Delete or Not?

Hey I am just wondering if we should just delete this blog or not. I don't think it's used by anyone so just let me know.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope each mother in this family has a wonderful and happy mother's day. I see each of you with your children and and so glad to have such great examples.

I also especially wanted to wish our mom a happy mother's day. I really am so grateful for the mom we have. Looking at other famiies I am so glad that each of us were born in the same family to the parents we were. They have taught us so much and were there when we needed them but knew when to step back and let us live and learn. Thank you, mom, for working so hard and being a righteous example to us and most of all for loving each of us individually and supporting us in our decisions. The fact that I've never had to question your love for each of us means the world to me. I love you as a mom and I know each of your grandchildren loves you immensley as their grandma.

Happy Mother's Day!

Growing Up (memories)-Part 2

So last week I focused on food memories. This week I wanted to mention a few memories that are just random but fun.

*Remember sluedding/tubing down Brown's hill and into Barker's yard? That was great.

*I remember Ryan and/or Stacie chasing me around the backyard with Brown's snake (what kind was it?? I can't remember but it was huge!) and having them put the snake around my neck. I hated it at first but once I realized it wouldn't eat me I thought it was pretty cool.

*This one has been talked about at length but it's definitely worthy of mentioning. Keri + Ryan + Christmas lights + Michelle sleeping in the same room = BIG MISTAKE! It's funny now that they decorated not only my entire "room" with lights but me. How I didn't wake up I'll never know...well, until I was all aglow, that sure woke me up...and ticked me off! :) Thanks guys.

*I believe it was Keri's genius idea for me to hide in the washing machine during a rousing game of hide-n-seek with Powell's. I'm still surprised Dad was as calm as he was while disassembling the entire washing machine to get me out.

*Anyone remember a mysterious and freaky red light that would appear in Ryan and Keri's bedroom when they shared downstairs? Is this a weird made-up memory I have?

What else do you guys have to add?

Growing Up (memories)

Last week while Jeff and I were driving home we started talking about some of our childhood memories. Not the "going to Disneyland" type of memories but the simple things that brought us pleasure while growing up. Those that I mention today all have to do with food for some reason :)

*I remember going to the gas station to get potato logs. I thought they were delicious then and I'm dying to go get some now. Such a cheap thing sure made a lasting memory.

*I remember stopping at Kar Kwik (on 7th Street and on 40th Street) when driving home from the grandparents to get free hot chocolate if it was snowing outside.

*I remember, as a real treat, getting nachos from the gas station. Those were the days when you could pack your own chips in there and I'm pretty sure that, thanks to dad's teachings, the older siblings were able to get about $10 worth of nachos for the $1-2 they would charge for a single order of nachos.

*I remember going to the mall we all hated at for weekend-before-Christmas shopping and we would get one (maybe two?) cinnamon rolls to share between 7 of us.

*Pizza Hut Book-it's...need I say more?

I could go on but I'll leave it there. Anyone have any others to add? I know that part of the reason we did things like this is because we were kindof poor but I wouldn't change it for anything. I never felt like I needed more and those were the things that made me happy and obviously made a lasting memory. I'm grateful for mom and dad and all that they did for us.

Happy V alentines Day

To the Bruce Family,

I just wanted to wish all of you a very happy Valentines Day. Even though I wasn't there I want you to know that my heart was with each of you today (especially after I got Michelle's exciting valentine) as I thought about the fun things you might be doing. I love you all! See you next week.

Mom

Vacation Memories

In anticipation for our upcoming "Bruce Family Cruise" I think we should discuss vacation memories.

I'm going to start off with the infamous D.C. / New York trip. Since there was so many fun (and funny) times during that week together, I won't elaborate.

1. 2 Rental Vans and communication between the two with walkie talkies. Code names used and dad never really deciding what he was going to call the other vehicle because the code name changed every time he took over the walkie talkie.

2. Driving around Gettysburg for HOURS with dad narrating to us the entire history. I thought it was impressive he did that and it was really neat learning. Steve and Allie bored out of their minds--Steve sleeping in the back of the van.

3. Keri still never getting her meal at TexMex.

4. Being able to see our hotel but NOT being able to actually figure out how to get there.

5. The night that some went to get food for the whole group, got lost, bad experience at Wendy's because they couldn't find anything else, returning to the hotel with 1 5-piece chicken nugget, a withered baked potato and some drinks for 10 of us to share. (I really don't remember what we ended up with but it wasn't much.)

6. 10 of us (+1 driver) piling out of the hotel shuttle van (with a normal capacity of 7).

7. Carmines, NY pizza, Philly cheesesteaks in Philly, etc.

8. Lots of learning, lots of laughs, a few tears, and some REALLY GREAT MEMORIES.

Can't wait for the next one.

Vintage You Tube

In light of my last post, I thought this needed to be posted. It was dug up by none other than Brett (surprise, surprise). Anyway, I actually sort of remember going to see Tiffany perform even though I was only like 5. This video has clips of Tiffany's performance at the Ogden Mall. It's so bad. Literally.