Phone Photo Fun

His Resurrection! ~ Celebrate ~ Lent is over

These can't be good ~ Let's salsa ~ Ready for school

Pretty petals ~ Bright bananas ~ The Kiss

Boiler up ~ Blue skies ~ Gumbo smile

Flashback Friday - Wedding March

I was up early this morning to watch the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. In honor of the big event, Linda has posed some wedding memory questions for Flashback Friday.

What is the earliest family wedding you remember attending? Did your family attend many weddings when you were growing up? What do you remember of them? What was typical of weddings you attended? Were you ever in a wedding as a child? As you became a young adult were you in lots of weddings? What roles did you have? Did you catch the bouquet (or garter)? What "royal" or newsmaking weddings do you remember and how old were you? For the gals, were you one who planned your wedding repeatedly as you were growing up or was it not a big deal to you? What have you noticed that is different about weddings today, and do you consider it for better or for worse?


The earliest family wedding I remember was the wedding of my mom's sister, my Aunt Jane. My mom was her only bridesmaid, and I was the flower girl. I think I was four. I remember carefully dropping the petals as I followed my mother down the aisle. I also remember a friend of my aunt (actually a friend of her new husband), who was called "The Fat Man" leaned over and said 'boo' or something to me as I walked. I stopped momentarily and looked at him before continuing on my way. I don't think I ever heard him called by his real name. I remember getting to sit in the front row with my grandma during the wedding since they thought I was too little to stand in front the whole time. My flower girl basket hung in my room as a decoration for many years. My mother probably still has it.

The reception was at the home of my grandparents, and that's where this picture of my brother and me was taken.

I don't remember going to many weddings as a child, but at my 10th birthday party, we acted out the wedding of Tiny Tim and Miss Vicki. It was the celebrity wedding of 1969, and they were married on the Johnny Carson show.

My mom was known for her creative birthday parties, and as each of my friends arrived, we drew from a hat to see which character we would play. We put on costumes, had a quick rehearsal, and then my mom (or maybe my dad) filmed it on the movie camera. I remember I was a crying mother. A few weeks later, after the film was developed, we had everyone back for a popcorn party to watch the movie.

I was the first of my friends to get married. I remember being the cake cutter for a friend, and it was hard work! I was maid of honor for my best childhood friend, and a bridesmaid in the weddings of two of my college roommates and also in my brother's wedding. This picture if from my college roommate's wedding. I am second from the left in the picture.

Of course I remember the wedding of Charles and Diana in July of 1981. We were married just 4 days earlier, and we watched it on our honeymoon. But there was another "big" celebrity wedding later that fall, the wedding of Luke and Laura on General Hospital.

There were 30 million people watching that day (or days), making it the highest rated hour in soap opera history. I was a student at Purdue, and remember cramming in to the Memorial Union lounge area to watch between classes.

Weddings are special, happy days, and today's wedding of William and Kate was certainly that. I know there are folks who really didn't understand what all the fuss was about, but I'm glad I got up early to watch. It was, well, majestic. The bride was beautiful, the groom was handsome, and everything seemed perfect. Amid the pomp and circumstance, and the nervousness they must have been feeling, they really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

And as they drove away from the palace, it looked to me like they were definitely having fun. An important part of every marriage.

Just Chillin'

I was a lucky Granny to have the opportunity to pick Matthew up from school on Tuesday this week, and he got to stay overnight (on a school night!). Since that isn't the norm, we thought we would celebrate by eating dinner at Chili's, and kids eat free on Tuesday at Chili's!

Matthew concentrated on his coloring while we waited for our appetizer.

Jim was concentrating on something else. As usual.

At least Matthew doesn't have a phone - yet - to distract him from his coloring.

The tongue always helps the concentration.

Ahhh... chips and salsa.

And Big Jon arrived just in time for the food. Of course.

My phone does come in handy for taking pictures at the restaurant.

Matthew helped Big Jon select a beverage.

And then they played a little Words With Friends. I haven't brought myself to download that app yet, but I understand it's lots of fun. Even Grandma (age 91) plays.

We had a nice dinner and then Jon hoisted Matthew onto his shoulder and hauled him out kicking and screaming.

I mean laughing.

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early for breakfast, shower, and dressing...

before heading to Arlington in time for school.

And yes, it was another rainy morning. He didn't want me to take his picture arriving at school, but if you look verrrry closely, you can see him going into the building.

 Have a great day!

A Royal Hodgepodge

Time for another Wednesday Hodgepodge. Last week I wrote about Noah. If it doesn't stop raining soon, we may have to pull the ark out of storage!

Joyce has another interesting group of questions for us this week. Click on her button to see what the others have to say!

1. What is something that bothers you if it is not done perfectly?

Well, this would definitely not include anything in the area of housekeeping. I'm just not that particular about a clean house. Obviously. I consulted Jim on this one, and he said I'm bothered more if it's not done at all rather than if it's not done perfectly.

2. What is one of your best childhood memories?

I have many "best" childhood memories, but some of my favorites were vacations. I remember visiting my grandparents' lake cottage in Vermont, and several spring break trips to Florida.

This one was probably 1969.

1971, Madeira Beach, Florida. (I think Ted's wearing the same outfit.)

1975, the Mayflower II, in Boston. I remember I planned this trip for my Driver's Ed project.

Another favorite memory was the Christmas my mom surprised us all with a gift none of us expected. I was a teenager, and not so excited about Christmas morning. My mom walked into the room with a box, and I could tell right away there was something special in it. I jumped up and opened the box to find this:

His name was Dudley, and he came from our mother who almost never said "dog" without "dumb" in front of it. (And face it, sometimes they were. Dumb.) She knew we all loved dogs, though, and it was maybe the most excitement ever shown by me on Christmas morning.

3. Do you plan to watch the Royal Wedding and when was the last time you wore a hat?

Yes, of course I'll watch the Royal Wedding. It will be nostalgic for me as I remember watching the wedding of Prince William's parents while we were on our honeymoon. Our weddings were really quite similar, as were the early years of our marriages. Except for the castles. And the horse drawn carriages. And the servants. And the crowns. And the "your royal highness" part. In case you missed my comparison post, you can read it here.

 As for the last time I wore a hat? We'll keep with the childhood memory theme and go with this one, 1972.

Notice my youngest brother's arm in the photo? Broken (with a little help from his brother) the day before we left for vacation.

4. Where do you fall in the birth order in your family? Do you think this has influenced your personality?

I am the first born of three, and the only girl. Of course it has influenced my personality. I spent many years bossing around mothering my little brothers. I practiced my teacher skills on them, which helped me choose my career path. When I looked up personality traits of first born children, I found confidence - check, leadership - check, determination - check, organization - check well, you can't have everything. About the organization part, it did say, "they are usually good at finding things, and even if they appear messy and unorganized they likely have a system." So yes, that fits. And, as I've said before, my brothers would probably say the meaning of all this is that I'm bossy. Well, maybe. A little.

Just had to include this lovely photo of my family, probably around 1970. But you could probably guess the year by my mom's hair.

5. Where do you think you spend most of your money?

We spend a good bit of money on vacations and other opportunities for the family to spend time together. We try to balance this by sharing what we can with special friends and groups that have become dear to our hearts.

6. When you need to confront someone would you rather communicate in person, on the phone, by email or by letter? Why?

Well, a first born is not one to pick a fight, so I would prefer to avoid the confrontation altogether. Then I would choose the method of communication most appropriate to the situation.

7. Dodge ball, freeze tag, kickball or jump rope? You have to pick one.

I wasn't ever very good at anything that involved a ball. Or running. And when I was in high school, dodge ball was, well, dangerous. So I'll pick jump rope. I liked the rhymes, I liked jumping in to a turning rope, and I was pretty good at the front cross. These days, I would be the rope turner.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

My daughter Jennifer will be participating in the Mutt Strut this weekend to benefit the Indianapolis Humane Society. Her dog Emma, will be pulling leading Jennifer and Bryan around the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway along with hundreds of other crazed dog owners. Her goal is to raise $200. Here is the link to her donation page if you would like to help. Having adopted two great dogs from shelters myself, I know the good work these folks do to match pets with forever homes.

This is a picture of Jennifer and Emma at last year's event. She's hoping for a sunny day this year!

Easter Parade

I wanted to share a few more Easter photos that Darci sent.

Sweet precious ones.

Share and enjoy.

Darci, Matthew, Haleigh, and Andrew will welcome a baby girl to the family in just a couple of weeks!

He Is Risen Indeed!

We were blessed with a beautiful celebration of the resurrection on Easter morning. We had a full sanctuary, beautiful music, bell-ringing children, and a great message to remind of this great gift, and lead us into the resurrection days ahead. 

He is risen. He is risen indeed!

After church, we enjoyed lunch out with family. No egg hunts or jelly beans, but Adam and Jon did wear their Easter bright shirts to celebrate the day.

Trying hard not to smile for the camera.

I think these are their "I'm hungry" faces.

Bryan and Jennifer were much more cooperative.

Aunt Jenny Anne with niece Dot.

Dot was telling her about the bunny prints she found on the front porch this morning.

The buffet was beautiful, including these colorful cupcakes.

They look good enough to eat!

Dara found the eating to be a bit tricky though.

She ended up with a icing-cicle on her nose.

I was especially happy to talk the waitress into a dip of Graeter's raspberry chip ice cream. Another Easter hallelujah!

After lunch, we took a few pictures outside. 

Bryan and Jennifer.

Jennifer and Jenny in their look-alike outfits. Jennifer is rockin' the red shoes.

My brother Michael and his cupcake.

Dara, Jennifer, and Sam.

My dad and my brother Ted.

Dara showing the versatility of her scarf.

Cheryl, Ted, Sam, Dara, and Evan.

And probably my favorite Easter song, by one of my favorites, my good friend Sandi. Well, I'm sure we would be friends if she knew me. :)

Turn off the blog music to enjoy classic Sandi singing "Was it a Morning Like This?"