Oh Oregon

Mindy and I are now in Oregon. I'm visiting and Mindy is moving in. Saturday was a perfect driving day. It was overcast in Utah in the morning and then stayed fairly cool throughout the day. We got here in good time with no troubles. It has been overcast the entire time we've been here so far but hasn't actually rained.

Today our plan is to go and see Pirates 3. I could have gone to see it Thursday night, but decided to wait for Mindy. I'm not sure if the parents are coming with us or not. Tomorrow the plan is to go and help Nate and Manda for the day and then spend the night down there so that on Wednesday we can go to Silver Creek Falls. I want to do a nice long hike. Then we also want to go to the coast one day and next week we're going to the zoo with Mom's class on Wednesday. So yeah, I'm here vacationing and doing all the things that I want to do whilst in Oregon. I have to be back in Utah for church on June 10th. (I promised we'd have choir practice that Sunday.) And then I have a dentist appointment on June 11th to get a couple of teeth pulled so I have to be there for that also.

That's what's up with me at the moment.

Tawnia

Serving a mission

I typed up a great comment right after Clarissa posted about serving a mission, but then it didn't post and I couldn't get it back. I didn't have time then to rewrite it (I really didn't have time to write it in the first place) so I'll try to paraphrase it, with a few adjustments considering what comments have been made since.

I think it's great Clarissa wants to serve a mission. It's not easy, but it's a great experience. My advice is similar to what others have said: prepare yourself and save your money. I think this preparation time can be a great experience as well.

I'm glad to hear you're active in your ward and participating in the temple pageant Clarissa. You're creating great memories and learning and growing all the time, and that's what life's about. Let me know (and you can call or email too) if you have any questions about my mission in particular. I'm always up for talking about it.

Oakland Temple Pageant Info

The dates and times for it are:
July 17-21, 24-28
Evening proformances begin at 8pm (Ages 8 and older)
21 and 28 (Saturdays)
Matinees begin at 2pm (All ages)

Get tickets now.

Call 510-531-1475 or 510-531-0704
or visit www.oaklandtemplepageant.org

a few thoughts on missions

In light of the Clarissa's announcement re mission, I thought it apropos to add a few thoughts. This isn't an attempt discourage her or anyone else from serving a mission. There are, however, substantial differences in mission prep since Trina, Eric, Laurel, Jared and I went on our missions and what is now required. Since the major changes occurred while I was on my mission, I might be able to illuminate a few of the key changes.
In the old system, everyone was accepted as a missionary. That's not to denigrate anyone who served under that system. But anyone could be on a mission within 18 months of making a decision. It was once said "A mission makes a bad man good and a good man better." However, things are much different now. The transition began about midway through my mission. Most of our zone conferences during my last year were focused on bringing us up to the new standard. During one of the meetings, a DVD of a training session in Salt Lake was played. In that video, Elder Ballard explicitly referenced the previous quote and said that it no longer was accurate. Missions should no longer be considered rehabilitation or a place to teach good habits. Instead, the missionary must be up to speed before they enter the MTC. Elder Bednar gave a really great talk in GC a few times back where he discussed this difference. While most members of the church have seen the cosmetic results of this change (new way of teaching/studying), the entire system depends on missionaries entering the MTC at the same spiritual and mental level that missionaries used to go home at.

So, while this isn't an attempt to discourage anyone, I do hope that Clarissa and anyone else that you may know who is considering a mission take the time to thoroughly prepare before they go, since missionaries don't have time anymore to use the MTC and the first few months in the field as preparation. And, out of random curiosity for the young lady who uses "Random" as her website label, why do you want to go on a mission?

I've been gone, too.

For the last four days I was at outdoor school in Central Oregon. I showed up for work at 6:30 Tuesday morning. Our first stop was at Detroit Lake so the kids could have a snack and stretch. Then we stopped at a fish hatchery and about 3:00 we got to LaPine State Park where we camped for three nights. The kids all stayed in tents with high school counselors. I slept in a cabin. Tuesday night we went to the Sun River Observatory. We saw Jupiter with some of it's moons and the rings of Saturn. We saw Venus and the craters on the moon and lots of stars. We got the kids to bed about midnight. That was one VERY long day. On Wednesday we returned to Sun River to visit the nature center and to see the sun through the telescope. On Thursday we visited the High Desert Museum and the Lava River Cave where I went on the two mile hike.

When we weren't off visiting various sites the kids had study sessions with their counselors or recreation time with some parent volunteers. The head cook was there preparing meals and snacks for us.

Friday was clean-up and return home day. We got back to school about 5:00p.m. The weather couldn't have been better. It rained once, during the night but was sunny and warm every day. It wasn't too hot, though. I heard that last year it snowed.

I worked with a 5th grade girl from our life skills class. She had a few rough moments the first day - a few less the next and by the third day she didn't even seem homesick. But on Friday, when her Mom came she burst into tears.

I came home with a slight sunburn, a few mosquito bites and some sore muscles. The worst thing was that I lost a crown from my back tooth so I have to miss work on Tuesday to get it back on. The teacher told me before I left that she didn't want me to get sick and miss work when I got back. I wonder what she'll say now.

Virginia's "Historical Triangle"

We're back from our trip ... we drove down to the Williamsburg area Monday and stayed with one of my roommates from waaaaaaaaaay back when at Ricks, Christine. She and her husband Damon (who was one of our FHE brothers) are at one of the Army bases in the area and they have 3 kids. It was good to visit with them again - we saw each other last spring when Summer was born and they were up here for a temple day, but before that, we hadn't visited since we had a reunion for all of the roommates in Utah in the spring of 2000.

Tuesday: Jamestown. It's the 400th anniversary year of the first landing at Jamestown. The visitor's center has an extensive museum exhibit that Summer decided she wanted to walk through instead of staying in her stroller. She had started walking on her own about a week before that, so she got plenty of practice there. It was very cute to watch. We went through a model Indian village, a replica of the fort at Jamestown, and replicas of the ships that came from England. Then we drove over to the original area of Jamestown where there is an archeological dig on the site with another visitor's center. We didn't go through that because we got there too late. But we drove around the area - it was actually an island ... no wonder the people were dropping like flies. It's a swamp! Still a swamp! Why did they stop there, instead of going further up the river to find some DRY land? It was all right, and we may go again when our kids are a bit older so they can see it but that would be it. And we'll focus more on the original site than the replicas. We didn't realize the actual layout or we would have gone quicker through the replicas.

Wednesday: Yorktown, and the beach. Again, we went to the tourist visitor's center and didn't get a lot of time at the original locations. What the heck. At least with Yorktown, the tourist stuff is still on original land. Museum exhibit, introductory movie (which made no sense at all), a soldier's camp, and a small farm from the 1700s. No big deal. Our fun was driving around the original battlefield and seeing the seige lines - trenches and these really odd looking hills that are obviously manmade.

We drove down to Virginia Beach that afternoon with Damon and Christine and their kids to go to the beach - we went to another military base with a nice beach instead of a crowded public beach. It was on the mouth of the Chesapeake going into the Atlantic, and the currents were too bad to swim. So we just got our feet wet - Summer didn't like that too much but she has been in the ocean now. I think she doesn't like the cold water, because she loves her bath so she's not scared of water in general. We saw dolphins jumping out of the water, which was very cool. I've never seen dolphins outside of an aquarium.

Thursday and Friday: Colonial Williamsburg. We LOVED Williamsburg. Christine had gotten us the military discount on tickets (basically half price), but we think the full price would have been worth it. We went through a lot of the buildings, and watched both afternoons of outdoor "performances." On Thursday, Governor Dunmore - the last British governor - made a speech from the balcony of the Capitol to disband the House of Burgesses, then a number of conversations with townspeople (loyalists and patriots shouting at each other, among other things), and then the Virginia legislature passing resolutions supporting the Continental Congress and independence. On Friday, the afternoon started with a recitation of the Declaration of Independence, more townspeople conversations, Benedict Arnold's takeover and occupation of Williamsburg, and eventually the start of George Washington's march to Yorktown complete with a fife and drum corps. It was really cool. We didn't get to all the buildings that we wanted to, so I expect that we'll find our way back to Williamsburg sooner or later.

And last night, after the fife and drum finale, we drove back to DC. Yikes. Today, we're not doing anything except going to the grocery store. Maybe I will unpack.

I have a plan

I have decided to go on a mission. I talk to the bishop on sunday. Any advice or help is welcome.

Check out Jared's page

I just wanted to thank Jared for the cool new pictures on his page, especially last month's Chilli Cookoff pictures. Just one complaint: the pictures of the kids were nice, but I was really hoping to see more chilli-related photography.

Anyway, good to see you're not working 24/7 (unless you were talking shop all day).

birthday party

Mindy just posted the pictures from Summer's birthday party, so you can go see them now! It was a really fun day - the weather turned out perfect, and there were a lot of people there. Not quite as many as expected because some people had last minute things come up, so we have a lot of leftover cupcakes ... but a good turnout and Summer got a lot of fun toys. The pool was a big hit - everyone in the play group is very excited to have pool activities this summer.

We're going to Virginia Beach tomorrow for the week, so catch you all later!

Stuff

Hey Tawnia, I quit my job too! I no longer work at Slaveway... I mean Safeway. So I'm looking for a new job. I have enough rent money to get me to August at least. I should find a new job before then.
I made it into Tech Crew for Pageant. I might do Balcony Chorus but I might just do tech. Today was the opening social and we have our first rehearsal tomorrow after church. Sarah made it into Ensemble.
Other than I don't have much of a life.

Last Day

Monday night was FHE, Tuesday was dance, Wednesday I did my visiting teaching, Thursday was my last night at dance (my teacher LOVED the drawing and expects me back in September), and last night I got together with my visiting teachers for a final get together, since neither of them will be around for my going-away party next week. And I don't have anything in particular going on tonight, but I am babysitting in the afternoon, for the family I'm watching all next week. So that also means that yesterday was my last day at work.

It was really a rather normal day at work, doing my organizing for Mrs. Young, so her papers could be managed better, and she wouldn't be making so many extra copies. At one point during the day though, amidst the busyness of the day, Tawnia called me down to her room to take some pictures. I'm like FINE! Gosh, she still needs my help even though we're at school. So I went down there. Took a few pictures and ask, can I go now? She said no, take a few more pictures. So I took more, and asked again. She looked at the clock and said .. uhhh .. no. Tawnia, are my kids throwing me a surprise party? She smiled. She isn't a very good liar. It made me feel so loved though! When I got back to class they hadn't done more than put up a banner, write all over the white-board, and put up ONE streamer. But it was great. A few kids had presents, including some chocolate and bath smelly stuff (since a teacher just couldn't get away without that every gift-giving time). The REAL present was from a student named Zach, who struggled through most of the year with turning things in and being on top of things, but then this last term he did a complete 180, and now has every single thing in, and is getting straight A's. Anyway, he gave me a large pink piggy bank, with a crown and a tutu! It's SO perfectly cute! Her name is Zacharina (he approved the name). He also left me a card that made me cry, because it talks about how I really helped him through the year and how I'm his favorite mentor and I've taught him things he won't soon forget. It was fabulous. I really will miss all these kids.

The good news is that I'll probably pop in off and on next week, while I'm babysitting. There are four kids, but the three older boys (11, 10 and 6) are all at school, so during the day I'll just have the 3-year-old girl. And since her oldest brother is in my class, it probably won't matter if I bring her along. I'm sure my class will be excited to see me, and Tawnia and I are going to tap dance for both of our classes. Wahoo! And then we party Friday night, after I'm done with the baby-sitting thing, and we drive home next Saturday. At least I finally had some time to pack this morning!

Life

Well, I'm not sure if everyone has heard but I have decided to quit my job and go back to school. It's been a crazy week since making the decision official. (Turning in my letter of resignation is pretty official.) I will be attending... either BYU or USU and working towards a Masters in Speech Language Pathology.

My plan is to stay living where I'm at (the USU program is online to start with) but that means I have to find a roommate. I also plan to get some sort of job starting after I get back from Oregon. I will get paychecks from the school through the summer... so any money will just go into savings to help me get through school.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to.... making life changing decisions and then living with the consequences.

T

it's official

Summer is now walking. She's been edging around the furniture for a few weeks now, or along the wall, but wouldn't ever let go and take steps on her own. A couple of weeks ago, we got her to take a few steps between the two of us. We'd send her back and forth and she would do it a few times, but then sit on the floor when she got bored with it. This past week, she finally would take one or two steps off the furniture, but only when she was reaching for something else and would get to it easily.

Yesterday, the light clicked in her head that this walking thing wasn't so bad, and she took off all the way across the living room. Then Adam got her to cross the living room and all the way down the hall. She did that 3 or 4 times, laughing the whole time, and the rest is history. She's still edging along the furniture, and crawling some. But yesterday was definitely the big shift.

No TV Year

1. We don't have a TV anymore. I can't remember if I mentioned that before. We haven't had it for at least a month and a half now. It's been nice. I'm reading a lot more and we spend more time playing with Stevie and reading to him. He doesn't miss it at all. We didn't really get rid of it on purpose. It just stopped working, and we decided not to replace it.

2. Laurel is doing fine. The pregnancy is probably much better than we want to recognize because Laurel is so worried about pre-term delivery. She switched doctors, and she really likes her new doctor (who actually delivered Stevie). She keeps being told that there's nothing she can do to avoid pre-term delivery. If it happens, it happens. So she worries. But she's getting better.

3. Stevie is doing fine. His hobbies include climbing on the table, dancing on the table, banging on the computer keyboard, and looking at bubbles. He also likes to say the word "bubbles." His favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham.

4. I'm enjoying my new job. I've been at WaMu for almost 2 months. It's nice. I'm working on some interesting projects. Everyone keeps saying: "Oh, that's very high profile" about the project I'm on. I'm considering a move to Seattle instead of Oregon. We'll see.

5. Video editing. I've been frustrated with my computer. I have the Beers DVD done, but the first burning didn't work at all. DVD's I've tried to burn since have also had problems. I don't know what the deal is. Ben Majors is going to help out with some software. I've tried a few different ones and nothing seems to do the trick. Anyway, the Beers Reunion DVD is coming soon, pending computer issues. Pure Chaos is further behind, but the day will come. Laurel doesn't like me spending too much time on the computer and not with her, so when I haven't posted videos or pictures or whatever, just blame her (heh heh heh).

Nephew pictures

I was thinking that it was kind of weird that you didn't do Joshua's picture like the other neice/nephew pictures for Tawnia's birthday until I remembered that Joshua was born after Tawnia's birthday. So that makes sense now. I don't know if you ever going to get a serious face on Joshua though. Every picture I take he is going to have a big smile on his face, especially since he is starting to smile more.

Sorry for the delay on the current Joshua pictures for the calendar. We are in the process of moving and becoming apartment managers and all these new responsibilities are starting to add up. We will be adding new ones soon I hope. I can't promise when, but soon. I think we have pictures of him every day so far.

My grades are in too:

Moving: C
Gift giving: B-
Intro to fatherhood: A

I'm glad I didn't take more credits. With how bad I did I probably would have done much worse.

Nathan

they're done!

So Tawnia asked for pictures of all the nieces and nephews for her birthday, after I finished the first picture of Summer. I've finally finished. I've got 5x7's of Brooke, Bryan, Stevie and Summer! I'll add Joshua and the new ones later, as they show up and get a little bit older. At least Tawnia gets her birthday present now, before I go. You can see the Stevie addition on my page. And if you'd like copies, I can email you my big, clear, 5x7 sized jpegs, and you can send them off to WalMart yourself.

Grades are in

Well, I've finally got my grades in for last semester:

Diplomatic history: A
British history: A
German: A
Creative writing: A-
Ballet: A

What the heck is up with that minus? I like my new creative writing class better. The teacher is good, the class is smaller, and we meet for a longer period. It's great.

Happy Mother's Day

Well, I suppose I can take a few minutes out of my busy day to say hi to all of you out there in Blogville. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be in our family! Our big news right now is that we found a house we like, and have put out a contract on it. We'll close the deal next month, and move the last week of June. It's a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house just outside of Sugar Land in an older neighborhood. It'll be closer to work and church, and the kids will be in a much better school. That's most of what our busy-ness here is - that and my 50-60 hours of work every week.

I'm busy!

I've been busy, for sure. You can read some of my adventures on the Sister blog. But I have taken the time to do a little more art. I just posted a new picture on my page .. my first non-portrait in a long time. I drew it for my dance teacher, because I'm moving away, and I wanted to show her how much I've appreciated her over the last year. She's convinced I'll be coming back .. and if I'm in Utah again, I will go back to dancing with her, definitely.

Is Everyone Busy?

I guess everyone is too busy living life to take the time to tell the rest of us about it. Either that or they feel that there is nothing to report. Since I last wrote I've done some updating on my page. I answered my last question - the one I got NO response on. Nathan and Amanda are doing such a wonderful job of keeping us updated on Joshua, so I changed my "What's New". I also moved the vacations to the timeline and took them off my page. I've added a few other things on there, too. Dad and I also planted several bushes and trees around the yard. I was given the plants through a friend at work. I would have taken pictures but they still look like sticks. I'll wait until they start growing and fill in with leaves.

Love ya,
MOM

thank you, Grandma and Grandpa!

This morning, Summer opened her birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa (which we actually got in the mail on Monday) - it was a fun inflatable rocket swimming pool floater seat, which hopefully we can use soon! We helped a couple in our ward move last weekend into a new apartment building which is just up the street, and they have a pool which they said we can come swim in. Daddy blew it up right away, and Summer has already had fun squeaking the "lights" on it. No pictures yet, because the batteries for the camera are charging, but we'll get some before the end of the day.

AND, there was some money for books! Hooray! We went to Costco right away (because we were going there anyway) and got a set of 4 Sesame Street board books ... and it included "The Monster at the End of This Book" and "Another Monster at the End of This Book." We also got Mommy her Mother's Day present - a tent, so we can go camping this year. Maybe in a couple of weeks down at the beach!

EDIT (6 pm Eastern): Pictures were just sent out via email. Thank you for the phone calls, Uncle Nathan and Aunt Tawnia, and for the email card from Uncle Jared, and for the picture from Aunt Mindy! Daddy changed the picture on his desktop to the new drawing right away.

Happy Birthday Summer!

In honor of your birthday, I did a little picture for you. Nothing fancy, since you're only turning one and aren't really aware of things like presents (unless they're fun toys to play with), but it was fun to do anyway. Have a fun birthday though, and I'm sure you're looking forward to your party.

I'm moving!

So after my job interview, I had to wait until Tuesday to hear back. I was really hoping to finally have a decent full-time job here in Utah, but it was not to be. They chose someone else, and I was sad. Dad happened to call that day to let me know about some mail I had, but he also mentioned a couple of job openings in the school district over there. I said I would think about it. I went into Tawnia's room to chat about it, and just didn't know what to do. We ended up ditching dance class, and going to the ward temple night. Since then, I've decided to move back to Oregon. I'm going to apply for those jobs Dad talked about, but even if I don't get them, I'm supposed to be back in Lafayette. I do feel bad about leaving Tawnia here, and having to find a new roommate, but it's time for me to go, and she's a big girl. She was planning a trip for the end of this month anyway, to go see Joshua, so I'll be going with! I'm not sure if I'll just stay in Oregon then, or come back to Utah for the month of June, since our dance recital is on the 25th. I guess it depends on if I get that job, and when I need to start. It'll all get figured out somehow.

EDIT: And I just added Brooke's finished picture on my page.

rooooad trip!!

I've been plotting a road trip for this month, and today I got in contact with a friend to stay with. So now I can REALLY start planning. Hooray! The schedule is that Adam finishes his finals on Fri. the 11th. The next week, we'll be home and getting ready for Summer's birthday party on the 19th. Also, the weekend of the 19th, we have some friends coming in for a couple of days from North Carolina. That next Monday, we'll drop them off at the airport for a 2-week vacation to South Africa, and then head out ourselves to Virginia Beach. One of my old roommates from Ricks lives down in that area now - she just moved there last year. It's about 3 hours south of here. Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown are all right there as well. We would come home the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and skip out on all the crowds and traffic, and then Adam starts the summer semester on Tues. the 29th (which goes until the end of July, and then 2 or 3 weeks off before fall starts). I'm excited about just getting out of the city - we've only taken day trips in the last year, and not taken any major trips since the reunion last summer.

AND we're planning to go up to Cape Cod for the 4th of July. Adam might add another class for the summer semester - once he makes that decision, we can figure out the dates to go north. Beth Tracy's parents live on the Cape and go out on Nantucket Sound in their boat to watch the fireworks every year.

Manda, it is fun when the baby starts responding to you, isn't it? I remember the first time Summer looked at me and smiled - not just smiling in general, but specifically smiling at ME. I about cried. She was almost 2 months old when that happened. Yay for little babies! I hope he does keep his red hair.

Free at last, free at last!

Yes, finals are now over. I can sit back and relax. I can read a novel. I can torture some characters (I've been too easy on them). I can play on my computer and beat up monsters. You can tell I have big plans for the next few days, can't you? I think I did well. I had two finals back to back, which was not fun, but it's over now. And I did find out that I got an A on my diplomatic history paper.