BREEZY FIELDS

Darla, it doesn't offend me in the least. Check out the floor of our shower!

I have to tell this story before it expires in relevance. It needs to be recorded as one of my first memories of our house. I have mentioned before that this house is really just a glorified cabin. I'm not kidding when I say that. You can look up at the ceiling and between the wood slats you can see the black plastic covering that goes directly under the shingles. There is no insulation. So late one night (about 12:30) I was on-line with Mike and we were just finishing e-mailing back and forth (chat is not available where he is). It was pitch black, except for the glow from my laptop, when all of the sudden I hear this huge, heavy thud and scrambling on the roof right over my head. I quickly wrote to Mike and asked him to stay on, that I had just heard a scary noise on the roof, this is while I was trying to not need to change my sheets (here's a little pointer, when your husband is halfway around the world and it's the middle of the night and you hear a scary noise...

Well another day has come to a close. I kept my temper, most of the day. Besides Sadie climbing up on the table and standing up there to play with Sawyer amidst all of the dinner dishes and stepping on the lap top and Jane telling me as we are about to get into bed that we have to remember her tennis shoes and socks tomorrow and me making her go set them out and her being a big wimp about going into the kitchen, besides those times I did pretty well. So I have scheduled the fixing of the dogs. Joe lifted his leg to pee this morning and again at the meadow this afternoon, not a good sign. The vet uses a laser, pretty impressive, state of the art testosterone destroyer. So Thursday morning at 9:00 they will meet their doom. Hopefully our last big expense for the puppies in their long life. Today was a good day. Sawyer and I got some errands done, picked up Ellyn, and then went to Wal-mart for a phone and a toaster oven and a longer ethernet cable. We came home and ate lunch and p...

So today was supposed to be a nice lazy day but I made the mistake of thinking that we had taken the dogs out later than we actually did last night and this morning Joe had an accident in his crate. I hurried and took Cody out to tinkle but didn't let him poop in my anxiety over getting Joe cleaned up and so... while I was bathing Joe, Cody pooped in his crate. I swear, they must have known they were finally getting back on my good side after a month of spending almost all of my free thinking time wondering if I could talk the girls into selling them on Craig's List (I know, I am a bad AND stupid person). But it was all my fault and I couldn't blame them too much. They have been really good and now that they are getting used to the house they aren't barking nearly as much as they were. There was only one way to go really. Anyway, I had given Cody a trim last night and then Sawyer was to ornery for me to do Joe so today I bathed both dogs, cleaned their crates, an...

Monday we went to the aquarium and had a really great time. We bought our family membership and we are anxious to go back as often as we can. Sadie and Jane explored all the touch pools together while I tried to keep Sawyer from climbing in for a swim and Ellyn from ripping apart all of the delicate sea life. A fun time had by all. The jelly fish, tuna, sharks, and sardines were awesome. My favorite were the jelly fish. they have a huge special exhibit going right now. What was not awesome was our trip to KFC beforehand but that is another story.

I know I have a lot of catching up to do but if I don't go with the current I will never get on track. So...I will write about the present and then backtrack as time permits. As a side note I have to explain that I do not have a router right now. I have a very short ethernet cable that I have plugged into the modem in the corner or my bedroom. This makes being on the computer difficult so until my furniture arrives mid September the joy of journal keeping (this is what I tell myself- joy) is slightly, actually drastically, less joyful. Sawyer thinks this is his time to climb all over me, the computer, the modem,cables, cords, etc... He just has to give me one of his ginormous grins though and he is totally off the hook. So here are the girls on their first day of school- after school, like I could even think through getting a picture yesterday morning. Ellyn's shirt says "I am who I am" and I can't think of anything more appropriate. So we found out a few d...

I'm just checking in for the night. We had a pretty good day. We went to our community park and had a picnic but we had to leave because Ellyn kept trying to go to the pool and we hadn't planned on swimming. Got the details on the pool though. They keep it open until the 28th of September, just on the weekends. Pretty pricey- six bucks a person no matter what age- makes me miss Germany. We paid 5 euro for everyone and had 5 great pools to choose from. Oh well... then we left and went to the Dennis the Menace playground and that was very fun. It made me feel a little lonely though. Jane and Sadie went running off and I had the two little ones and I realized that I always have a friend or a sibling with me at the playgrounds when I take the kids. Sawyer and Ellyn were so cute though. We played in the sand and on the swings. Sawyer is officially waving and saying "hi" now. Sporadic but it is still happening. On the way home I decided we would take a look at...

My amazing sister-in-law, Adina, wrote this up and I had to transfer it to my blog. It is so funny, so Stinchfield, so us. I talked to Mike this morning and he said he was reading it and picturing me laughing the whole way through. He thought it was hilarious- and accurate. WHAT IT REALLY MEANS WHEN YOUR HUSBAND SAYS THE FOLLOWING THINGS: "What's your problem?": This is his oh-so-sensitive version of "Are you okay?" or "Is something wrong?". This questions often prompts a "nothing" response...for some reason. "Hey, come and look at this (on the computer)": Don't look. If you do look, don't tell him you like it in any form. He will interpret interest as: "I love it. We need it. Buy it now." "It costs about $.....": Add 50% to this figure and you are getting close. "Let's go.": This means HE is ready to go and will be out in the car. Do not take this as any offer to help YOU or the kids be ...

Today was my Janie's birthday. Luckily we celebrated it in Washington because we weren't able to do much today. We registered the two oldest girls for school and went to lunch at a little Pizza place. We did have brownies and milk for dinner though! Where do I even start with my Jane? She has been so much a part of my life for so long. She has been my best little friend forever, so many years with just Jane, Mike, and me. I'm pretty sure that she sometimes wishes she were an only child again but I can't even imagine a better oldest sister. Jane has a gift for caring for others. She is kind, patient, thoughtful. She is responsible, hard working, and fun. I don't know how I would have done this deployment without her. She has been my little helper, actually huge helper. I am so proud of her and the young woman she is becoming. I know she will do great things. She has so much integrity and love, I know she will always find friends wherever she goes in thi...

I hope. Things are going fairly well. Just settling in and trying to get the kids registered, groceries, everything... Will detail later.

We have had a great few days. On Friday mom and I took the girls shopping. My thoughtful brother in law, Brent, arranged for Meagan, Ellyn, and me to get a Friends and Family coupon for the Gap and Old Navy. So we went out and spent money all day! We got some FABULOUS deals and got the kids some really cute clothes to start out the school year. My Sadie had grown out of every single pair of pants she owned. Now they will all be stylin' for their new school. After shopping we came home and showed our spoils to the sister missionaries that live in my mom's house, made dinner, and left for Esther Short Park. They were supposed to have an outside showing of Princess Bride but they ended up canceling it because of the possibility of rain. So we let the kids play on the playground for about an hour or so and left at 10:00. Yesterday we spent the day with the Stinchy's. Papa got the boat out and the Dave Stinchfield family and Brent all travelled with us up to Lake Merwin...