Well, yesterday I mentioned how I seem to have so many birthdays and anniversaries to remember, that I don't know when I'll actually get back to answering the questions in my book, but I just don't know how to stop when I have so many fabulous people in my life! Today just happens to be one of those EXTRA special days, when I have not one, not two, but three of those people to remember!
I've decided that since I have some special musical memories of each of these people, I'm going to share a story about the musical memory I have of each of them and a video to match!
The first is my cousin Beth. Out of respect, I'll leave out her birth year! You might remember a story about her. We decided to take a six-mile hike at the ripe old ages of four and five! Here we have Beth a few years after said adventure:
Aaand... This is Beth with her new husband last year, on their honeymoon in Hawaii!
My musical memory of Beth has to include a top group from the late 60's and the beginning of music video! Beth and I faithfully watched the Monkees each Monday night and then talked on the phone about our favorite parts of the show and how great they were. Beth also went with me to The Monkees concert in July, 1967. Good times and fun memories. Happy Birthday, Cousin!
The second person to enter my life on June 17, 1967 was my oldest nephew, Daniel Carl Zielke.
He was born to my brother Al and his first wife, Marcia. I know I've mentioned before that Dan was my real life baby doll and the fact that he lived right downstairs gave me easy access to him! I loved having a nephew and had so much fun with him, amid moments of frustration....
Dan with his boys 2005
My absolute favorite memory of Dan has to be the fact that every day when he'd hear me get home from school, he'd run up the stairs, slam the door, run and jump on the couch and shout "Doo Doo Doo, Dewoe! Doo Doo Doo!" (Dewoe was his pronunciation of "Carol" and of course he was asking me to play Credence Clearwater Revival's song "Lookin' Out My Back Door" on the stereo while he rocked so hard, sometimes we feared that he was going to break the window behind the couch!!! Dan--- This one's for you! Happy Birthday!
And finally, although I didn't meet her until 1974, my "little sister," Amy Louise Sloan MacLee was born seven years my junior.
She was truly the little sister I never had and, boy, do we ever have stories! But most of them will have to wait. Amy was there for me when I was divorcing her brother. She was there to help with our house full of teenagers. And she has always been the one to force me out of my comfort zone to have a little bit of fun that I NEVER would have done without her. I was so excited two years ago when we ended up being able to take an Alaskan cruise together!
Even there, there were musical memories from the piano bar and Amy shakin' her booty with our waiter the final night!
I have too many musical memories of her! There was dancing the polka in the basement of her parents' home, Herman's Hermits ("I'm Henry VIII, I Am), Neil Diamond ("Coming to America") and Barry Manilow ("I Write the Songs" and so many more), but the stand out musical memory had to be taking Disco Lessons at the YMCA!!! Happy Birthday, Amy Lou! You should be dancin'!!! Yeah!
I surely do seem to have a lot of "Wild Card" posts! I think Brooks should have created a section of my Question Book all about special days, like birthdays and anniversaries! It seems like that's primarily what I write about, but this is my thought. This first year that I'm blogging, I'll tell totally marvelous stories about all this wonderful people in my life. Once that's out of the way, in future years I can just mention them and wish them a Happy Whatever and blog answers to the real questions. So... that's my plan... for now.... just sayin'.... So, on to today's special topic: Sam and Cam's anniversary. Thirteen years, four kids and one heart surgery later....
They met here! Ricks College (aka BYU-Idaho)
Now, I haven't really said too much about the other anniversaries that have already passed this year, but the preparations for their wedding were such an adventure in themselves, I think everyone would agree that they deserve a blog entry of their own, so... here we go!
First of all, I don't know that either one of them were very "in" to the whole wedding thing. They were just young, in love and wanting to be married. Cameron was fresh home from his mission in the Dominican Republic, Sami was a second semester freshman, who was always more comfortable talking to guys than girls except for her very few close friends. So, Sami set out to befriend the oblivious young man and won him over quickly. Before we knew it, we had a wedding to plan!
Now, most mothers dream of helping their daughters plan their weddings and I was no different. Since I pretty much had to plan my own wedding by myself, I was looking forward to doing all the "fun" stuff with my first daughter to get married. The fact that it was also my first "Mormon" wedding, I also had to figure out two receptions, logistics, etc. But....that ended up being the easy part. So, let's take this one piece at a time, but not necessarily in sequential order....
Pictures: I had a friend at Walmart named Uey. He did quite a bit of photography although he had never shot a wedding before. Uey is gay, claimed to be a Mormon Jew and was wackier than all get out. He certainly made the reception eventful, complaining about Samantha's choice of footwear for her big day all evening! (Did I mention that he was gay?)
Receiving line: A typical LDS wedding just has guests come in to the hall, walk through a receiving line, sit down and eat some delightful dessert (rarely actual wedding cake) and then leave. More like an Open House than an actual reception. Well, Sami remembered attending her cousin Gail's wedding and wanted something more along those lines; dancing, cutting the cake, throwing the bouquet, etc. You know... normal stuff. So, to satisfy the long-life Mormons in the crowd, we agreed to do a half hour receiving line for the early arrivals and then they would work the crowd the rest of the evening. I don't know how most Mormons do it, but by traditional etiquette, you alternate parents of the couple to bridesmaids/groomsmen to the happy couple at the end of the line. The first person in line greets the person, finds out who they are, shakes their hand and introduces them to the next person in line. I'm afraid I totally confused the Carter family though. It didn't work so well, but we did come away with a lot of fun memories, most memorable being "Ya shoulda bought the Dodge!"
Wedding cake and punch: Fortunately Aunt Amy took this over. We bought the cake at Walmart to be assembled and she made a wonderful punch to match the color scheme. Too bad most people left before it was cut and served. Remember, we confused the whole order of things for most of these people!
Decorations: Were provided by Randy and Pat. Pat used to be a set designer for high school plays and knows how to make some pretty amazing things out of Styrofoam! And did he ever! He created so much, they had to use a trailer to get it to Utah from California and it took hours to assemble! The plan was to create this amazing scene that could be reused for all the future weddings. The flaw in that being we had no place to store it and no one else wanted or needed such an elaborate setting or used similar colors!
Music and Dancing: Keep in mind, entertainment is not a typical part of the reception, but it was great fun. The boys borrowed some DJ equipment and cousin Bryan played DJ for the night with Brandon and Barton singing "their song" and beginning a tradition of writing a song of their own to sing for their sister and new "brother." We also had a lot of fun dancing the traditional "Bunny Hop" and "Chicken Dance!"
Flowers: Now that was a fun adventure. Sami's future mother-in-law offered to make the bouquets and bouts. The whole thing might have gone a little better if Sami had had an idea of what kind of flowers she wanted or what colors she wanted BEFORE we went shopping for the supplies. As it was, we all walked around the craft store with Cam's dad being the only one offering suggestions....
Bridesmaid dresses: Did I mention that Sami hadn't chosen colors? Since we were on a pretty tight budget, we thought making the dresses would be a better option than buying them. We found a pattern that she liked, I think and then finally decided to put each bridesmaid in a different pastel. Meg: Yellow; Brooks: Peach; Allyson: Green. Sami's young women leader agreed to help Sami make the dresses, but Brooks was the only one who lived in town. Meg was in school in Hawaii and Ally was still in Ohio. Fittings weren't much of an option, creating a few wardrobe malfunctions at the reception!
THE DRESS: Shopping for a wedding dress with Sam was the most exciting of all! Brooks was along; all excited over wedding planning! I also felt bad for Cam's mother. The poor woman had three sons and would never have the opportunity to shop for wedding dresses, so I had Sami invite her to come along. I think she enjoyed the experience.
So, knowing we were on a tight budget, it had been suggested to us that we "rent" a wedding dress. It seemed like a practical solution for a one-time use article of clothing. When we got to the place though, it didn't take long to figure out that cheap or not, it wasn't right for us. It just seemed so impersonal and so wrong to hear her talking about how the dresses were made so that they could be easily adjusted and readjusted. And a lot of them were skirts with tops. Ugh! Didn't care for that!
So, then we went to this place that had advertised these great prices on wedding dresses for Mother's weekend, which was when we were shopping. That place was like a madhouse! A room full of tiny dressing rooms with dozens of brides-to-be with mothers all over the place. Brooks was looking through dresses and bringing them to the fitting room where I was trying to help Sami in and out of them and trying to make it a special experience while it felt like a stockyard. The shining moment of that experience was when Sami was trying to step into one dress (or was it out of?). Anyway... she was in her underwear, stumbled into the door which didn't latch very well and fell out into the masses of women and dresses. That was it for that place. Especially since none of the dresses really "spoke" to her the way a woman's wedding dress is supposed to, you know?
So, on we went to "THE" premium wedding dress shop in Rexburg, Idaho. The one everyone goes to, but fortunately we had a rather private time and I could tell that Sami was finally drawn to one dress. She still couldn't say that it was "THE" dress, but the look on her face when she looked at herself in the mirror said it better than it had with any other dresses anywhere else. Thinking perhaps we had a winner, I had her go out to the big room with a full wall of mirrors and an elevated platform to walk on so the bride could see the full impact of her dress with the train. Brooks and I were so looking forward to seeing Samantha walk in this gorgeous dress! She stepped up onto the platform and.... took off! Like a starving man hearing a dinner bell! By this time, it was obvious, she was done. Done shopping. Done worrying. Done caring. She just wanted to get married, forget the hoopla!
But, we still needed a veil and shoes! We finally got her into a simple, versatile veil that she could wear on top of her head or at the base of her skull, so we didn't need to consider yet how she would wear her hair. And then, although she chose a simple, but nice pair for shoes for the wedding, she went with my suggestion to be comfortable for her reception and went with a pair of canvas tennis shoes... hence Uey's repulsion for pictures!
So, there you go... the story behind the wedding. But the wedding itself was beautiful in the Bountiful, Utah temple. Thirteen years ago today, my first baby to leave home. Of course there were other stories, but those can wait for another day. In the meantime, I wish a very Happy Anniversary to Sam and Cam. Cameron has been a wonderful addition to the family. He's fun and he loves my daughter and my grandchildren. He provides well for them. They make a fun couple. They were just meant for each other and they're happy. And really, what else does any mother want for her children when they leave home? Happy Anniversary! I love you!
