BREEZY FIELDS

Today I got teary when I walked into the commissary. I know, as my title states. I haven't been to the commissary for a few months and I just had a feeling of home (as much as I truly dislike the commissary- it is such a huge task, shopping list, boy child throwing butter and clorox wipes and blocks of cheese out of the cart over and over again, overflowing shopping cart- 40 minute drive). But... it was comfortable and familiar and brought back memories of living in Germany and Georgia. I love it here, I really do (almost all the time, my blog last week is evidence of that) but I still miss Germany and Georgia. My heart aches for both of those places. The humidity, sun, storms, green grass, fireflies, wisteria, spanish moss. Our idyllic little lifestyle in our protected little neighborhoods. Walks on warm evenings with kids and bikes and stroller and husband or friends. Sundresses and sandals and no need for a jacket. Great local restaurants, early morning or late...

Sawyer whippin' up a little dog food a la creme .  We are so proud. My new IKEA island .  I can now interact with Ellyn as she eats her breakfast and I make lunches every morning.  I can be with everybody preparing dinner, the girls can help more easily when we bake cookies.  Luckily this house just screams IKEA vs. Pottery Barn.  I have resigned myself to living an IKEA life vs. the other.  Luckily I love it, because my family is crazy hard on stuff.  Dad, dogs, Ellyn, Sadie, and Sawyer.  Jane and I could live in the Pottery Barn house.  Except I'm clumsy.  That's no good.  I caught an old piece of toast on fire this week.  Flames were pouring out of my toaster oven.  My stupid fire alarm didn't even go off and we even tested to make sure our batteries were working.  That makes me feel safe.  So... no Pottery Barn.  I can walk by the windows and admire from afar. Our new comfy, reclining, corduroy, chair thing.  We love it.  Yes, that's a can of Crisco.  In our ki...

I was going to do a little blogging, a little picture posting, but I am SOOOO tired and so I am going to call Mike and then go to sleep before 10:00. I'm pretty excited about it. This is a very, very busy week. My living room is suffering. Night, night.

I am pleased to say that I am back in a happy place. For now. Hopefully it will last until next Wednesday when my very best friend from high school, Megan, comes down to play with me for a long weekend. I am so thrilled. No, it isn't a suicide watch, this was planned a few weeks ago. I already have our visit planned and I am praying for good weather. If not, we will still have fun. That much I know. Also, my plumber came today and fixed my clogged toilet (we don't know how) that I found had backed up into my shower when I went in to get ready for church on Sunday. Also, the leak under the kitchen sink (broken nut), and the original leak in the basement (garage). He was supposed to have been here last week but his wife nearly died from an allergic reaction to an antibiotic- very scary. She's okay now. Lucky for me he didn't because then I would have had to call him back for the toilet issue and that would have been on my dime. I thought I had it all unclogged...

Let me preface this by saying that I cheated. I have 15 songs. This is not entirely my fault. Mike and I were on the phone as I made my list and he kept coming up with songs that I had to add. Of course once I started listening to said song I couldn't not add it. There is definitely a period in my life where I listened to more music of my choosing. Now it's whatever makes the kids happy or NPR. I am an NPR junkie. I did not include in Erasure or ABBA, which I feel kind of weird about. Thanks Adina, for covering Erasure, that saved me a bit. Okay enough babbling. Sweet Caroline- Neil Diamond. My dad used to blast Neil Diamond from the stereo while we cleaned the house. It reminds me of him, of being a kid, and of listening to it later with Mike. It Takes Two -Rob Base. My sophomore year of high school. My freshman and sophomore years of high school were some of the happiest, most carefree years of my life. This song was played at assemblies, at games, in my frien...

I think I'm there, hanging on by a frayed thread. Man was not meant to be alone and neither was woman, not for this long anyway. I'm doing what I can to attempt sanity, I really am. I spent yesterday and this morning reorganizing my kitchen. My hopes- that a little less clutter and a little more streamlining might make my life a little less chaotic. But... the dogs are stunting my eternal progression. I swear like a sailor, argue with my 12 year old, and feel like a shrew. I have never really considered myself an animal lover per say but Cody is doing his best to take me in the other direction. We are repotty training- again. Since the dogs stopped using the garden area on the patio for their bathroom spot and started using the entire patio once they started spending more time indoors it became necessary to retrain them without use of the doggie door. Hopefully the dogs and I will both live through this process. They have two more weeks to figure it out. Will Cody ev...

Yep, that's a scorpion. Daddy brought it home for Sadie. She didn't believe it was real for the longest time, then she was furious, then she embraced it. He had to actually get her to stop licking it. Crazy girl. Sawyer is sad about something. I can't remember what, but isn't that a cute sad face? Ellie was so, so, happy.

It's hard not to feel a little bit down after such a wonderful family (Mike) weekend. Did I mention it's pouring rain as well? This separation thing is for the birds. I can't say today was all about missing the Lovey-dovey. I missed another adult. What would I do if I had to work in the mills or something (currently reading, actually listening, to a book on tape while running on my treadmill and it involves mill workers in the 1930s- don't worry, it's nothing deep)? It is 8:23 and I am exhausted. I changed four poopy diapers today, including a total blow out. I took the dogs for a walk, met with the plumber- after pulling several loads out of the garage. I made several phone calls, took Sawyer to the Dr. because his little thumb has become infected, stopped by the grocery store for antibiotics and bread and bananas, put together my swivel chair and built my IKEA "island" and rearranged the kitchen, had a home visit from Ellyn's school psychologi...

Friday, when the girls came home from school, I told them that we needed to hurry and get our Friday afternoon housework done (ideally the house gets cleaned top to bottom on Friday afternoons) because we had a trip to take. I told them that we had to drive up to San Francisco to pick up our friend Rebecca's friend because Rebecca was having car troubles. To which Jane answered "well that's nice of us." We happily loaded in the car at 8 ish, put in a movie, stopped for gas, Tootsie Rolls- the giant ones I treat myself to when driving any sort of distance, and a Mt. Dew (Sawyer had a fever Thursday night after his vaccinations, I was up alot), and we were on our way. By the time we arrived Sadie was the only one awake. I called back to Jane to wake up and help me look for "Sarah" by the Southwest baggage claim. Suddenly a man in an orange jacket and blond hair started knocking at the back window. It startled everyone, the girls were completely confused...

It's been on of those weeks. The kind where you finally sit down at 9:00 at night and realize that is the first time you've sat all day. Except for in the car of course, somehow that doesn't count. So this morning I am just taking few minutes to chill. Actually, I don't know how long that will last because I just glanced over at the pile of magazines Sawyer pulled to the floor right before I laid him down for his nap (I wrote put him down, but after describing the magazine pile it sounded too morbid, like I had "done him in." Not my cute Sawyer, possibly the two furry beasts that share my dwelling) and I am already feeling the cleaning itch. The itch that never goes away because these days my house goes from clean to chaos in less than 10 seconds. This is only a slight exaggeration. It has been lovely here, mid 70s all week and again today. I do not want the cold weather to return, I want it this way for a REALLY LONG time. It has made me very happy, ...

Sadie: I guessed that I was a Champion and then when I came back from P.E. I looked on the board and saw my name. I was a Champion writer. Lillyana was not a champion and I felt bad for her. Other people in my class guessed that they were a champion and they were champions. I just played wii fit alot. My favorite was all of them. We made popcorn and had ice cream and played wii fit and now we are going to get on mom's bed and watch Hannah Montana. So far we had alot of fun. I love mom. Sawyer smashed his thumb. He fell with a can in his hand. His thumb is purple. I keep thinking daddy is in his chair. I really miss him alot. I really do. It is torturing me how much he leaves. I want to see him right now. I wish he never had to leave for six more weeks and six is as many as me. Dad, you are the best dad. I love you. The End

Ellyn loves to check out the lights on the stereo. What could be better than High School Musical on Sadie's shuffle? Ellie loved it and is FINALLY getting the hang of headphones.

It had been really loose but I had shown great restraint. No pinning down and yanking like I've done with the other two girls. Okay, yes, I did pin her down for this picture however. It made me cry when I discovered it was loose, my little baby girl is growing up.

My kids love Frosted Mini Wheats. When we go to Costco I almost always get the double bag box. However, it had been awhile (good sale on cereal at the commissary). Well it is back in the house and now the tradition that started with single boxes in Germany is continuing. Jane always eats breakfast before Sadie wakes up. If she pours herself a bowl of mini wheats and she finds two stuck together she wraps it up and tells me to give it to Sadie. In turn, when Sadie eats her mini wheats she looks for the one with the very most frosting on it and wraps it up and saves it for Janie. Funny, quirky, and very sweet. Also, one of those things that is likely to get forgotten with time.

On the 18th of December Mike and I celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary. In some ways it feels like yesterday. There are some things I remember so vividly (and some I can't remember to save my life) about that day. I remember making my mom cry the night before because I wanted her to add one more pleat to the shawl collar on my dress (thanks mom). I remember actually being on time (for once) to the temple but they had told us the wrong time and I only had 10 minutes to get dressed. I remember seeing Mike and how absolutely gorgeous he looked. He had just gotten his hair cut and I think to this day it is still the best haircut he's had in his entire life (not to say you don't get great hair cuts now babe- that one was incredibly hot). I remember someone making fun of me for the grandma kiss I gave Mike over the alter. How was I supposed to know? I hadn't ever been to a temple wedding and we were in the temple- really? I should have laid one on him? Had I ...

This morning we took Mike to the San Jose airport. He will be in D.C. for 6 weeks and he is already greatly missed. I have to say that we have talked on the phone about 5 times today. I can not tell you how great it is to know that I can call him anytime I want- or at least leave a message. Six weeks and then he will be home for like 119 weeks. I guess I can live with that. Tomorrow school starts. Reality begins again. I don't know that I can do the 5:30 thing again. At least we got stuff put together for morning. I am going to bed at 9:15, that is very exciting to me. Have I ever mentioned how very little sleep my husband needs and also that he loves me to be awake when he is awake? He did watch the kids while I took some very lovely naps during this break. I am grateful for that and...I don't really like the idea of him being awake without me either. I just wish he liked to sleep more. Actually, I wish Ellyn and Sawyer like to sleep more too. I also wish I co...

AS PROMISED... The Gong Jane gongs the gong I gong the gong. It was all I had ever dreamed of, truly. Sadie gongs the gong- she was freezing. Mike gonged the gong too but he wouldn't stay long enough for a picture. Party pooper. New Year's Morning- Rootbeer hangover Helicopter flying at the park New Year's Day Ellyn lovin' the playground Is he not the most handsome thing on the planet? I submit that he is indeed.

Tonight we were supposed to get together with our friends the Ellisons but Christine and I both voted that this was going to be a low key year and we were just going to "hunker down" with our own families. I can't tell you how pleased I was that she was feeling the same way I was feeling. It was going to be husbandless because hers had to work (he's an ER Doctor) and Mike had to study for the GRE and work on unpacking his stuff that the movers just brought today. It was going to be games and a movie and an early night, but still... A. I didn't want to leave Mike seeing as he is leaving me again for 6 weeks on Sunday and 2. I have tons of laundry to catch up on seeing as how our dryer died the day before we left for Washington and we didn't get our new one (not really new, Craig's List, I am scheming for a new set next year and didn't want to pour money into anything else)until this afternoon. I don't want you to even know how much laundry ou...