It's almost November! You know what that means ... the official Jared Palmer Unlimited calendar for November is available now! Download your copy today (if you haven't already)!
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Saturday, October 30, 2004
All Fixed!
Hey Nathan, I fixed your website! I just put your pictures in an images folder, and put img src="images/amanda.JPG" .. cuz maybe it was that your .jpg was all caps? I don't know, but it works now! In other news, we have very little snow any more .. the past week has been sunny and bright and beautiful, and all the snow has been melting. We're hoping that it won't snow again until later in November, if not December, but the weather up here is crazy.
check me out
I have added a couple of poems to my page, and I have tried adding pictures, but I can not get it to work. I called Jared but he was gone at work, and I keep getting Eric's voicemail (because I tried calling him too). They are pictures of Amanda and I at a ward halloween party dressed not in our Sunday best. We had a lot of fun handing candy out to little brats and little cuties. It was great seeing all the different costumes the kids had on.
"I like it. That's a nice entry."
-Amanda
Nathan
"I like it. That's a nice entry."
-Amanda
Nathan
Fun after 50
Thanks, Jared, for the poem. I'd never read it before so I hadn't gotten all the details of it. I thought it was based on another thing I'd read about the stages of womanhood. I guarantee that I won't do all the things listed in the poem. But I plan on having fun. I have my list of 100 things I want to do in my lifetime. A lot of them are places I want to travel to. I have books I want to read and things I want to do. Daddy and I have a list of places we want to see when we go to Europe, maybe we'll rent a tandem bike and see some of the countryside that way. Can you picture me on a bike with my red hat flying? I want to hike on the Appalachian Trail and play in the gulf of Mexico. I want to ride on a sailboat and a helicopter. Life after 50 can be fun and exciting. We've got lots of good years in us yet. Sometimes I feel a little old but mostly I just feel like me.
Love,
MOM
Love,
MOM
Red Hats
I noticed in Mom's email that she asked for a red hat because people told her she was old enough to wear one. I wonder if she's aware of the significance of that. Check out the official website at www.redhatsociety.com and you'll see what it means. Here is the poem on which the society is based.
Warning
When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens
And learn to spit.You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Jenny Joseph 1932 -
Warning
When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other peoples' gardens
And learn to spit.You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Jenny Joseph 1932 -
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Mom's Bike Stories
First I want to let Mindy and Clarissa know that I enjoyed the updates to their pages. Thanks for pointing them out. I also stumbled upon a comment Tawnia added to my bike question. I just thought I'd point that out to everyone.
When I was little I didn't have a bike. Joy had a bike but it was HUGE. By the time I was big enough to ride it, I think it was too worn out to ride. I was also a bit scared of bikes. I remember one time Sylvia got her foot caught in the spokes of our neighbors bike when they took her for a ride. She was probably just over a year because she had to learn to walk all over again. I don't remember if it was that time or another time that someone had a similar accident, but I was on a scooter and the bike was dropped on me. I landed in the gravel on the road and my ankle had lots of gravel embedded in it.
After Dad and I were married, some friends tried to get me to ride their bike. I decided to give it a try and nearly rode into the swimming pool. Instead I crashed into a wall because I couldn't figure out how to use hand brakes. Neither the bike or I were hurt.
My best biking memory was from the summer we spent a week at the beach. We borrowed Gary's tandem bike and tied it to the top of our car to get it down to the beach. It was great fun biking around the roads and bike trails with Frank. He had sprained his ankle just before we went so he was taking it easy and not putting too much weight on it. I commented on how much exercise I was getting and he challenged me to take the whole weight. I didn't notice much difference when he stopped pedaling but when I stopped and let him do it all he agreed that I was carrying my weight and then some. We had a great time with the bike and I've always wanted to get one. Maybe I should put that on my Christmas list.
When I was little I didn't have a bike. Joy had a bike but it was HUGE. By the time I was big enough to ride it, I think it was too worn out to ride. I was also a bit scared of bikes. I remember one time Sylvia got her foot caught in the spokes of our neighbors bike when they took her for a ride. She was probably just over a year because she had to learn to walk all over again. I don't remember if it was that time or another time that someone had a similar accident, but I was on a scooter and the bike was dropped on me. I landed in the gravel on the road and my ankle had lots of gravel embedded in it.
After Dad and I were married, some friends tried to get me to ride their bike. I decided to give it a try and nearly rode into the swimming pool. Instead I crashed into a wall because I couldn't figure out how to use hand brakes. Neither the bike or I were hurt.
My best biking memory was from the summer we spent a week at the beach. We borrowed Gary's tandem bike and tied it to the top of our car to get it down to the beach. It was great fun biking around the roads and bike trails with Frank. He had sprained his ankle just before we went so he was taking it easy and not putting too much weight on it. I commented on how much exercise I was getting and he challenged me to take the whole weight. I didn't notice much difference when he stopped pedaling but when I stopped and let him do it all he agreed that I was carrying my weight and then some. We had a great time with the bike and I've always wanted to get one. Maybe I should put that on my Christmas list.
Updated
Everyone check out my website ... I spent all morning working on it. Looks snazzy, huh? I got the idea from Eric .. and just looked at all his code to get the hang of it. I'm so proud of myself!
Lunar Eclipse
I first saw it on our way to Institute. The moon was about half under shadow when we left, and it looked incredible. When we came out, it was a total eclipse, and we couldn't see only a pale gray spot against the dark blue sky. By the time we got back again, the moon was starting to come out of the shadow, so we could see a very bright sliver against the rest of the moon which started to take on an orange tint. We were lucky that it was clear last night. By the time I fell asleep, the moon was back and it was so bright. It's great that this was on a near-full moon.
me again
Mindy,
We saw the lunar eclipse last night, too. It was awesome. The sky was perfectly clear last night, but it's foggy this morning.
To everyone,
My page has been updated again. I think I'll update it every Thursday from now on.
Clarissa
We saw the lunar eclipse last night, too. It was awesome. The sky was perfectly clear last night, but it's foggy this morning.
To everyone,
My page has been updated again. I think I'll update it every Thursday from now on.
Clarissa
Anyone Else?
Last night there was a lunar eclipse, they say the last one for a couple of years. And I saw it! It just looked grey and clouded over, but it was cool none the less. That's the second one that I've seen up here .. the first was about this time a year ago, soon after I saw the Northern Lights! It's nice that the sky has been clear, and the sun has been out, and the snow has been melting. The temperature is supposed to drop again this weekend though, so we'll see what happens.
Also, Tawnia, I put a comment under your question about shoe-sizes.
As for a bicycle, yes, I had one. First I rode the little green one with the training-wheels and I remember wanting to learn real bad, since I was slower than the Symolons when we all rode up to People's Market. I did get my own bike for my birthday one year .. I want to say it was my seventh? but I'm not sure. It was purple and white, with a banana-seat, and noise-makers on the wheels. Mom and Dad wheeled it out of the laundry room. I think by that time I knew how to ride, but if not I learned soon after. We liked to take our bikes to school, because riding down the huge hill of Lafayette (coming down Market St from 7th, all the way to 99W), was always fun, and we could be home so much faster than walking. We were always late though, and we hated to ride up the hill, so we'd get Dad to load the bikes in the car when we made it to the post office and drive us up to school, and then we'd ride home.
Also, Tawnia, I put a comment under your question about shoe-sizes.
As for a bicycle, yes, I had one. First I rode the little green one with the training-wheels and I remember wanting to learn real bad, since I was slower than the Symolons when we all rode up to People's Market. I did get my own bike for my birthday one year .. I want to say it was my seventh? but I'm not sure. It was purple and white, with a banana-seat, and noise-makers on the wheels. Mom and Dad wheeled it out of the laundry room. I think by that time I knew how to ride, but if not I learned soon after. We liked to take our bikes to school, because riding down the huge hill of Lafayette (coming down Market St from 7th, all the way to 99W), was always fun, and we could be home so much faster than walking. We were always late though, and we hated to ride up the hill, so we'd get Dad to load the bikes in the car when we made it to the post office and drive us up to school, and then we'd ride home.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
all the birthday greetings
Thank you so much for the birthday messages online from Tawnia, Mindy and Clarissa. Thank you for the phone calls from Nathan and Amanda, and Dad and all the guys he works with. Thank you also for the phone messages from Mom, Eric and Jared. (And the missionaries sang on our answering machine too - they sound a lot like Nathan, and we didn't realize it wasn't Nathan until Elder Dobson started talking about Adam's bike, which he's going to fix for us.) I guess I hadn't told anyone that we attend an institute class on Tuesday evenings - that's where we were, and why we didn't answer my cell as well as the home phone. I'll call everyone sometime between now and the weekend.
My birthday presents from Adam, which I got last week, are a keyboard (about the size of Mom and Dad's) to be our interim piano until we can get a real one; a leather notebook for dressy stuff at work, and a fruitcake because "fruitcake is forever." I laughed very hard when I opened that. And I got a really nice stationery set from Nadia, my friend at work.
I had a pretty regular day. I started it off in a momentous way, by going to the police station to get yet another temporary parking permit for my car until I get it registered with DC plates. (That's a whole long story because the DC DMV is stupid.) I worked all day, and went out to lunch with our friend Allison from church. It was very nice. And then I came home and we had dinner and went to institute. And now we're home, and I wanted to post real quick, and then I'm cleaning the kitchen and going to bed, and Adam still has to study for his Spanish mid-term tomorrow morning. But with all that regular-ness, it was still a nice day because I'm with my sweetest boy who is so nice to me.
My birthday presents from Adam, which I got last week, are a keyboard (about the size of Mom and Dad's) to be our interim piano until we can get a real one; a leather notebook for dressy stuff at work, and a fruitcake because "fruitcake is forever." I laughed very hard when I opened that. And I got a really nice stationery set from Nadia, my friend at work.
I had a pretty regular day. I started it off in a momentous way, by going to the police station to get yet another temporary parking permit for my car until I get it registered with DC plates. (That's a whole long story because the DC DMV is stupid.) I worked all day, and went out to lunch with our friend Allison from church. It was very nice. And then I came home and we had dinner and went to institute. And now we're home, and I wanted to post real quick, and then I'm cleaning the kitchen and going to bed, and Adam still has to study for his Spanish mid-term tomorrow morning. But with all that regular-ness, it was still a nice day because I'm with my sweetest boy who is so nice to me.
Shoes
Speaking of Christmas, I would like everyone's shoe size please.... don't worry. It will all make sense in the end.
And Happy Birthday Trina.
And Happy Birthday Trina.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday Trina! I hope you have a good day, and that you have fun celebrating. The weather here is sunny, and I'd like to think that it's just for you!
Monday, October 25, 2004
Freedom of the open road...
I got my first bicycle when I was in second grade. I learned to ride on the dirt driveway and kept riding it into a stump. Once I'd learned how to ride I decided to go for a ride. I was going to ride around several long blocks and go in a square back home. The first turn took me to some railroad tracks and that threw off my square. I got lost and went to a gas station but I didn't know my address. The guy at the gas station gave me a ride home. I knew what street I lived on.
When I was in third grade I rode my bike from Bellflower to Norwalk to sell soap for the YMCA Camp. I rode to the neighborhood where I would soon be moving about six miles from my home. I sold all the soap in two blocks and rode the 6 miles back home, again. Quite a feat for an 8-year-old.
When I was 10, I rode from Norwalk back to Bellflower to visit my friend, I'd done this a few times. One time I caught the Chicken Pox and brought them home to my dad. This time my Mom said I shouldn't go and I didn't listen. On my way there I was crossing a street at a signal and was hit by a car that's brakes had gone out. I was knocked out and woke up at the hospital. I was in the hospital for about a week and bled from my ear.
A year or so later I bought my brother's Columbia Heavy Duty bike. I rode this all over the countryside. One day Severt and I were going to ride to the mountains. We made it as far as the Rose Hills Cemetery 10 miles or so from home. The hills were getting steep so we rode back home. Another time I rode with a friend around the mountain to La Puente, about 25 miles. Then we found an interesting road called Turnbull Canyon. We decided to take it over the mountain. We came out at the spot where Severt and I had given up. It was 25 miles one way to Grauman's Chinese Theater. I rode this several times, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. I even rode it to Grauman's Chinese when Hayley Mills put her footprints there. One time, I was going to ride to San Diego with a couple of friends. We made it as far as San Clemente, about 75 miles from home. We slept in the garage at the Ranger Station, because we didn't have any camping gear. The next day we rode back home.
A year after high school I got a motorcycle and stopped riding bicycles. When I was 42 the McMinnville Stake had a coast to McMinnville 50 mile bike ride. I hadn't ridden much for over 20 years. My biggest mistake was that I rode it in jeans. I was the last rider in and I was sore for a few days afterward.
Keep on biking....
Dad
When I was in third grade I rode my bike from Bellflower to Norwalk to sell soap for the YMCA Camp. I rode to the neighborhood where I would soon be moving about six miles from my home. I sold all the soap in two blocks and rode the 6 miles back home, again. Quite a feat for an 8-year-old.
When I was 10, I rode from Norwalk back to Bellflower to visit my friend, I'd done this a few times. One time I caught the Chicken Pox and brought them home to my dad. This time my Mom said I shouldn't go and I didn't listen. On my way there I was crossing a street at a signal and was hit by a car that's brakes had gone out. I was knocked out and woke up at the hospital. I was in the hospital for about a week and bled from my ear.
A year or so later I bought my brother's Columbia Heavy Duty bike. I rode this all over the countryside. One day Severt and I were going to ride to the mountains. We made it as far as the Rose Hills Cemetery 10 miles or so from home. The hills were getting steep so we rode back home. Another time I rode with a friend around the mountain to La Puente, about 25 miles. Then we found an interesting road called Turnbull Canyon. We decided to take it over the mountain. We came out at the spot where Severt and I had given up. It was 25 miles one way to Grauman's Chinese Theater. I rode this several times, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends. I even rode it to Grauman's Chinese when Hayley Mills put her footprints there. One time, I was going to ride to San Diego with a couple of friends. We made it as far as San Clemente, about 75 miles from home. We slept in the garage at the Ranger Station, because we didn't have any camping gear. The next day we rode back home.
A year after high school I got a motorcycle and stopped riding bicycles. When I was 42 the McMinnville Stake had a coast to McMinnville 50 mile bike ride. I hadn't ridden much for over 20 years. My biggest mistake was that I rode it in jeans. I was the last rider in and I was sore for a few days afterward.
Keep on biking....
Dad
Time for a new question?
It looks like everyone is learning how to post things on the webpages and the discussion on that has dropped off. I now have most of the Christmas lists, except for Eric's and Laurel's, (Eric mentioned a few movies on the phone) and Emily's (she could only think of one or two things) and Nathan and Amanda's (they've mentioned a few things). I still need to write up mine and Dad's so I think we'll do that tonight. If any of you want copies of these lists, let me know, and if you need to know what others are getting, let me know that, too.
I just pulled another question from the jar: Did you have a bicycle? What was it like? Remember, we want to hear from the in-laws, too. I think I'll get Dad to tell about his bikes. He may even have some stories that you haven't heard.
I need to get back to writing my vacation stories. Some day I may finish that question.
Love ya,
MOM
I just pulled another question from the jar: Did you have a bicycle? What was it like? Remember, we want to hear from the in-laws, too. I think I'll get Dad to tell about his bikes. He may even have some stories that you haven't heard.
I need to get back to writing my vacation stories. Some day I may finish that question.
Love ya,
MOM
Money money money
Today we went to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving to see how money is made. Interesting stuff. Brooke and Bryan's favorite part was riding the bus from the security gate to the building. The whole side of the bus looked like a huge $50 bill. Bryan also liked getting the purple sticker which designated each of us as part of the tour group. There are only two places in the country where paper money is printed, and one is 10 miles from our home. The other is in DC, probably about ten miles from Trina's. Have you been there yet Treen?
Nanowrimo
Okay, so what the heck is nanowrimo? Most of you might never have heard of it (except Trina, since she was the one who told me about it.) It stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is November. The goal is to write a complete novel (50,000 words) in a single month. Don't edit, they say, don't revise, just go for it. Sounds like fun. So I'm going to do it.
I am calling my story (working title): The Thunderbird Medallion. (Better than "Memories of Rocks") It's a fantasy story, a series to this trilogy, taking place twenty years later. (By the way I need a name for my hero. Should I call him Jared, or Caleb, or Jeremy? I want to have these names picked out in advance so that I can just go and don't have to freeze whenever I want to bring in a new character.) The hero can read the memories of any earth element -- hairpins, swords, rocks, necklaces, rings, and his medallion. He will be going up against jewel thieves, also powerful sorcerers who have been doing this for a long time, and will have to unlock the secrets of their past if he means to stop them.
I may create a new blog to post my story. Like I said, I'm only going to edit a bit of spelling, so hopefully I won't leave a gaping hole in the plot. That's why I have to make an outline and then stick with it. I know how I want it to begin and end; it's just traveling between the two points.
Wish me luck,
Emily
I am calling my story (working title): The Thunderbird Medallion. (Better than "Memories of Rocks") It's a fantasy story, a series to this trilogy, taking place twenty years later. (By the way I need a name for my hero. Should I call him Jared, or Caleb, or Jeremy? I want to have these names picked out in advance so that I can just go and don't have to freeze whenever I want to bring in a new character.) The hero can read the memories of any earth element -- hairpins, swords, rocks, necklaces, rings, and his medallion. He will be going up against jewel thieves, also powerful sorcerers who have been doing this for a long time, and will have to unlock the secrets of their past if he means to stop them.
I may create a new blog to post my story. Like I said, I'm only going to edit a bit of spelling, so hopefully I won't leave a gaping hole in the plot. That's why I have to make an outline and then stick with it. I know how I want it to begin and end; it's just traveling between the two points.
Wish me luck,
Emily
one-year mark
Today is the one-year mark that I have been in Washington DC. And holy moses! What a year it's been! I drove cross country by myself to start this year, moved 3 times in the first 6 months, started a new job that was a career shift and it's my first post-college job that I've had for more than a year (I break the 12-month barrier on Friday), went on seven trips which included five new states, and of course ... ADAM. It sometimes seems strange that it's been only a year because it feels like I've been here for forever. Other times, it seems like I just got here a month or two ago. I'm becoming more and more settled, like I could stay here long-term. I know that would keep Mom and Dad's grandkids far away from them, but it gives them an excuse to come travel on the East Coast, and they don't have to do everything all at once. (For example, they go south on one trip out here, and north on another. Etc.)
And along those lines, we're starting to consider the strong possibility of Adam staying at Georgetown for law school. It's a top tier school, which is what he wants. He's starting conversations with people about working at/with the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute during law school, which seems like it could involve his sociology studies as well. AND we're discussing the possibility of a combined JD/PhD program instead of just a JD (which is what you get at the end of law school). It would be 4 or 5 years instead of 3, but better than 3 years for law and 7 more for a regular PhD program. It's all in the discussion of options phase - nothing definite yet - but this seems to be at the top of the list right now.
And along those lines, we're starting to consider the strong possibility of Adam staying at Georgetown for law school. It's a top tier school, which is what he wants. He's starting conversations with people about working at/with the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute during law school, which seems like it could involve his sociology studies as well. AND we're discussing the possibility of a combined JD/PhD program instead of just a JD (which is what you get at the end of law school). It would be 4 or 5 years instead of 3, but better than 3 years for law and 7 more for a regular PhD program. It's all in the discussion of options phase - nothing definite yet - but this seems to be at the top of the list right now.
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Hi Everybody!
It seems like conversations here have been dragging a bit lately, so I figured I'd better speak up (or write up. Whatever). I just finished another semester at school. I have one eight-week term to go, just two more classes. I'll have one humanities class online, and one networking class on Saturday mornings. I'll be all done with classes on December 18, but my graduation isn't until Sunday, February 27 at 3 p.m. at Will Rogers Coleseum in Fort Worth. You are all invited to come and join us on that frabjous day. Michelle thinks I should say momentous instead of frabjous. I guess she never read Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky." Her loss.
This weekend we are having scattered thunderstorms.
This weekend we are having scattered thunderstorms.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Colors! Beautiful Colors!
Hi everybody!
I just updated my personal page with a websafe color reference chart. This chart was a pain to create but it's very helpful. These colors are pretty much guaranteed to look right on almost anyone's system. The RGB codes are listed right below each color for easy reference. You can just copy and paste the code into your body bgcolor tag or your body text tag or your font color tag or whatever. If you don't know what I'm talking about with all this "tag" nonsense, then get crackin' on that HTML. I hear Nathan is a great teacher (if you live in Oregon), he got Clarissa set up, and Jared has proven himself a fine distance educator.
In other news, I got laid off from American Home Loans yesterday. The company is not doing well financially, and they had to drastically cut payroll. There were seven of us laid off at the same time in my department, and my department only had about 20 people in it. Don't cry, I pretty much hated my job anyway, and this was about as painless a layoff as you can imagine (I had just been fantasizing about quitting mere days before). I was able to enjoy some beautiful Fall weather yesterday with Laurel, which I couldn't have done otherwise. The trick now is to find another job... but that shouldn't be too hard. Or at least that's what I think... maybe you'd better keep us in your prayers... just to be on the safe side.
I just updated my personal page with a websafe color reference chart. This chart was a pain to create but it's very helpful. These colors are pretty much guaranteed to look right on almost anyone's system. The RGB codes are listed right below each color for easy reference. You can just copy and paste the code into your body bgcolor tag or your body text tag or your font color tag or whatever. If you don't know what I'm talking about with all this "tag" nonsense, then get crackin' on that HTML. I hear Nathan is a great teacher (if you live in Oregon), he got Clarissa set up, and Jared has proven himself a fine distance educator.
In other news, I got laid off from American Home Loans yesterday. The company is not doing well financially, and they had to drastically cut payroll. There were seven of us laid off at the same time in my department, and my department only had about 20 people in it. Don't cry, I pretty much hated my job anyway, and this was about as painless a layoff as you can imagine (I had just been fantasizing about quitting mere days before). I was able to enjoy some beautiful Fall weather yesterday with Laurel, which I couldn't have done otherwise. The trick now is to find another job... but that shouldn't be too hard. Or at least that's what I think... maybe you'd better keep us in your prayers... just to be on the safe side.
Friday, October 22, 2004
Christmas is coming
First I want to be the first to congratulate Mindy on getting those papers in. The sooner that's taken care of the sooner we can expect an occasional visit and she can go to the doctor and get a job, etc.
Now on to the topic at hand. Many of us have already started making our Christmas plans. My advice on how to make Christmas special is to establish your own personal and family traditions. Try things you think you might like to do each year and if they don't work out and catch on, that's OK. Be sure to keep Christ at the center of your celebration and think of how He would want us to celebrate. Don't get so caught up in buying things that you go into debt, that really detracts from the Christmas spirit. Try to find things you can do for others, it doesn't take a lot of money to bake cookies and give them away or to provide a small gift for someone who, otherwise, may have nothing. Music always helps bring the Christmas spirit. Decorations and gifts can be simple and homemade. I remember helping you kids string popcorn or make paper chains and I can't remember how many times I helped one of you make play dough to give to your brothers and sisters. I love Christmas because I can enjoy it with all my senses - the sights of trees and lights; the sounds of music and laughter; the smell of evergreens and goodies; the taste of cookies and fudge and pies; the feel of the chill air and the warm fire; all make Christmas special. I remember a few years ago I stopped downtown after work to find a gift at a bookstore. Most of you know that 3rd Street is a bit old-fashioned. I had to walk a block or so from where I parked and, of course it was dark so I was enjoying the Christmas lights, just as I got to the store it started snowing. It really brought back memories from my childhood; suddenly I had the Christmas spirit and I was so thankful for everything and everyone. It can be an elusive feeling something we each have to seek for. I hope I haven't rambled too much, and I hope you can all find that special feeling in your own lives as you prepare for this very special Christmas holiday.
Love always,
MOM
Now on to the topic at hand. Many of us have already started making our Christmas plans. My advice on how to make Christmas special is to establish your own personal and family traditions. Try things you think you might like to do each year and if they don't work out and catch on, that's OK. Be sure to keep Christ at the center of your celebration and think of how He would want us to celebrate. Don't get so caught up in buying things that you go into debt, that really detracts from the Christmas spirit. Try to find things you can do for others, it doesn't take a lot of money to bake cookies and give them away or to provide a small gift for someone who, otherwise, may have nothing. Music always helps bring the Christmas spirit. Decorations and gifts can be simple and homemade. I remember helping you kids string popcorn or make paper chains and I can't remember how many times I helped one of you make play dough to give to your brothers and sisters. I love Christmas because I can enjoy it with all my senses - the sights of trees and lights; the sounds of music and laughter; the smell of evergreens and goodies; the taste of cookies and fudge and pies; the feel of the chill air and the warm fire; all make Christmas special. I remember a few years ago I stopped downtown after work to find a gift at a bookstore. Most of you know that 3rd Street is a bit old-fashioned. I had to walk a block or so from where I parked and, of course it was dark so I was enjoying the Christmas lights, just as I got to the store it started snowing. It really brought back memories from my childhood; suddenly I had the Christmas spirit and I was so thankful for everything and everyone. It can be an elusive feeling something we each have to seek for. I hope I haven't rambled too much, and I hope you can all find that special feeling in your own lives as you prepare for this very special Christmas holiday.
Love always,
MOM
I've done it!
It only took us a year to do it, but my immigration paperwork has been mailed in! Now we have to wait, and save up another $1000, but the first part is in, and we don't have to worry about that anymore. Hooray! Yippee! Wahoo! Yeehaw!
PS Dad, you can take the money ($60) out of the account for my student loan.
PS Dad, you can take the money ($60) out of the account for my student loan.
Chapter Five
Yes, I have done it. All by myself, I updated my web page. Hooray! Now you can all read chapter five. This is going to be such an awesome story! Maybe if I post a new chapter every day, I can have the entire trilogy up by about January. I usually wait until Mom has read it over but since she doesn't seem to be doing that, I'll just post it already.
Emily
Emily
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Hey Clarissa
I just wanted to make sure you saw that some of us posted comments to your request for colors. I like what your doing with your webpage also. I made some updates to mine the other day, if anyone hasn't seen them already.
colors
Well, as you should know, Clarissa, my favorite color is purple. All shades of it - lavendar, dark royal purple, true purple, and the bridesmaid dresses got me hooked on periwinkle blue-purple. That color combination of lavendar and periwinkle was just awesome - not your typical wedding reception color combination, and it looked fabulous with the purple roses.
Adam's favorite colors (plural) all come in combinations - midnight blue and silver, hunter green and ivory, and he also likes dark crimson red (but I don't know what to go with that one).
In other color news, the sky is gray with no rain, just this really weird mist. Not enough to put up an umbrella, but enough to get your clothes and hair damp and make you COLD even though the temperature really isn't that bad. And the trees are starting to turn to the fall colors. There's a big maple-type tree out my window that's the color of fire now on the top, and still green on the lower branches.
Adam's favorite colors (plural) all come in combinations - midnight blue and silver, hunter green and ivory, and he also likes dark crimson red (but I don't know what to go with that one).
In other color news, the sky is gray with no rain, just this really weird mist. Not enough to put up an umbrella, but enough to get your clothes and hair damp and make you COLD even though the temperature really isn't that bad. And the trees are starting to turn to the fall colors. There's a big maple-type tree out my window that's the color of fire now on the top, and still green on the lower branches.
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Christmas Presents
I need to know everyone's favorite color as soon as possible. It's for Christmas presents and that's all I'll say.
I'll e-mail everyone my Christmas list as soon as it's done.
Clarissa
I'll e-mail everyone my Christmas list as soon as it's done.
Clarissa
Rainy Days in Sunny California
Hi All!
Last night Laurel and I made some changes to our page. Be sure to check it out. We hope you like it.
It's raining hard here. It started Sunday morning and today is the worst yet. It's nice to hear the rain on the roof, and all this rain reminds me of home (I hear you Tawnia). I'm sure it won't last though. It is good to have the moisture. Our neighbor Fred was in the hospital and when he came back to the rain he was happy about it. I said "Someone had to water your flowers" and he said "Yes, God stepped in and took care of it. He has a way of doing that." His home healthcare nurse also stepped in to take care of it before the rain started.
Today I'm teaching an Excel class. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm always nervous on teaching days for some strange reason. Work is okay. School is pretty good. Home life is fantastic. Church is great. Overall I'd say these are wonderful times. I'm working on my Jungle Chicken website quite a bit (don't check yet Trina, the changes won't be posted for a few months). It's nice to set a goal and then work to accomplish it.
Happy Anniversary Mindy and Jason! I thought it was later in the month, but obviously I was wrong. October 19th is it? 18th?
And I just realized I haven't addressed Mom's questions in a while. What was one of the recent ones? Older, younger, middle child? Well, as you know I am the second of eight and the first boy. That makes me an older child I guess. I have enjoyed it, though I used to wish I had a big brother. Like in that book 1984. Someone to watch over me. But I probably had a little too much fun being the boss, being the big brother for good or ill. Sorry if I beat any of you up too much. I can be such a jerk, and I've been trying to do better in that area ever since. So I enjoy being one of the oldest, but I am sad if it has turned me into an irredeemable know-it-all, bossy, jerk.
Anyway, I love all of you and we talk about you and pray for you all the time.
Your pal,
Eric
Last night Laurel and I made some changes to our page. Be sure to check it out. We hope you like it.
It's raining hard here. It started Sunday morning and today is the worst yet. It's nice to hear the rain on the roof, and all this rain reminds me of home (I hear you Tawnia). I'm sure it won't last though. It is good to have the moisture. Our neighbor Fred was in the hospital and when he came back to the rain he was happy about it. I said "Someone had to water your flowers" and he said "Yes, God stepped in and took care of it. He has a way of doing that." His home healthcare nurse also stepped in to take care of it before the rain started.
Today I'm teaching an Excel class. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm always nervous on teaching days for some strange reason. Work is okay. School is pretty good. Home life is fantastic. Church is great. Overall I'd say these are wonderful times. I'm working on my Jungle Chicken website quite a bit (don't check yet Trina, the changes won't be posted for a few months). It's nice to set a goal and then work to accomplish it.
Happy Anniversary Mindy and Jason! I thought it was later in the month, but obviously I was wrong. October 19th is it? 18th?
And I just realized I haven't addressed Mom's questions in a while. What was one of the recent ones? Older, younger, middle child? Well, as you know I am the second of eight and the first boy. That makes me an older child I guess. I have enjoyed it, though I used to wish I had a big brother. Like in that book 1984. Someone to watch over me. But I probably had a little too much fun being the boss, being the big brother for good or ill. Sorry if I beat any of you up too much. I can be such a jerk, and I've been trying to do better in that area ever since. So I enjoy being one of the oldest, but I am sad if it has turned me into an irredeemable know-it-all, bossy, jerk.
Anyway, I love all of you and we talk about you and pray for you all the time.
Your pal,
Eric
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Jared, that uppercase "I" was from me trying to get the picture to work. As you can tell, it failed. I figured you would fix it soon enough, so I quit trying.
Mindy, Happy Anniversary. That is awesome that you have been married for one whole year. It is also crazy to think that the time has gone by already. Oh, and it's the second year that is the most difficult. If it isn't for you... your time is coming. Just kidding.
Nathan
Mindy, Happy Anniversary. That is awesome that you have been married for one whole year. It is also crazy to think that the time has gone by already. Oh, and it's the second year that is the most difficult. If it isn't for you... your time is coming. Just kidding.
Nathan
Well, since we're all reporting on the weather... in a freak turn of events it is actually POURING rain here. Something it rarely does. And it has been going on for the last two days. Today it almost felt like I was back in Oregon because, as I drove to work, the mountains were covered with fog and it was raining like crazy. There is snow on the mountains though.
I had a fun weekend. I saw "Jekyll and Hyde." It's a musical and it was awesome.
Love - Me
I had a fun weekend. I saw "Jekyll and Hyde." It's a musical and it was awesome.
Love - Me
Indian summer
For a contrast, we are having freaky hot weather here. Yesterday's high was 90, today 91, and tomorrow 92, but then a cool front should move through. These are close to record highs for this time of year. The kids and I went swimming yesterday. We are thinking about going again. We better go while it lasts, because it is late October. It was fun. It was kinda refreshing.
Michelle
Michelle
Snow Snow Snow
Yesterday morning looked like someone had moved our house inside a snowglobe -- big fat snowflakes were falling, instead of the little stuff that had come before. But since then we haven't had much. It's cold (we'll be lucky if it goes above freezing in the next few days), and we've got several inches of snow on the ground that probably won't be going anywhere until spring. At least Calgary gets chinooks sometimes - sudden warm spells in the middle of winter. It's nice to have the warmth, but the sudden drastic pressure changes do weird things for Jason.
And thank you for the phone call Jared and Michelle, and all the congratulations on the sisters blog - sisters. I haven't even had a congratulations from Mom and Dad! We didn't do anything exciting or special yesterday. I stayed home (as usual), and Jason went to work (as usual). We did go to the zoo last Friday, but any other celebrating will happen on Thursday/Friday, Jason's next days off, and he gets paid on Friday, so we can go out for dinner or something then. Looking back over the past year though, we're both happy, healthy, and very much in love. If the first year is the hardest, then we've got an incredible life ahead of us.
And thank you for the phone call Jared and Michelle, and all the congratulations on the sisters blog - sisters. I haven't even had a congratulations from Mom and Dad! We didn't do anything exciting or special yesterday. I stayed home (as usual), and Jason went to work (as usual). We did go to the zoo last Friday, but any other celebrating will happen on Thursday/Friday, Jason's next days off, and he gets paid on Friday, so we can go out for dinner or something then. Looking back over the past year though, we're both happy, healthy, and very much in love. If the first year is the hardest, then we've got an incredible life ahead of us.
I've edited my post about doing pictures, so anyone who still is having difficulties can check that out below. One other thing I noticed with the picture on the home page was that mom had loaded it with a capital "I" (as in "Insanity.jpg") instead of lowercase "insanity". So make sure that caps and lowercase letters are consistent in your image references.
Michelle and I e-mailed a Christmas list to Mom, so anyone who wants to know what we put on our list can contact her, or just talk to us. Either way. I have no problem with letting Mom and Dad run the Christmas registry. I say go for it. I guess that's all from me for now.
Michelle and I e-mailed a Christmas list to Mom, so anyone who wants to know what we put on our list can contact her, or just talk to us. Either way. I have no problem with letting Mom and Dad run the Christmas registry. I say go for it. I guess that's all from me for now.
Monday, October 18, 2004
happy 1st anniversary to Mindy and Jason
Yay for one year of happiness! Many good wishes to you both for making the second year even better than the first.
I really don't have much to say right now. (Miracle, I know.) Adam and I both had really long days today and are tired. We skipped our Isaiah study group FHE and took a nap when we got home, and now that it's 8:30 pm, I'm going to start dinner. Adam has a mid-term tomorrow.
But whatever our day was, I hope that Mindy and Jason's day was nice and they're able to celebrate their 1st anniversary in style.
I really don't have much to say right now. (Miracle, I know.) Adam and I both had really long days today and are tired. We skipped our Isaiah study group FHE and took a nap when we got home, and now that it's 8:30 pm, I'm going to start dinner. Adam has a mid-term tomorrow.
But whatever our day was, I hope that Mindy and Jason's day was nice and they're able to celebrate their 1st anniversary in style.
Sunday, October 17, 2004
It's Back
My page is up and running (or crawling) again. Check it out, a new quote is on it. That's all I have to say.
69 days until Christmas.
Clarissa
69 days until Christmas.
Clarissa
Saturday, October 16, 2004
It's Snowing!
It's been snowing all afternoon here in Calgary .. nothing too heavy, but now we've got a light dusting across the lawn and sidewalk. Looks like a powdered donut. I'm not sure how long it's supposed to last, or when the snow is going to get heavier, but I won't be surprised if we've got a foot or two by Halloween .. it's normal for here.
Christmas is coming
First I'm glad that the cookbook is being used. Thanks Michelle. I hope other people add to it. Of course, I added the recipes you sent in for the wedding cookbooks. I've been trying some of the ones that are new to me, too.
Now concerning my subject - Christmas. I've found a good sale on movies that lasts only until the end of October, so if any of you have particular movies that you want us to get, you'd better hurry and send the lists. I won't guarantee that you'll get a movie but I'll consider it. Also, Dad suggested that I become the clearing house of gift giving. You can all register with Mom and if you choose something off someone's list let me know so I can prevent others from giving them the same thing. Just a thought. Do you like that idea?
Love ya,
MOM
Now concerning my subject - Christmas. I've found a good sale on movies that lasts only until the end of October, so if any of you have particular movies that you want us to get, you'd better hurry and send the lists. I won't guarantee that you'll get a movie but I'll consider it. Also, Dad suggested that I become the clearing house of gift giving. You can all register with Mom and if you choose something off someone's list let me know so I can prevent others from giving them the same thing. Just a thought. Do you like that idea?
Love ya,
MOM
From Jared's other half
Mindy your picture showed up. That was cute.
I absolutely love the cookbook in the websight. I will start using it right away. I just need to go to the grocery store and pick up some of the ingredients. I'm just down here getting geared up for the holiday season. The kids are excited about Halloween. Bryan is going to be Batman (although we also have a race car driver outfit). Brooke is going to be a cat free to good home. We are going to dress he up like a cat, then put a box around her, add some stuffed cats, and write free to get home on the box. Of course, if Brooke protest, she can just be a white cat if she wants to. I have some ideas for the Christmas list that was requested. Jared and I will probably email that out tomorrow. He isn't here right now to tell me his part.
How did I like my placement in my family? I was 4th of 7, which puts me right in the middle. I guess I liked it fine. My sisters were 4 and 6 years older than me, so I was mostly surrounded by boys. I was a tomboy when I was little, but I also had the security of protective brothers. By the time I was 13 I had my own room, because my sisters had grown up and moved out. Being in a large family could be hectic at times, but it is nice now with so much family support.
Michelle
I absolutely love the cookbook in the websight. I will start using it right away. I just need to go to the grocery store and pick up some of the ingredients. I'm just down here getting geared up for the holiday season. The kids are excited about Halloween. Bryan is going to be Batman (although we also have a race car driver outfit). Brooke is going to be a cat free to good home. We are going to dress he up like a cat, then put a box around her, add some stuffed cats, and write free to get home on the box. Of course, if Brooke protest, she can just be a white cat if she wants to. I have some ideas for the Christmas list that was requested. Jared and I will probably email that out tomorrow. He isn't here right now to tell me his part.
How did I like my placement in my family? I was 4th of 7, which puts me right in the middle. I guess I liked it fine. My sisters were 4 and 6 years older than me, so I was mostly surrounded by boys. I was a tomboy when I was little, but I also had the security of protective brothers. By the time I was 13 I had my own room, because my sisters had grown up and moved out. Being in a large family could be hectic at times, but it is nice now with so much family support.
Michelle
more pictures
Okay, so Jared's tip on pictures didn't help at all, because they all looked like the little "missing picture" symbol. But I did go into Jared's html index code thing, saved in onto my computer, and opened it with notepad, so I could see what exactly he did. I did my picture the same way, and it worked, at least on Jason's computer. If I could get feedback from everyone else saying that mine worked, I'd appreciate it! And then I took a peek at Clarissa's site .. ugh! No way could I figure out how to make the picture work on there .. she built it in MSWord, instead of using code. No wonder she had a site before me. Good luck helping with that, Jared .. I'd have helped if I could!
Tip on pictures
Here's all I can think of for your pictures without actually opening the ftp folders (which I don't have time to do right now).
[Brackets] are now used instead of the <> tags.
Make sure when you put in the link that the path is correct. For example, [img src="mypicture.jpg"] should have the picture in the same folder as the html file that contains that line of code. If you have a folder called "images" in the same folder as the html file, then the code shoud read [img src="images/mypicture.jpg"]. Does that make sense? If you want to get really tricky, you could put [img src="http://www.insanityinc.net/mindy/images/mypicture.jpg"] but if you do like I said above that shouldn't be necessary.
[Brackets] are now used instead of the <> tags.
Make sure when you put in the link that the path is correct. For example, [img src="mypicture.jpg"] should have the picture in the same folder as the html file that contains that line of code. If you have a folder called "images" in the same folder as the html file, then the code shoud read [img src="images/mypicture.jpg"]. Does that make sense? If you want to get really tricky, you could put [img src="http://www.insanityinc.net/mindy/images/mypicture.jpg"] but if you do like I said above that shouldn't be necessary.
q&a
Mom, I was thinking that maybe you should give the questions a haitus for the moment - everyone is primarily focusing on the novelty of the new site and getting it up and running. There's the occasional story of Mindy's trip to the zoo and my work project being done, but mostly, the website. Once that settles down, bring the questions back.
I will say one thing about Tawnia's response though - she made a comment about the pressure to get married was always focused on me (at least I'm assuming that's who she meant when she said "the first") and now it's on her. Well, Tawnia, enjoy the LACK of pressure we get from Mom and Dad about getting married because believe you me, Mom and Dad don't pressure us. They may make comments occasionally, and Jared may put silly captions with entertaining pictures, and we all may do the Dance of Joy when you have a date, but that's not really pressure. Pressure is when your parents tell you to your face that you're not dating often enough (even though you're active socially and you refuse to settle for the riff-raff that comes parading by) and that you're a failure for being over 25 and not married. Pressure is people in the Dayton Ward making REALLY stupid and offensive comments like "So, are you jealous your younger brother is getting married before you?" (True story, and 7 years later, I can even still tell you who said it.)
So no, we don't get pressure from Mom and Dad. Never did. It wasn't focused on me with a shift to you, because it just ain't there. Kudos to Mom and Dad for that.
I will say one thing about Tawnia's response though - she made a comment about the pressure to get married was always focused on me (at least I'm assuming that's who she meant when she said "the first") and now it's on her. Well, Tawnia, enjoy the LACK of pressure we get from Mom and Dad about getting married because believe you me, Mom and Dad don't pressure us. They may make comments occasionally, and Jared may put silly captions with entertaining pictures, and we all may do the Dance of Joy when you have a date, but that's not really pressure. Pressure is when your parents tell you to your face that you're not dating often enough (even though you're active socially and you refuse to settle for the riff-raff that comes parading by) and that you're a failure for being over 25 and not married. Pressure is people in the Dayton Ward making REALLY stupid and offensive comments like "So, are you jealous your younger brother is getting married before you?" (True story, and 7 years later, I can even still tell you who said it.)
So no, we don't get pressure from Mom and Dad. Never did. It wasn't focused on me with a shift to you, because it just ain't there. Kudos to Mom and Dad for that.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Pictures
I thought I was doing okay .. my picture showed up for me! But then Mom mentioned that it didn't show up for her, so I checked on Jason's computer .. and it didn't show up there either. I put a copy of the picture in my folder and everything, but I don't know what else to do to "upload" it to the internet. Please help. Why does Jared and Eric get their pictures to work, but not the rest of us? Is there a step that you forgot to share?
Oh, and I changed Mom's website too .. I can at least do that much.
Oh, and I changed Mom's website too .. I can at least do that much.
I tried
Jared,
The image was already on the site but to be sure I reposted it. It still doesn't show up. Also Clarissa's and Mindy's pictures don't show up. We're doing something wrong but I'm not sure what.
I just posted my genealogy to the history folder. Why did you change the name from genealogy? I thought that title would make it easier for others to find. Dad and I will probably need some help getting his side on there because we'll need to have another menu page that will send someone to either his side or mine. Dad also thinks we should post some historical sketches of some of our ancestors. I'm sure we can get Nathan to help us sort that out. He's helped me with my other stuff.
Dad found some information on his Knoblochs yesterday. He learned that they sailed from Bremen on the ship "D H Watjen" arriving in New York on 19 Jul 1869. Maybe if we find more information, like a passport or something, we can find out what city they were from. Every little piece of the puzzle is exciting.
Time for bed now.
Love,
MOM
The image was already on the site but to be sure I reposted it. It still doesn't show up. Also Clarissa's and Mindy's pictures don't show up. We're doing something wrong but I'm not sure what.
I just posted my genealogy to the history folder. Why did you change the name from genealogy? I thought that title would make it easier for others to find. Dad and I will probably need some help getting his side on there because we'll need to have another menu page that will send someone to either his side or mine. Dad also thinks we should post some historical sketches of some of our ancestors. I'm sure we can get Nathan to help us sort that out. He's helped me with my other stuff.
Dad found some information on his Knoblochs yesterday. He learned that they sailed from Bremen on the ship "D H Watjen" arriving in New York on 19 Jul 1869. Maybe if we find more information, like a passport or something, we can find out what city they were from. Every little piece of the puzzle is exciting.
Time for bed now.
Love,
MOM
the zoo
I was feeling very left out - everyone had SOMETHING on their website (even Tawnia, thanks to someone else) - so I had to put something on mine too! It's just a start. Aaron happened to be over for a few minutes, and he's had a little experience with code and stuff, so he helped. I'll probably talk to my ex-boyfriend Derek (we're still friends), and have him help me out too. He had built me a couple sites before.
In other news, I went to the zoo today. Jason's work friend Barrett hadn't been there before, and he offered to treat us, since it's our anniversary on Monday. It was a little chilly, but with jackets it was actually the perfect day. Pretty with all the fall colors, and lots of leaves on the ground. And to make it even better, all the animals were out! Except the lions. We didn't see lions. We saw tigers, elephants, monkeys (and a little baby monkey, so cute!), lots of bears, birds .. the whole place should have been the squirrel exhibit though. Black squirrels were everywhere, dodging in and out of cages, and always so fat since there's always food. We even saw red pandas too! There was a rainforest exhibit and Africa - we saw giraffes, a swimming hippo, Timon and Pumba, porcupines, zebras, etc. Hey Nathan, we saw cougars! They had a couple of snow leopards too, that you could see too - they were resting close to the front of the exhibit. We saw a couple different species that looked like miniature deer - one was about the size of a largish dog, and the other only a little bigger than a chihuahua. Lots of interesting stuff to see. Oh yes, and then there were the group of peacocks (or something very similar to them) all standing outside the restrooms. The men's room door was open a little, and they were all heading inside! Who knew they had them birds potty-trained! And we saw so many little animals that were fat! Besides all the squirrels, the two little crocidiles were pot-bellied, and we saw a fat little mouse in one of the cages (not to be eaten either), and then in a porcupine exhibit we saw what we thought was the fattest prarie dog you had ever seen. It was sitting in the feeding pan .. probably because it was too fat to get out. We never did see the sign for what really was in the area, so we don't know what it was .. it chubby anyway though! The last thing we saw (besides more squirrels), was the Australia exhibit. The coolest part about that though was the "creatures of the night" exhibit. You start out in a darkened room, and then watch a short video explaining about noctournal animals, while your eyes adjust. Then you head into the displays. It's all dark - lots of bats, and other rare and interesting creatures - most of the actually quite cute, if you could see them! (Jason had a tiny pen light, so we could see them a little better, without blinding anything.) The very best was the smallest marsupials in the world - don't remember what they were called, but they were fast little things, all over the cage. It was a basic flat glass front, and they were scrambling all over the front of it too! We were all pretty amazed, since there wasn't anything for them to be holding on to .. but they scrambled across it just as fast as they did the trees in the rest of their area. All in all though, it was a great trip, with lots to see, good company, and a great way to celebrate an anniversary. That, and it was a Friday afternoon, on a chilly day, so while the animals were out, there weren't the crowds of children!
the end.
In other news, I went to the zoo today. Jason's work friend Barrett hadn't been there before, and he offered to treat us, since it's our anniversary on Monday. It was a little chilly, but with jackets it was actually the perfect day. Pretty with all the fall colors, and lots of leaves on the ground. And to make it even better, all the animals were out! Except the lions. We didn't see lions. We saw tigers, elephants, monkeys (and a little baby monkey, so cute!), lots of bears, birds .. the whole place should have been the squirrel exhibit though. Black squirrels were everywhere, dodging in and out of cages, and always so fat since there's always food. We even saw red pandas too! There was a rainforest exhibit and Africa - we saw giraffes, a swimming hippo, Timon and Pumba, porcupines, zebras, etc. Hey Nathan, we saw cougars! They had a couple of snow leopards too, that you could see too - they were resting close to the front of the exhibit. We saw a couple different species that looked like miniature deer - one was about the size of a largish dog, and the other only a little bigger than a chihuahua. Lots of interesting stuff to see. Oh yes, and then there were the group of peacocks (or something very similar to them) all standing outside the restrooms. The men's room door was open a little, and they were all heading inside! Who knew they had them birds potty-trained! And we saw so many little animals that were fat! Besides all the squirrels, the two little crocidiles were pot-bellied, and we saw a fat little mouse in one of the cages (not to be eaten either), and then in a porcupine exhibit we saw what we thought was the fattest prarie dog you had ever seen. It was sitting in the feeding pan .. probably because it was too fat to get out. We never did see the sign for what really was in the area, so we don't know what it was .. it chubby anyway though! The last thing we saw (besides more squirrels), was the Australia exhibit. The coolest part about that though was the "creatures of the night" exhibit. You start out in a darkened room, and then watch a short video explaining about noctournal animals, while your eyes adjust. Then you head into the displays. It's all dark - lots of bats, and other rare and interesting creatures - most of the actually quite cute, if you could see them! (Jason had a tiny pen light, so we could see them a little better, without blinding anything.) The very best was the smallest marsupials in the world - don't remember what they were called, but they were fast little things, all over the cage. It was a basic flat glass front, and they were scrambling all over the front of it too! We were all pretty amazed, since there wasn't anything for them to be holding on to .. but they scrambled across it just as fast as they did the trees in the rest of their area. All in all though, it was a great trip, with lots to see, good company, and a great way to celebrate an anniversary. That, and it was a Friday afternoon, on a chilly day, so while the animals were out, there weren't the crowds of children!
the end.
It appears that someone took my thoughts about the pictures on the blog to heart and cleared them out of the ftp site. Trouble is, that's where the tree logo is. I don't have another copy of it on my computer, so someone at home base will have to reload it. Just put it in the main docs folder, not in any subfolder.
Yes, Tawnia's page was my evil project, not hers. I found that picture in my archives and thought it would be funny. My other thought was a personal ad ... Single White Female seeking Single Rich Male ...
love Jared
Yes, Tawnia's page was my evil project, not hers. I found that picture in my archives and thought it would be funny. My other thought was a personal ad ... Single White Female seeking Single Rich Male ...
love Jared
Update on Emily's sight
Chapter Four has been posted.
After much struggling, banging head on table, and three long-distant phone calls (thanks, Eric), it is up and available. Now all I have to do is remember how to do it when I want to post chapter five.
Emily
After much struggling, banging head on table, and three long-distant phone calls (thanks, Eric), it is up and available. Now all I have to do is remember how to do it when I want to post chapter five.
Emily
About My Page
Just for everyone's information... I had nothing to do with the picture and text on my page. I think that a little fun was had down Texas way. I did enjoy getting a phone call from Brooke the other day!
Life is going along as normal for me. You'd think living in the engagement capital of the USA I would at least get a date every once in awhile.... but alas the best I can do is going to a hockey game with my roommates on a Friday night. I'm not complaining, because I LOVE hockey... and my roommates and it does beat sitting at home and watching TV.
Work is going well. I love my job, but I'm looking forward to fall break. (we get a 4 day weekend at the end of October... yippee!) Maybe I'll go and play tourist in SLC or even spend a day at my old alma mater. Or I might just stay home and SLEEP! Something I rarely get enough of.
Oh, and to answer Mom's question. I was the tail end of the "big four" which puts me basically in the middle. I guess that has a lot of advantages. Your parents have already made all their mistakes on the first three, you don't have quite so many responsibilities, you get to boss around the younger ones, and best of all... until recently the pressure for marriage was completely off of me! Ahhh... for the days when someone older was still single. But I guess I don't have to feel too pressured.... being that I live out here on my own, it's not like you're calling me up and asking me about it every day... since they made that mistake with the first one... see, it's great being in the middle!
Have a fun weekend everyone!
Love,
T
Life is going along as normal for me. You'd think living in the engagement capital of the USA I would at least get a date every once in awhile.... but alas the best I can do is going to a hockey game with my roommates on a Friday night. I'm not complaining, because I LOVE hockey... and my roommates and it does beat sitting at home and watching TV.
Work is going well. I love my job, but I'm looking forward to fall break. (we get a 4 day weekend at the end of October... yippee!) Maybe I'll go and play tourist in SLC or even spend a day at my old alma mater. Or I might just stay home and SLEEP! Something I rarely get enough of.
Oh, and to answer Mom's question. I was the tail end of the "big four" which puts me basically in the middle. I guess that has a lot of advantages. Your parents have already made all their mistakes on the first three, you don't have quite so many responsibilities, you get to boss around the younger ones, and best of all... until recently the pressure for marriage was completely off of me! Ahhh... for the days when someone older was still single. But I guess I don't have to feel too pressured.... being that I live out here on my own, it's not like you're calling me up and asking me about it every day... since they made that mistake with the first one... see, it's great being in the middle!
Have a fun weekend everyone!
Love,
T
Answers?
I posted another question but since no one has responded to it I'm not sure that you all saw it. It took me some time to get my last post to show up and in the meantime someone else had posted so mine was not on top. I hope you all saw the good news about your Daddy's job. It's wonderful to have him home more.
What's up with our logo on the webpage? Why doesn't it show up anymore? Also, on Clarissa's page I put her picture in the folder but it still doesn't show up. Can anyone figure out what we're doing wrong? I'm counting on you Nathan to help us, again. You noticed, I hope, that I DID acknowledge your assistance.
For anyone who's interested, here is my answer to the latest question:
How did you like being the oldest, youngest, or middle child? Did it have any advantages or disadvantages?
In a family of 11 children I was number nine. The kids seemed to be divided into three groups. There were the “big boys” the “little girls” and Lowell, Joy and Gary (the three in the middle.) Being one of the “little girls” I always felt that I was not old enough to do many things. I even felt that I was one of the little girls after I was grown and married. Around thirty or so I seemed to outgrow that title. I don’t know if the older kids really felt that way towards me or if I was just insecure and thought they did. There was a little while, when Gary was on his mission, where I was the oldest child at home. I felt that gave me some privileges but also more responsibilities.
What's up with our logo on the webpage? Why doesn't it show up anymore? Also, on Clarissa's page I put her picture in the folder but it still doesn't show up. Can anyone figure out what we're doing wrong? I'm counting on you Nathan to help us, again. You noticed, I hope, that I DID acknowledge your assistance.
For anyone who's interested, here is my answer to the latest question:
How did you like being the oldest, youngest, or middle child? Did it have any advantages or disadvantages?
In a family of 11 children I was number nine. The kids seemed to be divided into three groups. There were the “big boys” the “little girls” and Lowell, Joy and Gary (the three in the middle.) Being one of the “little girls” I always felt that I was not old enough to do many things. I even felt that I was one of the little girls after I was grown and married. Around thirty or so I seemed to outgrow that title. I don’t know if the older kids really felt that way towards me or if I was just insecure and thought they did. There was a little while, when Gary was on his mission, where I was the oldest child at home. I felt that gave me some privileges but also more responsibilities.
HA!
I don't know how to pronounce "trinadam." I don't know that it was meant to be SAID, just to look cool when it's written, because it doesn't make any sense unless you SEE it. And Tawnia's page made me laugh and laugh! Tawnia, are you not telling us something?
The Susan/Trina big announcement of the month is ... after 10 weeks of blood, sweat and tears (and more than a little bit of swearing mixed in), the 50-state medical malpractice chart is done and has been released to the general public. It's supposed to be on our committee's web page on the NCSL site, and it's not yet, and if it's not there by Monday, I will unleash the big guns. Either way, we've emailed it all over the country - in less than 5 minutes after I sent an email to one of the mailing lists yesterday morning, I had over 10 emails saying "thank you for the information!" I'm learning a lot about tort reform, which is a weird way of saying "restrict certain kinds of lawsuits," and which is also kinda weird considering that my husband is going to be an attorney. But hey, someone has to defend against all the stupid lawsuits, so maybe Adam will take that side. He's liking constitutional law so far, but hasn't decided on a specialty yet.
The only other news right now is that we spent our day off Monday at Mt. Vernon - George Washington's house. It's been maintained for tours since the 1840s, and all the armies skirted it during the Civil War out of respect, so no damage to it ever. During the summer, they have people in period costume demonstrating farming techniques, because Washington was very into farm development. During December, they have candle-lit tours at night and the house is all decked out for Christmas.
And Sarah Loving is coming for a week to spend Thanksgiving with us. YAY! I'll have to work only 2 days that she's here (and maybe only one), so we can get lots of touristy stuff in. She's never been here, so this will be fun.
The Susan/Trina big announcement of the month is ... after 10 weeks of blood, sweat and tears (and more than a little bit of swearing mixed in), the 50-state medical malpractice chart is done and has been released to the general public. It's supposed to be on our committee's web page on the NCSL site, and it's not yet, and if it's not there by Monday, I will unleash the big guns. Either way, we've emailed it all over the country - in less than 5 minutes after I sent an email to one of the mailing lists yesterday morning, I had over 10 emails saying "thank you for the information!" I'm learning a lot about tort reform, which is a weird way of saying "restrict certain kinds of lawsuits," and which is also kinda weird considering that my husband is going to be an attorney. But hey, someone has to defend against all the stupid lawsuits, so maybe Adam will take that side. He's liking constitutional law so far, but hasn't decided on a specialty yet.
The only other news right now is that we spent our day off Monday at Mt. Vernon - George Washington's house. It's been maintained for tours since the 1840s, and all the armies skirted it during the Civil War out of respect, so no damage to it ever. During the summer, they have people in period costume demonstrating farming techniques, because Washington was very into farm development. During December, they have candle-lit tours at night and the house is all decked out for Christmas.
And Sarah Loving is coming for a week to spend Thanksgiving with us. YAY! I'll have to work only 2 days that she's here (and maybe only one), so we can get lots of touristy stuff in. She's never been here, so this will be fun.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
links
When whomever switched the sidebar to include the "guest comments" (which I suggest is switched to GuestBook, so it fits on one line), they took off Blogger. I liked having it there .. very convientent. And maybe we could add MSN or Hotmail, since that is where a lot of our emails are. It'd be especially helpful for those of us who have insanityinc as the homepage.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
New cell phones
Amanda and I got new cell phones. Unfortunately we both had to change our numbers. They are similar to one another though. We will call you or email them to you so that everyone gets a chance to know what our new numbers are.
Mom, Clarissa's picture does not work because it is not uploaded onto the internet. The text is, but not the picture itself. Just copy it over into the same file that Clarissa's page is in. If you have any further complications, I will be there sometime in the near future and I can figure it out for you. Remember, you have more than two sons that know a little bit about computers.
Nathan
Mom, Clarissa's picture does not work because it is not uploaded onto the internet. The text is, but not the picture itself. Just copy it over into the same file that Clarissa's page is in. If you have any further complications, I will be there sometime in the near future and I can figure it out for you. Remember, you have more than two sons that know a little bit about computers.
Nathan
Posting problems
Jared I've run into the same problem but when I just tried it worked again. I think the site will only allow one person to post at a time, I'm not sure that's what it is but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. My suggestion is just keep trying. I still haven't figured out what to put on mine. Also could you possibly figure out how to post Clarissa's picture? It works offline but we can't get it to show up online.
I'm anxious to see your changes.
Love ya,
MOM
I'm anxious to see your changes.
Love ya,
MOM
things to say
Congratulations Eric and Laurel on the new birds. That's really exciting (and no I'm not being sarcastic, despite that weird look on my face).
Everyone, I'm having trouble accessing the ftp site today. I'm at school right now and I haven't tried to do it from home for a couple days now, but the username and password shouldn't have changed ... unless someone changed them. If anyone did, you don't have to fess up IF you return the original password right away so that the rest of us can continue posting our random creativity for all the company to see and experience. Thank you. End of lecture.
Everyone, I'm having trouble accessing the ftp site today. I'm at school right now and I haven't tried to do it from home for a couple days now, but the username and password shouldn't have changed ... unless someone changed them. If anyone did, you don't have to fess up IF you return the original password right away so that the rest of us can continue posting our random creativity for all the company to see and experience. Thank you. End of lecture.
Monday, October 11, 2004
FANTASTIC NEWS!!
I tried several times to post this yesterday but I kept getting an error message. Maybe it will work now.
Dad pulled a sneaky on me. He put in for two day positions without telling me. He knows how frustrated I get when he doesn't get the day job. So today he came to Amity to tell me that, starting tomorrow he'll be working days at the high school. It has a downside. It means a pay cut because he won't be the lead custodian anymore but it's worth it to have him home in the evenings and to be able to have some time together. It's been a long time since he's been on days on a permanent basis. I thought you would all want to know that exciting news.
I'm working on getting the genealogy page up and running. I need to make some corrections before I post the final copy. I'm sure I'll still be updating it periodically but there are a few things I need to correct before I post the first time.
I'm still figuring out how I want to design my own page. I think I'll put various chapters of my history on there. The ones I haven't posted on the blog. If you have any brilliant suggestions for me, let me know.
I guess it's about time for a new question. So here's the latest one I drew from the jar: How did you like being the oldest, youngest or middle child? Did it have any particular advantages or disadvantages?
Love ya,
MOM
Dad pulled a sneaky on me. He put in for two day positions without telling me. He knows how frustrated I get when he doesn't get the day job. So today he came to Amity to tell me that, starting tomorrow he'll be working days at the high school. It has a downside. It means a pay cut because he won't be the lead custodian anymore but it's worth it to have him home in the evenings and to be able to have some time together. It's been a long time since he's been on days on a permanent basis. I thought you would all want to know that exciting news.
I'm working on getting the genealogy page up and running. I need to make some corrections before I post the final copy. I'm sure I'll still be updating it periodically but there are a few things I need to correct before I post the first time.
I'm still figuring out how I want to design my own page. I think I'll put various chapters of my history on there. The ones I haven't posted on the blog. If you have any brilliant suggestions for me, let me know.
I guess it's about time for a new question. So here's the latest one I drew from the jar: How did you like being the oldest, youngest or middle child? Did it have any particular advantages or disadvantages?
Love ya,
MOM
A new budgie
Sally hatched yesterday (Sunday) so now there are three baby birds of various sizes, and one egg left. Seedy has grown quite a bit since he (she?) hatched a few days ago. Polly has now been sitting on her eggs and her chicks (they need to be kept warm since they don't have feathers yet) for several weeks. Petey has been feeding her and the chicks. All of them are in the nest box (it looks like a birdhouse) a lot of the time. It's really neat to see their parental instincts coming out. I'm sure Laurel will have more to say as the parakeet family grows.
In other news, Laurel's brother Delwin (the one who got married last Christmas) and his wife Tavy had a baby girl named Lillian. Laurel's sisters Rachel and Amber are both pregnant. Yeah. We're working on it.
On Saturday I went to the college for a symposium all day. I probably already wrote that.
The cookbook looks great. I'm excited to recreate some of my childhood favorites, and try some new recipes as well.
And now I'm tired because I took a nap yesterday afternoon and then I couldn't get to sleep at night and then I had to get up early this morning.
In other news, Laurel's brother Delwin (the one who got married last Christmas) and his wife Tavy had a baby girl named Lillian. Laurel's sisters Rachel and Amber are both pregnant. Yeah. We're working on it.
On Saturday I went to the college for a symposium all day. I probably already wrote that.
The cookbook looks great. I'm excited to recreate some of my childhood favorites, and try some new recipes as well.
And now I'm tired because I took a nap yesterday afternoon and then I couldn't get to sleep at night and then I had to get up early this morning.
Sunday, October 10, 2004
THANK YOU NATHAN!
Nate came over today and fixed my website for me. I couldn't figure out how to do tables and get it to work, but he figured it out and got the recipes into columns for me. I'd like to arrange them by categories but at least they're on there for now. I was also trying to help Clarissa get her picture to show up. I tried putting it on the site and thought that would solve the problem but it didn't. Can one of you guys get it on there for her?
Reminder everyone - it's time to get those Christmas lists together so we can look for the sales. That includes suggestions for little people like Brooke and Bryan.
I hope you all had a good weekend. We went to a "Buddy Walk" for Down Syndrome yesterday. One of my students invited me to be his buddy. It was rainy but it was still fun.
Love, MOM
Reminder everyone - it's time to get those Christmas lists together so we can look for the sales. That includes suggestions for little people like Brooke and Bryan.
I hope you all had a good weekend. We went to a "Buddy Walk" for Down Syndrome yesterday. One of my students invited me to be his buddy. It was rainy but it was still fun.
Love, MOM
Saturday, October 09, 2004
News from the Palmers... oh yeah... well, from Eric and Laurel
Hi everybody.
Right now Rachel (Laurel's sister) is at our house with Chris and Lance. Lance is so cute these days. He talks all the time and says really funny stuff. He's three. Sorry Trina, the baby bird is already named. Laurel is expert at naming pets. She even names other peoples' pets, stray cats... (aw, Lance just came in and gave me a hug) So anyway, the birds' names are Seedy and Sammy. Yes, there's now two baby birds, and the third should hatch soon.
Today I spent all day at the college (Cal-State Fullerton) for a program symposium. It was fun seeing all my online cohorts in real life. Good times. I'm excited about wrapping up the program this winter and graduating in May. Amazing how the time has flown.
About the page, I think it's great what everyone has done so far. Check out Nathan's poems if you haven't yet. Jared is right about the Word files taking up more space (and download time), so I also recommend learning html. I will say to Jared that you don't need to worry so much about space. The Word-generated files are fine, and the pictures are fine. I mean, we can back everything up at some point and keep a record of the blog, but there's no hurry. I would just HIGHLY ENCOURAGE everyone to keep their image sizes down. A 100K picture is much worse than a 20K html file (that could be 5K). So check your file sizes of your pictures before uploading. If they're more than say 40K, consider resizing. End of lecture.
And now the boys are playing with my green army men on the carpet of my room. Boys only in here. Yeah!
On the subject of traditions, Laurel and I have a few. One of them that is unique is Van Gogh Day. I think it's March 6th. We make a cake and decorate it like a Van Gogh painting. It's to commemorate Laurel's writing of a paper on Van Gogh, many years ago.
We celebrate each other's birthdays every year, and we have traditional Christmas and Thanksgiving (often with extended family in Oregon, Idaho, or here in California). We also like to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July, go to baseball games and the beach in the summer, and play Frisbee at the park on New Year's. I just made up the last one, but we did that one time, with Gary and Karen Knowlton.
Okay. I'd better wrap this up. Laurel left to take care of Rachel's dog for a few minutes, and the boys are putting away the toys. What good boys.
I love all of you, and I'll talk to you later.
Love, Eric
Right now Rachel (Laurel's sister) is at our house with Chris and Lance. Lance is so cute these days. He talks all the time and says really funny stuff. He's three. Sorry Trina, the baby bird is already named. Laurel is expert at naming pets. She even names other peoples' pets, stray cats... (aw, Lance just came in and gave me a hug) So anyway, the birds' names are Seedy and Sammy. Yes, there's now two baby birds, and the third should hatch soon.
Today I spent all day at the college (Cal-State Fullerton) for a program symposium. It was fun seeing all my online cohorts in real life. Good times. I'm excited about wrapping up the program this winter and graduating in May. Amazing how the time has flown.
About the page, I think it's great what everyone has done so far. Check out Nathan's poems if you haven't yet. Jared is right about the Word files taking up more space (and download time), so I also recommend learning html. I will say to Jared that you don't need to worry so much about space. The Word-generated files are fine, and the pictures are fine. I mean, we can back everything up at some point and keep a record of the blog, but there's no hurry. I would just HIGHLY ENCOURAGE everyone to keep their image sizes down. A 100K picture is much worse than a 20K html file (that could be 5K). So check your file sizes of your pictures before uploading. If they're more than say 40K, consider resizing. End of lecture.
And now the boys are playing with my green army men on the carpet of my room. Boys only in here. Yeah!
On the subject of traditions, Laurel and I have a few. One of them that is unique is Van Gogh Day. I think it's March 6th. We make a cake and decorate it like a Van Gogh painting. It's to commemorate Laurel's writing of a paper on Van Gogh, many years ago.
We celebrate each other's birthdays every year, and we have traditional Christmas and Thanksgiving (often with extended family in Oregon, Idaho, or here in California). We also like to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July, go to baseball games and the beach in the summer, and play Frisbee at the park on New Year's. I just made up the last one, but we did that one time, with Gary and Karen Knowlton.
Okay. I'd better wrap this up. Laurel left to take care of Rachel's dog for a few minutes, and the boys are putting away the toys. What good boys.
I love all of you, and I'll talk to you later.
Love, Eric
lots to catch up on
Personal page: we'll get something up soon. I'm enjoying the great prophet deRaj's commentary one some of the pages. It's making me laugh. It's also good to see what everyone else has up already. Oh, and Jared, about the font on the home page - it's okay that it's one of the basic styles, but could we have something that looks more clean than Times? To me, Times means "write a paper for Dr. Geier." ANYTHING but Times.
Laurel's birds: In keeping with the P theme, and because of it's color, my nomination in the Unofficial Name the Baby Bird competition is Peachy or Peaches. Any more babies yet?
Traditions question: just the word "tradition" makes me think of Christmas. The thing that comes to mind the quickest is caroling - packing everyone into the van, no matter what the person to seatbelt ratio actually is, and singing all the "naughty" Christmas songs while in the van. I remember one year, Eric and I whistled the whole thing of "Sleigh Ride." The other traditions that come to mind is that we frequently went to Silver Creek on July 4th because that was one of Mom's favorite places and our indoor Easter egg hunts with billions of jellybeans and one prize (usually a king-sized candybar) for everyone.
What I plan to continue is all the Christmas stuff. (Mindy, just because you don't have kids to take caroling doesn't mean you can't go with friends. That's what we're going to do.) I also want to make it a regular thing to attend a performance of The Messiah during December. (I'm in hot pursuit of tickets for the Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-along. Doesn't that just sound COOL?!?!) As long as we're in the DC area, we'll go see the temple lights and Live Nativity at the temple, and watch the 4th of July fireworks over the Washington Monument. I liked having ice cream cake on Adam's birthday - that was a bit of ingenuity on Mom's part that could very well continue into a long term thing. We'll see what else comes up - maintaining my own traditions is a new thing. I've never really thought about it before this year, but since getting engaged, I've thought about it a lot. Like Mindy said, ask me in 10 years.
Changing self question: I need to become a much better critical thinker. It's something that has come up at work. Because I'm so accustomed to really really really precise instructions, my bosses here tell me HOW to do what they want. That was fine for the first year when I was still figuring things out, but now it's time to shift gears. They give me an assignment, and I figure out the "how." I have learned VERY quickly that this type of creativity, I'm not so good at.
Our adventures: not much beyond the norm. We enjoyed General Conference. Between the Saturday sessions, we found an AWESOME used bookstore near the church, and got ourselves out of there after only 15 minutes ... and 10 books. We went to the stake center at the temple for Sunday, ate a picnic lunch on the temple grounds between, and watched the last session in the Visitor's Center. It's the screen where they show The Testaments, so we're talking BIG SCREEN for Conference. Today, our friends Jared and Allison in our ward got married, and we babysat Allison's nephews while they were in the temple. The reception was very formal - in a hotel ballroom with a catered sit-down dinner and a string quartet for the music. We both have Monday off for Columbus Day, and Adam says that we can go play tourist. YAY! It's supposed to be really nice weather, so definitely something outside.
Laurel's birds: In keeping with the P theme, and because of it's color, my nomination in the Unofficial Name the Baby Bird competition is Peachy or Peaches. Any more babies yet?
Traditions question: just the word "tradition" makes me think of Christmas. The thing that comes to mind the quickest is caroling - packing everyone into the van, no matter what the person to seatbelt ratio actually is, and singing all the "naughty" Christmas songs while in the van. I remember one year, Eric and I whistled the whole thing of "Sleigh Ride." The other traditions that come to mind is that we frequently went to Silver Creek on July 4th because that was one of Mom's favorite places and our indoor Easter egg hunts with billions of jellybeans and one prize (usually a king-sized candybar) for everyone.
What I plan to continue is all the Christmas stuff. (Mindy, just because you don't have kids to take caroling doesn't mean you can't go with friends. That's what we're going to do.) I also want to make it a regular thing to attend a performance of The Messiah during December. (I'm in hot pursuit of tickets for the Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-along. Doesn't that just sound COOL?!?!) As long as we're in the DC area, we'll go see the temple lights and Live Nativity at the temple, and watch the 4th of July fireworks over the Washington Monument. I liked having ice cream cake on Adam's birthday - that was a bit of ingenuity on Mom's part that could very well continue into a long term thing. We'll see what else comes up - maintaining my own traditions is a new thing. I've never really thought about it before this year, but since getting engaged, I've thought about it a lot. Like Mindy said, ask me in 10 years.
Changing self question: I need to become a much better critical thinker. It's something that has come up at work. Because I'm so accustomed to really really really precise instructions, my bosses here tell me HOW to do what they want. That was fine for the first year when I was still figuring things out, but now it's time to shift gears. They give me an assignment, and I figure out the "how." I have learned VERY quickly that this type of creativity, I'm not so good at.
Our adventures: not much beyond the norm. We enjoyed General Conference. Between the Saturday sessions, we found an AWESOME used bookstore near the church, and got ourselves out of there after only 15 minutes ... and 10 books. We went to the stake center at the temple for Sunday, ate a picnic lunch on the temple grounds between, and watched the last session in the Visitor's Center. It's the screen where they show The Testaments, so we're talking BIG SCREEN for Conference. Today, our friends Jared and Allison in our ward got married, and we babysat Allison's nephews while they were in the temple. The reception was very formal - in a hotel ballroom with a catered sit-down dinner and a string quartet for the music. We both have Monday off for Columbus Day, and Adam says that we can go play tourist. YAY! It's supposed to be really nice weather, so definitely something outside.
Emily's Strange Adventures at the Post Office
Date: Friday, October 8.
Final day to return books for a full refund.
It would have helped if the instructor of my internet English class had informed us before last Wednesday that one of our books really wasn't needed. It was entitled: "Female Quiniox" or something like that. (Really, it was!)
So, since we were not going down to Salem until Saturday (and that would do no good because the Chemeketa bookstore would not be open -- go figure), I had to mail the book in order to return it. So, I found an envelope, scanned the reciept and printed a copy (a very large copy, I might add), and hiked up to the post office. The time was 12:27, and the postal workers were all at lunch. But I did pick up the mail and then walked back.
After an hour or so, I went back up to the post office. I waited in line while a couple of other people mailed packages, and then it was my turn. And then I discovered that I did not have enough money, so I had to go back home and get more.
I walked down the street through the pouring rain, the package still tucked under my arm, dug through the change bucket, got a few more quarters, and then walked out again, still dripping wet. That is how it took me three trips to mail one package.
Emily
P.S. Eric, you rock!
Final day to return books for a full refund.
It would have helped if the instructor of my internet English class had informed us before last Wednesday that one of our books really wasn't needed. It was entitled: "Female Quiniox" or something like that. (Really, it was!)
So, since we were not going down to Salem until Saturday (and that would do no good because the Chemeketa bookstore would not be open -- go figure), I had to mail the book in order to return it. So, I found an envelope, scanned the reciept and printed a copy (a very large copy, I might add), and hiked up to the post office. The time was 12:27, and the postal workers were all at lunch. But I did pick up the mail and then walked back.
After an hour or so, I went back up to the post office. I waited in line while a couple of other people mailed packages, and then it was my turn. And then I discovered that I did not have enough money, so I had to go back home and get more.
I walked down the street through the pouring rain, the package still tucked under my arm, dug through the change bucket, got a few more quarters, and then walked out again, still dripping wet. That is how it took me three trips to mail one package.
Emily
P.S. Eric, you rock!
Answers
Traditions - The most memorable of traditions was what the family did around Christmas. Jason grew up doing the exact opposite, so I'd really like to change that, and make Christmas' more memorable for him now. I know that I won't be able to make it to Oregon for Christmas this year, but maybe next year, and I can really show Jason how I celebrated growing up. Last year we did have a tree, but I did all the decorating. And Christmas was really just in the one room. I want to make/buy more decorations this year, and have it really really feel like Christmas. It's just hard to have it with just two people I guess, after growing up and always having so many more. I'll see what I can do to change it this year. Other than that, I'm not sure what traditions Jason and I will have. I guess we'll look back in ten years and let you know.
Changing - I would really like to change my weight right now, since I've gained so much since being married. More importantly, I'd like to actually have the inner strength to actually make myself regularly do work outs. I get distracted way too easily, and although I do SOME working out, I don't do nearly enough to get the results I want. I'd like to be less depressed, but that will probably come with getting a job, and having the ability to take classes and whatnot. I really should just appreciate what I have now - the freedom to do what I want, the time to do drawings, scrapbooking, etc. I know that as soon as I do work, I'll look back and wish I could do this all again. I am doing okay with taking advantage of the free time .. I've got quite a few more drawings to add to the pile.
Changing - I would really like to change my weight right now, since I've gained so much since being married. More importantly, I'd like to actually have the inner strength to actually make myself regularly do work outs. I get distracted way too easily, and although I do SOME working out, I don't do nearly enough to get the results I want. I'd like to be less depressed, but that will probably come with getting a job, and having the ability to take classes and whatnot. I really should just appreciate what I have now - the freedom to do what I want, the time to do drawings, scrapbooking, etc. I know that as soon as I do work, I'll look back and wish I could do this all again. I am doing okay with taking advantage of the free time .. I've got quite a few more drawings to add to the pile.
Friday, October 08, 2004
News from the North
I appreciate the web lessons. I'll make use of them in the next few days, but today was surprisingly busy! Jason got his bonus check from work, so we went to the mall and spent it! We both needed new pants, and some other stuff .. we even picked up some new books, including the entire Hitchhiker's Guide set. I even found piggy number 28, surprisingly at Old Navy. So we've been out all day, and I'm just too pooped to concentrate on all that. Quick question though, how do you set the background? And how do you make links to other pages (like pictures, so they aren't all on your front page)? Other than that, all is well here. I've been working on more drawings, and keeping myself relatively sane (not that my relatives are sane, but whatever). I'll get Jason to work on a Christmas list with me, and we'll email those out soon.
Good stuff people!
Wow! I emailed out those little tutorials this morning and now suddenly there is something to see at Insanity Inc.! Good work Mom and Clarissa (and Nate I guess ;D ). The sidebar is now resizable, so feel free to make it as big or as small as you wish. Just click and drag. I'm looking forwars to seeing what people are going to come up with on their pages. I like Clarissa's already -- even though she didn't post anything here to introduce it to us.
Mom pointed out another webpage creation hint -- just build it in your word processor and "save as webpage." Make sure the filename ends in .htm, and paste the file into your ftp folder. My concern there is that those files tend to be much larger than the ones built from scratch. They use up more precious memory.
On the topic of memory space on our website -- may I propose that we remove all the pictures that were posted on the blog, and are sitting somewhere in the blog archives. The pictures can all be saved to Mom's computer or anyone who wants them. I personally always downloaded the pictures to my computer as soon as they were posted, so I've already got all the ones I wanted to keep for myself. Further pictures can be added to your individual webpages, and just tell us in the blog where to find them. That's my two cents.
Mom pointed out another webpage creation hint -- just build it in your word processor and "save as webpage." Make sure the filename ends in .htm, and paste the file into your ftp folder. My concern there is that those files tend to be much larger than the ones built from scratch. They use up more precious memory.
On the topic of memory space on our website -- may I propose that we remove all the pictures that were posted on the blog, and are sitting somewhere in the blog archives. The pictures can all be saved to Mom's computer or anyone who wants them. I personally always downloaded the pictures to my computer as soon as they were posted, so I've already got all the ones I wanted to keep for myself. Further pictures can be added to your individual webpages, and just tell us in the blog where to find them. That's my two cents.
YEAH!!! I did it!
I posted some recipes to the Cookbook. Thanks Eric and Jared for all your help. I learned that you don't have to write the code yourself, it's really easy to add files using word. Just save your documents as webpages and when you put them in the index be sure to add .htm It worked real well. Now I need to experiment with the page format. Maybe I should put the list in a couple of columns because it's going to fill up fast. I'll add the recipe's from the cookbook and you can add your own favorites. It's a "COOPERATIVE FAMILY COOKBOOK". Let me know what you think.
Love ya,
MOM
Love ya,
MOM
Hype you say?
First things first,
CHAPTER THREE OF EMILY'S BOOK HAS BEEN POSTED
In other news, I am a busy busy boy with school and work and other things, and so I haven't put my own page up. Actually, I started working on it very late last night and Laurel told me to get to bed. I was kind of bummed because I wanted to post some pictures I scanned but now I can't find them, so I'll have to scan them again. Also, Laurel and I tried to write a poem to go onto our page but it was pretty late and it didn't come out too good, so we'll have to try again later.
Love,
Eric
CHAPTER THREE OF EMILY'S BOOK HAS BEEN POSTED
In other news, I am a busy busy boy with school and work and other things, and so I haven't put my own page up. Actually, I started working on it very late last night and Laurel told me to get to bed. I was kind of bummed because I wanted to post some pictures I scanned but now I can't find them, so I'll have to scan them again. Also, Laurel and I tried to write a poem to go onto our page but it was pretty late and it didn't come out too good, so we'll have to try again later.
Love,
Eric
Mom's Answer
First I'll answer the latest question.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My first thought was to think about my appearance. I’d like to be a bit smaller around and I’d like to have straight teeth and there are a few other things about my physical body that I’d like to change but they are not as important as some other changes I need to make. I think what I’d really like to change about myself is the bad habit of procrastination. I need to make myself do things NOW and not keep putting them off. I guess I have this lazy streak that I need to get rid of. You know what? I CAN change that about myself. I think I will work on it, tomorrow. Wait a minute, I can do it NOW!
Thanks Jared for the lessons but I for one am still struggling. Be patient with me and I think I'll get it. When we get our page all the way up it will be fantastic. I've already made it my home page. (Which is why it's nice to have google on there.)
There has been a little talk about Christmas lists but no lists have been sent yet, at least not to me. I know it's only October but if it flies as fast as September did it will be Christmas in no time. PLEASE either post or email your lists, depending on how public you want them. I'll get mine together in the next few days and get them off to each of you, but you know that I like whatever you choose to give and if you can't afford to send presents, that's fine, we still want to send you something, you're our kids.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
My first thought was to think about my appearance. I’d like to be a bit smaller around and I’d like to have straight teeth and there are a few other things about my physical body that I’d like to change but they are not as important as some other changes I need to make. I think what I’d really like to change about myself is the bad habit of procrastination. I need to make myself do things NOW and not keep putting them off. I guess I have this lazy streak that I need to get rid of. You know what? I CAN change that about myself. I think I will work on it, tomorrow. Wait a minute, I can do it NOW!
Thanks Jared for the lessons but I for one am still struggling. Be patient with me and I think I'll get it. When we get our page all the way up it will be fantastic. I've already made it my home page. (Which is why it's nice to have google on there.)
There has been a little talk about Christmas lists but no lists have been sent yet, at least not to me. I know it's only October but if it flies as fast as September did it will be Christmas in no time. PLEASE either post or email your lists, depending on how public you want them. I'll get mine together in the next few days and get them off to each of you, but you know that I like whatever you choose to give and if you can't afford to send presents, that's fine, we still want to send you something, you're our kids.
Thursday, October 07, 2004
webstuff
Okay, here's what I've got now. I tried a few different ways to change the font on the website to something a little flashier, but to no avail. The explanation is that web browsers such as Internet Explorer (which is the one I use) can only support certain fonts, which are the basic plain ones and not much else. There is possibility which I have on my personal homepage only on my computer, which is that all of the links are pictures. In order to do this with the sidebar, I would need some pretty small pictures of everyone to use. Also, I think that the sidebar should be consistent (as opposed to three people having picture links and everyone else not) so I would need pictures from everyone to make that work. It could get tricky, but it's a possibility. My personal vote is I like it how it is. I can however make the sideber resizeable so you can make it as wide or narrow as you want. Everyone has different monitor sizes and resolutions. I'll get to that possibly this weekend sometime. Also, Dad wanted a guestbook page. I've got a simple one put together now, just with name, city/state, and comment. The whole thing is e-mailed to the webmaster@insanityinc.net who can then post it onto the page or not. That's a much simpler program to write than the ones that post automatically. That's something else I'll get onto the site later, after I've worked all the bugs out.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Another Question?
I was hoping to get a little more input on the question of traditions but I guess I could post a new one. Do we need further discussion on the webpage and the mission statement? I think it would be fun to include a "holiday" for each day or at least each week. I believe it was Mindy who came up with a rather unusual list of holidays last year for Trina's Christmas gift. Just a thought.
Anyway the new question is....If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I'll have to think about that one.
Love ya,
MOM
Anyway the new question is....If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? I'll have to think about that one.
Love ya,
MOM
My Life
So what's the latest question from Mom? Just wondering?
My life is continuing on. I was sick over conference weekend and still managed to watch all four sessions (plus the RS broadcast the week before.) And then I missed work on Monday. After one day of sitting around and doing nothing I decided that I didn't care how I felt and I was going to work anyway... and so I've been at work the last two days, even with a miserable cold.
I enjoyed conference a lot. I love the gospel and love hearing from the Lord's servants. It's nice to get the spiritual boost that comes from conference.
Anyway, It's getting dark out and I still have to walk home... so I'll cut this short.
The website looks good to me, although I don't know that my page will ever end up with anything on it... at least not until I'm able to get home at Christmas.
-T
My life is continuing on. I was sick over conference weekend and still managed to watch all four sessions (plus the RS broadcast the week before.) And then I missed work on Monday. After one day of sitting around and doing nothing I decided that I didn't care how I felt and I was going to work anyway... and so I've been at work the last two days, even with a miserable cold.
I enjoyed conference a lot. I love the gospel and love hearing from the Lord's servants. It's nice to get the spiritual boost that comes from conference.
Anyway, It's getting dark out and I still have to walk home... so I'll cut this short.
The website looks good to me, although I don't know that my page will ever end up with anything on it... at least not until I'm able to get home at Christmas.
-T
homepage links
Not to repeat myself, but why Google? Why is that a link on our homepage? What emotional attachment does someone (anyone?) have to Google? The Church, sure. Blogger.com is a smart one. Our family stuff, absolutely. But Google? Explain this one to me.
Page Design
Mindy! Yeah! Either mail a picture home or to me and it'll get scanned in. I've just started thinking about making an animated logo in Flash, but that's just a thought. I certainly am planning on putting together some tutorials on building your page. I also recommend checking out a book on HTML from the library and just trying it out. All you need is Notepad and a browser.
I don't think there should be more than one sidebar though, just so we can keep more screen space for the "content". However, I think they should probably be reorganized a bit. I'm sure Jared will be tinkering with it over these weeks to come. Good suggestion on adding the blogger link. That could go right under the "blog" link for easy access.
My other suggestion on the links is having three sections: The internal links, the family-run links (BBC, Jungle Chicken...) and outside links (Google, LDS.org, etc.).
I don't think there should be more than one sidebar though, just so we can keep more screen space for the "content". However, I think they should probably be reorganized a bit. I'm sure Jared will be tinkering with it over these weeks to come. Good suggestion on adding the blogger link. That could go right under the "blog" link for easy access.
My other suggestion on the links is having three sections: The internal links, the family-run links (BBC, Jungle Chicken...) and outside links (Google, LDS.org, etc.).
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Mindy's Thoughts
I would love to do a homepage design, but if I drew anything I would have no way of getting it onto the computer. I have no scanner or digital camera. But I might come up with something anyway, and eventually mail it home and we can change the homepage picture then. *shrugs* And I agree with Trina - the big I looks weird, otherwise it's cool. Make it bigger.
The Mission Statement should maybe go below the logo, in a cooler font. And cooler fonts on the folders too. I was thinking the side-bar was going to be a little bigger (especially with bigger fonts), and have a second side-bar on the opposite side with all the other links .. BBC, LDS.org, etc. I'm not sure if that would work, but maybe it'd look a little more balanced. And add blogger.com .. so after looking at the blog, we have a quicker way of getting to where we can post.
I would like to figure out how to make my own little website (for my folder), even though I don't know WHAT I'd do with it right now. I have NO idea how to make websites, and although Jason can build a computer, he doesn't have much experience with website building. Maybe the boys can have mini-lessons over the blog or something, on how to do the basics of making our folders.
The Mission Statement should maybe go below the logo, in a cooler font. And cooler fonts on the folders too. I was thinking the side-bar was going to be a little bigger (especially with bigger fonts), and have a second side-bar on the opposite side with all the other links .. BBC, LDS.org, etc. I'm not sure if that would work, but maybe it'd look a little more balanced. And add blogger.com .. so after looking at the blog, we have a quicker way of getting to where we can post.
I would like to figure out how to make my own little website (for my folder), even though I don't know WHAT I'd do with it right now. I have NO idea how to make websites, and although Jason can build a computer, he doesn't have much experience with website building. Maybe the boys can have mini-lessons over the blog or something, on how to do the basics of making our folders.
Introducing... Insanity!
Welcome to the new Insanity Inc. website! This is everyone's website, so you get to do whatever you feel is best with your individual folders. If you want to do it yourself, just ask Eric or me and we'll give you the secret passwords (which will not be published over the internet like this). Or, if you're not comfortable (even though it really is super easy) then we can set things up for you.
Responding to Trina's questions:
The logo that is there is a space filler I threw in just so there would be something there. An official logo contest is hereby opened to anyone who cares to make a contribution. I know Dad's interested in doing one up, but Nate had some thoughts and I'd like to see a contribution from Mindy, so please get something better than my logo.
The font can be changed. Absolutely.
The mission statement and values were made up by me just this morning. Also open for amending.
Remember all, this is your site, so feel free to play with it. Eric and I were thinking that if you want to make changes in your folders, post an announcement on the blog so that we don't all have to keep looking in every folder. Other than that, go have fun.
Responding to Trina's questions:
The logo that is there is a space filler I threw in just so there would be something there. An official logo contest is hereby opened to anyone who cares to make a contribution. I know Dad's interested in doing one up, but Nate had some thoughts and I'd like to see a contribution from Mindy, so please get something better than my logo.
The font can be changed. Absolutely.
The mission statement and values were made up by me just this morning. Also open for amending.
Remember all, this is your site, so feel free to play with it. Eric and I were thinking that if you want to make changes in your folders, post an announcement on the blog so that we don't all have to keep looking in every folder. Other than that, go have fun.
homepage
Let the criticism begin ...
- I like the palmtree and sun, even if it's not our original Insanity Inc. logo. The big I next to it, not so much.
- Like the mission statement and values ... where did they come from? Is that something we came up with years and years ago that I've just forgotten about?
- Can we change to a more fun font for the text than blah Times? I like the scripty ones.
- Why is Google a link? What's the significance of that?
So, I take it that Theresa married the guy she's been with for a number of years, and is Sadie and Maddie's father? Yes? What's his name, anyway? Are they still living in the house on Howard St. where Uncle Gary lived when we were kids? Adam and I have a wedding to go to this weekend - our bishop's daughter and Adam are good friends. We're taking care of the babies (5 of them, the oldest is 3) during the sealing, and then going to the fancy shmancy reception with a string quartet and a sit-down meal at the nicest Marriott hotel in the city. (One of our bishopric counselors is one of THE Marriotts.) I had to go to a work meeting there once. It's quite beautiful.
- I like the palmtree and sun, even if it's not our original Insanity Inc. logo. The big I next to it, not so much.
- Like the mission statement and values ... where did they come from? Is that something we came up with years and years ago that I've just forgotten about?
- Can we change to a more fun font for the text than blah Times? I like the scripty ones.
- Why is Google a link? What's the significance of that?
So, I take it that Theresa married the guy she's been with for a number of years, and is Sadie and Maddie's father? Yes? What's his name, anyway? Are they still living in the house on Howard St. where Uncle Gary lived when we were kids? Adam and I have a wedding to go to this weekend - our bishop's daughter and Adam are good friends. We're taking care of the babies (5 of them, the oldest is 3) during the sealing, and then going to the fancy shmancy reception with a string quartet and a sit-down meal at the nicest Marriott hotel in the city. (One of our bishopric counselors is one of THE Marriotts.) I had to go to a work meeting there once. It's quite beautiful.
Sunday, October 03, 2004
The Folders and Wedding Post
Hi all!
FOLDERS: I don't quite understand why we would need to vote on folders Jared. I mean, it's really wide open. If you want your own section, you can have it, and if you want to create a section for everyone to participate in (a gallery, a cookbook, etc.) well then, that's fine too. I don't mean to be contrary, but I don't see where the controversy is that needs to be settled is all. Whatever people want to create, that's cool. I think I'll send you some emails and make some phone calls to describe what I'm talking about because I don't know how clear I'm being.
WEDDING: In other news, Laurel and I attended Theresa and Ray's wedding this afternoon in Whittier. We saw Gary, Karen, Jeff, Jackie, Leigh... and Marie. And Theresa and Sadie and Maddie of course. They were so cute. It was very nice, and everyone was very happy. We got to see Dad's brothers dance, and that was worth the price of admission itself. What is with us Palmer men and dancing?
FOLDERS: I don't quite understand why we would need to vote on folders Jared. I mean, it's really wide open. If you want your own section, you can have it, and if you want to create a section for everyone to participate in (a gallery, a cookbook, etc.) well then, that's fine too. I don't mean to be contrary, but I don't see where the controversy is that needs to be settled is all. Whatever people want to create, that's cool. I think I'll send you some emails and make some phone calls to describe what I'm talking about because I don't know how clear I'm being.
WEDDING: In other news, Laurel and I attended Theresa and Ray's wedding this afternoon in Whittier. We saw Gary, Karen, Jeff, Jackie, Leigh... and Marie. And Theresa and Sadie and Maddie of course. They were so cute. It was very nice, and everyone was very happy. We got to see Dad's brothers dance, and that was worth the price of admission itself. What is with us Palmer men and dancing?
there, I fixed it.
Sorry 1994, not 2004 for when Elder Holland was called to the 12. At first I was thinking "Of course I know when he was called - I was serving in Sanger and hadn't transferred to Hanford yet, and Elder Perkins was my zone leader and he told me ... " And then I looked at the post. Oops. Sorry.
The main thing I came away from General Conference with was a swift kick in the butt from the Spirit to go to the temple FAR more frequently than we do. Since the beginning of the summer, we've been struggling to get to the temple once a month. We've made it, but barely. And we're a measly 10 miles from the place. No excuse! So ... what we're going to do is go at least twice a month - once (or more) by ourselves, and once, take someone with us. A lot of people in our ward don't have cars so they only go if they can get a ride. We've had a couple of people ask us to let them know when we're going, and there are a few others that we're planning to invite periodically.
There were other things that stood out, but that's the most prominent thing right now.
The web page - well, my vote is that what Jared describes sounds fine to me. Let's see how it looks and go from there. It's not like we can't make modifications to it after it's up and running.
The main thing I came away from General Conference with was a swift kick in the butt from the Spirit to go to the temple FAR more frequently than we do. Since the beginning of the summer, we've been struggling to get to the temple once a month. We've made it, but barely. And we're a measly 10 miles from the place. No excuse! So ... what we're going to do is go at least twice a month - once (or more) by ourselves, and once, take someone with us. A lot of people in our ward don't have cars so they only go if they can get a ride. We've had a couple of people ask us to let them know when we're going, and there are a few others that we're planning to invite periodically.
There were other things that stood out, but that's the most prominent thing right now.
The web page - well, my vote is that what Jared describes sounds fine to me. Let's see how it looks and go from there. It's not like we can't make modifications to it after it's up and running.
I remember them too!
When I was in Germany, Elder Uchtdorf was President of the Europe West Area, and he came and spoke at one of our zone conferences. About halfway through my mission, President Hinckley and Elder Oaks came through Europe and we had a regional conference in Berlin, and Elder Uchtdorf also spoke there. A few months later we got a new Area President, Elder Neil Anderson. He did a zone conference too.
About six months ago, President Bednar came to our stake conference in Colleyville TX. Michelle got to hear him speak, but I wasn't able to make it to that meeting. I think Bryan was sick or something.
I've got this website just about put together -- and yes Eric I did it with frames -- but obviously there are a few diffeing opinions about what all should be included as far as subfolders. I propose a secret ballot vote -- everyone email me a list of what folders you think should be included and majority wins. Just remember that my idea was the best one and vote for that. I'll do the website with one sidebar to minimize any possibility of scrolling.
About six months ago, President Bednar came to our stake conference in Colleyville TX. Michelle got to hear him speak, but I wasn't able to make it to that meeting. I think Bryan was sick or something.
I've got this website just about put together -- and yes Eric I did it with frames -- but obviously there are a few diffeing opinions about what all should be included as far as subfolders. I propose a secret ballot vote -- everyone email me a list of what folders you think should be included and majority wins. Just remember that my idea was the best one and vote for that. I'll do the website with one sidebar to minimize any possibility of scrolling.
Question for Trina
Read your last message over. What year was it that Elder Holland was called? I couldn't remember. I'm glad you are all enjoying the conference, it makes us feel like we're together, even though we're miles apart.
Sunday morning with Eric
Tawnia, you're right. I did forget that you were still there after I left. It all came back to me this morning when you reminded me. In fact, you had Thanksgiving at the Davenports with us in '97 as I recall.
And Trina, you've probably already heard, but you missed hearing Elder Oaks.
Well, session's starting. Take care.
Love, Eric
And Trina, you've probably already heard, but you missed hearing Elder Oaks.
Well, session's starting. Take care.
Love, Eric
Saturday, October 02, 2004
lots of stuff
Jared, tell me if I'm picturing this correctly: on the left side of the screen would be a sidebar of all the personal folders. On the right side of the screen would be "community property" stuff like the blog (and maybe Dad's guestbook idea if we can get that to work), and links to other pages like junglechicken and lds.org. And the center would have the Insanity Inc. logo. Yes?
That's cool that you all remember Elder Bednar (not President anymore!), and awesome about Tawnia having FHE at his house. Adam heard him speak while on his mission in Idaho. I remember when Elder Holland was called in the summer of 1994. He was in the Seventy, and had spoken to our mission less than a month before. So we were VERY excited because he was kinda "our" Apostle - probably similar to what Tawnia described. I still think of Elder Holland as "my" apostle, because I was in a church gym with only about 50 other people and heard him speak with a level of the Spirit that I had never experienced before and have experienced only one time since then ... when President Hinckley read the Proclamation on the Family for the first time, I was in the Tabernacle. Anyway, I'm excited to hear from Elders Uchtdorf and Bednar tomorrow morning. And I wonder which Apostle I'm going to miss this Conference because he's speaking in the priesthood session.
My favorite line of the day was from Elder Groberg: "Things are as they are, and complaining won't help."
That's cool that you all remember Elder Bednar (not President anymore!), and awesome about Tawnia having FHE at his house. Adam heard him speak while on his mission in Idaho. I remember when Elder Holland was called in the summer of 1994. He was in the Seventy, and had spoken to our mission less than a month before. So we were VERY excited because he was kinda "our" Apostle - probably similar to what Tawnia described. I still think of Elder Holland as "my" apostle, because I was in a church gym with only about 50 other people and heard him speak with a level of the Spirit that I had never experienced before and have experienced only one time since then ... when President Hinckley read the Proclamation on the Family for the first time, I was in the Tabernacle. Anyway, I'm excited to hear from Elders Uchtdorf and Bednar tomorrow morning. And I wonder which Apostle I'm going to miss this Conference because he's speaking in the priesthood session.
My favorite line of the day was from Elder Groberg: "Things are as they are, and complaining won't help."
Pres. Bednar
Eric, you forget that when you graduated from Ricks, I was still there. So I was very excited when President Bednar was called.
In fact, I once went to Pres. Bednar's home for FHE. He opened his home for FHE groups to come each Monday and our group jumped at the chance. After he was called today I was so excited that I got out the picture to show to all of my roommates. I'll have to scan it some time and put it on here for everyone to see. I'm very excited to hear him talk tomorrow. He was an amazing college president and I'm excited for him with his new calling.
-Tawnia
In fact, I once went to Pres. Bednar's home for FHE. He opened his home for FHE groups to come each Monday and our group jumped at the chance. After he was called today I was so excited that I got out the picture to show to all of my roommates. I'll have to scan it some time and put it on here for everyone to see. I'm very excited to hear him talk tomorrow. He was an amazing college president and I'm excited for him with his new calling.
-Tawnia
Input on the website (Eric)
Hi all,
As I started typing this, the church "world report" startled me. I'd forgotten the connection to the conference (via the web) was still on. It's reporting on the Manhattan temple. I'm sure you've all heard by now about Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar. I know President Bednar became the president of Ricks at the same time I graduated from there in 1997, and I remember Elder Uchtdorf being called to the Seventy when I was on my mission (I read Church News a lot then). Exciting times in the history of the church. Emily and Mindy can probably tell us more about Elder Bednar, what they remember of him from their time at Ricks and BYU-I while he was president there.
But back to the website dicussion.
Jared-- no offense at all. This is what I hoped might happen when I came up with the family blog idea. I hoped it would snowball into something we could all create together.
I think your sidebar idea is fine, as long as we can use frames to create it. That way, we all still have control over the content of our own pages. The index would then be a frameset holding the sidebar and the logo page, which would then turn into whatever other pages we want to put in there. Is this what you have in mind?
Dad-- I don't know how much security we want to implement. We could probably put up a simple password screen or something like that. I don't really know much about web security. My thinking is that any communication we really want to keep private we should keep to letters, email, and the telephone. But maybe I'm just making excuses.
On the overall design of the site... The blog and homepage can stay in the main directory and be sort of community property. From there, I think we ought to have our own individual folders to create whatever we want. We can post family pictures, stories, links, put up personal blogs, whatever. And those folders can be named whatever, as long as Jared knows what they're called so he can put them on the sidebar.
How does this sound?
And again, thanks so much for participating. This is going to be the coolest website of all time!
Eric
As I started typing this, the church "world report" startled me. I'd forgotten the connection to the conference (via the web) was still on. It's reporting on the Manhattan temple. I'm sure you've all heard by now about Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar. I know President Bednar became the president of Ricks at the same time I graduated from there in 1997, and I remember Elder Uchtdorf being called to the Seventy when I was on my mission (I read Church News a lot then). Exciting times in the history of the church. Emily and Mindy can probably tell us more about Elder Bednar, what they remember of him from their time at Ricks and BYU-I while he was president there.
But back to the website dicussion.
Jared-- no offense at all. This is what I hoped might happen when I came up with the family blog idea. I hoped it would snowball into something we could all create together.
I think your sidebar idea is fine, as long as we can use frames to create it. That way, we all still have control over the content of our own pages. The index would then be a frameset holding the sidebar and the logo page, which would then turn into whatever other pages we want to put in there. Is this what you have in mind?
Dad-- I don't know how much security we want to implement. We could probably put up a simple password screen or something like that. I don't really know much about web security. My thinking is that any communication we really want to keep private we should keep to letters, email, and the telephone. But maybe I'm just making excuses.
On the overall design of the site... The blog and homepage can stay in the main directory and be sort of community property. From there, I think we ought to have our own individual folders to create whatever we want. We can post family pictures, stories, links, put up personal blogs, whatever. And those folders can be named whatever, as long as Jared knows what they're called so he can put them on the sidebar.
How does this sound?
And again, thanks so much for participating. This is going to be the coolest website of all time!
Eric
Dad's Questions and Suggestions
On the webpage should there be a private area to the page where you need a password to get on? Should it all be that way? How would that be done? Or should the page be open to everyone who happens upon it.
When the page opens up the whole page should be visible on the screen. You shouldn't need to scroll to see it.
I'd like to add a guest book for other visitors to our page, so they can make comments.
As for the links being visible, that's great as long as the side bars are small enough. I'm not sure about the artists forum thing. I thought that was what the individual pages were for. So that we don't have too many links on the mainpage we could have a link to a family picture album and put links in there for individual albums or links inside the various writings to pictures that tie in with them. (Jared said having pictures open up with the dialog is too time consuming for his computer.)
One side bar for the individual pages and the other bar has the following... guest book, recipes, genealogy, Blog, junglechicken, BBC, lds.org... this list can be longer or shorter.
I'll work on the logo here at home, unless Mindy or Eric or Laurel or one of our other artists wants to draw it.
Jared mentioned a family mission statement. Should that be on our main page? What should it be?
Love,
Dad
When the page opens up the whole page should be visible on the screen. You shouldn't need to scroll to see it.
I'd like to add a guest book for other visitors to our page, so they can make comments.
As for the links being visible, that's great as long as the side bars are small enough. I'm not sure about the artists forum thing. I thought that was what the individual pages were for. So that we don't have too many links on the mainpage we could have a link to a family picture album and put links in there for individual albums or links inside the various writings to pictures that tie in with them. (Jared said having pictures open up with the dialog is too time consuming for his computer.)
One side bar for the individual pages and the other bar has the following... guest book, recipes, genealogy, Blog, junglechicken, BBC, lds.org... this list can be longer or shorter.
I'll work on the logo here at home, unless Mindy or Eric or Laurel or one of our other artists wants to draw it.
Jared mentioned a family mission statement. Should that be on our main page? What should it be?
Love,
Dad
Web Design.
I've been playing with a few designs for the homepage. What I've come up with has a sidebar on each side with links, and when you click on them the new page opens in the middle with those sidebars still visible. On one side is the links to everyone's individual pages for pictures, etc. On the other side there are links to Mom's history page, a collaborative cookbook, the Question of the Day Blog, and what I call the "Artist's Forum" for creative writing and paintings and cartoons and whatever else creative we come up with. There will also be links to outside websites such as the BBC Meltdown, junglechicken.com, lds.org, and anything else deemed worthy for inclusion. The initial homepage in the middle would have the tree logo (if someone will scan it or recreate it and e-mail it to me or post it here) as well as any important announcements -- wedding dates, pregnancies, Mt. St. Helens erupting, etc. I know it all sounds very complicated, but I've done this kind of stuff before and it looks really neat. It's time to show off what someone other than Eric can do. (No offense bro.)
This is what Mom and I came up with in our brainstorming session. Any other thoughts or ideas?
This is what Mom and I came up with in our brainstorming session. Any other thoughts or ideas?
Friday, October 01, 2004
Mom's answer
Tell about your own family traditions: Christmas, birthdays, graduations, Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, hunting, funerals, Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, weddings, etc.
For many of the listed days we have no particular traditions, but for others we have definite ones. Christmas, of course is my favorite holiday. We set up our Christmas tree and decorate the house right after Thanksgiving. That way we are in the holiday spirit all month long. We generally take the tree down right after the New Year starts. I love caroling and taking treats to our friends. Reading the Christmas story and singing carols on Christmas Eve is a carry-over from my childhood. A fairly recent addition to our Christmas traditions is having Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve so I can relax and enjoy Christmas without spending the day in the kitchen.
The menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty much the same: turkey, potatoes, gravy, rolls, green salad and fruit salad, with pumpkin and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Sometimes there are a few other things added in if other relatives join us. We generally play games while we’re waiting for the meal and afterward. We DON’T watch football.
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day breakfasts in bed have always been fun. Fourth of July picnics and fireworks are special but they aren’t set in stone. Sometimes we don’t follow the tradition and that’s fine. For birthdays the birthday person gets to choose dinner on their special day and we have cake and ice cream.
For many of the listed days we have no particular traditions, but for others we have definite ones. Christmas, of course is my favorite holiday. We set up our Christmas tree and decorate the house right after Thanksgiving. That way we are in the holiday spirit all month long. We generally take the tree down right after the New Year starts. I love caroling and taking treats to our friends. Reading the Christmas story and singing carols on Christmas Eve is a carry-over from my childhood. A fairly recent addition to our Christmas traditions is having Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve so I can relax and enjoy Christmas without spending the day in the kitchen.
The menu for Thanksgiving and Christmas is pretty much the same: turkey, potatoes, gravy, rolls, green salad and fruit salad, with pumpkin and apple pie and ice cream for dessert. Sometimes there are a few other things added in if other relatives join us. We generally play games while we’re waiting for the meal and afterward. We DON’T watch football.
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day breakfasts in bed have always been fun. Fourth of July picnics and fireworks are special but they aren’t set in stone. Sometimes we don’t follow the tradition and that’s fine. For birthdays the birthday person gets to choose dinner on their special day and we have cake and ice cream.
Mount Saint Helens
Today, at 12:03, Mount Saint Helens erupted. There had been tremors recorded at the volcano for the past week, and today it finally blew. It wasn't too big; the eruption only lasted about twenty-four minutes. It was all over the news here, but I didn't know if any of you heard.
Love,
Emily
P.S. Now go read my book
Love,
Emily
P.S. Now go read my book
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