Trivial Pursuit from Tartarus

And what is Tartarus, you might ask? Besides one of the answers to the questions in the Quiz Bowl Tournament (which no one got), it is the lowest circle of the Greek underworld. I hope this will describe to you what it is like to participate in a Quiz Bowl tournament.

The questions are almost all impossibly difficult -- questions about physics, chemistry, paintings, literature, terrorist groups, Croatian history (no, we didn't get that one), ancient history, astronomy (I did get the one on Pluto's moon), current politics, and African geography, to name a few of the topics.

And we played ten separate rounds against ten teams from schools such as VMI, William and Mary, and Roanoke. Twenty questions per round, plus bonus questions for those teams who get the toss-up questions. So we had to try to answer hundreds of questions. This takes approximately all day -- I got here a little after 8:30 in the morning to set up and we finally finished around 5:00.

So, how did my team do? First of all, understand that SVU had two teams -- one made up of the veterans, the others of rookies -- it was our first tournament. I hope that I remember everything correctly, but if not -- it was a long day.

Our first game: we lost terribly. I don't even remember if I answered any questions. Our second game: lost again. Third game: closer than the other ones, but still a loss. That was where I got the question on Pluto's moon. And the Great Wall of China. And I got the bonus question on Uncle Tom's Cabin. Fourth game: we played the other SVU team, and I managed to answer the only toss-up our team got the entire game. (Berlin Wall.) But we lost terribly. Fifth game: I was so weary with listening to questions that I missed the question on Mt. St. Helens! I almost up and quit right then, I was so frustrated. This was not fun at all. Fortunately, it was time for lunch, and someone brought pizza. So we ate and we got ready to go at it again. I stuck around (but let me tell you it was a very close thing).

The next round was a loss. Seventh round: I believe that was William and Mary, one of the best teams here. (I think they came in second over all.) But we did score fairly well. Eighth round: I had to keep reminding the reader to hit the clear button. It was close, down to the final question, but we lost. Ninth round: no one was scoring very much, but I did get 30 points for knowing landmarks in the U.S. And we won! We actually one a round! Sure it was only by about 15 points, down to the last question, but we won! Tenth round: We drove the poor VMI players crazy by getting the bonus questions on military groups and helicopter crashes. But I did get a power (that means I hit the buzzer quickly and got five extra points) on the question about Yosemite (I know where Hetch-Hetchy is). And I got the question on Brigham Young.

Over all, our team tied for ninth out of the eleven teams that were playing. And of course, the other SVU team won.

Will I continue to play? We'll see. If this affects my grades (meaning if I get a B in performing arts or astronomy), I may have to quit. I also might ask them to mix the teams up a little more, put the rookies and the experienced players together. So I don't know.

And if I thought today was rough, what is the next week going to be like?

Hello, family

Well, this week is rather hectic. But today, class was rather easy. For one thing, I only had one class today -- German. And we spent the whole time singing. It was rather fun. In other news, I'll be playing in the Quiz Bowl tournament on Saturday. My first tournament.

And I'm about halfway done with my Am Civ paper. It's due on the fifteenth, which is the same day I have to turn in a report to my astronomy class and take an astronomy test. So I suggested to my roommate that we go out to eat next Wednesday. I think I'll need a break. And I still have a week after that to finish my performing arts paper, and thankfully my Civil War paper is now due after Thanksgiving break. But I still need to have it pretty well written before that. I am very much looking forward to Thanksgiving and seeing Trina and Adam and Summer.

If I survive that long, that is.

Hair Cuts

My hair is very short today. I wanted it to my shoulders and instead it is to my chin, but I'm dealing with it.

It is really nice to have Trina and Summer here. I have been leaving work and not worrying about it. Today is Summer's 6 month birthday! Hooray for Summer. I think we need to have some cake to celebrate. I was thinking of Carrot Cake, since carrots are Summer's favorite baby food so far.

Work is going well. I got my grades done and actually met with all but four of my students parents. One student I had an IEP with recently, so her mom isn't worried about it, one student is currently in Guatemala so I'll have to meet with them after Thanksgiving; one student is brand new; and then there's the one that I need to call her parents and set an appointment with. I did not have any bad experiences with my conferences. In fact I think they were really quite productive. I even got some tutoring jobs for Mindy out of them.

Today we're going to have our book reports and then make trace fossils. It should be fun.

-Tawnia

the original

Mom found me the very first sister picture, from 1986, so I added it to the sisters pictures page, even without my computer. I'm at the school, finishing up my homework for the week, and just about to head home, but I wanted to let everyone know that I added the picture, and hope you enjoy it.

support the troops

I meant to tell you this before - Adam's brother Joe was deployed to Iraq last week and is in Baghdad. He's gone for a year, so his wife (of 1 year) has moved back in with her parents. It would be really nice if you could remember him in your prayers occasionally. Thanks! Love you all!

An Autumn Day

Fall reminds me of school. We saw a school bus while driving home last night and it reminded me of the first time I rode a bus in kindergarten and how big it seemed. It was green inside. That was the Fall of 1979. That memory goes along with memories of moving to Oregon that summer. I think that's when we got those puppets, the alligator, the dog, the monkey... there was another one too. Anyway, a Fall day...

I don't know how much I really like Fall. Maybe it's because it reminds me of school. Fall mornings are exciting and a little frightening. There are things I love about school and learning, but also some things I don't like. Homework, for one thing. But I have fond memories of being at Ricks College in the Fall. The Fall of 1996. Tawnia was there too. The air on Fall mornings reminds me of substitute teaching in Long Beach. Getting up early and meeting a new classroom of students. It was a very adventurous job.

I think I idealize the Fall sometimes because it reminds me of sweater advertisments. It makes me want to wear tweed and go to Harvard and read poetry while the leaves fall outside the window. It makes me want to get an expensive haircut and contemplate profound things such as what to buy people for Christmas, and whether I should start getting in shape for football on Thanksgiving morning.

Now I live in a place where Fall is subtle. It cools down, but the Winter it leads to is very mild compared with other places I've been. It's nice though, to realize that though the nights are getting longer and colder, it's not going to freeze.

When I was in New York in October, I talked to Laurel on the phone while leaves fell outside my hotel window. The sun was setting and the falling leaves cast shadows on the curtains.

Last year I spent a Fall night in Oregon with Nathan and Amanda. We were woken up at 3 AM by a fire alarm, so Nathan and I walked around Salem in our PJ's and blankets for a few minutes. It was pretty cold out.

And that's the perfect Fall day. A combination of all that. The cool morning air, school, work, reading, talking, and being woken up by a fire alarm.

an autumn day

I will now limn an autumn day. It is usually started out with a hymn. There is a column of leaves falling from the trees. Autumn days cause solemn ways. The weather can condemn us to indoor activities sometimes. Oft times the weather will contemn us. But that is nothing compared to how we seem to bedamn the environment. I don't know if I used those words correct and I don't know how to use dislimn.

Nathamn

and then .... I died.

Okay, so I didn't, but my computer did! (If you didn't catch it, the title is a quote from Harry Potter.) So I was going to move some pictures from my camera to my computer on Friday (soon after making all those little changes), and somehow managed to surge my computer to death. It won't even turn on anymore. So I'm back to going to the library all the time. It's really frustrating, because we only just finally got the internet, so we're paying for something that we can't use! Ahhh! A guy from church is supposed to be coming over sometime soon, to see if he can revive the poor machine, and if not, I'm going to buy something new. I can still do my homework at the library (it just means coming here a lot more often), except for my photoshop class, because no other machines have the program. I could probably put the software onto Tawnia's computer at work, but hopefully I'll get my own computer back up and running, and I'll ask the teacher for an extension on any late assignments. Wish me luck!

As for a beautiful fall day, today is a good example of one. All the leaves are colorful - lots of reds and oranges - it's sunny out, so it isn't as cold as it has been - warm enough for just a jacket. The air is crisp, and when you walk you get to crunch all the leaves on the ground. Here in Utah we're surrounded by mountains, and they have a light dusting of snow over them, making them very pretty too (at least less ugly than the summertime).

A fall day

Today would be a good example of a beautiful fall day -- not to cold or windy, a clear sky, and the leaves are absolutely beautiful here. I've never seen such colors. A nice day for a walk -- but the only walking I'll be doing is to and from campus.

Life is extremely busy for me, and I will have a lot to do in the next few weeks. Over the weekend, I went to a party one of my friends was having, and we played Imagineiff using the names of people in our D&D group. Sunday was my one day of rest after a rather hectic week, and this week will be even crazier.

Why did my roommate and I decide this would be the perfect time to write novels?

-- Emily

???New Question???

I know everyone is busy with school and various projects but I thought I'd try to wake the Blog up a little anyway. So before Winter comes I wanted to ask the question "What is a favorite Autumn Day like for you?" Do you have memories of favorite fall activities or anything?

Has everyone visited Nathan's site lately? If not you should take a peak over there. I keep checking everyone's pages to see what's new on them. I enjoyed your changes Mindy, but I have one question. Are you still going to call your blog the BBC? Just curious. I also understand that the brothers have a blog, too. Can we get a link to that or is it a BIG secret?

Hope you are all healthy and happy.

Love ya,
MOM

ME TOO!! ME TOO!!

I tried calling you Trina and left messages on both of your phones, but just so I don't miss out on wishing you a Happy Birthday I'll do it here. It was a very hectic day at work and I got home a little late. I have a Stake meeting tonight so if you're out I might miss your return call. I think it's great that you're going to Utah, wish I could come, too, but I have to work for another year and can't just run off when I feel like it. Soon, I'll be able to, if I can afford it. Meanwhile I'm keeping busy. I'm making Christmas presents, too, and having lots of fun with it.

Love to you all,
MOM

more happy

Happy birthday Trina. I'm looking forward to you coming out to see me and Tawnina, and of course to see Summer, when she is older and even more fun to play with. We can finally get the webpage updated, so everyone can see how cute she is.

I'm busy with work and homework and dancing and drawing .. as stressed as I am sometimes, I'd much rather be busy than not (since I know how that feels too!).

Another birthday wish

Happy birthday, Trina! Have a wonderful day, and have a good time with Tawnia and Mindy when you go to Utah.

I've been extremely busy studying this week. One teacher assigned us a book to have read by next Monday (I spent about six hours on it Tuesday evening), and I have to find primary sources for my history paper. I think I've got a good focus for it -- Sherman and guerrillas. Sounds like fun, right? Not to mention astronomy observations and magazine article summaries and history tests. So I will be very, very busy between now and Thanksgiving.

-- Emily

Happy Birthday Trina!

You've had quite a year this time around the sun. Congrats on everything, especially beautiful Baby Summer.

Enjoy the leaves changing and all that fun.

Love,

Eric and Laurel and Stevie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR TRINA!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

2 months until Christmas

Thanks, Nathan! Don't feel bad about spending my birthday studying - that's what Adam and I are both doing. I just got Summer down for her afternoon nap, so now I'm on the computer to study for a while. Adam has something up his sleeve for this evening - he took the car today so he could pick some things up on his way home from school.

After everyone else running around here and there, it's my turn to travel. Summer and I are going to Utah to visit Tawnia and Mindy - Tawnia was telling me on the phone the other night all of the things that are behind in her classroom these days, and I said I'd help her except I couldn't afford the trip out there. She found a roundtrip ticket for $200, so she bought it for me. Guess I'd better be ready to work hard after school to earn it, huh? (Since I can't go to her classroom during school because Summer would be too much of a distraction.) So I'll use that time to visit a couple of friends in the area.

Not much else to report right now - just staying busy with Summer, studying, and various Relief Society and Primary things. And I'm working on Christmas gifts - I'm making them this year. I made some good progress a couple of weeks ago, and now I need to work on them again. Only a few weeks until they need to be in the mail!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TRINA!!!

Hello Trina. Happy birthday. I have lots and lots of homework and studying to do today for classes tomorrow. I am not excited about that. So I hope that you are able to enjoy your birthday. I hope you eat lots of cake and that you enjoy Summer's and Adam's company. Sorry I can't be there. Darn studying. You know that's the only reason. So, Happy Birthday from the northwest palmer and wife and almost half-way done baby!!!

Love,
Nathan, Amanda, and Joshua?? Sophia?? Maya?? Junior??

pages

I have updated my page just a little. I added a new picture in the artwork section - 4th row down, second one in from the left. I cleaned up that section in general, because I know people at work have been given that link, and I'd like to make it at least a little more presentable. I also removed the school pictures, and put the link up for my Russia section, although I won't have time to finish that section for a while (school, work, dance, etc). Maybe with the link there, I'll be more likely to actually finish it in the near-ish future. It's just minor changes, but maybe you'll look around again and notice something you hadn't seen before. Hope you enjoy it.

As for Trina's pages of Summer, she and I will be working on those next month. (Please email me all the pictures you want to put on there, Trina, so I can have them on my computer.) I don't know if Tawnia still wants help with her page, but grades are due this week, so she is a bit stressed out, so now isn't the time to ask her about it. This is just something I think about when I'm supposed to be doing my homework and I don't want to.

Oh, and I get to give a talk on Sunday.

Update

• Stevie likes to bite things with his four teeth
• Laurel is drawing pictures in the style of the 1920's for our friend Heather's business idea
• Splash Mountain got me wet from head to toe (or at least neck to ankle)
• Jared is Curly's new best friend
• I'm going hometeaching tonight
• The Cardinals are leading the Tigers 2-1 in the World Series
• Every ward thinks they invented the "Trunk or Treat" but almost all of them are wrong
• Laurel's FHE lesson on honesty was about how a lie is like a monster that just gets scarier and scarier
• The highest tolls are usually for bridges. I suppose tunnels aren't much better, but I'm not sure
• Moving to Oregon might take a while
• I went to choir for the first time in over a year
• It was very foggy Sunday morning
• Our choir director wrote a Christmas song that's actually very good
• I went on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride with Sarah
• Stevie likes peas

Las Vegas

This weekend I went to Las Vegas for my friends wedding. Lisa and Jason got sealed on Friday, so my friend (Kim) and I went down Thursday night and stayed with Jen and Ben. The sealing was at 1 o'clock and afterwards we hung around for the luncheon. We ate Persian food. It was interesting. I had humus and salmon for the first time. Some of the stuff tasted nasty, but most of it wasn't too bad. The salmon was actually pretty decent. After the luncheon we were driving back to Jen's (and getting lost) when Lisa called and asked us if we wanted tickets to The Beach Boy concert that night. They were given the tickets as a gift and didn't want to use them... but figured that they should be used by someone. We said, sure! So when we made it back to Jen's we changed and then headed down to the Luxor. (The Luxor is the big black pyramid shaped hotel on the strip.) After figuring out parking (we thought that it would cost at the Luxor and were stuck in traffic further down the strip when we found out it's free at the Luxor.) we went inside and found our seats... seventh row in the center. It was an amazingly good concert. Only two of the original beach boys were there, but the music was still good. I thought it was interesting how many of the songs I actually knew. After the concert we walked down the strip to M&M World. It is a four story store... with ONLY M&M stuff. Pretty cool.

Saturday we slept in and then hung out with Jen, Kara, and Benji. We went to the Ethel M. Chocolate factory and then bought Pizza for dinner. At 7 p.m. was the reception. It was really nice and there was tons of good food. Kim caught the bouquet. Lisa sang a song for Jason, and danced with her daddy to a very sweet song.

This morning we got up early and drove back to Utah. We planned on getting to Springville on time to attend my sacrament meeting, but we didn't make it... so I'm rebelling and not going to the last hour of church where Mindy is. She doesn't know that I'm back.

So there was my weekend. Now I'm planning on staying in town until at least Thanksgiving... or maybe Christmas. (It all depends on the road conditions during Thanksgiving.)

I hope that everyone else is doing well and that Jared is able to get compensated for his plane ticket. I've been telling tons of people the story so that Delta can be avoided.

Love,
Tawnia

holy crap!

You were too nice, Jared. You paid for a plane ticket to go to HOUSTON, not to New Orleans. And the airline ditched you in New Orleans. You should have demanded to be reimbursed for the whole thing as compensation. I'm amazed that the airline said you would have to actually buy another ticket even on Delta - I thought the rules were that if you had to stay overnight somewhere due to something that was the airline's fault, the airline not only had to pick up your continuing flight costs, but they ALSO had to pay for your hotel. And hello - again - you paid to go to Houston, not New Orleans. Guess Delta's "customer service" doesn't exist anymore. Thanks for the tip - we'll also avoid Delta in the future, and I'll pass this on to some friends we have that fly Delta regularly that they might want to be careful in the future.

If Delta wants to know what all they have to do to get your business again, tell them you want FOUR round trip tickets to anywhere in the country, to be used at any time. (And then take Brooke and Bryan to Disneyland or DisneyWorld.) (And I'm not kidding.) Besides being reimbursed, of course. Let us know how it goes - I hope you get your money back.

And for Emily - why on earth would there be an entire semester on the Holocaust? What on earth can you discuss for an entire semester? 4 HOURS in the Holocaust museum here in DC was plenty for me. I wouldn't go near 4 MONTHS of review of it. And hooray for ballet and good posture!! Maybe I won't have to nag you about standing up straight anymore!!

The Letter I Wrote to Delta Airlines

To whom it may concern,

My name is Jared Palmer, and I was a passenger on flight 4422 from Atlanta to Houston.  Due to weather problems in Houston on October 16, the flight was diverted to New Orleans for refueling.  The flight attendants informed us that there would be gate agents there to help us figure out our options.  The pilot also told us he had reached his flying limit for the day and would not be able to bring us on into Houston.

After we got off the plane in New Orleans, we waited twenty or thirty minutes came and told us that Delta was not responsible for "acts of God" and that nothing more would be done for us.  She suggested calling Delta's 800 number to book another flight the next morning, but said that Delta was not responsible for those flights - we would have to purchase new tickets.  Several people tried to call, but to my knowledge none got through.  We were told there were no flights leaving New Orleans that night.  One of the security guards there at the gate then told us that how we got to Houston was "not our problem" and insisted that everyone leave the terminal.

I was able to get a seat on a Southwest flight from Noew Orleans to Houston's Hobby Airport that same evening, as did two of three others I recognized from the flight.  Again, this was agter we'd been told nothing else would be leaving the airport that night.  The gate agent probably meant that no other Delta flights would be leaving, but that's not what she said.

I understand that Delta cannot be held responsible for the bad weather, but running a plane out of gas on a two-hour flight and pushing a pilot to his 16-hour maximum cannot be deemed "acts of God."  Furthermore, my wife had requested status updates via telephone and email, and was aware of the initial delays.  However, no notification was ever given that the flight was rerouted to New Orleans, and she was unable to get that information from Delta representatives at the Houston Airport.  They were extremely rude to her, and she was only able to find out where the flight had actually landed through a third-party website.

I had been traveling in order to attend my grandmother's funeral.  This ordeal was a horrible way to end an already unpleasant weekend.  Considering that Delta fell short in many areas - pilot scheduling, lack of refueling, misinformation at the gate, lack of rerouting notification, and the rudeness of the Houston representatives - reimbursement of the $121.30 I payed to get home is the barest minimum Delta can do.  It will take much more than that before I trust myself or my safety to Delta's care again.

Spring classes

I signed up for my classes today. I'm taking two upper history courses -- one on Britain in the Middle Ages and on one diplomatic history. The only other upper division class was on the holocaust, and it was at the same time as intermediate creative writing. Let me see: Cheese! Rat Poison! Cheese! Rat Poison! Duh! This is a no brainer. And I'm taking German II. And ballet. I have to take some kind of p.e. class. Tawnia said I'll be aching in muscles I didn't even know I had. So, that's what I'll be taking next semester. At least it's only fourteen credits, instead of sixteen.

We're Back!!

We made it home safe and sound about 6:30 tonight. We stopped at Costco or we would have been home sooner. We had an uneventful trip home which is good. We stopped to see Jeff and Jackie as we headed out and spent an hour visiting them. We stopped just above Sacramento last night and drove the rest of the way today. I'm glad we were able to go and we really appreciate all the support from our kids, those who were able to come and those who weren't. And a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Laurel for putting up with us all week.

Love ya,
MOM

Test Results and so forth

Hi, family. I've been very busy with school, and last week I was rather stressed due to all the midterms and tests. However, I have done rather well. In German, I had one of the highest scores on the chapter test. In history of the performing arts, I had the highest score (I missed one of the true/false questions). While I haven't got my Civil War test back yet, the teacher told me I did do very well.

But this weekend, I didn't do a lot of studying, though I have another debate in Am Civ. Yes, I'm doing the first two debates.

And on Sunday, I started attending the Temple Preperation class.

Mindy's report

Tawnia and I found out on Saturday, and started to makes plans right away. We went to work on Monday, and talked to the principal, and got bereavement leave. (I'm not sure if I actually get paid for the days I missed, but at least Tawnia does.) We took of Tuesday and Wednesday (and today, Monday), and there wasn't school on Thursday and Friday anyway. As soon as our internet got hooked up, and I turned in a few homework assignments, we headed to Las Vegas, where we stayed with Jenny. The next morning we drove the last four hours, and spent the day with Aunt Cheryl. On Thursday we headed over to Eric and Laurel's, and met up with the rest of the family. Friday I went to Disneyland with Tawnia, Eric, Laurel, and Sarah. We had a lot of fun, and rode our favorite rides multiple times (like Space Mountain three times). It was nice to spend some time with Sarah too. Saturday morning was the funeral. It was short and simple, but it was very nice to be there. Afterwards we spent the rest of the day at Uncle Gary's house, eating and talking. He made a small fire in the driveway (in a little grill type thing) and we roasted marshmallows and he and Dad talked about all their fire stories from when they were younger. We went to sacrament meeting the next morning with Eric and Laurel, and then Tawnia and I headed back east to California. It would have been an even nine hours, but about 30 minutes away from Springville, we hit HORRIBLE traffic - all because we were narrowed down to one lane for TEN miles, and there was NOTHING going on on the other side of them. It took us an hour and a half to go those 14 miles. It was absolutely STUPID. We were very annoyed, especially since we were that close. But we finally made it home, and I immediately went to bed. This morning, since we have today off too, I'm going to focus on getting as much of my homework done as I can, especially since I'm a little behind with my Woman's Studies class, and because I really don't like to do homework on the weekends.

the Caudle weekly report

Hello all - we're glad that most everyone was able to get to California for Grandma's funeral. I wish I could have been there also. How did everything go?

Summer is doing better on sitting up on her own. She still can't do it, but her balance is getting better and she can stay upright for a few seconds before tipping over. She's doing well with playing in her exersaucer - she has figured out about getting the walker seat to go around the outside of the table, and is getting more involved with the toys. She's in the "everything goes straight in her mouth" phase, especially fabric. Go figure.

School for Adam is fine. The pressure is starting to kick in to do well on his assignments to get his grades at the top end of the rankings. He's at the library a lot.

Operation Domestic Goddess seems to revolve around the kitchen. I'm cooking more, and trying to branch out in the cookbooks. Frankly, I'm bored with eating the same stuff all the time, so we're getting more creative. We also went to an orchard up in Maryland yesterday, and picked a huge bag of apples. I told Adam - it's not that I want to can, it's that I don't want to waste the apples and we need applesauce soon anyway for Summer. So this week, I will be canning applesauce. My friend Sarah has a canner and jars and other stuff that I can use. Weirdness. What I remember of canning when we were younger was that it was always so HOT. This won't be too hot - it's only in the 60s this week. I'm sure you're all quite shocked that I'm even thinking about this, let alone planning to do it this week. But stranger things have happened. What those stranger things might be, I can't think of right now because this is pretty strange. But oh well.

Hello all

Well I am sorry that I am not able to go to Grandma's funeral. I hope that the service is nice. I am glad that so many of my siblings get to go however. It is cool to hear that all you guys are down there in So. Cal. hanging out with one another and I hope enjoying one another's company. I am glad that Eric made it back from New York safely and that he was not on that plane with the Yankees' pitcher. That was sad.

Nathan

A Shout Out to the Family Not Here

Hey Nathan and Amanda and Trina and Adam and Summer and Emily and Michelle and Brooke and Bryan!

We miss you.

Mom, Dad, Tawnia, Mindy, Jared, Eric, Laurel, Stevie, and Clarissa are all here.

building a "gospel art kit"

There's a package at the Church Distribution Center called the "gospel art picture kit" with 160 pictures (8x11 size) of scriptures stories, Church history events, portraits of the prophets, etc. The pictures in it have been around for decades - they're the old ones, mostly by Arnold Friberg, that have been around at least since we were in Primary. Since there are Church artists all over the place these days who produce beautiful paintings (Greg Olson and Liz Lemon Swindle come to mind), I've decided that we're going to build our own "gospel art picture kit." Get one of those plastic accordian-type folders at Target for 2 bucks, and start filling it up. I get a temple calendar every year, so I've got a start there - I plan to mount those on cardstock and write on the back if there's anything significant to us about that particular temple (Portland and DC of course, and other family marriages in other temples).

My request is that for my birthday or Christmas, that you send me prints (one or two or as many as catch your eye) of your favorite scripture artwork or other spiritual/gospel painting. I'd like the size to be at least a 5x7 so it's big enough to have a good view in Family Home Evening or something. If you're one of the artists of the family, something you draw or paint yourself would be really cool too. Thanks all!

Hello

Hello, family. This week has been extremely busy for me. On Wednesday, I got up early to get on a bus to the temple. I spent a couple of hours with Trina and Summer (who is extremely cute), which was good, and we watched the Joseph Smith movie.

Unfortunately, I hadn't had time to do much studying and finding sources for my Civil War paper, so I was rather stressed about that on Thursday. It was not a good day for me. Also, I have a midterm on Monday in my history of the performing arts class, but I didn't even get the review sheet until Friday, so I won't have a chance to ask the teacher any questions. I am not happy about that. The test covers every darn thing we were supposed to have read. Yes, I did all the reading, but I didn't memorize the stupid books.

But yesterday was better than Thursday. For one thing, my Civil War teacher loaned me some books that I can read, and he'll give me time to find a focus for my paper. And in the evening, I went to a play -- "The Fantasticks." I'd heard the music, but I'd never seen the play, so I wanted to go. It was supposed to be at an outdoors theater, but due to torrential rains for the past couple of days, they moved it indoors. I know one of the guys in it -- he's in my Am Civ class. So I talked my roommate into going, and we went. It was good.

testing, testing

Aside from one simple "orientation quiz" I took my first test today. Luckily I got my books yesterday, so I could quickly read the sections that I was being tested on, and then take my test. For only skimming the stuff for less than an hour before taking the test, I got an 82%. Hooray. I know my assignments are done well, so even if I keep getting low(er) test scores, I'll do fine in my class. Oh, and this was for my computer class. My classes are all fairly easy, it's just hard to do it all from three different computers. Thankfully, we're getting the internet at home next Tuesday. In the meantime, I visit the library a lot. I need to hurry and switch computers though, so I can have a computer with a disk drive, so I can email myself my assignments, so I can upload them from Tawnia's computer.

General Conference

I watched general conference at the stake center. It's about ten blocks from where I live, but I got rides most of the time, and I didn't head all the way back in between sessions. On Saturday, I headed up to campus to hang out with some friends and then I took myself out to eat at Subway. On Sunday, I just remained at the church the whole time.

So I got very little studying done over the weekend. But it was a great conference. My institute teacher (by the way, I'm taking teachings of the living prophets, so our lessons are from conference talks) -- anyway, my institute teacher said we should go with a question in mind. I did. And it was answered within the first half of the first session -- third talk, actually. And then it was confirmed in the other sessions. It wasn't just the talks -- there were also hymns.

By the way, what happened during the closing hymn was incredible. The Tabernacle Choir started singing "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet," and I wanted to sing, too. Then, after they sang the third verse, the conductor turned and everyone joined in singing the first verse again. Millions of people must have been singing at that moment. It was beautiful and powerful. I can't remember the last time we were able to sing the closing hymn.

For conference

Yesterday Amanda and I watched General Conference at home sitting on our couch. Actually we got a little too comfortable and fell asleep for part of the sessions yesterday. The same thing happened today. But we also had mom and dad and Clarissa over for today's sessions. They showed up around 9 and hurried in here to listen. Then in between sessions we had some good times shooting pool and playing ping pong. Then we enjoyed the second session and played more pool and ping pong after and then ate some good dinner and played some card games after that. Then mom and dad and Clarissa left and Amanda and I played some games.

Just so everyone knows, Dad beat me at pool twice. I also beat him twice, but only because he messed up, not because of my amazing pool talents. But I killed him at ping pong, even skunking him once.

Saturday sessions of General Conference

So what do you all think of General Conference so far? I'm enjoying it, and Summer isn't being fussy (just when she's tired or hungry) so I've been able to take notes like usual. We stayed home and watched it on the internet today, and are going to our Bishop's house tomorrow for both sessions with lunch in between. I'm looking over my notes from today and the concepts of service and scripture study have been my little jab in the butt reminders so far. Elder Hales' talk about scripture study is the one I think I will use for visiting teaching in November.

It's good to see people posting again. I know we're all busy, but wow. This was a dead zone for awhile.

Jared, I couldn't get my comment to post on your Christmas traveling string, so I'll stick it here ... Yes, I know it's FOUR TIMES as expensive for your whole family to travel instead of just you. I have a family now too. But you did start the conversation by saying "discussable possibility" for travel this Christmas - it sounded like it might be an option. For the record - you're welcome to visit us here in DC on your own if you want, but it just wouldn't seem right to me without all of your family. So while it will be a long time between visits, I'd rather you save up the money to have everyone come together. And when Adam graduates from school and gets that fat paycheck from a law firm, then we'll be able to travel again.

Hello?

Hi, everyone. Life here is, as usual, fairly busy. But here's a run down of some things I've done.

First of all, I've decided to write my Civil War paper on guerilla warfare. I had planned on doing something involving our ancestors, but this looks more interesting. So, Adam, do you have any books on the subject? I'll be in the D. C. area next Wednesday. There is a temple trip, so classes have been canceled so people can go. So I signed up. (I already told Trina about that.)

My other classes are keeping me fairly busy. In my performing arts class, we had to watch "The Marriage of Figaro." And I went to the forum this morning -- there are forums every Friday. This one was about tolerance. In German, we're learning to talk about the weather.

There is going to be a history honor society, and I will be joining it.

'Tis the Season...

I was just thinking about Christmas.  Wondering what kinds of presents I'll give people, stuff like that.  No, I'm not asking for Christmas lists here.  Actually, I'm wondering what kind of travel plans people are making.  We haven't made any yet, so if someone were to decide they wanted to come to Houston for Christmas or even Thanksgiving, well, you can.  If you let us know that's what you're planning.  Because if we're not expecting anyone, we'll likely head off to Dallas just like we normally do.  But since we haven't made our plans yet - we're notoriously slow with finalizing travel plans - you can still influence our decisions at this point.  If someone wants us, or more likely just me, to come to you, that may also be a discussable possibility.  So tell me... who's visiting whom this year?

Nothing but good times

Hi all. Sorry I haven't posted or put up pictures or anything for a while. I've been very busy with work for one thing. It's going well, it's just busy. Also, at night I'm trying to spend as much time with Laurel and Stevie as possible. With my spare moments, I'm trying to watch as much television as I can. Okay, that's not entirely true. But I have been working on the Beers Reunion DVD. I'm about to send a final call for contributions. I think it's coming together well, but it has to be one of the more challenging creative projects I've ever worked on. It rivals the Stevie-D for difficulty, not least because Stevie is around to try to turn off the computer and play on the keyboard for this one.

Laurel is doing well. She's at YW right now. Stevie is into everything. But he's still the cutest baby in the world. Tooth count = 3.25

Thanksgiving where?

Don't know where I'll be on Thanksgiving now. I was going to be in Williamsburg, but that trip was canceled. We can sign up for the D. C. trip, but the only thing I want to see in D. C. I don't think is on the itenerary. (Hmmm, what could that be?) This sucks. I wanted to go to Williamsburg. Maybe if I got a job there next summer . . .

hey

Looking good with your page, pop. You too, mop. That's funny . . . pop and mop. Are you going to add any clips from your movies, or are they there and I missed them? anyways, Amanda and I went to the doctor's office Friday and heard the babies heart beat. Amanda has gained 1.5 pounds since August 11. Or maybe August 30th. I am not sure if they weighed her then.

sincerely,
Nathan

More updates

Dad has been working on his page for several weeks and has most of it done so he decided to put it up. He has reviews and pictures of several of his movies under the FFF section. Some of the links may not work but most of them should. He's worked real hard on this so let him know what you think.

Love ya,
MOM

Changes

I've made a few updates to my page. I answered the latest question and I changed my "What's New" page again. Dad has been working hard revamping his page. He should have at least part of it up soon.

Since no one has been on here much lately, perhaps it's time for a new question: What are your food preferences and how did they come about?

Life here at home is busy, between work and church I'm kept hopping most of the time. I really have no excuse, though, for not posting on the blog. I love you guys and hope you are all healthy and happy. I'd write more but I need to get ready for the R.S. broadcast.

Love ya,
MOM

back to school

So I decided to go back to school, and get my Associate's degree. I only need two more terms through Chemeketa, and classes start on Monday. I just ordered my books. Ugh. It isn't as bad as Emily's $500, but it was straight out of my account, so it hurt pretty bad - a little over $200. All of my classes are online, and for the first week it's going to be very stressful, because I won't have all my books right away, and we're moving at the end of the week, and we won't have the internet at the apartment yet, so I'll be spending a lot of time at the library. October will go better, because I'll be used to studying, and I'll be able to use the internet at home. It will be so much nicer, since there are so many different things to do online for my classes, and be able to send things into my teachers, and trying to do homework at home. So if you don't hear from me for a few weeks, that's why.

The good news is, I was showing my teacher some of my artwork, and a different teacher walked in - she saw my portraits, and got some Christmas ideas in her head - so I might have an art project to do this year. It'll take up even more time, but for the amount of money I can make off it, it's totally worth it. Hooray!

AND it's Friday. That's always a good thing.

Funnies

My kids are hilarious.

One day after having talked about how mountains are formed (you know, plate tectonics, plates pushing together, etc.) I mentioned to the kids that fossils of sea creatures have been found near the top of Mt. Everest. I asked them if they knew how that could be possible. One student repled, "Flying Fish." Another thought that maybe a bird had carried them there.

Yesterday we were talking about common and proper nouns. I had the kids name proper nouns for me. When I got to one student he spread his arms out and said very loudly, "Hallelujah!" I told him that it wasn't even a noun. And he said, "Oh, wasn't there a place called Hallelujah?" He thought about it for awhile and then realized that he had meant Honolulu.

-Tawnia

hello?

Is this thing on?

rice cereal ... yummmmm

We had our first attempt at Summer eating food yesterday - it didn't go over too well. The first time it touched her tongue, she made this wretched face. We tried for 5 or 10 minutes to get her to eat - we're not sure if she swallowed anything, but if she did, it probably came right back up when she spit up after we took her out of her chair. (She was in the bouncer - we don't have a high chair yet.) It was rather amusing. Yes, we took pictures. She wasn't in a very good mood today, so we'll try again tomorrow.


I had a Primary meeting last night with a member of the Primary General Presidency - it was really good. The topic was about teaching from the scriptures - there were techniques of how to teach children from the scriptures, and of course a lot of encouragement about how we need to learn the scriptures ourselves if we're going to teach from them. Sister Lillerth (or something like that - she's the 1st counselor) referred to a recent New Era article by Elder Bednar about studying the scriptures. Of course this is a subject we've heard ad nauseum since we were in Primary - this time, the emphasis was on how hard we must work at studying the scriptures. I'd never heard it put quite like that before. The article is online at http://www.lds.org/gospellibrary/pdfmagazine/0,7779,593-8-1,00.html# in the April 2006 issue. I encourage you all to read it, and make time to read the scriptures regularly. We read together as a family every night (yes, we do it with Summer), but we're definitely lacking in our personal reading. That's our focus to improve on right now.

Good-bye, Kitten

There were several reasons why Rebecca and I had to send the kitten away. First off, the landlady's collie hated him. He went ballistic when we brought the kitten downstairs. So he was stuck in our room all day. Kinsley found someone else who could take him, so he's gone now. At least now it will be easier to study without him distracting me, pouncing on my shoes, batting at my pens, or chewing on my papers. And I won't wake up early in the morning with the kitten running back and forth over me. Will I miss Iggi? Not really. I'll still see him every week; he's the mascot of our Dungeons and Dragons group, so I'll see him just about every Saturday night. And besides, classes are keeping me so busy that I don't have time to think about much else. I spent today writing a paper for my Civil War class. I hauled my laptop up to campus to do it.

stay at home status

To get this out of the way right at first - after almost 2 weeks, no, I don't miss work. I don't even think about it.

Well, it's taking a lot longer to do my "I'm staying home now" projects than I had figured. But my epiphany this past Sunday was "Who cares about the projects. You're staying home to be a mommy and raise Summer. The projects will get done eventually." So there you go. I'm of course going to keep working on things and set deadlines, but if I don't meet the deadlines, I'm not going to get bent out of shape.

Summer rolled all the way over from her back to her front on Monday - for the last couple of weeks, she was able to make it most of the way over with her torso and hips, but her shoulder would get stuck. Now she's made it through - she still gets stuck sometimes and starts yelling, but most of the time she can make it all the way over. She also does some kind of weird rotation when she's lying on her back - she'll stay on her back, but pivot to a 45-90 degree angle from where she started. Once she's on her stomach, she's doing better at getting her head up but still doesn't last very long. The last couple of days, I've gotten down on the floor with her and put toys out in front of her to get her to reach for them. Friday is her 4-month checkup (and shots), and I'm going to talk to the doctor about starting her on solid food.

An extra thing to throw into the mix is it looks like my visiting teaching partner is going to pay me to clean her apartment regularly. We had a Relief Society thing on Saturday, and Beth said something about paying me to do her errands for her during the week. (We were talking about her lawn mower, because Adam usually takes care of it for her.) A couple of people looked genuinely interested ... which I think is a little funny, but totally makes sense. In this city, it's very common to work 12-hour days, plus the commute, and the only time you can do any errands is on Saturday - but you don't feel like it because you're tired but you have to. Anyway, after that conversation, my visiting teaching partner (who is new in the ward and I've just barely met her) asked if I'd really clean her apartment for her - she used a housekeeping service in New York, and wants someone here too. Oooookay ... so I'm headed over there Friday or Monday morning. What the heck. It's a little bit more money for just a couple of hours every week or 2, and I can take Summer with me.

More pictures

I've added pictures from our trip to San Antonio last weekend to my page.  We spent all day Saturday at Schlitterbahn water park, so there were no pictures from that day.

Get a Clue

Last night I went to mom and dad's and had dinner and played games. We played two games of clue. Amanda did it both times (meaning Miss Scarlet was the murderer). But Colonel Mustard discovered it both times, meaning I won both games. I don't mean to brag...oh who's kidding who? Of course I mean to brag. Of course I just got lucky that I won the second time, because mom and Amanda had two of the things right, they were just trying to figure out the weapon, so I had to wait a whole round of turns before I could make an accusation. But enough about boring games that most of you weren't there for. School is in full swing now, and I am still trying to figure out a good schedule for me to get everything done that I need to get done. We'll see if I can find something that works.

See all ya'll later.

love,
Nathan

computer cookies and buying plane tickets online

The Washington Post has a consumer awareness blog on its website, and had a post this morning about computer cookies when you buy a plane ticket - or really, anything - online. Here's the gist of the blog post:

When you're looking for plane tickets online, you look at various airlines to get the best price. You decide the one you want and go back to it, and the fare has jumped. It is suggested that before you go back to the website of the plane fare you want, that you clear out the cookies cache in the computer. A cookie is the tag that a website associates with your computer - it knows how many times you've been back and forth to it ... unless you clean out the cookies. Airlines deny making fares jump for people who have been to their website multiple times, but more most of the time, if you clear out the cookies, the airfare will hold at the lower level.

So next time you're buying plane tickets or anything else online, and the price takes a jump after you've looked it a couple of times, clear out the cookies before purchasing and see if it goes back to the original lower price.

I did not know this and thought it very applicable, especially after Jared's plane ticket fun this past summer when getting their tickets for the family reunion ... so I thought I'd pass it on. (See? The Washington Post does have useful stuff!)

Original post if you want to look at the whole thing (you may need to do an online Post subscription, which is free):

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thecheckout/2006/09/cookie_monsters.html

first week at home

People at church this past Sunday kept saying, "So how does it feel to be a stay at home mom?" And really, I had no answer. It was still just the weekend and I hadn't really been off work yet. Now it's Thursday ... I'm thinking "It's Thursday? This week is already mostly gone?" It's felt like a bunch of Saturdays in a row to me so far, and I haven't thought about work at all.

I am getting a lot done but I still have a long way to go. I'm doing a ton of cleaning and organizing, which has been neglected or done only partially since I got pregnant a year ago, not just the last couple of months (even though that's been bad too). I'm also working on my medical transcription - so far about 3 hours per day, which is LOADS better than the 3 or so hours per WEEK that I'd been doing. I've made a serious dent in things this week. I'm finally halfway to the midterm. Good thing it's a self-paced course. That's about it, along with of course taking care of Summer. We got to go to play group this week - some of the other stay-home moms in our ward organized it last spring, and now we can go too! Yay!

mindy at work

After posting a couple weeks back about how crazy and hectic my life is, it has considerably lightened up. I put in my two weeks notice at Macey's that week, and they had enough new hires that I was able to have that Saturday be my last day. No more driving up to Provo, and having to worry about who needed the car. School started the next Tuesday, so I didn't really get a break, but I suddenly had my afternoons free, so it felt like a break. My evenings are still filled up with FHE, tap, institute, and ballet, and then hanging out with people on the weekends. At this point I'm not looking for another second job, but if something fall into my lap then I'll probably have to take it. As it is, my first job is going great. Although I was very hesitant about working with the sixth graders, I'm actually enjoying it quite a bit. They can do so much more than first graders, they generally have attention spans .. it's a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I'm already rather attached to my class, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year with them.

To answer Mom's question, I hope that my future children will be determined - to work hard, to be happy, to be close to the spirit, and to help others.

Kitten

Here's the story. Last week, a guy we know (Dave) found a stray kitten outside his house that started following him around. He showed the kitten to his girlfriend (Kinsley) who immediately fell in love with him. She named him Iggi (pronounced like E G). He's a seven-week-old gray and black tabby with four white paws, and he's very playful. Unfortunately, she lives on the fourth floor of Main and so cannot keep the kitten, at least not until she graduates in the spring. And Dave is leaving for his mission to Utah, so he can't keep him.

This is where my roommate Rebecca and I come into the picture.

My landlady said the kitten could stay with us if no one else would take it, and no one would. So now we have a seven-week-old kitten in my room, often chewing on my shoes. He also likes playing with a pom-pom and a ball of yarn. He has to stay upstairs because one of the landlady's dogs hates him.

In other news, classes are keeping me pretty busy, though I did spend some time on Saturday with some friends (since this was Dave's last chance to hang out with us). I spent most of Monday doing reading for my Civil War class, but the teacher said we should have less daily work this next week.

School

Well, my life has been pretty busy the last few weeks... and when I'm not busy at school, I'm at home without any internet access. So that's my excuse for not posting.

School has been in session for two weeks now. I have 25 students this year. 16 girls and 9 boys. They are good kids, probably even better behaved then I had last year. It is nice to see my kids from last year though, they always get really excited to see me... even though they usually see me at least once a day.

I took the low level of kids for math, so my math class is moving pretty slow... even though we're full. I have a lot of extra help during math and it's really nice. We also have at least 40 minutes of prep everyday. I like that a lot. I am able to actually get out of work at a decent time if I actually utilize my prep well.

Oh, and they made me the "team leader" for the year. Which is silly, since one of the other teachers has years and years of experience on me. But the administration decided that they wanted to rotate who was the team leader each year... so it's my turn. Yippee (said quite sarcastically.)

Outside of school I am still taking tap and ballet with Mindy. It is a good stress reliever. I am also trying to stay social within my new ward and old ward. This week I actually felt much more part of the new ward then I ever had before. It was nice.

Anyway, I came to the school (on a holiday even) in order to post a very important question.

I was asked to teach the relief society lesson in two weeks. And the lesson just happens to be on my favorite topic, ha ha, not really. The lesson is from the Wilford Woodruff manual. It's on Marriage and Parenthood. So here is my question for all of you people who are actually married. What experience (or experiences) most prepared you for marriage? And what most prepared you for parenthood? I may call and get more specifics from people, but there are the basic questions. Sorry, my single sisters, it doesn't really apply to you.

I hope you're all doing well. I am, I'm just to busy to let you know that. I do love you all and I'm looking forward to coming home at Christmas. I fly home on Dec. 23rd.

Love,
Tawnia

Stuff from Jared

I have also made some updates. I added several pictures to the movie site, if anyone wants to go see them. But enought about that. Let's talk about the important stuff.

Brooke is doing really well in school. They get behavior grades every day, and so far she has two weeks of straight A's. She has alot of fun and says her teacher is really nice. Bryan is doing really well too. Last week we had a couple of birthday parties for kids in his playgroup. Michelle and I started a new program today to encourage the kids to do their chores, and so far it seems to be going well. Brooke and Bryan earn stickers by picking up after themselves, and helping with dinner, and clearing their dishes, and things like that. Today (the first day) they both earned all their stickers. The house is just as clean right now as it was 24 hours ago. At the end of the week they can trade in their stickers for prizes.

Tomorrow we plan on going to the zoo (yep, another free day) and we'll be meeting some friends there too - the family that took care of the rats and frog while we were reunioning this summer. Next weekend we have a company picnic at Schlitterbahn, a big waterpark just outside San Antonio. We're going to go see the Alamo and the Riverwalk while we're out there.

I guess I can be the brave soul and answer Mom's question first. What I hope for my children is that they turn out to be just like their mother.

Updates

I finally finished all the updates on our trip to DC. I've also changed my "What's New" page and updated my 100 page under the travel section. Since I'm posting a new question you might want to make sure you've seen my answer to the last one. I didn't get any takers on that one. Our new question is: "What do you hope for your children and grandchildren?" Even if you don't have any yet, you can still answer the question.

I hope you are all well and happy in your new adventures. Every day is a new adventure so don't think you're not having any.

Love ya,
MOM

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

the temp must die

The last day of getting ready for a work trip is typically pretty hectic, but this time, I was way ahead of the game (because both bosses panicked with my being gone on maternity leave, and had most things done when I got back to work). Once my shipment of all my copies was gone on Fri. the 4th, I didn't have much to do all this past week - a very easy, quiet week. Until Friday. When the housing coordinator in our main office in Denver called me to ask about the hotel reservations for some of my speakers. Their registration forms also had the housing requests, including personal credit card numbers and the temp had screwed them ALL UP!!! He had the same credit card number on 3 forms. He had forms filled in that the speaker was paying for his own hotel AND we were paying it - for the same speaker. I spent a good majority of Friday cleaning up the hotel mess, and this was after he did NOT give any of them complimentary registration (so I've been fielding phone calls for the last 3 weeks - "Why did I get a bill?" "Because we messed up, and didn't catch it until the bills had already been sent. Disregard.") So yeah. It's a good thing he was already gone because I would have smacked him a good one.

We're leaving tomorrow morning for Nashville - we'll see how things go at the airport but I'm trying to be ready by packing very specifically. We'll be back Thursday night - the conference doesn't end until the weekend, but I'm done Thursday morning so we're coming home and I'll go to the office on Friday and get started on my wrap up at the office.

my (crazy) life

This week I worked 32 hours. Pretty normal really, and I only had to start moving on one of those days that I worked. Next week though, I have to start going back to Reagan in the mornings, and continue going to Maceys in the evenings. Here is a schedule of next week for me.

Monday: 9AM - 1PM @ Reagan, 3PM - 11PM @ Maceys
Tuesday: 9AM - 1PM @ Reagan, entire afternoon spent moving, 7:30PM Tap
Wednesday: 9AM - 3PM @ Reagan, 3PM - 11PM @ Maceys
Thursday: 9AM - 1PM @ Reagan, 8:30PM Ballet
Friday: 9AM? - 1PM? @ Reagan, 3PM - 11PM @ Maceys
Saturday: 3PM - 11PM @ Maceys

Aside from all the spiritual uplifting, I love Sundays because I know I don't have to work either job, and it gives me a break from everything. I will still try and post occasionally, with any exciting news that happens when I'm not work (like when we finally get to move).

Hello

Those are cute pictures of Bryan at his party, and the cake was cool. I thought he was going to have an eye-patch and a hat. Anyways, thank you for sharing those with us. I also wanted to thank Mindy for specifying in her drawing that I was a baby sleeping. I did not want others thinking that I was an adult wearing a diaper. And sucking on a pacifier. Thank you, Mindy.

Nathan

Bryan's Birthday

Hey Jared, Those are cool pictures of Bryan's Birthday party. Thanks for letting me see them first, since I was talking to you on the phone when you put them on the site. I have been following the mantra that Jared advised me to use while driving. I get in the car, and when someone does something stupid I clench my teeth and say, "I am a leaf on the wind! Watch me soar!" Or something to that effect.

Today Mindy and I actually started moving things closer to our new apartment. We now have a bunch of stuff in one of the garages behind our new apartment building. They are cleaning the carpets there on Monday and we should be able to move in either Monday evening or Tuesday afternoon. We are very excited about that.

I am also very excited about Nate and Manda's news! Yay!

I'm still really stressed about most things in my life, but now that I'm actually getting to move, and I should actually get to go into my classroom soon... it's helping my nerves calm a bit. I also got a very kind e-mail from the parent of a child I will have in class this next year. She said that her daughter was excited about school for the first year, because she is going to have me as her teacher. That made me feel really good and made me actually get excited about school starting. I teach because of the kids... and that really is the only reason. They make my job worth all of the stress that I go through.

Anyway, I hope everyone else is doing well.

Love,
Tawnia

The word is out

Just so everyone knows . . . everyone knows

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYAN!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYAN!!

It has begun...

I've started updating the Pure Chaos page now.  I redid all the menu items to stuff that seems to make a little more sense (at least in my head) and put in the pictures from the CD that Mom and Dad sent.  Don't worry, I backed up most of what I had previously done, so pretty much everything should be able to be restored if desired.

So I ask again, if you haven't already, go look around and see what you can contribute.  Particularly personal bio sheets (with your acting experience), character backstories, movie reviews, and pictures.

Memories

I know that it has only been a month but I miss everyone being around and hanging out with all of you guys. For the last several weeks I have had reminders of some of the things that we did. In our home we have two recycle bins. When they get full, I empty them into bigger barrels in the buildings recycle room. One of the barrels is for paper. Because the students are not here yet, they do not bet emptied often. On the top of the paper barrel is a piece of paper folded in half. Written on it is a list of items that were necessary for the show to go on: Walkie-Talkies, Orange Poncho, and Water Guns. Each item has an exclamation mark after it. On the inside of the folded paper is a short paragraph about how the Sweet-potato is sometimes mistakenly called the yam, and how yams are actually found in specialty stores. Oh the memories. I am reminded of how Adam beat us at Cities and Knights and Jared beat me at Dominoes. Eric, and even Laurel I think, beat me at HORSE or just H. It was fun playing with Brooke and Bryan and how Bryan picked up on the Hot Dog and Brooke gave a fierce high-five. Driving down to Salem with Mindy and Tawnia and having to wait in for 20 minutes or so at construction at midnight was fun too in its own little way. Emily was such a good sport about us being in her sleeping area until way passed her couch time. Anyways, I had a good time, and I remembered all of this because of a little piece of paper in a recycle bin that has been there for a few weeks. I love you all and hope that you are healthy.

Nathan

More travels

Tomorrow morning Dad and I are leaving town once again. We're going to the McCune Reunion in Las Vegas. I answered that smelly question - It's on my page. Just thought you might want to know. I keep checking to see if there are any other updates. It sure would be nice to have more pictures of my grandkids. *hint hint*

Love ya,
MOM

websitey stuff

Hey folks, it's that time again.  Time to update the "Pure Chaos" website.  Since the movie is now finished, I don't see any reason we can't finish the website.  I really don't mind doing it, as long as you don't mind me taking my own sweet time at it.  So here's my request for all of you.  Go into the website.  Look around.  See what I did last year (I haven't touched it since January).  If you have anything you want to contibute - character backstories, pictures from the "making of", personal bios, or anything else - email them to me and I'll include them on the site.  Anything you don't send, I'll just make it up myself.

3 months

Today is Summer's 3 month birthday. She's doing great!! She's a generally happy baby and very smiley. Adam brought her into my office yesterday and she was well-behaved with getting passed around to everyone. We've pretty much figured out that she has 3 different cries - if something is wrong (hungry, stomach ache, or diaper change - you have to go through the list sometimes to pin it down), if she's tired, or if she just wants attention. She's starting to get adjusted to an 8 pm bedtime but I apparently need to work on a nap schedule when I start staying home next month. She's good at church - if I can get her used to the pattern that we did this past Sunday, it would be great!! She was quiet through sacrament meeting, and I played the piano for the opening of Primary. Then I fed her during the first Sharing Time, she was quiet during singing time, I finished feeding her during the second Sharing Time, and gave her to Adam for the end of church so I could play for the end of Primary. It worked for me!

I have 17 work days left, and a trip to Nashville next week for the big summer conference. Emily and Summer are going with me. Adam has 5 work days left, and has orientation for school next week. He starts class on the 21st. We're taking Emily to school on Sat. the 19th, and then won't see her until at least spring break. More big changes coming!!

Moving Frustrations

So Mindy and I were hoping to move this week.... but who knows if that is happening or not. I'm really, really annoyed that it isn't happening yet. Granted we can stay in our current apartment until August 18th, but I have to start working everyday on August 14th and Mindy will have two jobs starting on the 14th... so we really wanted to move THIS week so we could be at least somewhat settled before the 14th. It is really, really, really annoying!! The reason we can't move in now... is something about the bathroom floor having problems... so they ripped it out. Grrrr.... Plus I'm annoyed with some things at work... to the point that I'm ready to just get in my car and drive far, far away from all of this. Trina... do you want a live in nanny?? Eric? Jared?? Okay, fine... I'll just stay here and deal with all of this crud.

On the bright side... I'm still alive today... see my post on the sisters blog for more information on that.

Tawnia

Mount Vernon

Yesterday and today, they were redoing the computers at Adam's work, so he had the day off. That meant I had the day off. On Monday, I saw Ford's Theater and the Library of Congress.

Today, I went to Mount Vernon. It took two hours to get there via the Metro and buses, but I got there. I took a tour of the mansion first thing when the lines were nonexistent. In fact, for a while, I was on my own. They have tour guides in the different rooms of the mansion. It is beautiful. And then I looked around at the other buildings. There were two walking tours -- one about the landscapes and gardens (which were beautiful) and one on the slaves' lives.

After lunch, I went to the wreath laying ceremony at Washington's tomb. They have volunteers lead the pledge of allegiance (in this case a group of girl scouts), then someone places the wreath on a metal stand in the tomb (usually a member of the military), and then someone reads a prayer that George Washington wrote. I did that.

I also saw a farm with a sixteen-sided threshing barn, livestock, and gardens. It was very interesting. Washington was a brilliant farmer and a stickler for detail.

And now I'm thinking that I might apply for a summer internship at Mount Vernon and similar locations.

The Senator's pool

Yesterday, a friend of Trina and Adam's who works for a Senator invited us to go swimming in the Senator's pool (which he has permission to use when she is out of town). But first we had to get Summer swim diapers, along with a bikini top and a hat. Pictures will be posted later. The house was REALLY nice, and the pool was huge and about fifteen feet deep at one end. Summer was only in the water for a few minutes, but she seemed to like it. And we swam around and played some games. It was fun.

promotion

I got a promotion today from Staff Assistant to Professional Staff. To give you an idea of how important Staff Assistants are at the Hill, the Assistant part is usually abbreviated into a three-letter profanity. Although I'm only there for two more weeks, the Chief Counsel/Staff Director to give me the promotion (which I asked to take place as I was leaving) to be effective immidiately. I think that it will include a pay raise for the next few weeks. Also, I found out that I have 17 days of unused leave, which I will probably be paid for. So it's about an extra paycheck and a half or so that we weren't planning on. How was your day?

smells from childhood (in no particular order)

1. The smell of the ocean, first thing in the morning as the sun is just peeking above the horizon.
2. Fresh cut grass on a lazy (early) summer afternoon.
3. Hot asphalt from a really hot August day.
4. That crisp, cold smell right before it snows when everything is about to be buried under a blanket of white.
5. The smell of rain in the last hour or so before a really big thunderstorm hits.
6. That weird amalagation of smells at the farmer's market as you pass by the dry veggies and the fresh fruit and the potatoes.
7. The smell of musty old books.
8. Lots of wood smoke.

Adam

Smells, Weather, and Plane Tickets

Smells that remind me of childhood -- I thought first of the smells of Christmas, the smell of pine needles (when we got real trees), cookies baking, and candles. It's always been my favorite holiday.

The weather here is very, very hot. I've been sitting around the apartment with Summer, trying to keep cool. Good thing we can the air conditioner fixed.

And I bought my plane tickets for Christmas. I'll be flying out of Roanoke on December 16th and flying back on January 9th early in the morning (really early -- the flight leaves at seven).

from Jared

I guess it has been a little while since we've given an update.  Our computer has been down for a month now (and we haven't gotten it running again yet...) so that's my excuse.

I'm still busy at work.  In addition to the regular production, I'm helping coordinate the new ESD protection for the department, and I'm reverse-engineering a test module that someone hand-built a few years ago without writing down the design specs.  So I've got plenty to do.

Since Bryan's 4th birthday is coming up, we're planning a party for him.  If anyone wants to drop by on Saturday the 12th from 2 to 4 pm, be ready for a swashbuckling good time.  Brooke will start first grade the week after that, I believe on the 16th.

Oh, and the smells question.  It would probably be bad form to bring up the strong odor of wet sheets emanating from younger siblings' bedrooms that I would complain about when I was a teenager.  I used to sniff apples at the grocery store to help Mom pick out the good ones.  I also remember the tree smells - the cedars in the yard, and the Christmas tree bonfires and campouts with the Scouts.

That's all the news I can think of right at the moment.  If anyone has any other questions, well, our phones still work!

smells

Like Trina, the first thing I thought of was Christmas smells. All the cookie smells and warmth, the fireplace, a real tree. Because my birthday is Christmas in July, a friend of mine got me a really cute Santa decoration for my birthday last week, so I was thinking about Christmas anyway.

Another odd smell that reminds me of childhood is gasoline. Whenever I'm at a gas station, it reminds me of being on vacation, and waking up in the van (the sound of the door opening usually woke me up), and smelling the gas. The smell wasn't as pungent during the day, or at least not in my memories. It was always night, and I was always waking up.

On Sunday I made some pelmeni. Pelmeni is a Russian stuffed pasta (like ravioli or dumplings). It was my first time making it since actually being in Russia, and although it didn't smell as strong as it did then, the familiar smell was there. It made me think back to the tiny apartment kitchen with wood floors, and the clear green glass plates we would eat off of.

Smell

Laurel and I went walking in the park Saturday (Stevie was there, but he wasn't walking). The dirt trail and the smells of the trees and grass in the damp morning air reminded me of mornings at Scout Camp: lining up for the flag raising or gathering for a merit badge session. It didn't help that we passed an archery range.

I thought I'd share that in response to your question.

car goodbyes

Tawnia, may I offer my condolences. I know how you feel about the demise of Hank. I was very sad when we said goodbye to Zippy in February - my Toyota Echo that I drove back and forth to California more than once, to Utah a couple of times, to Montana and all over there, and my solo cross-country journey to DC. But now I'm not so sad, because it's horrifically hot outside and Zippy did not have air conditioning (or a tape deck or power windows or even power steering either, like Hank). Our new car, Zippy's cousin Speedy (another Toyota, but upgraded to a Corolla), has air conditioning which is pretty much a necessity right now. Speedy also has 4 doors, which Zippy did not, which is necessary to get Summer's carrier in and out of the car.

If you want to read about our latest conversations about traveling, check out the sisters' blog. In the last 24 hours, we've started talking about a couple of different ideas that would be SO AWESOME!!!

I also remember the smell of fresh-cut grass ... but the first thing that came to mind when I read the question was all the smells of Christmas from the tree and baking. I also remember the smell of the cedar trees at the end of the house that we used to climb (and the ones we played under that are no longer there), and we'd get pitch all over our hands and clothes. And I remember the smell of the warm fresh flour when Mom would use the wheat-grinder and bake bread. Mmmmmm!!! And I remember the smell of fruit when we would can peaches and pears at the end of the summer. This is making me nostalgic ...

Smelly

I think the smells I remember most from my childhood are the smell of rain, and the smell of freshly cut grass. I love the smell of the air right after it rains. It reminds me of home and those afternoons when you just sat inside reading, and listening to the rain fall on the roof. The smell of freshly cut grass reminds me of Dad mowing the lawn. I remember watching him when I was little. I would run from one window to the next to watch. He probably doesn't even know that I did that.


My old car, Hank, has finally gone to his final resting place, State Street Auto Wrecking. I took them the title last Wednesday and they finally picked him up sometime yesterday. He was a good car. We had many great adventures together. I drove that car from Oregon to Utah, from Utah to Texas, from Texas to Oregon, from Oregon to Idaho and back, and then from Oregon to Utah. I remember that one time I left the lights on for three or four days (this was during my first week at EFY) and then finally realized it. I got in and he started right up as if nothing had happened. Not long after I got Hank, Trina invited me to come down to Monmouth to spend the night. So I had my first experience driving Hank in the rain at night... all by myself. It was a little scary, but I made it. Hank was great. He didn't have much of a liking for hills... but going down hill he did amazingly. I didn't have air conditioning, power windows, or a tape deck... but he was great. I loved that car. So everyone please have a moment of silence and think of what a great car I once had... even if you never met him.

-T