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Happy New Year! Roll in 2007! Woah weird to be in 2007. I'll finally be able to remember it's 2007 when I'm writing it down, probably by about mid-March.

We had a great holiday season. It was crazy, like everyone's always is, but it was fun. The highlights:

Christmas Program

Christmas Eve was the ward Christmas Program at church. Rob sang 4 times. Twice with the ward choir, once in a quartet, and once as a soloist. It was fabulous. I always enjoy the Christmas Rob Thacker Show. :) He was struggling with his voice a little bit, but it was alright. He gargled with Listerine everyday for a week and it warded off any huge mishaps with his voice. He decided, though, to show up Sunday morning and pretend that his voice was gone. He went up to the choir director in charge of the program and said in a raspy voice, "T, I lost my voice. I can't sing." She looked at him really sad-like. Rob realized his mistake and quickly said, "I'm just kidding." She started crying anyway. What a jerk, making her cry! :)

I didn't sing at all for a few reasons. First, the choir changed pieces on me last minute and I couldn't be there for the one rehersal when they practiced it, so I didn't know the piece. Second, I lost my voice a few weeks ago. I wasn't sick, my voice just was gone for a full week. It's recovered now, but it's barely now getting back to where I can sing well. Plus, we have 3 kids and having someone else watch them for 2 songs, well, it's just a bother. So I listened and liked it just as well. ... I told one of the young women in our ward that I lost my voice. I told her it went on a vacation to the Bahamas. Another young woman walks in and says, "You're lucky!" For what? "For going on a vacation to the Bahamas." I didn't go to the Bahamas, my voice did. "Where did it go?" Nowhere, I just lost it! "Yeah, but where did you go, then?" Nowhere, ... I'm not sure she ever really got it that it was just a way of saying that I'd lost my voice. And I thought I was being all clever.

6th Anniversary

Our anniversary was great. Rob showed up at home with a bunch of flowers and a cheesecake (our anniversary treat is always cheesecake and Martinelli's sparkling cider). What a doll. Then we went out to eat at a fabulous Mexican restaraunt of Rob's choice. It's called Cancun and it's the best Mexican restaraunt I've been to. Though that probably isn't saying a whole lot. It was my pick of the activity, so we went to go see the Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. It was pretty neat. Not near as cool as the lights at Temple Square. They don't put in quite the effort that Temple Square does. But it was still really cool.

The highlight of the Festival of Lights was watching a demonstration by a guy who does ice sculptures. Neat! We watched him carve out a reindeer. Then because it was rainy and wet and not many people were there, we got to talk to him for a good 15 minutes afterwards. About how he started, competitions he goes to (one in Fairbanks, AK), the Olympics (he was there in Provo in 2002). Who knew they did ice sculpting in the Olympics? The U.S. took 12th in 2002. Cool. ... It was also nice to be at the zoo without kids so you can read all the stuff kids won't allow you to when you're there with them. We read up on manatees and some insects and stuff. Way cool. We got ourselves freaked out by a centipede. Ick ick. It was hanging out at the top of the cage, so you had to bend down to see it so it looked really really menacing. Rob and I both let out a little yelp.

Next year we're going to take the kids to see the lights. I'm glad we went without them this year, especially cause it was rainy and wet and Teancom would have hated it. But next year we'll have to go as a family.

We got back to our house that night and called the babysitters and they offered to take the kids overnight. Well, we didn't argue. But we did go get Teancom. Although now he is consistently sleeping 12 hours through the night!!! We are SO happy about this. We put him down at 8 or 9 and he goes to sleep. Occasionally he'll wake up hungry at midnight or so. But usually he'll sleep right on through to the next morning and even wake up happy! We are thrilled at this latest development.

Christmas Day

We had a great Christmas day with only one hiccup--I was sick. Oh well. I woke up throwing up at 3:00 a.m. I then piled on blankets cause I was freezing and it didn't help. I woke up with the kids to open presents but immediately after was back in bed until noon. We were supposed to go up to Rob's family's Christmas celebration that day, but I told Rob if he wanted to go, he'd have to leave me at home. I was zonked. I was in good spirits, but my body was just really really really tired. It worked out great, though, that we were around, cause R & C planned on having a lot of people there for dinner and that didn't happen, so we just went over there. I ate a little, the first I'd eaten all day, and it stayed down. I left from their house early, though, to go back to sleep. I slept 24 hours in a 48-hour-period and by the time I woke up the day after Christmas at 8:00 a.m. I felt great! We went to the Thacker Family Christmas Party and had a great time.

We brought home 2 girls, M and A, Miciah's cousins. So Miciah had a blast playing with them for 2 days. By the end of the 2 days I was well aware of all the reasons I am glad I don't have triplets. :) But it was great to have them, since the other plans didn't work out. I was supposed to go up to Toledo, yada yada yada, but it just ended up being best to bring the 2 girls home with us. And I'm glad at least that worked out.

Then it was Friday. Rob and I were supposed to go to a dance, but we didn't cause our kids were monsters and we didn't want them staying up late. So we stayed home and the kids were in bed by 8. Yea!! Saturday there was a youth activity at the church building. We got a date for that instead, and it was a blast! We played ping-pong and assorted other games. I of course beat Rob at them all. It was fun. Plus, the babysitter was L, my cousin, so we watched the kids at our house and the kids went to bed on time again! Bonus!

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve was fun. We invited our bestest friends, the T's, over. They stopped eating sugar at our house at midnight last year, and started again at midnight this year. It was a treat to be there for that. They stayed until 1:30 in the morning and we were zonked today. R & C also came over for a while, as well as our friends the S's. We banged pots and pans on our porch at midnight and that's a fun little tradition that Miciah really likes. She stayed up with us until midnight. Elijah opted out at about 10 p.m. But Miciah was great and happy and I was glad she stayed up with us. She was a little adult. She got a rootbeer float at midnight. I don't think she'd had one before. But she's had 3 more since, so apparently she really likes them.

New Years Day Brunch

And I was hit with a brilliant moment last week and planned to have New Years Day brunch with R & C. I made biscuits, R made gravy and eggs and man, it was SO GOOD. It was noon by the time we were eating it, but we didn't mind that either. :) R makes dang good gravy. It's my favorite breakfast food ever, so it was a real treat.

Miciah and Elijah

The break has been good for the kids. Miciah has been off since the first week of December and she's been playing great with Elijah. Elijah's grown up a lot since summer and now the two of them play splendidly together. One of the times that really made me smile was a time they were playing in the bathtub together. I forget how it came about, but Elijah said, "Birthday." Miciah asked him, "Am I birthday?" Elijah replied, "Yes." And Miciah totally went with it. She knew it didn't make any sense, but she went with it anyway, and that made my day. ... Elijah of course follows Miciah around. But now Miciah will seek out Elijah, too. It's really fun to see them together. Miciah is Elijah's real security blanket. He will be shy or nervous or unwilling and then Miciah will help him or go with him or whatever, and suddenly it's all okay. It just warms my heart.

Elijah

Elijah has now realized he's a boy and this particularly makes Rob happy. Elijah got the movie Cars for Christmas and now if you ask him what cars say he does this really gutteral Vroom vroom! It's awesome. Elijah is also getting really chatty and trying hard to communicate with us.

My favorite two stories of late: Miciah was upset at me for telling her to go get dressed in her room, so she went in crying. Elijah walked around the corner and he said, I thought, "Miciah take out?" I didn't quite get the middle word, but I said, "Sure, Miciah went out." She went in her room at least, that's kind of out, I guess. Then he said, "Miciah trouble?" Oh! No, Miciah isn't in a TIME out. She's not in trouble. She just went in her room. "Miciah sad." Yep, she's sad. Elijah was trying to communicate with me. He realized that I hadn't understood him and rephrased. It was awesome.

The other story: Miciah and Elijah were in the other room. I heard Miciah tell Elijah that she was in charge. Elijah said, "No! I charge!" They fought for a moment and then Elijah came into my room. He said, "Miciah, (something something) charge. No! I charge! Right?" I said sure. He then said, "Right. Okay." and left the room.

Miciah

Miciah is still a doll and is amazingly responsible and thoughtful. She's the little woman of the house and I love it. On New Years Eve she was trying to repeat a phrase someone was telling her. She came over to me and said, "I want the munchies." What? "I NEED the munchies." I just busted up laughing. She finally came out with "I've got the munchies." ... Miciah has things down, and now we're teaching her all the subtle things you don't think about when they don't get even the general rule. Like that it's rude to talk over someone. Or it's rude to keep playing with a toy when an adult, at their house, says, "Miciah I don't like you playing with that toy." It's like she's between worlds now. She's no longer a little kid, but she's not fully understanding things either. So it's fun to identify things I'm not sure I really would have put together otherwise.

Teancom

And Teancom gave us a wonderful gift for Christmas. He rolled over for the first time ever on Christmas Day. He's late, according to the doctors. But whatever. What a thoughtful kid, giving us something for Christmas! He has since almost mastered rolling over from back to front, too, and that won't be too far behind. 5 months till he can roll front to back and another week until he gets the back to front. We can handle that. Teancom is very smiley and loves to laugh. ... We thought Elijah was the best baby in the world, but Teancom is quickly taking that prize from him. The sleeping 12 hours through the night helps his case a LOT. :)

And that's our holiday season. Not that you neccessarily cared that much, and if you didn't I hope you stopped reading a while ago. Now we get ready for our January off! We leave Friday to go to Utah for a week and then California. It will be a fun, long trip and we're really looking forward to seeing everyone and getting a little break.

Hope everyone had a very wonderful Christmas and New Year! We love you all.

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom

Here is our latest family picture, taken on our anniversary.

November 21 – 26, 2000 – Thanksgiving in California

November 21 – 26, 2000 – Thanksgiving in California

My parents had not met Rob. They were in California and it’d only been 3 months now. So I invited Rob home with me for Thanksgiving. He would have stayed in Utah with his extended family, but was just as anxious as I was for him to meet my family. I knew they would like him.

We set off for California on the 21st with L, J, and Janine who is also from my home town. We stayed that night at a hotel in attached rooms. The main room had 2 double beds. The attached room had a single queen bed or something like that. Anyways, L and J got the room with the single bed and that left Rob and Janine and me in the main room. I slept in the bed with Janine and Rob slept in the other bed by himself. This was really weird. It made me very glad Janine was with us, or it would have been exceptionally weird. But we had fun. I remember joking around and throwing pillows and stuff.

The next day, the 22nd, I’m pretty sure I forced Rob to sing “Old Man River” for my family, in the car. I was so in love with Rob and loved his voice and wanted everyone else to love it, too. So I was always asking him to sing (as I still always am). Sometime later on the drive Rob and I were talking in the back seat. I told him something I had told a few other people, but never had told Rob. I told him I didn’t like the way he kissed. I don’t recall what it was that I didn’t like about it, but I didn’t like it. So he said he’d work on it.

Rob: She didn’t just tell me. I had to pry it out of her. She was worried about how I would take the criticism. I have to admit it did hurt a little, but I would rather have known something like that than kiss her for the rest of my life and have her not really enjoy it. This may sound weird but I made the matter a matter of prayer. I felt it was important to have my future wife enjoy kissing me so I prayed about how I might make this a more enjoyable experience. The ideas came flooding in.

Later that day, at my parents house now, he kissed me and I fell in love all over again. I remember being blown away that he had been able so quickly to change how he kissed me so that I really liked it. I asked him how he did it and he just said he prayed. Wow. I liked it. All of it: the kissing and the praying.

Thanksgiving went fine. I remember that Rob was in charge of the mashed potatoes and he mixed them until they didn’t have lumps any more, and then found out my dad likes it with lumps in it. And I think I again ate a full pumpkin pie in a day. I do that most Thanksgivings. Rob also had a talk with my dad. It wasn’t to get “permission” from him, because I give the permission, but I did want Rob to talk to him. From what Rob’s told me, it wasn’t much of a talk. Later Dad would tell me that Rob is the best of the best of men. I doubt he had such glowing things to say about me.

Rob: This is the way the conversation went. I asked if he was OK with me marrying his daughter. He responded by asking if it mattered what he thought and whether it would change whether I married his daughter or not. I told him no, that I was going to marry her either way. He then said it didn’t matter then what he thought. He then asked if I realized what I was getting into by marrying Tamra. I later found out I had no idea.

The next day, the 23rd, we had Jane and Phil over. I had invited them over to “grill Rob” about marrying me. It was sort of a quality check. Phil was too soft on him, but he approved whole-heartedly. Jane is a little jaded from her personal experience, so she objected to us getting married. Not because she objected to Rob, but because she objected to anyone getting married young. This annoyed me a little, but I kind of liked that she was razzing Rob, too.

Rob: I only really remember the end of this conversation. I remember telling the both of them that I was sure it would work out. Jane looked at me and told me that I couldn’t really be sure. I responded simply by saying that I knew myself and knew that this marriage would work and that we would be happy. I’m not sure they believed me but I think they were impressed with my confidence and willingness to stand up for myself and our decision. They at least knew I was committed.

It was probably later that night, before bed, that we talked. Rob and I were kissing and I remember we got into a position that I wasn’t comfortable with. I trust Rob to behave himself, but I wasn’t comfortable. I remember asking Rob why we were laying that way. He said he didn’t know. There was something about his answer that reminded me of JH and so made me a little defensive on the spot. He then quickly remedied the situation and I thought he was mad at me. He told me he appreciated that I would tell him what I was comfortable with and not comfortable with. He said that all a woman ever had to do for him to not do something was tell him it made her uncomfortable. I was amazed and impressed that any male could be so controlled and caring.

We also talked that night about one of my main fears in marrying Rob. Rob is gentle and loving, but he is big. What if he ever hit me? I might not survive. I am little and he is big and this is a little scary to me. He told me that he would never hit me and I didn’t need to worry about that. I told him I trusted him, but how could I know for sure? And he used the trump card: prayer. He said, “You get down and pray right now and ask if I will ever hit you.” He talked about how abuse is a gross misuse of the Priesthood and we prayed about it all, though I doubt at this point I was comfortable enough to pray out loud. So either I said a prayer silently or Rob said a prayer for us, but either way, at the end, I just hugged Rob and my fears were quieted. I knew he was a good man and that he’d never abuse me or our future children.

The next day, the 25th, I took Rob to see a little bit of my home town Not that there’s much to see, mind you, but I wanted to show him around and I wanted some time with just him, too. So we went to the parking garage downtown. It has a pretty good view of town. And then I took him to the park at the top of the only hill in town. I ran Cross Country there a lot in High School. The park was closed, so we parked close and walked up the hill. I hate that hill. The hill gives a pretty good view of the town, as well. We made out a little at that park, which is something we’d never done before. I hadn’t ever been tempted to kiss Rob too much, cause I didn’t like how he kissed. Kissing had been like a chore. But now it was nice and it was tempting.

We drove back to Utah on the 26th. Janine was getting a ride back with someone else, so it was just L and J and Rob and me. This made it more tempting, too. L and J did all the driving, so it was just Rob and me in the back to cuddle. Janine wasn’t there, so there was no one else to chaperone. And then it got dark and Rob and I got back to making out. While making out is fun and I liked it, we knew we could quickly get ourselves into trouble if we followed that path. We agreed to not make out any more until we got married. And we stuck to that.

written Spring 2006

November 17 and 18, 2000 – Men’s Chorus Concerts

November 17 and 18, 2000 – Men’s Chorus Concerts

Men’s Chorus has a following: all the girlfriends of the men in Men’s Chorus. I went to virtually every rehersal that semester, once Rob and I were serious. I would bring my homework and do that for an hour while I listened. It was very fun. And so I knew just about every song they sang word-for-word. I knew when they were off and when they were on. I knew when a part didn’t come in or a section missed their note. It was fun to have the time to go to so many of Rob’s things. Rob loves music.

I don’t remember much about the Men’s Chorus Concert. I know that in their combined concert at the start of the year they stole the show (like they do every year). They walked in singing “Stouthearted Men” and the audience went wild. Men’s Chorus always is the favorite.

written Spring 2006

September 12, 2000 – Hearing Rob Sing

September 12, 2000 – Hearing Rob Sing

At this point in our relationship, I was desperately looking for ways to spend time with Rob. Without being incredibly forward and asking him out every night, I had to look for other things to do. So I kept watch. For instance:

example A: I wanted to go to World of Dance. Rob also wanted to go. I mentioned World of Dance to him and made sure that we decided to go together. Very innocent, of course, but, I will admit, conniving. We ended up going together (we don’t remember the exact date, but it was probably some time in September), but only because shortly after he bought the tickets I called him up and asked him about it. He had forgotten that we had decided to go together and was about to ask another girl. This is why I called, cause I figured he had forgotten. We had a fun time together.

Rob: I was going to ask Shanda (remember Shanda from the Ward FHE). I had decided that I was doing too many things with Tamra and that I needed to broaden my horizons. I didn’t really want to go with Tamra but I remember this date being quite a pivotal moment in our relationship. After this date, I spent really most of my time with Tamra. If I had asked Shanda to World of Dance I might not be writing this story.

example B: Rob and Dave, Rob’s room mate, ended up being my hometeachers. Coincidental, again, but okay with me. In fact, I had people tell me that I couldn’t date Rob cause he was my hometeacher. We were dating BEFORE he was made my hometeacher, so I said it was okay. Anyways. When Rob and Dave had their first tests, I brought them both a half gallon of ice cream and a note. Mainly I did this so I could bring a note and ice cream to Rob and see him again. I figured if I included Dave, it would be a little less obvious that I was mercilessly courting Rob. I had no interest in Dave. … Rob still cites this instance as why he married me. He was conditioned to like me: Tamra = ice cream. Ice cream = good. Tamra = good.

example C: I would randomly show up at Rob’s apartment to talk. It would be to talk to Rob, but sometimes he wasn’t there. So I’d talk to Dave or any of the other guys. It helped, again, that Dave was my hometeacher, so I could use that as an excuse. I don’t think Rob noticed that I was just “popping up” in random places of his life. One of the times I showed up Rob was in the shower, so I talked to Dave until Rob was out. Dave was a dufus. He infuriated me. He said that night that men and women don’t talk the same language and it’s impossible to communicate across genders because women are so touchy-feely and all men think about is football and doughnuts. I said that Rob was good at communicating with women. Dave said that most men aren’t like Rob. And with Rob in earshot I told Dave that I would marry someone like Rob, and not someone like him.

example D: I found out, craftily, what most of Rob’s schedule for the day was. So I knew at certain times he would be passing by certain places of campus, most likely. So I would go and study on the grass by the sidewalk in hopes of seeing him. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. In my defense, I liked to study on the grass around campus anyway and people-watch. It’s comforting to me. And also in my defense, often when he’d finally come I’d be asleep, so it was his choice to wake me up and say hi. The first time he woke me up to say hi it freaked me out and I think I jumped.

example E: And my example E is September 12, going to hear him sing. He had said he liked to sing and said he was pretty good at it. So I told him, more than once, that I wanted to hear him sing. He had mentioned that he was going to go sing at some function his grandmother was having. I tried to be as casual as possible and say that I wanted to go. I think he almost didn’t invite me to go (it wasn’t one of those kinds of functions where you invite people to hear you sing), and I think I had to call him again and ask him about it. But, eventually what I wanted happened, and I got to go. That’s the night I met Aunt Becky. She was accompanying Rob. I fell in love with her cause she’s so stinkin’ funny. Grandma and Grandpa D were there but didn’t have much time to do more than say hi to me once. They were in charge of the function.

Rob: I believe I sang “Old Man River,” and “Honor and Arms.”

I was blown away by Rob’s voice and I fell in love with him even more.

Afterwards he said he wanted to eat, so asked if I had time to go out to eat with him. Really I didn’t, but I wanted to be with Rob, so I said yes. We went to some Mexican restaurant in downtown Provo. I don’t remember the name of it, but it’s on the NW corner of University Avenue and Center Street. We had a good time, as we always did. I was often asking Rob questions as some sort of “test” to see what he’d say. I remember on a different night, after we’d gone to see a BYU Men’s Soccer Game and we were walking home, I asked him what his philosophy of life was. I remember the answer he gave me because it’s the same answer he still would give and has given several other times. He said, “eternal.” Eternal? He explained that on his mission he was challenged by another elder to come up with a one-word answer to how we should live. Of course, this is difficult to do, and he searched the scriptures to come up with eternal. We should live our lives eternally. (At least that’s how I’ve always understood the answer.) I remember not quite liking the answer (I wasn’t sure it fit the question of the philosophy of life), but I was impressed none-the-less. Anyways, to say the least, Rob was quickly passing with flying colors all the tests I was throwing at him.

At this restaurant they sat us at a booth with two names on them. A guy’s name on one side and a girl’s on the other. I asked what these were for. They said they were the names of people who had met at the booth and later got married. I remember thinking that I was sad that Rob and I hadn’t just met that day so our names could get on a booth, too.

I also insisted on paying. I had to really insist. I remember him objecting and me looking at him and saying that he had paid for me and a bunch of girls just 2 weeks prior and asking him if he was made of money. He said he wasn’t and actually was having to work hard to put himself through school, and that really money was tight. What a goofball, insisting on paying when money was tight! I told him money wasn’t so tight for me, so I was going to pay. He was grateful.

And I wasn’t even late to what I was supposed to be at. I don’t remember why, but I had an interview with the Bishop. It was probably a get-to-know-you type interview. Maybe it was for a calling, I don’t know. But the bishop was running late anyway, so it didn’t matter.

written Spring 2006