Monday, August 30, 2004

The Many Adventures of Tawnia the Pooh

Well, I had a job interview today to be a Teacher's Assistant in an Elementary School. So now I have to decide if I want the job or not. I have until tomorrow afternoon to let the principal know. It would be a good way to get my foot in the door for a teaching position because he basically told me that he would hire me if someone doesn't want to come back for next year. I just have to get my certification again, which will take a little effort and some money, but should be do-able.

Other then that I've just been having fun with my new roommates. We get along very well. We have already had a lot of fun just being crazy together. It's great. My new ward is okay so far. I haven't been to any activities because there haven't really been any, but there's FHE tonight. And I need to get signed up for an institute class ASAP... so that I can legally live where I'm living (it's BYU approved and you're not supposed to live there unless you're a student of some sort, which includes institute.)

So there's my life in a nutshell. I am going to go home now and do my laundry. I'm at the library right now, because I have access to the internet here.
Love,
Tawnia

Friday, August 27, 2004

Eric Growing Up

Since this is Eric's birthday I thought I should post some pictures of him.

Brand new


Eric's first birthday



Waiting for the bus on his way to kindergarten


Scriptures for his 8th birthday


Eric's 12th birthday



High School Graduation June 1992

Eric Leaving for the MTC October 1993


The latest picture I have of Eric and Laurel November 2003

Our first LONG Trip:

In 1973 we left our new home in our new car with our new baby and our new tent and traveled for a month. Our first stop was in Utah where we visited my cousin Ilene and her family for a few days. The farthest east I’d been, up to that time, was Cardston Canada and I’d only been to 8 states. This trip added 9 more to my list. When we drove through Rocky Mountain National Park, in Colorado, the scenery we could see was beautiful but as we climbed higher the sky got grayer. First it started raining, then snowing. Fortunately it didn't stick too much so we were able to keep traveling. I promised myself that I’d return other than in June so I could really see the mountains. We finally did that in 2001 on another of our long trips. When we camped in Limon Colorado we enjoyed watching the thunderstorm over the mountains in the distance. Soon the storm was upon us and we got into our tent. Then our tent blew over so I took Trina and ran to the restroom. The storm didn’t last long but our sleeping bags were soaked and our tent was down so we spent the night in the laundry room at the campground. We used that tent for a lot of years afterward and laughed at its crooked poles. As we drove across Colorado and into Kansas I looked back and it seemed that I would never see the mountains again. They were so far away. The prairie was a lot more rolling hills than I had expected and it was beautiful in its own right but I missed the mountains. We went to Missouri and enjoyed seeing the church sites there. At the campground there I saw my first fireflies. We stopped in Hannibal and saw the Mark Twain sites there. Then we went to Nauvoo and saw the sites that were rebuilt at that time. There weren’t near as many as there are today. The streets had all been covered with gravel because they had just filmed the movie Huck Finn (or was it Tom Sawyer).
We drove north to Wisconsin but I didn’t know where to look for my ancestral roots. We stayed with Frank’s Aunt Julia in LaCrosse and visited lots of his other relatives. His Great Aunt Eleanor had a picnic for us in her backyard. We learned a lot about Frank’s family history on that trip. We took a side trip to Madison to visit Frank’s Aunt Eldiva and Uncle Wally. We took a boat ride at the Wisconsin Dells on our way eastward. We left Wisconsin after 10 days and headed home across Minnesota. We saw the Badlands and the Black Hills in South Dakota and went through Yellowstone and the Tetons. Then back down through Utah, stopping to visit some friends in Kaysville. We arrived home tired and happy after our month of touring. Quite an undertaking for a young couple with an 8-month-old baby and no air conditioning. Frank used to tease me about all the baby spoons I’d lost along the way.


All ready to go.


Dinosaur National Monument Utah


Trina on top of the world.


Wind Cave National Park South Dakota


Mt. Rushmore


Setting up the tent in Yellowstone

happy birthday

happy birthday Eric. love you too. you're only as old as you feel.

Happy Birthday

Hi, Eric. Happy birthday!

Unlike the previous wellwishers, I am only twenty-three. However, I can still dump a lot of clothes into a washing machine, heat up meals in the microwave, and name all fifty states and their capitals in alphabetical order (in under two minutes). And I should earn my college degree within a couple of terms.

Eric, you're a great brother. Have a wonderful day and eat lots of cake.

Love,
Emily

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON

When you hold that tiny newborn in your arms this day seems an eternity away. And yet here I am having my second child turn 30. Do you realize that when I turned 30 we were getting ready to move to Oregon with our four little children? My accomplishments of the first 30 years were definitely different than my children's. I still haven't been on a mission or graduated from college and I'll probably never learn to drive a stick shift but I could do my own laundry before I was 30 and cook and clean and change diapers. Life hands out different challenges to each of us.

Eric, I think you've done very well. You almost have a masters degree. You have a good job and you really live quite comfortably. But more importantly, you have a wonderful wife. You've stayed true to the gospel and are growing spiritually. You help keep our family close. You're a son any mother would be proud to claim and I'm so glad you're mine.

I love you,
MOM

The BIG THREE-OH!

Happy birthday, Eric! And I bet I'm the first one to wish you a happy birthday, even though you don't know it because you're probably still asleep. It's 6:30 on the West Coast right now ...

I also paused for a moment of reflection when I turned 30 about all the things I'd done leading up to that point. I had also graduated from college, served a mission, could do my own laundry, and drove a stick shift. I looked at the decade mark as a level. Your 20s are for doing things like getting your advanced education, establishing your independence and self-reliance, and generally figuring out adult life. Your 30s are for applying all that learning and putting it to use, and really making your mark in the world. (Whatever mark you choose to make - some people want to make a small mark, and others want the biggest paintbrush possible to make some kind of sweeping statement.) A lot of people could say that yeah, yeah - Trina's only excited about her 30s because she finally got married. Not so - I most definitely enjoy being married. But I had come to these conclusions right around my 30th birthday, which was a whole year before I even met Adam.

So go forth! Happy birthday!

Thursday, August 26, 2004

I love my sisters

I had no idea about the sisters blog until Mindy mentioned it. Of course, I'm not a sister. Really, the only thing that made me sad was that Clarissa has participated in that blog and not in this one. But that is changing too, so no problem. Besides, as the only teenager left in the family, she should be allowed to be the rebel... of sorts.

By the way sisters, I only glanced over it. I didn't really read it much. If you want to make it a little more open and accessible I can add it as a link on the side there, or you can keep it to yourselves which is fine too.

But the point of this is, I love my sisters.

I'm staring down my thirtieth birthday. One more day... a half day now, until I'm no longer a guy in my twenties. Boy, it really makes me introspective. Suddenly I'm evaluating all the stuff I haven't done and haven't become. Of course, I do my own laundry pretty well now. And I drive a stick shift. And I graduated from college. I guess I'm not such a failure after all. Anyway, we're going to a baseball game tomorrow night. That'll be fun. The Angels are on an 8 game winning streak, and won last night with a score of 21-6! Crazy. But the point is, Laurel is going to bake me a cake, and that's what matters.

Love,
Eric

Provo

Hello Familia,

Well, I've made it into my new apartment. I got a nice workout lugging all of my boxes and bags up to the third floor of my apartment complex. (Yep, I've made it to the top!) My time down here has been spent scoping out Provo as well as visiting with old friends. I spent Tuesday in Logan with Aunt Marli and then we hooked up with Sam and Deb and the kids (minus Jaron, Daniel, and Melanie who stayed in Ogden) for the Martin Harris Pageant.

Now I'm looking for work. I have a few places where things might happen. It really all comes down to who you know. I have a friend that works at a charter school and they might have a teacher's aide position available. I e-mailed the principal and I'm waiting for details on the job.

Other than that I am just working on getting unpacked and settled. My roommates are awesome and we already have a lot of fun together (and I've only known Jennifer and Stephanie for less then 24 hours.) The other two, Amy and Annie, are from home so I know them well.

I don't care what the family website is called, but at the moment I'm not sure that I can pay any money out or at least not much because I don't have a JOB which means I have NO income. So I guess we can work this out later, but I wanted to put my two cents (or no cents) in. =)

I am glad that we have the blog and I hope we continue to have something like unto it, because I will miss it if it is gone.

Love,
Tawnia

I'll miss you all

Well, this is it. I'm getting ready to go get on the plane right now and I won't be back until Wednesday night next week. I finished my senior project paper (ten pages on Enron) yesterday and took my final in Project Management yesterday as well. And since Trina asked, I'm currently halfway through Unix Networking and I'm ready to start Career Development. Two months from now I'll finish them and I'll have two more classes to go. Networking with Windows (the last in a long long series of networking classes) and one Humanities class. Then I'll get my BS in Technical Management, with a focus in electronics and telecommunications. It is a real bachelor's degree in management.

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

I'm in!

Hello Family.

I am now in! Let there be much rejoicing.

I never know what to put here ...

So Emily's got a boyfriend, huh? He really must like her .. I remember them talking before she went off to Florida.. and he had let her borrow Harry Potter 5 right after he was done reading it, so she didn't have to wait for anyone else to read it. And writing to her this whole time?? Wahoo! Come on Emily .. of course we're going to be excited. The only person you ever really liked growing up was Robin, and now that he's married, you have no choice but to get over him. Time to MOVE ON! And what is this thinking about forever thing?!? If you aren't ready to make that desicion, don't! Be friends for a while, or date for a while .. and if something more happens, great! Don't jump the gun here, missy. But, I wish you luck either way.

I suggest that Eric send Emily a new invite, so she doesn't have to keep using mom's. She figured out how to make it work on the sister's site that I made (bbcmeltdown.blogspot.com), so just send her a new one, and I'm sure she can actually have her own account (and make sure you send it to her correct email).

Not much is going on up north. The weather has been crappy for nearly the past week, and it doesn't sound like we'll get sun for a few days more. Growing up the rain was never a problem, but now thunderstorms and continuous overcast makes me depressed. But I'll get over it.

Hey Laurel - I'm doing some watercolors again, any suggestions or tips or advice to help me out? I took one watercolor class back in high school, but I don't remember much from it. But the first picture I did (after such a long time) turned out great!

Monday, August 23, 2004

Hello

To Mom Palmer. The contest I went to was more of a science contest rather than a science fair. We were sent into a classroom and given a test over science. It was multiple choice. The questions could were over any type of science from biology to astronomy to geology, ect. They really liked to ask latin animal names and classification. Though I can't remember those now. There was not a national contest. State is as high as they held contests. I participated in several such contest while I was in middle school.

I guess that I don't have any news. I'm doing good. The kids are doing good.

Michelle




I know the answer!

Well Trina, Emily wrote that draft under Mom's login. If you click on the title of the draft you can read the text. (Emily, I suggest you take Trina's advice and not leave drafts in the blog. We can all read it anyway.)

Emily's WHAT?

Um, Mom, did you know that even if you haven't posted something, when you put a DRAFT in the works, everyone can still see the TITLE of it when we log in to post. And the stupid part is, when you start a draft, it gets posted in the order it was started, not actually the order it goes up. So posts can get missed that way if we don't know to go back and look for it. Recommendation - do NOT use the draft feature! And for crying out loud, spill the news - what the hey are you talking about? Is this just another book that's being referred to as her boyfriend, like my car was for quite some time? Or are we referring to an actual person and a commitment?

Jared - I said I didn't know if you and Nathan had website experience, and, well, I didn't. It's not like you post (or email in the past) your class schedule every semester, or even that I'd expect that ... but don't throw a fit for me not knowing something you've never told me. Sheesh.

This is Adam's last week of work at the library - classes start next week. Today, if I haven't been fighting my computer, I've been fighting to keep my eyes open because they hurt. I don't know why - they just do. It's not been a very good day, so I'm going home.

Love, Trina

Sunday, August 22, 2004

The New Family Website

Okay all...

I'd like a little more input before I up and buy a name.

Is anyone opposed to insanityinc.net or .org as a family website name, and if so, are there any others in Jared's list, or any others at all that you would like to use?

Let me know... and I mean YOU, unless your name is Jared, Trina, or ...Mom.

Oh, and one of my favorite trips was driving up the California coast with Laurel a few years ago. We visited a lot of the old Spanish missions, and the drive between San Luis Obispo and Carmel (past Hearst castle and Big Sur and all) was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The green hills on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other... it was a windy road but it was worth the three hours of 30 MPH turns. It was the perfect day for it too I guess. It was the end of January and the sky was beautiful. Maybe I'll scan in a few pictures so you can see...



Okay that's all for now.

Love, Eric

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Atlanta

This time it's certain. I think. I leave for Atlanta on Thursday, and I'll get home on Wednesday the first of September.

Emily's Boyfriend

Yes, you read that correctly: boyfriend. The reason why I didn't post this before is because I wanted to talk to Mom about it first.

Okay, last summer I started e-mailing a guy named Jonathon Coultas. We sat next to each other during church when I was here for a few weeks, and then I went to Florida, and he wrote to me during that time. Right now, he's at JobCorps in Astoria. He still writes and calls, and we saw "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" together. We'll probably go out again this weekend.

And he says he's in love with me.

And I have butterflies in my stomach, and I don't know if I'm ready to make this decision, and I like him, but I just don't know if he's someone I could stay with forever. I have never been in a relationship before.

I am also thinking that Southern Viginia University might be a good place to go to school next year.

More travels from Mom

Gee I really got something going here. This is great. You'll forgive me if I take a few more days on this topic won't you? MIchelle, I'd love to hear more about your science fair. Did you get to go to nationals, or was there such a thing? What was your project? I'm sure we'd all love to hear.

Now to my continuing saga - The travels of Evelyn Palmer.

The first vacation Frank and I took (other than going to Phoenix to visit my parents or to San Diego to visit Chet) was in 1971. Max and Jean had been at our home on their vacation trip and then we went to Utah and saw them again. They had picked up Mom and Sylvia in Arizona and we met them in Salt Lake City. Getting to Salt Lake was an adventure. Our transmission was acting up and we drove most of the way through Utah in second gear, going very slow. It was a long hot trip. We got our car fixed in Salt Lake and had a much better time after that. We picked up Mom and Sylvia and took them back down through Utah to the Peterson reunion. We stopped to visit Mom’s Aunt Teeny who was in her 80’s. Mom showed us where she lived when she was a little girl. It was special to be there with her. We met lots of cousins at the reunion. Uncle Ronald was there but there weren’t many others I’d ever met before. The reunion was at Fish Lake, which is on top of a mountain. It was too cold to swim in but some of the cousins had boats we could ride on. We stopped at Bryce Canyon National Park on our way home but we were all too sunburned to go hiking. Then we drove down through Zion and headed on home to California. Mom and Sylvia came with us and when we got back to California, Speedy paid for Mom’s flight home to Arizona and Sylvia stayed with them for a while.

Here are a few pictures from that trip. If you would like Mom's memories of that adventure I can post them or they are on the CD that I made. Does everyone have a copy? If not I'll get you one real soon.

Friday, August 20, 2004

And Mindy too!

My all time favorite place to have traveled had to be St. Petersburg, Russia. Ufa was wonderful too, but I lived there for four months, so I wasn't as much of a tourist. St. Petersburg was absoutely beauitful, even with half the city under construction. I was there for about a week, and saw quite a few of the tourist sites. I spent a lot of time at the Hermitage - several palaces combine to make one giant museum. Trina would have loved it there. Tons and tons of artwork and statues; famous pieces by Raphael, Rodin, van Gogh, Picasso, da Vinci, Monet, Rembrandt, Michelangelo .. and lots more. I even saw the full statue of the bust I had sculpted back at BYU-I. I spent at least six hours there, hurrying a lot of the time, and I still didn't see everything. St. Petersburg was also were I saw my very first snowflake - I'd seen snow before, but this was the REAL stuff. Cutting out snowflakes from paper with all the unique designs .. they were just like that. No wet clumps of ice .. real, true, shaped snowflakes. It was amazing. And then there was the Blinni shack. When I go back, I HAVE to go there again. Blinni are similar to pancakes or crepes, depending on how you make them. You could watch through the windows as they made large, thin blinni fresh on the griddle .. and then put whatever toppings you'd like on it, and then fold it up and hand it out to you. Terra, Diane and I were there our last morning, and so for breakfast we had chocolate/banana ones. Oooohh SO good. Later in the day, after it had started snowing (and snowing and snowing) we got some again, this time with cheese. And although it was cold (since it was November), it was totally worth every bit.

Update from Jared

Now I have alot to update on.

I am NOT going to Atlanta next week. They extended it to two weeks and I can't miss that much class. So I bowed out, along with pretty much everyone else who had been selected. Myron (the district manager) must have felt like an idiot when all his personal first picks said no because he changed the time.

Interesting places I have been ... Germany. I love the culture, the food, and especially the people. Germans are really nice, sort of like Texans, not like the nasty rude French people and Utahn people.

Trina, you said you didn't know if Nathan or I knew anything about running a website? I've taken more computer and networking classes than everyone else in the family combined. And Nathan was writing HTML code back when the rest of us were still trying to figure out what the internet was. We've both had our own websites before. It took me about 30 seconds to generate that list of possible website names. I've debated pricing structures back and forth with Eric. Yeah, I know what I'm doing here. But I choose not to take a major hand in this project because I've already got a zillion things on my plate. End of rant.

From Emily

Hello. I still have to use Mom's because I don't have one of my own.

Clarissa and I will be going to college together; if I take the right classes, I should be able to get an associates degree by this spring, maybe sooner.

I am in favor of having our family website be insanityinc.org or net, too. Or should we write out insanity incorporated? And we could have nicknames, and maybe come up with new ones every year, like we did with the T-shirts.

Interesting places I have been include Yellowstone (gysers, bison, waterfalls, petrified trees, hot springs), the Grand Canyon, Wisconsin (the land of my ancestors), Disney World, Martin's Cove in Wyoming, D.C. (I loved the Air and Space Museum and American History Museum), New York, Waterton NP in Canada (where we saw bears -- and I think one might have been a grizzly), Hollywood, Nauvoo, the Denver Mint, and Silver Falls State Park. I have been to a lot of places. Hooray for parents who love to travel!

Love,
Emily

Interesting Places Continued:

Another trip I took with my parents was when I was 16. We were living in Everett, Washington and Ray lived in Lompoc, California. He sent Dad a letter with a check for $50 and said, “Here is the gas money come down and see us”. So we did. The highlight of that trip was going to Solvang, a Danish community near Ray’s home. It was wonderful being there with my mom as we looked through all the little shops. When my mom was a young girl she was supposed to go to Denmark. Every year her aunt traveled there and took one of her nieces or nephews as her traveling companion. My mom was supposed to be the next one to go but her aunt’s health didn’t allow her to go to Denmark anymore so Solvang was the closest Mom ever got. I love Solvang and I’ve been there a few other times. We stopped there last summer on our way to San Diego for the reunion and it’s bigger and better now. But seeing my mom on her “visit to Denmark” was really special.

Michelle's two cents

Well it looks like a lot of exciting things are going on in the Palmer family. We are doing great here. Clarrisa="Congratulations!" Good luck in you college endeavers. Jared was selected from his Fry's Electronic's to fly to Atlanta, Georgia next Thurday, August 26 to help open a new store. He will help with training of new employees and he will help work the grand opening. He was the first person from his store who was invited. This will means tons of overtime pay and a much bigger paycheck that week. He will fly home Wednesday, September 1.

I guess if I post I have to tell a traveling adventure. When I was 12 (I believe) I went to San Antonio during the 100th Fiesta. No it wasn't a family vacation. I won first prize at the regional science contest and went to state. That was the biggest fiesta there ever. Street performers, authentic Mexican food, live music, fireworks, ect. I also saw the Alamo (several times over the years) and looked down one of the actually canons used. Of course, you can't go to San Antonio without riding the ferry down the river walk. I went with the Math teacher and 3 other students. The highlight of the trip was winning 1st at the state contest for the team catagory. I ranked 11th for individual. When I was a week shy of my of my 16th birthday, I was in San Antonio again for EFY. Then I stay an extra week with my 67 year old aunt. This time I went to Sea World, Six Flags, and tubing down the Guadalupe river. It is a great vacation spot for family or a romantic get away. It is one of my favorite places. Other fun places I have been are camping, rock climbing , and swimming at Turner falls in Oklahoma and Cape Canaveral and Cocoa beach in east Florida. That all for me.

Mom's story

You know what, Mom? I don't think you've EVER told that story. I just knew that your family was sealed in the Cardston Temple when you were 10. No details. So thank you for finally writing it down.

Most people would think my traveling adventures have a no-brainer for "most interesting" - Australia. But not really because it almost wasn't a vacation - it felt at the time, and still does, like I actually lived there for a short period of time. I had a "regular life" in Sydney with living in a home and being involved in the ward and that sort of thing, rather than just touring everywhere. And quite frankly, I prefer to be an American instead of an Australian. (It is still fun to pretend sometimes to be an Aussie.) I did absolutely love the Sydney Opera House. The beaches there are amazing - the ocean is SO BLUE! The animals in the zoo were fabulous - while walking through the bird section, I thought how much fun it must have been to be God and actually MAKE the birds with all the colors and shapes and sizes. The colors of the birds there were so bright - not the typical browns and muted tones of birds in North America. I'd never seen anything like it.

And I've had PLENTY of interesting adventures in traveling around the US. I'm looking forward to a heck of a lot more now that I have my eternal traveling partner. He's fun to travel with, like when we went to New York for Memorial Day, and went to Sleepy Hollow just because he found it on the map when he was navigating. He fits in just fine with our family's Road Warrior mentality.

Love, Trina

P.S. Oh, and Clarissa - it's COLLEGE, with an E. Collage, with an A, is that art thing with lots of random pictures.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Where are some of the most interesting places you’ve traveled to?

This is what I wrote for today's question. Do you want me to put my answers on here? If you think it's too much for the Blog, I'll understand.

I could write a book on this question. I know I won’t finish answering it today so I’ll write on it every day until I get it all done.
When I was 10 years old our family took one of our few vacations. We drove to Cardston Canada to be sealed in the temple. Our drive took us through Glacier National Park. The view was incredible. I remember the road along the cliff as we climbed through the mountains. Looking over the edge I could see the road we’d been on and the tiny cars as they climbed. I’m so glad that we drove east to west when we went back there this summer. It’s much less frightening. I remember when we saw a bear sitting in the middle of the highway. Larry said that it came up to the car and tried to stick its nose in. He leaned away and rolled up the window. I don’t remember that so he must have been in the other car at that time. Dad took a picture of an animal on a wall that none of us could recognize. Years later I figured out that it was a marmot. The scenery in the mountains was truly awe inspiring both when I was 10 and when I was 55. I remember approaching Cardston from the south you could see the temple way off in the distance, with the mountains behind it. This summer when we came in from the north you couldn’t really see it until you were almost there. It seemed a lot further from the mountains when I was little. I guess it’s partly because I had never been onto the prairie. I’d never been anywhere where the mountains weren't close and very visible. Seeing them from far away was strange to me. When we got to Cardston we took two or three rooms in the motel there. It was late in the afternoon and was very hot. We went to a swimming hole at the river and played in the water so we could cool off. The highlight of the trip, of course, was being in the temple. I remember going to the nursery and reading books and having to be quiet for a very long time. Then changing into white clothes and finally we walked up the stairs and into a beautiful room where our parents and Larry and Max were waiting for us. We crowded around the altar and were sealed to our parents all at once. They had never had so many children sealed at one time. After the sealing, by President Ursenbach, we were asked if would like some time alone for a special family prayer. We were shown to a small room, I think it was an office, and had a special prayer. I remember being a little afraid to open my eyes during the prayer because I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the angels that I knew were there. I’m sure my sister Carol was there, as well as others. When we went to the Cardston Temple this summer one of the counselors showed us a couple of the sealing rooms. I would like to go there with Max because he would probably remember which one it was. Also, at church in Calgary there was a man there with the last name of Ursenbach. I asked his relationship and he said that his grandfather had been the President of the Cardston Temple. My dad was truly impressed with him. He must have been for me to remember the name 45 years later.

Here at last

I'm here! My big news is that I start Collage on September 27. I register on Monday. That is all.
Clarissa

I Vote for Insanityinc.net or org

That's quite a list, thanks Jared. It looks like you've been doing your homework on this project. It's going to help me reach one of my goals, that of setting up a webpage. I can at least learn how to put things on a page and then I can set up my own. I want one for my genealogy, that everyone can visit. I think I can get one through the church site.

As for my goals, I think I'll post the whole list on the site. I have several that I'm working on at the present time. One is to try a new recipe every month for a year. I figure if I don't put a time limit on it I'll never know when it's done. I also try not to write goals that I really don't have any control of. I would like to put that I will be in a temple session with all of my children at the same time but that's up to each of you. I can't force you to remain worthy to be there. It looks like a strong possibility at the moment but I don't think it should be on my list. These are personal goals.
Some of the others I have are:
Visit all 50 states - so far I've been to 38.
Go through 50 different temples - I'm at 25 now.
Go on a mission.
Find Egbert's parents.
Weigh 130 or less.
I have several places throughout the world that I want to see.
Right now I'm working on writing my personal history. In Relief Society this month we made a jar full of questions. Each day you pull out one and answer it. When you're done you have an interesting history of your life. Today's question is going to be fun. Where are some of the most interesting places you've traveled to? ***Brain storm*** maybe I should post the questions on here each day and we could all answer them. That would keep the conversations going.

Eric - Clarissa needs another invitation.

Love always,
MOM

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

What's out there

Available:

worldwidepalmer.com
palmerglobal.org
globalpalmer.org
worldwidepalmer.org
palmerglobal.net
globalpalmer.net
worldwidepalmer.net
globalpalmer.com
palmerclan.net
palmerclan.org
palmerclan.info
insanityinc.net
insanityinc.org
insanityinc.info
insanityinc.us
palmerpeople.net
palmerpeople.org
palmerpeople.info
palmerpeople.us

Unavailable

palmerclan.com
palmerclan.us
palmer.com
palmer.net
palmer.org
palmer.info
palmer.us
insanity.com
insanity.net
insanity.org
insanity.info
insanity.us
insanityinc.com
palmerpeople.com
palmerglobal.com

Insanity Inc. goes global!

Instead of names on t-shirts, we have email addresses. How's that for getting into the 21st Century? ... I wrote to Eric about this very thing in February or March or something ridiculous like that, and I've been waiting all this time to say "Insanity Inc. goes global!"

My nominations for the family domain name are: insanityinc.com (or insanityincorporated, if the inc one is already taken, although I can't imagine it would be) OR palmerclan.com OR captainchaos.com. Or .net - that part doesn't concern me so much.

For emails attached to the domain ... I propose that we do nicknames rather than our first names, similar to how we had the t-shirts once upon a time. Jason and Mindy could be "canucks" and Adam and I could be "terroristbait" and Emily could be "Disneycharacter" and ... you get the idea.

I think we should keep the blog as part of the new site, or something akin to it where we can post random news and comments and have conversations and stuff. Maybe a message board so we can have multiple conversations going at once on various topics. (They're called threads.) I also like the idea of everyone having their own folder to post pictures and other miscellaneous things (but mostly pictures, since we live all over the country now). I suggest that Eric remain as Head Technical Administrator of the entire project, with maybe Adam or someone else who knows what they're doing as the assistant. Jason? I don't know about Jared and Nathan, but I'm relatively certain that none of us girls know what we're doing in maintaining a website, or even posting something on one, for that matter.

Money - divide it per family rather than per person. Tawnia would, I guess, be on her own since she's now living in Utah, but Emily and Clarissa could be in with Mom and Dad. So Eric, you get the final number and divide by ... 7, and give us the total, including email costs. If someone can't afford whatever the amount is, we'll work something out. I'd be willing to help cover someone so we can get this thing off the ground. In the future, when it's 3 bucks a year apiece, or whatever, Eric rounds off the figure so we all send him our little dollar bills and NO COINS, and keep what tiny bit of change is left over for your aches and pains of maintaining the site.

I'll shut up now before I get any more wound up than I already am. Besides, it's almost time to go home from work.

Mom - you could make a list of "what my list would have been when I was 20, and all the things I've already done prior to being 50 ..." or something like that. I know it would include going to the Grand Canyon. I did that last year - all the things I did by the time I was 30 - I hadn't intended to go to Australia, or buy a brand new car, or live in Montana, or graduate from college, or go on a mission ... but I did. It was more of an accounting of what I'd done instead of a goal list. Those are okay too.

I'll share the "Trinadam 50 by 50 list" when we have it done. Most of it now is about graduate degrees and traveling. We want to go to Europe before Adam finishes at Georgetown - it's cheaper to fly to London from DC than it is to fly to Portland. That's the big one. When are you going to tell us more of your's, Mom?

Love, Trina and Adam

Plans for a new site

Good morning dear family!

The time has come. We need to put together the family website. I think the blog has done very well, and it has proven to be sustainable. We've used it on a regular basis for the last six months. The problem is, it is running on my Jungle Chicken site, and I want to use the limited storage I have for Jungle Chicken related stuff. So here's what I propose.

We could register a domain name (a .com, .net, or .org) and then have it hosted on a service. The current setup I have is pretty inexpensive. The first year would cost each of us seven or eight dollars, and about 2.50 per year after that, depending on how we split it up. I'm open to suggestions about that. I'm also wondering what names we want to try to get, and what priority they should be in. Please submit your ideas for website names, and we can duke it out until we have something we all agree on. As soon as that happens, I'll set it all up, and we'll have a website.

For an additional per month charge, you'll be able to get a private email account through our site. I can't remember how much that was... I'll have more details as we go.

So let me know what you think. Will this work? What would be a fair way to divide the costs? What should we call it?

The good thing about it is we would all own the site, so I would distribute the login information. Any of us could run the site if we wanted to. We could each have our own folder with our own page and images and what not, if we wanted to (e.g. www.sitename.com/tawnia). Of course, the blogger thing is a bit simpler, but who wants simplicity?

Well, that's all for now. I enjoyed talking to Jared last night and I forgot to apologize for not contributing to his lesson. I hope you'll forgive me Jared.

Love,
Eric

Mom's 100 list

Hey Trina - I have a list of 100 things (well I haven't quite thought of 100 yet) that I want to do in my life time. I've divided my list into sections for family, personal, travel, church, genealogy and books I want to read. Travel is my longest list. I want to see the world. I need to think of 7 more things that fit on my list. I wish I'd started this when I was much younger, because there are lots of things I could have put on it that I've already done. Since I started the list, in 2002, I've completed 10 of my goals. I challenge all of you to come up with your list of dreams and goals. Share some of them with the rest of us, if you'd like. I've been having fun with mine. Some of them are fairly short and others take a long time. Last month I saw where my father was born, visited Banff National Park and went through the Cardston Temple. Three goals on one vacation - not bad.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Good-bye Oregon

Well, I figured I'd better post today because I'm leaving the state tomorrow and don't know when I'll have access to a computer again. Hopefully I'll have a roommate with one in Provo, or at least a neighbor or a good friend, or else I'll hopefully find a lab somewhere that I can use... or I can always go to the library.

Regardless of all that, I'll be driving to Boise tomorrow and into SLC on Thursday. I'm heading down early in the hopes of securing a job before all the masses of college students arrive. At least my applications will be in first. I can't move into my apartment until next Wednesday, so I'm going to be friend hopping until then (I have four different friends that I'm staying with for a night or two.) Oh, and Amy Ward will be with me the entire time as well... and she's going to be my roommate along with Annie Parker.

Okay, I have to go back to packing and watching the Olympics. The important things, you know.

I love you all.

Tawnia

PS You're Welcome Adam

50 by 50 - 2 down

Ya know those goals lists of 50 things you want to do before your 50th birthday ... or 100 by 100, or whatever ... Adam and I were making a combined list the other day (for when HE turns 50, giving us an extra 9 years and 8 months after I turn 50), which is what got me thinking about it. Well, 2 of my personal goals are now officially, by the United States Government, declared successful. I wanted to get married, and live in Washington DC for at least a year ... and this morning, I got a DC driver's license. So my name is now legally Caudle, and I'm a resident of the District of Columbia. Registered to vote and everything! Yes, I do feel a little different today. My name is different, and so is my ID. I've never relinquished my Oregon residency until now.

Okay, I'll be quiet now - I've posted twice in a row now. Remember that this is our FAMILY'S blog, not just mine ... so we ALL need to post occasionally.

Love, Trina (and Adam. Adam says thank you to Tawnia for telling me how to make pork chops on Sunday, because they turned out well.)

Monday, August 16, 2004

Happy Anniversary, Eric and Laurel!

Happy birthday to Bryan, and Happy Anniversary to Eric and Laurel. (I didn't post before about Bryan's birthday because he can't ... you know ... READ. But I did think of him that day.) I love you all! Yay!

The hurricanes, by the time Washington DC got in the way, were just big rainstorms. No big deal - there wasn't even wind. Just, it rained all day. Adam's family was not affected at all by the hurricanes, but are potentially in the path of the next ones that are being tracked off shore right now. What about Aunt Joy? Has anyone heard about how they're all doing? Tampa got NAILED. Today is gorgeous - warm with just a little bit of humidity, and blue skies. Yay for blue skies! It was overcast most of July, and very muggy. Usually August is worse than July, but not so far.

Happy celebrations, and the weather report ... what a fun post. Ha ha ha ... Oh, and my lesson went really well yesterday. How was your's, Jared? I hope I was able to provide at least a little bit of insight.

Love, Trina and Adam

Sunday, August 15, 2004

For Michelle

Hey Michelle... here you are.

Samuel the Lamanite, high on the city wall,
Came to warn the people, and repentance was his call.
Arrows could not hit him, for a man of God was he,
And he taught in the land righteously.

Now it's Michelle's turn!

Michelle has a primary lesson next week on Samuel the Lamanite. Does anyone know the seventh verse of "Book of Mormon Stories"? We looked in lds.org's online songbook and they only had the first two verses.

Friday, August 13, 2004

Jared's lesson

I don't have a scripture for you, but I do have this idea: what's the first thing you think of when you think of *a specific individual*? Is it a happy thing? Or does just the mention of their name make you seethe with anger? Well, then you haven't forgiven them yet. That's my personal gauge on the forgive-o-meter when I need to put it into use.

My other note relating to forgiveness is that if you don't forgive, you become bitter and angry and unappealing - I've seen it in a few people and ... eewwwww ... I don't care to be around them at all. The person you hate probably doesn't even KNOW that you hate them, or if they do know, they likely don't care. Or they've moved past it. Whichever it is, they are no longer affected, so the only person you're hurting is yourself. Most importantly, the Spirit of the Lord cannot take up full residency in your heart if you are reserving part of your heart to be angry with someone. You're cheating yourself out of the full companionship of the Spirit by harboring any bad feelings at all.

End of soapbox lecture ... like I said, I have no scriptures right now to back up any of that - just personal experience. Good luck with your lesson, Jared!

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Well if this works so well for Trina ...

I'm teaching a lesson for the Elder's Quorum this Sunday on forgiving others. I'd love to hear some thoughts, experiences, or favorite scriptures.

Next month I'll have more notice and I'll ask for something more specific. Sorry.

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRYAN!!!

Emily's Scripture

Hello, family. The last time I read the Book of Mormon, I had a thought, something that hadn't occurred to me the first ten times I read it. (Some of you may have heard this before.)

Alma 2:29-31

"And it came to pass that Alma fought with Amlici with the sword face to face; and they did contend mightily, one with another.

"And it came to pass that Alma, being a man of God, being exercised with much faith, cried, saying: O Lord, have mercy and spare my life, that I may be an instrument in thy hands to save and preserve this people.

"Now when Alma had said these words he contended again with Amlici; and he was strengthened, insomuch that he slew Amlici with the sword."

What can we learn from these verses? We can see Alma had faith, and he wanted to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in saving the people, and that he was strengthened.

I also think it shows that we can pray anywhere, at any time. Alma was in the middle of a duel and he was praying, and this prayer was answered. I do not think he knelt down; he might not have even stopped fighting. It was an interesting thought and I thought I would share it.

Love,
Emily

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

nope, not too late

Sorry that I wasn't more clear - the lesson on prayer is this coming Sunday, the 14th. I usually teach every other week, because there are two of us called to teach the class. I will be teaching every week in August (except this last Sunday when we were in Florida, of course) because my co-teacher is on vacation. Anyway, thank you for the verses - they're going to be very helpful. I will be sure to recruit your assistance more frequently. In my setting apart, I was told that my study of the basics in preparation for teaching will strengthen my own testimony of the concepts. These posts are a good start for that, because your thoughts are reaffirming things for me and making me think a little bit harder. So thank you.

The verses that I'm also considering using are Alma 32:27 in connection with the story in Alma ... oh, 20-something, where Ammon and his brother Aaron are teaching King Lamoni's father. Alma 32 says that if you just WANT to know, that's good enough to start. And King Lamoni's father is a fabulous example of how to find out what's true - "If there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give up all my sins to know thee." Or something like that. But the point is made, particularly in an investigator class, where we have one individual (at least, that I know of) who is struggling with the concept of praying to someone/thing he does not quite believe exists.

Some Pictures from Grandpa's homestead

This one is obviously not from the homestead but was taken when they were living there. My dad wasn't in school yet he would have only been 4 years old. Uncle Bruce was 12, Aunt Inez 10 and Aunt Blanche 9.





The trees and the property in front of it were part of Grandpa's homestead. I'm not sure how many acres he had or how long they lived there. I know they moved back to Wisconsin before 1920 because I found them there in the census.



This cabin was on Uncle Elry's homestead, which was next door to Grandpa's. Uncle Elry lived there for a much longer time. I'm not certain when he moved back to the states but I know that Daddy stayed with him for a while on this ranch. This is where my cousin Bill grew up. He's the one who gave me the directions to begin with.

I'll get more pictures scanned soon and post them on here,too. I need to do this more often so I can remember how to do it.

Love ya,
MOM

You make me proud

Can you even imagine what it's like to be a parent and read the last few posts on this blog? To have such children as I've been blessed with who truly love to carry on gospel discussions? What examples you are!

One of my favorite scriptures on prayer is from 3rd Nephi 17: 15-24. I'm sure you all know the story. I especially like verse 17 "And no tongue can speak, neither can be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father."

No, I've never had an experience like this, but I love the way it illustrates Christ's love for each one of us. I know how I feel when I see my children making righteous choices in their lives, so how must he feel when he sees those same things. I'm sure it makes him feel that His effort was worth it, too.

Love always,
MOM

A scripture from Jared

Alma 34 has that passage about all the different situations and places you can pray in, and pray in your hearts, and all that. My favorite scripture on prayer is the one right after that section, the one that gets left off too often. Verse 28 reads:

And now behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you, do not suppose that this is all; for after ye have done all these things, if ye turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those who stand in need -- I say unto you if ye do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the faith.

It's not enough just to talk the walk, you have to walk the talk.

Saturday, August 07, 2004

My Prayer Scripture

One of my favorite scriptures on Prayer is actually in the Bible Dictionary, the second to last paragraph. It says,

"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7: 7-11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."

Often when I pray, it's because I want something and so I ask for it, expecting to get it. But that's not the point of prayer. Prayer is to secure for ourselves blessings that God is already willing to give us... and he's going to give them in his time, not our time. How I apply this is remembering to say, I want this... but thy will be done.

-Tawnia

P.S. Treen- sorry if this was too late to get used in your lesson.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Eric's Scripture

One scripture that I think applies is one that I read this morning, 1 Nephi 11:1.

For it came to pass after I had desired to know the things that my father had seen, and believing that the Lord was able to make them known unto me, as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot. (1 Nephi 11:1)

As you can see from my added emphasis, the thing that struck me about this scripture was that Nephi had a desire for knowledge and believed the Lord could teach him, and then sat pondering these things in his heart. This verse may not mention prayer specifically, but these are elements that are essential in prayer: desire, faith, and a pondering heart. Perfunctory prayers don't do much. I'm trying to follow this as I read the scriptures-- really pondering the things I read. Prayer before and after reading my scriptures and writing down my thoughts has helped in this.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

another conversation starter

Eric, did I say it doesn't rain all the time? It does. All this humidity AND rain, so it's sounding similar to Hong Kong. Nice to know that I have a sympathetic ear. Thanks.

We're hitting a lull here, so I thought I'd recruit you to help with my next Sunday School lesson. I think I've mentioned before that I teach Gospel Essentials at church. My next lesson is on prayer. Please give me your favorite scripture on prayer, how you understand it, and what exactly you're doing in your life to apply that scripture. (If you're not doing anything to apply it, get with it, ya slacker!) As we know, there must be action to accompany the knowledge, because "faith without works is dead."

Monday, August 02, 2004

Happy Monday to All

Happy Monday to you!

Sorry you're not feeling well Jed! I hope you feel better soon.

Tawnia, sounds like EFY was everything you hoped. I'm so glad. Laurel enjoyed talking with you during your stay. I hope the move to Utah goes well.

Sorry the humidity is getting to you Trina! I got two glorious summers of such weather, except it rained at the same time. Yeah. Ninety degrees, pouring down rain. I guess Florida is like that too.

Our weekend was fun. Baseball, Temple, Church, Rachel and the kids and the dog. On that last one, Laurel's sister stayed at our house last night since Loren is out of town. Everyone was pretty well-behaved. The kids are all really cute right now. Lance, the youngest, is almost three. He's talking all of a sudden and it's really cute.

And now, the working week... I only have a few more weeks of school this semester. I'm trying to get it all done.

Take care all!
Love,
Eric

we're drrroooooowwniiiiing

And we're not anywhere near a body of water ... it's THAT humid outside. It seriously feels like you're breathing in too much water. I walk up a hill every day to get to the Metro - I was doing really well in the spring, truckin' right on up. Since the humidity hit, I've gotten slower and slower because I can't breathe. I hate it. On the bright side, it means that I've started showering at night to get rid of the sticky feeling, and I've been sleeping much better.

And the best news of the week - WE HAVE A BED! We spent the first 6 weeks of our marriage sleeping on the futon/couch in the living room. The bedroom was a disaster - cardboard boxes from gifts piled up in the corner, laundry all over the twin-size bed, and boxes of papers and books that still haven't been unpacked (but opened with their contents spewed everywhere). And the living room was always a mess too. We got a bed this weekend. The living room is now really a living room. I spent most of the afternoon yesterday cleaning the bedroom and rearranging things. We got rid of most of the cardboard (saved a couple of boxes to use later) and put away all the laundry. Next is finishing the unpacking and getting framed stuff up on the walls, but at least the mess is under control now. I know, it was hard work on a Sunday, but, well, there are a couple of scriptures that say something about "a house of order" and we're almost there! Yay!

We leave Thursday night for our Florida reception on Saturday. I have a couple more vacation days now (I build up so many hours per month), so we're taking Friday and Monday off work.

Tawnia, good to have you back on the airwaves. When do you leave for Provo?
Jared, hope you and the babies are feeling better now.
Mom, Adam hasn't ever really traveled but that's changing. We'll make sure you have a list of less-known-but-really-awesome things when you come out here to DC.

Love, Trina and Adam

Sunday, August 01, 2004

I have returned

Hello Fambly,

Well, I arrived home around 11:45 p.m. after driving for, I'm not sure how long on only three hours of sleep. My advice to anyone else considering doing that... is DON'T. Believe me, it wasn't very fun.

But do you know what WAS fun?? Being an EFY counselor. It was the most rewarding, fun, hard, tiring, life-consuming job I've ever had. You easily forget that there is anything else in life besides EFY because you are busy ALL the time! And when you aren't doing something you're trying to catch up on sleep. I made several friends, and had an awesome three weeks. My girls were great each week and I learned a lot from them. My co-counselors (Edgar (Poe), Jess (Shaniqwa), Katherine (K-Lowe), Jeremy (Papa-J), Josh ( J-dub), and Jeremy (J-dawg or Chewie) were all amazing people who taught me so much. And I also got a new nickname -- Ta-wana or Tiajuana (and K-lowe always adds "the dirty Mexican" to the end of that one.) I also made friends with many other counselors and I'm really looking forward to moving down to Utah now so that I can hang out with them.

I think the best part of the job was having the spirit with me all the time and being able to watch it work in my life and in the lives of the kids. I learned so many great principles and now I just need to keep on doing the things that I was doing there... because EFY is not true, the church is.

I'm sure I'll tell you more details later. I need to go and unload my car now because all I brought in last night was my purse and my keys.

Love,
Tawnia