Typical week at the Palmer house - Updated

This week has been an interesting one. Nothing major happened, which is normal, it just seemed we were busy all the time.

Updated -

Opps...

I asked Linda several times what we did this past week and we went over the events several times. many hours after I posted the update i realized I had forgotten an event, our Anniversary. Monday we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. It was a somewhat "simple" celebration. We had actually celebrated it much earlier in the month by purchasing our gift early. We found a wonderful, better than expected, couldn't pass it up or wait until our anniversary gift, a new dishwasher. This thing is amazing. It water jets on the back and a food disposal built in. It is extremely quite and requires absolutely zero pre-rinse. And it is just what she wanted. It has been a terrific 14 years filled with four kids, 5 moves, countless experiences and numerous friends. As you can see from the photos we haven't changed a bit.

Award Ceremonies

The kids new elementary school goes to a great amount of trouble celebrating the successes of all the students. Every quarter they have had class ceremonies to highlight attendance and academic successes. The good news, bad news, of having all four kids in the same school is having the potential of 4 different ceremonies. This past quarter 3 of the 4 kids received awards. Which means 3 ceremonies over two days. Nathan missed out on the perfect attendance because he had a wardrobe malfunction. His "normal" jeans were in the wash and he did not want to wear anything else. Linda took him to school when his pants were out of the dryer, but too late to qualify for perfect attendance. The other 3 all had perfect attendance. Hunter and Taylor got A honor roll as well. While they don't do grades in Kindergarten so Nathan was not eligible for that one.

Church Ball

Another year another event to show I am getting too old. Our ward has an abundance of height and players that can play, so I don't feel obligated to play. If I play we can field a starting 5 with all players over 6'4". Last week we had 13 players show up to play and we try to get everyone some time. As I was working my way up the court I looked around and realized that I was the oldest player out there. It is not uncommon to be the only High Priest, but to be the oldest. That stings a bit. I played OK and didn't get hurt so I considered it a success. We won the game and have our sights on the tournament.

A New Instrument and Choir Experience

AnnaLynn had the opportunity to take on a new instrument this week. She has been bugging Linda for a while to try the viola. We are blessed to have a super violin player in our ward and she is a terrific teacher. Luckily she was able to fit AnnaLynn in her rotation. After her lesson she told Linda that AnnaLynn was "a natural". I always take those types of compliments with a grain of salt, because sometimes people are just being nice or they see dollar signs. I asked Linda what qualifies as "a natural". At the lesson Maren, the awesome violin teacher, has the student balance the viola with their shoulder and chin with their right hand on by their side and left hand on their shoulder while she puts jelly beans on the neck. Apparently the viola will hold 8 jelly beans as Maren places them on one at a time. Typically, the students have to work up to balancing them on instrument. AnnaLynn was able to balance all 8 without them moving or falling off. OK we have a natural. Next week we hold the bow.

AnnaLynn had the opportunity to work with the middle school choir director in a one day mini camp mad up of 4 elemntary schools that feed the middle school. The kids arrived early on Saturday morning and worked with middle school teachers and students to prepare for a three song performance. They were given the songs before hand and worked out the parts when they got there. They sang, ate pizza, sang, ate starbursts and sang some more. In the afternoon we went to see the performance. It was amazing how well the group did in such a short time.

Good Weather Playing

Linda took the kids to the community park twice this week since the weather was sooooo good.

The boys are really starting to wear out the trampoline. They end up dragging me outside for a few minutes every night and play catch. Taylor joins us every now and then. The boys and Taylor have really improved and it is getting harder and harder to throw it on the trampoline without Hunter catching it. This Saturday was a beautiful 75 degrees and sunny so we spent a great deal of time playing,

Fundraiser Preparation

I volunteered to help with the summer camp auctions for the 80 or so youth at church. The girls ages 12-18 will be going to a week long girls camp and the 12-18 year old boys have the option to go to Scout camp with the boys 14 and older having the option to do a High Adventure outing. Boys 8-11 will have a week long day camp that they can attend. The cost of these events varies from $70-300. Some of the families have kids in each program. As such we are having a dinner and auction to help raise money for the events. We have been gathering items, but still lack donations and items. I was able to get some basketball tickets, row 5, right next to the Spurs bench, to auction off to help Hunter pay for his scout camp. We learned that he can go to the 12 year old camp if I go with him. That should give him a pretty good start to Eagle. It has been a lot of fun and the ground work is all done, we just need to gather more items. We are hoping to raise $5,000 at the event. If anyone has any ideas or items we could auction please let me know.

Handy Craft Club

Linda and a friend started a "club" for the girls that teaches sewing, knitting, crouchet, and other crafting skills. The club has a number of girls in it and attendance varies from time to time. This week 6 girls were there and they were using knitting looms to make purses. AnnaLynn and Taylor will be finished before the next "meeting" in two weeks.

Quote of the week:

Play the music not the instrument.

The 1st Edition

This has been a pretty uneventful week by most standards, which is why we entitled the blog "Our Simple Lives". As we move along you will see that "simple" does not mean easy or uncomplicated, nor does it mean boring and uneventful. It is intended to be more of a summary of events that on the surface seem almost common.

For instance, I had the opportunity this week to take Hunter shoe shopping. Not real high excitement, but walking through the mall talking with my 10 year old was a very special experience. As we walked from store to store looking at shoes that were the wrong color, the wrong size, the wrong price point we talked about a variety of topics. School, profession, college, we even talked girls! The interesting point for me was that he never complained about not finding something he liked. He truly has grown up. He even had a "John" moment. We were in a store and they offered about 20 different styles. One of which was a very sharp looking Adidas. It was black with yellow stripes and shoe laces. I picked it up and said, "What do you think of these"? He looked at me and instantly replied, "Pittsburgh Steelers" I put the shoe back and we left. We ended up going to a few more stores where he found some shoes that would work. We had a great time spending the morning together.

For Christmas Linda got a vinyl cutter from Santa. It is a pretty good size one that will take vinyl rolls up to 24 inches wide. She has shown a lot of interest in it, but at times I feel like I have taken it over. This week I designed and created one that I was quite pleased with. While in Utah this summer we stopped at the Salt Lake Temple and took several pictures. I was able to take one picture of Moroni and by using some features able to turn it into a cuttable object. I cut it out on copper metallic vinyl and then over-layed it with beige writing that says "I Love to See the Temple" on a 12 inch by 12 inch tile. If anyone has some fun, cool or memorable quotes or ideas, let me know! I mean let Linda know!!!

I was invited by my good friend and Stake Employment Specialist to do an employment workshop for a combined stake meeting. It was fun to get in front of people and talk about the interview process. I would not consider myself an expert, but I have enough stories and examples to get people thinking about the process.

Finally, yesterday was a beautiful day here in San Antonio. Sunny and 65. We told the kids that they had to play outside and the inside of the house was off limits. The boys asked me to play catch with them. Its a fun game where the boys each have a football and I alternate throwing each of them their own ball as they jump on the trampoline. The idea of throwing it over the net and having them dive and jump for the ball is very fun for them. It is amazing how high the boys can jump. Gets to be pretty challenging to throw the ball in spot that Hunter can't get to. He is turning into a good little receiver (just like his Daddy). Nathan does fine on his own as well. Yesterday was even more enjoyable in that Linda came out to throw to the boys as well. There were balls flying all over the yard and the boys never got to rest.

Have a great week.

Next week we will talk about our anniversary!!!!

One Small Step for Man, One Giant Step for Mankind

We are now entering a new stage in the wonderfull world of technology. We have tip-toed around the idea for a while, but have been pushed into the deep end. It's sink or swim now baby!

In the past we have tried journals, newsletters, and facebook, but we never seem to chronicle our lives well enough. At times it appears boastful or proud. We want to inform those we know of what is happening without sounding braggy or spoiled.

This will hopefully be our best alternative to keep everyone current. Bear with us as we endure the bumps in the road as we try out our new toy.

John