2007 November: Bates

The Bates Family Duo (getting ready to pull a reverse Lion King ['our duos up to 3' -abmuP & nomiT])

This month we actually had some cool-groovy news (so I guess we'll start with that). We are pregnant. We don't know exactly when Tamara is due... but it will be sometime in the summer. We are very excited to become parents and join that nobel rank already acheived by the Hopes and Robertsons.
Tamara's brother Jefferson left on his mission early this month. Because of that, we celebrated Thanksgiving a little early. Then the whole Bates family (extended Bates family) came to our house for Thanksgiving. So we whipped up a meal and had a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner. Then an even MORE extended Bates family had a reunion the day after Thanksgiving with Turkey and all the trimmings... yes, a 3rd Thanksgiving Dinner. Then Tamara's family had a left-over blow out where we all pooled our left overs to get rid of them faster... which ended up being a full on Thanksgiving Dinner. So, after 4 Thanksgiving dinners, I am very Thankful (and there's more of me to be thankful with... about 10 pounds more I'd guess).
The one really good thing about Thanksgiving was cleaning everything up so that everyone could fit in our house. We had a relatively clutter-free home, until the relatives revoked that relativity. So, our house was re-relatively cluttered by relatives. (Ok, I'll stop before this turns into "The House that Jack Built").
In other news, it appears that Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) is going to wipe out our neighborhood with a highway... so we are once again looking for a home (too bad, this one's way nice for us).
The very last piece of news is that I have started my own business on the side. It is not up and running yet, but I am writing the code for www.MissionShoeBox.com. It should be a fun site once I have it up and running. I already have all the user login code written, but still need to get all the rest of the functionality in. It is basically a place for missionaries to keep all their stuff (digital photos, video, convert info, mailing addresses, email stuff, etc...). My goal is to make it very easy for missionaries to put their stuff online, not worry about losing photos, and not worry as much about writing everyone back home, but just sending them an email BEFORE they leave with a URL that they can access and see certain things the missionary puts there. It is meant to reduce the time missionaries have to spend on PDay to email their pictures home, and email different people. It is also meant to archive their stuff forever so that instead of digging in the closet for that old "shoe box" they have full of mission stuff, they can just log into their account and see everything (even present it to other people in slideshows and the like). So, that should be fun (and hopefully at least a little profitable on the side).
So, that's pretty much it for November for us. Until the end of December (fyi we will be in Rexburg this year for Christmas. We will probably come Sunday evening the 23rd and leave Thursday afternoon). Cheers,
-Tamara & Rob