1 week down!

Well Mike’s been gone for a week and mostly it wasn’t too bad. Monday we had a regular day of school with Brittany off on the bus at 7:00 am and the rest of us here for home school. We had another track race and I left the little boys home with Brittany and took the other four. While Brittany complains that the little boys were tough, I had a nice time with the other kids. I must say I’m quite impressed with how well they did. When we got home we had a FHE lesson and treat and then that was it for Monday. About a month ago, we had an orthodontist appt. And the Ortho told Brittany that she really needed to get this one tooth out that was a trouble maker. He suggested that we go to the dentist and just get it pulled since Brittany seemed to feel that she couldn’t do it. I asked him if there was a reason she couldn’t do it or if it was just her fear and he said he thought that if she worked at it she’d be fine. Well I’m not paying a dentist to do a job she can do just fine for herself if she’d just toughen up. So the point of all this, on the previous Monday, I’d told her she had to have her tooth out by the next Monday or I’d make her a dentist appointment and she’d pay for it.

So the point of all this, on the previous Monday, I’d told her she had to have her tooth out by the next Monday or I’d make her a dentist appointment and she’d pay for it. So on Monday night, during FHE I casually reminded her that this was the day she had to have her tooth out. Late that night, while I was up working on the computer, Brittany came walking up and showed me her tooth in the palm of her hand. I told her I was pleased and then she said that this was her very last baby tooth and now it was out. Strange the things that will elicit emotions. I began to reminisce about when she was so little she didn’t even have teeth and then remembering when she did start getting teeth and how incredibly sick she would get, fevers of 105, vomiting, difficulty eating, etc. She was not a good tooth cutter! Now my little girl has no baby left in her. She is no longer any part baby. Oh how time does pass by. A friend commented on how we are always so good to remember the firsts of our children’s lives and yet we don’t seem to pay much attention to the lasts. Well this particular last is duly noted here.

Ok, moving on. Tuesday again Brittany was off to school and then we had home school. I then took Michael to soccer practice and left all the other kids here. I arranged a ride from soccer to scouts for Michael because I got to go to back to school night for the home school kids. It was very informative and fun to meet their teachers and learn some specifics about the program. I’m still loving this program and so thankful for it right now. While I was gone, Brittany got a ride to young women’s and Allison was left to babysit until I got back. The big girls did a good job of getting dinner on and the little ones fed and then Allison got some of them bathed and then they settled down for a show. I’m very thankful for my big girls and their ability to really help out here at home.
Wednesday we had school, track practice, piano lessons, no time to think or breath, and that’s it.
Thursday is the kids home school academy day, their favorite day of the week. After dropping the kids off, I went with my friend Faith to Sams club so that I could get in earlier, she has a business membership, and did a bunch of my weekly grocery shopping with just my two little boys. I must say, shopping with just too is really quite fun. I had a fine time. After lunch and naps and little people entertainment, we went and picked up Brittany and then the rest of the kids from school. We stopped at super Target of the way home and did some more grocery shopping and then got home threw Brittany, Allison, and the groceries out of the van and zoomed off to soccer. We were still a little late but oh well. Brittany and Allison fixed dinner and ate and then left to dance. After soccer, the rest of us went and did a tiny bit more grocery shopping at King Soopers and then finally came home to eat the yummy dinner the girls had left for us. A few minutes after we sat down, the big girls called requesting a ride home since it was getting dark out. I ran and got them while the other kids ate and them we did a lickety split clean up and were off to bed. Better late than never.
Friday was hard to get school going. We all just wanted to take the day off but, we did it anyway. Friday afternoon Sara and her kids came over and she and I did some scrapbooking and a lot of visiting. The kids had a great time playing. I forgot all about Catherine’s dance class and Allison was almost late to hers. She ran down to hers and then Sara and I took Catherine and Aunnika to Aunnika’s class. We then went and got pizza and came back home for the kids to enjoy a movie and all of us to eat pizza. We got a little more scrapbooking and a lot more visiting in. Finally at 10:00 I put the kids to bed and Sara and her gang headed back home for some rest.
Every day at noon Mike has been calling us for a SKYPE visit. Daniel was just staring at the computer and wouldn’t talk to Dad for the first several days. On Thursday he finally figured out that it wasn’t just a picture of Dad and that he could actually talk to him and interact. Well, that was both a good and a bad thing. He now won’t let me sit at the computer to do anything without begging for Daddy “in daiw”. He also now realized that Daddy is really not here. He’s somewhere else in the computer. He has been so clingy since then. That made Friday a little tough trying to do scrapbooking. But I should just be thankful that Daniel finally wants his Mama to hold him.
So here we are at Saturday. We had a neighborhood picnic planned that afternoon so after sleeping in really late, we got started on the stuff we were going to take. I had to make another run to the grocery store (I wasn’t thinking picnic when I went 3 TIMES on Thursday!) we then went over to the picnic. It was a lot of fun. We have lots of really terrific neighbors. I love this neighborhood. All morning I’d been trying to get a hold of someone to give Michael a ride to and from his soccer game so that I could go to the RS dinner and then broadcast. After the picnic I finally got hold of someone just as they were leaving and without going into the details, got Michael to soccer after embarrassing myself thoroughly. I then went to the RS thing. The big girls babysat. When I got home I was not pleased with the way things had gone here and after getting all the kids off to bed, had an emotional explosion. I called my mom a cried to her for quite a while and then was feeling much better. By then it was so late that it was OK to call Mike on the computer so I did and visited with him for just a few minutes and then finally went to bed. I slept better last night than I have all week.
Today was pretty ok. Church went fairly well (except that I woke up with very puffy eyes from crying so much last night and got quite a few sympathetic looks which I just hate) and thankfully none of the kids needed help with talks or anything. We got home and fed the little people and visited with Mike for about 2 hours then some of us took naps while others did quiet activities. We then had dinner and I spent the rest of the night visited with sisters-in-law and my Daddy. I am so thankful for those calls as they made the day go by rather quickly and I was so dreading how lonely I’d feel today.
I find it interesting that with past TDY’s we’ve been just fine. I don’t like Mike being gone but we deal with it and are all ok. This time, I think because the end is so far away, we can’t just hunker down for a short time a then get on with life. This is going to be life for a while and we are going to have to make some actual changes in our plans and expectations. I guess that’s why this week end was harder than other times he’s been gone. That’s just my silly inexperienced philosophy, but it sounded good to me. Well I’d dare say that is way more than enough for one week so good night all.

This is all upside down so go down to Sept 21 and work your way back up. Friday night we had a cookout with our friends and then Mike and I took off and spent a few hours just hangin out together. It was really nice.
Saturday morning we took Mike to the airport and stayed there with him untill he boarded the plane. We had a very teary good bye and made quite a scene leaving the airport. Hans was really mad at me bacause I wouldn't let him go with Dad and natuarally it was all my fault. He really doesn't understand what's going on he just know's Dad was going on an airplane and we weren't. He also knows Dad will be gone for a long time and he's not pleased. Well the rest of the day we spent lounging and relaxing all in our own form of being sad at Mike's departure. We then went to Michaels soccer game that didn't start untill 4:45. I don't like those late games but it was good for this particular day. He played great. He was goalie for the second half and made a lot of really great saves. It was a fun game.
Today, we survived church and it really wasn't too bad. We got to visit with Mike on video/computer. It was fun even if we couldn't get both sound and picture at the same time (we're working on that) He is now in Germany and while not thrilled to be there and quite bugged that this particular job is even a deployed position, at least were finally under way and that much closer to the end.
Well good night everyone. I'll try to make this all a little more sensible next week.

Well, this whole business of doing my weekly updates on our blog is really outsmarting me this week. I've been working on this for over an hour and still can't get it right so I'm going to have to just make this quick and wrap it up for the night. I got Monday on here, Mike got to stay home from work on Tuesday and Wednesday but spent most of that time getting his stuff ready to go. We did spend some time playing games and enjoying our last week with Daddy for a long time to come. We still had all of our regular school and lessons. The girls are loving dance and Michael is really loving soccer this season. Thursday Mike was back at work for half the day and I got all my errends run while the kids were at their once a week school. That has been a really great thing. I love having a day to get some running around done, the kids love being able to participate in their other subjects there at the school, the little boys enjoy the special attention they get from Mom, so it's an all around good thing.

On Friday, we went decided to take the day off of school and spend our last day with Dad having some fun. We went to the Ghost Town Museum and got to do lost of fun stuff.
Everyone enjoyed the shooting. Hans was a real crack shot and had oh so much fun.
We all had a good time playing in the old carriage.

Michael really liked shooting too and was a great shot, hitting nearly every target dead on.
Daniel thought this horse was just perfect. He felt pretty cool.
We had a super good time panning for gold and even came away with a few small nuggets to prove how good we were. It's a darn good thing we don't pan gold for our survival!
We got to dance to the coin opperated piano and that was a good time had by all. Naturally I forgot my camera so all of these pictures were taken on my phone, thus the great focus etc.

September 21 08

We started off this week with our first cross country race on Monday evening. Catherine, Aunnika, Michael, and Allison all participate in an elementary age running club. Catherine didn't get signed up to run in the race (and she's quite disappointed) but the rest of them get to race, and this week was their first one.
This is the runners just before the race with their friend that got us into this whole thing to begin with. They were all so excited and really quite hyper before the race. Michael said he was chasing a friend around and got tired before they even started. Oh well, live and learn.
Aunnika did great in her group. She ran a mile and was one of the first girls to finish. She was pretty beat at the end but it was still fun and exciting.
Michael and Allison ran the mile and a half. They both did quite well in their group also. Right at the end Alli went for the pass on Michael but he wouldn't have it and zipped right back past her to win by a hair.

September, week 2

Well this week seems to have flown by. We didn’t do much out of the ordinary, but the ordinary is so much, that I felt like I was living in a whirlwind. We had soccer, dance, piano, track, school, and all the stuff that keeps our little world turning. The out-of-the-ordinary things that happened this week were; Mike stayed home from work on Thursday and we got the electrical done in the new wall and the rest of the sheetrock up.
Saturday Michael had another really exciting soccer game and again scored a goal and made several other great plays. Also on Saturday, Brittany got a letter from the NEW ERA. They want to publish a poem that she wrote and are paying her for it. That was of course very exciting for her. She loves to write. Saturday we hung a new door for our bedroom, it was a pain. Why are doors so hard to get just right? Anyway, we will be gradually changing out all of the doors in the house as one of our steps to modernizing the house for when we have to sell it again. Also this week I had to get an extension on my independent study class. That means I really have to buckle down and do it cuz I can’t have another extension.
We are sad that this is our last week before Mike leaves but are so thankful that he will be in a safe place and that we will be able to talk to him fairly often. I just don’t know how to deal with 7 kids all by myself. Today in Sacrament mtg. I realized that some Sundays are going to be an absolute nightmare. If the kids behave how they did today while Mike is gone I think I’ll just pack up and head home. They weren’t all bad, Hans and Daniel just had a melt down at the same time, but I also thought several times this week that I have really great kids and we can do this. WE CAN! We have some really amazing friends living right here by us and a great ward. I have loads to be thankful for and that’s what I will keep reminding myself of. I must admit that I have several times considered putting the kids in school just for the semester but while home school is really hard, it is also really rewarding and I think having the kids around me will help me not feel lonely so much. What do ya think? Anyway, we’ll report again next week. Love to all and to all a good night.

September, Week 1

These are my aspiring chefs and bakers. The kids made "desserts" out of dirt, crushed sheetrock, crab abbles and whatever else they found to make it look just perfect. I was so impressed at how good they looked, I had to share.

These are the cute little munchkins ready to go to their first day at the Home School Academy. Don't they look excited and ready!
Here, Catherine is modeling our amazing corn crop. "It's TINY, it's like elf food" But we enjoyed it anyway.

Dear Friends and Family,
Well it’s been another great week in our lives, full of fun and firsts. Monday was Labor Day and we chose to spend it, well, laboring. We got a bunch of our Saturday jobs done that we neglected on our play day last week, and we got a lot of work done on the new room. Brittany volunteered at an “aid station” at the Labor Day marathon, handing out Gatorade, water, and cheering people on. Our neighbors, the Leonards, gave us an air hockey table and so we got a space cleared out in the basement and got that set up and played with. I spent several hours shopping and went out to lunch with my friend, Faith Leonard. We had FHE that night and then finally the day ended. So it was an all around busy fun day.
Tuesday, it was back to the reality. We had school and then Michael had soccer. Mike got home and fed the kids a little while I was at soccer with Michael and then he took the rest of the kids up to the base for a “mandatory attendance” deployment information night and dinner. Michael and I met them up there and the kids watched a movie while the people being deployed and their spouses or who ever, got to hear a briefing and then they fed us dinner from Chipotle. It was good information, good food, and the kids even had a pretty good time watching the movie.
Wednesday, we had school, the four elementary age kids had track practice, we did a little shopping, went and looked at but didn’t buy a bed for Michael, got new clothes, backpacks, lunches etc ready for the kids first day at the Home School Academy, and finally went to bed. Again a good day.
Thursday was the big day that everyone had been anticipating for over a month. Brittany was off for a normal day of school but the rest of the kids all had a new outfit to wear and neat lunch packs to go in their spiffy backpacks. We got them to the school, found their classes and then it was just Mom, Hans and Daniel. We went and did some grocery shopping and then came home cuz Sam’s wasn’t open yet. We got our first load of groceries in the house, had a snack and then went back to do some more grocery shopping at Sam’s. We got that done and then went to a music store to buy Brittany some new reeds and some music, dropped that off at the school, and came home. By the time we got back here, both boys were asleep so I took Daniel in to his bed and then got all the groceries unloaded and then went and woke Hans up and we came in and he played quietly while I “rested.” We then went and picked up Brittany from school and then the rest of the kids. They reported that it was “AWESOME” and they all liked their teachers, friends and the activities they get to do there. I loved having time to do some shopping and really just as leisurely as I liked. Again Michael had soccer practice, this time Mike took him and the little boys got to go along for fun. I took the little girls and the big girls to the dance studio and we got shoes for everyone and then Brittany and Allison had dance class. Whew!
Friday, we had school here again. Friday evening, Catherine, Aunnika, and Allison all had dance class. Brittany babysat while Mike and I went out to dinner and were home in time to watch most of the kids movie with them. We put the kids to bed and then we watched our movie “We are Marshall” it was a good show. And I guess that’s about it for Friday.
Saturday morning Mike and Michael went fishing, Brittany had a dance class and then it was another day of working on the new room. We got the door hung which is an amazingly hard thing to do and get the door perfectly straight but we did finally get it. We also got the electrical stuff figured out for the room. Mike snuck in a little gardening (he loves to play in the garden) and I got a little nap sort of. I’ve had a miserable cold for a few days so that was a nice thing to get to rest a little. Saturday afternoon, Brittany and Allison went to a movie with a group of friends, Aunnika went to a friends house and Mike and I took the rest of the kids to Michael’s first soccer game of the season. It was a fun game. Michael got a goal and made an awesome save for the goalie. His team won and I think He’s going to really like this new team he’s on. They’re all pretty good but not quite as good as his team from Spring season so he feels pretty comfortable and appreciated. Anyway, it will be a good season I think. Saturday night we had a fun family cookout and then once we got the kids to bed Mike and I went for our weekly game night at the neighbors. It was great fun.
So now we are finally to Sunday. At church Mike got up to bear his testimony and just as he was about a minute into his testimony, the fire alarm went off. Well we had to evacuate the building. As we were leaving Allison teased her Dad and said, “Gosh dad, did you say a bad word or something?” After church we headed over to Sara’s for dinner and fun visiting. It was a wonderful afternoon. Ammon and Allison came and joined us later on for some visiting. Poor Allison is miserable after her appendectomy but we were so glad to get to see them and visit with them for a while too.
Ok so I guess that about covers it for the week. I think over the next several weeks, since we really have started all the new stuff now, these emails should be shorter. I hope I’m not torturing you all. We Love and miss you. Mylinda and the Fam.

Aunnika's hair cut

Aunnika got a hair cut. Before
After

August 31 2008

Brothers Fishing

All the fishers on Michaels Bday
Alli caught her first fish!
Happy Birthday Michael
Daniel showing off his stitches

Can you believe it's the end of August!! Well, I can't! We started off the week with Michael's birthday. Mike got to be off work so that made it extra fun. Brittany still had to go to school but the rest of us went fishing for the morning. Before we left we said we were going to open presents and had Michael open his gift from Hans because it was a fishing lure and then we said we changed our minds and would open the rest after Brittany got home. We headed off to the three Kettle lakes on base and we had a really slow time of it but Alli caught her first fish ever and it was all caught on tape so that was cool. I think the kids had more fun playing in the water with water bottles than fishing but we had enough working poles for everyone to fish when they wanted to. It was really great. We then came home for lunch and then played Monopoly. That too was great fun. We didn't quite finish the game before we had to stop for a fun dinner of steak and eggs upon Michaels request and then we opened the rest of his presents and had cake and ice cream and then were off to the Sky Sox baseball game. It was still a school night so we couldn't stay for the whole game but the Sox were winning by a pretty big margin so we were ok leaving early. It was really a great birthday for Mr. Michael.
Tuesday we started off by finishing the Monopoly game which unfortunately Michael didn't win, and then had breakfast and school. Well since the previous Friday ended up being a bit of a play day and Monday was all a play day, we had a bit of catching up to do. We did pretty well and are still making little modifications to our schedule trying to figure it all out. Tuesday evening, Michael had soccer practice and Brittany had YW and I had a VT come here so that filled our evening.
Wednesday, we had school and did a little more catching up and then as soon as Brittany got home from school I took the rest of the school kids to a track practice and left the little boys with Brittany. The kids all had fun running and are looking forward to being a part of this elementary age running club. As soon as we got home from track we started fixing dinner and then our piano teacher arrived. The four oldest had piano lessons While we had dinner and cut out a hole for a door in the new room we're making upstairs.
Thursday we had school all morning and then Orthodontist appointments. Mike dropped in for a quick visit in the morning which was nice. It's always fun to get a few extra minutes with Dad when we can. I loaded up all the kids and we went and got Brittany from school and were off the the ortho. We then dropped Britty back at school and then with our library coupons, took the rest of the family to Chic-fil-a for lunch. It was in the mall so we decided that "while we were there" we'd get Alli an outfit for school since she was the only one we didn't find anything for last week at the outlets. Well we got her outfit and got home just a little after Brittany. Mike came and got Michael for soccer practice while I fed the rest of the kids and then I took all of them to the field where Michael's practice was, took the car and Brittany and left the van and the rest of the kids with Dad. Brittany and I went to back to school night while Dad was to take the rest of the family to pack meeting. I had forgotten my cell phone so we went to the office and called to see if we should meet them at pack meeting or just head home. When Mike answered he informed me that he had no keys to the van and so they were still at the park. At least it was nice weather and there was a fun playground there. Brittany and I went and gave them keys to the van but we were sad that Michael had to miss pack meeting cuz they were going to do a special little welcome into bears and he had earned six more arrow points. Oh well, what's done is done. Well we got home and because we'd missed the refreshments at pack meeting decided to have our own. We had some ice cream and then put the kids to bed. Mike and I than foolishly went and watched the Silver Surfer movie. Mike had to have some cookies for work the next day so we figured we'd just watch a movie while they baked. It was a fun movie but we should have just gone to bed. Well after the movie, Mike was gathering his stuff for the following day and couldn't find his wallet. We searched for a long time and Mike even drove back to the park, a 20 min drive away, with no success. He called and canceled or blocked all his credit cards and reported it missing to the police and finally came to bed only to have to get up a few hours later to teach Seminary.
Friday we were VERY tired but the day must go on. We started off our morning by looking for Dad's wallet which we did find and then I met Mike at the car repair place to have a lock fixed on our van. Brittany was off to school so Alli took care of the kids and did a great job seeing to it that they ate and did their morning jobs while I was gone. Mike brought me back here and headed to work. We had school, he had work and then he got home, picked me up and we went and got the Van. As soon as we got home, Mike and Brittany went out on their Daddy daughter date and the other kids and I had our pizza and movie night. We had our pizza and then the girls went to our neighbors for a girl movie while Hans and Michael watched Bob the Builder followed by Star Wars. I read a book. It was a very nice evening. The kids were all tucked in and then Mike and I watched The Great Debaters and then we too were finally off to bed.
Saturday morning, Dad and Michael worked on the new wall a little while the rest of us did a little work and then we took off to go to the Air Force Academy opening season football game. We were in the "cheap seats" but we had a really good time anyway. It was certainly an all day affair. AF won big time and so that made it just that much more fun. We came home and fixed dinner and realized we had more than we could eat ourselves so invited some neighbors over to eat it with us than got the kids bathed and in bed and then Mike and I went to Freys for our weekly game night. It's just in the back yard so we feel very comfortable putting all the kids to bed and then going and playing games each week. It's great fun. Well we were up WAY too late Saturday night which made for a tuff day today. We had a good Sunday though.
After church we had lunch and I got a short nap and than Mike and I went for Stake presidents interviews for renewed Temple recommends We got back and Mike and the kids watched a seminary movie while I read a book for a while and then we played more games. Mike and Michael then went Home teaching while the rest of us had dinner. Just in case this week doesn't sound busy enough, we add Home School Academy and 5 dance classes to the mix this week. We'll see how we fare. Really though, I think when it's all written out, it sounds worse than it feels.

So as Myna has detailed for you here - this is the kind of moss gathering prevention that these Stones do each week - just no time to sit still and a whole lot of fun and memories mixed in to keep us pushing on forward. We hope that this finds all of you happy, healthy and well! May the Lord bless you according to you faith and prayers.