an autumn day

I will now limn an autumn day. It is usually started out with a hymn. There is a column of leaves falling from the trees. Autumn days cause solemn ways. The weather can condemn us to indoor activities sometimes. Oft times the weather will contemn us. But that is nothing compared to how we seem to bedamn the environment. I don't know if I used those words correct and I don't know how to use dislimn.

Nathamn

and then .... I died.

Okay, so I didn't, but my computer did! (If you didn't catch it, the title is a quote from Harry Potter.) So I was going to move some pictures from my camera to my computer on Friday (soon after making all those little changes), and somehow managed to surge my computer to death. It won't even turn on anymore. So I'm back to going to the library all the time. It's really frustrating, because we only just finally got the internet, so we're paying for something that we can't use! Ahhh! A guy from church is supposed to be coming over sometime soon, to see if he can revive the poor machine, and if not, I'm going to buy something new. I can still do my homework at the library (it just means coming here a lot more often), except for my photoshop class, because no other machines have the program. I could probably put the software onto Tawnia's computer at work, but hopefully I'll get my own computer back up and running, and I'll ask the teacher for an extension on any late assignments. Wish me luck!

As for a beautiful fall day, today is a good example of one. All the leaves are colorful - lots of reds and oranges - it's sunny out, so it isn't as cold as it has been - warm enough for just a jacket. The air is crisp, and when you walk you get to crunch all the leaves on the ground. Here in Utah we're surrounded by mountains, and they have a light dusting of snow over them, making them very pretty too (at least less ugly than the summertime).

A fall day

Today would be a good example of a beautiful fall day -- not to cold or windy, a clear sky, and the leaves are absolutely beautiful here. I've never seen such colors. A nice day for a walk -- but the only walking I'll be doing is to and from campus.

Life is extremely busy for me, and I will have a lot to do in the next few weeks. Over the weekend, I went to a party one of my friends was having, and we played Imagineiff using the names of people in our D&D group. Sunday was my one day of rest after a rather hectic week, and this week will be even crazier.

Why did my roommate and I decide this would be the perfect time to write novels?

-- Emily

???New Question???

I know everyone is busy with school and various projects but I thought I'd try to wake the Blog up a little anyway. So before Winter comes I wanted to ask the question "What is a favorite Autumn Day like for you?" Do you have memories of favorite fall activities or anything?

Has everyone visited Nathan's site lately? If not you should take a peak over there. I keep checking everyone's pages to see what's new on them. I enjoyed your changes Mindy, but I have one question. Are you still going to call your blog the BBC? Just curious. I also understand that the brothers have a blog, too. Can we get a link to that or is it a BIG secret?

Hope you are all healthy and happy.

Love ya,
MOM

ME TOO!! ME TOO!!

I tried calling you Trina and left messages on both of your phones, but just so I don't miss out on wishing you a Happy Birthday I'll do it here. It was a very hectic day at work and I got home a little late. I have a Stake meeting tonight so if you're out I might miss your return call. I think it's great that you're going to Utah, wish I could come, too, but I have to work for another year and can't just run off when I feel like it. Soon, I'll be able to, if I can afford it. Meanwhile I'm keeping busy. I'm making Christmas presents, too, and having lots of fun with it.

Love to you all,
MOM

more happy

Happy birthday Trina. I'm looking forward to you coming out to see me and Tawnina, and of course to see Summer, when she is older and even more fun to play with. We can finally get the webpage updated, so everyone can see how cute she is.

I'm busy with work and homework and dancing and drawing .. as stressed as I am sometimes, I'd much rather be busy than not (since I know how that feels too!).

Another birthday wish

Happy birthday, Trina! Have a wonderful day, and have a good time with Tawnia and Mindy when you go to Utah.

I've been extremely busy studying this week. One teacher assigned us a book to have read by next Monday (I spent about six hours on it Tuesday evening), and I have to find primary sources for my history paper. I think I've got a good focus for it -- Sherman and guerrillas. Sounds like fun, right? Not to mention astronomy observations and magazine article summaries and history tests. So I will be very, very busy between now and Thanksgiving.

-- Emily

Happy Birthday Trina!

You've had quite a year this time around the sun. Congrats on everything, especially beautiful Baby Summer.

Enjoy the leaves changing and all that fun.

Love,

Eric and Laurel and Stevie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR TRINA!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

2 months until Christmas

Thanks, Nathan! Don't feel bad about spending my birthday studying - that's what Adam and I are both doing. I just got Summer down for her afternoon nap, so now I'm on the computer to study for a while. Adam has something up his sleeve for this evening - he took the car today so he could pick some things up on his way home from school.

After everyone else running around here and there, it's my turn to travel. Summer and I are going to Utah to visit Tawnia and Mindy - Tawnia was telling me on the phone the other night all of the things that are behind in her classroom these days, and I said I'd help her except I couldn't afford the trip out there. She found a roundtrip ticket for $200, so she bought it for me. Guess I'd better be ready to work hard after school to earn it, huh? (Since I can't go to her classroom during school because Summer would be too much of a distraction.) So I'll use that time to visit a couple of friends in the area.

Not much else to report right now - just staying busy with Summer, studying, and various Relief Society and Primary things. And I'm working on Christmas gifts - I'm making them this year. I made some good progress a couple of weeks ago, and now I need to work on them again. Only a few weeks until they need to be in the mail!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TRINA!!!

Hello Trina. Happy birthday. I have lots and lots of homework and studying to do today for classes tomorrow. I am not excited about that. So I hope that you are able to enjoy your birthday. I hope you eat lots of cake and that you enjoy Summer's and Adam's company. Sorry I can't be there. Darn studying. You know that's the only reason. So, Happy Birthday from the northwest palmer and wife and almost half-way done baby!!!

Love,
Nathan, Amanda, and Joshua?? Sophia?? Maya?? Junior??

pages

I have updated my page just a little. I added a new picture in the artwork section - 4th row down, second one in from the left. I cleaned up that section in general, because I know people at work have been given that link, and I'd like to make it at least a little more presentable. I also removed the school pictures, and put the link up for my Russia section, although I won't have time to finish that section for a while (school, work, dance, etc). Maybe with the link there, I'll be more likely to actually finish it in the near-ish future. It's just minor changes, but maybe you'll look around again and notice something you hadn't seen before. Hope you enjoy it.

As for Trina's pages of Summer, she and I will be working on those next month. (Please email me all the pictures you want to put on there, Trina, so I can have them on my computer.) I don't know if Tawnia still wants help with her page, but grades are due this week, so she is a bit stressed out, so now isn't the time to ask her about it. This is just something I think about when I'm supposed to be doing my homework and I don't want to.

Oh, and I get to give a talk on Sunday.

Update

• Stevie likes to bite things with his four teeth
• Laurel is drawing pictures in the style of the 1920's for our friend Heather's business idea
• Splash Mountain got me wet from head to toe (or at least neck to ankle)
• Jared is Curly's new best friend
• I'm going hometeaching tonight
• The Cardinals are leading the Tigers 2-1 in the World Series
• Every ward thinks they invented the "Trunk or Treat" but almost all of them are wrong
• Laurel's FHE lesson on honesty was about how a lie is like a monster that just gets scarier and scarier
• The highest tolls are usually for bridges. I suppose tunnels aren't much better, but I'm not sure
• Moving to Oregon might take a while
• I went to choir for the first time in over a year
• It was very foggy Sunday morning
• Our choir director wrote a Christmas song that's actually very good
• I went on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride with Sarah
• Stevie likes peas

Las Vegas

This weekend I went to Las Vegas for my friends wedding. Lisa and Jason got sealed on Friday, so my friend (Kim) and I went down Thursday night and stayed with Jen and Ben. The sealing was at 1 o'clock and afterwards we hung around for the luncheon. We ate Persian food. It was interesting. I had humus and salmon for the first time. Some of the stuff tasted nasty, but most of it wasn't too bad. The salmon was actually pretty decent. After the luncheon we were driving back to Jen's (and getting lost) when Lisa called and asked us if we wanted tickets to The Beach Boy concert that night. They were given the tickets as a gift and didn't want to use them... but figured that they should be used by someone. We said, sure! So when we made it back to Jen's we changed and then headed down to the Luxor. (The Luxor is the big black pyramid shaped hotel on the strip.) After figuring out parking (we thought that it would cost at the Luxor and were stuck in traffic further down the strip when we found out it's free at the Luxor.) we went inside and found our seats... seventh row in the center. It was an amazingly good concert. Only two of the original beach boys were there, but the music was still good. I thought it was interesting how many of the songs I actually knew. After the concert we walked down the strip to M&M World. It is a four story store... with ONLY M&M stuff. Pretty cool.

Saturday we slept in and then hung out with Jen, Kara, and Benji. We went to the Ethel M. Chocolate factory and then bought Pizza for dinner. At 7 p.m. was the reception. It was really nice and there was tons of good food. Kim caught the bouquet. Lisa sang a song for Jason, and danced with her daddy to a very sweet song.

This morning we got up early and drove back to Utah. We planned on getting to Springville on time to attend my sacrament meeting, but we didn't make it... so I'm rebelling and not going to the last hour of church where Mindy is. She doesn't know that I'm back.

So there was my weekend. Now I'm planning on staying in town until at least Thanksgiving... or maybe Christmas. (It all depends on the road conditions during Thanksgiving.)

I hope that everyone else is doing well and that Jared is able to get compensated for his plane ticket. I've been telling tons of people the story so that Delta can be avoided.

Love,
Tawnia

holy crap!

You were too nice, Jared. You paid for a plane ticket to go to HOUSTON, not to New Orleans. And the airline ditched you in New Orleans. You should have demanded to be reimbursed for the whole thing as compensation. I'm amazed that the airline said you would have to actually buy another ticket even on Delta - I thought the rules were that if you had to stay overnight somewhere due to something that was the airline's fault, the airline not only had to pick up your continuing flight costs, but they ALSO had to pay for your hotel. And hello - again - you paid to go to Houston, not New Orleans. Guess Delta's "customer service" doesn't exist anymore. Thanks for the tip - we'll also avoid Delta in the future, and I'll pass this on to some friends we have that fly Delta regularly that they might want to be careful in the future.

If Delta wants to know what all they have to do to get your business again, tell them you want FOUR round trip tickets to anywhere in the country, to be used at any time. (And then take Brooke and Bryan to Disneyland or DisneyWorld.) (And I'm not kidding.) Besides being reimbursed, of course. Let us know how it goes - I hope you get your money back.

And for Emily - why on earth would there be an entire semester on the Holocaust? What on earth can you discuss for an entire semester? 4 HOURS in the Holocaust museum here in DC was plenty for me. I wouldn't go near 4 MONTHS of review of it. And hooray for ballet and good posture!! Maybe I won't have to nag you about standing up straight anymore!!

The Letter I Wrote to Delta Airlines

To whom it may concern,

My name is Jared Palmer, and I was a passenger on flight 4422 from Atlanta to Houston.  Due to weather problems in Houston on October 16, the flight was diverted to New Orleans for refueling.  The flight attendants informed us that there would be gate agents there to help us figure out our options.  The pilot also told us he had reached his flying limit for the day and would not be able to bring us on into Houston.

After we got off the plane in New Orleans, we waited twenty or thirty minutes came and told us that Delta was not responsible for "acts of God" and that nothing more would be done for us.  She suggested calling Delta's 800 number to book another flight the next morning, but said that Delta was not responsible for those flights - we would have to purchase new tickets.  Several people tried to call, but to my knowledge none got through.  We were told there were no flights leaving New Orleans that night.  One of the security guards there at the gate then told us that how we got to Houston was "not our problem" and insisted that everyone leave the terminal.

I was able to get a seat on a Southwest flight from Noew Orleans to Houston's Hobby Airport that same evening, as did two of three others I recognized from the flight.  Again, this was agter we'd been told nothing else would be leaving the airport that night.  The gate agent probably meant that no other Delta flights would be leaving, but that's not what she said.

I understand that Delta cannot be held responsible for the bad weather, but running a plane out of gas on a two-hour flight and pushing a pilot to his 16-hour maximum cannot be deemed "acts of God."  Furthermore, my wife had requested status updates via telephone and email, and was aware of the initial delays.  However, no notification was ever given that the flight was rerouted to New Orleans, and she was unable to get that information from Delta representatives at the Houston Airport.  They were extremely rude to her, and she was only able to find out where the flight had actually landed through a third-party website.

I had been traveling in order to attend my grandmother's funeral.  This ordeal was a horrible way to end an already unpleasant weekend.  Considering that Delta fell short in many areas - pilot scheduling, lack of refueling, misinformation at the gate, lack of rerouting notification, and the rudeness of the Houston representatives - reimbursement of the $121.30 I payed to get home is the barest minimum Delta can do.  It will take much more than that before I trust myself or my safety to Delta's care again.

Spring classes

I signed up for my classes today. I'm taking two upper history courses -- one on Britain in the Middle Ages and on one diplomatic history. The only other upper division class was on the holocaust, and it was at the same time as intermediate creative writing. Let me see: Cheese! Rat Poison! Cheese! Rat Poison! Duh! This is a no brainer. And I'm taking German II. And ballet. I have to take some kind of p.e. class. Tawnia said I'll be aching in muscles I didn't even know I had. So, that's what I'll be taking next semester. At least it's only fourteen credits, instead of sixteen.

We're Back!!

We made it home safe and sound about 6:30 tonight. We stopped at Costco or we would have been home sooner. We had an uneventful trip home which is good. We stopped to see Jeff and Jackie as we headed out and spent an hour visiting them. We stopped just above Sacramento last night and drove the rest of the way today. I'm glad we were able to go and we really appreciate all the support from our kids, those who were able to come and those who weren't. And a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Laurel for putting up with us all week.

Love ya,
MOM

Test Results and so forth

Hi, family. I've been very busy with school, and last week I was rather stressed due to all the midterms and tests. However, I have done rather well. In German, I had one of the highest scores on the chapter test. In history of the performing arts, I had the highest score (I missed one of the true/false questions). While I haven't got my Civil War test back yet, the teacher told me I did do very well.

But this weekend, I didn't do a lot of studying, though I have another debate in Am Civ. Yes, I'm doing the first two debates.

And on Sunday, I started attending the Temple Preperation class.

Mindy's report

Tawnia and I found out on Saturday, and started to makes plans right away. We went to work on Monday, and talked to the principal, and got bereavement leave. (I'm not sure if I actually get paid for the days I missed, but at least Tawnia does.) We took of Tuesday and Wednesday (and today, Monday), and there wasn't school on Thursday and Friday anyway. As soon as our internet got hooked up, and I turned in a few homework assignments, we headed to Las Vegas, where we stayed with Jenny. The next morning we drove the last four hours, and spent the day with Aunt Cheryl. On Thursday we headed over to Eric and Laurel's, and met up with the rest of the family. Friday I went to Disneyland with Tawnia, Eric, Laurel, and Sarah. We had a lot of fun, and rode our favorite rides multiple times (like Space Mountain three times). It was nice to spend some time with Sarah too. Saturday morning was the funeral. It was short and simple, but it was very nice to be there. Afterwards we spent the rest of the day at Uncle Gary's house, eating and talking. He made a small fire in the driveway (in a little grill type thing) and we roasted marshmallows and he and Dad talked about all their fire stories from when they were younger. We went to sacrament meeting the next morning with Eric and Laurel, and then Tawnia and I headed back east to California. It would have been an even nine hours, but about 30 minutes away from Springville, we hit HORRIBLE traffic - all because we were narrowed down to one lane for TEN miles, and there was NOTHING going on on the other side of them. It took us an hour and a half to go those 14 miles. It was absolutely STUPID. We were very annoyed, especially since we were that close. But we finally made it home, and I immediately went to bed. This morning, since we have today off too, I'm going to focus on getting as much of my homework done as I can, especially since I'm a little behind with my Woman's Studies class, and because I really don't like to do homework on the weekends.

the Caudle weekly report

Hello all - we're glad that most everyone was able to get to California for Grandma's funeral. I wish I could have been there also. How did everything go?

Summer is doing better on sitting up on her own. She still can't do it, but her balance is getting better and she can stay upright for a few seconds before tipping over. She's doing well with playing in her exersaucer - she has figured out about getting the walker seat to go around the outside of the table, and is getting more involved with the toys. She's in the "everything goes straight in her mouth" phase, especially fabric. Go figure.

School for Adam is fine. The pressure is starting to kick in to do well on his assignments to get his grades at the top end of the rankings. He's at the library a lot.

Operation Domestic Goddess seems to revolve around the kitchen. I'm cooking more, and trying to branch out in the cookbooks. Frankly, I'm bored with eating the same stuff all the time, so we're getting more creative. We also went to an orchard up in Maryland yesterday, and picked a huge bag of apples. I told Adam - it's not that I want to can, it's that I don't want to waste the apples and we need applesauce soon anyway for Summer. So this week, I will be canning applesauce. My friend Sarah has a canner and jars and other stuff that I can use. Weirdness. What I remember of canning when we were younger was that it was always so HOT. This won't be too hot - it's only in the 60s this week. I'm sure you're all quite shocked that I'm even thinking about this, let alone planning to do it this week. But stranger things have happened. What those stranger things might be, I can't think of right now because this is pretty strange. But oh well.

Hello all

Well I am sorry that I am not able to go to Grandma's funeral. I hope that the service is nice. I am glad that so many of my siblings get to go however. It is cool to hear that all you guys are down there in So. Cal. hanging out with one another and I hope enjoying one another's company. I am glad that Eric made it back from New York safely and that he was not on that plane with the Yankees' pitcher. That was sad.

Nathan

A Shout Out to the Family Not Here

Hey Nathan and Amanda and Trina and Adam and Summer and Emily and Michelle and Brooke and Bryan!

We miss you.

Mom, Dad, Tawnia, Mindy, Jared, Eric, Laurel, Stevie, and Clarissa are all here.

building a "gospel art kit"

There's a package at the Church Distribution Center called the "gospel art picture kit" with 160 pictures (8x11 size) of scriptures stories, Church history events, portraits of the prophets, etc. The pictures in it have been around for decades - they're the old ones, mostly by Arnold Friberg, that have been around at least since we were in Primary. Since there are Church artists all over the place these days who produce beautiful paintings (Greg Olson and Liz Lemon Swindle come to mind), I've decided that we're going to build our own "gospel art picture kit." Get one of those plastic accordian-type folders at Target for 2 bucks, and start filling it up. I get a temple calendar every year, so I've got a start there - I plan to mount those on cardstock and write on the back if there's anything significant to us about that particular temple (Portland and DC of course, and other family marriages in other temples).

My request is that for my birthday or Christmas, that you send me prints (one or two or as many as catch your eye) of your favorite scripture artwork or other spiritual/gospel painting. I'd like the size to be at least a 5x7 so it's big enough to have a good view in Family Home Evening or something. If you're one of the artists of the family, something you draw or paint yourself would be really cool too. Thanks all!

Hello

Hello, family. This week has been extremely busy for me. On Wednesday, I got up early to get on a bus to the temple. I spent a couple of hours with Trina and Summer (who is extremely cute), which was good, and we watched the Joseph Smith movie.

Unfortunately, I hadn't had time to do much studying and finding sources for my Civil War paper, so I was rather stressed about that on Thursday. It was not a good day for me. Also, I have a midterm on Monday in my history of the performing arts class, but I didn't even get the review sheet until Friday, so I won't have a chance to ask the teacher any questions. I am not happy about that. The test covers every darn thing we were supposed to have read. Yes, I did all the reading, but I didn't memorize the stupid books.

But yesterday was better than Thursday. For one thing, my Civil War teacher loaned me some books that I can read, and he'll give me time to find a focus for my paper. And in the evening, I went to a play -- "The Fantasticks." I'd heard the music, but I'd never seen the play, so I wanted to go. It was supposed to be at an outdoors theater, but due to torrential rains for the past couple of days, they moved it indoors. I know one of the guys in it -- he's in my Am Civ class. So I talked my roommate into going, and we went. It was good.

testing, testing

Aside from one simple "orientation quiz" I took my first test today. Luckily I got my books yesterday, so I could quickly read the sections that I was being tested on, and then take my test. For only skimming the stuff for less than an hour before taking the test, I got an 82%. Hooray. I know my assignments are done well, so even if I keep getting low(er) test scores, I'll do fine in my class. Oh, and this was for my computer class. My classes are all fairly easy, it's just hard to do it all from three different computers. Thankfully, we're getting the internet at home next Tuesday. In the meantime, I visit the library a lot. I need to hurry and switch computers though, so I can have a computer with a disk drive, so I can email myself my assignments, so I can upload them from Tawnia's computer.

General Conference

I watched general conference at the stake center. It's about ten blocks from where I live, but I got rides most of the time, and I didn't head all the way back in between sessions. On Saturday, I headed up to campus to hang out with some friends and then I took myself out to eat at Subway. On Sunday, I just remained at the church the whole time.

So I got very little studying done over the weekend. But it was a great conference. My institute teacher (by the way, I'm taking teachings of the living prophets, so our lessons are from conference talks) -- anyway, my institute teacher said we should go with a question in mind. I did. And it was answered within the first half of the first session -- third talk, actually. And then it was confirmed in the other sessions. It wasn't just the talks -- there were also hymns.

By the way, what happened during the closing hymn was incredible. The Tabernacle Choir started singing "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet," and I wanted to sing, too. Then, after they sang the third verse, the conductor turned and everyone joined in singing the first verse again. Millions of people must have been singing at that moment. It was beautiful and powerful. I can't remember the last time we were able to sing the closing hymn.

For conference

Yesterday Amanda and I watched General Conference at home sitting on our couch. Actually we got a little too comfortable and fell asleep for part of the sessions yesterday. The same thing happened today. But we also had mom and dad and Clarissa over for today's sessions. They showed up around 9 and hurried in here to listen. Then in between sessions we had some good times shooting pool and playing ping pong. Then we enjoyed the second session and played more pool and ping pong after and then ate some good dinner and played some card games after that. Then mom and dad and Clarissa left and Amanda and I played some games.

Just so everyone knows, Dad beat me at pool twice. I also beat him twice, but only because he messed up, not because of my amazing pool talents. But I killed him at ping pong, even skunking him once.