a poem for Brooke
Brooke Stinchfield is her name
She has a sis-in-law that's really lame
I promise I didn't forget you
I would never even think to
But I suppose that's the problem
And man you know I've got 'em
So sorry for leaving you out
Just please forgive me and don't shout
I love you so
I will never let you go...apart from the Stinchfields!
Sorry brooke! I love you!!!
Just got home from the Washougal vs Prarie HS Football game. Dave, Isaac, Taylor, Parker and I went to the game after a great dinner with Adina, Morgan and the above mentioned guys. We stayed until it looked like Washougal was going to get snookered and then all of a sudden, as we were leaving, a couple of touchdowns in a few minutes and the game reversed itself. We laughed at each for missing the best part of the game, but he boys were getting restless and off we went. On the way home, I could see the scoreboard and with 1:21 to go, Washougal was ahead by 4 points. I don't know how it turned out. Hey, the home across the cul de sac from David and Adina is for sale. It is a very nice home like theirs. If you want this one, you'll have to move fast.
Had a nice time last night with Brooke and kiddos, Dave and Adina and kiddos at the Greatest Show on Earth circus. Had a good time and the looks on the kids faces made it well worth it.
Tomorrow is another day with mom gone off to Europe. I'm handling it okay and I get occasional invites from family for meals here and there. Kim brought me some broc and chicken and it was good, as usual.
Well, that isn't much said but I am drifting off to sleep. Love ya, all, Dad
Wow Marnie, Mike is gone less than four days and I am no longer included as family. That's cool. I hope I get your name for Christmas. Then I won't have to worry about getting you anything since I'm not really a part of your family.
For those of you that still include me- Dave, my cell is 706-577-2806. My parent's home phone is 360-666-8639. I hope you received my message about not needing you to watch Bailey. I left in on Adina's cell. I left a message there yesterday afternoon as well. Just so you don't think I'm pulling a Marnie:)
As for me and the girls, we are doing well. Mike is reasonably happy and that makes me happy. Jane gets to talk to her dad every day right when she gets out of school and that is definitely a high point in her day. The girls are having lots of fun with their cousins, although Sadie is having major Morgan withdrawals now that she is in her new house and we aren't seeing her on a daily basis.
Barb, I hope you are having a wonderful time on your trip. We miss you. We love you all. Peter, I especially want to tell you how much fun we had getting to know you this summer. I think I've said that before but we are so glad you are part of the family. Even when Anne is out of town. We like all of your geeky interests as well :) Anne made a wonderful choice. I'm sure Kim did too, but we have to wait until the newness wears off and then see if uncle Trevin is as fun as he is now.
Alright, now that I have offended everyone. I love you all. Goodnight.
Good job everyone! Well almost everyone...we still haven't heard from Kim and Treven. Hopefully they are still alive and ok.
Good to hear everyone's news.
Mike: Glad you are safe in Korea. I hope you can have some fun their exploring the area. I will have to send you some money so you can hook me up with one of those mink blankets that Dad used to get for us. I have a half size one but I would like a full.
Mom: I am jealous but glad that you are having fun in Europe. I wish I could go! I love it there!
David and Adina: I need your cell phone numbers. My cell phone broke so I had to get a replacement and reenter all numbers but I lost yours. I hope the house is coming together well. Brent and Buffy: I promise I will come up there sometime soon. I just am busy with work and scared of gas prices so a 6 hour round trip drive makes me hesistate for a one day trip. So we will see when I can figure that out.
Tom and Tracey: I love the pictures of Hayden! He is so cute! Good to know that you are well.
Anne and Peter: Great job Anne! I was bragging to my friends about you because they are in a volleyball class at Mesa and think they are all good and stuff so I told them you were way better! Hopefully I might be able to squeeze in one of your games when I am up in Utah next month.
Kim and Treven: Um, hello? You guys are MIA so I have no comments for you. :)
Dad: Hang in there! Feel free to take a weekend trip to San Diego to visit your alone daughter! The weather is amazing!
I am well, just working and chugging along. Love you all!
Glad Mike got to Korea safely....and Anne on her great game..s...This is a struggle since the French keyboard is slightly different! We arrived safely and are having a great time. We are in an old Roman city tonight where van Gogh cut off his ear! I enjoyed reading the blog...we are in a hotel with internet access! Have to go get ready for dinner!
Love and ,miss you all:::especially Dad!
Mom
I'm glad I wasn't the only one totally amazed by the amount of high rise apartment buildings in South Korea. And it is like that almost everywhere. It is hard to fathom unless you see it yourself. And it is amazing how close it all is to the DMZ. Glad to hear you made it there safely Mike. I can only imagine the freakin' out at the airports. I'm surprised they let you take it! Amenities there sound nice. Shoot, that would be awesome if there were some way the girls could stay there with you. We haven't heard from Brooke yet. BTW, Brooke, when you read this, could you give me a call? I realized that I only have Mike's cell # and not yours programed in. I wrote it down somewhere, but I lost it. We have a landline now in our new home, so everyone can add it to their lists: 360-210-7143. Email that same as always. Give us a call Brooke, so that we can arrange the deal tonight.
Good job on the killing (?), Anne. You sound like you are tearing it up. I wish I had known that it were the closest game of the season, I would have tried to come. You'll have to let us know your schedule so that we can see if there are any others we can make it to.
We just got all connected with internet, telephone, etc. here in our home today. It is finally starting to be functional. We still need to make a couple more shopping trips to Safeway to fill the cupboards. Pictures on the wall will help as well. It is nice being so close to work and school.
The soccer season has started and it really throws the scheduling all out of whack. It'll be interesting.
Also, last weekend, Adina and I broke away for our 12th wedding anniversary to a B&B on the Oregon coast. Mom and Dad were gracious enough to take the kids for 4 days/3 nights. We went to this place between Cannon Beach and Manzanita called St. Bernard's. Really cool B&B, with great food, awesome rooms and not far from the beach or other activities. We did some sight seeing....there are some beautiful views on the coast, I'll have to post them as soon as I find my camera. We went horseback riding in the dunes and on the sandy beaches. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Adina had never done it before and I had done it last when we lived in Valentine. It was really a lot of fun and we got a little sunburned and SORE! We went out to dinner a couple of times and went shopping and to a play in Cannon Beach. It was a great break after all of the moving, starting work, starting school, starting sports, new Ward, etc.. We really needed some recovery time. And now we are back to the grind...
Mom is gone to Europe, so we are trying to keep Dad busy. He went from 8 people sleeping in his house to 1 person, within 1 day. Must be quiet in that big house. But, we try to go make some noise occasionally.
Mom, hope all is well there. What a trip! Anxious to see some pictures and hear about your travels.
Take care all,
Dave
It was funny sending my carry-on through security. The lady at SEA-TAC gasped loudly and freaked out, yelling "What the hell do you have in there sir?!" Well it is my 2 hard drives and video cards bubble wrapped in cardboard boxes, a PS2 smashed in between, with wrapped up cords on either side. I can only imagine what that looked like on the screen. And then in Tokyo, in there own special Japanese way, they freaked out. The bag was totally unpacked and I had to send each piece through separately. Funny.
Well all, I have arrived safely. I didn't sleep a wink on the plane. So I was ready to crash hard when I got to the hotel. Went to bed at 1030 pm and amazingly woke up and could not sleep at 4 am. So, with the International Dateline I figure I woke up Tuesday morning after maybe 5 hours sleep and didn't go to sleep until 1030 pm Wednsday and then could only sleep 6 hours. Hmmm..well will see how I do. It is 447 pm right now and I feel like I do about 1 am which is coincidentally what tiem it is in Washington so go figure.
Seoul is huge. I would say it feels even larger than New York just because the city never stops. Camp Casey is 40 miles NE of Seoul and on the bus trip here I was wondering when we would finally get out of the city and then all the sudden we were going into the Camp Casey gate. So there are still all the very large skyrise apartment buildings all around Casey. Not at all like I pictured it. And to think the enemy is only like 5 miles away...weird.
I will be inprocessing here for the next week and a half. Nice being a Captain because they put me up at the Camp Casey Lodging which actually has a nicer room than the hotel I stayed in at Seoul. And Brooke, it is only 39 bucks a night and is about 3 blocks from where I work. Nice, huh?! Weird to shut the blinds and watch FOX news, feels no different than the states. Downtown Seoul looked incredible, I cannot wait to check it out. I am amazed by how many dependent families I see here. On Casey they have a full commisary and PX just slightly smaller than the one at Benning. It is very nice from what I see so far and Yongsan Garrison in Seoul was over-the-top nice. Only thing really missing is my girls, all 4, and that is a huge MISS.
Anne, that is sweet, great job. Peter, I am glad you are working through HL2, go ahead and finish it and let me know when you get done. I can hold off replaying for a while. I will not be in my apartment for a couple of weeks and then it will be a bit before I get my PC and Internet set-up.
Brooke, I need to buy a cell phone here. I am going to wait and try to by a used one off someone leaving. It is the way you get a phone here, cheap as land lines. You don't sign up with a provider like in the US. You just by a Korea capable phone. You use pre-paid phone cards to use it, all incoming calls and text messages are free. So that will be cool. I will let you know.
I will let you all know what is up in the coming weeks. I had a great Summer with all of you. Thanks so much. Take care of my girls.
Love, Mike
Here are a couple of paragraphs from the UVSC website posted after tonights game against Boise State. I'm sad to say I wasn't able to be there myself.
BOISE, Idaho – The Utah Valley State volleyball team defeated the Boise State Broncos Tuesday night in an intense four-game match, 30-23, 18-30, 30-26, 33-31, at Bronco Gym. The Wolverines improve to 1-2 on the season and own an overall 3-0 series record over BSU. “It was absolutely a great effort by the girls,” said head coach Sam Atoa. “It was good to see them come together and execute our game plan. They [ Boise State] changed some things on us and it didn’t faze our girls.”
Outside hitters, Anne Olsen and Camie Manwill notched double-digit kill numbers, both finishing the night with season-highs. Olsen tallied 14, while Manwill added 12. Middle blockers Jessica Endres and Stephanie McFarland also added some fire power, with 9 and 7 kills respectively, and outside hitter Larissa Laycock chipped in 8 kills.
The defensive end was solid as well, with Maegan Hoyt finishing with 17 digs. Manwill added 8 digs, while freshman Bethany Carron and Olsen added 5 apiece.
The writing above was posted tonight by a reporter for UVSC. I'm way proud of how Anne is playing. Anne has had 5 service aces for the three matches. She has a really good jump serve and jump served to win the match tonight. This is big because the score was 32-31 and she jump served with that kind of pressure and executed like she knows how to do. It's fun to be in the crowd and here the ooo's and aaahhh's when she jump serves. They play this coming Friday and Saturday in Ogden in the Weber State tournament. It should be fun as it always is.
Well, I wasn't at the Boise game because I was on my way back from another California trip. I was able to go up to Yosemite for one of the days. It is really a beautiful place. I didn't get any pictures this weekend. But I drove through Yosemite last weekend on my way back to Utah and snapped a couple of pictures.
Mike, I hope you have arrived in Korea safely and I look forward to blogs from there. I also hope the whole family is adjusting well after your departure. I have appreciated your allowing me to use your steam sign in so I could play Half Life 2.
'Till next time, take care.
Peter
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