New Sidebar

If you scroll down far enough, you'll see cartoons of my family posted on my sidebar. This represents hours of work, so any praise you'd like to give me will be most welcome. The images are linked to this post so that in the future, any time anyone clicks on the links, this post will come up explaining who each person on the sidebar is.

Dad
Pretty self-explanatory. One thing I love about my dad is his sense of humor. He was once given a copy of the ward Relief Society cookbook to give to my mom. He went around to all the ladies in the ward and had them autograph their recipe so that my mom could have the limited-edition autographed version. My dad is good at public speaking (years of experience in the Church), doing business, fishing, snow mobiling, and dressing. Except for when he tucks in his shirt or sweater when he really shouldn't. He played in a hockey league till he emigrated from Canada. When my dad was at BYU, he took classes like meat packing and range management. He also took a class from Steven Covey where he met my mom. When the class was instructed to get into groups that they would stay in for the rest of the semester, my dad chose the two homliest guys he could find and the prettiest girl (my mom). He's always been a thinker!

Ootsie Boodle
Several years ago, my mom was wondering what our children would call her. Would they call her Grandma? Mimi? Nanna? Captain Fabuloso announced that her grandchildren would call her Ootsie Boodle. We've never forgotten it, and now that Peaches Mom is pregnant, my mom will finally have someone to call her Ootsie Boodle. (When she first heard it, she was horrified, but over the years, she's come to love it. We've considered switching it to Itsy Tittle at the last moment so that she can be horrified again...) My mom is good at writing, public speaking (everyone says her talks are the best), teaching, and giving advice. I call her between one and ten times a day. When she was at BYU, she failed a chem class because of my dad. And she'll be mad at me for writing that on the internet, but still. It's funny.

Peaches Mom
Peaches Mom is my sister-in-law. She's pregnant and is due in June. Since they don't know the sex of the baby yet, they've been referring to it as either Peaches or The Bean. The Bean is in reference to the shape of a new fetus and Peaches is in reference to parents who name their children after fruit, like Gwynneth Paltrow. Peaches Mom is good at singing, painting, talking, decorating, and biking. She and Captain Fabuloso got married when they were both about 28. In her BYU student ward, they might have been the oldest couple. Her visiting teaching companion was 19 and they visit-taught a girl who was 19 and a girl who was 21. One day Peaches Mom said that she was 28. Shocked, her visiting teaching companion exclaimed, "But you bike and you're active and you do stuff!" Peaches Mom said, "Yeah. I'm 28; I'm not dead."

Captain Fabuloso
Formerly known as Brother 1, Captain Fabuloso chose this name for himself. I don't know why. He is good at taking pictures, being diplomatic, studying, cooking, and biking. That's not a comprehensive list. He and Peaches Mom met at law school and graduated in 2005.

El Senor
Formerly known as Brother 2, El Senor is only half his name. I will mention his real name but once: Senor Pissy. His roommates gave him this nickname because he has the tendency to be moody. El Senor is good at anything he wants to be good at. If he doesn't know how to do something, he learns. Currently, his top activities include playing piano, designing documents, slack lining, climbing, and kissing. But I won't say who says he's good at kissing.

Richie Tenenbaum
Brother 3 looks like Richie Tenenbaum from The Royal Tenenbaums. He has been installing anthrax detectors in the post offices around the country for the past year and a half, but now he's settling down in MD for a while. He just bought a house and is in the process of furnishing it. Richie is good at saving money, engineering, being really funny, playing the guitar, and making people like him. He's so easy going that thirty seconds after meeting him, you're laughing and joking with him.

The Boy
He's been The Boy for years and years now. He's also my roommate. The Boy is good at buying Irish Spring, buying Lever 2000, resetting our internet five times a day (because it doesn't work like it should), online gaming, keeping rules, and cleaning our bathroom. He's also very good for random bits of information; he uses Wikipedia a lot.

So there's my family and now you can see their accompanying cartoons, too!