Chaotic thoughts

I had a few changes/additions I wanted to suggest for the movie script.

When Captain Chaos is on the phone with ACME Rent-a-Hero, asking about Invisible Girl, Super Runner, etc.

Chaos: Well what about you, can you come?

ACME: I uh.. I've got a lot of admistrative work I need to take care of here. Schedules, billing, that sort of thing. You know how it is.

Meanwhile the camera shows ACME playing computer solitaire or something.

When Skip and Torpedo Boy meet Havoc, I still liked Skip dressing up as Captain Chaos and pretending to be him.

Havoc: Who are you supposed to be?

Skip (doing Chaos's dramatic pose): I'm Captain Chaos.

Havoc: Nice try buddy. You can't fool me. I am Havoc! (pose) And Captain Chaos is my father.

Skip: Well, Super Funny is my, uh, roommate.

The other minions (I'm visualizing them as a gang of wannabe superheroes) start citing relationships to other superheroes, like "Green Lantern is my uncle" and "Underdog is my sister's pool guy"

Minion played by Mom: Laura Ingalls Wilder is my grandmother's cousin.

Minion played by Brooke: Torpedo Boy is my little brother.

Torpedo Boy: Hi! (He runs to give her a hug. She screams and runs away.)

Then the music starts and song and dance begins, introducing each of the wannabe superheroes in turn. Yes, I can even throw in "Skip to my Lou" at the end so fake Captain Chaos doesn't feel left out.

So what do you think? Good, bad, indifferent? What suggestions do other people have?

It's almost December

Mom reminded me that I needed to get my calendar updated... so I did. I also updated my and Michelle's Christmas lists. Some people have said they were still trying to decide what to get people. Don't worry, we really do have affordable things on our lists.

And More Snow

Today the only reason I find the snow significant is because I had to go out and stand in it in order to put kids in their cars.

My mice have been renamed. The tan one, formerly Sally Sue, is now named Ginger. The grey one, formerly called Betty, is now named Saphira. Saphira really likes her new home... especially the wheel for running around in. Ginger has been a lot more lethargic since moving in here. Hopefully she's doing okay. I really don't want to have a mouse funeral.

Anyway, I was feeling awful last night, but I'm feeling better today. I'm still at work and have tons to do... and I want to be out of here before it gets dark at 5:00.

Have a nice Tuesday everyone.
Love,
Tawnia

Yay!

Yay for having my own account! :c) Hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving - I know we all have so much to be thankful for.

Love you all!
Manda

The ultrasound ...

... is scheduled for December 20. So when people say, "Do you know if it's a boy or girl?" you can answer that we will find out on Dec. 20. I still say it's a girl and refer to the baby as "she" and "her" (rather than "it") and I will be genuinely surprised if "she" turns out to be a boy. Our friends John and Muriel are due about 3 weeks before us, and they just found out that they're having a girl. Taylor says "That's what you think ..." because their ultrasound reading was "we think it's a girl but the cord is partially in the way." Heh. They have Ethan now, born in April. Not a girl.

I had another check-up this morning ... the baby's heartbeat came through strong and clear. She's doing fine. My sciatic nerve and right hip are not happy campers and I've already been in pain for about a week. The doctor said that sciatic pain is normal, but not usually this early. Lovely. It hurts to walk, particularly up stairs, and it really hurts when I'm going from standing to sitting or vice versa. I had to stop wearing my CTR ring this week - it's already left a mark on my finger. My wedding ring has been fine so far - it was a little loose anyway, so now it fits.

In other news, I have a new calling as of yesterday. I've been released as a ward missionary and Sunday School teacher, and now I'm the Primary pianist. There are 2 of us and we switch off, and the ward music director plays sometimes to help as well. So I'll actually have to play only one Sunday in December, because we're having only sacrament meeting on Christmas Day.

Mice

It has been a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Monday and Tuesday we had school. Wednesday I was able to sleep in, do a little bit of work for school, and then spent the evening making chocolate covered pretzels and playing cards. Thursday was turkey day. I woke up early, read my scriptures, watched the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade and then had dinner over at the Bishop's. It was a lot of fun, and good food. Friday I spent a lot of money... but I only have a few more presents to buy, so that's good. Saturday I spent the day at the school getting ready for this next week. I am feeling a lot more prepared now, so that's good... and then I went to PetCo and bought my class petS. Yes, I bought TWO mice. They are female mice and they are very cute. One is tan and the other is grey. I currently call the tan one Sally Sue, and the grey one Betty.... but the kids will be giving them their official names on Monday. They are very tiny and fun to play with.

So there is the run down of my weekend. It was nice... but now I'm ready to get on with the next month so I can have Christmas break!!

Love,
T

Update

Hello, family.

I spent a lot of today working on my computer. I have added the first part of my latest story -- "The One-Winged Dragon" -- to my page. I hope you like reading it.

Emily

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving, I went to the movies with Sarah, Amber, and Jaron. We saw "Chicken Little," which is a pretty good movie, but what was more important was spending time with my cousins. I am grateful for all my family, for the good times that we are able to have, times when we visit, feast, and play games.

Yesterday, we went shopping, and Clarissa and I sang all the way down to Salem. I got some presents. I also bought a new winter coat, a really nice one. I'll post pictures soon. I will need it in Virginia. I am so thankful that I am going. I leave in a month.

Mom and Dad bought a new Christmas tree, one with lights already on it, but we haven't put the ornaments on it. We did put up the Christmas village and the Nativity scene. We'll finish decorating this evening.

thanksgiving 2005

On Thanksgiving morning, for the first time, I felt the baby move. I've felt it a couple of more times since then, always when I'm lying on my back very still. Yay! We are, of course, very thankful this year for each other, for all of you and the Caudle extended family, and for the gospel and the temple and the scriptures. It's also actually kind of nice when people ask us about our Christmas list, to be able to say that we don't NEED anything. We're not well-off by any stretch of the imagination, but we're comfortable and we were even able to pay off most of our debt this year. (Everything except student loans.) It's a good life. It's going to change A LOT in the next 12 months - I hope the next phase can be just as nice as this one.

I am thankful for ...

This weekend I was very thankful to be in Utah with Tawnia. This was the first time I celebrated Thanksgiving with a family member since 2001 (and that was with Tawnia too!). I wouldn't have tried to make pumpkin pie if I hadn't been here, and I wouldn't have had help making chocolate covered pretzels either. (By the way Tawnia, we need more pretzels and more colored chocolate.) And I'm thankful for the snow that is falling right now, to make it really feel like Christmas is coming soon!

So who is doing the costumes?

Vacation Update

I was going to give you a vacation report with my last post, but we were getting ready to leave for downtown Dallas. We visited Thanksgiving Square and also went up Reunion Tower. On Tuesday, we drove from Houston to Grand Prairie, and made stops in Huntsville and Corsicana along the way. In Huntsville we saw the gigantic statue of Sam Houston, and also the prison museum. The kids loved playing in the prison cell replica. In Corsicana we bought some candy at the Russell Stover factory, the went to the pioneer village. Again, the kids' favorite part was playing in the jail cell and the paddy wagon. Should I be worried?

Today most of Michelle's family is here. Three of her siblings are missing. Anthony's sub launched yesterday, and Trevor left the MTC yesyerday to go to Salt Lake City. Diana stayed in North Carolina; her husband is in the army there. Jeremy brought his fiance Diane to dinner today, but unfortunately we're not going to be able to make it to the wedding. They're getting married on Monday afternoon.

I don't know yet what we'll be doing the rest of the weekend. We plan to go to Fort Worth tomorrow or Saturday, but other than that we're pretty open. We'll be driving home on Sunday after church.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good morning my wonderful family,

I am very thankful for each of you and the special and unique part of my life that each of you are. This year I have a lot to be thankful for. A year ago I was unemployed, in school, and childless. This year I have a good job, a Master's degree, and the sweetest baby in the whole world. I am astounded at my blessings. I'm very grateful to be home for the holidays and to have everyone safe and healthy.

Today we're going to Whittier to have Thanksgiving with the Palmers. It should be a delight as always. We're looking forward to Christmas and New Year's, culminating in Mom and Dad's visit and Stevie's blessing day.

Again, we love all of you and hope that you'll be safe and happy.

Eric and Laurel

Happy Thanksgiving

Let me be the first to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! It's not quite Thanksgiving day here but it is for some of you. I hope you are all having a wonderful celebration and enjoying yourselves with friends and family. We're going to Deb's and there will be between 20 and 25 people there. I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time.

In thinking of the holiday I'd like to mention a few of the things that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for each of you, my family, for Frank and for each of my children and their spouses and my beautiful grandchildren and the new little one who will soon be with us. I'm thankful for the opportunity to keep in touch with each of you through the blog, email, the phone and in person. You keep me going. I'm thankful for the church and its teachings and I'm especially thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and all that he has done for me. I'm thankful to be an American and for the freedom we enjoy here in our country. I good go on and on but I need to get some sleep so we can celebrate this very special holiday.

Love always,
MOM

Good morning!

So here's the cast so far:
Captain Chaos - Dad
Archivist -
ACME Rent-a-Hero - Jared
Torpedo Boy - Bryan
Skip - Nathan
Havoc - Amanda
Minions -
Lawyer - Adam
other lawyers -
Egbert - Eric
Writer - Emily
Super Cute Babies - Stevie, Baby Caudle

Is that it?

Happy Anniversary, and so forth

Happy anniversary Mom and Dad!

Sorry you didn't hear from me since I left the homestead Sunday afternoon.

I had a nice time in Seattle (pronounced Sea-tull), but my flight to Denver was delayed in Alaska and I didn't get there until around midnight on Monday. Early this morning I guess.

But I survived and the classes went well today. Actually among the best I've had so far, surprising for the amount of sleep and food I've had since Sunday (not much). And the weather in Denver was beautiful, clear and 65 degrees.

The flight from Denver to Santa Ana was delayed on the ground, mechanical problems or something, but we made good time and Laurel had gone off to fuel up the car anyway, so the timing turned out to be perfect. I sat by Stevie on the way home and we stopped by Burger King and got Whoppers and Star Wars watches.

Jared

I saw on your Rita Relief page each paragraph began with a letter from the word Rita. Very clever.

Nathan

HAMD

Translation: Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

As far as I'm concerned, the Christmas season has begun. Thanksgiving is the first day of Christmas, and we're getting ready for it. Adam went grocery shopping this morning for the weekend, and I'm looking out my office window at the decorations on Union Station. There are 3 big arches on the front, and they put a HUGE wreath in each arch. They're really pretty at night because they're full of lights, so they become rings of light with a bow. We haven't walked around to see all the decorations inside yet - they have a really nice miniature train set in Union Station that apparently was a gift to the US from Norway. For FHE activities in December, we'll go see the lights and displays at the temple visitor's center and at the White House. The lighting ceremonies for both will be next week after Thanksgiving. The temple usually has an ambassador of another country throw the switch for their lights.

I just came across a press release on LDS.org - the Church is releasing a new movie about Joseph Smith to be shown at the Legacy Theater in Salt Lake. It will start on Dec. 17. AND, on Christmas Eve, it will be shown at temple and historic site visitor's centers all over the place, including here in DC. So maybe we'll head up there for Christmas Eve instead of staying home.

Updated Script

Hello, family.

After a discussion with the Producer of the family movie, I have rewritten the script. You may notice that there are some additional characters, and the ending has been changed. Please note that we still need to finalize the casting. I hope you enjoy it.

Mom and Dad, have a good anniversary and have fun with your new toy.

Emily
Writer and Mastermind of 2006 Palmer Family Movie

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

Ma and Pa-

Happy anniversary. I am sorry that it is happening on a Monday, but that isn't going to stop it from being a nice one, I hope. Go out to dinner or something, or make Clarissa make you something. Emily could make you something too. Don't you love how I volunteer others? Have a good last night with The Kitty formerly known as Phantom because we are taking him tomorrow.

Love,
Nathan