So I guess I will contribute since I am having a lazy Saturday today. I slept in (and won't mention what time I woke up...) and am now planning to just run some errands that I have been putting off all week. San Diego is really beautiful right now - our little dose of spring with wildflowers popping up everywhere, especially along the freeways.

My friend Marisa's husband, Grant, just left this morning for a four-month training program in Cuanico (sp?), VA to become a DEA agent. She has been with him constantly for the past, oh, 11 years, so this'll be the longest period of time they have ever been apart. I know many of you know how that feels and it is never fun, no matter the time period. So I think Michelle (her sister) and I are going to go over and hang out with her tonight to, hopefully, make her feel a little better.

So other than having goodbye parties and farewell hangouts these last couple weeks, I have just been working a lot and starting to get things together for going back to school. There isn't a lot I can do for school at this point other than money stuff. I still have to talk to my bosses to get a better idea of exactly what I will be doing for them and the commitment and constancy of work that will entail. At work, we finally found someone to do our new website. We ended up having to just throw away all the work that had already been done (and paid for) by our other crappy web guy. We are just going to start fresh and I really think that will be the best idea. The site should be finished by the end of April so I am very excited. We also just signed with a couple of women in Romania to be our Representatives for our parenting program there. It will be great to have the program available to the parents in Romania as we get lots of interest from people there. We are also having the P.E.T. book translated into Romanian -- I told my boss how Peter went to Romania on his mission and she said that I can have one of the copies we get from the publisher to give to Peter...that is, if you would like one, Peter.

My curiousity finally got the best of me last week and I watched High School Musical 1 & 2. I blame it on LOST being on break -- I had to have something. So they were good, well not good, they were awesomely bad. You know those movies that are really not good movies but you still love them and will watch them over and over? (willingly, that is, and not because your children are watching them ;) ) Like CenterStage or Mannequin or the like. And I, like Jane, have a little pre-teen crush on Mr. Troy Bolton. :) I may not last the weekend without popping down to Target and picking up my own copies of the flicks.

I'd better get my to-do list together now so I'll go. Hope the store opening went well, Brent! And I love the Easter pics from Tracey. :)

Hey Family,
So I know I am the long lost brother, but I am currently working on 25 straight days of working an average of 12 hours a day. But I believe it has all paid off because the store looks fantastic. I had a walk through with my Regional Manager for the west region and he was very happy with the way the store looks. It is hard to believe that just 4 weeks ago we had no product in the store and my managers and I have built the store to what it is today. I know I am making a name for myself and Nike is definately throwing dollars at my store. We are 1 of 450 stores to have the prototype Nike Soccer aisle in the store, also the plasmas in the clothing area, and the only store to carry the new Nike "Sparq" Training product for Sports Authority.
On a different note, we are just one week away from the ultrasound to hopefully find out the sex of the baby. We can't wait. We both think it is a girl due to the fast heart rate.
I have to go get some shut eye.
Opening Friday!!!! Local Family, don't be scared to come a check it out
!!!
Love Brent

Truly you know you are tired when you dream about sleeping, literally. I woke up last night because Danica was crying in her room. It was hard to figure out what was going on because I was totally confused because I had been dreaming that I was sleeping... weird....
Well, we survived what should have been the last really bad week for Tom at work. He is on his last oral surgery rotation which means he has to be up at 5:00 and doesn’t get home until 7:00. Just enough time to say good night to the kids, eat some dinner and go to bed. Last week was the worst of it because he also had duty four times in 9 days. So now that is over he only has duty once a week and only has three more weeks of oral surgery. After that he goes back on regular rotations. Hooray!!
We had a nice Easter in spite of Tom being gone all day on Saturday. We went to an egg hunt here at our club house, then Hayden at a t-ball game and afterward we went for ice cream with the team. Saturday night we had a picnic in our backyard for dinner. Sunday morning I kept the kids up in my room until Tom got home home around 8:00 and then they found their Easter baskets and we had sugar pancakes! Yummy!! For dinner we had our traditional ham, potatoes, rolls and rainbow jello.
The weather has turned up a notch this week and it’s out right hot now. We’ve been wearing shorts and I am shopping for pj’s that aren’t fleece! Hayden begs to go swimming everyday but I don’t have a new suit yet and I am not sure I’m ready to take all three of them swimming by myself! Plus, Alyssa is running a fever and not her usual happy self. She has no other symptoms but just started running the fever last night, it was as high as 103 last night and she kept me up for several hours in the middle of the night. Then she was fine this morning but started running a fever again this afternoon.
While Alyssa was feeling well we actually went to Costco and got our passport pictures taken. it’s pretty cute to see the pictures for Danica and Alyssa. Alyssa will have changed a ton by the time we actually use the passports! That is if I can find an application office with Saturday appointments so we can actually get these passports!
Okay that’s all for today!

I think I have a few moments in between parent/teacher conferences and baseball practices to blog. Next week is Spring Break, so I can kiss any quiet time to myself good-bye. The kids and I will be making a trip to CA to see my family - I am looking forward to the beautiful drive - I think I could do it with my eyes closed at this point.

Kids are great. Isaac earned a 3.7 GPA this last trimester - and his teachers had nothing but positive things to say about him. He is not the most organized student, but he somehow manages to keep his stuff together and he does well in school. Track starts after Spring Break and he couldn't be more excited. Isaac's current pet peeve: getting confused with his mother on the phone. He'll answer, and the caller will assume it is me. For some reason, sounding like your mom on the phone is not cool for 12-year old boys.

Taylor is also doing well in school. That has been his M.O. since the beginning. He continues to take apart toys, and I continue to throw away their shells when he is done experimenting with their wires and batteries. He will be 10 in a couple of weeks - and we got him an electronics lab - so maybe he will sacrifice fewer toys.

Parker is doing baseball and is kind of enjoying it. He's not the MVP, and gets discouraged when he messes up. He complains before every practice, then comes skipping home saying it was "Awesome!". I don't think his coach is crazy about me. I was late picking him up after his last practice and got an exasperated look - I think I will show up early today. When Parker gets upset or gets his feelings hurt, he likes to call people "idiot". If it weren't so comical, I would take it more seriously. But every time he does it, we all try to stifle a laugh...which only leads to more "idiot"-calling.

Morgan is also doing T-ball and loves it. I love seeing her in her baseball garb, with her braids sticking out of her baseball cap. She is the opposite of Parker - loves every minute of practice and wants to practice more at home. Last night, going to her field, I was taking my chair out of the back of the van - and narrowly missed hitting a truck parked next to us. She said, "Shoot, Girl! You almost hit that truck!" And this morning, we were discussing someone at church who was sick and she said, "I haven't been sick in years, dude!" I'm not sure where she picks this stuff up, but it makes for good journal entries.

Dave and Adina news...I dropped one of our table benches on my foot this morning while mopping - I am fortunate that no expletives got out - Morgan was already distressed over my red face and hopping around. I haven't looked at it, but it seems okay. Dave sold his Civic and got an Altima this last weekend - after a lot of nauseating back-and-forth at the dealer. He is happy. And our half-marathon is just a few weeks away - I am looking forward to a little tapering.

This is getting too long - hope you are all doing well. Keep the news coming.

Adina

I just thought you would all like to know what an amazing and healthy family we have! Thanks to all those who joined in the challenge! I feel like we can't start a new challenge with out first posting the final results of the last challenge. The contest was to see who could run the most miles over 30 days, from Feb. 12 through Mar. 11. Here are the results:

Paige: 97
Adina: 87.25
Tracey: 66.29
Tom: 64.17
Barb: 60.45 (an amazing total considering she couldn't participate at
the end!)
Dave: 43.5
Anne: 32.64
Brooke: 25.8
Marnie: 8.92

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE! I hope that like me you found this to be a great motivator to push you further than you thought possible! In the future we'll have to try again with a real prize for the winner. For now, Paige you just get the pride of knowing you are the best!!!

We are getting ready to start another challenge, we'll let you know what it is so everyone can join in!

Grandma and Papa,

Thank you so much for the card and dollar. My dad and mom loved the baby cross stitch,(it was very cute!). Sadie almost screamed when she the dollar. The card that I got was very cute, (not that Sadie's and Ellyn's weren't cute). Tonight we leave for Disneyland. We are going to have so much fun. We love you!

Jane, Sadie, Ellyn

Well it is a Friday night and all feels as it should be. Ellyn is rubbing my ear, Sawyer is sleeping, Jane and Sadie are dressing up, Mike is playing the PS3 and I am blogging on my new laptop. If only this was our normal life, it is so wonderful. We are having such a great time all together. The weather has been horrible, there was four inches of snow on the ground this morning, but we really haven't cared. Next week is supposed to be fairly nice and we are all set to go to Disneyland Paris for four days. Of all the things we thought about doing Disneyland with the kids sounded like the most fun. We will stay at the Davey Crockett Ranch again, which means we have our own little cabin, a kitchen, an indoor pool down the road and DISNEYLAND!!

As I mentioned, Mike just bought me my own little MacBook. Jane and Sadie will have the old lap top for schoolwork and play. I am so excited with everything this thing does. I wasn't really sold on the idea until Mike had me watch an apple presentation of everything I can do and now I can't stop smiling. I swear they said "who is the stupidest person we know who wants to use a computer but doesn't have the time to figure everything out? Brooke? Let's make it for her." I am really excited for all of the features that I had wished I knew how to do on a normal computer, things that I had wished were available on my computer already, and things I had never even thought of that are going to make my life easier. It is hard to believe I would ever openly embrace another electronic device into my life (it is pretty much always a "discussion") but I am jazzed.

I don't know that I have given much of an update lately. Life is wonderful with Mike home. I can't tell you how good it feels to have him here, I don't quite know how I'll handle sending him away again. I try not to think about it. We have played games, eaten a lot of yummy food, played rock band, watched movies, done a little sightseeing, and it has been great. Sawyer has already really bonded with his daddy. They have a great time together. Ellyn was great with MIke but was getting really upset much more than usual and having a hard time sleeping. We made a bigger effort for me to give her more attention while she is awake and things are smoothing out.

Speaking of Ellyn, I'll give you that update. All of the therapists, her teacher, and the principal put together all of their recommendations for Ellyn based on our meeting. It was sent up the chain on the 12th and we should hear something within the next few weeks. They told me when they called to tell me it was going up that they did not anticipate DODS being able to make it work. Mike will put in for a compassionate reassignment as soon as it is a definite. I would move probably this summer and Mike would follow after the deployment. He has started talking to the people he needs to and we have been looking at possible assignments. We are going to try for Ft. Leavenworth Kansas. We think that there we would have the greatest possibility for stability. We could stay there for 5 years or longer if we worked it right. That's where the Major Course is and if we could work assignments around that it would be ideal. We just have to have faith and pray that a path will open that will be best for Ellyn and the rest of us as well . Oh, the schools there seem to be great as well from what I have read.

I am also going to start researching getting Ellyn an autism service dog. I told the girls that whenever we got back to the states we could maybe get a dog, this was when it was going to be a year and a half from now (Sadie still thinks Bailey is hers). Of course I can't possibly train a dog at this point and I don't want a dog that sheds. So I was googling GoldenDoodles, part retriever part poodle, just out of curiosity, thinking it might be a comfort to the girls if we moved. I kept coming across info. about these dogs being trained as therapy dogs and autism service dogs and I started to read a little bit more about it. These dogs are trained just like seeing eye dogs. They can be trained to track (this being my biggest incentive) if a child gets out of the house, trained to keep them away from hazardous things, disrupt bad behaviors-stimming-(since most of the time you just have to say "no", or "stop" the dog lays a paw on the child or whatever it is trained to do). The child can be harnessed to their dog and they can walk together, the dog keeping the child safe when crossing the street, etc... All the things that would be HUGE helps at our house, especially with Mike gone as much as he is and could be in the future. Not to mention the therapy part, a constant companion, many kids have begun saying simple words after having their dog, it is unconditional love. Can you tell that I'm a little fired about this idea? I am going to start looking into it further after MIke leaves. It isn't cheap but I guess there are grants and some insurance companies are helping. Like I said, I have to find out more about it, just went off on a tangent.

Oh, that reminds me- Tom and Tracey, are you able to take your Odyssey or are you going to sell it? We have been contemplating a mini van vs. the Pilot. We haven't come to any final decisions. We are just trying to make life work more smoothly. We will be doing a double jogger for longer than we had anticipated when we bought the Pilot AND we tend to need more supplies with Ellie Boo when we travel. Yeah, and we can't put her next to Sawyer until he is old enough to defend himself and so we have some seat juggling going on. We are fine when Mike isn't home but we are wondering how long we'll need to worry about seating and storage issues. I was thinking, if we do decide to get the van, I could maybe sell the Pilot over here and have a van waiting for us when we got home, then I wondered if you would be having the same issues that Dave and Adina had with trying to get yours sold. Like I said, as with just about EVERYTHING right now, it is all in the discussion and brain storming stage. We don't want to make drastic, expensive decisions if it is only a temporary issue.

Well Soy Bean just woke up and he is actually too tired to be awake so I had better go get the little one back to sleep. We love you all. Congratulations Marnie, that is awesome. Brent and Buffy, we can't wait for the news. love, Brooke

I just got accepted to the MBA program at SDSU!!!!!!!! :) I am very, very happy and anxious to move on to this next step in my life.

I will be starting the program in August of this year and it last two years. I may be doing a study-abroad in the middle of the program which would make it longer but we will see.

Right now I am just very excited and ready to move on to the loads of decisions I have to make and things I have to do to get ready to go back to school.

Looks like I'll be able to get that double diploma frame for my BA and MBA (both from SDSU) after all! :)

(I am also very glad I didn't waste $200 applying to USD and UCSD!! Good idea, Mom!)

IT IS A GIRL! We are just making the numbers even.
We already have a name. McKenzie Lynn... and no, we are not attached to "M" names. It is just a girl name that we love.
Everything is great and she is right on time with the due date. We got a couple of face shots. I will try and scan the pictures we have and get some on here.
Treven turned to me and said "What if I can only produce X's and no Y's?" haha! And then said, " I don't know how I am going to deal with all this estrogen!?"
He is happy though! It will be so much fun to have the girls so close and hey! It is cheaper! We already have a bunch of girl stuff!

Kimberly

I submitted all my materials for my MBA application to SDSU about a week and a half ago and I am still waiting to hear from them. The department is currently "reviewing" the application. I am hoping to hear from them in the next week or so.

So other than checking my email every five minutes for something from SDSU, I have been busy working. Nothing new really. I am trying to delegate some of my responsibilities to my co-worker who doesn't have enough to do. It takes time though because I have to teach him how to do everything...tests my patience. I wish I could just say "you'd better learn how to do it because I won't be here to answer your questions soon!" but I haven't told him or the other woman in my office that I am going back to school yet cause I don't want more people to face if I don't get in. ;)

Last weekend a few of my friends and I went down to Balboa Park for an early St. Patrick's Day celebration. My boss had told me that there was a St. Patrick's Day parade that morning and so I decided it would be fun to check it out. We didn't really know where it was except "Balboa Park" which isn't too specific. So we just followed the crowds and ending up spending most of our time at a kid's show called "Heartlight". It wasn't until we heard Neil Diamond singing "Heartlight" (extra tidbit: he wrote that song for E.T.) that we realized that we were probably in the wrong place. We then wandered around until we finally heard some Irish-sounding music in the distance. We followed it and finally found a HUGE collection of all things Irish and tons of people. They were all just on the other side of the bridge! I got lots of looks since I looked especially Irish that day. Definitely the best place for redheads! We had a lot of fun and will definitely be getting an earlier start for next year's celebration. 

Saw a couple movies this week. Horton Hears A Who - Pretty good. Definitely a kid's movie. I never have read the story so I didn't really have an attachment to it. I mostly just wanted to watch the Lorax. :) and The Other Boleyn Girl - Pretty good. Not the best casting but an ok adaptation of the book. The book is much better though. Best part of the movie was at the very end when one of the college-age girls sitting next to us leaned to her friend and said "Oh! So did this really happen?" My friends and I laughed pretty dang hard about that one. Honestly, aren't kids still required to take history??

How can it already be March 17th and this is my first real post for the month... very sad. Oh well, I must hurry, I am needed back in Forks and the house could use a little attention as well... oh yeah, and I have three children who might need a mom instead of a book worm... this is why I can’t read. When I am engaged in a book it seems like everything else in life is just a hassle. I was so annoyed that I couldn’t manage to read while running on the treadmill this morning, I let the kids stay in the bath until we were almost late taking Hayden to school because I was leaning up against the side of the tub reading. And while I do think the Twilight series is really good it’s not just this book, it happens when I read any books I really like, I get sucked in a tune everything out. It’s one time I hate to multi-task. So here is the last few weeks in review:

Hayden started t-ball. He loves it and although he has the skills of a 5 year old he is having fun and making friends.
Hayden is saying very adult like phrases lately. For instance, a boy at the park was trying to ruin his sand castle and he was mad at him so he said “This is not my happy face!” He opened the garage door for me and as he walked past he said to me “You can thank me later for that.” He mumbled something to me and Tom wanted to know what he said but Hayden responded with “It’s okay dad, it doesn’t really concern you.” He says things everyday so I can’t possibly remember them all but they just leave me laughing so I wish I could!

Danica is talking up a storm. She is putting words into sentences all the time now, hooråy!! It’s about time! Her favorite phrase is to request to go swimming in the hot tub, she has fallen in love after using the one at K&B's! We pass the hot tub on the way to the playground and she always wants to stop. She continues to be our second mom constantly trying to wash the kids in the tub, wash their faces or comb their hair, take them their clothes etc. Usually it’s helpful! Yesterday I was singing to her, just the ABC’s, and she stood up and kissed me on the lips! It was so cute (I secretly think she did because my singing is so bad and she wanted me to stop!)

Alyssa is such a smiley happy baby it’s amazing. She is so much fun to snuggle and tickle. She sits up really well but thankfully she shows no interest in crawling! She has gone the last two nights without eating all during the night! She woke up a few times but I never fed her so it's only a matter of time before she stops waking up at all! Hooray!!!

We had such a great time on our visit up to Vancouver. Thank you everyone for making it so much fun! We look forward to doing it a lot in the future. It's fun to think about the days when we will be up there too.

Since returning we are just doing the same old thing, playing, cleaning, playing, cleaning, eating, etc. I’m still in the thick of getting things prepped for our move and have realized that for everything I get done there will be 10 more things waiting. We have a big ward activity this Friday, an adults only dinner that I am in charge of. I am also the team mom for Hayden’s t-ball and busy trying to get that all organized while my email causes problem after problem for some reason.

Okay, that seems to be all. Tom is on his last oral surgery rotation, yeah!!! It will last for about the last month and it means he goes in really early and comes home late. Hopefully time will fly by.

Take care!

Sorry I can't post now, I am currently being held hostage somewhere in the deep forests of Forks... I'll write more when I am released.

Just trying to move the blog along!
We are just under four more weeks left of this semester so the next couple of weeks is crazy with tests and projects. BUT exciting to think that next semester is my last semester of classes! I just want to be done with this semester already though... It should go fast.
The pregnancy is going well... the baby is moving like crazy especially at night (which keeps me up!) I am at 22 weeks this week and we find out on Thursday what the baby is at 9:30 am so we will blog right after to let you know... if the baby isn't shy!
We can't wait to come home in 4 weeks. We will be heading out on the 11th of April, but are going to take a break in Boise on Friday night and then head the rest of the way on the 12th.
Everything is going well and we are just chugging along!
One question for Adina... I was wondering how you cleaned the couches. Melia has spilled a lot of stuff on it and rubbed her face on it and so on... Just wondering how you cleaned them when you had them.
Keep bloggin'

Kimberly

http://www.earthpoint.us/Details.aspx?MLS=98351248

Just thought some of you might want to check out the listing.

-Anne