At Sunday brunch, Lucy received a birthday card that she will treasure for many years to come. Her 4 children presented her with a list of the many things they feel is special about her. This list is as long as her she is old.
70 Things We Love About Mom
- Amazing baker of chiffon pies, whole wheat rolls, cookies, lavosh and more
- Makes the yummiest Chinese cold ginger chicken + Chinese roast chicken
- Constant cheerleader- we can hear her woo-hoos from miles away
- Exercise queen (Apple Store employees call her “exercise aunty”)
- Apple Store regular
- Mad blogger
- Encourages you to stretch and carry out your ambitions- makes you believe in yourself
- Always up for some family craziness
- Makes cool videos with her grandchildren
- Bargain shopper
- Grand negotiator
- Early adopter of new technology
- Thinks green
- Caregiver to young and old family members
- Email coordinator of her children
- Makes great costumes and posters for kids’ projects, campaigns, and birthday parties. Remember you made pin the tail on Pikachu for Aaron’s 5th birthday?
- Cheese Cake Queen (strawberry,pumpkin, guava, chocolate, lilikoi)
- Used to bake family 7 dozen cookies a week in Guam. One dozen per kid and the remaining 3 dozen were free for all.
- Cream Of Mushroom Meatball maker. One point of time it became cream of Mushroom Mush (Lazy way of making Cream of Mushroom Meatballs)
- Making daily lunches for everyone for years
- Buying hundreds of turkeys to make lunches and feed the family.
- Drawing “Vote For Me” cartoon character posters For Annie and Leslie.
- Buying cases of hamburger in Guam after Typhoon Pamela
- Giving back massages with her feet
- Selling thousand pairs of underwear, socks and bras online, then selling cars, appliances and electronics, too
- Going to Ross to buy clothes for everyone at super deals
- Getting the recipes from a former cafeteria manager for Grandma’s Cookies, Baked Chicken, Potato Munchkins
- Teaching ESL and being the Lunch Lady at Aina Haina School
- Allowing me to raise 100’s of guppies using all the ham containers
- Taking me to library and telling me not to waste time with the card index and ask the librarian to help as they can find the best books quickly
- Doing tai chi poses throughout the world
- Master of returns and getting discounts and great deals
- Master of caring for children and making them believe what you want them to believe
- Designing creative Halloween costumes (iridescent paper glued to black shirt to make a skeleton, bird mask)
- Pleading with ocean spray staff that she made a trip all the way to Boston to see cranberry bogs and joining a private tour with Sapporo execs in Massachusetts after Harvard graduation
- Famous speed walks through Niu Valley that your kids couldn't keep up with you
- Enjoys drive bys to check on neighbors
- Packs us chicken rice or won ton for the plane ride back to the mainland
- Booking our mainland trips pre Internet exactly one year in advance when the fares would open for mileage plus tickets (at Midnight Eastern time when the previous day’s booking holds would turn over)
- Saving breakfast extras for meals for later in the day
- Her familiar question in Europe to our tour guide: What's that smell Yani?
- Asking “Ken do we eat that?” when faced with an ethnic food she's never seen before
- Master movie maker
- Kept Les’ and Stu’s cars for her grandkids to play with. Ethan loves the car box!
- Buttery shortbread cookies that the grandkids just can't keep their paws off of!
- Walking Aaron and Ethan to school every day and then some on their visits to San Mateo
- Webmaster of her very own website, updated daily
- Award-winning local TV celebrity
- Bought Ala Moana gift certificates with her United Mileage Plus credit card so she could rack up miles for trips. She would then spend the certificates on purchases much less than their face value so she’d get change in cash.
- Knew the best way to use your Costco Amex rebate was to deposit it in your bank account, not use it on your next Costco purchase.
- Gave BB and JJ their nicknames on the flight home from UCLA Med School graduation.
- Sat with Justine at age 2 to read Mr. Brown can Moo, Can You? and discovered she could read some of the words herself.
- Made chiffon pies galore when no one had even heard of salmonella and raw eggs
- Stretched a can of frozen juice by adding extra water
- Teaching JJ and BB how to ride bikes in Roseville.
- Chili and baked potatoes for Brennan to enjoy, then teaching BB and JJ how to make warm German potato salad
- Doing “Yolanda” to get rid of mildew. The name made the chore silly and fun.
- Letting us nap (“stretch out”) on her bed
- Taking an interest in the OJ Simpson white bronco car chase when it came on while we were folding clothes when you usually never watch much TV
- Buying us a ton of board games and long playing records
- Letting Annie and Leslie jump on the beds in the boys’ room to play rodeo cowboy
- Making gift tags for us using cookie cutter tracings on construction paper so we knew what Xmas gifts were ours under the tree before we could read our names
- Timing the purchase of our Xmas trees to catch the fresh shipment
- Master freebie collector. If it's free, she is there!
- Master planner and tour guide for international trips for her tai chi students
- Birthday twins with Ethan. Telling me on Ethan’s day of birth, “Annie, you didn't have to call so early to wish me happy birthday!”
- Avid lap swimmer, 1/2 mile 5x / week on Guam in the 70s “Save my baby!”
- Recreational ceramicist in the 80s
- Source of all kinds of school supplies and drug company pens
- Lets everyone use the Roseville, Villamont house for storage and sleeping.
