Well, I just got back from Rob Epperson's funeral. It was a beautiful service, very faith promoting and with great love for him and his family. LeAnn sang a beautiful rendition of O My Father during the service. Her voice is so beautiful...I can't imagine how hard it was for her to contain her emotions enough to sing the song. Meagan's oldest two were there, Jackson and Bennett, and I was very impressed at their behavior for over two hours of quiet sitting. The whole experience makes me so thankful for the knowledge of the plan of salvation that the gospel gives us. What a richness and understanding that gives to our lives!

I'm also thinking so much of Mike and Brooke today. I think he got in about midnight our time last night. What joy there must be in that family!!!! Welcome home, Mike!!!

Otherwise, on my ankle, I did go to the doctor on Monday. It is not broken but the doctor is having a radiologist look at the x-ray more closely to see if there are any issues going on that are not readily apparent. In the meantime, he is having me wear an ankle brace that looks like a 1800 era shoe...except with no toe. It does make it feel better. I went to the funeral without it and I really could tell the difference. So running is out until this gets healed. I did go swimming this morning for 45 minutes so I don't get entirely out of shape!!!

Well, I better get working on my job...It's now about an hour and a half past when I thought I would get to it....Love you all,

Mom

Sorry, I'm a bit late. My mind has been going in a million different directions this week (we can pretend that's why, all the other b-days I'm late for I have no excuse). I hope you both had great birthdays. You are two of my favorite people. Mike should be home tonight!!

love, The Mike Stinchfield Clan

Brent - yesterday
Anne - today

I hope you guys enjoyed your special days! :) Love you both!

Tom and Peter. Kenn and Tom.

For those who have not been following Rob Epperson's fight with cancer but have heard about him, he passed away this morning. My heart goes out to his wife, Patti, and their five children. Their oldest, Robbie, is the little boy that came over with Brooke and the kids at Christmas.

I always have a tender spot in my heart for the Epperson's because they were such good friends to Brooke and Mike and worried and prayed about Mike so much when he went over to Iraq. This is very hard for Leanne as Rob and Patty were like her own kids to her. She will be heading home early on Saturday.

We are enjoying having Tom and Tracey and kids here...and are looking forward to Anne and Peter and the boys coming tonight!

Love,

Mom

I am copying over a posting from Meagan from the Bennett blog....

****Note---this is on April 26 (a Saturday) here in Portland****


i found this race http://www.seansrun.org/, and thought it would be fun. dad noticed that is not only a 5 or 10k run, but also a 5k walk. so we are all going to do it. april is autism awareness month so this is how we are going to show our support. i'm going to try to make t-shirts with ellyn's picture on them (if that's ok with brooke and mike). i know that none of you would be able to do it with us, but maybe there is something in your area. also if barb reads this or brooke could pass this on to the stinchfields and anyone in the area who would be interested. i would like to get as many people together as possible.

love................me


Let's look into it.....

Mom

Ok, don't feel bad Marnie cuz I'm in the same boat with no excuse for not posting.
I too am not really part of the running challenge for obvious reasons I guess. My OB has a heart rate limit of 140 BPM with exercise and when I run, I'm in the 140's to 150's. So I split my cardio up at the gym with 1/2 on the ellyptical and 1/2 on the treadmill usualy walking fast up hill which I stay in the safe heart zone... I basically average about 2.5 miles 2-3 times per week. I am in that fun stage of pregnancy though where I am starting to show but not really so I just look like I have had too many doughnuts if someone didn't know I was prego. So as I go to the gym and workout I am feeling a little self conscious (silly I know).
Work is still great and I am really enjoying my co-workers and my patient load. I have a good balance of cases (different diagnoses, etc) and the days though hectic, go by fast. I find myself doing some manual skills with patients and wonder how it will work with a huge belly. The good news is that many a PT have gone there before including current co-workers so I'm sure it all works out.
Kim, I think we will be finding out the sex of our baby right about the same time as you... can you say excited?? I feel like a lot is in limbo with planning untill we find out. I totally can't relate to people that don't want to know till the baby is born.
I am guessing those of you that have gone through pregnancy before have learned about people's funny and VERY opinionated comments on the topic of baby's and pregnancy. Since I am talking with all walks of people all day at work, I have certainly gotten my share already. One example is an elderly female patient sternly telling me that natural childbirth (no pain meds) is the only way to go. When I laughed and said that I respectfully disagreed, she scowled at me and continued to argue her point. Wow!
Well, I think I have blogged enough. I really am impressed by everyone that is posting their running... what a healthy family!
Buffy

I just looked back at how long it has been since I blogged and it has been a while I guess. Sorry about that. I won't make any excuses as I don't really know what they would be.....so here's an update on me.

I took this video of Danica and Alyssa this morning:

Happy Birthday Buffy and Peter! We hope you both have a great time celebrating!!! We are having a great time here. I am so impressed with everyone and the running challenge, you are all awesome!! I am so inspired! As for the relay I think it sounds fantastic and I would love to do it. I can't see the future but I would think that since we are moving in June it would be a nice idea to plan to come back in August of 09 for a visit, we will have been away for over a year and will be surely missing you all. Plus, Alyssa will be just turning two so I shouldn't be pregnant yet. I make no guarantees for August of 2010. Is the race before school starts? I don't know what Tom will say since he is the stoic who says we aren't coming back until we move back but I am still optimistic since I haven't made that long flight yet! Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject!

So let’s see, what have we been up to for the past week or so... last week Alyssa had croup and Danica had a bad cold so we didn’t do a whole lot. It was wet and rainy most of the week which cancelled Tom’s softball game and Hayden’s t-ball practice. On Saturday the sun was out and Hayden had a birthday party for a friend at preschool. I came up with the plan to drop Hayden at the party and to then for Tom and I to go to Miramar Lake and run around the lake with the girls in the jogging stroller. So we jumped in the car a few minutes before the party was starting and I punched the address in the nav system and it came up saying the party was 25 minutes away!! What are they doing driving so far for preschool!!!!!???? Well, we had no choice but to race to the party, Hayden had his heart set on it. We were hoping that maybe we would find a nice place to run near the party since it was too far to drive back to the lake. Unfortunately the party was up in the hills of Escondido with such huge inclines it would be miserable, especially with the stroller! But to make things worse as we pulled up to the house there were a ton of cars and I came to the quick realization that they didn’t intend on having us drop Hayden off... we hadn’t showered and were in our running clothes. I threw on my jacket and tried to forget my current state as we headed into the party to mingle with all the other preschool moms... Tom was thrilled to be in on all the fun, he loves to mingle with preschool moms.

Well, we did manage to salvage our Saturday, when we got home Tom went running around the lake and we got the house cleaned up. Saturday night we went bowling and had a great time, it was boys against girls and everyone did really well. They had one of those metal frames you could just push the ball off, it was perfect! Alyssa enjoyed all the commotion and Danica and Hayden were cheering for each other, it was great.

On Monday I had Hayden’s parent-teacher conference at the preschool and as I expected they gave a great report. He scored well in every area except scissor cutting and skipping (don’t you wish that is still what you were tested on!) He is very social and she said he never interrupts during group time and is good at helping other kids resolve conflict (was she talking about my Hayden?) His favorite activities are blocks and building materials and the playground. She said “Hayden is very sweet, bright and soft spoken. He has an easy going personality and likes to avoid conflicts and is level headed. He enjoys spending time with friends and shows an interest in learning new things.” So that is Hayden at school. Here are few things that I have observed lately:
He is very concerned with keeping Danica safe. If he is aware that she may be in danger he panics! He gets so frustrated with her if she won’t hold my hand in the road or if she gets to close to the treadmill, etc.
In the bath tub Danica was pouring water on his head so he shouted at her, but he didn’t shout “stop” he said “Danica, I don’t have invisible goggles on my head!!” Too bad she didn’t realize that!! He regularly has funny dreams he tells me about in the morning, I’ll have to start writing them down!

Danica has found a new love, she can’t get enough of Finding Nemo! She calls is “Emo” and asks for it all day, from the minute she wakes up. In fact, if she is the first one awake in the morning, which she usually is, I can pull her into bed with me, turn on Nemo and go back to sleep until someone else wakes up, it’s fantastic! Recently she has been willing to branch out and is now watching The Little Mermaid as well. It’s so funny to watch her because she laughs and laughs during the shark chase at the beginning. Finally watching movies with words, verses Baby Einstein, is helping her vocabulary as well and she is saying new stuff all the time.

Alyssa is great at sitting up and loves her baby food. She loves to smile and giggle and reminds me a lot of Hayden with her sense of humor. When the other kids act silly she will just start laughing, it’s hilarious. She is as bald as can be which seems to be the trend with my babies. Right now she looks so much like Hayden at this age! She loves the swings at the park. And (knock on wood) she is starting to sleep better at night... just in time for us to go out of town again... oh well... who needs sleep?

I think I got side tracked, I was talking about what we did on Monday. Monday night we went to our home teachers house for FHE. Our home teacher happens to be the wife of my good friend Victoria and the dad of Hayden’s best friend Cameron so he was in heaven. On Tuesday we went to the Wild Animal Park. Lately Hayden has been bored at the zoo and just begs to go home so I was nervous but we had a really fun day. We rode on the Safari tram, played at the playground and saw some animals. As we were walking out Hayden said sweetly, “I had a really great day here today.” Phew! Danica loved all the animals and could even name them for me.

Wednesday I had a girl come to my house to color my hair, I got it weaved with blond. It’s nice to be “blond” again, it’s just more me than the dark color. I’ve started a new thing where I run with the jogging stroller when Hayden is at school. I did 5 miles on Monday and Wednesday! I’m hoping to go run alone today when Tom gets home. It’s gorgeous this week so I can’t pass up going outside. It was 81 degrees at the Wild Animal Park!! This morning I babysat for a friend then we went to the park and Hayden went on a play date, his favorite activity!! Now the girls are sleeping and Hayden is watching the Backyardigans, he’s in love with that show again.

Okay, this is way too long... take care!

Yes - I am on a quest to acquire some hot pink leggings for an 80's party Dave and I are going to this weekend. I have the entire ensemble, but need the leggings, so if anyone has any insight into where one can obtain these, that would be very helpful! We went "shopping" last night for our clothes and it was so fun - we will be sure to capture the moment and share.

We also went to a Hood to Coast party last weekend - they had ROCK BAND - and we played for a while. It was so much fun - though I have to admit that I suck at the drums. Really bad. But I think that would be a fun family item to have for gatherings...

My brother, Ray Jr. is getting married - for those who know him. June 7th, Oakland temple. We met his girlfriend at my grandpa's funeral, and she has demonstrated an affinity for my motley family and has agreed to become an Archuleta. Pretty cool. I am so happy.

Kim - I am anxious to see your haircut. I am on the verge of doing something drastic with my hair, though I have said this numerous times and still sport the same do I've had for years. I am wavering between simple highlights or putting some kind of wave into my hair. I am a huge coward when it comes to my hair (to state the obvious) and admire all of you who undergo frequent changes. Loan me some courage. Buffy - I made an appointment at your salon - but I am debating whether or not to keep it until I have figured out what I am doing.

Everything else is good. We've had sunshine for the last couple of weeks, which has made running a pleasure. I will miss it when the rains come again, which they undoubtedly will. Took a day off today for strength training. I am inspired by all of you and think a family relay would be an unforgettable experience.

Happy birthday, Peter - have a good one. Have a good Thursday, everyone.

Adina

Hope this is a great day for you, Peter! Since we'll be celebrating Buffy, Peter, Brent and Anne's birthday together on the 8th, I was very negligent on cards but I am remembering the day. Peter, we are so glad that Anne found you...and brought you into our family!!!

Also... for those who don't regularly look at the other blogs that are linked to ours. The Schickie blog has some great stuff about Kay-Kay...a response to a question from Sophie who never really knew her. Also, the Bennett blog has a great current picture of Sawyer...what a cutie!!!

I just got back from running and need to get a quick shower so I can meet the Hospice nurse over at Grandma's at 11. I am finding that I need to take two showers a day...one before seminary and then one after exercising...obviously I am exerting myself more than I used to because I used to be able to skip the second one.

Love to all,

Mom