So after relaying this story to Mom this evening she told me I just had to post it on the blog. So I have created visuals to hopefully make it a little better to understand for you guys....here goes:

So my old roommate, Sandy, has just recently finished grad school and moved back to San Diego. As an athletic trainer she naturally likes to exercise and get out there and be active. So in line with my training we decided that it would be fun to run together sometimes. We went on our first run since she returned on Pacific Beach last week and it was pretty uneventful. Mostly just full of her trying to talk to me as I gasped for breath and trying to make sound come out (and yes, I am being dramatic, and yes, I know you are only supposed to run as fast as you can hold a conversation, blah blah blah, I know).

So today we decided that she would drive up to Del Mar and meet me to run the beach where I usually run during the week after work. (Red line on picture is where I run) When she finally made it through the loads of traffic caused by rush hour and the extremely nearby Del Mar Fair (whoops, forgot about that!) we made to the beach. At this point it was about 5:50ish so high tide was in full bloom. The first mile or so was just us dodging rapidly incoming waves and even faster frisbees while avoiding the occasional treat of a hole left by some of the younger variety of tourists. As we got past the park (the green below) we made it to the cliffs - where there are lots of surfers and not many others on the 3 remaining feet of beach left between the cliffs and the ocean. So we manuveured and made our way through to my trash can which is the turning point for me as of now and signals that it is time to go back.

But as I could see Torrey Pines Beach in the distance I thought it would be fun to just go a bit farther...maybe even make it to Torrey Pines and then just do the return trip on the road above. Sandy agreed so we continued on. Up to the left we could see surfers coming and going, up and down the steep cliffs to Del Mar I guess, we couldn't see the top, only a few runners heads bobbing up and down. Soon the soft sand started to get old and Torrey Pines started to look much farther away than we had previously considered so we started to look for routes up the cliffs. I mean, the surfers can do it, why can't we??

Too steep, too steep, then just right. We can do that one. So Sandy and I trudge through the really dry sand up to the cliff. To my amazement - oh...wow...that cliff is extremely more steep than it was when I was standing a mere 10 feet farther back from it. At this point Sandy was already about halfway up so here we go. Now, the cliffs in San Diego are by no means rocks...they are SAND cliffs...very unstable...So I clambored on, just one foot after the other. Don't look up - then you'll realize how far you have to go and don't even think of looking down. So I just looked at the sand, pouring away to the increasingly far away beach as I move hand then foot, secure foot then move other foot and reach. You know, I've been rock-climbing before but there is something much more comforting when you have a rope around your waist secured to something and you aren't flat against an eroding cliff in your Nike capris and Asics running shoes. Halfway up I had a moment of panic (as if I hadn't had quite a few before that) when I couldn't seem to locate a secure foothold so I could step up again. Remember this whole time Sandy is above me saying "just small steps, Marnie, just small steps" and I am not looking anywhere except directly in front of me. I finally trust a not-so-seemingly-trustworthy foothold and make the move then finally look up to see Sandy just above me, on top of the cliff, chuckling a little at my exaggerated peril. I put out a hand and said, "Stop laughing and pull me up." She did and we were safe...well we SEEMED to be.

As I brush off the sand that has clung to my sweat covered clothes I stand up to find that about 3 feet in front of me are train tracks...real, active train tracks. And there is NOTHING between us and them. No fence, no bars, nothing. But this is where people are running? There is a makeshift trail along side that continues up the beach to where we needed to go. So - onward and upward. We started to run along the trail, said hi to everyone we passed and about 2 or 3 minutes in I heard a small buzzing..."I am being paranoid," I told myself. "We are just close to the train tracks and so I am fabricating noises in my head." Just as I am telling myself this, however, we pass by a nice lady with her dog who mentions to the man she is with that this is the third train she has seen on her walk...TRAIN?!? WHAT TRAIN?!? Just as Sandy and I turn to look speeding by comes the Amtrak Coaster Train - THREE FEET TO OUR RIGHT!!! Sandy screamed, my heart jumped but it was actually kind of exhilirating (don't worry I am not going to start jumping in front of trains or anything).


We continued to run with no more trains to bother us, pointing out signs to each other that said "No Trespassing" "Unstable Cliffs" "Danger!!" "Area Closed" that were right next to about 20 runners enjoying the ocean breeze. We ran the rest of the way back to our cars on the sidewalk, trying to avoid any more life threatening situations and we managed to make it.

Anyway - it made for a rather exciting little jaunt after a full work day and now I am home to relax and think up what crazy thing we are going to do next week when we go for a run in Balboa Park!! :)

Dad and I went over this weekend partially to see what the KOA campground looked like that I had reserved for that first weekend in August. It was not too great...had some good amenities but the campsites themselves were treeless...kind of like camping in a field...

I had been calling the regular Ft Stevens State Park daily but they had no tent sites available. They did encourage me to keep calling however since people do cancel. Anyhow, I called today and we reserved two sites in the L loop (site 48 and 49) You can look on line at http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_179.php. There is a map of the campground there. This is about a fourth of the cost and MUCH nicer! The sites have electrical and water. Can you tell I am a bit excited! We can have up to 4 vehicles. 2 per site which I think is very doable!

Right now I have down that D & A and family, Peter, Anne and Andrew, and us are definites. Brent and Buffy may be there for a night or two...Kimberly is still seeing whether they...or she can make it out. The dates ar Aug 3-Aug 6. Check-in on Friday is 4 pm. Check out on Monday is 1 pm. I thought one car could carry all the worker bees that can't get off until 6 on Friday and then could go back on Sunday night or early Monday morning. It takes about 2 hours to get there. Anyone else who could come is very welcome!!!

We are busy today getting ready for Trek. Dad is also supervising a young man who is cleaning our gutters and putting the moss control up. I can then get our windows washed so that our house will look spiffy with all our new paint. We are still getting pictures on the wall. When all is put together we will post some pictures.

Love you all,

Mom

We started a new tradition for the December birthdays in our family. When they turn 4 they have a normal birthday except that they don't get a present from Mom and Dad. So yesterday was Hayden's half birthday and he got to go and pick out a "big boy bike." He was a little fickle about wanting to go but once he realized what a bike like that was he was very excited and loved the one he picked out, it's even green his favorite color! He's pretty good at riding it and looks like a real big kid!

Things here are going well here, we had a nice weekend. Tom had duty Friday night but we were able to go to the park yesterday and then in the evening we had some friends from Cleveland come over. He is in the Navy and stationed up at Camp Pendelton. They had some errands to run in San Diego so they came for dinner and to let the kids play. It was nice to have someone over and to talk to someone who really understands what we are going through! It's too bad they are an hour away.

Church was good today, Hayden and Danica went to their classes and we got to go to ours. I enjoyed a chance to talk to a few more people and got some phone numbers to hopefully meet up at the park or the pool this week. We are thinking about getting a pass to the Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, it's fairly affordable and they have evening hours during the summer so we could meet Tom down at the zoo when he gets off work. My only reservation is how well I would do going with all three kids in the near future...

I finally made it in to the OB clinic down at the hospital. After so much run around on the phone and such the solution was that I was supposed to just come in and do the paperwork and then they would try to find me an appointment. So I utilized the little day care they have at the hospital and the kids both seemed to really enjoy it. Apparently they are pretty booked up and it took her like 5 minutes to go through the computer to find me an appointment that isn't until July 11th. I'll be 34 weeks by then, it's getting way too close! I hope we are ready, especially Danica! Hayden is very excited, the other day Danica was following him around the house and I said "Your sister sure does love you!" He responded with "I love my little sister, I love both of my little sisters!!" Here's another funny thing he said, yesterday while I was walking by him while he was riding his bike he turned to me out of the blue and said "So mom, how was your doctor's check up yesterday?" He can be so thoughtful at times! He just cracks me up!

Well I could write a million more funny stories but I"m going to go watch The Prestige with Tom, a great movie we highly recommend. Talk to you later!

Short weekend trip to Cannon Beach. Weather was actually very, very nice. Great for a walk along the beach and wondering if we could really retire to a coastal community......????

So with the weather getting hotter down here in San Diego, I decided to cut the hair. I did a pretty crazy thing (but it was fun!!) and I went in to my hairstylist and said "Do whatever you want." She was really excited about it and it was really fun to not know what it was going to look like. I really like the cut - it is kinda crazy but fun. You can sorta tell what it looks like in these pictures but it is such a 3-dimensional cut that it is hard to get the full idea. The front left is longer then towards the back - shorter, then long pieces in the back, then shorter on the right front. It looked a little 70s rockstar when I left the salon but it has settled a bit more since then. :)

Hey Family,

So here I am the long lost brother who has not posted on the blog for 3 month or so. Or at least that is what I was told by Chad today on a phone call. Chad and Kristen are our good friend that live in Irvine. He checks out our blog periodically to check in on what's going on with us. So he helped me see the light.
Everthing in our house is going very well. Definately settled and loving the home. I just arrived back in town from 2 trips to very hot places. The first was to Phoenix and the second to Las Vegas. None of the days had a high less then 105 degrees. Very educational conferance though and I learn a lot about inspiring people in my life and work. I am in charge of the credit card program for Outlet in the Pacific NW so that is why I went to Vegas and was able to stay at the Marriot for 3 days and enjoy a great speech from a motivation speaker. I was very inspired by his message and it all revolves around "Finding your Red Rubber Ball". I will probably share the little book's message with some of you as I talk to you guys but it really hit me hard. It spoke to seven things we can do to never lose sight of the red rubber ball (or our dreams)

1)Committ to your red rubber ball and it will fuel your decisions about what you study, where you work, whom you befriend, and how you act.

2)Build and nuture relationships, and others will help you pursue your red rubber ball.

3)Be creative and discover new oppourtunities

4) Do the lonely work - those unglamourous tasks that no one asks you to do and that others may never notice - and you will surpass expectaions

5) Speak up and challenge boundries and you will overcome them

6) Expect and Respect the unexpected and you'll acheive your goals faster

7) If you maximize each moment and focus on the present, you'll create the furture you desire.

Kevin Carroll is the guys name and if any of you have seen the commercial for Nike that has people on a city street in suits and ties and police all playing tag during the work day. That was his idea. It was the PLAY idea. He also inspred the Livestrong wristbands. He has a blog at kevincarrollkatalyst.com that has stories from around the world.
But one quote from the book that I love was the following

"The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.
He hardly knows which is which.
He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.
To him he's always doing both"
James Michener

I thought I would share that message with you guys. Sorry to bore you all. Anyhow, congrats Mike and Brooke on Ben. Love the name!! I am off to bed as it is late.

So the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day in San Diego. I still await loads of pictures that never seem to make it from Dad’s camera to my email inbox but I suppose someday I might see them.

Last weekend was very fun to have Mom and Dad visit me and the other San Diego Stinchfields. Mom and I spent Friday together – hiking Torrey Pines, eating at Rubio’s, devouring Heaven Sent Desserts, and shopping the sales. Dad’s plane ended up being delayed so poor guy didn’t arrive until almost 3am on Saturday morning. So after not much sleep we had breakfast at one of my fav local breakfast places, The Mission Café, in North Park which was quite delish. Then we ran a few errands before meeting up with Tom, Tracey & kids to hang out, eat Chipotle and make Sprinkles Cupcakes. On Sunday we had a great Father’s Day with attending Tom & Tracey’s new ward and going to visit Tom at Balboa hospital where he had duty that day. All in all it was a great time and a fun visit. Thanks again for coming, Mom and Dad!

As for now, I am trying to study as much as possible. I am also finding that a lot more of my friends are available to do things now that school is over and summer is here. So I have been going to dinners, movies and stuff with old friends that I haven’t seen in a while. I have also redone my training schedule so that it better reflects how much time I have left till my race. I am trying to get into some kind of routine before geek-month starts.

July, aka geek-month, is coming up fast and I have a lot planned. With Harry Potter, Comicon, and quite a few visits from friends I think I will be pretty busy. It should be really fun though. This is definitely one of my favorite times of the year.

Another thing that is happening in July is the airing of that show that I tried out for back in Jan/Feb., remember? The World Series of Pop Culture? Anyway, it starts on VH1 on July 9^th. So they are getting it all geared up. They have a website here and here are the pictures and names of the teams that made it through. I think just from the pictures you can see how obvious it is that there are specific niches that they need to fill with each team…I think we would have been in the niche with The Lucky Stars. (we would have been better I am sure) So I assure you I will be tuning into the show to see how good these teams really are. And, in case you are wondering, I didn’t see any of the teams that got through at our audition.

Oh – David – since you have control of the blog layout, template, etc., I am going to have to figure out a way to get that access…can you have two administrators? I just want to jazz things up a bit cause there is a lot more we can do with the site.

I think that is it from me for now. Remember the count is now 7 to 6 with one on deck – girls in the lead!

**Just for fun – here’s a really cool website that I found using my “cool-website-finder-thingy”. Enjoy!**

We are very excited to announce a unique situation. We will actually have another male in the home this October. I guess the Lord figured 15 months was way too long for the 4 women to conspire against me.

Mike

Well the title says it all. I haven't gotten to the point that I have to throw up but many times have I wanted to just stick my finger down my throat just to rid myself of the feeling. Anytime I eat something, I get so nauseous I almost run to the bathroom just to throw up. Anyways, I have been tired and nauseous but ok I guess. It hasn't been extremely bad though since I am not having some symptoms some women get.

I have been trying to keep up with running but I haven't really been sticking to the training schedule like I should be. Peter says I should still try and do the half marathon even if I have to walk most of it as long as it is ok with my doctor. So as of right now I am just running around 2-3 miles 4 times a week. I keep dreaming of miscarrying this baby so I am trying to keep myself away from anything that might cause that. Although, I am playing in a grass volleyball tournament this next weekend with one of the girls I coached this last season. But if I can play volleyball when I am 6-7 months pregnant, I should be able to do it now. My goal is to not gain the 50+ pounds that I gained with last pregnancy. By the way my first appointment is July 2nd, so we will let you know how that turns out.

Andrew is growing so big and Kim made a comment this last weekend that he looks so much like a little boy rather than a baby now. I hadn't really seen it until Andrew was with Melia. We had tons of fun out in Rexburg and were so glad to see the perry family. Andrew and Melia were so cute playing together and every once in a while would start play screaming back and forth to each other. Andrew will be a year old next month and I can't believe it has been that long. Andrew took half a step yesterday and is so close to getting the walking down. He is now to the point that he is going down the hallway walking and holding onto the wall and doorways.

Peter is doing well with work even though it has been very busy lately. He loves it but always loves it when he gets home and Andrew is so excited to see him. I love being able to watch them together and can't wait until the new baby is added to the bunch.

Well I guess I will stop blabbing and get to doing stuff around the house. We love you all and can't wait to see you guys soon.

Love,
Anne

So, Tom helped me purchase a new "clippers" for my keeping my hair short for the summer. It has a dial on it that you turn to select the proper depth to cut. While at Tom and Tracey's this last weekend, Tom helped me cut the length to a number 7. That is a very shallow cut, meaning the hair length is quite long. Well, when we got home late last night, I got the braniac idea to try it out on myself and started cutting away right down the front center of my forehead. The result you see is what you get on a setting of "1" when you forgot to place the setting at "6" or "7". Oh well, just have to do some more trimming and try to get my "went tee" to look like the rest of my hair. Dad

Tom has duty at the hospital tonight for the first time, that means he left this morning at 6:30 and won’t be home until tomorrow evening. At dinner tonight Hayden asked why daddy couldn’t come home tonight. I told him that he had to stay there in case one of his patients needed him. He got a very sad look and said “But what if I need him?” I quickly tried to cheer him up and lightly said “Don’t worry, he’ll be here tomorrow if you need him!” He was quiet for a moment and then got a bright eyed looked, tapped his finger on his forehead and said “I have an idea, I can be his patient everyday!” He was so happy with this new idea all I could say is “We’ll see...” and he went about happily eating his dinner. Hayden sure does love his daddy!!

Happy Father’s Day!!