June is great, too

First let me thank Jared for putting the latest group of pictures on Clarissa's page. He also fixed the last post so it looks better. Thanks, Jared.

I also have made a few changes to my page. Since Trina has been talking a lot about vegetables lately, I decided to list my favorite ones. I also made a few other minor changes here and there. See if you can find them.

In case I didn't mention it to everyone - we have Aunt Marli staying here with us for a week or two. She had a stroke about a week ago and got out of the hospital on Friday. Since she can't get around at all without her cane the doctors didn't want her going home where she would be alone. So, she is staying with us. Emily moved to the other office and we put Marli's adjustable bed in the library where Emily had been.

Tawnia mentioned some of her adventures for July. Here are the ones we have coming up sooner than that. On Saturday, June 14th Dad and I are leaving for California. We'll spend a week with Eric and his wonderful family; then head home on the 23rd. On Wednesday the 25th we'll fly to Baltimore and spend 3 wonderful weeks with Trina and family. Hurray!! We get to meet Rosemary at last and see Summer as a big two-year-old instead of a tiny infant. And we may even drive up to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. We are very excited about our upcoming adventures. The doctors have cleared me to go. The fluid is gone and I am getting stronger each day. I hope you all have some wonderful plans for this summer.

Love ya,
MOM

July

So here it is, the beginning of June, and all I can think about is how much I'm excited for July. Here's why:
1. I am going to Rexburg to visit Sarah for the fourth of July weekend and it just so happens that Eric, Laurel, Stevie and Allie will also be there that weekend.
2. On July 7th (the Monday after the weekend of the fourth) I'll be going to Lagoon with some friends in my ward. Hooray for stake Lagoon day. Yeah, it's definitely not as cool as Disneyland, but it is still fun.
3. On July 10th my best friend, Jiffy, will get back from Belgium.
4. July 14th-17th (I think those are the right days) - Nathan, Amanda, and Joshua will be in Utah Valley!!

See - Look at all those fantastic reasons to be excited for July! But it's June, not July. So I have to wait 30 days until all that fun stuff can begin. I guess I'll have to find some fun stuff to be excited about in June for now.

Mindy's ballet performance

Mom, Dad, Larry, JoAnne, and I went to see Mindy's ballet performance -- in Coppelia. She was a minor character, in a couple of dances, but she did very well. I liked the Chinese doll dance, which was fun. And the baby doll ballet -- very, very cute with all the tiny girls. Parts of the ballet were quite funny.

And I bought Mindy flowers; they were selling them in the lobby -- along with some of Mindy's artwork. I told her she could paint them. (Although she said she still has some feet to paint first.) It was a pretty good evening.

Fast Sunday request

With Adam graduating this Christmas, it's time for him to start applying for jobs. Obviously, that means we've got some major decisions to make, starting with WHERE does he apply for jobs. We've been pondering and praying A LOT already, and we're going to fast about it this weekend as well. (This will be the first time I fast in almost 3 years - the prospect of starting again is actually a little scary.) If you could all remember us in your fast as well - that we'll have clear heads to make this decision, and that we'll be led to where we need to go next - that would be really great. Thank you!

Michelle's post

I made a few phone calls yesterday, but I have so many family members. I, instead, am posting. Yesterday I had an ultrasound. My baby was very active and looking healthy to me. Of course, to get the results I will need to wait and talk to the doctor. I feel confident that the baby is perfectly healthy. The ultrasound tech told me the baby is a girl, not that it makes any difference at all to us. Fun to know any way. She will be loved, of course.

I am about 4 months along in my pregnancy. I am feeling just fine. I am not very big yet. Perhaps, I need a shirt that reads "I am not fat. I pregnant."

Brooke and Bryan are great. Finishing 2nd grade and kindergarten respectfully. I am very proud. Saturday was their last soccer games. They had a lot of fun playing.

I am still the activity girls leader for the 10-11 year olds. I really like my calling. Well, I need to go for now.

Post #2122

Well, here I am, posting again. Yes, I really did add up the number of posts written already on this blog and then went one more to get my post number. Hopefully no one posts before I get a chance to actually post this so it doesn't end up as the wrong number. I don't know if you can go back in and change the title of your post.

So I was noticing that Clarissa's letters have gotten progressively longer and more interesting as her mission continues. You can tell how she is doing on her mission just by how long her letter is and how filled with stuff about the work it is. I like it.

I have been enjoying a few days off. I have been cleaning my room... and that's about it (other than going out and being social.) Currently my room is a disaster again because I emptied all of my science teaching stuff out of my car and brought it into my bedroom. AND I brought the computer desk into my room, so I can actually sit in my room at the computer. I actually really like it. I had my computer in here before, but I would have to carry it back to the living room to print anything or download pictures. This is much better. Plus the desk I have in my room now has a purpose other than being the place to stack papers that I need to sort through. (Instead all those papers are now on the floor!) I've also been putting pictures up on my wall. I have all the pictures that Mindy made for me of the nieces and nephews actually hanging on the wall now. It is really nice. It makes me feel like a "grown-up." Yeah, I am going through my mid-life crisis and feeling like I need to be an "adult." Weird. I'll probably be over it in a few days and go back to being a kid, don't you worry.

Anyway, my life is going well. I have a job for the summer and then head back to the school in the fall, where I will be full time! Hooray! Which means I will have health insurance. Such a fabulous thing to have. I hope to be over the coughing and runny nose thing before September, but if not I'll be going to the doctor for it as soon as I get insurance.

That's about all that I've been up to. I went and saw Prince Caspian twice already. I highly recommend it to everyone. I liked it a lot.
Oh, and to Nate, Manda, and Mushy: Do you know what days you are coming to visit me yet?

A Letter from Clarissa (typed by Emily since it was mailed home)

Dear family, friends, and people,

This week has been insanely busy. I love it! It all started on Tuesday. Sister Enos and I went out to an Indian (meaning India) restaurant for lunch. I had goat palak, which is goat in a curry and spinach sauce served over rice. I really liked it. It made the car stink like goat for the rest of the day. (P.S. Emily, I called the goat Fred.)

Later that evening we got a phone call that the Kissimmee sisters, Sister Toth and Sister Olsen, were being stalked and had their apartment broken into and were going to be moving in with us. They had all their stuff to our apartment and were moved in by 9:30 that night.

Wednesday was President's interviews. Then Sister Enos and I went tracting with the district leaders. We found a man named Murphey. At first he seemed interested, but he really likes philosophy (and questions like "Where did God come from?") and can't believe the Book of Mormon is true because "horses and metal weren't in the Americas at the time." We taught him on Thursday, and he dropped us on Sunday morning.

Friday, we had breakfast at Sister Langston's. She was baptized two years ago, only member in her family and she loves missionaries. She usually goes on exchanges with us on Tuesdays, but she couldn't this last week and so she had us over for breakfast. Later that night, with permission, we went to Kissimmee for a dinner appointment with the other sisters at the Sikorsky's home. They're a less-active family Sister Enos was very close to while she was serving in Kissimmee. We had fun over there.

Saturday, we tracted for 3 hours and talked to 54 people . . . of which only 2 or 3 had any interest in the church. We taught Mae (that lady that we took the cake to last week) that night. She is ready to be baptized, but we're still waiting on those papers.

Sunday, we had a member (Giselle) who brought her boyfriend (Chadd) to church. He's come before but not since I've been here, until yesterday. Well, we will be teaching him starting on Wednesday. So we actually had a new investigator at church.

Then after church we met a woman named Maggie Mackey, who is visiting from Washington. She'll be here for about three weeks. She is a member but her niece, who happens to live in our area, is not and Maggie wants us to meet her. So, we're going to Singles FHE tomorrow to meet her. We didn't find out her name.

We didn't meet with Anna and Victor (the couple from Russia) this week, but she called us last night and we're meeting with them later tonight. And to top it all off, I have a cold. But don't worry, cause I'll be fine.

It rained really bad this morning. I think the rainy season may have started. It's still really hot.

I have a small request -- if anyone finds a CD called "Joseph: A Nashville Tribute" or something like that, could you buy it for me? I like that CD. Sister Crittenden and Sister Enos both have it, but I know that eventually I'll have to get my own copy if I want to listen to it. Also, I need sunglasses. The sun has been giving me headaches. Where can I find the clip-on kind that will fit my glasses?

That's all for now. Oh, this next week is already packed with appointments. Yay! We finally have people to teach. Keep up the missionary work at home. Remember I love all of your and pray for you.

Love,
Clarissa

question for Mom

I'm doing advance menu planning which is leading into when you and Dad will be out here. Obviously you have more restricted food guidelines than we do, so what is the ideal grocery list for when you come? We'll go from there on figuring out what to do with it. And please be specific - "vegetables" or "no dessert" doesn't cut it. I already know that. I also want to know what you LIKE to eat, since if I remember correctly, you're not a big fan of bell peppers and we eat them in darn near everything including plain as a snack.

I know this is really weird that I'm doing menu planning, but right now, the hardest thing about cooking is figuring out what to make in the first place. This is to eliminate the thinking part of meals.

I am alive

Hello my family -

Yes, I am alive... that's just in case you were wondering. I don't have any excuse for not posting really. I haven't even been that busy. Since my classes ended I've been working two jobs, but I'm still home by four most days... and then I have only been attending FHE and not the other stuff that I used to go to before my semester got crazy... so really, I have no excuses.

I enjoyed talking with everyone (except Jared was missing!) on the phone on Mother's day. It made me miss all of you and look forward to the next family reunion. I expect all of you to be there... including Jared!

School will be out officially on Thursday, but I'll be done tomorrow at 11 a.m. I'll clean out my room and then come home and try to get my house organized over my long weekend. I start my new job in full force next Tuesday. Meaning that I'll basically be working as many hours as I want too each day. Hopefully I'll be doing more than just stapling all day... which is what I've done when I've gone in there so far.

I have been enjoying all the videos, so thank you to everyone who has put any up (Eric, Jared, Emily, and Nathan... I think that's everyone.) I would love to see more videos from our childhood... HINT HINT Daddy! I do read the blog at least once a day... google reader has become one of my most frequently checked sites now. Thank you Trina for introducing me to that little time saver. I love it.

Anyway, I love you all and hope that this post finds you all healthy and happy.
Jared - do you know the gender and due date for this newest little Palmer yet?
Nate - Unfortunately I do believe I will not make it on Friday, hope that you can get over the disappointment.

Love to you all!

New Youtube video

That's right, Emily now has a youtube account. And a video taken while I was visiting Trina. The star of this little show is Summer. I hope you enjoy it. And I hope the link works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmwXudLiuU4

Eric Update

Hi all. I've feelin' the guilt, especially with Trina's gentle reminder to post. I've been busy, but then again, I have the time to READ the blogs so...

Anyway, Monterey is treating us well. Be sure to check out the pics if you haven't already, and on our YouTube page there's a tour of the house. I should remake it though, since Laurel's made quite a few changes to the decor since then. She's painted the bathroom, moved furniture... she likes to do that stuff. No, it's not done. It's never done.

Work is busy and a little bit stressful, but I'm doing well I think. I have a lot of work ahead of me this summer. It should be fun. We're hoping to at least get a few weekends away over the next few months. Down to LA and over to Idaho. Oregon... probably not until Christmas, but I'd like to go up sooner.

The weather was hot yesterday (for here). Up to 85. It's supposed to be 80 today. I think it's a little warmer over here than downtown though, so maybe even warmer. But it's not bad. The average daily temp stays between 60 and 70 all year. Crazy huh? and the nighttime temps between 40 and 50. It's nuts. And nice. Almost nobody has air conditioning.

Well, I love you all. I feel like I'm just rambling, but I felt the need to post and let you know what's up.

casting call

I did a casting call earlier today for a cooking show on the Discovery Channel, and I will find out in about 2 weeks if I made the cut and will actually BE on the cooking show. Details about the casting call are on my other blog HERE.

Emily, your page looks good. You don't have the pictures that I took at your graduation. Did you not get them off my computer from the shared drive? I guess that means I have to email them to you now. I'll go do that.

How is everyone else? People haven't posted here - or anywhere else that I've seen - in weeks. Helloooooo?

Update

Yeah, it's been a couple of years. And I found it rather difficult. But I think it's working now.

Home again

Hello, family. Yesterday, I flew back to Oregon. The first leg went from BWI to Denver. I headed into the airport, wrestling with my carry-ons. One suitcase was slightly overweight, so I carried my winter coat with me. I got to the gate just as the plane did. It was a rather long flight, and I read "The Giver" along the way. But the turbulance kept things entertaining. (Yes, I'm weird; I like the bumps.)

I had a long wait in Denver. I got a bite to eat there, and then I sat by the gate, typing away on my laptop. Then we flew from Denver to Salt Lake City, and I just waited on the plane for it to continue on to Portland. We had a bit of a wait, since there were some mechanical problems. I had a good seat, though. I picked it because it would give me a good view of Mount Hood when we flew into Portland.

Dad picked me up, and we visited Mom in the hospital before heading home. It's good to be back.

From D. C.

Morning, everyone. I woke up early today -- due to a fussy little Rosemary. Today, we plan to go to the zoo, mostly so I can see Summer's reaction to the zoo. I've seen a lot around D. C. already. Yesterday, I took Summer to the park. I also took a video of her dancing while watching the penguins on "Mary Poppins." I will try to get it up so others can see it in the near future. Summer, at least, will enjoy watching it.

9659.93

That would be the amount of money we received today from cashing out my retirement funds from the Oregon legislature and NCSL, and that's AFTER they took out about $3200 in taxes. So we'll make it through the summer. I got letters a few days after sending in the forms saying that they had been received and it would take 90-120 days to process. That would put us getting the money sometime in July or August, so we were hoping the summer term financial aid wouldn't be too mucked up by the school (which does not have a good track record) and we'd get that by the end of this month because yet again, we were at the end of the financial rope.

But no. We got the retirement cash-out in May. At the beginning of May. In TEN DAYS. We're both literally a little weak in the knees from how fast this turned around. We are definitely saying thank-you prayers right now, and this Sunday, I will be writing a big fat tithing/fast offering check.

New Pictures!

Hi guys! See new pictures of us and the ocean and other things.

www.insanityinc.net/eric/monterey

Or just go to our section of the website and look for the link.

Joshua's Calendar

Joshy's calendar is no longer on the internet. I removed it from the ftp and replaced it with something more manageable. It looks like Eric’s set up for his kids, but that is because it looks good and it is easy to add pictures. We hope you all enjoyed the calendar because we enjoyed sharing our Joshua with you.

Graduation

Hooray! I am now done with college. Let me start at the beginning of my day. I got up early and got ready to go. My roommate Rebecca nearly lost her honor cords, but she found them before we had to go. We all gathered in Chandler, which serves as the auditorium. We all lined up in pairs and eventually we headed out. It was a pretty nice day, not too hot, a bit of a breeze -- the wind really picked up afterwards and I lost my hat during the recessional. I was sitting next to the valedictorian; he was wearing a pair of bright blue and yellow Nikes. I thought it was highly amusing.

It was an alright ceremony. At the beginning, we were asked to stand and acknowledge the people who had supported us. I resisted the temptation to stand on my chair. The speeches were what you would expect during a graduation ceremony at a Mormon school. And the chairman of the board and his wife spoke.

It was very thrilling to stand and have the degree conferred, and then I got my diploma, and I was very happy to walk up and receive my diploma. My roommate took lots of pictures, but I'm not sure of what yet. Then I went to the reception for an hour or so to say good-bye to my friends and teachers.

I find it ironic that on the same day I receive my college degree I should be found bouncing a balloon off my head saying, "Boink! Boink!"

And right now I'm showing Summer videos of her cousins to keep her entertained while I type this. Do you know how hard it is to type with a toddler hanging on your arm?

Don't be shocked

It really is me. I know I haven't written for a VERY long time but I had to write today and congratulate Emily on her graduation. What a wonderful accomplishment. Yet another college graduate in the family. And congratulations to Joshua on those first steps - keep practicing.

I have now announced to all of you (except Clarissa and I'll email her tomorrow) that I am retired. I feel a load lifted off of me. I still have to fill out the paperwork in order to receive my money but they are mailing that out. I went by work the other day and collected a few of my own things. They said if they found anything else they would let me know.

I'm not thrilled about going back into the hospital for my monthly visit but I'm hoping that they'll be able to find the cause of my problems so they can cure it, or at least treat it. Remember me in your prayers on Monday and Tuesday when they're doing the biopsies.

I'm going to go make dinner now because Nate and Amanda are coming soon. (Maybe Joshy will walk for me.) I love you all and I'll try to do better about posting on here.

Love ya,
MOM

Title

So my finals are done and I'm taking a break for the summer. It is really nice actually. I didn't realize how stressed out I was until the stress was gone. I was practically giddy with joy yesterday.

For the next few weeks I will be continuing to work at the school (school is out on May 22nd), tutoring my friend's son, and I'll also start training for my summer job. I'm working for an internet based company that sells wheat grass kits and other health food stuff. It is based here in Springville and partly owned by a girl in my ward. It should be a good summer job. Then next fall I'll be back to full time at Meridian, hopefully. They are having some financial issues and have to have $293 thousand donated by May 8th. If not, the school will close its doors. That would be very sad. But we have over 200 thousand at this point, so I think we might actually make it. Anyway, if I am full time it will include teaching science to the Kindergarten through 6th grades (I was just K-4 this year) and also doing library for K-6 once a week, and helping TA in several classes. It should be interesting... and I'll also be in school full time again in the fall (but just for one semester.) So I will be under all sorts of stress again in the fall. I want to enjoy the summer since it will be less stress time.

And that's basically what I'm up too.
The End

Senior banquet

Today I was running errands and packing. I'm mostly done with packing, except for a few things I need tomorrow. I got my last paycheck, as well as a card from my coworkers. My roommates' family came to town.

In the evening, there was the senior banquet -- pretty good food. I got my cords for the history honor society. There are three honor societies at our school. My roommate Rebecca is in the English honor society. My cords are blue and red; hers are black and red.

The day has come...

Last night I was holding Joshua up and told him to stand. So he did for a good three seconds. I don't remember if he did it the first time I had him stand up or the second time, but he took a couple of steps. My little boy is growing up.

Never Tell a Lie!

Brooke's talent show performance from Friday night is now available on my youtube page.

25 on the 25th

Amanda - It's your GOLDEN birthday! I hope you get out and do something EXTRA special today! Sure do love ya!
Happy Birthday!
Love,
Tawnia

happy birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMANDA!!

We're glad you're part of our family!

Love - Trina, Adam, Summer, and Rosemary

I have succumbed

Okay, I finally succumbed. I started a personal just-me blog. The URL is

casadelcaudle.blogspot.com

I started it mainly for a writing project I want to do about being a mom. I've tossed around an idea of writing a book with my friend Jackie, and I have a very vague idea of how I want to focus it. The words aren't quite there for it but the general idea is - I'm baffled by women who say that they don't want to stay home with their children because that would prevent them from being "self-fulfilled." I thought having children at all WAS part of being self-fulfilled ... but what do I know. I'm naive and brainwashed by the evil patriarchal Mormon society. Right? Har har. Anyway - that. I'd like to somehow address that. I don't know how, so the blog is for free writes and other random thoughts on being a parent.

The other reason I started it was because of a speech given by Elder M. Russell Ballard (text HERE) at the BYU-Hawaii graduation in December. He said essentially the same thing at a business leaders dinner here in DC that some of my friends attended, and they told me about it. Basically, the point is that there are a lot of conversations going on in the media and on the internet about the Church and Salt Lake can't answer every question itself. The members of the Church need to be engaged in the "new media" - including blogs - to share our testimonies, how the gospel brings us joy, clarify doctrine when the situation arises, etc. I saw the speech in an LDS News email a number of weeks ago, and my friends just told me this past weekend about the dinner. That was finally the nudge that pushed me into starting the blog.

Since I want to write about being a mom anyway and maybe publish it ... why not see how it goes in a blog at first. I'm also going to put little "here's what we did today" blurbs here and there so it's not so heavy-handed. I want to encourage people to enjoy parenting partially by showing them that yes, it can be fun - showing by example and not beating them over the head with it.

And for you ... there are pictures on the blog of the girls. Since I still haven't gotten around to learning how to put pictures on the regular webpage, I'll stick them there since I don't really have to do anything. I have plans for the regular webpage still but that's apparently going to take even longer now. *sigh* I have a rather extensive list of things I'm in the middle of working on. I need to just settle down and take it one project at a time to actually FINISH something for a change.

Freedom

Done, done, done! Classes are over. I only have a couple of finals -- and one of them is a real test, and the other one is an oral final -- we're going to talk about what we're doing tonight.

Do you know how utterly wonderful it feels after so many months of constantly having stress to finally be able to completely relax for a couple of weeks?

I've got things to do -- work, packing, there's a concert tonight. But no homework, no reading assignments, no papers hanging over my head. WHEE! I'm so happy. I did it!

April 26, 1992 Sunday

Went to church, went to choir. Helped plan Insanity Inc. Thought up the name. Went to Book of Mormon Fireside. Went home, went to bed. Oh yeah. Dinner and FHE were in there too. Im writing the Youth Conf. Skit now. night.

outings outings everywhere

Summer, Rosemary, and I have been having lots of fun the past couple of weeks! After we went to the zoo for playgroup 2 weeks ago, the next day we went to Norwood park with our neighbors, about a mile away so it was a good walk for me. Summer had fun playing with her friends Elise and Damon and Ches, and Rosemary mostly slept in the stroller that day.

The day after that, I had to pick up some paperwork from my former office downtown (I'm cashing out my retirement fund - no point in having that perfectly good money just sit there doing nothing, since I can't contribute to it to actually have it be a retirement fund) ... so we went to the office and visited my old boss Susan and my friend Nadia. A lot of people didn't even know I'd had Rosemary, so that made for a bit of entertainment. When we left the office, we metro-ed over to the White House. Adam works right around the corner, so we had lunch with him at the park in front of the White House. I'd like to do that more often - it was nice to see him in the middle of the day.

On Saturday April 12, our friends Walter and Kara came down from Baltimore, and we all went downtown for the parade of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Summer stayed right with Adam and didn't try to run off at all, which is rare for her. I think she was a bit overwhelmed by it and gradually started clapping for the marching bands and other performers. Her favorite thing was one of the last things we saw - a float with Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster, Rosita, and Abby Kadabby. The whole time it was coming up the street toward us, she was shouting "Elmo! Cookie Monster!" It was really cute. I thought that Rosemary would be bothered by the noise level, but she didn't react to it. She just looked around like she was taking it all in.

This past week, we didn't do any major outings except trips to a couple of different parks. We also had a friend over one day - William is in nursery with Summer, and has an older brother in preschool. When their mom was helping at the preschool one morning, William came here to play. He and Summer play well together and there aren't really any fights - I like having him over here because he and Summer keep each other occupied and I can actually get some cleaning done!

On Saturday April 19, we went to Walter and Kara's for Erik's 1st birthday. We went to the Baltimore Science Center, which is Maryland's version of OMSI. They have a great kids' room, that even includes a small toddler section for kids under 2. Summer and Rosemary both had a great time. Summer played in the water fountains with the boats (she kept trying to drink out of them) - thankfully, they had ponchos for the kids to wear so they didn't get completely soaked. I found some hand puppets and played with them with Rosemary - she thought they were the most hilarious thing ever, and laughed and laughed with this cute little shriek. I need to get some hand puppets.

We don't have anything planned for this coming Saturday - Adam will be studying for the next 3 weeks because he's now in finals, plus all the ward mission stuff ... So the girls and I will be spending a lot of time at various parks. Today, we drove just into Virginia to a park that my friend Sarah knew about - it was huge! With tons of climbing equipment and slides! Summer and Ethan ran and ran and ran, and Rosemary and Isaac (Ethan's brother who is 4 months old) hung out on a blanket that I put in the shade for them. It wasn't a park that the parents can sit down and hang out at, because it's too big to sit in one spot and see the whole thing to supervise your child. But it was great fun for Summer, so we'll go back even though it's a little more of a drive.

baptism by fire

A week ago I was called to be the ward mission leader. That night, there was a Ward Mission Leader training with the Stake & Mission President. As part of the meeting, we were supposed to discuss our ward mission plan. Having been the Ass't Ward Mission Leader for the past two years, one would think that I was familiar with the ward mission plan. Being as it was distributed once for review a year and a bit ago and never passed around again, I really didn't know what it was about. But I tried anyway. Also at the meeting, the Mission President told us that for the first time in 15 years (since Trina was a missionary), the church will probably be below 50,000 missionaries next year. And the East Coast missions are near the top of the list to lose missionaries b/c we don't baptize that many people. I was concerned about this news, but figured that we had several months at the very least to prepare.

Then a week later (yesterday), one of our missionaries developed a sudden medical condition and is on way home for treatment. Because the number of missionaries is declining already, our mission was short-handed anyway. Since there wasn't a missionary available to put into our ward, they pulled the one that was left. At the very least, we don't have missionaries assigned to our ward for up to five weeks. So we're going to use this opportunity to rebuild our ward mission. But any way you put it, it's quite the baptism by fire.

Friday August 9, 1985

Today I worked on learning The Morse Code. Then I rode my bike. Then Jonathan, Jared, Jason, Tawnia, and I set up a camp then we played army. I watched KNIGHT RIDER. It was neat. Kitt had to be rebuilt. Then on Benson they showed a rerun. Mom & Dad bought me some underwear. GOOD NIGHT!

Family History

So I know that Mom has been scanning all the old slides and Dad has been putting the old family videos on to his computer. I'm just wondering when Dad is going to start putting some of those on youtube. Also, I was wondering if Mom would be willing to burn at least some of the slides onto a CD or DVD so that our family history can be kept. Honestly, the more people that have those pictures and videos the better it will be. That and I'd like to see all of them and don't know when I'll be home to go through all of the pictures. And I'd like to have some of the family videos on a DVD also.
Just a thought from Tawnia

live from Lappy5000

Well, today I finally did it. I went to Staples and bought myself a computer. This handy dandy little Compaq does everything I need it to. Thus far, anyway. I've only managed to get the internet up and running (by borrowing the internet cord from Mom and Dad's computer since we don't have wireless). I still have a lot of exploring to do, but I'm happy with it. Hooray for growing up and buying expensive things!

Contact info requested

To all my family -- I need mailing addresses so I can sound out invitations/announcements for my upcoming graduation (Saturday, May 3rd at 10 a.m.). Of course, I don't expect any of you except Trina to show up. I'll be flying back to Oregon on May 7th.

In the meantime, I've still got a bunch of reading and assignments to complete, so it will be fairly busy for me over the next couple of weeks.

the beauty of google reader

I don't know if any of you have found out about this fun little feature ... but I sure like it! It's very handy because I no longer have to check blogs. Google reader does it for me and tells me which blogs have new posts. Do a search for "google reader" to get the home page for it (the URL is really long so I won't post it here), and then where it says "add subscription," you put in all the ____.blogspot.com addresses that you check. It will tell you which blogs have new posts on them.

This is especially nice since our family alone now has about 10 blogs to check - this family blog, the sisters blog, Nathan and Amanda have 3, Jared has 3, and Tawnia. I didn't add Clarissa's URL to my list - what IS Clarissa's URL anyway? - but everyone else's is there plus a bunch of friends. I have about 30 blogs listed on my reader - the family ones and a bunch of friends. It saves me a TON of time because I don't have to sit here forever and click on every single link to see if there are any new posts. I just go to my google reader and it tells me which blogs have new posts that I haven't read yet.

Just thought I'd pass that on if you hadn't seen it yet.

new calling

Adam was sustained yesterday to be the ward mission leader in our ward. He's got his work cut out for him because we haven't had a convert baptism in about 2 years. He had a stake meeting last night with the other WMLs in the stake, the stake president, and the mission president. The mission president said that the number of missionaries Church-wide is about to take a nosedive so we're going to lose a large number from our mission. There won't be enough companionships for every ward to be its own mission area, so the work will have to justify it. So if a ward wants their own missionaries, they'd better get the work moving.

Every member of the bishopric told Adam directly that they were so excited that he's in this calling now, and the Lord was VERY clear about this assignment. When the bishop extended the call, he actually came to our house and talked with Adam and then with us both. So he's apparently treating this as a Very Big Deal. Adam has a meeting with the bishop tomorrow to go over the ward mission plan and map out the ward goals for the year - we'll see how this goes.

Birds

So yesterday I had gotten home from a friend's house and knew that my roommate was not home and I heard a noise coming from my bathroom. I went into the bathroom a bit freaked out, thinking that possibly someone was hiding in my shower. Fortunately that was not the case. It sounded like the noise was in the apartment, but it was coming from near the wall behind the dryer. I then stepped outside the apartment to look and see if there was someone messing around outside and watched a bird fly out of the dryer vent. I ran the dryer for awhile in the hopes that that would scare them all away.... and then didn't hear much else until...

This morning I woke up to the same noise along with the sound of birds in my bathroom. I cautiously went in and tried to make enough noise to scare them out. I banged on the dryer, and then ran the dryer, and instead the bird made lots of happy chirping sounds. Yes, I am afraid a bird has taken up residency in my dryer vent tube.

So I told Emily about this and she is freaked out. She is terrified about having birds fly around her head while she is in the shower. She is in there now.... I didn't realize she had this fear. I think we just need to call the landlords who are aptly named "The Birds" and tell them to remove these fine-feathered friends.... before we cook them (by running the dryer a lot that is). I am not against birds, I am just against them being in my dryer vent.

Yeah, I'll have to tell you how it all turns out, once we have this taken care of.

playgroup outings

Summer and Rosemary have been very busy with playgroup outings - we've had 3 in a row.

2 weeks ago, we went to the Natural History museum and saw the mammals and the dinosaurs. We were going to go up to the insects, but the kids were getting bored trapped in the strollers. We weren't letting them run around because it was too crowded due to spring break tourists. So we went out on the Mall and had a picnic lunch, and let them run around outside for awhile before we headed home.

Last week, we went to Hains Point to see the cherry blossoms. The point is where the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers join, so it's really windy there. It was cold, but we let the kids play on the playground for awhile anyway. There was a free shuttle bus from Hains Point, where all the parking is, over to the Jefferson Memorial, where they are not allowing parking during the Cherry Blossom Festival. The Jefferson Memorial is where the main cherry trees are and the big thing to do is to walk all the way around the Tidal Basin in the trees. It's fine to do once, or during the week. If you go on a weekend during the peak blossom time, it's so crowded that you literally have to push your way through the people. There are plenty of blossoming trees to see elsewhere, like, oh, Hains Point! Anyway, we rode the shuttle bus in a circle and didn't get off it until we got back to where we started. It was nice and warm in the bus, out of the wind, and we could see the blossoms just fine.

Today we went to the zoo. It was overcast and rather chilly but the animals were out and moving. The kids thought that was great. Summer is getting a lot more excited about the zoo now that she's a little older. She loved watching the "panna bear!" (pandas) and the tiger, which she kept calling a lion ("ly-lin") and saying "Raarrr!" It was really cute. We also saw lots of monkeys. There's a toddler play area that we discovered by the children's petting zoo - no one knew it was there, but we do now! It was great - it was blocked off enough that the kids were pretty well contained, so we let them run and run and run for over an hour just right there. While we were at the toddler area, the clouds finally cleared out and it warmed up quite nicely. We had lunch there, and then everyone headed home. We were gone for quite awhile - we left this morning around 9:30 and didn't get home until 3. Summer slept pretty much the entire way home in the stroller and Rosemary slept a lot of it as well. I'm beat because I just walked close to 4 miles - to the Metro and back at both ends, and the zoo itself is about a mile from one end to the other. Of course the petting zoo, where we headed, is at the opposite end of the zoo from the entrance so I walked the WHOLE THING. Summer gets to watch a couple of movies this afternoon while I recover enough to make dinner. I didn't get any pictures because the battery on the camera died right when we got there, of course. But the zoo is close and free, so we'll be back again in the next few weeks before the weather really gets hot.

Next week for playgroup, we're just going to the park. Three outings in a row is plenty.

Quick note from Emily

Just thought I'd write a quick note in between preparing for a presentation tomorrow (on Japanese printing) and heading off to German class. Things are going all right. I did enjoy conference. I really liked Elder Wirthlin's talk. Classwork is keeping me pretty busy. I still have a couple of books to read before the end of the semester. It's so strange to think that I'll be done with classes in just a couple more weeks. (April 24th is the last day of classes, and then finals are the next week.)

Last week, my German class went on a field trip to a restaurant that served real German food. It was really good -- I got schweinbraten (roast pork) with noodles and apfelkuchen (a really sweet apple crumb cake). I tasted the red cabbage, which my teacher loved.

People keep asking me what I intend to do after graduating. I have some long-term plans -- go to grad school and get a masters in library science, and become a novelist, but my short-term plans -- I don't know what I'll be doing in June.

YouTube links

So they're easier to get to.

www.youtube.com/boypalmer

www.youtube.com/skipdipdawg

I need to add these to my page somewhere.

A few things

First of all: congratulations to Eric on the new job and the successful move. I hope your new adventure is full of excitement and new Skate Skate Skate videos.

The other day Joshua added a new video on his youtube channel. I forgot to tell all of you because we’ve been sick. We’re all better now though. So now I’m telling you. It is a slide show of his first year. The pictures are about a week apart.

Also – this was after you posted that comment on her blog Eric – Amanda posted some pictures and videos on her blog. The videos show some of the things that Joshy is up to now.

Kids are great and Amanda and I love seeing what the nieces and nephews are up to. The pictures of Brooke and Bryan; the stories of Summer and Rosemary; the videos of Stevie and Allison; we love all of them. Joshy only really cares about his own videos and pictures and stories. He’s pretty narcissistic. But who can really blame him?

On another topic, the three of us went on a walk yesterday after conference and between downpours and decided to go in some unfinished houses. The frame was up and the electricity and water pipes were showing. We went in trying to guess what was where. We went into two houses. By far the second one was better. There was a main floor, an upstairs, a downstairs, and another basement. It was really close to the neighbors, which I wouldn’t like, but there were so many rooms and they were all pretty big. We hadn’t walked through houses like this in years, and it was fun to get out and do it again.

I think that’s it for now. See you all later.

We're here!

We're here. The weekend is ending. The move is done. For the most part.

Of course, now we're moving in, but yesterday was the day we loaded up the moving truck, drove up here, and unloaded the truck. It was a very long day. But we're here to stay now.

We managed to listen to this morning's session and to some of this afternoon's. We both enjoyed Elder Ballard's talk about young mothers. I think we're going to go over that one again in an FHE soon.

Now we need to look at something funny on the Internet before we go to bed.

copycat

Summer is becoming quite the copycat. Yesterday, we were at a church building to watch the Saturday morning session of General Conference. During the closing prayer, she was walking around in the foyer with her arms folded. A guy was also in the hall and stretched his arms straight above his head. She did it too.

She copies us by "helping" her doll do things the way that we help Rosemary - we move Rosemary's arms for action songs like The Wheels on the Bus, and Summer does the same with the doll. Summer also helps her doll fold her arms for prayer. When I'm nursing Rosemary, Summer occasionally will lift her shirt and put the doll against her chest. It's pretty amusing.

Summer has started carefully watching a couple of the dance production numbers on Mary Poppins, and copies them as closely as she can (which isn't very close at all, but still). She especially tries to do the number where Bert is dancing with the penguins in the Jolly Holiday sequence. I can't describe it any further than that and I don't know that a video would do it justice because you have to see what the movie is doing to understand her movements. But it's hilarious to watch. The first time I saw her do it, I was watching her from behind and I had to work very hard to not laugh out loud. I was worried that if I did, she would stop. Now she looks to make sure I'm watching when she does it.

Live from Monterey

Hey guys. We're here in Monterey now. Laurel is doing a little painting at the new apartment right now (at least that's the plan) and we'll be heading back to Santa Ana to get all our stuff tomorrow morning. She brought the kids along. Also, her parents and little sister (Soy) came down from Idaho yesterday. I hope they're enjoying the town today. It's a beautiful day. (It rained yesterday...)

I'm enjoying my new job. It's taking a little while to get everything settled in... all the new job stuff, but I'm excited and already have learned some great new things. I think I'll be bringing along my laptop tomorrow and working on a few things on the road (we'll see where I get wireless...)

I'm sorry for not wishing Joshy a happy birthday last week. It's a real shame we didn't call either, since there's nothing Stevie loves more than singing Happy Birthday to people on the phone. Maybe we'll do that a little late.

Anyhow, I'll post some pictures as soon as the camera is unpacked and I take some pictures and the computer is unpacked and the Internet connection is hooked up. Okay, so it might be a little while.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUSHY!!

Hello! Nobody wished Joshua Happy Birthday on the blog yesterday! I bet he cried! (Okay, so he probably did cry at some point yesterday but probably not because he didn't get happy birthdayed on the blog.) Mindy and I actually called and sang to him via Amanda's answering machine. I hope he got to hear that. It was actually a group of people that we had over for dinner... I'm not sure who was here at the time... but I believe it was Annie (Parker) and Bryce Cox, Jenna (Saunders) and Josh Meeks, Julie Saunders, and Stephanie (McGougan) and Ellie Brown.

Anyway, In other news, Mindy got here safely on Saturday night.... and then we woke up Sunday morning to snow on the ground. We haven't had snow on the ground in a month... and I'm not very happy with it's return, because I was SO happy to see it gone.... but Mindy is enjoying seeing it. She didn't have to live through two months where it just kept accumulating and accumulating. And it is still here today, but it is supposed to warm up a bit tomorrow so hopefully it will all melt and be gone soon!

Hope everyone else is doing well.
Tawnia

On the verge...

Hi all,

So last night we had a good-bye party at our friends Tony and Christine's house, and today we're speaking in church. Right after sacrament meeting I'll be driving to Monterey. I'll have a lot of time to sit and drive and think...

We're on the verge of a whole new adventure.

I'll probably be offline for a week or two, so give me a call on my cell if you want to get ahold of me.

I love you all and I'll be reporting on all our exciting new adventures soon.

Love, Eric

Happy Birthday, Tawnia

First of all, happy thirtieth, Tawnia.

Second, I love the pictures of the snake.

Third, I just finished my senior exam; my right hand is aching, but that's finally done. And my teacher was nice and gave me an extension on my paper, since he knew I'd be busy. But I'm still a bit behind in German, but I should catch up tomorrow. Provided, of course, I don't decide to take a nice break after that exam today.

Fourth, I'm not working as much -- I worked only one day this week. And I cashed my last paycheck, since it wasn't really big, just under sixty dollars. I still have enough money saved up that I'm not about to starve to death.

Fifth, that reminds me that I need to go shopping sometimes soon.

Pictures from Clarissa

... are now up on her page.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Tawnia!

happy happy!

Happy birthday, Tawnia!

Welcome to the BIG THREE milestone! I hope that age 30 is as awesome for you as it was for me. I did a lot of cool things in my 20s but honestly, the year I was 30 was the best year for me. I knew what I wanted out of life and I was at peace with myself more than I'd ever been before. I hope for that for you.

I would call you, except today I can't talk at all. My voice is completely gone. So I'll call you later in the week when you'd actually be able to hear me.

Love, Trina

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, everyone! We hope you're having a good day. We had a really nice Easter program in sacrament meeting similar to Christmas with narrators reading from the scriptures and a lot of singing. I was very impressed. One of these days I'll be able to be in the choir again, but for now, Rosemary still has me leaving the chapel for at least part of sacrament meeting. We're now at home making deviled eggs (yummm) and then we're going to Beth's for dinner with the missionaries.

The quote of the day was from a 4-year-old in Primary. The Primary president was talking about various spring things (blossoming plants, baby chicks, etc) and how they remind us of Christ's Resurrection. One of the items was a plastic butterfly, and she talked about how the cocoon of a caterpillar is like the tomb, and Jesus came out of the tomb ... the 4-year-old cut her off with a shocked tone. "And Jesus was a butterfly?"

Idiot

You know, we all have moments when in that "Napoleon Dynamite" voice we want to say to ourselves, "IDIOT!" Yeah, I just had one of those moments. I got a package all ready and mailed it off to Clarissa today. It had some Easter candy, some bookmarks, a puzzle letter and a CD. It was a great package. So then today I came home from dying Easter eggs at my friend Sarah's and sat down at the computer and my computer was reading a CD. I thought, "hmmm... I wonder what CD is in there." So I opened the disc drive and lo and behold it was the CD that was supposed to be in the package on its way to Florida. When I realized I yelled, "Noooooooooooo!"

So then I decided to post about it. My friend Tiffany called while I was in the middle of writing the post and I told her about it. We had a good laugh. And then I came up with a marvelous idea. It's almost April Fool's Day... and that is probably about the time Clarissa will get the package. It's perfect! I'll send another package explaining everything to Cris and, of course, including the CD in a different case.

BYU-Idaho

I FINALLY got an answer from BYU-Idaho in regards of when I'm to arrive. I heard 2 weeks ago that I was accepted, at which time they said they would have the track assignment done by the 16th. I called on the 18th and they didn't have it done. I called them again this afternoon, and they told me I'm on the Summer-Fall track, and I start this fall. Which is exactly what I was hoping for! Woohoo! At this point, I'm not sure if I'll just stay in Idaho year round, or come home for the winter, but I've got plenty of time to decide. In other news, I head out to Utah a week from Saturday, and I'm very excited.

Useless Information

I sent the last couple of hours coming up with the information for Tawnia. I heard of the US Camel Corps on the History channel this morning. Here is some more "useless information" for you....

The son of one of the 8 camel driver needed to handle the camel. Plutarco Elias Calles became the President of Mexico in the 1920's. (I haven't checked this out if it is true yet)


Love you all :p)

letters to Clarissa

I was going to put this in the comments on Tawnia's post, but it was getting a bit long for going there. So it is now its own post ...

I sent Clarissa addressed and stamped stationery for all of the siblings in her birthday box, so everyone should get at least ONE handwritten letter from her. Nathan got his - at first, he thought it was from me because he recognized my handwriting on the envelope. But I haven't heard directly from her either. My plan is to send her a fill-in-the-blank letter as soon as I get around to making it. That should be easier for her to answer. Maybe you could try something like that, Tawnia, or send her an email asking if she's at least gotten them or something. In her email this week, she said something about responding to emails.

In Clarissa's defense - when I was on my mission, I had to write only 2 letters for the family. Eric was the only one not living at home. If Clarissa wrote to everyone every week, that would be 8 separate letters. And it doesn't look like they have a lot of time - the way I read this week's email, it sounded like they had appointments during the day even though it was P-day. That limits her time even more. Yes, it frequently seems like you're sending missionary letters into a black hole - I've been there with a number of friends I've written to. But having been on the other end as well - trust me, you're not.

And speaking of Clarissa - I noticed that this week was the first time she signed her letter "Sister Palmer" and left her first name out of it entirely. I take that as a good sign that she's getting into things.

Just a little pic from Google Earth of our new neighborhood... tomorrow's my last day at WaMu. Ten days after that I'll be driving up to Monterey for the first time. Good stuff.

Questions

Did Emily ever get responses to her question about preparing for the temple? Is she still excepting answers? Has ANYONE gotten a hand-written letter from Clarissa? I am starting to wonder why I write these long exciting letters and send them off into a black hole where they are neither answered or even acknowledged. Eric, did you receive the temple slip in the mail? Jared, did Brooke get her blanket? Trina - I am now working on Summer's blanket... just so you don't feel like I've forgotten her. I have all the yarn for all of the blankets... I just have to get them made. I haven't had TIME to work on them in quite awhile. Hopefully I'll get a lot done over Spring Break.

Emily, I have one thing to say... and it's something that President Hinckley said a lot, "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and don't mess with mr. inbetween."

Mindy- have you heard back about when you are going to BYU-I yet?

I like to read Nate'n'Manda'n'Mushy's blogs and also Jared's blogs (my favorite is the bedtime story blog.)

Mom- how are you feeling? I hope that you are getting better.
Dad - any tidbits of useless information?

Love you all
T

Go Georgetown!

Yesterday, Adam was watching the Georgetown basketball game on the internet (conference championships to decide who goes to the NCAA finals) and taught Summer how to say "Go Georgetown!" She does it pretty well - she doesn't quite get the R, but the rest of it is clear. Later, Adam was watching TV and channel surfing, and came across another basketball game. We paused to see who was playing (Georgia Tech and Duke), and Summer immediately started yelling "Go Georgetown!!" over and over. I tried it again earlier today - turned on the TV to watch some basketball and yep, Summer started yelling "Go Georgetown!" as soon as she saw it was basketball. The Georgetown championship game is on right now and we're watching it on the internet again (not sure why this one isn't on regular TV because it's the Big East final - only ESPN), and Georgetown is down by 1 against Pittsburgh with 5 minutes to go in the first half. The 2 teams are switching back and forth on the lead right now, shot for shot. Summer and Rosemary are both watching the game with Adam - yes, actually looking at it.

Adam had his moot court tournament this weekend - he and his partner had a round Thursday afternoon, another Friday afternoon, and a 3rd this morning. They won 2 and lost 1. The one they lost was by less than 1 point, so they made it into the elimination rounds. They debated 2 more times this afternoon, and got to the final 8. Of those, 4 go to Nationals in Chicago - Adam did not make the final 4. So he's done with moot court completely. Since he's graduating in December, he will not be on the team for next year so he doesn't have to go to any of the final meetings this semester to plan for next year. It was a good experience, and now it's time to move on and focus on other things. And man alive, he's certainly not hurting for things to do.

The Boston Trip

Saturday: We met out in front of Main Hall. Yes, we had to meet at 2:30 so we could head out by 3 or we'd not get to see Emily Dickinson's house. It wasn't worth it.

Sunday: Due to trusting a GPS system, we ended up totally lost and were forty minutes late for church. We also left before Sunday School. We saw Walden pond and Thoreau's dinky cabin. I got a couple of pictures of me with Thoreau, including posing like the statue and giving the statue bunny ears. There was ice on the pond. Then we went to a fireside and found out about the Boston temple. And it was right there.

BUT THEY NEVER LET ME GO!!

I needed to go, but then they wouldn't let me. I had no partner; the one other student who was endowed hadn't planned on going. (I don't think I like her very much for other reasons as well.) I was extremely devastated.

We were on the same plot of ground, and I couldn't go. Every day, that was our base of operations. And they didn't let me go. Even getting permission to take pictures of the temple was like pulling teeth. We needed a consensus. And that was the only freakin' time that the teachers asked the students for a single opinion. I have never been more ashamed of my school than by the fact that they seemed to want to avoid the temple.

The only reason I was able to get through the rest of the trip was that one of my friends said we'll go up to the D. C. temple next Saturday.

Anyway, Monday: We went to Concord and toured the Old Manse. Fortunately, enough different people lived there that it was somewhat interesting. We saw the bridge in Concord, though the meadow was flooded. We also went to the Alcott home -- this house did inspire the book, and a lot of the personality of the family came across. For example, one daughter drew pictures all over the walls. That was one of the better houses we visited. (I saw a thimble with the house on it and thought Tawnia would like it, but I didn't really do a lot of souvenir shopping, mostly postcards and a book.)

Then we drove down to Lexington, where I had to practically drag someone by the hair just to get a picture of the Green while there was still some daylight. I was rather proud of my picture of the minuteman statue there. Of course, I was with literary people, not historians.

Tuesday: We went to Longfellow's house, which was by far the best house we visited. This was also Washington's headquarters at the start of the Revolution. Our guide recited poetry along the way. He apologized for being overly romantic, but considering that the group consisted mainly of young women, we all loved it. We could take some pictures but without the flash. I got a couple of good ones.

Then we went to this fancy art museum that was laid out by this one woman (Isabelle Gardner, I think was her name). I was in and out in an hour. Then we headed to Boston and saw the State House, a couple of cemeteries, and wandered as far as the Old North Church. Julianna and I ran into other members of our group at a pastry shop. Really good Boston cream puffs.

Wednesday: This was the day we got to go up to take pictures of the temple. It was raining. But we had to head into Boston. No choice. What we did there was up to us. So I went to the South Church. Sure, there wasn't a whole lot to see and we were overcharged, but I was still giddy at the thought that this was where the meeting before the Boston Tea Party was held.

Then we went to the Old State House museum. This was actually worth paying to see. Some of the artifacts were quite fascinating. Tea from boots after the Boston Tea Party, a recording of a witness of the Boston Massacre (of course a reenactment, but I think they used the actual testimony), and this was where the Declaration of Independence was first read to the people. This was probably the best place I visited all week.

Alas, I never got up to Bunker Hill. I had hoped to do so, and if we had gotten the itinerary more than a few hours in advance, I might have been able to find the way up there. Rather disappointing.

We also went to Boston Museum of Fine Arts. I really liked the hilts of Japanese knives. And the kimonos. And they had some Egyptian art and other things that were somewhat interesting. But since I've been studying Japanese art this semester, that exhibit really caught my eye.

Thursday: We went to Salem, and got lost again. We toured the House of the Seven Gables, and only the fact that our guide was cracking stupid jokes the only time made it worth my while. We also saw a boat -- the Friendship -- and one of the teachers went on and on and on and on. I found a hammock after a while and just sat there. And we saw the Customs house, which some people want to make a shrine to Hawthorne.

We all wanted to leave, but the teachers said we'd meet at seven and head out. It was freezing, nothing was open, and it was quite boring. I do not plan to visit Salem, Massachusetts again.

Friday: I was told I'd be left at the hotel if I didn't head out in two minutes. I should have taken them up on the offer. We visited Melville's house. The guide was a guide, not a historian or scholar. The tour was extremely boring. The supposedly famous view of the hill was obscured by clouds. We all wanted to go.

But no! There was another house that was supposed to be pretty and famous, and I can't even recall who built it. And it was closed anyway, but we had to stop and take pictures. At this point, I waited in the car.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening driving, and we didn't get back until 1:30 in the morning.

Well, the trip was free. And I'm so glad I didn't have to throw away money on it.

Question

This question is for Eric mainly, but I figure the rest of you can chime in if you have an opinion.

I went to the temple and had the sealing slip for Grandma and Grandpa reprinted. I was wondering if you wanted me to mail it to you (Eric) still or if you wanted me to hold on to it and mail it to you after you move? OR I could mail it to one of the other married couples in the family in order for them to do this work. OR I could just keep it and get it done myself. Yeah, so there are many options. Someone please let me know what you want me to do ASAP so this work can get done.

I love you all. (And I'll post something more latter when I have more time.)

BIG CHANGES for the Eric & Laurel family

Yesterday morning I accepted a job with a company based in Southern Virginia with a contract in Monterey California. I've put in my two weeks notice at my current job, and we'll be moving up to Monterey in the next month. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but I'm confident that it was the right decision for our family right now. We don't know exact timelines for the move yet, except that I'll be reporting to work on March 31, which is in three weeks.

Our friends in the ward and Laurel's sister are sad to see us go, and uprooting after seven years in one place is a little heartwrenching, but we're ready for our next adventure!

Give me a call or send me an email (new address: my first name, a dot, my middle initial, another dot, and then my last name, at gmail.com) to get more info, etc.

our 1 day of spring break

Today was the one day that we get of Adam's spring break - he has to work and will be at his moot court competition for the rest of the week. So we went downtown. First we went to the National Portrait Gallery, one of the Smithsonians, to see Stephen Colbert's portrait. It's there as a joke to go along with the show, and hung in a little alcove with the restrooms and the drinking fountain. We got a kick out of that. We walked through the Hall of the Presidents, where they have a portrait of every president through Bill Clinton (Bush 2 will be added after he leaves office). There was a lot more to see, but it was a silent-as-a-tomb art gallery and Summer liked to scream to hear the echo. So we pretty much carried her around the whole time saying "Shh!" and booked it out of there right quick. Rosemary was sleeping in the stroller the whole time.

Then we went over to the Natural History museum where Summer could be as loud as she wanted. Our bishop's wife volunteers there and is Summer's "adopted grandma," and as luck would have it, she was there when I called her cell phone. So she took us through a number of the exhibit sections - mammals to see all the animals, insects, ocean life, the dinosaurs, and the gemstones to see the Hope Diamond.

Summer and Rosemary's new month pictures are up on our page - they were just taken yesterday. Thanks tons, Mindy!

New Letter from Clarissa

video and picture update

I put a video on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQC2hXbw2TI

I also added new pictures on the Joshua Calendar.

I also changed my index page, so you have to go there now to get to our blogs.

Mom Update

1. Mom had been moved to a new room. check your email for the phone number.

2. The earliest she will be released is Tuesday.

3. Please do the Easter write-up Mom has requested. She wanted me to send out a reminder.

Mom is doing better this time and is eating well. But we're not out of the woods yet. Let's keep her in our thoughts and prayers.

Getting ready to go

Hi, all. I'm getting ready to go to Boston. Trying to figure out how to get from point A to point Z. I still need to pack, but I'll travel light -- one pair of pants (maybe I'll bring my jeans for the last couple of days because they're really not going to let us actually wear jeans or anything -- people are apparently snobs in Boston and we must make a good impression and be snobs too, even if this means wearing the same outfit for a week -- and no, we can't do laundry), one skirt, a couple of shirts, one sweater, one jacket, one coat, one hat, two or three pairs of shoes (like I'll go hiking all across Boston in my Sunday shoes!) . . . I wonder how my slacks would look with my sneakers.

I'm trying to get some homework done ahead of time so when I get back all I'll have to completely stress out over is the senior exam. And then a paper due. And then more tests. And then actually figuring out what to do with my life afterwards.

Well, I'd better get going. We're supposed to have everything ready to go so we can leave in the middle of the night just to visit Emily Dickenson's museum.

I may hate literary works (and literary snobbery) even more by the time this trip is done.

On the other hand, I do fully intend to visit all the historical sites that I can. I was just trying to determine the best route between the Old North Church Museum of Fine Arts. Fortunately, the museum appears to be on a train line.

email

Clarissa's email for the week is up on her page. She's getting a little more wordy, perhaps she's settling in to being a missionary.

Also, thank you Emily for being the only one, so far, to write about Easter. I really appreciate it. And I look forward to hearing from everyone else.

Love ya,
MOM

Hello from Emily

This weekend has been wonderful. I went to Orson Scott Card's writing workshop. Yes, I've heard a lot of what he's said before, but we also heard from other speakers, such as one man, Jake Black, who writes the backs of trading cards. We did one exercise called a Thousand Ideas session, where we had a man . . . age 35 . . . who lives with a jealous . . . pet . . . chinchilla. Everyone would call out suggestions, and he'd write them down, and I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt. Then we had him living in his parent's basement . . . no, room over the garage . . . no, a shed in the back yard. Does this give you an idea of what it was like?

We also learned about the publishing market and revising. It was very interesting and I believe that it was worth my time.

Concerning Mom posing the question, that is fine with me. If you'd like something to e-mail to me -- though it would have to be here by Friday since on Saturday I'm leaving for Boston and won't be back for a week -- I did have a theme that I thought of during our Relief Society lesson.
The theme is temples. Here is a question you may want to ponder: How did you prepare yourself to enter the temple? If you can e-mail me the response before Friday, I will mail it to Clarissa.

I love you all!

One of "those" weeks

In response to Treen's comment on Mom's post. Umm... I didn't do a last call because someone said to have it to me by Tuesday night so I could get it off. And it's been one of "those" weeks for me too. I sent one a letter off on Wednesday with the ones that I had and then said to Clarissa that I would send more as I received them. I have Nate and Amanda's ready to go in this letter... so if Trina, Eric, and Jared (and company) would send me there answers I'll get them out to Cris, or you can always put them in your personal letters.... I think the point for me is to give me something to write about... saying, I went to work and did a whole ton of homework... doesn't fill up much of a letter.

Anyway, it's really late and I'm really tired but... after months of working on it, I have FINALLY completed Brooke's blanket. I'm going to try and get it into the mail tomorrow. That is, if I wake up before the post office closes.

Love,
Tawnia

A new question

I know, it's supposed to be Emily's turn to come up with a question for everyone, but I'm taking cuts. Think of it is parental privilege. I know that not everyone participated in the Book of Mormon stories emails but I'm begging you to help me on this one. I want to put a booklet together for Clarissa. "What Easter Means to Me" with a page from each of us. In order for her to get it in time for Easter it should be mailed about the 10th of March so I need you to get on this right away. I'll put it in a special Easter package. Please think and pray about this question. Clarissa needs all the love and support we can send her, right now.

Love ya,
MOM

Summer's funny

The other day, I was in the girls' room changing Rosemary's diaper and I could hear Summer in the kitchen saying in a sing-song type voice, "Ashes, ashes, down!" over and over. Of course it's ring-around-the-rosy, but I've never done it with her so she learned it in Nursery at church or from friends. She was obviously by herself since no one else was here, so I looked out the door to see what she was doing. She had a doll in each hand and was spinning around, "Ashes, ashes." Then she'd throw both dolls onto the floor, "Down!" (Not drop them, throw them.) Then she'd pick them up and do it again.

It was one of those moments where you want SO BADLY to laugh, but you can't because if the kid notices you even watching (let alone laughing), they'll stop doing whatever it is they're doing.

Hey

I was just looking over the blog and saw that Eric added new pictures. I don't know how long ago this was though. It looks like Stevie is very helpful, and I can't believe that Allison is already 6 months.

Greetings

Thank you all for your love and prayers. I'm feeling better each day. I'm still not sure if I'll be up to going to work on Monday but I have a few more days to decide.

I enjoyed the project of writing about my favorite Book of Mormon story so much that I put it up on my question page. So who is coming up with the next question for all of us to ponder? Are we going to keep this as an email project or go to the chain letter as originally suggested? I like the email method better because if someone doesn't follow through the whole project isn't stalled out. I would like to hear other people's answers, though.

I also put Clarissa's letter up on Monday, I hope you've all seen it.

I love you all,
MOM

Congratulations Jared and Michelle!!!

Now that you have posted it on the web I will congratulate you on the web. Good luck with the new addition. He/she is joining a great family with great parents and siblings...and uncle.

Hellos Everyone

I am home, at last. I'm going to eat a bite of lunch and take a nap. Then maybe I'll write my favorite Book of Mormon Story. I think we should post them on the blog and havr them printed from here. What do you think?

Clarissa

I just talked to Clarissa's mission president to pass on the message about Mom being in the hospital (no, I did not find the number online - I called the DC mission president, who called the Orlando president, who called me). Mom and Dad had said that they didn't want her to worry, but I would rather she know that something is going on and I think she would rather know as well. The president was very kind about it and said he would call her right away this morning. She doesn't need a surprise like this in her email.

He also told me to please send upbeat letters because Clarissa is struggling right now with being homesick and wondering why she's out there in the first place. Frankly, I'm not surprised. I went through it too when I'd been out about 2 months. I assured him that we have a large family and I know that Clarissa is getting quite a bit of mail, but I'd let everyone know and ask for extra effort with letters. So, everyone! Please make sure to write upbeat letters (and send pictures of the kids) especially in the next few weeks to get Clarissa going. Tawnia's group letter idea is great - maybe everyone could write their note right away and get it to Tawnia over the weekend so she could send it Monday or Tuesday.

Hi

Regarding Mom:

I have a friend who is an anesthesiologist who said that doctors should never say how long a patient is going to be in the hospital especially for procedures that involve the heart. They just kept her there to keep an eye on her as far as I know.

In response to Trina:

I’m not sure if everyone has the time to come up with a question for Clarissa, and putting it in an order to get people to do it makes it unappealing to me. I’d be happy to contribute answers, but putting me under pressure to come up with a question is too much. I know you can’t tell someone’s tone over the internet, so just know that I am not completely serious.

Tawnia,
Did you change your post? I don’t remember there being a question for Clarissa there?

Clarissa Letter

Two questions first: 1. Does the person who submits the question then send out the answer to Clarissa? 2. Why aren't Mom and Dad in the rotation? 3. I just want to add that the grandkids (especially Brooke and Bryan) can answer the questions also.

Okay, I have so many good ideas to choose from, and people can go ahead and look back at my original post and use one of my ideas if they need to.

The question for this week is: "What is your favorite Book of Mormon story and WHY?"

Mom and Tawnia

Okay, so what's the deal with Mom? She was supposed to go home from the hospital on Wednesday, and it's Friday and she's still there. What are they waiting for?

Tawnia, I also think it's a good idea, and I think Nathan's plan of making it happen would be a lot easier and quicker. Someone posts a "Clarissa letter" question on the blog, and everyone emails their answer to that person (or posts it in the comments if it's short). Let's say, on a Sunday. Then on Friday or Saturday, you print them off and mail a hard copy to Clarissa so she can take her time reading it. And if there are long emailed answers, maybe email them to everyone else?

So what's our first question? We can get started a couple of days early, and Tawnia can take the first turn since this was her great idea. Then we can go in age order - if we mix in the in-laws, I think this in the right order: Trina, Laurel, Eric, Jared, Tawnia, Michelle, Emily, Nathan, Adam, Amanda, Mindy. Yes? So Michelle would have March 2, Emily March 9, etc ...

Mom Update

I talked to Mom today and she is staying in the hospital again tonight. They removed the tube today. I talked to her before they removed it and she said that she was feeling better. Again, keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Tawnia's idea

I think it is a good idea, but I think that instead of passing it from one person to the next and trying to do that within a week someone should offer a suggestion for the week, then everyone who can or wants should email that person their response, and then after a week the original person should send it. This way everyone has the same amount of time to respond and if someone doesn't get it done or can't get it done, everyone else gets their stuff sent without waiting several weeks.

Letters to Clarissa

Okay, so I had an idea this morning that I think would be a fun way for writing letters to Clarissa. What if one person started an idea for a letter such as Favorite story from the Book of Mormon. They wrote theirs and then sent it to the next person younger than them (ie I would send mine to Emily), that person would then add their favorite and send it to the next younger person. This would keep going until it got back to me and I would print it and send it to Clarissa. So Clarissa wouldn't be in the chain, it would go from Mindy to Dad and then Mom. Other ideas could be "A Time You Stood Up for What is right" or "favorite scripture about missionary work" or "A spiritual experience you have had with prayer." I think that everyone in a family who could answer the question should (so that includes in-laws and even nieces and nephews who are capable.) Oh, another idea "favorite primary song." I just think that this would make for a fun thing for Clarissa to read and then hopefully she would respond by sending it to everyone. ... oh and along with printing it and sending it to Clarissa... that person should be responsible for either sending that e-mail to everyone else in the family OR just posting it on here. Tell me if you like the idea ASAP because I want to get one started. Oh, and I think these should only take a week to get around the family so that Clarissa can get one from someone each week... if possible.

-Tawnia

Mom Update

It turns out Mom is in the hospital for one more night. They still have not heard anything about the fluid test results but Mom didn't seem too worried. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers. If you want her room number you can call Dad's cell phone, but they're not supposed to use them there. So I have her number here if you want to call me.

Update on Mom Palmer

We've been asked to report that the procedure is completed, it went well, she is recovering in the ICU, and they are waiting to hear about test results on the fluid.

Hopefully there will be more updates soon!

Love you all,
Manda and Nathan

our genius child

Summer isn't even 2 years old yet, and in just the last couple of weeks, she can correctly identify most of the letters of the alphabet, she can almost count to ten, she can tell you different shapes (triangle is "kwy-go"), and she can identify over 20 different animals and the sounds they make. She's starting to put phrases together, starting with so-and-so's thing like "Daddy's coat" or "Summer's shoes." Some of the kids in her playgroup were barely talking at 21 months. We're starting to work on colors - so far, everything is green first.

To update her favorite things from last month ...

1 - Summer's favorite movie is still Mary Poppins, but she requests Cinderella ("Rella") a lot more frequently now. She also brought me Peter Pan today - that was a new one.

2 - Her favorite toy lately has been a doll she received from a friend on her birthday. She carries it around everywhere and reads books with it sometimes. Its name is just Baby so far.

3 - Favorite food: now it's peaches. This changes every couple of weeks, so it's kind of hard to keep track of. It seems that she loves something so she maxes herself out on it, and then switches to something else that she's not bored with. One thing that she can't overload on because they're too expensive is berries. She loves all kinds of berries and whenever we have them, she refuses to eat anything else.

4 - Favorite activity: still looking at pictures on the computer. She can say Joshy's name a lot better now, and all of her other Palmer cousins. All baby girls except Rosemary are Allie to her.

5 - Her current favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham, called "Sam."

The last 5 - song, Sesame Street character, place to go, article of clothing, and buddy - are still the same.

Aunts and Uncles

Wow, this could take awhile. Defining "know" as in, I have seen them more than once in my life.
Okay, so I'm supposed to write something that is special about each of them.... but this is more of a what I remember that is special to me about each of them.

Ray- When I was little and we'd eat dinner at Uncle Ray's he would call me his green bean girl and put tons of green beans on my plate. I did not like green beans at the time, but I'll tolerate them now.
Marli- Aunt Marli has been one of the aunts/uncles that has talked to me the most. When I was on my way home after Thanksgiving last year I went and spent the night at her house and then she took me to the bus. At her house she was really good about making sure I was comfortable. She even put a "kiss" on my pillow.
Carol- I enjoy going in and watching game shows with Aunt Carol. She is fun to just sit and chill with.
Max- Uncle Max is an amazing pillar of the gospel. I always loved going to their home and just feeling welcome and relaxed.
Jean- Aunt Jean is one of the sweetest ladies I know. She is always so kind and generous. When I sang at Uncle Bruce's funeral she told me that she wants me to sing at her funeral... I told her it better not be for a very long time.
Chet- Uncle Chet tells the best stories! He is hilarious.
Yoshi- I remember being taller than Aunt Yoshi by the time I was about 10 years old. She is always happy and has a smile on her face (at least when I've been around!)
Speedy- I am amazed at Uncle Speedy's musical talents.
Debbie- Aunt Debbie is very patient. It was fun to go to Speedy and Debbie's at Christmas this year and see them with all of their grandkids. They are really quite the family!
Joy- I remember going to Aunt Joy's on our trip to Orlando. She was very generous to let us come stay.
Gary- Uncle Monkey is a quiet man with a big heart.
Cheryl- I have always love Aunt Cheryl. One of my favorite times with her was just a few years ago. We went to Disneyland together for a day... just the two of us. We talked and talked and talked in line and made it to tons of the rides I wanted to go on. It was a lot of fun and a memory I'll always cherish.
Bruce- I miss Uncle Bruce. I remember the last time I talked to him was on my birthday. He said, "Happy birthday, darling." I said thanks and I love you and then he said, "I love you, too!" He was always so much fun to just hang out with. He would give you candy and that was always endearing to a child's heart but he also was so grateful for anything you did for him. I really miss him.
Sylvia- I don't know if I've talked much to Aunt Sylvia. I do know that she makes it a point to come to every family reunion, even though she doesn't have much money. That is impressive to me. She wants to be their to see her family and to have her children know their family. That's cool.

Jeff- I don't know a whole lot about Jeff, except that I remember the time the van broke down in the grapevine and he came and stuffed as many of us as he could into his car and drove us to the repair shop.
Jackie- I remember that Jackie loves elephants and has a really cool collection of them. She also has great stories to tell of all her adventures all over the place.
Gary- I love going to Uncle Gary's and having a BBQ. That was what we did at Christmas time this year. How wonderful that was. Uncle Gary is always fun to hang out with.
Karen- I still remember when Uncle Gary and Aunt Karen got married. For a long time I thought Aunt Karen didn't like us, but I think we've grown on her. I think she does an amazing job as a Grandma to ALL of her grandkids.

So there you have it. I guess I've never really thought about how kindhearted the majority of my aunts and uncles are. Maybe I think they are because they are my family, but on the whole I think I'm related to a lot of really good people.

-Tawnia

Changes

Since I've been spending so much time at home I figured I should make some changes to my page. I want to update the various sections at least once a month but I was having a hard time coming up with something newsworthy for the "What's New" page. That's why I did away with that section. Most of the new things would fit on the timeline or be better on someone else's page. My latest news is not what I really want to have on there. Take a look at what I replaced it with and let me know what you think.

I also updated the 2007 timeline.

I have a new question for us. What is special about each of your aunts and uncles? Tell at least one thing about all the ones you know. I modified this one a little because I have many aunts and uncles that I never met. It will probably take me a while to put this together; I have LOTS of aunts and uncles.

First time in a long time

I just realized that it's been a while since I've posted. It wasn't intentional. I mean, I wasn't giving you the old silent treatment. So here we go. I'm taking a few minutes to post.

I know, I know. More baby pictures. You have no idea what you're missing. Allie is so beautiful. Big breakthrough recently - Allie and Stevie can be left alone together and not only will Allie not be harmed, but sometimes they entertain each other. It's the cutest thing. The other day we heard them both laughing their heads off in the living room, while we were back in our bedroom. Also, they talk to each other from their cribs. I hope they always like each other.

Stevie is getting better and better at repeating things. His vocabulary is going up. Laurel got out some Incredibles toys I bought back when the movie came out (and left in the box, but so much for that now) and they're Stevie's favorites. He likes to name them, though he's better at some than others (e.g. Dash, Violet, and Baby Jack-Jack).

Laurel has been working on redecorating the house. Of course, that's something she's doing most of the time. She ordered a bed frame and put it together to surprise me when it came this week. It's very nice. She called it the cherry on top, meaning that the house is "done", but then she was putting up pictures and staining a breadbox yesterday, so who knows? Maybe today it'll be done and we can have a party.

We had a great weekend two weeks ago when we went to see Tawnia and Nathan Dille (first time this millenium) and went to a marriage retreat put on by BYU. It was exhausting but a lot of fun. We had the worst snow between Tawnia's and Nathan's Sunday morning. The rest of the trip was very good for the most part. We watched the funeral up at Aspen Grove, surrounded by snow-covered mountains. It's really a beautiful spot. We should have a reunion there someday. Maybe just the Palmers.

Three-day weekend starting today. That will be nice. Laurel and I are going to the temple tonight. We don't really have plans for Monday, but if the weather's nice, maybe we can play outside. It's looking good right now.

Fluff About Summer and Rosemary

Last month was Summer's Top Ten and Rosemary's Top Two. For this month's installment of Fluff About Summer and Rosemary, here is the list of books we currently read every day. Summer of course chooses them, but Rosemary hears them too because we usually read them while I'm feeding Rosemary. Sometimes we don't make it through the entire list, but most days we do.

- Green Eggs and Ham, called "Sam."
- Punchinello: One of a Kind, called "Puncho" (by Max Lucado)
- The Three Little Pigs
- I'm a Big Sister, Summer's Christmas present from Aunt London and Uncle Joe.
- I Know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly
- Another Monster at the End of This Book with Grover and Elmo. She particularly likes the part where they run into each other and scream because that means she can scream too.
- The Runaway Bunny
- What's Wrong Little Pookie, the Christmas book exchange gift from Allison (I forget if it was for Summer or Rosemary, not that it matters)
- One Hungry Monster
- The Paperbag Princess, by Tawnia's favorite author Robert Munsch

We also alternate between 3 different Strawberry Shortcake books (at the beach, plays soccer, and goes to school), and various books with farm animals so we can make all the sounds.

Other books that have been on the Every Day list in the past but are less frequent visitors to the repertoire now are:
- Go Dog Go
- Moo, Baa, La la la (love Sandra Boynton!!)
- Just Me and My Dad (a Little Critter book that was dropped off the list because she destroyed it)
- This Little Chick
- Elmo Loves You
- Elmo's Nursery Rhymes

And speaking of books, I just finished reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, and posted a little review of it on the sisters' blog. I highly recommend it to everyone - it was fantastic!

New Letter from Clarissa!

In other news, I'm taking a week off work with an upper respiratory infection. It sucks. I'll be all right, though.

timeline

Hello everyone. I was looking over the timeline and added some pictures in 2007 and 2008. They are pictures from Joshua's calendar, so you've probably seen them before. They are on birthdays and anniversaries. Enjoy.

New videos

There are three new videos at www.youtube.com/skipdipdawg . The two latest have already shown up on Amanda's blog and were actually created by Amanda. Joshua and the Milkshake is brand new to the internet world. The advantage to watching the videos on youtube is that we can see how many people have viewed the video and you can watch it in full screen.

Keep an eye out for more videos.

Nathan

About an exam

This morning I found out about the senior examination for all graduating history majors. We have a list of six questions. We choose four, one of which will be on the exam (our choice) and one of the other three will be drawn. So I must research historiography, soft power, revolutions, and major turning points in history. (The other choices were on women and biography.) I'm debating between choosing the soft power essay (because I'll be reading Ghandi's autobiography and I've taken a class on diplomatic history) and the one on major turning points (which might include the French Revolution and the World Wars, and I studied these events in my nationalism and history of warfare classes). I'll have to look at my old essays and notes.

Updates

I don't how many of you have seen but I did update my page. I put some things on what's new and finally answered the question of what I'd learned.

Now for an update on my health situation. I saw the cardiologist yesterday. The EKG looked better this time so he thinks things are improving. Next week I'll have another ultrasound. He also wants me to stay home from work for the next two weeks. I need to rest. So I'm home being a bit lazy for a while. So if you're feeling lonely during the day or just want to talk, I'm here for you.

Take care and I'll keep you posted.

Love ya,
MOM

Letter from Clarissa

There's a new letter from Clarissa on her page (as of yesterday) and a new picture just below it. I've also updated the city information.

My weekend

Hi, family. This weekend, since I had Saturday off, I went with my roommates to Roanoke. That means spending about three hours in bookstores. I bought two books -- one is for a history class, and the other is "Writers of the Future." Since I plan to enter the contest, I should see what types of stories have won. Right?

We went to President Hinckley's funeral broadcast, though we were a bit late because we had to find the place. Are Mormons the only people who will laugh at funerals? I did like what the presiding bishop Burton (I think) said about the young people. And I was very moved by Elder Eyring's remarks about how he had consecrated his life to the Lord. I cried during the closing hymn.

And during testimony meeting on Sunday, I was the first one up. I spoke of the troubling week. (I think you'll understand why -- not just the death of the prophet but other things as well.) I explained how I was searching the scriptures for comfort, and I found the verse in the 76th section where Joseph Smith bears a powerful testimony. As the song says, "What comfort this sweet sentence gives."

Well, I'd better get going. I have German homework, and I need to finish reading a book by tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Jared!!!

Happy 32!!! The Salem Palmers are wishing you a wonderful birthday and we hope that your wildest dreams will come true. We hope everyone is healthy and doing well in Texas and can't wait for Brooke to sell Girl Scout Cookies again. Is she still in girl Scouts?

Nathan, Amanda, and Joshua

Hinckley challenge

www.hinckleychallenge.com

I got this forwarded to me in an email, and thought you all might find it interesting. By my count, 97 days ends May 10. We're in the middle of reading the Book of Mormon as a family anyway (we're at the end of Alma), so if Adam and I did this, it would be individually.

random stuff

My goals report for January and my target list for February are now on the Sisters blog, if anyone is interested.

Jared, don't let your bedtime story blog link get buried - it's only attached to your goals post! I just found it this morning, and that's a great blog. I read the whole thing. Very cute.

Tawnia, why a second bachelor's degree? Just curious ... And where are you enrolled anyway? Are you at BYU or Utah State again?

Amanda, I noticed on one of your blog posts that you were trying to get Joshua to eat pasta shells. Have you tried some of the different pasta shapes with him? I noticed with Summer that the shells slipped out of her fingers really easily, and she could hold onto the spirals a lot better. So she ate the spirals more than the shells.

Mindy, any word from BYU-I yet?

Rosemary is still growing super fast. She's now wearing an outfit at 4 months that Summer wore at 9 months. Crazy! She's finally awake and alert a lot more, and has a grip like nobody's business. She grips onto the rings on her toy bars (on the bouncer and the playmat), and gets a big fistful of my shirt when I'm feeding her.

Summer's vocabulary is growing as fast as Rosemary is. I can no longer rattle off a list of all the words she can say, and she's picking up at least 2 or 3 new words per day, maybe more. In just the last week or so, she started repeating things that people say - usually the last word of your sentence. She's never parroted anything before - this is a new thing.

She can say all the names of her Palmer aunts - Tawna, Emmy, Minny, and Cassa. She can mostly say who is who, but sometimes gets them mixed up. She can clearly say Summer (instead of "Ah-zuh" which is almost sad because that was so cute), and Mommy and Daddy. She won't even try Rosemary. It's just Baby. She's doing better with her cousins - Joshua is now a pretty clear "Joshy." Every baby girl we see besides Rosemary is Allie. And Grandma and Grandpa, for some odd reason, are "Park." Every picture she looks at of them, she says "Park." Don't ask me, I don't get it either.