happy birthday to US!

One year today I wrote the first post for this blog. Go reminisce about it here and feel old as you realize that our kiddies are growing oh so fast.

I just wanted to thank everyone who joined the blog, oh and sorry about bugging you excessively so that you would.

349 post later I would say that our blog is doing great! As a birthday present here's a treat you might like to know

• "Aaron Austin Lipman" drives a ton of traffic to the blog. People must Google him and our blog comes up. Go back to this post and check the comments to see what I'm talking about
• Someone from London checks our blog everyday! who do we know in London? and how do you know us?
  
• Oh yeah and Maui too....like 20 times a day.
• we get an average of 50 visits a day. this is different from hits. Visits mean people actually VISIT and read the posts hits mean that they could of just come upon our blog and leave after a couple seconds

so...keep writing because obviously we have lots of friends out there who want to keep up with what we are doing.

and if you know us (like really know us) and you want to contribute to the blog send me an e-mail at damarispalmer gmail (dot) com

leave us a comment so that we know who all our readers are. You can comment even if you don't have a google id.

xoxo Damaris

More of Pammy

Pammy in Sacramento

Hello Everyone,
It's Charlie writing my first post, with the help of Karen. I love what you all have created. The pictures are beautiful, we have such an artistic family. I missed Pam, and I mean I really missed Pam, when she stopped by Sacramento. I love her company, her smile, her personality. But even though I didn't see her in person, I saw some beautiful pictures of her that Karen had taken. As you know, my family's house recently burnt down. Although it was horrible, it brought something beautiful to light, and that is the importance of family. You can take my music, you can take my things, you can take all the money I may have, but one thing I'll never let go of, is my wonderful family.

I love you all
and goodbye

who is responsible for this?

I've been trying to teach Enzo how to count from 1-10. I even bought Thomas the train flash cards and show him the numbers and we start um, dois, tres, quatro... all in Portuguese.

I count everything with him. I count when we are going down the stairs, I count the Legos he stacks, I count the things in his books, you get the picture. He always repeats after me but has never done it by himself and doesn't seem to understand the sequence process or anything like that.

Yesterday I caught him playing quietly in my room with the telephone and saying one, two, three, four...all the way to ten. IN ENGLISH!!!! I have never counted with him in English, Christian has never counted with him in English and yet the kid knows how to count from 1-10 in English.  Can someone please explain.

(disclaimer: sorry I keep writing about parenting but things are getting pretty dang interesting around here)

my thought process

Today is Tuesday which means that Chris has Enzo all day and I have all day to work. In other words Chris has Enzo all day while I PRETEND to work. My cohort is having a great time getting tape (or photography) on their summer fieldwork while I am here doing my field work which right now consists of calling people on the phone trying to set up interviews and getting one "NO" after another. I am fully aware that phones are the worst ways possible to contact people especially doctors who have their secretaries answer their phone. This is all part if my pretending to work. If I had ANY desire towards a Ph.D they have all vanished. I have close to zero capability of being self motivated enough to write a dissertation.

In order to feel productive today I've decided to potty train Enzo. This is how my thought process works

woke up and thought "Today is Tuesday I have to work. Humm...will probably get nothing done I might as well potty train Enzo"

I asked Enzo is he wanted to use the potty. he said no. I asked him if he wanted to wear his Elmo underwear he said yes. I told him he could but he had to tell me when he was going to pee or poo so I could get him to the potty. He said he wouldn't tell me. Which he didn't. A second after I put the underwear he peed on his pants. I changed him and asked him if he wanted to wear another underwear or diaper and he said underwear. I told him that he had to tell me. He said NO POTTY. I didn't care and left him with his underwear. 10 minutes later he takes off his underwear and wants me to put a diaper on him. I can tell he needs to go poop.

me: "Enzo go poop in the potty"
Enzo: "No!" "Diaper"

I put a diaper on him and he goes poop immediately.

It's obvious he doesn't want to use the potty. Any suggestions? Also if someone has any suggestions on how to get me motivated to actually do something productive for my project let me know like...if you are BFFs with any undocumented immigrants who are farmworkers and have a hard time getting health insurance... (pregnant woman preferably) that would be great!

Waterfalls in Japan

Jesse has been wanting to see some of these waterfalls he's seen on maps. We finally had a free Saturday, so we headed out to Okatama or something like that. It lies withing Tokyo prefecture, but is 1.5 hours away. We were pretty pathetic with our hiking skills but still had fun. The kids played in the stream, we got stuck in the rain, but managed to see another fall as well. We decided not to push it and go for three.

We did go to an onsen since the kids are always up for nude bathing. Some old lady patted G's bum and said "peach!" If that happened in the states I'd be freaking out. Here, I was thinking, "yeah, her bum is pretty peachy." The kids spent most of their time in the cold water tub. This is the first time we've gone on a Saturday and the advantage is that there are a lot of other kids running and splashing around.

Only a few more Saturdays to go and Jesse's doing scouts next week. The girls and I might go to the beach if I'm feeling up to the challenge (hour on the train there and back, excessive whining, etc).

More pictures of the house

We didn't want to put these pictures on top of the Grimsman's, but we had some pictures that we wanted to add to their post. This is Jake Grimsman. For some reason, a lot of dragonflies have made this place their home; this one let us get really close to it. Beautiful.

Upstairs room

The back of the house
Long story: Our tithing money was laying under tealight candles in a bowl. The wax melted over it and created a wax envelope which protected it from the fire. Everything else on top of our tall dresser was charred. Here is Brian holding it, (and Nicky below), after Brian peeled away the wax. Each bill was actually coated in a thin layer of wax. Yes, he already got new bills at the bank and paid it. Grandma Carol Rhodes said, "Do you really think that He was going to let his money burn?" Ha Ha. Funny Grandma. Ironically, the night before the Firefighter retreived the tithing money, the Bishop's wife took us to Target to get some clothes and necessities for the upcoming week. They spent almost the same amount of money as we had in tithing, (a lot).

Mariah's crazy cat Princess had been living in the burnt home. Well she wasn't crazy before, but she definitely is now.

This beautiful gardenia was right in front of our home. That something so delicate withstood the fire that destroyed a home and could bloom so pure and white in the midst of these ashes is symbolic in so many ways. You really learn to look for beauty in all things after something like this.

Hunt's house and miracle photos!

These pictures were miraculously preserved up in the attic. Perhaps Grandpa Austin was there making sure our family jewels were not destroyed! Andy's house from the front! Very hot fire!

Hunt's dining room where many family celebrations were held......and will be held again after the rebuild!
unidentifiable kitchen......looks like the Hunt's are getting all new appliances!!!!
The stairwell. Thank heavens not one was hurt!!!!!

All the slide reels were in mint condition.....yes we will still be showing slides at all family gatherings.
Thanks to Damaris this post was made possible!!!!!!!

Fun in Tahoe

More cute pictures from Grandpa Austin's day...