Dad and I are on our way up to Utah tomorrow morning to spend the weekend with Martha and Dick. Beppie Anne and Geoff arrived today and I think they leave on Monday like us. Tomorrow, Martha has invited Brenda and Charlie and Linda Burton up for lunch.

Both Dad and I have had busy days at work. Only two more weeks to go for me but I think I probably have about 4 weeks of work to do in those two weeks! I need to leave the last few days to just clean up my office and electronic files and e-mail so people can find what they need without wading through a lot of junk.

It was great having Marnie up here for a few days. She looks really cute with her new haircut. Harry Connick was good...only surprised me because he didn't sing more. A lot of jazz piano which was good too.

I have miserably fallen down on putting together the hard copy newsletter and doubt if I will have time until I am done with this work thing...So I especially glad we are communicating through this mode.

I need to start heading for bed soon...our flight leaves at 6:15...and you all know Dad. That means we have to be at the airport to 4:15 whether or not any of the workers are there!!!

We love you all....liked your pictures, Marnie.

Mom

Hi everyone I got braces on! I also am geting my tonsils and adenoids removed soon!
I do not know when I get surgery. I love you guys.

Jane

Well, Peter and I are doing well, just working everyday and working out every night. We are heading to the Angels game tomorrow night, and then maybe hiking on Saturday and baby sitting Saturday night( It is Peter's Brother's anniversary...the one with the twins).

Anyways, I am mapping out what I want to decorate the apartment with...I never realized how expensive some things can be. But I won't be buying anything until we move up there. I pulled up the floor plan for the apartment from the byu website and sorta planned out how it is all going to look. I am so excited to be going back and having our own place. It is finally worth it to decorate because we will be there for so long. We are living in Wyview..the BYU Family housing. I move back a week from Monday and I can't wait. 6 1/2 days of work left...boy have I waited for this moment.

Peter is enjoying himself as usual. He applied for a job with the Water Department up in Salt Lake. It is exactly what he wants to start off doing. If he does end up getting the job, we will be working it out so that he can work and do school at the same time. Believe me, we will be insanely busy this next fall with my school and volleyball, and his last semester and possibly this job.

I probably should be getting back to work...reading Harry Potter....I know, I do nothing around here. But it is good.

We love you and miss you all!

Love, Anne and Peter

This is my first post and even as I speak Sadie is scrambling into my lap. We'll see how this works.

Today was a good day. My friend helped me paint the playroom at our new house and two "accent walls." We were able to get it all done in 4 1/2 hours. First of all I would never have been able to do it without painting in the middle of the night with my crazy girls in bed and then of course there's the back issue. But the two of us together knocked it out without too many problems (Sadie did paint her dress-it was an ugly old one- and Ellyn's two blankets). Jane was practicing her stalking techniques waiting for her little friend to get home from the store.

The next good thing that happened was that our rental agency called and asked if our current tenants could sign another year contract-um...YES! Phew for that. I hung up with them and my friend Emily called and asked if she could bring over her homemade rolls. I absolutely love her rolls. They are the highlight of my Thanksgiving. So you can all see what an exceptionally great day this Monday has turned out to be.

Now I wouldn't ask Mike how his day was if I were you. He had two AWOLs and a suicide attempt. Let's just stick with my positive upbeat message.

Dad and I are both sitting at our respective computers in the study getting our church work done.  We are going up to Utah next weekend to spend some time with Martha and Dick and Beppie Anne and Geoff.  Very fun but we do have to get the loose ends tied up here for all of our church things.

It's nice to have Dad back...this house gets very quiet with just me rattling around.  Yesterday, we ran around washing cars...(found a great full service car wash)...looking at dining room sets (was wowed by the cost of them)...getting bills out (depleted the accounts).  It was really hot...103 degrees on Friday and 100  degrees on Saturday.  So we decided to go to the movies to get cool.  We went and saw "I, Robot".  It was a much better movie than I expected!  When we got out at about 9 a western wind had come in and it was substantially cooler.  Today is delightful...about 80 degrees or so.

As far as my reading, I am still...and will be for the foreseeable future....wading through Les Miserables.  My first reading was the abridged and now I am trying to get through the unabridged.  Victor Hugo certainly does like filling you in on every possible detail of each character and setting!!!

Three more weeks to go at work...with about three months worth of work to do.  I have 3 supervisors on vacation until the end of the month so we are shorthanded besides.

We are looking forward to Marnie coming up tomorrow morning until Thursday morning. We are going to a Harry Connick concert on Wednesday night.

I've enjoyed all your news!!!

Mom

 

Brooke took this last night.  Today we are busy putting things in boxes that we would rather not have the movers touch.  That has been my last three days actually with work from about 5 am to 10 am and 5 pm to 7 pm.  The movers are coming 3 and 4 August so that will be the official move date.  We hate the unpacking part but it will be nice when it is over.  Mom, you will probably still be seing some of the mess, sorry! 

Mike

Hello from Sasebo!
We are just having a busy Saturday here with the ridiculously hot weather.  Have a Pioneer Day thing with the Japanese Branch.  That'll be interesting since most of the Japanese branch work on Saturday.  I don't understand it!  Should be fun though.
Other than that, we have a cubscout swim party tonight.  Time to cool off.  Hope everyone is doing well. 
Dave 

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted for so long! Whoops! It involves accidentally erasing emails and being pretty busy...Anyway, an update on me...

I am currently in the middle of one of the most fun and probably my favorite weekend of the year...COMICON INTERNATIONAL 2004!!! It is a totally geeky convention at the San Diego Convention Center for comics, sci-fi, fantasy, and all that jazz. It is totally fun. It started today and already I have had a blast. Tonight I went to the Star Wars Fan Film Awards which were awesome. A guy that works for Lucasfilm did a one man live show of his adaptation of Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV). It was amazing. He did all of the voices and soundtrack and everything. He has seen Star Wars 475 times!! Tomorrow I am starting again bright and early. Tomorrow we plan on seeing Keanu Reeves and the guys who played Pippin and Faramir in the Lord of the Rings. Hopefully there will be some surprise guests!! And Jude Law is going to be there on Saturday for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow! I am very excited. Comicon is so fun. Some of you will definitely have to come with me one year. It is an experience. I will definitely post pictures once I have them on the computer.

On Monday I am flying up to Vancouver to see Mom and Dad and to join them for a Harry Connick Jr. concert in Portland. That should be fun. Then back to work until school starts at the end of August.

Life is good here. Church is good. I like my ward and I have a feeling I will be getting a calling soon. Work is good. We are losing a lot of cashiers to out-of-state schools but I know we will live through the inconveniences. Play time is good too. I try to get to the beach as often as possible to attempt a tan. Mostly I just hang out with my friends Bob and Derek and an assortment of others. It is a fun summer. School will be hard in the fall so I am enjoying the free time now.

I just read The Da Vinci Code. Excellent. Definitely recommend it. And for any fellow Jane Austen fans, The Jane Austen Book Club is a good book as well. I am currently trying to read all of the Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events so I am prepared for the movie coming out in December.

Good movies seen lately: The Terminal. Excellent. Napoleon Dynamite. Independent, very funny. Shrek 2. Funny, cute. Anchorman. A little dirty, but funny. Planning to see The Bourne Supremacy and The Village in the next couple of weeks. I will let you know how those are.

Love you all. It is fun to read this and know what you all are doing. I will try to keep up with it.

-Marnie

Another of some 15 foot tall Buddhist gods. 

Our trip to Korea. Everyone has probably seen these, but it might be interesting to see anyway for those who haven't. 

Well, I just finished with Enrichment Meeting in our backyard. I think everyone enjoyed it...and we had a good turnout. Almost 40 sisters.

I am tired though after making 20 mini loaves of bread, hauling all the toys up to the bonus room for the nursery. Moving tables and chairs around and on and on!!! Although, I guess I'm no more tired than I am after Enrichment when it is at the church. I'm not quite sure why I keep getting jobs like Activities Committee or Enrichment which are such great productions. How about just handing out the bulletins!!!

The house is really quiet with just me here. Dad is up on Orcas Island with the Scouts. Peter and Anne---good to at least have a bite on the car. David, if they can't sell it, they are going to bring it up here and we will take care of the payments for the year and then when you get here you can take it back as your second car. If you disagree, let us know.

Anyway...so much for my wanderings....I love you all...and really enjoy hearing all your news. (but I'm not in the market for a video card!!)

Mom

ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder (TV Tuner, Video Capture) 9700 Pro Video Card. I am going to sell it on ebay if none of you want it.

$100.

For the going price at resellers: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-366&depa=1 Not trying to make a buck, just trying to recover some of the cost. Anyway, let me know. It is still a pretty dang fast card.

Mike

Hey Mike,

Peter would love to go however, we will already be back in school by then. Maybe some other time. Anyways, Peter and I are doing great going through our daily routines at work. We got a call about the car but we have to wait for her to call back to be sure that she really wants to see it. Dave, USA says that you need to email them to give us permission to obtain the pay off amount in the event that we sell it. Then we might have to have you sign another power of attorney in that supposedly the DMV doesn't acknowledge the general power of attorney. The email address is jmorse@usafed.org ...her name is Julie and just let her know that you give us permission to access the payoff amount to your account 7312137. Thanks so much...To everyone else, hope all is well and we are always thinking of you!

Love, Anne and Peter

I am going to have to post something here just to move the picture down out of the menu bar. Hey, no system is perfect. So has everyone seen Spiderman 2? Fantastic movie if you have not. Kim, sounds like you are having a great time. That place is so cool. Brooke and I always talk about how we never appreciated it enough. Will you see if there is still a Laura Bush teaching English there, or Scott Samuelson? They were both great teachers. You would like Sister Bush. Anne and Pete, stay the heck away from that loser Rodman. I wish you two would come out and hike the Smokies with me. I am trying to get someone out here first week of September so I don't have to be so scared in the woods by myself:) Buffy, we need you here 100% of the time, between my regular road marches and Brooke's back we are pretty "broke off" as they say here.
Well, tonight is another night of Fear Factor after FHE. Jane's favorite show. Oh, by the way, Jane got spacers in today as she prepares for the braces. I am just glad we can do it for her. Worth every 60,000 dimes. Brooke is halfway through "The Known World" and liking it very much. I actually got a ton done today at work so I feel pretty satisfied but I still have one more hour long project before bed. I really thought homework would stop when I graduated;/ Well fear factor is over and now we go through the 2 hour process of putting the demons to bed. We love you all.

Mike, Brooke, Jane, Sadie, Ellyn

So how do you post the pictures on the blog?

Dave

I guess we have taken long enough to send our update! Appreciate whoever set this up for all of us to use!
Japan continues to treat us well. It is unbearably hot these days, so we spend our time indoors or at the pool - this is the first place I have lived where it gets too hot to do things outside! We are fortunate to have central air, swimming pool and indoor gym - and we're grateful for that.
Mike & Brooke - that house is gorgeous! Is it a 2-family home? Congrats! And we are low on details about Brooke's surgery - would love to hear more about it and know how she is doing.
Brent & Buffy - congrats on the new store. No one is more deserving and harder working. Tell Buffy we are sorry, but no PT needs here yet. Maybe after Mt. Fuji next month!
Glad to hear everyone else is doing so well - what a group of fortunate and ambitious people!
We are planning to climb Mt. Fuji next month. Can only climb it 2 months out of the year, so we are climbing on the last day - the 27th of August. Isaac will join us - we have been "training" with him - and honestly don't worry a bit about his stamina or ability. Brent has been kind enough to hook us all up with the right shoes, etc. We promise to send pictures.
Last month, I was able to join Dave in South Korea for a week. It was a great experience - much different than Japan. It was nice to have him all to myself for a while and it was great to experience South Korea, though I don't care for their cuisine at all!
As a family, we all went to Kumamoto a couple of months ago - also a great trip, despite Parker losing his lunch on the way there. All in all, we are loving Japan and wouldn't trade this experience to live together overseas for anything! Thank you, Navy!
But as grateful as we are to the Navy for all the experiences we've enjoyed, Dave is ready to submit his infamous letter requesting our permanent departure. It's been great, but it's time to move on. We plan to come to the states in January so Dave can do some practice-searching and so we can all see family. Then we are home for good by August!
My brother returns from his mission in Ecuador on the 9th of August. We will be flying him out here (courtesy Dave's accumulated frequent flyer miles) for 2 weeks in September. He is excited to see Japan before he gets serious about life - and we are so excited to see him. He has been an exemplary missionary and such a great example to me.
Isaac is huge - meaning tall. I could wear his shirts if I wanted to (but I don't). He has taken a couple of summer culture classes: origami, cooking. He and the other boys have swim lessons starting soon, and we just signed them up for soccer starting in the fall. He celebrates his 9th birthday in August and is already planning his party. He starts 4th grade in Fall. YIKES.
Taylor starts 1st grade this fall and his latest passions include drawing (of course), chess and monopoly. He and Isaac have also followed in their Dad's footsteps and are playing Command & Conquer and WarCraft - and whatever else we've got. Scary.
Parker is still our toe-head. Huge blue eyes that the Japanese love. And he is always, saying, "Mom, I wuv you". He still has a hard time with his "r"s. We are also Fear Factor fans, and he says, "Feaw Factow".
Morgan is all girl. Reminds me a bit of Jane at this age - she's all about dolls, hair, dresses, shoes, and painted fingernails. She and Parker are pretty inseparable, which I love.
Will try to attach pictures - that is Dave's realm.
Love to hear from all of you and continue to wish you all the best!
Dave, Adina, Isaac, Taylor, Parker & Morgan

Great News! We got the keys today! Now we just have to set up a transportation appointment to get our household goods over there. Our new address wil be 209 Austin Loop , Fort Benning, GA 31905.

I will have to post a picture later.

BTW, in the screen where you write your posts, click on the picture icon and it will explain some services for Windows and Mac Users that work with blogs to be able to post .jpg files.

Hope everyone is having a great day. Dave, Marnie, Anne you still need to post!

Mike

Hmmm...how to start? Marriage is great. Are you supposed to fight your first year of marriage? ;) just kidding. We now have been married for 6 months going on 7 at the end of this month(July 30th) Peter and I have been working this summer at Suburban Water Systems, a private water utility company. We service areas from Whittier/ La Mirada to West Covina/ Walnut/ Glendora. Peter is an engineering intern for his second year in a row. This is the company he worked for last summer. They said they would hire on the wives of the interns, so we jumped at the chance to have us both work together this summer. We are living currently at Peter's grandmother's house in Newport Coast. It is about a 45 minutes drive to work; however, we are able to take carpool practically the whole way. Living in Newport Coast is a different atmosphere than what I am used to (Peter likes to call us the Newport Rednecks). We grocery shop at the same store as Kobe Bryant(he walked right by us with his wife and daughter), and we work out with Dennis Rodman(he works out at one of the 24 hour Fitness down here). Church is different having all of the rich old ladies and the wives of the men who are in Medical/Law school at UC Irvine. I haven't really been able to make too many friends because I just don't fit in with the people there. Peter's brother, Mike is in our ward also so we are able to see him and his wife and there twin boys. It has been a very interesting experience this summer, but I cannot wait to get back to Utah.

Peter is currently finishing up his Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering at BYU. He will graduate in December but he will walk next April. Come January 2005, Peter will begin his graduate program in Civil/Environmental Engineering and will finish that around spring 2006. He is enjoying his time out of school, but he also would love to get back. This guy is crazy about school. He is taking every chance he can get to go hiking. We hiked Mt. Baldy here in L.A. about a month ago and he went up 2 weeks ago to Bakersfield and hiked up there with his dad. At the end of the month we are heading up to Atwater(1 hr north of Fresno) where his parents live so that his brothers, dad, and he can all go hike Half Dome (at least I think that is what they are planning on doing). I have begun to learn a lot about hiking and how much of a passion Peter has for it.

I am about to start my Junior year at UVSC in Biology. The schedule is beginning to get tougher and tougher with all of the classes I need to take. This next semester I am taking Biology 2, Chemistry 1, Physics 1, and Cell Biology. It will be stressful but I am going to work my butt off to get it done. In case some of you didn't know, I am playing for the UVSC volleyball team for the next two years. Volleyball starts up on the 11th of August, so Peter and I will be heading back to Provo after we hit a family reunion for his family in Santa Barbara. I will be playing the position of Libero, for those of you who don't know what that is, it is the person who wears a different jersey than the rest of the team, they can sub in and out at anytime without any substitutions being taken up, and all they do really is passing in the back row. There was a new rule made this year that liberos can now serve also, so this is what put me in to this position, I can serve and pass, two of the better skills I have at volleyball. The team is great and a lot better experience than Cal Poly was for me. All the girls except two are Mormon, those two are from Brazil. I am not the only married girl on the team since two other teammates of mine got married in May (two weeks in a row). I am dying to get back to start playing again. I am kind of scared to see how I play when I get back. I have not been able to find a place to play while I have been down here in LA this summer. Our team writes emails back and forth to each other so it is fun to see how everyone else is doing on their vacations. This team is great and I can't wait to get back into season and playing volleyball again.

School starts up for me on the 25th of August and Peter starts the 30th of August. This last semester was the best grades Peter and I have gotten during our college careers. I guess being married for us is good on us. I actually study somewhat. I mean I don't have much else to do when Peter is studying and he is studying practically 24/7. Anyways, I will not babble on any longer. We love you all and hope to see some of you soon. Feel free to come out and visit, we will be living in Wyview in a 2 bedroom, so you will have a place to stay. We love you all and miss you. Write us anytime...our email is olsenpa@hotmail.com SEND US PICTURES!!!

Love, Anne and Peter Olsen

Just to see where we came up with the title:

sundry

adj : consisting of a haphazard assortment of different kinds (even to the point of incongruity); "an arrangement of assorted spring flowers"; "assorted sizes"; "miscellaneous accessories"; "a mixed program of baroque and contemporary music"; "a motley crew"; "sundry sciences commonly known as social"- I.A.Richards [syn: assorted, miscellaneous, mixed, motley, sundry(a)] n : miscellaneous unspecified artifacts; "the trunk was full of stuff" [syn: whatchamacallit, stuff, whatsis, sundries]

Thought it was appropriate.

Tracey came up with the Seven part. All in all it sounds pretty cool.

For my Xbox freak brothers...ESPN NFL 2K5 comes out this week(Wed at ebgames) and get this...it is going for 19.95! Also, I was telling Tom, do not miss Full Spectrum Warrior. If you could all get your PCs upgraded, Joint Operations is the bomb. Kind of like the Battlefield games but bigger and better. Just imagine the 5 of us in a AH-1 Little bird, me and Dad in the cockpit and the three others sitting on the skids as we ride the treetops into the objective. Over the top stuff.

Mike

Hey family!
All is going well here... Not very exciting I guess. I am loving it up at BYU Idaho. It is a new adventure everyday. I am going to post some pictures I have taken over the last couple of weeks. We pray up to 18 times on a Sunday, I am loving it. Kind of changes the perspective of everything. Even before and after Brad's baseball games. Classes are great. Math is easy, Child Development is challenging and I love my Book of Mormon class. It is what I look forward to every week.. even though it is up in the Hinckley building which is on top of a huge hill. Which reminds me... Buffy, I can help you out in your P.T. clinic too. My knee still is killing me, especially from the hill. But there is a really nice gym and swimming pool here and it is all free! We can have personal trainers and physical therapists for free!!!

I love my roommates. There are Naomi, Jenise and Alli. We call Naomi, Na for short. Na is a Hawexican; half mexican, half hawaiian. She is from a small small town in Northern California where she was a farming girl. She plays volleyball which is always good. She is hilarious. She might be driving home with me for her break between Summer and Fall just to let you know, mom and dad. Her aunt lives in Portland. Jenise is my roommate roomie. Her family lives in Hong Kong because her dad works for IBM and got moved there from Minnesota. Her fiance was a Marine and was recently killed. She is going through some rough times, but she is awesome. Then there is Alli.. Oh man! no one can explain her, but she entertains us a lot of the times. She is from Cypress, California and so we share alot of stories about California. Anyways you probably don't really care about them... I will move on from that.

Brad and I are still going strong.. just to let you know mom and dad. HAHA Reminds me...Mom, who is the new Young Women Presidency? Anyways, I was at the opening ceremony for Spirit Week last week and I saw Tracey's mom and sister.. I did not get to say hi though they were at the bottom of the stadium and I was at the top. I also saw a guy that totally looked like Tom, it was really weird. I will post the picture.

I am talking forever.. sorry for all who are reading. I am heading out to Logan, Utah for the Pioneer day weekend because we have school off. We are going to visit Brad's sister and her husband. We went down on 4th of July and had a blast. Again I will post pictures. Especially of this 350 Z I saw in a cruise in parade. We are going to go to Salt Lake also this weekend to meet up with Matt Phipps since he is in Utah right now. I am pretty excited for that.

THE STALLION is doing great up here. He is loving it. He wishes to be driven more but too bad for him. Lots of Thunderstorms which I love but my roommate Alli has a like death fear of them so she starts crying and freak out. It is really sad. ANYWAYS I will stop now since it is almost 3 am and I am writing this... I know I am up late.. but had lots of homework!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! CAN'T WAIT UNTIL FALL TO SEE A BUNCH OF YOU! Brooke get better and I hope everything with your back goes well!

Peace out!
Kim

Hmmmmm, it sounds like the Stinchfield clan just might keep my physical therapy practice booming. I hope Brooke and Tom will rest well and feel better soon with their respective back problems... Tom, you need ice big time, it will help decrease the spasms. Brooke, good luck with your surgery and I will be looking it up to figure out what the heck it is!!
Take care all,
Buffy

Dad is ranting about nouveau words....so I'll give you my view of things here. Mike has introduced me to this new way of communicating vs the newsletter. I'm not going to entirely give up on my hardcopy idea though. For those who would like to keep a hardcopy record or perhaps want to contribute things in other ways..at the end of each month, I will compile a newsletter from these entries as well as anything else that I receive or that suits my fancy to add to it.

Dad is getting ready to go on a week long outing with the Teachers Quorum...I am getting ready for an Enrichment Meeting in our backyard on Tuesday. I lost my Enrichment leader to Young Women President so now I am waiting for the bishop to get around and call someone else! This will be my third one this year! Maybe it is something about me.

I'm winding down at work. I really will be done on August 13 especially because I have scheduled my next few weeks so I can't work. We'll be going to BYU Education Week..staying with Peter and Anne in their new apartment. Then when we get back, with Kim who is coming home for the Fall, I will be going back to Georgia to help with the girls while Brooke has her surgery. It is pretty busy at work since I am trying to get all my regular projects completed as well as testing and implementing a new outsource scanning service for our proof of deliveries.

My out of work activities are trying to keep up with Dad, reading (currently the unabidged Les Miserables), and cross stitching. Adina, I am finally working on Taylor's which will be done probably by September...then Parker and Morgan and I will be up to date. I feel rather optimistic since I have completed three this last year.

This does make it pretty easy.....I have to admit..

Mom

Who the heck developed these dumb words?

Segway

Paradigm Shift

Blog

Come on. We have plain english and don't need new, nuvo (Edit by Mike: Hey Dad isn't that spelled nouveau? :) ) words to enhance our nuvoness.

Can anyone talk with normal english without adding these "made-up" words??

I thought segway was some sort of two wheeled motorized people mover.

Whatever............yeah .......like.........lovya..... Dad

Everything is well in Newhall. Buffy is in her internship going into her third week of six. She is getting more experienced everyday. I am still at the Beverly Hills store working until August when I will be transfering to Palmdale for my OWN store. I meet Michael Vick the other day at work and have met many othr famous people at this store. It has been REALLY hot here for the last few days. There is a very large wildfire about three or four miles from us, but it is moving the other direction. We love our new place and we are adapting well. Anne and Peter were very kind to help us move in last week, Thank you. We love everyone and hope all is well. This new thing should be cool and we look forward to read about everyone.

Brent and Buffy

Well, I wish there was more to tell from our lives. Hayden is learning words by the day. Last week I helped somebody move and I think I did something to my back because I ended up with some severe back spasms. It was like nothing that I have ever experienced. That is taken care of a i just have to take it easy with activity. Tracey is going in tomorrow for her first attempt at donating Bone Marrow. I know what you are thinking. I am a terrible husband for sending her there and making her do it. If you thought this, you are probably right. No, really it is very easy and takes about 15 minutes for 150 bucks. Now, I know dad makes that routinely but some of us others still have to take this high salary once every two months. My most recent experience with studies was do a bronchoscopy. This was interesting. They numbed up my nasal passageway, my mouth and larynx and Pharynx. They passed the scope through my nose, down into my trachea and into my right lung. Now, the coolest part was that I got to watch it all on a camara. The body is really an amazing thing. They squirt salt water in and sucked it up. The whole process took about and hour and a half. So, I am not sure I will do that again, but I probably will. I needed something to pay for the new xbox since mine just ate it. So, sacrifice brings blessings, that is my message. Other than that, we will be here in Cleveland and looking forward to hearing from all of you guys.

Well, here is my first post to the newsletter. Hopefully this is something we can all use to post stories from our lives. It is free and if you have a url that hosts pictures, you can post those as well.
The biggest new in our lives is that we should be moving across post to a home with a large downstairs main floor. Brooke injured her back and will be getting a microdiscectomy in August. So, we requested another place to live since we are currently upstairs. The bonus is the new place is incredibly nice. It is actually right next to the house Eisenhower lived in when he was a captain here in the 1920s. The other bonus is it is two doors down from Jane's best friend. We find out tomorrow for certain if we get the house or not. Cross your fingers for us.

We should be here at Fort Benning for one more year. I have 6 months left in command of this Infantry Training Company and then I attend the Captain's Career Course most likely from March to July. Where I go from there I will not know until March 2005. I think the options will be Fort Lewis, WA (25th ID), Fort Drum, NY again (10th Mountain), Hawaii (25th ID), Fort Hood, TX or Fort Carson, CO (4th ID), or Fort Bragg, NC (82nd Airborne). If I have my choice it will be 1. Lewis 2. Bragg 3. Hawaii. Of course all points lead to a year deployment in some place no reasonable people would want to live.

Currently, I have a new class of 222 soldiers. We are in the 2nd week which means a lot of time at the company and very little at home. Brooke is taking it as easy as she can with her back while trying to give the girls an entertaining summer. She is doing a great job.

Hope everyone can take the time to make posts to this and share the news efficiently with all the rest. E-mail me to request the username/password that will let you make posts. mikestinchfield@mac.com

Love, Mike, Brooke, Jane, Sadie, Ellyn