Part II

There was discussion about holding a family devotional/testimony meeting on Sunday morning at the house, but it was really wishy-washy as to whether or not to have one. Rachel and I decided to see if there was a meetinghouse close to where we were staying, as I thought it was important to attend church even though it was vacation. We searched and found the building was about 9 miles from the house, so luck was on our side. As we were getting ready for church, I pulled out my slacks to iron. Well, I must have crawled on my knees in something at work - because they were filthy. It wasn't a big deal, but I was forced to wear jeans with my shirt and tie. I felt like a complete idiot, but I figured attending church was more important. Besides, it wasn't like I was wearing a swimsuit, no shirt, and goggles (no matter how sexy that may sound). We stayed for the first hour, and then went home. I know that Thad, Ben, and Rachie Ann and some of the kids pulled out the boogie boards in the afternoon and went body surfing in the frigid weather. Well, not frigid exactly - - but I saw some of the adult's nipples through their shirts on some of those people after they were done. Wha-HOOOO ... nipples !! Although when it's family, and it's mostly guys - the sexiness of it all is lost. It did look like fun, I'll admit. Dinner was hamburgers/hot dogs on the grill, just something easy.



Last November, Rachel and I were talking about the reunion and how it coincided with Mother's Day. We wanted to do a digital scrapbook for Mom, and we started playing with different programs online to accomplish that. I kinda forgot about it, but to Rachel's credit, she brought it up a few weeks later. We decided to see if we could get all the siblings together to submit photos and stories of Mom. After some phone calls, and emails - everyone was on board. We waited until after the winter holidays to start taking submissions, and I still had to decide on a program to use. Well, after some poking around, I decided on a website called Picaboo. I LOVE IT ! Coming from a guy, and considering it's scrap booking - - that should speak volumes. I played around with it for a week or so, just trying things out and seeing what I could make. I ended up making a 2007 Palmer yearbook for our family, and getting it printed to see the quality of the finished product. After that, we started asking for submissions from the siblings to get started. I tried to encourage people to download the software on their own computers and do their own pages, and a few took me up on that. The book was finished by mid-March and we had it printed in April after combing over it for mistakes. I had friends and family proof-read it with me, just in case. After leafing through the finished pages, I knew I had a guaranteed crying, blubbering Mother after she finished looking through it.

Ben decided to kick it up a notch by suggesting we put together the pages from the book in a slide show on his computer, use his big screen projector and show it to her along with music, while everyone read their pages on the wall. Then, after that was done, present the book to her as a "Gotcha!" moment. I loved it, and Ben started work on it. He was able to get that done in a short time, once we realized you could save the pages as .jpg images, then import those into PowerPoint. So, stage was set - - and mission accomplished: Mom started crying as soon as she saw Thad's image on the screen and didn't stop until the last two collage pages. It wasn't always easy to keep everyone to my timeline, and I know I probably pissed some family off in the process at one time or another. I just knew how Mom would love to have this, and how important it was that I get it done. Thank you, Sarah, for your support and encouragement. Rachel the Wife and you both deserve a mention in here, as I quit several times when things got rough. Both of you picked me up, and I started again. I was very proud of the work that I put into that book, and very proud that a LUNKHEAD like me could do something so creative with the use of such a wonderful program.


As you can see, I've added Picaboo's web link to my blog to help advertise such a blessing of a program (Money, please ... HINT HINT).

Love to all.