Family time

I come from a large family, and my four of my six sisters live hundreds of miles away, so it's hard for us to all be in the same place at the same time. It's actually never happened, since my family has grown so much over recent years as babies have been born and brothers-in-law have been added to our family. Last summer my mom thought it was time for us to have our first family reunion with everyone, so she set our reunion date for Memorial Day weekend 2011.

I've been eagerly anticipating this weekend for months and months, but a few weeks ago our reunion plans were deflated a bit when I found out that my sister Kristin and her family wouldn't be able to make it. Kristin lives in California and she thought it would just be too expensive for her family to make the trip since her husband is recently out of grad school and has loans to pay back. It would also be expensive with the price of gas, in addition to having to get four hotel rooms on the drive up and back since it's around 30 hours one way from California to St. Louis. I was devastated because I miss Kristin and her family SO MUCH (they lived with my mom and me for five months last year while Kristin's husband was looking for a job, and I grew very attached to having Kristin and her family around during that time). 

As disappointed as I was to not have my ENTIRE family at the reunion, it was lots of fun and I really enjoyed seeing my nieces and nephews since they change so quickly. One of the "musts" was to get a family picture with all of us who were at the reunion. Getting a picture of 23 people is easier said than done, especially when 12 of those people are young children, but we did our best. We were able to get some pictures that were acceptable, although I wasn't completely satisfied since the lighting wasn't as good as I would've hoped, and there also wasn't one picture where everyone was looking at the camera and smiling. Here are a few of the best ones:

 

We had such a good time together and there's a lot to catch up on. I'll be posting more pictures and stories, so stay tuned!

In memoriam

I've been MIA for a few days because I've been busy hanging out with my family members who came into town for a family reunion a few days ago. We had so much fun together and I've got lots to catch up on (which I'll start blogging about everything tomorrow), but I wanted to take a few minutes before the day ends to write a blog post in honor of Memorial Day. 

My Grandpa Zimmerman (who is a World War II Army veteran) sent my mom an e-mail on Sunday evening, and here's a snippet from it, as well as a little background to help put it into context:

"Tonight we will be listening and watching to the Memorial Day program from Washington. Do you remember the times we were visiting you and Steve thought we should watch?  We did watch and he made me get up and march when they played the Army song.  We will be watching tonight and I'll get up and march, remembering him.   We've watched the program ever since."

My dad, Steve, (he passed away 12 years ago) is the one mentioned in the e-mail and he was a pretty patriotic person and had a lot of pride in our country. I do remember my dad making my grandpa get up and March. I thought it was funny at the time, but what my young age failed to comprehend and appreciate at the time was how important our service men/women are. I can't imagine serving in the Armed Forces, so I really respect anyone who is willing to do that.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day and took a few minutes to pause and reflect on all the great things that go along with living in a free country.

My grandpa: (about 50 years post-World War II, but still trim enough to fit into his army uniform!)

The end of an era

Oprah. You love her, you hate her or you're somewhere in between. Regardless of how you feel about her, you have to admit that she's really and  interesting person and has done some pretty amazing things considering where she came from in life. She was born in a rural Mississippi town in the 1950s, but managed to graduate college, get a job and become extremely successful.


Although I don't always agree with Oprah and her opinion on things, I do respect her and think she's been able to accomplish some really remarkable things in her life, mostly through her television show. She's touched many lives and has been able to help so many people with the wide variety of shows she's done over the years. 


I've been a fan of the Oprah show for a long time, and I remember occasionally watching the show after school when I was a little girl. After my accident I started watching Oprah every afternoon since I'm almost always home. She's really done some fascinating shows over the years! The shows I enjoy the most are the ones about real people and the things they've experienced in their lives. So many of the shows are really lift you up when you hear someone's story and how they've been able to triumph in the midst of trials and adversity.


Oprah's certainly had a variety of looks over the years as her weight has gone up and down,  as styles have changed, etc. Here are a few shots of Oprah through the years:

I enjoyed watching Monday's and Tuesday's shows this past week which were full of celebrities, viewers and other people saying goodbye to Oprah. The final episode of Oprah is on this afternoon, and Oprah is going to spend the entire episode talking about what the show has meant to her over the past 25 years.


4 in the afternoon isn't going to be the same anymore without Oprah!

"To Kill a Mockingbird"

Last night was my book club and we discussed To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I've read this book several times, and each time I read it I love it more and more. 

This book was originally published in 1960, and just has so many good life lessons in it. My favorite theme in this book is that you can't judge a person until you've walked around in their skin. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone could think this way?! The world would surely be a much different and better place.

This book has a broad variety of characters in it which adds to the depth and themes of the book. Racism, prejudice, mental illness, drug addiction, etc.

This book was made into a movie in 1962, and the movie is wonderful. Check it out here.

17-year itch

There's something disgusting going on outside my window, and I shudder just thinking about it! About a week ago my mom noticed some large bugs that were climbing on the front of our house. Upon closer investigation, my mom discovered that these insects were the 17-year cicadas that we've been hearing about on the news. They are so disgusting!

My mom gets the bug spray out every morning and bravely goes outside to tackle these nasty bugs that are about an inch and a half long. She sprays poison on them and says that when she does all she can hear is the fluttering of wings. She says the ground at the foundation of the house is just covered with hundreds of these bugs. Gross!

I did a little online research a few minutes ago, and I found out that there are actually seven species of these long-living cicadas. Three of the species follow the 17-year cycle, and the other four species follow the 13-year cycle. There are also other cicadas, "annual" ones, that have a much shorter lifespan, so you can pretty much bank on some species of cicada being around every summer. That's fine – I just don't like them being so close to home… or crawling on my home!

These pests will die off later this summer and won't be back until I turn 44. Wow! I know age is just a number, but since I'm still in my mid-20s, 44 sounds really old!