Christmas Question

We decorate the Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving. Sometimes we got a real tree, but lately we've been using an artifcial tree. Dad has to untangle the lights; it seems to be the men's job to string them on the tree. And then we hang up lots of mismatched ornaments, some that we've had in the family for years. We also drape garland around our shoulders or heads; the problem is that it really itches. And then we put our angel at the top of the tree. We usually have lots and lots of presents beneath the tree, and for the past few years we've put two teddy bears under the tree as well, Harold and Angel.

Emily

P.S. I sent everyone in the family an e-mail. Did anyone not get it?

Mom's list

-- Go to the Gettysburg battlefield and the Jefferson Memorial - these are listed as two things, but we can estimate that they'll both be done next summer when Mom and Dad come out here to visit us. I was looking to see what else we could get taken care of on her list while she's out here. Maybe a lighthouse ... Dad's list has something about watching the 4th of July fireworks over the Washington Monument in DC, if I remember correctly.

-- Reading all the standard works in a year - I read something last year that said if you read 7 or 8 (I think 7) pages per day, you can get through ALL the standard works in 12 months. I was going to do it but then we got engaged and I haven't gotten through Section 50 of the D&C. Isn't Section 76 supposed to be "the wall"?

-- See a Broadway play - Mom, didn't you see Les Mis or Phantom once? Those are Broadway plays and they count. Or do you want to see something ON Broadway in New York City? That's something else entirely. Just to warn you, you have to go INTO New York to do that.

-- Clean and organize the office and utility room - I don't mean to be skeptical, but that, I gotta actually SEE before I'll believe either one. (And suddenly, Mom feels VERY motivated. MWA HA HA!)

I wrote a "wildest dreams" list once but it wasn't very realistic. One of the things on it was to provide a voice in a major cartoon ... that's not likely to happen and it's too out of my control to make the cut for the revised list. But I did do the major thing - live in DC for a year. Of course, when I wrote the list, I was figuring I'd be out here for a year and then go back to Oregon, just like every other move I've made. Adam changed that, and now it's looking like we'll be here for at least 6 years. And then, who knows. We'll go where the Lord sends us, whether that's just up the road into Maryland or to Timbuktu. My only request of the Lord is at that time, that we're able to buy a house. With a driveway.

Go Mom!

I like what you've done Mom. I think it looks absolutely fantastic. Go ahead and add 11/29/04 to your top 100 list where it says "create a website." You've got a great one there!

I DID IT!!

Check out my new page and let me know what you think. I have other vacation stories and of course I'll post more questions as I write the answers. If I'm taking up too much space just let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Random Thoughts

Hi kids,
First I want to apologize for not posting for a while. I've been trying to figure out what I want my page to look like. I have some ideas for changes and I've been working on them but it all takes time.

I was going to ask you what you are especially thankful for, before Thanksgiving Day, but that didn't happen. Somehow I got busy with other things but some of you posted your lists of blessing anyway. I have so much to be thankful for and even though the day we celebrate giving thanks is past I want to let you know what some of those things are. There are, of course the obvious things that I sometimes take for granted, meaning Frank and each of you, the gospel and the Savior and so many other things. I am thankful for the beautiful world we live in and my home and all my friends. I'm thankful I have food and clothes and I'm thankful we have this wonderful communication system that helps our family stay in touch. I'm sure I've left out many very important things and I could go on for pages and pages but I don't think you want me to do that.

I have a Christmas question or two for you. First: Describe getting a Christmas tree with your family as a child, how was it decorated, when did you put it up?
I'll ask the other one after you've had a chance to respond to this one. No, I don't think the answer is the same for all of you because we haven't always done everything the same and there is quite an age difference and everyone has a different point of view and different memories.

HA HA HA

So I was poking around on the internet today, and found a very entertaining website that I just had to share. www.thebricktestament.com I'm thinking the boys will find it hilarious, the girls will laugh, and Mom will shake her head. It's totally worth checking out though! (And it's even appropriate for Sunday.) Enjoy! And let me know what you think!

our Christmas tree is up too

And it looks SO COOL! We got a fake tree at Wal-mart - one with the lights already on it, and we got all white lights. I wound 2 really long strands of red garland around the tree. And except for the blue ornaments that Nathan and Amanda sent for us, all of the ornaments are red and white and green. All of the color coordinating was not intentional, but it looks fabulous. Even the candy canes are in those colors - red, white and green (with also a dark line on them - they're chocolate mint). I took a couple of pictures of it already. I don't have any other decorations up yet - we have these arched doorways into the kitchen and hallway and entry, and I'm planning to put garland around them. I haven't decided where to put the stockings yet or what to put on top of the bookshelves. But our tree is up! Yay!

Okay, time to leave for church. Bye.

Happy "Chicken Garlic Pizza" Day

Hey,

Well, I guess I should report on my Thanksgiving. It wasn't very exciting. I spent the day at home watching movies, knitting, wrapping Christmas presents, and then eating my favorite chicken garlic pizza for dinner... mmmmm... Thanksgiving dinner, well I did have some stuffing that my roommate had made from a box. Anyway, somewhere in there my friend Bob stopped by and invited us to go and see "Saints and Soldiers" at the dollar theater... so I went. It was a good movie, but kind of sad. Anyway, then I went home and invited a few friends over for banana cream pie. It was good.

Then yesterday I spent the day basically the same, only I went and saw "The Incredibles." It was a great movie, and Violet is my favorite. I also did some laundry yesterday (yippee). Today is pretty much the same as the rest of the weekend (can you understand why I'm actually looking forward to Monday when I go back to work?!) Only I get to drive to SLC to pick up Annie from the airport, hooray! Only problem is that it decided to snow finally... though it's not sticking yet, it's at least staying steady for a lot longer then it has before, and it's supposed to continue through tomorrow.

Anyway, Happy Chicken Garlic Pizza Day everyone! What? You had turkey? How boring!

-Tawnia

Emily Corps

This will be my corporate name: Emily Corps, a Division of Insanity Inc.

Thanksgiving was great, and I will list a few of the things for which I am grateful:
1. Community college
2. Pumpkin pie
3. My new computer
4. The entire family
5. Being able to belong to the church
6. Glasses (without these I would be blind)
7. The surround sound system Dad just installed in the family room
8. Beautiful green Oregon

Emily

Speaking of trees...

Announcing the all new Insanity Incorporated logo contest! I would love to see a submission to this from everyone. The current logo will remain on the homepage for the time being, and it will also be a candidate in the contest. All Insanity Inc logos, past present and future, and encouraged to apply. Please email your submissions to Jared or post them directly into the ftp folder called "logos". I'd like to get all the submissions in by December 20 ... and then wait to see what happens for Christmas! And while I'm asking for submissions, please get your corporate divisions to me by then as well (see the comments under my last post). Anyone who doesn't give me a name will be stuck with whatever I make up. Until I change it for you later on. Please work with me, since I do actually have a couple of projects in the works over here.

I have a tree!

Today Jason and I went shopping, and we got more Christmas lights and some ornaments (including a super cute Precious Moments one), and pretty wrapping paper, and other various Christmas and non-Christmas needs. Then we went to our friend Aaron's house, and borrowed the same fake tree that we used last year. I pulled out all my other decorations, and Christmas CD's (I have a total of three, not including the entire Nutcracker score that I got in Russia). The tree is up, but not perfected. Things are started, but next weekend we'll probably go shopping again, and I'll find more stuff to add to make the house Christmasfied. It's a start. Maybe I'll make a bunch of cookies tomorrow. Still working on Christmas cards and presents .. the goal is to have all of that mail next Saturday. Only four more weeks until Christmas!

Trina - I took your advice and changed the thumbnails .. now it kinda bothers me that Sadie is the only one facing the opposite direction. Ah well, I can always change that later. Thanks for looking at my site though, and actually commenting on it! I did notice your new picture and yes, it does remind me of a giant pez-dispenser, especially from that angle.

got it, J

So you know, Jared, we've been tossing around ideas on the sisters blog, for Clarissa anyway. Chill out - it's the holidays - people will get to it. And for the record, trinadam will NOT become trinadamatthew ... because then we'd need a W name for the 2nd kid to keep the string going, and there are just no good W names. (Again, see the discussion on the sisters blog for W names. I have vetoed Winkie.)

Also, a comment for Mindy's page - in the section of thumbnails for "portraits," I noticed that you framed everyone's face very cleverly. It looks really cool. However, with Sadie's and Dad's portraits, you have just their eye and it looks weird. Just an inconsistency I noticed that I thought I'd point out.

We have a new picture on our homepage - the "pez dispenser" at the Kennedy Center. Check out the picture and ponder the Animaniacs with the bust of Lincoln: "Look, a giant pez dispenser!" That was our first dress-up date to the symphony last Feb/March (I can't remember off the top of my head). We still haven't done the wedding pictures or the baby update. It's coming ... probably during Christmas break and after my work conference. We'll have more time then.

This is Jared blogging.

Guess what! Someone finally made a comment to the guestbook! You can see it there now. I have also updated my page with the calender for December.

Also, I made an odd request a while back, and no one ever responded. So just in case you all somehow missed it, here it is again. As business consultant for Insanity Incorporated, I believe it is time to once again expand the "business" profile of our organization. We have a mission statement and a values list, which seem to have been ratified by the shareholders (since no one suggested any changes). I think that each of the satellite branches needs a division name to maintain the corporate image of Insanity Incorporated. (I'm not saying our family has a corporate image, just that Insanity Inc. has one. There is a difference.) For example, the Texas office is Jared Palmer Unlimited, a division of Insanity Inc. The DC office is Trinadam, a division of Insanity Inc. Maybe in a few months we'll rename that division Trinadamatt. Or Trinadamolly. Anyway, I need branch names for the Utah office, the Canada office, the California office, and the McMinnville office. I don't want functional names, like the legal dept. or dept. of education or Ministry of Magic. I want these names to stick with you even if you move across the country and change careers. Get it? Thanks.

SUCCESS!

I have another thing to be thankful for - that my constant queasiness eased up yesterday and did not pester me through Thanksgiving. Hooray!

Our very first Thanksgiving dinner that we cooked all by ourselves turned out FABULOUS! The turkey was done properly and not all dried out. The apple pie turned out really good. We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green salad, biscuits, and fruit salad. Then we took Sarah and the missionaries (who had dinner with us, and Adam sent them home with most of the leftovers) to the monuments: Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, the new WWII memorial, the Vietnam Wall (and we found Elder Bean's uncle's name on the wall), and the Korea memorial. We also went to the Einstein statue and the Awakening statue (ask about Tawnia's pictures - it's hilarious). Back home for dessert - pie, pie, pie. Apple, pumpkin, cherry, blueberry and banana cream. It's been a very, very long day, but a fun day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's morning time so we're doing various prepwork ... and somewhere in there, I need to clean because our house because it's a disaster. But in the meantime, here are the top 10 things I'm thankful for right now:

1 - Adam
2 - the Palmer clan
3 - Matthew
4 - that I've met all of Adam's family and I'm getting to know them
5 - the gospel
6 - the temple so we could get married for forever
7 - computers and the internet because they make it so much easier to communicate over long distances
8 - all of our supportive friends
9 - our home and that people GAVE us so much furniture
10 - my paycheck so we can survive while Adam goes to school

Mom's Page

It took some doing but I finally got my page up and running. Most of the things on there you've already seen. Now I need to learn how to make a link to another index where I will list "The many travels of Evelyn" Maybe I should put the link to that page in another color or font so it's different from the rest of it. Let me know what you think of it so far.

Love ya,
MOM

By the way, Nathan and Amanda are fine. He just bumped the car in front of them and it was not damaged at all. Their car has some minor damage but no one was hurt. They were shook up a little, emotionally as expected. They were going fairly slow.

Update from Eric and Laurel

Well, lots has been going on here. Sorry for not posting more. I've enjoyed reading everybody's posts. Except I feel bad for Bryan getting a macaroni up his nose. And for Nathan getting into a car accident. Is Nathan okay? Anybody heard?

Just now Laurel was frustrated because Skeeter was out of his cage and wouldn't go back. So I walked in the room and said "Get back into that cage young man!" And he flew right down from the ceiling fan and into the cage.

Laurel's sister Kathleen (aka "Soy") spent all last week with us. We took her to Disneyland and the Wild Animal Park (near San Diego). It was a fun time. Soy is 13 now, and has that sullen teen thing down pat. She also had fun playing with Rachel's kids, so it's obvious she still has some little kid in her. I taught Rachel's kids how to play Sardines on Sunday night, and they really enjoyed it. Okay, so I also have some little kid in me.

Saturday morning we went to Grandma's 94th birthday. She was looking very well and actually seems more healthy, alert, and coherent than she has in years. Gary and Karen took us out to lunch afterwards, along with T and Ray and the girls, and Leigh. It was a good time, but we had to get back to load up the car for the trip to Redlands.

Laurel got a call from a gallery (actually, a hair salon that also sells art) in Redlands that they want her show now, and not in January. So we framed the pictures this week and drove out to Redlands on Saturday to hang the show. They look really good. You can see them on the web when we get them up. Ben Majors came over to photograph them Friday night.

Anyway, this morning the gallery owners called to tell us that a lady came in and bought four of the paintings for her house in Palm Springs. They said there's a lot of interest in them and we haven't even advertised yet! So Laurel is gearing up to paint more and I'm really proud of her.

And the job search is... still going on. I have a lot of homework and job searching to do this week. It keeps me busy, which is good. I'll keep you posted on all that.

I'm still not quite sure what we're doing for Thanksgiving. Theresa is having dinner at her place, so we may swing by there. I think I might play football with the ward in the morning... it should be a good day.

I am thankful for my wonderful family. I love you all.

Eric

I hear you Michelle

When Jared was little he got his foot caught in the spokes of a bicycle and his Daddy took him to the emergency room. When he got back he told me, "I went to the hospididdle and the foot dentist put a seat belt on my foot." (It was an ace bandage.) It certainly lightened up a rather intense moment. Two year olds are wonderful. I just hope Bryan isn't as accident prone as his Daddy is.


I guess I should tell what my favorite dessert is. APPLE PIE! I'm not as crazy about making it as I am about eating it, which is probably a good thing. Apple Crisp or other apple dishes are great, too. What I really wish I could figure out is how my mom made her apple cobbler. I tried an experiment on Sunday but it wasn't right. When I figure it out I'll post it for everyone. It was the best dessert in the whole world and I never got the recipe.

My not so fun day with Bryan

Raising a 2 year is never boring. This morning I went to the grocery store with Brooke and Bryan. I waited for 10 minutes for the stockers to finally bring a gallon of milk (which is very annoying-why should any grocery store be out of milk). Then as I was watching them finally put the milk in Brooke and Bryan ran across the store. Brooke came back. Bryan didn't. I was running through the store screaming his name. After a few minutes finally, a women was leading by the hand to the front of the store. Man, that was scary. I was so relieved.

Next during lunch, Bryan decided to shove a piece of macaroni up his nose. He didn't understand how to blow it out, so I called the doctor. While I was getting the kids shoes, they started fighting over a music box, so Brooke bit him. At the doctor, the physician assistant couldn't get the macaroni out with the instrument, because the macaroni was to soft and too far in. They scheduled me an appointment with a specialist for tomorrow to have it suctioned out. While, they made several phone calls the macaroni worked its way lower. The PA got a softer, less sharp instrument and finally got in out while Bryan squirmed and screamed. At least its out. Bryan told "Daddy", "I put a macaroni in my nose and the doctor got it out with a pencil."

Wow, this is deja vu. It's all coming back to me. I had almost forgot what it was like to have a 2 year old. Good thing Bryan is here to remind me.

Michelle

PS-Brooke got a really cute hair cut this morning. Since she has so much wave and curl to her hair (thanks the Palmer gene), they gave her layers that give her a lot of body. Best of all, it is a wash and go hair style.

okay, maybe not

I did not have an ultrasound today. The doctor just looked inside me with a big flashlight and asked me a lot of questions about our medical history. We had to schedule the ultrasound for another day, and I can't get out of work at all for the next 2 or 3 weeks because of the conference in Savannah (which I am coming to dislike rapidly). It will be on Mon. Dec. 13, as soon as I get back from the trip.

I've started reaching a pregnancy book, and 48 pages in, my strongest conclusion thus far is that pregnancy is not for the squeamish, and labor and delivery are worse. Conversation about every body part under the sun and every possible function is laid right out on the table. When discussing pregnancy with your doctor or your friends or even with people you barely know, anything is fair game. It's interesting, that's for sure.

Pie Recipes

Here is the recipe for pumpkin pie straight from the Libby's website. I always start with this recipe but then I make some modifications. I've tried other brands of pumpkin but they don't taste as good. My additions include more cinnamon another teaspoon or so, more cloves, probably double that, too about 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg and some allspice if you can find it. Taste the mix before you pour it into the pie crust and make sure it tastes right. The recipe here is for one pie but the big cans, like I usually get makes two pies so be sure to double it if that's what you use. DO NOT GET PUMPKIN PIE MIX!! I suppose if you did you could add more spices to it and it would turn out OK.

Pumpkin Pie
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs
1 can (15 oz.) LIBBY'S 100% Pure Pumpkin
1 can (12 fl. oz.) CARNATION Evaporated Milk
1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell
Whipped cream (optional)

Directions:
MIX sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves in small bowl. Beat eggs in large bowl. Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.

POUR into pie shell.

BAKE in preheated 425° F. for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350° F.; bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate. Top with whipped cream before serving.


Apple Pie
1 (9 inch) deep dish pie crust
5 cups apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup white sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C.) Arrange apple slices in unbaked pie shell. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over apples.
Mix 1/3 cup sugar with flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Spoon mixture over apples.
Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until apples are soft and top is lightly browned.

I like this recipe for apple pie because I've never been very successful at making top crusts. This one is super easy. If the apples you're using aren't very tart add a teaspoon or so of lemon juice to the apples before you put the top crust on.

I know I could have posted these to the cookbook and I should add them but I wanted to get them on here right away, and this was the quickest way. I found the apple pie recipe on the Internet, too, but it's very similar to the one I use and I didn't need to go look it up. I'll post the one for fudge later. One thing about Mindy's post about pretzels. Be sure to get dipping chocolate because it sets up very quickly. It's also fun to dip pretzels in white chocolate and add candy sprinkles.

Hope this helps,
MOM

Food

My all-time favorite dessert is chocolate raspberry cheesecake. As far as candy goes I like skittles (original and sour), starbursts (original), peanut butter cups, milkyways, and three musketeers. Ice cream: mint chocolate chip, peppermint, olde savannah caramel, and chocolate chip cookie dough.

Ice Cream and Peals

Over all, ice cream is the best, probably for the wide variety of flavors, and the easy accessibility. The flavor really depends on my mood, sometimes I'm all for chocolate, and sometimes I want a gentler fruity flavor (raspberry is so good!). Candy Bar Swirl, Strawberry, and Mint are right up there. Pie is good - especially Mom's pumpkin pie (yes, please post the recipe!) - and I made a banana cream a while back, which was quite good too. And cheesecake. And root beer floats. And I can't not mention my sugar cookies - I always get quite famous among Jason's co-workers for my sugar cookies. This holiday I'll just have to make lots and lots and have a fun time decorating them all. Maybe I'll do make some this weekend instead of Thanksgiving (since ours was back in October). Trina - to make chocolate covered pretzels, just melt chocolate in the microwave, and dip pretzels in, allowing them to cool on wax paper. Jason likes apple pie, and he absolutely loves my apple crisp. I've made it a couple times, and he gets giddy every time it's mentioned. He doesn't like pumpkin pie, unless it's topped with lots and lots of ice cream .. and he loves to put top-scotch (butterscotch/caramel) in his ice cream.

I've started reading Emily's story, and have a few comments so far. The title of the Prologue makes me think of an orange. I'd suggest just leaving it as the Prologue. And then the end can be the Con-logue. (heehee) In the prologue, 4th paragraph, "He knelt and reached under the man's collar, feeling for what he knew must be there. He could feel no pulse; the man was dead. His fingers quickly found what he sought." The last sentence feels weird, because I got the impression that yes, he did just find what he was looking for - the lack of pulse. I'd suggest rewording a little, to avoid confusion. One other thing .. he sees a village though the woods .. either it was small woods, or he was fighting in the woods. Usually the villages are on the other side of the trees, not smack in the middle (but then, it could be for defense). And fighting in the middle of the forest? The trees could be awfully close together, or they could be in a clearing? Again, clarify a little. Otherwise a very good beginning. I'll post more critiques later, unless you just want me to email them to you.

pies

My favorite dessert is actually not pie. But for Adam and one of the Elders (who are spending Thanksgiving with us), Thanksgiving is ALL ABOUT THE PIE! Turkey is expendable. Ham is an acceptable substitute. We could probably have cheeseburgers and these guys wouldn't complain as long as there was pie. We're having apple, pumpkin, cherry, blueberry, and banana cream, as well as cheesecake and maybe apple crisp. And on that happy note, Mom, can you please post recipes to make apple pie from scratch and pumpkin pie? NOW? We're doing our pies on Wednesday night. Adam already made the crust and it's in the fridge, but we don't know how to do the filling.

Also, can you post how to make fudge and chocolate covered pretzels? Those are my Christmas requirements, along with frosted sugar cookies and gingerbread and graham cracker houses and candy canes.

For my favorite dessert in general, it's definitely ice cream. We went on a banana split kick for a while this summer. My favorite birthday dessert is now Adam's SUPER CHOCOLATE cake. He puts chocolate chips INTO the chocolate fudge cake mix before it's baked. Then he covers it all with super chocolate frosting, and covers it with more chocolate chips. You need lots of milk to eat it. My favorite Thanksgiving dessert is warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream. My favorite Christmas dessert is fudge.

Thank you for posting all those instructions. We'll get plenty of mileage from them ...

The ultrasound for the baby is in 3 hours and 11 minutes. Sarah gets here tonight with our Christmas stash (yes, we have wrapping paper), and we'll turn her loose on the Smithsonians tomorrow while I'm at work and Adam is at class. We're going to the White House Wednesday morning. Thanksgiving day, between dinner and dessert, we'll take her and the Elders to the Monuments on the Mall. They're in our ward boundaries, but it's hard to get down there without a car. Plus, they're both greenies and haven't gone yet. It will be fun.

HI everyone

Hey Jared, part of this message will be directed to you. But first I just wanted to say... Hello everyone. Jared, earlier today you and I got one more thing in common. As I was driving through Lafayette I started dozing and BAM!!! Pretty cool, huh? Now were like, crash brothers. ok... bye

Happy Anniversary

Hey Mom and Dad!

I figure that you're doing something fun today since tomorrow is Sunday. I will hopefully get a chance to call you tomorrow, but if I don't HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! Wow, can you believe it's been 35 years already? And look what you have to show for it... 8 children, 2.5 grandchildren, and 4 great-grand birds. That's pretty amazing.

Brooke - thanks for posting on the blog! Congratulations on starting school after Thanksgiving, that is very very cool! I hope you have a LOT of fun and are good to your teacher. Please be sure to tell us all about it.

And my favorite dessert. Well, there are to many to choose from... I would have to say it depends on my mood and what is available. Chocolate is always good, in it's many varieties. I love cheesecake and ice cream. I'm not big on hard candy unless it's peppermint or butterscotch. I like peanut butter M'n'M's. Anything made by Mom gets an A++ and Mindy's sugar cookies are great. Clarissa also makes great apple pie, and my roommate Annie makes peanut butter bon bons that are delicious. SO yeah, it's to difficult to choose a favorite.

-t

FINISHED

Dear family,

I had a deadline to meet: midnight on the last day of November. And I finished at exactly eight o'clock in the evening on the nineteenth. (I would have been finished about five mintues sooner, but Jared called at that moment and no one else is around to answer the phone. Oh, by the way, Mom, Jared called.)

Yes, my story is complete -- sort of. Okay, it's not my best story, not by far, but at least it is an almost coherent and complete story, even if I do tend to repeat myself and ramble at times. By the end I was just going into detailed descriptions of fountains, but this turned out to be good because it inspired the final scene in the story: a meeting at the unicorn fountain at midnight on the night of the full moon will mean that you were meant to be together. And Jared has to go with his cousin Dustin because Dustin wants to meet a girl, and there Jared meets a young woman called Abish (first name I could think of) who was apparently set up by someone, and so they end up together. (This was really inspired by something I heard that happens at Utah State; ask Tawnia for details since I can't remember them all.)

Yes, I'm done. Hooray, hooray, hooray! Go me! Go me! 50,068 words.

Love,
Emily

Brooke's Big News!!!!

My favorite dessert is vanilla cookies (I think she means sugar cookies). I get to start school in ten days. (She will start pre-kindergerten at Roanoke Elementary on Monday November 29 because there's no school during the week of Thanksgiving. She will go to school from 7:50 am until 10:50 am.) I got a DVD at the library and it's Hello Kitty. (Yep.) I want to go to the light parade and have breakfast with Santa. (Those are upcoming holiday activities.) I love you all very very much. (Me too.)

love Brooke (with Daddy's help)

My Favorite Desserts

In answer to Mom's latest question, my favorite dessert is chocolate cream pie. It's creamy, it's got chocolate, and it can be really rich and sweet. Yummy! I haven't had any chocolate cream pie in over a week. (We went out for dessert after Institute last week.) My favorite kind of ice cream is peppermint (with chocolate mint and rocky road in second and third), my favorite cake is devil's food, and my favorite cookies are chocolate chip peanut butter. And my favorite candy bar is Twix -- Snickers comes in second. My favorite soda is A&W root beer. And my favorite kind of pie (after chocolate cream of course) is Mom's pumpkin pie (everything else tastes a bit bland compared to hers) and apple pie (hot with a scoop of ice cream on top).

I hope that answers the question.

Emily

resolved

Adam and Eric talked on the phone and got the computer thing figured out. So we're good. The trinadam home page has been changed. The background colors and picture don't quite jive to me, so that needs some tweaking ... I'd like a more current, and more colorful, picture there, but DC is so color-LESS at this time of year. It's beautiful in the spring/summer/fall, but once all the leaves are gone ... BLEH! until at least March. The wedding pictures and baby update may have to wait until Christmas break - Adam has a big paper to write this weekend, and Sarah gets here Monday. But who knows. We may be able to make some time to work on it.

Jared, I know what you mean about liking a regular schedule with life. Hooray for a regular schedule! Good luck with the new job!

random drivel from Jared

Trina - I was able to get into the FTP tonight at home, but I couldn't when I tried from work earlier this afternoon. For some reason I've always been able to get in from home (usually) but never anywhere else. For anyone who's interested, I fixed up the cookbook page. There were a couple of bad links and invisible lines because of minor coding typos. I noticed it after I had added my Beef Roast recipe.

Work is going well (the first three days anyway) and I'm happy to be on a regular schedule now.

Why is Mom home so early?

I left work about 1:00 because I was feeling very nauseous. The teacher, Bridget, left work on Monday after throwing up and now it's my turn. I'm feeling a little better now and thought I'd post a new question for everyone.... What is your favorite dessert? Not something I want to think about at the moment but definitely appropriate for the holiday season, with all those goodies.

Maybe I can spend a little time working on my webpage, if I'm feeling well enough.

Love,
MOM

No troubles here!

I'm having no problem getting onto the family site, or in the background ftp stuff. If people are still having problems and what to update (Trina), then I could do it for you (as long as you email me all the stuff and tell me how you want it). It'd be nice if it would work for you, especially so you could learn how to do it yourself, but *shrugs* no idea! Maybe it's something locally.

And the good news is .... I am legal again! Well, I never wasn't, but my visitor status finally came in the mail today, after being a month late. It means I can legally stay in the country for another year while my residency paperwork is processed. This is good. If I hadn't gotten this, I would have had to leave the country and start all my paperwork over again. Horray for the mail!

anyone else having trouble?

We are not having car trouble, like Tawnia is. We're having computer trouble, and we're not sure if it's our computer itself or outside things. Case in point - we can't get the website to work. First, we could get in but could not get the trinadam page changed. Now we can't even log in at all - it won't accept the password. Is anyone else having this trouble? We've got all kinds of fun things to put on our page - we finally got the wedding pictures taken care of, and I'm writing a journal-type pregnancy update. Of course the BIG news with that will be on Monday after we have our ultrasound ...

In other news, the big wreaths in the Union Station archways are up - "big" meaning about 10 feet across. I have a good view of them out my office window. Adam's best friend from Florida, Kevin is in town and coming over for dinner tonight (he's staying with his mom down in Alexandria). Sarah Loving will get here Monday night. And Jill, another Florida friend who I met when we were down there (and she makes me laugh very hard - she's great), will stay with us in the middle of December because she has a job interview in Baltimore. When it rains, it pours ...

Well, Look at the Time

Okay, so I just wanted to point out the time of when I'm posting this. You're all looking at it now and wondering... why is Tawnia posting at 10 a.m. on a Wednesday morning. Yes, there is school today, and I should be there (no I didn't quit or get fired... hopefully I'll be back at work in a couple of hours)... but here's the story.

On Friday as I got home from work and got out of my car (with my hands full of stuff) I closed my car door and it made a strange clunk sound. I looked and realized it wasn't closed... and I figured that I had closed my seatbelt in the door. So I shifted things around in my hands, got my keys out and opened the door only to discover that I had not closed my seatbelt in the door... and now my door wouldn't close if the lock wasn't down....

Saturday I had to drive to Orem to go out to lunch with a couple of friends and well... my door still wouldn't close completely, but it latched enough so that I figured I'd be okay. Only problem now is that the "door open" alarm goes off continually... beep, beep, beep, beep.... it's like an annoying alarm clock and drives me crazy.

Sunday, I left my car and walked to stake conference up on BYU campus.

Monday, I drove to work while listening to Harry Potter very loudly... enough that the beeping didn't bother me too much.

Tuesday, again I drove to work only I had forgotten to get the next Harry Potter CD (I'm listening to book 5 which my roommate has on CD)... so instead I listened to my EFY CD (which it turns out is really scratched up... makes me sad) and then the radio. I left work early yesterday because I knew that Amy's dad was coming down from I.F. and I figured that he could look at it for me. He and Bill (Amy's brother) both looked at it, put some WD-40 on the latches and then continued to look at it while I left and went out to dinner with my friend Marne. When I got home they told me that they wouldn't be able to fix it. They think that the hinges are bent out of alignment. I asked Randy (the dad) if he thought it would be okay for me to drive with it for a few more days, or if I should get it fixed. He said, it would be best to take it to my nearest Nissan dealer ASAP because you never know when the door could come flying off. And then he told me that he's actually seen car doors come off and then swing back through the windshield...

And since I like my head, I drove it (my car, not my head) to the Nissan dealer in Orem this morning... they shuttled me back to Provo, and now I'm just waiting for them to call me and tell me what's wrong with it.

And that is why I'm posting at 10 on a Wednesday morning.

presidents

I don't know that any of us kids really have much leeway to answer the question of "What President do you remember the most." There have only been 4 since none of us remember the Nixon/Ford/Carter 70s. I'd just started 3rd grade when Reagan was elected in 1980 and he had 2 terms. Then Bush I, Clinton for 2 terms, and now Bush 2 also into a 2nd term. I remember the dissolving of the Soviet Union and the Persian Gulf war in 1991, but don't connect the president with those events. Clinton - eh - I'll skip that. Bush 2 is when I finally started paying attention to federal politics. And everyone knows what's memorable about the last 4 years - the Florida recount fiasco and the Supreme Court deciding who won, the World Trade Center attacks, Afghanistan, and now Iraq. There's also all the gay marriage stuff, the Pledge of Allegiance Supreme Court case, the economic/state budget crunches and depressions, all on top of the fact that I now live in Washington DC. So ask me this question in another 20 years ...

And for the record, I think it's stupid that Lafayette actually has an incorporated street called "Park Avenue," particularly since that "avenue" is simply a gravel road. I'm not opposed to the road at all - it has made things MUCH easier around there, including parking for all of our hordes of people. But please. Park Avenue for THAT?

To end the confusion

Thanks Mindy, I really love the way you added the sun to the trees. It looks so cute. The font you made is great, too.

I was not intending to confuse anyone with my comment about the address. Dad has been joking, ever since they put the street in, that we should change our address to 500 Park Ave. When we were talking about "corporate headquarters" I told him that he could make it the address for that. Shouldn't a fictitious corporation have a fictitious address? I think if you choose to write to that address that it will work if you put the zip+four on it because that should send it to our PO Box. Dad is going to give it a try and make sure. Sorry for the confusion.

In answering the question that didn't inspire much conversation, I can remember several presidents. When I was a child Eisenhower was the President. I remember all the "I like Ike" buttons that my dad had. The first election I remember was in 1960, when Kennedy was elected. I don't remember much of his administration, but his death made a big impact on me as it did on everyone in the country. I think my favorite President was Ronald Reagan. He put so many things in motion for the end of communism in Europe, even though they didn't all happen until Bush was in office. Of course I remember all the Presidents since then, too, but he was my favorite.

I'd better leave for church now. Have a wonderful Sabbath, everyone and post a little more often.

Love, MOM

Fresh Picture

I finally got another comment about the picture when Mom called this morning. She said that Nathan said that it didn't look like our logo, because there was no sun with the 8 rays behind the trees. So I added it. It took a while to figure it out, so the yellow circle didn't make the trees look cut off and yellow too, but I finally managed it. What do you think? I'm pretty happy with it. Other people can play with it too, or make their own.

Hello

Hi everyone. How is everyone doing? We are going to Salem today. We are going to buy Cherish and Gary a wedding present, and Trina and Adam a Christmas present. We are also going to get refunds back on our phones. Tonight we are going to a ward soup social. After that we are going to a hypnotist/comedian. Our day is packed. That is what we are up to today.

bye

pregnancy update

I am now at the end of Week 7. My first major doctor appointment is in 10 days, on the 22nd. Rumor has it that we will do the first ultrasound at that time, and Adam is planning to go with me to the appointment. I haven't gotten sick at all. A tiny bit queasy just a couple of times, but that's it. Maybe I have escaped that fate, or maybe it's still waiting to hit. I get hungry more frequently, and it's painful when I am, like my stomach is trying to turn inside out on itself. I have zero appetite this week - nothing sounds good, but I force myself to eat because I have to. (And because it hurts not to.) I've been doing okay today and yesterday, but for the last couple of weeks, I've been SO TIRED. It's a fight all day long just to keep my head up, let alone to focus at work. It's a miracle I've gotten anything done at all. The mood swings are really kicking in. You all thought I was bad to wake up when I was a kid, or that my PMS mood swings were mean. Heh. This is a whole new level. Adam is tough as nails and already deserves a military combat award for NOT reacting to my latest incarnation of The Wicked Witch of the West. I suggest the Navy Cross - bravery under fire.

You don't see anything just yet, but I am working on our page. I'm planning to call Mom this weekend about some of the wedding pictures, and I'm typing up a journal type thing for the baby report. I'll update it when major things happen, and have it on our page. I'm also planning to put Christmas pictures on it after the holidays, and other random things. It will be cool. I like everyone's so far. Mindy's palm tree drawing on the front page is nice, Clarissa's quotes make me laugh, Brooke's pictures are fun (does Bryan not draw?), and all the artwork is neat as well. Keep it coming!

Where did everyone go?

No one has posted for several days, and I had put a comment on Mom's last post -- is it really 500 Park Avenue, or is it just that we can put whatever we want on letters, because the only thing that matters is 97127-0641? Just asking.

Eric and I had a great conversation the other night, and it sounds like he had similar ones with everyone else. What we concluded is that we (at least he and I, if not the rest of the family) would like feed-back on our websites. I changed the front page picture, and got a sentance from Mom thanking me for it, and that was the only way I even knew anyone else noticed it. We want to know that what we're doing is being noticed, and that it is liked. And if you have suggestions for making it better, let us know!

In other news, Jason and I and a few friends went and saw The Incredibles yesterday. It was hilarious! Great family fun. I definately reccommend it, and I already see characters that everyone will say -- that was my favorite! And hear Emily and Clarissa quoting this for years to come. Go see! Go see!

Corporate Headquarters

First CONGRATULATIONS JARED on the new job.

We loved your request for the various division titles. The girls here are figuring out what they want to call their divisions, even though they're housed at headquarters at the moment, they want their own titles. They will announce them once the decisions are made. By the way, the headquarters address is Insanity Inc. 500 Park Avenue Lafayette, OR 97127-0641. The zip+4 is a must or we won't get the mail. Dad is going to test it to make sure that it works.

Announcement!

I just got a new job! Next week I will start with Ameritrade as a client service representative, which basically means I will be helping people trade stocks online.

An odd request...

As business consultant for Insanity Incorporated, I believe it is time to once again expand the "business" profile of our organization. We have a mission statement and a values list, which seem to have been ratified by the shareholders (since no one suggested any changes). I think that each of the satellite branches needs a division name to maintain the corporate image of Insanity Incorporated. (I'm not saying our family has a corporate image, just that Insanity Inc. has one. There is a difference.) For example, the Texas office is Jared Palmer Unlimited, a division of Insanity Inc. The DC office is Trinadam, a division of Insanity Inc. Maybe in a few months we'll rename that division Trinadamatt. Or Trinadamolly. Anyway, I need branch names for the Utah office, the Canada office, the California office, and the McMinnville office. I don't want functional names, like the legal dept. or dept. of education or Ministry of Magic. I want these names to stick with you even if you move across the country and change careers. Get it? Thanks.

Seedy's big adventure

Okay, so we got home from Rachel and Loren's at around ten tonight, and Laurel of course went straight to the birds. We usually leave the cage door open and tonight was no exception. So Laurel got out the nest box to look at the four babies. They're looking very much like Petey and Polly these days. They've grown up quite a bit over the past few weeks. Well, there were only three birds in the nest instead of four when Laurel checked.

She quickly figured out that Seedy, the oldest (and she's a girl) was missing. Laurel and I searched the house, especially the dining room/living room area near the cage, but we couldn't find her. Laurel told me to go ahead and finish my homework while she tore apart the living room.

Needless to say we both said prayers that we would find Seedy and that she would be okay.

Finally Laurel heard a faint chirp by one of her bookcases and I went out to help her take books off the shelves so we could move the case. Suddenly the chirps got very loud, and it turned out that Seedy was not behind or under the bookcase but was behind a bunch of magazines on the bottom shelf, and when I pulled some off the shelf the others almost fell on her, thus the loud chirps.

So Seedy is safe in the cage, and Laurel has closed its door until the little birds learn how to fly and so we can keep an eye on them while they go exploring the rest of the house. As far as we know, this was the first time one of the babies got out of the nestbox on their own, and the first time one of them got out of the cage. They're growing up so fast!

Okay, enough bird talk. I've got a big day tomorrow so take care all!

Love, Eric

Updates

Hello, family.

For those of you who have been anxiously awaiting the next thrilling chapter of my book, chapters six and seven have been posted. I have also e-mailed you my Christmas list. If you did not get it, please write to me and tell me, because that probably means I don't have the right e-mail address.

Love,
Emily

US Presidents

Oddly enough, the President I remember most is George W. Bush. I was very young during the Reagan administration, Bush the First was only there for four years, and I spent two years of Clinton out of the country. But the events of the last four years have had enough of an impact that I'm pretty sure I'll remember W alot more clearly than I will any of his predecessors.

In other news, the Texas satellite branch of Insanity Incorporated now has a DVD player! Now we just need to start our DVD library to supplement our VHS library.

Thanks Mindy

Your drawing is much better than my clip art conglomeration. I'm enjoying the artwork you're posting on the page. I think I've figured out what I want on my page. Now I just need to learn how to get it on there so it won't take up too much space. I guess I'll have to learn how to write HTML. I'm really not very good at it.

I haven't had a lot of time lately to work on the computer. I'm involved in a church project called "The Gift of Family History" the missionaries give a card to an investigator so they can list the names, birthdates, etc of them, their parents and grandparents. Then they are given to Family History Consultants, of which I'm one, and we research to see what we can find. When the research is finished the consultant goes with the missionaries to explain their findings. We're just getting started on it and I'm in the middle of my "Test Case". I'm using JoAnne as my test and I've found quite a bit to get her going. I hope she catches the spirit. That's the point of this program. I heard that in Sacramento, where this was first tried, they had a 900% increase in the number of baptisms and 100% retention of new members. It's really an awesome plan.

Dad and I have also been busy doing some research of our own and will do several more baptisms tomorrow. We need some breakthroughs, though, because we're going to run out of work soon.

Ready for a new question? Here's a good one for right after the election: What U.S. President do you remember most?

I'm Updated Too!

That's all I've really got to say. I've added several new pictures to my site. I hope that's okay with everyone, that I'm taking up so much space by having so many pictures! Maybe one of these days I'll branch off and have my own website with all my artwork. But until then, you're stuck with me here! Oh, and I switched the picture on the main-page, if that's all right. Eric - I like the drawing of how to play Lizard Tag! And Nathan - sweet page. I like reading all your poems. And the site index drawing is cool!

PS and I fixed Tawnia's picture too.

Updates to Eric's Page

Hi all!

I was so inspired by Nathan's staying up late to make changes to his section, that I did the same thing last night. I have posted two new pages in my section... check them out. I'd just like to say that I really love what everyone is doing with the website. It is really exceeding expectations. I don't really feel at all like it's "my" page anymore. I don't think I have for quite a while actually. Keep up the great work!

An update from our neck of the woods... Laurel has been working temp jobs for the last two weeks since I got laid off. I had my first interview yesterday at Pacific Life insurance. It looks like it might be a good fit. It's a Sr. Training Coordinator position, with a lot of instructional design work as well as training. We'll see if they call me back.

So Laurel is off to work the Nordstroms sale at the Brea Mall, and I've got some homework to do. Take care all! We love you!

More exciting news

I just got a call from my sister, Joy, she called to tell me that her son, Cookie, is going to be made an elder on Sunday. He'll also baptize his wife that day. I told Joy that her challenge is to be ready to go to the temple by the time they are. I also told her (and Cheryl and Sylvia) about the baby. They all send congratulations and love to Trina and Adam.

Love ya,
MOM

Hey Congrats again to Treen and Adam... that makes three expecting Aunts in my apartment. April Ward Brewster is expecting along with Jamie Parker (I forget her last name now.) So yeah, we were all excited when I got the call last night.

The weather here has been interesting. It snowed in Provo twice over the weekend but nothing even came close to sticking. Then Monday morning I drove up to work in Eagle Mountain and they were covered in snow... and the roads near my work were awful, but by the time I got off work the roads were clear and a lot of the snow was gone. Today the only snow left was where the kids had piled it up yesterday. It's still below freezing for the most part, but no more snow.

Mom - could you be sure to let me know of the election results from Oregon (even though I wasn't able to vote because my ballot never got here... I'm a bit annoyed by that, but it was probably my own fault for not thinking about it until mid-October.)

I need to go and study now.

Tawnia

everyone knows now

I did talk to all siblings last night so everyone knows about the baby. Brooke wanted to know when we were going to go visit so she could see the baby, and Jared had to tell her it's still in my tummy for a long time. Tawnia brought up the tail end by calling me back after she'd seen that I called her cell twice and left a message on her regular phone. Tawnia, I was going to try you one more time after I got off the phone with Sarah Loving. So feel free to tell whomever you choose - I'm going to call a few more friends, but our immediate family knows and that's the most important anyway.

By the way, I'm glad that I opened the blog this morning when I first got up (it's just after 7) or I might have forgotten to go vote before I went to work. Oops.

as if we needed more reinforcement

In honor of Election Day tomorrow and not voting for the Honorable Senator Kerry, I thought I'd pass on this little bit that was sent to me by a friend:

John Kerry, presidential candidate, gave a big speech last week about how his faith is so "important" to him. In this attempt to convince the American people that we should consider him for president, he announced that his favorite Bible verse is John 16:3. Of course the speech writer meant John 3:16, but neither John Kerry or anyone else in the Kerry camp was familiar enough with the scriptures to catch the error.

And do you know what John 16:3 says? "They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me."

Cooking

You know Mom, I like having the cookbook online. You always know exactly where the recipes are when you need them. I even tried making Stuffed French Bread this weekend, and it turned out absolutely great. And the Apple Crisp was excellant too (although a touch burnt, and even then I had pulled it out at least 5 minutes early). Last night I was making Taco Bake (which I submitted in the first place), but I had totally forgotten it had tomato sauce in it. We had the sauce, that wasn't the problem, but our friend Barrett was over, and he's highly allergic to tomatos! What to do .. what to do ... we looked in the cupboards to see what we could replace it with, since we knew it needed the moisture. Jason first suggested cream of mushroom, but we finally decided to add chicken noodle soup. I was very worried that it would taste funny, especially with all those noodles. Who'd ever heard of Chicken Noodle Taco Bake?? Everyone was willing to try it (our buddy Chris showed up a little later), and amazingly, it worked! You couldn't even taste the chicken stuff, because the taco seasoning covered it up. Just comes to show that you can get really creative in the kitchen, with good results. Happy Cooking!