End of the Month

Hello everyone!

This is the fortieth post this month, which makes June the record holder for the most posts... more than April and May combined. That is so cool. I'm glad everyone is participating (who is participating). It's good to hear from Emily these days, and hopefully I can get her on with her own login soon.

My favorite wedding memories were certainly the sealings. It was very special to be present for Trina's and Nathan's sealings to their eternal companions. And to be there for Mindy as well. I only regret missing Jared's. Anyway, they were both unique and very enjoyable experiences.

I also enjoyed cooking the lunch for Trina's wedding, though I couldn't have done it without all the help from so many people... Clarissa, Mom, Laurel, Sam, Issac (aka "Pepper Boy"), Cheryl, Deb, Tawnia, Emily, Amanda, Nathan... I'm probably forgetting someone... I don't know who all prepped the meat before I got there. It was a mighty feast and a great experience. And then the reception that afternoon was really beautiful. It was nice to see old friends and it was great to see Trina and Adam so happy and ready to face life together. I should be more specific. I liked the flowers, and the bales of hay in the field. And I thought Adam's nephews were really cute and funny.

Okay, then there's Nathan's wedding. I enjoyed the rehearsal day. I liked meeting Amanda's family. They were really sweet. And it was fun times with Nathan's friends. And then the brunch/ring ceremony/reception was cool. It was good food and good times. I felt sorry for the poor guests sitting in the sun, but I was cool in the shade up front. Lucky me. The whole car thing was fun to support and be in on, but I must admit I did none of the dirty work myself, aside from buying some of the supplies. It was also nice to see Amanda and Nathan ready to face life together and they looked very happy and just a little bewildered. No, I take that back. Just happy.

Okay, that's all for this post. I think I've rambled on enough.

Take care and I'll talk to you soon.

Love,
Eric

nathan here again

my favorite memory would have to be after I was married in the temple and before the luncheon at monte villa. amanda and I were upstairs smooching a little and amanda's mom walked in and got very embarrassed. so she closed the door behind her. it was funny. we weren't doing anything though. I also liked it when I was looking at my girl's face and we were made husband and wife. she is a very pretty girl.
I have changed my mind, and I think that I am going to keep my last name as palmer. ok. bye.

nathan here

I have had it with this family. I have decided to change my name to rozen. that is final.

Memories from Emily

(Sorry I have to post under Mom's but mine still didn't work. This is Emily.)

Favorite Memory of Trina's Wedding: I actually spent most of the reception with Sarah Beers; we played Mad-Libs and laughed a lot. The reception was very informal. Most of the kids were on the swings or teeter-totter, including the twenty-eight-year-old kids. I had to ride it side-saddle because of my skirt. I teased Adam and called him my little brother. He is eighteen months younger; it doesn't matter that he's head and shoulders taller than I am. And the Kisers' house is awesome.

Favorite Memory of Amanda's Wedding: I liked the shower we had for her; we had a sheet of questions about her, like what was her favorite color (blue), car she drives (the white one), plays she's been in (You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown), where Nathan proposed (SAMs Place -- aka his apartment), and where the ring was (in a sock). (Incidently, this sheet of paper is sitting right next to the computer.)

We drove up to Washington on Friday, and I was with Jared, Michelle, Brooke, and Bryan, Mom, Dad, and Clarissa. It takes longer to travel with a four-year-old, but we all saw each other on the freeway. Jared and Adam first met at a gas station around Tacoma. The most interesting thing I saw on that drive was a car towing a cannon. Really!

I liked after the luncheon going upstairs with the other girls to do our hair and make-up. No boys allowed!

And I liked it when Nathan and Amanda were opening presents, and they threw all the wrapping paper at Jemomo. Look out for that purple grenade!

Favorite Vacation Memory: To go back to a previous topic I never answered, my favorite vacation was without a doubt 1996, when we went to the East Coast. The Smithsonian Washington D.C., the Hill Cumorah Pageant, seeing the sun rise on Cadillac Mountain, the Statue of Liberty, playing Encore and listening to those old radio shows for hours.

Favorite Fourth of July Memory: I thought I would add a new question. What is your favorite Fourth of July? Of course, we cannot forget the one when we spent all day climbing around on the roof. I remember when I was about twelve Uncle Gary came and we went to Silver Creek and saw a Civil War reenactment. And we would usually watch the fireworks behind the Middle School, oohing and ahhing, or falling back pretending we had been hit.

Well, I hope that covers everything. Keep in touch and remember, PALMERS FOREVER!

Emily

PS I intend to always put Emily Palmer on my books, even after I get married. That is not going to change.

There's a reason it's called Insanity Inc

Welcome to our wacky, insane family. For all the bickering and carrying on, we really do love one another. Here are a few pictures from Trina and Adam's wedding. I have many more to scan and send but I thought I'd do them a few at a time. If there are particular ones that you want to see here, let me know. Also I shrunk the pictures but I can make them even smaller if you think that would be better.


Leaving the Temple.



The Wedding Party


The Palmer Family (someone suggested that Eric add in Jared and Mindy and Jason so we can all be in the picture)


I love this one with Brooke. She was trying so hard to pose for the pictures. She kept making faces trying to get the perfect smile.


This is one of my favorites. It looks like Trina is saying "I've got my man!" and Adam is asking, "What have I gotten myself into?"



The cake - baked and frosted by Julie Richeson; decorated with fresh flowers by Beccy Kiser and her mom.


That's it for the moment.
I love you all,
MOM

Palmers Forever

You know, I don't think we could ever escape being a Palmer.. EVER! Not that any of us want to.. but ya know? I love it that we have a family that is so close, and that we even have this blogger thing.. always staying in contact and stuff. We've got family in every time zone (most in PST, Jay and I in MST (and soon Tawnia too), Jared and family in CST, and then Trina and Adam in EST), and yet we're closer than some families that all live in the same house! Count our blessings! It does take a lot of getting used to being included in a new family.. one just of you and your spouse, and then your spouse's family. I like having lots of family!

I'd like to officially welcome Adam and Amanda to the family. Amanda probably has a much easier time adjusting to that, since she's been around the family so much more, but Adam is certainly welcome too (even though I haven't even met you!). You'll learn soon enough that we're all great, and we all talk and stay in contact.. and love each other very much! Glad you could join in the fun.

love,
mindy

whoa there

I quoted Jared with the "extended family" thing, and just said that Adam never said anything different. Which is true. I never said it. Adam is still adjusting to this idea that he's joining the Palmers instead of me leaving the Palmers behind, and some siblings are still adjusting to the idea of me being a Caudle as well as a Palmer.

The only thing on our fridge so far is the card Mom made for my bridal shower, with ALL of our pictures on palm trees. So, for the record: I can, and WILL, be a Palmer and a Caudle at the same time. Just as you, Mindy, are a Palmer and an Aimoto at the same time. We can have our cake and eat it too! So THERE!

Tawnia's Favorite Wedding Memories

Hey Mindy (and everyone else) here are my FAVORITE moments from the last two weekends.

Wedding #1: The best part was catching the bouquet. The first time Trina threw it, it went over everyone's heads (Well technically Sarah Swafford and Amy Ward ducked in fear from the five pounds of chocolate being chucked at their heads.) So Trina had them bring it back to her. She wound up and then turned around and underhanded it to me. It was great! Then Adam's two year old nephew "caught" (really he picked it up off the ground after it landed on the ground in front of him) the garter and so we have some really cute pictures of the two of us together.

I also enjoyed decorating the car. It was really cute. We soaped the windows and put streamers on the mirrors and antenna. Sarah Swafford and Beth Tracy helped me and I told them that we had to be nice. Just the same as I would have to anyone else decorating the car. It was fun hanging out with Beth and Sarah, we enjoyed talking and just relaxing.

I also had fun dancing and lipsyncing to some of the music along with Melanie and Clarissa. It started out with me dancing with Bryan, and then dancing with Melanie and then Clarissa joined in... it was fun.

Oh, and it was funny when Bryan fell into the fountain... but only because Nate was right there to save him, otherwise it wouldn't have been very funny.

Wedding #2: One funny memory happened the night before the wedding. Manda's dog, Rags, decided to maul me while I was sitting on the living room couch. It was so bad that she had to stop talking to Nate on the phone and come over to rescue me. I'm sure it looked funny from her perspective. Also that night we decided to use the satin hands kit on our feet... only we did one foot at a time and then hopped into the bathroom to wash that foot off... that was amusing.

Okay, so then the wedding. It was awesome to get to the temple at 6:45 a.m. on a Saturday and see a lot of cars already there. Then I got to go into the temple with Manda and Nate and sit in as Manda's "mom". I loved being the maid of honor. I felt very honored and loved. =) Even though I wasn't sure exactly what I was supposed to do a lot of the time. It was fun standing next to Manda in the receiving line and listening to everyone congratulate her and Nate.

During the ring ceremony I was in charge of the flower girls. It was entertaining for me and made the time go quickly. Almost as soon as we got to the front Annika wanted to pick up her flower petals. Then she told me she was hot, and then she wanted to go to Sam, and she ended up spending the end of the ceremony crying into my skirt. Brooke was doing pretty well, until about half way through when she went wandering around behind Bro. Hinmon. She did really well though... and even sprinkled her petals all the way back up the aisle and into the house! (On the way back I told Annika that she could go to her Daddy now and so she ran straight to him and burst into tears.)

My favorite part of the reception was, again, catching the bouquet. This time I caught it all legitimately, even though Clarissa did try to get it. (Sorry Cris, but I'm getting married before you!) Then TJ Adams caught the garter (again I think it hit his hand and then the ground and all the guys said that that counted.) We got a picture (I haven't seen it yet.) Of me holding the bouquet and him with the garter on his leg holding his pants up to his knee.

So see, lots of good things happened... that was just some of them of course, it was lots of fun and I wish you could have been here!
Love,
Your sister forever (even after I get married)
Tawnia

Another Two Cents

Glad I was able to inspire some joy and happiness into the blog with my request. I can't really say much about the car thing.. but then I wasn't there. For me though, I only had soap on my windows, and then it rained, so Jason and I only have the pictures as proof. And my send off was non-existant... we walked through the living room, everyone said "bye!" and we went out the door. If you want a big farwell, you plan it, just like everything else. Besides, with all the GOOD things that happened (like hey! you're married now!), let's not dwell on the bad. There are some things I would have done different at my wedding, but I just remember all the fun, good stuff that was perfect.

As for that whole "still our sister" something.. I seem to remember having that drilled into my brain before I got married to Jason, by none other than Trina. Being lectured that I'm always your sister, and then having you turn around and deeming us "extended family" seemed somewhat harsh. I love you and all, but can you at least make up your mind?

And on a joyous note, our friend Aaron won his baseball game tonight.

love,
mindy

defending myself

Quite frankly, I did not expect my siblings to massacre the car at my wedding reception. Well, okay, I did, but I also expected that a lot more people would be in on it ... like April Ward/Brewster and crew, because of what I did to THEIR cars when THEY got married. I was most definitely ready for some drastic retribution and Adam and I thought it would be funny to switch cars on them. THEY are the slackers. For the record, I do not have a problem with people decorating my car - I've done it to enough people that I can handle the return favor. You could have done a lot more to the outside, so no complaining about losing the keys from you, Jared!

We're well aware that Tawnia was PISSED about us switching the cars. We're also aware that our honeymoon send-off consisted of Tawnia glaring at us and stomping away, Eric looking a little upset, and Nathan and Amanda sitting on a swing waving to us. No one else even bothered to walk us out, let alone blow bubbles and take pictures. So thanks for THAT happy memory of our wedding day.

And for crying out loud, knock it off with the "you're our sister no matter what Adam says." JARED has said this a number of times, including this weekend: when you get married, your spouse becomes the immediate family and the siblings become the extended family. Adam has never said anything different from that.

Wedding Memories...

Well I was only there for a few days for Nathan and Amanda, but I still got to have my own memories of Trina and Adam too. I'll recount the whole story, mainly for Mindy's benefit, plus for anyone else who may have missed all the details.

Tawnia was the one in charge of decorating Trina and Adam's car. Unfortunately, Trina LIED about which car they would be taking. Wo unto the liar for they shall be thrust -- not directed, not gently placed, but THRUST -- ON A ROCKET -- down to Hell. Apparently she was afraid of what damage we might inflict on a car. What kind of monsters do you think we are, Trina? Have we EVER actually damaged anyone's car? And you're our sister, despite what Adam may say. Needless to say, Tawnia was PISSED. She put alot of work into decorating the wrong car.

Fast forward one week. Nathan's groomsmen and bridesmaids hold a meeting to hammer out details for this decoration project and Tawnia says we need to get Trina's car too. I somehow ended up in charge of the project, and Eric was over procurement. So Nathan was all suspicious of Eric because he vanished to go to the drugstore before the ceremony. Anyway, we had double the supplies we needed, and most of it was set aside for Trina's car. By the time the reception started, I had Trina's keys, and Amanda's, and Eric's, and Tawnia's, as well as my own, and I almost got Dad's too. But then as soon as we (Nathan's friends and I) started working on Amanda's car, Adam showed up and wanted to help. Then Trina came out needing something from her car, and Adam took the keys back from me. So we finished Nate and Amanda's car, and Adam went back inside. But now we didn't have the keys to open Trina's car, which was where most of the work was going to take place. We had tons of whipped cream, and red hots, and toilet paper, and cookies, and various other props, that we never got to use. So there was just a little bit of stuff on the outside of the car and that was all.

Later, Trina and Adam saw the car and realized it really was fun to get "tagged," as it were, and offered to let us finish, but that kind of ruins the whole thing, doesn't it? So we left them with just a faint hint of what they could have had -- if Trina wasn't a dirty rotten liar. ;) Love you sis.

not honeymoon hermits

Adam and I are making a conscious effort to NOT drop off the edge of the planet and disappear from the lives of everyone we know, although it would be really easy to do just to UNPACK! 8 very large pieces of luggage have exploded all over the apartment. But anyway - last night, we went to the Isaiah FHE group that Beth and I organized back in January. Tonight is institute. Saturday is the soccer game (DC has a pro team, Adam LOVES soccer, and I got tickets for his birthday), and we're having the Elders over for dinner on Sunday. And this is just the first week back.

Mindy, I wish you could have been with us all for the weddings. My favorite part of my wedding day was OF COURSE when Adam and I were kneeling at the altar. My favorite part of Nathan and Amanda's festivities (besides the sealing) was when Brooke and Annika were walking down the path in their Cinderella dresses, and Annika dumped all her rose petals out in one big pile.

As for pictures - I think, Mom, that it would be much easier if, instead of emailing them after scanning them, you had Eric post them on the junglechicken.com page. That way we can have more and see them clearer. We could do junglechicken.com/trinadam and junglechicken.com/nathanamanda or something like that. Or, if you do email them, make them SMALLER! SMALLER SMALLER SMALLER so we can see the whole picture on the screen instead of having to scroll just to see one picture. I hate that.

Safe but Sunburnt

I was wondering when anyone would post on the blog again. It seemed like as soon as I posted, everyone else stopped! I do understand that everyone was together though, so there was less of a need.. but I wasn't there, and I wanted to hear all about what happened! Everyone post your favorite memories of the weddings.. all the fun highlights and stuff. I wanna hear all about it.

On Saturday Jason and I went to a lake with Barry and some of his family. We went on the jet-skis, and Jason even went on the "Dorito".. an air filled triangle (not sure exactly what to call it) pulled behind the jet-skis. Lots of fun. It was nice to be out of the house, away from the city, and in the sun. Except we got a little too much sun. I'm rosier than usual, while Jason's tan is getting ever darker (he doesn't burn). It was definately worth it though, to have a nice day away from it all.

And in other news, I got my hair cut tonight! I went to the mall, and got a fabulous hair stylist. My hair is about shoulder length.. with LAYERS! How crazy is that? I've never had layers before. It's so healthy though, and shiny, and super soft.. I love it! I actually have a hair style now, instead of just... hair. I've only had it done for a couple hours, but I love it already. I'll send pictures after Mom and Dad get up here in a few weeks... I know Dad will take a couple.

love,
mindy

Eric and Laurel: Safe at Home

Hi all!

I'm writing this from my desk in Santa Ana, so obviously we made it home okay. Laurel is picking up her friend Merrilee from the airport right now, so we're still on vacation in a way.

We had a great time on our vacation, a little too much fun maybe because now we're battling colds we caught somewhere along the way. It was very nice to see everyone, though we wish we could've spent a little more time with everyone. I, for one, felt spread pretty thin.

Good luck to Nathan/Amanda and Trina/Adam. It was great to see you married in the temple, and to see the love you have for each other.

I'm looking forward to the photo collections that are surely on their way soon.

Love,
Eric

Happy Father's Day

I love you, Dad. You've always taken great care of me, and you still do, even though I'm married and moved away. Especially with all the money things.. you've always been really helpful with that. It has certainly made things easier for me! Thanks.

I've got so many favorite Dad memories.. like whenever I would go shopping with Dad, he would let me get just about anything I wanted, even though Mom would have said no. Like one time we went up to the mall, so he could pick up the Princess Bride movie.. and we stopped in at the Disney store. Even though I had to pay for it, Dad let me get a stuffed Eeyore and some earrings. I also remember the fast and testimony meeting after Dad had been in the hospital.. I bore my testimony and publicly thanked everyone for fathers, especially my own. I cried, and that was the only time I ever remember seeing Dad cry too.

love,
mindy

computer problems

Jason and I are doing well, but out computer has been out of commission for the past week, and I'm only able to write this because I'm at my volunteer thing, and there was only one baby to watch... so I've got the chance to use the computer. Everyone knew I was alive anyway, since I've had several phone calls this week.

Jason turned 32 on Monday. We had a yummy Jello cake and ice cream on Sunday, with a bunch of friends over. Potluck barbeque, and lots of noise. Good fun. Jason appreciates all the phone calls and singing.

I'm doing well. The paperwork for my immigration is coming together. Jason's Dad was kind enough to give us the money for it, so we're hoping to send it all in by the end of this month. Then we have to wait. Who knows how long that will take. I'm just glad all that is just about over. I work on scrapbooking and drawing during the day. Yesterday and today I made pillows out of some flannel pj pants that I had torn.. they're so soft and comfy!

As for my favorite summer vacation memory... going to Disneyland was always so much fun. I'm hoping that Jason and I will get to go there within the next year or two.. as a late honeymoon. I've also started loving the beach a lot more within the past year- going with the relief society and with Trina.. good memories.

I'm getting kicked out though, so I've got to run. Good luck with all the weddings, and congratulations. I really wish we could be there!

love,
mindy

Crazy happenings

Things are a bit hectic here at Palmer Central. I don't think I'd want to be a movie producer. Coordinating this major production is exciting but very stressful. I think most of the background work is done, at least I hope so. Now the cast is beginning to arrive. On Monday Michelle, Brooke and Bryan arrived. On Tuesday evening we had a shower for Amanda. Late that night Trina and Adam arrived. Yesterday was spent: shopping - Mom; sewing - Michelle and Deb, getting the marriage license and a ton of other stuff - Trina and Adam; sewing - JoAnne; on the job - Dad and Emily; I'm not sure what Tawnia and Clarissa were up to; Dad also mowed the Kiser's lawn. Today we need to get ready for the dinner Saturday, put elastic in the skirts, buy white blouses, and welcome a few more guests. Then tomorrow will be even busier.

I'm going to run now because my list gets longer and the time shorter as I write.

Love to you all,
MOM

Today is Thursday

Good morning all!

Today is Thursday. Frankly, I'm surprised no one has posted for the last few days. It's not like you have anything better to do than post to the blog, especially those of you in Oregon.

But that's cool, that's cool. I forgive you all. There are already many more posts in June than there were in May. I think my favorite vacation might actually be the one I'm about to take. I'm very excited to see everyone (except Mindy and Jason, sob) and to meet Adam and to cook a lot of Chinese food.

Laurel's last day at Saddleback Memorial was yesterday, and now she's a fulltime artist except she's getting ready for the trip today, and then she's going on vacation, but after that she's a fulltime artist. Be sure to congratulate her when you see her.

And I'm afraid I'll have to do some homework at the house. Probably on Monday and Tuesday next week. I'll try not to spend to much time on it.

It's been overcast for the last few days here. Kind of a downer. I hope it's sunny in Oregon. I just looked at Weather.com and it's supposed to be in the 80's all next week. Nice. It's supposed to be cloudy and in the lower 70's here all week. Go figure.

Okay, I've written enough. I should get back to work.

Love,
Eric

Too many to count

I have so many vacation memories it's hard to choose one favorite. When Dad and I were young we didn't go on a lot of vacations but the few that we had were very memorable. When we first got married we decided that we wanted to have family vacations and take our children on trips. We haven't had very many expensive vacations but we've had family vacations. I think the most memrable one was in 1986 when Dad was out of work. It was Christmas time and you kids wanted to give us a special gift. You talked about sending Dad and I on a trip to Hawaii. Somebody suggested that we all take a trip to California, so you kids pooled your paper route money to pay for the gas and food to get there. Most of our Christmas gifts were homemade that year, but the most special gift was the gift of love from our children.

you thought you got rid of me...

My favorite school memory will probably have to be with the band. I went on three trips to California with the band. I went to Disneyland twice, and Six Flags the other time. I also liked being on a video announcement about supporting our custodians. It opened with me sitting alone at a table in the commons eating chips and drinking a pepsi. Then a few people walked through and dumped bags of trash onto the table I was at. After about five bags are covering the table, I stood up, walked over to the garabage can and threw my chips bag away. The trash was trash we picked up through out the day that people had litterd all over the campus leaving it up to the janitors to pick up. The show ran a couple times.
I also seemed to try and be in a dress as much as I could. I was my sophomore year in the only school play I was in. Also Mr. Mac High I wore a dress. My junior year I sang along with jemomo jones Barbie Girl. I was Barbie and Jem was Ken. I wasn't in a dress, but I was in pink.
I like vacations. I can not think of a spcific one right now, but I will onder it for a little while.

the nathan

Happy Friday

Hey everybody it's Friday, and we're a week away from Trina's wedding. It's coming so fast. I still don't know what I'm going to wear! So anyway, I guess I don't have much to say. I'm busy with school and work and church and most of all watching TV and drawing chicken cartoons. I'm planning on completely revamping Jungle Chicken dot com by this Fall, and I have about twenty short cartoons in some stage of development. I'm still working on the writing, art, design of the site, and product tie-ins, so any ideas are welcome.

Well anyway, since Trina hasn't come up with another question for everyone, here's mine:

Our family took a lot of great summer vacations. What's your favorite summer vacation memory? Or maybe you could share a sample of them.

One that comes to my mind is going to Canada and Dad driving on the sidewalk in our huge van, and going to the zoo and Nathan saying: "TAXI!" as a joke, but then the taxi stopped. That was a good one. And then sleeping in the van at a rest stop after our campground had too many mosquitos. And earlier on that trip we saw where Mom's childhood home used to be in Bellingham, and we went to that park and slid down that spillway... I could go on for a while on this one. Okay, your turn now.

Love,
Eric

Reagan's funeral procession

Not to detract from the fun of Tawnia posting pictures of our family's sports memories (hee hee!!), but both Eric and Nathan asked me on the phone last night to describe being at Reagan's funeral procession through Washington DC. So I thought I'd tell everyone here ...

Adam came downtown when he got off work, met me at my office, and we walked over to Constitution Ave. We were at the end of the procession route, just below the capitol. The crowds along Constitution Ave. were 10 to 20 people deep. We were probably 10 or so back and where we were, the crowd stretched back up the hill so there were lots more behind us. The street was lined with military in dress uniform, one every 30 feet or so, standing at attention. The first thing to come up the street was a row of police motorcycles - they made quite a bit of noise, but once they were past, nobody said a word. If they did, it was whispered and was mostly "Can you see?" It was odd, and pretty neat, that so many people could be so quiet.

The procession was all military. There were units from all the branches and all of the military academies. 2 of the bands were in the mix. About halfway through came the fighter jets - we were directly under the flight path. 7 groups of 4 jets, and the last one did the Missing Man formation. When the last set was over the capitol, the back plane shot straight up into the sky instead of continuing straight forward with the rest. We could hear it long after we could see it. After the last unit, a line of cars turned off to go across the front of the capitol instead of coming all the way up the hill. We assumed that was the dignitaries like Margaret Thatcher and Gorbechev. Then came the caisson with flags and horses and all, and I doubt we got a very good picture of it - we were shooting through tons of people, also with all of their cameras raised over their heads. Then 5 more cars, likely with the family. The applause, after everything had gone by, came at us as a really interesting wave of sound. It was honestly like a wave, with ebb and flow, and it sounded like rain, and kept getting louder - I couldn't tell what it was until it almost got to us.

Someone at work commented about going home to watch it on TV so they didn't have to fight the crowds. My thought is, crowd or no crowd - anyone can watch it on TV. It's better to BE there, even if we couldn't see much (and for me, I could only see clearly when Adam literally picked me up.) We were PART of it instead of just a TV-spectator.

My Glory Days

You know, looking through the old photos of Eric's glory days, reminded me of MY glory days. I found this magazine cover that I got a kick out of. I'm really impressed with how buff I used to be. Man, those were the days.



Love,
Tawnia

Rough Week

1. I just learned that you should never hit escape while trying to type up a blog. Suddenly everything is gone, and you can't get it back.

2. Jenna Saunders has Hodgkin's Disease, so she will be going through six months of chemotherapy. She's an incredibly tough girl, I know she'll do just fine, but it's still hard to think about.

3. A couple in my ward that I babysit for called Sunday night so I could watch the kids while they went to the hospital. She was about 24 weeks pregnant, and had really bad pains. Her last C-section (done nearly a year ago) wasn't holding, and her uterus burst, basically, so there was a big emergency, and the new baby was born live, but only for about 10 minutes. I'm glad I was there to help with the kids (I was there from 11 PM to 3 PM the next day), but it's tough to think about.

4. The Flames lost game seven. We were all SO CLOSE and the entire country was cheering for them, but we lost 2 to 1. Tampa Bay won't appreciate the Stanley Cup like we would, but they've got it anyway.

5. The weddings are coming up, and I can't be there! We all know this, and have known for a while, but it doesn't make it any easier as the big days draw near. I would like to see everyone (especially the babies!), but I can't. At least Mom and Dad and Emily and Clarissa are coming to see me next month.

So, in conclusion.. I'm kinda emotionally drained, and little things (like skirt measurements) really don't matter to me right now. (I will get to them eventually though, Mom.) I love you all though, and the rest of my life is going well... Jason and I are strong and healthy and staying afloat.

love,
mindy

My Glorious Football Career

Boy that picture brought back a lot of memories. Those old-time uniforms make me pine for the more innocent days of the early 1990s. Also, I remember they didn't want me to play with my glasses on, but I insisted since without them I couldn't see the receivers! Also, I remember this game because I was playing sick. You can tell from my greenish complexion. There was no way I was sitting that one out though! Look at what a great time I was having. I loved it out there.

On a technical note, I resized the picture to a width of 500 (that's pixels, and I did it by adding the attribute width=500 within the IMG tag), so it would not be so huge on the page. In addition, those of you posting pictures (and I hope more of you do) may want to resize your images in a photo editor first so they don't take so long to download.

Love you all and see you soon!
Eric

PS Sorry to Mindy and Jason about the Flames losing last night... The Lakers lost the first game of the NBA Finals on Sunday, so we're feeling your pain. For now.

now THIS is more like it!

A HA! We have discovered the secret to getting people (not quite everyone ... Nathan and Clarissa ...) to post! YES!

Interesting coincidental timing - we're talking about high school on the blog, and today, I got an email from one of my best friends from high school about the wedding - Traci. She heard from Cherilee about me getting married (Mom tracked down her info for me). They were my best friends from 7th grade all the way through graduation - I haven't seen them since we were 19, and they're coming to the bridal shower and reception. This is so cool. Traci and I sat next to each other in Algebra 2 our senior year, and I did not GET IT. Traci would help me with the homework every day at lunch, and I'd go see Mr. Wright after school all the time. The day everything finally connected in my brain, I leaned over to Traci and said "I get it!" Mr. Wright turned around from the chalkboard, looked at the ceiling, and said "Thank you!" Cherilee and I always sat within a couple of seats of each other in band, and we were hotel roommates on the trip to Victoria, Canada our senior year. We sat in the lobby of the Empress Hotel and talked for hours.

I shall ponder another discussion question, unless someone else beats me to it. Yes, we'll see each other next week, but come on - we do have a whole week to talk here online.

Quarterback Eric

So I was looking through some old photos and found this one. I thought you guys would appreciate it... you know it's from Eric's game of glory back in Football!




I think I have got it to work now... I hope so.
Love,
Tawnia

From Emily

I know it says Mom, but when I tried to sign up for the Blog, it didn't work. This is really Emily.

My favorite memory? Well, once they had a video announcement that was almost impossible to hear, and then the tape ended and it went to what it was recorded over -- which just happened to be one of my German projects. And the sound came across really well. I think it was our version of the Three Little Pigs. I was the Little Pigs; all of them. I just put my head down and laughed louder than anyone. That was my junior year.

I also like German classes, especially when we could get Gebauer off on a tangent. And our field trip to the zoo was fun.

And there was seminary and winning scripture chases; it was great my sophomore year when I won the stake speed chase. When I saw the people on either side still looking, that was when I knew I would win. I'd never really won anything big before, but this was even better than the time I beat Mom at Upwords. Clarissa says they're not doing those anymore, because they weren't actually learning the scriptures. I did. That was why I won.

Seventeen years of having a Palmer at Mac High, and now it's over. Wahoo! We all made it.

Love,
Emily

Mom's Turn

My memories of Mac High include lots and lots of driving back and forth - to band and choir concerts, swim and track meets, school plays, picking up and dropping off for school and after school events. All of this driving gave me time to talk to my kids, often one on one. That made all the driving worthwhile. Try it some day when your kids are teenagers. I'll always remember Mr Anderson teasing Dad when Trina played the piano for the choir concert and he took a ton of pictures; Eric practicing his speeches for the speech team; Jared's arrangement of 12 Days of Christmas; Tawnia having to choose between Carnegie Hall and Germany; Emily's novel for English class; Nathan running for "Mr Mac High" and telling everyone that he loves me; Mindy selling her drawing at the Daffodil Festival; and serving dinner for Clarissa and her date to the Winter Formal. These are just a few highlights, but you get the picture. Lots of special memories in my mental picture book.

Thanks for helping me take this walk down memory lane. I love you guys, with all your own unique personalities and talents.

MOM

Me too!

Yeah, alot of memories are from hanging out with friends... but when I read the assignment for memories of Mac High, I pictured the building in my mind -- and I was in the auditorium again. Whether for drama class, a choir concert, or another school play, I spent alot of time in there. And since it was opened during my junior year, I was among the first students to get to experience it. I've been in a few other theaters and auditoriums since then -- even some newer better ones -- but that one is "my" auditorium.

And i liked it when Eric was the star quarterback too. He's my hero.

Memories

I'd have to agree with Tawnia- having lunch with friends. There were a few different places over the four years, but it was the same group of a dozen or so people, sometimes more, sometimes less.. but there was always someone there. Either that, or I'd go over to the seminary building. That was always fun. I liked seminary.. good memories there. And choir was always a big thing too. Lots and lots of good friends in choir, and making great music. It's cool to pull out the CD's and say Hey! I helped make this! I guess over all though, it was the people. The education was great, of course.. but all the friends (and a few teachers) really made it worth remembering. Congratulations Clarissa, I hope you come away with some great memories too.

Tawnia's MHS Memory (and a little news too)

Hey everybody!

Well, first for the news. I just bought Jared's plane ticket, so he is officially coming for Nate's wedding. Hooray! It wouldn't be the same without him. Now if only Mindy and Jason were coming the family would ALL be here. (sniff, sniff)

Anyway, I also thought you should all know that I am no longer the RS pres. I got released on Sunday and replaced by Emilee Hatfield, whom none of you know (except of course, Nate, Amanda, Emily and Clarissa... and maybe Mindy.)

My favorite MHS memory. Well, I enjoyed a lot of things, like being in "The Sound of Music," singing in the choir, going to Germany, taking four years of German, and being involved in Model UN. But I think my favorite memory is eating lunch with my buddies. We had a certain spot in senior hall that we sat in (even though I was the only Senior) In fact we sat there my Junior year too, I think. But anyway, it was always great to just sit and laugh and enjoy lunch. Those were good times.

See you all when you get here!
Love,
Tawnia

Eric's Memory of MHS

First of all, congrats to Clarissa, the big shot high school graduate. Great job little sister! It's not only amazing that we're all out of high school, but now we're all grown-ups as well. Welcome to the adult world Clarissa. It's great. You get to stay out late, cook your own meals... it's good times. Keep us posted on your plans.

My favorite MHS memory? Well, I enjoyed a lot of things about it... Speech Team, Thespians, Band, Swim Team, Government class, English class, creative writing, writing for The Bruin... retaking Junior Health, the teacher's strike, the ongoing construction projects, all beautiful memories. If I had to pick out one though, it would probably be being part of Stage Band in 10th grade, and winning at Willamette when Jazz Ensemble and Middle School didn't. It was great. A bunch of them moped in the buses because they didn't win and didn't get to play in the show that night. Ah, the triumph of the underdog.

Uh, that and when I was the star quarterback and won state. That was cool too.

See you all soon,
Eric

the end of an era

Since September 1986, there has been at least one Palmer at McMinnville High School. Now, in June 2004, the last Palmer is leaving. What's YOUR favorite memory of MHS?

I loved being in pep band - it's the first thing I think of when I think of being in high school. Those were good times. The football team couldn't score to save their lives, but we had fun up in the top of the stadium blasting away so loud that we could be heard literally over a mile away.

Congrats, Clarissa!

Greetings Children

Our computer is up and running with a slightly different look. We now have Windows XP. Because of the virus, Dad had the hard drive wiped clean and I just reinstalled the documents I saved. I still need to put several programs back on the computer from disks here at home, but we don't have all the junk that was slowing things down.

Today is Clarissa's graduation, so I'm taking the day off work to go to the senior breakfast and get things ready for tonight. June 11th is my last day of work until next September. Just 10 more days and Michelle and the kids will be coming, I'm so excited to see them again. After that everything around here will be absolutely crazy, with people coming and going and getting married. It is very exciting and I'm anxious to welcome two new kids into our family.

Cheryl and Tiffany have their tickets, they'll be arriving late Friday and Marli will pick them up so they can stay with her that night. Speedy won't be able to come, but Debbie will come to Nathan's wedding. She'll be flying in and out of Seattle. I still need to talk to everyone in Seattle and see who plans to come down for Trina's wedding, besides Dondi. I guess that's everything for the moment. Gotta run now so I can get Clarissa to her practice.

See most of you soon. (Sure wish you could be here Mindy & Jason, but I do understand.)

Love ya,
MOM

and they WON!

Okay, brief update on the Flames game. We won! I'm not quite sure by how much, but I know it went into overtime. Only one more game to win.. and the next one is in Calgary. The game was over half an hour ago, and there has been constant honking up and down the streets.. like a traffic jam in a movie.. and it doesn't sound like it's going to stop for a while. Pretty crazy and this isn't even the last game! The whole city will go nuts. Yippee!

Go Flames Go!

I'm not sure if this has been reported in the news there at all, but it's all the news we get up here - Calgary's NHL Hockey team, the Calgary Flames, are in the finals for the Stanley Cup against the Florida Lightning. Game 5 (of 7) is tonight, with a 2-2 tie for games so far. The entire city is Flames Fever, jerseys, flags, EVERYWHERE. Quite insane really, but really neat to see. We've got the whole of Canada cheering as well, since a Canadian team hasn't been in the finals for seven years. Until now. GO FLAMES GO!

In other news, Jason has a new job. I know that I said that last post, but this is a different new job. The other one didn't work out, but it's okay, because Jason wasn't ever not working. That's one good thing about Calgary- there is always work. That, and Jason is an amazingly hard worker, and every place he has ever worked, they love him. Jason is now the floor manager at a furniture store. He gets to build the pieces for the displays, and set them up all nice and pretty.. help customers, and other odds and ends. There's just enough physical and mental work to keep him interested, without completely tiring him out.

The wedding presents are going in the mail tomorrow. No one is allowed to open the package without instructions from me. There are two CD's of the October wedding pictures, and I don't care who gets them.. you can fight over them when they get there. Other than that, talk to me before opening... I don't want someone seeing something without me being on the phone. (This all means you, Tawnia.)

Besides all that, Jason and I are doing well. He's working hard, and I'm being lazy. Nah, I've got stuff to do around the house (the dishes never seem to stop getting dirty!), and I'm studying my Russian again. The weather is beautiful, so I can get outside, and I'm always working on more scrapbooking and drawing stuff. We're happy and healthy, and wishing we could be at the weddings. I think we'll plan on coming down for Christmas.. Jason needs to see how Christmas is really celebrated.

And CONGRATULATIONS CLARISSA! Good luck with graduating tomorrow.. have fun, don't worry.. and pay attention to the speakers (it gives you something to do while you wait). Don't worry if you don't conquer the world right away, just as long as you do something. Be happy, and I'll give you a huge hug when I see you next month!

love,
Mindy and Jason

YYYYYYYYYAY! JUNE!

Heh - ERIC has been looking forward to this month all year ... I'VE been looking forward to this month MY WHOLE LIFE!

If no one else is taking advantage of the blog, then I will. This weekend was great. Friday night, we drove and drove to Danbury, Connecticut, and stayed with Adam's mission trainer Ocimar. (He's Brazilian.) Saturday, we got up at 4 am to go to West Point for Joe's graduation (Adam's brother), and it was very, very neat. I met Joe, and Brandon (another brother), and their mom. Yes, I have met my mother-in-law, and she's quite the character. She'll walk right up to anyone and start talking to them about anything under the sun - it cracked me up. She's great. Y'all will like her.

That afternoon, we went to Manhattan (it's 2 hours away) to the open house of the Manhattan Temple - it's different from anything I'd ever seen, and very beautiful. Adam and I are planning to go up to do a session this fall. We also walked through Times Square and had dinner at a diner. It was a very New York City thing to do - good times.

We spent Sunday with Ocimar (Joe and the rest of the family got the heck outta Dodge as soon as the graduation was over), and Monday we drove home. We stopped in Sleepy Hollow - the town made immortal by Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Fake story, but a real town, and we went there! The cemetery was creepy. I can imagine some weird things happening there, like in the story.

2 weeks from today, and we'll be on the airplane to go to Oregon! EEEEEEEEEEEEEE! (I'm so wired, I can't even make a word. Just really high-pitched noise.)

Love, Trina and Adam

Good vibes from Eric

It's JUNE everybody!

I'm now faced with the page of the calendar I've been waiting for all year so far. There's the weddings, vacation, the first day of summer. It's all there. I'm so excited.

We spent most of the day yesterday at our friend's pool with a few families from the ward. BBQ. It was a lot of fun. We then had dinner, a movie, and root beer floats with one of the couples from the barbecue. We ended up staying up too late and had a tough time getting out this morning. But the weather has been beautiful since Sunday, and it's nice to be looking at the start of summer.

We just had an "emergency" in our building. False alarm I guess, but we got to walk down the stairs (from the 8th floor) and stand around for a little while. Fun.

We got Trina's invitation this week, which was exciting, and it joined Nathan's on the fridge.

We'll see you all in Oregon soon (except for Mindy and Jason I guess).

Take care.

Love,
Eric