Alright I guess it is my turn to post. We just finished our very successful Halloween night with one trick-or-treater, yes one. We did watch Bewitched tonight which we thought was a very cute movie. I am getting into the swing of things at work getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Doing a lot of hiring and training at work. I am going to Arizona next week to work at the Grand Openings for the company. I was one of three GM's asked to go in the company. So I guess it is an honor or maybe they just know I am a sucker.
We can't wait to get up to Washington and be much closer to family. It will be weird to be close to everyone for once. I would enjoy going to Soccer games to see Jane, Issac, and the rest of the boys play. Brooke the picture is very cute and I can tell the Ellie is a natural picture taker. If you guys up in that area see any opening for Management, including Kim at Target, let me know so I can get my resume to them. I am sure I can get a job with G.I. Joe's but I would like to not narrow my search to one or two stores. So let me know. I am checking Nike, Adidas, and Columbia every day but no luck so far.
Anyhow we love you all and our prayers are with everyone.

Love Brent

Hello everyone. It was nice to get a big chunk of bloggs all at once... I feel very up to date!
Right now, I am taking a little study break by reading and posting while sitting on my couch with a purring white cat next to me (that would be Chloe). I am in the middle of a very hectic few weeks at school; I have a large portion of my thesis due on Thursday, a neuro exam and practical Wed. & Thur., an anatomy presentation on Tuesday, and my entire class is on pins and needles waiting to hear the results of a horrible test we took last week.
The good news is that we just found out that our late Monday lecture for tomorrow has just been canceled so maybe I can enjoy my favorite holiday!!
Brent is out doing his home teaching right now but besides that, he is doing well. When he gets home I will make him sit down and help me download some Halloween pics from this year. I know I should be self sufficient in these things but I always know that Brent knows how and that's fine by me.
Dave: Like the business name and the graphics... thumbs up from me!
Brooke: have fun with Mike and maybe post a picture or two of the trip???
Marnie: we heard the pottercast and thought it was clever and daring. You will never catch me singing in public and because of that, I have a ton of respect for you!
If anyone is interrested, Brent and I are planning on visiting the Vancouver folks the first week of January. Due to retail employment it is impossible to come sooner for Christmas which we would much prefer. We are stuck here for Thanksgiving as well so anyone want to come visit us??? We don't feel bad about it however since we know we will be a lot closer to family for next year's holidays.
I think that is it from here. Nothing exciting.
Have a Happy Halloween and don't listen to uncle Tom or uncle Dave about ruining your teeth with all that candy!!!
Buffy

Okay, this is my update blog for both sides of the fam. Life in Battle Ground is great, for the most part. We had so much fun with Mindi here. Every day was a fun fest, also a refereeing match between the three 3 year olds. Everywhere we went was a challenge in logistics. How to fit 6 adults, nine kids, two double jogging strollers and a single jogging stroller and occasionally a kid backpack into as few cars as possible. Also, how to try to arrange all fun activities into a day filled with poopy diapers, nap times, making and cleaning up meals for the above mentioned and getting everyone out the door in proper outdoor attire- including shoes. What great memories we will have forever.

I'm sorry if I made anyone feel neglected on either blog. Now that Mindi's visit is over I am happy to say that life will not be returning back to normal. On Thursday I leave for Korea and I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I have so much to do between now and then I know the time is going to fly by. Mike and I are so excited to be together again. Just to do the normal hanging out things that we all take for granted.

Last night was our ward Trunk or Treat. It was alot of fun. Dad, Meagan, and I made chili for the cookoff. Jane dressed up as Laura Ingalls, if you can imagine. Sadie was Cinderella and Ellyn was a cute little puppy dog. I took Sadie to the bathroom after dinner and as we were leaving I had to break up some boys playing rough right outside the bathroom door. I turned to get Sadie and she was nowhere to be seen. I looked down the hall and she was gone. I turned and opened the bathroom door and there she was standing in front of the full length mirror smoothing her dress, rubbing her finger along her ribbon headband, smiling at herself. It was too funny.

Ellyn sat happily in the back of the Honda sucking on a tootsie roll pop during the Trunk or Treat. My mom took Sadie and Jane around while I handed out candy. Like I said, a great night.

Well I think that covers it. After November 14 I will post more often. I imagine that I will post at least once or twice before then. I will put some Halloween pics on soon. I love you all and hope you have a great Halloween.

So we've had a fun last couple of weeks. We had some good friends from dental school come to visit us, the Lever's. They now live in South Jordan, Utah where he has a dental practice. It was a lot of fun to show them Portland (what we know of it) and the surrounding area. The weather turned out to be very nice with little, if any rain. The same weekend they were here, we were asked to speak in sacrament meeting and we were trying to finish our dining room table. It was really hectic there for a short time. We deflated over the beginning of the week and then had a fun weekend with soccer, etc.

Friday night, mom and dad came over for pumpkin carving and we went for a drive over to this house here in Washougal. This guy has this house near the railroad tracks that he has decked out in Halloween stuff. He built most of it himself with molds and stuff...really impressive. It is a great halloween destination. He uses his entire yard and allows people come through every night for 2 weeks around Halloween. We may go see it tonight after dinner or something. We'll see.

Saturday we had the games in the rain (which dad already talked about), then we went to our Ward halloween party. The ward is obviously outgrowing the facilities. Standing room only. It was really kind of stressful, but we had a good time and met some new people (which is a weekly occurrence).

Work is going well. We are always working on our marketing plans, always need to attract new patients. We have recently been working on our logo. If you want to see the first sketches that were done, we went with this one:


Of course, the W. middle initial is wrong, but that was corrected. Should have the completed logo in about a week or so. I'll post it when the time comes.

There is also a website that we have been tweeking to our liking, but you can see it at www.discoverydentistry.com.

We are having a good time here in Washougal. Mike and Brooke, I took Bailey for a run yesterday down on the levy, between the old cattle fields and the Columbia River. Running in the rain felt so good. We were the only ones out there so Bailey just ran freely along side me. I think she was loving it. She is a very good dog and we are taking good care of her. You guys will have so much fun over there the next couple of weeks, I am so excited for you both. Have Fun!!

To all the rest of the Stinchfield's, Perry's, and Olsen's, we miss you all and am looking forward to seeing each and every one of you sometime in the next 10 months. And our prayers are with Grandma, she is a trooper!
Love,
Dave

Mom, Kim and Treven and I went to see the 2nd part of the Work and the Glory last night. What a wonderful movie to touch your deepest feelings with regard to Joseph Smith and the struggles he went through to renew the gospel to the world. See it if you can. Buy the DVD if you miss it. Or, come to our home and enjoy it here.

We are currently going through the struggle that comes to siblings and grandchildren when their parents approach the end of their earthly existence. Mom, my mom, is approaching that time and we can see it in her demeanor and activity. She has done well over the 95 years of her life and continues to crochet away in her chair for other people. Lately, there have been incidences where she has given away money to scamming mailers, fallen and left for hours alone, failing limbs and general degradation. Mom and I visited her a few weeks ago and found her to be failing in her memory (not unusual), repeating herself over and over (not unusual), mixing up which member of the family is whom (not unusual), but, worst of all, the falling and wounds to her ankles that don't seem to want to heal. We are concerend as a family for her general health and well-being. We, collectively, have agreed that she needs to have someone live with her, full-time, (which she collectively does not want), or we need to sell her home and have her move in with us, here in Vancouver (she doesn't want to face that either). Mom is mom and she just wants to stay in her home, crochet and let the world go by. She could do that, but her health and safety are at stake.

Mom is going down mid-November to speak to her about taking over her bills and her finances; to pay her bills from here and control her checkbook so she doesn't throw money out the door to the scamming loathing wretches that prey upon the older generation. Those people need to rot in hell.

So, I have a call to make today to her and explain my side of the story and try to get her to agree with the situation at hand. Offer your prayers for her.

Hope you all turned your clocks back.

We have been enjoying the hot tub out in the cold with the steam rising. It is a good place to relax and talk about plans and family activities.

Speaking of activity, we went to Issac's soccer game yesterday, in the cold rain and watched the cold, drenched guys slip and kick, fall, crash into each other, and just have a lot of fun (for them or their parent?). One littel Harry Potter-looking guy just held his arms and watched through fogged up glasses as the rest of the team fought the battle. What a match. Then, we raced across town to see the last two minutes of Jane's game. Fun to watch them battle back and forth, scream and slosh in the mud. Although it was a short watch for us, we think it made all the difference in the world to Jane to see her other family members arrive. I'm sure she'd have gone bonkers had her dad been able to be there, and I'm sure he would have liked the same.

Then, we raced across town to Taylor's game and caught most of the second half that one. Again, cold and drenched, freezing hands, etc..........but in the end, they all had a good time.

We parted ways and headed home.........then on to the movie. And, that is about it for the Saturday and Sunday morning.

We love you all, we need your prayers in regard to Grandma. Love, Dad

Hey Marnie! Tom got home and we listened to your broadcast! How cool! Hayden even got all excited and listened to it with us! Great job on the song and being willing to sing it on air!

This was a new process to me...realize how old and out of touch I was. Not even sure how it works but I was able to listen to your song...very cute and much braver than I would ever be! Maybe nerdy but a very creative nerd...and being a nerd is not really bad at all!

We love you, Marnie...and all the rest of you.

Mom

Well Marnie I must agree that is sounds a little bit nerdy but mostly just fun and exciting! I can't wait for Tom to get home so we can listen to it on his lap top, I am sure he has already found it! Congrats on being famous for a day, how cool! Don't be emabarrased, how many people write music that gets on the radio!!? :)
Have a great day!

Tracey

So remember how I was telling you guys that I called into Pottercast and sang the annoying Harry Potter ditty that I made up??

Well they put it on this week's Pottercast!!! I have become the ultimate nerd. (hangs head in shame)

I have yet to hear it because my computer at work is being retarded and won't download it but Nicole told me she heard it this morning.

So if you would like to hear your nerdy sister/sister-in-law/daughter on the air making a fool of herself you can go to www.the-leaky-cauldron.org and download Pottercast Episode 10 or download it from the iTunes Music Store (just search under podcasts). I am told it is about 45 minutes into the podcast so you can skip forward to there if you don't want to listen to the whole thing.

I am already embarassed and I haven't even heard it. It will be something to laugh about anyway...so ENJOY!

--
marnie

Things here in Cleveland are going well. Thank you for all your love and concern. I didn’t get a chance to post sooner because my parents have been in town and just left this morning. It was so nice to have them here to help out with everything that has been going on. They had been planning this trip for several months so it just worked out perfectly. I suppose I will start this update at the beginning:

A week from last Friday night I began to have severe pain in my lower abdomen/uterus area. It felt like one really tight hard contraction that wouldn’t stop. I figured that maybe the baby was shifting out of the transverse position she had been in and was causing the stretching and pain and that it would go away after getting some sleep. When I got up in the morning it still hurt making it difficult to walk or bend but we needed to go to Columbus because we were swapping babysitting with some friends for the temple and they were already there. Plus, I figured it would all go away soon and I didn’t want to pass up the chance to go to Columbus since we don’t get it very often. Unfortunately, despite trying to take it easy and just relax the pain continued to worsen through out the day. By the time we were leaving the temple I was in such agony I decided I better call the doctor. She said to just drive straight home and take a bath and rest for a few hours to see if that would relieve the pain. However, while we were making the 2 ½ hour drive home I began to have mild contractions about every 10 minutes. We got home and I tried the resting and such but nothing seemed to be working. By now it had been nearly 24 hours of pain and the doctor said I needed to go into the labor and delivery floor of the hospital to figure out what was going on.

We were pretty scared at this point but trying to stay positive. They hooked me up to the monitors and could tell the baby wasn’t in distress but worried it may be preterm labor and so they began to run some tests. In the course of the tests they did it caused me to start bleeding a little bit which is always a concern. So then we began the waiting game for the results of the tests and to see if the bleeding would stop. You can imagine at this point Tom and I were remaining calm but we began to think about what would happen if the baby really came this early, or if I were put on bed rest, etc. They did an ultrasound and it revealed that the baby had indeed turned somewhat out of her transverse position and her feet were now dangling down with her body still lying sideways. Like an upside down L shape. However, what worred them was the weird shape and placement of the placenta, it looked as though part of it may have been separating from the wall, possibly causing the bleeding. But the good news finally came around 10:00pm that it was not preterm labor and the bleeding had stopped! What a relief!!! Of course there was still no clear explanation of why there was pain and contractions and they were still a bit worried about the placenta so they had me stay overnight.

I hate hospitals so it was a pretty lousy night but at least they could constantly monitor the baby and I didn’t need to worry about her. By morning the contractions were nearly gone and the pain had lessened a bit. Since they could find nothing wrong at that point (thankfully) I was sent home to take it easy for a few days and to see the doctor again on Tuesday. On Tuesday things seemed to be getting even better and the pain was nearly gone as long as I didn’t walk too much or anything. However, they still wanted an ultrasound to make sure everything with he placenta was okay so went in to have that on Friday. I have known all along that I had a low lying placenta and may end up with placenta previa (that is where the placenta covers the cervix too much so the baby is unable to be delivered normally and a C-section is necessary.) Well the ultrasound had lots of great news: first of all, although still low, I do not have placenta previa and there did not appear to be any problems with the placenta tearing. Secondly, the baby measured in at 3 lbs. 11 oz. which is very healthy for her age of 31 weeks. They reconfirmed it seems to be a girl and everything looked good. I can’t even tell you what a relief it was to really be able to see that everything was okay. The only problem is that the baby is fully breech now but she may still shift and turn around so we won’t worry about that yet.

Needless to say it was all really stressful and I ended up getting the first migraine of my life. I extend my deepest sympathy to those of you who get them, I don’t know how you survive. For two nights I couldn’t even sleep because the pain was so bad when I would lay down. Luckily I got some sleeping pills that helped after that. My parents were here and they made sure I took it easy and was well taken care of. I’m feeling good now and it seems that everything is in the past and I can begin to excitedly count down the weeks again. Only about 8 to go! Thanks again for all or your thoughts and prayers, they were answered!

Onto to other news really quickly. Yesterday we went to the BYU vs. Notre Dame Game in Southbend. Despite the loss we had a lot of fun and it was great to cheer on our cougars. Well I have certainly typed my share for the blogg today. We’ll do better at the intermediate updates so they don’t have to get this long. I’m so glad to hear that so many of you are doing so well and staying busy and such. Keep the posts coming.

Tracey

Well everybody, we didn't get the Durango sold. But the girl that I babysit for is friends with a guy who owns a car dealership and cuts deals for her. We went last night to see what he could do for us. It turned out they were having a huge sale and they took the durango for 6,000. We traded it in for a 2001 Volkswagon GTI VR6. It is black and black leather interior, moon roof, 53,000 miles on it and in awesome condition. It was almost a straight up trade but it is a 14,000 car.. he lowered it ALOT!!!! Very nice man! So everything worked out great! Treven got a job with a flooring company that Kory Knaphus works for since they just moved up here. It is a $12/hr full time job. So EVERYTHING IS GOING SO WELL!!! (moulin rouge...marnie)
Anyways, that is what is going on in our life. We will post pictures after we clean it. We need to find a name for it now though.
We love you all. Tom and Tracey, our prayers are with you. Brent, LOVE the costume! See you all soon!
Kim and Treven

Marnie, a quick note, that transmission show is lame. I tried to listen to it and the people are just too dramatic about the whole thing. I love lost, but that gets out of control. But, I would agree with you on Podcasts, they are amazing. iPods are the ultimate toys. Tom

oh yeah, I had no idea that Anne and Peter are moving to Idaho! What happened to LA? Maybe I missed the memo on that one...well good luck up there!! :)

Hey all,

I guess I haven't written for a while but I am glad to see that the blog has not completely died because of it. We have just about heard from everyone! Yippee! Buffy, I had heard about the Liz name change, i just had never heard Brent use it. Nice costume Brent. I have to figure out what I am going to be because we have to dress up at work. I was thinking maybe a housewife, barefoot and pregnant, because i work with mostly feminists that don't have children. But I don't know if I have to energy to rally up all the costume stuff so I will probably pick something simple. I can't wait to see all of your Halloween pics so be sure to post them.

I am so excited about Mike and Brooke going to Italy!! That is awesome! I am most definitely going to come see you while you are there! I have always wanted to go there! Now I will have an excuse! Dad, I like the new pic of "The Bullet" a lot better. Now that is a corvette!

Things are going well down here. Just working with the occasional play time. Last night was pizza and Lost night. Very fun. I am going to be helping Michelle's family decorate their house for Halloween this weekend. They go all out and this year are doing a Sleeping Beauty house. Last year it was The Haunted Mansion from Disneyland. It will help me get into the Halloween spirit. :) I am going to hang out with the Montoya clan on Halloween as well. They are great.

Next Saturday we are all going up to LA to have some Halloween fun on Hollywood Blvd. We are going to dinner at this shabu-shabu? restaurant at Hollywood and Highland (the mall where Matthew works right by the Mann's Chinese Theater). Then getting ice cream at the Disney Ice Cream shop there and then going across the street to the El Capitan Theatre (owned by Disney) where they are showing "The Nightmare Before Christmas" on the big screen! It will be really fun, I am totally excited!

So other than events, I have two new addictions. Podcasts and Laguna Beach. I love Podcasts. It has gotten ridiculous. I would rather listen to them than music! For those of you that don't know what podcasts are...they are just like radio programs but they come in episodes and you can download/subscribe to them from iTunes. There is one for just about any subject that you would ever want to listen about. My favorites include:

Mugglecast (from the makers of the Harry Potter fansite mugglenet.com)
Pottercast (from the makers of the HP fansite the-leaky-cauldron.com)
This Week in Tech (TWiT: just interesting gadget and tech stuff and news)
ABC's Lost: The Transmission (annoying people from Hawaii that talk about Lost but they have interesting theories and such)
Inside Mac Radio (for you Mac lovers out there)
Discovery Channel Features (just cool DC stuff)

So I am addicted to listening to those. Funny story. I have become the ultimate nerd now! I was listening to Pottercast in my car (on my iPod) on the way home from work yesterday and at the end they asked people to come up with songs about Harry Potter and to call in and sing them for the podcast. The guy, John, asked that someone should put words to the Harry Potter theme. I thought to myself, that would actually be pretty funny if someone did that. Then I remembered that I have already done that!!! I used to always call Kimmy when I was too excited to see the new HP movies and sing my own little version of the tune. So I worked up the courage and buffered down my pride and called the podcast voicemail line!!! and i sang the song! I am so retarded, I love it! It was pretty funny. I told my friends and they all laughed at me.

Anyway, oh yeah also I'm addicted to Laguna Beach, a lame show on MTV about a bunch of spoiled highschoolers that live in Laguna Beach. Nicole watches it and she had told me about it before and I had read stuff about it on the pop culture blogs I read (Pink in the New Blog - trent.blogspot.com and VHI Best Week Ever Blog among others...) and so on Monday they had a bunch of episodes on so I tuned in. So retarded but intriguing at the same time! These kids are out of control. Too funny.

Well that was a really long post, sorry. But that is what is happening with me. Hope you are all well. Keep up the posting. Love you all!!

Hey Guys,

Dave and Mike you need to be changing your player that are on byes with players that are not on byes. You get no points for players that are sitting on their butt. Sorry to those who are not in the league for this outburst.

Thanks
Brent

My answer: So I've been playing with the idea of changing my name to the name mine is a nickname for since early high school (Elizabeth). Believe it or not, most people that go by Buffy are actually named Elizabeth. As you probably know, I have gotten enough flac about my name over the years to last a few lifetimes. And as I'm about to become a professional gal, I would rather my name not be a barrier to successfully working with my patients. For some reason, I especially get a hard time from men in their 40's and 50's who just can't take me seriously when they first learn my name (no clue why).
So I will hopefully be legally changing my name this year but only plan to use it with people other than friends and family that already know me as Buffy... mostly at work. Both of my parents have known and been totally fine with it for a long time so I'm not ruffling any feathers with my mother who somehow came up with my name (to be honest, I think they where overwhelmed by having twins at the time and thought of cute names to suit their "cute babies"). So I think I have thoroughly answered that question! I thought some of you knew about it but maybe not. Anyway, Brent I guess just felt like throwing it into his email for some reason.
Ok, enough with the name... I can't believe Brent got that costume! I don't think we will be winning the best couple contest at our ward party this Friday since I am witch (got my costume a while ago). Well, I'm off to my last class of the week. Take care all!
Buffy

Just so everyone is on the same page...Brent, I noticed your entry referred to Liz several times. Is that what you are going by now Buffy? Just want to know, and others might too. No big deal, just noticed the Liz was used with (Buffy) in parentheses.
Dave

Hey Guys,

Yes I am alive and kicking. I have been really busy at work. And it is only getting busier going into my last holiday season with Sport Chalet. Yes Liz (Buffy) and I are definately going to be living in Mom and Dad's place in June or July.
It is Halloween central around here which is Liz's time of the year. She goes nuts, so this year I decided to get a good costume for Halloween. I figured I would make a good Mr. Incredible. So we will see.
Congrats Peter and Anne on the upcoming move, our next door neighbor's family live in Meridian, ID, Nice town. Tracey and Tom, I hope everything is okay and our prayers are with you.
I promise I will post more. I have been the worst of everyone. Anyhow love you all and please make sure you post your Halloween picks. See ya Brent

Dear Stinchfields - Sorry for duplication! Hopefully you got it in your regular email but thought this was a good way to make sure any email changers would receive as well.

Lo and behold, I have not fallen off the face of the earth - Just fallen face first into my busy life...I know, I know - EVERYONE is busy...

However, here are the way things stand at this moment in time.

The people that I have confirmed as going are the following:

Cathy/Everett
Christie/Sam
Jim/Dana etc.
John/Sally
Marilynn/Dale
Peggy/Bob
Nancy/Andrew etc.
Cathy/Matt etc.
Beppie/Bob
Betsy/Fred
BA/Geoff
Mali/Chris etc.
Martha/Dick
Lexi/Dennis etc.
Sean/Bridget
Paige/Greg etc.
Brian/Paige etc.
Brooke/Luke
Ashleigh/Andy
Jake
Barb/Kenn
David/Adina etc
Brent/Buffy
Tom/Tracey etc
Marnie
Ann/Peter
Kim/Treven

WHEW! We do have a couple of double queen rooms still available so if there are people NOT on the list, we have room for them but I need to know that ASAP so they can be assigned and I can get more narrowed down on the specific details for the week number-wise.

SECOND DEPOSIT IS DUE JANUARY 15, 2006 - I am just letting everyone know this before the holidays so if you want to make the deposit prior to all that crazy spending, you certainly have that option. The deposit will be 50% of your balance. Again, I can do checks/MC/Visa or Discover.

PLEASE EMAIL ME BACK so I know you have received this email and so I can send you specific room type confirmation and the balance that you will owe on Jan 15th - final balance will be due May 15th.

(Specifically - based on past reunions, I am curious about Diane/Niklas and Mike/Brooke - anyone know!? - and any other family members that want to join us!)

I did go to the Red Moose Lodge this summer again and checked it out again - There were some adjustments to rooms, so some minor room adjustments may be made.

They have added spa services to the resort so if anyone is interested in those things during the week they can be scheduled during that time on your own.

There is an indoor and outdoor jacuzzi, sand volleyball, basketball area, fire pit outside, small pool, children's play area...etc. Dinner will be provided 6 nights - Continental breakfast will be provided every morning - More details on activities planned to come in January.

I am updating addresses so please send me snail mail addresses as well so I can send out a "hard copy" reunion packet in the spring.

Questions? You know where to find me - cmalexis@aol.com

Much love and anticipation!Lexi

At work 

Well, only one more day trip to Vegas and we can say we are for sure moving to Boise in December. The trip to Vegas is to have some interviews at Southwest Gas and see their office. The company in the Boise area is actually in Meridian which is a few miles West of Boise. It looks like a great area to live and there are a lot of good opportunities with Keller Associates to get a great start to our post college, and net positive income life.

Anne played BYU tonight and just about stole a game from them. But they did lose in three straight. BYU is ranked #15 and is a very good team. I am proud of how they did. They are still doing really well this season and are looking forward to the rematch with Northern Colorado this Friday, but this time at UVSC. Tonight was sort of a different experience for me. I found myself chearing for BYU's opponent rather than BYU. When they sang the fight song after the first game it felt wierd not to rise and shout with the rest of the crowd. But of course I couldn't. I leaned over to a father of one of Anne's teamate who is also an alumni of BYU an mentioned that it just goes against the grain to not join in. But Anne makes sure I have my priorities straight when it comes to BYU volleyball.

Anyways, Anne is doing awesome in school. She called me today after her classes and was very excited to tell me that she has all A's and one B in her classes. She's a natural at school. My classes are going just fine, but the thesis research just keeps dragging on and on. I enjoy learning with the research, but I do eventually want to get it finished and written. Just so you all know, the Stinchfields aren't the only reason I can't wait for Call of Duty 2 to come out. My fellow students in the office and myself usually get a game together at the end of the work day. It's a blast when you can get four computers in a line playing the same game together. Anne is great to put up with the extra half hour I spend at school sometimes to play.

Well, we just finished watching sisterhood of the traveling pants with Anne's commentary throughout pointing out how it is different than the books. She just found out in the writer's bonus interview that there will be a fourth book and she is beaming now with excitement.

We're very excited to hear that Mike and all will be going to Italy. You can count on a visit from the Olsen's during that three year time. Take care all, Tracy our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Peter

Never thought I would be excited about a game and preorder it....but I am and have. Cool T-shirt came with the preorder. 

Wow, surprised there aren't cobwebs in the corner of the blog, hasn't been moving much. I am sure it is due to all of our busy lives. I'll just take a few mins out of my busy schedule to add something.

We have been refinishing our dining room table this last week. What we hoped would take two days has now taken over a week and we are still not done. Sanding is always much more effort than first estimated, I have now discovered. Then two stain coats to make it the color you want it. Then 3 polyurethane coats to get it to the finish you want with sanding in between coats. But, we have achieved out results and are very happy with the outcome. Y'all'l hafta come visit us to see it.

School and sports are busy as ever. Isaac started taking guitar lessons and love it so far. I hope it catches on and sticks. Soccer season is over half way over. The grandparents have only been able to attend 1/2 game (mom came to one whole game, so that is 1/2) because they are galavanting around the world, those world travelers them. But they are having fun, so more power to them.

We went to stake conference this weekend and ran into a family that was in our Shaker Heights Ward in Cleveland. Really weird that we both were in the same stake and we didn't even know. It is a small world in the church.

We have some good friends, the Lever's, flying in from Utah on Thursday to visit us for the weekend. They were our best friends in Cleveland when we were there. We took a trip to Washington DC with them once, very fun. So it'll be a busy week, and we were asked to speak in sacrament meeting too, cherry on top.....

Would love to hear all y'all goings on. Hope everything is going well in Cleveland, you have our prayers. Also, hope all are doing well in LA, San Diego, Battleground, Provo, Korea, Vancouver, and wherever mom and dad are at the present. We love you all...
Dave

Dad,
Hope this doesn't happen to your big toy, you never know what the other guy is going to do...as your Z found out.
Dave 

here is me in Provo Canyon near Bridal Veil Falls

Well, I just experienced what others have complained of….writing a long and involved blog only to have it disappear when you try to publish…..Groan!!!  It really does sap your energy after all that thought and cleverness (Actually it was really a fairly boring recitation of what I have been up to this last week but since you can’t read it, I can pretend that it was clever)

In looking for how to recover it, I discovered a thing you can download so that you can blog in Word and publish it directly into the blog.  It puts a toolbar so that you can link to the blog.  Pretty nifty.

To more briefly communicate my ramblings, I have had a busy three days.  We went up to Utah last weekend to take in two of Annie’s games…We also had a birthday dinner at the Cannon’s for Marnie….very fun!   Anne’s team won one match and lost the other.  (They won against Wyoming yesterday!  Yea!!!!)  We returned on Tuesday afternoon….Dad took care of the financing details on the Corvette to get a better interest rate and David and the kids came over for hot dogs, a fire, and hot tubbing. It is so fun to have them close!  (Adina was playing bunko with some neighbors)

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday…..I attempted to clean up the house amidst a Art Museum trip, a visit to my old company, Westfarm Foods, to see my friends there, Mutual at our house for the young men, a book club, a trip to the temple for Stake temple night and various other errands.  I’m not sure how I could make time for gainful employment.  My life is filling up and I like the flexibility!  Plus my visit to Westfarm confirmed the correctness of my decision to leave….what a nutso place!!!

David and Adina and the kids brought over delicious steaks and corn on the cob last night which matched up with my baked potatoes to make a great dinner.  Treven and Kim came over after dinner and we watched “Kicking and Screaming”.

I need to go get in the shower…very soon…since I need to be at Isaac’s soccer game by 10:30 in Camas. I then will go to half of Taylor’s game  and I’ll go off to the Lion King with David’s family and Kim.  An implant course, mandatory, at work came up for Dad so we had an extra ticket.   We originally planned for Jane or Sadie to take it but Brooke is over at the coast camping with Adam and Mindy and all the rest of the clan.  I’m sure they are having fun, if a little damp fun!!!

Dad and I will go to the adult Stake Conference tonight and then to the “live” broadcast one tomorrow…then take off for Utah to exchange the Z for the Corvette.  Very crazy!!!  I thought I had filled up Dad’s time enough to make him too busy to consummate his dream…Silly me!!!  You’d think that I would learn something in 36+ years.

I’m hoping that we will have a weekend home at some point.  Next weekend is Sean’s wedding in San Francisco!

Love you all,
Mom

I am making this post because I am tired of coming here to see if there is anything new and would get hit right in the face with that mug. So, I am going to post something, Here it comes, get ready, drumroll please, ta da, curtains.................Happy Friday!!!!!more to follow.

Playing with the Web Cam, gotta love the monitor lighting!

Could have had one of these, if you just would of laid off the pedal. But hey, you finally got one back, congrats!

Best not to let me get a hold of a Vette.

Well Dad, you got the color of the FIA GT winner last year so you are right on. Just 2 rules for this bad machine:

1. NO bumper stickers OR window stickers!

2. Don't ruin it with a GPS.

Love your wisest son, Mike

Parker in Papa's glasses.
San Diego, 2002 

Going for a walk at that same beach I talk about below. 

Morgan squatting next to the Columbia River. This beach is about 2 miles from our front door. That is Oregon on the other side. 

This is near where we stayed for our anniversary last month. Beautiful views.
Dave 

Ridiculous...this woman just had her 16th child!!! 16 pregnancies and deliveries...can you imagine?! Wow...that is her family standing around her.

-
M

I guess hobbits are real! They found the jawbone of a hobbit-sized skull on an island in Indonesia today. Read about it at http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/10/11/hobbit.jaw.ap/index.html

-
M

So I am back to work now after a really great weekend in Utah. We left on Friday around 1pm, picked up some China Fun and were on our way! It was the first time for Matthew and Michelle going to Utah but we have gone to Vegas many times so that part of the trip was very familiar. We got caught in a little bit of traffic as is expected on Friday afternoon going to Vegas. But we got to Vegas fine. Michelle's mom had a cash voucher from her last trip to Vegas that she had forgotten to turn in so we stopped at the Venetian so Michelle could pick up the cash. Nice little extra. Then we ventured into the unknown (at least for Matthew and Michelle). We found a "Black Rock" road. Pretty spooky! (Lost reference) And we just had a fun ride up overall and rolled into Provo at about 3am Provo time. We stayed at Anne and Peter's apartment (thanks again) and woke up early to explore Provo. We took some great pics up in Provo Canyon at Bridal Veil falls (i will post when I get home) and saw BYU and went to Cafe Rio (Yum!). Then we headed up to Salt Lake in the torrential rain! I could barely see anything but that may be due to the fact that I need new windshield wipers. We went to the reception which was beautiful and met up with Nicole and the Cannon's. They are a really great family and were so nice about everything. We went down to Temple Square after the wedding and got hot chocolate and snuck onto the roof of the new SLC library..very fun and funny. Not too illegal, i promise. ;)

On Sunday we woke up to a broken car window! The back passenger "vent" window was completely shattered but not broken out. So we pushed out the glass as best we could. A little annoying but I couldn't really do anything about it. I don't think anyone was trying to break into the car I think maybe it was hit by a rock or beebee. Maybe they just don't like people from California...that or Nicole did it because she was trying to get us to stay! So we drove on up to Park City with an open window. We ate lunch up there then ventured back to Temple Square for day pictures then to dinner with the Cannons. Mom, Dad, Annie and Peter came. It was really good to see everyone and have the fams meet. We played a couple rousing games of MadGabs and Catch Phrase. We even got Mom to sing for one of the clues! We took it easy the rest of the night and woke up the next morning to breakfast and a long ride home. I got home at about 1:30am last night/this morning. It was a fun, long birthday on the road. Matthew and Michelle are some really great friends. I am really lucky to have them.

SO I am now back to work and back to life. Tomorrow is Lost! Woohoo! and this weekend I think I am going out to celebrate my birthday with some friends and on Saturday Michelle's sister Marisa rented out the "movie theater" room in their apartment complex and we are going to watch movies in our pjs! Should be a fun week. I am looking forward to it.

Sounds like life is good for you all! I love to read the posts! And thanks for the pictures. Sorry for no pics of the day this weekend; i was busy. I will try to find a worthy one for today...

Oh yeah Tracey I am most likely going to be at Mom and Dad's for Christmas. I will let you know if that is not the case.

Love you all!

We hope you had a wonderful day! We wish you were here so we could play with you.

love, Mike, Brooke, and girls

My favorite of Brooke and Ellyn

Jane and Savannah

The Other "Z" 

Sadie and Sierra

Sadie and Martha having fun

Martha and Jane visiting Kay-Kay and Wa-Wa

Sadie at Temple Square

At Temple Square

Family Pic from August

Snuggling

Sadie Sleeping

Savannah and Jane

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARNIE!

Wow- so many exciting things going on with this family! Italy sounds wonderful! As do your trips to Utah (I know I am the only one in this family that actually loves Utah and misses it all the time so I am very jealous of your fun!) Thanks for the pictures of the day Marnie, what great idea, its fun to have something to look forward to, especially in the blogg droughts. I’m glad everyone is keeping so busy.

We’ve been nice and busy ourselves. We thoroughly enjoyed watching the last BYU game and finally seeing a win! Tom got the “I need to buy something bug” last week (I’m sure some of you can relate to that disease) so after convincing him we weren’t getting a plasma TV, I gave into the idea of getting new couches. Of course I would love new couches but I had resigned myself to not getting them until after dental school. Well anyway, Tom started to feel like he couldn’t wait that long. So we spent Saturday shopping for a leather sofa and recliner. It was some fun shopping but fortunately we have decided to take some time to think about things before making such a large purchase. But, the whole shopping trip did lead to something else fun. We really don’t like our wood floors and have wanted carpet ever since we moved here. Well, we stopped by a carpet store to look at the price of a carpet remnant to replace the area rug in the living room because it wouldn’t match the new couches and we found an awesome piece exactly the right size for a great price. We also got a piece for our sunroom so now it looks like our house is carpeted in nice beige/cream carpet. It really makes the house feel bigger and brighter. It’s fabulous and it will be great for the winter when we are stuck in here all the time (although we’ll make people take their shoes off now!)

It is barely starting to feel like fall here. It was still shorts and T-shirts last week and you barely needed a jacket today. It’s great. I had a doctor’s appointment a week or two ago and he discovered that my baby is lying horizontally across my stomach instead of up and down like most babies do. He said it’s not really a problem and that as she gets bigger in the next few weeks she will just be forced to shift down because she won’t fit sideways anymore. Needless to say I am starting to feel what he meant about “not fitting” and I suddenly feel like I am nine months pregnant and that my skin on the sides is just going to pop, hopefully she turn the right way soon! I have some ultrasounds scheduled to check the location of the placenta (it’s not where it should be either) at the end of October so I’ll know more then. What a crazy baby, hopefully we’ll get everything sorted out okay. I’m nearly 30 weeks now which puts me in the home stretch and I can start counting down! Only 10 weeks to go!!!

Hayden continues to be very excited about his baby sister. He is getting to be so big. For Family Home Evening we played a game about how doing different things makes us feel either happy or sad and he caught on so quickly and answered all of the questions right. He never ceases to amaze me. Now if only he would actually remember the right things do instead of just saying the answers…  Another funny thing he likes to do is offer to help me all the time. For instance, I will say I can’t do something for him because I’m tired, or my back hurts or whatever and he will simply say “Don’t worry, I will help you!” and he will hold my hand to help me do whatever it is he has asked for. Funny kid.

Well, this is getting too long but I just wanted to send out an update. A few more quick questions: Brooke and Adina, do your little girls like My Little Pony’s? Marnie and Peter- where will you be spending Christmas? Okay, we hope all is going well.

Tracey

Just wanted to be the first to make a quick shout out to marnie on this birthday. One year older, how exciting is that? Well, I hope that you have a great birthday with much happiness. Love, Tom

I couldn't figure out how to get rid of the underline but I did change the font color to white so you can't notice the underline since it is close to the same color as the background! Loved the pictures, Brooke!....and the messages from both you and Mike!

We're having fun in Utah..going up this afternoon to join Marnie at Nicole's home for dinner and to give her her birthday presents.

Love to all,

Mom

Okay for some reason this is underlining everything I write, and frankly, I can't figure out how to stop it. I was just excited because I finally learned how to download photos from my camera and then I used the handy "Blogger " system to post them. Now my enthusiasm is somewhat dampened by the fact that the underline is out of control. So Mike has been asking me to post pictures of the girls and now you all get to look at about 600 pictures between mine and Kenn's. The cabin idea is very exciting by the way. Who wouldn't love that idea? Sorry, some of the pictures are blurry. It's hard to tell sometimes until you see them in full size. I need to figure out how if I can make my camera a bit less sensative to motion since I am almost always holding a child and trying to take a pic. one handed. So the pictures include a picnic at Battle Ground lake, a Mariners game, Mt. St. Helens, a walk at the park, a trip out to the pumpkin festival, after Jane's soccer game, etc...I'm leaving it to you to figure out which is which. You are a pretty bright group, I'm sure you'll get it right.

Dave and Adina, okay now this has changed color and no longer underlines. Fine by me. My brother Adam, and his family are in town until the 18th, so I haven't ditched you. Okay, techinally, yes, but for a good cause. We haven't done one inside activity besides sitting and eating, so I still don't have any suggestions for you. I'll keep working on it. Well Sadie just woke Ellyn up from her nap and they are both sitting on the bed crying (Jane yelled at Sadie) so I had better go. Love to all. Brooke