Never Tell a Lie!

Brooke's talent show performance from Friday night is now available on my youtube page.

25 on the 25th

Amanda - It's your GOLDEN birthday! I hope you get out and do something EXTRA special today! Sure do love ya!
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Tawnia

happy birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMANDA!!

We're glad you're part of our family!

Love - Trina, Adam, Summer, and Rosemary

I have succumbed

Okay, I finally succumbed. I started a personal just-me blog. The URL is

casadelcaudle.blogspot.com

I started it mainly for a writing project I want to do about being a mom. I've tossed around an idea of writing a book with my friend Jackie, and I have a very vague idea of how I want to focus it. The words aren't quite there for it but the general idea is - I'm baffled by women who say that they don't want to stay home with their children because that would prevent them from being "self-fulfilled." I thought having children at all WAS part of being self-fulfilled ... but what do I know. I'm naive and brainwashed by the evil patriarchal Mormon society. Right? Har har. Anyway - that. I'd like to somehow address that. I don't know how, so the blog is for free writes and other random thoughts on being a parent.

The other reason I started it was because of a speech given by Elder M. Russell Ballard (text HERE) at the BYU-Hawaii graduation in December. He said essentially the same thing at a business leaders dinner here in DC that some of my friends attended, and they told me about it. Basically, the point is that there are a lot of conversations going on in the media and on the internet about the Church and Salt Lake can't answer every question itself. The members of the Church need to be engaged in the "new media" - including blogs - to share our testimonies, how the gospel brings us joy, clarify doctrine when the situation arises, etc. I saw the speech in an LDS News email a number of weeks ago, and my friends just told me this past weekend about the dinner. That was finally the nudge that pushed me into starting the blog.

Since I want to write about being a mom anyway and maybe publish it ... why not see how it goes in a blog at first. I'm also going to put little "here's what we did today" blurbs here and there so it's not so heavy-handed. I want to encourage people to enjoy parenting partially by showing them that yes, it can be fun - showing by example and not beating them over the head with it.

And for you ... there are pictures on the blog of the girls. Since I still haven't gotten around to learning how to put pictures on the regular webpage, I'll stick them there since I don't really have to do anything. I have plans for the regular webpage still but that's apparently going to take even longer now. *sigh* I have a rather extensive list of things I'm in the middle of working on. I need to just settle down and take it one project at a time to actually FINISH something for a change.

Freedom

Done, done, done! Classes are over. I only have a couple of finals -- and one of them is a real test, and the other one is an oral final -- we're going to talk about what we're doing tonight.

Do you know how utterly wonderful it feels after so many months of constantly having stress to finally be able to completely relax for a couple of weeks?

I've got things to do -- work, packing, there's a concert tonight. But no homework, no reading assignments, no papers hanging over my head. WHEE! I'm so happy. I did it!

April 26, 1992 Sunday

Went to church, went to choir. Helped plan Insanity Inc. Thought up the name. Went to Book of Mormon Fireside. Went home, went to bed. Oh yeah. Dinner and FHE were in there too. Im writing the Youth Conf. Skit now. night.

outings outings everywhere

Summer, Rosemary, and I have been having lots of fun the past couple of weeks! After we went to the zoo for playgroup 2 weeks ago, the next day we went to Norwood park with our neighbors, about a mile away so it was a good walk for me. Summer had fun playing with her friends Elise and Damon and Ches, and Rosemary mostly slept in the stroller that day.

The day after that, I had to pick up some paperwork from my former office downtown (I'm cashing out my retirement fund - no point in having that perfectly good money just sit there doing nothing, since I can't contribute to it to actually have it be a retirement fund) ... so we went to the office and visited my old boss Susan and my friend Nadia. A lot of people didn't even know I'd had Rosemary, so that made for a bit of entertainment. When we left the office, we metro-ed over to the White House. Adam works right around the corner, so we had lunch with him at the park in front of the White House. I'd like to do that more often - it was nice to see him in the middle of the day.

On Saturday April 12, our friends Walter and Kara came down from Baltimore, and we all went downtown for the parade of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Summer stayed right with Adam and didn't try to run off at all, which is rare for her. I think she was a bit overwhelmed by it and gradually started clapping for the marching bands and other performers. Her favorite thing was one of the last things we saw - a float with Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster, Rosita, and Abby Kadabby. The whole time it was coming up the street toward us, she was shouting "Elmo! Cookie Monster!" It was really cute. I thought that Rosemary would be bothered by the noise level, but she didn't react to it. She just looked around like she was taking it all in.

This past week, we didn't do any major outings except trips to a couple of different parks. We also had a friend over one day - William is in nursery with Summer, and has an older brother in preschool. When their mom was helping at the preschool one morning, William came here to play. He and Summer play well together and there aren't really any fights - I like having him over here because he and Summer keep each other occupied and I can actually get some cleaning done!

On Saturday April 19, we went to Walter and Kara's for Erik's 1st birthday. We went to the Baltimore Science Center, which is Maryland's version of OMSI. They have a great kids' room, that even includes a small toddler section for kids under 2. Summer and Rosemary both had a great time. Summer played in the water fountains with the boats (she kept trying to drink out of them) - thankfully, they had ponchos for the kids to wear so they didn't get completely soaked. I found some hand puppets and played with them with Rosemary - she thought they were the most hilarious thing ever, and laughed and laughed with this cute little shriek. I need to get some hand puppets.

We don't have anything planned for this coming Saturday - Adam will be studying for the next 3 weeks because he's now in finals, plus all the ward mission stuff ... So the girls and I will be spending a lot of time at various parks. Today, we drove just into Virginia to a park that my friend Sarah knew about - it was huge! With tons of climbing equipment and slides! Summer and Ethan ran and ran and ran, and Rosemary and Isaac (Ethan's brother who is 4 months old) hung out on a blanket that I put in the shade for them. It wasn't a park that the parents can sit down and hang out at, because it's too big to sit in one spot and see the whole thing to supervise your child. But it was great fun for Summer, so we'll go back even though it's a little more of a drive.

baptism by fire

A week ago I was called to be the ward mission leader. That night, there was a Ward Mission Leader training with the Stake & Mission President. As part of the meeting, we were supposed to discuss our ward mission plan. Having been the Ass't Ward Mission Leader for the past two years, one would think that I was familiar with the ward mission plan. Being as it was distributed once for review a year and a bit ago and never passed around again, I really didn't know what it was about. But I tried anyway. Also at the meeting, the Mission President told us that for the first time in 15 years (since Trina was a missionary), the church will probably be below 50,000 missionaries next year. And the East Coast missions are near the top of the list to lose missionaries b/c we don't baptize that many people. I was concerned about this news, but figured that we had several months at the very least to prepare.

Then a week later (yesterday), one of our missionaries developed a sudden medical condition and is on way home for treatment. Because the number of missionaries is declining already, our mission was short-handed anyway. Since there wasn't a missionary available to put into our ward, they pulled the one that was left. At the very least, we don't have missionaries assigned to our ward for up to five weeks. So we're going to use this opportunity to rebuild our ward mission. But any way you put it, it's quite the baptism by fire.

Friday August 9, 1985

Today I worked on learning The Morse Code. Then I rode my bike. Then Jonathan, Jared, Jason, Tawnia, and I set up a camp then we played army. I watched KNIGHT RIDER. It was neat. Kitt had to be rebuilt. Then on Benson they showed a rerun. Mom & Dad bought me some underwear. GOOD NIGHT!

Family History

So I know that Mom has been scanning all the old slides and Dad has been putting the old family videos on to his computer. I'm just wondering when Dad is going to start putting some of those on youtube. Also, I was wondering if Mom would be willing to burn at least some of the slides onto a CD or DVD so that our family history can be kept. Honestly, the more people that have those pictures and videos the better it will be. That and I'd like to see all of them and don't know when I'll be home to go through all of the pictures. And I'd like to have some of the family videos on a DVD also.
Just a thought from Tawnia

live from Lappy5000

Well, today I finally did it. I went to Staples and bought myself a computer. This handy dandy little Compaq does everything I need it to. Thus far, anyway. I've only managed to get the internet up and running (by borrowing the internet cord from Mom and Dad's computer since we don't have wireless). I still have a lot of exploring to do, but I'm happy with it. Hooray for growing up and buying expensive things!

Contact info requested

To all my family -- I need mailing addresses so I can sound out invitations/announcements for my upcoming graduation (Saturday, May 3rd at 10 a.m.). Of course, I don't expect any of you except Trina to show up. I'll be flying back to Oregon on May 7th.

In the meantime, I've still got a bunch of reading and assignments to complete, so it will be fairly busy for me over the next couple of weeks.

the beauty of google reader

I don't know if any of you have found out about this fun little feature ... but I sure like it! It's very handy because I no longer have to check blogs. Google reader does it for me and tells me which blogs have new posts. Do a search for "google reader" to get the home page for it (the URL is really long so I won't post it here), and then where it says "add subscription," you put in all the ____.blogspot.com addresses that you check. It will tell you which blogs have new posts on them.

This is especially nice since our family alone now has about 10 blogs to check - this family blog, the sisters blog, Nathan and Amanda have 3, Jared has 3, and Tawnia. I didn't add Clarissa's URL to my list - what IS Clarissa's URL anyway? - but everyone else's is there plus a bunch of friends. I have about 30 blogs listed on my reader - the family ones and a bunch of friends. It saves me a TON of time because I don't have to sit here forever and click on every single link to see if there are any new posts. I just go to my google reader and it tells me which blogs have new posts that I haven't read yet.

Just thought I'd pass that on if you hadn't seen it yet.

new calling

Adam was sustained yesterday to be the ward mission leader in our ward. He's got his work cut out for him because we haven't had a convert baptism in about 2 years. He had a stake meeting last night with the other WMLs in the stake, the stake president, and the mission president. The mission president said that the number of missionaries Church-wide is about to take a nosedive so we're going to lose a large number from our mission. There won't be enough companionships for every ward to be its own mission area, so the work will have to justify it. So if a ward wants their own missionaries, they'd better get the work moving.

Every member of the bishopric told Adam directly that they were so excited that he's in this calling now, and the Lord was VERY clear about this assignment. When the bishop extended the call, he actually came to our house and talked with Adam and then with us both. So he's apparently treating this as a Very Big Deal. Adam has a meeting with the bishop tomorrow to go over the ward mission plan and map out the ward goals for the year - we'll see how this goes.

Birds

So yesterday I had gotten home from a friend's house and knew that my roommate was not home and I heard a noise coming from my bathroom. I went into the bathroom a bit freaked out, thinking that possibly someone was hiding in my shower. Fortunately that was not the case. It sounded like the noise was in the apartment, but it was coming from near the wall behind the dryer. I then stepped outside the apartment to look and see if there was someone messing around outside and watched a bird fly out of the dryer vent. I ran the dryer for awhile in the hopes that that would scare them all away.... and then didn't hear much else until...

This morning I woke up to the same noise along with the sound of birds in my bathroom. I cautiously went in and tried to make enough noise to scare them out. I banged on the dryer, and then ran the dryer, and instead the bird made lots of happy chirping sounds. Yes, I am afraid a bird has taken up residency in my dryer vent tube.

So I told Emily about this and she is freaked out. She is terrified about having birds fly around her head while she is in the shower. She is in there now.... I didn't realize she had this fear. I think we just need to call the landlords who are aptly named "The Birds" and tell them to remove these fine-feathered friends.... before we cook them (by running the dryer a lot that is). I am not against birds, I am just against them being in my dryer vent.

Yeah, I'll have to tell you how it all turns out, once we have this taken care of.

playgroup outings

Summer and Rosemary have been very busy with playgroup outings - we've had 3 in a row.

2 weeks ago, we went to the Natural History museum and saw the mammals and the dinosaurs. We were going to go up to the insects, but the kids were getting bored trapped in the strollers. We weren't letting them run around because it was too crowded due to spring break tourists. So we went out on the Mall and had a picnic lunch, and let them run around outside for awhile before we headed home.

Last week, we went to Hains Point to see the cherry blossoms. The point is where the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers join, so it's really windy there. It was cold, but we let the kids play on the playground for awhile anyway. There was a free shuttle bus from Hains Point, where all the parking is, over to the Jefferson Memorial, where they are not allowing parking during the Cherry Blossom Festival. The Jefferson Memorial is where the main cherry trees are and the big thing to do is to walk all the way around the Tidal Basin in the trees. It's fine to do once, or during the week. If you go on a weekend during the peak blossom time, it's so crowded that you literally have to push your way through the people. There are plenty of blossoming trees to see elsewhere, like, oh, Hains Point! Anyway, we rode the shuttle bus in a circle and didn't get off it until we got back to where we started. It was nice and warm in the bus, out of the wind, and we could see the blossoms just fine.

Today we went to the zoo. It was overcast and rather chilly but the animals were out and moving. The kids thought that was great. Summer is getting a lot more excited about the zoo now that she's a little older. She loved watching the "panna bear!" (pandas) and the tiger, which she kept calling a lion ("ly-lin") and saying "Raarrr!" It was really cute. We also saw lots of monkeys. There's a toddler play area that we discovered by the children's petting zoo - no one knew it was there, but we do now! It was great - it was blocked off enough that the kids were pretty well contained, so we let them run and run and run for over an hour just right there. While we were at the toddler area, the clouds finally cleared out and it warmed up quite nicely. We had lunch there, and then everyone headed home. We were gone for quite awhile - we left this morning around 9:30 and didn't get home until 3. Summer slept pretty much the entire way home in the stroller and Rosemary slept a lot of it as well. I'm beat because I just walked close to 4 miles - to the Metro and back at both ends, and the zoo itself is about a mile from one end to the other. Of course the petting zoo, where we headed, is at the opposite end of the zoo from the entrance so I walked the WHOLE THING. Summer gets to watch a couple of movies this afternoon while I recover enough to make dinner. I didn't get any pictures because the battery on the camera died right when we got there, of course. But the zoo is close and free, so we'll be back again in the next few weeks before the weather really gets hot.

Next week for playgroup, we're just going to the park. Three outings in a row is plenty.

Quick note from Emily

Just thought I'd write a quick note in between preparing for a presentation tomorrow (on Japanese printing) and heading off to German class. Things are going all right. I did enjoy conference. I really liked Elder Wirthlin's talk. Classwork is keeping me pretty busy. I still have a couple of books to read before the end of the semester. It's so strange to think that I'll be done with classes in just a couple more weeks. (April 24th is the last day of classes, and then finals are the next week.)

Last week, my German class went on a field trip to a restaurant that served real German food. It was really good -- I got schweinbraten (roast pork) with noodles and apfelkuchen (a really sweet apple crumb cake). I tasted the red cabbage, which my teacher loved.

People keep asking me what I intend to do after graduating. I have some long-term plans -- go to grad school and get a masters in library science, and become a novelist, but my short-term plans -- I don't know what I'll be doing in June.

YouTube links

So they're easier to get to.

www.youtube.com/boypalmer

www.youtube.com/skipdipdawg

I need to add these to my page somewhere.

A few things

First of all: congratulations to Eric on the new job and the successful move. I hope your new adventure is full of excitement and new Skate Skate Skate videos.

The other day Joshua added a new video on his youtube channel. I forgot to tell all of you because we’ve been sick. We’re all better now though. So now I’m telling you. It is a slide show of his first year. The pictures are about a week apart.

Also – this was after you posted that comment on her blog Eric – Amanda posted some pictures and videos on her blog. The videos show some of the things that Joshy is up to now.

Kids are great and Amanda and I love seeing what the nieces and nephews are up to. The pictures of Brooke and Bryan; the stories of Summer and Rosemary; the videos of Stevie and Allison; we love all of them. Joshy only really cares about his own videos and pictures and stories. He’s pretty narcissistic. But who can really blame him?

On another topic, the three of us went on a walk yesterday after conference and between downpours and decided to go in some unfinished houses. The frame was up and the electricity and water pipes were showing. We went in trying to guess what was where. We went into two houses. By far the second one was better. There was a main floor, an upstairs, a downstairs, and another basement. It was really close to the neighbors, which I wouldn’t like, but there were so many rooms and they were all pretty big. We hadn’t walked through houses like this in years, and it was fun to get out and do it again.

I think that’s it for now. See you all later.

We're here!

We're here. The weekend is ending. The move is done. For the most part.

Of course, now we're moving in, but yesterday was the day we loaded up the moving truck, drove up here, and unloaded the truck. It was a very long day. But we're here to stay now.

We managed to listen to this morning's session and to some of this afternoon's. We both enjoyed Elder Ballard's talk about young mothers. I think we're going to go over that one again in an FHE soon.

Now we need to look at something funny on the Internet before we go to bed.

copycat

Summer is becoming quite the copycat. Yesterday, we were at a church building to watch the Saturday morning session of General Conference. During the closing prayer, she was walking around in the foyer with her arms folded. A guy was also in the hall and stretched his arms straight above his head. She did it too.

She copies us by "helping" her doll do things the way that we help Rosemary - we move Rosemary's arms for action songs like The Wheels on the Bus, and Summer does the same with the doll. Summer also helps her doll fold her arms for prayer. When I'm nursing Rosemary, Summer occasionally will lift her shirt and put the doll against her chest. It's pretty amusing.

Summer has started carefully watching a couple of the dance production numbers on Mary Poppins, and copies them as closely as she can (which isn't very close at all, but still). She especially tries to do the number where Bert is dancing with the penguins in the Jolly Holiday sequence. I can't describe it any further than that and I don't know that a video would do it justice because you have to see what the movie is doing to understand her movements. But it's hilarious to watch. The first time I saw her do it, I was watching her from behind and I had to work very hard to not laugh out loud. I was worried that if I did, she would stop. Now she looks to make sure I'm watching when she does it.

Live from Monterey

Hey guys. We're here in Monterey now. Laurel is doing a little painting at the new apartment right now (at least that's the plan) and we'll be heading back to Santa Ana to get all our stuff tomorrow morning. She brought the kids along. Also, her parents and little sister (Soy) came down from Idaho yesterday. I hope they're enjoying the town today. It's a beautiful day. (It rained yesterday...)

I'm enjoying my new job. It's taking a little while to get everything settled in... all the new job stuff, but I'm excited and already have learned some great new things. I think I'll be bringing along my laptop tomorrow and working on a few things on the road (we'll see where I get wireless...)

I'm sorry for not wishing Joshy a happy birthday last week. It's a real shame we didn't call either, since there's nothing Stevie loves more than singing Happy Birthday to people on the phone. Maybe we'll do that a little late.

Anyhow, I'll post some pictures as soon as the camera is unpacked and I take some pictures and the computer is unpacked and the Internet connection is hooked up. Okay, so it might be a little while.