Happy Birthday Amanda!

For Amanda's birthday, I made a picture of Joshua. You can see it on my page. It's more of an impressionistic style, but still really neat. I'll probably do a different style later, when he's a little older, but this was a fun birthday present. Hope everyone enjoys!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMANDA!!!

Here is one for the wifey.

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday Dear Amanda!
Happy birthday to you!

Good job being so old. You're doing a great job as mother.

See you wiggle soon.

Love,
Nathan

thank you, thank you

I just wanted to thank Nathan and Amanda for regularly putting up pictures of Joshua. Tawnia and I look every day to see if there are more pictures, and we are very rarely disappointed. We also got our baby announcements today, and THANKS for putting TWO in the envelope (and acknowledging that Tawnia and I won't always live together so we can't share everything).

Thank you Eric too, for the new movies. VERY cute! Post more as you have the chance. And thank you for emailing me those pictures. I'll probably start working on Brooke's picture soon, so I can wait for the other picture you wanted to send.

And my other news is posted on the sister blog, because it was feeling neglected (the blog, not the news).

Oh! And Jared's comment about the timeline reminded me that I hadn't told everyone that I graduated from Chemeketa. I now have my Associate of General Studies. Yippee! As for what I'm doing next? Something art related, but I'm not sure which particular field, or which school I'll study it at.

An update from Eric

I know, it's very late. But I took a three-hour nap today after the NICU reunion this morning. I don't know why I slept so long. I'll be turning in soon. Anyway, I've made a few updates to the timeline, a first for me. I also want to suggest making it current, so we don't have the end of 2007 and all of 2008 on there. But that's just my vote. I won't force the issue, and if we want to keep it the way it is, that's fine. I think it's a cool project anyway. See if you can find my changes (a few hints: 1973, 1999, 2005).

I also posted a new movie to my youtube page: www.youtube.com/ericpalmer

Like I mentioned above, this morning we attended a reunion for the families of babies who stayed at the CHOC NICU (Children's Hospital of Orange County Newborn Intensive Care Unit). We saw a couple of Stevie's nurses, and had a lot of fun visiting with the other parents and watching Stevie work the crowd. He sure is a social baby.

I'm enjoying my new job more and more as I take on more responsibilities. It's good to be busy.

Laurel is showing a little more now, and everyone who didn't already know at church figured it out last Sunday. She's doing a good job of not doing too much, though she did put up new curtains this week.

Stevie gets into everything. And he's a beautiful baby.

One other bit of news. Laurel and I are alumni ambassadors for the Ricks College/BYU Idaho Alumni Association. We attended a dinner Thursday night with Kim Clark, the new president of BYUI. He was very inspiring and gracious, in spite of being very tired from travelling across the country. (He'd been in Baltimore that morning.) There's a lot of exciting things happening at BYUI. Let me know if you'd like to know more. But it's awesome.

I love you all. I've really enjoyed reading everyones' updates. I love being part of this family.

new picture

I know that's all I ever seem to post about, but that's the exciting part of my life that I can share with you guys. This time you'll all appreciate and enjoy the picture because it's of someone that you know. Now that I've finished him, I'm going to work on his sister. And I need to go back and tweek Summer again.

I need a picture of Stevie though. Something straight on and somewhat .. serious. I know those types of pictures are hard to come by, but it's just the look I'm going for. If anyone has any, PLEASE send them to me. Mom already tried, but there really weren't any I was happy with. I may have some on my harddrive, but I don't have that in my possesion just yet. So Eric, or anyone else, please send me any pictures you have of Stevie, so I can complete my series .. I'll wait on pictures of Joshua, until he's a little bit older.

Good Evening

Hello. Amanda and I will try to not add pictures to days that already have pictures or that did not have pictures before but now do after following days got pictures. By the way, I am talking about the Joshua Calendar. Just so you know I added pictures on April 8th, and one on the ninth. Other than that I think everything else is the same and will stay that way. I was just adding pictures that Mom and Dad had taken. Amanda wanted me to announce that Joshua has graduated a diaper size due to his big belly. These diapers are pretty big, but atleast they fit around his equator. I got to use the stroller with him for the first time today. Amanda has used it before, but I was always at work when she went out with it. Pretty exciting times. He slept almost the whole walk. On Tuesday I took Joshua with me to the post office and to get gas. That was the first time it was just the two of us. but it was at most 15 minutes.

Nathan

Jared's trip

Well, Jared, that depends. It actually takes anywhere from 2 1/2 to 4 hours to get from DC to Philly, depending on time of day, traffic, lines at the toll booths, etc. If we're talking a whole day to visit and do some sight-seeing, that can probably be arranged. No Adam - he's studying for finals. But just a visit for a few minutes while standing in line at an airport - not so much. DC and Philly aren't THAT close. Maybe Baltimore, but not Philly. How long are you going to be out here, anyway?

Clarissa - glad to hear that you're doing well in Cali. I also like the view from the top of the Oakland Temple. One year, I watched the 4th of July fireworks from up there. We could see about 8 different fireworks shows in different cities all along the edge of the bay. It was really cool. You should make sure you do that this year if you're there for that holiday. And let us know what happens about the Temple Pageant choir!!

Spring Break

Hooray! We have the today through Friday off of school! And then we'll have five weeks left of school. That's twenty-five days left of school. And they will go very quickly, because there is SO much left to do this school year. Along with school assessments and state-testing. We also have two field trips, a medieval banquet, and all those last week activities. And I am still supposed to teach a bunch of stuff to these kids.

But I don't have to worry about that today. Instead I am going to relax with a good book because although we are having SPRING break, the weather isn't being very SPRING-like. We're supposed to have snow today. My plans for the break include, going back to the school to do some stuff (grading, planning, cleaning, etc.), reading, cleaning my room, and visiting with some friends. It'll be nice and go quickly, but that's okay.

Anyway, I hope everyone else is doing well.
Love,
Tawnia

Two months and a day...

That's how long I've been in California. It's great here. Sarah and I have a lot of fun together. We have a library just down the street, so that's good for book and movie needs. And behind the apartment there is a park, which is full of ducks, geese and pigeons. I'll put pictures up sometime.
Work has been keeping me very busy. I'm up to about 30 hours a week.
I'm going to Oakland Temple Pageant auditions Saturday morning. I'm going to try to get into the stage chorus, but if not I'll be in the balcony chorus, which you don't have to audition for.
I've been to the temple here once, I went to do baptisms last Thursday. It's different then Portland in many ways but I love the Oakland Temple. The view is breath-taking. You can see all the way to bay from the top of the temple, that's where the all the flowers and bushes are. And I went at night so the view was even more beautiful.
I'll post more when I have more to post.

Travel plans

I'm traveling for work next week. I'm visiting a part supplier in Princeton NJ and flying in via Philadelphia airport. Any chance I might run into a sister while I'm out there? Philly doesn't look too far from DC on the map...

teething help?

Summer is right on the verge of cutting 3 teeth - we can actually see them, but they haven't cut through yet. She's going berserk. We're using orajel on her gums and that helps some, but man alive, she is one whiny kid these days. Any suggestions on how to get these teeth cut quicker? I'm getting a headache.

Cute pictures of Joshua, Nate - good job, you two!! Some pictures of Brooke and Bryan and Stevie more recent than last summer at the reunion would be nice as well ... I'll second Mindy's request.

The weather here continues to be weird. It's like the seasons got shifted by about 2 months. November and December - normally cold, but temps in the 70s. Really nice fall weather. March and April - normally warm and gorgeous, but have been very cold including with snow. The bad weather that's been on the East Coast the past few days has been mostly a wind storm here in DC. It's supposed to be nicer by this weekend (which I certainly hope so, because we're supposed to go to a friend's barbecue for their baby's 1st birthday) but that's the first nice anything we've seen in weeks. Last week, we broke a record for the most spring days in a row under 50 degrees - the record before was from the 1800s. Freaky. I really hope this breaks soon, and I really hope that we don't skip the nice spring and go straight into the disgusting summer humidity.

The Final Stretch

Well, family, I've been extremely busy, and the next week or so is going to be hectic. I'll be spending most of today working on my diplomatic history paper on Kissinger's visit to China. I've gotten done with most of my creative writing projects; we have five poems due on Thursday. I read one of them at our ward talent show last night. I couldn't really sleep last night, so I finally gave up around 4:30 in the morning and did some reading, including a chapter in my British history book on the religious turmoils during the 1500's. And we just got handed the final for my institute class. Just one more reminder that time is running out, but for some reason I can't think much past Monday when this paper is due.

MORE PICTURES!!!

Alright. You asked for it. It has been cleared by Eric to copy his html codes, so there is now a calendar of Joshua. Just go to Skippy and Goblin, Pictures, and click on the pictures of Joshua William Palmer. Some of the pictures are repeats from mom and dad, and the pictures that were up there before are up there still (I think). I hope you enjoy them. We will do our best to keep it updated, but please be patient with us. We have a two week old baby to take care of, a full time job to do, and a move soon. Plus birth announcements to mail out and make, a home to keep in order (at least good enough for Ashley not to freak out and never come back), and a two week old baby to take care of... did I mention that? Anyway, we love to show him off so there shouldn't be too much lag time between pictures.

Josie

Meet my new piggy bank, Josie. She's number 36. Isn't she cute?

more pictures

First of all, I want to see more pictures of Joshua! I know Mom and Dad were down there last weekend, probably with the camera. He's over two weeks old now, and I want to see how much he's grown. And well, I'd love to see pictures of the rest of the kids too - Stevie, Brooke and Bryan. Trina is pretty good with sending updates of Summer, so I won't bug her this time.

And my other thing is that I've put up more pictures. Over the last two weeks I've been drawing my class at work. I've never had such good practice drawing from live models. I took a couple of the pictures and scanned them into my computer, and played with them in Photoshop. Lots of fun! So there are two new pictures up, and there will probably be more over the next week. I won't do my entire class like this, just my favorite drawings.

Hi Ho!!!

Well I hope everyones' weekend is as good as ours has been so far. Joshua got up this morning and turned over in his little laundry basket and said, "Mommy, I have to go potty." It was a giant step forward in the toilet training direction. We are so proud of him.

I hope you feel better soon Michelle. It is never fun being sick, and I can only imagine being sick in Texas... oh yeah, last time I was there I was sick. Well, I still hope you feel better soon.

Nathan

Houston happenings

I thought I would actually post. We are doing fine. Kids are good. Brooke got another stellar report card. All As and Es. Bryan is still as active as ever. With the spring weather I have been able to get him out more. I am very proud of my children. Trina, I agree the the crazy weather. We were hanging out in the low 80s for several day, then plummet to 35 just in time for easter. Now we are have unseasonbly warm weather mid to upper 80s. That good for laundry. We got to were different clothes. I haven't had to do laundry. Always welcome. Congratulations Amanda and Nathan. I'm sad that I can't be there to see him right now.

I am currently fighting off a sinus infection with antibiotics. I'm starting to feel better. No complaints from me. Life is good.

Michelle

Summer Pictures

Summer's page is finally updated. Trina has been wanting all of Summer's month pictures on one page, and now they are. Watch her grow up right before your eyes! Yes, Trina has seen this and was going to tell you herself, but right as I finished and was talking to her Summer decided to be upset, so I'm announcing it instead. So everyone, go see her new page, so you can see her new Easter picture!

what the ...

Okay, so earlier this week, it was 80 degrees and we had a lovely afternoon walking around in shorts and flip-flops to see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. Last night, it snowed. SNOW. What the heck!?!?! So I guess we'll see about getting nice outdoor pictures of Summer in her Easter dress tomorrow.

Summer had her first Easter egg hunt on Thursday with our play group. All the kids were under the age of 2 - about half of the kids are turning 2 this summer, then a jump down to Summer and 2 other babies. So obviously the eggs weren't really "hidden" - just put in the edges of shrubs and in taller tufts of grass. Summer wouldn't actually pick up the egg - she would just look at it. I had to pick it up and hand it to her, and then she'd sit there and shake it quite happily. Good thing the first couple of eggs we picked up had jelly beans in them. Or she would hit 2 of them together because that made a cool noise too. I forgot my camera but other people took pictures of Summer for me - I'll send them out in an email when I get them emailed to me. It was all very adorable.

We have stake conference tomorrow - it's supposed to be in May, but our stake president was sustained to be an Area Authority Seventy last week in General Conference. So we're getting a new stake presidency tomorrow. And then we're having Easter dinner at Beth's house. Not much else to report - it's been a tough week as far as me having a severe lack of energy and sleeping a lot, or just sitting in the rocker zoned out.

I just want to make a note that I think the cracks about Americans in Disney movies are hilarious. In the shark support group in Finding Nemo, where they commisserate with Marlin about Nemo being taken by humans who "think they own everything," one of them follows up with "Probably American!" And now I'm watching Mary Poppins and when Mr. Banks gets fired at the bank, he says that the tea in Boston Harbor was unsuitable for drinking, even for Americans. HAR!!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone is prepared to enjoy their Easter celebration. I'll be singing in choir, teaching my Primary class and then we'll take dinner down to Nathan and Amanda's so I can hold my sweet little grandbaby. Today we need to get ready for all of that. First thing this morning our new refrigerator was delivered. The one we bought for $50 from Craig's list died this week so we decided to get a brand new one this time. Later we'll be going to Sam and Deb's to color Easter eggs and get my hair cut. We were going to go for a hike but it's raining this morning so we'll postpone that for a week or so. Maybe I'll go find me a new Easter dress instead.

I have been doing a little bit of updating on the timeline. Please add pictures and dates that you want to share, like Nathan did. He added their trip to Europe with a link to the pictures. I'm adding pictures as I get them scanned into the computer so far I'm up to 1975. Hopefully I'll get more on there soon. I also need some help with the games page. Please add rules for games that don't have them. You can also add more games that you enjoy playing. No one has added recipes for a while. If you want to add something to any of these pages and you don't have the time or the know-how to put them on the page, email them to me or someone else who can help. Let's keep our site new and exciting. I love seeing what everyone is up to.

Love ya,
MOM

Pictures of baby

Hello everyone. Everything is going well here. I have added some new pictures of baby Joshua under my "pictures" section. I hope that you all get a chance to look at them. Mindy, your artwork is amazing. The picture of Summer looks great. Was that done completely in PhotoShop? Keep up the good work, and let us know when you get new stuff on there so we can look at it.

The tabernacle - I went to some general conference sessions in it. I think I went to a priesthood session and perhaps another. I don't exactly remember off the top of my head. I have been to some in the new conference center also. I remember recognizing Tawnia up in the choir when I was sitting in the crowd. I could pick out her voice too . . . but not really.

Love,
N Dad

Artwork

I know, I talk about this subject a lot. I'm just so excited about what I do sometimes that I just have to share it with everyone. I put up a new picture this evening that I want everyone to see! Go look now! You'll like it, I know you will!

To go along with that picture, I want to do a series of pictures. You'll see that the picture is of Summer, and Tawnia requested pictures of all the nieces and nephews for her birthday. One down, four more to go. I don't particularly care what age they are done at, but I need really big, clear pictures to work with. Even if I have to have Mom scan some of the professional pictures of Brooke and Bryan from several years ago, I'm okay with that. And I don't have any big ones of Stevie (recent would be FUN!). I haven't actually done pictures of anyone smiling yet, because I'm nervous about doing teeth .. but I'm sure I'll make it through. So send me lots of pictures, or don't be surprised if I call you in the next little while, so I can get these pictures done.

Wahoo

Hooray for Joshua! I was actually watching the Joseph Smith movie at temple square when Nathan called with the news so I missed the call.

I spent the weekend up in Salt Lake City. Friday evening I hung out with some friends from my Logan days. I hadn't seen some of them in about four years. It was nice to just talk. We ate pizza, watched the movie at temple square, and then sat around talking for about two hours.

Then I went to Stephanie (McGougan) Brown's home and spent the night. We stayed up talking for another several hours. The next morning I babysat her daughter while she went to work. Elly and I watched conference together... or rather I watched while Elly played. She's three. Elly took a nap during the afternoon session. Stephanie gave me a massage and then fed me dinner. Then I came home in time to go and watch a movie with some people in my ward.

On Sunday Mindy and I stayed home and watched conference. Between sessions some people unexpectedly came over to visit. We then spent the afternoon just hanging around at home.

My memories of the Tabernacle. I can remember going there several times throughout my life when we visited Salt Lake. I always liked to go inside just to sit down and enjoy the peace. I think I have heard the Tabernacle rehearse once and I heard a portion of an organ recital... but I never attended a session of conference there.

Anyway, I need to run. Loves.
-Tawnia

where did everyone go?

We've had some serious lag time in posts in the last couple of months, and nothing at all from about half of us. What gives?

We enjoyed Conference. Adam missed everything on Saturday because he had to be at school to help judge a high school moot court tournament. I watched those sessions at home on the internet. We went to our bishop's house on Sunday - he has satellite TV. I didn't really have a favorite talk, but I felt that the Brethren were even more blunt than they usually are. No softening things at all - very firm tone, and just saying things straight out. Whew!! Lots of things to go back over in my notes and do some self-evaluating.

To answer Emily's question, my special memory of the Tabernacle was that I was there at the session when President Hinckley introduced the Proclamation on the Family. If Eric still has the letters I wrote to him on his mission, my immediate reaction is in there. I wrote to him about it the next day - I remember sitting on Temple Square writing that letter. (Eric, if you have those letters, I'd be interested in seeing them.)

Thanks for the pictures of Joshua - very cute!! And a redhead!! After 4 blonds, we get a redhead. Cool. Before I saw the pictures, I was happy that Joshua is here finally, but mostly I was relieved for Amanda that it was over. Now I'm REALLY relieved for Amanda. No wonder she had trouble - look at the size of his head!! And I suspect that Amanda will have similar thoughts to mine over the next few weeks - no matter how uncomfortable the healing process is (and it gets pretty bad some days), NOTHING will ever be as bad as the actual birth. Good luck with the next phase, Amanda, and if you need to whine about it, call me. It's still a pretty fresh memory for me so I'm very sympathetic ... and now I'm getting ready to do it again. Oh boy.

The baby is home

Amanda and I and Joshua got home around 2:45 today. We had a safe ride from the hospital which you can see from the top floor of our building probably. The room that Johsua was born in looked out at the capitol building and we could kind of see the building we live in. There were some trees in the way. Amanda is doing well. She is really tired so emails would be better than phone calls. We are still trying to figure out how to turn our phones' volumes down. Joshua is well and loved being held by grandma and grandpa Rozen and especially loved it when grandma R changed his diaper. Or was that me that loved that? I can't exactly remember right now. Well I need to get to sleep so I know that I get sleep tonight and so I can get to work early tomorrow.

Thanks for your prayers and thoughts. Keep them up.

Love,
Nathan, Amanda, and Joshua

Happy Birthday, Joshua! And Confrence.

Sorry it's a day late, Joshua, but there is a time difference here, and by the time I got the phone call, the library was closed. I can't believe I actually guessed within forty-five minutes of your birth time. But I don't think anyone thought you would weigh almost eight pounds. You're a big baby boy, and you're so cute. Thanks for getting those pictures up. Ah, the wonders of technology!

Anyway, I attended General Conference today, and I hope you all did as well. It was really good. The afternoon session in the Tabernacle was neat. I remember sitting on one of those hard benches -- right behind a pillar. And I remember seeing the Young Women's conference from the balcony. I remember when President Hinckley walked into the Young Women's conference, and we all stood up and were still. I don't think I'll ever forget that.

If I can be bold enough to ask a question: Do you have any special memories of the Tabernacle?
Here's another question: Which talk (or talks) stood out to you? Elder Bednar gave the parable of the pickle, and Elder Holland spoke about controlling the tongue. I wrote down his maxim: "No hardship is so terrible that whining about it won't make it worse." And Elder Scott gave a beautiful talk on prayer and being patient while waiting for answers. But I was most deeply impressed by the talk by one of the Seventy on the memory and remembering.

Joshua is Here!!

The pictures are up under "What's New" - enjoy.

Classes, or not

What is it with classes being canceled during this week? There are three days with no German classes (Friday through Tuesday, due to the fact that the teacher is a coach), and then there won't be creative writing on Thursday because the teacher has a doctor's appointment, and there was no ballet yesterday either. This means I have more time to work on history papers.

The weekend was great. I went up to the temple. I asked if they needed help in the baptistry, but they didn't, so I (along with several others) did a session. It was very spiritual.

On Sunday, there was a "fireside" -- well, they claimed it was a fireside, but it was really an award ceremony for the Marriotts. The choir sang, and they were great. But it got boring listening to how absolutely wonderful these people are . . . for two hours.

Thanks

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes everyone! I really appreciated them. Trina wanted me to post what I did for my birthday so here goes.

Thursday was the last day of the third term so I decided to start the partying that day. At school I gave the students that had completed all of their writing assignments an extra recess (it was about 40 minutes long) and I went out with them. I had my assistant stay inside and work with the kids that had work to complete. Then that afternoon my room mom came and we had a party for the entire afternoon. It was a surprise for the kids, but I think they thought it was really a surprise party for me. We had lots of cake and ice cream and then played musical chairs and a game where you try to unwrap a present with gloves on. Some of my kids said it was the most enjoyable history and science lessons they ever had. (It said history and science on our schedule.) Thursday night was tap and ballet. I was pretty hyper through both classes, but still enjoyed them.


On Friday I had a training meeting in the morning and then had to finish up my report cards that afternoon. I had actually kept things up to date on the computer this term, so it only took about an hour to finish things up on those. Then I went and did my laundry and went to the store to get some last minute things for the weekend. That night Mindy and I went on a triple date with our friend Natalie. First we had dinner (chicken enchiladas) with just Mindy and her date and me. Then we drove into Provo and met up with the others at Natalie's house. From there we walked over to Comedy Sportz. It was a very enjoyable show. I laughed a lot which is what they want you to do.

Saturday morning I had a few friends (all girls) over for breakfast. We had muffins and smoothies. (Mindy had spent most of Friday baking.) Then Mindy and I went to Orem and did some shopping. We walked around the pet store (it made me want a puppy) and then went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. We'd never been there so we figured we could go and walk around. I got a really nice blanket and a little massage thing. Next we hit a few clothes stores... but all we bought were some cool camo pants. We plan to bring them to Cali if we make it down there this summer. We bought lunch at Wendy's on the way home and then came home to relax a bit. Mindy then made four dozen cupcakes and a regular cake. The cupcakes were for my party that night. We had a small group to begin with but as the night went on more people from my ward showed up. We ended up with about 15 people and we played "Scum" for awhile. Then at midnight they all sang happy birthday and it took me several blows to get all the candles out.

Sunday, my actual birthday, I went to church. After the meetings we had a "break the fast" meal as a ward. It was lasagna (almost as good as Mom's) and Mindy brought the left over cupcakes and the cake (which was a jell-o cake) for everyone to have. And after I got home I spent the rest of the day talking on the phone with all of you.

And that is what I did for my birthday.
Love,
Tawnia

Happy Birthday!!!

We hope you have a wonderful birthday, even if Joshua decides he doesn't want to share a birthday with you. I'm sure you'll still be his favorite Tawnia, too. I just tried to call but you must be out celebrating somewhere, or maybe you're resting from all the celebrations you've had so far. Take care and have a wonderful day.

Love ya,

Mom and Dad

Happy Birthday Tawnia!!!

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to our favorite Tawnia in the whole world :c) Now Tawnia, I've been telling this little baby how important it is that he is born today so that he can share a birthday with his aunty Tawnia, but so far he hasn't given me much indication. I've been having billions of contractions - last night they were very strong, but sadly, they went away, as they keep on doing. We'll see, though. Well, everything is ready now - the baby stuff is all set up, the apartment is amazingly clean, our hospital bag is packed, and certainly grandparents on both sides are VERY anxious for the big event. So all we need is a baby. Oh, and we are completely happy with Grandma putting up pictures of Joshua on the family site - probably she'll get them up there before we can. I keep on looking at the pictures of Stevie and Summer when they were first born, and I think it is so amazingly true (especially with Stevie) that newborn babies change what they look like almost daily! I'd love to do that same kind of calendar thing, so everyone can see him changing and getting cuter by the moment. I wrote draft text messages that just need to be sent, so hopefully very soon after he is born, the word will spread to all corners of the country via text message!

Well we love you all and Tawnia - have a wonderful birthday!!
Manda and Nathan

What's New

I updated my What's New page again. I wanted to let everyone see it before I put up pictures of Baby Joshua. I'll want to get them up soon after he's born, which will, hopefully be soon. That is, of course, if I have Nathan and Amanda's permission. I've made a few other updates, too, adding some games and my newest hike.

Keep us posted on the latest news, everyone.

Love ya,
MOM

all clear

Just to let you know, our news is out so you may all talk freely amongst yourselves now. It took a while for me to corner Clarissa, but I finally talked to her today. Hang in there, Amanda - you'll get through this! Good luck with the final days here - you're almost done! And then the fun begins ... Thanks for putting the video clips of Summer up, Mindy. I hadn't seen them yet either. Not much going on around here. Just taking it easy tonight and watching basketball - Georgetown is in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA tournament. They had a crappy first half, but they've been doing a lot better 2nd half so far and just tied the game.

EDIT: Georgetown won. Hooray!! On Sunday, they'll play the winner of the USC/UNC game. The Oregon Ducks, if they beat UNLV tonight, will play against the Florida Gators, who are the defending champs from last year.

I said, "ATTENTION"

Well we could have had our baby by now had everyone submitted their guesses. We were at the hospital last night and the doctors were ready to go and then Amanda said, "WAIT!!! Jared and Clarissa haven't guessed when he is going to be born yet!" The doctors understood and told me to stop jumping on Amanda's belly - which I was instructed to do to help with the birthing process.

So please get your guesses in. At least now you know not to guess with mom.

Nathan

Summer Movies

I've just uploaded three new Summer movies. If you would like to see them, check them out on my You Tube page here. If they aren't there yet, wait a little while and try again, so they can finish processing. Tawnia took these videos when she was in Washington DC in February.

In other news, I'm DONE WITH SCHOOL! Yippee! I took my last test on Tuesday (and got an A!) .. so I'll be (probably) getting three A's and a B. I'll get the B in Art History, because I had a mental shutdown for my last weekend, so I couldn't write the paper I would have needed for an A. I'm honestly happy with the B though. I'm now done with all the requirements for my Associates Degree, I just have to wait for processing, so I'll officially get it later this spring (May?).

And besides that, I've added another picture to my page that I did on Sunday, because I wanted to get something done (but wasn't going to do homework). I'll probably be adding stuff more often, especially now that I'm done with school. But not this weekend, because I've got to throw Tawnia an excellent birthday weekend!

Back to class

And I'm as busy as ever. I have a German test on Wednesday, I need to work on my term papers, and I have to finish a book of poetry by Tennyson and write a poem by Thursday and go over my classmate's poems, and I've got history reading to do.

Today I also signed up for next semester's classes. I will take German, biology, Am Civ II, and write my senior paper on nationalism. Fortunately, thanks to a wonderful teacher I had at Chemeketa and the ridiculously small class size (two of us showed up -- me and Clarissa), I know what nationalism means as well as anyone can.

Long Time, No Post

Well, So I know you've all been wonderin' where's I've been, but I know where I've been all along. Here in Utah... well... except for that week that I was in Washington D.C.

Life is good. I have been staying busy with work. I went to D.C. for a week and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Then I came back and was sick for a week. (It was really weird...I was just really, really dizzy all the time.) Then I finally got back in to the swing of things at work. This is the last week of the term and then we only have ONE term left for the school year. I can't believe how quickly this school year has gone. I really love my class, but they've been stinkers lately. I think they are making sure that I won't miss them so badly when they're gone.

The big birthday bash is coming up this weekend. Being that my birthday is on a Sunday I'm planning on partying ALL weekend long. But go ahead and call me whenever because my phone will be on all weekend.... except for when I'm sleeping.

Okay, so now you know I'm alive.
Tawnia

Attention

alright everyone. It is time for all of you to get your guesses in about when the next Palmer will be born. The day is getting closer but we haven't heard all of your guesses. So let us know so we can get it documented and see who is the closest. You can also guess times and weight and length.

Mom wanted me to post about my job. I have one. Now they are telling me it is time for dinner. So I will post about the job later. But here is a little bit of info about it: the job is working in the audio department for Braille Plus Incorporated. I record tapes for the visually impaired. These tapes tend to be notices from the state about different updates on the impaired person's medical information. I can't think because Mom is bellowing now about it being dinner time.

but that is ok because I am hungry.

Nathan

More going ons

Hello, family. I'm still here in D. C. On Wednesday, I went with Trina and Summer and their play group to the zoo. We saw elephants, a panda, a rodent of unusual size, hippos, and sloth bears. We were only there for a couple of hours, but it's free and I've seen it before. There were six women, seven babies, and five strollers in our group.

On Thursday, I went to the temple in the morning with Trina and Adam. It was only my third time. On our way out, I saw a guy who's in my institute class who was on his way to do a session.

I really haven't done a lot of sight seeing this time. The weather was good on Tuesday and Wednesday, but it's not really good today -- rather miserable, in fact. And I've seen a lot of what's downtown. Instead, I've been spending time with Summer, Trina, and Adam. I'm glad I'm here. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to witness Summer standing on her own for the first time.

New Job

Hi all.

I got a new job. I've accepted a position as Sr. Instructional Designer at Washington Mutual. If you'd like to know more, give me a call and we can talk. If you don't want to know more, don't give me a call.

I know you were the last one to post Emily, but keep us posted on your spring break goings on. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you guys in DC this week.

Gettysburg

Hello, family.

I'm up in D. C. with Trina and Adam for spring break. It's Adam's spring break too. So today, we all went up to Gettysburg. It's about an hour's drive away. We took a driving tour of the battlefield. It was pretty amazing. It's one thing to read a book about the Civil War and quite another to climb among the rocks of Devil's Den or look out across the fields from Little Round Top or see what's called the High Water Mark which was as far as the Southern army got. There are monuments all over the place for different regiments or states, cannons, markers where prominent men fell, and statues of generals. Adam knows a lot about the Civil War so he was telling lots of stories.

Three years and going strong

This is to note that on March 9, 2004 the first post was posted on the Palmer Family Blog (later to become insanityinc.net). Congratulations and thanks to everyone for making this wacky little experiment a means of growing closer together as a family. Everyone has contributed in their own way to make this a really wonderful website. I love that it keeps growing and changing and that there's always something new to find somewhere.

In honor of all the wonderful things on the website, I'd like to refer you to a special page. I recently reread Grandma Beers' recollections on visiting her childhood home, and I was struck by what a gift for words she had and what a great legacy that has been to her children and grandchildren (and great grandchildren now). Check it out.

http://www.insanityinc.net/evelyn/Travels/1971/1971.htm

the non-journal recipe and other stuff

Nathan, the recipe that didn't make it into my journal very will could have been acid reflux delight. It was lemon pork chops in the crock pot, which sounded kind of cool ... until the recipe instructions also added chopped up tomatoes and tomato sauce. It was the combination of lemon and tomato that created a ton of acid for Adam, and I didn't like the taste of it. I had to eat all the leftovers, because I wasn't going to just throw it all out and Adam wasn't going near it. Blech. No more lemon pork chops with tomatoes for us.

We're glad Dad is fine from totalling the car ... but I can't say we're going to miss the Geo. We drove that around the 2 times we've been to Oregon together, and man alive, how was that thing still going in the first place? Piece of junk!! We hope you actually get some insurance money for it!!

We're still cruising right along here - same as always. Adam is at school all the time. He's now in the middle of a writing competition which is going to eat all of spring break next week. Lovely. Summer and I have been mostly staying home for the last little while - a pretty nasty cold has been working its way through our house. I think we've just about shaken it though. I hope so. I'm tired of all of us taking turns being sick.

Summer will be 10 months old tomorrow, and we figure that she'll be walking by her birthday. She's sure trying hard! She has started to pull up on the furniture. She also is figuring out the sort of "next step" in some of her playing. We of course think it's the most adorable thing in the world, and we all clap our hands and say "Yay!! Good job!!" She can take all the rings off of her stackers, but yesterday was the first time I saw her put one back on. She also takes a cloth off her head to play peek-a-boo but also yesterday, she put it over her head for the first time when we were playing. She likes to read stories - we need more board and cloth books. Anything longer is too much for her attention span, so we read the same 4 or 5 books over and over. She likes them fine, but Adam and I can recite them. We want more board books because we're getting a little bored with them - you can take "Go Dog Go" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" only so many times. So if anyone wants to get us something inexpensive for her birthday ... board books! I'm already planning a party for Sat. May 12, because Adam's last final is on the 11th. We'll do something with just the 3 of us on the 9th, her actual birthday, but we'll save the party for that weekend.

Joy to the World!!!

Hello everyone. I hope that you're all doing well. Since I had trouble posting comments on the girls' blog last time I figured I'd just ask Trina here. Oh yes... and thank her for the blanket and clothes for Joshua. We appreciate them very much and it is going to be hard to give that blanket to Joshua and not just keep it . . . anyway. My question for you is about the recipe that didn't make it into your journal: what was it? The only clues I have are that it gave Adam bad heartburn and you didn't like the combination of flavors. If I were to guess it would be chili noodle soup. Or maybe acid reflux delight – but that could be a combination of any heartburning ingredients.

So how come Dad and Laurel don’t have logins on the side of the page? I was noticing that for four days nobody posted and thought that was strange because a billion people can post on the page. That is when I counted and noticed only twelve people were listed on the side there. Missing was Dad, Laurel, Brooke, Bryan, Stevie, and Summer. I realize that the three youngest may have trouble with typing and reading . . . and maybe even the oldest – just joking dad – but they all have people that can read and type for them. If only we knew how to spell baby noises.

We had a nice break from the rain these last couple of days. However it has returned. For the first time yesterday I saw Oregon’s state bird. They make a similar song to a red-winged blackbird but don’t look much like them. For those that don’t know, Oregon’s bird is the Western Meadowlark – brown on the back with yellow under-parts and a black band across the chest. I heard it first but couldn’t find it forever. I’ve seen more bald eagles in Oregon than I have Oregon’s bird. What’s up with that?

For those of you who don’t know, Amanda and I got the apartment manager position which we will start in May. It is here in Salem next to one of the parks that I have often gone to looking for birds. We drove to Portland just over a week ago and had the interview and walked out with the papers to get the pre-employment drug test. If you want a drug test story ask me. Since I don’t think everyone wants to here it, I won’t type it. Fortunately we don’t have to go to Portland again. The office was right in downtown next to Pioneer Square and the roads are narrow and one-way, there are too many people, cyclists which come out of no where, and trams that go right along through the streets. Oh how I love Salem.

Joshua is not coming yet – though Amanda is ready. We went to the doctor yesterday and the doctor said not yet but he is head down. So keep up the prayers and thoughts because he’s still cookin’.

Nathan

Yo

Yeah it's me. I have a new e-mail adress so I'll need to send that to everyone. I'm here in California and loving it. I have a job. I'll be working at Safeway. I just haven't started yet, but I will sometime this week or next.
Nothing else really big to report on.

My weekend

Last weekend, there was a young single adult conference here. It was pretty fun. I had to hurry to get done with my homework before heading off to play; I had an essay I needed to write on Friday. Anyway, the conference started out with a concert with The Standards. They're pretty good, an a capella group, five brothers. It was a lot of fun. Then on Saturday morning, there were service projects. I helped move books out of the middle school basement and then joined a group doing landscaping work -- pulling weeds, moving rocks, that sort of thing. We went back to campus for pizza and root beer. Then there were speakers who talked about the theme of the conference -- Come and See. Most of them were good talks (but I almost fell asleep during one). Elder Larsen of the Seventy was our final speaker, and he talked about when he had visited China. It was interesting. In the evening, there was a dance. I had fun; I danced with four or five guys. I stayed there for about two hours, but then I got tired and headed out. I was still the first of my housemates to get to bed, and I didn't turn out the lights until midnight.

New Picture

I just added another picture to my page. It's my friend Ashley from high school. I'm having a lot of fun with this new portrait thing, and hope you guys like it too.

Classes are winding down for me in the next few weeks, except that I've got all the major projects and tests coming up. I've got a list of every single assignment due taped onto my monitor. I'm trying to get things done as early as possible, so I won't be stressed out next week when I start tutoring after school. So far I'm doing really well in my classes, so I'm hoping to end these two years with straight A's again. Just a few more weeks and then I've got my Associate's Degree! Yippee!

New Games

I stayed home sick today so I did a little bit on the game page. I even put some games up that weren't on the list, so if you could add those, Jared, I'd appreciate it. Also, I noticed that you move the games up the list when the instructions are added, but you missed one.

Nathan, I loved your latest bird video and I'll have to take your word for what kinds of birds they are. Your knowledge in that area is much greater than mine.

I also loved Trina's answer to the wedding day question. Dad and I laughed at your perspective. I don't remember you not eating anything. I'll have to be more observant next time.

I think I'll go eat some soup so I can get rid of this awful cold. Clarissa just called and asked me where my voice had gone. I wish I knew. It must be having more fun than I am, right now.

Love ya,
MOM

New bird video

Hello all. I have tried sending all of you emails about my new bird video. Some of the emails did not work though so some of you will not receive them. The video is called "Classical Birds of Oregon." It is at www.youtube.com/skipdipdawg. It is about five minutes long so make sure you have that long before watching. See you later.

Nathan

Emily's week

Well, this week should be fun. It's almost time for midterms. My short story for creative writing is due on Thursday. I completely rewrote it, so you would hardly know it was the same story, except that the names of the characters are still the same -- mostly. I've signed up for intermediate creative writing during the summer term, more commonly called "Maymester." I have to take it twice for my minor. I'm still getting nowhere on my history term papers -- it is getting rather irritating. Fortunately, the teachers know about this.

On Sunday, there was a fireside. Elder Wirkman of the Seventy was the speaker, and he talked about sacrifice. It was good.

What do I want my wedding day to be like? There will be a temple ceremony, lots of pictures, a traditional reception. Really, I haven't thought much about it.

And in other news, the academic quiz bowl team went to the regional tournament over the weekend. I practice with them, but they can only take five players to a tournament. They swept the competition and will go to nationals in California.

Adam's big week and some other stuff

Adam had a big week this week. He had an interview for a summer internship at the Department of Defense, working with 2 military attorneys assigned to defend some of the detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay (also called Gitmo). Adam was offered the position on the spot. He's very excited about it - he will do some travel, definitely to Gitmo and possibly to Europe. He will get a security clearance and be allowed to work with sensitive military information. The Colonel already told him that they have a lot of work for him the minute he walks in the door ... which isn't until May 14. They also want him to continue part time through the next school year when they actually go to trial. The only catch is, he does NOT get paid. All this work - no money. I'm not particularly excited about that, but a paid position after your first year of law school is darn near impossible. So whatever. But he's going to do it for credit, so we can get financial aid.

Adam also competed in a moot court trial yesterday, and made the school's team (the easiest way to explain it is it's a version of debate in law school). He's also very excited about this, because of all of the things he's been recommended to have on his resume for after graduation, this is one of the top two.

Mom, we'd be happy to "put some movies online" of Summer ... if we HAD any. Did you not remember that we don't have a camcorder? And since Adam isn't getting paid this summer, we won't be getting one any time soon either. Our digital camera does have a video feature, but there's no sound card. And you can't have a video of a baby with no sound - it just wouldn't work. Tawnia took some video of Summer while she was here last week so hopefully that will appease the masses for awhile.

What was our wedding day like ... huh. I'll bet you could all tell me better than I could. I remember it through a haze. Adam remembers next to nothing. The only parts both of us remember clearly are not for public consumption (and quite honestly, more comical than anything). I remember being very, very scatter-brained. I couldn't settle on anything or do anything - I would stand there and look at things, and not know what to do with them. Like lunch. I was hungry, but I just stood there looking at all the food. (Note to self for the next family wedding: dish up a plate of food, physically put the bride in a chair, and hand her the plate. Feed it to her myself until she remembers how to use a fork. Repeat with the groom. ... You think I'm kidding! But I'm not!) I remember other people being agitated and rushing around, but I couldn't figure out why. I'm okay with not remembering very much, because while the ceremony is the most important ordinance, it's just ONE DAY. It's the rest of your life that makes that one day count or not.

P.S. Adam just came in - he remembers having a very goofy grin on his face for most of the day.

responses

Good job Mom on finding my new picture without me saying anything about it. I'll say something about it now though, because I changed it. For those of you who didn't see the original, that's okay, because it's better now.

Thank you Eric for the wonderful Stevie movies! He's so cute! With Trina and Adam's permission, Tawnia and I can upload some movies of Summer that Tawnia took while in DC. She's home safe and sound, currently sleeping on her giant beanbag.

As for what I want my wedding day to be like - completely different from the first one. Married in the temple, pictures afterwords, and then ... a party. Afterwords, we'll FLY for a honeymoon somewhere (I'm actually going to have one this time), hopefully Europe or Hawaii, or somewhere on my list of places to go. It'll be a million times better than the first wedding day, because this time he'll have his family there too, and EVERYONE will be honestly happy for us, because we'll have an eternal marriage, and not just a wedding.

New Stevie movie!

Check out Stevie's new movie at www.youtube.com/ericpalmer

It's good stuff.

Happy Half-Birthday Stevie!

In his celebration with his half a cake, are you going to let him half open some presents, or fully open half his presents? Or only give him half presents? Will you only celebrate half the day? However it goes, I hope you send pictures (and more than just half of them) or post a new movie on YouTube. I watch those thirty seconds of Stevie Being Cute over and over again.

Welcome Back

I'm glad we're up and running again. I think it's time for a new question. For the married folk: "What was your wedding day like?" It will be interesting to hear it from your point of view. As your mom I have my own memories of your weddings but I'm sure you saw some things a bit differently. For the singles: "What do you want your wedding day to be like?"

Brooke and Bryan, sorry about the head lice. I remember the first time we discovered it here at home, it was your daddy who had it the worst - and it was just after a den meeting that I discovered it so I had to call all the cub scout parents and let them know.

Stevie, I wish we could be there for your "half-birthday" please have daddy post some pictures or a movie of it.

Summer, thank you for the beautiful valentine. It came today and I'll keep it always. I can tell from the size of your hand print that you're growing bigger each day. You should ask Mommy and Daddy to put some movies of you online. We'd all love to see them.

Love to you all,
Mom (Grandma)

The SUSPENDED web site

Hi everybody.

Sorry about the suspended website. Hopefully it will be back up soon. Dad gave me a call and let me know about a half hour ago. It turns out my account's email was outdated and so when my credit card expired last year, the auto-renew didn't work today.

Anyway, I've updated my information and we should be good to go.

Be on the lookout for an email from Mom and Dad about paying for the website in the future.

Meanwhile, I can give you a little update on what's up here. Preparations are well in hand for Stevie's half birthday. Laurel's planning on baking him a half cake to be served at a small gathering in his honor this weekend.

In other news, I love the games page. Great idea. Great work.

Texas report

Here are all the latest updates from the southern branch of Insanity Inc. Let's start with Bryan - He's perfectly fine after cracking his head a couple weeks ago, and we've signed him up for t-ball. They're supposed to call us back when they're ready to start forming the teams. Today we found that both Bryan and Brooke have head lice. So she's home from school today, and we're going through the shampoo treatments. Brooke is doing really well is school and girl scouts. Her troop went to the science museum last weekend. Oh, by the way, the we'll get the girl scout cookies this week.

I'm taking this week off frrom work. Actually, I did go to work Monday, but only for a field trip. I went with a few others out to Cameron TX - about a three hour drive - to tour the oil rig there. The rest of the week I'm taking vacation days just because I was getting close to the max and wouldn't be able to accumulate any more. I'm using this time to get all the stuff done that I never have time to do, like renewing my drivers license, maintenance on the moped, cleaning out the back of my closet, and stuff like that. Michelle's niece is having her birthday party on Saturday in Killeen (which is close to Cameron) so we're planning to make it a sightseeing trip as well, probably to Brenham. Michelle has a cold this week, and I think I've got just a touch of it too.

I'm the one that's been updating the games, Mom. I tried to post a comment about it a couple days ago, but blogger was being stupid. Anyway, you're welcome. I've just been adding one or two once every couple of days.

I think that's all from us. We're always happy to hear from everyone, so call us, email us, and whatever.

empty nesters

Well, Mom and Dad? How does it feel to have the house ALL to yourselves after 34 1/2 years? Are you bored without us there yet? Or are you finally able to focus on some of your own projects instead of worrying about all of ours?

We've been sick around here for about 3 weeks now - Adam and I are taking turns. Adam had the flu, and now I have a really bad head cold. Thankfully, Summer has gotten neither. Hopefully things will clear out now that the weather is getting warmer.

We've had a weird winter. December was so warm - we didn't even wear coats, just sweaters. A couple of days before Christmas, it was about 70 degrees. Then in January, the temperature plummeted down to the 20s in just a couple of days, and stayed there (and the wind chill dropped it into the single digits). It snowed a bunch of times, and we had a huge ice storm last week. This past weekend, the temperature took another jump back up to about 50 degrees and it's supposed to stay there for at least the 10-day forecast. More mild weather would be nice.

We had Tawnia here for a couple of days before her work conference downtown (and now she's at her really nice hotel). We didn't do much because of my being sick, but did go to the zoo and had a nice visit. Summer figured out how to clap her hands while Tawnia was here - it's very cute. Tawnia took lots of pictures, which she's going to have to email to me when she gets home and downloads.

What's New

I updated my What's New page. I also want to thank whoever has been adding to the game page. We still have several games we need to put up the rules for. I found some rules for 10,000 and added them. The timeline is looking good. I need to go through and add more pictures to it. Manda, you're getting bigger, which means that Joshua is growing. Clarissa said you should finish the series with a picture of you in the same outfit, holding baby Joshua.

Is it time again for a new question?

Love ya,
MOM

(Dad says "Hi.")

Look how big my tummy is!!

Hi everyone,
I'm going to sleep now, but I just wanted to let everyone know that Nathan put another picture of me with my big fat belly on the site :c) It was taken about an hour ago!

Love you all,
Manda

They made me do it.

I had to sign up for the new blogger in order to get on tonight. Before, I could always use the old one but not this time.

Tomorrow morning we're heading southward, taking Clarissa to California for her new adventure. Pray that the weather will be good to us.

I also wanted to let you know that I answered the movie question a few days ago. I know Jared saw it but I'm not sure who else has.

Thanks, Trina for the adorable pictures of Summer. I wish I was going back to see her, too. I'm glad that Tawnia can go and visit you guys and I hope she gets to see Emily while she's back there.

Clarissa commented that her High School graduation was accidentally deleted from the timeline. She graduated June 6, 2004, so maybe when Nate made the upgrades he missed that one. Good job on the upgrades Nate. Thanks for adding the pictures. I'm working on getting more up there, too.

I also enjoyed Jared's birthday pictures and Mindy's new drawing. I noticed that a few more games have been added to the list, but where are the rules to them? If you want me to add pictures or backgrounds, email me the rules and I'll put them up. Should we add a new category to the game list? Car Games. Some of them , like the Song Game or 20 Questions could be moved to that list. Or would there be enough to make a list?

I need to get to bed so I can get a little sleep before we leave.

Love ya,
MOM

timeline again

I went ahead and finished up the timeline through today. If I missed anything or anything is wrong please do not hesitate to change it. I know that this is being beat into your heads but please remember to always copy it anew when changing anything because I delete it off of my hard drive each time incase something has been changed.

Nathan

another drawing

Just a little message to let you know I have another new drawing up on my page. I should just let you find them for yourself, but I get so excited about them that I want to share. And I changed it so you'll go straight to my artwork section, because that's the only thing getting updated these days.

timeline

Hello everyone. I added four more years to the timeline so if you want to change anything make sure you copy the new stuff I added. I hope I got all the ages and anniversary numbers correct.

A Post by Eric

Hello my beloved family. I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted. I've been an avid reader, and I keep meaning to post, but I never can quite get to it. But here I am.

There's just so much to respond to. I liked Nathan's long post from yesterday. I could "amen" most of it, except maybe the staple remover bit. I also have a youtube page: www.youtube.com/ericpalmer.

I loved Mindy and Tawnia's tap dancing video as well. I'm working on a video response.

The big news of the weekend is that I finished the Beers Reunion DVD. Only problem is, I haven't been able to burn a good copy of it yet. I'm not sure if the problems I'm having are with my PC or with the disc, but I have some troubleshooting to do.

The other big news is that Laurel and I attended the PBR on Friday night at the Honda Center. That's professional bull riding. It was pretty darn awesome. Lots of bulls bucking off cowboys.

Laurel is pregnant and still in the early stages so she's pretty sick. I went with her a few weeks ago and saw the little guy in the ultrasound. He/she was taking a snooze, unlike Stevie when I saw him at 12 weeks. He was swimming around like a little frog in there.

I'm excited for Amanda and Nathan. You have a lot of wonderful days ahead.

I'm glad to hear that Adam is doing better. I'm sad you were so sick.

I'm also glad that Bryan is okay.

I'm excited for Clarissa. We talked on your birthday and now you're almost on your way, earlier than planned. Why not? You'll do great. I'm really proud of you.

And Emily is writing a paper on US-China relations, which is pretty awesome. Call me if you need more help choosing a topic Emily, but I hope our conversation helped.

Let's see... I'll probably be seeing Trina and Adam and Summer next month if I actually do travel to Virginia for work.

Mom and Dad, I love you and I'm glad Dad is willing to let Mom come for what is hopefully a long time before the baby is born.

I think there was more I was supposed to write but I didn't really prepare an outline or anything, and it's getting pretty late. I was interupted in writing this when our friends Ben and Katie came by with their 2-month old daughter Ruby. She's really sweet. Stevie loved her so much he wanted to grab her face.

Talk to you later!
Eric

Staple remover

wait a minute

Brooke is selling Girl Scout cookies? And Nathan bought some? When were you planning to tell the rest of us so WE could buy some? I've never bought Girl Scout cookies - I've always mooched off other people. But I would buy them from Brooke.

Friday

Hello, family. Well, another week is coming to an end. So today, I had a couple of classes -- though in German we spent the whole time looking at slides of Austria. Friday will become culture day in German class.

We had our weekly forum. This time our speaker was Ron Carter -- he wrote the Revolutionary War "Prelude to Glory" series, so he told us lots of tidbits of information. I've only read the first two or three books, and there's a total of nine. Tonight I'm going to a concert with music based on that series. There is also going to be the annual SVU Idol.

Snow is still covering the ground, so it's a little difficult going up and down the hill. So I usually stay up on campus for a while; I do some studying in the library or something. I always have studying. I plan on spending the weekend going over the stack of books I checked on on America's foriegn relations with China. I need to find a topic for my paper.

What's up with me

I didn't mean for this post to get as long as it is. Highlights: There a some personal notes to people and a link to my youtube channel which has more videos and hopefully more to come.

Well on Wednesday Amanda and I went to our first birthing class. We got to watch a video of ladies going through the labor process and then giving birth. Our the memories of Junior health. We also went over different exercises and some breathing techniques. We still have three more weeks. And the classes are each three hours long.
Yesterday I got a phone call from the director of A Few Good Men, the last Gallery play I was in, and he wanted to know if I could do a part for him again in the Foriegner (a funny play that I would love to do). I actually would have tried out for this play had I not been having a baby. Now he is asking me to be in it without trying out? The temptation is great but the play starts in April and so maybe if it paid or if he could get an understudy to do it for the entire run of the show. I just wish they were doing it at a different time of the pregnancy. Either before or after. so I have to call him back because he left a message.
I posted a couple of videos yesterday. I then I posted a couple more. Check them out. They are teasers of what's to come. Here is the link www.youtube.com/skipdipdawg. I hope that you enjoy them. Share them with your friends. They might not like them as much though. You guys are family and have to like them.
The job search continues. I didn't want to go back to Capitol Honda and wash cars, though I could have, so I turned that job down. Sorry mom, I know you wanted me closer. As soon as Clarissa moves out we'll move in so you guys won't be lonely. No we won't. I have another offer doing manual labor for a guy in our church which doesn't sound too exciting but I might do that until I find something else. He owns a tile business.
So on to you guys. Adam, I am sorry that you have been sick and that you had to go to the emergency room. I have done that twice in the last year and had the IV stuck in me. I know exactly what you mean about wanting to stay there. Especially once the stuff is running through your veins and they put those heated blankets on you. Comfy. Then they kick you out because someone else needs the room. Lame. Anyway, I hope you get better soon. That Europe adventure sounds great Trina. I guess my question is how many kids do you plan on having and taking with you and how young will the youngest be? As if you know. But depending on how long you plan on being gone I would suggest getting a decent place to stay intermittently so that way you could be comfprtable sometimes and have a definate place to stay sometimes. But that might hold you back too much. Just a thought.
Clarissa, good luck with the move. I hope that you have room for everything that you want to take. I hope that you get everything out of this experience that you are hoping to get. don't come back to live with Mom and Dad ever. Even if you have to live on the street. Just kidding.
Mindy and Tawnia, I loved the tap dancing video. Wish Miss Provo good luck from Mr. and Mrs. skipdipdawg. I hope you guys continue the dancing stuff. And I know it doesn't mean a lot coming from your brother but you ladies are both beautiful and I could tell the difference between the two of you.
Brooke, I hope that you sold the most out of state cookies. I can't wait to get our order and eat them all in one night. Except then I would get sick. So I won't do that. Besides, Amanda is here and pregnant so she'll eat at least half of them. How is Bryan doing? He got staples in his head right? Do doctors just use staple removers to get those out? Again Jared, I am sorry for that email. I really thought you hadn't gotten the first one. Michelle, I hope that your football team won the superbowl, but i don't remember who you were cheering for nor who won. I didn't watch this year. Amanda and I went bird watching.
Eric and Laurel, one of my favorite lines was "Sorry, baby. Sometimes I just respond to yelling." I thought that was pretty good.
Emily, be careful in the snow and ice. Walk slowly and with people so that if you slip and fall you can pull someone down with you. I'll send you a video of what happens when people don't know how to drive on ice. In reality no one should have been driving on this ice.

Again, sorry for the long post. Maybe you guys should have read it in installments such as bed time stories to your kids. If there are spelling errors I am sorry some of the time I wasn't looking and it's not like I am going to read through this thing looking for them.

Nathan

I'm not dead yet.

As some of you may heard, I'm not dead yet. I spent several wonderful hours in the ER yesterday being treated for dehydration from the flu. I never thought that I would say this, but I actually was quite comfortable for the last hour or so there and didn't want to leave. I mean, after being nauseous and very sick for most of the day, who wouldn't want to be hooked up to a wonderful IV bag w/ anti-nauseous medication flowing into your veins. So anyway, we got home late last night and Trina, being the superstar that she is, went out and got my prescription filled at midnight. Ain't she the greatest! So I'll be in bed for the next few days.

Adam

Snow

Last night, we must have gotten two inches of snow, so now there's a nice layer of it all over campus. Classes are still taking place, but only half the people showed up in my British history class, and I don't know if the ballet teacher is going to make it out here. I slipped while heading up the hill. It's cold, powdery snow, not good for building snowmen or anything.

Classes are keeping me very busy, you know. I spent about six hours reading assignments for my diplomatic history class, and I still haven't gone through the huge stacks of books I've checked out so I can figure out what to do for my term papers. I'll have to write two. We had a test in German yesterday.

12 days and counting...

Well, I'm moving to California. Instead of leaving March 29, I'm leaving February 17. The next few days will be a mad rush of packing. Dad and Mom are driving me down.

Trina, you didn't want that bookcase anymore did you?

The day has arrived

I am a father... I mean we put our pictures and journal up from our Europe Adventure. If you click on our pictures link it will show you the way.

the end

Tap Dance Video

With the recent surge of YouTube movies from our family, and the need to subcribe to it because of Eric's movie, I decided it was time to add my own movie. A friend took a video of Tawnia and I at our dance recital. The quality isn't very good, and you might have to turn the volume up to actually hear it, but you can get the basic idea of what we danced like. You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7viDt1JX1GY

I'm glad to hear Bryan is okay. Both Tawnia and I combined haven't been to the emergency room as many times as he has, and he's only four!

Bryan is OK

This morning at church, Bryan was sitting on the back of the bench and flipped off backwards and hit his head. We called the paramedics and they took him to the hospital where he had two staples put in. He was really scared and hurting at first, but calmed down during the ambulance ride and he did really great when they were treating him. He's all fine now, and he'll get the staples out sometime next week.

In other news, I did indeed have a happy birthday. We went out for lunch, and then shopping for birthday presents. Michelle and her parents got me the latest Star Wars book, Brooke got me a candle, a teddy bear, and Men in Black II, and Bryan got me a puzzle and a huge Charleston Chew. I also got the Happy Birthday song several times (yes, including the one on the machine from Tawnia and Mindy).

As for the timeline thing, I know I'm still missing lots of information. Trina's got the right idea - if you see something missing, either fix it up yourself or have me, or somebody else, fix it for you. And like Mom said, make sure you update the current version (in case somebody else just updated the same page). As for the missing years, I'll try to populate the rest of them some time this week. And I'll add the info Trina gave me. I want to include not only graduations but also anytime someone started a new school - ie, middle school, high school, new colleges, etc. Basically, any major life changes. If you want to include job changes yo can, but I won't - I've had way too many to count, and so it would be more significant to me to have a second year on a job than a first.

Anywho, there's the news from us. I'm older, and Bryan is OK. Have a nice day!

timeline additions

Hey Jared - The timeline looks cool! Thanks for putting that together! A couple of corrections for you:

1980 - I was actually baptized in November, not October. (Nov. 1)
1982 - Adam Caudle was born on June 25 in Gainesville, Florida. I noticed you don't have Amanda on there either, but I don't know what year or where she was born. 1983?

Can't wait to see what you put on the remaining years!! For future reference, since I don't know if you know this, Tawnia and I walked in our college graduation ceremonies in the spring of 2001, but both of our official graduation dates were December 2000. (Utah State, Elementary Education. Western Oregon University, Social Science.) I think we even finished on the same day, within a couple of hours of each other. Also, Adam completed his Bachelor's degree at Georgetown University in December 2005 (Sociology and Government), and began law school at American University in August 2006.

We're doing well here. Summer is scooting around in her army crawl and babbling like there's no tomorrow. She's starting to pull up on things. Adam is super busy with school - he has another moot court thing this month. The writing is due on Feb. 13 and the oral arguments are Feb. 24. This is the competition to get on the team - he won the 1L (first year) competition a couple of weeks ago, so he should make the team pretty easily. I'm staying busy with studying - I'm into the 700-some audio files now - and general household and Relief Society things.

Also, we're starting to talk about moving in May. We need to get into a 2-bedroom place. There's really nothing we can afford in the city, so it looks like we're headed a little bit north up to Rockville, Maryland. It's still on the Metro line - it would only be 6 stops for Adam to school. (It's 9 stops from here to downtown where we were working.) I found a complex listing online that I want to look at - dishwasher, patio, decent parking, and a POOL!!! All the more reason to move in May instead of waiting until August ... Plus I want to get a big planter pot for the patio and put a couple of tomato bushes in it.

Videos, etc.

I was hoping that Eric would reinvite me to view his cute Stevie videos. I got to see them because Mindy showed me, but then I accidentally erased my invitation to view them. The invite went to my junk mail and as I was deleting my junk mail I saw it was there.... but I'd already hit delete. Blast! So I'd like you to reinvite me and I'll try not to delete it this time! Thanks.

Jared has been bugging me about the video of Mindy and I tap dancing. I guess I'll put it on if I join youtube... for private viewing only that is.

Mindy was saying that she wanted to see video of Stevie walking... well in a dream I had last night Summer was walking. I think I'm getting excited for my trip to D.C. I doubt Summer will be walking by then, but you never know.

I hope that Emily is at least reading these posts, even though she is struggling with getting to post on the sites.

I think Michelle is cool too.

Mindy and I thought of a game to add on to the game page -- Huckle Buckle Beansnitch. Or however you spell that.

I like the timeline idea Jared has put up, but I think it should have pictures.

Have we thought of making our website passworded, so that not everyone in the world can see it. I just think sometimes that the entire world doesn't need to know this much about our family, though why anyone out in cyberspace would take the time to read our family blog, I don't know, but... yeah... passwording is a good way to make things private.

Okay... that's enough random stuff from me.

Happy Birthday Jared. Did you get the message from Mindy and me?

-Tawnia

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JARED!!!

I totally forgot to post a birthday wish for you until now. Sorry about that. I hope that when you went back to work tonight that you did take the car and that the test was a success. Have fun being 31 and share those lemonade cookies with your wife. Unless she doesn't want any.

Nathan

Michelle is cool!

Just hadda hava title. I am doing well. Same-o, same-o. I got tons of housework, but having fun today sound, well, like more fun. I will have to make sure Jared has a happy birthday. So far he has celebrated by going to working very early, then coming back home by 8:30 and going to sleep. Party on! Kids are great. Both love reading. Bryan is into Curious George and Magic School bus right now. Brooke is reading full novels now like Annette, Heidi, The Black Stallion, Sand Dune Poney, and Julie B. Jones. They are also into video games, no suprise. We obtained an old Sega Genesis. Pretty cool. I'm finding the games at pawns shop for about $3 each. Also, the individually own video store and the corner has a few to rent out. Cool beans. My stomach hurts this morning, bleh-unfortunate side effect that I occasionally get from one of my medications. Seems to happen if I don't take it at exactly 24 intervals. Huzzah!

The groundhog saw his shadow yesterday. To early spring, I say bring it on. I even had to get out a jacket this week. Whoa. I didn't read the sisters blog, but I did read Adam's post. Instead of looking up Luddite, I had to look up pervasive. Pervasive mean spread throughout. I suppose that it rains on both the good and the bad. Pervasive internet is spread thoughout the honest and upright, as well as the dishonest and criminal. Pervasive internet is a great technology that benefits individual user, medical sector, businesses, machine 2 machine, and others. Of course that also means more vulnerablity and risk of infilteration. I believe that you gotta protect yourself. Use common sense. Unfortunately, there will always be those with ill intentions no matter what the circumstance. It is their fault this is even an issue. Let's "Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys and hang 'em high in the street for all the people to see." Then we'll "raise up out glasses agains evil forces, whiskey for my men, beer for my horses"Toby Keith. As far as influential movies, I would pick Jerry Maguire. "I love the man he want to be and the man he almost is." It is a great movie, check it out. it is all about inspiration, love, and what really mattters. And who doesn't love football. Root for the bears tomorrow! Super Bowl Sunday! Yeah!!!!

a new topic for discussion (kinda)

Okay. So I'm a little behind. I read Emily's post on the Sister's Blog today. (Why is it called the "Sister's Blog" if everyone reads it?) It stirred the pot in my head and a question popped out. How/what does everyone feel/think about the pervasive use of the Internet and/or privacy concerns about the Internet(s if you're George Bush.) ? It seems that we have Luddite in one corner and the technogeeks in the other. So what's up?

Adam

I did it

Yesterday I was practically forced to switch to the new blogger sign-in thing. It offers you the option of signing into the new blogger or old blogger, but in reality makes you sign up with google when you try to sign up with old blogger. At least that is what I found. I will try to sign in with Amanda's account and see if she can still sign in with the old one. I am writing this after having read Emily's blog. I think the trouble came for me when I first signed over to the google sign-in way. Today I had no trouble at all. And Emily, I don't think you have to worry about google search engines taking over the world. I know you don't trust them but I think we are safe from a googlopolis. Unless of course you are worried about the cyber world. we could be in grave danger...

Nathan

Updated, again

I know I know, another little message from me, saying that I've added more art. This time it's on the fourth row down (or eight, if the rows don't go all the way across on your screen), far right. It's something that I've been working on for a few days, and it's completely different from anything I've done before. I did it entirely in Photoshop, and I'm very excited about it. I think it looks great, and I'm pretty proud of myself. Let me know what you think!

Games

Jared helped me get the game page up and running. We have the rules to a few games on there. If you would like to write up the rules to some of the others or if you want to add new ones to the list, please do so. If you can't figure out how to get the new ones on the list, ask Jared.

Love ya,
MOM

What's New on Mom's Page

I just put up a few pictures from Amanda's Baby Shower. Clarissa and I went to it on Saturday. She got lots of cute stuff for baby Joshua.

I think it's time for a new question. I just reached in and pulled one out and I think it's rather appropriate for Oscar time. What movie had the greatest influence on you? Besides answering the question - please remember that I asked for help with my game page. I'm sure you can all help me add to my list of games and help with rules for the ones you remember.


I'm posting this under the OLD system. We'll see if it works.

Love ya,
MOM

the West Wing

We had a really cool tour tonight of the West Wing of the White House. We couldn't take pictures of the Oval Office or go inside it - just stand at the door and look in. It's not as big as it looks on TV. We couldn't go out in the Rose Garden right at first because "people were out there." We were standing in a hall, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff came through and said hello to us as he walked by. Then the National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, came through and walked past us while I was helping Summer walk around the room. She was giggling and all, and Hadley watched her as he walked past, and commented something like "Oh, she's walking!" Then we went out to the Rose Garden and took a couple of pictures. It was very cool. I'll email them out with the next batch that I send.

Aunt Debbie has been here since Monday morning, and she leaves tomorrow morning to go up to Kari's. It's been fun to have her here. Summer and I took her on a very fast tour of DC - we've done quite a bit over the last 3 days.

My videos

Hello everyone. I just thought that I would let everyone know that I have a channel on youtube. Just a warning though, some of the other videos on youtube are videos that should probably not be watched so I suggest that you only watch my channel. To get there you go to www.youtube.com/skipdipdawg. As of now I have three videos. I hope to get more soon. I have footage for another couple I could do, but finding the best footage is a little difficult.

Nathan

Family history

I'm taking an Institute class this semester on church history. It's a good class. The teacher wants us to learn everyone's names, which is fairly easy, since there were seven people in class today. Anyway, he asked us if we have any pioneer ancestors and to tell our stories about them during our next class. (This class is the second semester -- set after the Saints left Nauvoo.) I know some of the stories, but I want to check with you (mostly Mom and Dad, but if anyone else wants to reply) about the specific details of our pioneers.

On Saturday, a group from my ward is going to the temple in D. C. I've done baptisms there, but this will be my first time to do endowments there. So I'm excited about it.

new drawing

I just put a drawing up on my page .. top row, far right. I'm trying to do a drawing every month this year, and this one is January's.

Winter and the weather

The weather was actually warmer earlier in the week (in the fifties) but now it's rather cold outside. There hasn't been any snow, but there are reports about snow coming next week.

My perfect winter day would involve a nice snowfall -- the big, heavy flakes. I would go for a short walk, but I'd mostly be inside, with some music playing, a big (penguin-shaped) mug of hot chocolate, cookies, and a good fantasy novel. I'm like others in the family in that I do not like going downhill at high speeds.

best about winter

I suppose you mean other than Christmas ... I like wrapping up in a blanket and sitting on the couch or in a comfy chair with an interesting book. I like the warm smell of stew that's been in the crockpot all day. I like snowmobiling - it's amazing how much more fun snow activities are when you have waterproof clothing.

Nothing much going on here - just studying and housework and regular stuff like that. Summer and I went to Target today and got a present for Baby Joshua. We're excited to find out whether Baby A is a boy or girl (as opposed to a pony or a dog), so we can get him/her something too!

Winter Day

A perfect winter day.... hmmm...

When I was younger I would have said that it included having snow, so that we didn't have to go to school... but school doesn't get canceled for snow here.

The perfect winter day would be one when it's been a few days since the snowstorm, so that the roads are clear, and that I don't have to work. It would be sunny and warm enough that I can go outside without having my nose-hairs freeze. I think the perfect winter day would be spent in front of a roaring fire, with a pile of books that I really want to read. It would also include lots of hot chocolate. It would also include a walk through the snow, maybe even snowshoeing. (I don't know since I've never been snowshoeing.) It would not inlcude hurling myself down a mountain on anything (sled, skis, snowboard, etc.)

So my question is... did Mom and Dad have to go back to school this week? How's the winter weather in other parts of the country (Texas, California, Virginia, D.C.)? It has been extremely COLD here.... highs in the teens and lows in the negatives. I don't even send the kids out to recess because it is to cold out. On the other hand, it hasn't snowed since last weekend, so that's nice.

Tawnia

Thank you

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes sent my way. I hope that everyone enjoyed the 16th. So far today I have visited the mail center three times getting packages. We are getting baby items and are getting excited. Two more months to go. Derrick had his second child on my birthday. Another little girl. For those of you that don't know he married a woman from Thailand who is several years older than him and already had two children so Derrick now has four kids, two of which are naturally his. So this child's birthday will be easy to remember. I think I'll call her little Skip or Skipette. We'll see.

Nathan

Happy Birthday

Sorry I didn't make up a picture page for you (blame it on Mom for not sending me the pictures) .. BUT, I do want you to know that I wish you the happiest of birthdays. I hope being 25 has treated you as well as 24 did .. well, it will probably be BETTER! By this time next year your son will be about 10 months old .. and tons of fun.

Happy Birthday to you...

...Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday my dear sweeeeetie - Happy Birthday to you! I love you my husband and I hope you have a great birthday! You deserve it. I hope everyone knows what a wonderful husband this husband of mine is, and how grateful I am for him in my life. Twenty five years sure is a long time to be alive, huh? A quarter of a century. Well, my dear - you've accomplished a lot in those 25 years, and this year will be a HUGE year for you - becoming a dad and all! I'm proud of you and I love you and happy happy birthday!

Love,
goblin

P.S. Everyone should look at the photos Nathan posted on my page of my tummy growing fatter as the months go on!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!!

Sure hope you're enjoying your cold icy birthday. I'm glad the weather was good yesterday so we could go spend the evening with you. We had lots of fun and dinner was delicious. Thanks so much.

Dad's school is closed today and mine is running two hours late so I have a little extra time this morning. I hope everyone is safe and warm. I'll post my January hike soon so check for it.

Love ya,
MOM

Hello, everyone

First of all, happy birthday, Clarissa, again. (I called her to wish her a happy birthday.)

Well, I've gotten everything unpacked. I'm not sharing a room with Rebecca this semester, although I'm sure she'll still be in my room fairly often. The other two girls don't really get along that well. I got unpacked on Saturday, and then I hung out with some friends, and then in the evening, there was a pizza and movie ("Dead Man's Chest") up at the school.

I went to church yesterday. I'm in a new ward -- fourth. It'll be my third ward here. There are plans to have a temple trip for endowed members about two weeks -- on the last Saturday of the month. So I'm getting excited about that. On Sunday evening, there was a fireside. The speaker talked about families, especially parenthood.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CLARISSA!!!

Hey Clarissa!! Glad to hear that you made it to Becca's safely... I mean home safely. I hope that you had a good time in California and that you have a good time celebrating your birthday here. 21 was a good year for me. I got engaged that year to my beautiful wife, Amanda. It was also nice to hear from you on the blog those couple of times.

Take care and eat all the birthday cake because mom and dad aren't supposed to.

Love,
Nathan, Amanda, and baby

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy birthday Clarissa! You're 21 and having fun! Hope your birthday really is fun, and that you don't get into TOO much trouble.

Everyone, please take the time to check out the Clarissa pictures on the front page (there are a total of four pages to look at). She really is a cute girl, and we've got the pictures to prove it!

D.C.

I spent 10 hours at the school on Friday. About three hours was spent in meetings and the other seven were spent putting together report cards. One of the meetings was about the conference I get to go to in D.C. at the end of February. I was asked if I wanted to take a personal day and go early. I very quickly said YES! Then that turned into going the Saturday before. (The conference isn't until Thursday.) And I said YES! So I get to spend five days hanging with Treen before the three day conference. I'm mucho excited! It made the fact that I was spending all that time on report cards less frustrating.

So, Emily- If you had a way to get up to D.C. for President's Day Weekend... then we could totally hang out and it would be very fun.

-T

she's on the move ...

Summer has started the army crawl, so look out, world!!

Clarissa, what's De Anza? Have you applied and been accepted? What major are you thinking about? You need to fill in more of these details for those of us who don't talk with you very often.

Emily, glad you made it back to the east coast in one piece. What's up with the new place? Is it nice? Are you and Rebecca still sharing a room?

Not much going on this week - Adam started class on Monday, so now he's gone all the time again. I've been home with Summer, studying my medical transcription stuff (I'm finally getting in some decent times every day), and doing random cleaning, and trying to get Summer onto a regular nap schedule. This is much more labor intensive that it looks, especially since she's 8 months old now and into a pattern of "I'll sleep when I feel like it and not a minute before, and you can't make me." We're going to try some different methods with the next kid.