birthday Aaron

I'm fairly certain that everyone knew that my friend Aaron came to visit me for my birthday. He was a guy from my Canada days, and is actually the only one I'm still in contact with from up there. Jason and I would spend holiday meals with his family, and he would take me grocery shopping and attempt to keep me social. I can almost say I spent more time with Aaron during my marriage than I did with Jason. Anyway - Aaron came to visit me for the first time in the three years since I left Canada, and we had a great time. We did some shopping around Portland, went to the beach, he cooked us a big dinner for my birthday (he's going to school to be a chef starting this fall), he beat Mom at Boggle (but lost to me), we played DDR, and had a lot of fun. It was a nice break from work for both of us.

So now I'm focusing on working this one last month, before I head back to school. Classes start on September 8th, and I'm taking five art classes. I'm not sure what other classes I need, exactly, so I'll see a counseler when I get up there, but I had to register for classes now, so I'll take all classes specifically for my major.

Oh yes, and if you're wondering who Taera and KJ are (the newest watercolor on my page), that is Aaron's sister and her son. His mother commissioned me to paint it for her. Aaron's Mom is also the one I'm illustrating the book for.

Anniversary pictures

We didn't take very many pictures on our anniversary trip last week, but what we have I've now posted on my page. I uploaded a couple of new videos too.

Mindy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

IT'S YOUR GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!!!

I sure love you!

P.S. Go look at my blog!

Happy birthday, Baby Allie!

We hope you move to Virginia so we can finally meet you! Love, Summer and Marnie

Another Request

So I was looking at the timeline and noticed a sad thing... There are baby pictures of everyone (not including the in-laws) except for Bryan. Jared, could you PLEASE put up a baby picture of Bryan.

Thanks!
Tawnia

Request

First, Happy Anniversary Jared and Michelle (sorry this is coming late) I hope that you did something fun and exciting for the big day.

So, now that Mom and Dad are home from vacation I have two requests. First, could you please update the timeline! Not all of the links work... in fact very few that I've tried to look at have. So PLEASE fix that. Second, I want to see videos!!! I keep hearing about these cute videos of Stevie and Allie and then Trina was saying how you were taking videos while you were there. I want to see videos!!! And I would also love to see some of our old family videos up for viewing. (I know, I'm demanding.)

Love,
T

HAJ

Okay, so it doesn't spell a word like HAT and HAN ... maybe HAM? For Michelle?

Anyway, happy anniversary to Jared and Michelle - the big DECADE mark! Good on ya! We hope that you get to do something especially nice for such a big marker! We love you both!

(How many sentences in a row can I end with an exclamation point? It looks like 4, but I'm sure I could keep going ...)

Keeping Busy

Well, It's been awhile since I've posted on here... but it seems like this little blog gets neglected more and more. So sad.

I am keeping busy. I work and if I'm not at work I'm working on stuff for my other work (ie teaching), or knitting (Summer's blanket is FINALLY half-way done), or playing the guitar (love ya Jared) or hanging out with my friends (My best friend came back from her six weeks in Belgium finally!) I have also started trying to read Les Miserables (the unabridged version) and made it further than I did on my last attempt. And I've been trying new recipes. Like Lemon Pasta and Bruschetta Chicken... both were good. (Look at Trina's recipe blog for both of those recipes.) And then people keep coming into town (or I go to them) to visit. Like right now I'm just waiting for my freshman year roommate Emily to call me so that I can go and see her... and then I'm supposed to go to dinner with Nate'n'Manda and Joshua. Hopefully I will be able to see everyone.

Oh and this morning I watched the Beers 2006 Reunion DVD (thanks Eric) and it made me really excited for our reunion next summer! When exactly is it going to be and I REALLY REALLY hope that everyone is going to at least TRY to be there... I will accept very few excuses for your absence.

Anyway, I'm going to post some pictures of my adventures of late on my other blog so look for them there... (you see if I say here that I'm going to do it, then I HAVE to!)

I love you all and hope that you are all doing well. Responding to this post will make me want to post again.
Love,
Tawnia

The latest

Hello everyone,

Sorry I haven't written very often. We've been having lots of adventures here on the East Coast. I found one more person on our family tree. The wife of Alpha Gould. Since she's an Ingalls I need to figure out how else she's related.

We were very surprised to see Rich and LuAnn Derr when we went to the temple. They are here on a temple mission. We had dinner with them one night and we're spending the day with them tomorrow. It was wonderful to see them again.

Dad and I enjoyed our visit to Palmyra and saw Kari and her family while we were there. We've been having lots of fun with Summer and Rosemary, of course. Rosemary got two teeth while we were here and didn't fuss at all. Lucky Trina.

I've talked to Cheryl several times, so here's the latest update. She'll be in the hospital for at least another week or two. The surgeon made the mistake of giving her solid foods too soon, so she was put back on total IV for two full weeks. Then they'll start her on liquids and work up from there. She needs our prayers.

Adam needs our prayers, too. He has a very painful hernia and isn't sure if the doctors will operate very soon. They said they'll probably schedule it for another month or two down the road. Meanwhile he's on pain meds, which stop the pain but make him feel like a zombie. He made it to church this morning but Dad took him home right after Sacrament Meeting and he slept until around 4:00.

I need to run eat dinner now so Dad and I can go to a fireside at the temple.

Love you all,
MOM

art goings on

I added a couple new drawings to my page. And I added a photography section a few weeks back, but hadn't mentioned it. I don't know how often people look at my stuff, but I had mentioned to Mom that I would be putting my latest drawings up, so they are there now.

And I wasn't going to mention anything until it was for sure, but the post would have been so short otherwise. I might be illustrating a book. My friend Aaron's mother owns a little publishing company up in Canada, and wanted me to illustrate a poem that she had written a few years back. I'll do a few trial drawings, to see if that's what she wants, and then we'll go from there. I just found out about it yesterday, finished the current drawing I was on (the colored pencil one of Allison), and tomorrow, when I have the day off, I'll get started and see what I can come up with. Of course, I'll let you all know if I do get the project.

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence, everyone. Happy Birthday, Mom! By the way, if you highlight Nathan's message, you can read the whole thing. But I think it looks funnier this way.

This morning, I went to a breakfast and flag ceremony with Aunt Marli's ward. She wasn't feeling up to going this morning, but I went. A navy captain spoke about the soldiers he'd seen coming from the front in Iraq, and how grateful he felt towards them. Three trumpets played the national anthem. The food was pretty good, too. And it was entertaining watching the teenagers get into a water fight and one girl had a cooled upended over her head.

This evening, Mindy will come over for dinner, and we'll watch the fireworks from Aunt Marli's porch.

In between, I'm listening to some patriotic music from a concert that the SVU choirs and orchestra performed. I enjoyed it so much, I bought the CD. It's music based on the historical novel series "Prelude to Glory," about the American Revolution. Songs include "Yankee Doodle," "The Declaration of Independence," and "The World Turned Upside Down." This helps me to remember that it's not all about fireworks.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Mom

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Hmmm... I guess the white doesn't really work. Keep enjoying retirement. We're so glad that you're feeling better and able to celebrate Independence Day and your birthday at the nation's capital.

Love,

Nathan, Amanda, and Joshua (your favorite)

Happy birthday, Michelle!

We hope you aren't too uncomfortable with the pregnancy in the summer heat, and that you have good air conditioning and insulation in your house to stay cool! Have a fun day and we'll talk to you soon!

Love - Trina, Adam, Summer, and Marnie