Dear Kristen & Adam:

I am so proud of you both for standing up for civil rights!

Adam made signs, Kristen marched, and you both stood up for what is right.

You rock my world.  You rock the world.

Love, Mom

National Protest in San Francisco

Kristen is an Awesome Human Being

Best Sign Award goes to Blade and Friend!

Come and listen to my story about a mother named Cheri.

It all started with a wonderful woman we have called “a goddess among women” (really) since childhood…

She’s on the right, joined by some family in all her blogging glory

First, she added me…

Shirt notes a year where my UCSB earned more Nobel Prizes (2) than Parents’  UCLA (0)

Second, although at the time, I wasn’t sure why, she added Courtney…

Showing off her table manners at the high society event of Laura’s 6th birthday

Which made the two of us gooney kids…

On cultural overload atop a double decker bus in London

I guess to shake things up in our female house, and to create another female, she added my Dad…

Enjoying their favorite treats, Dad with Laura (bringing me to my next point)

Next, because she is amazing at making fetus into girl and girl into woman, she added Laura…

That blonde Water Babies kid has nothing on her

And Laura makes three…

At new heights on the London Eye

By association through me, persuasive culinary love, and computer wizardry came this guy… 

It’s really Adam incognito 

Mom did have the power to add, but he did not come without the approval power of her…

Laura, the toothless

In the end, my Mom is more amazing than a “Godfather” role in our family, she is our “goddess among women”…

Getting a little emo at my graduation

And, for which, I’ve tried to bestow her with awards…

Receiving my gratitude stole from my graduation gown

For more reasons than any story could tell, I love my Mom…

Feel the love

I love you Mom. Happy Mother’s Day!!!

Kristen

Laura: “Adam, do you want to grow hair?”

<5 second pause>

Laura: “…I mean on the Wii?” (referring to Adam’s Mii character) 

Courtney (sounding giddy): “Mommy, I took three cotton balls from your drawer.”

Mom: “I thought I sensed a disturbance in the Force.”

Courtney: “Pookie, can I have water?”

Grant [reaching for glass]: “Okay.”

Courtney: “Pookie, can I have ice in my water.”

Grant [filling glass]: “Okay.”

Adam: “Grant, let me introduce you to a pair of cojones.”

Cheri: “Said Adam with Laura’s pink body glitter sparkling on his forehead.”

“Somebody took my f****** pirate hat.”- Cheri, in her walk-in closet.

“Wait, don’t blog that. I don’t want people on the internet to know I say the F-word.” – Cheri, two minutes later 

Cheri found herself on Christmas Day 2007, surrounded by her loved ones, searching for a small thrill amidst a sink full of dishes, toys of all manner strewn about the place, and battery-operated votive candles gracing the mantel.

And, lo, with laptops open and screens all aglow, the glory of the Internet shone about them! And Cheri was so inspired. She looked at her family and said unto them, ‘Fear not! For, behold, I have a plan that will bring you great joy. For unto you is born this day, right here at our kitchen table, a blog.”

And she said unto them, “Ye shall find the blog on the internets, and anyone in the family may add his or her stories, quotes, photos, and insights. Therefore, our blog will contain the family jewels. It shall be called ‘familyjuliebox’ because when Laura was very little and looking for a lost ring, Kristen asked her where she’d last seen it and Laura said, ‘In my julie box.’ And because our family will blog together, there will be peace on Earth and good will toward men.”