of her big sister who remained constant in going to church. It was because of that example that my mom started going to church and raised us in that religion as well. For that I am eternally grateful because it has had one of the largest impacts in my life!

Aunt H's memory of her sister

I love this picture of D!! We were in Yellowstone park (I think) and she had lost her shoe in the creek. You should have seen her running, half on the bank and half in the water, trying to catch her fast moving shoe. The "running" was really more like hobbling because she was minus one shoe. The whole time she was trying to get the shoe she was saying, "Oooo, eeeee, ouch!" because of the stones that she was stepping on. Oh what a great memory!!! I love the smile on her face. BTW, she was dumping the water out of her shoe in this picture.

Memory of Aunt D by the El

So I have that glitch in my brain that many of you have also. You know the glitch I'm talking about, the one when you see a camera sitting there and it calls to you and says "pick me up! I'm lonely! No ones used me in over ten minutes! Please pick me up and take a picture of yourself!"

So I was dating this girl, she was hot (not the one in the photo.... NO I mean shes hot too but the girl I was dating is not the girl in the photo) and I was really into her. So this hot girl I'm dating invites me to go to her grandparents fiftieth wedding anniversary in Seattle Washington. I really wanted to impress this hot girl so of course I said I would go. Really I had to because the challenge had been initiated by the hot girl the first time we ever met. Her mother introduces us and the very first thing she says to me is "SO your from Arkansas, My room mate is from Arkansas, she smells!" Game on! I earned enough points by going to Seattle to get her to go to my hillbilly farm in Arkansas and showed her my armadillo catching skills and she was all mine! (to read that story go to elkas blog tittled "message to my sil")

Anyway I go to Seattle and meet the Lymans. It was a great time. It was the first time I got to meet Aunt D and we had lots of fun and of course there was this camera just sitting there beckoning me to take a picture with it. What a great self portrait of us! I'm looking forward to the reunion and all those lonely cameras left sitting on the tables. I hope me and Aunt D will hear a few of them calling to us! I hope we find Aunt D's sisters camera (the silver back). She loves pictures with people sticking their tongues out. Love ya Aunt D! EL

Cookbook Creation and T-Shirt Color!

Hello everyone!

As promised, the new polls have been added! The first poll is about t-shirt color. That one was expected. So now is the time to vote on what color t-shirts you would like! Please note that I specified color of words, but the first 4 choices, I just assumed it would be black. However, we can choose different colored words if we want to for those. The black shirts with lime green writing was actually a specific nomination, though :). So, happy voting!

Also, the other poll... I told you guys my mom would say, "I don't care." Haha. So, here are our choices as far as creating the family cookbook goes:

1. Debbie can do it. We can all submit our recipes to her through email or to the blog, and she can make a cookbook and we can all contribute money to have it printed for each of our families.

2. We can set aside a night where all the women can get together (and leave the men to watch the kids) and we can bring our favorite recipes (some of which we will actually bring the food to the Family Fun and Food Fiesta on a different night), and we can swap the recipes and make our own cookbooks. We could each just bring enough copies of each recipe to share. I was thinking it would be fun to hand-write the recipes (just so we would have each others' handwriting), but my mom keeps complaining about her handwriting. So, maybe that's not such a good idea, or maybe some people wouldn't want to hand-write several recipes. But I guess we could have that be optional and if you want to take hand-written recipes, you can. Or you can type them out. Or you can bring both and each person can decide if they want handwritten or typed recipes in their own branch's cookbook...

Anyway, this is getting to be a complicated little description (because I tend to do this, and I'm sorry). But basically, we just need to vote on whether we want Debbie to put together the whole cookbook, or whether we want to set aside a night for the women to get together and do a family recipe swap.

I will email this out as well!

Pictures

Here are pictures of me (the baby...Mrs. S now) and my mom (HP)

And of course my naked sister in the back bathing!

***A huge thank you to Nilla for knowing how to convert these pictures to make them "blogable"