Happy birthday, Brooke!!

Love, Summer

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROOKE

check

Speaking of goal lists, as much as I love to make them, it's even more fun when I can actually check things off. Today is a day that I can check something off. I just finished reading the entire standard works within a year. I'm very excited to be done. Now, reading the Book of Mormon will seem easy, which is good, because then I'll do it more often.

I have a list started back in Utah, so my official list of lifetime goals will be posted sometime in January. I'm not sure if it will look as cool as Jared's, but I'll have a fun time making it anyway. And as soon as my computer is up and running, I'll work on finally finishing the Russia page I've been working on for the past year.

A little note about blocks

Hi all,
I hope you all liked your Christmas blocks, and I just wanted to tell you something hopefully helpful. When my parents opened them, there were some white streaks on them from the wrapping paper, and I heard that this happened on at least some of the ones you guys got. Soooo, all you need to do is take a cloth or paper towel and get it a little damp and rub the paper off. The decoupage stuff should be fairly waterproof...at least water resistant, so scrubbing it off works quite well. It made me sad when I saw all the white stripes on them, and after I wiped them off, they looked MUCH better!!! So you all should try that!

Love you!
Manda

A post

I'm posting... because I want to see it updated on the new nifty front page thing. I don't have anything exciting to say. I have been thinking a lot about what goals I want for January. I beat Nate and Manda and Mom at Settlers. Then Mom won. I played Blink with Clarissa and then I played Blink with Emily... we were pretty evenly matched both times.

Tonight after eating snake legs we're hopefully going to play Cranium.

I really like snake legs.

Love,
T

something missing from my stocking ...

It just occurred to me that there was something missing from my Christmas package from Mom and Dad ... I got my calendar from Mom, and my movie from Dad, and Summer got her photo book. But we did NOT get a CD of ALL of the family portrait pictures from the reunion. Can I PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE get a CD of all the family portrait pictures? Finally? And all the other pictures that Dad took at the reunions? I have all the pictures that you took when you were here, because you downloaded them onto my computer. But I have no others, except the few you've emailed - about 5. There were a lot more than 5 taken that week.

You don't even have to mail it. You can burn the CD and put it in Emily's luggage, and she can give it to me when she comes up for spring break. But at least then I'd have them!! Thank you.

Love, Trina

top 100 lists

Happy birthday, Emily - I'm glad you were able to go through the temple today and that it was a good experience for you!

Jared, you've inspired me to take another crack at my Top 100 list ... you're right, it is pretty hard to get to 100. I have random things written down on various pieces of paper scattered about, and I recently put them into one computer file. I was stuck at about 25. I went through some of my journals tonight, where I have more random things written down, and also looked at your list and Mom's, and got mine up to 57. I'm sure I'll come up with more ... I was just listing things at random, but sorted them into categories. Here are a couple per topic to give you an idea of what I'm interested in, and maybe get some more ideas for yourself.

Spiritual uplift: Study the Gospel Doctrine lessons at home every week for 4 years (since I haven't gone to that Sunday School class since 2003), attend endowment sessions in 30 temples with Adam (we're up to 5 together), and be in the Hill Cumorah pageant.

Family: Make a swaddling blanket for each of my children, help plan family reunions, and take my daughters to a spa for a day-long treatment the week before they get married.

Home: BUY A HOUSE (that would be important, ya know?), have an herb garden in our kitchen, do the 12 Months of Christmas (one Christmas project per month for a year).

Education: Finish this medical transcription course (FINALLY), get voice coaching, take a class in infant massage, lots of reading - biographies and classic literature.

Evil politics (yes, that's how I wrote it): get a Master's degree in public policy, write a blog for a year.

Travel: Go on a cooking tour of Italy, visit all the Church history sites, go to a bunch of Civil War battlefields.

Cool stuff to do: Go to a World Cup soccer game, see a Broadway play in New York City, watch the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

I'll post the whole thing when it's finished. I'd like to get it done by the weekend. I have plenty more traveling and fun stuff that I'm sure I can come up with. I'd like to see everyone else's ideas, so put them up on your page!! P.S. Jared, I like how you did all the pictures on the page for your goals - that was fun to go through!

Happy Birthday Emily!!

Emily - We're very excited to see you at the temple in an hour and a half or so and we hope you have a wonderful wonderful 26th birthday. We hope this year is a great one for you - filled with all sorts of exciting surprises :c)

We love you!
Manda and Nathan

P.S. We're excited to see all you other cool Palmers at the temple in a little while too!!

New Years Goals

Here's a random thought from Jared about goals. It's not necessarily about New Years Resolutions, but since people generally think about goals this time of year, why not think about this now.

I know that Mom has a page on her website listing out 100 things she'd like to accomplish in her lifetime. I'm vaguely aware that several other people have similar lists - Trina and Emily and Mindy come to mind, but I don't know about anyone else. Well, now I do too. It took me a while to complete my list, but I now have 50 things I'd like to do listed on my page. 100 was just too much - it took me forever just to come up with 50.

So what I want to know is - what are your "big" goals? What do you want to accomplish before you bite the big one? Maybe we can all help each other come up with more ideas by sharing our lists!

Happy happy birthday
Now come and get your licks
We'll spank you 'til you're black and blue
'Cause you are twenty-six!

Merry Christmas

Look... I'm actually posting!

I know that Christmas was a few days ago, but I'm still on my "Christmas" Break. I hope that everyone had a fabulous Christmas and got many good things.

I had a bit of an adventure on the way home from Utah. I was at the airport when I realized that I did not have my drivers license on me. So I had to be searched a bit extra to get through security. It didn't really add to the time much, but it was interesting. You have to stand in this box and they shoot air at you with airpuffers. Mindy said that it made my hair poof out. Then I had to sit down and watch this guy wipe down my phone, CD player and the inside of my backpack. He looked through everything inside and after about five minutes he sent me on my way. And the most exciting thing is... I'll have to do it all again on the way back to Utah because I am pretty sure my license is in my dance bag in my bedroom in good ol' Springville.

I am just really glad that I am able to post.

-T

Christmas Eve

Hi Family!

It's the night before Christmas. Laurel is wrapping a few presents we bought last night for Gary's family.

Last weekend we had a ward Christmas party and I played Frosty the Snowman. It was a scary costume, but I think I made it work.

Friday night we went to dinner with Speedy's family. Jody, James and Jacob were there with their families. Back at the house, Stevie had a great time with the kids. Jamie and Jake both have boys Stevie's age. Laurel wasn't going to go but changed her mind at the last minute. I'm glad she came along.

Laurel has been very morning sick these days. It's been tough on all of us, but mostly her.

Stevie decided to get up and walk today. We knew he was close, but he doesn't respond well to our goading him. I was dozing off on the couch and saw him take a few steps, fall, and then get up and take a few more steps. I jumped off the couch and woke up Laurel who was napping in the bed. Later, while Laurel was making us hide in his room while she wrapped presents, Stevie walked most of the way across his room. Even later, while we were reading the Christmas story and singing Christmas songs, Stevie walked from his toybox to the futon a few times. It's exciting times. I'm trying to capture it on video, so stay tuned.

I hope you like the presents we sent. Laurel spent a lot of her precious energy putting them together. We love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas. I'm sure we'll all be talking to each other during the day tomorrow.

Love,
Eric

packages

I just wanted to let you know that I sent the Christmas box today to Mom and Dad's house. It was sent priority so it should get there by Saturday.

Eric and Jared, I am also sending you a Christmas package for your family, but I'm not quite done with it. So you'll get your's as New Year's gifts, I guess. Sorry about that. This took a lot longer to get put together than I expected, especially since I made 12. (Well, still making.) 6 for our family, and 6 for the Caudle side. I'm not done with all of their's either.

That's been pretty much all I've been up to the past few days ... that, and baking cookies to send to Joe. (Adam's brother in Iraq.) Adam found a recipe for chocolate pretzels - they're basically cookies, but twisted around like soft bread pretzels, and they're SOOOOOO good. Except for the few I set aside for Joe, we ate them ALL within an hour of coming out of the oven. With egg nog. Wow. That was amazing.

Getting ready

I've been doing quite a lot of that over the past three days. On Monday, Mom and I went to Wal-Mart. Then on Tuesday, she had a doctor's appointment in Portland, so I went with her. Mom and Dad got me a birthday present -- a long white dress. And we went to Deseret Books and some other stores. And today, Mom and I went to the grocery store after we dropped Clarissa off at work.

Do you remember what Eric was like before his mission? I've been like that over the past couple of days. Dad got some new DVDs, including a set on Church history, and I watched some of them, as well as older videos. And there are still some that I haven't watched -- yet -- like "Mountain of the Lord." But I'm sure I'll get around to that in the next week.

My birthday is going to be the best ever.

A random video clip

A friend of mine sent me this video. It's really cool!



This machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa. 97% of the machine's components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft, Iowa, yes farm equipment!
It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video.
It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.

Hello

I added some stuff to my page just now. It is in my section which you get to by clicking on the image map at the bottom.
Mom, I hope that you are ok. Amanda and I won't be coming over today because Amanda is on call and has to check her RAs out. Stay off your feet and get better.
Emily, I am glad that you made it to Oregon in safety. Sorry to hear that your face was plastered to the window. Was it easy to get it off.
Jared, I am going to get Skip's info to you soon. Sorry it has taken so long to get it.
Clarissa, you should hurry up and get your stuff done too so that way everything can be done for the actors page.
Everyone else, I hope that you are doing well and know that we think of you often and miss you all very much.

Nathan

sacrament meeting program

http://www.defordmusic.com/silentnightcantata.htm

This link is to the Christmas cantata our ward did this morning. It lasts only about 20 minutes (so there was also a Primary number and a speaker besides the choir), but it's absolutely beautiful. It's an entire cantata based on the song Silent Night, and all the narration is the Nativity straight out of the scriptures. We had a flute with the first song, and a violin at the end. I did the 3rd verse solo and the "Jesus, Lord at thy Birth" solo. (They're right together.) If any of you can do any suggestions for your ward choir next Christmas, I highly recommend this entire thing.

I haven't listened to any of the other music on this website, but I'm definitely planning to. All of it has MP3 files, and all of the sheet music is available for download. And for FREE!! Also at the link above, although that link is specific for the Silent Night cantata. Just thought I'd share some great music!!

P.S. I loved Amanda's actor bio on the Pure Chaos page - I learned a lot about her!!

I am here

Hello, family.

Well, I made it to Oregon without any difficulties. I got to the airport early, and I passed the time by talking with some people from SVU who were also flying out. Then we got on a little plane and flew to Atlanta. That airport is unbelievably huge. I don't think I appreciated the size of it last time, but that was in the middle of the night. This was in the middle of the day. I grabbed a bite at a food court and then headed to my gate. This plane was really big -- the biggest I've been on. There were probably close to 300 people on that plane. It was a long flight to Portland. Usually, I couldn't see much out the window but a layer of gray clouds, but it finally cleared up over Wyoming. I saw the Tetons and Jackson Hole from the plane, and when we were coming in for a landing, I had my face plastered to the window. I had a great view of Mount Hood -- ah, it's so nice to see a real mountain again. And the lights were beautiful. Have you ever seen Christmas lights from the air?

Well, I'm here now. I'll be going to church with Mom and Dad and Clarissa, and then tomorrow I'll go Christmas shopping.

Happenings at Home

Life is full of ups and downs around here, especially for me, it seems. On Thursday I was up one minute, took a step back and I was down - flat on my back - in the parking lot at Wal-Mart. My back hurt a lot so I got it checked out at the hospital and nothing is broken. I stayed home from work yesterday and I'm on some pain pills. I'll be fine but it may take a few days before I'm up and running again.

Today Emily is coming home. Dad was asked to help with the youth baptisms this afternoon, so when he finishes there, he'll pick Emily up from the airport. I'm excited that she'll be here soon.

I like the new pictures on your page, Jared, and the updates on "Pure Chaos" just a couple more things on the Actors & Characters and those sections will be complete, I see.

I guess that's all for the moment. I love you all.

MOM

My turn

In about 25 minutes my last final begins. This is the one that I have been dreading because it is comprehensive and all the others were not. Yesterday the the worst Friday too, because I knew I had to get up for this final. I wasn't even able to really enjoy trading spouses last night. What is the big deal? Well I should go and get some last second studying in.

See you later.
Nathan

forever ago

I know that it has been forever since I last posted, but I really do have a good excuse. My computer is still in the process of being fixed. After getting a new motherboard and fixing everything, Dustin (the guy fixing my computer) found out that the new motherboard doesn't work, so he has to get a new one. I'll be lucky to have a computer before Christmas. So, instead of doing all my homework at home, I did it at the school, in the hours between me being done with work, and the end of school when I tutor four times a week. It was convienent and kept me busy while I waited to do the tutoring. I was/am able to earn extra money with that, so I can be sure to have money for rent in January (since I won't be working over Christmas to get a decent paycheck). Anyway, so I did my homework at school, where I studied hard and got straight A's! Now I only have one term left, starting in January, and then I'll be done with my Associate's Degree. Anyway, so the reason I haven't been able to post, is because I haven't made it over to the library in a long time, and the school blocks all blogs. I made it to the library today, because I didn't have tutoring, and because I had to get some addresses so I can mail some of my textbooks off (hooray for Amazon.com!). I'm happy to read everyone's news and everything. I felt very out of the loop for a while. I'm really looking forward to Christmas, and spending time with the family I get to spend time with. Only one more week left of school.

Final final

Well, in about thirty minutes, my final final will begin. It's the Civil War test. I spent most of yesterday reading. I also signed a contract to move into a different house next semester. It's closer to campus. And there are no pets. Rebecca will still be my roommate. After the final, I am going to go pack and get everything ready to go early tomorrow morning. In twenty-four hours, I'll be sitting around at the airport. I will be getting there really early.

For those of you in Oregon, see you soon! Merry Christmas! Wish me luck on my final final.

The liberated moose

Well here he is sitting on our sink. He isn't too big.





Nathan

Do you know what day it is?

That's right. It's Tuesday Towel Day!!! To bring in the new day, Amanda freed a moose and has a new goal of freeing a reindeer. Of course I am ever so helpful. I really wanted the moose to be free so Amanda started to help and with the two of us working at it we got him out and he now sits on our sink. So next time you look at the calendar and see that it is Tuesday Towel Day think what you can do to help free a moose.

Nathan

I haven't posted here in a while. We are doing fine. Jared is working a lot, 14 or 15 hour days. Kids are great. They are really excited about Christmas. Things are pretty much the same with me.

The week before Thanksgiving, Snowflake (one of our pet rats) got a huge abscess on her abdomen. It was quite gross. The vet lanced the abscess and got it cleaned out good. She was put under anesthesia and everything. We did 10 days of antibiotics after the procedure to make sure the infection didn't return. She is doing very well now. She did get terribly skinny afterwards, so we feed her Ensure. That fattened her back up. Our other rat (Flower) never had any problems.

Last week we bought a new computer. It currently has windows XP media center, but it came with a free upgrade to Windows Vista when it comes out next your. I like my new computer. It felt good getting rid of that old computer.

YouTube

I think everyone got an email about my YouTube channel, but if you didn't you can go to www.youtube.com/ericpalmer to see videos I've put together. If you join YouTube and subscribe to my channel you'll be notified when new movies are posted (or at least that's the theory).

At any rate, that's my latest thing. I'm still working on the Beers Reunion DVD and the Pure Chaos re-edit. And Laurel says I need to stop spending so much time on the computer and spend more time with her.

Yellow pages?

I was going through some of the different sites and I noticed that there was a new picture thing on Jared's. I never knew that Michelle liked to read the yellow pages. So, Michelle, do they have to be local yellow pages, or could you read them from somewhere else, like if you got one from Oregon would you feel ok with reading it in Texas? Not that we are sending you any, I was just curious.

I hope that everyone is having fun getting ready for the holidays. I have a week of finals and then I am done.

Nathan

So, Dad, I hear you're sixty now.

 

How's that workin' out for ya?

I Got a Job

I went in for an interview today at Osprey Court, an Assisted Living Care Home. I got the job. I call on Tuesday to find out when orientation is. I'm now a Resident Assistant. I assist the residents, with everything.

That is all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!

Holy cow! You're how old?!?! Well you made it to the big 60. I hope that you have a wonderful birthday and that everything goes well. You should quit your job today and retire early.

Love,
Nathan, Amanda (I didn't type this), and grandson #3.

the big 6-0

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y, D A D !!!

Or Grandpa, as the case may be.

We love you - Trina, Adam and Summer

8 hours!!!

Summer slept for 8 hours straight last night!! Woo hoo!! We finally got her down at 10-something last night - close to 11, and she slept clear until 7 this morning. Yay!! Then she took a 2-hour nap this morning after eating her oatmeal and applesauce (mixed, with a little bit of formula as the milk), and now she just finished her lunch of turkey/rice/sweet potatoes - baby food, mixed with babyfood peas - and pears on the side. She's eating like a champ, and she's figuring out the sippy cup. She's currently wandering around in her exersaucer and playing her little piano and talking away. She's on the verge of cutting teeth. I still don't feel anything in her gums trying to break through, but she's chomping on things pretty hard these days and getting randomly fussy.

And there's your Summer report ... Adam has his first final on Thursday, so he's been at the library all day every day lately. He was there all day Saturday, and was even going to go on Sunday after church but his study group got cancelled. He feels pretty good about how he's doing so far, and he got a blessing that said he will do well. But that doesn't mean he can slack off. His last final is on the 15th, and then we have 3 weeks of freedom!! And boy, do we have plans!! It's going to be a great Christmas!!

I'm fine. Doing my own studying, working 2 days a week for our bishop's wife so stuff never gets done around here, behind on making Christmas presents ... you know the routine. Same ol' same ol'. But if I was still working, it would be even worse because I'd be in San Antonio this whole week. But I'm NOT!! I'm HERE!! Hooray!!

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S !!!

Happy Tuesday Towel Day!!!

I am so excieted that today is Tuesday Towel Day. This is one of my favorite days of the week. Of course I like Saturdays, but I have a chemistry final on a Saturday so I don't know if I will like that one or not. I will like at least half of it I hope because I final goes from 8-11am so I should like from after that until the end. Especially since that is my last final. But enough about Saturdays because today is Tuesday Towel Day. Three cheers for Tuesday Towel Day!! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, Hip, Hooray!! HIP, HIP, HOORAY!!!

See ya' later.

Nathan

Over the weekend

On Friday, right after I got out of class, my roommate and I went out for ice cream. It was to celebrate the end of November and National Novel Writing Month. I'd finished my book (by writing 10,000 words on Thursday) and she was halfway done. So we got a really big sundae. It was good. Then we went to the flute concert.

On Saturday night, I went to Black Friars. It's a theater in Stauton that looks like an original Shakespeare theater. So we were sitting alongside the stage (some people sit on the stage) and the lights are kept on throughout the performance, and people are allowed to eat and drink in the theater (if they purchase food in the lobby). My roommate is in the Shakespeare class, so she invited me along. We saw "The Tempest."

Then on Sunday, there was church, and I talked to the bishop. (I need to set up an appointment with the stake president.) And in the evening, we went to the Christmas devotional. Did you all see that? After the devotional, a group of us got together, and we went caroling. We walked around town and we sang at different houses. It was fun, but it was cold. It's one of those cold and clear days now.

I have less than a week of classes to go. There are no classes on Friday; that's a reading day. And then there are finals. And then I fly back to Oregon.

My New Calling

Today I was released from my calling in Young Women. I'm going to miss my girls. Even though I won't be able to receive my medallion I'm still going to keep working on the goals anyway. It's one of the things on my 100 list to earn my medallion. It doesn't say I have to receive it.

My new calling is in Primary. I'll be teaching the 6 year olds. Right now I'll only have about three active kids and a couple of others who are there occasionally. I haven't taught on a regular basis for a very long time so it will be different for me. I'm sure we'll have a fun time.

I hope you are all healthy and happy. I know you're busy with all of your Christmas plans, school finals and everything else that's going on in your lives. Take a minute to post on the blog occasionally. I haven't seen much on here lately.

Sure love ya,
MOM

Happy Birthday!

I would also like to say "happy birthday" to Laurel, even though I already did. In person. I'm meeting her at the dentist in a little while. Yes, that's how we're spending part of her birthday. We're going out to dinner tomorrow night. I'm looking forward to that (I hope she is).

Laurel is a great person with a strange and abiding interest in creating fake lemon trees. She also has an almost superhuman ability to paint things that look like things, including people, flowers, and a variety of fruits (for example, lemons).

She is also a very good mom. She takes very good care of her little boy named Stevie. She loves him very much. He is a very good-looking baby, especially in the way that he looks like his mother.

Be sure to pause today to consider what a wonderful, beautiful, smart, loving, and talented person Laurel is.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAUREL!!!

Laurel-

May all your birthday wishes come true this year. I have socks on my hands.

Nathan