Christmas review

To make sure everyone remembers their Christmas exchange stuff, the info is HERE. And to make sure I know who is where, so I know where to make sure the memory letters go, here's what I know of:

OREGON: Dad, Mom, Eric, Laurel, Stevie, Allie, Tawnia, Emily, Nathan, Amanda, Joshy, Uncle Gary, Aunt Karen.

DC: Trina, Adam, Summer, Marnie

TEXAS: Jared, Michelle, Brooke, Bryan, Emma

CANADA: Mindy (and Aaron)

FLORIDA: Clarissa

Did I get that right?

grateful

This year, I am thankful for ...

~ Adam. There are so many things that I could list that he does for me - it would go on and on and on all day.
~ Summer and Marnie, and the bit of heaven on earth that they are.
~ the spiritual power of the Book of Mormon.
~ living so close to a temple, and that we can attend frequently.
~ babysitting swaps.
~ our generous and supportive friends, here in DC and anywhere else in the world.
~ living in a city where there's tons of stuff to do with kids and it's FREE.
~ the support of our extended family, even though everyone lives so far away.
~ that we don't need anything (except, apparently, egg nog which Adam just announced from the other room). We have plenty of stuff, plenty of food, and a comfortable home.
~ that even though we have a lot of debt right now, it was responsible debt (school and a car, and no craziness with the credit cards) and it's manageable.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

The Joy of Three-Year-Olds

This evening, Laurel put Stevie and Allie to bed and then watched as Eric and I battled it out in Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit. Stevie was on an air mattress on the floor in the library. After the game, I came to my room to get ready for bed. I heard this scratching noise coming from the next room and went to investigate. Stevie was scribbling on the wall, cheerios covered the mattress, and he had scattered the pieces of the chocolate and vanilla ice cream puzzles, cards from Big Fish, Little Fish, and everything from the Cradium: Family Fun game.

I took the pencils to Stevie and reported the damage to the others. Laurel said she wanted a playpen to put Stevie in, so I got Joshua's out of my closet. We also had to pick up all the puzzle pieces and game pieces, and then sort them. Report: Baby Wipes do work on cleaning pencil off the wall.

Mom waited until we were at the other end of the house before laughing.

artwork updates

I uploaded about eight new pictures on my page this evening. Most of them were assignments, but I've somehow managed to do two non-school related paintings as well. I'm really looking forward to the winter when I can work on the book, and actually have time to do my own personal creations as well. If you have any requests for pieces, now would be a good time to put them in my brain, since I'll be more likely to get to them in the next several months. And happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm grateful for a few days off, so I can spend time with Tawnia.

Happy Anniversary!

Sorry this is a day late! I thought about you all day yesterday and then thought I shouldn't call because you were probably out on a date (at least I hope you were!) Anyway, I tried to add a picture of Emma, but for some reason the one that is on-line here wouldn't save to my computer. So sorry! Anyway, here's to 39 years and the hope for 39 more (times infinity!)
I love you Mom and Dad!

39

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! It was great to see you this past summer, and we're excited to visit you and everyone else at the reunion in July! Love - Trina, Adam, Summer and Marnie.

Weird

So I am home being sick today. It's not a normal illness... I don't know quite how to describe it. I just feel.. "out of it". I have moments of dizziness, light-headedness, and wanting to puke... I think I have had a fever off and on, but then I'll feel just fine at other times. I came home from work early yesterday because I was just feeling awful, and got it all arranged so that I didn't have to come in today. So I'm home being lazy and decided that I should post on the blogs since I haven't done that in quite a long time.

I heard rumor that someone was asking why I wasn't teaching full-time if I'm not taking classes. To clarify... I AM teaching full-time. I am just not the typical classroom teacher. I teach as much (if not more) than the classroom teachers right now... so yeah, I'm working full-time... which is why I have health insurance again, hooray... so if this continues I CAN go to the doctor.

Anyway, just wanted to expell that rumor and tell you all that I love you.
Love,
Tawnia

Stevie calls me "Goofy"

A few days ago Stevie decided to start calling me Goofy and calling himself Mickey Mouse. (Allie is "Daisy" and Laurel got left out of this for some reason.) So now I get to hear "Goofy, I want some candy" or "Goofy, I want chocolate milk." If I'm not in the room, I hear him ask Laurel "Where's Goofy?" The best part though is when he starts talking in a high squeaky Mickey Mouse voice, which is even funnier than his robot voice from last week.

Baby Emma

I thought you would all like to see our beautiful new baby. I've been having some issues with my camera charger so I didn't get any good pictures at the hospital. I got this one right after she came home on Monday. Everyone agrees that she looks just like Brooke and Bryan. She's certainly a cutie.

I'm enjoying myself here in Texas, having fun playing games with Brooke and Bryan. Today I organized Emma's little clothes. She has lots of tiny ones but hardly any of the bigger sizes. I told them that she may get to wear each little outfit only once. I guess that would save on laundry.

Sure love ya,

MOM

Where has Eric been?

Actually, several of you know where I've been because I've seen you. I'm busy working right now (yes, on Sunday) but I thought I'd take a second to express my appreciation for our family.

So on Tuesday, October 21 I found out there was a stop work order on our contract in Monterey (since it was protested by a competitor) so we decided to take that trip to Oregon we've been putting off. We spent Wednesday through Sunday in Oregon. We spent time with Mom, Dad, Emily, Nathan, Amanda, and Joshua. Good times. Stevie and Allie had fun meeting their cousin Joshy.

We got home Monday night, and then on Tuesday morning Laurel drove me to the Monterey Airport and then drove to her sister's in LA. She got there before I got to Austin, which is where I spent the next few days teaching a class. On Wednesday night I drove down to Jared's and we watched the last few innings of the World Series and ate pizza. Michelle was still pregnant and very cheerful and positive. Brooke and Bryan are taller and skinnier (probably skinner from growing taller). And Jared's fine. It was fun. I flew to LAX on Thursday night and Laurel picked me up. We spent Halloween there. We did the trunk or treat at Rachel's ward, and that was enough for Stevie and Allie. Stevie watched a movie with his cousins and ate lots of candy after that.

We drove back yesterday and went to church this morning. Craig and Becky Kiser attended our sacrament meeting today. They were in town for a medical conference and were about to fly back. It was fun to see them. I learned that he was just called as the new Stake Patriarch. If that don't beat all.

Anyhow, that's my last few weeks. It's been very busy with work, but it was nice to see so much of our family last month.

could it be?

Since I have received no phone call from Texas, I'm assuming that Baby Emma has not decided yet to grace the world with her presence.

Do we actually FINALLY have a November birthday in this family? Woo hoo! Combining both sides of our extended family - the Palmers and the Caudles - there's a birthday in every single month EXCEPT November ... until now! Yay! So with just the Palmers, that means September is the only month left now with no birthdays.