she's aliiiiiiiiive

10 days since my last post ... my presentation is finally finally finally at a stage I'm comfortable with. I have 15 pages of text and 25 powerpoint slides. The slides took FOR-EV-VER because of all the number crunching I had to do with them. A basic map of the US for X-aspect of medical malpractice - 36 states do it and the other 14 don't. That would be easy to color in the states ... BUT! Of the 36, 5 do it this way and 14 do it that way and the rest do it this other way. So I had to do all the break-outs to get the states colored in correctly ... and I had to do this for 10 maps with all different number combinations. Whoopie. And now I will practice over the weekend and make Adam listen to my long speech while looking at the slides. Poor boy.

We're doing temple baptisms with our ward tonight - we've actually got the full number going, instead of about half like the other 3 trips we've done in the last year. Yay! Adam and I are helping drive some of the college kids, and I'll be running the people shuffle once we're there. Normally I would get in the water myself, but we've got enough unendowed people to fill all the spots. Adam has some family names, and we're going to get the 2 kids from his home teaching family to be baptized and confirmed for them. Another guy in the ward is supposed to do the baptism for his mother, who died last year, so that should be really neat as well.

Other than that, we're looking forward to General Conference this weekend. And I love love love all the pictures of Stevie! Especially the newest ones with his Winnie the Pooh toys. I'm sad about the "family" baby shower - where were Aunt Cheryl and Aunt Debbie and Laurel's sister? I would have sent a gift if I'd known ... I got Stevie a gift when we were in Seattle (before we even knew he was going to be born early, but it was just too perfect) and I just haven't gotten around to sending it. I would have sent it for a baby shower. And my 3rd Stevie comment ... in the 2nd group of pictures on the Birdhouse - there are 3 pictures, and in the 3rd one, Stevie has his arm up by his head. Isn't there a similar picture of Eric and Jared somewhere, when they were babies? That's instantly what it reminded me of.

Fun with Printing

So, today I decide that my story has got to go out, because the deadline is tomorrow. I go over my story one more time, just a quick touch-up, changing a few little details, including one of the chapter titles, removing any little errors (hopefully I got them all). Well, anyway, that takes me about two or three hours. Then I print it. And about halfway through the printing, my printer starts to run out of ink, and by the time it gets to the end, the words are practically illegible. So, I have to get it to the other computer. This is where things get complicated. The disk drive doesn't work in their computer, and I try e-mailing it to Mom (twice), but I'm not sure if it went to the right e-mail address or what, because it didn't turn up in her in box. What did I do? I e-mailed it to myself. I have outlook (it came with my computer, but I never use it), and I sent it to my hotmail account. Then I am able to print my story and take it to the post office. I had to raid the change bucket to get enough money to send it; I only had enough coins to send it on a one-way trip, and I needed the return postage. (So, Mom and Dad, I owe you $1.40.) I put it in the envelopes that I pestered Dad to give me yesterday. And it's only when I'm almost to the post office that I realize I'd forgotten the keys, so I never picked up the mail. But at least my story is out.

Greetings, family

Eric, I love the pictures of Stevie. Jared, your Star Wars caption is really funny; it made me laugh. Tawnia, I'm so glad that you have a "boyfriend." By the way, did you ever name your car?

I have to type this on Mom and Dad's computer because my cookie expired. What do I do?

And in other news, I am preparing to submit another story to Writers of the Future. It is entitled "The Wizard of Adair." This will be the fifth time I've entered the contest, and this story is a little darker (my other ones were more funny and exciting) and it's written at a higher reading level, and it's about half as long as my previous entries (about 7500 words).

Emily

My Boyfriend

Hmmm... so do I have your attention now?

Yesterday at school we had a few extra minutes at the end of the day, so I got my guitar out. One of the students asked if I had named it. I said I hadn't but if I was going to I wanted it to be a boy name. So then the kids all got excited and were raising their hands to give me suggestions. I called on one boy and he said, "You should call it... Miss Palmer's Boyfriend!" That really got the kids excited. I had some other suggestions such as Mr. Palmer and Mr. Pizazz, and Pee-tah... but in the end I decided just to call it "Boyfriend." I told them that today and they think that's pretty funny.

Anyway, it's been a good week. Busy... (Three tests this week and a paper due! It just means more grading for me... but oh, well.)

Oh, and our fish died... did I tell you that? It was pretty sad for the kids, but they are excited to get a new class pet... we'll probably get another fish, because I don't really want a frog, or a hamster as they have suggested.

I hope that everyone is having a good week.
Love,
T

Random drivel from Jared

I got the calendar for October done ... and just in the nick of time too! I've been a bit busy lately, so I threw this together in about two minutes.

Also, I got quoted on starwars.com! Well, sort of. It was a caption contest. But I've never won a caption contest before now! Click here!

We're Home

Okay, Jared is back at work. We are fine. It took 11 hours to get here, but we're here. The stop at Burger King took 1 and half hours. They were out of ketchup and soft drinks, but Bryan still got apple juice. Each time we stopped for the bathroom we stood in line for about 15 minutes. The rest stops had porta-potties set up to help with the large number of evacuees. The trip was better than the trip out. On the trip out, I had the stomach flu while in unbelievable gridlock. Yes, I was one of the people vomitting at the side of the road. Oh well, I was in good company.

The apartment is fine. We don't have any damage or property loss, except for all of our food in the refriderator and freezer are ruined. Our apartment, didn't have electricity until Monday afternoon. My brother and his family are okay. They are currently hoping the baby isn't born for a couple of more days so the hospital is fully staffed. She is dilated to a 2 right now.

Gasoline is in short supply. Once entering the Houston area, we figured out to not stop at gas station unless a gas truck was there. Groceries are in short supply, but they are getting trucks in every day. Basic commodities are first priority-bread, milk, eggs, baby formula, ect. Unfortunately I can't go to the grocery store until Jared gets home because Bryan is sick. He has stomach pains and fever. He probably has a virus. Poor Bryan. I am almost out of Brooke's medication, so hopefully the pharmacy is stocked. Needless to say, my to do list is long. I also have several loads of laundry to do and tons of cleaning.

Tawnia, I'm on board. Everyone needs to have personal preparedness plans. Jared and I, are really working on that. You just never know when you will need them.
Take care everyone.

Michelle

Side Bar

So did someone change the color on the sidebar to black?? Just wondering. It's lunch time and I have eight of my kids eating lunch... it's a reward for them. I think I need to start looking through my coupons and take out a few... because I just had two more kids walk in. (They can eat in the class and choose a friend to eat with them... that's the coupon. And they LOVE it... plus it doesn't cost me any money.)

Anyway, life is good. I'm keeping busy, but my stress level has gone down. Basically I've decided NOT to stress about things. What get's done, get's done... and the other stuff can just wait.

Adam- congrats on your new toy. I hope you have fun with it. Did you buy it, or was it for work? (Maybe you already said, I'll have to go back and look.)

Eric - I love that you're posting daily about your life. It's nice to get a daily update on Stevie.

Jared - Please post as soon as you can. I'm sure we're all worried about you.

Everyone - let's decide on a day and time to all get on-line and discuss Emergency Preparedness. I'm guessing a Saturday would work best... but probably not this Saturday with Conference.

I'm going to actually try and eat some lunch now... plus I have some things to get done for class.

Love,
T

MY NEW TOY!!!!!

I got my new notebook yesterday. It's a nice Dell. It's not the tip-top of the line, but it's nicely in the upper-middle. And it didn't get caught in the hurricane (it shipped from TX, I think). So now I'm writing this on it. My older notebook (the one I was borrowing from my former job) was substantially bigger & heavier. So I'm quite pleased with this one. I like my new toy!

Busy

I just posted all about today on the BBC blog, so I figure if you really want to hear it all you can look there. I'm glad to hear that Jared is going to get to go home soon. I bet it was somewhat nice to have a forced vacation.

Our stake is getting pretty big on the emergeny preparedness thing right now. They told us tonight that we need to have at least 3 gallons of water per person stored, plus food for at least three days, and a small emergency kit. With gas shortages it makes me think that we should never have under a half tank in our cars. I need to work on all of this. So is everyone else prepared for an emergency?? I think we should come up with a simple plan for what to do in case of an emergency as a family. For instance we should all call Mom and Dad... except what if the emergency is involving then... do we all call Trina, or do we turn to Eric as the priesthood leader of our family? Anyway, it's just something to think about. I was thinking about where I would go if I had to evacuate Utah... probably the closest place would be Eric's in L.A. ... but, depending on the situation, it would probably be easier to go to Idaho with Amy's family. Anyway, I also think that Mom and Dad should have the phone numbers of all our bishops and/or stake presidents, so that they can call those people in order to find out if we're okay... that is if they can't reach us.

Okay, enough on the doom and gloom stuff. I just think it is better to be prepared. Maybe Mom and Dad can sit down and discuss some ideas, and then call and talk to us about it... or maybe we can have an evening when we all get on Instant Messaging and discuss it as a group. Just a suggestion.

I need to head to bed. Have a wonderful week everyone.

love,
T

Heading home

Well, looks like we'll get to head home to Houston tomorrow. They're trying to organize the return to avoid traffic jams like the ones we had getting out of Houston, so they're spreading it out. Our section of the city has been asked to return on Monday. I'll report back to work on Tuesday, and Brooke returns to school on Wednesday. Hopefully we didn't suffer any damage or lose any belongings while we've been in Arlington. I guess we'll find out sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening, depending on how long it takes us to get back. I don't think our part of town was hit too badly, so I'm optimistic.

Our stay here has actually been pretty nice. We got to see Samantha and her girls, and Anthony is here right now taking a rest on his cross-country drive. He finished his training in South Carolina and needs to report to his nuclear sub next month in Banger WA. He's also planning to stop off in Salt Lake for Conference next week. Yesterday Trevor went to the temple for the first time, and I got to escort him. It was a really great experience. One of the clothing rental workers called me "Dad" at one point. That was funny. I don't think I look that old. Right now Michelle's aunt Ida is here visiting too.

We went to church this morning with Michelle's parents to the Arlington 1st ward. We were never in that ward, but the 2nd ward (we were there for one year before Brooke was born) was dissolved and so we still knew many people in the 1st ward now. There were also a few who have moved from the 6th ward (where we lived for over three years) so we got to see some of them too. There were also a couple of other families who had also evacuated from Houston -- though they weren't people we knew.

I guess that's all I have for now. If anyone has any other questions, just let me know.

Changes to the site

Hi everybody,

You'll notice that I just made some small but fundamental changes to the website.

First, I set up the blog as the first page when you go to the site. I was getting tired of having to switch over to it before the kazoo came on. You can still see the intro by going to the Insanity Inc. link in the upper lefthand corner.

The other change I made was to the name of the blog. I changed it from "Palmer Family" to "Insanity Inc."

Let me know if there are any technical problems as a result of these changes.

I love you all.

Please let us know how Jared is doing is as soon as possible. I know we're all praying for him and his family.

I've been busy, too.

I'm sorry, Eric, that Laurel didn't have a nicer shower with friends and family. I'd have been there if I could. This morning Rachel and I changed the bulletin boards in the YW room and cleaned out our closets. We got a lot done and had time to talk about our plans and how to help our girls. Trina, didn't you have your Young Women sign your book as you finished your goals? I seem to remember something like that but correct me if I'm wrong.

Then this afternoon we had a dinner before the broadcast. I'm getting Sister Vigil's recipe for Teriyaki Chicken. I hope most of the women in the family were able to attend the Relief Society Broadcast tonight. The messages were excellent. I'm already looking forward to rereading them. There was a special taped message from President Hinckley at the beginning, talks from the three sisters in the Presidency and a message from President Faust, all very excellent.


I need to get to bed now so I can be ready for church in the morning. I've been very tired lately.

Love ya,
MOM

Thanks for the updates

All the changes on the various pages are great. I have been especially enjoying the Stevie pictures. Thank you for sharing the little blue outfit I sent. It looks so adorable on him. It would be helpful to remind all of us occasionally that we need to click on the pictures to see more. When I first saw your picture of the temple, Eric, I thought how nice that was but wondered why you hadn't put any of your family on there. The next time I clicked on the picture and discovered the hidden surprise. Thanks. I've noticed that Nathan often does that, too. I guess you're trying to keep us on our toes. Does anyone else have hidden pictures that we might not be aware of?

Love ya,
MOM

mindy updates

I added a new section to my page this morning. There would be more to it, except that I have to get ready for work. I'll be there all day, but I'm hoping to get back to this project soon. I have a few more ideas to do as well, but this one was so much fun and fast, that I got as far as I did in only 2 hours. You can find it by going to my page, and clicking on the handprints. I hope you all enjoy it! I'll expand it more later.

Field Trip

So my class had a field trip today. It was fun, but I'm exhausted! I didn't have to do a lot, but I think I was pretty stressed about stuff. Now I'm relaxing in my quiet (messy) classroom. I think the kids learned a lot today, but the fact that we also had the seventh graders there was obnoxious. There is a reason I work with younger kids. =)

As we were leaving the classroom I realized that Fudge, our class fish, had passed on to another greater fish bowl elsewhere. So after we got back I set him free (flush!). I will either buy a new fish tomorrow, or we'll just live without a class fish for awhile. The kids loved him though, so I may just have to go and find a new fish. Though they did know that he was old and likely to die soon. I wonder what the next fish will get named.

Anyway, I have a ton of copies to make so I'll be set for spelling next week... and then I am going to rearrange all the desks in my room... and tomorrow I'm coming back out here so I can figure out where to have them hang my coat racks. Oh, and I just found out that they're going to put in soap dispensers in our rooms... hooray (we have sinks... so it makes sense to have soap dispensers.)

I'm tired, and have tons to do, I'll talk to you later.
Love,
T

P.S. I'm glad that J and company made it to Dallas and I'm loving hearing about Stevie, and I love everyone else too!

More updates

Eric, you said you wanted more of the text. So, I added samples from "Elfmarked" and "Elementals." I'll be adding more later, maybe. I hope you enjoy reading it. You'll have to write me if you want more of the story.

Jared, I'm glad you were able to make it to Dallas okay. Give everyone a hug from me.

Emily

Safely out of Houston

Yesterday morning I went to work and Brooke went to school like normal. About an hour after I got to work, my boss told me to start securing loose equipment and moving things off the floor. By lunchtime we had the entire prodution area locked down and plastic-wrapped. We then sat and waited while the managers had a meeting, then they came out and told us all to go home. We have a phone number to call to find out when the building will be reopened for work to resume.

By the time I got home, Michelle already knew that Brooke's school was also cancelled for the rest of the week, and that our address fell under the voluntary evacuation area. We decided to pack up and head to Michelle's parents in Arlington (who had already decided earlier in the week not to come visit us in Houston this weekend). We wanted to be ready to go by the time Brooke got off the bus at 3:25pm, but wee missed by an hour. We left our house at about 4:30 pm Wednesday. At 6:45 we stopped in north Houston for dinner. Michelle had been having stomach pains during the day, and she threw up while we were there.

At 7:30 we got back on the freeway. We spent over three hours covering the stretch from mile marker 70 to mile marker 90.At around minight we finally left Houston city limits and sped up to about 30 mph. Traffic continued fairly slow until about 4:00 am at Centerville TX, halfway between Houston and Dallas. Since Michelle was not feeling well, I drove most of the time, but she took over a couple times so I could get a little sleep. We arrived at her parents at 7 am Thursday, with about 5 hours of sleep between the two of us.

The drive is around five hours under normal conditions. We made it in 14 1/2 hours, and apparently we did all right. Michelle's brother Matthew left his home south of Houston about an hour after we did. After covering three miles in five hours (that same north Houston stretch) between midnight and 5 am, they turned around and went back home. They were down to a quarter tank of gas -- all the stations had run out. His wife is nine months pregnant. We've made some phone calls and they'll probably shelter in one of the church buildings during the storm. Anybody praying for us, you may want to include Matthew and Katrina Stovall, their daughter Jasmine and her yet-unborn sister.

For right now we are safe in DFW, and we'll head back home once we know it is safe to do so.

News from Houston

Jared called around noon today. (Emily took the message because both Dad and I were at work.) He said that he and his family are on their way to Dallas until after Hurricane Rita has been through. I was very relieved to hear that, because I was worried about them. He said something about not having to go to work and Brooke not having school. They weren't certain when they'd get up to Dallas because the traffic was bumper to bumper heading north. They weren't certain which relatives they'd be staying with but I'm sure he'll let us know. I figured you'd all want to know. I almost called them this morning on my way to work but I didn't think I should call while I was driving, especially since I was running late.

Love ya,
MOM

Wow, what updates!

First off, Jared, I think I speak for everyone when I express my admiration and thanks for your service to the hurricane victims. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. That's a post for the family history right there. And also I know we're all praying for you and your family as Rita comes bearing down on Texas. Two huge storms in a row...

Tawnia, I enjoyed reading about back to school night. I'd be nervous too, but hey, you're a great teacher and a great person, so you have nothing to worry about.

And Trina... I just talked to you. Good times. I'm glad you got a chance to poke around Williamsburg a little bit. Good luck with your speech. If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.

Okay then Emily, loving the page, the updates, everything... I think you should put more of the actual text on the page instead of just giving away the plot, but hey, that's just me.

Mindy, I've been enjoying reading your adventures. I loved the picture (did I already say that). Working two jobs is not easy, but keep focused on good goals and stay positive and you'll do great.

Speaking of positive, I'm staying awake so I can feed Stevie in a few minutes and... but that's for another blog.

Updates

My page has been updated again, and it probably won't be updated again for a while unless I decide to add some more pictures or finish another story. I have a list of the books I've written, including a brief plot summary or character sketch or how I came to write it or a little on the themes. In case you've wondered, I'm counting fifteen books, ranging in length from about 15,000 words to 84,000 words, as "almost complete," the ones that I have attempted to have published or ones where there is a complete draft (or pretty close to one). Of course, I think they all still need a lot of work, but hopefully I'll have something ready to go soon.

I also finished typing "Children of the Dragon," so you can read that. If it seems a little confusing, remember this was my first major fantasy project, and I was trying to cram three years worth of ideas into less than 17,000 words. If I had written it the way I had originally intended, it would have been much longer. But I'm not planning on rewriting it. You can also read "The Sword and the Medallion," and "Firestone." (I loaned a copy of "Firestone" to Becca Riches, and she's really enjoyed it.)

Emily

Back To School Night

Yesterday I spent from 6:45 a.m. until 8:45 p.m. here at school. I escaped for 15 minutes at one point to buy some dinner, but other than that, I was here. Starting at six I had parents come in for back to school night. I gave a big long speel about what we do in my classroom and how I discipline the kids and all of this other stuff. A few of my students came along with their parents... and one of them told his mom that I wasn't as fun as I normally am. I guess classroom procedures are pretty boring to the kids. I got a few compliments from parents that made me feel good. One mother thought I was a veteran teacher because I do so well at communicating with the parents (and I didn't think I was doing all that much.) Another mom told me that her daughter always comes home in a great mood, which is different from the other schools she has been at. So that was nice to hear also.

I had been really nervous about the evening all day long, but when I got home, even though I was exhausted, I was in a great mood. I think mostly because Back to School Night is over! And I don't have to deal with it for another year. Plus, now that I've gotten one under my belt, I don't think I'll be as nervous for it next time.

Today we're going to have some big adventures during Science. We're going to build volcanoes. Hopefully I have all of the stuff I need. I had some parents donate a few of the items. The only thing I'm not sure of is play-dough... so we might have to improvise. Oh, well, it will all work out, and the kids won't know the difference anyway.

Okay, so my funny for this week. One of my students brought his pet python to share with the class (his dad brought it in at the end of the day, and yes it was an arranged event.) The other students were asking him questions. We talked about how the python eats, and sheds, and all that other snake stuff. Then one of the girls asked, "Does it burp?" That got a nice laugh from the kids... and the student with the snake replied, "No, but it would be really cool if it did!"

We have a field trip on Friday, and hopefully the weather will be nice for it. It's pouring down rain today... not normal for Utah, but I'm sure the grass could use it.

I should get going on work stuff. Have a great day.

Love,
Tawnia

Mississippi and Louisiana

Those are the places I went last weekend. On Friday night I drove a van with eight other men from Houston to Picayune MS. All of our gear was in a moving van with two more workers. We arrived at the church there at about 1:15 am, set up our tents, and tried to get some sleep before we had to report ready to work at 8 am. There was some shuffling in assignments, and we ended up going to work in Bogalusa LA instead of staying in Picayune. We reported to the church there, then went to our assigned neighborhood. We cleared the yards at four houses on Saturday. It doesn't sound like much, but remember we were moving trees that had been knocked down. On had two big trees on the roof. We managed to cut one of them back until it was clear of the house, but we couldn't do anything with the other one. It had damaged the roof, so they had to wait for someone with better equipment.

Since my primary assignment was transportation, I stayed at the chuch in Picayune while the rest of the crew went out working. (We had sacrament meeting at 7 am.) The other driver and I took down the tents, made lunch for the crew, and rested up so we'd be fresh for the seven-hour drive home while everyone else slept.

As for this weekend, we may end up doing some more cleanup right here at home. We're far enough inland that we're out of the storm surge area. Some areas closer to Galveston have already begun evacuations -- including one of my team members at work. Actually, the third member of the team is stuck in Great Britain with visa problems (he's Scottish) so I'm working solo again at least until the end of this week.

Brooke started Girl Scouts tonight. She told me all about the buddy system when she got home. "If someone has to go potty, and I'm her buddy, then I have to go with her." She's doing pretty well in school as well, and her best friend Rianna is in a different kindergarten class, but they ride the bus together and usually play together after school. Rianna is another little girl in our apartment complex.

Bryan had an adventure of his own today. Michelle went to a social with the Schlumberger Spouses Association and dropped Bryan off at a drop-in daycare. When she picked him back up, Bryan tattled on himself. He said he ran outside when he was supposed to stay in the classroom. Then the teacher was mean. She told him to "come here." Then she held his hand and walked him back inside. They had a rest time, but his mat was broken and he couldn't fix it.

I guess that's it for now. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been really busy too.

make it stop!

I haven't posted, or called people back, or darn near anything lately because I'm too busy. The highlights:

I have my first state speaking assignment. One of the NCSL deals is that staff go to states to give presentations on whatever subject they work on - sort of the "expert witness" deal for committees. I'm going to Iowa in 2 weeks to talk about medical malpractice stuff, which has been my only substantive topic for a year and a half. So I'm definitely familiar with it. Iowa isn't exactly a place to get all excited about, but well, I gotta start somewhere and you don't think that my boss would send ME to Hawaii instead of going herself ... In fact, she would go herself even to Iowa, but it's a major Jewish holiday that day so she's not going anywhere. I have until the end of this week to have my first draft ready for her to go over, and I have 90 minutes to fill. Ouch.

Adam and I went to Williamsburg yesterday to meet with the Admissions dean and tour the law school at William and Mary. We definitely like it. The law school is all in one building about 3 blocks from the main campus, so it's far enough away that the undergrad noise doesn't distract. The building is really nice and they'll have an addition to the library done next summer, right before Adam would start. We didn't get to see as much of the town as I would have liked, but we wandered around some of the colonial section. We liked it. There's a farmer's market there on the weekends, which we would REALLY enjoy.

And now I have to get caught up with everything in the office that I missed from being gone yesterday. Bleh on getting caught up.

New page

I added some pictures to my camera page. They're from Saturday's adventure so you can see what Dad, Emily and I were up to. Clarissa was with us but she didn't really participate. Her loss.

Love ya,
MOM

Cat Story

On Sunday morning Nekoshi decided she didn't like the spot we had made for her kittens in the utility room. It was time for them to find a new home. First she carried Phantom out and put him under the desk in the office. When I put him back she took him again and put him in my bedroom under the shelves. I made her area a bit larger but she still tried three or four more times to move her babies. When Emily left for church she blocked them all in the utility room so we wouldn't have kittens all over the house. I guess she finally accepted the changes I'd made because she hasn't tried moving them again. What a crazy cat.

Love ya,
MOM

hymn book woes

During Sunday School yesterday, I was told to pick the hymns for Relief Society, since that's my calling. The topic was service. I had my new hymn book with me, because Tawnia and I had sung in Sacrament meeting, so I looked up "service" in the back of the book. When I went to look at the hymn "Because I Have Been Given Much" I was shocked to find that it wasn't in my hymnal. Actually, I didn't have any hymns between #205 and #234! So Mom, where did you get my hymnbook? If it was at Deseret Book, I'll take this one there, and have them replace it, because I'd like ALL the hymns, not most of them. I'm missing half the Christmas section, and a lot of other good songs. I know that I've had it for the last 2 months, but I hadn't really used it much before now. But with my new calling of music director in Relief Society, I thought it would be nice to use it each week .. but now I can't. So please let me know what you think I should do.

On a happier note, I finished a drawing this weekend. The family page wasn't working, so I went ahead and posted it on the sisters page. I think everyone should definately check it out, and post comments about how wonderful they think it is. I had lots of fun working on it. As I finish more little projects, I'll post them on my webpage (which, by the way, has pictures of the individual kittens), and I'll keep you updated on when that happens. (Oregon, could you please send me more pictures of the kittens, as they open their eyes?)

Hola

Well, life is exhausting. I get up around 5:30 a.m., head to school by seven and then work all day... usually I get out of there by 5:30, but I've been there as late as 6:30. Then I come home... and mostly focus on stuff I need to do for work the next day... though this week I had FHE on Monday, Institute on Wednesday, Enrichment on Thursday and then last night I went to dinner with Annie and Bryce. So I am going out and "being social" On Saturdays I let myself sleep in, do what I need to do here at home, and then go back out to the school for a few hours to get ready for the next week. Sundays I don't do anything school related, except think about my kids.

The first week was really stressful, but things have gotten progressively better each day. We finally got our history books, which makes me VERY happy. Now I'm just waiting to see if we'll get any kind of science book.

So that's my life. Oh, and I'm the ward music coordinator so somewhere in there each week I get to make sure we have hymns, a pianist, and a chorister, and special musical numbers. This weeks special musical number is Mindy, and I, along with our friend Natalie singing "The Lord is My Shepherd" with Annie accompanying us.

Have a great week everyone. I'm glad that Stevie is home. I show my kids his picture all the time (he's the wallpaper on my computer screen at work.) And I have pictures of Brooke and Bryan sitting on my desk, along with the family picture from 2000.

-T

Update on Mindy

Wow, I haven't been this busy in ages. I work every morning from 9-1 at Reagan Academy. Right now I'm doing a lot of organizing (like recording alllll the homework and classwork we've done so far, which is more than you'd think), watching the kids at lunch and recess, and helping out whenever my teacher needs. I'm busy all day, but the work is enjoyable. Then in the afternoons I usually have some free time, but this is when I post on the blog/email, work on my Russia pages (I'm trying to get them done), and work on any art projects I happen to be doing at the time (I've got two going at the moment). The evenings are either working at Subway (about 4 times a week) or going to an activity or having people over .. or something. After spending so long having all the time to myself, it's good to be busy, but I'm trying my best not to get too burnt out. I'm already kinda sick, but I can't slow down too much. This weekend isn't really a weekend for me, because I work from 4-9 tonight, and then the icky long shift from 11-7 tomorrow. At least I don't have to work on Sundays. (By the way, I am the Music Director in my Relief Society.) All this work does help though, to pay the bills .. I got my first two paychecks this week ... I'm mailing them home to Dad to PLEASE put in my checking account, so I have money in there to buy groceries and write a rent check, etc. I will put $50 of that into savings so I can pay my student loan this month myself, so you don't have to worry about it. I'm glad that I can be independant, and I'm looking forward to having regular paychecks coming along.

And Tawnia and I both think that Stevie is an adorable baby, and we're always happy to see new pictures.

Good Job Emily!

That's all.

And also, I posted a few more pictures.

Laurel's at her baby shower. She was grouchy because she was late. But that's okay.

What I got in the mail

Today, I went up to the post office to get a package, and it was my college diploma. Yes, I have received an associate of general studies. I am sure you are all impressed.

This week, I have been trying to keep busy. On Monday, we had FHE; we learned about emergency kits and were going to play volleyball but the cultural hall was already set up for a show Dayton was putting on the following night. We ended up playing Mormon Mouthful, which is the same as Mad Gab only with Mormon phrases. On Tuesday, I went to see "I'd Be a Woman Again," put on by the Dayton sisters. I remember when they did this back in 1991 (I actually had to check on the video tapes to see when it was), and Mom sang "Super Mom." That's one of the only songs I know from that. There was some lip synchs and dancing, and it was pretty good. And last night, we had Institute. We're going to be studying teaching of the prophet Joseph Smith.

Eric, I am very happy that baby Stevie is home.

Emily

Online at last, online at last

Hi all,

We are finally online here with our new computer. It's late at night and I'm on the computer. COOL! Just thought I'd let you know.

I just hooked up the DSL. It's so cool how fast it is compared with the old dial-up.

Well, I'm just up helping Laurel with Stevie. Hopefully she'll be able to get a few hours' sleep tonight.

It's exciting times at the Palmer house.

Talk to you later!

Eric

Stevie came home!

Don't worry Mom. I don't mind you posting anything you hear from me. If I really want it to be a surprise I won't tell you first.

That's right, Stevie came home last night after 20 days at CHOC.

I was going to call everyone last night but by the time we got home from the hospital with Stevie and I'd been to the store to buy rubber nipples (I said the word "nipple" a few too many times last night. It's one of the funniest words in any context I'm beginning to realize) it was too late to call Trina or Jared. So I called Tawnia and Mindy and talked to them. They were in the middle of something though, so it was pretty short. I tried the Oregon home before that, but no one answered. So then mom called back later and we had a good talk. Mom said that now that we're not going to the hospital I can post more pictures on the blog. It's a nice thought, but Laurel's mom went home yesterday too, and guess who's going to be doing the shopping, cooking, and laundry 'round here? (Well, I was already doing the laundry.) But we'll see.

I'll certainly be able to talk on the phone a little bit more in the evening.

We are very grateful for your prayers these days. Laurel and Stevie need them for sure. Stevie's doing great. His first night went well. Laurel slept with him and fed him while I slept in the other room. So I got quite a bit more sleep than Laurel, though I did stay up late with them and went in to check up on them a few times during the night.

Finally, I'm sorry for getting all passive-aggressive on you with my little post there. I've had a rough few days and, like many of us as I've noticed, the family site was a source of comfort for me. So when no one posted for a little while I got impatient. But I'm better now.

Thanks for all your support, again. I know what it's like to be away from the blog for a while with work and whatnot, so no regrets there folks, just keep on praying for us and contributing to the website. I'm loving all the changes on the site these days. You're inspiring me to do some revisions, or at least more frequent updates. We're getting DSL at home (I should be able to install it tonight) and so posting stuff should get a lot easier.

Take care

Love, Eric

Sorry about Stevie

Eric,
I am sorry that Stephen had to stay at the hospital. That has really got to be frustrating. I am sure that the doctors are just trying to do what is best for everyone. I want you to know that we think of you guys often, and pray for Stephen often. The time will be soon.

Love,
Nathan
PS
I love your posts Amanda.

Me too!

For the last two days I've had a conference too! I had some training in Rosharon, which is about an hour away. My team wasn't too happy to lose me for two days during the last week of production, but the next time I could take the training would be even less convenient. So Tad (our boss) said go ahead and do it now. Besides, Pablo was out sick for two days last week and so I had to cover for him -- and he's the one who actually knows what he's doing. From what I've been told, I did pretty well on those two solo days (Mike was on another project) especially considering my inexperience. I worked 25 hours in two days, but I got the work done to show for it too. So I really don't feel bad about missing a couple days this week.

Tonight we went to Parent's Night at Brooke's school. They had a bunch of paper dolls with yarn hair on the wall outside the classroom, and Brooke showed us how she was the only one in her class with "yellow hair."

Well I need to sign off now-- I've got a conference call tonight in preparation for the service trip to Louisiana this weekend. I'll tell you more about that when I know more.

what?

Are you complaining that no one is responding to your post, or posting on the blog in general? I have two words for y'all: Work. Conference.

Yes, another one. At least this one was in town - it's orientation junk for all the new officers, and it has occupied all my time in the last 2 weeks. It ended today so now I can actually get some substantive work done instead of maniacally being the secretary with putting together information packets and making dinner reservations and other asundry tasks. In literally the last 10 minutes, I seem to have just landed myself an "unofficial" calling of being a pianist for sacrament meeting until someone new can be called (yes, I can play the organ, but the organ we have is 500 years old and I can't figure out even how to turn the thing on. So I'll play the piano.) We have an organist who will play only every OTHER Sunday, and had a 2nd one who just got yanked from our ward to be assigned to another ward (which is running short on experienced priesthood so he's gone to be their clerk) ... so now random pianists are filling in, and I will probably end up on a calendar of some sort.

Adam is busy with class, work, still interning at Senate Judiciary, and has started on his thesis. He is the wonderfulest husband in the world, and he is currently baking bread and cinnamon rolls. (It's his brain break. He cooks. We had enchiladas for dinner. Yum.)

And even with all of that, we are still reading our scriptures every night, and we are still remembering Stevie in our family and personal prayers.

All right then

And one step back...

Okay, so Stevie was supposed to come home today, and then this morning the doctor on duty decided to keep him in. So I'm back at work and Laurel is at the hospital for the day with boy.

His heart rate was dropping a little bit when he fed, and they want to make sure he has the whole breathe/suck/swallow thing down before he goes.

So I'm pretty bummed and Laurel is more patient than I am.

Grrr...

Kittens

Squeakers, Phantom and Teeny are boys. (Rename Teeny, please). Mousie and Yami are girls. Just thought everyone should know.

New Happenings

Have you all seen the changes to the various pages? Nathan and Amanda have done an extensive revision of their site with lots of drawings that they made themselves. Great work guys. Clarissa's been busy and so has Emily. Tawnia's is new and Mindy has some new pictures. And Jared and Eric have a few recent changes. There have been so many changes that I haven't had a chance to look at all of them.

Nathan and Amanda wondered if I'd even seen their new page and I had but I hadn't looked at all of it, so they showed me some of their favorites, (like the video cassette that Nathan drew). I've been very busy with work and church and new kittens and canning, It's been a full week but I think things might calm down just a little during this coming week, but I'm not certain.

Time to get some sleep now. I love you all,
MOM

she posts...again

Check out my page, there's more stuff now. But I forgot how to do links.

Brooke likes the kittens

Brooke would like to be informed when they open their eyes. I showed Bryan the pictures of the kittens and asked what they were. He looked and looked and thought. Then he said, "That's cats. Bad, sick cats with no eyes." He still liked them, because they are furry little animals. It looks like my family is going to be very busy in October. My parents are moving; my oldest brother (Jeremy) is getting married; my youngest brother (Trever) is leaving to serve as a full time missionary in the Utah, Salt Lake City mission; my 24 year old brother (Matthew) baby is due Oct. 1; Anthony (21)will be reporting to Washington State to board a nuclear submarine with the Navy (his first assignment). Exiting times.

Emily Corps

Drum roll, please. This is Emily Palmer.

I have updated my site.

(Cymbal crash. )

You can read excerpts from "The Sword and the Medallion." It had to be fifty thousand words long, just typed out (the only revising I did was fix the spelling). I repeated myself a lot. You will also want to look at "Children of the Dragon," my first fantasy novella. I have the first chapter in place. You may also want to look at "Creating a New World," which explains the geography of my world. (If anyone wants to draw a map, I still don't have a decent one.)

I will keep you posted on other updates. The other links only hold a brief explanation about the project in question, how I came to write it and a brief summary of the story. (I was getting tired; there's a lot of text involved.) I may also add some more pictures to the site. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Enjoy!

me too!

To go along with Emily and Clarissa's posts, I updated my page with some new Koshi pictures .. the kittens! I'll add new pages as the kittens grow up, as they get emailed to me from Oregon. I'm also continuing to work on my Russia section, but I'm actually busy *oh my!* with work and social life stuff, so it might take a while longer. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the month.

*Gasp* she speaks

My page is in the process of being updated.

Kittens

Yesterday, Nekoshi was acting rather peculiar. She was clingy, always crawling into my lap or following me from one room to the next. When I was making and eating dinner, she was always around my ankles, even though I put her in her box in the utility room several times. When Mom got home, she ran to her, rubbed her ankles, and then jumped in the box. She seemed to be nervous and confused. So Mom sat with her and then I sat with her for a while, because Mom was getting ready to leave. Just as she left around six, Nekoshi started yowling and crying, and then she had her first kitten -- a blotchy gray and black kitten that was always crawling around and made such a squeaking sound that I dubbed it Squeakers. Nekoshi calmed down after it was born and started washing it.

I took some pictures (which will come later) and was still watching when about 20 or 30 minutes later, a second kitten was born. I actually saw it being born; it came out all red and covered with goop, but Nekoshi washed it. This one was a gray, fluffball, probably the largest of the kittens, and with its bare tail and size, that when Mom got home, she said it looks like a Mousie. But since it did nothing but eat, it might be renamed Piggy.

After that, nothing happened for a while, but we could tell there were still more kittens to come. Around 10, she had her third baby, a little tiny thing (they're only five or six inches long, I think) and it was called Teeny. About half an hour later (the microwave clock said 10:32), a fourth kitten was born, and then at 11, a fifth kitten. One is black with white around the face, so Clarissa named it Phantom. She says it will be Phantom Erik if it's a boy and Phantom Meg if it's a girl. The other gray with stripes on its tail and face (looks a lot like Teeny, so it's hard to tell them apart) and Clarissa and I decided this morning to call it Yami, which is Japanese for Shadow.

I agree

I agree with Tawnia, my second day at school went much better than the first. I know that my day is a LOT different than hers, and a lot less stressful, but it's still my job and I still work there too. On the first day, Mrs. Bird was rather unorganized. It didn't help that we didn't have a clock in our classroom, so we had to keep stepping next door to find out the time. We read lots of stories, and colored ... but then I think it was "Hey! You're in school now! Good .. let's just keep you entertained for the day." It didn't help that we can't go outside for recess, and we have to eat lunch in the classroom too. But yesterday we started discussing rules, and sharing things about ourselves (little brown bags that they put 5 things in about themselves) .. I got to pull kids aside one at a time to have them make a hand-print, to put on the wall. It's very basic, but the kids enjoyed putting stickers on them to make them unique. We did some writing, and the kids were a lot faster with those .. but making a graph about how many of which colored rubber bands they have was a bit more tricky. I got to use the copy machine a lot, for the math papers for the entire 1st grade (there are three classes). Basically, I felt much more useful the second day. But on the first day I did get to drive her mini-van to WalMart to pick up some snacks. I didn't tell her it was my first time driving a mini-van, but everything went fine, and I didn't hit anything.

Funny story of yesterday: when I came into the classroom, the kids were all sitting on the floor in the back, talking about the rules with Mrs. Bird. I sat and listened. We ended up writing down "listen to person in front" and "be good, nice and quiet" but there were lots of other suggetions like: "don't poke your friends," "don't cut your hair," "listen to your Heavenly Father" (and then just after) "listen to the Holy Ghost" "don't put glue on the walls" .. it was very fun to hear.

Day 2

My first day was exhausting and stressful and I came home tired and frustrated and not sure about what I was doing.... but today I am feeling much MUCH better. I think it helped that we were DOING things today. I was really teaching, instead of explaining rules and procedures all day.

I am reading my students "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" by Judy Blume and they LOVE it. So much that they named our new class pet, a beta, Fudge. They groan every time I get to the end of read aloud time and beg me to continue.

In writing I'm using a program called the Write Traits. So today we talked about what a trait is. We described a good teacher (Ashley said she has curly hair and glasses) and a good driver (McKenzie said "not drunk" and I don't remember who said "Knows the difference between the gas and the brake.") Tyler said that good weather is "about 200 degrees."

I just bought plane tickets for Mindy and I to fly home at Christmas time. We will arrive in at PDX on December 22nd at 10 p.m. and we fly back here on Dec. 28th... leaving PDX at 3:35 p.m. So who wants to pick us up and drop us off??

Anyway, I need to eat the dinner Mindy just made for me and then head off to institute.

Love,
T

Eric & Family Report

Hi Family,

1. Stevie is doing very well. He's up to 1,915 grams (4 lbs 3 oz). He's in a crib. He gets at least half his feedings by bottle.

2. Laurel is doing pretty well. She's managed to keep her blood pressure down, rest a lot, and is not feeling dizzy anymore. She also hasn't had trouble breathing at all since leaving the hospital. However, she had an allergic reaction to her blood pressure medication and it's taking its time getting through her system.

3. Laurel's mom flew in last night. She'll be here for a week. Yolanda is a very sweet lady and she's taking good care of Laurel.

4. I'm finally getting back into the swing of things at work, which feels good.

5. Love, Eric

Rehnquist memorial

Adam and I were among the masses at the Supreme Court building last night for the viewing of Chief Justice Rehnquist, who died on Saturday and has his funeral later today.

The line went down the block, and then straight up the steps to the front of the Supreme Court building. Once you're in the big front doors, there's a sort of entry area and then the security check. There's no rotunda in the building - just a long, wide marble hall that goes straight back to the court chamber. The casket was laid in the center of the hall following lengthwise, and was covered with a flag. (No, the casket was not open.) It was on a cafalque, which is an odd word that I don't know how to pronounce - but it's a stand to put a casket on, and it's the same one that has been used for the funerals of government officials since Lincoln. There was a large floral arrangement at each end - red roses, and white and blue smaller flowers. We went up one side of the hall, past the casket toward the chamber doors. There were two men in regular suits standing on each side of the casket, and two military honor guards at opposite corners of the casket on the diagonal. At the end of the hall in front of the chamber door was a large painting of Rehnquist and more floral arrangements. Then we went back down the other side of the hall, still kinda in a circle (or oval) around the casket, where everyone signed the guest book and then out the door. It was totally silent and no one took pictures. It was very somber and respectful, and I'm glad we went.

I will survive

So, the last week has been pretty stressful. Today, was the first day of school. Things went pretty well. I have great kids. Sorry, I'm tired. After school I got my license plates put on my car, bought a pizza, and now I'm watching Gilmore girls and enjoying my life. Tomorrow I get to dive in and start really teaching... (today we just went over rules and procedures.)

My page has changed slightly... Mindy updated it and then Jared updated it. I just don't have time to update it myself.

Mindy just told me that, since I got my Utah license plates on... I'm not officialy a Utahan. Then she said... it's "You Tawn" Get it? Utahan = You Tawn.

Haha, funny thought for today.

Love you all,
Tawn

Stevie Update

Stevie's doing great. He's up to 1825 which means he's over 4 pounds now. No word yet on when he's coming home...

Laurel is home and doing pretty well. She got a rash from her blood pressure medication (at least that's what we're pretty sure it is) but other than that she's been kicking back and enjoying our new AC. Uncle Gary and Aunt Karen went with us to the hospital yesterday around noon, and Laurel and I had one of our best times yet last night at the hospital with Stevie. He's coming along.

I've updated the Stevie page with a preview of the upcoming DVD. Check it out!

www.insanityinc.net/eric/stevie.htm

Take care all!

Mindy at Work

I've been fairly busy lately. On Friday I helped Tawnia set up her classroom .. finally. Since school starts tomorrow, we had a lot to do in very little time. At least Tawnia had been there the day before to put together the desks. We took some pictures, that I'll post sometime soon (if my computer keeps working .. it's having issues). We'll probably take some more pictures today, as we put the final touches up before the walk-through tonight for the parents and students. I won't be there, since I have to work, but I'll get to start meeting people tomorrow morning when I start work too. But on the upside, I did post a few new pictures on Tawnia's page (sorry that I got rid of your changes, Jared), and we'll add more soon. As for my webpage, I'm working on my Russia stuff still, but it's a long process, since there are LOTS of pictures to go through. I'm also adding journal-entry stuff to all the pages, so everything is explained. I hope it'll be worth the wait.

On Saturday I had a meeting at Subway at 10 AM. We were given a test, with some sandwich formulas (what meat goes on which sandwich) some basic rules and when do we do this ... I wasn't sure on a lot of things, since I've only been there for just over a week, but at least I found out what I needed to learn. But the manager called me back, and told me that I had gotten more right than a lot of the people that had been there for a while .. and that the rest of the meeting might be loud and yelling, but I should know that it wasn't directed towards me at all. Yippee! But it was a good meeting, and I learned a lot, and the hours that I'm at Subway will definately be busy ones. The meeting lasted a good 2 hours, which is when my next shift started .. so I worked from noon to just after 5 that night. It was probably the hardest that I had worked at that job so far, but it seemed like the harder I worked, the better I felt. I liked getting things done, and I wanted to impress the manager. It really is just the attitude that you bring to the job, if you'll enjoy it or not. I have to work again tonight, so I'll test that theory out.

Reunion news

Has everyone gotten the latest email from Max? It looks like the location and the date for the reunion have changed. I hope this works better for all of you. The 4th of July is fine for us, of course, but we don't have very far to go to get there. Be sure to check it out and get back to Max right away. If you didn't get the email, let me know and I'll send you Max's address and phone number. He needs to know ASAP.

Love ya,
MOM

Hello Everyone

Is everyone having a good Labor Day weekend so far? We don't have any big plans, but it will be nice to have Jared and Brooke both off on Monday. I am doing much better. I had a retreat root canal on Thursday. I don't need any pain killers anymore and the swelling has gone down. Since the endodontist just put a temporary filling in my crown, I still need to return to my regular dentist in 2 week to get a core builup for my crown. I still have bone loss in my jaw from the infection, but at least it won't spread any farther. Good news is that since the nerve in that tooth was removed at my first root canal the drilling didn't hurt. The pain came from the bone loss and swelling.

Everyone keep praying for the victoms of Hurricane Katrina. There are around 30,000 refugees in Houston and I see them every day. It just breaks your heart. Our ward is making hygene kits. Jared and I are giving soap, toothpaste, combs, hand towels, as well as money. Brooke is in her room finding toys, clothes, and pillows to take to the school, because there are a lot of Louisiana children now attending her school in need. Jared signed up to give blood and his is signed up as a volunteer to help at the Astrodome in downtown.

P.S.

About the webpage....

Our internet wouldn't work for about three days because we had some serious spyware. I did a system restore of the computer, which restored the internal settings to a little over a week previous, so you can't really blame it for being a week late. But believe me...a million new little pages are waiting their impatient little turns in our desktop folder...and soon -so soon- they will allllll get their chance!!!

:c)
Manda and Nathan

Amanda says...

Happy Saturday everyone...
I think tensions are running a little high on the blog and that makes me sad...I just want to say that even though I rarely post, I really enjoy hearing what everyone is doing. I am so excited for Tawnia about her job, and I think that getting the chance to set up her classroom is no small thing!! Some were questioning whether or not it was reason to celebrate, and I say heck yes it is!! Tawnia is right at the beginning of a really exciting and adventurous year and I wish I could go down there and watch her set up the classroom and sit picturing all the cute little 4th graders she met, who will be sitting in each of the desks. While certainly it is easy to worry about someone that they might get burnt out or forget other parts of their life, my feeling is that Tawnia is an adult, with a lot of goals and plans and priorities, and this job is not just one that she can leave at work and forget about. Working as a teacher is such an awesome way of expressing Christ-like service, I think, and I admire everyone who is willing to put so much of themselves into it. So - I'm not worried about Tawnia doing anything destructive to herself or her future as she is serving these children...teaching them and learning from them.
That said, I am also happy for Trina about the car being paid off. That is an accomplishment that has taken time, patience, and obedience to the counsel of the prophets. I know it is a good feeling and I am glad that Trina and Adam have achieved it. I think it is a completely different kind of celebration or accomplishment from what Tawnia is doing right now - an important event or end-point in a challenging process, rather than an important jumping-off point into a big new exciting thing.
So - that is how I feel about some of the tension that has frustrated me on the page. I think that something I'm learning in my new job (and maybe I'll share more about it sometime) is that it is not so much important what was said, what was meant, intentions, context, or anything else...except how the person who is hurt is feeling right now. I'm sure a lot of you would agree with that (and have learned it a lot sooner than I did)...but I think that we need to validate the feelings of someone who feels attacked or angry or frustrated, no matter what we meant by whatever we said, or whether we feel their feelings are unjustified.
I love you all...this is a rather unusual post...but I've been feeling sad about the feelings that I have sensed in some of these posts, so I just wanted to say these things, and hopefully they will mean something.

Have a wonderful weekend - miss you and love you very much
Manda

Updated

Jared's page (unlike Nathan's) has gone throught some updating. Feel free to go poke around and see the changes. Actually, I've gradually updated bit by bit over the last couple weeks. Let me know your thoughts, impressions, or tips to make it even better.

And if you need a good metric conversion chart, check this out. It's funny.

Laurel and Baby

Okay, I know I'm posting a lot this week, maybe too much, but here's another update:

Laurel came home yesterday and rested. That was good. She needs to stay down, but she is much better than she was a week ago. She's started breastfeeding Stevie a little bit. He's really taking to it. What a good boy! He was a bad boy last night when he pulled out his feeding tube. No harm done though. Laurel said that he likes it when she sings to him. She sang him "Slime Creatures from Outer Space" from Weird Al's "Dare to be Stupid" album, because he used to kick a lot when she played it in the car.

Stevie weighs 1.8 kg now, so get out your conversion charts kids! (that's 3 lbs 15 oz-- if you're too lazy to get out your conversion chart).

I'm FREEEEEEEEEE!!!

I'm going to trump Tawnia's reason to celebrate. MY reason to celebrate is that, just now,

I PAID OFF THE CAR!!!

Zippy is mine all mine, and I have no car payments! La la la! Do the dance of joy! If there were a way to put little virtual fireworks around that, I would do it. But I don't know how, so I will just put it all in different colors.

And we have met our goal of getting entirely out of debt, except for student loans, in 2005. We have no credit card debt, no debt to Dad or anyone else, and now no car debt. Hooray! We feel quite excellent. We have also totalled up the undergrad student debt. Adam, when he graduates in December, will have borrowed about $22,000 for school which is darn near amazing since it costs about $40,000 a year to go there. All the rest was scholarships. That's only a little more than my total borrowing for Western - $16,000 and I've paid almost half of it off now.

P.S. We are going to start saving to make a good down payment to buy another car next year. 2 summers of East Coast summer humidity with no air conditioning in the car is plenty for us.

Celebrate!

The time has finally come... at 1 p.m. MST today I will FINALLY get to move into my classroom! I am so excited. I plan on spending the evening there getting as much set up as I can. Tomorrow morning I will get my whiteboard and MY desk. We're having people come in to help put desks together tomorrow evening. I may not wait that long... I do sort of want to just get my desks put together and in place.

So the final count on students for me is 24. I may get one more in the next few days. This is the fun part of being at a charter school. I got all my nametags and other things labeled with the kids names... and now I have to change a few of them. Oh, well. I'm really just adding one and dropping a few of the originals.

Oh, and we finally have the internet from our apartment, which has come in handy. I will hopefully be able to check the blog and my e-mail, even though my life is going to be crazy for the next few days while I'm getting everything set up.

-- Tawnia

Nate - Yes, I would love to see the long awaited for website myself.
Eric - I'm glad to hear that Laurel and Stevie are doing well.

The month has ended... Nathan...

Well Nathan and Amanda, the month is over. So where's the new and improved page? I've been thinking about nothing but that all month now.

On an unrelated note, Laurel and Stevie are doing fine. Stevie didn't digest a lot of his last feeding, which worries me, but the nurses remind me that he'll have good and bad days, and that today he'll hopefully be a little more awake when he eats so he should digest more. We really need to be patient with him and let him get caught up. It's the first time he hasn't been ahead of the curve, so keeping all things in perspective, he's doing just fine.

Laurel should be coming home today. I was able to straighten up the house last night and even finished the dishes after Mom called. I got my second wind I guess. I'm tired this morning, but then I'm always tired.