Well, today I got to school and had a normal day. We have a game at U of Utah tomorrow and so we are able to get 4 people in for free. So we have to put their names down and if we have extra spaces, other girls from the team who need more can use them. So I only had to use one of the spots so I let one of the other girls use the rest of my spots. And as she is writing the names down, I notice that she has written down Megan Bodily. I freaked and was like "How do you know the Bodilys?" And she told me that Megan and Forrest are her Aunt and Uncle. They used to go to Gualala every year during memorial day weekend. Her brothers are the ones who did commercials all the time when they were younger.

Yeah a little crazy, small world. Also, One of the other girls on my team's sister-in-law is married to Patrick...cannot remember the last name...but he is from Valentine, and he was dad's ex-seminary student.

CRAZY!

Anyways, All is well here. I am starting tomorrow as a defensive specialist as long as nothing changes, and I hope to crush the U of Utah. Wish us luck!

Love- Anne

Hey Everyone,

I sat down today and drew names for the Sibling gift list. And here it is:

Mike --- Brent
Brooke -- Tom
Dave --- Anne
Adina --- Buffy
Brent --- Marnie
Buffy --- Peter
Tom --- Kim
Tracey -- Brooke
Marnie -- Tracey
Anne --- Mike
Peter --- Adina
Kim --- Dave

There you go for those who were asking.

Peter and I are doing great. I started school last wednesday and all is going well. I've been playing volleyball practically everyday but it is so wonderful. Peter starts school tomorrow and is very excited to be busy. The last two weeks he hasn't had much to do except clean the apartment and go hiking. He went hiking in the Uintas this last thursday and friday and had a blast. Friday they ended up hiking 20 miles because he didn't want to have to sleep in a tent for another night. Our first volleyball game is wednesday versus the U of Utah. And we are hoping to play well. We have a pretty tough schedule with this being our first official year in the Division 1 of NCAA. So we play a lot of tough teams but we hope to do well. Just wanted to update you all on how we are doing and we love you and miss you all.

Love-Anne and Peter

P.S. Peter is so jealous of Dave and Adina...he wishes he could have gone with you.

I wanted to make it clear for the record that Brooke didn't intentionally stay overnight to spite us. It was good for her since she really could not have managed coming at home at all. However prior to the surgery, the doctor had indicated that she would be able to go home within 3 hours of surgery.....definitely not the case....so that everything would have been covered.

All survived, however...especially Ellyn who gave both Mike and I "I got my way" looks as she started to nurse!!! (Don't tell me 6 month old babies aren't able to wield influence!)

Mom

I am really enjoying getting to know these three darling granddaughters here in Georgia better. I laughed when I read Buffy's entry....I've been there and done that! Your experience at the concert reminded me of our outing to the ZZ Top concert. I felt as if I stuck out like a sore thumb and also almost lost my hearing. Although the worst attack recently on my ears was the drag races that Dad took me to. (I also share your dislike of roller coasters-when we go together we can just sit on the bench and let those others indulge!)

I am now a lady of leisure...feels very weird! I am looking for work...as required by Oregon Unemployment services...and would be willing to take another full time opportunity if it was the right job for me. We'll see what comes around.

Brooke had to stay overnight at the hospital...good for her...not good for us, or Ellyn since Ellyn refused to take a bottle. We finally managed around it by taking Ellyn in for one feeding at about 5 pm (after about 12-14 hours without food) and then Mike took Ellyn in at about 9 and she spent the rest of the time there. Fortunately, she is a VERY good baby as long as she is regularly nursed.

Brooke came home on Friday morning and is pretty much couch-bound. Getting up and down is very painful but she needs to do a reasonable amount of walking every day. She can't carry the girls for at least a week. So I spend a lot of time carrying them around to give them to Brooke...who, of course, is much preferred over me!!! She is in a fair amount of pain but is gradually improving. She is hoping that we can get Sadie's cast off next week so that she can move around on her own. She does a good job scooting with the cast but there are definite limits to the scoot!

The morning I took Jane and Sadie to the funeral for a classmate in Jane's primary class. He was run over trying to stop their car from rolling down a hill. He was just eight years old and it was a very heart-rending funeral. Jane sang "I am a Child of God" with some other primary children. He will be buried out in Utah. The family had one 13 year old daughter and then were unable to have any other children. They went to Russia and adopted 3 little boys. This was the oldest one. They had had him for about 5 years. A really tragic accident.

Mike is very involved in his work and is trying to catch up from the day and a half off that he had during Brooke's surgery.

I love reading all your activities...even if I don't always respond. I love you all!!!

Mom

Well, I am still able to hear despite an evening at The Cure concert with Brent. As you may know, Brent has been a long time fan so being a good wife I agreed to go with him. As we entered the concert venue I realized that I must have missed the memo about the all black dress code with died black hair (hmm, and I thought it was a nice summer evening in southern CA and not Halloween). I off course was wearing the total pastel gap girl outfit with flip flops (darn, I knew I should have warn my black combat boots instead!). Anyway, the first half of the concert was really good untill the more than loud screaching sounds from the guitars turned into a constant painful stabbing sensation in my ear drums. I really do think I've proved myself to be a supportive wife.
Magic Mountain: I decided to join Marnie, Bob, and Brent after my ballet class at CSUN ignoring the fact that I have not enjoyed roller coasters ever since the Buffalo Bill's experience. We met up and went to a ride called Dejavu and I waited in line having a great time talking with everyone and getting to know this Bob guy (nice guy... very funny) and making a point to not think about my impending doom. We get on the ride and let's just say I didn't have a good time feeling like I was going to fall out of my seat dangling several hundred feet in the air and then get my spine adjusted several times over. I know what you're thinking, I drove myself to Magic Mountain and what was I expecting... a nice mellow day at the beach? But we did go to one of the park's nicer restaurants for lunch before Brent and I had to leave for the concert and I was glad to see Marnie and her friend.
Mental Note: Disneyland GOOD, Magic Mountain BAD!!
By the way, Brent has had a great first week at his new store (everyone really likes him as their new GM) and I have survived my first week of school as well. We hope everyone is doing well and wish Brooke a quick recovery!!

More to come..... 

So I went to Disneyland on Monday for my friend Michelle's birthday. It was really fun. I got to go on the Tower of Terror for the first time. It is really cool! Definitely fun. It makes California Adventure much better.

On Friday I am venturing up to Valencia to go to Magic Mountain with Brent and my two friends Brooke and Bob. It should be fun. I haven't been there in a while.

Today at work I added an accident to the Stinchfield list. I cut quite a gash in my left pinky while putting a pocket knife on display. I don't think I need stitches. It shouldn't be that bad.

Overall life is good. I start school on Monday and I am excited to get back into it. Hope you are all well. I love you all.

Morgan, strutting her stuff. 

#3
So, shame on us for talking about the fact that there is going to be a third broken bone. As you notice, the color of the cast is different. And, the cast is bigger. Well, let me tell you little story.....
He falls down on Thursday afternoon last week. Adina takes him right over to emergency, he says his arm hurts and points to his wrist. They take an xray of his forearm and, sure enough, a fracture of the radius. They put a cast on and call it a day. That night and the next morning we notice that there is alot of swelling at his elbow along with some bruising. First thing we think is that the cast might be too tight, but blood flow to the fingers is fine and they aren't numb or anything. As Friday continues, the bruising worsens. Adina takes him into the same doctor and she says that it is normal swelling. Adina asks if the xrays included the elbow area, the doc says that the elbow looked fine and that it was in the xray of the forearm. "Ok", we say, the good little patients we are. We take him home all weekend and the swelling is still present on Monday night and the bruising is a little worse. So, I go into work this morning and my first patient just happens to be a nurse from medical who's husband is a doctor down there as well. I am good friends with them both, so I ask her to just check to make sure that the 'xray of the elbow' was actually taken. Of course, no it wasn't. It was just an xray of the forearm and wrist. I ask for another look to be taken, she sets us up for an appointment with her husband, he takes an xray of the elbow and upper arm, and, sure enough, the humerus is fractured too. No wonder he said the cast before was heavy for his arm to hold it up, the poor kid had a heavy cast being supported by another broken bone! He must have fell and locked his arm or something so that it caught all the weight (including his double chin) of his fat little body. So, he has a broken radius and humerus and will be in the new "cool" red cast for 4-6 weeks. Oh well, we caused it by jinxing ourselves I guess.
On another note, we leave for Mt. Fuji to hike it on early Thursday morning. Should be an interesting trip. We will be sure to take alot of pics.
Dave

Amazing what you can do going 80 mph... Anyways, this is the new haircut as of the 20th of August 

just trying it out to see if this works 

Last night the girsl fell asleep holding hands, very cute.

Well, I wish I could say these pictures were from the A's in Tampa, but the truth is the rain-out never came and my plans to drive 6 hours to see the A's were spoiled by Military Appreciation Night. Still, it was a fun night. And Zito won this time, probably because we were not there.
Brooke gets her surgery this week, Thusrday. Mom flies in on Wednesday to help watch Ellyn and "Baloo Tast" Sadie. (Blue Cast) My life gets busier and busier this time of the cycle. I get to go next week to my first appointment toward getting laser eye surgery. I hope to go up to D.C. in February and finally get them fixed.
We are still planning on doing everything we can to get to Fort Lewis next year. It is going to be very hard to say goodbye to these nice quarters, but I am sure we will find something to like up in Washington. And it will be so nice to be close to home!
The only movie we watched this week was Hidalgo, which I liked a lot more than I thought I would. As far as gametime goes, I am mostly still messing around with Doom 3 and my football games. Oh, and flight simulator of course. But there is just less and less time for that stuff. The Olympics are pretty much on all the time here. Anne, we watched the Volleyball girls play Cuba today, it was a sweet win and we thought of you.

We love you all!

mike, brooke, jane, sadie, ellyn

Jane and Sadie at the Columbus Catfish game

Had to take the soldiers to Military Appreciation Night at the ballpark. Hey, at least we could take the family!

Hey everyone!
I just completed my very last day at the Beverly Hills store and on Monday I begin my next new adventure at my OWN store in Palmdale. I am really excited to get in there and make some changes. The store has only been opened for three years so it is ready to go thru the roof in sales.Plus the Manager that is leaving was supposedly a real jerk and no one liked him. It is not like I need everyone to like me , but it makes my job that much easier. Buffy starts school again on Monday, going into her second year of three. I am sure she will do just as well as she did the first year (3.8 something, I am really proud of her). We purchase a new car on Thursday. It was a deal we (I) could not pass up on. I ofoto'ed some pictures and I would put it on here but I can not figure it out. Anyhow, I am going to try to make it out the Georgia in October to visit Mike and maybe do some golf or something. MArnie is coming up to go to Magic Mountain with Me on Friday then Buffy and I are going to "The Cure" concert that night. I can't wait. Kim let us know if you are planning on coning down this fall and when. Everyone else we love you and PLEASE be careful. We DO NOT want to see anymore pics of people in casts.
Love Brent

Who's next? 
That's right...another Stinchfield has been doomed to live in a cast for the next few weeks. Parker fell from the monkey bars during my Primary Presidency meeting this afternoon - our local Branch President bestowed that one on me this last Sunday. Anyway - he tried to catch himself and ended up with a buckle fracture of his left radius. Today was quite an adventure...
It started out with Bible School, which I am volunteering for and the kids are attending each morning from 9-12. Aside from sending Parker and Morgan into their classes kicking and screaming, it went well. Went straight from bible songs and "Praise Jesus" to the Primary Presidency meeting - at a park near the library. That went well aside from the fact that I don't know what I am doing, and the kids kept squirting me and my binders with the out-of-control water fountain that shoots water up like 12 feet into the air. Toward the end of the meeting, we were wet and tired, and Parker had just fallen, so we hit the road. It was obvious that Parker was in pretty serious pain, so we drove directly to emergency. (No, we did not make him hobble around for a day before seeking medical attention :) Upon arriving at Emergency, it became clear that the stress was too much for little Parker and he wet his pants. Soooo - we changed amid screams in the radiology department. Then Morgan sauntered with a serious case of Montezuma's revenge...so basically, we were wet, tired, smelly, and in pain. I put her in some spare cargo pants of Parker's. An hour and a half later, when they determined it was a fracture, they decided to train someone in casting. And all they had was purple fiberglass - not very manly in Parker's eyes. But - another hour and a half later, it was on - and we were exhausted. But all is well. Parker asked me to take it off as soon as we got home and had a fit when I told him I couldn't. My only hope is that he adapts to his new limb as quickly as Sadie did to hers.
Thus leaving the question for the rest of you....WHO'S NEXT?
Adina

Mom and I have thoroughly enjoyed our visit this year to the Education Week. It has been full of new areas of interest and recreation. We've spent the first three days with Anne and Peter and will finish our last two days with Peter, as Anne took off to a retreat in Park City with the VB team from UVSC. We had a PF Chang's lunch with the two of them and Peter's parents. After lunch, we went to the Provo Town Center to see "Saints and Soldiers"...great LDS movie, well done and exciting. Saw a musician/commedian tonight at the HFAC. Last night, did Oklahoma with Peter and Anne. Tomorrow evening we're planning a musical presentation in the HFAC again. Class-wise, we have been taking a lot of financial planning and real estate investment courses. The financial planning includes how to get out of debt and stay that way. Interesting that paying the min payment on a credit card takes 43 years to pay off if you don't add anything new to it. Hooray for the US women's relay swim team and to Paul Hamm for his HUGE comeback...wow! Congratulations to Mike for being rated 1st of 31 Company Commanders in the Brigade by the outgoing Brigade Commander(Edited by Mike for correct terminology, I will probably never be a Brigade Commander) on his most recent OER (like a Navy fitness report). Man, that is good news. Sounds like our two sons are front-runners in two of the 5 US forces. You guys are awesome...and, let me add...all of you 7 and spouses are awesome. We couldn't be prouder of all of you. Here, the P word works.
We are headed home on Friday. Pick up Kim in Idaho Falls and escort her home. Visited the Jessie Knight Bldg, room 2015, row 7 again, much to your mother's dismay, to revisit where she and I met some 38 years ago. That's where you all began, in a sense. Oh well, take care and keep this Blog going.

Marnie resting in a teepee at the San Diego Zoo

For those of you who have seen Napoleon Dynamite, this is Derek's impression of Napoleon with his llama Tina.