BREEZY FIELDS

I have been corresponding with a claims officer about the damages incurred during our move. It has been a little frustrating because the man I have been dealing with has been giving me different information than what I initially received and so I've scanned some documents and offered to scan more in an effort to get the correct amount for our claim. This has been incredibly irritating, especially because there is always a delay of several days in the reply. On Friday I decided that I would email this man again to confirm that he received my scanned documents, and truthfully I was feeling a bit snippish. I put in his name to search my gmail, instead of scanning through old mail. Along with the move correspondence several other emails were displayed. These were from CPT Dykema in Germany and they were from last summer. One was a casualty notification for a CPL with the same last name as my claims officer, the other two following were details regarding his memorial service. Th...

Sadie, we love you. You are sunshine. You make our house a funny and happy place to be. I can't believe how blessed daddy and I are, that Heavenly Father would send you to be a part of our family. I love the way you play so hard with Sawyer. I love how gentle and loving you are with Ellyn. I love the way you and Jane choose to do things together, just the two of you. There is a reason you make friends everywhere you go, there's a reason "about 20 boys" like you. You are fun and you are nice and you are as sassy as can be. I love that you love our family so much, that you love playing at the beach and going camping and reading Nancy Drew books. You are a special girl and I love watching you grow up, I just wish it wasn't happening so quickly. I love you my sweet girl. love, your mom

All is going well here. We just got back from another camping trip. This one was with Mike's old ward from before his mission. His family is still in close contact with many of the members and a couple of Mike's friends from high school and their families were there, as well as Mike's parents and his sister Kim, her husband Treven, and my two very cute nieces. We had an absolute blast. Sadie was friends with EVERYONE in the entire camp. I'm not kidding, we would be walking along and strangers would call out "hi Sadie" everywhere we went. The girl is social. Jane made great friends with Sarah, the daughter of one of Mike's best friends from high school and they spent the whole weekend playing together. Ellyn loves camping and so does Sawyer. We played down at the river, Jane road a tandem bike (two were brought for the ward to use) every day at least a few times and took me out for a ride as well. The girls were able to spend some time floating in a couple...

It used to be that I sang alot. Sang in high school choirs, sang in church choirs, sang with small groups for various church activities through the years. You know, music was always there. I knew I wasn't the best singer in the world- no Natalie Merchant- but I loved it. Music really makes me happy. I did, however, wonder when my voice would be rich and big and beautiful like my mom's. In my teens I thought it would be in my twenties. In my twenties I decided that I would always sound like a small child when I sang next to my mom. Last night I received my A.I. revelation. Adam and Kris were the last two in the competition. I have always adored Adam, I mean the guy sings "Mad World" and I get the chills, but all of the sudden I found that Kris was growing on me. Adam's voice was bigger, more impressive, but Kris' was simple, straight forward, and nice to listen to as well. It suited him and the songs he chose to sing. He had his own part to play. I...

Also, if it could pack for camping trips, help with diaramas, and figure out costumes for Spirit Week that would be peachy as well.

Did I spell that right? Does spellcheck check your title? I don't know. I do know this. Two different women found two different parts of Mike's wallet and its contents and went through a great deal of effort to find his number and call him. How cool is that? We figure he must have left it on the roof of the car Friday night when he was getting groceries for the soothing of Sawyer (you know, icecream) out of the car. Then... in the wee small hours of the morning, when I drove away with Jane for the field trip we did not see said wallet on the roof and it made the leap into the great unknown. Everyone needs a little adventure. All I can say is "thank you good kind ladies, you make the world a better place." In other news, Sawyer was up much of the night last night with a fever and a vomiting episode. We spent time with the urologist and our family Dr. today. If his fever is not gone tomorrow we are into the hospital for bloodwork and a urine sample. He is ...

Exhausting weekend. Jane's school swept the competition yesterday, the choirs, bands, and orchestra all won first place. It was a little emotional actually. The kids did a fantastic job. After the competition we bussed over to Great America for an extremely hot day at the park. Chaperoning kids is like herding cats. The good news is that Jane made a friend with a cute little girl in our group. They had a great time. We left at 6:00 a.m. and walked in the door at 11p.m. We were pooped. Meanwhile... back at the ranch Mike babysat a very sore Sawyer. A sore and nauseous Sawyer, and cleaned up two up chuck episodes, four poopy diapers, and spent the day looking for his wallet and taking the three kids for little drives to escape the 90+ degree weather. He did not have the best day. We have continued to look all day today but the wallet remains unfound. Pretty frustrating. Hopefully it will turn up soon. So...like I said, I hope the week proves a little less stressful. Saw...

Wow, it has been awhile since I made a real entry. I started one, but alas, it is still in draft form. So what has been going down at the Stinchfield's besides a couple of great camping trips? Mike played Mr. Mom for a few days while I took a little trip to Utah to visit my wonderful friend, Patti, and her adorable kids. I love them and I miss them. It was so fun. I also love that I have a fab husband that did everything so willingly and has now taken over getting Ellyn and Jane out the door for school every morning so that I can get a headstart on getting things together in the house. These days I have so little time for housework, laundry, blah, blah, blah... that an hour in the morning is just what I need. It also gives me time to do my running during Sawyer's nap time. I don't know if he will be able to continue once his school starts but it sure helps now. Oh, by the by, we won the Lottery for the St. George marathon- exciting! After my trip to Utah I was hom...

Muir Woods - Mother's Day Weekend Posted by Mike at 7:55 PM Beautiful Mom Posted by Mike at 7:51 PM Pics from our Campground-Mother's Day Posted by Mike at 7:50 PM Mother's Day Weekend Camping Posted by Mike at 7:49 PM 18K run pics from this weekend Posted by Mike at 7:48 PM Pics from my Mt. Tam 18K run Posted by Mike at 7:47 PM Some April Camping Pics and Sadie Posted by Mike at 7:44 PM

Over the past few weeks Sadie has been venturing into a few theories of her own as to how babies are made. Her latest- a pill that Heavenly Father sends down to your house, you find it, and on the pill it says "Eat this to have a baby." Luckily I have not found any such pills at this house, if I did I think I would perhaps regift it to a younger cousin or maybe to one of my sister in laws. There should be no such pills sneaking onto my countertop, waiting quietly by my toothbrush, or perhaps next to my water glass at the kitchen sink. This would be an effective method though. I was sharing this latest development with Mike and he laughed and suggested it might be time to "have the talk." Mike-"Wasn't Jane this age when she found out?" Me- "Yeah, but...." and we both cringed- our Sadie. Jane was almost exactly Sadie's age when I found out I was pregnant with Ellyn (I could be wrong, my mind isn't really working too well as of 2004...