Adina, thank you so much. I have wanted more accessories to go with my different outfits. I love you! Thank you. oh, yeah and to everyone. I made the soccer team!The school one, that is. Sixth graders hardly ever make the team. I am so excited! Papa and Grandma, do you guys use AT&T for you cell phone? I love everyone.

Jane

My new identity:
I have found that I need to define myself as yet another person: Hayden’s mom. Although I have been his mom for 5 1/2 years it has only been recently that he has friends old enough to just ring the doorbell and ask to come in to play. So I have found myself loving it when Hayden goes next door to play and dreading it when they come here. I have been working hard to find balance in being a “fun” mom and having order and rules in our house. I imagine that as each new situation comes up I will identify more and more rules that need to be set until most of them are dealt with. And then I need the kids to learn them. So any advice you have on rules you have when friends come to your house would be great so I know what to expect and I can have an idea of whether I am being unreasonable. A few things that are obvious to me are that friends are not allowed to go in the kitchen in search of snack, the need to ask or go home for lunch. Friends must actually be playing with Hayden not simply playing at our house. I wish I could be the fun house where everyone hangs out but I’m not in that phase of life, I usually have someone napping. Another rule I want is that he can only have one friend in the afternoon during naptime because more than that and they get too crazy. But then I feel bad when the girl next door rings the bell wanting to play, or if I let her come play and then Hayden’s best friend wants to come over of course he is going to want to kick out the girl if I say he can only have one friend... I try to just send them outside and it works for a while but it’s so hot I can’t blame them for not staying out! Anyway, I”m learning this all by trial and error and would love some advice! I just need thicker skin so I can deal with the sad looks when I turn them away and Hayden’s cries... help!

Hayden starts Kindergarten next week! I can’t believe it’s already here! I have been so excited for him and for me that I’m shocked now that the time has come. I’m really nervous for him but I know he’ll enjoy it. We met his teacher and she seems really nice and I hear she runs a pretty strict orderly classroom which will be perfect for him. He gets all bent out of shape when other kids are acting up. I am so sad at the thought of him being gone all the time so we’ve been trying to do everything we can this week. We went to the aquarium again and had a great time. We went to the pirate ship park and the beach and enjoyed the sand and water. Today we went to a nearby “water park.” A hotel just about 5 minutes away has 2 water slides and a lazy river that are open to the public for 5000 yen for adults and the kids are free. (That’s roughly $5.) We all had a fantastic time and could have stayed all day! The kids are begging to go back tomorrow.

I want to write an entire blog about how frustrated I am about our household goods not arriving but I am trying to be positive. Our stuff was supposed to arrive no later than the 18th.... well it’s finally here on the island but they can’t deliver it until Sept. 4th.... it’s been more than 2 months since I slept in my own bed! There are so many things I want... but alas, at least they didn’t “fall off the boat” and they are coming. In the meantime, we ordered some curtains on Overstock.com and my mom sent them to us. So we painted, we put up curtains, bought carpet and now we’re just waiting to get some furniture. Soon...

We’ve been here about two months now and in a lot of ways it has gone really fast. On the other hand, it feels like we’ve been here forever, and with some of the friends I’ve made it feels like we’ve been friends a lot longer. The weather has given us a small break this week and it’s been bearable outside. We had a family over for dinner tonight that just arrived on the island two days ago. They were lamenting about the heat while I was commented on how much cooler it’s been. I get to play sponsor for this new family tomorrow by driving them around and such because their sponsor is on a short deployment. Our sponsor was the best thing ever for us, they helped us soooo much that I feel like this is the least we can do. It’s a guy that worked as a dental tech at the hospital in San Diego with Tom. They have one little girl, age 16 months.

Last Saturday I went to a girls night out with a bunch of girls in the ward. We went to a fantastic restaurant, it’s shaped like a huge barrel (or keg) and was really good Okinawa food, the dessert was amazing. Then we went and got pedicures at a place called Cocok’s that is an island tradition for most of the Americans. They do a fantastic job painting your nails in any design you pick out! It was so nice!

Today Hayden did a whole bunch of pages in a printing practice workbook in order to earn the privilege of going to see Star Wars Clone Wars with Tom. They are at the movie right now hopefully having some fun “guy” time.

I accidentally put one of Danica’s crocs in the washing machine and it came out looking new! So I put them all in and they look great. The first one I washed got thrown in the dryer and now it seems to be a bit smaller or her feet have just grown which is likely! Anyway, try just the wash to get new shoes!

Alyssa had her one year old check up this morning. She is healthy and happy and although I thought she was bigger than Danica I was wrong. She weighs just under 18 pounds! As Tom so lovingly said “it’s all your fault you know!” Oh well, at least she’s adorable!

Lastly I have a few Danica quotes (after years of Hayden quotes it’s fun that she’s talking too!) These are a few of things she’s been saying lately:

She talks the most when she is mad, these are said in an angry, stern voice:
“This is not a game Mom (or Hayden, or Alyssa)!”
”No screaming baby Lyssa, I eating, that too loud!”
“Got it Mom?!”

This one was said with all the innocence of a two year old: “Look mommy, I have a small bum and you have a big one!”

On a side note: Danica’s potty training has completely fallen apart and she has totally regressed. It started shortly before we moved in the all the stress of the packing but was just an occasional incident of not get to the potty soon enough...things went okay at the hotel but in the last few weeks the accidents have picked up more and more until I just find her wet all the time. She has not been wearing pull ups, not even at night, since February and now she wakes up soaked all the time so I’ve had to start putting pull ups on her for my sanity. It is so frustrating and we’ve tried so many things like the treat jar again, rewards, threats, cold showers... pretty much everything we’ve heard and nothing works. She likes the cold showers... when I ask her if her undies are wet she smiles really big at me and says “yes!” She just keeps smiling and smiling waiting for my reaction. So obviously it’s an attention thing or something. Anyway, I just wanted to share my misery. Hopefully it will go away when life settles down... in the meantime we have a nice sticker chart and box of treats... I do the laundry nearly every day.... :)


The picture doesn't do them justice, the details are amazing!


Check out the clean shoe!




Alyssa loved her musical birthday card and Danica helps her listen to it and they sit and dance!

So we just arrived back from our doctor appointment and we found out that, no, we will not be pregnant forever. Everything with Noah is good and unless he comes Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, we are on-call for induction on Saturday and 100% confirmed for it on Sunday. So very good news!!! All else is great and we will let you all know if anything else happens.

So today was supposed to be a nice lazy day but I made the mistake of thinking that we had taken the dogs out later than we actually did last night and this morning Joe had an accident in his crate. I hurried and took Cody out to tinkle but didn't let him poop in my anxiety over getting Joe cleaned up and so... while I was bathing Joe, Cody pooped in his crate. I swear, they must have known they were finally getting back on my good side after a month of spending almost all of my free thinking time wondering if I could talk the girls into selling them on Craig's List (I know, I am a bad AND stupid person). But it was all my fault and I couldn't blame them too much. They have been really good and now that they are getting used to the house they aren't barking nearly as much as they were. There was only one way to go really. Anyway, I had given Cody a trim last night and then Sawyer was to ornery for me to do Joe so today I bathed both dogs, cleaned their crates, and trimmed Joe all up. They are very handsome boys and I now know that as badly as I want to sleep in on a Saturday, or let Jane sleep in, if they sound like they are getting restless they need to go out. Bark or no bark.

After the grossness of doggie doo doo I had to take a shower and Ellyn tried to climb in fully dressed and Sawyer wanted me and so the three of us took a shower. Hence the cute Sawyer pictures. From there we packed a lunch and went to the beach.

Next lesson learned. Ellyn can run very fast if she wants to get to the water AND she has no issues sitting down as huge waves come rushing toward her. I was able to get to her on the first two attempts, one with wet cuffs for both of us and then I was holding Sawyer and Ellyn made a dash. Thankfully I was able to grab Juliet (Ellyn's harness) and I could feel the force sucking on her. Not that I think she would have been swept away but as I am reaching for her she plops right down, laughing her little laugh and the wave sweeps right up to her chest and up to just below my knees. Next lesson, bring an entire change of clothing for Ellyn or picnic to the beach comes abruptly to an end.

I am so happy we live out in Carmel Valley versus right in Monterey. Every day it is sunny and warm out here, not hot, warm. Almost any day that we drive into Monterey it is overcast and about 8-10 degrees cooler. The sun is good for my psyche. So I have discovered that beach days are just like they are on the Oregon Coast, bundled up in fleeces and pants or capris. I brought plenty of fleeces for the girls and Sawyer but I wish I would have brought some more warm things for me. Between Ellyn and Sawyer my clothes don't stay clean very long. I could always go buy more, which, if Mike is reading this he is rolling his eyes and saying "Go to the store Woman." But... I am too cheap when I know I have plenty on their way. So it's jean jacket or Nike fleece. They are both dirty now even as I write.

I have broken down and turned our heater on at night. I was refusing because it is summer dang it. But... we were all going to bed with fleeces on and long shirts and pants and then night I pulled mine and Sawyer's hoods on over our heads I cracked. Love the heater.

Greetings from the Oh my gosh that's so sad girl,

First off, I would like to say how grateful I am for such wonderful support from everyone both near and far these past few days. This has all been such a humbling experience and a lesson in perspective for sure. Before this week I found myself complaining about the late stage of pregnancy coupled with carpel tunnel, back pain and plantar fasciitis. Well, the broken leg bit puts all of that to shame completely. Never in my life have I been so disabled and totally dependent on others for every little thing. It has definitely shown me just how amazing Brent is who has helped me with everything from shower to dressing as well as get up/down stairs and meal prep. I never thought crutches were that bad but with a huge belly, swollen body, and heavy leg splint and carpel tunnel, it feels like a big scary tight rope walk up hill for short little trips. So yay for us getting a wheel chair yesterday to at least have downstairs and for outings. Noah will get quite a few rides on it with me I think... that will be another funny picture!

As far as the leg goes, I am on splint #4. The surgeon didn't like the first one with the bone alignment which Brent mention (that's 2). Then on Thursday night I began having excruciating calf pain and the on-call doc recommended we go to the ER to rule out blood clot with an ultrasound which was negative but they had to remove the splint to do it. As soon as they cut it open, the calf pain went away which means I was probably swelling too much and constricting the leg. The ER tech put on the most sloppy splint ever which we then got replaced the next morning by the very skilled ortho techs at the Rebound office (splint#4). The pain is getting better and I haven't needed a pain pill yet today but I still have to keep it elevated for the swelling or it will start to hurt.

So as far as the OB visit on Thursday, she said that in her opinion there was no need to induce labor or do a c-section. She said we have every reason to expect a very healthy delivery and that she has delivered several babies with moms with broken legs. Basically she is not worried and said recovery from c-section would not be good with the broken leg thing. She also said she would wait up to a week after the due date before inducing which is when my tears betrayed me. I guess you could say I'm a little past done with the pregnancy at this point. I know it will be hard taking care of Noah when he comes now and will need 24-hour help but I'm ready to get on with it and start to work on healing my body and getting it back to some kind of normal.

I know some of this is quite pathetic but really Brent and I have done quite a good job at seeing the positive and laughing at the situation as much as we can. We keep thinking of a SNL skit with a character named "Debbie Downer" with regards to our situation. Brent might post a link to one if he gets a chance.

Well, I think that's it for now. Brent finally went back to work today and Amy (my sister) is coming down with Sophia to hang out with me. With how protective Brent is, I feel like she is my babysitter as he almost wouldn't leave for work before she got here without a lot of encouragement from me.

Thanks again to all for your thoughts, kind words and offers of help. We just might take you up on it so be careful what you say!!

Buffy

So today was a kind of frustrating day. We could not get a hold of Buffy's OBGYN directly but left a message with her nurse of wanting to talk about scheduled c-section. We have an appointment tomorrow at 1:30 pm with her.
We also received a call from the orthopedic surgeon that the wanted to have Buffy come in a reposition her foot and re-splint it. Yes you can say "OUCH"!!!
I posted a picture of her x-ray where I think any of you can see the break and also a picture of her on crutches. She does it but as you can see by the wrist brace, it is not easy.
Please pray for Buffy that the OB will be nice to her tomorrow and we get something scheduled.
We love you all and will update tomorrow.

So, wow, Buffy - you really take the cake on that one. I really hope that all is going as well as it can! You are lucky to have very helpful and caring Brent to be there to help you. :)

Guess I'll give an update on me, other than just letting you know the gifts I was given. And, sorry Tom, the purse is just pretty. It does zip and unzip though, does that get anything?

As of today, I have 4 1/2 days of full-time work here at my office. After that I will still be working here part-time, coming in once a week and doing an hour or so of work at night after studying/class. As I mentioned in my last blog, the lady we hired about a month ago decided over the weekend that this wasn't the best fit for her and so she just didn't show up on Monday. We were all pretty relieved actually because we knew it wasn't a good fit for us either. But now we are sort of scrambling to find someone to take over for me when I stop doing most of the things I do here in a week. Since there are only four other people that work here, we are shifting around job responsibilities for now and starting to search again for someone to take the job. Hopefully that will happen sooner than later. So in my remaining week I am finishing up some big in-office projects and training the others to do my job.

Next Wednesday I start with the school schtuff. I have my new graduate orientation at SDSU that day. I'm not sure how much of it I am going to go to since I think it is for undergrads too but it will at least get me to the school so I can take care of other business and buying supplies and things. I've already gotten one email from a professor telling us to bring our laptops to the first day of class...guess I'd better be ready to jump right in!

Then Labor Day weekend I will be playing all over SoCal with trips to LA, Hollywood, Disneyland and all over San Diego, enjoying my last weekend of freedom for a while.

Classes officially start on Tuesday September 2nd. I only have one class (Finance...ew) on Tuesdays that doesn't start until 6pm so I'll have most of that day to relax and prepare. I have decided to take the SD trolley to school instead of driving. There is a trolley station across the street from my apartment and one on the SDSU campus so it only takes about 10 minutes to get there. It'll save me buying a parking permit, save $$ on gas and eleviate the headache of actually finding the parking you paid for. I think it will also be nice to have some time, albeit only 10 minutes, before class to just sit and relax.

I'm also going to be going to a Study Abroad info session in the first week or so of class to see how do-able my "semester in London" would be for next year and how it would fit into my program. I really want to do it so hopefully it will work out well with the classes I need to take and what they offer.

Anyway, need to get back to work and training some peeps!

Check out Chad and Kristin Anselmo's Blog for the video. The funniest part is at 6:20 in the video. Chad and Kristen are such good and funny friends of ours.

So this morning Buffy started her day as normal going to work at 7 am. She had a few patients, her last of which was a pool patient. She was in the pool area giving rehab and had finished up when she told the gentleman to watch his step it might be slippery. Then as she was walking out "BOOM" she slipped and tweaked her ankle. No one was around to see her so she crawled out to the hallway and yelled for help. Help came and took her in to the office were she was given ice and then the OBGYN was called and she was wisked off to the Labor and Delvery. This was when I got a call. I jumped in my car, called Mom (who went right over, thanks mom, and drove very fast to get to the hospital.
I arrived at the hospital at 10 am and all was good with the baby, Buffy's leg was another story. After 2 hours of monitoring we went to the other side of the hospital to the Orthopedic Dept of Rebound (Buffy's Work). Because she worked there she got the star treatment. She was X-rayed and we found out she has a Broken Leg that if she was not pregnant would have required surgery and still might after Noah comes.
She was then given a temporary split (Hard, but not a real cast) and next week we go back hopefully after Noah is born to see if she needs surgery. So to add onto this as I am geting the car to pick her up, I lock the keys in the car. (AHHHHHHH!!!) Anyhow we are now at hope and Buffy is on some pain meds. We will be calling the Doctor tomorrow to see what the plan is for Noah. Please keep Buffy in your prayers and just an FYI, all is good with Noah luckily she fell in her hip and not her belly.
Love you all
Brent

We've been doing some boating to escape the recent heat here. We are very grateful to Kenn & Barb who allow us to take it out. It is much cooler this week, much to my relief. We went out Thursday night with Brent. We have nick-named him and Dave tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. When we were taking the boat out, Dave miscalculated the distance between the boat and dock and disappeared into the river...right in front of a restaurant packed with diners. The kids loved that one. Then, not ten minutes later, Brent lost his footing getting out of the boat while it was on the trailer and landed flat on his back on the pavement. That wasn't funny until we realized he wasn't hurt...then it was hilarious.

We went out again on Friday and Saturday - this time we met some friends. They took us to a sandy beach down the Columbia - we anchored way out and walked into the beach - lots of shallow area. About an hour into the day, I watched as an older couple strolled down the beach to the water. Nothing unusual - except that they were completely naked. Turns out this beach was a popular spot for nudists. We all took it in stride - until some guy (naked, of course) decided to walk right up to us and remind us, on behalf of the Oregon Nudist Society, to pick up our garbage before we left. Yes - it's very important to keep the beach clean for the nudies - nevermind the psychological damage my children suffer staring at this middle-aged man with no clothes on. It's ironic how the people who elect to take off all their clothes in public - are the very ones who really shouldn't. My favorite part of the day was hearing Parker say, "Look, Mom - the nudes are in the water!" Priceless.

Isaac is 13. He had a great birthday. Thanks for all his well-wishes. He is going out for football this year - starts next week. If there are any bits of advice for my 80 lb. son who is going to play tackle football, please share.

Morgan lost a front tooth. The tooth fairy promptly delivered a dollar to her - only to realize in the morning that this particular dollar had a message written on the top: Call for a good time: 503-254-.... Now Morgan insists we need to call because it is a message from the tooth fairy.

We go to Phantom of the Opera tomorrow night. Morgan has requested that she be made to look like Christine. Wish me luck.

Hood to Coast is Friday. We feel ready, training wise - but we have much to do before we are ready to be in a car for 30+ hours, running a relay. I am thankful that there are so many familiar faces in our van: Dave, Kenn (our fearless driver), Paige, Meagan (Brooke's sister) & Voss (friend from ward). My first leg takes me through downtown Portland at about 11 pm- lots of turns and opportunity to get off course - so I have been memorizing my route. I think it will be a great experience.

Keep the blogs comin'.

Adina

If you look closely enough, you can catch a glimpse of some 'nudes' in the background. :)

Morgan - minus a tooth.

So I know most of you couldn't care less about designer handbags but I just have to show off my new "baby"! This is my "going-away" present from my company for going back to school and leaving them (full-time, at least). They were very tricky about giving it to me today. I had no idea that they were planning anything let alone this. I had mentioned to one of them a few months ago that I really loved this purse and really wanted it but there was no way I was going to spend the $450 it costs to get it.

So I am quite a happy camper today with my new little friend and I thought I'd share the story and a picture.

P.S. Also today - quite aptly on the day I get a present like this for being, well, awesome - the new lady we hired to replace me decided to quit. No notice, no phone call. Pretty lame way to do it but it wasn't working out anyway. So I'll be figuring that out in this coming week before I leave....

Alyssa had a great time at her birthday and loved her presents!


Yesterday was Alyssa’s birthday and we had a fantastic time! (Well technically today is her birthday if you consider the fact that now it's the 17th in California.) She is the most delightful, fun, loving baby ever! She loves to clap and wave, she is all smiles and loves to snuggle into to my shoulder and smile shyly whenever someone tries to talk to her. It’s so adorable! It’s hard to imagine that she is the same child as the colicky newborn I had a year ago! I can’t imagine life without her! She got such a kick out of her little birthday party today, loving all the attention, especially when everyone started singing! I think her favorite part was the chocolate cake! It was fun to spoil her all day! Thank you for the birthday wishes you sent her!

Like Kenn mentioned in the comment on my last post I use these as journal entries and just figure I'll paste them in here since it's easier than trying to right our a separate blog. We’ve had a lot of fun the last two weeks but I’m not exactly sure what we’ve been doing! With Alyssa still taking two naps a day it seems like we spend a lot of time just hanging out at home. Our house hold goods have not yet arrived but they are supposed to be here this week so we have our fingers crossed that it’s true. It will be so nice to have our stuff again! Especially our bed! I just called the office since they were supposed to arrive today and he said they aren't here so he sent out a tracking request to the carrier and will here back within 72 hours... ugh... our friends that moved and arrived here at the same time as us called and found out there stuff is just clearing customs and will be here tomorrow...lucky ducks.

Last Monday I had a fantastic day out exploring the shopping in the city with just Alyssa. We had such a great time! I had a voucher for free child care for the other two kids at the day care that was going to expire so I decided to just take advantage of it! Danica was excited to go to the preschool and did okay when I dropped her off but it was a long day and apparently after nap time she was spent and cried most of the afternoon. I felt really bad when I picked her up but I’d had such a great day I didn’t feel as bad as I should! Alyssa and I started the day by going out to a store called Uniqlo that was recommended as an Old Navy type shopping store. Alyssa fell asleep on the way so I let her nap for a while and I relaxed and read Breaking Dawn. Then we browsed the store and I found a great selection of jeans, and t-shirts. I got Danica a cute khaki skirt for 1,000 yen ($10). Then I went next door and enjoyed some shoe shopping. It’s so amazing that in Japan my feet are almost LARGE!!!! I felt really happy. Most shoes are in centimeters but a lot of the women's sandals and such just come in s, m and l. I had fun trying on little strappy sandals I will probably never wear! Then I went to the next store in the little strip mall. It was a 100 yen plaza (dollar store) but also had a lot of stuff that was more than a dollar. They sold just about thing you could ever think of and I relished the chance to actually go up and down every isle with no one bugging me. I came home with some real treasures like a plastic banana holder so they won’t get squished in the diaper bag and a magnetic key hook and wallet holder for the side of the fridge! After that we drove over to the “mall” called Jusco. Alyssa fell asleep again so I sat in the car and read, quite enjoyable. Then we went in and I fed Alyssa while I did some people watching. After that I spent a few hours just enjoying the mall. I got a great deal on some fabric storage boxes and a super cute new purse/diaper bag at this purse store called HushHush. There’s just enough english that I can get by. I just hand the cashier some money and say thank you. Once we finished through the mall I bought some treats for the kids at the supermarket and headed to the “make-man” store, a hardware, home goods store. I found a cute little T.V. stand just perfect for the back room and was excited because it was on sale and the last one. So I finished my day and picked up the kids just in time. It felt so good to just do whatever I wanted with no one bugging me. Alyssa was delightful company just enjoying all the sights and sounds. I enjoyed all the smiles and attention she gets from the Japanese people. My friend and I decided that we need to just trade babysitting days once a month for no reason at all so we can just go out and enjoy!

So the trend around here is to have a mamasan. This is a japanese woman who comes to your house from 8-4 and she cleans, does laundry, ironing, ect. for about $60 a day. Most women have her come every other week. I’ve thought about this but what I really want done is the deep cleaning and she doesn’t necessarily do all that. I don’t mind the cleaning or the satisfaction I get from it I just don’t have time with the kids. So I am thinking I will try to get a babysitter once or twice a month and I will relish having the house to myself to clean all day while I listen to a book on tape... sounds nice to me!

We have been to the beach a lot and Hayden is getting really good at snorkeling. He has a life jacket now and just swims around everywhere checking out the fish. I went out to another spot where we swam out to a large trench that was filled with scuba divers. We obviously stayed near the surface and but still a lot of cool stuff. Tom tried diving down to check out an anemone and hurt his ear because he went to fast but he is luckily doing fine now.

Well, Tom just turned on the Office and I can’t resist so I have to go. Oh one last thing- Tom and I finally went out and had some Japanese food at a local place. I played it safe and got something with curry that I enjoyed. Tom got a noodle thing that was just okay. I was just happy that we didn’t go to the McDonald’s we walked past!

Take care!