-- Post From My iPhone

For taking care of the kids. We feel safe with you watching them (as long as you don't go to the fair, hehe). We are done with our first legs of Hood to Coast. Going to get some rest then start again around midnight. AWESOME!
Dave

It has been quite a while since we have posted on here. Life has been busy with volleyball beginning and ending of summer. Andrew's birthday went well. He was so excited for his fire truck cake and had such a fun day. Thank you to all who sent gifts. They were very much appreciated. By the way Dave and Adina, Andrew now refers to the Harry and the Terrible Whatzit book as the Whats up book. We try to correct him but he is just so cute when he says it. Andrew has gotten back on his bike now and rides it quite often and he is getting very good at it. He now likes to ride it to the store and back on our walks to the store. He is such a big kid.

Beck is growing up daily and is so much fun to watch. He gets so excited about stuff now and constantly goes "OOO OOO OOO" when he sees something he is excited about. We also are beginning to have fights with him saying I Love you back and forth. It is amazing to see how much he is talking and understanding things.

We are beginning Andrew in a preschool co-op starting in 1 1/2 weeks. He asks me everyday if he can go to preschool. Needless to say, I don't think we will have a problem getting him to go.

We sold Peter's truck to one of Peter's coworker and have now joined the pack with a plasma tv and mini laptop. We are moving up in the world. We are now a one car family and Peter is enjoying riding his bike to work on the days he doesn't have the company truck.

Volleyball has started and we had a rough start yesterday with a loss in 3 games to our rivals. We were getting alot of bad calls from the ref and so in the 3rd game, the girl who is the head coach got herself ejected from the game. Now it is up in the air as to whether she will be able to coach the team on Tuesday. If not, I will be the head coach for the day. Luckily these games don't count towards the record for placement in Districts so hopefully the girls will pick up our play and play like the team we see in practice.

We are continuing our training for the half marathon and are very excited to head home for a few days for Labor day weekend. We will be getting there by Friday afternoon and staying through Monday. It is great that we get to see you all two times this month.

Anyways, there it is finally after a month hiatus. We love you all and can't wait to see you soon!

-Anne

As I left the temple at noon, I was talking with some other sisters about taking a nap when I got home...but knowing that it is always unlikely that I actually will do that! I should since I'm trying to keep my immunity up so I don't catch Dad's cold. He has been miserable for the last three days and has missed a day and a half of work. Not that I would miss work but I'd like to not have to battle sickness as I do all my other stuff.

We had a great weekend with Mike and Brooke. Their house is wonderful, so light and airy and with such a great view. They still have windy roads to contend with. It reminds me of the Berkeley Hills. I've told many of you about my run on Saturday. I went out with Mike and Brooke for my 10 mile run. Since they were faster and were going further they guided me through the first two miles and then went ahead. Dad went for a 4 mile run closer in and then was going to pick up the car and the kids and come and pick me up. Mike had showed me on the map where to go but when I was at about the 8-8.5 mile point, I took the wrong turn to the wrong gate of the 17 mile drive. After another 1.5 to 2 mile uphill climb...at that point I had given up the running to walking, I came to a fork that did not sound like what Mike had described. I then took out my cell phone out of my sports bra to discover that both Dad and Mike had been trying to call me to see where I was. We finally located each other and I discovered that the right way would have been a great generally flat path. Ugh!!! I just figure that walking up that mountain at least equaled running on a flat path if not as pleasant.

We got to hear Jane give her first talk in Sacrament Meeting. Excellent talk and excellent delivery! We were very proud of her! It was fun to be there for the prep to see what great parents that Mike and Brooke were...helping her get her thoughts together into a cohesive talk.

I just made the airline reservations for Adina and me to go to Norway in November so I guess we are committed. When Marnie gets her exam schedule we need to get in further to decide what exactly we will do while we are there. I'm sure we'll have a great time!

Dad went to work this afternoon so it will be interesting to see how he comes home. He was rear-ended in the new Prius the other day so the USAA estimator is coming over to look at it in the next half hour or so. I can hardly see anything but Dad saw a crease that it caused. Hopefully the estimator can see it also.

I'm still working on digitizing our DVD's. I think I only have two or three left then I have to work on the covers, info etc for them...plus Marnie said that some of them didn't turn out so I have to troubleshoot those.....then there is my quilt that I have to finish up!!! Never a dull moment!

Love to all,

Mom

-- Post From My iPhone

I’ve been back in Japan for one week now and life is settling in quickly. I ran out to the car my second day back to drive Alyssa to her gymnastics class, her first class, and we were going to be late. I pulled out of the drive way and started down the street. There were cars parked in all directions on the sides of the road and I was instantly confused trying to remember which side of the road to drive on. It was the first time I was driving since getting back. I actually had to pull over to think for a second before continuing. The rest of the drive was fine, right back into the routine. Alyssa enjoyed her gymnastics class but has a long way to go in learning about listening, following directions and doing gymnatics. It’s a mommy/me class that I look forward to doing with her while Hayden is at school and Danica is at preschool. Hayden started t-ball and even though it is crazy hot and we are sweating just sitting in the shade, he’s having a good time and said he’s glad he signed up. He did well at his first game yesterday. Another great thing for Hayden is that a new family moved in across the street and they have a 2 year old girl and two boys ages 6 and 8! Hayden is so excited, we went to meet them and Hayden carried over a Lego Star Wars guy and when he met the new boys, he looked at what they had in their hand and Hayden was holding the exact same character as the 8 year old! I’m thrilled he’ll have more kids to play with, they seem like a really nice family.

The down sides to being home: I miss our extended family already knowing how long it will be until we see them again. It’s crazy hot, just like I knew it would be, yesterday it was 104, who knows how hot it felt due to the humidity. I have sooooo much to do, we are switching the bedrooms around so the girls share a room and Hayden has his own, a great plan but a ton of work. Plus the yard has been ignored for 2 months and is over growing with weeds.... I think I’ll put that off for a while longer. Probably the worst part is the jet-lag. The kids were up a million times out first night (since it’s day time to them.) They hardly slept on the flights so I thought they would sleep a lot at home but I guess not! The second night they were up at 4:00 and didn’t go back to bed until their naps in the afternoon, which I couldn’t wake them from. I dragged them out of bed and to Hayden’s t-ball practice but they cried most of the time because they were so tired and hot! Same thing the thirst night, up at 4:00 wide awake. This time I kept them awake ALL day (it was torture for me too) but luckily it seemed to the trick and they slept until 6:30 the next day. They are back to normal now.

Several people have asked me how I survived the trip home, and I want to write it down so I remember for next time. I left for the airport at 7am, (Utah time) and arrived at my house in Okinawa and nearly 6:45am (Utah time), the next day. I left Utah on Saturday morning and arrived in Okinawa where is was Sunday night. So here are the details: The flights home were okay with only a few rough patches. For instance, I checked in curbside with sky cap in Salt Lake. I then went through the security line and got to the front and discovered the guy had not printed new boarding passes for the kids. He handed me the folder and said I didn’t need the ones I had printed so I through them back in the car. So, I had to lug the kids all the way back across the airport to the terminal desk to get their passes. Then we ran back (a relative term with three kids and carry-ons for 24 hours in tow) made it through the line, then the long walk to the gate. We finally got there after they had boarded, the flight attendant had to make an announcement to get people to switch seats so that we could sit in three seats together. I was so embarrassed, wished I’d listened to my dad and gone earlier, but alas, at least we caught the flight! The flight was smooth. Things went well in Seattle, we got our luggage, checked in for the long flight and waited. Alyssa opened a birthday present from her Aunt Amy and Uncle Ryan and was thrilled to have new coloring books to use on the plane. We finally boarded the plane and hit glitch number 2. Our seating assignments were odd, We had two seats right behind the bulk head (dividing wall) and one seat across the aisle from that. Hayden was reluctant to sit alone but in the end realized I was still within arms reach and the extra space the aisle created was actually nice since Alyssa was my lap child. The real lousy part was that being behind the bulk head meant that the carry on bags, I had stayed up late meticulously packing, had to be stowed in the over head compartment. Not exactly convenient to grab things when I needed them. However, the kids were great on the plane, only a few stressful moments, hardly any sleep, lousy food, but no major tantrums and they stayed busy enough and were happy.

Landing in Tokyo was great, after nearly 12 hours on the flight I was anxious to be so close. However, the kids had finally fallen asleep right near the end of the flight and I couldn’t rouse them. I was literally shaking them trying to get them wake up to walk off the plane. We finally made it off the plane but they had announced that we were at the farthest away gate. I began the trek toward immigration, with the kids crying, dragging their carry-ons and begging me to hold them. That’s when my angel arrived. She was a literal answer to prayers. She was a United Airlines supervisor who was there to talk to the Japanese attendants that were getting off the flight. She saw that I needed help, tried to radio for some but when none came she picked up the car seat and some carry-ons and walked with us on the long journey. She took us straight to the front of the LONG immigration line because she knew one of the guys working the desk. Then she helped me pick up my luggage and get it althrough customs. Then she stayed with me through to the ticket counter where I checked my luggage on to the finaly flight. She was Japanese and translated everything making it so much smoother. She even had them call ahead to Okinawa to arrange to have someone there to help me off the plane. I didn’t know how to thank her enough. I gave her a hug and said thank you and she said she said she remembered the days of traveling with young ones and that her daughter just had a baby. I know several people were praying for us on our long journey and she was the answer to those prayers. I don’t think we would have made it onto the connecting flight without her. I would have ended up just sitting down on the floor and crying with the kids, afterall it felt like 3 am to me as well. Anyway, the last flight is just over 2 hours, Alyssa didn’t sleep so I was tired but we managed. At one point Danica woke up needing to go potty but to delirious to do it herself so I ran her back there. I came back to find a lady walking toward me with Alyssa who had apparently gotten out of her seat and gone running toward the front of the plane. I love nice people. A nice woman met us in Okinawa and helped me to baggage claim. Then we went out and met up with Tom- hooray!!!

It’s been great to be home with Tom, we missed him so much. Life is back in full swing, like I never left. I did music time in primary today, we had a new family over for dinner, we spent the week at gymnastics and t-ball and playing with friends. Friday night we went swimming. Saturday night we the Navy Dental Birthday Ball, instead of formal wear it was “saloon wear.” So dressed up in costumes and actually had a really good time. They had saloon games and such it was pretty relaxed and fun. This next week promises more of the same, busy as usual. School starts on the 31st. I will post a fun recap of my time in Utah soon, but now I have to go to bed. We signed up for a FULL marathon, on Oct. 31 so I have to get up early to go run. Good thing I have something to train for because otherwise I would just declare it way too hot! Hopefully my ankle will hold up tomorrow, I'm still sore from stepping in a pothole during a 10 mile run in the dark. I twisted my ankle and scraped up my knees and elbows....ugh....oh well, that's the joy of running!

Brooke is doing incredibly well. We went form a 10:40 pace last Saturday at 15 miles to a 9:50 pace this week for 16 miles. The woman is determined!


-- Post From My iPhone

Aaahh...the sweet days of summer are coming to a close. The great thing is, only recently have I felt really ready to send the kids back to school. We have had such a fun summer together - but their recent bickering has helped me long for school to resume.

The kids finished swim lessons this week - I am happy to report that all of my children can swim. As a mom, it's just a huge relief to know that your kids can hold their own in the water. Isaac completed a Guard Start program, where he learned the fundamentals of being a life guard. On his last day, they put him to work and continually tested him by breaking the rules. At one point, he had 2 instructors of the female persuasion swimming at his feet, saying things like: What's your name? What are you doing later? You look good without your shirt on!...just really giving him a hard time -but he did really well. He is a talented swimmer. He starts Cross Country practice next week.

Hood to Coast is only a week away. We had a get-together last night, discussed vans and legs, adjusted our pace chart, etc. Kenn & Brian will be drivers for our van, which will be a lot of fun. Dave has taken on the most difficult leg in the relay - about 18 miles total with two "Very Hard" legs (uphill, during heat of the day). I'm running 17 miles - my longest leg (7 miles) is in the middle of the night, so at least I won't have to deal with the heat. Anyway- we are pretty excited. Can't wait to have a family team: if we can survive a houseboat together, we can surely cram ourselves into a couple of vans for 36 hours and run to the point of complete exhaustion. Doesn't that sound awesome?!

In other news, it looks as though I will accompany Barb on a trip to Norway this fall. I am so excited to visit Marnie there and to see all the region has to offer. I always have anxiety over leaving the family for that long, but Dave assures me he and the kids will be okay without me, and I'm sure they will. Whenever I go away, I realize that they don't need me nearly as much as I think they do. It's probably me that needs them, really.

And it looks like the Stinchfield clan is ready for the Indian Summer Half Marathon in a matter of weeks. I am so impressed with everyone's dedication to training and I think it is going to be a really fun experience. Running are: Barb, Dave, Adina, Brent, Buffy, Kim, Paige, Anne & Peter - also Treven's sister, and a friend of K&B's. We are going to be quite the group!

I have procrastinated on my "To Do" list long enough. Hope everyone is well -

Adina

I'm posting the post I just wrote for my blog on here cause no one is writing and I love Melia but I am tired of looking at the same post....so here's a change:
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Ah! Afternoon naps are the best - especially when you don't have to be woken up every few minutes to cough because....I am better! Well, mostly better. Enough that my nose is not running, I'm not coughing regularly and my throat doesn't feel like it's been thoroughly rubbed with sandpaper. So much better...

I haven't written in the past couple days mostly just cause there hasn't been much to write about. Lots of sleeping, resting, cleaning - boring stuff like that but necessary to get rid of being sick. But there were a couple things so here you go...

Oslo Fjord Sailing Challenge

On Tuesday afternoon we had another event for the Fadderullan (this is what they call the first two weeks of school for newcomers to the school), which was to all go out on a bunch of boats to watch a sailing race in the middle of the Oslo fjord. As most things have been, this was a little unorganized - mostly cause details were not communicated to all the students. We met at Nationaltheatret and walked over to the fjord where there were about five boats that were going out. At this point it would have been good to tell us that the color of the wristbands we were wearing coincided with the boat we would be going on but they didn't tell us so we just wandered around a bit until we were finally told. We got on the boat finally about an hour after we all met to go and rode out to the where the sailboats are. I hadn't brought my camera because I had class from 8-2 and was planning on being let out early on the first day so I would have time to go home and get my camera before the 2:30 meeting time but my professor was a stickler and kept us the whole 6 hours. So any pictures below have been stolen from my friends who did have cameras and have posted pictures.

Once we got out to the sailboats, we found out that they had already had the race! So we just floated around for a few hours watching sailboats go by with a DJ who had quite an affinity for techno music. I felt like an old woman complaining about the music kids these days listen to. It was horrible and giving me a migraine so that was not fun. Then the lunch that we paid for consisted of shrimp and white sliced bread with mayonnaise and a little salad. This would have been ok but the shrimp they gave us was the entire shrimp - eyes, head, tail, eggs, legs - everything. If you know me, you know that was not my cup of tea. So I think I successfully dissected about three shrimp before I just couldn't do it anymore. What I did eat tasted good though, I guess. The entire boat probably went through about 2500 shrimp - buckets and buckets full.

After a few hours they finally brought us back and after a few subway delays I got home so I could take some Excedrin and go to bed. I'm sure still being sick didn't help the trip but overall it didn't seem to be worth the 250 NOK it cost (about $40). I mean, the boat ride was fun but we can take the ferry to an island for free with our student transportation pass so that would have taken care of that. I think we will be finding cheaper ways of entertaining ourselves than the school has found in the future.