70 and Beautiful

On March 3 my mom turned 70 years old and that weekend, we celebrated.

Pretty much just short of a full-on wedding reception, we threw her a party to be remembered, but more importantly, to celebrate her and her amazing voice. We invited 200 of her closest friends, re-decorated the church basketball court, served up 25 Korean dishes with the help of the Korean Branch and hired a sound mixer to record the music she would sing that evening.

My mother sang seven songs in the chapel and she directed the Korean church choir in six songs. I always look forward to hearing my mom sing and that night, her voice filled the room. She was flawless and she sounded as clear as ever. She looked like she could not have been happier and the music seemed to flow through her. She is truly happiest when she is singing.

Had I not been so preoccupied with dealing with a finicky video projector, I may have had my wits enough to know to set up a video camera and record my mom. Unfortunately, all I got was this, but I guess it's good enough:


For a look back at her life and everything she has accomplished, I made this little video for her. Unfortunately, I was limited to what I could do creatively as I didn't have the right equipment to really do what I would like to, but this seemed to suffice. (The audio is a little quirky. You should be able to hear background music throughout though my voice may be a bit loud.)


It was an amazing, though tiring, night and everyone had a great time.

We even hired a lady to turn the church gym into a wedding hall. It's amazing what people can do with a sewing machine and imagination!

As for the dress I picked...well, after much discussion and modeling, I chose the black Ralph Lauren. Everyone was actually very pleased with the plum Ralph Lauren and it was almost a toss-up, but what it came down to, was the shrug. It just didn't look quite right, and with three shrugs in the house to choose from, it didn't seem like we would find one that would work.

So with only an hour to go before the party was to start, my sister and I ran to the mall. With very little time and an array of choices, we quickly grabbed these smokin' hot, beautiful, ruby red, BCBG "peep-toe" pumps and some jewelery that made me feel like a Christmas tree.

Good news is: mission accomplished! My mom approved. I looked very pretty and I was feeling very tall. Whether I was white enough or not, did not come up for discussion. Since there were no complaints, I will assume she was satisfied.

I do remember a comment from Jennie wondering how "tall" managed into the equation, well, looking at the pics of me amongst my family, I am kind of the tall one, even without heels. Erik is just barely taller than me, but other than that, I am pretty much the one they call on when they need to reach something on the top shelf. It feels kind of cool sometimes to be that person.

(In this pic is Kimball, Denise, Erik, Mia, my Mom, my cousin Sam, Rachel, Me, my aunt, my dad, and my Uncle)