BREEZY FIELDS

It's a good thing this kid is so cute because he's getting destructive. He can reach into drawers, pull books off the shelves, dump out dog food. For some reason I thought his power of reasoning had somehow advanced him beyond this stage. I mean he's been so mature. He's found joy in CLEANING UP! Evidently not the case, but... he has figured out how to pose for the camera- kind of.

Did you know that fish have loins? Evidently they do because for dinner tonight I grilled individually wrapped, frozen, Talapia loins from Costco. Who Knew?

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...