sleep and pigs

I really really don't want to get up at 7:30 on a Saturday. I would really love to sleep in, since it's the only day that I can. What all are we going to talk about anyway, that we can't just post on here? I understand the importance, I guess I just covet those few hours of extra sleep on the weekends. Oh, and I really like Trina's suggestion about having the folder of important things. I'm thinking about buying a flash drive to store my computer stuff on, incase of an emergency, so I don't have to worry about burning CD's or disks or anything like that. And for that matter, maybe we could email a list of all addresses and phone numbers to each other so I can print that for my personal records.

As for a collection .. I have piggy banks. You can see them all on my webpage, except my most recent acquistion. Tawnia went to the ward social (I was at work), and one of the door prizes was a piggy bank. A guy named Kristian got it, and Tawnia mentioned that I would really like it .. so he gave it to her to give to me. I ended up naming it Toot, after a little pig in a Christmas book that I read at Deseret Book. I'm also trying to collect the state quarters .. I'm behind a bit, but I'm not sure what I'm missing, since my little book is in a box back in Oregon. But I do have an Oregon quarter, and I just got a Kansas one too.

Columbus Day

Eric-
I noticed that in your 'Daily Eric' you posted on the 11th of October that Columbus Day was the day before. In reality, or according to my calendar, it is actually today but was observed on Monday. So I suppose that since your heroic act was done inbetween Columbus Day (observed) and Columbus Day, that it can truly count as a Colubus Day miracle.
Nathan

Penguins

I collect several things: I'm trying to collect all the state quarters, as well as some other interesting coins, and I have a few rocks. When we travel, I buy postcards. I pick out ones that have some personal significance to me. For example, in my collection, I have postcards of the mountain we could see from our campsite in Zion, the horses I rode on the first time I went on the Riverfront Carousel, and the boat we went on at Niagara Falls.

And lately, I have been accumulating penguins. I've always like penguins; they were so much fun to watch at the zoo. Mindy gave me a little toy penguin, and then I got another that was almost identical to the first. And Mindy gave me half a dozen figurines for Christmas one year, and last year Nathan and Amanda gave me a penguin. And there's the one I got at Sea World. And there's the one I got at the zoo years ago. So right now I have eleven little toy penguins. (And I am planning on taking at least one or two with me to college.)

Saturday

This Saturday (the 15th) works fine for us. Mom, if you could email out the list for 72-hour packs before our online conversation, that would be helpful because we're putting our list together right now. And could you put some sort of "agenda" for the call here on the blog, because really - what exactly are we planning to discuss? The likelihood that something will affect all of us at the same time, or even multiple households, is next to nothing because we're spread out all over the place. If we lived all close together, like Uncle Max's family, that would be a totally different situation calling for a lot more coordination. It seems like the main thing, which shouldn't take a lot of discussion, is that if something happens in someone's area, they call Mom and Dad. If something happens in Oregon, they call me or Eric.

The only other thing I can think of for the phone conversation is just to compare notes on what everyone is doing and give suggestions. For example, here's one of ours - we got one of those plastic accordian folders that has a flap over the top to close it (it cost 2 bucks at Walmart). We put all of our "vital documents" in it - birth certificates, our marriage license, a list of our credit card numbers (which is smart to have anyway so you can get them cancelled right away if your wallet gets stolen), social security cards, church records, etc. We also are putting on paper a list of family phone numbers and addresses in case we're in a situation where our cell phones go dead and we actually have to DIAL a phone number with a calling card or something. I also have the film negatives of our wedding pictures because those are very important to me. This way, if we have to leave in a hurry, everything is already in the folder and we just have to grab it on our way out the door.

Does anyone have anything they specifically want to discuss on Saturday? Yeah, it would be great to get as many people as possible on instant messenger in general, but it will go a lot more smoothly if someone knows ahead of time what decisions need to be made in the first place. (Good heck. I've been working in government WAY too long ... I want an agenda for a family conversation. Will someone please smack me.)

Hurray for me

I posted the answers to three more questions on my website. Now I'm all caught up, I think. I've got to get moving on the travels, though.

Love ya,
MOM

My collection

I guess you could say I collect Star Wars novels. Michelle does not share my enthusiasm.

Time for a new question?

I know I said that I need to catch up on the latest ones I've asked but I think it's time to throw a new question out anyway. With all the talk of Christmas and everyone buying gifts, I thought I should ask a question that might make it easier for some of us to figure out what to buy or make. And the question is...What kinds of things do you collect?

I'm home sick today with a rotten cold. It's the lock-down day in Amity so everyone will probably think I'm just being a wimp but I really don't feel good with this cold and headache. I went to the doctor on Friday and he tested for strep but it's just a virus. Not much to do but wait it out.

No one commented on my last post about our plan. Our ward had an emergency preparedness fireside last night but I was too tired to go. Dad brought home some information on 72 hour kits and other ways to prepare. Do you want to get together next Saturday? What time works for everyone?

Love always,
MOM

Christmas

On the way home from shopping, I was riding in the car and I said, "Why does the rain remind me so much of Christmas?" Yesterday was just one of those days, and we took advantage of it and had some fun Christmas shopping moments. It didn't help that Deseret Book and the Dollar Tree already have Christmas stuff out, so we took advantage of such sales, and started buying Christmas things early. I bought Christmas cards, because they were adorable, and so I know that I'll actually send some. But I had a small request - Mom, could you find my Holiday/Winter box in the storage room? You probably shouldn't send it all, because it's really big .. but could you at least get into it, and find me my CD's? Be sure and get the Mannheim Steamroller ones too, they're in a little different cases, because I got them from Trina last year. Since I actually have Christmas music, I want to make sure that I have it this year. We've already got stockings to put up this year, and I will buy new wrapping paper (you can pull out the stuff that's in there .. it's not in a box, but floating around somewhere in the storage room alone), but anything else you are willing to send would be wonderful! If you could do this soon, and send me the gloves and scarves and such that are in there as well, I'd really appreciate it. It's getting cold already. That's all in the same box, but please be careful when you pull them out, because there are some fragile things wrapped in them. I'm happy to be with people who really get excited about Christmas. This year is going to be lots of fun.

T

Well, I hadn't posted in quite some time, so I figured I would now. Life is crazy, but good. Today I didn't sleep in (even though it was Saturday.) Instead I got up early and met up with some friends. We drove up to American Fork Canyon and then hiked up hill for a mile and a half. (That was pretty tough on my extremely out of shape body.) Then we got to go into these really cool caves and see lots of stalagmites, stalactites, and hilictites. (It was Timpanogas Caves for anyone that was wondering.) It cost seven dollars to go in, but I think it was well worth it. I thought it was the coolest thing! The hike up was killer, but the rest of the time was just really neat... and then I ate an apple walking back down the mountain. (Yes, I was practicing my "eating an apple while walking down a mountain" skills. It's much easier said then done, believe it or not.) It was fun to go and be social and active at the same time.

The Parker parents are in town this weekend. It's nice to have them here. They are good to all of us, especially Annie... which is wonderful. They were bringing her a new (to her) car and will fly back to OR tomorrow.

After the hike I went shopping with Amy and Mindy. We hit Robert's Craft, the Dollar Tree, and Deseret Book. I was getting the supplies to make mock rocks... which I concocted after we got home. (Now I just have to let them air dry for the next several days.) I also bought some other things for my classroom, and a few Christmas decorations... and I bought Trina and Adam's Christmas presents. (FYI this isn't the first present I've bought for Christmas... I have a bag full of stuff for the babies.)

Now I'm just doing some research for school... I am going to teach my students how to research but that means that I have to do some preliminary research for them... like finding books at the library or sites on the internet. Anyway, I did the internet part... but for some reason I can't access the public library right now... I'm guessing that's maybe because it's closed.

Anyway, I still have some other things I want to do to prepare for school on Monday. (I know I should give myself a break... but that's what Sunday's are for.) I figure that the more I figure out this year, the easier next year will be. Plus I will have a lot better idea of what to do this next summer as far as lesson planning, etc.

Well, I feel like I'm just rambling. I should go and label some of the things I bought for school... and then get some sleep.

I love you all and I really am excited for Trina and Adam (even though I WAS extremely tired when Trina told me.) And I'm excited for Emily... and that Stevie is growing (even if he is fussy.) And I'm excited that I only have one full week of school before I'll have a short week... and that everyone else is doing well (at least from what I hear.) THE END

Love,
Tawnia

Plane tickets

I got my plane tickets today. They cost a little over $200. I'm flying out on the morning of my birthday and arriving in Baltimore 9 hours later. (I e-mailed you the details of my flight, Trina.) I will be visiting a new state (Kentucky) on my trip. So I'll only see the inside of the airport; it still counts!

go Angels!

Hooray for the Angels being up 2-1 against the Yankees! Knock those suckers right on out of the playoffs! Due to the influence of my Montana days, where everyone was a Red Sox fan and HATED the Yankees, it's nice to see them eliminated as soon as possible. And even better because it's Eric's team! If the Angels get to the World Series, I just might have to watch it.

There will be no cute mommy-to-be pictures of me as there have been of Laurel and Michelle. That's not to say that there won't be any pictures at all ... I just wouldn't use "cute" to describe them. I was not so fortunate as to begin my pregnancy at a more ideal weight, and so far, this "cute" and "glow" thing have eluded me. "Fat" and "crabby" and "I barely bother with putting on decent clothing for work so forget about a nice hairstyle and makeup" are far more accurate. But thank you for your optimism, Mom.

Adam found something about Amity on one of his news websites last night, and asked if we were anywhere near there. Uhhhh ... yeah. Didn't realize you're actually IN that district this year. Or are you still at one of the Mac schools? Well, good luck and hope everyone is safe, and they catch the jerk that did that before anything happens.

Mom's on, finally.

I am SO excited to be a Grandma, again. WOW! Two within a year. Our little family is growing and I think it's fantastic. Keep us posted, Trina on how everything goes. We also want to see some cute pictures of the mommy-to-be. It was so fun this summer to see Laurel pregnant. I so hope you set up a special blog like Eric's, at least once the baby gets here. I so look forward to the latest Stevie updates and I love all the pictures. Thanks so much for the announcement, Eric and Laurel, it's very sweet. I'd really like a few prints that I can hang on the wall and one for my wallet. We need to keep our wall of grandchildren growing.

The last few days Dad has been hogging the computer doing some genealogy things, but I haven't been feeling very well so I haven't really fought him for it. Between work and my church calling I feel like I never have any time. Yesterday, I did take the time for a much needed nap. Things at work have been somewhat difficult.

There is some tension in the classroom with a new teacher and a new style of doing things. Also, Amity School District has an emergency situation. Someone wrote a threatening note on the wall at the high school saying,"You will all be dead on 10/10/05. So, next Monday the entire district is in lock-down mode. The only door anyone can enter or exit is the front and there will be no outside recesses or other activities and no after school activities.

A couple of weeks ago, Tawnia suggested that we all get together and setup emergency plan. Looking at our calendar it looks like Saturday morning would work. We have so few days available; Wednesdays are out; Tuesdays are often busy; a Thursday might work, but sometimes I have meetings; Fridays usually get filled up. Monday won't work because the girls are at their young adult home evening and dad and I are helping with a square dance class. Sundays are probably the worst day. What do you guys think?

I was going to post a new question, but I think I'm behind on answering the last ones, so I'll see if I can get caught up. I love all of you.

Love always,
MOM

Oh Good!

Sorry we didn't comment sooner Adam. I know that I for one wanted to make sure the word was out, and since Trina hadn't posted anything about it (for obvious reasons now that I think about it, what with the trip and all, and the fact that you're not feeling well) I held back. But I'm glad you cleared that up Treen, because we (Laurel and I) are very excited about your baby coming. Sorry I was so tired when I talked to you on the phone. That and being at work probably made me seem less excited than I really am.

I'm glad Stevie will have a cousin close to him in age. I'm sure he'll be very excited to see the baby next summer. I think I mentioned that Baby Joey (Laurel's sister Rachel's youngest) was very excited to see Stevie, along with the other cousins of course. I'm interested to see what Brooke and Brian think of the new babies. It seems so strange that we're having children these days. It probably shouldn't seem so strange, but it does. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were children ourselves.

And now I should return to work. I just read the blog and was glad to see Trina's post. Yes we are very excited. It sounds like Adam is going to be a very excited dad. Let me just say (as a brand new dad myself) that it is one of the rare things that is actually better than I imagined.

okay, everyone knows now

Adam frowned that no one has commented on the blog about our big announcement, so I figured I'd post and let you know that yes, the news is out. I got through to everyone except Eric on Monday night, and Eric called me back Tuesday morning. So everyone in our family knows now. I'm still a little nervous about the possibility of a miscarriage but it's been said that my being sick for the last 6 weeks is a good indicator that the baby is here to stay. And the doctor did say that once a heartbeat has been established, there's only a 5% chance of losing it after that. I'll probably do the big huge mass announcement to extended family and friends with the Christmas cards (on Christmas day, I will be 21 weeks - halfway) just because I really don't have the energy to do it any sooner but y'all are welcome to tell whomever you see or talk to.

Right now, Adam is more excited than me - being sick really does put a damper on the enthusiasm. He sings Primary songs to the baby every night - it's the sweetest thing EVER. He was doing all the really pretty songs like "I love to see the temple" and "Families can be together forever" and then he totally caught me off guard one night by singing "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree." I laughed all the way through it.

The sick isn't totally debilitating - I still go to work every day. The bacterial infections (which yes, were related to the pregnancy - I lied) cleared up after 3 weeks finally. I haven't thrown up at all, but I have a perpetual stomachache. I get motion sickness on the escalators in the Metro, for crying out loud, not to mention on the train and the bus. I am finally able to eat again - for the whole month of September, food in general was just disgusting. I had to basically force feed myself whatever people put in front of me. Now I'm keeping it to plain pasta and dairy (lots of cottage cheese) and some fruit.

I should probably get another blog like Eric did, but there's really not much to tell at this point - it will come in spurts. If I start having lots to say more frequently, I'll switch to that then.

Emily, I'll call you soon about scheduling for Christmas and next summer. We have a lot to figure out about work and schedules and people visiting to see the baby and blah blah blah. I'm working out a list of options that we can choose from about you staying with us during the summer.

another post from Mindy

my, I've been busy. On Wednesday I had my first art lesson with my first graders. I was a little nervous, since I know how they can be, but it went SO well! It was a simple lesson, just gluing the little squares of paper onto the pre-printed picture, but it worked perfect for them. They were excited, and focused, and really really quiet. We won't use the same picture, but I think we'll use the scraps again, only use pattern or something, to make it a little more lesson-like, instead of "here's glue, have fun"-like. It was fun though.

After I got home, Annie came home for her break between school and work. She had two hours, and had not had a good day (didn't do so hot on a test). She knew that my week wasn't going so great either (the final divorce papers are finally coming), so she decided to take me to the beauty school, and we both got our hair done. She got several inches cut off (so cute!), and I had them fix up the length that it was already (since I just had it cut off a while ago, but not by soneone that knew really what they were doing) .. and then straightened. It turned out very nice, and I felt really good afterwords, which was a good thing, since I had to go play the opening song for instutute that evening.

Yesterday I worked both jobs, and then today I do it again, because I'm covering a shift for someone, and then I work again tomorrow. I know that most people work a full 8 hours a day, but it's been hard going from doing nothing for a year and a half, to doing sooo much. And it wouldn't be so bad if it was a solid 8 hours, but with a couple hour break in the middle of the day, it reminds you how nice sitting down is, and then you have to go back to work. Ah well. It's paying the bills at least. I still need to make cookies sometime too, for the guys that fixed my computer.. otherwise I wouldn't have been able to write this.

computer woes

My computer decided to quit the other day .. or rather, Windows decided not to open. So I had a couple of guys from the ward come over and fix it for me last night. It is up and running again, but I need to download all my stuff again (AVG, Firefox, OpenOffice, etc), so it'll still be a little while before it's back to normal again. At least it's alive, so I can do stuff like write email, post on the blog, and check my bank account. Thank goodness for computer science majors. Oh, and at least I was able to spare my entire D drive, with all my pictures and webpage makings, so I won't have to start entirely over on that.

I learned a lot at conference, but I haven't had the time to reread my notes as of yet. I'll try my best to do that today, after work this morning, so I can also post my goals on the BBC blog. Look forward to that, I guess.

What I got out of conference

Well, I was going to have this posted this morning, but around 9:15, the power went out, and it didn't come back on until about noon. Anyway . . .

• Read the Book of Mormon. At least six speakers brought this up. I'm in Mosiah right now, which is where I should be. I have to read about four pages a day to finish it by the end of the year. Where are you?
• Be obedient, keep the commandments, and follow the prophets.
• Be prepared both physically and spiritually (because faith doesn't store well).
• Build an eternal family. This could be the mission statement for mortality, as Elder Ballard said. During brunch yesterday, I said that cousins are forever.

And there were other great talks on happiness, inner beauty, the Master Healer, the Atonement, Joseph Smith, and the events leading up to the Restoration.

new page

I have added Stevie to the official corporate history.

That is all.

general conference

Day 2 starts in a couple of hours - Adam is watching "Light of the World" right now. It's the performance that was in the Conference Center during the Olympics, and it's our favorite church DVD.

What I got out of conference so far:
- spiritual preparedness for adversity - depend on the Lord, build your personal faith, obedience obedience obedience, read the Book of Mormon, attend the temple, follow the prophet.
- the importance of making family our top priority. The importance of extended family also stood out to me, so I hope that we can be a good influence with Brooke and Bryan and Stevie even though we're so far away.

What Adam got out of conference so far:
- Prepare ye, prepare ye for hell to set loose. (Translation: buy a frame pack and specific camping supplies for the 72 hour pack. NOW.)
- follow the prophet and stick with the Brethren.
- seek harmony in our family and remember that children are on loan from Heavenly Father.

Good stuff so far! Looking forward to the rest of it, and then to reassess what we need to DO to incorporate all this stuff more thoroughly into our lives.

Thanks all

I just wanted to take a moment to thank you all for the comments on the Stevie pictures. We sure are happy to have such a sweet and special little boy in our home and as you can see I'm excited to share with you how he's growing (I know, it's hard to see, but he's gained almost 2 pounds in his first month!). So anyway, thanks, and I'm looking forward to reading about your impressions of conference.

Oh! One thing I was going to mention in my blog but forgot to (so now it's over here) is that the members who served in the hurricane recovery (and are still serving) were given special thanks by President Hinckley. Way to go Jared! I should also mention that I was once mentioned by President Hinckley in conference as well. He expressed his disappointment in those who complained about BYU.