Full

My camera card is full.
Our lives are full.
It is time to upload/download a few experiences.

My Grandpa and Grandma Rupp had a full quiver of ten children.
Two of those children survive, Uncle Andy and Aunt Vera.

I like the photo below of the youngest seven children, I selected my mother with a black oval and my Aunt Vera with a blue oval. She is and has always been pretty.



I also like this photo of my mother and her sisters and two of her sisters-in-law. Aunt Vera is in the light colored sweater, second from the right.

Sisters Lou and Donna and I visited our delightful Aunt Vera.

She gifted us with knitted dish cloths and a simple and yummy zucchini custard pie and lots of happy conversation.

Aunt Vera’s Zucchini Pie
1 cup--cooked zucchini, drain and packed into the cup (peel it before cooking)
1 cup sugar, scant (I use 3/4 cup)
1 cup evaporated milk
1 egg
2 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp oleo or butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix all of the above in a blender. Pour into unbaked pie crust.
Sprinkle nutmeg and cinnamon on top.
Bake 10 minutes @ 425.
Reduce to 350 and bake until set.
(I think it takes about 30-40 minutes)

We returned home physically full and full of joy, as we recounted the blessings of our heritage.

Tickled Pink

Subtitle: Party Poopers are Not Invited

Perhaps everybody does stupid things from time to time that they regret. Usually time passes and people forget those bad decisions and do not hold those against you. Occasionally though some just stick around and make it into random conversations. For example, Did you do any blob jumping at Miracle Camp this year? may sound like a perfectly innocent question but it is not. I could list at least 100 variations of that question that I heard this summer.

There is another ST that I did that just won’t go away. . . actually there are probably lots but this is another summer one that I am reminded of annually.

Nineteen years ago, in 1991, our family had a reunion. It was my mother’s family—her siblings and their children. I love this old picture. The me in the picture is my mother.



My mother was one of ten children. There were six boys and four girls. I have lots of cousins. Some of us are in this old photo.


And here is another photo of us doing what we do best together.
But I digress.

In 1991, each of the ten families were requested to make a t-shirt for their family of various colors. By the time, I was asked to make
t-shirts for our family, colors like blue and purple and red and white had already been chosen. I don’t know why I did not choose green. That has been my regret for all of these 19 years. I chose pink—hot pink. There is more . . . I used ridiculous little figures to represent our family. You can see them in the photo. I cannot remember what in the world I was thinking. Goodness.

Two of my nephews did not come to that reunion. Brian had a reasonable excuse. I am pretty sure that Jon did not come because there was no way, no how that he was going to wear a hot pink t-shirt for any family picture. I always think of the Boy Named Sue song. Perhaps wearing a hot pink t-shirt would have been good for him.

My siblings and their kids and Dad and Kay all eventually acquiesced and wore the t-shirts and were even photographed wearing the shirts. However no one in our family has ever quite forgiven me for those hot pink-that-should-have-been-forest-green-or-even-ebony-black t-shirts. Remember those ridiculous pink t-shirts that Aunt Brenda made us wear?

It came up again recently.

We have Rupp Girl Cousin Reunions every other year. They are very special and very fun.

This year we were in Shipshewana, Indiana for three days. Our cousins from Uncle Victor’s family were our hostesses. We learned about our Mennonite roots . . .

Played lots of fun games . . .

Some swam in the pool . . .

We ate dinner at an Amish home . . .

Got caught up on family news . . .

Took buggy rides . . .

Laughed lots . . .

And we also prayed for each other.
It was all wonderful and very well planned.

Our hostesses were Uncle Victor's daughters . . .
Jeanann, Janet, Judy and Charlene.

They did a cute skit about the hats that we wear.

And then presented us with our very own Amish bonnets, made exclusively for us by Cousin Judy.

Then out of the blue here it came again . . . Judy told us that
she did her best to match the color of our bonnets with our
infamous 1991 t-shirts.

Our family received beautiful blushing pink bonnets. Thankfully, hot pink would not be appropriate in an Amish world.

My sisters, Sheila, Donna—also a blogger with a hat post and another post as well about this event—
and sister Lou and yours truly, proudly donned our bonnets.

I am glad that only the second generation girl cousins and girl cousins-in-love are invited to this gathering. I am quite certain, that given the opportunity, nephew Jon would have boycotted and refused to be in our photo.

Cousin Blessings

Cousin to cousin we’ll always be,
Special friends from the same family tree.

As a child, I always had cousins to help celebrate every event and holiday. After a family gathering when I was a young girl, I told my mother that I hoped I could have ten kids. I wanted to have as many kids as Grandpa and Grandpa Rupp so my kids could have lots of cousins. I could not understand when Mother laughed.

Count your many cousins, name them one by one,
Count your cousins, see what God hath done!
Count your cousins, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Below is a picture that I created of my first cousins in 1955. I am not sure why most of the boys wore bow ties? Seven more cousins joined this group—the youngest was born in 1969.

I am on the left side of the photo with bangs and a missing tooth. Above me is my sister, Lou and beside me is my sister, Donna—also a blogger. Below me in this photo is the baby of our immediate family, my brother Lowell.

In honor of our Grandparents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary, our mothers diligently lined us up on the platform at Grandpa and Grandma's church in 1958 and directed us to sing Count Your Blessings.

The photo above must be from around 1962. It has become a favorite family tradition to sing at least a verse or two of Count Your Blessings at family reunions.

In Nashville in 2006 at a girl cousin gathering we even got to sing the hymn in Minnie Pearl’s home.

And Saturday we joyfully, passionately, with great gusto sang again . . .

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

. . . because we are aware that we are so incredibly blessed!

For more on this, read what sweet cousin Lynn posted on her blog and my sister Donna's blog.

And most of us had homemade pie!

What a happy occasion on Friday when nine of us from the Bernice clan were able to attend the monthly Rupp luncheon at the Archbold Home Restaurant! It is almost like a home meal on the farm and makes me smile just to think about it! A big hit was the rivilie soup—the easiest way to describe it—a chicken dumpling soup but the dumplings are tiny. The cousin in the pink shirt in front is Delight. What a great name! It fits her.

It brings great joy to see two of the remaining original ten siblings of my mother—dear, cheerful Aunt Vera and dear, wise Uncle Andy! My stepmom also feels like a Rupp because after Mom died, the Rupps still loved on Dad and accepted him as family and then when Dad remarried, they accepted Kay as kin, too. They are good, godly, generous people and I do so love them all! Aunt Vera brought us each a dishcloth that she had crocheted. Food, family and fellowship—not really in that order—that was an accident, I promise! But truly, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Lounging at the Lake with Lester's Ladies

My Grandpa and Grandma were fruitful and multiplied. Their children numbered ten. I cannot tell how many we number now but, invited by Lester’s Ladies, 29 Girl Cousins (including some girl cousins by marriage) rendezvoused at Round Lake in Michigan for a few days to reminisce and to make new memories.

Knowing full well that this was going to be a exceptional bloggable event, I went armed with my Canon Power Shot and started aiming and clicking before I even walked in the door. We were magnificently welcomed with signage and welcome gifts and beautiful flowers! You may wonder if LL’s had been reading and clipping from Martha Stewart, Pottery Barn and Real Simple for the past two years but seriously, they are naturals and possibly incognito contributors to some famous decorating magazines and are prohibited from revealing that info at this time. Regardless, here is a sneak peek of their work.

All but Aunt Arvada's family were represented.

These welcome gifts were provided for all 29 cousins! Thanks, Jo, Janna, Carma and Wanda!

Sweet florals were placed all over the cottage.

Notice some more florals!

We had an absolutely fabulous dinner—like Martha, they not only decorate, LL’s also cook. Next we were invited on a pontoon boat for a small tour. It was going famously well. We saw a home where a judge may have lived. Soon, however, our slightly overweighted craft encountered a sand bar. Angie, being the youngest cousin immediately jumped in to rescue her nearest and dearest. Soon after, Ann was also assisting. Impulsively impressed by their chivalry, I stepped forth as well. I have no idea why, I am still trying to look for an explanation. I never even took life saving. Immediately, I empathized with all of the centuries of grief that Peter has taken for trying to walk on the water. I wisely had my responsible sister, Donna, hold my camera before I jumped. Soon all three of us in the water realized that the large stones on the sand bar in this somewhat smallish lake had not been rounded and smoothed by strong waves and currents over billions of years. We hopped back on the pontoon to get feet protection. Unwisely, I requested my camera back and carefully put it in my pocket so as not to lose it as I am prone to do. After just minutes of rest, however, I unwisely went forth again into the water which is why I have pictures of the first two hours of our wonderful reunion and no additional pictures.

Chef Janna was the Grill Chief

The pontoon with Jo at the helm.

The Lester Family Cottage

The rest of the pontoon story is blog worthy. After getting the pontoon into deep enough water to safely start, six others were able to assist and get me back on the pontoon. I think Ann and Angie just jumped on. However, then the pontoon would not start even though Jo and her capable assistant Wanda as well as several others tried many times. We could not believe it but it was true, none of us on the pontoon tour had brought a cell phone out on the lake! So we yelled and waved (but did not undress) to get the attention of three fisherman who successfully ignored us for at least twenty minutes. Finally one brave fisherman did come on board and looked at the pontoon and pointed out the kill switch and we laughed enough to scare him off and we were soon on our way again. I must say that Jo brought the pontoon into the pier with complete accuracy and precision and quickly regained her status as a worthy captain.

Ann to the rescue.

This is my attempt at Search and Rescue.

Yay! Dear Cousin Lynn has a report and pictures on her Proverbial Pilgrimage blog. Eventually some other cousins will come through with more photos.

Let me say, that I have a wonderful husband. On Sunday we were married twelve years. He is accustomed to my inept ways and is patient and forgiving. Therefore, it was not a water logged camera that prevented me from taking pictures of adorable grandchildren on Sunday and Monday. That is another totally separate tale of my Canon Power Shot camera that involved strange disappearance and possible theft and return after the children were well on their way back to NC and CO. I am in possession of my working CPS camera now and determined to keep it attached to me at all times except when I get in water. . . I just heard Bob sigh.