LAST DAY!!!!

Today is my last day as a career politico ... tomorrow is the first day of Operation Domestic Goddess. Woooo! It's a little surreal still that I won't have a "real" job after today - it hasn't quite sunk yet that I don't have to come back here every day anymore. But I'm excited. I don't have to leave Summer anymore, and I can CLEAN!!! Yes indeed, I'm excited about cleaning my house. It will feel GREAT to have it all scrubbed and organized again, and be able to maintain it at hours not in the middle of the night.

I hope everyone got the pictures of Summer yesterday. There's something else I'll finally be able to do - build her website. Until it's done, I'll just keep emailing pictures out as they're taken. I want to get her blog all caught up too, with backdated stuff and then keep it going at least once a week or so.

Nathan and Amanda - that's great that you're having a spring baby. I already think spring babies are about the best timing because you're not pregnant with your body temperature all out of whack during the heat of the summer. Even last September when I was in my first month, it hadn't cooled off yet and I was more than usually uncomfortable. I'm glad I didn't go through that this summer - the humidity has been WRETCHED this year. Also - if you have a girl, we'll give you the swimsuit we bought for Summer, since it obviously won't fit her anymore next year. It cost us 18 bucks, and she's worn it a grand total of about 20 minutes. Even if we take her to the pool a couple more times, I'll be surprised if she breaks an hour. And tell me again what names you're thinking of ...

Okay, off I go to do my final wrap up!!! YAY!!!

Ultrasound

Amanda had a doctor's appointment today. She went and had an ultrasound done. They determined that the baby is 10 weeks along. That is a quarter of the cooking time. The due date is set for March 29, right at the end of spring break. We got better pictures of the little bean and Amanda said that it was wiggling its arms and legs. I did not get to go because today was my first day of classes. I hope that you all are doing well and that it stops raining in New York so we can watch some live tennis. I know how important that is to all of you.

Love,
Nathan

School time

School starts tomorrow. I have a lab that I have to go to. My first real day of classes is Wednesday. I have four classes that I go to between 8 and 12:30, each an hour long. I hope that I can make it through it. This weekend we are going up to Amanda's parents' home, because we have not been there since after the reunions. Amanda is excited to get off campus, because she has been way busy with training RAs and getting ready for all of the trouble makers...I mean students to show up. I am excited to get off campus too. Hey, Emily. I spent $600 on textbooks. Some of them were used too. I feel your pain. I hope that you enjoy German class. I enjoyed Germany.

Nathan

Happy Birthday Eric! Here are the lyrics to the song we (Tawnia and Mindy) sang to you, so everyone else can enjoy them too.

Happy birthday to you,
You're now thirty-two.
You have a cute baby,
and a pretty wife too.

Happy birthday to you,
We hope you have a few
More birthdays like this one.
Happy birthday to you.


And Trina, Tawnia and I have a computer fast on Sundays because we don't have the internet at our apartment, so there is very little reason to actually turn on the computer. We should have a TV fast though, even though the only movie we watched yesterday was Veggie Tales' Jonah.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERIC!!!

This is great. With Trina taking a computer fast, I get to be first to wish Eric a blog of a birthday. How was your party last night? From what I saw online, the Angels won last night. What a birthday dream come true. Well, I hope that a lot of people showed up to your party last night, and that you guys ate lots of good food.

Nathan

computer fast

The Caudles are going on a computer fast for Sunday, August 27 ... I'm thinking that we are WAAAAAY too reliant on the computer for entertainment, and it's the first place we go when we're even remotely bored. Or even when we're not bored. Taking turns isn't even an issue because I use the main desktop computer, and Adam has his laptop (with all of his games loaded on both). And particularly on the Sabbath. Sure, computer time on Sunday is not bad - we could email or IM with family and friends, or read/listen to something on LDS.org, or post on the blog. But there are many other things we could be doing on Sunday too, like, oh, reading our scriptures.

I'm also trying to think of ways to make Sunday a stand-apart day from the rest of the week, now that we're home a lot more and the days are all pretty much the same, even Sunday. Adam isn't in class very long every day - he does study at the library, but he's still home a lot more now than when he was at the Senate. And I'll be home all day every day starting next weekend - I'll be on the computer plenty with working on my medical transcription training so I can get a stay-home job. (No, I'm not done with it, but if I don't quit my regular job, I'll NEVER get done with it. I'm shooting for the end of December to finish.) Anyway, so because we're on the computer all the time anyway, even though they are mostly productive things, getting OFF the computer will be a Sabbath thing.

No, I'm not saying that all of you should do this too - I don't know what your computer habits are. I just thought I'd share.

Today, we went to the American History museum because it's closing for 2 years. They're gutting the building and remodeling everything. I hope they make the exhibits easier to get through - they're a bit of a maze right now. A lot of things were closed already, but oh well. At least we went.

Happy birthday, Stevie!

Happy first birthday to the cutest baby boy in the world! I hope you have a good day and that we get cute pictures up soon of you and your cake.

Today was my first day of class. I had one class -- German. We learned how to say "ich heisse" and say the alphabet and numbers. I did try to test out of German One, but when I took the test, it put me towards the top of German One but still in German One and since it has been seven years since I took a German class, I thought it would be best to review.

Tonight, there is also a class for the travel study students, and I am very excited about that.

Yesterday I spent $500 on text books -- those darn history classes all have multiple text books, but I am going to share my astronomy book with my roommate, Rebecca, who is in the same class.

And last night, "noon-thirty at night," as Rebecca called it, the phone started ringing. It turned out to be our landlady's daughter, and when there was no answer (she was taking a bath), she panicked and thought her mother was in insulin shock and phoned the police who came to the door. And this set the dogs off. And our landlady had just gotten out of the tub. I didn't sleep very well last night.

Stevie's birthday is going well. He has played with a ball and eaten Cheerios and laughed at the shark puppet. His mommy and daddy sang "Happy Birthday" to him while he drank a bottle of formula this morning. He is taking a nap now.

Happy Happy Birthday!

STEVIE! You are welcome to come to Utah to laugh with me anytime. I'm so glad you are a year old now. Soon you'll be walking and amazingly even more fun!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, STEVIE!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

To the cutest one year old, Stevie:

Dear Stephen. I would like to wish you a happy one year birthday. It was a pleasure meeting you last July, and hanging out with you and seeing your big smile. I hope that on this day of bliss you are able to eat Gerber baby food flavored like cake and ice cream – unless of course there is no such thing. Have a splendid birthday, and we are all glad that you came to earth to be with us. You are a special little guy and you aunt and uncle in Salem love you very much.

Peace baby dawg,

Uncle Nathan and Auntie Amanda

HAPPY

1 st

BIRTHDAY

STEVIE!!

We love you!! - Aunt Trina, Uncle Adam, and Cousin Summer

Hello from Virginia

Greetings, family.

This is just so you know that I have made it down here to my school -- I'm all unpacked now. I'm getting along great with my roommate, Rebecca. Right now I'm at the library, because I don't have the internet in my room. But I'll be posting as often as I can, and I'm sure I'll be up here quite a lot.

I had a pretty good time in Nashville, although there were times when it was a little hectic. I did enjoy the exhibition hall, where I collected as many pens as I possibly could. And I took Summer around the huge atrium in the hotel which had a lot of fountains and a river with a boat on it.

By the way, my post office box is now 4007. The rest of the address is the same, and in fact, it's the same box, but they renumbered the boxes. And I have my cell phone, so call any time (except when I'm in class, of course).

Talk to you all later,
Emily

Whew!!!

Last week was one long week, with everything going on ... last weekend, my friend Letta from my mission was in DC with some friends. She spent Sunday with us, and crashed on the air mattress Sunday night. Monday morning, Summer and Emily and I went to Nashville - we stayed in the fancy shmancy convention center hotel and ate at expensive restaurants and it was really just a typical conference for me. Stopping to feed Summer occasionally was the only difference, and she didn't like me keeping her out late for group dinners. So we did that only one time (and she was very fussy so we left early). The "adventure" of the trip was that for my first meeting, I was wearing pants and a blazer - 5 minutes before it started, I had Summer in the meeting room to meet a couple of people, and she had a diaper blow-out all over my sleeve. Emily and I bolted for the nearest restroom and spent 10 or 15 minutes cleaning her up enough so Emily could take her back to our room. There went my blazer for the entire conference - it was the only one I took with me. The social event was at the Country Music Hall of Fame, which was mostly all the old country stuff - I didn't see any displays for the new country music artists who I like.

We got back Thursday night. I worked Friday, Adam had his 2nd day of orientation at school, and Emily got packed and ready to leave for SVU. We drove her down on Saturday, and that was a loooong day of Summer being in her carseat. She handled it fairly well. She had her moments, but for the most part she was fine. Yesterday, I put the living room back together (mostly - except the corner with the desk - that's still buried) and the missionaries came over for dinner ... And now I'm back in the office for 9 more work days. Next Thursday is my last day.

Eric and Laurel - Happy anniversary!!
Bryan - Happy birthday!!
Tawnia and Mindy - congrats on moving into your new place!!
Nathan and Amanda - yay for the little Bean!! Let us know when you have the due date!!
Clarissa - sorry to hear that the wedding date is postponed - I hope things are able to work out the way you want them to, and that you're happy with things.

Change in plans

The wedding date is no longer December 27. We don't know when it is. We will tell you when we do.

haha

I don't know how many of you noticed before it was asked to be returned to normal, but I will tell you what I did whether you noticed or not. When I was changing the title of my company the other day I decided to do something on the menu that I had wanted to do for a long time. I changed Emily’s name from Emily Corps to Emily Corpse. I thought it was funny. Mom saw it and told Emily, and then Mom fixed it. So if you missed it, blame Mom. Hope you guys have a good weekend. Mom and Dad went to the beach with the youth from Yamhill Ward.

Nathan

Home for a little while

Hi family,

I got home from New York yesterday. Looks like I'm going back in a few weeks though. I'll be there for 9/11 actually.

Tonight Laurel and I are celebrating our anniversary. She just got back from dropping off Stevie at Rachel's house. We're going to go out to eat and watch a movie. We haven't done that for a while.

Yes, it's been a good nine years. The last one was really good. Thanks for the congrats. Laurel says: "I worked really hard while Eric was gone. I didn't hardly watch any TV at all. That's my report."

Love,
Eric

moving moving moving

Tawnia and I are offically "moved in" although we've spent more hours moving than actually being in our apartment. Today is my other day without Maceys (not a day off, because I still have to be here at Reagan), so I'm spending the afternoon packing the rest of the stuff in the old place, and cleaning it. We still also need to move all the boxes from the garage (that we moved stuff into last weekend) in the house, and probably just store most of it in the hall closet. I'm excited to set things up and figure out where they go .. it's my favorite part.

Yes, Happy Anniversary!!!

I hope you'll have time for a real celebration when Eric gets home from his trip. When is that, anyway?

Since I had such a nice response from my last question I thought I'd try another one. What church callings have you had, and which did you enjoy the most?

Dad just got home and we need to run into town and get some groceries and such so I need to run.

Love ya,
MOM

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ERIC AND LAUREL!!!

I just realized what day it is and it is the day to celebrate Eric and Laurel's nuptials. I am very excited for you guys and happy that Stevie has joined the ranks of Palmerhood and is a member of your family. I hope that you guys are able to go to Hawaii next year for you 10th year anniversary. I am sorry that Eric is across the country right now, or is he back? I hope that you guys get to go eat or go do something exciting. Amanda and I went to the Eiffel Tower for our anniversary, but we don’t have to talk about that, I just like to brag. Just know that we love all you guys and that we can’t wait until we get to our nine year because that is the really special one. Oh my gosh… I will be over thirty by then. Not that being over thirty is in any way bad, it is just that I will be over thirty. Well good luck, and may your next nine years bring you more happiness and children.

Love,
Nathan and Amanda and Bean

We're home

Dad and I just got back from our rather quick trip. We left Thursday morning and after nearly 2400 miles of driving, got home tonight. We enjoyed touring the Sacramento Temple, going through the Fresno one and going to the McCune Reunion in Las Vegas. We stayed with Jenny in Vegas and came home via Provo so we could visit Tawnia and Mindy and help them a little with their moving.

When we got home there was a message from Joy that she just got a new little grandson. I'll give her a call tomorrow because I didn't want to call her at midnight, her time, to ask his name.

Love you all,
MOM